Yesterday's Sermons for Today's World

By Rev. Eldore F. Messerschmidt

This book is a compilation of seventy weekly sermons that follow the Lutheran Church Calendar Year. Written by Reverend Eldore F. Messerschmidt over fifty to sixty years ago, the things he discussed in his sermons back then still pertain to what is happening in our world today. Thus the name Yesterday's Sermons for Today's World.

This is a great book for the shut-ins who no longer can attend weekly worship services or for the average person who needs a weekly inspirational pick-me-up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638444275

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Yesterday's Sermons for Today's World

Rev. Eldore F. Messerschmidt

ISBN 978-1-63844-426-8 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63844-427-5 (digital)

Copyright © 2021 by Rev. Eldore F. Messerschmidt

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

1

January 7 and 8, 1978

Jesus the Christ!

The Importance of Christ's Baptism

Epiphany

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus, answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he suffered Him. And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him; and, lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. (Matt. 3:13–17 KJV)

Beloved followers of Jesus Christ:

Last Friday, the Epiphany season began. Epiphany is a festival, celebrated by the Christian church for many centuries. Epiphany means appearance, showing forth, revelation. The scripture lessons during the Epiphany season therefore deal with incidents of which Jesus of Nazareth appears or reveals Himself as the Christ, the promised Messiah. Because of that emphasis, we can readily see why the church has also stressed that the obligation resting upon the Christians to bear witness to others of the Christ.

Anyone who has been led by the Spirit of God to see Jesus as his Savior, as the Christ, will want to do what we commonly call mission work that is to tell someone else about Jesus and the way to heaven.

The text before us this morning deals with a baptism of Jesus. On this occasion, God the Father declared Him to be His beloved son. Using this account of Jesus's baptism, let me speak to you on this epiphany topic:

Jesus the Christ

Jesus makes this claim for Himself.

In accord with the direction and command of an angel of the Lord, Joseph had brought Mary and Jesus back to Nazareth from Egypt after the death of Herod. In the fulfillment of the prophecy that foretold that the Messiah would be called a Nazarene, Jesus spent the years of his childhood and youth and early manhood in Nazareth. Except for the one incident when as a twelve-year-old boy he was taken to Jerusalem, nothing is recorded in the Scriptures of His years of growth in His Galilean home. They were years of the comparative privacy and preparation before the public ministry to which He would devote Himself at His father's appointed hour.

When that hour struck, Jesus, as the text that tells us, cometh from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of Him. Jesus presents Himself to John the Baptist at the river and requests His baptism. What a strange situation! Is not Jesus holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens? Why, then, should He seek baptism?

John at once objects: I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?

But Jesus replied, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Christ meant to say, "It is your office as the God-appointed baptizer to baptize also Me. Do not ask why. Do what I tell you! Do your duty! As My Father in heaven has revealed to you, I am the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

"Of course, nobody can convict Me of any sin. Hence, I do not need absolution for Myself. But inasmuch as My Father has laid on Me your sins and the sins of all mankind, I am in His sight and in My own sight the sinner. I must atone and render satisfaction for the foreign sins imposed on Me. I am the sin offering God has provided from eternity. By suffering the penalty of sin, I am to reconcile the world to God and to recover that righteousness for man that he lost in Adam's fall.

By the baptism that you are about to administer to Me, I verify before heaven and earth and before Him that sent Me that I am going to do everything He asked of Me till all be fulfilled. Proceed then at once with the baptism and thereby consecrate, anoint, and strengthen Me, for the performance of the office on which I am about to enter, for the bitter death that lies ahead before Me.

Here was the beginning of his public ministry. He publicly proclaims to be the promised Christ, the divine substitute who takes the place of each and every sinner, to live and die in their stead. Here and now, as Luther puts it, He truly begins to be the Christ. Therefore, at the Jordan River, Jesus by word and deed publicly made the claim that He was the Christ, the Messiah who was to come and now was here.

The Baptist recognized the authority of Jesus and, in humble obedience to His directive, baptized Him. Immediately after the baptism, the heavens were opened onto Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven saying: ‘This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'

Jesus and John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descend in the form of a dove upon this Man of Nazareth. This is the anointing of Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power (Acts 10:37, 38). This is His formal and divine installation into His Messianic office. And so the Holy Spirit confirms with His presence the claim that Jesus had just made—that He was the Christ of God and the Savior of the world.

We as members of a Christian congregation need to ask ourselves: Has there been a real epiphany of the Lord in our hearts and lives? Do we see Him by faith always and daily for what He really is and what He really is to us? Does that faith constrain and control us as we go about our daily work?

The record of God's Word is there, plain and simple, for anyone and everyone to read. At His birth, angels sang, and night was turned into day, and a star appeared to wise men in a distant Eastern country, and men marveled and worshiped. Here at the Jordan, the heavens opened, and God spoke. Then Jesus Himself revealed his deity by restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the lame, even life to the dead. He changed water into wine. He spoke peace to the howling wind and raging sea, and there was a great calm. Men could not touch Him with their murderous hatred until His hour had come to give Himself into death on the cross. However, as the Easter dawn revealed so gloriously, not even death and the grave could hold Him, and He showed Himself alive to those who loved Him.

We Christians know all these facts very well. But does our great familiarity with them perhaps dull their impact upon us? Do we see Jesus as the Christ, the God-Man, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father?

The sinner who has come to know Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ of God ceases to be a slave of sin and at the same time becomes the glad and grateful slave of the Lord who has set him free. He preaches a daily sermon by the way he lives that Jesus is the Christ. Do men see Christ in us? Do others who are both in the world and of the world take note of us that though we are in the world, we are not of it? That we are different from them? And does our example draw them to the Lord Jesus? These are extremely practical questions, and the sincere and genuine Christian answers them with a life that is the day-by-day demonstration of his Christian faith. Let me illustrate.

The witness of a Christian's life

For one thing, a Christian's life is marked by complete obedience to God. Not only does he strive to live in accord with the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, but he also goes beyond them and strives to be a little Christ to all those with whom he daily associates.

More important (and perhaps more striking to others in our day!), he lives according to a standard of values completely different from that which guides most men in our modern society. How the Christian lives is much more important to him than how much of a living he makes! What he is, is more important than what he has! He seeks and enjoys the good things of life, but he possesses them rather than be possessed of them.

He is keenly conscious of the fact that anything and everything in this world is subject to change and decay, and he sets his heart upon those treasures that are beyond the grave, which abide forever. This gives direction and purpose to his life.

What a powerful force for good our whole church today would be if all its members realized their obligation to be personal witnesses of Christ to others by their life and by word of mouth! I would urge you to join those who—with a prayer in their heart for the Holy Spirit's guidance—open their lips and speak of their Savior to others. You will find it such a rich and rewarding experience. Your life will take a new meaning, and you will enjoy it.

That you and I are God's people today, members of His family began when we were baptized. What baptism meant to Christ, it should and does mean to us. What happened at His baptism has been done also at ours. The day of our baptism was a glorious and blessed day. When we were baptized, heaven opened, and the Father said to us, You are My dear child in whom I am well pleased, and His Spirit entered into our heart.

The Holy Scriptures speak of baptism as follows:

Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

According to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying.

Christ loved the Church (all believers) and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

These are just a few of the many texts of Holy Writ pointing out the glory of our baptism. What they say, we are to believe with all our hearts. As at Christ's baptism, so at every baptism, heaven is opened, and the Holy Trinity is present. What Christ merited for us, He put into the treasure chest of baptism; and through baptism, He makes it our own. Baptism is water permeated by God with the precious blood of Christ. It delivers us from the kingdom of the prince of darkness and translates us into the kingdom of God's Son and washes all our sins away.

Through baptism, our names are written into the Book of Life. It is a covenant with God, an agreement that shall never become invalid though mountains be removed and hills depart. It is a covenant that remains in force though we become unfaithful, to which we can always return when we have broken faith. In baptism, God receives us into communion with Himself; and if we leave Him, He nevertheless, for the sake of His covenant, waits for our return with open arms of grace. Oh, never forget the immense riches bestowed on you in your baptism!

When we were baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, God received us as His dear children and said to us, I want to be and remain your Father. I will lead you in the paths of righteousness to eternal salvation.

Do not doubt, but firmly believe that you are God's beloved children! He daily forgives you all your sins; He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will keep you through faith unto salvation. Hold on to your baptism. It affords you true security in life and in death. It is worth more than heaven and earth. Amen.

2

January 10, 1965

January 9, 1977

The Worshiping Wise Men

The First Sunday after Epiphany

Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and are come to Him. (Matt. 2:2 KJV)

My dear friends in Christ:

There is a painting titled They All Follow the Star. In this picture, there is no star at all, only a gleam of light in the sky and a group of men and women with eager faces looking up toward that light.

In the foreground, there are three figures richly clothed. Beside them is a sturdy peasant mother, leading her young children by the hand. Close behind them are an aged couple supporting each other. Beside them, a boy is pushing a wheelchair of a crippled girl. A prisoner lifts his handcuffs to the light of the star. The light brightens the face of a blind beggar. It glorifies the faces of a bride and groom and rests with splendor on the face of an infant in its mother's arms. The entire scene pictures one purpose: to find and worship Christ regardless of age, physical condition, or position in life.

With the intensity of a great purpose, the Wise Men from the East came to Jerusalem. Arriving in the city, they thought they had arrived at their destination. Confidently, they asked, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and are come to worship Him (Matt. 2:2).

The Wise Men had followed the star a long way. Over the long desert from East to West, they had come. Now they thought they were at the end of their searching. And as they themselves put it: the end of their searching, the aim of the searching was to worship Him.

What did they find in Jerusalem? Well, they found religion, all right. Everyone was just as religious as could be. The scribes and chief priests brought out their books and pointed to Bethlehem as the place of destiny where He would be born and who would rule His people. But the scribes and chief priests didn't offer to go along to Bethlehem to find Him. Even King Herod pretended to be really interested, not that he offered to go along to Bethlehem, but he asked that the Wise Men send back word to him in order that he might also come and worship Him.

These Wise Men had come a long way, and they had no intention of letting their journey of searching for the Christ Child become frustrating or just a pleasure trip. They had come to find Christ, and they intended to worship Him.

Setting out for Bethlehem, they discovered that the star which they saw in the East went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

My dear Christian friends, this is worship: to accept the wonder of God and to rejoice in it. Worshipping is accepting God's great gift and surrendering one's life to Him. To go the last mile in adoration and praise, this is worship, and that is the topic or subject we want to carefully consider together in this morning's worship.

Worship receives and worship gives. Both have a very important part in our worship. Unless worship becomes a matter of our receiving something from God and giving something to Him, it is meaningless. We receive His divine forgiveness, His Word, His blessing. We give Him or offer Him our prayers, our hymns of praise, and our offerings of love. Where any of these are missing, one's worship is lacking: it is not complete. And everyone must do this individually.

The Wise Men were preparing to receive the greatest gift God had ever given to the world, His own Son. And they were preparing to give. That is why they came laden with gold and frankincense and myrrh. But first of all, as our text tells us, they proposed to prostrate themselves to bow down in the presence of the newborn child, to worship the great God of heaven and earth.

The Wise Men came from the East to worship Christ. Christ was the object of their journey, Christ was the treasure they had come to find, and Christ was the object of their adoration.

Why worship Christ? Years later, Christ came to His disciples as they were making their way by ship through stormy seas. He calmed the wind and the waves. At that point, the Scriptures tell us: Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped Him, saying, ‘Of a truth, Thou art the Son of God.'

That's it. That's what it is all about. To worship Christ is to recognize His deity—to know Him as God's Son, to receive Him as Lord and Savior, and to bow down in worshipful adoration before Him who came to give his life for a lost world.

Worship is surrender. It presupposes the correct answers to some serious questions such as: Do I owe God my first loyalty and allegiance? Or are there other gods in my life who come before Him? Do I run after idols such as worshiping money, position, accomplishments, pleasures, in fact anything else but God? Or will I be willing to put aside pleasures, friends, work, or anything else in order to worship the God who made me and who takes care of me?

Worship is nonsense if we set aside one day in seven for praise and thanksgiving to God, turning over the other six to the devil or even to purely secular living without any thought of God. Worship is mockery if we profess faith in Christ and look with complacency upon the dishonesty and immorality of our time or even become a part of it.

Worship can take all kinds of forms—public or private, formal or informal. Daily routine makes allowance for many kinds of informal worship whether it be a table prayer, thanks to God for a safe trip or a test passed in school, or when seeking divine direction when confronted by a difficult decision. Pursued in the right spirit, this can be worship just as much as prayer and praise in the regular worship service of the church.

Worship requires concentration. It takes more effort than just being seated in a church pew and going through the motions in a church service. Worship cannot be achieved with the body in church and the mind hundreds of miles away or even one mile away, occupied with other thoughts. Worship is the conscious yielding of one's will to the power and the glory of God's goodness.

Worship requires preparation. How can people worship unless they prepare themselves for the great experience by falling prostrate in mind and spirit before the Most High God? Do you prepare for worship? Do you use the prayer printed in the bulletin each Sunday to begin your worship or some other suitable one to help you get into a worshipful mood? If you arrive a few minutes ahead of time, do you use that time to perhaps read through the hymns for the day?

How do you worship? What is your purpose in attending church? What do you really want? What are you looking for? You cannot expect to receive a blessing if you are unaware of the need for that blessing. Do you need forgiveness of sin? Restoration or strengthening of faith? Comfort in the midst of trouble? Do you need an active consciousness of God's power? Come expecting to receive, and you will receive. This is Christ's promise. Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Worship requires expectation. Do you really expect a blessing from God? Do you expect that God will answer your cry to Him to meet your need? It is not a more powerful pulpit personality that most churches need these days but rather hearts in the congregation open to the ministry of God's Holy Spirit.

Expectation is a vital element of faith. When you enter church, bow your head and offer a silent prayer to God, stating your needs and your desires for that hour. Then lift your head, expecting an answer from God. When you expect an answer, you will find that He does answer prayer.

Worship furthermore requires participation. You can't participate in a meal unless you eat. You can't participate in a game unless you take an active part. You can't participate in worship unless you take part in the exercises of worship, its prayers, and praise.

Worship requires appropriation: we must take it for our own use. This is where many of us fall down. We come to church to get something, but we are not willing to take what is offered. When prayers are offered, we do not pray along. When hymns are sung, we do not sing along. When scriptures are read, we either do not listen or we are not ready to take what the Word of God has to offer. When the sermon is preached, we do not take its message for ourselves. We assume that the minister has someone else in mind that he couldn't possibly mean his message for us. Not to take, not to appropriate, not to apply God's Word to ourselves, to our lives, our situations, our attitudes, our behavior is to miss the core of worship.

The pastor of a large and well-known church in the United States was once asked by a representative of a nationally circulated magazine if the congregation could be photographed at prayer. The photographer assured the pastor that the congregation would never know when the pictures were being taken. The pictures turned out to be excellent, but they were never printed in the magazine. If they had been printed, the whole congregation would have been embarrassed. Why? Because so many people in the congregation were not participating, were not worshiping.

Some men were straightening their ties or looking around the church while the rest of the congregation was engaged in prayer. Women were adjusting their hats, and one young lady with a compact was trying to improve her face. And a number of people were just gazing up at the ceiling with a blank look on their faces. Others were yawning. Worship is to participate in the service and to take the blessings which God has to give.

Real worship has a completion, a fulfillment. Worship has its fulfillment in a new dedication of life. If you go away from church no closer to God than when you came, you haven't worshipped properly.

If your worship has not brought you closer to God, if it hasn't resulted in some new devotion to Christ, if it hasn't fixed your determination to render some new service to Christ, then you haven't grasped the real meaning of worship.

And the final result of worship is transformation, a change for the better. Coming into relationship with Christ and finding His forgiveness to be real is to live in the power of a new love, to be changed by the power of Christ's presence. To worship Christ is to be transformed into His likeness.

When you have been with Christ and have worshipped Him, people will know. You may not know, but they will know. Your whole attitude toward life and toward other people will be changed. You will even reflect the change in your facial expressions and conversations. This is an invitation to you to worship Christ regularly this year and be transformed within.

Receive His good gifts and blessings. Let His glory fall upon you. Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker. Amen.

Let us all say and mean it: I have loved the habitation of Thy house and the place where Thine honor dwelleth.

Hymns:

#21 Jehovah, Let Me Now Adore Thee

#302 The Savior Kindly Calls

#136 Angels from the Realms of Glory

#30, vv. 1 and 5 Oh that I Had a Thousand Voices

3

January 14 and 15, 1978

New Life for the New Year

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of whom I said, ‘after me cometh a Man which is preferred before me: for he was before me.' And I knew Him not: but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, ‘Upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What see ye? They said unto Him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master) where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed Him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is Christ." (John 1:29–41 KJV)

In Christ's name, dearly beloved members of God's family:

By now, you have made your New Year's resolutions and are well on the way to accomplishing them or abandoning them. If you have already given up on your resolutions, you may be wondering why it is that each year, you go through the same routine.

One of the reasons New Year's resolutions are hard to keep may be because they often deal with things which are not of vital importance. I believe that when we get down to the things that really count, we find the power to do them. That is why Satan carries on such an intensive campaign to make us think that our lives do not make any difference in the long run. The powers of evil win out when we believe that we are not accountable to anyone in how we live.

We need to know and realize that we are accountable to God and to one another. We offend a Holy God when we sin. We must avoid offending our fellow-Christian by a sinful life. We are our brother's and sister's keeper to tell them when they are doing wrong, things that are sinful, and we need to have others remind us too when we need correcting.

It's not too late to make a firm resolve to take God and His will seriously during the New Year. I can assure you that you will bring great purpose and much satisfaction into your life.

To guarantee that life will be rewarding in the New Year, we need to go beyond resolutions that have to do with losing weight or with curbing bad habits and creating new ones, to recommitting ourselves to our Lord Jesus and pointing other people to Jesus Christ during the next 365 days.

In order to change the world and people around us, we need a plan. Our plan must be simple enough for everyone to understand and to become involved. The Gospel text for today contains the outline for such a plan. It clearly teaches that to change the course of history, we need to start small. Begin where John the Baptist made his beginning with himself. He took himself and life seriously. He prepared himself for what he understood God's will for his life to be. People like John the Baptist are the kind that change the world.

A Christmas card had the following message on it: As we are, so is our world. How true that is. Change yourself and you change the world. It is that simple, and it is possible.

God had a hand in John the Baptist's life even before his birth. John was aware of that. But that did not make it any easier for him to serve God. He sometimes seemed dissatisfied with the way God was doing things. Yet, John was an important part of God's plan, and God used the life of John the Baptist to bless the world.

God has a hand in your life too. God put His mark on you in your baptism. In your rebirth in holy baptism through faith, you became a child of God, one of His family. In the word of the Scriptures, in the action of the Sacraments, and in the witness of those about you, God is empowering you to serve Him daily. This very day as you have come into this House of Prayer, God is telling you that He loves you. And even if you think your life is quite insignificant in comparison to the life of Jesus Christ, nevertheless, your life is all important to the plan of God for the welfare of His world. God's purpose for your existence is the same as it was for the people of Israel. God always chooses people for an end greater than themselves. Thus, He said to Israel through Isaiah: I will give you as a light to the nations, that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth (Isa. 49:6).

John the Baptist was also chosen for a purpose greater than self-salvation. John said, I myself did not know Him; but for this I came baptizing with water that He might be revealed to Israel (John 1:31).

In accomplishing his purpose that Israel would come to know Christ, John used a very simple means. John knew that saving Israel was God's business, so he was satisfied to use his life to introduce people to God's salvation in the flesh. When John saw some people whom he knew, he said to them, Look, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John used his life to point to the Christ whom he had come to regard as his Savior. And you can do the same thing.

John first pointed out Christ to his own disciples. He took a few who were close to him and introduced them to the Lamb of God. John was a hellfire and brimstone preacher who described Jesus in terms of God's judgment.

Or John's introduction of Jesus to the disciples might have reminded them of the Passover lamb whose blood prevailed in the sight of God to save the firstborn of the Israelites from the angel of death when God was working out the freedom of His people in Egypt. We do know that at a later time, Jesus was connected with the Passover lamb as Paul said, Christ our Passover has been sacrificed (1 Cor. 5:7).

Whatever the disciples understood the title Lamb of God to mean, it was enough that John introduced them to Jesus. Trusting their friend and leader, they left him long enough to discover for themselves what this person to whom John was pointing them was all about. You can understand that John the Baptist made a significant sacrifice and took a great risk in sending his friends in pursuit of the Christ. But he loved his friends and understood his mission, so the risk was worth it.

Then a marvelous thing happened. When Andrew was introduced to Jesus, he went to get his brother, Peter. When Philip was introduced to Christ, he enlisted Nathaniel. And each of these in turn introduced many more to Jesus—all of whom became believers through their own encounter with the Christ. And thus, the world was changed. It is a simple method, but it is still the best method—talking to someone else on a one-to-one basis. And the most marvelous thing about it is that in a plan such as this, you too can be involved. Epiphany—revealing Christ to people and people to Christ is for you!

Tell people to look beyond yesterday with its many problems to the God who loves them so much as to send His own dear Son into this world to be their Savior. Tell them He can change their attitude and outlook on life so that it is more than just trying to obtain the things of this world. Plead with people to look beyond today and tomorrow to the God who loves us still and who provides for the greatest needs of life we can experience. Just think, any one person can do that. And you too can do that.

When Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him and remained with Him. It is the power and presence of that same Holy Spirit which Christ pours out upon us today, urging us to join the Epiphany life. God is telling us to help people in our world discover Jesus by our witnessing of Him in word and deed.

The world needs out witness. Churches are becoming more and more empty, crime and immorality are continually on the increase. The safety of our lives and the lives of our children are in danger more and more through evil and godless men. Only the message of Jesus Christ and His salvation can change people's hearts and lives. This is a proven fact.

People are searching and grasping for something good and reliable and permanent, something in which to believe and hold on to in the midst of a crumbling world. We have the answer, the product to save people from total disaster, but it doesn't do anyone any good if we keep it to ourselves.

How exciting your life can be if you will plan during this year to find just one person and say in your own way to that human being, Look, here is Christ. He loves you. He gave His life for you because you needed that. He wants to count you as one of His followers. Christ will take over your life and open up a whole new way of living if you want Him to do that. He will give you a new hope for the future. You can't lose when you live for Christ!

If you have caught the vision of what I am talking about, then you are really in the Epiphany spirit and you know that you have gone far beyond the ordinary New Year's resolution which most of us make to serve ourselves. We have all been served by Jesus Christ. There is very little that you and I need for the New Year besides each other. If we are firmly committed to each other and to God, we can go to the one who needs us—the one to whom God has been waiting to introduce us that we might be ambassadors for Christ that God can make His appeal through us.

If you have caught the vision of which I speak, you will not be bashful or ashamed to introduce someone to Christ this year. Remember that God loves everyone, not just the people who are like us.

Natural barriers must be crossed to do the work of God. God wants to work through us to claim everyone for His own. God would have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. And God will use you where He finds you to change His world. God put you where you are for a purpose. There is someone who is near you to whom you can say, Look, here is the Lamb of God. And when they find Him, they will tell someone else. And our world will be different, and it will be better because you lived in it. Let's make a new life for someone in this New Year. Amen.

4

January 24, 1960

January 21, 1968

Christ Is Our True Light

Third Sunday after Epiphany

That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave them power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. (John 1:9–12 KJV)

Beloved followers of Jesus Christ,

We all, at some time or another, have witnessed a great electrical storm. Power was knocked out, and we were without electricity for hours. If we were fortunate enough to have candles in the house, we lit one or two and placed them in strategic places in our home. We were very appreciative of the feeble flames from the flickering candles. Yet how dim this light was compared with our bright electric lights. And how glad we were when the power company switched on the current, and we again had bright adequate lighting.

In our text, St. John speaks about light—not candlelight, not electric light, not ordinary light, but about the true light, Jesus Christ, next to whom all other lights are as flickering candles next to the noonday sun.

This true light is not just the greatest teacher or the greatest man who ever lived, but He is the pure, perfect, sinless, stainless Son of God. He is your God and mine. He is not the counterfeit Christ that is preached in thousands of modernist churches today as is testified by numerous letters sent in to our International Lutheran Hour by pious people who deplore the fact that Christ, the God-man is no longer preached in their congregations.

Letters like these could be multiplied many, many times. A human christ can never save us from our sins. Only a divine Christ has the almighty power to conquer sin, death, and the power of hell for us. Though unbelieving preachers, atheists, and infidels may not recognize Jesus as the true light of the world, the fact remains that Jesus is the true light of the world. Jesus says of Himself in the Gospel of St. John: I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (John 8:12).

Why did Jesus come as the light into the world? The answer is that the world was in darkness, gross spiritual darkness, the devil's darkness. Sin flourished and was just as widespread then as it is now. While we consider our nation a Christian nation (and thank God it does contain more Christians than many other nations in the world), yet there is such darkness—the darkness of unbelief, rejection, of Christ, love of sin, and boisterous blasphemy. Gross darkness envelopes our international relations, suspicion, distrust, deceit and characterizes much of the dealings of nations with each other. It still is a dog-eat-dog world because the Almighty God and His principles have been locked outside the United Nations' door.

But the most inexcusable darkness is that which enshrouds countless churches in our land. What shall we say of those preachers who Sunday after Sunday use texts from the Bible as pretexts to destroy the very foundations of the Christian religion by preaching a social gospel, denying that Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world, and week after week rob their hearers of their childhood faith?

What shall we say of churches which flout or mock the laws of the land and deliberately teach their people to gamble in the name of religion for the benefit of their church? A printed report a couple of years ago revealed that the Roman Church during 1956 made 4 million on raffles and 12 million on bingo games—16 million in all which almost was equivalent to the entire budget for our Luther Church Missouri Synod for 1959 ($16,500,000).

John says in our text that Jesus is the true light. Now what is light for? Light drives away darkness, and our Savior drives away the darkness of sin. But some of you might say that sin is not dark, it's bright like the bright lights with which it is sometimes associated. Well, you know and I know that it may seem bright but that it always ends in gloom, in the darkness of despair.

Sin looked bright to David and Bathsheba, but it ended in bitter remorse, tears, disgust, and the sand blow of seeing their child born out of wedlock die within a few days after its birth. Breaking God's law always results in days of darkness. Whoever denies Christ, uses His holy name in cursing and profanity, lives in sins of selfishness, fleshly lusts, impurity, covetousness, and always comes to the same state of heart and mind; a heavy darkness settles over him.

People know that they must give up their sinful ways and habits, and yet they deceive themselves into believing they cannot give up their sins. They are like the child who one day while playing with a very valuable vase put his hand into it and could not get it out. His father also tried his best to free the hand but all in vain. Finally, they decided to break the vase, but the father said, Make one more try: open your hand and hold your fingers out straight as you see me doing, and then pull.

To their astonishment, the little fellow said, Oh no, Daddy. I couldn't put out my fingers like that. If I did, I would drop my penny. He had been holding onto a penny the whole time. No wonder he could not withdraw his hand. How many are like that? They hold onto their sin although it is the means of their eternal damnation. They refuse to surrender, to let go, to forsake sin. They will not hold their hand out to God who wants to fill it with the gold of His forgiveness.

Let me tell you that no matter who you are, how seemingly happy you may be, how strong and healthy, how wise you are in your own conceit, there will come a time of deep darkness to you. The darkness of death which may even make you cringe as you now think of it and the inevitable judgment. One by one, God will call us out of this world. Death is a non-respecter of persons and age.

A certain tyrant sent for one of his subjects and said, What is your employment?

He said, I am a blacksmith.

Go home and make a chain of such a length.

He went home; it took him several months, and he was not paid for all the time that he was making it. When he brought it to the tyrant, he said, Go and make it twice as long. He brought it again, and the monarch said, Go and make it longer still. Each time he brought it, there was nothing but the command to make it longer still; and when he brought it at last, the tyrant said, Take it and bind him hand and foot with it and cast him into the furnace of fire. These were his wages for making the chain.

Here is something to think about for all who serve Satan with their sins. The devil urges them to make a chain. Some have been fifty years in forging the chain, and Satan says, Go and make it still longer. Next Sunday morning, some will open their places