Proper 16A Sermon: Rock and Quarry

Preached on Isaiah 51:1–6
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
23 August AD 2020

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Rock and Quarry.

Audio: Alternatively, choose Rock and Quarry to hear the MP3.

Summary: Isaiah told Judah to look at its history in order to make sense of its present and have hope for its future. The same God who established Abraham as Israel’s father, who carved a nation out of Sarah’s seemingly barren womb, would likewise bless Abraham’s heirs.

The Lord’s righteousness and salvation that established and sustained Abraham and Sarah would likewise preserve their heirs in Isaiah’s time. By faith in Christ, we are also the heirs of Abraham and can be certain that the promises of consolation, preservation, and restoration for Zion belong to us as well.

Text: “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.

“For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

“Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait.

“Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.” Isaiah 51:1–6

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of Rock and Quarry.

Audio: Alternatively, choose Rock and Quarry to hear the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 138; Romans 11:33–12:8; Matthew 16:13–20

Proper 16A Sermon: The Gates of Hades

Preached on Matthew 16:13–20
The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
23 August AD 2020

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of The Gates of Hades.

Audio: Alternatively, choose The Gates of Hades to hear the MP3.

Summary: The rock upon which Jesus builds His Church isn’t Peter but rather Peter’s confession. Confessing Jesus as the Christ, Peter thus identified Him as the “spiritual Rock” of whom Israel drank, for “the Rock was Christ. (1 Corinthians 10:4)”

Being built on this Rock gives us the fruits of His victories over sin, death, and devil. The “Son of the Living God” died for us yet He is still the living Son of God. Death comes because of sin. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees that our sins which He carried to the cross are blotted out and cannot hold Him — or us — bound by Hades and eternally trapped in the grave. Jesus kicked down death’s door and grants believers egress into everlasting life.

Text: Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. Matthew 16:13–20

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of The Gates of Hades.

Audio: Alternatively, choose The Gates of Hades to hear the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 138; Isaiah 51:1–6; Romans 11:33–12:8

Proper 11A Sermon: There Is No God but the Lord

Preached on Isaiah 44:6–8
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
19 July AD 2020

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of No God but the Lord.

Audio: Alternatively, choose No God but the Lord to hear the MP3.

Summary: Pick a god ... any god. It makes no difference because none of them can deliver, protect, and sustain you — except for one.

The only god worth choosing is the Lord who has already chosen you to be His own. He sent His Son to be not only Israel’s Redeemer but the Savior of all mankind. All who believe in Jesus possess this salvation.

His Holy Spirit calls us through the Gospel, washes us clean of our sins in Baptism, and guides us through this life into life everlasting. He establishes us on the Lord our Rock and nothing in the natural or the spiritual realms can tear us away, knock us down, or destroy us.

Text: Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

“Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.

“Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6–8

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.

Video: Click to view the YouTube video of No God but the Lord.

Audio: Click No God but the Lord to listen to the MP3.

Other Readings: Psalm 119:57–64; Romans 8:18–27; Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43

Septuagesima Sermon: Tested and True

Preached on Exodus 17:1-7
Pre-Lent
12 February AD 2017

Title: Click to hear the MP3 of Tested and True.

Summary: “Massah and Meribah” — “Quarreling and Testing” — define much of the human condition. Bickering and backbiting, pushing boundaries and defying limits — these extend beyond our misbehavior toward one another: They’ve been part of man’s relationship with God since the Fall.

As we wander about in our own “wilderness of sin,” we find excuses to quarrel with each other and test God whenever anything doesn’t go exactly as we desire. And if God held our rebellions against us, we would dread His presence. Already inclined to turn away from Word and Sacrament God’s wrath against sinners could drive us completely away. Even the testings He sends to guide, instruct, purify, or strengthen His people would be misinterpreted.

Yet try as we might to push against God, He works even harder to pull back. He sent Jesus to face the most severe testing any sinner could ever face, even though His Son was sinless. Rather than quarrel with His Father, Jesus came to end our sinful, selfish quarrels with God and humanity. Jesus brings peace and reconciliation to all who believe on Him.

He sends the Holy Spirit to lead us back to the promises of our baptism, to create a desire for pure Gospel proclamation and a hunger and thirst for the blessed communion of His Son’s body and blood. He pardons us and works His good through us. He will never abandon us in this wilderness into which we are born but instead shepherds us onward, leading us toward the eternal green pastures and still waters that await His beloved sheep.

Text: All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”

And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?”

But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”

So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.”

And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.”

And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” Exodus 17:1-7

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 the MP3 of Tested and True.

NB: A few people have had problems trying to play the inline audio with Windows Media Player. If this occurs, you can either change to QuickTime or another default browser player, copy and paste the link directly into a selected player, or download it to your computer, where it seems to work regardless of which player. Several folks have suggested VLC Player from VideoLAN.

Other Readings: Psalm 95:1-9; 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:5; Matthew 20:1-16