Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Bible Study: John 8:31-36, October 29, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 29, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on October 29, 2014. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Bible Study: Job 10:18-11:6, October 26, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 26, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Job 10:18-11:6.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: John 8:31-36, October 26, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 26, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on John 8:31-36. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: John 8:31-36, October 26, 2014

Passage: John 8:31-36
Liturgical week: Reformation Day

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

The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the eighth chapter:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 
Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,
     And the Truth shall set you free!  This Truth is the Truth of God’s Word, and we are free indeed!  Today we celebrate a movement begun by a simple monk who was tired of the beating of God’s sheep with an unrighteous law of man.  Today, we celebrate the reclamation of the Gospel.  Today we are free indeed for today we shall have Christ’s body put upon on our tongues and His blood poured into our mouths.  Today we are free for we ARE baptized.  Today, we are free from sin, death, and the devil, not by own works, but by the very work of Christ for us upon the cross.

     And the Truth shall set you free!  Jesus says to those who were believing in Him to abide in His Word, abide His Scripture, abide in His commands, His sacraments, His teachings, and there we find that we are truly His disciples.  But, how do we abide in His Word?  How do we choose to abide in His Word?  Truly, by our own power, we cannot.  But because Christ has baptized us, because He feeds us, because He speaks to us from His Holy Word, we abide.  We live, we dwell, we meditate in His Word by His Holy Spirit.  And when we feel we cannot, He still yet will come to us and strengthen us in the same faith unto everlasting life.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Bible Study: John 8:31-36, October 22, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 22, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on John 8:31-36. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Isaiah 45:1-7, October 19, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 19, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Isaiah 45:1-7. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Isaiah 45:1-7, October 19, 2014

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

The text this morning is from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the 45th chapter:
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things. 
Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     Cyrus was the big bad wolf.  Almost literally, anyway.  The king of the Persian empire, he could huff, and he could puff, and he would blow your whole kingdom down, although sometimes it didn’t even take that much.  Sometimes, it was just his wholesale slaughter of a neighboring area to make kings and governors defect to his side, selling out and betraying their own land.  That’s how Cyrus conquered Babylon after all.

     So, Cyrus was a big baddie.  And Cyrus also had a god that he worshipped called Marduk.  Marduk was a powerful god, the bull-calf of the son god.  In the pantheon of the Asian gods, there weren’t many stronger, and so Cyrus often looked to the helpful, destructive nature of Marduk to let him win battles.  He had statues formed of Marduk, and they would process with these statues before the battle, much as we process in with the cross into the sanctuary.

     Cyrus was not a good guy.  He was dangerous.  He was vengeful.  He was murderous.  And he was the Lord’s messiah.  No joke.  That’s what the word ‘anointed’ here means, meshiach, messiah, the Lord’s anointed.  It does not mean that Cyrus is the one in whom we find eternal life.  That’s Jesus.  But, as the only non-Jew in the entire Scriptures to be referred to as the Lord’s anointed, despite his dangerousness, we actually, this morning, must see Cyrus also is a type of Christ for us.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Bible Study: Isaiah 45:1-7, October 15, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 15, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Isaiah 45:1-7. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Bible Study: Job 10:10-17, October 12, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 12, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Job 10:10-17.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Ephesians 5:1-9, October 12, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 12, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Ephesians 5:1-9. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Semon: Ephesians 5:1-9, October 12, 2014

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

The text this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the fifth chapter:
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true)…
Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     In Paul’s letter this morning, we see an encouragement to be imitators of God, walking in love, as Christ has loved us.  This is a good and faithful word from God, as it continues to show us in God’s Word how we all, by faith in Jesus Christ, are actually given the smell of fragrant sacrifices and offerings in Christ by being washed in His blood.

     Paul writes this letter from his prison in Rome, which even more enhances the admonition.  Paul, in chains, is still arguing for his people, his readers, to be righteous, even despite the hardships that are in their lives, usually ones of great trial and tribulation.  Think about the time in which Paul met his hearers: the first-century world, devoid of modern amenities, no showers, no a/c, no wonderful body soap or body wash.

     Now, if you’ve never smelled a bunch of people who haven’t showered for days, or do not take care of themselves, you may not understand this.  But think of 30 sweaty boys after a Boy Scout camping trip coming home to a wonderfully clean home in the fall, which smells of pumpkin spice.  Their fragrance is one which will assault you.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

A Pastoral Approach: Sermon: Matthew 21:33-46, October 5, 2014

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 5, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Matthew 21:33-46. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link here. The sermon recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.

Sermon: Matthew 21:33-46, October 5, 2014

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

The text this morning is from the Gospel according to Matthew, the 21st chapter:
“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” 
Thus far the text.

Dear friends in Christ,
     Our Father, who art in Heaven, is apparently insane.  Jesus is telling a parable, which is an earthly story with heavenly meaning, and the Father is clearly the master in the parable.  And after having sent two teams of servants, and consequently hearing that they’ve been killed by His tenants, He sends a single, solitary man, His Son, to set everything straight.  This is crazy.  The master, who is clearly a rich man in the parable, should have hired an army, slaughtered the entire farm, and taken it over.  He should have done this after the first servants died, much less after He sends His Son!

     This is the act of a crazy man, sending a son to take care of business against a horde of murderous, vicious tenants.  You see, in this parable, as in our reading of Isaiah 5 today, we hear about the care of the vineyard.  The Master, the Lord, our Father, planted a vineyard.  That’s the Church, the Assembly, the Israel whose promises are now fulfilled in Christ.  This vineyard was precious to the Father, and so He protected it.  He put a fence or a hedge around it, to protect it, He gave it promises to guard against all the animals and men who would trample the vineyard.  Those promises would disarm all who would come to do it harm because nothing can prevail against the promises of God.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Bible Study: Matthew 21:33-46, October 1, 2014

A Bible Study taught by Pastor Lewis Polzin on October 1, 2014 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bemidji, MN, on Matthew 21:33-46. This Bible Study will help to lay a foundation for the sermon that is preached the following Sunday.

The Bible study recording may also be accessed by clicking the title of this blog post and playing it in your browser.