Sermon: Romans 5:1-11, February 28, 2021

02/28/21 • 0 min

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 28, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Romans 5:1-11. You may play the audio of the sermon here.

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 28, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on Romans 5:1-11. You may play the audio of the sermon here.

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Sermon: Matthew 26:36-46, February 24, 2021, Return to the Lord: Return to Prayer

This Lenten Midweek sermon is taken from and based on Concordia Publishing House's series, "Return to the Lord" for Lent and Easter. The text of the sermon is found after the jump and you may play the audio of the sermon here or by clicking the post's title.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text today is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 26th chapter:

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

The theme for this service today is a return to prayer, and so it’s appropriate that the disciples would give us an example of ourselves, falling asleep as they were to keep watch and pray. But, Jesus shows us, and it’s not the only place we find it in Scripture, that God has an invitation to us to pray, and it’s even a requirement if we are to love our relationship with God.

Prayer is kind of a sensitive topic. It’s more than likely that not many of us are very good at prayer. So, whenever we talk about it, we’d like to just quickly hit it and move on. It pricks your conscience, because you know you ought to pray more than you do, and you’d really like to say more to God and about God than just another request of asking for stuff. We always seem to have the best of intentions when it comes to prayer; we want to be like Paul and follow his command when he tells us to pray without ceasing. But, our best intentions are never enough.

It’s a good bet that, even if you’re better than most, your prayer life doesn’t measure up to God’s Word, and I can confidently assert that whatever your prayer life is, it’s not what you want it to be. So, I get it. We talk about prayer and you get uncomfortable. What I will say though is that God calls you to pray but doesn’t leave it all up to you: He gives you the means to do so and even fulfills your prayers when you cannot.

We heard in our Old Testament lesson of Jacob returning back to Canaan after having lived with his father-in-law for many years. Jacob’s big fear is Esau, his brother, how Esau will react when he sees this man who stole everything from him. He’s nervous, scared, doesn’t know what’s going to happen. So, he’s split everything up into two camps hoping that at least one group will be spared if Esau discovers them. But, that night, a man comes and wrestles Jacob.

It’s one of the strangest encounters with God anywhere in the Holy Scriptures, especially considering that Jacob has Him on the ropes just as often as God did. And this isn’t just “God,” this is, in reality, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, the one, who, in 1800 years will come and take on human flesh, will be called Jesus. Jacob wrestles with the Son all night, and it’s very strange. But, one thing we can take from it is that which God puts us through isn’t meant to destroy us but to build us up, to test us, to bless us.

We can see, too, that our prayers may be seen through this event, that we wrestle with God in our prayers, asking Him for what we think we need, looking for His direction and guidance, and groaning to Him under the weight of the world, under the weight of our trials and tribulat...

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Sermon: John 18:1-11, March 3, 2021, Return to the Lord: Return from Betrayal

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

The text this day is from the Gospel according to St. John, the 18th chapter:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, for Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas, having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that would happen to him, came forward and said to them, “Whom do you seek?” They answered him, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus said to them, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. So he asked them again, “Whom do you seek?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he. So, if you seek me, let these men go.” This was to fulfill the word that he had spoken: “Of those whom you gave me I have lost not one.” Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.) So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

I don’t know if you’ve ever been betrayed. It’s kind of a strange thing. It could be a betrayal of trust, a betrayal of your marriage, your emotions, a secret. It could be someone who had grown close to you, only to undermine you at their first and best opportunity. If none of this has happened to you, God be praised. But, when it does happen, it cuts you to the core and changes you. It hurts, and it makes it hard to trust anyone ever again.

Of course, you know that we’re looking at the betrayal of Jesus by Judas tonight. But, it’s true, too that we see the way our sins have betrayed God and how He has responded to them. He hasn’t responded out of anger or frustration or hurt, but out of love, and so He calls to us to return to Him to receive His reconciliation and forgiveness.

Judas has made a deal with the chief priests and the scribes that he would turn Jesus over to them. Judas isn’t stupid; he knows they want Jesus dead. But, Judas isn’t focused on that; he misses the ultimate consequence for looking to see that his immediate needs are met. His actions are selfish and dark. And they’re no different than our actions, our sins. We’ll come back to that.

Let’s look at the other betrayal in our readings tonight, that of Absalom, David’s son, and Ahithophel, David’s most trusted advisor. One sin begets another sin begets another sin. Sin ripples out as far as the world is wide. And Absalom’s sins against David began when David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. David’s sin is discovered, it’s called out by Nathan, and David repents, but there are yet consequences. The baby dies and a permanent rift is created in David's family. Absalom rebels against his father and enlists Ahithophel in his betrayal. Ahithophel just happens to be Bathsheba’s grandfather, and it makes for quite the sordid affair.

As the story unfolds, Ahithophel conspires to kill David with a secret army of twelve thousand men, but, in an ironic sort of twist, it doesn’t work out that way because David planted a spy within their ranks who gave a completely different plan to the men, a plan which ended with David remaining on the throne, killing the treacherous army, Ahithophel, and even Absalom, his son. The traitorous plot had been brought down, but the betrayal stayed with David. The death of his son, in particular, caused him to rend his garments and grieve over his boy. He grieved over his friend and advisor. David wrote about these in his psalms, and we still have his words today.

We understand betrayal. We know what it’s like to deal with hurt and pain. But we don’t usually consider that our actions are a betrayal of Jesus. Ahithophel betrayed David to put Absalom on the throne, and we do the same. Only, we try to put ourselves on the throne of Christ and not Him. We’ve thought we’ve know better, we know what would...