Isaiah 43:1-3

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I grew up in Southern California, and a lot of people have asked me if I ever tried surfing. It really wasn’t my thing. I tried to go surfing one time with some friends who really enjoyed surfing, and so we went out. And of course, because they were good surfers, we had to go out on a day where the waves were really big. They loaned me a board, they loaned me a wetsuit. They thought I was going to be good. I remember trying to paddle out past those incoming waves that were so big, so scary, and you’re paddling out and you’re going up the face of a wave. And I thought I was going to make it, I didn’t. Went tumbling backwards. Crashed on my back. You get sucked under the water. You’re so completely disoriented you have no idea which way is up. Meanwhile, you’re panicking and you’re losing your air. You’re thinking, I’m about to drown. I’m going to die. And then your foot, your foot touches the bottom and you know I can jump up and you do it. It’s such a great feeling. You jump up, you take a huge gasp of air. You open your eyes. And then for me, I saw another wave. Come and do it all over again. It was terrifying. Three times in a row I got tumbled between those waves. I nearly drowned. I said, nope. This is not for me. It was a scary experience.

There’s a Bible verse that reminds me of this, Isaiah chapter 43, verses one and two. When in life we feel like we’re getting sucked down and we’re getting knocked down by one thing or the next, and maybe, maybe you’re in a season of life where you feel that all these terrible things keep coming at you. We face these things. We face these, these troubles, and it feels like we’re not going to get out. It feels like we’re about to drown and we’re about to perish at any time. Well, God has these words for us. Isaiah 43, verses one and two.

Do not be afraid, because I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name. You are mine.
When you cross through the waters, I will be with you.
When you cross the rivers, they will not sweep you away.
When you walk through fire, you will not be burned,
and the flame will not set you on fire.
Because I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior, (Isaiah 43:1-3)

When we feel like we’re getting sucked under the waves of life, God says, cling to me. Trust me, I’m here for you. God has made a promise to never leave us or abandon us. And he’s given us this promise. He renews this promise to us through His Word and through his sacraments. When you’re feeling down and out, return to your baptism. Remember those waters that washed over your head, those comforting waters that proclaim to you that you are God’s own child, that he loves you, that you belong to him, that he is promised to always forgive you, to be at peace with you. When you’re feeling overwhelmed by all those waves of life, and you feel those anxieties and troubles of life coming your way, come to the Lord’s altar and turn to him. Hear his invitation to come and receive Jesus.

And for us we have that wonderful blessing of coming forward to receive the body and blood of Christ Himself in the Lord’s Supper, and with that the forgiveness of all of our sins. We are right with God. We are at peace with God. Turn to his word. Turn to God in prayer. Know that he is for you, especially in these troublesome, difficult moments of life you can have confidence in God your Savior. Do not be afraid, he says, because I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine.

Don’t let those waves of life bowl you over, cause you to drown. Don’t drown in the despair of this world. Know that you belong to God and have peace. The peace that comes to you through the forgiveness of sins won for you by your Savior Jesus. Peace be with you.

Isaiah 55:8-9, Romans 8:28

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Do you have myopia? I do, and it’s really bad. Myopia is the medical term for nearsightedness, so I can see things that are close up, but the further away they get, the fuzzier they get. And most people that have myopia need contacts or glasses to correct the problem. And in some cases, depending on how bad it is that they really need those to, to legally drive to, to see much of anything.

We all have spiritual myopia. We see real well what’s going on right here, right now in front of us, but we don’t know what the future holds. We don’t always understand why things go the way that they do. And it can be real easy to worry, to fret, to be concerned. You know, does God actually see me? Does he know what’s going on in my life? Does he care about me? Well, yes, he does, but his ways are higher than our ways. As we read in Isaiah 55.

Certainly my plans are not your plans,
and your ways are not my ways, declares the Lord.
Just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my plans are higher than your plans. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

And that makes sense, right? I mean, he’s God, we are not. And so his ways are going to be beyond our ways, beyond even our comprehension. So how do we know that his ways are for our good? Well, because he promises that they are. We read in Romans 8:28,

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose, (Romans 8:28)

And then he gives us the proof. The proof is in the gift of His Son. A few verses later we read,

Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him? (Romans 8:32)

The proof is in the fact that he saw your sinfulness and he saw your brokenness. He saw the brokenness of the world. And so what did he do to correct that? He sent his one and only Son to live here among us, to die for us. He sent his Son to die for you so that you might be forgiven. So you might, through faith in him, be a member of his family. So you might have an eternity in heaven with him. If he didn’t withhold his only Son. He’ll give you whatever you need, he’ll do for you, whatever needs being done.

But it can be easy to forget that. So how do we correct our spiritual myopia? Are there glasses? Are there contacts? Yeah, it’s his word. This is where he shows us his love. This is where he keeps our eyes on the big picture. This is where he promises that he will work all things for your good. And this is the record of his perfect faithfulness to those promises.

So put on the glasses. Stay in the word. Fix your eyes on Jesus and know that he’s working all things for your good as he leads you to your heavenly home.

Amen.

John 19:30, Luke 23:46, Isaiah 53:6

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Our devotion today is on the last words of Jesus when he says “it is finished,” (John 19:30) and then also when he says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) So this is the last words of a man being executed. Sometimes the last words of people on death row or who are executed aren’t so great. Marie Antoinette is said to have stepped on the executioner’s foot right before they were going to take her head off, and her last words were, “excuse me, monsieur, I beg your pardon.”

There was a murderer a number of years ago here in the United States who was going to die by lethal injection. And his last words were simply complaining about the food he had for his final meal. But when it comes to Jesus’ last words before he’s executed, they’re not trivial and they’re not irrelevant or ironic or anything, but they actually are serving us, not himself, but us. When he says “it is finished” and “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

There’s a strange irony here that God, God himself, must die for us. Back in the 1980s, some doctors looked at what you might call kind of an autopsy of someone who was crucified and trying to figure out what would happen to the human body. And everything we see in the gospel accounts matches that perfectly. And it’s interesting that here’s the very one who determined the grain on the cross in which he’s dying. Who created the metallic makeup of the stakes that are now stinging through his wrists, that determined the geography of the hill of Golgotha. And here he is now, hanging as a despised criminal. And why did it have to take this very real execution? Well, the reason is my sins and your sins are very real. They’re not phantoms. Our offenses against God have really happened in real time, and they’re very significant. And they must be taken seriously by the court of heaven.

Our culture likes to have us think of sin as something that’s not that big of a deal. And sometimes, because we’re in a world where there are so many large amounts of sin going on, maybe we can falsely think we can hide inside of all of that. Kind of like someone at a vicious protest that is looting buildings and burning them down. If they’re in a large crowd, they might feel like they’re not as guilty. And yet each individual involved certainly is. There’s a verse in a hymn that says it so beautifully

you who think of sin but lightly. Nor suppose the evil great here may view its nature rightly. Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load. Tis the word. The Lord’s anointed son of man and Son of God.

So in Christ and in his final words, we see how seriously God has taken our sin that God Himself must die for us.

Somebody once wrote that God unzipped the heavens of his wrath and poured it out against our sin. And we think of that passage in Isaiah.

The Lord laid on him, [on Jesus] the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)

And his work is now all done taking care of this for us. He says, it is finished. And that word means that nothing more can be added, just like a cup of water. If you put one more drop in, it would go over the side. Nothing else needs to be added for the payment for you and me to get to go to heaven. So as we hear those words of Jesus every Lenten season, let’s be reminded of how seriously God has taken our sin, but also how extremely valuable you are and your future eternal life is to God. Amen.

Isaiah 2:4

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Hi there, I’m Tony Pittenger, I’m the pastor out at Bethany Lutheran Church in Port Orchard, Washington. And back on September 28th, 2025, we celebrated our 80th anniversary. And on that anniversary day, I shared a picture like this with them, telling them that it was on June 6th, 1944, men loaded a boat with supplies and the boat was destined for the opposite shore. And over on the opposite shore were people in bondage, people that had been conquered, people living in fear of death, in fear of slavery, even. And so that boat was launched and it came to the opposite shore. The supplies were unloaded, they met up with some advance party that had already been there, and they made their way up from the beachhead, up toward those people that desperately needed their help.

But the boat that I’m talking about was not a landing craft. It was a simple rowboat. The supplies that were loaded into that boat were for a Vacation Bible School, which was going to be conducted in the little town of Port Orchard, Washington. You see, there are some real strong World War II, even D-Day connections with the congregation that I serve. Not only that date of June 6th, 1944, but it was because of World War II, because of all the sorrow, the suffering, the captivity that Hitler and the Nazis had brought to mainland Europe was because of that, that a shipyard in Bremerton, Washington, saw a massive increase in their work repairing ships, building new ships. And because of that, a little sleepy town of Port Orchard, Washington, saw an increase in population as more people came to the Pacific Northwest to help in the war effort.

But a lot of those people didn’t know about their Savior. And so they were in captivity, the captivity of sin, slaves to sin, living in fear of death. And what would happen after death. And so that Vacation Bible School effort that was launched on June 6th, 1944 was to announce freedom to the children living in Port Orchard. Soon, that Vacation Bible School grew into Bible classes for the parents and for other adults, and shortly after that, worship services, services of Word and Sacrament were being held in Port Orchard.

My congregation’s connections between World War II don’t end there. As the church grew, a new church was built. They wanted a bell for their belfry, and they especially wanted a bell from a ship that had served during their start up during World War II. And it’s very fitting that the bell they found was a ship from the Pacific Fleet. When a ship from Bremerton, Washington, the USS Missouri, sailed into Tokyo Harbor and the Imperial Japanese Navy signed an unconditional surrender, and finally, peace was restored. And so a bell was found from one of those battleships, and it hangs in the belfry.

The ship’s bell would warn of danger. Incoming dive bombers, torpedo planes, in thick fog a ship’s bell sounds out to all the other ships, its sister ships, letting it know its location, letting it know the way. When Jesus returns, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, all other military places will be closed forever. They’ll no longer be needed. We’ll no longer need to repair or build battleships. Our spears will be beaten into pruning hooks, our swords into plowshares. And as the Bible promises, we will train for war never again. (Isaiah 2:4)

But until our Savior does return. I pray that that bell at Bethany, your own church bells, your own churches will continue to call out to sound out of a peace that has been promised the peace of heaven. The Prince of Peace himself, who has not only lived for us, died for us, but who has promised that one day he’ll take us all there. So God bless and keep our churches as they continue this work of peace, proclaiming that Prince, the King of all, and his imminent return. Until we see each other again, God bless and keep all of you. Amen.

Ephesians 5:2, Isaiah 60:6-7

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Today we are going through the three gifts of the Magi in the season of Epiphany, and I’d like to share with you today the gift of frankincense. The Magi brought this special gift to Christ, the newborn king. And I have some frankincense with me today. This is incense of a kind we’re probably a little bit familiar with, at least. This is called stick incense. It says it’s premium quality. I don’t think it’s actual premium quality, but, hopefully we can still learn from it and enjoy it.

You typically put it in a holder and you light it and it burns as a sweet smelling incense. This is one of the gifts that the Magi brought to Jesus, not in this form, but in a different form. And we see in this gift, like the other gifts that the Magi knew who Jesus was. They knew what his purpose was. And in particular, frankincense reveals that purpose to us. Frankincense was commanded for use in the tabernacle, in the wilderness, and then later in the temple, and it was placed in the Holy Place. That’s the part of the temple reserved just for the priests. And there it had the candelabra. It had the showbread for the 12 tribes of Israel. And inside the Holy Place was also the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. Now at the curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of creation, there was this altar of incense. And in the book of Exodus we hear God commanded specific incense be used to burn at the entrance into the Most Holy Place outside that very curtain. And one of the main ingredients that we read in Exodus 30 is frankincense.

Now, this comes from a tree. I believe it’s the Boswellia tree. They take bark from that tree and they break it down. And then the pieces of the resin that are made from that bark become this sweet smelling incense when you heat it or when you burn it. And so it made the Holy place and the Most Holy Place have this very sweet scented smell. When they would burn this, this sacred incense that the Lord had commanded. The Magi bringing frankincense to Jesus indicate they know he’s going to serve as a priest. Not just any priest, but the priest of all priests, the priest who would fulfill all of that tabernacle and temple worship and work from the old covenant that all points to him as its fulfillment.

And so we know that in Christ we have that purification of all of our sins. We have that cleansing in his sacrifice on the cross, the sacrifice he not only offers as priest, but he himself is. Out of love for you, he gave up his life on that cross. He offered it up to his father in your place to cleanse you of all of your sins, to sanctify you with his own Holy Spirit that has been washed over you and poured into your heart in Holy Baptism. And through that, through that cleansing, that sanctifying, we too can enter that Most Holy Place through the sacrifice of Jesus, atoning for all of our sins. We too can go into the presence of God Himself, where he dwells with us in Word and Sacrament. And so we read from Ephesians chapter five.

Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2)

There we see Christ giving himself up in love for us so that we can be restored to God. We can be reconciled and purified, that we can enter that Most Holy Place of God’s gracious and loving presence in heaven. We see this fulfillment of prophecy from Isaiah 60.

They [the Gentiles] shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. They shall come up with acceptance on my altar, and I will beautify my beautiful house. (Isaiah 60:6-7)

And in this beauty of the Lord’s house, this beauty of the work of Christ, the priest, done for us. We too are brought up to the altar, the holy altar of God, and we to rejoice in and share his gracious presence with us in Word and Sacrament.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Luke 14:15-24, Hebrews 11, 12, Revelation 21:2-23, Luke 23:43, Isaiah 11:6, 65:25, Revelation 7:14-17

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I believe in the life everlasting. How do we know that heaven is real? Well, I love to use the example C.S. Lewis once used where he said that where there’s a desire or a yearning for something, there is a real tangible fulfillment for that desire, or their yearning. People experience hunger. Therefore there is such a thing as food. People experience thirst. Therefore, there is such a thing as water. We experience sorrow. Therefore there must be a perfect joy. We experience brokenness. Therefore, there must be a perfect wholeness.

As Christians, we believe that all of that is fulfilled when God brings us safely into heaven. And though we can use logic to support or defend our idea of heaven, what better place to turn to than the Holy Scriptures? The Bible is full of beautiful pictures that it paints about eternal life and what that will look like for you.

For instance, in some of his parables, Jesus describes it as a banquet. (Luke 14:15-24) In our terms today, we’d say that’s a party. Why do I love parties? Because I’m together with my friends, my family, the people I love the most. When you look forward to eternal life in heaven, yes, there will be relationships. You’ll have your relationships with your family and loved ones who all believed in Jesus in this life.

Another picture of heaven is given in the book of Hebrews, where he describes heaven as the city of God. (Hebrews 11, 12) The Book of Revelation also describes this city. (Revelation 21:2-23) If you think of all the things that you love about a city, the busy life, the arts, theater, music, sports, all the things that you love about a city without all the things that you fear about a city. The darkness, the crime, the danger. Here heaven is described as a perfectly safe place where we can dwell forever.

Another picture of heaven Jesus gives when he’s dying on the cross. To the thief on his right, he promises him today you’ll be with me in Paradise. (Luke 23:43) The word Paradise refers to a garden. You might think of the garden that God created in the first creation. Well, the Bible tells us that after the resurrection of the dead, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, a new creation. And part of that new creation is a new garden. The prophet Isaiah describes it as a place where the lamb and the lion, the wolf and the ox and the small child can all live together in harmony. They will not harm nor destroy on his holy mountain. (Isaiah 11:6, 65:25)

Jesus will also describe heaven as a wedding. When I think to my own wedding, it’s one day, not only do I remember it so vividly, but it’s one day that I can always look back at and say, I wish that day never ended. When the Bible describes the church, it calls us the Bride of Christ, and it paints the picture of us wearing white robes that picture the purity that you have, because through faith you have washed your robes in the blood of the Lamb, in the forgiveness of sins given through Jesus.

Heaven is a picture of perfect purity, a joy that will last forever and ever without end. The best picture of that joy is in Revelation chapter seven. John describes a ten fold blessedness of those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, and he ends with the phrase, the Lord will wipe every tear from your eye. (Revelation 7:14-17) Those ten fold blessings all revolve around one figure Jesus, the Lamb who was slain. That’s where you and I find our perfect fulfillment in heaven is the perfect relationship with Jesus, your Savior and the Triune God you were created for.

As often as you confess these words, I believe in the life everlasting. May God fill your heart with joy and hope and yearning for eternal life with him. Amen.

Isaiah 40:6-8

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I’m not sure where you were watching this from. Maybe it’s in an area of the country where you are enjoying the change of the seasons. For us, I’m from Mankato, Minnesota, we have a season called fall where the leaves on all the trees literally fall off. They turn brown and fall and then decay and blow away.

This is a season of the church year where I’m reminded of a verse in Isaiah chapter 40 about how flowers fade and the grass withers, and it reminds us that we live in a world that is fleeting. It’s fading away. But for you and me, as Christians, we have something that will never fade away. Something that is reliable. Something that we can count on forever. Let me share this verse with you. It’s a favorite verse for many. From Isaiah chapter 40 we hear verses six through eight.

A voice says, “Cry out.”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
“All people are like grass,
and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
because the breath of the Lord blows on them.
Surely the people are grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall,
but the word of our God endures forever.” (Isaiah 40:6-8)

The word of our God endures forever. As I’ve grown older, I can appreciate how this speaks of people being like grass, the aches, the pains, the soreness. My body isn’t working or healing as it once did when I was younger. I look at my kids who are teenagers these days, or pre-teens, and how carefree their lives are. And meanwhile, as I try and keep up with them, I’m out of breath and hurting. These words remind us of our mortality as sinful people. We ruin God’s design for us. We were supposed to never fade, but because of sin, because of the fall into sin, because of our conscious decision to disobey, we to face the effects of sin. We too are going to fade and decay. One day our bodies are going to stop working and will fall to the ground and into the ground and decay.

And that’s a scary thing. But again, for you and me as Christians, we have the word of the Lord. We have the word of our God that endures forever. And what does John say that Word of God is? Well, he speaks about that word who became flesh and dwelt among us. It’s our Lord Jesus who stands forever. And that’s something that also Job proclaimed, remember Job? As he was feeling the effects of sin, he was hurting both body and soul, his family, his loved ones, taken away, all of his possessions. He had fallen from a great height. But what did he proclaim? He says, I know that my Redeemer lives and I’m going to see him.

That’s the same hope that you and I have. We have the Word of God. We have the Word of God that points us to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lived for us. He lived a perfect life. Never once did he fall into sin. Never once was he deserving of any decay or any pain or suffering. And yet he endured pain and suffering as he goes to the cross. And there he takes what we deserved. He takes all of our sins upon himself, and he pays for it all in full. And even though he died, he rises from the dead on Easter. And with his resurrection on Easter, you and I are given a promise that we’re going to rise. We are going to rise from the dust, from the decay, and we will stand with our Lord Jesus forever.

The Word of God that stands forever. That’s what you and I stand on as well. We put our hope, our trust, our faith in Jesus, the Word of God made flesh who is forever. And we will stand with him forever. In this fall season, be reminded that in spite of everything else around us and even ourselves experiencing decay and falling apart, we do have that which we can rely on, that we can count on that which will endure forever. The Word of God, our Savior, Jesus. All glory be to him. God’s peace be with you.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Micah 5:2, Zechariah 9:9, Psalm 41:9, Zechariah 11:12-13, Psalm 22, Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 7:14

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I believe Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. What are the odds of this seemingly simple Bible prophecy coming true? Well, to talk about the odds, I imagine most of you are probably familiar with the lottery. Do you know what your odds are of winning the lottery? It’s 1 in 300,000,000. That number is expressed as three times ten to the eighth power. Eight is the number of zeroes that comes after the three.

If you want to visualize this number three times ten to the eighth power. Picture a football stadium. And if you were to fill that football stadium with golf balls, you would have about 300 million golf balls. So imagine marking one golf ball, dropping it in there, stirring them all up, and three times ten to the eighth power would be your odds of picking exactly that golf ball out of that stadium.

A mathematician by the name of Peter Stoner wanted to know the odds of biblical prophecy coming true. And so he and a team of mathematicians, together with some anthropologists based on population numbers from what we know about ancient civilization, wanted to calculate the odds of just eight biblical prophecies coming true. So they picked some things, like being born in the city of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), riding into Jerusalem on a colt (Zechariah 9:9), being betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:9) for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13), and being crucified (Psalm 22). They came up with one times ten to the 17th power, were the odds of those eight biblical prophecies coming true.

Let’s visualize that number one times ten to the 17th power. So we actually have to leave the football stadium behind to visualize this number. And we have to go to the state of Texas, the entire state of Texas, 268,000mi². We’re going to cover the state of Texas with golf balls 37ft deep. Take one golf ball, put a mark on it, drop it in and mix them all up, and one time ten to the 17th power your odds of picking that golf ball up. That’s just eight biblical prophecies.

So Peter Stoner and his team wanted to know, what does 16 biblical prophecies look like? The number is one times ten to the 45th power. To visualize this number, we have to leave the planet Earth behind. Go to the center of our solar system and start building a planet with golf balls. If you were to have enough golf balls to have 45 zeros in the number, you would have a planet with a radius that is 2.7 billion miles long in every direction. Your planet of golf balls would have swallowed up the sun, the Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and have gone just past the orbit of the planet Neptune. Mark one golf ball, drop it in, mix it up. And one times ten to the 45th power is your odds of drawing exactly that golf ball out.

What if we triple it? What if it’s just 48 biblical prophecies coming true. What are the odds of that? Well, the odds are one times ten to the 157th power. That is a number so big that if you were to use golf balls, you would fill the known universe with golf balls and then some. There are over 400 prophecies directly connected to Jesus, and many of which were already fulfilled in his life on earth.

But of all the amazing prophecies that come together in the life of Jesus, the most profound is just one. In Genesis three, when God says that the seed of a woman would come and crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). In Isaiah, when he would promise that the Virgin will give birth to a child and will give him the name Emmanuel, which means God with us (Isaiah 7:14). Just what are the odds of the infinite God who fills the whole universe, coming down to be born of a virgin, getting nailed to a cross and by his foot being struck on the cross that he would crush the serpent’s head. What are the odds of that? Amen.

Revelation 7:14, Isaiah 64:6, 1 John 1:7

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Blood is not a very good detergent. In fact, it leaves some of the worst and most difficult stains. I have an undershirt that still has little specks of faded orange on it, from a nosebleed that I had over a year ago. If you wash something in blood, it’s not going to be white.

In the book of Revelation, the apostle John has a vision, and he sees all the believers in heaven, and they’re dressed in white robes, and he is told

They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:14)

That’s an odd image, but see what it tells us. Isaiah says,

All our righteous acts are like a filthy rag. (Isaiah 64:6)

Standing on our own before God were dressed rather shoddily. We are stained by our sin, but we wash our robes in the blood of the Lamb. As John writes in his first epistle.

The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)

Jesus shed his innocent blood for us as he suffered, and he died so that our sins might be forgiven, his innocent blood for ours. And Jesus blood not only washes away the dirt of our sin, it also bleaches our garments, makes them white. We are clothed in Christ’s righteousness. We are covered in his merits. And that’s a blood stain that you’ll never be able to get out. No matter how dirty we are or how filthy our sin is, we are washed in the blood of the Lamb and made pure and white and clean.

That’s why most pastors will wear a white robe called an alb, from the Latin word for white, as a reminder that we are washed in the blood of the Lamb. That’s why babies, when they’re baptized, will usually wear a white robe, a baptismal gown, as a picture of the forgiveness that they receive in the sacrament. We baptized Christians are clothed in white, covered by Christ and His righteousness and his blood. Amen.

Isaiah 42:3

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Our Bible passage today comes from the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 42, and we read there in verse three.

A bruised reed, he shall not break. And a smoldering wick he shall not snuff out. (Isaiah 42:3)

Many years ago there was a lady in my congregation who was working at a pro-life booth where they would try to talk to people, it was at a big event. And a woman came up to her and admitted to her that she had an abortion. And now she felt so guilty about it. She had actually been involved in a life of prostitution, and she just felt that God could never, ever take her back. This woman from my congregation had a wonderful opportunity to witness to her and to talk to her.

Sometimes it’s very easy for our faith to be bruised or possibly even be extinguished. Isaiah is using kind of interesting pictures about spiritual life inside of us, a bruised reed and a smoldering wick. Sometimes because of the weakness of our faith and the lack of spiritual life inside of us, the lack of sanctification, that we can sometimes feel so crushed and so bruised. And it’s at those moments when we’re aware of our sin that we kind of conclude, I do not belong in God’s house. That woman, when she talked to the lady from our church, expressed to her that she couldn’t come back to church because she just felt that her life had been so bad and so awful. And so the woman from our congregation tried hard to encourage her to come back.

This text that I just read to you from Isaiah allows us to sort of peer into the heart of God based upon the work of Christ, his Messiah, the Chosen One, our Lord Jesus, and his mission to come into the world to save people. And I’ve always loved this passage. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Think about how delicately Jesus dealt with the sheep that he ran into, some of whom were really crushed by their sin. The woman that was caught in adultery, the thief on the cross. The woman who came crying at Jesus feet and so appreciative of his grace.

The faith that’s been placed in your heart as a Christian is God’s creation. It’s his work, and the Holy Spirit will not work against himself when it comes to that faith. He does not want to destroy even the little embers of faith that might still be burning in your heart. And so God is always going to deal very tenderly with that faith.

I brought along a little illustration that my dad taught me when I was in about sixth grade, and I always liked this illustration. He said he took out a dollar bill one day and he said, how many pennies worth am I holding? And I said, a hundred. So that would be about a hundred pennies. How many pennies worth am I holding? About a hundred. Then he took it like this. He said, now how many pennies worth am I holding? I said, a hundred, and then he held it, just barely by the corner, and he said, now how many pennies worth am I holding? I said, a hundred. He said, right, no matter how I’m holding it, it still has the same value. And he said, think about your hand sort of like faith that God puts in your heart. Sometimes our faith is good and strong, and we’re holding on to Christ, sometimes really firmly. And other times maybe our faith is really very, very weak and we seem to barely have it in our hearts. And yet the value of what it’s holding on to, and that represents Christ and having all of our sins paid for and the hope of heaven, that value doesn’t change.

Now, my dad said, at the same time, you don’t want to walk around with a dollar bill holding it like this because you could lose it. The wind could blow it away, or someone could take it from you. It’s much better to have a firm grip on it. And the same is true, he said. With our faith, we should want to have our faith strong and firm, because there’s less chance of it then being taken away from us or losing it. And so God is always encouraging us to strengthen our faith in Christ through His Word and Sacraments. But at the same time, even a little bruised reed or a smoldering wick that is just hanging on to that wonderful hope of Christ still possesses the full amount of our salvation in heaven. Amen.

Isaiah 53:2b, Psalm 17:15

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What did Jesus look like? That’s a natural question for us to think about as we think about Jesus. What did he look like? If I met him, would I recognize him? Oh, that’s my Savior. It’s a good question to think about. What did Jesus look like? After all, he is the most important person in our lives, and we know that it’s only through him that we have forgiveness of sin and life and salvation.

Down through the centuries, artists and theologians have sometimes portrayed Jesus as being stunningly handsome. And that makes sense to us. We sing in the familiar hymn Beautiful Savior. Others emphasizing the suffering that Jesus did for us, present him as someone who is grotesque and pitiful as he bears the sin of the world, tortured and dying for our sins on the cross. We assume, I suppose, that Jesus of Nazareth didn’t look so different from other people of his time and place and culture.

Isaiah chapter 53 gives us a hint about his physical appearance. There the prophet says of Jesus,

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. (Isaiah 53:2b)

Perhaps if we had seen our Lord Jesus standing among a group of other men of his time, there wouldn’t have been anything that would have led us to say, I believe that gentleman at the end of the line is the Son of God.

So we see him in the Scripture according to his passion. And there we see his willingness to suffer for us. And so we would say that he’s not so beautiful always. And when we think about it, when we estimate his beauty, remembering that one day we, after closing our eyes in death, will immediately open them to the glorious sight of heaven. And be face to face with the one who loves us more than any other, the one who was willing to be bodily tortured and to suffer for our sins. And he will welcome us home to be with him in the eternal glory of heaven. And then with the Psalm writer, we will say these words

In righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. (Psalm 17:15)

Amen.

Isaiah 43:25, Galatians 3:26-27

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Are you harder on you than God is on you? Sometimes I can be pretty hard on myself, especially when I realize I’ve sinned and I’ve been in a sinful thought pattern and just not living out what God has called me to do. And as a result, I can have these, weird things that I’ll start doing. Like, for instance, I’ll even hesitate to speak to God in prayer after I realize I’ve sinned. It’s like, oh, I should wait a little bit, you know, because I just did that sinful thing. But is that what God would call us to do? Is that what God says? You should wait after you’ve sinned to speak to me? That’s not how it works.

And sometimes after I confess my sins and I’m assured I’m forgiven, I can still carry a lot of guilt and feel a lot of shame. Maybe you can too. And that’s why we need to be reminded. Reminded of how God sees us, how God sees you. In Isaiah chapter 43, verse 25, it says,

I, yes I, am he. I blot out your rebellious deeds for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. (Isaiah 43:25)

Your sins have literally been taken off of you, and they were placed on Jesus. When Jesus died on that cross, so did your sins. They died there with him. When Jesus rose again, that new life is your new life. When you were baptized into Christ, you were connected with his death and his resurrection. As far as God is concerned, your sin was dead there in the tomb with Jesus. Who you are now is someone who has a new life with Christ. You are washed. You are clean.

When God looks at you, he is not saying, all right, you need to wait and kind of work off that sin. He’s not saying that okay, you need to carry this guilt and shame. God is not looking at you disappointed and shaking his head. He sees you through Christ. In Galatians chapter three, verse 26,

In fact, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Indeed, as many of you as were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. (Galatians 3:26-27)

God sees you through Jesus. He delights in you. He is pleased with you. We might struggle with being hard on ourselves, but remember how God sees you. And when you remember how God sees you, it can change the way that you see you.