I did decide I would post my first sermon I wrote for Homiletics class. It got a B+ and Dr. Schmitt did not really have anything negative to say about it, he just found several places that could have been better. Of course if you have the gift he does, of being able to see profound proclamation out of anything and in the coolest ways, it is easy to find things to improve in any sermon. Two warnings. One, keep in mind it is written in oral style so there are grammatical mistakes, fragments, etc. Two, it is my first official sermon and hopefully Lord willingly they will continue to get better. The style of this sermon is called a four page sermon where you find the "law" in the text, the "Gospel" in the text, the "law" in the world, and the "Gospel" in the world. I had them clearly marked to be graded, but took them out for your sake. I did not make any of the suggested improvements Dr. Schmitt commented on, so you are seeing the exact text I turned in. I have turned in my second sermon, but will not get it back until I preach it next Thursday. I am very nervous to get up in front of the class and preach my sermon, but I will get through it.
Here is my sermon: Titled: The Throne is Occupied!
Text Ephesians 1:15-23
v Hymn of the Day: LSB 492 “On Christ’s Ascension I Now Build”
v Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today’s text comes from the Epistle
Reading which we have already heard.
This
section of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is very complex and he manages to
say so much in just these few verses.
Paul is using prayer to give thanks for the faith of the Ephesians, and
he clearly states everything he is praying for.
Now we are not going to look at everything Paul is praying for today,
and we are not going to even look at what Paul is doing through his
prayer. Rather we are going to focus in
on one small, but very important, part of Paul’s prayer. Since this is Ascension Thursday and you all
have made the extra trip to church this week for tonight’s service, I think it
is only appropriate that we focus on the ascension that Paul includes in this
prayer. Paul does not just flat out
re-tell the event of the ascension, but we heard that in both the readings from
Act’s and Luke’s Gospel. Paul does
however include the ascension in verse 20 of this passage. We read verses 19b through 21b: “according to
the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all
rule and authority and power and dominion.”
This is the ascension of our Christ that Paul adds to the opening of his
letter. However, as simple as it is, it
paints a picture that may not be seen unless you stop and really think about
this event. I am going to verbally paint
this picture for you, and then as I continue through my sermon, hopefully the
picture will become clearer and clearer for you until you are able to leave here
with its full beauty in your mind. The
picture of ascension that I want to paint for you is the same picture that I
have in my mind every time I recite the Apostle’s Creed. When we confess that “He ascended in heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, From thence he will come
to judge the living and the dead”, I see our Lord, or a better imagery for this
picture is our King, our triumphant King, in all his glory and majesty, sitting
on his throne at the right hand of God the Father, reigning above all other
powers and dominions, as our ruler and judge when we come before His throne as
we enter eternal life. And it is this
King who is only able to sit in his throne because He was victorious,
victorious indeed, that we put our entire trust of our faith in. Keep this picture in your mind as we continue
on.
The Ephesians, to who Paul sent this
letter, have many people who are new to their faith. They also have believers who have been
following Paul’s teachings since he left them.
However they are all going to have to deal with sin and death. It is part of our sinful world and Paul knows
this. The devil tempts these Christians
to try to drive them away from their faith.
If the devil even tempted Jesus, the Son of God, you know he tempted
these Ephesians that much more, hoping to make them stumble and fall away from
their faith. The devil’s ultimate goal
is to drive these faithful people to complete and utter despair, leaving them
feeling completely abandoned and alone.
Then he is able to get them to doubt God, and they may even be foolish
enough to reject their faith. The devil
will use tragedies, their persecution, natural disasters, and unexplainable
deaths to bring about their despair. He
is constantly lurking in the shadows, waiting for one of them to be alone and
weak. He wants to isolate them, because
like a hunting lion, it is easier to pick off one weak member of the herd than
to take on the entire herd at once. He
is constantly a threat to their faith because he is able to use their sinful
nature to get them to stray from God and His ways. The devil, sin, and death in this world are
their enemies. They are what shake their
faith and make these followers of Christ question what they really
believe. From the fall of man, the devil
has been preying on every human being that shows even the slightest signs of
faith.
However, these attempts by the devil
through sin and death, trying to make them feel helpless and alone is exactly
why Paul includes the ascension in this letter to the Ephesians. He includes the resurrection and ascension
because this is the victory our king has won for His people. The devil, sin, and death are the enemies,
trying to constantly make Christians fall away from their faith and essentially
away from God. However, this is the entire
reason Christ took on flesh. Through His
death, His resurrection, and His ascension, He completely defeated these
enemies of His people. Christ won
victory over sin, death, and the devil by being the perfect sacrifice, by
paying the price that no human ever could, and by being the King who triumphantly
won the battle. Paul, knowing the
troubles and strife’s that these new believers are going to face, is reminding
them that they can put their trust in their triumphant king who reigns above
all other powers and dominions, including sin, death, and the devil, from his
throne in heaven.
So these Ephesians hear the good
news of their triumphant king from Paul in his letter to them, and this allows
them to put their trust in Christ. But
what does that mean for us? Many of you
are probably saying to yourself, “Well Pastor, of course we know Christ won
over sin, death, and the devil. We hear
that message every week.” And knowing most to all of you, I do honestly believe
you do know that Christ is our Savior.
However, just because we know the message, does not necessarily mean we
always believe it’s true. Because you
see it is almost impossible for us to wrap our human minds around the fact that
God sacrificed His own Son, in order to save us horrible sinners. We are his fallen race that He should have
damned to hell, but instead He sent His own Son to receive His wrath and the
full wages of our sins. This is where
the fourth use of the law comes into play.
Now since you are all such wonderful Lutheran people, you probably just
found yourself thoroughly confused when I said the fourth use of the law. Because every good Lutheran knows there are
only three uses to the law. However,
when I was in my Confessions II class with the honorable Dr. Kolb who translated
the Book of Concord, we talked about a fourth use of the law. This was the first time I had ever heard of
this use. The fourth use is also
sometimes called the demonic use of the law.
Because when faithful people know and understand the first three uses of
the law, and they use the three uses to repent often, the devil does not like
this. He tempts them to sin, but even
when he can get them to stumble, they immediately turn to Christ and receive
His forgiveness. So the devil, tricky as
he is, tries a different approach.
Instead of tempting them to keep sinning, he simply whispers in their
ears, “You really think the Lord forgives you.
You of all people, who sin daily, you think you are good enough for
Him? You cannot be serious, you cannot
really believe that you, you dirty sinner, are saved from everything you do
wrong!” And maybe at first we do not
listen to him, but the devil is a persistent guy, and he just keeps getting us
to stumble and then immediately whispers the lines of doubt in our ears. Haven’t you ever felt this way? Have you really never felt so dirty of your
sins, or so guilty about something you did, and just plain so ashamed you did
not want to pray to the Lord. I know I
have felt this way at times. I make up
the excuse that I will pray to the Lord tomorrow because I just do not feel
right doing it today. I think we have
all had those times when the devil tricks us into believing that yes we know
the price Christ paid, and we know He forgives sins, but His Gospel, His grace
cannot possibly be for us personally. It
cannot really be that easy to just be free from all our sins through a simple
prayer. This is how the devil gets
us. And as we begin new outreach
programs with the college students and the campus ministries, we have new
believers in our midst just like the Ephesians.
And if we, who have been faithful members of this church for years, can
fall into the devils trap of doubt and questioning, just think how easy it will
be for them to question if they are truly forgiven.
So what do we do? Do we just keep saying that we believe in
Christ’s grace and forgiveness of sins, push the doubt to the back of our
heart, and hope that on judgment day it is not enough to keep us out of heaven? To use Paul’s famous answer, Absolutely
Not! We hear in this text today, Paul
telling the Ephesians, but it is still true for us also that all authority and
all dominion are under Christ’s feet.
The devil still roams this world, we still stumble to sin, and these
bodies of ours will wear out and death happens.
However, we have a king who has power and dominion over all of
these. We have a king who came to earth
to fight the good fight. He fought the
battle against sin, death, and the devil.
And He WON! How do we know He won?
Because of this special day we are here to celebrate today. See if Christ had just died, He would have
paid the wages of sin, but He would not have defeated death. And even if He had resurrected and defeated
death, if He had not ascended into Heaven, we would not have the hope of life
with Him in heaven. In our Hymn of the
day we sang the line “On Christ’s ascension I now build the hope of my
ascension!” See when Christ ascended
into heaven He officially proclaimed that His work was complete. Everything He came to do on earth, He had
accomplished. And it is because He
ascended into Heaven as the victor, that we too are able to have the hope of
eternal life with Him in heaven. He is
our victorious king who went home to sit in His throne. See in the Old Testament when an enemy would
be a threat or be attacking the people, the king of the people would go out
with his troops to battle. He would
watch the battle to know if he had won or not.
Then when he won, he would return to his city and sit in his throne on
the gate to let everyone know that the battle was over, the victory was
won. His sitting in that throne was the
sign to all the people that He had been victorious and had kept them all safe
from their enemies. He was back in his
throne reigning over them, watching over them because they were now safe with
their enemies being pushed back and wiped out.
This is the same message we get after Christ’s ascension. Christ came to earth to fight the
battle. When He had officially won and
completely defeated the enemy, He returned home to His city again. And He sat in His throne at the right hand of
the Father, where He still sits today.
He is sitting on His throne over the gates letting all of His people
know that He is back from fighting, He was victorious in His fight, and His people
are safe from their enemies as He reigns and watches over us.
So you see that picture of Christ
sitting in His throne at the right hand of the Father is not just a simple
picture. It is a sweet and beautiful
proclamation that assures us He is our victorious king, He has defeated our
enemies, and He does reign over us, watching over and protecting us. He sits on His throne over the gates waiting
for us to walk through those gates and join Him in Heaven. That’s a pretty priceless painting if you ask
me.
And
how do we now that this sweet, sweet Gospel, the forgiveness and grace of this
triumphant king truly is for us personally and individually? Because we have His name on our hearts. Through our baptism, we have died to sin and
been made alive to Christ, our King. We
are His people who live under His reign and protection, and when our enemies
try to harm us, He is watching from His throne.
It is through our Baptism, where He claimed us as His own, that we can
ignore those whispers of the devil and always know Christ’s forgiveness is for
us, personally and individually. “He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved” This is the assurance our King gives
us. We have the certainty of His saving
grace in our King reigning from His throne.
We
stand to sing Hymn 464 “The Strife is O’er, the Battle Done” to proudly
proclaim that we know our triumphant King has won the Battle and His grace and
forgiveness is truly for us, His beloved People!
For My prayer I will use the the hymn 464:
The strife is o'er, the battle done;
the victory of life is won;
the song of triumph has begun:
Alleluia!
The powers of death have done their
worst,
but Christ their legions hath
dispersed;
let shouts of holy joy outburst:
Alleluia!
The three sad days are quickly sped;
he rises glorious from the dead;
all glory to our risen Head!
Alleluia!
Lord, by the stripes which wounded
thee,
from death's dread sting thy
servants free,
that we may live, and sing to thee:
Alleluia! Amen.
I will continue with the Small Catechism next time. My apologies.
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