Mid-Week Vespers Service, 7 PM Central Time

Mid-Week Advent Vespers Service

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 7 PM Phoenix Time 

The Hymn # 552                   Abide with Me            
The Order of Vespers                                              p. 41

The Psalmody                       Psalm 92                    p. 143
The Lection                           Isaiah 53
The Sermon Hymn #645             Behold a Branch             

The Sermon – Seven Hundred Years Before - The Suffering Servant

The Prayers

The Lord’s Prayer

The Collect for Grace                                            p. 45
 The Hymn # 558                      All Praise to Thee  

              

Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Seven Hundred Years Before - The Suffering Servant

We have a concentration of Messianic prophesies in Isaiah, and this chapter is the most important by itself. Most of it is quoted in the New Testament, and the content is central to the Gospel.

One thing to consider is how long the Jewish people, and those attracted to Judaism, were prepared for the coming of the Messiah. One theme is the Creation, as shown in a previous service. One cannot separate the Creation from the Atonement. What man spoiled in sinfulness was redeemed in the death of Christ.

Isaiah 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Most readings begin with the ending of Isaiah 52.  This is one of the Suffering Servant passages, and the most important. Children always know this is about Jesus, but that was not so obvious then.

We often see without seeing and hear without understanding. I experience that in stores, where I stare at what I am looking for but do not see it. I am relieved to say that many others do too. And they say - "But I looked there and never saw it."

So the Jewish people read and heard this passage without realizing how it would be fulfilled. Many looked for a King David warrior, not a suffering servant.

14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:

Sprinkling certain calls up the sacrifices carried out in the Temple. But "sprinkle many nations" is strange to read until we know the entire story of the Messiah, from pre-existence to birth to death and resurrection. Verse 15 makes so much sense in everyone longing for a Savior and yet not knowing exactly how they would take place.

15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

This was discussed among several pastors because this verse is central to Paul teaching the Means of Grace - faith comes by hearing.

Both elements are present in this verse - believing and the revelation or report.

16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report?

The report is the sermon about the Suffering Servant. As I told the pastor on Facebook, this is best translated as a phrase, because it is not strictly speaking faith from hearing but faith from hearing the report - the sermon about the Suffering Servant.

Nowhere does the Bible even imply that faith comes from having popcorn and cola at the so-called worship service. I can only imagine how important the supplies are for those circus gatherings? Do we have enough popcorn? Soda cups? Soda fountain? Salt? Bags? That seems to diffuse the focus from the cross and make it a food event.

So this chapter predicts that day when people will hear the verses again and understand with faith when the Gospel is preached to them. It is quite a marvel to consider how it was a mystery that had to be reveal in time and yet it was spelled out for centuries before.

The Ethiopian Eunuch was reading this passage when he was converted by the Gospel 

Acts 8:26-40King James Version (KJV)

26 And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.

27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,

28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.

29 Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.

30 And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest?

31 And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:

33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.

34 And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man?

35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?

37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.

And this was part of the confirmation of everything for the Emmaus disciples - 

Luke 24:25 Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

26 Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Here is clearly the Passion of the Christ clearly expounded, 700 years earlier, so that when it happened, all of the Old Testament became a solid foundation for preaching the Christian Gospel, first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles.

That is why Advent is a season of repentance, to remind all believers that God became flesh to suffering for our sins, die, and rise from the dead.

We can see how it began with His lowly birth and the revelation of this great wonder to the shepherds and to Wise Men from the East. The great and mighty did not know what was happening for all the world when it happened, but the Gospel was brought to them, time after time, and the majesty and power of the Roman Empire was kicked into the dustbin as the Christian Faith arose in the servant and slave class to convert many - not all - up to the Emperor himself.

Mid-Weed Advent Service Tonight - 7 PM

Go Tell It on the Mountain - or - Quick Erase the Facebook Thread?

A WELS student who became an LCMS pastor posted a talk given by someone with a familiar name.

The topic of the talk by Ken Schurb was "Justification by Grace through Faith."

I have seen that awkward phrasing many times, always to plant the banner of Universal Forgiveness and Salvation without Faith, better known as Objective Justification or Universal Objective Justification.

I cautioned the FB friend about this, but he said the talk spoke for itself, as if I were barking up a tree.

An expert on justification, Pastor Paul Rydecki, asked, "Isn't that Ken Schurb who wrote about Objective Justification?"

Now I see by googling the name of the essay that I wrote about it five years ago.

Ken Schurb Begging the Question - "Does the Lutheran Confessions' Emphasis on Subjective Justification Mitigate Their Teaching of Objective Justification?"

---

Quoting the blog citing the essay - 

One part of the essay is correct -

The Confessions never use the word “justify” unless faith is at least in the immediate context. p. 4.

But the next sentence is dead wrong and misleading, because it makes an unwarranted claim:

And they never explicitly distinguish between objective and subjective justification. (The late Dr. Harry Huth used to point out these two facts to his symbolics classes at Concordia Theological Seminary Ft. Wayne. The present writer took his introductory courses in the summer of 1979, and reports both of these observations on the basis of first-hand experience.) p. 4.

The title of the essay and this clumsy thesis are prime examples of begging the question, a logical fallacy.

When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place. http://begthequestion.info/

The author begins with the assumption of two justifications in the Book of Concord, conceding there is only one (justification by faith) then claiming via a professor that there really are two justifications. The Book of Concord is just not explicit about this alleged fact.

---

So Rydecki and I had done our homework and identified the rascal Schurb for what he was, a salesman for Universalism disguised as a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor.

Schurb was an assistant to LCMS President Al Barry, with Paul McCain, during those Camelot years when the conservatives were happy with their non-leader. Matt the Fat has restored that sense of calm and contentment.

The result of the promotion was - erasing the entire thread. It was Kilcreased.

Whenever Jack Kilcrease's strange, poorly spelled, and erroneous comments were called out, he erased them too, causing Ichabodians to use the name as a verb for erasing stupidity so no traces are left.

That is not exactly a Go Tell It on the Mountain approach to the truth. I have seen this so often that my comp dog antennae go up at once. (Comp dog = comparative dogmatics, an area sadly neglected by Lutherans today).

Below is the entire post about Schurb, who earned a doctorate at Ohio State - in history. I have never heard anyone say, "Wow, a doctorate from the Ohio State Buckeyes!"

----

The UOJ contingent wanted me to read Ken Schurb's essay, "Does the Lutheran Confessions' Emphasis on Subjective Justification Mitigate Their Teaching of Objective Justification?" Concordia, Ft. Wayne sells the essay, which I read years ago.

I forwarded the PDF to Brett Meyer, who replied with the quotation illustrated above.

One part of the essay is correct -

The Confessions never use the word “justify” unless faith is at least in the immediate context. p. 4.

But the next sentence is dead wrong and misleading, because it makes an unwarranted claim:


And they never explicitly distinguish between objective and subjective justification. (The late Dr. Harry Huth used to point out these two facts to his symbolics classes at Concordia Theological Seminary Ft. Wayne. The present writer took his introductory courses in the summer of 1979, and reports both of these observations on the basis of first-hand experience.) p. 4.

The title of the essay and this clumsy thesis are prime examples of begging the question, a logical fallacy.

When one begs the question, the initial assumption of a statement is treated as already proven without any logic to show why the statement is true in the first place. http://begthequestion.info/

The author begins with the assumption of two justifications in the Book of Concord, conceding there is only one (justification by faith) then claiming via a professor that there really are two justifications. The Book of Concord is just not explicit about this alleged fact.

Let us examine the Biblical basis for the Assumption of Mary, using the same kind of fallacy. The Bible never says that she was assumed into heaven. However, Mary appears in the Book of Acts and her death is never mentioned there or anywhere else in the New Testament, making this a real possibility. Nothing disproves the Assumption of Mary.

Here is another winner from the same essay, page 5:


But the scenario has its problems. Most obvious is the one Edward Preuss reports: “The Wurttemberg superintendent Burk experienced . . . [what] seemed to him like a faulty circle:
I am to believe and thereby become righteous. However, I cannot believe this before it is so. And yet, it is not so, for I am first to become righteous. (The Justification of the Sinner Before God, Edward Preuss, tr. by J.A. Friedrich Reprint. St. Louis, n.d.), 22.) “God be praised,” Preuss continues, “the case is different.” It can only be different, however, if one believes in objective justification. This gives him an object for his trust.
There is a place to join this “circle.”


Like I said before, Eduard Preuss is the Bo Derek of UOJ fanatics, an old favorite of Boomers. Preuss left the Lutheran Church for Romanism and used his considerable skills to promote the Immaculate Conception of Mary! Nevertheless, this fact about him is omitted from every UOJ citation. Preuss is introduced instead as a reliable orthodox Lutheran, not an Enthusiast who turned to Rome when he saw a brilliant sunset (see the Fuerbringer book). The Burk mentioned may be the Pietist who wrote an early endorsement of UOJ, recorded by Hoenecke in his Dogmatics.

The LCMS pastors begin with the framework of double-justification, then wedge all their data into that position, as this essay does.

The WELS pastors begin with world absolution. God has declared the entire world, "Not guilty!" Any questioning of that astonishing verdict is considered reason for excommunication. As they say in all the Hitler videos, "The irony will dawn on them later."

Both groups of pastors assume that their synods have taught this truth since the very beginning, whether it was Walther's discovery of the syphilis plague spreading from Bishop Martin Stephan or WELS turning down the loot from the union mission society (no Thrivent, we don't mean you - we love your money).

Both groups contain large numbers of pastors who know that UOJ/double-justification is a crock. Both groups have published materials that teach only justification by faith. Gausewitz and the KJV catechism are two examples easily obtained.

Lutheran Orthodoxy is defined by WELS
as "agreeing with our sect."
Therefore, we see the Book of Concord
is not orthodox by their lofty standards.

The title of this essay was never a sincere question. Instead, it was a feint, a set-up to make the reader think this was really a research topic when it was a polemic for double-justification. We should pity all the seminarians who accepted the professor's deceptive claims. I have seen similar assertions from the early Robert Preus and from Dan Deutschlander.

Relax readers, it is possible for someone to have erred. My own sins are confessed on a daily basis. Three blogs have been set up and dismantled for that onerous and time-consuming task.

UOJ specialists make it personal, writing, "I do not agree with you." In sorrow, I have to reply, "That does not matter. The issue is whether you agree with the Scriptures and the Confessions." I am only a curator of the Lutheran museum. I describe and stir up interest in the musty old exhibits. Admission is free. I do not have the power to silence anyone, to ban their feeble blogs, to cost them money.

A layman observed, "They criticize Luther endlessly, but Walther is never wrong about anything. No one dares to criticize the American Pope." A poorly-trained man with two years in the parish should not be the ruling norm of Lutheran doctrine in America. Did you think I meant Paul McCain? That fits too.

Luther earned a doctorate in theology. It is true that he studied at a Roman Catholic university and read endless amounts of false doctrine. That seemed to be God's way of preparing him for the Reformation. Pastors sometimes think of that when they rouse themselves to outline a Reformation sermon. Luther spent his life debating doctrine with false teachers. That sharpened his knowledge of the Scriptures and church history, as he observed.

Likewise, Chemnitz earned a doctorate in theology. He also debated doctrine with a host of opponents. He wrote a monumental set against the Council of Trent, but also defended Luther's doctrine against the Calvinists. Chemnitz was uniquely qualified to be senior editor of the Book of Concord and the Formula of Concord. Much the same could be said of the others. I was thinking that the lesser known Concordists and men like Hunnius would put all the synod lackey seminary professors to shame. We are in dire straits.

Lutheran pastors are so lazy and ignorant that they cannot acknowledge the growth of Robert Preus in his years of scholarship. He was definitely a UOJ cheerleader when he was also promoting Church Growth at Ft. Wayne. He changed his mind about both. His final book records his thoughts about justification by faith. Do the indolent notice, or are they too afraid to open a book that shreds their dogmatics notes?

PS - The Preuss citations in the Schurb reminded me that he promoted many of the current arguments in favor of UOJ, such as "your faith is in faith" or "I cannot believe unless I already have something to believe in, something already accomplished." They never argue, "As Eduard Preuss, who finished his career promoting Roman dogma used to say..."

That is why your curator has to dust off his old exhibits, bring them out the storage room (your storage, not mine) and display them again.