The resurrection of Jesus from the dead seals your status with God. You are forgiven. Death is defeat and you enjoy the sure promise of eternal life. You are raised to new life because you are connected to Jesus’ resurrection through your baptism. This new life shows itself in your daily desire to serve God and live according to his will.

Isaiah 32:17 (NIV) "The fruit of righteousness will be peace; the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever."

Because your status with God is sealed – you are his eternal child – the words of Isaiah 32:17 describe you. You have the peace of knowing that God’s love for you cannot change. Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, not even your imperfections change his view of you. He knows you for who you are and loves you. (Of course, that is not an excuse to willfully continue in a sin; but as we struggle with sin, we remain in God's grace.) Likewise, troubles and hardships cannot change God’s view of you. You can have the confidence to face life – or even death – knowing that Jesus’ love for you means he will bless all that happens to you.

May our continued Easter celebration give you the peace and confidence of knowing Jesus’ victory over sin and death is your victory over sin and death.

Pastor Aufdemberge

Pastor Kneser

Pastor Wempner

Pastor Zarling

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! This greeting echoed in our church last Sunday as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As we continue to celebrate this great victory, please take a few moments to read 1 Corinthians 15, the great resurrection chapter of the Bible. In particular, pay attention to these two sections:
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. (vs. 12-14)

Without Jesus’ resurrection, the Christian faith is a waste. But Christ did rise from the dead and so all the promises of God come true!

“Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (vs. 56-58)

Your labor is not in vain! The work you carry out in your Lord’s name (anything you do as a Christian) is worthwhile. Proof of this is that Christ as risen from the dead and so you are alive as a servant of Christ!

Pastor Aufdemberge

Pastor Kneser

Pastor Wempner

Pastor Zarling

When they couldn’t use the false charges to condemn Jesus — because the lying false witnesses couldn’t tell their lies without contradicting each other — the High Priest took matters into his own hands. Mark records:
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”
“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Mark 14:61–62

What a blessed position this man held as the High Priest. He was to serve as a mediator between God and his people in the Temple. Yet when Jesus was arrested, the High Priest played the role of prosecuting attorney against God’s Son, and he was desperate for a guilty verdict.

Jesus’ answer is powerful. “I am” he said. That is the divine name that God gave himself when asked by Moses at the burning bush, “Suppose I go to the Israelites . . . And they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?” “I Am Who I Am” was God’s answer from the burning bush. It was also Jesus’ answer in the court of the High Priest. Jesus added clarity and emphasis to his answer when he said that he would be sitting at the right had of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds. This was a reference to Daniel 7:13-14: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” Jewish rabbis correctly understood the words of Daniel 7 as referring to the coming Messiah. They would even refer to the Messiah as “the Cloud Man.” Jesus’ answer to the High Priest was that he was God and the Messiah in one person.

The unbelieving reaction was instant and violent. Immediately they condemned Jesus and began to abuse him.

And yet the One who knew he was the Cloud Man and God himself, let the abuse occur. He didn’t fight back with a devastating demonstration of power and judgement on those cruel unbelievers. As the final hours of Jesus’ life unfolded, he never tried to defend himself or stop the cruelty.

Jesus was there for the purpose of taking the abuse and the suffering. This would be God’s greatest act of mercy. He would be our substitute and suffer for our sins.

The cruel acts that we see in the next few days were acts of love — at least on Jesus’ part. Your salvation is secured and your sin forgiven because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.

As our special Holy Week worship services begin tomorrow, look by faith at the great comfort that God wants to give you. He has come and personally dealt with your guilt. He has personally triumphed over death. We have great reason to gather in worship to remember all he has done.

Pastor Aufdemberge

Pastor Kneser

Pastor Wempner

Pastor Zarling

Lent is a time for spiritual renewal. This happens as we grow in faith from hearing God’s Word. Growing in faith always has the result of leading us to turn from the world for comfort to Jesus and his love. Martin Luther’s comments on Psalm 62:10 (“Though your riches increase, do not set your heart on them”) remind us to use our gifts as God intends so that our faith remains firmly planted in Christ.

"Even if riches were to come to you in a rightful way, from God, do not rely on them and make mammon your God; for possessions are not given that we may rely on them and glory in them, which is futile and foolish, but that we may use and enjoy them and share them with others. . . . Our possessions should be in our hands, not in our hearts." Thus Saint Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Cor. 7:31) that we should use the world as though we used it not.

Pastor Aufdemberge

Pastor Kneser

Pastor Wempner

Pastor Zarling

There is a confidence to faith! God wants us to be confident in our faith because he will keep his promises! So we firmly believe that our sins are forgiven; that all works for our good; and that we will live in heaven. In James 1:6 we read, But when he [the believer] asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Martin Luther made an interesting comment on our confidence. Here is what he said in a sermon in 1532:
He who would deal with God and ask something of Him must not doubt or waver and say: Who knows whether God wants to give me this or whether I am worthy of it? No, by no means; but you should say: I know that God will do what I ask of Him; and although He does not do it now and in this way, He will do it at another time and in another way. For a wavering heart that does not firmly believe and hold that it will receive something will certainly get nothing, because God cannot give it anything, much as He would like to. Such a heart is a like a vessel which a man holds in his hands but, instead of holding it, constantly moves it to and fro. It will be impossible to pour anything into it, and though you would want to do so, you would miss the vessel and waste whatever you are pouring. So it is with a wavering, unbelieving heart. God would like to give what we need. But there we stand, like a foolish beggar, holding out our hat for gifts and yet not holding it still.
What Luther Says, p. 429

Pray with confidence to the God who has set you free from sin and death and who has planned your eternal place in heaven.

Pastor Aufdemberge

Pastor Kneser

Pastor Wempner

Pastor Zarling