The New Testament Book of James, Part 2

The New Testament Book of James, Part 1

We began a new online study of the New Testament book of James this evening. This is the first installment, an introduction.

The Gospel of John, October 29, 2023

[This is video from Facebook of the October 29, 2023 adult Sunday School class from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Standing on the "Alones"

[Below, you'll find the message shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio, yesterday, Reformation Sunday, along with live stream videos of both services.]

John 8:31-36

On this Reformation Sunday, we consider an important question: What is a Lutheran?

Lutherans have always seen Christian faith, the faith commended to us in the Bible, as having three key truths: Grace alone; Faith alone; and Word alone.

What does that really mean?

When the thirty-three-year-old German monk and priest, Martin Luther, accidentally began the Reformation movement back in 1517, he found himself addressing both a religious elite who no longer cared about the Word of God, choosing to replace it with their own ideas and traditions, and Christian masses whose allegiance to the Church was as an institution and a habit, rather than a fellowship with the living God. No wonder that the elites hated Luther or that the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire put Luther under an imperial ban, meaning that anyone who saw him was authorized to kill Luther on sight!

Luther’s witness to the justification of sinful human beings by God’s grace through faith in Jesus, to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and to the authority of the Bible as God’s Word undermined those who wanted to replace Jesus with other lords and the authority of the Bible with traditions and customs that brought them control or power. 

The experience of Luther and the other church reformers was nothing new. As I mentioned last Sunday, when you read the Old Testament, you see a recurring pattern in the life of God’s chosen people. God would call them to repent, trust in Him for life, and follow Him, and the people, feeling weak or vulnerable or afraid, would do so. For a time. Then, once they got a little food in their bellies, a tract of land to farm, a bit of wealth or power, they would mostly forget God. Or, they would make God into an indulgent Santa Claus who didn’t care if they repented, believed, or followed, so long as they were happy. Or, they would tinker with their faith, adding their own rules, intermingling the worship of other deities. It was to God’s people in these latter circumstances that God would send prophets to call people to repentance and faith in Him.

We see this rejection of God and of God’s Word in the people Jesus confronts in today’s Gospel lesson from John. Just before our lesson, Jesus foretells His crucifixion and resurrection. Then Jesus lifts up those three distinctives of Biblical faith, three distinctives that would become the three principles of the Lutheran movement within Christ’s Church. John tells us: "Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, ’If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

Lutherans don't claim to have a corner on the truth market. But the Confessions of our movement, found in a book called The Book of Concord or Concordia, hold that Jesus is the Truth that sets us free. We believe that people are set free from sin, death, and futility, first of all, through God’s grace alone. Jesus doesn’t say, “Perform these deeds and I’ll set you free from sin and death.” He doesn’t say, “You’re just perfect the way you are so nothing needs to be done to make you righteous, or acceptable for life with God.” Instead, Jesus tells us that we are sinners who need to be righteous and then, on the cross, through His innocent suffering and death, does the hard work of taking our sin into His body while giving His perfect righteousness to us.

He does this as a free gift, an act of grace (or charity) from God for us. We are saved by God’s grace alone. 

Lutheran Christians also believe we are saved through faith alone. Faith is how God delivers the grace Jesus bore for us on the cross.

Jesus told His fellow Jews that they would only be free to be the people of God if they trusted or believed in Him, literally the original Greek says "remain in My Word."

To have faith is to remain rooted in Jesus and to draw life from Him alone. This is what Jesus means when He says elsewhere, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Faith, the gift God gives by His Word, both proclaimed and given in Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, overcomes our deadliest enemies: the devil, the sinful world, and our sinful selves. As Jesus tells Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will live forever.” Then Jesus asks, “Do you believe this?”

Well, Christians, do you believe this? Do I? I mean, how is it possible for self-centered, untrusting people like us to have faith in Jesus?

The Small Catechism tells us, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel [that is, the good news message that God the Father sent Jesus, God the Son, to save me from sin and death], enlightened me with His gifts [The Bible and the Sacraments], and sanctified and preserved me in the truth faith.”

In Jesus, God not only does everything needed to save me from myself, He also creates my faith in Jesus.

A Lutheran is someone who, because of God’s great grace or charity, gratefully receives the Word about Jesus that creates faith. 

Finally, Lutherans believe that we come to know God through the Word alone. Above all, we know God through “the Word made flesh,” Jesus. The Bible, the inspired Word of God, which is about Jesus from Genesis to Revelation, points us to the life God gives through Jesus. This Word brings us life with God.

In Martin Luther’s day, the Church added to or ignored the witness about Jesus found in the Scriptures. Luther and the other Reformers said that the Church dared not do or say anything contrary to the will of God revealed to us in the Bible. Second Timothy 3:16 says: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...”

We all have our favorite sins and so we may not like the things that God calls sin. But we Lutherans believe that when the righteous, loving God of the universe and we disagree about how we should live our lives, God is right and we are wrong.

We may want to know much more than God reveals to us in Christ and in Scripture. But in the 66 books of the Bible, everything we need to know about God, about ourselves, about salvation, about how to live, and about Who can be trusted, is found.

We live in an era in which the Bible is routinely snubbed, dismissed, or misused. The Bible isn’t the writing of just one person claiming a hotline to God, as is true of the books of Islam or Mormonism. The Bible doesn’t claim to give us a means by which we can work our way to heaven or to a state of spiritual enlightenment, as is the case with eastern religions. The Bible is a library of books that tells us how God reaches out to us in our sin, repents us, saves us, loves us, and wants to be reconciled to us through the Savior He sent for us. The Bible is the Word from God that has the power to change the lives of anyone who stands under its authority. The New Testament book of Hebrews says, “...the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

God saves through grace alone, faith alone, and Word alone. It was true in 33 AD, true in 1517, true today, and true for all eternity.

So, what is a Lutheran? At the least, Lutherans are people who stake their eternal lives on these three  truths.

And when the world rejects or demeans or tries to tell us to reject the Bible's witness to these three essential truths, we must say with Luther who was commanded by the powers of the Church and of the State to recant or repudiate his witness for Christ, “Unless I am convinced by the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures or evident reason…I am bound by the Scriptures…and my conscience has been taken captive by the Word of God…I am neither able nor willing to recant. God help me.” 

May God help us to be true to our Lutheran heritage, not from a commitment to tradition, but from simple faith in Jesus, the One Who has borne the cross and opened eternity for us. 

May we be true to our good confession as Lutherans that we are saved from our very real enemies–sin, death, and the devil–by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone!

Faith in the Savior Who justifies sinners, making us innocent of our sin through His death on the cross, this faith is the best way to celebrate Reformation Sunday, today and always. Amen

Love Isn't Tolerance

The desire to supplant Jesus’ lordship and to trash the authority of God’s Word still exist in our fallen world today, perhaps no more so than among people who claim to be Christians.

For example, there are Christians who want to use their faith as an excuse to act as Christian vigilantes, imposing their version of God's Law on the larger society. I've spoken against this so many times that I probably sound like a broken record. So, I won't belabor that point here.

But there are also Christians who confuse God's love for God's approval. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, they want to turn God into an indulgent grandfather who doesn't care what we do as long as we have a good time doing it.

In the name of Jesus as they want Jesus to be, these misguided Christians claim that we should forget our call to speak God's truth in love when we see friends or fellow believers veering away from God's will for us. (Ephesians 4:15) They want to forgo the message Jesus wants us to share with all: "Repent and believe in the gospel..." (Mark 1:15) (To repent means to turn away from sin and death and to turn instead to Christ Who freely forgives our sin and gives us life with God.)

What do I mean by this last point exactly?

Imagine you saw a friend or stranger about to run into a street with heavy traffic.

Would you think, "Well, the loving thing for me to do is to be tolerant of this person's idiosyncrasy. After all, if by his or her nature they like exposing themselves to unnecessary danger and probable death, love compels me to be tolerant"?

I don't think that's what you would do! (At least I hope it's not what you would do.)

At the very least, you would bellow out a warning to the person! No matter how much that person might love walking into traffic, love would compel you to warn them. Love might even compel you to try to grab and take that person to safety.

Love then, is not the same thing as tolerance.

When we see our friends engage in behavior that could sever their relationship with Christ, that finds them wandering toward contempt of the God we know in Christ, that is, when they engage in repeated, unrepentant sin, it isn't intolerant to warn them or to pray for them. It's the loving thing to do.

It's appropriate for you, as one sinner in need of repentance and faith to another sinner in need of repentance and faith, to speak God's truth in love, calling them away from sin and death, calling them to forgiveness and life through Christ alone.

In the kingdom of God given to us by Jesus Christ, that's what love does.

The Gospel of John, October 22, 2023

Here's the Facebook Live video of this past Sunday's adult Sunday School class from Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. We cover John 6:6-7:9. (I know, I need to put on the gas!)

Jesus, Death, and Taxes

[Below is the message presented during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, this past Sunday. Also, you can watch live stream video from both worship services.]

Matthew 22:15-22

Today, we’re going to do something we don’t ordinarily do on Sunday mornings. We’re going to talk about politics.

Now, don’t worry. I’m not going to pretend to know how God wants you to vote in elections or what political party you should back. (How would I know that?)

I think that there are only three circumstances under which the Church and its pastors should speak on matters being debated in the political sphere:

(1) When governments command Christians to do anything contrary to the will of our Lord.

(2) When we see injustices perpetrated against others.

(3) When governments or politicians justify their policies or proposals on the bases of the Bible or the Christian faith. They have no right to do that.

But our Gospel lesson for this morning, Matthew 22:15-22, compels us to address questions about the relationship of Church and State, the relationship of Christians and their governments, and the teaching of Christ and the Bible about what we Lutherans call, “the two kingdoms.”

Both of these two kingdoms–the Kingdom of God, presided over by Jesus Christ by His grace and the Kingdoms of the world, presided over by earthly kings, presidents, prime ministers, and “Dear Leaders,” using the coercive means of laws, armies, and police forces--are appointed, authorized, used, and presided over by God Himself.

Governments exist to prevent people who don’t live with repentant faith in Jesus from abusing or killing their neighbor.

And Christians have an interest in ensuring that there be earthly governments. Without them, Martin Luther said, Christians would live as innocent lambs among ravenous wolves.

This is why the Bible says: “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established… Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (Romans 13:1-2)

In one of his sermons on this particular Gospel lesson, Luther says that often unjust rulers are imposed by God on people because of their unrepentant sin. Luther said that in Biblical times, “Avarice [that is, greed], usury [lending money to neighbors to make money off of them], licentiousness [sexual immorality of all kinds: adultery, premarital sex, homosexuality, rape], pride, luxury, and other sins, were sweeping along like a mighty wave. What could our Lord God do under these circumstances?” Then Luther asks, “Should He protect them, [while] they did not in the least care for His Word? Should He secure to them their rights, [while] they would not even bend a finger for Him and His service?”

God sometimes imposes bad governments on believers to drive them to repentance for sin and renewal of life with God through faith in Jesus.

So, how are we Christians supposed to relate to governments, good, bad, or indifferent?

In our gospel lesson for today, Jesus is confronted by representatives of two groups of people. Matthew tells us: “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words. They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. ‘Teacher,’ they said, ‘we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. [This is called buttering up.] You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?’” (Matthew 22:15-17)

The Pharisees, of course, were Judaism’s strictest and most widespread sect. They were the sect closest to Jesus in theology. For example, they believed in the resurrection of the dead. But they advocated a kind of “salvation by good works” theology. They hated it when Jesus taught that sinners are graciously forgiven when they repent and trust in Him alone.

The Herodians, as far as we can tell, didn’t care much about religion and supported the puppet government of King Herod, a government set in place by the Romans hated by the Pharisees and other Jews.

Ordinarily, the Pharisees and the Herodians would have nothing to do with each other. But because both groups are afraid of Jesus, they pose this trap of a question.

Why was this question such a trap?

The trap in the question is this: If Jesus says that it’s lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, He’ll arouse the violence of those who hate the Romans and want Jesus to lead a rebellion against these overlords and set up a Jewish government with Him as a secular king.

If, on the other hand, Jesus says that Jews shouldn’t pay Caesar taxes, He’ll anger the Roman governor Pilate and kill Jesus.

Either way Jesus answers, these two groups figure, He’s a dead man.

And that’s precisely what they want.

But Jesus refuses to get sucked into a political debate.

His answer isn’t meant to be clever or to avoid trouble. After all, this is Holy Week! Jesus has come to Jerusalem to get into trouble! He’s come to die. He knows that, no matter what He says, in a few days, He will in God’s sovereign authority, offer Himself to be crucified anyway. Jesus isn’t avoiding controversy; He’s being faithful to God.

So, Jesus says in verse 18: “‘You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me?” Though the Pharisees and Herodians tried to butter Jesus up, He does not return the favor.

He calls them hypocrites, ὑποκριταί, in the Greek in which the New Testament is written, literally “stage players, pretenders.”

And the word translated here as trap, what Jesus is accusing them of trying to set for Him, comes from the Greek verb peirazo, the very word for tempt or test used of what the devil did to Jesus in the wilderness.

Like Satan, these human enemies of God want to trip Jesus into sin and condemnation. They want to steer Him into sin and away from fulfilling God’s mission for Him.

They want to be the rulers of the world.

They want to be like God, like us.

They think this life is all there is and they intend to be in control.

They want no talk of a Savior, Who is also God, Who sets people free of sin and death as a free gift.

Jesus tells them: “‘Show me the coin used for paying the tax.’ They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, ‘Whose image is this? And whose inscription?’ ‘Caesar’s,’ they replied. Then [Jesus] said to them, ‘So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.’ When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him [literally, separated or divorced themselves from Jesus] and went away.”

It’s Caesar’s image on the coin, Jesus is saying, so give Caesar his money.

But here’s what’s important to remember in this passage. Someone else’s image is imprinted on you and me, on every human being, however distorted by sin that image may be. Genesis 1:27 says that, “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them…” 

Friends, in this world, for the good of our neighbor and the countries in which God places us, we must pay taxes to Caesar. But our call is to give our lives to the One Whose imprint is on us as human beings, the One Who made us, the One Who was enfleshed and died for us to give us life with God that never ends.

We do this not as a religious work that we think will earn us a place in God’s kingdom. We do this because we know that Jesus, God the Son, gave His sinless life to save us from ourselves and the damnation and divorce from God we deserve.

By His death on the cross, Jesus makes us innocent in the eyes of God. Only Jesus, Who covers us with His perfect righteousness, justifies us by His grace through the faith in Him that His good Gospel Word creates within us.

This is the gift He gives to you: Through Jesus Christ, all your sins are forgiven. Every single sin! All the debts you owe to God for your sinful actions, sinful impulses, and sinful thoughts have been paid in full. That’s why Jesus’ words from the cross are for you: “It is finished!”

In this world, Jesus is saying, pay your taxes. Pay down your debts. Honor your spouse. Take care of your kids. Obey the speed limits. Help your neighbor. Respect the government. Pray for your leaders…even those you can’t stand. And in the midst of it all, everywhere you go and in everything you do, follow Jesus.

It’s His image you bear.

It’s He Who bought you out slavery to sin and death through the expenditure of His body and blood.

It’s you He saves to live now and eternally in the freedom of forgiven sin and life with God, no matter what this dying world may do to you.

You can do all of this with confidence and joy because the most this world can do to you and me is make us pay taxes and take away our earthly lives. That’s all.

But Jesus gives you life with God forever. That’s His promise to all who repent and believe in Him.

And, I have found this out, Jesus is always good for His promises! Amen

Church, Arise and Build!

[This message was shared today at the beginning of our Arise and Build leadership day for the Southwest Ohio Mission District of the North American Lutheran Church. It was a tremendous strategic planning day for the congregations of our district!]

We begin this morning in the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

My name is Mark Daniels. I’m pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville and dean of the Southwest Ohio Mission District.

I want to thank Pastor Tom Brodbeck and the people here at Grace Lutheran Church for hosting us today.

So, why are you here today and why did we tear you away from the Ohio State-Penn State game? (Which, I’ll add, the district council originally thought would be held tonight.)

The short answer is that, seven years into the life of our district, we thought it was a good idea to have another strategic planning event to discern our path forward together. We had an event like this right after the NALC congregations in Ohio were split into districts and it has helped inform our priorities and budgeting since then. From the beginning, none of us wanted to form a district just to create more meetings for people. That’s pointless. Instead, we formed into a district so that we can do together what we can’t do or can’t do as well as individual congregations.

And we have done good things together: Supported our pastors and individual churches in fulfilling Christ’s mission of being and making disciples; held district-wide youth events; helped church councils organize around the Great Commission; and other things.

I think we all felt originally that we would do events like this one every five years. But you may recall that we hit a speed bump called the COVID-19 pandemic. So, here we are today.

Our theme, suggested by Pastor Brodbeck, comes to us from the Old Testament book of Nehemiah.

To put Nehemiah in context, remember that after enduring centuries of faithlessness, idolatry, and injustice from His people, God empowered the Babylonians to conquer and destroy Judah, Jerusalem, and temple in 586 BC.

In 536 BC, the first of the Jewish exiles were allowed to return to their homeland. For more than a hundred years though, Jerusalem’s walls and the temple lay in ruins. This suited the Samaritans appointed by foreign overlords to “govern” what was left of Judah and the returned exiles. But it was a source of sadness to God’s people.

Finally, in 458 BC, Ezra, trained as a priest, returned to Jerusalem to not only rebuild the temple, but also to call God’s people to repentance and faith.

Thirteen years after that, God sent Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem’s walls.

As the book that bears his name begins, Nehemiah, a Jew who likely had never seen nor lived in Jerusalem, is cupbearer to the king of the Persians. (The Persians, by the way, had conquered the Babylonians and taken control of all the Babylonians’ colonial holdings.) A cupbearer to a king was important. He would have maintained the king’s stock of wines and ensured the wines were safe to drink. A king would only appoint someone he trusted as cupbearer.

One day, Nehemiah tells us, Hanani, one of his brothers, arrived from Jerusalem. His brother tells him that despite the fact that many of God’s people had returned to the one-time religious and political center of Judah, the city was still a wreck, a heap of stone and ashes. Nehemiah says that when he heard this, he wept and mourned for days.

There’s a lot of mourning in Christ’s Church these days.

Lament seems to be a common theme when Christians get together.

We lament the fact that worship attendance and church membership are down.

We lament the sorry state of the world and the lack of young people on our membership rolls.

Lament and mourning are fine as far as they go. Just as it would be unnatural for us to not grieve over the loss of loved ones, it would be unnatural for Christians not to mourn the loss of faith in Christ we see in the world.

But, as Saint Paul reminds us, it is inappropriate for Christians to “​​grieve as others do who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13)

We are baptized believers in Jesus Christ, heirs of promises from the crucified Savior that God will never leave us nor forsake us and that, wherever His Word is rightly proclaimed and the Sacraments rightly administered, there is resurrection hope.

Hope is central to our faith in Christ! (Deuteronomy 31:8; Hebrews 13:5-6; Romans 10:17)

And it’s here that Nehemiah inspires!

After getting the news about Jerusalem, he spent what appears to have been several weeks fasting and praying. While doing so, he confesses to God that he and his people had sinned against God and deserve none of His favor.

But, as he prays, he also remembers and expresses God’s promises, promises given not to morally perfect people, but to sinners in need of forgiveness and new life.

As Nehemiah prays, a plan seems to form in his mind. Certain that God has laid both a concern for Jerusalem and the responsibility to do something about that concern on his heart, he will leverage his relationship with the king to receive authorization and help to go back to Jerusalem and, though there’s no indication Nehemiah had any experience at all, lead the reconstruction of the city and act as its governor.

Amazingly, the king gives his authorization to Nehemiah and the Jewish cupbearer heads to Jerusalem. He not only finds the city to be as badly off as he’d been told, but he also runs into opposition from people who don’t believe in God and don’t want God’s people to give witness to their faith in the world. (The Church runs into people like that today.)

But, having prayed and planned, Nehemiah refused to be discouraged. He refused to be discouraged!

Certain that God’s hand was on him for good (Nehemiah 2:28), Nehemiah tells the naysayers: “The God of heaven will make us prosper [or, advance], and we his servants will arise and build…” (Nehemiah 2:20)

Friends, Nehemiah well exemplifies what Jesus says disciples and His Church should be like. “Behold,” Jesus tells us, “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)

To fulfill the mission God laid on his heart, Nehemiah was innocent as a dove in that he relied not on any pretense of goodness on his part or on the part of His people, but solely on the grace, goodness, and promises of God.

This is the same God Who has decided to use people like you and me, sinners saved by Christ Who offered His innocent life to save us from sin and death, to do His work in the world: to tell all the world, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

To fulfill the mission God laid on his heart, Nehemiah was not just humbly prayerful, but also wise as a serpent, shrewd. He used the gifts, opportunities, and assets God gave him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

On this Saturday, October 21, 2023, our challenge is to pray submissively in Jesus’ name and to use the gifts, opportunities, and assets God has given us now, today, to fulfill the mission Christ has given to us, confident in the power He gives to His people in every time and place.

Today, Jesus tells us again: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Witnesses for Jesus: Let’s take inspiration from Nehemiah as we gather today. Let’s pray and plan so that our churches and our district can be the means by which God brings and builds His kingdom as through us, Christ builds His Church. Let’s “arise and build.” Amen