Lent 1 Wednesday Matins

Catechism Sermon Series: Ten Commandments

Exodus 20:1–21

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther recommends beginning each day like this: In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Then, kneeling or standing, repeat the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, and maybe the Morning Prayer provided… Then go joyfully to your work, singing a hymn, like that of the Ten Commandments, or whatever your devotion may suggest.

Now, why go to your work while meditating on the Ten Commandments? Because the Ten Commandments sum up the order that God has designed for human life. The Commandments show what the perfect will of God is. So as a Christian, a baptized child of God marked with the holy cross, you should consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. You should pray each day for God’s blessing. And you should consider your station in life, where God has placed you and what God has called you to do. And the Commandments give you your direction.

God spoke these Commandments with His own mouth in the thunder and fire of Sinai. Later, He wrote them on two tablets of stone. Two tablets because they can be divided into two sections. The first three Commandments deal with our relationship to God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart. The other seven Commandments deal with our relationships to those around us in this life. Love your neighbor as yourself. These Commands from God aren’t arbitrary – just made up to keep us from having fun. And they aren’t reactionary, like human laws – someone got shot so we need gun laws, or someone lost their client’s money so we need investment laws. God’s Commands are good and well-ordered because they are a reflection of Him and His perfect will. God is good and so He commands what is good for His creation. His Law highlights and protects the good gifts He has given.

The First Commandment: there is a God and He’s not you. He is Father, Son, and Spirit. He is the Author, Creator, and Judge of all things. He is to be feared and He can be trusted. Everything else may fail, but He will not. And if you fear, love, and trust in Him alone, then you have nothing else to fear. If you have this God, then He says to you, “Do not be afraid… I am the Lord your God.”

The Second Commandment: This God has a Name. He wants to be known, so He gives us that Name. We don’t need to search for Him. He comes to us and gives us access to Himself. That means His Name is given to be used. That also means His Name can be misused – taken in vain. But the Lord takes that risk so that His people may know Him. He baptized you, put His Name on you with the water, so that you may call upon His Name, pray, praise, and give thanks.

The Third Commandment: This God speaks and works for His people. He is not lounging on a cloud, demanding our sacrifices, getting puffed-up by our praises. This God serves. This point was emphasized for Israel (God’s Old Testament people) by observing the Sabbath (Saturday) when no work was to be done. The people were to rest so they would recognize it was the Lord who made them holy, not their own work. His Word creates, sustains, and sanctifies. His deeds rescue and deliver. This still applies to us (God’s New Testament people). The Lord sanctifies us by His Word and Spirit, without our works. By His Word He creates and nurtures faith in Him alone, and it is faith that makes us holy as He is holy. So listen to the Lord’s Word. This God speaks and He is worth hearing.

Side note: Israel was commanded to keep the Seventh Day holy by hearing God’s Word. But the prescription of that day was a ceremonial Law so it’s no longer binding for the New Testament people of God. The day is not the essential thing – God’s Word is essential. Hearing the Word makes the day holy, makes any day holy: Saturday, Sunday, or even Wednesday. So, from the very beginning of the New Testament Church, God’s people began gathering on Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection. As New Testament Christians we still keep the Third Commandment in Spirit, as we hear God’s Word and receive His Body and Blood on the First Day of the Week, the Lord’s Day, the day when Jesus overcame death and the grave and by His glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.

Now, that’s the first table of the Law: life with God. The second table covers life with our neighbors, and it begins with a Commandment bridging the two tables. The Fourth Commandment: God is the ultimate authority, and He establishes authorities on earth as His representatives. And the most fundamental authority on earth is fatherhood. The Lord Himself is our Father and every fatherhood gets its name and authority from Him. The Lord commands authority to be obeyed, and by using His own authority for our good, He demonstrates that authority is for the sake of those underneath it. The Lord gives authority in the home, where fathers are head of the household; in the Church, where spiritual fathers look after the household of God; and in the government, where authorities protect and preserve order in the midst of this fallen, sinful world. The Lord is at work in all three estates: home, church, and government, so it is important that we honor the authority He gives. And it is just as important that those in positions of authority recognize that it does not come from their own power nor is it to be used for their own benefit.

Now the Fourth Commandment authorities are meant to use Commandments 5, 6, 7, & 8 in order to protect God’s other gifts. The Fifth Commandment protects life. Do not murder. The Sixth Commandment protects marriage and family where new life is nurtured. So do not adulterate marriage or sexuality by changing it or adding to it. The Seventh Commandment protects the good earthly gifts that God provides for our use. So do not steal. And the Eighth Commandment protects truth. The Lord who gives us His name and reputation, also gives us our names and reputations. So do not give false testimony.

Lastly, Commandments 9 & 10 point us back to the beginning. The Lord guards the heart against coveting. Coveting means wanting something that the Lord has not given to you. Coveting leads to lying (8^th), stealing (7^th), cheating (6^th), even killing (5^th), and defying any authority that gets in the way (4^th). While these actions are sins against our neighbors, they are also against God. It is the Lord who promises contentment in His Word (3^rd), and rather than take for ourselves, we can call upon God’s Name for every need (2^nd), because He is the trustworthy One, the true and never-failing source of life (1^st). Faith in this God leads to true love for the neighbor.

What a society, what a world that would be! If we stood up to defend, rather than gossip. If we protected and increased our neighbor’s property, rather than greedily worked on our own at our neighbor’s expense. If sex and marriage was honored and children were received as gifts from the Lord in His time and in His way. If life, both new and old, was truly valued, and we sacrificed our convenience and money for the sake of human life, rather than sacrifice human life for the sake of our money and convenience. If authorities actually protected these gifts and if we actually honored our authorities. If the Ten Commandments were kept by mankind, that would be perfection.

We get a glimpse of God’s perfect world in these Commandments, and if we’re honest, we get uncomfortable. Worse than uncomfortable, we recognize that we have utterly failed in keeping God’s Law. But that’s a good recognition. That is the chief purpose of the Law. Through the Law comes knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20).

So this is why the Christian message must have two parts: first the Law and then the Gospel. First the accusations of the Commandments and then the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. The Law is God’s demands. The Gospel is that God meets His own demands in Christ. The Law says, “Do this.” But it’s never done. The Gospel says, “Believe this.” And everything is done already. Everything is fulfilled.

Jesus fulfilled it, He accomplished it, He finished it, for you. Our God became a Man in order for Him to meet and satisfy every one of His own demands in our place. In His stations in life, as a son, a hearer, a teacher, a citizen, He kept every Commandment in its fullness. He is righteous, sinless, blameless according to the Law. And yet He also suffered the just punishment for our broken Commandments. He paid every last penny of our debt. Believe this Gospel, and everything is done for you by Christ.

In this knowledge we Christians go joyfully to our work, whatever it may be. We seek to live in God’s good order for the world and we delight in what His Commandments describe and protect. We don’t attempt to perfect our standing with God by our works. Our standing with God is already perfect on account of faith in His Son. But that means we are free to work for others. We are covered with Christ’s righteousness in Baptism and as we go to our work we remember this free gift of salvation with the sign of His cross. And throughout each day, in every station of life, we fall short, and we are accused by God’s Law. So, we confess our sins, we ask for grace and we want to do better. And then we hear once again the Word of the Gospel. Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace. Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

First Sunday in Lent - Invocavit

St. Matthew 4:1–11

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The 40 days of Lent are meant to remind us of our Lord’s 40 days in the wilderness, where He fasted, prayed, and fought against the temptations of the Devil. This conflict between Jesus and the Devil is unique in the history of the world because it is the only time a man fought the Devil and won without succumbing to any sin. But the temptations themselves were not unique. Jesus suffered what is common to all men. So also Jesus’ Church experiences trials similar to the three recounted in our Gospel: First, physical temptations, like hunger and persecution. Second, the spiritual temptation of heresy. And third, temptations for glory and power with this world.

First, the Devil came and said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” This temptation is probably the most common and could really include all kinds of physical trials. In the Lord’s Prayer, daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body. So against God’s gracious providence, the Devil throws everything at us that can ruin our daily bread: Hunger, thirst, and poverty, immorality and greed, persecution and bloodshed. This is any kind of temptation where our livelihood is threatened, our sinful desires are given free reign, or our bodies are attacked.

For the first three hundred years of Church history, Christians were well-acquainted with these temptations. Christians throughout the Roman Empire had to endure not only hunger, thirst, and all kinds of physical hardships but were also driven away from their homes, robbed, and murdered. Thousands of Christians, pastors and laity, men and women, were killed in the arena for sport, burned at the stake, and crucified. And sadly, the devil’s attacks worked sometimes. Many Christians, when they were tempted with the choice to deny the faith or to stretch out their necks, they drew back, rejected their Baptism and recanted their faith. But many other Christians did remain steadfast, daring everything and suffering for the sake of their faith. These holy martyrs fought against these temptations with the Word of Christ: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. This means they were not worried about how to retain this transitory life. The army of martyrs answer the Devil and the persecutors in this way: “I have a food for eternal life, which you cannot take from me. Even if you deprive my body and cause it to die, even so the eternal food will remain.” This food is the Word of God. And where the Word remains, the Christian will also remain, because the Word is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16).

The ranks of martyrs are still seen and heard throughout the world today. Christians are driven from their homes or killed, and churches are destroyed, in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and Sudan, Libya, Nigeria, and North Korea, China, Indonesia. While here in the United States “real” persecution may be on its way also. Christian families are attacked, and deprived of their business and livelihood.

For the rest of us, the Devil is content for now in getting us to follow our bellies, our appetites for worldly things. He would like us to grumble against God when we get into a rough spot. He tempts us to care more about our family’s finances, education, job security, than their souls. But what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Our answer must echo the martyrs:

Take they our life, Goods, fame, child, and wife,

Let these all be gone,

They yet have nothing won;

The Kingdom ours remaineth. (TLH 262:4)

It is better for the body to perish than for it to be kept alive for the sake of earthly things, while the soul dies and is lost forever. This means the most important thing in this world is for you and your children to remain Christians, in this Church. God provides us with the heavenly bread of His Word. That is really all we need. And if we partake of that holy bread, if we listen and believe His Word, then we can be convinced that God will provide us with earthly daily bread as well.

Second, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you.’” This is the spiritual temptation of false belief or heresy. Here the Devil turns into a theologian. He uses our only reliable weapon against us. He actually quotes Scripture. But he twists it, takes it out of context, ignores a bit here or adds a bit there. Still it can sound so right, even though it is so wrong. All heretics have fallen for this temptation and learned these tricks from the Devil. First, they have a thought that they like and seems good and true to them. Then they go to Scripture, searching and picking some verses that seem to approve their idea. They make Scripture mean what they want it to mean.

This was the way of the ancient heretics like the Arians, who taught that Jesus was not true God but instead a mere creature with godlike powers. Or the Pelagians, who taught that humans are not born in sin but are capable of being perfect without God’s salvation. They all used the name Christian. They all used the Holy Bible. But they twisted the Truth and taught falsehood. We still have heresies around today. Mormons also deny the Holy Trinity and instead teach the existence of many gods. The Shack, was an interesting novel and now it’s a movie, and it talks about God and Jesus, but it does not stay true to His Word. Heresies always have a little truth in them. The Devil quotes just enough Scripture, uses a few of the right words, to make it believable. But worshiping a god named Jesus Christ while ignoring His clear Word written in Holy Scripture, that is idolatry.

In the temptation of Jesus, the Devil quotes Psalm 91: He will command his angels concerning you… but he leaves out the most important part: to guard you in all your ways (Ps. 91:11). The way down from the pinnacle of the Temple was not to jump. That’s what stairs are for. To jump and expect a miracle when God has already provided a solution is to test God. We could fall for the same kind of false belief. If you’re hungry, it’s not right to starve and wait for God to send you manna when He has already provided you with farmers, grocery stores, and refrigerators. If you’re sick, it’s not necessary to wait for a miracle and ignore the sound advice of doctors or refuse all medical treatment. But, we especially get sucked into false belief regarding salvation. We are tempted to think that the way to reach God is by doing enough good deeds. And yet going that way is like jumping off the Temple, and you’ll get what you deserve. Because God has already provided a way for us to reach Him: the way through His Son our Savior: Faith in Christ, in His Word and Sacraments.

When keeping an eye out for heresy, we need to do what Jesus does. He confronts the Devil’s mangled Scripture passage with another Scripture passage. He shows that the Devil’s quote is incomplete and out of context. He adds an even clearer passage so we can be sure of Scripture’s meaning. God always preserves the one true faith through the gift of the Holy Spirit, through faithful preachers and devout hearers. His Word to be our sure foundation. God defends His Church from all heresy and will never let the Truth be utterly silenced.

Third, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  This kind of temptation lays before us all the glory and power of the world: popularity, success, a life of ease, respect, control. Here the Devil acts and speaks as if he were God Himself. This is the Devil’s most crass and obvious temptation, and yet it works well for him. If he cannot scare us with the cross and hardship, if he cannot trick us with false belief, he tries to lure us with the world.

In Luther’s day this temptation was promoted by the pope, who controlled kings and emperors and had them bow down to him. And if you honored the pope, then you would also succeed. For our churches today, we may not be tempted to obey the pope, but we are tempted to look for support and defense from the government. We think it will go easy for the Church and the Christian message will spread if only the government gives us its nod of approval. Even more likely, we are tempted to bow down to the prevailing attitudes of our day. We think perhaps we should give in to the demands of our culture, tell people what they want to hear, change how we do things or what we believe so we’re more appealing to the masses. We are jealous of those big churches who have somehow gained acceptance and praise from the culture. What’s worse, we tell ourselves that we would be doing God a service by giving in. We equate being popular and successful with pleasing and serving God. But Jesus could not bow to the Devil and serve God, and neither can we. We cannot bow to the opinions of society and worship God.

Jesus’ answer is immovable: “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God  and him only shall you serve.’” The fact is, you cannot serve God unless you have and obey His Word. If God’s Word is not there, you are not serving God’s will but your own will. Worse than that, whenever you reject God’s Word you are serving the Devil’s will. In some ways, this last temptation is the most frightening, because we all know that we have not served God with all our heart, soul, and mind. We have succumbed to the attraction and pressure of the world around us, given in, and bowed to the demonic prince of this world. Most of the time we don’t even realize we’re doing it because it comes so easy, so natural, to us, because it’s what everyone else is doing. We should be afraid of this temptation, and we should look for rescue.

Only Jesus Christ can rescue us. He is the sin-bearer. He took all our sin upon Himself. He is the Law-slayer. He met every demand of the Law. He is the death-destroyer. His death means we shall live. He is the devil-crusher. By His fasting and temptation, by His suffering and bleeding, by His dying and His rising, Jesus has trampled His enemies under His feet. He has crushed the serpent’s head. Sin, death, and the Devil all tried to throw their worst at Jesus. But they failed. They cannot have Him. And they cannot have you.

You, dear Christian, are a soldier of the Cross. You are dressed with the white robe of Christ’s righteousness, girded with the armor of God, armed with the Sword of the Spirit as you wield His Holy Word. And as you battle in Christ’s army you are nourished and strengthened with true Bread and drink from Heaven: His Word, His Body, His Blood. So fight on, because Jesus is victorious and He won His victory for you.

And in this dark and dangerous wilderness, amid the temptations and assaults of the Devil, God still preserves His faithful few. He will not let His Church be defeated. He will not let the light of His Word go out. Our Lord, the true King of this world will return. And to us who have believed in Him here, confessed His name now before the world, suffered here on account of our faith, to us, He will give rest. He will give splendid joy. He will give eternal life and salvation. The Kingdom ours remaineth.

In the Holy + Name of Jesus. Amen.

Matin Luther’s Sermons: AE, Vol. 57, pp.253–276; and Baker, Vol. V, pp.312–320