Judica Sunday, The Fifth Sunday in Lent, 2018
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
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 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 #40 The God of Abram Praise
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #40 The God of Abram Praise
Before Abraham Was, I AM
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 #410 Jesus Lead Thou On
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 #410 Jesus Lead Thou On
KJV Hebrews 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
KJV John 8:46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. 48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. 50 And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. 51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. 59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Prayer
O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank Thee, that of Thine infinite mercy Thou hast instituted this Thy sacrament, in which we eat Thy body and drink Thy blood: Grant us, we beseech Thee, by Thy Holy Spirit, that we may not receive this gift unworthily, but that we may confess our sins, remember Thine agony and death, believe the forgiveness of sin, and day by day grow in faith and love, until we obtain eternal salvation through Thee, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.
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Before Abraham Was, I AM
KJV John 8:46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? 47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
There will always be a great conflict between unbelief and faith. The reason is that the efficacy of the Word works against hardened hearts and agitates them. The Gospel of John emphasizes faith in Christ at every turn, to leave a lasting legacy of correction against various sects and style of false doctrine. They exist anyway, because of man's perverse nature, but the remedy against them is found in the Fourth Gospel.
The religious opponents do not want to tackle doctrine, so they use personal attacks. The truth does not settle them but makes them even angrier, as we see here. Jesus dwells on the main issue, their faith, which does not soften their approach at all.
In this era of the Great Apostasy, the same thing is going on. There is a vast amount of religious talk, about all religion, even about Christianity. I see it debated in a superficial way all the time.
Many seem to plead, "Go back to the way it was a few decades ago. This new approach is too far out."
On the topic of Creation, the issue is not exactly how old the universe is, but whether God created the universe by the Word, by command, through the Son of God, the Logos, the Creating Word. By Him all things were made.
On one hand I see the academics playing their games with various "scholarly opinions," which do not judge or even explain the Word of God.
On the other hand, I see far too much patience with the denomination's academics, as if a few satisfying slogans will appease them. I hear the slogans often enough to realize they mean little to those hiding behind them. Do the works of man judge the Scriptures, or do the Scriptures judge all of man's books?
A weak approach to Jesus as the Logos is the beginning of all kinds of mischief. And that is what we see in this century. There is a burning desire to be acceptable, even notable in the eyes of unbelievers. That means making faith subservient to worldly wisdom, which is the opposite of the Gospel.
Here Jesus is not pleading but proclaiming the Word of God. That is all one needs to do to accomplish His will. To think otherwise is to give credit to man's wisdom, charm, and cleverness. That only exposes the weakness of man's message without the Word.
48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? 49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. 50 And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.
Here is a good example that jumps out at the faithful reader. Are you not a Samaritan? That is the worst kind of insult, because the Samaritans had their own Torah and were at odds with the Jews. One of the favorite parables of all time is the Parable of the Good Samaritan. That should be Gospel, coming from Jesus - am I not correct?
How is the Parable of the Good Samaritan normally taught? Answer - he is a do-gooder, and we should feel guilty we are not doing the same things. A Good Samaritan harangue leaves people hanging their heads in shame for what they have not done. But clearly Jesus is the Good Samaritan who goes to the half-dead person, cares for his wounds, provides a place of recovery for him (a Christian church) and the means to support it, with promises to take care of everything needed. Did Jesus teach salvation by works or by faith in Him? The way this is presented says quite a bit about the understanding of the teacher, because a works teacher will only see works.
How bad is this? One person wrote to say she had never heard the Good Samaritan presented as Jesus and the Gospel. How can this generation believe if we only modify the Pharisees of the past and seek to be better, more demanding Pharisees? The recent fracas at the "United" Lutheran Seminary shows how vicious and hateful these modern Pharisees can be with their own kind.
Jesus cured 10 lepers and only one returned to give thanks, to worship Jesus. "And he was a Samaritan." Those are telling words about salvation by faith in Him versus works of the Law.
Jesus is the human face of God the Father. He is the Incarnate Word, always working and teaching in harmony with the Father. Therefore, He is saying, "Your hatred and opposition is not against Me but against God the Father. I and the Father, we are one."
51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?
Because they are blind, they see only a man, but they feel a great threat. If they did not hate and fear what they heard, they would dismiss Him and nothing. Here is a second name or topic that has vanished from Christian discussions - Abraham.
As I mentioned before, I have Old Testament classes where the phrase Justification by Faith is unknown to many of them. The speak about covenant all the time and obedience to the Law. In contrast, there are groups where almost everyone is familiar with Justification by Faith.
Abraham is especially important here because he was the first ever who was justified by faith. He believed the Messiah would come from his lineage, and this would produce uncountable numbers in the Kingdom of God. "Abraham believed" the Promises and it was counted as righteousness. This is the exact language used by Paul in Roman and Galatians. Abraham is the man of faith, not praised for his works and his great accomplishments, but for His trust in the Promises of God about the Savior.
The UOJ enemies of Justification by Faith cannot bring themselves to use that phrase - Justification by Faith. It must burn their tongues and consciousness.
Here the allegiance to Abraham is solely by blood. The Jewish opponents consider Abraham their father, so Jesus is a newcomer and not allowed to argue with them. Are you greater than Abraham and the prophets, who are dead? (I was once dismissed by someone who said, "You criticized Pieper.")
54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
As Luther pointed out, Jesus gently reproved the opponents and tried to explain the situation in a pleasant way. But that riled them even more. This is not to say that all rejected Him, because a substantial number believed in Him in the apostolic era, which was a source of great conflict among the synagogues and also in Christianity.
This Father-Son relationship is given a great deal of space in the Fourth Gospel. Here Jesus is merely hinting at His pre-existence, at the meaning of the Trinity. If we think about the Trinity and the Father-Son relationship He is teaching, this all makes sense. However, we are treated to the reaction to teaching the truth. We should keep that in mind because unbelief reacts in the same way to faith.
What happens so often among the academics is that they share their opinions about what they imagine is a comfortable truth for them, but they look down on the Bible as something they can use "as a rabbit's foot" as Kurt Marquart used to say. My friend Charles at Notre Dame called it "a sentimental attachment to the Bible." He was not allowed to write a dissertation about angels.
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| Norma A. Boeckler |
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
This is a great Gospel statement by Jesus, and it is also a litmus test. If someone hates this truth, he is blinded and hardened by his own obstinacy and the power of the Word.
57 Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
From a believer's perspective, the response is pure blindness. Jesus' friendly statement simply makes them incredulous - a fine word for "unbelieving." This shows they are dismissing one statement after another as untrue because they are blind to Him already. This only grows worse as Jesus continues to teach and heal, to draw large crowds.
58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM. 59 Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
This can only be Jesus identifying as God, citing the Burning Bush of Exodus 3. The sentence only makes sense when speaking of His pre-existence. There are two difference time expressions. One is human - we have a beginning and and end: Abraham was. The other is far beyond our concept of time, existing before Creation and everlasting - I AM.
And I AM means far more than pre-existence. It is the Name of God. Moses asked for God's Name.
Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?14 And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Two things are especially notable about the Angel of the Lord. One is that He is represented by a bush and a fire, but the bush is not consumed and the fire does not go out - it has Two Natures, like the Two Natures in Christ. The other - The Angel is not just an angel but is God, because He says, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob - a Trinitarian type of expression.
While it might escape our attention, I AM does not strike the Jewish opponents as mysterious or easily overlooked. They know exactly what Jesus is saying about Himself as God - and they accuse Him later for that terrible sin (blasphemy in their mind), not a big concern for Rome.
That is why we must look at the Fourth Gospel as our Gospel Commentary on the Five Books of Moses, fulfilling everything foreshadowed in the Torah scrolls.
And then we also see how long the Jewish people were prepared for Jesus to say these things, some screaming "Blasphemy" and others "I believe you are the Christ," like the woman at the well who confessed Him as Christ - John 4 - a Samaritan.
John 4:7 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.)9 Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water...
29 Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
So we can see that the pivotal message for Jesus is faith in Him, which makes us good in the sight of God. Through faith we received the righteousness of God, forgiveness of sin, and eternal salvation.
This healing Gospel bears fruit in good works, because the Word is always efficacious in doing God's will. We cannot make ourselves good by works or make up for our faults and sins by works, but as forgiven saints, the leaven of the Gospel grows to inhabit our lives, our speech, our actions, and our concern for our neighbor.
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| Norma A. Boeckler |
