St. Paul's Lockport Sermons

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...

Let us then be bold like Christ and Matthew and say, follow Christ. Understand that true mercy is to tell the truth of the gospel – repentance and forgiveness of sins in Christ. People must be brought to recognize their disease – they are sinners and cannot save themselves. Then they can receive the doctor – a divine Physician who only comes for sinners. A doctor who heals every patient and is par...

How did Jesus know when His earthly ministry was finished and it was time to go to the cross? Some Greeks came and said, "Sir we wish to see Jesus." Jesus must die on the cross, be lifted up to draw all peoples to himself. He must die and rise so that all who die in Him can live eternally. "Where my servant is, there will I be also." If the world hated Christ, it will hate His servants. If Christ...

“Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” If we must become like children to receive the kingdom of God, and we receive the kingdom by faith, then children must be able to have faith! It is essential that we bring children to Jesus that they receive faith by the Holy Spirit in baptism and grow in faith for their entire lives.

Today we have an excellent example in the lectionary of a pairing between the gospel reading and the Old Testament. At first, it may seem like a parable of Jesus isn’t very like Cain and Abel, one of the oldest accounts from the book of Genesis. We can look closer and see that Jesus is pulling a very similar theme to what he had Moses record thousands of years before. We have in both two men comin...

If you did a search by name “Bartholomew” in your Bible, you would not find much on him. He is listed as one of the twelve apostles in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. The Augsburg confession says that we remember the saints in our church in order that we may emulate their faith and example, according to our callings. What is Bartholomew’s example, being on some lists?

Guest sermon by Rev. Rich Bellas

Guest sermon by Rev. Richard Bellas

Today in the gospel reading, we have Jesus saying to us, and to Joan, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” While Joan worked hard in her life, now she has come to her final rest. Her funeral today is a confession of that rest. 

God gave Adam a home, but Adam sought "freedom" outside of God's Word in the wilderness. Christ comes into our wilderness and feeds us, gives us a home. Holding to Christ, we have an eternal home today in the church which will last into eternity when Christ returns.

There is a common misconception that because of Jesus, there is no law. But Jesus says, "I have not come to abolish the law, but fulfill it." and "Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." How do we obtain that higher righteousness?

What does the Christian life look like when we are brought into the ship by the gospel? We live in concord, of one mind, having compassion, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, humble-minded. This is how Christ feels about us. From His compassion He has saved us, so we live in this way toward our brothers.

Last week, we heard about the God who finds the lost, that the angels, all heaven, and true Christians rejoice when the lost is found. No one should begrudge those who have turned from their wicked way and come to God in repentance. Such a brother should receive forgiveness and reconciliation. Since we only agree with that in the general case, this week’s lessons push on us a little bit. When it’s...