St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

If we think about keeping the feast as celebrating a day, a holiday, or a season, then we are thinking much to small. Just as Christ is infinitely greater Passover lamb than the Old Testament lamb, so the New Testament Passover is much more than observing a day, even a holiday like Easter. Our keeping of the feast is done not just on Easter but every day as we live in faith in Jesus Christ.

Christ promised one sign which would manifest who He is to all people. He would be three days in the earth and rise again, just as Jonah was three days in the belly of the great fish. Tonight we celebrate that sign. Christ has fulfilled His Word. The Son of God has taken on our flesh to be our Savior and our Brother. He has died on the cross and been put in the grave. Yet, like Jonah three days in...

They cannot make up for their sin. They are afflicted and killed by God’s law. They turn back to sin constantly. They are the disobedient son who can’t quite return. They are the unfaithful wife who keeps going astray. Therefore, God sent a different son. He sent His own son. God became man so Jesus could be the faithful and devoted son. Jesus could lead in saying, come let us return to the Lord....

Jesus on the cross is truly the King of the Jews. This is what it means to be the king of the Jews. Not David, not Solomon, not Hezekiah or Josiah or certainly not Herod. To be the king of the Jews is to fulfill perfectly the word of the Law and the Prophets, the Old Testament. That means to keep the commandments perfectly, and to die as a sacrifice for the sake of sinners.

We know the Lord's Supper is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, given for us Christians to eat and to drink. But why does it matter if we believe this is the true body and blood of Christ? Because this doctrine, from the plain words of Christ, gives the Christian great comfort.

The passion according to St. Luke has an account not in any of the other gospels - Jesus brought before Herod. Here we learn of Jesus bearing shame and mockery in our place.

People have many different reactions to Jesus, but to know Him truly by faith, we must know Him first as the Crucified One.

As we think on the Passion – let us examine the story of Peter, how he was tempted and fell, and was restored. It is a lesson of moving from bold self-assurance to bold dependence on Christ.

God does not want Isaac’s blood. He does not want Isaac’s death. God wanted Abraham’s obedience. Abraham was willing to give up his beloved son for God. Abraham loved God more than he loved Isaac. There, at the point of extreme love and obedience to God, Abraham receives his son, alive, and more. 

Where does this book come from? I begin asking this question because we are often likely to judge saints of the Bible more harshly than we judge ourselves. The final chapter of Jonah does not leave anything for the prophet to brag about. He is being taught a tough lesson by His heavenly Father. So let us learn the same lesson. This led Jonah to write this book by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit...

Laetare reminds us that we are sons of the free woman. We have come into the inheritance of eternal life purely by grace. We have a heavenly Father that cares for us. Though we are full of sin, though we are but dust, though we are His enemies, He desired to send his Son to die in our place. By the death and resurrection of Christ, and the free gift of His grace alone, we become sons of the promis...

Massive change can happen with words. The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 caused a mass panic. Words written in books brought communist revolutions in Europe beginning in the 1840s. Words of philosophers and popular thinkers in 1700s made people believe that religion was no longer a thing for “enlightened” man to believe. If words can be used for evil, they can certainly also be used for...

Children imitate parents. If our baptism is to be born again, birth from above of water and spirit, as Jesus says in John chapter 3, then we become in baptism children of God. Since we are God’s children, we should live lives in imitation of Father. That is why Paul says “Be imitators of God as dear children.”

Jesus says, “Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” Phyllis heard the Word of God and believed in the Father who sent Jesus Christ. She already had been given everlasting life at that point. Now that promise of everlasting life even continues after her death. 

Jonah leaves himself in a place of complete helplessness and need. Here, in the dark belly of the fish, Jonah finds his place to pray. He finally prays. In that dark damp place Jonah finds that God hears him. God will not let him drown. At his lowest and darkest, from death and hell on earth, God was there. This finally moves Jonah to call on God in prayer.

He seeks their willing desire, as Christians, to walk and please God as he had already taught them, and in fact to do so more and more. After the catechism, the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, there is really not more concepts to learn, but we come into the deeper knowledge of these things and of our own weaknesses. When Paul tells them “you know the commandments we gave you throug...

Think of yourself as a sailor, you are on a sinking ship in this world, your only hope is to appeal to the one who controls the storm, and who has given you a word of command. Pray with great reverence that you may be able to follow Him.

The heart of the devil’s temptation is for Christ to deny His Sonship to the Father. In a similar way, we are also tempted to deny the sonship we have received in baptism.

There is a temptation, a lie, that the devil will tell every Christian, that many of us in fact fall for again and again. He will tell us that repentance is something that is easy. He will convince us that we can sin, we don’t need to worry about sin, because we can always repent in the end. When we are in temptation and holding that decision in our mind, and know what we might do is sin, the devi...

Many of us have things in life we would like to do that we put off until it is easier. For some this can be the Christian life and its duties. We look at the parable of the soils and think that those who produce the fruit of faith must have an easy life with attacks of the devil, affliction, or temptations of the world. This is completely untrue, as Christ faced all these things, so must Christian...

Mark, Joseph, and baby Jesus appear to be just another poor Jewish family in the temple, giving the sacrifice for the dedication of the firstborn. Simeon, with the eyes of faith, sees in this six-week-old Jesus the coming King, and the suffering that He and His mother will face.

What is spiritual idleness? Refusing to do the work that is needed. Where do we find this work? In the Ten Commandments. Where is our spiritual job board? Look in your catechism at the table of duties. Not everyone who does physical work is doing spiritual work, but everyone who does spiritual work will be doing something physical, and in real time. 

He takes us to our own mount to be with him. Every communion is a heavenly mountaintop experience. But we are not alone. As Peter James and John were together so we come with other believers. We are strengthened in fellowship with one another as we are strengthened by His body and blood. We as strengthened as One Body under Christ, our Head.

What do you think about Jesus? Who do men say that He is? Who do you say that He is? In the beautiful climes of Caesarea Philippi, with snowy Mt. Hermon gazing down upon them, Jesus asks these questions of his disciples. They have been with Jesus for years. He healed the sick, cast out demons, and raised the dead. He preached repentance and the coming of the kingdom of God. Thousands have followed...

If the Father speaks from heaven at the baptism of Jesus saying, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," then we should take these words to heart. This is an epiphany of Jesus Christ as the only Son of God, we would do well to worship Him. What He does follows the Father's will exactly, and we would do well to believe in and do what He does. It is imperative for us also to become belo...