Archives: Sermons

12-8-21 The Great Tribulation (Advent Midweek 2)

December 8, 2021
Unlike the rapture, which is a completely made-up event found nowhere in the Bible, the Great Tribulation is real and explicitly taught in the Bible. We just heard it from Revelation: “these are they who are coming out of the Great Tribulation.” And Jesus says, “for then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until now.” The question is what is this tribulation? There are all…

12-5-21 Populus Zion

December 5, 2021
We’ll know when judgment day comes. It’ll be obvious. The sun will stop shining, the stars will fall from the sky, and we’ll see the Son of Man coming on the clouds. We’ll know when judgment day comes, but we don’t know when it’ll come. The signs of its coming Jesus gives, but these signs are not so specific that we can say they’re only happening in our time. We have crazy weather events; so…

12-1-21 The Rapture (Advent Midweek 1)

December 1, 2021
The teaching of a rapture, that before Jesus comes to judge the earth he will first snatch up the true believers into heaven for seven years as a great tribulation racks everyone else on the earth, seems custom made for the big screen. Since Hal Lindsey’s 1970 book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” the idea of a rapture has become extremely popular in the United States, especially amongst the evangelical and fundamentalist crowd. The reason…

11-28-21 Ad Te Levavi

November 28, 2021
Another Church year begins, and we hear once more how Christ came to Jerusalem two thousand years ago. Certainly this was not the only time Jesus has come to man. Jesus was gracious enough to come to us this whole last year: bringing us his Gospel, pronouncing the forgiveness of sins, baptizing our children, feeding us with his very body and blood. But will Christ come to us this year also? The world has become…

11-21-21 Last Sunday

November 21, 2021
Jesus tells many parables about the Last Day, and in all of them he stresses two things. The first is that it will be unexpected. You don’t know the day or the hour, we just heard. He says it will come like a thief in the night. He says two people will be working in a field and suddenly one will be taken up in the air and the other left. He compares it to…

11-14-21 Trinity 24

November 14, 2021
Jesus had just been explaining why his disciples don’t fast. The disciples of John the Baptist had come to him, apparently offended, and asked, “Why do we fast and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples don’t fast?” And Jesus answered them with a question, “Can the sons of the bridegroom mourn when the bridegroom is with them?” The answer is, of course, “No,” they can’t. When Jesus is with you, it’s a time of rejoicing.…

11-7-21 All Saints

November 7, 2021
The world claims to be very reasonable. It boasts in science, facts, empirical evidence, and says it will only believe something if it can be proven. The world claims to be very reasonable. Yet how unreasonable the world is in the face of death. When it comes to dead loved ones the world becomes downright superstitious. All Saints’ Day gives us a good opportunity to critique the world’s opinions about the dead, and talk of…

10-31-21 Reformation

October 31, 2021
504 years ago today, Martin Luther posted 95 theses against the sale of indulgences on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. Powerful people, bishops, pope, emperor, commanded Luther to retract what he wrote or die. But Luther wouldn’t, because Luther had a higher authority. His Lord Jesus. His Word, the Bible. The emperor could take his bodily freedom, but Jesus had already set his conscience free from all sin. The pope could put…

10-24-21 Trinity 21

October 24, 2021
The request of the royal official was for Jesus to come down to Capernaum and heal his son. And Jesus refuses his request. He doesn’t go down to Capernaum to heal the man’s son. Jesus makes it very clear, in fact, that He is annoyed at the man’s request – “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” The key word there is not “signs and wonders” but the word “see.”…

10-17-21 Trinity 20

October 17, 2021
Jesus tells a short history of the world in our Gospel for this morning. And this history beautifully culminates with people coming to church. What we are doing right now is what God has ordered all the history of all the world toward. There is nothing greater on earth, no goal more prestigious, no ladder to climb higher, no compulsion to accomplish something more. No, here it is all complete, here is rest from all…
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