The End

[This message was shared last Sunday during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. Also in this post is live stream video from both worship services.]

Mark 13:24-37

As we begin the new Church Year, Jesus talks to us about the End. 

Now, if you were listening to some preachers who call themselves “evangelical” talking about today’s Gospel lesson, they would unleash fearsome talk and guilt-based calls to act right. 

But that approach isn't reflective of the evangelical words Jesus speaks to us this morning. 

The term “evangelical” means people of the evangel, from the Greek compound word, euangelion, meaning good news or of the Gospel. 

The gospel is the good news is that Jesus Christ, God the Son, bore the condemnation of death for sin that you and I deserve, then rose again, so that all who, as a result of the Gospel Word being given to them in the Word and Sacraments, repent and believe in Jesus, have life with God beyond death that never ends. 

The apostle Peter delivers the good news, in a single verse: “...Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God…” (1 Peter 3:18) 

And of course, Jesus says in the verse Martin Luther called “the Gospel in a nutshell”: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

God’s Law and Gospel are two different things, the two ways God speaks to us. This is what the book of Hebrews means when it says that “the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword…” (Hebrews 4:12) One edge of God’s Word is the Law that condemns us to death for our sin. The other edge is the Gospel, the good news that despite our sin, God forgives us and gives us new and everlasting life through Jesus Christ.

God does command the preaching and teaching of His Law. The Ten Commandments continue to reveal God’s will for the human race. God does will that, as Jesus summarizes the commandments, we love God and love others. 

But none of us obeys God’s commands, even when we want to! 

Like the apostle Paul, we are bound to confess, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:15) 

Now, if the Gospel convicts us of our sin and shows us that we aren’t good enough or moral enough to merit life with God, it has done its job. That’s the most it can or ever will do.

Happily, the Law is not the only Word that God speaks to us. Jesus does speak the Law in today’s Gospel lesson. “Be on guard, keep awake,” He says. And “Stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”

The way some preach on this text (and the way that I, God forgive me, have sometimes preached on this text), is to turn the whole thing into Law. They’ll say, “Be a vigilant Christian. Read your Bible. Do good works. Check your character.” 

Now there’s nothing wrong with any of these things. 

But if I’m reading my Bible to keep God from punishing me rather than reading it because in it, a gracious, loving God is giving me life, I’m missing the point. 

If I do good works for others to gain God’s favor, I’m making Jesus’ death on the cross for sinners like me irrelevant and worthless. 

If I’m checking my character just to assure God (or more likely, myself) what a wonderful person I am, I’m deluded. 

As Isaiah says, “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6) 

What will be the end for those who believe the lie that they, by their vigilance and their grim adoption of certain spiritual disciplines and good works, their dogged and superior obedience to the Law, will make it impossible for Jesus to send them to hell? 

Quite simply, people like this will be eternally separated from God and condemned. No one can be good enough to earn God’s favor. No one.

But Jesus reveals a different end in today’s Gospel lesson, the end wrought not by our inadequate obedience of the Law, but by God’s good gift of the Gospel! 

His words to us today are spoken near the temple in Jerusalem a few days before His crucifixion. Jesus says that in the not-too-distant future, the temple will be destroyed. (That happened in 70 AD, by the way.) Jesus then expands His words to encompass the constant cycle of sin, destruction, violence, and disaster that characterizes this sin-sick universe. But soon, Jesus says, something new is going to happen. In fact, it–the Gospel, the good news–would break in on this sorry old universe in a matter of days, at the cross, and, of course, will finally, be fully consummated on the day that the crucified, risen, and ascended Jesus returns. Of His second coming, Jesus says, “But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Mark 13:32)

But we do know though that the End that Jesus will bring on that day will be no fearful thing for those who, by the power of the Holy Spirit, trust in Jesus as God and Savior, and loving Lord. We know that because of the powerful Word, Law and Gospel, that Jesus gives us today in one single verse. He says, “Heaven and earth will pass away [That’s the Law; this universe is condemned for human sin, for our sin.], but my words will not pass away [That’s the Gospel.].” (Mark 13:31) 

When this universe is destroyed in a cataclysm of fire and death, the Gospel Word of Jesus, will still stand. And all who take shelter in Christ and His Gospel will stand with Him. 

The End that Jesus will bring is the end of the Law that condemns us. God’s Word tells us, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:4, English Standard Version)

The Word that will not pass away is Jesus Himself, risen from the dead to rescue you and me from ourselves, from our inability to make ourselves righteous through our actions. 

The Word that will not pass away is also the Word that Jesus spoke with His dying breath on the cross when He said, “It is finished,” meaning everything that needed doing, every bit of righteousness necessary to give you entrance into His eternal Kingdom, has already been done for you in Jesus Himself. 

That Word can be heard too from the apostle Paul: “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

This is the End to which Jesus points you today. 

Yes, He tells us to be awake and ready and the God Who compassionately remembers that we are dust, knows that we will, like the disciples in the garden of Gethsemane, doze off spiritually under the weight of our sins and the griefs of this world. But Jesus calls us to turn to Him in our weakness and our need, bringing our sins to Him, so that He can give us–now and for eternity–His forgiveness, His restoration, His life. 

In the Gospel, Jesus has brought an end to your condemnation. 

He takes the weight of your guilt and fear off of your shoulders and gives you the light yoke of His grace. 

And He gives you a different End, which is really an eternal beginning in which sin no longer dogs or damns us, an eternity in which, “there will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4) 

This End is already yours through the Savior Who long ago broke through the clouds, giving His life and taking your death, so that you might have life forever with Him. 

As He comes to you in Word and Sacrament today, cherish the reality that, through whatever depth of faith our Lord gives to you, the power of the Law over your life has ended and you live eternally in the Gospel Word that will never pass away.  Believe in Christ and His Gospel!

Today and always, God bless you, friends, with the peace of being one with Jesus! Amen

Luke 8

If it helps you to read along silently with someone reading the Bible aloud, here's Luke 8. We're reading one chapter of the Gospel of Luke each day from December 1 to December 24.

From Desert Place to Desert Place

[Short reflections on chapter 4 of Luke's Gospel, which members of Living Water Lutheran Church, like many others, are reading in December 2023. The word from the original Greek in which the New Testament was written is ἔρημος (eremos), meaning desert or wilderness.] 

Being Sheep

[Below is the message shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, yesterday, November 26. You'll also find live stream video of both worship services.]

Matthew 25:31-46

I’m going to do a risky thing as I begin this sermon: I’m going to tell you what it’s all about at the beginning, taking the chance that you’ll just check out and not listen to the whole thing.

The bottom line message Jesus gives in today’s Gospel lesson is summed up in words spoken several decades after Jesus died, rose, and ascended. They were spoken by two early Christian evangelists, the apostle Paul and his colleague, Silas.

Silas and Paul had been thrown into prison because of their faith in Jesus. God caused an earthquake–what someone has called the first “jailhouse rock”--and the prison’s cell doors flew open.

For the jailer this was very bad news. Roman law said that if a jailer lost any of his charges, he would be executed. Fearing that his prisoners would escape, the jailer was about to take his own life, when Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We’re all here.”

The jailer then asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul and Silas answered, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” (Acts 16:31)

Jesus and the apostles to whom He first entrusted this message shared it over and over: Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…”

We need to hear this message because, as Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel lesson, there will come a point when He will return as King of all. He’ll no longer be lowly, demeaned, condemned Jesus, the poor man from Nazareth. This is the One Who, because He humbled Himself to take the death sentence you and I deserve for sin, has now been raised and given “the name that is above every name” (Philippians 2:9), the One Who, after dying and rising, then ascended to heaven and “sat down at the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12)

When Christ the King comes back to us, He will raise the dead and judge all people. As Jesus says of Himself, “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” (Matthew 25:32-33) Jesus, Christ the King, will judge every human being who has ever lived on this earth.



As one Lutheran preacher has said, there will be no escaping Jesus then. The moment Jesus returns, the old universe will be destroyed. We will stand before Jesus, some set by Jesus to His left, others set by Him to His right. And what is it that will determine the side from which we view Jesus? What will decide if we stand with the goats sent to hell and eternal condemnation or with the sheep in the eternal new heavens and the new earth with Christ the King? It will all depend on where we stand with Jesus in this life.

The question will be, “Have we believed in Him or not?” As the preacher in the New Testament book of Hebrews tells us: “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

It is by faith–belief–in Jesus that we will be able to enter into eternity with God, freed of death, sin, and futility.

This may seem too good to be true. We think that we should certainly have to do something good, be someone good, to gain a place in Christ’s Kingdom.

But when Jesus was once asked point-blank: “What must we do to do the works God requires?,” He said, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent. [That is, to believe in Jesus.]” (John 6:28-29)

So, what do we make of what happens in today’s gospel lesson? Does it seem that King Jesus is welcoming some into His Kingdom because they served Him by serving the hungry, the thirsty, the one needing clothes, the one who was sick, the one who was in prison, while the goats are sent to hell for failing to do these things?

If that’s what Jesus is doing or saying, we all have reason to be frightened.

Can any of us say we have always cared for others in need?

Can any of us claim that we have always kept the Sabbath day and honored God’s Word?

Can we say with a straight face that we have never gossiped or murdered others by our thoughts or words?

Can we say we’ve always been chaste in our words and actions, always honored our parents and others in authority, never stolen or craved what belongs to others?

If none of us can lay claim to these things and our life with Christ depends on lives of perfect love and service, we’re all in trouble. It won’t do any good for us to stand before God on the day of Christ’s return and say, “I was pretty good, Lord.”

God’s Word is clear: “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10) Only the righteous will enter eternity.

That’s where Jesus comes in. He gives His righteousness to unrighteous people like you and me, He makes sinners into saints, goats into sheep, when they believe in Him. “Righteousness,” the Word of God says, “is given through faith [belief] in Jesus Christ to all who believe.” (Romans 3:22)

Jesus has told us that “Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” (Matthew 7:17) Jesus is saying that those made good, righteous, through believing in Him will do righteous things. They will love the unlovable, serve those who cannot repay, clothe and feed those in need, even forgive the unforgivable.

But they will only do these things because, through faith in Christ, He lives within them.

Many of the good things that believing people do, they’re hardly aware of doing or don’t think of them as particularly good deeds. This is why the sheep ask Jesus today, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’” (Matthew 25:37-39)

Effectively, they tell Jesus, “We don’t remember anything good we ever did. We weren’t paying attention to what we were doing. We only remember daily turning from our sin, turning to You for forgiveness and help, and keeping a lookout for You.”

The sheep, believing in Jesus and living in daily repentance and renewal, simply do what good God gives them to do–for their family, friends, neighbors, and strangers–along the way. Those made righteous by faith in Jesus just follow Jesus and Jesus, living in them, does the “good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

“Fine, pastor,” you say, “we’re saved by believing in Jesus. Every Lutheran knows that. But sometimes, I don’t think I believe.”

Friends, your faith doesn’t depend on your feelings, because our feelings change all the time. Sometimes, Ann feels really good about the guy to whom she’s been married for forty-nine years; other times, like when I’m being a hard head or affecting a condescending tone, not so much.

And faith doesn’t depend on your thoughts. Our thoughts can wander all over the place.

Let’s be clear: Faith isn’t something we do.

You can’t generate belief internally.

Faith is a gift God gives to you from outside yourself by simple means: the Word that is preached and the Word that is given to you in the Sacraments.

So, if your faith is weak, keep receiving His Gospel Word, keep receiving His body and blood, keep confessing your sins and receiving his forgiveness along with His people, even when there’s a pastoral vacancy at your church.

Receive Jesus today and always, even when your faith is weak, even when nothing makes sense.

You have this promise from our Lord, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” (John 6:37) When you come to Jesus in repentance and whatever faith you have, He will never drive you away!

When you receive this Word Jesus gives to you, He will give you all the faith you need for the day. Faith for each day to those who live in daily repentance and faith is part of what Jesus teaches us to ask for in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

You can trust Jesus’ promise to never drive away those who want Him and know with certainty that you belong to Him now and for all eternity.

Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved…” Amen

[The insights of Dr. Steve Paulson and of the late Bo Giertz were important in the preparation of this message. I'm grateful.]

The Gospel of John, November 26, 2023

The New Testament Book of James, Part 6

[This is the sixth and final installment of our Facebook Live Bible study of the New Testament book of James. It's also the last of these studies I will do as pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. I'm retiring on December 31. I do intend to do more online studies, maybe a podcast or two, in retirement. We'll see what God has in mind. Watch for announcements.]

Forgiven and Free

[Below you'll find videos from both worship services from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio and the message prepared for the services on November 19, 2023.]

Matthew 25:14-30

As we delve into the meaning of the parable Jesus tells us this morning,I want to use something C.S. Lewis writes in his classic, Mere Christianity as a kind of prism through which to view it.

“There are,” Lewis says, “only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’ All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy [that is, life with God and His people in the kingdom of heaven…No soul that seriously and constantly desires that] will ever miss it.”

This is a word of reassurance that Christians often seem to need. More than once, I’ve had people ask me, “How can I be sure I will be with Jesus in eternity?” I can tell them with confidence, “The fact that you want Jesus indicates to me that you will be with Jesus in eternity. If you didn’t believe in Him, you wouldn’t even be interested in the question.”

Today, in Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells us about the two kinds of people identified by Lewis: Those who cherish and thrive in the gracious will of the giving God of the universe and those who take death and condemnation because they think of God as a hard deity who is loathe to give us anything.

The parable is familiar to you. A master, representing God, about to go on a journey, calls in three servants. The word used by Jesus for these three men is δούλους, literally meaning slaves. This gives us a good understanding of their low standing in the world.

Our translation makes a hash of what happens next in the parable, talking about bags of gold. In fact, what Jesus does say is that, based on the individual slaves’ abilities, the master gives πέντε τάλαντα (five talents) to the first slave; δύο τάλαντα (two talents) to the second; and ἕν (or, one talent) to the third.

These numbers would have caused Jesus’ original hearers’ eyes to pop out. Remember that a common day laborer earned one denarius for a twelve-hour workday. A talent was the equivalent of 600,000 denarii. Whether the master gave you five or two talents or just one talent, he would be giving you, not just a servant but a slave, an enormous amount of money, Warren Buffett-kind of money. Can you imagine?

After disbursing the funds, Jesus says, the master “went on his journey…” (Matthew 25:19)

After a long time, the master returns, just as the crucified, risen, and ascended Jesus, God the Son, will one day return to this world.

You remember what happens next. The man to whom the master had given five talents says, “Master,...you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.’” And the master responds, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’” Similarly, the slave given two talents reports that he has made an additional two talents with the master’s gift. The master tells him, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:19-23)

Then comes the third slave. “‘Master,’ he says, ‘I knew that you are a hard man [well, he didn’t know that; that was simply what he thought of his master], harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed [notice the accusations hurled by this third man against his master, calling the master lazy and unfair]. So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’”(Matthew 25:24-25)

The master takes in the third slave’s whininess and accusations and tells the slave, in effect, that if he had such a low opinion of him, the master, thinking that he harvested where He hadn’t planted seeds and reaped where he’d done no work, the slave should have done more than just give back his talent! He then orders the talent to be taken from the man and to be sent into darkness, where there’s weeping and gnashing of teeth, here clearly symbolic of someone being sent to hell and eternal separation from God.

Now, I ask you to listen very carefully to what I’m going to say in the rest of the message.

In the past, I would have said–and even preached, that what Jesus is saying was, “Get busy. Use the blessings of God in ways that please God.”

Friends, this is not what Jesus is telling you today!

If you could earn a place in the Kingdom of heaven or if you could earn a better place in heaven, Jesus would not have needed to suffer and die for you.

As it is, no work you and I might do, no amount of goodness we might display, could ever compensate for our sinfulness and unrighteousness.

Only Jesus taking our sins at the cross and taking the punishment you and I deserve could ever pay the debt we owe to God for our sin.

It is only by God’s charity or grace that sinners are justified or made worthy for eternity with God and that gift does not come to us because we’ve kept busy or properly used God’s blessings: We are truly justified by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.

It is Jesus’ goodness and not ours that saves us.

The goodness of Jesus sets us free to live new lives.

So what is Jesus telling you today?

First of all, the talents the master gives his slaves are what we call absolution, God’s forgiveness of all our sins.

There is nothing the three slaves did to earn, merit, or deserve the massive sums of money he conferred on them. Nor is there anything we can do or need to do to gain God’s absolution, forgiveness.

God’s Word tells us, “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:8)

Before you even knew you needed God’s forgiveness or that you were born dead in your sin and could only be made alive by Christ acting for you, Jesus went to the cross to save you. This is His extravagant gift to you!

The second thing Jesus is telling us is this: Jesus died to save all people from sin, death, and the eternal anguish of hell. But not all people will enter the Kingdom of heaven.

It all hinges on Who you think God is: an inflexible lawgiver or, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you believe that God is a dispenser of undeserved grace,  whether you think of God’s forgiveness as a gift or as something you must earn.

The first two slaves in Jesus’ parable understood they were the beneficiaries of undeserved grace. They didn’t see the new life their master had given them in these vast fortunes as a test or a trap. They saw the talents for what they were: treasures of grace, a chance to live without fear of failure. The master commends them both for being “good and faithful”--that is, believing, servants. They trusted that their master and his gifts to them were good. (And let’s be clear that even had the first two slaves lost every penny given to them by the master, he still would have commended them for faithfully using his gift of grace.)

Friends, when you were baptized into the Triune name of God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–you received the gifts of all the forgiveness, life, peace, and hope that an eternal God can bestow on you.

You can live your life to the full and know that whether you fall or rise, fail or succeed, live or die, you have life in the eternal kingdom of heaven that cannot be taken from you.

As you do that, God will work in your life to make it useful to you, your neighbor, and God.

That’s God’s gift to you.

It’s the same gift He gave to Mary Magdalene (once filled with seven demons), the woman at the well (who had lived in one adulterous relationship after another), the apostle Paul (who had breathed murderous threats against believers in Jesus), and Thomas, the unbeliever.

If the God we know in Jesus Christ can give absolution and freedom from death or fear of failure to them, He can give these blessings to you too!

The third slave viewed what his master gave him as an obligation he had to preserve by playing it safe. When people view forgiveness as something they must earn by playing at religion, turning the God revealed in Jesus into a grim taskmaster, Jesus will tell them, as the master effectively tells the third slave, “If that’s how you see Me and that’s how contemptuous of Me and My gifts you are, wanting to turn my gifts of grace into religious brownie points you earn, I will take My grace away and you will spend eternity learning to your regret that My love cannot be earned.”

Friends, Jesus died and rose for you.

He has set you free from the condemnation of sin and the sentence of death.

To those who receive the gift of faith in Him, He says: “God did not appoint us to suffer wrath [the very thing the third slave feared] but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:9)

Today, Jesus once more gives you all the treasures of His grace–in His Word and in His body and blood–and makes you part of His everlasting kingdom.

Now, friends, live in the freedom of His forgiveness and love.

Live the life Jesus has set you free to live! Amen

The Gospel of John, November 19, 2023

[This is video of the November 19 adult Sunday School class of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

The New Testament Book of James, Part 5