A Famine Not of Bread

"The Offering of Abraham" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, ‘Abraham!’ And he said, ‘Here am I.’ He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:1-2). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The temptation of Abraham lasts three days. It is not the only time he is tempted, but this is brutal. He journeys through the wilderness with Isaac, his only son from his beloved Sarah. This miracle child was born when his mother and father were ninety and one hundred, respectively. Isaac’s name means “he laughs,” he is their laughter in their old age. But even more than that, he’s the child of the promise. The Lord has declared that Abraham will be the father of a great nation through Isaac. All of that seems in jeopardy now, endangered by ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Gospel lesson, Matthew 9:9-13, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Most parents have felt the disappointment of having a carefully chosen gift spurned. You give a gift you hope will bond you together or re-create a particular joy of your own childhood—the thrill of your first fishing rod or the warm feeling you got from your Cabbage Patch doll—only to have the gift barely glanced at and quickly tossed aside. In such cases, even a polite “thank you” brings little comfort. On the other hand, few things delight parents as much as having a child so excited and thrilled with a particular gift that he abandons the remaining unopened gifts to start playing with it. I remember the year that Andersen got his first combine. The joy in his face and whole body said it all. No formal “thank you” was necessary. The gratitude was evident in the joy and excitement. So, ...

Click here to listen to this sermon. The text for today is our Epistle lesson, Hebrews 11:1-16, which has already been read. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! As Christians, we don’t worship the saints; yet we can look at those who have gone before us and marvel at what they did—or, better, what the Lord accomplished through them. Our epistle gives us a list of saints to ponder today. We begin with Abel. Our text tells us that he “offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.” Why was it more excellent? Because it was offered by faith . Rather than believe that his sacrifice earned God’s favor, Abel offered it because he believed that the Savior would be born to save him from sin—thus Abel was commended as righteous for the sake of Jesus who was to come. We also know that Abel suffered for his sacrifice. Cain took him out into the field and killed him. Thus, the first shepherd was also the first to die because of sin, pointing toward t...

"The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. “And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord” (Luke 2:22). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! To better understand our text, we must first go back to the time shortly after the first Passover, about 1446 B.C. The Israelites had been in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. But God had not forgotten them. He sent Moses as His spokesman, warning Pharaoh again and again, “Let My people go.” Pharaoh stubbornly refused, so the Lord sent nine plagues to persuade him that rebellion against God is a very foolish thing. Finally, the Lord declared that He would come through the land and take the lives of all the firstborn males of Egypt, both man and beast. Every firstborn would die… unless. The Lord declared to His people that their firstborn sons could ...

"Jesus Goes Up to Jerusalem" by James Tissot Click here to listen to this sermon. As they were going along the road, someone said to [Jesus], “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” To another He said, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57-62). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! About few years ago I read about a place called “Eden by the Sea.” A Lutheran pastor and his wife started a ministry in which they invite pastors and their families to come to Hawaii ...