St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

This love He has for His mother and father is no less for all lost sinners. We don’t find Jesus in the place of our plans. We find Him in the place of the cross, because that is the place of His love for us. We must start at the cross where we see how serious our sin is, that it would cause this death. We see how great His love is, that He would do this for our life. And we do this not just once,...

The gifts of the wise men were just the first payment – tribute to a king who could not repay them back in gold or silver. But he pays with his own precious blood. He purchases and redeems us for His kingdom, and people from all over the world, in a way we never could. The Lord’s kingdom shall expand through the church and the preaching of the gospel to be the greatest in the world. Not in worldly...

What do we do with suffering? Suffering is a part of life. Since we live in a sinful world, we will never completely avoid suffering in this life. Yet the common wisdom is to just “avoid suffering.” That’s good enough as far as it goes, we certainly don’t want to try to suffer, do we? But what do we do when we must suffer? Matthew gives us a very good example with the early life of Jesus, and our...

Then let us also be all the more diligent to receive our inheritance. If you would resolve anything in the new year, resolve this. Resolve to live in the name and inheritance which you have been given. Put to death those sins which are foreign to who you are. Christ has already cut off those things by baptism, in the circumcision of your heart. Live honoring the name which you have been given, the...

In Revelation 14, God gives us an image of how He sees the church, with Christ, the Lamb, as it's strength and head. This is to comfort us, as the devil works through the sins of men to attack the saints and the innocent, and to strengthen us, a God redeems sinful men to protect and help the saints and innocent in both body and soul.

Jesus Christ, the baby in the manger, is the eternal Word, the source of all creation. He is the eternal Light, who enlightens the dark hearts of men to know God. He is the eternal tabernacle, who has sacrificed himself to redeem us, so that God may dwell with us.

To those who were at the birth of Christ, it appeared as nothing more than the birth of an ordinary child. To those who believed the preached word of God, this birth became something more more marvelous, the coming of the Savior, the Son of God.

The Israelites said they did not want God to talk to them on Mount Horeb, but Moses, a man, to speak for God. God said this was good. Moses prophesied a prophet like him would one day come from the midst of the Israelites, who spoke a new and greater Word of God - the gospel. This prophet is Jesus, the incarnate Son of God.

Ruth and Naomi find their hope fulfilled in the work of Boaz, their kinsman redeemer. Ruth bears Obed, who would be the ancestor of the great Redeemer born in Bethlehem, Emmanuel, Jesus Christ.

In a world where it seems like Jesus isn't ruling, where His church isn't very impressive, one can wonder - where is Jesus? How do we know if we have come to the right place? We need to trust his word that Jesus has called men in his church to be His servants and stewards of the mysteries of God.

"This is what happens for Christians who live in hope and faith. It shines through in good works. It was not just the works that Boaz saw, but the faithfulness of Ruth. He sees in her someone who has taken refuge under the wings of the Lord. Ruth is someone who trusts in God. She is not Israelite by birth, but is a true member of Israel, a true child of Abraham, in her trust in God. Likewise, trus...

When it comes to many things in scripture, we often try not to think about it. We stay on our little islands on the parts of the gospels we like, familiar Bible stories, comforting verses, and the 23rd Psalm. All these are good, but there is something for us in the roiling waves of the more perplexing and even scary parts of scripture. As Paul is telling us today in Romans, it all comes together i...

In chapter 1 of Ruth, God is showing that He can create blessing out of the bitterest circumstances, even when caused by our own sin. Crosses we bear make hope a difficult thing. Because God has visited His people in Jesus Christ, our Savior, Christians always have a certain hope.

When our introit today says “Let no one who waits on you be ashamed” we don’t mean that we are waiting for the baby born in Bethlehem. When we pray “stir up your power, O Lord, and come,” we don’t mean that we are like the Old Testament prophets waiting for a Messiah who will save us, not yet fully seeing Him. When we sing today at the Lord’s Supper, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name o...

Jesus is our help, but He is not just a means to our own ends. He will answer our prayers in the way that will best bring us closer to Him. Sometimes that’s a yes, sometimes that a no. The Samaritan leper did not just ask Jesus for help to get on with his life. Upon being healed, he saw that Jesus truly IS life. 

People can put demands on God that he does not make them wait. Yet God made many wait – David still worked as a shepherd for years after being anointed king. The apostles had to wait 50 days for the holy spirit to come after Jesus rose. Instant gratification culture creates anxiety and frustration when forced to wait. The Word takes time. God takes time to form us in faith. The foolish never recei...

God is not holding back his return because He is unable, or forgot, or any other human weakness. Time is nothing to Him. The Lord desires all to be saved, and if Christ is tarrying in His return and the final judgment, it is because there are some still who He wishes to save before the end. What scoffers disregard as weakness of God, or proof of nonexistence, because of their fear, is actually His...

It is very easy for people to live their lives as if there is not a Second Coming. Things that are far away are easy to put out of one’s mind. That is why when tragedies happen in our sinful world, Jesus wants us to pull back our thoughts to repentance and faith. He wants us to consider the end, and our end. Even if we will not all live to the second coming of Christ, it is destined for every man...

Jesus Christ gives to his saints the certain hope of the resurrection. The scriptures testify to the hope throughout the Old and New Testaments. This hope purifies us in this life, looking forward to the final day when we will see God face to face.

While there have been many reformations in the church, the distinctive of the Lutheran reformation, and why we celebrate it, is because it returned the church to scripture as our final authority in all things, which led to a restored understanding of salvation by grace through faith alone. We can see an example of that kind of reformation in the Old Testament, when the book of the Law is discovere...

What are the essential gifts which Christ gives to His church?

Jesus connects to the parable of the one taking the seats at the feast. He is referencing the Proverbs reading we heard as the Old Testament today. We know that if you set yourself higher than you really are, you can be humbled and pushed to a lower place. If you sit lower than you should, you may receive the honor of being brought up higher. The highest seat is not determined by where you seat yo...

Memorial service for Susanna Joy Anastasia Antonetti, unborn daughter of Pastor and Karin Antonetti. Sermon by Rev. Dan Greg, Zion Lutheran Church, Bensenville, Illinois.

Christ bore the cross for us, and we Christians have to bear our crosses. Many times Christians are living their lives and things are going well, when we are hit with a brick wall of a cross. St. Paul prays for the Ephesians that they do not lose heart or despair because of his crosses. He shows us that prayer is the remedy for despair.

But Mammon is the ruler of worry and can hide in many forms. He can look like being economical or thrifty. Mammon can rule someone who says they are just trying to do their work to get by, be conscientious and responsible. We can hide mammon worship in many different ways, but Jesus comes and rips off the mask of our false virtue. He hits hard with this – “do not worry about your life, what you wi...