Category: Easter

Text: John 21:1-14
Date: Easter III + 4/14/13

As we noted last Sunday John 20:30-31 was clearly meant to be the conclusion of this apostle’s gospel. The addition of another resurrection appearance by Jesus in chapter 21, therefore, makes us ask why he was originally planning on leaving this out. And, if he originally planned on leaving out this resurrection appearance, it makes us wonder further if there were even more resurrection appearances of which we’ve never been told. Think of St. Paul’s mention of the risen Jesus appearing “to more than five hundred brothers at one time” (1 Cor 15:6). What are we to make of this additional resurrection appearance by the sea of Tiberius, that is, of Galilee? Continue reading “Surprising Places ("It is the Lord!")”

Text: John 20:30-31
Date: Easter II + 4/7/13

Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, for He comes to us today mysteriously, but nevertheless really, presently, though invisibly, body and soul. As doubting Thomas finally didn’t need to touch the risen Jesus to confess Him as his Lord and God, nevertheless our Lord and God, the blessed King comes to touch us; to touch our hearts with faith, our tongues with His body and blood, our minds with understanding of the scriptures. Continue reading “That You May Believe”

Text: Isaiah 65:17-25
Date: Easter + 3/31/13

Christ is risen. He is risen, indeed. Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Blessed is the eternal King who came, who comes, and who is coming again in the name of the Lord.

Today we celebrate the cornerstone event of human history, the historic fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Yes, we said, “historic fact.” St. Luke, among the other evangelists, is our fact-finding committee. As he said, “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us…it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account…that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught” (Luke 1:1-4). Today we arrive at the conclusion of our Lord’s earthly ministry in His resurrection from the dead. Without editorializing, personal opinion or emotion, St. Luke simply records for us the plain, unvarnished, unembellished facts as it happened. Continue reading “No Pinocchios”

Text: Acts 1:12-26
Date: Easter VII + 5/20/12

The sermon title, “11 + 1 = 13,” is, at first, intended to be a little humorous comment about finding a replacement for Judas Iscariot to restore the number of apostles to the original number of twelve. The humor I see is that though in today’s text, Acts chapter one, Peter and about 120 others solemnly choose Matthias to be the replacement, in Acts chapter nine Jesus Himself directly chooses Saul of Tarsus for this purpose. So, not to disallow the choice of Peter and the first “voters assembly,” instead of restoring the number of apostles to twelve the end result is thirteen! Yet I do not find this observation to be purely amusing nor incidental. For we are to discover that the Gospel of the resurrection not only restores life and things to merely the original design of creation before the fall into sin but salvation in Christ actually increases God’s gift of life to be even more than it was before. The resurrection, for instance, turned the old first day of the week, Sunday, to be now also the eighth day, the eternal day, the first day of eternal life. The Ascension of Our Lord elevated human nature itself to be identified with the divine. And the promise of our resurrection in the new heavens and earth is that we will reign with Christ (2 Tim 2:12). As Martin Luther wrote of all the baptized in reference to Psalm 82 which says, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment” (Ps 82:1), “for we are all the children of God…and therefore we are gods”^[1] Continue reading “11 + 1 = 13”

Text: Acts 10:34-48
Date: Easter VI + 5/13/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! For thirty-six days now the Lord, risen from the dead, has appeared alive to His disciples. Quoting St. Paul’s list, “he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time…. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Cor 15:5-8). But that appearance was some time after the event we celebrate this Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter, our Lord’s last appearance and His Ascension into heaven. There the last thing He said to His disciples echoed the first thing God said to Abraham of old. As God promised that through Abraham’s seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed, so our Lord commanded to make disciples of all nations. The salvation of God is not for the Jews only but through the Jews to all people everywhere. That was the burden for Peter’s understanding as the preaching of the apostles began to awaken even the Gentiles who heard. As the mighty Word of the gospel awakened the Ethiopian eunuch who asked Philip, “See, here is water. What prevents me from being baptized?” so St. Peter asked, “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” Last Sunday we heard of the necessity of baptism with water. Today we hear about more faith and More Water! Continue reading “More Water!”

Text: Acts 8:26-40
Date: Easter V + 5/6/12

The Lord is risen! He is risen, indeed! After appearing to His disciples a number of times after Easter, on the fortieth day at His Ascension He mapped out the mission that they should preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins, baptize and teach beginning in Jerusalem, then branching out to all Judea, even including Samaria and, as He said, “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). This mission happened quickly as today, already in Acts chapter eight, we’re told of St. Philip being directed to go down from Jerusalem to Gaza. There He encounters a man from Ethiopia, which at the time was considered to be part of the end of the known world. Through an interesting turn of events Philip “told him the good news about Jesus” (8:35). He must have done quite a thorough job of it for “as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, ‘See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?’” Nothing prevented him, so he was and he “went on his way rejoicing.” Continue reading “See, Here Is Water!”

Text: Acts 4:1-12
Date: Easter IV + 4/29/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Appearing to His apostles He commanded them from now on to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins in His name to all nations for the salvation of every person. We have seen in our readings from the Book of Acts that, after Pentecost, Saint Peter did this very thing. After bringing the release, forgiveness and even physical healing of Christ to a lame man on the porch of the temple, when the people were starring at him and the apostle John thinking they were looking at some sort of fantastic miracle workers, Peter preached to them Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen again. Peter invited them to saving faith in Jesus with the result that “many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.” Today it is estimated that that number has grown to around 2.1 billion or one-third of the current population of the world. Continue reading “There Is Salvation in No One Else”

Text: Acts 3:11-21
Date: Easter III + 4/22/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Today we heard St. Luke’s report of our Lord’s appearance to His disciples on that first Easter Day. As John reported so Luke tells us that Jesus “stood among them.” Then He said, “Peace to you!” Luke tells us a little more of the emotional response of the disciples how “they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.” He showed them His hands and feet and invited them to touch Him to prove He wasn’t a ghost. Then one more proof. He ate a piece of broiled fish in front of them. This is the risen, glorified Jesus Christ, just as divine and just as human as before, and even more so. Continue reading “Times of Refreshing”

Text: Acts 4:32-35
Date: Easter II + 4/15/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the big thing, the main event, the heart and center of the entire Christian message. Resurrection from the dead is what’s behind everything else that is taught, believed and goes on in the Church, everything else in the Christian’s life. It is the Lord’s resurrection that makes for and defines Christian faith and Christian unity and community. We could say that the apostle Thomas didn’t become a Christian until a week later than everyone else because at first, “on Easter Sunday” he didn’t believe the testimony of the rest of the Apostles that the Lord is risen (John 20:19-31). Without their testimony there is nothing much to believe. And without faith their testimony remains an idle tale (Lk 24:11). Without the risen Christ all theology is empty and powerless. Like Thomas, you and I cannot claim to be Christians unless and until we have been changed and made new by faith in the risen, living and reigning Lord Jesus. That’s what your baptism is all about—actually dying to self and being buried, buried with Christ 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” (Rom 6:4). The Lord is risen and we are made to be new people because of it. Continue reading “Testimony with Great Power”

Text: Isaiah 25:6-9
Date: Easter Day + 4/8/12

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! With St. Paul we confess the truth that “we know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom 6:9-11). This is Easter, the great and victorious and happy day of days. But why, then, ruin it with all this talk about death? Continue reading “Death: Denied or Devoured?”