THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXV - SUNDAY

LESSON: MATTHEW 24:15‒28

“When you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle.” Matthew 24:15‒18

In this chapter we have a description of the conclusion and end of two kingdoms—the kingdom of the Jews as well as the end of the whole world. These two the evangelists Matthew and Mark toss together without observing any due order as the Gospel of Luke does. All that these evangelists want to do is to give and to relate the words of Christ; they do not trouble themselves with what He spoke first or subsequently. But Luke takes special care to write more clearly and with more order, and reports this whole discussion twice. First, briefly in chapter nineteen he speaks of the destruction of the Jews at Jerusalem, and then in chapter twenty-one he reports these two matters in succession.

You must know, then, that Matthew here wraps together and takes up at the same time the end of both the Jewish people and the end of the world, and cooks this up into one broth. If you want to understand it, you have to separate and draw out each part to its end, that which is spoken of the Jews and that which is spoken of the whole world.

SL.XI.1870,1‒2
AE. 79:324-336

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, guide and direct us by Your Holy Spirit so that we may always accept Your Word given us through men and in human form as the Word of truth and salvation, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXV - MONDAY

LESSON: LUKE 19:41‒44

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you are. 1 Corinthians 3:16‒17

When Christ ascended into heaven, He did not lock up His kingdom in the land of the Jews; He spread it out into the whole world through the Gospel which was preached and heard everywhere. But, like the Jews, we deny and persecute God’s Word and put to death the Christians who confess and preach it. The Romans were the first to do this, but their example has been continued by the pope, the bishops, princes, monks, and priests right up to our day. For five hundred years or more, no one was permitted to preach God’s Word without, at least for appearance sake, reciting the text of the Gospel from the pulpit. But these preachers mostly extracted the doctrine of men from these texts or dragged it into these texts. Whenever anyone raised objections to this, he was silenced with fire and sword.

Daniel’s word about the “desolating sacrilege” is certainly important also for us. This “desolating sacrilege” is the false doctrine current in the Church, that men must save themselves by performing all the works imposed on them by the Church and its hierarchy, and by falling in line with all the machinery that has been set up in the Church to force men into obedience to this “desolating sacrilege.”

The pure doctrine of the Word is the doctrine which we proclaim—that we are saved from sin, death, the devil, and all misfortune through Christ and established in God’s kingdom through the Word and faith.

Where this is preached and believed, Christ dwells and reigns in the hearts spiritually without means. There the Holy Spirit also dwells with all the blessings and fullness of God’s riches.

SL.XI.1875,17‒19
AE. 79:324-336

PRAYER: O Lord our God, You have warned us in no uncertain manner that false doctrine can be sacrilege. May we never fall into the sacrilege which sets aside the clear truth of Your Word and substitutes for it the doctrine of men, ending in spiritual sin. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

LESSON: TITUS 2:11‒14

He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of His own mercy, . . . through Jesus Christ our Savior. Titus 3:5‒6

He who wants to have a cheerful conscience which does not fear sin, death, hell, or God’s wrath must not push this Mediator, Christ, out of the way. He is the fountain overflowing with grace who imparts temporal and eternal life. Open your heart and accept Him as your Mediator and you will have all you need. He gushes and flows forth and can do nothing else but give, flow forth, and gush, if only you can believe it. You have the right to the name Christian only when you are a Christian in receiving; otherwise, if you want to give much, you are no Christian. This is the rich, precious Word which Paul praises so highly and can never praise enough, that God intermingles His Son so graciously among us that He pours out His grace over all who accept it.

From all this it follows that if a Christian does good works and manifests love to his neighbor, he does not become a Christian or acquire a godly status thereby, but he must first be a Christian and have acquired a godly status, and then good works result. He certainly does good works, but his good works do not make him a Christian. The tree brings forth or produces good fruits; the fruits do not make the tree. So here also, no one becomes a Christian by good works, but through Christ alone.

From all this you should understand what kind of people Christians are and what their kingdom is. As a group, they cling to Christ, and with Him they all have the one spirit and like gifts. On this basis Christians are all equal; the one does not have more in Christ than the other.

SL.XI.1839,11‒12

PRAYER: Lord God, our heavenly Father, give us a faith that is ever active in works of love to or neighbor, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.

LESSON: GALATIANS 1:6‒9

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

This week’s Gospel (Matthew 9:18‒26) teaches us that Christ is elevated as the greatest and highest person in the whole world, not to terrify men but that He may be able to bestow all earthly and heavenly blessings upon them so that all men should rely on Him, trust Him, and always look to Him as the source of all blessings. When a certain sin is terrifying my conscience and the preachers of the Law come forward and want to help me with works, they accomplish nothing at all. Christ is the only one who can help me here and no one else. The others only make matters worse, even if it were St. Peter or St. Paul, or even Mary, the mother of God. Christ alone is successful here because He has been ordained by God to make proclamation that my sins are freely forgiven me, without any works or merit, out of pure grace, through faith in this Savior, Jesus Christ.

If I accept this proclamation, I have the consolation that my sins are forgiven me before God and the world. If I cling to this proclamation with my whole heart, I am a Christian. I give thanks to God through Christ who keeps on giving me the Holy Spirit and His grace so that sin does me no harm either in this life or before God’s judgment seat on the last day.

SL.XI.1838,9

PRAYER: We thank and praise You, heavenly Father, for the wonderful gift of full and free salvation in Christ. May we never turn from this one sure source of salvation to any manmade plans of salvation, which are always full of uncertainties. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.

LESSON: GALATIANS 3:23‒29

To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God. John 1:12

If one takes the word in its strict meaning, we should always recognize a Christian from the fact that he receives from Christ alone and has Christ in him, for that is what the term “Christian” basically means. Just as one calls someone “white” from his whiteness or “black” from his blackness or “big” from his bigness, so also a Christian is named from Christ whom he has in himself and from whom he receives good. If, then, a Christian receives the name “Christian” from Christ, he can never be called a Christian from his works. Similarly, it follows from this that no one ever becomes a Christian from his works.

Therefore those who ply our congregations with their commandments, works, and statutes are seducers who cannot possibly make Christians out of men. Although they profess the Christian name, they still want to load us down under the dead weight of the commandments and works which they set forth. According to works, I can be called a faster, a prayer-maker, a pilgrim, but not necessarily a Christian.

Even if you wove all your works together and added the works of all others to them, it would not necessarily mean that you have Christ and were entitled to be called a Christian. Christ is completely separated from and higher than any law or human commandment. He is God’s Son, prepared only to give and not to receive.

SL.XI.1837,7‒8

PRAYER: You are our all, Lord Jesus, and in us all. Without You we are nothing. Grant that we may ever abide in You and You in us in the tie of faith and love, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.

LESSON: EPHESIANS 4:11‒16

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:4‒5

Christ is set before us in this Gospel (Matthew 9:18‒26) as an inexhaustible fountain at all times running over with pure goodness and grace. And for such goodness and kindness He takes nothing at all. The godly who recognize such goodness and grace thank Him for it and praise and love Him. The others may even load Him with mockery. That is how they repay His goodness and grace.

A man cannot be called a Christian simply because he does much; he is a Christian because he receives from Christ and draws on Him, and suffers Christ to bestow His blessings upon him. When anyone has ceased receiving from Christ, he is no longer a Christian, so that the term Christian has relevance only in receiving and not in giving and doing.

A Christian is one who has received nothing from anyone else but Christ. If you have regard for what you are doing, you have already lost the Christian name. It is true, of course, that one must do good works, helping others with counsel and gifts. But no one can be called a Christian from such works. Thereby no one becomes a Christian.

SL.XI.1837,6

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, give us ever of Your fullness and thus equip us as Your children to always bring forth much fruit, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.

LESSON: PSALM 145:8‒13

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them. Matthew 9:36

In this Gospel (Matthew 9:18‒26), Christ is pictured to us as mingling with the people and drawing all men to Himself by His sweet doctrine. They could really have clung to Him with their whole hearts and entrusted themselves to His goodness with high hopes of receiving both spiritual and bodily blessings from Him. You do not see Him taking anything from those whom He has benefited. To be sure, He gets nothing but mockery and scorn. Blessings go out from Him; He receives mockery and scorn in return.

This is now preached and reported to the whole world so that men may learn to know this man aright, that we may know how to become Christians, not how to become pious and godly. Others, who teach outside the Gospel, bring men under various pressures to inculcate piety in them, such as the books of the heathen masters and the secular law books. The legends of the saints also urge men to live as the saints lived.

It is not the business of the Gospel to make men pious, but to make Christians of them. Being a Christian is far more than being pious. A man can be pious without being a Christian. A Christian has nothing to say about his piety; he finds in himself nothing good or pious. If he is to be pious, he must look elsewhere than in himself for true piety.

SL.XI.1837,4‒5

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, as our helper, friend, Redeemer, and Savior, You are for us the treasure beyond all compare. The message in Your good news is altogether sweet and lovely. Abide with us so that we may enjoy You and Your blessings now and forevermore. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:326-343.