Judica Sunday, The Fifth Sunday in Lent, 2021
Pastor Gregory L. Jackson
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
Judge me, O God: and plead my cause against an ungodly
nation.
Oh, deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man: for Thou
art the God of my strength.
Psalm. Oh, send
out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy
hill.
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
We beseech Thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon Thy people, that by
Thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore both
in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth, etc.
The Epistle and Gradual
The Gospel
I AM - The Name of God
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
Prayers and Announcements
- Treatment and recovery - Christina Jackson, Pastor Jim Shrader
- Pray for our country as the major trials continue.
- Wednesdays - Galatians 6, PM.
- Holy Week - Maundy Thursday 7 PM. Good Friday 7 PM. Easter Sunday 10 AM.
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.
Genesis 15:6 And he [Abraham] believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
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.
I AM - The Name of God
Background for John 8
This lesson seems to be clear, but takes twists and turns (from our perspective) because God's Word is not like our word. Man wants to iron out the wrinkles or find
secular insights from Coach Winsome's latest best seller, Always Winning with Winsome.
When we consider the Fourth Gospel's place, supplementing and enhancing the first three Gospels, close attention to the themes, big and small, is very important. So we have three major connections, too obvious to miss, except for the liberal clergy whose brains are bleached clean of God's own doctrine.
1. Abraham was promised a son from his wife, Sarah, even though they were old enough to win the prize at the retirement home for most years spent there. But this son would establish a line leading to the Messiah and His Kingdom of forgiveness and salvation. It would last forever and constantly grow, unlike any other kingdom or empire. Count the stars - in one photograph among many, there dozens of galaxies, each with millions of stars. That is how great a Kingdom will come from this ancient couple. Abraham believed this Promise - he was justified by faith in the future Messiah. Genesis 15:6
2. Paul argued in Romans and Galatians that Judaism is a good background - a real advantage, but the Gospel Promises come from faith, with Abraham as the example. God declared Abraham forgiven because of his faith - but that was not only for him but for all who believed in the One who raised Jesus from the dead.
Romans 4 - 5:2.
3. John 8 - There are children of Abraham through blood, and children through faith in Christ. The three passages - the entire Bible - teach this truth.
KJV John 8:46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
Nothing is said in this Gospel passage to offend anyone, but the opponents become increasingly angry, the more Jesus speaks the truth to them. This passage is a perfect example of the power of God's Word to enlighten or blind, to convert or harden. I have seen this many times over. Lutherans who consider themselves orthodox or conservative or confessional become enraged by the teaching of Justification by Faith. "We have Walther for our father - you are crazy!" That has been repeated, with a lot of ornamentation, many times over.
GJ - "Let's look at the Scriptures alone, the proper path for Christian doctrine." Answer - "That is the wrong path!"
As Luther says, and we listen to him - the more Jesus teaches in gentleness, the more He is attacked, ending in attempted murder. One sign of Biblical truth is the power to convert and the power to enrage. I wonder if the LCMS-WELS leaders - who work so closely with ELCA - consider how ELCA leaders sneer about them as backwards, poorly educated, and fools. They are in the same barn, but each one is better than the other.
47 He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
The Jewish opponents cannot listen to the sermons of God's own Son, because their traditions have blinded them. We have their descendants today in society and in the visible church. The one thing they cannot tolerate is faith in Christ. They have all kinds of projects to carry out and plans to execute, which all have glorious goals, but they do not care to pay attention to God's Word and teach the Savior.
That is especially true of seminary and college professors who have their own intellectual hobbies. Each one is tolerated until they all become a cage of birds and protect each other from the Gospel. But there is still value in stirring up this anger because disturbing questions make people think over the issues, even if in a state of rage and denial. Opposition is better than indifference.
48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?
The two worst insults they could hurl at Jesus were -
1. You are the worst kind of heretic, because the Samaritans had a similar but different religion and their own Books of Moses.
2. You are possessed by Satan, which meant He was out of His mind and was not making any sense at all.
This passage is a good illustration of what Luther has written - that Jesus' primary crime was teaching that righteousness only came from faith in Him. Pharisaical Judaism taught that they could be righteous - and were righteous - through obedience to the Law. So this is what made the opponent outraged - their righteousness was denied to them, and that righteousness is what they treasured the most.
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.
Jesus knew well that His role was to teach the righteousness of faith and His close relationship to the Father. If He only taught Himself, it would have been no use to anyone else. That is why we have two concepts of the Word which overlap. One is the Word of God as expressed in the Scriptures. The other is Jesus as the Word, which is the beginning of the Fourth Gospel and directly related to Creation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
Jesus is not only the Teacher, but He is the very Word of God distributed among all people by the Holy Spirit. We have one source, the Scriptures as the Word, and their purpose is to preserve and keep as the eternal truth Jesus as the Gospel Word.
8. By these words he spoils it entirely, in that he does not only defend his doctrine as right and good, which they attribute to the devil; but also ascribes such virtue to his teaching that it becomes a powerful emperor over Satan, death and sin, to give and sustain eternal life. Behold here, how divine wisdom and human reason conflict with one another. How can a human being grasp the thought, that a corporeal, an oral word should redeem forever from death? But let blindness run its course; we shall consider this beautiful saying. Christ is speaking here not of the word of the law, but of the Gospel, which is a discourse about Christ, who died for our sins etc. For God did not wish to impart Christ to the world in any other way; he had to embody him in the Word and thus distribute him, and present him to everybody; otherwise Christ would have existed for himself alone and remained unknown to us; he would have thus died for himself.
But since the Word places before us Christ, it thus places us before him who has triumphed over death, sin and Satan. Therefore he who grasps and retains Christ, has thus also eternal deliverance from death. Consequently it is a Word of life, and it is true, that whoever keeps the Word shall never see death.
What Jesus teaches here is so far beyond their view that they only catch enough of it to be enraged and murderous. From our perspective, He should have been harmless to them and left alone. All He did was good and they could have ignored His claims - except those claims toppled them from their own teaching, which they could not tolerate.
When a tradition apart from God is kept and preserved, it becomes more sacred than the Scriptures. At our high school (and other schools) it was staying off the logo embedded in the floor. Nothing was more sacred, so it served as a pedestrian roundabout. However, 50 years later that spot is no longer central and it is largely forgotten. So I hear - I neglected to go back to the sanctum sanctorum itself.
This is often missed in Luther's writing - believing the Gospel sets off a certain portion of the population, especially those with their own concepts of holiness (to the clan, the school, the location). The greatest kindness - teaching the truth - is viewed as the greatest evil and treated as such.
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.
I say this from time to time, and it needs to be repeated. This Fourth Gospel is the greatest of four great Gospels, and it is the one most rejected, overlooked, neglected, despised, and mocked - among the academics. The effect is to have the most important Gospel having less impact, which naturally allows the heretics to impose their own beliefs without contradiction.
Modernism has brought rejection of the divinity of Christ, rejection of His Johannine sermons being genuine, rejection of the Holy Trinity, so the Spirit does not convey the Word or energize the Word. The Gospel for the modernists is another book, written centuries after the ministry of Christ.
Clearly the purpose of John's Gospel is to show how Jesus is God Incarnate, teaching us in the kindest way His knowledge of God's love and mercy, but also warning us that people would kill believers as if it were doing God a favor.
51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
This is consistent with most ignored passage in John's Gospel, about the era of the Christian Church -
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin, because they believe not on me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
The foundational sin, the reason for preaching, therefore - is lack of faith in Christ. Righteousness is in harmony with Romans 4 because Paul said.
Romans 4: 23 Now it was not written for [Abraham's] sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
The righteousness of faith comes from the Gospel of Christ and His resurrection from the dead, which is the ultimate triumph. Only the most corrupted or ignorant minds could exclude faith in the risen Christ from righteousness.
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?
This, for the Pharisees, is the ultimate stumble. They only see a man, though His miracles said otherwise. How can people be so blind? We have many examples today. Jesus cannot possible be greater than they are, and we see this kind of portrayal everywhere.
The crowd grows more furious, as happens all the time. One fist-shaking person sets off the other. Anyone doubting the fury would be treated violently for not getting with the program.
We have plenty of modern Pharisees who are not Jewish but Gentile and raised on some kind of Lutheran-Calvinist brew. "We have CFW for our Father. Are you greater than he?" The Gospel of Christ is greater than any patriarch of a church.
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.
This only makes sense in the language of the Trinity, which remains a mystery revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. We know it is true because of the Spirit's power and it consistency of the teaching from Genesis 1 onward.
Jesus is patiently teaching these religious people and it only gives them more pain and anger. Verse 56 sets them off because He is clearly stating His eternal existence, that Abraham in distant past was promise the Savior and rejoiced in that Savior, Jesus Christ the Son of God.
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.
These leaders knew their history well - and the Voice and Name of God. I AM spoke from the Burning Bush, which had two natures, the bush itself and flames, yet the bush was not consumed, much like the Two Natures of Christ, human and divine, united in One Person.
As an example of this divine nature, the angry crowd sought to kill Him, but He passed through their midst, preserving the time-table of fulfilling the prophecies.
The God of Abraham Praise - #40
"The God of Abraham Praise"
by Thomas Olivers, 1725-1799
1. The God of Abraham praise;
All praised be His name
Who was and is and is to be
And still the same!
The one eternal God,
Ere aught that now appears;
The First, the Last: beyond all thought
His timeless years!
2. The God of Abraham praise,
At whose supreme command
From earth I rise and seek the joys
At His right hand.
I all on earth forsake,
Its wisdom, fame, and power,
And Him my only Portion make,
My Shield and Tower.
3. He by Himself hath sworn,--
I on His oath depend,--
I shall, on eagles' wings upborne,
To heaven ascend;
I shall behold His face,
I shall His power adore
And sing the wonders of His grace
Forevermore.
4. The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high;
"Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!"
They ever cry.
Hail, Abraham's God and mine!--
I join the heavenly lays,--
All might and majesty are Thine,
And endless praise.
The Lutheran Hymnal
Hymn #40
Text: Ex. 3:6
Author: Thomas Olivers, c. 1770, cento
Tune: "Yigdal"
Melody: Hebrew, 17th century
