Weeds in God’s Field

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost based on Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Dear sons of the kingdom: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

There are weeds growing in God’s field. God knows it. We know it. Right next to the good wheat that Jesus has planted, there are weeds planted by the devil. The wheat and weeds are growing side by side in the same field. God knows it. We know it.

Right beside a church that teaches the truth of God’s Word is a church that teaches the lies of the devil. Right beside a church that sows the good seed of God’s Word is a church that sows the weeds of the devil. They may both have started out looking the same, growing up together, even both being congregations of Lutheran Church-Canada. However, as the wheat comes up and bears grain, so the weeds also come up and are seen for what they are. Side by side, the wheat and the weeds grow together.

The Christian church always has to contend with false teaching and false teachers. Jesus says so. The devil is not going to stop sowing weeds among the wheat until Christ returns and the angels gather the weeds and bind them up to be burned. Christ certainly will not stop sowing the good seed of His Word until the harvest when the wheat is gathered into His barn.

The good seed of God’s Word produces only good wheat. The devil deliberately sows weeds where the good seed has been sown. We are witnesses of this. We see all the evil things that are done in Christ’s name. Churches are condoning all kinds of behaviour that Scripture says are sinful practices. Churches and pastors condone the favourite sins of the day including living together outside of marriage, homosexuality, and divorce. They support the lies of the devil like feminism, women’s ordination, and the confusion of what is male and what is female. All kinds of blasphemous practices are taking place in churches where following Scripture is replaced with following the desires and feelings of man.

When the bad seed was initially sown, it may not have been obvious. While Christ sows His seed openly in the day, the devil sows his seed secretly at night. At first you may not be able to tell any difference between the two. Once the seeds sprout and grow, then you see the difference. Then you can differentiate the wheat from the weeds. Then you can distinguish the sons of the kingdom from the sons of the evil one.

In this life, we cannot perfectly distinguish between the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one. Certainly, there are signs that you are one or the other, but oftentimes we cannot know. God knows. God can perfectly identify the wheat from the weeds. God does perfectly distinguish between the sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil one.

Even so, God does not weed His field. He doesn’t pull up the weeds to bind them up for the fiery furnace. He doesn’t round up the sons of the evil one and cast them all into hell. Oh, He will do it, but not yet.

The servants of the master expected the master to want them to gather and remove the weeds immediately, but the master said, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” God does not want to uproot sons of the kingdom by rooting out the sons of the evil one around them. Out of His love and concern for the sons of the kingdom, He does not uproot the sons of the evil one at this time.

God is patient and long suffering. He endures the weeds in His field for the sake of the wheat. He endures the weeds also for the sake of those weeds. God desires the sons of the evil one to become sons of the kingdom

After all, we all had our start as weeds. After Adam and Eve’s fall into sin, they were weeds. Weeds cannot produce wheat, only more weeds, thus all mankind gets their start as weeds.

It is not until being watered with the waters of Holy Baptism that God turns weeds into wheat. He makes sons of the kingdom out of sons of the evil one. In Baptism, He adopts us as His sons because He forgives us all of our sins. He covers the sinful nature of who we are with His perfection. He pours out His love and mercy on us, giving us what we do not deserve. We deserve to be bound and burned in hell for eternity. But our dear Lord took the punishment of our sins in our place so that instead we will be gathered into His barn, which is His eternal heavenly banquet.

Even though we must remain, grow, and produce fruit in a world where we are surrounded by weeds, we are safe. God waters us through Baptism to claim us as His own, separating us from the multitude of unbelievers. He has separated the wheat from the weeds already now by His claim on the wheat, even though we still grow surrounded by weeds. God nourishes us with the meal of His Son’s body and blood so that we would remain in Him, grow in Him, and produce good fruit.

God gives us these good, wonderful gifts because He knows our sinful tendencies. He knows the temptations of the world around us. He knows the evil one is always lurking to deceive and tempt us. That’s why God continues to forgive us our sin. He doesn’t count how many times He forgives us. He keeps forgiving us. He doesn’t remember our sins, but removes them from us. He casts our sins into the depths of the sea. He forgives our sins now, so that we will be ready for the harvest to come.

There will be a harvest. Judgment Day will come. As we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. As Scripture teaches, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” (II Cor. 5:10) The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace, that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, while the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Therefore stay awake! We do not know when Christ will return. Do not get caught up in the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Do not get choked by the weeds that surround you so that you fall into their manner of thinking and living. Do not harden your heart so that the devil snatches away the Word that has been sown in your heart.

On the Day when Christ returns, it won’t matter if you have four million dollars in your bank account or if you are overdrawn; it won’t matter if you are rested from time at the lake or exhausted from being overworked. The only thing that will matter is whether or not you have faith.

The thing about faith is that it doesn’t come from you; it comes from God. You cannot sustain your faith; God sustains your faith. You cannot strengthen your faith; God strengthens your faith.

Faith comes from hearing God’s Word, so listen to God’s Word. Faith is strengthened by hearing God’s Word, so do not find excuses not to hear. Faith is nourished and nurtured by receiving the body and blood of Jesus, given and shed for you for, so eat and drink for the forgiveness of all your sins.

Don’t let the weeds growing around you convince you that God will not ever weed His field. The harvest will come. God knows there are weeds in His field and you know this.

God also knows those who are His. God knows you, the wheat, because He planted you. You are sons of His kingdom. Your names are written in His Book of Life because your Saviour has paid the debt you owe.

The weeds are no threat to you. Not even the evil one can threaten you. God has given you faith, thus He has turned you from weed to wheat. He has made sons of the kingdom from sons of the evil one.

You are wheat growing in God’s field. God knows it. You know it. Though you are surrounded by weeds that will not immediately be pulled, you are safe and secure in the holy ark of the Christian Church, being separated from the multitude of unbelievers. Because your sins are forgiven, on Judgment Day you will be gathered by the angels into the barn of our Saviour, where you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father. God knows it. You know it. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

The Word

Sermon for Sixth Sunday after Pentecost based on Matthew 13 1-9, 18-23 (Is. 55:10-13)

Dear hearers of the Word: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

God says, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

In other words, God’s Word does what it says it will do. God’s Word has power. God’s Word has power to condemn; God’s Word has power to save. God’s Word is the seed which bears fruit and yields a hundredfold, sixtyfold, and thirtyfold.

Without the seed, you can have no fruit; you can have no growth. It doesn’t matter what kind of soil you have. It doesn’t matter what the weather is like – whether you get enough sunshine or enough rain. Without the seed, you have nothing more than dirt.

Just so, without God’s Word, you cannot have faith, you cannot have good works, you cannot have salvation or eternal life. It doesn’t matter what you face in life, what decisions you make or don’t make, what you do or don’t do. Without God’s Word you cannot have faith, you cannot be strengthened in the faith, and you cannot have eternal life.

God’s Word has power. The Holy Spirit has bound Himself to work through the Word. When God’s Word is proclaimed, the Holy Spirit has promised to be there calling sinners to repentance and faith. His Word does not return to Him empty, but will accomplish what God purposes, and will succeed in the thing for which God sent it.

Wherever the Word of God does not result in faith, the fault does not lie with God. It’s the exact same seed being scattered everywhere. God doesn’t short-change anyone. The fact that God’s Word is rejected by so many does not point to a weakness or short-coming in the Word of God. It points to the hardness of hearts that refuse to understand and believe the Word of God. It points to the weakness of trying to find root in oneself and thus when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, such a man immediately falls away. It points to the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choking the Word so that it proves unfruitful. This is not God’s doing, nor is it God’s fault.

God’s Word has the power to save, but people don’t like what God’s Word says, so they avoid hearing it. God’s Word has the power to bring sinners from darkness to light, but sinners prefer the darkness to the light because their deeds are evil. God’s Word has the power to bring the dead to life, but the dead prefer the death of their sins to everlasting life.

Because of the great power of God’s Word to save and God’s desire to save us, He gave us the Third Commandment. The Third Commandment says, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.”

This Commandment is openly despised by many people who claim to be Christians. They don’t go to church because they don’t think they need to hear God’s Word. They do not realize that the devil is real and is out to deceive them and lead them astray from God’s Word. They do not realize the world is not a neutral place, but does everything it can to get their attention away from the Word of God. They do not realize that they are their own worst enemy and that their sinful flesh does not want to hear God’s Word because it exposes their sin to be sin, breaking their contrived conviction that they aren’t so bad and their sin isn’t so serious.

If someone truly believes that he is sinful, why would he not take every opportunity to receive the forgiveness of sins? If someone truly believes that he is sinful, why would he not take every opportunity to be strengthened against the devil, the world, and his own sinful flesh? If someone truly believes that he is sinful, why would he not take every opportunity to hear God’s Word which alone has the power to save from sin?

The more one is away from the Word of God, the more he is influenced by the devil, the world, and his own sinful thoughts, ideas, and feelings. He will not realize it. He will just follow what he thinks is good and feels right, and without the direction of God’s Word, it will be further and further away from what God says is good and right.

That’s why you are here. To hear God’s Word. To receive His forgiveness. You have not done what you should have done. Your sinful flesh cries out, “Yes, I have,” but God’s Word says, “No, you haven’t.” You have done what you should not have done. The devil and the world cry out, “No you haven’t,” but God’s Word says, “Yes, you have.”

The reason why God sends His Word to you to tell you this is not so that you would despair and lose hope and be condemned to hell. Rather, God sends His Word to you to call you to repentance and faith. God sends His powerful Word to you to bring you from darkness to light; from death to life.

God’s Word does this because it tells you of Jesus, whose blood covers your sin. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, so He takes away your sin. Jesus’ death covers your sin of despising preaching and His Word, and not holding it sacred and gladly hearing and learning it. Jesus’ death covers your sins of preferring the ways of the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh to the ways of God revealed in Holy Scripture. Jesus’ death removes from you your sins of trying to find root in yourself in stead of God’s Word, and from being deceived by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.

God has not abandoned you because of your sin. He still sends His powerful Word to you to forgive you all yours sins and take them away from you as far as the east is from the west. He still gives you the body and blood of Jesus which give you eternal life.

When you struggle with your sins and do what is wrong, God does not turn into your enemy. He ever remains your loving Father calling you back to Him for forgiveness given freely. He gives forgiveness to you freely because Jesus has already paid the price of your sins. There’s nothing left for you to pay.

When God’s Word convicts us of sin, the reaction of the sinful flesh is to flee from preaching and the Word of God. Do not listen to your sinful flesh. Listen to God’s Word which tells you that His Word will do what it says it will do. God’s Word will not return to Him empty but will accomplish your salvation as God has purposed it.

God has claimed you in the waters of Holy Baptism. No one, not even the devil, can snatch the gifts of your Baptism from you. Christ our Lord gives you His very body and blood to eat and drink to spiritually nourish you and keep you in the faith. Your sins cannot prevent God’s Word from accomplishing God’s purpose. God’s purpose is for your salvation, and His Word will succeed in saving you. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. 

Rest in Jesus

Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost based on Matthew 11:25-30 (Romans 7:14-25)

Dear people who rest in Jesus: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

The life of a Christian can be described as civil war. We have an ongoing and fierce battle waging within us. We can say along with Saint Paul, “I delight in the Law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.”

As Christians, we want to do what pleases God. We want to keep His commandments. We want our desires to be the same as God’s desires. It thus pains us when our desires are not in line with God’s desires; when our sinful flesh desires those things that God does not desire for us. There is a war within us as the Holy Spirit gives us the desire to do what is right but our flesh wants only to indulge itself.

We want to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, but our flesh needs money in the bank account to feel secure. We want to go to church every Sunday and study God’s Word at home, but our sinful flesh would rather go to the lake and sit in front of the TV. We want to be forgiving and loving to our neighbour, but our flesh is angry and wants revenge on the neighbour who did harm to us. We want to be content with what we have, but our flesh covets things that God has not given to us and things that we don’t need and wouldn’t be good for us.

Our flesh cannot be tamed to want what God wants for us. As we heard, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” Our flesh has nothing good in it. Our flesh is not capable of a single good, God-pleasing desire. Everything our flesh wants is contrary to God’s will for us, and there’s nothing we can do to change or get rid of our sinful flesh. It is part of us until we die.

That’s why we also can say, “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

We can blame the devil for our sin. We can blame the temptations of the world as the reason we fall into sin. But the real problem is us. The real problem is our sinful flesh. Our sinful flesh wants to fall into the temptations of the world and the snares of the devil. That’s the real problem with us. Our flesh wants to sin. Add to that the fact that our sinful flesh is the king of excuses. We have an excuse for every selfish thing we do. Our flesh refuses to acknowledge any sin we commit as actually being sin because it is a natural desire of the flesh.

No wonder Paul exclaims, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

We cannot deliver ourselves. We cannot rid ourselves of the desires of the flesh. We cannot stop sinning. Even if we could, we cannot undo all the sin that we have already committed. We are left with nothing except a detestable body of death which will die and then burn in hell for eternity unless someone delivers us.

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In the words of the great hymn:

But God had seen my wretched state

Before the world’s foundation,

And mindful of His mercies great,

He planned for my salvation.

He turned to me a father’s heart;

He did not choose the easy part

But gave His dearest treasure.

God said to His beloved Son:

“It’s time to have compassion.

Then go, bright jewel of My crown,

And bring to all salvation.

From sin and sorrow set them free;

Slay bitter death for them that they

May live with You forever.” (LSB 556 st. 4-5)

Out of His great love for us, God sent His only Son to slay bitter death for us by His own death in our place. God had compassion on us. He does not want us to die eternally, so He sent His Son to die for our sins. To rescue us from our own wretchedness, God’s Son suffered a wretched and horrific death for us.

Thus, God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord says to us, “Come to me, all who labour and our heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” You who labour under your heavy burden of sins, come to Jesus for rest. You who bemoan the wretchedness of your state, rest in Jesus. You who are fatigued and worn out by the battle with your sinful flesh, Jesus is your rest.

Jesus fulfilled for you what you cannot fulfil. He kept God’s Law perfectly for you, so you can rest from your attempts to save yourself by the Law.

Jesus continues, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Being yoked to the Law is heavy and hard; it is impossible because we cannot keep the Law because of our sinful flesh. Being yoked to Jesus is easy because He has kept the Law for us. Being yoked to Jesus is light because He lifts the heavy burden of our sins from us. When sin has been forgiven and the conscience has been freed from the burden of sin, then everything becomes easier and lighter.

Even following God’s Law and will for us becomes easier and lighter. Not because we can tame the sinful flesh, but because through daily contrition and repentance we drown the sinful flesh and kill it along with all sins and evil desires. Not because we can now fulfil the Law perfectly, but yoked with Christ who has fulfilled the Law for us, we receive the forgiveness of all our sins. Following God’s Law and will for us becomes easier and lighter not because of our own goodness, but because we have the Holy Spirit who gives us the desire to do what is good, right, and holy and strengthens us to do it.

We thus rest in Jesus. We rest in Jesus through Baptism where He yokes us to Himself and gives us the benefits of His death on the cross. We rest in Jesus through the Sacrament of the Altar as Christ gives us His own body and blood to eat and drink for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of faith.

The Lord’s Supper is such an important part of our life as Christians because through it the heavy burden of our sins is lifted from us and our conscience is freed from the weight of sin. Through the Lord’s Supper Jesus gives us rest from our labours and gives us peace; He gives us rest for our souls.

Jesus gives us rest, because He has already won the battle. He has already conquered sin, death, and the devil. His life and death accomplished everything for us, so we can rest in Him and the forgiveness He continually gives to us. We can rest in Jesus and the salvation He has accomplished for us.

Thanks be to God, we will be rescued from our bodies of death through Jesus Christ our Lord, who will raise us from the dead as surely as He Himself rose from the dead, and give eternal life to us and all believers in Christ. In this truth we can rest now, throughout our lives, and in the moment of our death. This is most certainly true. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Peace or Sword

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost based on Matthew 10:34-42

Dear people at peace with God: grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Isaiah prophesied that the Saviour shall be called Prince of Peace, and that there would be no end of peace in His kingdom (Is. 9:6,7). Zechariah prophesied that the Christ would guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:79). At the birth of Jesus, the angels announced peace on earth to the shepherds (Luke 2:14).

Yet Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.”

This does not mean that the prophecies concerning Jesus are wrong. The Holy Spirit is never wrong. Jesus did come to bring us peace. He came to bring us peace with God. As Romans 5 tells us, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:1) Christ came to reconcile us with the Father by dying for our sins and earning us forgiveness. That is why we have peace with God.

However, not everyone wants peace with God. Not everyone thinks that they need peace with God. There is thus no peace between those who have peace with God and those who do not have peace with God.

As Jesus says, He even divides families. He says, “For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

Those who do not have peace with God have always despised and hated those who do have peace with God. In others words, unbelievers have always despised and hated believers throughout history, even within families.

Within the same family, Cain despised his brother Abel and murdered him out of jealousy because God accepted Abel’s offering but not his. Abraham’s son, Ishmael, born of the slave woman also persecuted his brother Isaac, the son of promise. Esau sought to kill his brother Jacob who had received the blessing from their father Isaac. The church has and always will be persecuted by those outside of the church, even within the same household.

This is even seen in Jesus’ earthly family. At a time when His family did not believe in Him, Jesus’ own family came to seize Him from a crowd saying, “He is out of His mind.” They wanted to stop Jesus from teaching the crowds because they thought He was delusional. They set themselves up to oppose Jesus and His work. Those of His own household sought to seize Him and take Him away.

There is bound to be strife and hostility between believers and unbelievers, even within families. One group believes that there is nothing beyond the peace they can achieve on this earth. The other group looks ahead to eternal peace after this earth is destroyed, and is willing to sacrifice peace on earth for eternal peace with God.

The church on earth has thus often been called the church militant. It is a pipe dream to hope for peace for the church on earth because Christ’s church is the kingdom of truth in the middle of the world, which is a kingdom of lies. There is no rest for the church on earth as there is constant affliction due to unbelief. The rejection of truth results in tension, strife, and the persecution of believers.

Those who believe that there is nothing beyond the peace they can achieve on this earth do not want to hear God’s Law which tells them they are sinful. God’s Law is not a pleasant thing to hear. Hearing that what you want to do is wrong and sinful in God’s eyes makes the world angry and fills them with hatred. Nor do unbelievers want to hear that Jesus died for their sins. They hate that anyone would even suggest that they have any sins for which Jesus would need to die. Jesus is thus a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence (I Peter 2:8).

The temptation for the church is to stop fighting. Just shrink back and keep quiet. Why should we trouble ourselves by speaking the truth and offending people? Why can’t we just keep quiet and keep our faith and confession to ourselves?

If we do, we cease to be the church of Christ. Once we stop fighting, we are already defeated. There is no rest for the church as there is constant affliction due to unbelief. There is no rest for the church because the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh will not stop fighting against what is true, holy, and righteous.

The Holy Spirit tells us through Saint Paul that it is even necessary that there are factions or divisions in the church. It is necessary that the church is divided and split so that those who are genuine may be recognized (I Cor. 11:19). This may be surprising, but divisions in the church reveal who is following the teaching of Christ and who is wandering off into the lies of the devil, the world, and the sinful flesh. Divisions in the church force people to examine what Scripture says and to pick a side. There is no fence sitting. As Jesus says, “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matt. 12:30).

This really is not a complicated thing. Either we follow what God says in the Bible or we follow the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh. We either are enemies with unbelievers, even if they are of our own household, or we are enemies with God. Either we prioritize peace with God or we prioritize peace on earth.

The thing about peace on earth is that it will never happen. We can avoid some conflicts, but others are unavoidable. We can avoid confronting sin that we see in our family, but then it sits there and festers and soon takes over entirely and then it is too late for our family. We can shrink back and keep quiet about the evils going on in our society to avoid offending people, but those evils are going to take over our society, and those same people we wanted to avoid offending will come after us and seek our destruction and the destruction of the church that follows what God says in His Word. This will happen because unbelievers have always despised and hated the church since the time of Cain and Abel and they will not stop until the earth is burned up with fire on Judgement Day.

There is no hope for peace on earth. Our hope is in heaven. Our hope is in heaven, because despite those times that we have kept quiet when we should have spoken, we have the blood of Christ covering our sins. Despite those times we have sought peace on earth instead of peace with God, Christ Himself is our peace. Despite those times we have fallen into following the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, we have the forgiveness of sins because Jesus died for us. Thus we have peace with God.

We have peace with God because He will not charge us with the offences we have committed. Christ was charged with all our offences and paid the penalty that we deserve. Christ has released us from the Law which held us captive and we have peace with God. God is not angry or wrathful towards us because we are no longer His enemies but are at peace with Him through our Saviour.

Thus, yes, as prophesied in the Old Testament, our Saviour is the Prince of Peace. There will be no end of peace in His kingdom. Christ has guided our feet into the way of peace. No strife or conflict on earth can take away the eternal peace we have with God. Our sins and iniquities cannot take away our peace with God because Jesus has taken our sins away from us. Even on this earth which has no peace, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.