A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! What is the Sacrament of the Altar? That’s a good place to start. We’ve got to know what it is first before we discuss its blessings and benefits. Ask this question and you’ll get loads of answers from various people: a symbol… a ceremony… a sacrament… a sign… even a sacrifice. But the only answer that holds is what comes from the Lord Himself. He ought to know. After all, He instituted and mandated this Sacrament on the night when He was betrayed. It’s His Supper. It is His last will and testament. He speaks His words. He connects His words to physical elements. His words are the chief thing. What is most important are His words. So let’s listen to the words of our Lord Jesus once again: “As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks He broke it and gave it to His disciples saying, ‘Take, eat; this is My body which is given for you. This do in remembra...

"The Holy Women at the Tomb" by  William-Adolphe Bouguereau Click here to listen to this sermon.

Click here to listen to this sermon. “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life” (Romans 5:9–10). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! In our Old Testament lesson, God tells Moses to remind the people of Israel how He had delivered them out of Egypt. Now, if they would only obey God fully and keep His covenant, then out of all the nations on the earth, they would be His treasured possession, His special people. “What a deal!” we might think. “Just obey God’s commandments and keep His covenant and then it’s life on easy street!” Apparently, the people of Israel thought the same. They quickly responded, “All that the Lord has said we will do.” Of course, that was a serious overestimation of their abilities. The First ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to the sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon. This sermon is from a series written by Rev. Paul L. Beisel and published by Concordia Publishing House.

Click here to listen to this sermon.

Click here to listen to this sermon. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! “Pastor, I need to talk with you,” she said. “I don’t think I should come to communion anymore.” “Why is that?” I asked, knowing that there are many reasons people choose not to come to communion, but hardly any of them good. This was someone who took her faith seriously. She asked some of the most thoughtful questions in Bible study, offered insightful comments in our Lutheran Confessions reading group. But she also came from a Christian tradition that does not teach the real presence of Christ’s body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. And this left her confused. “I shouldn’t come to communion, Pastor, because I don’t believe the same thing about the Lord’s Supper as you teach.” Now, I could have seen this as unbelief, as a challenge to my teaching, but I took it as a good sign. It showed me that she took the Lord’s Supper seriously. Fortunately she also took God’s Wo...