Daily Luther Sermon Quote - Jubilate Sunday

 

 Norma A. Boeckler, The Burial of Jesus

Link to Complete Luther Sermon for Jubilate Sunday

I. What Moved Christ to Deliver This Sermon of Comfort

1. Here in this Gospel we see how the Lord comforts and imparts courage to his children whom he is about to leave behind him, when they would come in fear and distress on account of his death or of their backsliding. We also notice what induced the evangelist John to use so many words that he indeed repeats one expression four times, which according to our thinking he might have expressed in fewer words. There is first of all presented to us here the nature of the true Christian in the example of the dear apostles. In the second place, how the suffering and the resurrection of Christ are to become effective in us.

2. We also see that Christ announces to his disciples, how sorrowful they should be because he would leave them, but they are still so simpleminded and ignorant, and also so sorrowful on account of his recent conversation at the Last Supper, that they did not understand at all what he said unto them; yea, the nature of that which Christ presents to them is too great and incomprehensible for them. And it was also necessary that they should first become sorrowful before they could rejoice, even as Christ himself was an example to us that without the cross we could not enter into glory. Hence he says in Luke 24, 26 to the two, with whom he journeyed to Emmaus: "Behooved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?" If therefore the dear disciples were to have joy, they must first of all pass through great sorrow. But this joy came to them through the Lord Jesus; for it is decreed in the Gospel, that without Christ there is no joy; and on the other hand, where Christ is, there is no sorrow, as is plainly stated in the text. Hence when Christ was taken from them, they were in great sorrow.

 Norma A. Boeckler, The Empty Tomb

Luther Sermon Quote of the Day - "He Looks at the Sheep, Not at the Wool"

"He does not look upon their condition, but looks to see whether they are sheep, whether they may be designated sheep. He looks at the sheep, not at the wool."

Luther's Sermons - John 10:11-16.
Misericordias Domini. Second Sunday after Easter.

III. THE SPECIAL OFFICE CHRIST ADMINISTERS EXPLAINED.

31. How is he known of the Father? Not with an earthly, but with a heavenly, knowledge. Of that we have spoken more fully before, and the substance of it is this: Christ recognizes us as his sheep, and we recognize him as our shepherd. Now, we have heard what a good shepherd is, and also who the weak sheep are. He knows us to be such sheep as are weak, sick and broken. That is: It does not make any difference in his regard for them that they are weak and sickly, and he does not despise and reject them on that account; but he pities and heals them, even though they be so diseased that the whole world concludes they are not his sheep. Such is the world’s knowledge, but that is not the way that Christ distinguishes them.

He does not look upon their condition, but looks to see whether they are sheep, whether they may be designated sheep. He looks at the sheep, not at the wool.

32. Now, they are good shepherds who imitate Christ and know the sheep in the same way; who look at the person, not at the faults, and know how to distinguish between the sheep and the disease.

Yes, I Will Keep the Luther Sermon Quote of the Day at the Top of the Left Column

 

Google Blogger changes its rules every so often. Do they ask me? No. Sometimes I have to fix the fixes to make them come out right. Once I had the blogs listed in one package, the Daily Lutheran Sermon Quote was halfway to Uruguay, sinking lower on the left column. I had to recreate it above the Ultimate Blog List and erase the former position.

I will keep the Lutheran Sermon Quote of the Day because I learn something every time, 

• from thinkin ahead about the sermon, 
• from selecting a moderately short - but very choice - sermon quotation,
• from seeing how far Luther went with his unified Biblical teaching - not dogmatics, not silly Latin quotations (except to mock Romanism).

Those clergy who mock Luther are sure to say, "There he goes again," because they are so enamored of themselves and the leaders who cannot even earn a seminary "doctorate." 

Let us reflect upon the word "doctor." The term simply means "teacher" and was originally used only for the man who spent enough time with theology and philosophy to be a university teacher. Seminaries dispensed the Doctor of Sacred Theology degree to add dignity to proud pastors, until they no longer wanted to "pick up an STD" at St. Louis. The DMin was quickly substituted and made more glamorous by being printed at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, home of the Rose Parade.

Every DMin I know sent stationery with "Dr." on the outside and inside, the moment the ink began drying. That is like stealing first base, no? 

No wonder the tiny college in New Ulm took away Luther's genuine doctorate - Dr. Martin Luther College - and yet allowed Larry Olson DMin to call himself "Dr." at that school - only answering questions from undergraduates who called him Dr. Olson.

Yes, I use excessive graphics because they highlight doctrinal points from the Scriptures because someone might say, "I will save it and send it to a friend."

Luther Sermon Quote of the Day

 

Link - 

Luther's Sermons - John 10:11-16.
Misericordias Domini. Second Sunday after Easter.

10. But that we may make it the plainer, and may understand it the better, we will cite a passage from the prophet Ezekiel, where he speaks of the wicked shepherds that are against Christ, when he says (34:2ff): “Should not the Shepherds feed the sheep? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill the fatlings; but ye feed not the sheep. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought back that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with rigor have ye ruled over them. And they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and they become food to all the beasts of the field and were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and there was none that did search or seek after them,” and so forth. Accordingly, God reproves the shepherds who do not keep the sheep. And now mark well what he has written. His earnest intent in this paragraph is that the weak, sick, broken, those who are driven away and the lost, are to be strengthened, bound up, healed, and sought again, and that they are not to be torn to pieces and scattered. This you should have done, says he to the shepherds, but you have not done it; therefore, I will do it myself. As he says further on, in verse 16: “I will seek that which was lost, I will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.”

11. Here you see that Christ’s kingdom is to be concerned about the weak, the sick, the broken, that he may help them. That is, indeed, a comforting declaration. The only trouble is that we do not realize our needs and infirmities. If we realized them, we would soon flee to him. But how did those shepherds act? They ruled with rigor, and applied God’s Law with great severity; and, moreover, they added their own commandments, as they still do, and when these were not fulfilled, they raved and condemned, so that they were driving and driving and exhorting and exacting, continually. That is no proper way to tend and keep souls, says Christ. He is no such shepherd as that; for no one is benefited, but is rather wholly undone, by such a course, as we shall presently hear. Now let us consider this citation from the prophet in its order.

Why Publish the Luther Sermon Quote of the Day?

 

All Time Total Views - 9,888,888 - soon

I teach graduate students that they should start each week by opening the assignment, which is one week away from the deadline, and starting a Word file on that topic. Once the brain starts on a topic, the background forms for the result. Midnight on the due date is otherwise filled with panic, a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke, and a family sized bag of Fritos. The results are not good.

The Luther Sermon Quote of the Day is designed to get members - even pastors - to read one passage per day. The service is even more enjoyable and worthwhile, if the congregation and pastor have the same regard for the greatest Biblical teacher of all.

The graphics are usually by Norma A. Boeckler, and she is happy to share them.