Luther for the Busy Man

THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT - THURSDAY LESSON: PSALM 50:1-6 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16 How could our Lord Jesus Christ admonish, comfort, and strengthen you more lovingly? First, He says: “You will hear of wars, but...

THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT - WEDNESDAY LESSON: PSALM 80 You are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:7 No one is better prepared for the advent of the last day than the one who earnestly desires to be without sin. If you have such a longing, why are you afraid? Thereby you are in full accord with all that this day betokens. Jesus...

THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT - TUESDAY LESSON: LUKE 17:20-30 When these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads. Luke 21:28 If we are to pray fervently that God’s kingdom may come, then it is certainly necessary that we should look forward to these signs, horrible as they may be, with joy and eager longing, as Christ admonishes us when He tells us to raise our heads. He means to say,...

THE SECOND WEEK IN ADVENT - MONDAY LESSON: 2 PETER 3:1-11 When these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Luke 21:28 You might feel inclined to say in this context, “Who could possibly raise his head in the face of such wrath and judgement? Will not the whole world rather lower its head in terror and look downwards in fear and dismay? H...

THE SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT - SUNDAY LESSON: LUKE 21:25-33 Then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Luke 21:27 Here you can interpret “power” as referring to the host of angels, saints, and all creatures who will accompany Christ on His coming to judgement. This I consider to be the correct interpretation. The evangelist does not just say, “He will come,” but “...

THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT - SATURDAY LESSON: PSALM 25:11-22 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15 The daughter of Zion receives twofold gifts from Christ. The first is faith and the Spirit in the heart, whereby she is cleansed and freed from sins. The second is Christ himself. And she can glory in the blessings received from Christ just as though all that Christ is and has...

THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT – FRIDAY LESSON: 1 PETER 2:21-25 To you. Matthew 21:5 “Your king is coming to you.” You do not seek Him, you do not find Him, He finds you; for the preachers come from Him, not from you; their preaching come from Him, not from you; your faith comes from Him, not from you; and all that faith works in you comes from Him, not from you. So you see quite well that if He did not...

THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT - THURSDAY  LESSON: PSALM 25:1-10  Your king is coming to you. Matthew 21:5  Learn from this Gospel what happens when God begins to make us godly, and what is the beginning of becoming godly. There is no other beginning but the fact that your King comes to you and begins to work in you.   This comes to pass as follows. The Gospel must be the very first thing in this contex...

THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT - WEDNESDAY LESSON: PSALM 24 Your king. Matthew 21:5 Here this King is separated from all other kings. He is “your king,” the one promised to you and whose own you are. He is the one who rules you and no one else. But His rule is a spiritual, not a secular, rule. This is a comforting word for the believing heart, for apart from Christ, man is subjected to many raging tyran...

THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT – TUESDAY LESSON: HEBREWS 10:19-25 Behold! Matthew 21:5 “Behold!” Mark this word well. With this word the Holy Spirit wakens us from sleep and unbelief as one who wants to set forth something important, strange, and noteworthy which one has long desired and should receive with joy. And we really need such an awakening, because our reason and nature despises all that concer...

LESSON: LUKE 1:68-79 Faith apart from works is dead. James 2:26 Faith is of two sorts. The first is that you believe that Christ is a man like the Christ described and proclaimed in the whole Gospel, but you do not actually believe that He is such a man for you. You have your doubts that all He achieved is for you. It may be for St. Peter, Paul, and the holy saints, but you are not at all sure tha...

THE FIRST WEEK IN ADVENT – SUNDAY LESSON: MATTHEW 21:1-9 Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass. Matthew 21.5 This Gospel in a special manner arouses and demands faith. It portrays Christ in His coming grace. No one can really receive and accept Him unless he believes that He is the man in the sense portrayed in this Gospel. All that is...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - SATURDAY LESSON: 1 JOHN 5:6‒12 Let God be true, but every man a liar. Romans 3:4 Someone may ask: What will happen if we cannot trust anyone? We must have some involvement and dealings with others; how otherwise could human society continue? We must buy and sell and distribute our wares among others. If no one believed or trusted anyone else, all human transactions woul...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - FRIDAY LESSON: PSALM 40:1‒5 Thus says the Lord; “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:5 The less a man is trained in the ways of the world, the less he is opposed to God. Those who have made progress and gained recognition before the world, deceive and lie more than the others. They think that in...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - THURSDAY LESSON: PSALM 106:6‒8 For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, t...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - WEDNESDAY LESSON: 1 CORINTHIANS 3:18‒23 Jesus did not trust Himself to them, because He knew all men and needed no one to bear witness of man; for He Himself knew what was in man. John 2:24‒25 Whenever we are assailed by the enemies of our faith, we always have the strong consolation that Christ is in us and will carry off the victory through us. Christ is so close to u...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - TUESDAY LESSON: 2 CORINTHIANS 12:7‒10 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way; through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watching, hunger; by purity, knowledge, forbearance, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genui...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - MONDAY LESSON: PSALM 118:1‒9 If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with Him? Romans 8:31‒32 All who set themselves against the divine wisdom and Word of God must bring discredit on themselves or suffer disgrace. Let no one therefore be afraid, even if all the cleverness and m...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXIII - SUNDAY LESSON: MATTHEW 22:15‒22 When they heard it, they marveled; and they left Him and went away. Matthew 22:22 This is written for our consolation, so that those of us who believe in Christ should know that we Christians are in possession of a wisdom that outranks all other wisdom, and that we have a strength and righteousness with which no human strength or righteou...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - SATURDAY LESSON: PSALM 119:57‒64 God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8 When we believe that we have a gracious God and that we need nothing further, it would, presumably, be time for us to die as soon as possible. But if we are to co...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - FRIDAY LESSON: PSALM 119:33‒40 With the Lord on my side, I do not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side to help me; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in man. Psalm 118:6‒8 Because this servant (Matthew 18:23‒35) is humbled by the knowledge of his sins, the Word becomes a source of mi...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - THURSDAY LESSON: ROMANS 4:9‒12 If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. Romans 11:6 In his mercy, the lord in the parable of Matthew 18:23‒35 pities the wretched situation of the servant before him. He sets aside and gives up his rights and says no more about selling his servant “with his wife and children and al...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - WEDNESDAY LESSON: HEBREWS 9:11‒14 “Out of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.” Matthew 18:27 The lord has pity on this servant in his wretched condition. The servant is securely caught and entangled in his sins and foolish enough to suppose that he can help himself out of his hopeless plight. He does not look for mercy. He knows...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - TUESDAY LESSON: 1 JOHN 2:1‒6 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the reckoning, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents; and as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his kn...

THE WEEK OF TRINITY XXII - MONDAY LESSON: MATTHEW 18:18‒22 “Out of pity for him, the lord of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.” Matthew 18:27 “Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’” Matthew 18:32‒33 In the Gospel, there...