Sermon: High School Chapel

21 March AD 2012

Sermon Theme: Zeal for Us and from Us

Summary: The theme for the St. Paul Lutheran High School 2011 – 2012 academic year is All for One, based on Romans 12:4-5: “For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” The emphasis for March is “One Blessing for All.” Today’s assigned text was John 2:14-15 but I chose to use verses 13-17 for context.

The sermon proclaims Christ’s zeal to save lost sinners using the illustration of His zeal for His Father’s house. It also reminds the hearer of the Christian’s zeal for his neighbor in matters spiritual as well as of body and mind.

Text: The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father's house a house of trade.”

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” John 2:13-17

Hymn of the Day: Here is the stanza for March of Before the One True God, which I wrote for this academic year at SPLHS:

• Though mankind was Your enemy
  You sent Your Son to set us free:
  And through His blood and righteousness
  All people You did choose to bless.
  May we who once stood as your foe
  Bless those who, to Your Church, mean woe.

Hymn text © 2011 Walter P. Snyder. May not be used or reproduced without permission.

Scripture quoted from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Audio: Click to hear MP3 of Zeal for Us and from Us, preached at Saint Paul Lutheran High School, Concordia, Missouri.

Note: While certainly a Lutheran educational institution, St. Paul Lutheran High School is also a mission field. Not only does it admit academically qualified Lutherans, the school also welcomes a number of other Christians as well as non-Christians — even some atheists. A high percentage of students come from other lands, so my chapel messages are tailored to the age of the hearers, while remaining mindful of those unskilled with English, uncomfortable with Christianity, or both. Present this day were American students and those born in Russia, Slovakia, Norway, China, Papua New Guinea, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and elsewhere.

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