The Eighteenth Sunday after
Trinity, 2012
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
Bethany Lutheran Church, 10
AM Central Time
The Hymn # 239 Come Thou Almighty King 2:72
The Confession
of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual
The
Gospel
Glory be to
Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon
Hymn #269 O Lord Our Father 2:56
Justification in Both Testaments
The Communion
Hymn # 315:11-15 I Come O
Savior 2:66
The Preface p.
24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #651 Be Still My Soul 2:17
KJV 1 Corinthians 1:4 I
thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ; 5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance,
and in all knowledge; 6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in
you: 7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ: 8 Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
KJV Matthew 22:34 But when
the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were
gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him
a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great
commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This
is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all
the law and the prophets. 41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus
asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto
him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto them, How then doth David in
spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my
right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? 45 If David then call him
Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to answer him a word, neither
durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity
Lord God, heavenly Father: We are poor, miserable sinners;
we know Thy will, but cannot fulfill it because of the weakness of our flesh
and blood, and because our enemy, the devil, will not leave us in peace.
Therefore we beseech Thee, shed Thy Holy Spirit in our hearts, that, in
steadfast faith, we may cling to Thy Son Jesus Christ, find comfort in His
passion and death, believe the forgiveness of sin through Him, and in willing
obedience to Thy will lead holy lives on earth, until by Thy grace, through a
blessed death, we depart from this world of sorrow, and obtain eternal life,
through Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and
the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
Old Testament Justification Is New Testament Justification
Matthew 22:41 While the
Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of
Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He
saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The
LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool? 45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man
was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth
ask him any more questions.
KJV Matthew 22:34 But
when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they
were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him
a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great
commandment in the law?
Some people emphasize a
discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments, but the Scriptures are one
unified truth. This is a good example.
When the Pharisees
questioned Jesus, they were following a tradition of challenging the teacher,
which was completed by the rabbi challenging the audience.
This opposition is often
portrayed as nasty people against the good, the perfect Savior. Unfortunately,
that bypasses the real issue and makes it too personal. The opposition was
doctrinal.
Jesus only did good things
and revealed Himself as meek and gracious. True, He gathered enormous crowds
and performed miracles no one else could try or even fake. Jealousy would have
been a factor but that was the main issue.
Luther identified the issue
as the difference between Jesus and the religious leaders on the matter of
righteousness. Jesus taught, and still teaches, “Your righteous comes from
outside of you. The righteousness of God that you seek comes only from
believing in Me.” (Outside of us, or Extra Nos, the title of Dr. Lito Cruz’
blog.)
This utterly destroyed the
dogma of the Jewish leaders, who taught that the righteousness of God came from
within, from their own merit and works. Thus all the difference in the world
exists between justification by faith in Him and self-justification by works.
To this day I am startled by
Lutherans who say their merit comes from within – where they were born, which
organization they belong to, who their relatives are (as if they chose
carefully). Sometimes they say, “I did this. I did that.” One can hardly get a
mention of God’s Word at work among them. That is justification by works,
justification by the law.
Paul’s teaching about
justification by faith comes from his inspired understanding of Abraham as the
father of faith, the first of all those justified by faith. This is taught
clearly in Romans 4 and in Galatians. The relationship between Jesus and
Abraham is clear from the Gospel of John. When Jesus was trying to teach the
Jewish leaders and only arousing their wrath, they said, “We have Abraham for a
father.” In other words – we are charter members of this synod. We are related
to the founder. Who are you to challenge us?
That of course is
justification based on merit, not the righteousness of faith. Jesus said, in
words that should give everyone goosebumps, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” That is
God speaking as God. In other words, Jesus said, “I AM the voice of God from
the burning bush, the bush with two natures united in one manifestation.
Believe in Me, not in your own merit and works.” That is why Paul taught so
clearly that Abraham was justified by faith before any works of the law.
And thus, Romans 4, so are
we counted as righteous, as forgiven and saved, if we believe in Jesus the Son
of God.
Every world religion teaches
justification by works. In the first part of this lesson we can see how Jesus
answer the question of the greatest commandment. What is the great commandment
of the law?
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And
the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
The Old Testament summary of
the Scriptures is the same as Jesus teaching and Luther’s as well. There are no
changes between the truth of one era and the next, even if the time is
different by thousands of years and the cultures vastly different. The Word of
God belongs to Him alone and cannot be changed.
Luther constantly emphasized
two relationships. The first one is the basis for everything – love for God and
faith in His Word. If this is lacking, the second relationship is going to be
based on sin, no matter how holy we want to appear to everyone. Lacking faith
in God, every word and action is sinful.
The second relationship love
for our neighbor. Works of love come from faith in God, from thanksgiving for
all the blessings He has bestowed on us. The apples come from the tree – works
of love from faith in God. Works do not make us holy. God makes us holy through
the Word.
This summary of the Torah
was the classic rabbinic summary. It is Jesus’ summary in the Gospels, Paul’s
teaching, and Luther’s teaching.
40 On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Thus we have a summary from
the Savior that can be used to explain all of the Old Testament, or the Law and
the Prophets. That summary can be condensed as faith in God, love toward our
neighbor.
41 While the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 Saying, What think ye of Christ?
whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. 43 He saith unto
them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, 44 The LORD said
unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?
45 If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? 46 And no man was able to
answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any
more questions.
Here Jesus asked the
opponents a difficult question – for them. They had no concept of the Two
Natures of Christ, although they might have, from the Scriptures and His
miracles.
The question seems easy the
explanation difficult to us, because we understand and believe.
From an unbeliever’s
perspective, King David was the great king and the Messiah was his son, his
human son. How could this greatest of all kings of Israel call his son “Lord”
when inspired by the Holy Spirit?
That is easy for us – the
Messiah is the son of David but the Word of God incarnate. He is God, so King
David called the coming Messiah “Lord.”
The issue was already in the
Psalms. Jesus simply asked the obvious, and the opponents were silent. They no
longer sought to question Him because they could not answer Him. They felt the
majesty of His divine wisdom and authority, so they pulled back from exposing
their own ignorance and unbelief.
The key phrase here is “in
Spirit” or “inspired by the Holy Spirit,” because both Testaments are inspired
by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is
constantly denigrated by the modernists (including the obvious UOJ Hive, but
also all modern Protestants). This is why.
God does not act apart from
the Spirit or apart from the Word. The Spirit/Word combination is constant in
the Scriptures, in Luther, and the Lutheran Reformation. It was always clearly
emphasized, especially against the Protestants who broke with Luther.
The anti-Sacrament group
began with Zwingli and others, calling the Sacrament mere symbols. The
Sacraments did not forgive sins. They were not the acts of God. Therefore, they
robbed the Sacraments of the Holy Spirit working through the visible Word.
We do not just put water on
babies or adults in Baptism. Nor do we just give wine and bread to people. In
both cases, it is a combination of the earthly elements and the Word, because
God commanded this. Jesus instituted these Sacraments.
And how are people converted
through preaching the Gospel? The Holy Spirit works through the Word and that
Spirit works upon the hearer. That is why we say faith comes from hearing, although
the phrase is more like hearing the preached Word.
The Holy Spirit is at work
in the preaching and in the hearing of the preached Gospel. That is so simple
and clear in Romans 10 and Isaiah 55, not to mention many other places.
But it is denied. Calvin
said repeatedly, as Zwingli did, that the Spirit works apart from the Word and
Sacraments. Whether they have the power of God is dependent upon whether “the
sovereign Spirit” decides to appear. Thus everyone is in doubt.
One of my preacher friends,
a non-Lutheran, will say, “Jesus was definitely here today.” That is one
expression of this odd detachment of the Spirit and the Word. It makes people
doubt their forgiveness and salvation.
A ex-pastor makes fun of a
small gathering, forgetting “wherever two or three are gathered in My Name,
there am I in the midst of them.” Many think it takes a $900,000 grant to
accomplish that.
How strange to have people
disparage faith, especially when they are nominal Lutherans. Nothing glorifies
God more than faith in Him.
For a hobby, I follow the
Notre Dame updates for football, so I have read, year-around, the critiques of
their coach Brian Kelly. The doubts were listed ahead of time, and after each
game, after each change of quarterback, after each recruiting drive.
This was the year. Many
still doubted. But ND beat one team, then another, and another and now the
total is five victories. The opponents can barely score. Now doubt has turned
to faith. Probably many alumni clubs are hoping he has a 10-year contract. They
have faith in Brian Kelly.
Does that reflect on the
fans or the coach? The coach has performed so well with his team that the vast
majority of demanding fans now trust him.
And this is nothing compared
to faith in God. Our trust builds in Him when we see His promises fulfilled in
the Scriptures and the power made known in our lives. Luther points out that
the fruits of faith are not only the many blessings, but also afflictions
(Galatians Commentary, Kregel).
Is the Word powerful? It
makes the opponents of the Gospel become Satanic in their evil, their rage, and
their deception.
We do not know the power of
the Word until we use it. Because we need to know the whole counsel of God and
its individual parts in balance, it can be disheartening to see the apparent
bad things that develop from the pure Word. But when we experience those bad
things as blessings from God, then we see even more than His power is perfected
in weakness.
This week I smiled when I
ordered Luther’s Romans Commentary and read the familiar passages again. I
thought, “You fanatics made this book the most interesting volume in my house,
just by opposing it and trying to take it away from people.”
False doctrine has power
too. It is effective in deception and corruption.
When we reflect on the Holy
Spirit at work, we can see how everything worthwhile done in the true Church is
accomplished through the Spirit – that is through the Word and Sacraments. If
it is not through the Word and Sacraments, it is not the work of the Gospel.
And when it is the work of
the Gospel, Satan will try to uproot it as soon as it begins to grow. That
effort can only spread the pure Word and make it more valuable to those who prize
it.
