Month: January 2025

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

We continue working our way through the season of Epiphany and the Epiphany theme continues in today’s Gospel. Jesus is still showing Himself to people. He is still beginning His ministry. Nevertheless, there is something very different in the Gospel chosen for today.

So far in Epiphany, everything has been very positive. The Wise Men have come to worship the newborn king. The people who gathered at the Jordan saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus in the form of a dove and heard the voice of the Father from heaven. The disciples went to a wedding in Cana and drank wine that had been water just a little bit earlier in the day. So far, people see Jesus as the authentic Messiah. They do not understand the full implications of Jesus’ authenticity, but they trust Jesus. They believe in Him.

That changes in today’s Gospel. Jesus has established Himself as a rabbi and has been teaching in the synagogues of Galilee. He came to His own home town, Nazareth. He revealed Himself in the synagogue on the Sabbath as He had been doing throughout Galilee. You would think that the city fathers in Nazareth would want to present the key to the city to Jesus, but they didn’t. Instead of welcoming Jesus, His own people rejected Him. Jesus presented His Epiphany in the synagogue in Nazareth and the people tried to kill Him.

The account begins as Jesus read the scripture of the day. The reading for the day was a prophecy from Isaiah concerning the signs and activities of someone who had been anointed for God’s special work. This is part of a longer reading that describes all the blessings that God’s people will receive through this Anointed One. In Hebrew, the word for Anointed One is Messiah, in Greek it is Christ. Thus, this passage in Isaiah tells of the coming Messiah, the future Christ. The person who fulfilled this prophecy would be the promised one of Israel.

The topic of the sermon that Jesus preached after He read from Isaiah was the fulfillment of the prophecy. Anyone who had been at the Jordan would have seen the Holy Spirit rest on Jesus. They would have heard the voice from heaven, [Luke 3:22] “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” At His baptism, Jesus took up our sins in order to carry them to the cross. It would make sense that He was the Lord’s Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah. Jesus is now bringing this good news to the people in the synagogue in Nazareth. Jesus simply told them that He was the fulfillment of this prophecy.

The people reacted strongly to His words. After all, they remembered seeing Jesus grow up. They remembered that, when Jesus was old enough, He labored along with Joseph in the building trade. He hadn’t seemed like anything special then. He was exceptionally bright and precocious, but to say He was the Anointed One couldn’t possibly be right. Besides, if He was the Messiah, wouldn’t He at least perform the same signs in His hometown that He had performed elsewhere? In fact, shouldn’t the signs in His hometown be even better? Ultimately these people decided that Jesus preached beautifully and graciously, but His actual message was too bizarre. They just couldn’t take Him seriously.

Jesus perceived their thoughts. He diagnosed their problem:
“and he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself.’ What we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.” And he said, “Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.

It wasn’t just that they wanted Jesus to do some miracles. They were guilty of wanting Jesus on their own terms. They wanted Jesus to proclaim that there was something special about them because they were from His hometown. They wanted Jesus to declare them especially worthy of His gifts because of who they were.

Then Jesus explained the truth of the situation. God’s acceptance does not depend on merit or worthiness, but on grace alone. Jesus demonstrated this using the example of a pagan widow and a pagan general. God miraculously supplied the Widow of Zarephath with oil and flour so that she could feed Elijah and her family during a famine. Naaman the Syrian was the commanding general of the Syrian army, an enemy of Israel. Never the less, God worked through His prophet Elisha to cure Naaman’s leprosy. Both of these events demonstrate the sheer grace of God’s care.

For some people, though, God’s grace is a very divisive topic. When God says that we already have all His gifts by grace that means that there is nothing we can do to earn those gifts. Some people don’t like it when someone tells them there is nothing they can do to earn God’s favor. Instead of rejoicing in the grace God freely gives to us, they complain. They feel insulted. Their own pride prohibits them from receiving the grace that God wants to give to them. They turn God’s grace inside out and see it as condemnation.
The crowds in the synagogue in Nazareth were such people. Instead of receiving the grace that Jesus offered to them, they became angry. They were so angry that they wanted to throw Jesus over a cliff and then rain stones down on Him until He was dead. Jesus finally gave them a sign. When they tried to throw Him from the cliff, He simply walked away and no one was able to stop Him. How sad that the only sign they received was the sign of God leaving their presence.

We still come to God with our agendas. We still come to God with our preconceived notions of how He should deal with us. Everyone does this. After all, we are all conceived in sin. We are all enemies of God until He rescues us from sin. So we all think we know the “who, what, when, where, and why” of our relationship with God. We have it all figured out until Jesus comes to us and explains how things really are.

Jesus wants to give us the gifts that He purchased for us with His holy life, His suffering, and His death. He wants to give the gifts that He secured with His resurrection from the dead. He wants to tell us how His death on the cross has freed us from our captivity, opened our eyes to His salvation, and liberated us from sin’s oppression.

He comes to us as He came to the people of Nazareth in their synagogue. He has given us His teachings in the words of the Bible. He has promised that when we hear His words, the Holy Spirit will work in us to establish and strengthen our belief in Him. The gifts that Jesus offered to the people in Nazareth will be ours.

Sadly, Jesus’ offer is still divisive. There are some who reject His gifts and label them oppressive. There are some whose pride will not allow them to admit that they are sinners who need God’s grace. There are some who reject the Anointed One’s agenda rather than change the sinful agenda with which they were born. Such people would rather go to hell than surrender the plans they have for themselves. They follow the example of the people of Nazareth.

Those who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith are like the people in today’s Old Testament reading. They had returned from exile in Babylon. They had re-built Jerusalem. Now, they heard the Word of the Lord from the Law of Moses, the Torah. It was a special day when scribes once again proclaimed and explained the Torah in the city of Jerusalem.

But as the people heard the Word of the Lord, they began to realize the magnitude of the sins they had committed against God. They understood how wrong their plans had been. Their sin brought them to tears. As the people repented in tears, those who were doing the reading and explaining were able to proclaim the Gospel, “This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep. Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” It was not too long after this day that the priests once again began the sacrifices that pointed forward to the Messiah who would save His people from their sins. It was not long after this day, that Jerusalem was once again the living object lesson that pointed forward to the Messiah, the Anointed One.

These people had not only been captive in Babylon, but they had also been captives of sin. The Persians had given them the freedom to return home, but, more importantly, these people experienced the tears of repentance followed by the joy of the forgiveness of sins. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah for them just as much as He did for the people of Nazareth. He has also fulfilled that prophecy for you and for me. The people in Nazareth rejected the fulfillment and the only sign they received was Jesus walking away. The people who heard the words of the Torah from the mouth of Ezra wept over their sin and received the joy of forgiveness for that sin.

What is it that Jesus continues to do through His pastors that He has given and continues to give to His Church? The answer is this: nothing more and nothing less than what He began to do Himself and has continued to do ever since that day in Nazareth. The pastor is called to preach the Good News to the poor by telling them of this Gospel of God – called to proclaim release to the captives by absolving the penitent of their sins – called to give sight to the blind by showing them Christ crucified for the sins of the world – called to set at liberty those who are oppressed by taking them to the empty Easter tomb – and called to read the Word to the people of God. What Word? Well, today, on this day, it is this Word of God …

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
because He has anointed Me to preach Good News to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

The eyes of all in the sanctuary were fixed on Him, and because the Word made flesh was present with His people by His Word that day, He continued to forgive, to release, to give sight, to set at liberty, and to proclaim Jubilee to them, right there. And thus faithful pastors in Christendom joyfully state what has continued since the Word began: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus truly is the fulfillment of God’s promises. He is the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah. He has preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God. He has shown us the light of His salvation. With His life, suffering, and death on the cross, He has freed those oppressed by sin. With His resurrection, He offers the Lord’s favor to us. He gives these things to us through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. God has promised all these things to us and today they are fulfilled in our hearing. Let us not respond not like the people of Nazareth, but rather, like the people of Jerusalem, who wept over their sins and then received with joy God’s gift of forgiveness, life and salvation. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Dear Friends in Christ,

The season of Epiphany is all about Jesus becoming manifest, becoming known as the Messiah. At Christmas, He arrives; during Epiphany, He makes it known that He has come to save. In last week’s Gospel, we heard about Jesus’ baptism, and a lot happened there. Jesus was baptized to demonstrate that He came to take the place of sinners. Then, God the Father declared Jesus to be His beloved Son, even as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. A lot was made known about Jesus there: namely, that the Son of God—the second person of the Holy Trinity—had become flesh to redeem the world from sin.

This week, Jesus goes to a wedding and turns water into wine. But there’s a lot more going on in this text, too.

Here’s what we know from the text: Jesus and His disciples attend a wedding at Cana, where His mother Mary is also present. In fact, some pretty reliable theologians have suggested that Mary isn’t just a guest; this might well be a wedding involving some blood relatives, so she might have a personal stake in making sure that the wedding party isn’t embarrassed. Wedding feasts can go on for days, involving a lot of food and a lot of wine. In this case, the wine runs out while the feast is far from over. Mary tells Jesus to do something about it; and although He has some curt words for her, He also tells the servants to fill six large barrels full of water, then to take some water to the master of the feast. When the master of the feast tastes the water, he finds that it has become wine. In fact, it’s become good wine—far better than the stuff they’ve been serving up to now. Our text concludes that this is the first of Jesus’ signs in order to manifest His glory, and His disciples believe in Him.

So Jesus turns water into wine. That’s a miracle, a supernatural feat. But there’s a lot more going on. There’s a lot that Jesus is making manifest about Himself.

I. Five Aspects of Jesus’ First Sign
First, take that exchange between the Lord and His mother. She tells Him, “They have no wine,” a nudge that He should do something about it. Jesus’ response seems a little strange: “Woman, what does this have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come.” For all the honor Mary rightly deserves, we remember that she’s also a human being in need of redemption. Here, it seems, she’s decided to use her position as Jesus’ mother to get Him to use His divine authority for her will. Jesus puts a quick stop to that. Although He is the Author of the commandment to “Honor your father and your mother,” He is also the Son of God with godly wisdom and a divine will that Mary can’t comprehend. He’s not here to do Mary’s will, even when her selfish requests are with the best of intentions. He’s come to do the will of His Father in heaven: that means going to the cross to die for the sins of the world, not backing up unprepared caterers at wedding feasts. He is going to do the miracle here, but for a different purpose: He’s going to do so to make His glory known. In the meantime, though, there’s a valuable lesson of Law in this: one of the biggest temptations you face, when faced with crisis, is to try to influence the Lord to do what you want. If the Lord didn’t let His own mother influence Him, He’s not going to let you alter His holy will, either. Instead, faith prays, “Thy will be done.” But there’s more to this miracle than mother-son relationships.

The Second Aspect: way back in Deuteronomy 18:18, it was prophesied that the Messiah would be a second Moses—God would put His words in His mouth, and all who listened to Him would be saved. As the Messiah, Jesus was the second Moses. At the start of his public ministry, Moses turned water into blood before Pharaoh: it was an announcement of judgment for the king’s unbelief, a warning that he should let God’s people go. That first plague brought death to the food supply as the fish of the Nile were killed: Moses’ miracle made the water worse. At the start of His public ministry, Jesus turns water into wine. It is not an announcement of judgment, but a proclamation of joy. Abundant wine is a symbol of redemption and restoration. In Amos 9:13-14 the Lord declares:

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,    “when the plowman shall overtake the reaper    and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;the mountains shall drip sweet wine,    and all the hills shall flow with it.14 I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,    and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,    and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.

By His death and resurrection, Jesus will restore man to the Paradise of heaven. Eternity will be called the wedding feast of the Lamb. Thus, in this way, Jesus—the “second Moses”—is not like the first. The first warned Pharaoh of judgment, while the second came to declare redemption. Jesus is not at the wedding for blood and death: He brings wine and life, by shedding His own blood. He didn’t come to pile on the guilt and shame. He came to die in your place so that you could be delivered from sin to everlasting life, to the wedding feast of the Lamb.

There’s still more going on here: The Third Aspect is that Jesus uses the big stone water jars—the ones that are normally set aside for the Jewish rites of purification. You might recall the practice of the Pharisees from elsewhere in the Gospels (cf. Mark 7:3-4), how they insist on washing hands, utensils, cups and even couches before they eat a meal; it’s a law they’ve made up, one that they said you had to follow in order to be clean. They’re big on laws—in fact, they believe that you earn God’s favor and work your way into heaven by keeping lots of laws. But washing hands and silverware doesn’t get rid of sin, so Jesus has a better use for these pots: He has them filled with water, and it’s this water that He turns into wine by His Word. It’s another facet to the miracle: Jesus replaces man’s water with His wine, a visual statement that He is the One who cleanses, who purifies. He replaces man’s rules, which could never save, with Himself, who will die for the sins of the world.

Fourth, on a much less grand or consequential note: it’s wine, wine with all of the properties that wine has. There are some Christians who declare that the consumption of all alcohol is sinful; and I’ve heard it said that when Jesus turned water into wine at Cana, it was non-alcoholic wine or was really just water that people called “wine” in a good-natured way. It had to be, they say, because consumption of alcohol is sinful. But that isn’t what God’s Word says. It’s wine. Thus, the teaching that all consumption of alcohol is sinful is a false doctrine. The lesson I wish to draw here is certainly not that everyone should drink and get blasted. Certainly not! Alcohol is not for all, and should be consumed only in moderation by those who partake. The far greater lesson is this: let us not make up laws which God does not make up, and bind people’s consciences to them. Doing so creates false guilt and false pride; it turns the Gospel back into Law, and turns people back into slaves rather than those set free by grace.

Finally there’s one last facet to this first of Jesus’ signs that I’d like to point out: except for Mary, His disciples and a few servants, we have no proof that anyone knows that a miracle has taken place. To those who know, and to you, the glory of Jesus is manifested. But to the casual wedding guest, how would he know that anything has happened? The master of the feast himself thinks that the bridegroom has opened up a new supply that he’s had on hand the whole time, because all he knows is that the servants brought him some wine to taste. There’s been no lightning flash, thunderclap, rushing wind or blinding light. Nothing supernatural appears to have happened. In fact, if you were there to watch the whole miracle take place, here is what you’d see: Jesus tells the servants to fill some jars with water. He tells them to take some of the water to the master of the feast. When the master of the feast tastes it, it’s wine.

It’s a miracle, one by which Jesus manifests His glory. But it doesn’t look glorious at all. Kind of like the manger. Kind of like the cross. Kind of like how Jesus normally works to save, manifesting His glory behind the scenes.

2. Behind the Scenes
That’s why I think this text would be a great one for an ordination sermon, and also why this miracle is a comforting one for you.

I think it would be a great text for an ordination sermon for this reason: Jesus is present there at the wedding, and He’s performing the miracle. But while He speaks His Word to get it done, He’s using the servants as His instruments. The servants don’t do anything miraculous; and the Lord Jesus may not even move from His chair the entire time this miracle was taking place. And yet, it was by this miracle that Jesus manifests His glory. It is by this miracle that His disciples believe in Him.

So if I were to preach an ordination sermon, this is what I would tell the new pastor: you’re the servant at the feast. You’re the instrument of God. You’re not a miracle worker, but the hands and the mouth. As you preach the Word and administer the Sacraments, the Lord is present to give forgiveness, life and salvation. You won’t see Him, you won’t feel Him; and there will be times when you’re ministering to people in dire situations when you’ll feel completely helpless and ineffective. But it’s not up to you: you’re the servant who’s doing what the Lord has told you to do. Be faithful to that calling, and leave the miracles up to Him. He will work the wonders and manifest His glory as He sees fit.

This is comfort. You don’t see your glorious Savior with your eyes, either; and there will be times that you’ll really be wishing for a miracle—to heal, to set things right, to make things the way they used to be, to get you out of a tough situation you’re in. You and I don’t like fear, pain, or uncertainty; and when confronted by affliction, we’re tempted to impatience as we pray that the Lord would deliver us now—right now. We know He can if He so chooses: there are plenty of miracles in Scripture where the Lord worked some spectacular wonder for all to see. But when it’s your turn to suffer and that time drags on, the devil will tempt you to be impatient with God, to grow weary of waiting for Him to work miracles.

Do not forget that faith trusts in what it does not see. Do not forget that faith means trusting in what you do not see, often in spite of what you do. Do not forget, in the words of Romans 8:24-25, “Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” The Lord is faithful, even when you do not see miracles. Your proof is the cross: for if God has already sacrificed His Son for you, He will not forsake you now.

But the message of the wedding of Cana is not patience, of waiting for a miracle at a later date. When told that the wine was running out, Jesus didn’t say, “Be patient! And don’t worry: in heaven there will be enough wine!” He worked a miracle then and there, even though many didn’t notice the miracle.

That’s the lesson of the wedding at Cana: the Lord is present here, with you. And where the Lord is present, He is working miracles. And the miracles He works here are far greater than turning water into wine: He’s turning dead sinners into living children of God.

After the service today, you depart from this place—and the Lord goes with you. You’ll go back to family life, school, work, whatever your callings entail. Some of the things you have to do will be frustrating and seem to border on futility as you beat your head against the wall. But you are a child of God, living a sanctified life; and as you deal with those around you, you are God’s voice and God’s hands to care for them. The Lord used servants to fill the water jars at the wedding. He will use you in service to others, too.

That’s the lesson from the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performed His first sign and manifested His glory, and no one seemed to notice, except his disciples. The same Lord is with you, present to save, working to give you the miracle of eternal life: and He manifests His glory in the miraculous truth that for His sake, you are forgiven for all of your sins. In the Name…

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I. Jesus, Once with Sinners Numbered

He’s everything they’re not. And more.

They’re that crowd on the banks of the Jordan River, listening to John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-17). They’re the kind of grubby sinners that the world just doesn’t get. Just look around and you’ll see what I mean. If you’re a sinner, what are you supposed to do about it? The old-school notion is that you pick up the pieces, ignore the past and get on with the future. In terms of psychology and sanity, that may be a pretty good way to live. The popular option today, of course, is to parade your sin as blatantly as you can. You can boast in it, daring others to call it wrong. You can use it for personal gain, claiming that you’re a victim who needs others to lift you up. If you play your cards right, you might even become the star of a cable reality-TV show. If you choose the right sins to be enslaved to, iniquity can pay quite well these days.

Those are the kinds of sinners that the world gets—those who are models of recovery, and those who dwell on it for their own personal comfort or financial gain. But these sinners by the Jordan River are a different bunch entirely. They’re not bluffing or trying to profit. They’re—believe it or not—they’re sorrowful, contrite about their sins. They’re humbly confessing their weaknesses, their failures and their sins. Each one is saying in effect, “I do not do what I should do, and I am not who I should be. I need to be forgiven. My sin is killing me, and I need God to take My sin away.” One by one, they’re baptized by John in the river—a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

You’re not going to see them on the red carpet or Entertainment Tonight anytime soon. Don’t waste your time on the likes of them. Losers, the world says.

But He’s everything they’re not. They’re weak—He’s all-powerful. They’re failing—He’s eternal. They’re mortal—He’s not. They’re unrighteous—He’s holy. Their sin is offensive to God—He is God. He’s the ultimate winner, completely unlike all those loser-sinners on the banks of the Jordan River. This is like night and day, apples and oranges, AM-FM. One of these is not like the others, and His name is Jesus.

But Jesus doesn’t stay away. He walks down among them, brushing shoulders as He works His way through the jostling crowd. He’s not slumming or on a joyride to show how much better He is. He goes to John and asks to be baptized. John objects. Of course he does. Baptism is for sinners, those grubby losers in need of forgiveness. The Son of God has no need to be baptized—He has no need for repentance or forgiveness because He is without sin.

So why is He there? He’s there to be one of them. He’s there to be numbered with them. He’s become flesh—He’s been born of Mary to do this. At the Jordan, Jesus declares to sinners, “You are indeed sinful and you do need forgiveness. You can’t save yourselves. But I can. I’ve become man like you to save you. I’m numbered among you today because I’m taking your place. As your sins are washed off of you, I’m washing them onto Me. I’m going to haul them all to the cross, and I’m going to die for them there. I’m going to take your place and be judged by My Father for your sin. And because I’m going to die your death, you’re going to have My life— My eternal life.”

So Jesus is baptized by John. His Father approves: He declares from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” This is the plan of salvation: not that God should stay far away and hold His nose at the stench of sinners. He becomes man to be numbered with man, to stand with man, and to die in his place.

2. Joined in Death and Resurrection

Jesus stands with you, and more. In fact, He stands you with Him—that where He is, you may be also. That’s the Good News of our epistle.

There’s Law in this text to set the stage: namely, you were enslaved in sin. It’s important to study what that means. Last Sunday we talked about what it means to be dead in sin, which is how we were born into this world. To be dead in sin is to be completely dead, unable to give yourself life. Remember: it does not mean “mostly dead, but alive enough to kick a little.” It means dead. It means that the only way you can be alive is if Jesus does all the work to make you alive.

To complement the image of being dead in sin, our text adds the image of being a slave to sin. Don’t underestimate the extent: it means to be fully enslaved. It is not that one has to try very hard to do God-pleasing things or say God-pleasing things: it means that apart from Jesus and His grace, no one can do or say anything that is God-pleasing. In fact, if one is enslaved to sin in thought, he cannot think anything that is God-pleasing apart from Christ. Thus, in Romans 3 we hear, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God” (Romans 3:10-11). That’s slavery to sin.

American Christianity is full of the idea that you’re born as a slave to sin—but with plans to escape. Sure, you think sinful thoughts and do sinful things—but there’s a part of you yearning to be free, to do and say and think the right thing. You’re considered to be stuck as a slave for now, willing to be holy but not strong enough to do it on your own—but if you decide to heed Jesus’ call for your emancipation, then you’ll make your escape and be free.

The Bible doesn’t give you that much credit. You’re fully enslaved to sin, it says—“there is none who seeks after God.” You may be appalled by some facets of evil, some varieties of sin, and you may want to be free from them; but by your own reason and strength, you’ll only run from one sin to another. You will not escape to holiness. See, that’s what the crowds in the Gospel lesson have figured out: they can’t make themselves alive, and they can’t make themselves free. They need a Savior. The same is true of you—you need a Savior to make you alive, to set you free. That is precisely what Jesus has done for you.

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” This is why you rejoice: even as Jesus went to the Jordan to be baptized and to be numbered with those sinners, He has come to be numbered with you. In fact, in Holy Baptism, He has visited you just as really and truly as He visited those people at the Jordan, in order to number you among His people.

This is a truth worthy of long meditation: in Holy Baptism, Jesus has joined you to His death—His death for your sin. He takes the forgiveness He won at the cross and gives it to you by water and the Word. In Holy Baptism, He declares, “The wages of sin is death, and apart from Me you would suffer God’s judgment—eternal death—for your sin. But I have died that death for you, and I join you to that death in your Baptism. At the cross, I made your sin My sin, your death My death. Here at the font, I make My death your death. I felt the scourge, the nails, the wrath of My Father. You feel a splash of water, nothing more, because all the wrath is done and gone. Don’t be deceived by the ease of the gift. You are baptized at the cost of My body sacrificed, My blood shed—so that you did not have to pay that price for your sin.”

In Holy Baptism, you have died with Christ. You have been crucified with Him. You have been buried with Him already. The judgment for your sin has already been carried out. That is why death has no claim on you. That’s why hell has no claim on you. Jesus hasn’t just died for your sin: He’s come to you—to you!—and joined you to that death, so that you don’t have to die it for yourself.

There’s more: Jesus has joined you to His resurrection. He declares, “Although I died and was buried, I rose from the dead. My time in the grave was short, and I live again. I join you to that new life: the grave is a resting place, not the end. Death is a sleep and a shadow, nothing more. Sin causes death—those who are holy live forever. And because I have died your death and risen again, I give My holiness and eternal life to you. Rejoice, dear friends. Jesus hasn’t just saved you from: He has brought you to. He hasn’t saved you from hell so that you remain unconscious in the grave for eternity. He has saved you from hell to heaven. From death to life. From a slave of sin to a child and heir of God. And how can you be sure that He has given this to you? He promises that He’s given it to you in your Baptism. He’s joined you to His death and resurrection.

This new life has begun now. Although your body still faces death before it is raised to perfection, even now you already have eternal life in Christ. Even now you are set free from sin. Even now you are set free to live the life of one redeemed. In the words of our text, you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

That is why you do good works. That is why you say good words. That is why, although you are constantly tempted, you strive—by God’s grace and strength—to avoid sin and do what is right. You’ve been made alive in Christ by Baptism—to return willfully to sin is to say, “I’d rather be dead.” You’ve been set free from sin by Jesus in Holy Baptism—to return willfully to sin is to say, “I’d rather be back in chains.” It is a frequent error for people to say, “I have been baptized and forgiven. Therefore, I can still cling to this sin or that one and be a Christian.” It simply isn’t so. It is the equivalent of saying, “Since I have been born, I can stop living and still be alive.” It is not so. If you are dead again, you are no longer alive. If you return to be a slave of sin, you are no longer freed child of God. That is why our text begins, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” (Romans 6:1-2).

Daily, though, you’ll still sin. Daily, Old Adam will rear his ugly dead head and coax you back towards slavery and grave. That is why, daily, you remember your Baptism. Daily, you confess your sins before God and rejoice in His forgiveness. Daily, you say, “I’ve acted once again like a dead, sinful slave. I’ve proven once again my complete unworthiness for God’s mercy. But that is not who I am anymore. Jesus has joined me to His death and resurrection, made me alive in Him. Therefore, I confess those sins which would enslave me again—and I rejoice that I live by the grace of God, because Jesus has joined me to His death and resurrection.

Perhaps it is because we are baptized only once, often in infancy, that we do not give Holy Baptism the credit it deserves. Or perhaps it is the devil and our Old Adam that despise it and numb us to its wonder. For this, too, we should repent. Remember the sinful crowds along the banks of the Jordan in our Gospel lesson: Jesus does not shun sinners, but comes to be numbered among them. In your Baptism, Jesus has come to you, to number you with Him. He has declared, “I do not shun you for your sin. I have died to take your sin away, and I am risen again. I have joined you to My death and resurrection, and so you have eternal life. I do not shun you. I am not ashamed of you. You are Mine.”

And because you are His, His Father delights to add of you, “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well-pleased.”

All of this is yours, because Jesus has joined you to Himself, to His death and resurrection. All of this remains yours, now and forever, because you are forgiven for all of your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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I. Blessings In Christ
What do eyes see in our Gospel lesson today? They see a really smart kid. They see Him sitting in the temple among the teachers, the most learned scholars of the land. He’s listening intently and He’s asking them questions—good questions, smart questions, so much so that the teachers are amazed at His understanding and His answers. Is His knowledge so astonishing because He is the Son of God, or because His intellect is free from the sin that clouds our thoughts so badly? The Bible doesn’t say. But it does tell us why Jesus is there: He is there because it’s necessary that He be in His Father’s house, going about His Father’s business. And what is the business of the Father? That’s what St. Paul talks about in our epistle for today.

Our epistle is full of Good News as St. Paul bombards you with the proclamation of God’s blessings for you. And as we work through this text from Ephesians 1, I would suggest that it is good to note two things. First note how many different times you hear of God working to save you; second, note how this work is connected to Jesus over and over again.

God the Father has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Every spiritual blessing is yours, and it is yours for Jesus’ sake. God the Father is holding nothing back. Our text does not say that Jesus has won your entrance into heaven for you, but after that, His heavenly blessings are all based on your daily work and merit. No! It’s yours—every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is yours in Jesus Christ.

God the Father has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. The Incarnation, the becoming flesh of Jesus, is not an afterthought where the Lord God looked upon the earth one day and said, “Salvation by works isn’t going very well, so let’s try something different.” He has chosen you in Christ before the foundation of the world: it has been His plan from eternity to pour out on you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places for Jesus’ sake. This has another significant piece of good news for you: as the Father’s choice has been from eternity, so it is for eternity. In other words, there will not be a day where God the Father says, “I’m done choosing you now. Yesterday I would have forgiven you and made you holy and blameless, but you’ve dropped off My list and I’m moving on.”

In love, God has predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, for Jesus’ sake. You’re part of His family: for Jesus’ sake, He has gathered you in. Whether you’re male or female, you have the standing of “son” in His family, because the sons are the heirs and you’re an heir of His kingdom. This is His will, that He might be gracious to you for Jesus’ sake.

In Christ, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of trespasses according to the riches of His grace. You are redeemed and adopted into God’s family because Jesus Christ has shed His blood for you. Don’t forget the Gospel lesson: that 12-year-old boy Jesus is in His Father’s house at the time of the Passover feast, and His parents have been missing Him for three days. Twenty years later, He will be the Passover Lamb, sacrificed and blood shed so that the Lord passes over your sins and spares your life. He will be missing for three days after. But then He will rise again. Why? So that you might have redemption through His blood. So that you might have the forgiveness of your trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.

The Lord has lavished this upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth…in Christ. Looking at the world throughout history, with all of its violence and bloodshed, it’s difficult to discern what sort of God is there and what exactly He’s up to; and apart from the Gospel, it’s little wonder that non-Christians come up with all sorts of strange ideas about God as they try to read His mind from the world around them. But His will and purpose is no mystery to you, because your faith beholds your Savior on the cross. That is God’s will and purpose, to deliver you from sin and its consequences by the death and resurrection of His Son. There’s a lot of things you cannot know, but because of Jesus Christ you do know this: God predestined you before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless and in heaven, all for the sake of Jesus Christ.

The Lord has sealed you with the promised Holy Spirit, guaranteeing that this inheritance is yours. How has He sealed you? By the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, which gave you faith to believe. Why has the Lord sealed you with the Holy Spirit, guaranteeing your inheritance? Because Christ has died for you. All of this is yours “in Him.”

That sure explains a lot about our worship, doesn’t it? If God does all of this for us in Christ, then our worship is going to be about Christ. Gathered by the Holy Spirit, we come to where Jesus promises to be. We gather to hear His Word, where He continues to seal us and give us forgiveness and all of those spiritual blessings, even as He sealed us with the Holy Spirit in Holy Baptism. We gather at His table for His Supper; for as He is present there with His body and blood, He lavishes grace upon us. And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation.

2. Blessings beyond Reason
So our text from Ephesians 1 is full of Good News, one glad announcement of salvation after another. It’s all about the blessings that God pours out upon you, lavishes on you, in Christ. However, wherever there is such Good News to be heard, you can bet that sinners will find a way of messing it up. And indeed, the pure Gospel set forth in this chapter has been obscured by sinners in a couple big ways for a simple reason: the blessings God gives are beyond our reason. They’re illogical. They’re so rich and free that they don’t make sense, and even Christians often fall into the trap of believing that the Gospel has to make sense. Thus, we turn our attention to the two great errors which obscure these blessings beyond reason, which we could also subtitle, “How Christians unwittingly mess up the Gospel.”

The first error gets the fancy title of “double predestination,” and it goes like this: “Since the Bible says that God has predestined believers in Christ to go to heaven, He has also predestined unbelievers to go to hell. In other words, before the foundation of the world, God chose some to be saved and some to be condemned. If you’re one of those chosen to go to heaven, then Jesus died for you. If you’re one of those chosen to go to hell, then Jesus didn’t die for you.”

How does this error come about? Because Christians try to make the Gospel make sense according to human logic. See, we normally think that a choice involves two options. You can choose to do one thing or you can choose to do another. As a commercial for some product put it a while back, “one choice is no choice at all.” It makes sense. And if that makes sense, then this makes sense, too: if God chooses believers to be saved, then it only makes sense that He chooses unbelievers to be condemned. If a choice always has two options, then God must make both decisions. Seems logical enough, doesn’t it.

But what does this reasoning do to the Gospel? What does it do to all of these blessings that God lavishes upon you? You can’t be sure that they’re really for you—because you can’t be 100% sure that God has chosen you. You might just be fooling yourself, thinking that you’re chosen for heaven; after all, you know better than everyone but God the miserable sins that are still going on inside of you. (Do those chosen by God really have some of the wicked thoughts floating in their minds that are floating in yours?) What does this reasoning do to Christ? It takes the focus off of Him and His work of redemption, and instead puts it on the Father’s sovereignty. In other words, a believer is saved because God chose him to be saved and used Jesus to get the transaction done. An unbeliever is lost—not because he doesn’t believe in Jesus, but because God chose him to be lost. That’s what this error does: it takes the focus off of the cross and says that all of God’s blessings are yours— but only if you’ve been chosen to be blessed.

In response to this error, we rejoice to declare God’s blessings beyond our reason. We don’t make God submit to logic, but we must submit logic to God. The Bible never says that God chooses people to be condemned. In fact, it says the opposite: Ezekiel 18 declares that God does not take pleasure in the death of anyone, and 1 Timothy 2:4 declares that God desires all to be saved; furthermore, 2 Corinthians 5 proclaims that Christ has died for all. God doesn’t choose people to be condemned: He offers salvation to all through Christ. Those who reject Jesus are lost because they reject God, not because God rejects them.

Therefore, you rejoice: you don’t have to wonder if God has really chosen you to be saved or if Christ has died for you. Instead, you have the certain hope that you are chosen from before the foundation of the world to have eternal life because Christ has died for you.

The other big error is the opposite ditch from double-predestination: it takes all of salvation out of God’s hands and puts it all into man’s. It’s called semi-Pelagianism or Arminianism, and it goes like this: if man can choose to reject God, then man can also choose to believe in God. It only makes sense, because one choice is no choice at all. If man can choose one, then he must be able to choose the other.

What does this do to the Good News of Ephesians 1—what does it do to Jesus and the blessings God lavishes upon you for Jesus’ sake? As far as Jesus goes, it robs Him of glory: it says that He did His part to save you, and that you do your part to save yourself by choosing to believe in Him. It takes the focus off of Him, and puts it on your decision, your commitment, your dedication. As far as the blessings go, it makes them uncertain again: they’re yours, if you really believe in Jesus enough. If you’ve truly chosen Him and made a decision for Him, then salvation and all those blessings are yours. But if your decision wasn’t sincere enough—if you’re only fooling yourself, then you’re lost. You can’t be sure if you’re truly committed: after all, as Jeremiah 17:9 says, your heart is deceitful above all things. And what about those times when you really mess up and sin—what does that say about your sincere devotion? You can’t be sure.

In response to this error, we rejoice to declare God’s blessings beyond reason and do not force Him to submit His will to logic. The Bible never says that we can choose to follow God: instead, Ephesians 2 and Romans 5 make it quite clear that you were born dead in sin. By definition, dead men cannot do anything to make themselves alive. But Christ has died for you. He has redeemed you by His blood, forgiven your trespasses and lavished His grace upon you. He has done all the work necessary to save you—and there is no doubt about His commitment, His sincerity or His faithfulness to you.

You’re like Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead in John 11. Four days in the tomb, Lazarus couldn’t decide to be alive again. He was dead. Jesus came and spoke His life-giving Word, “Lazarus, come forth.” He made Lazarus alive, and Lazarus had nothing to do with the process. Now, if Lazarus had decided later to reject Jesus’ gift of life and kill himself, that would be his choice—not the Lord condemning him. That is how salvation works: God makes us alive in Christ. That is His doing, not ours. If we reject it and are lost, that is our doing, not His.

This, dear friends, is one of the great gifts we Lutherans have to offer to our fellow Christians in other church bodies, because only Lutheran theology holds purely to this Gospel.

These blessings beyond reason may not fit our requirements of logic, but they are faithful to the Word. Faithful to the Word, they keep the focus on Christ. Faithful to the Word, they proclaim that God’s blessings are certain in Christ for you.

That’s your joy today: from the foundation of the world, God purposed that His Son would come and redeem you by His blood, so that He might seal you with His Spirit and lavish His grace upon you today. There is no doubt to these blessings beyond reason: for Christ’s sake, most certainly, you are forgiven for all of your sins. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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