Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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I. Review 1. 40 days after Jesus’ resurrection, He gathered His disciples together and said, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I have commanded you.” We call that the “Great Commission.”

1. The “Commission” that the Lord gave to Jonah was very similar. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and call out against it.”

2. Unlike Jesus disciples however, Jonah doesn’t go as he’s commissioned. He flees from the presence of the Lord.

3. As Jonah is literally drowning in his sin, he prays to the Lord for deliverance and rescue. And a great fish becomes the more obedient and faithful servant of the Lord than the prophet. Jonah gives thanks to the Lord for hearing his prayer and rescuing him from Sheol.

4. The fish does what it was commissioned by the Lord to do. It rescues Jonah and spits him out onto dry land. And Jonah is given a second chance. With that we begin scene 4. Or maybe you could call this “Jonah - the Sequel.” (more…)

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I. Review of Scene 1 / 2

A. Scene 1 - “God Calls Jonah” 1. God called Jonah to go to Nineveh and speak against it because it’s evil had come before God.

1. Jonah fled to Tarshish by way of a ship out of Joppa in order to “flee from the presence of the Lord.” Repeated 2 times.

B. Scene 2 - “Onboard Ship” 1. Onboard ship at sea, Jonah realizes that he cannot hide from God. God causes a fierce storm and the ship threatens to break up. God Word comes to him through the pagan ship captain and sailors. The sailors try to appease the angry god by throwing the cargo into the sea. When that doesn’t appease him, Jonah says that he’s the reason that the LORD (Yahweh) is angry. The only way He’ll be appeased is if they throw him overboard. Which they do.

1. As Jonah goes overboard, he doesn’t know what we know. He doesn’t know about a great fish or being saved from downing. He sees only death by drowning at sea. (more…)

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The most important thing to understand about the temptation of Jesus is contained in just five little words that we tend to skip right over without even hearing them. “Jesus returned from the Jordan.” It’s even easier to miss this if you read from Matthew and Mark’s account of the temptation. They just say, “then.”

It’s what happened at the Jordan that’s makes what happened in the wilderness so significant. Jesus was baptized by John at the Jordan River. Three things happened at the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan that we need to understand if we’re going to understand the significance of what takes place in the wilderness. And all three are very closely connected to each other. (more…)

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On three, separate occasions, the Pharisees, Scribes and the crowds asked Jesus to give them a sign to convince them of who He is and what He’s up to. On all three occasions, Jesus answers the same way. “No sign will be given to you except the sign of Jonah.” In other words, knowing the story of Jonah is important to knowing the story of Jesus Christ. So our mission this Lenten season is to get to know the story of Jonah. The story unfolds in six different scenes and we’re going to look at each scene in succession over the six Wednesdays and Thursdays during Lent.

Tonight, the curtain opens with scene 1, recorded in chapter 1, verses 1-3. “God calls Jonah.” It reads as follows, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ‘Arise and go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.’ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went on board, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.” (more…)

The children have given us a marvelous lesson within a lesson this morning by presenting the Christmas story during the season of Epiphany.

The season of Christmas tells us that Jesus Christ is fully man, like us in every way, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones, born of a woman. And He is dwelling among us.

The season of Epiphany tells us that Jesus Christ is fully divine, unlike us in every way, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal, unchangeable, almighty, just, good, merciful, gracious. He is God and God is love. And He is dwelling among us men and women.

The seasons of Christmas and Epiphany come as a package deal. One without the one the other will do you no good. We’ve got to have both to get the complete picture of Jesus. And only then are you ready to enter the season of Lent, which tells us that the fully human, fully divine God / Man, is crucified on the cross. You see, without Christmas or without Epiphany, His death on the cross is either not “for us men” or not “for our salvation.” (more…)

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All babies are special, but the most special baby ever born was born on Christmas day. Never has there been a birth that was more anticipated and awaited than this one. Every generation beginning with Adam and Eve, spoke about His birth to the next generation. Each generation described the child to be born in the most incredible terms. They said He would be savior, redeemer, ruler, Prince of peace, Lord of lords, and King of kings. As time went by, anticipation grew, expectations increased. Men and women who had been told, and who believed what they had been told, were all anxiously “waiting for the consolation of Israel.”

And then one day, a baby was born. Or rather, THE baby was born. “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger.” (Luke 2:7). (more…)

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If you’ve come here this morning expecting to hear about Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger, you’re going to be disappointed. Last night, we heard the Lukan version of the Christmas story which is full of the things that make Christmas so Christmasee. Both Matthew and Luke give us the Christmas story from the earthly perspective - the way Mary and Joseph and the shepherds in their fields saw things. Grant it, human minds could barely comprehend what they were seeing, but Paul and Peter would explain it all later.

This morning we get the Johanine version of the Christmas story. John gives us the Christmas story, not from the earthly perspective but from the heavenly perspective, as only the eyes of faith can see it. This is the way that angels and the archangels and all the company would have told the Christmas story if John hadn’t been the one commissioned to do so. John wants us to see what human eyes could never have seen apart from divine revelation.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:1-2,14). (more…)

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Every once in awhile there will be a story in the news about a woman who wakes up in the middle of the night, or who goes home from work in the middle of the day with terrible indigestion or stomach pains. She doesn’t know the cause for her problems but as the pains increase and begin to come in noticeable intervals, she goes to the doctor and low and behold, the doctor determines the reason for her pain. She’s pregnant. In fact, she’s in labor. And before the day is over, she’s a mother. And somehow, this is all a real surprise to her.

One day, a young woman in her late teens was surprised by the news that she was pregnant. Surprised, because she really had never known a man. Surprised because she got the news from an angel of the Lord. Surprised because the angel informed her that the child conceived in her “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33).

How did Mary respond to this incredible news? How would you respond if you were in Mary’s shoes? This morning, we want to explore two questions. First, how did Mary receive this startling news from the angel? Belief or disbelief? Does she ignore it or embrace it? And second, how did Mary understand this? How did she interpret this? This morning, we’re going to make an example out of Mary. This is what the Saints are, they’re examples to us of how the life of faith works and what it looks like. (more…)

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Some time ago, there was the story in the news about a cinematographer who wanted to film skydivers during their decent. Like a lot of others who have do the same thing, he jumped with a group of skydivers and filmed them as they descended to earth. The film he made was aired on most of the major networks, but he never saw it. It showed the skydivers floating through the air in various patterns and formations. And then it showed them opening their shoots and gliding this way and that. And then, after the last shoot was opened, the picture suddenly went berserk and everything was chaotic movement, and then it just stopped. Turns out, the cinematographer forgot to put on his parachute and it wasn’t until he reached for the ripcord that he realized that he was freefalling to his death.

We can only hope that he was better prepared to meet his maker than he was to jump from the plane.

It makes you wonder, how may people are just freefalling through life to their death. How many people move from day to day and year to year, never even thinking about how they’re going to land, never thinking about meeting their maker?

And what about you? Are you prepared to meet your maker? Now there’s a question that’ll get your heart beating. It might sound pretty esoteric and theoretical while we’re all sitting upright in a cushioned pew. But it sounds much different if you’re lying flat on your back in a hospital bed or trapped in a burning building or under a hummvee that just met a roadside bomb. ‘Are you prepared to meet your maker?’ There’s nothing hypothetical about it. (more…)

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I. The Season of Advent As we begin a new year on the Church’s calendar, it might do us well to briefly survey the lay of the land that lies ahead. What is this four-week season all about? What’s its purpose? Where is it leading us?

The season of Advent leads us right to Jesus. So, in that sense, it’s no different than every other season of the Church year. The purpose for all six seasons and all 52 weeks in the Church year is to lead us to Jesus. Every year, year after year, from the 1st Sunday in Advent to the Last Sunday of the Church Year, the appointed readings for each Sunday carefully guide us along the way that follows Jesus from His eternal existence before the beginning to His coming again in great power and glory. Every year we move through the life cycle of Jesus’ life. And each season of the Church year has its individual purpose and goal of leading and guiding us through a particular part of the life of Christ. (more…)