St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

In this scene, Jesus has attracted crowds - thus already shown he can bring in many people and teach them. He has miraculously brought in a catch of fish - shown His divine power to provide beyond any human expectation or knowledge. Now we see that the two are connected. Jesus is using the catch of fish to compare the lesser to the greater. 

This strengthening of faith leads to great joy. Joy is a fruit of the Spirit, and Elizabeth, John in the womb, and Mary, are all filled with great joy at the news of the Lord’s work. Trusting in God, they cannot help but be joyful when they hear of his fulfilled promises. That is a great thing other Christians can console with, pointing to those fulfilled promises when everything seems black. Brin...

Therefore, be wary about who your guides are, that they aren’t blind. There are many guides in this world who have some sort of goodness. They do things that seem good and helpful. Jesus even told the disciples to do what the pharisees said, but not what they do, because they were hypocrites. You cannot just follow anyone who seems to be right in your own eyes

Sermon by guest preacher, Rev. Jim Kress

We cannot look to Providence for how God feels toward us, but must look to Christ

This is the same story which gets repeated throughout history. Whether it’s a person, like Nimrod, or an idea, like the tower and the city, man in his sin always tries to form some kind of greatness without God. Like the people of Babel turned away from the teaching of Noah, so it always begins with the current authority being the enemy. We first throw off the 4th commandment authority God has put...

The good news is that even in Ezekiel’s time, God promised that what He will do for us is not for our sake or what we have done. We will not sanctify His name. We will not be the ones who need to make God holy. He will sanctify His own name, for His holy name’s sake. The good that God will do, the gifts that He will grant, will come from the promises He has made from Himself, from His own desires.

In Jesus’ ascension he has gone to heaven, the highest heavens, and is at the right hand of God. Despite the ascension being an upward motion, Jesus has not moved to a space that is both up and far away. Heaven cannot be reached by any rocket, over any amount of time. Heaven is the unseen place wherever God is. So Jesus is with God the Father, He is not seen, and still He says to us, “I am with yo...

The process of growing is necessary to make a real plant. It’s more than just appearances. This is an analogy for the Christian life. It is never about appearances. If it is about appearance to you, then the one you are deceiving most of all is yourself. This is what James says in chapter 1 – “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Just has Christ displayed in His glorious resurrection, there is never a change in any promises that God gives. James is telling us that we receive these gifts from God by faith. This is not really talking about first article gifts, our physical needs, but third article, the spiritual gifts which we receive from God concerning our new life and salvation. In these things God does not change. Given...

Therefore, the focus for our meditation today is the words of Peter in the epistle, “Beloved, I bed you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having you conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers thy may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.” Peter calls Christians sojourne...

You probably know it’s easy to be good when everyone is good to you. Jesus in His earthly ministry was continually attacked by the chief priests, scribes, and pharisees. They tried to tempt Him, test Him, and plotted to kill Him. Then there were of course many more well-meaning people making demands on Him. The disciples needed to be taught and not getting it. The people making Him physically wear...

The foundation of that forgiveness is what Jesus shows them – the pierced hands and the wounds in His side. This is the Crucified one, the one who was given over as a sacrifice for their sins. The foundation of their peace is Christ’s atoning death, and the proof of it’s working is His resurrected body right before them. Everything that they need to know is right there in the room – the crucified...

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...