Sermon Tone Analysis

Albertus Pieters in his book Divine Lord and Saviour, tells of a believer who was not well-educated, but who had a deep assurance of his salvation.

Everyone called him “Old Pete.”

One day while talking with Dr. Pieters, he said, “If God should take me to the very mouth of Hell and say to me, “In you go, Pete; here’s where you belong,” I would say to Him, “That’s true, Lord, I do belong there.

But if you make me go to Hell, Your dear Son Jesus Christ must go with me!

He and I are now one, and we cannot be separated anymore.”

”

Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed.

Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith.

May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

At an early Christian Baptism, cool water would stream down people’s heads and necks when they stepped away from the font.

As they shivered through the baptismal prayers, droplets would fall from the tresses of their hair and land in puddles at their feet.

The droplets would draw circles on the puddles’ surfaces as the water slowly rolled across the floor, uniting with other droplets and puddles.

Though the people baptized were different—and even from different ethnicities, ages, and social levels—the water and the Word of Baptism united them to share new life, sealing, enlightening, and washing in Christ.

At their Baptism, the Ephesians became something more than cold and damp.

Baptism unites believers into one Body as easily as water meets and merges on a floor.

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians shows that Baptism united Jews and Gentiles, leaders and followers, and all believers across all generations.

A Jew goes to jail because other Jews got mad at him for telling Gentiles about the baby who was “born King of the Jews.”

It just doesn’t make sense.

Who would care?

It was as seemingly unimportant as when, one evening in Jerusalem, wise men from the East came seeking “he who has been born king of the Jews?

For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Even today, one of the arguments that opposers of the historicity of the Gospel narrative, for example, the slaughter of the innocents found in , is that there is no other record of it.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

Michael Grant, a popular writer on historical themes says of the Massacre of the Innocents: “The tale is not history but myth or folk-lore” (1971:12).

He went on to say, Herod became known as “Herod the Wicked, villain of many a legend, including the Massacre of the Innocents: the story is invented, though it is based, in one respect, on what is likely to be a historical fact, since Jesus Christ was probably born in one of the last years of Herod’s reign” (1971:228-229).

Elsewhere he says, “Matthew’s story of the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great, because he was afraid of a child born in Bethlehem ‘to be King of the Jews’, is a myth allegedly fulfilling a prophecy by Jeremiah and mirroring history’s judgment of the great but evil potentate Herod, arising from many savage acts during the last years before his death in 4 BC” (1999:71).

(Grant, Herman.

“The Slaughter of the Innocents: Historical Fact or Legendary Fiction?” Biblical Archeology Magazine <http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2009/12/08/The-Slaughter-of-the-Innocents-Historical-Fact-or-Legendary-Fiction.aspx#Article>

Accessed 1/5/2019).

In short, there really is little that the natural person would find impressive about the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

And yet, as the proverbial saying goes, “there are two things that one should not discuss in polite company - religion and politics.”

Perhaps that is what leads us to hesitate sometimes; talking about Jesus enters into the realms of both religion and politics!

For what is more “religious” than the message concerning the Son of God, and what is more “political” than the Gospel of the Kingdom?

So we politely keep under wraps what is in fact, the thing that defines those of us who have been baptized in to Christ.

We draw on SA III:IV for our encouraging conversations with other believers, but that is, to be honest, “preaching to the choir,” and “playing before the home crowd.”

We will now return to the Gospel, which does not give us counsel and aid against sin in only one way.

God is superabundantly generous in His grace: First, through the spoken Word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world [Luke 24:45–47].

This is the particular office of the Gospel.

Second, through Baptism.

Third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar.

Fourth, through the Power of the Keys.

Also through the mutual conversation and consolation of brethren, “Where two or three are gathered” (Matthew 18:20) and other such verses [especially Romans 1:12].

Everything else in that passage seems to limit any talk about the Gospel to the “professional” people - Pastors and DCEs who have the big degrees, right?

I also admit that, based on some conversations that I have seen and heard, we “professionals” might make it seem like we have some hidden wisdom gained in the hallowed halls of Concordia that make it seem “meet, right, and salutary” for you to limit your remarks to vague superficial thoughts about love and kindness and church.

Paul, in our Epistle Reading, calls himself “the prisoner of Jesus Christ.”

He is not being metaphorical - he really is in prison when he writes this Epistle to the Ephesians after having been arrested because of an uproar that seemed to center on an accusation that he had brought uncircumcised Gentiles into the Temple at Jerusalem ()

Paul Arrested in the Temple

27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help!

This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place.

Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together.

They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.

31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.

And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.

He inquired who he was and what he had done.

34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another.

And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.

35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, 36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”

As an Apostle, Paul truly did suffer for the sake of the Gospel.

Jesus told us that such things could be expected as we go about sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if for no other reason that those who hate the master will hate the servant also.

So this is our reality: we have, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the remedy for sin that the world needs; we have the chain-breaking message that a community in bondage to sin needs, but it is a remedy that the world hates because they are slaves of sin, as we are slaves of Christ.

If we share it, it could deliver those who hear it, as it did for the Ephesians who heard Paul.

It could also put us in the cross-hairs of enemies that we didn’t even know we had, as it did to Paul before the Jews.

That’s why the Lord doesn’t keep these things hidden from us.

He wants us to know that there is a blessing, and yes, there will be storms, but there is “a blessing in the storm.”

“There’s a war going on, and if you’re going to win,” you need to hold on to the Gospel that promises you that “you have Jesus deep down within.”

God will bring people into our lives who need His Word, and the devil will send people to try to make us stumble.

Either way, through our baptism we have been united to the Light of the World - Jesus Christ - and we have the privilege of revealing Him to the world.

We have the privilege of joining Christ in seeing captives set free, and we have the privilege of being joined to Christ’s sufferings.

Today we celebrate the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, and in the spirit of this day, we celebrate His presence with us in Word and sacrament.

So let the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.