The New Testament Book of Philippians, Part 4

The New Testament Book of Philippians, Part 3

We had some issues tonight during our Facebook Live study of Philippians. The stream cut off and so, it had to be presented in two parts. Here they are.

Empowered to Do the Impossible

[Below you'll find both the video of today's 11:00 AM worship service with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio and the text of the sermon. Have a blessed week!]



Luke 6:27-38

Today in our Gospel lesson, Luke 6:27-38, Luke continues to share Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain. The words are addressed to Jesus’ disciples. That includes you and me.

And just to be sure the we understand that He’s talking to us as individual believers, Jesus uses the second person personal pronoun throughout this part of His sermon. You see, unlike the English language, which has a single word for a person to address you, whether that you is one person or a million, Greek, the language in which the New Testament writers composed their gospels and books, has different words to address people, whether singularly or plurally. Throughout today’s gospel lesson, Jesus talks to you and me personally. He speaks to you and me as individual people who want to have life with God. Today Jesus says repeatedly in different ways, “Love your enemies, love the people who hate you.” That means turning the other cheek; giving to whoever asks of you; and so on. These words are directed not to governments or the Church as an institution, but to each of us, you and me, individually, as His disciples.

How do you react to this teaching? 

I can tell you how I, when I’m utterly honest, react. 

I think that if that’s how I need to live in order to be part of God’s eternal kingdom, I am in big trouble. The way Jesus tells it, to live a life acceptable to God, it seems that I need to go around with a sign on my head, saying, “Use me. Exploit me. Abuse me.” I like the idea of loving my enemy (sort of), as long as my enemy, the person who hates and disdains me, will love me too. Honestly, the commands Jesus gives to you and me as individual Christians today are impossible!

If that’s how they strike you, good! That means they’re doing their job, that God’s Law is doing what God’s Law is meant to do to us. 

The Law shows us our sinful natures. As the apostle Paul puts it in Romans 3:20: “...through the law we become conscious of our sin.” In His Law, God says, “Love God and love neighbor. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We may be inclined to agree that those are good ideas. But when we read the fine print, as in Jesus’ words to us today, we must admit our inability, by the power of our own will, to live like that. In fact, truth be told, you and I may not even want to live like that. My very revulsion toward the life of love to which Jesus calls me condemns me. Considering the impossibility of keeping Jesus’ Law of love, I feel like Paul, who writes, “Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?” (Romans 7:24)

The answer, of course, is the One Who gives these commands, Jesus, God the Son and sinless man. 

It’s Jesus and only Jesus Who can save us from our unloving, sinful natures. Jesus perfectly kept God’s command that we love but because it’s His very nature to love. 

Jesus shows us that while we are sinners, God, Who is love, still loves us and wills to save by God’s grace all who trust in Him. 

On the cross, Jesus has done everything necessary for us to enter, live, and thrive in God’s eternal kingdom. (John 15:5)

The One Who commanded you to “bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) 

The One Who commanded, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also…” refused to retaliate when, during His trial, “[people] spit in his face and struck him with their fists…[while others] slapped him…” (Matthew 26:67) 

Jesus perfectly obeyed the command of God to you and me to love even those who hate us and because of Jesus' perfect obedience and sacrificial death for us, God the Father has opened eternity to us. 

This is why Jesus says a few chapters later in Luke’s gospel, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) In other words, to become heirs of what Christ achieved on the cross for sinners like you and me, we acknowledge our sin–our lovelessness–and turn to Jesus in trust. Jesus covers us in His perfect obedience…and He does even more than that.

But before we talk about what else Jesus does in the lives of those who believe in Him, we must address the question all of us wonder about when confronted with His words today: Are we supposed to love the spouse who’s been abusive, the classmate who’s been a bully, the authority who’s misused his power, the businessperson who’s exploited me or others? 

The short answer is yes. 

But this is why God has given, for our common benefit in this fallen world, governments, civil authorities, and parents. 

Without such authorities, Martin Luther said, Christians  would live in this world as “innocent lambs among ravenous wolves.” 

And so, the abused wife should love her abusive husband, but still call the police. 

The bullied child should love his tormentor, but still go to his parents and teachers. 

The command to love doesn’t mean that wrongdoers aren’t to be held accountable. In fact, there are times when the most loving thing we can do for others is to hold them accountable for their harmful or illegal actions. Even the Church is to have authority to hold its members accountable when any unrepentantly breach God’s commands. God recognizes that while we who believe in Jesus Christ already live in God’s eternal kingdom, we also live in a fallen world. And so, children need parents; schools need teachers and principals; communities and nations need law enforcement and those who enact laws for the common good.

Nonetheless, when we trust in the God we now know in Jesus Christ, God uses His Word to transform us from those indifferent to others to those who love even our enemies. The God we know in Jesus takes up residence in the lives of baptized believers and makes it possible for us to love even those who have hurt us. 

Our first lesson for today comes from Genesis and tells part of the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, one of the patriarchs of the Jewish people. You know Jospeh's story well. Resentful of Jacob's love for him, ten of his brothers sell Joseph into slavery. Later, the victim of a false accusation, he goes to an Egyptian prison. Later still, God empowers Joseph to understand a dream God sent the Egyptian king, the Pharoah, and the Pharaoh puts him in charge of the first government rationing program in history, saving the lives of Egyptians and others in the Near East, including his own brothers and their families. Eventually, Jospeh is reunited with his father Jacob and the enire family. But then, Jacob dies and Josephe's brothers think, with the old man dead and gone, Joseph might use his power to take his revenge. Joseph is heartsick that his brothers would think such a thing. 

He assures them: “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” (Genesis 50:19-21) 

Joseph doesn’t deny that his brothers had acted as his enemies. He doesn't deny that his brothers have done wrong to him. 

But he could also see how God used his brothers’ hateful action to do God’s good. Because he lived in fellowship with God, Joseph was empowered to forgive and to love his brothers. God made it possible by His power for Joseph to do what would have been impossible in his own power. Joseph couldn't. God could.

Jesus commands us to love all people, even our enemies. We know this is impossible, although deep in our hearts we know that God’s command to love all people is right. 

This state of affairs would leave is in despair...except that there is good news! 

There is a Gospel! 

God has acted to break the power of sin and lovelessness that had us in its grip from the moment we were conceived. 

God has loved the unlovable and forgiven the unforgivable, including you and me. 

By the power of His love, given on the cross, God transforms spiritual orphans into His children and sends His Holy Spirit to make us agents of His love for everyone. 

We cannot resolve to do unto others as we would have them do unto us, no matter how good our intentions may be. 

But baptized believers in Jesus, sinners made saints by God’s forgiving grace and mercy gifted to us on the cross, can follow Jesus and, as He lives in us, be the means by which His love reaches a whole needy world. 

May Jesus fill us with His love each day. 

Let’s pray. 

Jesus, thank You for loving us in spite of our sin. Love the world through us. Amen

The New Testament Book of Philippians, Part 2

The New Testament Book of Philippians, Part 1

The Blessed Life

[Below you'll find the video of today's second worship service with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, and then, the text of today's message.]



Luke 6:17-26

In today’s Gospel lesson, Luke 6:17-26, Jesus, describes the kingdom of God, not a place on a map, but a state of being, a state of blessedness. 

All who have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, live in this blessedness today (even when we feel burdened by grief, money, disagreements, guilt, sin, discouragement, or death) AND will live in even greater, perfect blessedness in God’s presence after Jesus has raised us from the dead. 

In verse 17, Jesus begins His description of the blessed life like this: “He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by impure spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.”

Jesus has just been on a mountaintop, where He has chosen twelve of His followers (disciples) to be His apostles. In Luke’s gospel, mountaintops are always places of prayer and closeness with God. We need mountaintops: times of worship and prayer and reading God’s Word. It’s these times that help us face our days and weeks with the grace and hope that God wants to give to us. But there are also jobs to be done, bills to be paid, decisions to make, kids to shuttle this way and that, groceries to buy, lawns to be mowed, driveways to clear of snow, life to be lived. We have to leave the mountaintops and go to the level plains. While He was on earth, even Jesus had to do that.

When Jesus and the twelve apostles get to the flat plain, there are all kinds of people, Jews and Gentiles, gathered to hear and be helped by Him. Down on the Plain--down in the everyday places of life, Jesus makes Himself accessible to all people: apostles, disciples, and the crowds who don’t yet believe, but know that there is something different about this preacher from Nazareth.

The very fact that Jesus went down to the Plain from the mountaintop, just as He once had gone from the throne room of heaven to a cattle barn to be born into this life and would one day go to a cross He didn’t deserve, tells us something about the kingdom of God. It is God’s passionate desire that all of us who would otherwise be condemned to death and separation from God will be part of it! He wants everyone to hear His call to repent and believe in Him and so, be part of His kingdom. He puts everyone on an evil plain so that those who are full of themselves and their sin will be brought down to repentance and new life through faith in Jesus and those who are oppressed or ground down by this life can be lifted to that same new life through faith in Him. 

This is what Mary had said God would accomplish in the baby Jesus then in her womb: “...[God] has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53)  Through Jesus, the kingdom of God overthrows the old order of this world. Richness and health and power and full bellies are no advantage to those who want to walk with God. The only thing that matters is whether we trust in Jesus as our God and Lord. “The work of God is this,” Jesus tells us, “to believe in the one he has sent.” (John 6:29)

Jesus first describes the blessed life, the kingdom of God life. Verse 20: “...Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.”

Here Jesus describes two blessings enjoyed by people who are in the kingdom of God today and two that we will enjoy in eternity. 

According to Jesus, the poor are blessed. Jesus isn’t saying it’s intrinsically sinful to have money. But it’s easier to make money your god when you have more of it than others do. Money has a way of fooling us into thinking that we have everything under control. We don’t. In the kingdom of God, we relish the fact that God is in control and we don’t have to be. 

Jesus also says that persecuted believers are blessed because in their faithfulness, they join a long line of persecuted believers who experienced a promise that only a crucified and risen Savior can make: “I am with you always” (Matthew 28:20).

The hungry who trust in Christ will be blessed one day to sit at the eternal feast with God. This is the feast that the Old Testament prophet Isaiah foretold centuries before Jesus’ birth: “The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.” (Isaiah 25:6) We get a foretaste of this feast every time we receive Holy Communion.

The grieving who trust in Christ will be blessed one day when Jesus welcomes them into eternity. It’s a place in which, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)

Jesus’ description of how He turns the ways of this world upside down in the kingdom of God continues in a set of curses. They describe the lives of those who refuse the gifts of forgiveness and new and everlasting life He offers to all people. Verse 24: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:24-26)

Jesus flouts the wisdom or common sense of this world. This false wisdom tells us that the goal of this life is to make ourselves comfortable, to get as much as we can, to avoid problems and troubles at all costs, to live like kings and queens. But in the kingdom of God, the last are first and the first are last. The blessed are those who know that it’s in Jesus that we find life (John 1:4) and in Jesus alone (John 14:6). This world may make us comfortable for as long as we live here, but the person who trusts in Jesus is blessed now and in eternity. People who experience the blessedness of life in God’s kingdom know God gives so much more than what this dead world can offer to us!

I knew a woman who came from a wealthy family. She never wanted for anything. She had food to eat and money to spend. Cancer, which came to her, doesn’t care about those kinds of things though. (Neither do car crashes, heart attacks, or any of the other things that can rob us of health, life, or happiness in this world.) But this woman was blessed because she didn’t put her faith in wealth or plenty, laughter or the acceptance of others. She trusted in Jesus Christ. She was blessed.

Even as she drew her last breath, she was blessed. She is even today. You and I don’t have to imagine the kingdom of God or rely on other people’s descriptions of it. We can live in God’s kingdom right now. It’s the kingdom into which we are baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It’s the Kingdom in which Jesus blesses those who believe in Him with forgiveness, life, peace, and hope. It’s the place we live in whenever we turn to Him to be our God and King and Savior. And through Jesus, this blessed Kingdom is ours forever. Thank God for that, the greatest blessing of all. Amen

2 Promises from Jesus

[This is the message as prepared for sharing at the funeral of Erma, a ninety-eight-year-old who joined our congregation, Living Water Lutheran Church of Centerville, Ohio, a few years ago.]

Romans 8:31-39

John 11:21-27

I didn’t have the chance to know Erma well. But there are a few things I did get to know about her. For example, she was devoted to her family and willingly talked about them at length anytime I asked. She was an incredibly hard worker, a characteristic fostered in her while growing up on a farm. She seems to have been able to tackle and conquer almost anything she put her mind or her hands to do: sewing, rug-braiding, cooking, lawn work, gardening, painting, decorating. She also had a forceful and memorable personality, even in her waning days: She was neither short on opinions nor a sense of humor. She was also a realist: She understood that life around here doesn’t last forever; so, she had already given away many of the things she wanted to go to others long before she passed.

While her family can gratefully say Erma lived a good, long life, the loss of a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, inevitably leaves a hole in your life. So today, I want to share two promises from Jesus that can encourage you now and in the future.

The promises of Jesus, God the Son, can be trusted. Jesus bore the punishment of death for sin that we deserve. Then, He rose from the dead to open up eternity with God to all who repent and believe in Him. So Jesus and His promises really can be trusted. I love the way Saint Paul’s words in Romans 3:4 are rendered in The Message: “Depend on it: God keeps his word even when the whole world is lying through its teeth.” You can bet your life and eternity on the promises of Jesus.

So, two promises from Jesus then. The first is recorded in the passage from Romans we listened to a few moments ago, Romans 8:31-39. There, Paul, no stranger to adversity or suffering, said to all who put their trust in Jesus as God and Savior, “...neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Because Jesus has risen, He can be with us no matter what circumstances confront us in this life. A friend of mine was dying, cancer cutting her down at what seemed too young an age. “Are you ever mad at God?” I asked her. “I was at first,” she said. “But then I remember He’s right here.” The book of Hebrews in the New Testament refers to Jesus as “our great high priest,” and says that in Jesus, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted [or tested] in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) And it’s this sinless Savior Who sympathizes and stands with all who turn to Him right now, today. That’s Jesus’ first promise to you today.

The second promise from Jesus I want to share with you is found in our reading from the Gospel of John. There, Jesus has gone to the village of Bethany after the death of His friend Lazarus. His sisters Martha and Mary are disappointed with Jesus. They’re convinced that if Jesus had arrived sooner, Jesus could have prevented their brother’s death. Shortly after this, of course, Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead, a sign pointing to Jesus’ power to overcome the deaths of every sinful human being who believes in Him. But before Jesus ever performed a miraculous sign, He spoke a Word to create faith in Him in the ones asking for help. Faith in Christ doesn’t depend on miracles, although Christ sometimes works miracles; faith in Christ depends on God’s Word and on what God did for us on the cross. Jesus tells Mary: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” And then Jesus asks her, “Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) At this word of promise, even in her grief, Mary replies, “Yes, Lord,...I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” (John 11:28) Because Jesus rose from the dead, you can know that the promise of everlasting life with God through faith in Jesus alone is true. “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,” Jesus famously promises. (John 3:16)

And so, today and in the days ahead, you can live your lives in the light of these two sure promises from Jesus. First, He can be with you always. For those who believe, Jesus is never further than a prayer, a Bible reading, a worship service, or a sacrament away. Second, He can give you the peace and hope of knowing that all who believe in Him will live with God always. Not just in the imperfect confines of this fallen universe, but one day in the perfect peace of eternal life in the direct presence of Jesus Himself. Today and always, turn to Jesus; that’s where hope, peace, and life are found. Amen

The Word from God

[Here's a video of today's 11:00 AM worship service from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. Below, you'll find the text of today's message.]



Luke 5:1-11

Our Gospel lesson for today begins: “One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God.” (Luke 5:1) A Lutheran Bible commentator of the last century insisted, rightly I think, that the preposition in the last phrase of that verse shouldn’t be translated as “word of God,” but “word from God.” In today’s lesson Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, speaks the Word from God to a crowd of people who, for reasons they may have been unable to articulate, are hungry to hear from God.

Are you hungry to hear the Word from God? Not just on Sunday but every day? 

Or are you so sated and enticed by the junk food of this world–its temporary rewards, entertainments, and distractions–that you don’t have time to listen to the Word that the God we know in Jesus wants to give to you?

Human deafness to God is the greatest pandemic in our world today. I find myself afflicted by this deafness to God more often than I care to admit. And it’s a pandemic of resistance to God’s Word that is far more deadly, eternally so, than we may imagine. We prefer to hear almost anything to hearing the Word from God. This past week on social media, Lutheran theologian Chad Bird shared an observation by a contemporary Roman Catholic cardinal: “The world no longer hears God because it is constantly speaking, at a devastating speed and volume, in order to say nothing.”

But what the Word that God has for us, for the whole world collectively and for each of us individually, is far from nothing. 

In his prayer to the Father on the night of His arrest, Jesus says, “Your Word is truth.” (John 17:17) 

In Old Testament times, the psalmist tells God, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105) 

And during Jesus’ ministry, Simon Peter, whose call as an apostle we consider today, tells Jesus: “You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68) 

Truth, guidance, eternal life: These are just a few of the blessings God gives us in His Word. Jesus Christ came into our universe to give us this definitive Word from God. And today, we see that that Word from God brings three major effects to us.

Now, you’re familiar with this incident. Jesus is teaching by the Sea of Galilee, here called the Lake of Gennesaret. It's daylight hours and, because the professional fishermen of Galilee only fish from dusk to dawn, there are two boats on the shore. Jesus climbs into one owned by Simon Peter to continue His teaching. You see, there are a series of craggy inlets around the Sea of Galilee, each forming perfect amphitheaters. This is what allows the large crowd listening to Jesus to hear Him now even though He’s likely speaking in a normal voice. Teaching done, Jesus, tells the professional fisherman Simon Peter, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4) Peter knows from years of experience that there will be no catch of fish in the middle of the day. Despite his doubts, Peter paid heed to Jesus’ word because, as Scripture tells us elsewhere, Jesus “taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (Matthew 7:29) 

You know what happens next. It’s a miracle at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry with Peter that will later be matched near the end of the resurrected Jesus’ ministry with the apostle (John 21:6): a haul of fish so great that Peter had to call for the boat of James and John to help bring it all in.

It’s here that we see the first effect of the Word from God. The first thing that happens to us when we encounter the Word from God is this: We see God’s sinlessness and we see our sin. 

Peter knows that in Jesus, He is seeing God face to face. Peter tells Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8) 

The Word from God shows all of us how far from God we are, how filled with sin, how unworthy to be in God’s presence, how unloving we are compared to God, how ungracious toward the sins and faults of others. 

I have an idea that’s exactly why so many people avoid listening to God’s Word and try instead to drown it out with the dead and dying things of this world.

But God doesn’t readily give up on us. That’s why Jesus says what He does now to Peter, the very words God has always spoken to those who come into His presence and are both intimidated by His power and overwhelmed by His holy perfection. “Don’t be afraid,” Jesus tells Simon. (Luke 5:10) 

This is the second Word from God we receive from Jesus, "Don't be afraid." 

Jesus is saying: “Yes, Simon; yes, human race; yes, Church, you are sinners and you deserve death and condemnation. There’s a chasm you cannot forge that lies between us. But I am the bridge between God and you. You need not be afraid that your sins will pull you away from My love. You need not fear condemnation.” 

There are many things in this world we might rightly fear: putting God to the test, suffering, causing suffering to others. But we need not be in terror of God. 

God’s Word tells us that, “...there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Romans 8:1) 

Your sins may convict you, but Jesus, the one to whom you turn in daily repentance and trust, has set you free from sin and death. 

This requires no work or effort on your part. 

You needn’t fear that you’ve failed to take the right steps. (You haven’t and can’t, by the way.) 

You needn’t fear that you’ve not believed enough or done enough. (Again, you haven’t and can’t.) 

On His cross, Jesus has justified, qualified, and sanctified you for life with God, now and always. There, Jesus did all the good, followed all the right steps, taken the perfect path of obedience so that He, though sinless, could absorb all the sin and death of the human race so that we can be set free. 

That’s why Jesus tells Peter, and us, “Don’t be afraid!”

We see a third thing that Jesus’ powerful Word from God does to those who listen to it. Jesus tells Simon Peter, “from now on you will fish for people…” (Luke 5:10) 

After saving us from sin and death in Holy Baptism, creating faith in Christ within us through His Word, and sustaining us on His body and blood in Holy Communion, the third thing the Word from God from Jesus gives us is a whole new life! 

No longer afraid of condemnation, Jesus’ Word gives us a new life, a new reason for living. 

Our mission in life becomes, no less than it became the mission of Simon Peter, to follow Jesus and to fish for people, that is, to share the Word from God so that others can, like us, repent, believe, and have everlasting life with God. Jesus enlists us to share His Word everywhere.

There’s a small group composed of several men from Living Water and another man who’s part of another area congregation. They began meeting together over God’s Word several years ago, at the time we began our discipleship initiative. Even in the pandemic, they found ways to remain connected to God and each other. 

In the past year or so, a friend of two of the men, an unchurched man with no apparent connection to Christ and His Church, learned he had cancer. As the disease grew worse, the two small group members visited their friend, both at the hospital and later, at a hospice care facility. 

At one point, they shared a Christian book, Jesus Calling, with him. Later, during one of their visits, they shared another book, John Eldredge’s All Things New. 

On a subsequent visit, one of the group members asked their friend, “Did you read that book?” 

“Yes,” he said, “I’m counting on it.” 

The group member asked his friend if that meant he was receiving the Word from God that Jesus is Lord and Savior, the One Whose death and resurrection brings the forgiveness of sin and everlasting life with God? “Yes,” their friend said. 

Then they prayed together to declare their Word-given faith in Jesus. Their friend’s mother was there at the time and as the men prayed, she wept tears of joy. 

Three days later, that man died and, I am sure, because of His faith in Jesus and His Word, entered into the everlasting arms of God. 

Friends, Jesus’ Word sets us free to be His agents of grace in the world, to be fishers of people.

The Word from God that comes to us in Jesus is powerful! 

This Word shows us our distance from God and convicts us of our sin and shows us our powerlessness before life and death. 

This word also convinces us that in Jesus Christ, we need not fear condemnation because all who trust in Him have everlasting life with God. 

And this Word gives us an entirely new life, one in which our whole mission, our whole reason for living is changed by our gracious God. We’re empowered to live for the only mission worth living–or dying–for: to be fishers of people, makers of disciples, messengers of God and His love for everyone we meet. 

There is no better way to use the earthly lives God gives to us than that, to be fishers of people! 

May Jesus and His life-giving Word do God’s work in and through us. Amen