Sermon Audio: John 17:1-11, May 28, 2017

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 28, 2017 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 17:1-11. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link and you may play the audio of the sermon here.

Sermon Text: John 17:1-11, May 28, 2017

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 17th chapter:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,
     He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  And truly, the glorification of the Son has already come, even as His body laid tortured upon the cross.  In that moment, the Lord was seen at His most glorious, for indeed there is no greater love than He, the Lord, who would lay down His life for you, His friends.  But, as you know, the story, and even I should say, the history of our Lord’s salvation doesn’t end there.  It continues in the resurrection, and it continues in the ascension.

     Now, we certainly can say that the cross didn’t look glorious.  The cross was brutal and ugly.  Isaiah tells us that, in that moment, there was nothing in His appearance that would draw men to Him.  I think that it’s more even that the world would be repulsed by His grisly death.  Though His death was certainly for us, and the result of that death, the forgiveness of the sins of the world, was glorious, it looked like anything but.

Chapel: Exodus 20:1-2, 12-21; James 2:1-13; Luke 10:25-37, May 18, 2017

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 18, 2017 for the Thursday Chapel of St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran School in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Peter 2:2-10. You may read the text and play the audio of the sermon here.

Sermon Audio: John 14:15-21, May 21, 2017

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 21, 2017 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on John 14:15-21. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link and you may play the audio of the sermon here.

Sermon Text: John 14:15-21, May 21, 2017

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 of John, the 14th chapter:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

     He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  And He really is risen, even though we cannot see Him in the flesh so to speak.  Haven’t you thought about this?  I know I have.  Is God really real?  Is God a real thing or is He something that we’ve all made up, some kind of collective delusion?

     It’s so easy to doubt about the existence of God.  It really is.  First off, you have our sinful flesh, the world, and the devil all tempting us to disbelieve.  They want you to deny even that God exists, all the while setting themselves us as a god for you.  It’s really amazing; when God is not present, when His goodness and mercy are doubted, when we choose not to believe in God, then it creates a sort of vacuum, sucking in something else to fill our hearts and minds and faith.  

Sermon Audio: 1 Peter 2:2-10, May 14, 2017

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 14, 2017 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Peter 2:2-10. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link and you may play the audio of the sermon here.

Sermon Text: 1 Peter 2:2-10, May 14, 2017

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 First Epistle of Peter, the second chapter:

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

     He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  And if you know this to be true, then you also know that we are to live in Christ’s righteousness, reveling in all that He would have for us.  If you know that the Lord is good, gracious, and merciful, then you know that He has given to you gifts.

     If your wife came to you and gave you a brand new Mercedes, would you just say, “Thank you, my dear.  I shall always look at it fondly,” but never drive it?  If your husband gave you a brand new necklace, would you say, “Thank you, honey, I shall cuddle up with it every night,” but never wear it?  If your parents gave you the pony, the computer, the gaming system you always wanted, would you say thank you but never use it?  If you meet the love of your life, would you just say, “Oh, it’s so good to meet you, but now that I know what you look like, that’s enough for me?”

     Of course not.  Yet, that’s how we often treat the gifts of Christ, isn’t it?  He has given us the wonderful blessings of His Word, His own revelation, the stuff He wants us to know and to know about Him, and we think that we can just do with it what we please.  We think we can use it just a couple times, or when its convenient for us, and the rest of the time, we just ignore it or keep it on a shelf or gaze at it lovingly while paying it only lip service.

Sermon Audio: 1 Peter 2:19-25, May 7, 2017

A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on May 7, 2017 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 1 Peter 2:19-25. The text of this sermon may be found by clicking this link and you may play the audio of the sermon here.

Sermon Text: 1 Peter 2:19-25, May 7, 2017

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

The text this morning is from Peter’s first epistle, the second chapter:

For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 

Thus far the text.

My dear friends in Christ,

     He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!  Alleluia!  And what a joy it is that as we look upon our resurrected Christ, we see, even still in His body, that He bears the scars of His suffering.  Remember that our Lord, raised from the dead, still bore the marks of the crucifixion.

     While we never had a description of the rest of Him after the resurrection, we know that He still had the nail marks in His feet and hand.  You could put His hand to your face and look through it.  He still had the mark of the spear after it was thrust into His side.  You could put your hand in and touch His rib.