1 Corinthians 15:56-58

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Our devotion today is based on First Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 56.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Corinthians 15:56-57)

Back in 1933, during construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, unemployed men would stand waiting at the foot of the bridge to see if other workers up on the bridge would end up falling to their death, hoping to take their place and take their jobs. They were 750ft high in the air, and ultimately 11 men fell to their death during that construction.

Our text talks about the sting of death. There’s kind of a double pain when it comes to death. The hurt that takes place, just like venom going into our veins, has a double impact. It’s hard to watch other people die in our families, and to see loved ones have to deal with loss. But it also points each of us to our own mortality when we watch people go through it as well. On Good Friday, the evil serpent of the devil dug his fangs into the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who took that venom. But he has then come out alive, victorious, and he himself has now become the very antidote of death itself. That’s why Paul says he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And in a sense, Jesus has defanged your death. All this is now yours, this victory of Christ, through a little activity that God places in your heart the gift of faith to trust in Jesus as your Savior. And the mission of the church is to implant that faith in us and to cause it to grow so that we can ultimately be death defiers, just like our Lord Jesus. Because of this victory, we can now stand over the graves of our loved ones who have fallen asleep, asleep in Christ, and sing wonderful hymns of victory. I know that my Redeemer lives, and so on. I remember at my mom’s funeral, I just love singing a hymn verse that had this line in it. I’m going to quote, and every time I sing it, it makes me think of her victory as well, and her now life in heaven. This is the line: Death itself is transitory. I shall lift my head in glory.

Death is now nothing but a passing for us. When they were building the Golden Gate Bridge, they designed a safety net, finally, because so many had died that would catch the workers below. And it saved the lives of 19 men. They called themselves jokingly, the Halfway to Hell Club because they felt that they had cheated death. And the man who came up with that idea knew that it would save lives. But he also knew that it would give greater confidence to those who were doing the work. The resurrection of Jesus Christ not only spares us from our future death and giving us life. In that way, it’s the ultimate safety net, but it also gives us tremendous confidence to carry out the work and things that we do on behalf of God’s church.

And that’s why Paul concludes this section with these words, knowing that we have the resurrection, our own Easter coming.

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)

May God grant all of us a blessed celebration of our Lord’s Easter and our own future easters. Amen.

1 John 4:10, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12

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What’s the most dangerous letter in the alphabet for a Christian? I think it’s the letter I.

Sometimes in confirmation class, I will ask my students how do you know you’re right with God? How do you know? How can you be confident that you have eternal life with him? And they will say, well, I believe in him. I would say, I believe in Jesus. And then they often go on and say, and I pray, and I try to do all these things. And while saying, I believe in Jesus is in the right direction, the way they say it, and especially how they then go on to say, well, then I pray and I try to do what God wants. I start to realize there’s an issue with that letter, that one letter word I.

So quickly, even when talking about believing in Jesus, we can turn our focus to the fact that I believe. We can start to make it. About what I do. As if faith is some power I have. And so I tell them you’re in the right direction, but you know what? Just cut the “I” out of there. Just take it, take it out. How are you right with God? Jesus died for me. How do you have faith? The Holy Spirit gave it to me. Take the “I” out.

I mean, after all, 1 John 4:10 says this. It says

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

So Jesus is the payment. That word propitiation, I know it’s a fancy word, but it’s Jesus laid down his life to die for your sins and mine. He covers our sins so we could be at one with God, restored, redeemed. Our sins, separated us from God. There’s nothing we could do to set ourselves right with God. Jesus did it all. I had nothing to do with earning that. It’s all about Jesus.

And now even the faith that we have. First Corinthians 2:10-12 talks about these things God has revealed to us.

These are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. (1 Corinthians 2:10-12)

How do you know the things of God? How do you believe? It’s because the Holy Spirit has given you the gift of faith. He has given you a new heart and opened you up to a new mind to really believe the things of God. So now, as a Christian, yes, do I take hold of my faith now that I’m brought to faith? Yes. But why not just take the word I out of it? Because I so often turns back to depending on me and it’s really all about him. God the Father’s love. Jesus’ is death and resurrection, his life for us, the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. Take “I” out of it.

1 Corinthians 10:1-10

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It’s important to know your history. If you don’t know your history, then you’re likely to make the same mistakes that other people have in the past. The Apostle Paul in First Corinthians chapter ten warns God’s people to learn from Israel’s history. He says,

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. (1 Corinthians 10:1-5)

So he says, all right, there’s people who saw the glory of God. He rescued them. They saw his great deliverance. They were aligned with Moses. They were baptized into Moses. They were following him, and they were following the Lord. And yet many of them turned away, even though they had Christ and His Word right there with them. So take this as a warning, he says.

Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. (1 Corinthians 10:6-10)

He gives all these examples from Israelite history, and there’s lots of applications a Christian can make for all of this. We’re going to focus on one, the last one, because I think this is a challenge for long term Christians. Verse ten says, and do not grumble, as some of them did and were killed by the destroying angel. God says that our grumbling or complaining, our criticism is actually a really dangerous thing. And he’s making these allusions to Israelite history. And here’s one of the ones that’s going through his mind.

God’s people are coming, and they’re just not happy with the leadership. So they go to Moses and Aaron, their spiritual leaders, and they say, hey, we’re all God’s people. Why are you taking the lead here? Let’s overthrow them. Then they start to stage this revolt. And at this point, you’d think that their spiritual leaders would just say, no, stop this. But they actually say, well, let’s check in with God on this. We’ll see if God does something dramatic here. We’ll see who he’s actually chosen as a leader. And God does.

They have all the rebellious people stand off by themselves, and the earth opens and swallows them up. And then God sends a plague that starts ravaging the people. And there are just people dying in rows and lines, you would imagine. What is Aaron, the high priest who’s been appointed by God but has been rebelled against, what does he do? He takes his censer of burning incense, and he just runs into the ranks of people. You can picture people dropping like flies all around him until he gets to the end and stops the plague.

These people that were rebelling against him, he still loves them and cares about them. And he does what high priests do: stand between God and mankind and atone for, cover their sinfulness, and plead for them.

We get a picture of Jesus doing something like this too for people like me and you, who often do grumble and complain. People who start to think that criticism is a spiritual gift. No, it’s not. And we see Jesus come into our world where people are dropping like flies apart from Christ, and he runs into our world, ready to live perfectly for us and to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the world, to shed his blood so that we can be forgiven and so that we can live.

And Jesus would be swallowed up into the heart of the earth, too, in a way, as he dies on the cross and as he’s buried in the grave. But that couldn’t hold him. As he takes all of our sins, he rises victorious, leaving them in the grave, leaving them out of God’s sight. And you stand forgiven. And really, we stand ready to live a different kind of a life, not criticizing and complaining in negative ways, but instead focused on one mission: getting to the promised land and bringing as many people with us as we can. And instead of saying, I don’t like how that’s being done, saying, how can I help? How can I share my Savior? How can we work together? God bless you as we do that.

1 Corinthians 7:1-2

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Are you single? How do you view your singleness as a Christian? Do you view it as a unique station in life that God has placed you in? Or do you view it as a burden to bear or a problem to solve? Saint Paul in First Corinthians chapter seven tells us that being single is good. You might wonder how so? Well, there’s many people in our world that say being single is good because they say it means sexual freedom. It means that they can sleep around with whoever they want, whenever they want.

That is the exact opposite of what Saint Paul means when he tells us that being single is good. In fact, first Corinthians chapter seven, verse one tells us

Now concerning the things you wrote: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. But because of sexual sins, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband. (1 Corinthians 7:1-2 EHV)

God plainly tells us, while being single is good, if that sexual desire is so strong that it’s going to lead us to sin, it’s better for us to marry. Yet there are individuals that God has blessed with a special gift. They’re not so tempted to regularly fall into sexual sin. Individuals that are able to live a single life without falling into those sins that are so prevalent in society. And God encourages them in His Word in First Corinthians chapter seven especially, he wants them to view themselves as given a unique opportunity. And how so? Well, Saint Paul points out that married people have extra obligations that single people don’t.

Married people have obligations to a spouse, obligations to their children. Where single people don’t have such obligations, and therefore they have more time and more energy to dedicate to serving the Lord. If you are single, have you ever thought of it that way? That God is giving you an opportunity to serve him in your singleness and to really think, what are those things that I could do that maybe I couldn’t do if I was married. What are those ways that I can serve the Lord or serve his church?

Now, I know there are a lot of people, some that are happy being single and able to live out their lives as single people without giving much thought for marriage. But there are other people that really wish they were married, and maybe even resent God, that he has not yet given them a spouse to be married to. What about all of those people? Well, God would have you either way, whether you desire to be married or not, to view your singleness as a good thing and desire to live your life for him.

And how can you do that? Or why would you do that? Well, it’s good for us to think about Jesus. Jesus lived a single life for you, didn’t he? He used his singlehood or singleness to live a perfect and holy life, dedicated not to himself, but to others, to service of others, especially you and me, to even give that single life on a cross for all of our sins, whether they be sexual sins or resentment against God for the circumstances that he has placed us in. All of them were born upon his own shoulders as he was desiring to serve you with his entire life. And he encourages you now to live for him, to live your life, whether married or single, dedicated to the one who gave his life for you, knowing what he has accomplished through it eternal life.

And I want you to think about that eternal life. What does the Bible tell us that eternal life is going to be like? It’s going to be a single life, isn’t it? The Bible tells us that there is no marriage in heaven, but we are going to live our lives in heaven perfectly as single people, forever serving the Lord. May God help us to do exactly that even now, to live our lives for Christ, who has given his single life for us. Amen.

Matthew 14:22-33, Genesis 1:26-27, 2 Peter 1:4

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Is the Christian faith primarily a red light faith or a green light faith? Here’s what I mean. Is the Christian faith primarily about telling you what not to do, or inviting you into doing and living and experiencing something more? The more I dig into God’s Word, the more I see it is completely a green light faith. I mean, don’t get me wrong. There are things that Scripture tells us not to do. There are definitely things that the world very much endorses today that scripture would say, no, don’t do that. But the reason why it gives us a red light to some things is really to give us a green light to so much more.

Recently, I was studying the account of when Jesus’ disciples are out on a boat at night and Jesus walks out to them on the water, and we’re told that there’s the wind and the waves, and they’re walking out there. (Matthew 14:22-33) And Jesus disciples, when they see him, they freak out. They say it’s a ghost. And Jesus says, it is. I’d take courage, you know, do not be afraid. And then Peter, Peter says, one of the craziest things I have ever heard in my life. I just do not know what prompted him to say this, but he says, if it’s you, Lord, tell me to come out on the water. Like what? How do you go from everybody in the boat thinking it’s a ghost to the next thing, okay, tell me to come out on the water. If I was the other disciples, I’d be like, what? Are you crazy, Peter? But that wasn’t Jesus’s response. Jesus says come.

And so then Peter gets out and he actually walks on water. There comes a point where he does doubt and he does sink. But then Jesus is right there. And while we do see that, he did start to doubt and sink. We need to not skip over the fact that he actually walked on water like Jesus. In the original language, the word is it’s a compound word, which means it kind of amplifies things. It says he walked around on the water. He went on a water walk. Like Jesus. I’ve known for a long time that Peter walked on the water, but it wasn’t until recently that it dawned on me that it was Peter’s idea. It wasn’t like Jesus was like, hey, Peter, here’s a challenge. I want to see you walk in the water. Peter came up with it. It just seems wild and just audacious and just so bold.

And yet when I think about the story of Scripture, I realize maybe it’s not so crazy after all. If you go back to Genesis, we are told that God created humanity to be in his image and his likeness. (Genesis 1:26-27) Not that we physically look like God, but that we were able to live in a way that looked like God, live in a way that showcased his goodness and his greatness, his love, his character. So we’re here to do things and live in a way that looks like God. And so then when I think about Peter looking out at Jesus and saying, okay, you can do that, I want to do it too. Well, maybe it’s not so crazy after all. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all of us should try to walk on water like Jesus, but there is something to the fact that God created us to live in a way and do things that look like Jesus. To live in a way that looks like God.

Now, unfortunately, sin broke all that, and we don’t naturally live in a way that looks like God. And I wonder today if that reality has sometimes prompted us to not look at Jesus as boldly as Peter did. Do we say, Jesus, I want to live like you and I want to look like you? Or do we just stay in the boat? Sometimes realizing that we are sinful people and that we are going to sin again, we can actually kind of use it as a cop out. We can say, well, I’m going to sin again anyways, so we don’t even try to look more like Jesus. We just expect, well, I’m going to fail anyway. But I had this professor in seminary who had this great line. He said, don’t deny the miracle. The Spirit of God lives inside of you. Jesus did die for you. You are a new creation. You’ve been washed clean in the waters of baptism. If you are someone who’s been confirmed and you take the Lord’s Supper, you are connected to Christ himself. And so it makes sense to say, Jesus where you are. I want to be there too. I want to live like you. Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come. And what we see with Peter is Jesus loves to say come.

Then when we step out of the boat, are we going to start going down into the water like Peter? Yes, we will, but every single time we do Jesus is there to pull us back up out of the water. He died for you. He rose again. You’re forgiven. You are right with God. And invited by God now to look at Jesus and say, Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come. It talks in chapter one of second Peter, about how we get to be participants in the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4) What? In 1 Corinthians 15 talks about how when we work hard, it’s actually God who’s working in and through us. We get to be part of what God is doing. We are being renewed in the image and likeness of God. God is working in us. So let’s step out of the boat. Let’s look and see. Jesus, I want to live like you. I want to love others like you. I want to live by faith like you. I know I’m not going to do it perfect, but every time I sink, you will pull me up. So, Lord, if it’s to you. And if you want me to come, say come. Let’s be willing to step where our Savior is today. Let’s see what happens.

1 Corinthians 10:1-3, Colossians 1:13

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Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! It is the joyful Easter season right now in the church, and it’s such a wonderful time. I remember as a kid just going into church early on Easter morning and smelling those Easter lilies and that fresh baked bread and muffins and that Easter breakfast that was cooking in the oven. What a wonderful, joyous, celebratory feast that Easter can be for us as Christians, as we rejoice in everything that Jesus our Savior did for us.

Interesting family tradition we always had at Easter time was the old movie The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston was always on TV and we would watch that. And I always remember that it was a striking movie, right? And it tells the story of the Exodus, God’s people, the children of Israel, how they were able to be delivered from slavery in Egypt. He led them out by a mighty hand. The ten plagues that he worked to get Pharaoh to let his people go. And then they went, traveled out of Egypt and God led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. What a miracle. And you always remember that image of Moses standing there with the waters being separated. This is a beautiful picture for us as Christians of our baptism. Saint Paul tells us in first Corinthians chapter ten he writes,

For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea [The Red Sea], and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And all ate the same spiritual food. (1 Corinthians 10:1-3)

The children of Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea, and this was a picture of their liberation from slavery to Pharaoh. For us in baptism, we are set free from a very real Pharaoh. That Pharaoh is the devil, Satan. He was the one who once held us in slavery to sin and fear. And he made us do the works of iniquity, and we were pushed around by him and abused by him. But then our Savior Jesus came to set us free. Jesus is the greater Moses who showed up on the scene and delivered us from the devil. And he did this by his death on the cross, where he paid for all of our sins. He took the punishment for our sins upon himself, and he ransomed us and paid the ransom price for us so that we might be free, so that we would be set free from the devil’s dominion of darkness. As Saint Paul tells us in Colossians one,

For he [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son. (Colossians 1:13)

And so we pass through the waters of Holy Baptism. We’ve been set free from that old Pharaoh, Satan. We’ve been set free from our sins and from death. And now we journey together as Christians on our way to our promised land, and we journey through the desert wilderness that is this world. We know this place isn’t our permanent residence. We pitch our tents here for a while, for a time in this life. But we’re journeying together toward our promised land, the promised land of heaven, God’s heavenly kingdom, where Jesus is leading us to as his dear followers.

So we follow him through this life, and he provides for us on the way. He feeds us even with bread from heaven, with manna from heaven. We think about in Holy Communion, where we receive his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. We’re journeying together and Jesus is leading us, and one day we’ll pass into our promised land. We’ll cross over the waters of death, and there be with our God forever and joy and in peace. And what a comfort this is to us. And what a beautiful picture the Exodus story is of our baptisms. And so we rejoice that Christ has brought us over. We have passed over with our Lord Jesus from death to life. With him we have all things, we are forgiven and we have eternal life. And so all thanks and praise be to Jesus, our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23

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It’s been a bit of a weird winter here in Minnesota. You get up in the morning and it’s like 20 to 30 degrees outside. You go out, you get your car started, you warm it up, you defrost the windows, maybe you chuck on another layer or maybe even a coat. But then by around noon you get outside and it’s like 50 or 60. You have to take off a couple layers. By the time you get home, you’re probably thinking it’d be a good day to put on a short sleeve shirt, go take a walk. Just kind of bask in this little taste of spring.

There’s a certain sense in which Christ is like one of those little tastes of spring. But he’s more than that. He’s a ray of light, not just from a new season, but from a new creation that we can see in his resurrection from the dead on our behalf. Paul says it in this way in First Corinthians chapter 15,

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. (1 Corinthians 15:20-23)

There’s a certain sense in which we’re all born into a kind of spiritual winter. It’s cold and dark all around us, in our lives and within us. Outside of us, we suffer. We undergo pain and emotional trouble. And finally death comes to all of us and makes our bodies cold. But more than that, and worse than that, our hearts are also cold and dark. We do not really properly understand or grasp the goodness of God and the goodness of the kind of life he wants us to have, and even when we do understand it, in some degree, our hearts are kind of cold towards it. We don’t really want to obey it. We kind of want to fulfill it a little bit and then get it off to the side so we can get back to doing those things in the dark that we would prefer to do for ourselves, the things we like to do.

And that sort of cold and dark in us if we want to really fix it, it’s not something that we can resolve on our own end. It’s kind of like if you tried to take two pieces of ice and sort of rub them together and hope you get fire out of it, it just doesn’t work. And that doesn’t come from us individually, ultimately, we’re born into this condition. It came from the first man, Adam, who was born in a sort of spiritual spring. He walked with God in light and warmth and love. And yet he and his wife, Eve chose to eat of the fruit God had commanded them not to eat. They sinned against him. They tried to find those things apart from him. And because God is himself, light and warmth and love apart from him, we can have none of those things. We grow cold and dark.

But that doesn’t mean we’re without hope, because the love of God is such that His Son, the second person of the Trinity, entered into the world as its light and as the consuming fire, who took on our sin and death into his own body and suffered it, consumed it therein in his death. But more than that, he displayed the light and glory and love of God in his resurrection on our behalf, so that he’s a sort of taste of the spring to come, so that even now he sends us His Holy Spirit, who comes into our hearts and teaches us to know him. He enlightens us, but he also gives us warmth. He teaches us to thaw our icy hearts and to begin to really love those gifts God has given us.

And even more than that, the day will come when the resurrected Christ shines his light upon us and raises us from the dead. And when we reflect that light and warmth of God, and live in it with him in perfect love forever, by the power of His Son, by the power of His Holy Spirit in us, and for the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Exodus 14, 1 Corinthians 10:13

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One of the most iconic scenes from the Old Testament has to be when Moses led the Children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. The armies of Pharaoh were chasing after him, and soon they found themselves wedged up against the Red Sea. In front of them was a watery grave, and behind them the soldiers and chariots of Pharaoh ready to cut them to bits. It seems as if no human escape was possible. But God had a plan. He had Moses hold his staff over the water, and soon the entire Red Sea was split in half, and the Israelites were able to escape on dry land. (Exodus 14)

This is an excellent reminder of how God is willing to work for our good even in seemingly impossible situations, and is one of the big points that Saint Paul writes about in first Corinthians ten, verse 13.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

This may sound all well and good to us, but how often do we practice this in our lives? When our bank accounts low and the rent’s coming due, how often do we trust in our own strength, our own abilities to deal with these and other problems? And when things don’t work out like we want them to? How often do we complain to God? God, what’s going on? I thought you wouldn’t give me anything more than I can bear!

How do we make sense of what Paul says here? The way to understand this is to realize that on our own strength, we aren’t able to bear things on our own. Far too often, we put our trust in our own strength, or in our money, or in the people we know. And far too often, these things disappoint. The answer instead lies with God. God is the one who’s created us. He is the one who provides for us. And he is the one who will help us in difficult times. We know this to be true because he has helped us with our greatest problem, that of sin and death.

You see, none of us have lived up perfectly to God’s law, and we deserve nothing more than to be condemned by him. But God helped us out of this seemingly impossible situation. He sent his Son Jesus into the world to live the perfect life that we could not. What’s more, Jesus went to the cross and died on our behalf. And because of his perfect life and his innocent suffering and death, we’ve been reconciled with God. Death has tried to swallow up Jesus, but it could not contain him. And he was able to escape its jaws of the tomb on Easter Sunday, showing once and for all his total victory.

And Jesus is still with us today. Through His Word we read about what he has done for us, and that gives us the strength to endure our trials. It’s because we don’t find our strength in ourselves, but rather we find our strength in Christ. If God was willing to give his only Son to die for us, how much more is he willing to be with us in our problems? He encourages us to pray to him, to ask him for help. Now, it may be that the answer to our prayers may not come as fast as we want, or it may not be the answer that we were hoping for. But God promises that he is working all things for our good. Beside His Word, God also gives us people in our lives, resources, such as parents, pastors, family, friends, all of these we can lean on in difficult times. And with all of this, we can be certain that because Christ has solved the biggest problem of our salvation, he is also willing to be with us in all temptation and provide us a means of escape.

1 Corinthians 15:56-57

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The eagle on my shirt is for the Evergreen Lutheran High School Eagles and number 21, that’s the number that my daughter wears. She plays soccer on the women’s soccer team. Soccer is an interesting sport in that unlike other sports that have a clock, a set time, soccer has a set time, 80 minutes in high school, 90 minutes professionally. But when that clock runs out, that’s not the end of the match. The referee on the field is actually in charge of when the match officially ends, and he may add some time at the end of the 80 or 90 minutes as he sees fit. Maybe he feels as if some time was lost or some time was wasted. So it’s up to him.

But now, if you’re a fan or, you know, watching your kid play, or if you’re a player and you’re ahead, it’s just really interesting time. You’re on pins and needles. You’re waiting until the match is over, waiting to hear that final whistle. And so you’re playing, you keep going and finally you hear it [whistle blows 3 times] and that’s it. It’s over. You’ve won. And you can finally rest and you can celebrate and rejoice in your victory.

Another thing about soccer is there, like any sport, there are rules. And one of the rules of soccer has to do with personal fouls. If you foul someone in such an egregious or vicious way, you might get carded. And when you get carded, that means the referee blows his whistle, stops all play on the field and approaches you, and he’ll fish around in his pocket and he will give you a card. And if what you’ve done is especially egregious, he’ll give you a red card. And a red card means you’re out. You are off the field immediately. You’re not allowed to play anymore. You’re kicked out of the game, really. And the game to come, the next game, you’re also on the bench. You’re not allowed to play.

That got me thinking about, our sin. Our sin essentially earns us a red card. We, for our sin, we should be kicked out of this life and the life to come. But what Jesus has done for us, it’s not as if he came to this earth as, a pro player, an expert, and he plays alongside of us and with him on our side, we can’t help but win. What Jesus has done instead is he’s taken your red card. He’s taken your sin. He’s taken mine. He’s taken the sin of the entire world on himself, and I try to imagine what that would look like. Jesus with literally billions and billions of red cards. And he paid for each and every offense that we have ever committed.

And so, with our sins, our offenses taken away, he renews us so we can be back out there in this life, playing or back out in this life, going about our work renewed, restored, forgiven. And it’s kind of like getting close to the end of a soccer game now. The victory is ours, but we’re still playing. We’re still out on the pitch, on the field, and we’re waiting. We’re waiting until we can finally rest, until we can finally celebrate that victory. And we’re waiting not for a final whistle. We’re waiting for a final trumpet. And when that trumpet sounds, it will be over. We will be safe in heaven, the life to come. The victory is ours. St. Paul said it this way as he wrote to the Corinthians. First Corinthians 15, verses 56-57

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! (1 Corinthians 15:56-57)

I’m Pastor Tony Pittenger, pastor out at Bethany Lutheran Church in Port Orchard, Washington. And until we see each other again or meet face to face in person, the Lord himself preserve and protect you while we eagerly await for that final, that last trumpet to sound, and we will be at rest, and we will be celebrating the victory that’s been won for us in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ. Until then, God bless and keep all of you. Amen.

1 Corinthians 2:10,12-13

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Saint Augustine, one of the greatest Christian theologians, was writing a book on the Trinity and understandably, having a hard time with it. So he takes for a break to go out on a walk on the beach, and while he’s walking, he sees a little boy, and the boy has dug a hole in the sand and is using a seashell to scoop water from the ocean into the hole. Augustine asks him what he’s doing, and the little boy explains that he’s trying to fit the ocean into the hole. Augustine smiles a little bit and tries to explain to him that you can’t possibly fit the big, vast ocean into that little hole. The boy responds, and you could never possibly understand the Holy Trinity.

God is just beyond us. He’s so vast and big that we can never fit him in our little heads. We can never fully, completely understand him, but we’re in luck. We read from first Corinthians two,

But God revealed it [The Wisdom of God] to us through his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. What we received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we might know the blessings freely given to us by God. We also speak about these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words. (1 Corinthians 2:10, 12-13)

The Holy Spirit, who knows everything about God and is himself. God can communicate this knowledge and wisdom of God to us. Scoop by scoop. Drop by drop. He doesn’t do this through immediate revelation. We don’t get zapped with this knowledge, but it’s in words taught by the Spirit. What the Holy Spirit inspired the authors of the Bible to write. The Bible is not man’s word, but God’s Word. It’s not man’s wisdom, but God’s wisdom, combining spiritual truths with spiritual words. Only through Scripture can we learn what God has done to save us.

From nature, we can tell that there is a God, and from our consciences we can tell that he has rules for us to follow. But only in the Bible can we learn what God has done to save us. Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to forgive all of your sins. That’s something that we can never learn on our own. That’s something that the Holy Spirit working through the word can teach us. Amen.

Romans 3:20, 1 Corinthians 6:11

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Why even try? Why even try to really live out what Jesus says? You know, in the Sermon on the Mount, some of the things he says, they just seem impossible. Why even try? I don’t know if any of us would say that out loud, but I get this sense that subtly sometimes we think that. I mean, after all, God’s Word says that none of us will be declared righteous by following the law. (Romans 3:20) We’re all going to sin, so why even try?

Do you ever think that? Do you ever feel that? And does it ever turn into almost an excuse to just go ahead and sin? Because, well, I’m a sinner anyways. If we ever feel that way, if we ever think, why even try? Scripture does speak to that for us and it gives us some reasons to try to live. No, we do not justify ourselves at all. But Scripture does tell us that we are justified, that we have been changed.

In 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse 11, it says,

And some of you were those types of people.

So talking about all these different sinful behaviors,

but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of the spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:11)

Jesus lived the life we were meant to live, laid it down, and died on a cross. On that cross, he took the justice for everything you and I have ever done wrong. He paid for that. And when he rose again, he rose to give us a new life. And when you were brought to faith in Christ, you were connected to his death and resurrection. You have been made new. When you were baptized into Christ, you were washed clean. You have a new identity now before God, you were that other person, but now you are someone different and that affects how you live.

I remember when I was in fifth grade, I was dating, however that works in fifth grade, a girl, and I also at the time that I was dating her, I thought it was really cool to use a lot of profanity at school. Not a good idea. Well, I broke up with her and her way of getting back at me was looking up our number in the phone book. She called my pastor dad and said, Pastor Abrahamson, Nate is using bad language at school. And my dad came out, I was shooting hoops in the driveway, and he told me about the phone call and he goes, Nathaniel, is that who you are? Is that who you are? And then he just went back in the house and I stood there. I was like, shouldn’t I be in more trouble right now?

But that question rang in my mind throughout the rest of my school days. It still rings in my mind where I look at different things and I go, okay, is that who I am? Is that who I am in Christ? And if it’s not, why would I do it? Why would I go that direction? See, we don’t try in order to get ourselves right with God, we want to live out our faith because we are right with God. Because that’s who we are now. And not only is that who we are now, but we have the power of the Spirit working in us, and we have fruits of the spirit that do come out. And sometimes in some ways we do get to embrace, we do take hold of who we are in Christ. And whenever we don’t, whenever we don’t, we look back to the cross and we’re assured that we’re forgiven.

See, that’s the thing. It’s like when you clean a room in your house, that’s when you realize just how dirty it is, right? When you try to take hold of your faith, that’s when you realize just how much you do need Jesus. And every time you realize that you have sinned and fallen short, you are assured you are forgiven. You are right with him. And now you can go forward and live out, begin to live out more and more who you are now in Christ. Live out who you are.

1 Corinthians 2:6-7

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Socrates, the famous Greek philosopher, was on a hunt to find the wisest man he could. He went and talked to all kinds of people who were renowned for their knowledge. But he found that while a lot of them pretended to know a lot of things, they didn’t actually know anything. He comes to this conclusion:

“Although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is, for he knows nothing and thinks he knows. I neither know nor think I know.”

This statement has been boiled down to a more famous statement “I know that I know nothing.” Socrates has been credited as being the father of Western philosophy. Yet he freely and readily admits the limits of his own knowledge and wisdom. If Socrates knew nothing, what chance is there for us to know anything? Saint Paul writes about the limits and futility of human wisdom in first Corinthians two. We read verses six and seven.

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, but it is not a wisdom of this world or of the rulers of this world, who are being reduced to nothing. Instead we speak God’s wisdom that has been hidden in mystery—before the ages, God foreordained that this wisdom would result in our glory. (1 Corinthians 2:6-7)

Human wisdom is incredibly limited. It can’t even comprehend earthly things, much less heavenly or divine things. But God’s wisdom is something different. God’s wisdom surpasses and at times seemingly contradicts human wisdom. It’s shrouded in mystery. We can’t understand it. It doesn’t make sense to us. But it was foreordained before the ages, for our glory.

What does that mean? It means that before God created the world, he had a plan to save us. The wisdom of God is the message of the gospel, that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, so that God could die to forgive the sins of the whole world. Every step of that just doesn’t make sense to us. But it’s God’s wisdom, not ours. God had to be man so that God could die, and man had to be God so that his death would count for all men. God died to forgive all of your sins. We can’t make sense of that. But it’s God’s wisdom, not ours. It’s God’s wisdom for our glory. Amen.