St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

Jesus is Risen from the dead, but sinful and fallible human beings still need his help to believe, and even believing, we need His help to be strengthened. Yet it is through these same fallible human beings that Jesus works in giving this help and strength. Through crooked sticks he draws straight lines and by the weakness of his ministers His own strength is shown. 

That’s what’s so much better about Jesus’ message than any other. You can hold it as a precious promise for the future, but it’s not from someone far away. He is Here, He is risen. He is strengthening you to believe it more every time you read it in faith, holding those words in your heart. So receive Him not with fear and trembling, but like little children, hearing their new favorite story. All...

Audio was cut off due to technical difficulties - here is the end of the sermon: The angel of the Lord demonstrates how easy it will be. Moving the stone? Try moving the whole earth. Guards, already comatose with fear. The dead Christ? He is risen from the dead, and already has gone ahead of you to Galilee. Catch up! He was dead, but you’re the one’s who are late. He gathers his people in Galilee...

Here Nicodemus sees the Son of Man who was lifted up and believes. We know he believes because He joins his fellow councilman, Joseph of Arimathea, in asking Pilate to take Jesus’ body for burial. What can they do at this point? Can they hope in the resurrection? Joseph gives his new tomb, just cut out, not far from the cross. Nicodemus buys much expensive ointment to anoint Jesus’ body. It’s not...

God regards those who are humble before them. Those who are most in need and call upon Him, he wants to know more and more closely. Those who set themselves up as great, he generally ignores. This is the opposite of how you usually think. You like to think that God is close to you if you are successful, and far when you struggle. The fear of the powerful in this world is compounded by thinking goo...

Many of you have probably been involved at sometime in your life in the distribution of an inheritance. Someone close to you had left their last will and testament and it decreed that something they treasured would be given to you. Maybe this was as a child, and you just received something from a grandparent, or as an adult maybe you had to be involved in all the legal proceedings. Possibly the in...

Readings from Isaiah 53 and the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to St. Luke. Devotional reading from The Timetable of The Lord's Passion by Valerius Herberger, translated by Matthew Carver. Devotional can be purchased on Lulu: https://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-carver/timetable-of-the-lords-passion/ebook/product-r5v85n.html?q=herberger&page=1&pageSize=4

Reading from John 12:1-36 / Devotion from The Timetable of Our Lord's Passion by Valerius Herberger, translated by Matthew Carver. Devotional book can be purchase here: https://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-carver/timetable-of-the-lords-passion/ebook/product-r5v85n.html?q=herberger&page=1&pageSize=4

Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Mark, New King James Version. Devotion from Valerius Herberger, Timetable of The Lord's Passion, translated by Matthew Carver. Ebook which contains this devotion is for sale on Lulu - https://www.lulu.com/shop/matthew-carver/timetable-of-the-lords-passion/ebook/product-r5v85n.html?q=herberger&page=1&pageSize=4

The devil loves to work in secret. His attack against Jesus at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in the temptation in the wilderness was in secret, out alone with no one around. That is part of the temptation – no one is around, certainly no one else will know. There is no one there to correct a wrong, no one who can call you out, no one to put you to public shame. When the devil can’t come against...

Kings come up all over this discussion between Jesus and the Jews, although they use different words for them. 

You could answer, well – it was only a test! Yes it was a test, but Abraham could not know that. Just like you don’t know the outcome of whatever you are going through in your life, but must trust in God to guide with His Word. Abraham knew that God promised that this son, his only son, Isaac, would be the father of a great nation. He also knew that God wanted him to sacrifice the boy. There could...

You are probably familiar with the prophecy of the virgin bearing a son, and calling Him, Emmanuel, quoted in the Christmas story in Matthew and also referenced and fulfilled here in Luke. Where does this prophecy come from? It was not just something mysteriously written down in the depths of time, but comes from the word of the prophet Isaiah in the time of King Ahaz of Judah.

This is something like what the pharisees act like here with the blind man – so smart they are stupid. They are so overwhelmed by their rules and how they see the world how they have interpreted Moses, that they refused to see a miracle right in front of them – a man born blind, healed by Jesus Christ. They are completely blinded themselves to the work of God.

We have been talking about spiritual warfare, there is need for supply and sustenance as we are in spiritual war in this life. Maybe you know there is a fight here, that you cannot fight on your own, but you must know where to receive the source of supply. Jesus is the source of our sustenance – he is the bread of life.

One may connect things being old with being traditional, like a way of craftsmanship that has been passed down for years. Traditional can take on other meanings – like some people would say we have “traditional” worship – which could take on the implied meaning of old, formal, or even stuffy depending on whom you talk to. But Jesus is not talking about the ancient provenance or the style of the co...

Jesus casts out a demon which is making a man mute, and people become angry at Jesus. One would think that casting out a demon so a man can speak would generally be thought of as a good thing. Why criticize Jesus, even calling him a demon? It would be like getting angry at a doctor who healed someone. As no one would say they are pro-disease, no one would claim to be pro-demon. But here we have me...

A mother brings a request to Jesus for the sake of her children, but it’s different from the mother’s request we heard on Sunday. 

This area was never really under Israel’s control, though David and Solomon were in friendly relations with King Hiram, who gave them cedars to make the temple. Tyre and Sidon were known as a place where Israelites would go to pick up idolatrous practices of the Canaanites. The Canaanites were the children of Ham who the Israelites were supposed to completely wipe out when they came to the promise...

When Jesus is talking many times in this gospel lesson about a this “wicked and adulterous generation” he is not speaking about generations in this way, as if he is looking down on those born with his parents or the next generation coming up. Generation means those born at a certain time, but it also means a kind, a class, a group – those who flock together with certain similarities. And the group...

The Lord is calling his people Israel through Joel to return to the Lord with all their heart – with fasting, mourning, and weeping, rending their hearts, and not their garments – this is done by publicly calling everyone together to fasting and prayer, to seek deliverance from God. They have been told that a great plague of locusts is descending on them, a time of judgment, yet if they apply to G...

Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! This is our central creed.

We would assume that Isaiah is sent to proclaim this revelation of God, his glory to the people, so they would hear and turn back to God. It’s actually the opposite. Isaiah is called to tell the people, Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not to perceive. Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes – lest they see with their eyes and hea...

So we get to the parable – the kingdom of heaven is like a man – a man with a vineyard. Remember the man is who the kingdom of heaven is like. For the kingdom of heaven is the reign of Jesus Christ. Jesus is explaining how his lordship works, especially regarding Peter’s question of what the disciples will receive.

That Jesus came into humble circumstances was not a coincidence. God did not randomly choose to have his Son born poor instead of rich. The God of Lord of all did not just come into poor means but came in humility to serve. His humble estate shows both his service to us, to suffer for us, and to suffer with us, to take on all things we do. As Hebrews states, “Since therefore the children share in...