A Bright Future in Jesus – Easter 2009 (Mark 16:1-8)

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
The Resurrection of Our Lord (April 12, 2009)
Job 19:23-27; I Cor. 15:12-25; Mark 16:1-8

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE.

TITLE: “A Bright Future in Jesus”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is from St. Mark Chapter Sixteen.

The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

“Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” This was the question that the women asked one another that first Easter morn. Their Lord was gone forever. That’s what they thought. All of the talk about Jesus as the Messiah seemed cold and dead on their lips. But they wanted to do what was right. They wanted to bring the spices and anoint His body. If he could not live, at least He should die with honor and respect as a great teacher.

We all fight this battle. This battle with death. Sometimes the battle seems to be going well. We’re healthy, the kids are doing okay, and tax season is almost over. God is gracious, and there is much to rejoice about. Other times, though, it seems as though death and Satan are winning. A loved one dies. There’s a sickness that just won’t go away. The economy. Jobs. School. Divorce. Fighting at home. Sometimes the fight is long and the battle hard. Sometimes this earthly strife which we all undergo never seems to end. It can feel as though there is no future, no hope for things to ever get better.

We, of course, are not the first Christians to ever have this battle with Satan and sin and death. St. Paul writes about it in I Corinthians 15 about those who weren’t certain of the resurrection of the dead. They didn’t know whether the dead would rise. They thought you lived and you died, and that was the end. To that fear and concern he wrote: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:19 KJV).

How often have you been miserable because you have forgotten the basic, most fundamental core of the Christian faith? How often have you lived as if Jesus’ dead body were still decaying outside of Jerusalem somewhere? When we allow the trials and crosses of this life to define us, it is as if we are asking that question with the women at the tomb. I don’t mean that we should always be happy, or that if we simply have a more positive attitude, that things will automatically get better. Heaven knows that there are times when things are hard. We do suffer in this life. And that suffering is real, it is painful, and it may feel as though it will never end.

But Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. And for poor, weak sinners like you and I, that is good news indeed. No, it is the very best of news. Already with Job we saw that hope. If anyone had reason to complain against God, it was Job. His wife gone, His children gone, his house, his livelihood, his health. His very life was hanging on by a thread. Everything had been taken away from him. Yet even still Job was able to pen those great words of faith,

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (Job 19:25-27 ESV)

Job points us to this great, beautiful reality. No matter what happens, no matter what sin, the devil and the world throw at you, Jesus is risen from the dead. Everything can be taken from you, even life itself, but that will not separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Death has no sting, because Jesus is risen.
Your sins cannot weigh you down, because Jesus is risen.
You have a future that is bright and clear, because Jesus is risen.
What is broken and messed up today will be mended, because Jesus is risen.
You are not in prison, you will be free, because Jesus is risen.
Christ’s blood now marks you as His own, because Jesus is risen.

Rejoice this day and be glad. The things of this life which weigh you down will pass. God is at peace with you, and you do not need to be afraid of anything which comes your way. Jesus is risen, and that is all that really matters in this life. Believe it for the sake of our risen Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

“Gazing Upon Him Whom They Pierced” Good Friday

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Good Friday (April 10, 2009)

TITLE: “Gazing Upon Him Whom They Pierced”

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our text is from the Passion of our Lord from St. John, we focus on the quotation from John 19:37, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

They looked at Him whom they pierced. Jesus, the Son of Man and the Son of God, died upon the cross for us and for our salvation. He promised that when He was lifted up, He would draw all men to Himself. He promised that they would gaze upon Him, dead, and that in His death their life would truly begin.

This kind of love is beyond comprehension. It goes far past anything that we can understand or fathom. While we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. And this day we look upon His cross as the dead God, the God who gives of Himself so completely that His has poured Himself out upon the altar so that we might live with Him forever. In John 19 they quote Zechariah, which says the following:

““And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.” (Zechariah 12:10 ESVS)

So it is that we mourn for Him who died. We mourn because it was our sin that caused His death. But it is a joyful mourning. At His death the price is paid forever. You do not have to pay for your sins. You do not have to suffer the torment of hell. You do not have to live in fear of an uncertain future.

But these wounds go on. They do not end this day. On the last day, when we shall all rise from the grave to meet our Lord in the air, we will view Him with new eyes. St. John in His Revelation paints us the picture as follows:

“Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” (Revelation 1:7 ESV)

After Jesus rises from the dead, even until the very end of time itself, the wounds which He suffers this day shall be His. That is His love, poured out for you. One of our hymns puts it this way:

Those dear tokens of His passion
Sill His dazzling body bears,
Cause of endless exultation
To HIs ransomed worshipers
With what rapture, with what rapture, with what rapture
Gaze we on those glorious scars (LSB 336:3)

Look this day upon the death of Jesus for you. Look, mourn for your sins, and rejoice. Rejoice that His wounds are for you. Rejoice that you will rise with Him at the Last Day, robed in His blood, crowned with His righteousness, and that you with all of the ransomed shall stand before Him as His bride, holy and beloved. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

“The Holiest of Nights” -Maundy Thursday

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Maundy Thursday (April 9, 2009)
John 13:1-15, 1 Cor. 11:23-32, Ex. 24:3-11

TITLE: “The Holiest of Nights”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Gospel from St. John chapter thirteen.

On this most holiest of nights we remember our Lord’s Passion and death for our salvation. It was the Feast of the Passover, the night when every pious Jew celebrated with word, teaching and meal what God had done for them in delivering them from the hand of the Egyptians. That first covenant had been sealed in blood, the blood of the Lamb for the sacrifice. Then in Exodus 24 they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. Moses read from the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. He then took the blood of the sacrifice, and the text says he threw it on the people and said, ““Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”” (Exodus 24:8 ESV) The blood was on the people, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up the mountain to commune with God. The vision was beautiful, with a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. They entered into the presence of God, they beheld God, and ate and drank.

But it wasn’t enough. Again and again they made the sacrifices. They remembered the Passover. The blood of the sacrifices had to be made again and again, year after year. They remembered the covenant, but the sacrifices had to be repeated. It was never enough. The author of Hebrews puts it this way:

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Hebrews 9:11-14 ESV)

So on the night when our Lord is betrayed, the night when He makes the one, great sacrifice for all people and all time, He meets with His disciples. He serves them, washing their feet as a sign of humility. He acts as their slave. He then delivers the greatest of all gifts to them. He delivers them Himself. He gives them His body and His blood to eat and to drink. The Israelites of old ate of the passover lamb to remind them of God’s deliverance from the Egyptians. But now, all of God’s people eat and drink of the one, great passover Lamb without spot or blemish. He is the true and perfect sacrifice not made with hands.

So what does this mean for you, dearly beloved? What this means for you is simple, profound and beautiful. It means that this night we remember that Jesus’ sacrifice is once and for all. But when we remember, it isn’t something really that we do. We remember because Jesus gives Himself to us. It is His work, this holy remembering. He sacrifices Himself on the cross, and now delivers that one, great sacrifice to you in His Body and Blood. This is, quite literally, how we remember His death. We remember His death by participating in it. By eating His body and His blood, we show the world that Jesus died, that He rose again from the dead, and that He now rights at the right hand of God, where He gives Himself for the life of the world.

So come, eat and drink the sacrifice that He made for you once and for all. Eat and drink, rejoice, and live. In His holy name, Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

“The Joy Set Before Him” Palmarum 2009

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Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Messiah Lutheran Church
Kenosha, Wisconsin
Palm Sunday (April 5, 2009)

For an audio MP3 of this sermon, CLICK HERE

TITLE: “The Joy Set Before Him”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text is the Gospel lesson for Palm Sunday from St. Matthew, as well as the words from Hebrews as follows: “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 11:27; 12:2 NKJV)

It is hard to hear the story of our Lord’s death and think of joy, yet that is the theme that runs through many of our hymns during this week of our Lord’s passion. The author to Hebrews says that Jesus endured the cross because of the joy that would come. What was the joy which would keep our Lord’s eyes fixed so resolutely on Jerusalem and death at the hands of sinners like you and me?

Our Lord’s joy, his continual joy in the midst of the way of sorrows, is you and your salvation. It is hard for us to fathom this level of love, that God would send His Son to die for sinners like you and I. Yet that is what motivated God. His passion for your salvation is His greatest desire. Sometimes we cut God short, treat Him like He is a stern old man who just barely lets us squeak by to get into heaven. Nothing could be farther from the truth! It is His earnest desire from the very beginning that you would enjoy eternal bliss with Him and all the saints in paradise.

We get this picture again and again in the passion of our Lord, heard for the first time this week. Our Lord’s silence before Pilate tells of His love for you. He could have released Himself with a word. Legions of angels could come to His defense. But He opened not His mouth. Even Pilate’s question to the crowd points to our Lord’s love for you, “Why, what evil has he done?” The answer, of course, is none. He was without sin, perfect in every way, yet He bore your sins and mine to the cross and grave. A guilty man is set free and Jesus is condemned to death for you and for your salvation.

Even when He is on the cross itself, in unspeakable pain, His love for you shines forth. He endures what you cannot. He suffers real, true separation from God, praying from the Psalms, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” At His death for our salvation, the temple veil is torn in two, showing that the separation between God and man is now gone forever. The earth shook, the tombs were opened, and the dead came out of their tombs at His holy death.

Then we have that great confession of faith from the centurion on guard at the cross. Upon seeing the death of Jesus, he cried out and said “Truly this was the Son of God!” Truly indeed.

So this week, fix your eyes on Jesus. Stop your worry and fear for the future. The future is secure in His hands. Fix your eyes on Jesus, for when you fix your eyes on Him, the doubts and the trials and heartaches of this life cannot eat away at you. Oh to be sure, the trials are still there. The pain. The suffering. But by fixing your eyes on Jesus, this great, beautiful reality sets in: no matter what happens today, tomorrow is secure in Christ. With heaven in your future, the things of this life cannot harm you for God.

This is what God demonstrates to you and me in the Lord’s Supper. This is his pledge and guarantee, given to you on the eve of our Lord’s betrayal and death, that God is with you, God is for you, God forgives you, and that God will join you together with Him in an everlasting covenant. A covenant of life, not death. A covenant of peace, not hatred and war. A covenant of forgiveness. It is yours in Jesus Christ. Fix your eyes on Jesus. In His holy name. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.