- In the Name of the Father…Amen.
- The Gospel lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
- Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
- Lord Jesus Christ, you reign for ever. Rule over all the world in peace, and fill our hearts and households with the power of your love, for you live and reign with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
- There are so many people and organizations who need our help.
- Here is a short list of people and organizations in search of help:
- The man and woman at the corner of the street you are turning onto from the highway.
- The Salvation Army and the Red Kettle campaign.
- The Wounded Warrior Project.
- Union Rescue Mission
- The Arkansas Food Bank
- And the list goes on…
- Many of the people in need are also fellow believers in Jesus.
- If you pay attention even a little, you’ll find that the needs greatly outweigh our ability to provide.
- This can be very overwhelming.
- Here is a situation that may sound a bit familiar to you:
- A man comes home from work and sits down to open the mail.
- Most of the envelopes are bills.
- One after another, they add up.
- After four or five, he is overwhelmed with the mounting debt.
- Then he opens a letter from his church asking him to support a mission effort.
- Genuinely sorry, he concludes that he cannot give again this year.
- He puts his head in his hands in despair.
- Christians want to help other Christians.
- This sincere desire is part of our sanctified nature.
- But so often our own needs overshadow the needs of others.
- As a result, we may be unwilling or even unable to help those in need.
- Our own needs take on many forms.
- So also do our excuses.
- Too little time or too little money.
- Perhaps we have health restrictions, or we feel as if we have nothing to offer.
- Some of these limitations are legitimate.
- Some are not.
- We listen to Jesus describe those who, without their knowing it, served him, and we see more clearly our neglect of others.
- Are you really among the sheep?
- How can you tell?
- Even though we may be secure in the fact that we are the Lord’s sheep through our Baptism, we are also convicted of our selfishness and lack of care of others.
- Are you ready for some Good News?!
- Here is part 2 of the story about the man with the pile of bills:
- There remains one more letter on the coffee table that has not been opened yet.
- In the letter, an attorney announces that an unexpected inheritance from a distant relative has been given to the man.
- Imagine the difference this inheritance would make in the man’s life.
- He might be able to pay all his bills on time for years to come and he might also be able to help his church out too.
- This inheritance enables him to give generously here and now.
- Imagine the difference this inheritance would make in the man’s life.
- The full reception of the inheritance did not immediately take effect.
- The person in the illustration would have to wait several years for the estate to be settled and the inheritance received.
- In a similar way, the fullness of our inheritance in Christ will not be realized until Jesus returns.
- In our text for this morning, the foundational difference between the sheep and the goats is not their behavior.
- It is the inheritance prepared for the sheep.
- This inheritance has been prepared for God’s people from the foundation of the world.
- Notice that God’s grace goes all the way back to creation.
- Revelation tells us that our names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world,
- “the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Rev 13:8, emphasis added).
- God secured our inheritance by sending Jesus to become the sacrificial lamb on the cross.
- Our inheritance is in the precious blood of Christ.
- The guarantee of this inheritance for us Christians is found in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
- There are at least two references to this guarantee in Scripture:
- (1 Corinthians 15:20–28)
- (1 Peter 1:3–5)
- This promise of eternal life is for all who believe in Christ.
- Therefore, we are enabled to live as heirs, loving those in need.
- This text gives us a glimpse of what will happen when Jesus returns.
- It is a description, a preview.
- Notice that there are almost no commands in this text.
- When Jesus describes the behavior of the sheep and the goats, he is describing the difference made by the inheritance.
- The good works done by the sheep are necessarily the result of living as heirs.
- With our focus on what God has done for us in Christ, giving his own Son into death on the cross, we simply do what comes naturally by serving “the least of these” brothers and sisters in Christ.
- God’s promise of inheritance turns those who were previously worried about themselves to look toward and think about their brothers and sisters who need their help.
- Jesus is the difference maker by making us heirs.
- By Making Us His Heirs, Jesus Makes Us Glad to Help Our Brothers and Sisters in Need.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer described how Christians treat one another by saying that Christians practice “the self-forgetfulness of love” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints [New York: Harper and Row: 1963], 123).
- This is the impact of our inheritance.
- Knowing that God has given us such a magnificently rich and eternal inheritance lets us forget about ourselves, because there’s nothing we can gain for ourselves that adds to what God has already given us in Christ Jesus.
- In Jesus’ picture of the Last Day (Matthew 25:34), he speaks to his sheep as those who have received an inheritance.
- Their kind actions toward “the least of these” flow from the promise of their eternal inheritance.
- Likewise, all Christians, made heirs in Baptism, are enabled to show kindness to their brothers and sisters in Christ.
- Remember the illustration of the man who received word of the inheritance.
- News of his inheritance made all the difference.
- It enabled him toward self-forgetful endurance and generosity.
- Jesus embodied such self-forgetful love toward us by dying and rising to provide an inheritance from the foundation of the world.
- This good news enables us to exercise self-forgetful generosity toward others. Amen.
- Let us pray:
- O Lord, grant us a faith that perseveres until the end. Move us by Your Spirit, that our good works continually bring glory to You and benefits to our neighbor. Amen.
- The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
- In the Name of the Father…Amen.
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All Saint’s Day 2020 Sermon
In the Name of the Father…Amen.
The Epistle lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
O Christ, our King, we praise You in the Church! When we worship and when we are alone, we adore You. Give us courage to engage in spiritual warfare–against the world, our flesh, and the devil–with the two-edged sword of Your Word, and grant us the victory. Amen.
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
This festive day in the Church Year we pray will bring great comfort to you who have lost loved ones to death.
Comfort comes through the promise that what to the world appears to be a loss becomes a win for the Christian.
John reminded his readers that the world will bring trouble, but those who are children of God have received the promised hope that death has already been emptied of its power.
Yes, we do have hope!
And we have it in the one who did what it took to make us God’s children:
Our Hope as God’s Children Is in Jesus.
Many apostles had been martyred by this time.
We in the United States have seen only nominal threats.
But it appears the future could bring greater hostility toward the church and, with it, an eroding of our hope.
such as the virgin birth,
miraculous healings,
exorcisms,
Jesus’ resurrection,
life after death,
and divine creation.
Some of us have lost loved ones this year.
It can all cause a continual degeneration of the hope that we have toward the world—and sometimes even toward the promises of God.
Our hope is attacked by our own sinful condition.
No matter how hard we try to cling to the promises of God and the hope such promises bring, we may continue to find ourselves questioning whether such promises could really be for us.
We recognize our sin, and we question,
“Can God really forgive what I’ve thought, said, or done.
Our hope is constantly under attack by the devil and his demons.
The devil is the accuser who will not let our sin go unchallenged and he will not stop until he has accomplished his mission (Revelation 12:10).
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
The devil seeks to separate us from the promises of God and lead us to despair.
The question he put to Eve in the garden still haunts us: “Did God actually say?” (Genesis 3:1).
But the truth is, we are children of God; yes, in Jesus, so we are!
All Christians face spiritual weaknesses.
It is important to recognize this.
Too often, Christians fail to share their weaknesses with one another, leading to self-doubt:
“Why do I struggle so much while other Christians seem to be doing so well?
Am I really a child of God?”
We are called to carry one another’s burdens as we support and encourage one another in faith.
Instead of looking internally for our hope, we must look to the truth of who we are in Jesus.
Hope that is self-applied will always fail us.
Real hope can never be found inside ourselves or in the conditions or circumstances we observe in our lives.
The only hope that’s guaranteed is the hope that sees what’s been done completely outside ourselves, completely for us:
that is, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Only in Jesus, through the eyes of faith, will we really retain the hope that sustains us.
And here’s what the eyes of faith see:
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (verse 1a).
The “eyes of faith” are really ears of faith that simply hear and believe what God says: “children of God; and so we are.”
What love the Father has given!:
not deserved or earned,
but lavished upon us without any merit or worthiness in us.
It is a love we’ve received, a pure gift from our Father in heaven.
Not a gift we can accept now and toss it away later if we don’t like it.
We are children of God!
God the Father has called us through his Son, Jesus Christ.
We have been incorporated into the family of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, through the Word and the water of Holy Baptism.
True, though “the world does not know us” (verse 1b).
When things go badly, enemies attack us, we may think that means we’re not children of God.
I must have done something bad that God would let attacks happen.
But John reminds how the world treated Jesus:
rejection,
torture,
death.
If the world has treated Jesus in such a way, the children of God should not expect any better.
And amid such suffering, John reminds us to look to Jesus’ resurrection.
And therefore, in Jesus, here is our hope! (verse 2).
We have the hope that, beyond this life, we shall be like Jesus.
One of these days, Jesus is going to appear again, in glory, coming back from heaven for all to see.
We don’t know everything about that day or what life will be like afterward.
And that’s okay!
But we do know that our bodies will be raised, our own real, human bodies, and that our bodies and the bodies of all the saints—our loved ones who’ve died in Christ—will be glorified, like his glorious body, to live together with him forever.
This is certain, because our hope is founded on the reality of Jesus’ incarnation and divinity and on the fact that he completed everything that was incomplete within us.
He entered our stead, became a sinner for us.
He carried our sin to the cross and to death, so that in his resurrection the sin, death, and devil that cling to us would be removed and purified.
Our purity is based in Jesus’ righteousness, not on our righteousness.
All sin is washed away through Jesus’ blood.
While we continue to sin in this life, Jesus continues to cover our sin with his death and resurrection.
Jesus’ has completed the work of our salvation through his ministry.
Yet ours is not only a historical promise.
Through the Divine Service, Jesus continues to deliver the forgiveness of sins.
Such forgiveness empties us of the lies from the devil, the world, and our doubts.
John will not let us forget who we are.
If you need to remind yourself of what John says in our text for this morning, read it every day and memorize it!
Jesus’ forgiveness is perfect apart from anything within us.
This is the hope we have received as children of God.
It is a hope that sustains because of Jesus’ righteousness.
“That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”
A famous line, of course, spoken by Juliet to Romeo during their balcony scene.
Ever stop to think what that means?
She’s speaking an obvious truth: what you call something
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October 2020 Message
My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
Proverbs 7:1-5
(Proverbs 7:1-5)
Greetings to you in the Name of our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
When Johannes Gutenberg combined the printing press with moveable type in 1450, he ushered in the era of mass communications in the West, spreading learning into new social realms. Literacy increased across the globe and new ideas produced rapid transformations in social and religious contexts. Gutenberg produced the first-ever printed version of the Bible. Prior to this, Bibles were painstakingly hand-copied, taking scribes up to a year to produce.
For centuries since, the printing press has provided people like you and me the privilege of direct access to Scripture. While we also have electronic versions available to us, many of us often hold a physical Bible in our hands because of his invention. What was once inaccessible given the sheer cost and time to have a Bible copied is readily at our fingertips today. Having access to God’s truth is an amazing privilege. The writer of Proverbs indicates we should treat His instructions to us in the Scriptures as something to be cherished, as “the apple of [our] eye” (Proverbs 7:2) and to write His words of wisdom on “the tablet of [our] heart” (v. 3). As we seek to understand the Bible and live according to its wisdom, we, like scribes, are drawing God’s truth from our “fingers” down into our hearts, to be taken with us wherever we go.
First Lutheran Church
Little Rock
Questions to reflect on:
- How has having Scripture stored in your heart benefitted you?
- How can you begin to internalize more of God’s wisdom?
Prayer for the month: Loving God, help me to know Your Word intimately that I might live in the way
You desire. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Your servant and fellow brother in Christ,
Pastor Bacic
- Article adapted from the devotional “Printed on our hearts” by Kirsten Holmberg, published in the September-November 2020 issue
of Our Daily Bread.
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September 2020 Message
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
(41) He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). (42) He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of John. You shall be called Cephas” (which means Peter). (43) The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” (44) Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. (45) Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” (46) Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”
John 1:40-46
Greetings to you in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We tend to think of well-established, successful movements and organizations as beginning in that same fashion. That is rarely the case. Because of the explosive growth of the Christian movement in the first century and to the present day, we naturally read the stories of its origins in the light of its later success. We celebrate those early disciples and outright champion the Twelve. It is so easy to retrospectively romanticize the early days of a smashing success.
Did you catch this phrase from today’s text?
One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.
Wait! One of the two? The great John the Baptist, the phenom forerunner of the Son of God, the one who first identified him to the world, only managed to come up with two followers for Jesus?
Think about it. By any standards, we would file an outcome of two responses on day one (or day two) in the Epic Fail folder. We might console ourselves to remember that one of those two brought his brother and the other one produced a sarcastic, cynical colleague (a.k.a. Nathanial).
Why are we so seduced by the shallow metrics of numbers when it comes to our churches and kingdom efforts? Three joiners and a tepid fourth does not seem like anything we would even have the guts to report. Even twelve would be considered an embarrassment we would desperately want to somehow explain away.
As ego-inflating (or deflating) as the case may be, when it comes to the kingdom of God, numbers are at best an unreliable source and at worst a deceptive measure of success.
Of all those droves of people listening to John, only two raised their hands. It just so happens that one of them turned out to be the apostle to Europe and the other the apostle to Africa—both of which were founding fathers of what is today a 2000-year-and-counting global movement of more than two billion people.
This is how God starts a movement. This is how Jesus saves the world. It should cause all of us to pause and reconsider what success might look like in the eyes of God—to remember the mustard seed and the loaves and fishes and a band of twelve that started with two. And, yes, to never, ever despise the days of small beginnings.
Questions to reflect on:
- Have you ever thought of Jesus’ beginnings as being weak and unimpressive?
- What is it about numbers that so seduces us?
- What will it take to shift our mind-set on what constitutes true success?
- How do we live in the midst of a world (even the church) that remains in the old and broken way of seeing and thinking?
A final thought: Never despise the days of small beginnings. Small beginnings are, in fact, the true nature of how the kingdom of God spreads and grows.
Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for teaching us the secret of the seed. Cultivate in us the audacity of faith to trust the small starts and humble origins. Come, Holy Spirit, and retrain our vision, remake our mind, and retool our expectations that we might be freed from the ways of the world and fit with the wisdom of the kingdom. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Your servant and fellow brother in Christ,
Pastor Bacic
*Adapted from the article “Remembering the days of small beginnings” (08/10/20) from seedbed.com. To subscribe to the Seedbed Daily Text, go to www.seedbed.com and click on the “Daily Text” tab and select “Subscribe.”
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August 2020 Message
6“You are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8
We make a lot of choices every day. We choose what to eat for breakfast. We choose what to wear. We choose what we are going that day. Here is something God chose. These verses from Deuteronomy 7 show that God’s most treasured possessions are His people. He loves and cherishes us above everything else. As baptized children of God, we are His treasures. We are more special to Him than anything.
To explain why God chose us, here is a little story: Once a mother dog had eight pup¬pies. Of all the puppies, one was very small. He was nervous around people. He was frightened of loud noises. He huddled in the corner of the pen away from the other puppies. As the weeks went by, the owner noticed the little, scared puppy and worried no one would want to adopt him.
Finally, the big adoption day came. Families came and looked at the dogs to take home to their new surroundings. A few families were introduced to the puppies. Kids got excited about the happy, playful puppies as they ran around the yard with them. But the littlest puppy cowered in the corner. One family arrived with a little girl named Clara. Clara had some developmental delays, but she was quick to make a decision that day! She pointed right at the little puppy and said she wanted him. The puppy and Clara soon became best friends. The puppy helped Clara express herself, and with Clara’s gentle care, the puppy became confident and happy.
This story may be a little bit like how God chooses us. He chooses us who are weak and sinful. We are His most precious treasured possession. In fact, He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for the sins of each one of us. He counted us even above His own Son! Jesus died for our sins so that we could be brought close to God again. The Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, loves us!!
Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for choosing us to be your own dear children. Thank you for making us your most treasured possessions. Help us to trust that you always will care for us, your dear children. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Your servant and fellow brother in Christ,
Pastor Bacic
*Adapted from the children’s message “God chose you” in the issue of Concordia Pulpit Resources, Vol. 30, Part 3, Series A, June 7-September 6, 2020.
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July 2020 Message
I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and buckler.”
(Psalm 91:2-4)
Greetings to you in Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen.
We know the familiar story of the three little pigs. Two lazy little pigs build houses out of straw and sticks. When the wolf comes along with his threat to huff and puff and blow the houses down, that is exactly what happens. The poorly crafted homes comes crashing down. Only the third home, constructed of sturdy bricks by the more industrious third pig is able to withstand the huffing and puffing of the wolf. In line with the wisdom demonstrated by at least one little pig, many great castles and fortresses were built out of stone. Constructed centuries ago, many such strongholds are still standing, having withstood long years of struggle and bombardment far more deadly than a wolf’s huffing and puffing.
Psalm 91 celebrates a fortress of immense and enduring strength, a refuge for us in every time of need. Nothing can bring it down. This stronghold is not built of brick or stone, or even of straw and sticks. We live in a fortress of feathers. To human reason, such a fortress does not appear to be very substantial. But our sturdy shelter is the God in whom we trust. He covers us “with His pinions” and hides us “under His wings.” He is a place to hide when fears and doubts threaten to overcome us, when we are threatened by “the snare of the fowler,” “deadly pestilence,” and every other trick and trap of the devil.
God is our fortress, a stronghold that no foe can conquer. We are safe because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for a time, stepped purposefully into the snares of His enemies. For the sake of our salvation, Jesus allowed Himself to be overcome by the powers of darkness. In helpless weakness He was nailed to a cross, where He suffered the penalty of death that we deserved for our sins. His body was sealed in a tomb, a stronghold of stone guarded by soldiers. Then, on the first Easter morning, the stone door of that fortress of death was rolled back to reveal an empty tomb. Jesus had risen from the dead! His victory over sin, death, and Satan is our victory, and when our Lord returns, the stronghold of death will not be able to hold us in. We will be raised from death as our Savior was raised!
Until that great day, we have an unfailing shelter. The world may not think that our God is a strong refuge. They consider us foolish to trust in Him to shelter us. But we know better, and we rejoice within the sure and certain safety of our feathered fortress:
“You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy”
Psalm 63:7b
Prayer: Heavenly Father, shelter us with Your love. Be our refuge in every time of trouble and keep us safe from the snares of the devil. Hear our prayer in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Your servant and fellow brother in Christ,
Pastor Bacic
*Adapted from the devotion by Lutheran Hour Ministries for June 15, 2020 “A Refuge and Fortress”. Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int’l LLL (LHM).
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May 2020 Message
(5) For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. (6) He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. (7) On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. (8) Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah
Psalm 62
A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left.
Ecclesiastes 10:2
Greetings to you in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer! Amen!
We live in a world filled with opposites: right and wrong, light and darkness, left and right, and the list goes on. As Christians, we deal with opposites there as well: sinner and saint, all flesh born is subject to death, etc. All of humanity struggles, because it is inclined toward the left (that which is wrong)-that is the fool’s folly that completely disregards, disbelieves, and mocks the clear truth from God above.
The only way a heart becomes wise is for the Word and Spirit of God to have its way, instilling a true fear, love, and trust in God. We cannot cause the Word of God to have its way with us or others. God Himself works in our midst, giving us both the written and spoken Word. He gives faithful preachers and teachers to make known the righteousness we receive in Christ, apart from the Law. This righteousness inclines the heart to the right, the way of the wise. It is light and life, albeit hidden under the cross and sufferings we experience in this life. Christ Jesus entered into this world of stark opposites to exchange our sin for His righteousness so that, although we may see only sin and death and suffering all around, in reality there is life, light, and peace that passes all understanding. The Creator has in love freely joined Himself bodily to our every need, both temporal and eternal. A heart filled with God’s wisdom is inclined to this truth.
Prayer: O Lord Jesus Christ, we daily swerve from the paths of Your righteousness. By Your Word and Spirit, preserve us in Your righteousness, that we may not swerve. Amen.
*Adapted from the Portals of Prayer devotional “A life of opposites”
Your servant and fellow brother in Christ,
Pastor Bacic