St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

We are able to continue with the daily death to sin and rising to repentance because we trust in the promise of the final resurrection. Without knowing that this promise is true, we would be like those who don’t believe in any resurrection -let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. We hold to resurrection to eternal life by faith.

Worry and walking in the Spirit are opposed to one another. One cannot be overcome by worry and also be walking in the Spirit.

Jesus says, “truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes Him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” Note that Jesus says “Truly truly I say to you.” This means it is something that Jesus really wants to get across, really wants everyone to pay attention to. This is not some side comment but something essential. Jesus g...

Christ only draws all people to himself as the crucified one. Preached at NID Circuit S17 Winkel

Everyone wants the fruits of the Spirit.

Have you ever gone to one of those u-pick blueberry farms?

Jesus heals many people throughout His ministry, but reading the healing can seem kind of shallow. It’s like a getting a “wish you were here” postcard from someone on vacation. Good for you, but this only makes me feel worse that I’m still stuck here at work. So what is the promise for you in this healing that Jesus does for this deaf and mute man? By this healing, Jesus is concretely declaring th...

Let not your hearts be troubled. Jesus says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

You have probably been told at times to repent. You probably understand that the Christian life is one of repentance, or you have heard that said. Maybe you understand that we are saved by Jesus, by grace through faith alone, and not by works. Yet you also know that repentance fits in there somewhere. The action of changing your mind, living in a different way than you did before. After all, that’...

Expending resources, wisdom, and energy toward eternal rewards is the best investment.

Guest sermon by Rev. Richard Bellas

Guest preacher - Rev. Richard Bellas

We know as Christians that Mary received a great blessing, and so did she, but then she does something strange, or at least unexplained. She goes with haste from Nazareth to the hill country of Judah. She goes from one part of the country to the other to visit her relative, Elizabeth.

Today is the true birthday of the Lutheran Church, June 25, 1530, the date of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession. In 28 articles, the Augsburg Confession defines from scripture what it means to be Lutheran, which is no less than to believe the true gospel of Jesus Christ, free from errors and impurities.

Although this genuine call goes out, and the invited guests hear it, they all alike begin to make excuses. All these excuses are lame excuses. No one buys a field before he goes out to see it, or a yoke of oxen, nor does marrying a wife forbid someone from coming. This is not a case of God’s call being at the wrong time, it’s the people decide they don’t want what He is offering and therefore make...

Saint Barnabas is one of the fathers of the faith who is probably not well known to most people. More people are aware of St Paul of course, or even St Nicholas and St Valentine. But we actually know a lot more about Barnabas than we know about those other two. Barnabas is a prominent man in the early church, a companion of Paul on his first missionary journeys. As Luke writes in Acts, Barnabas wa...

Nicodemus here is a step ahead of the other Pharisees who hate Jesus, but not much. The wisdom of the world isn’t much interested in what God is interested in. The world loves show and things that the eyes see. It loves great buildings, amazing miracles, and mighty works. God is interested in faith. He is interested in salvation. He is interested in birth and rebirth. This rebirth, being born agai...

By the Holy Spirit, all people in the church who believed in Christ were boldly confessing the truths of the creed, that Jesus is Lord, He is the God of the Old Testament, the Son of the God who has taken on human flesh to save the world. His coming has begun the last days. As Christ has finished His work on earth, He now on Pentecost begins His work by the Holy Spirit through the church, to conti...

Jesus knows the disciples will naturally, in their sinful flesh, want to think back to the days when they were with Jesus, and not the post-Ascension future. It will seem strange and scary to be without Jesus, how can the kingdom of God continue if He is not there personally with them? Jesus gives them three important assurances here for after his resurrection: 1.    Jesus will send the Helper, th...

Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon king. And all the people rejoiced and said: God save the King! Long live the King! God save the King! May the King live for ever. Amen. Hallelujah.

Jesus says, “In that day you will not ask me anything.” What is “that day”? We have to remember a couple weeks back, Jesus talks about two little whiles. A little while, and you will see me no longer, and again a little while, and you will see me. Jesus is talking about being taken away from the disciples as he is arrested and goes to the cross, crucified, and buried. Then after a little while, th...

Those who are in the know say this account written by St. Luke in the book of Acts is the most detailed account of a shipwreck in the ancient world in existence. There are all sorts of geographic points and nautical terms, and amid them is the continuing story of the Apostle Paul. Paul is traveling to Rome from Jerusalem by ship, to stand trial before Caesar. He is a prisoner, under guard of a cen...

This morning we return again to the Upper Room on the night when Jesus was betrayed, Maundy Thursday night, to hear his farewell address to his disciples. Last week we heard about the joy of the resurrection that Jesus here promises they will receive – a little while and they will not see him, and again a little while and they will see him and their sorrow will turn into joy. This joy is based not...

See, these little whiles are over, and now we live in the redeemed time, the time of the year of Our Lord, the time of the resurrection. We have now in the resurrection life given by Christ the gift of the eternal joy of the resurrection.

The people escaped bondage in Egypt, but then did not recognize the Shepherd who freed them. They were like sheep freed from wolves who wandered from their shepherd who saved them. While they were physically freed, they showed by their rejection of the sacrifice made for them that they were still in bondage in their souls, in bondage to sin.