3.15.26 Sunday Drive to Church

[00:00:00] Hey, good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. Pastor Wolfmullah here. Sunday drive to church for March 15, year of our Lord 2026. [00:00:08] At home in the studio. No background this week. Sorry. I could play a track of airport ambient sounds to people walking in distress, but just normal this week. God be praised. But not. Well, I don't know what counts as a normal Sunday. It's a beautiful Sunday. Laetare Rejoice Sunday. It's the little relief. You know, every remember how gaudate that third Sunday in Advent we burn the pink or rose colored candle. [00:00:36] A little relief as we get to the intensification of the fasting. So the fourth Sunday in Lent is that little relief before the last intensification. Starting next week, we start Passion Tide the last two weeks of Lent and then Holy Week, the last week of Lent and then we get into the Trivium, the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday. It gets really intense. So Lytara is a little bit of a sort of relief in the midst of the difficulties of the rigors of Lent before we dive into the last half, the last stretch of Lent and we see it in the scripture text. But let's start with a prayer. [00:01:17] Almighty God, our heavenly Father, your mercies are new every morning. [00:01:22] And though we deserve only punishment, you receive us as your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul. [00:01:30] Grant that we may heartily acknowledge your merciful goodness, give thanks for all your benefits and serve you in willing obedience through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. [00:01:43] Amen. [00:01:45] That little line in that prayer, the needs of body and soul, is probably the key to understanding the drama that's presented to us in the liturgy this Sunday, because we're going to get two major events. The first is Jesus Feeding the 5000. That's in John chapter 6, verses 1 to 15. [00:02:06] And then the Lord feeding the people the manna in the wilderness. Exodus 16, 2, 21, that long old Testament lesson. The people of Israel saw it and they said to one another, what is it? Manna. That's what manna means. What is it? They didn't know what it was. This raining bread from heaven. [00:02:27] Yep, that's how the Lord decided to feed him through the wilderness. It's pretty amazing. [00:02:32] And those two parallels we just can't miss. But before that, we have the last half of Psalm 132. [00:02:41] The Psalmody is verses 7, 18. [00:02:44] It's a really interesting psalm if you look at it. [00:02:49] I don't It's. It's got a unique structure to it. It's. [00:02:54] It's short, it's pointed. It's the first few verses. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob, I will not enter my house or get into my bed, or give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord. [00:03:13] So. [00:03:14] So David was about the building of the Lord's house, the establishing of the Lord's city, finding the place that the Lord promised to the people of Israel. Back in Exodus, he says, where I cause my name to be remembered, there I'll come to you, and there I'll bless you. The lord revealed some 555 years later, about 550 years later, the Lord revealed that place to be Jerusalem and Jesus. David relocates the capital of Jerusalem, or the capital of Israel, which up to this point was kind of moving around. [00:03:49] He relocates it to Jerusalem, establishes the tabernacle and the worship there, and then wants to build a temple, a permanent place for the Lord. [00:03:58] Remember, the Lord says, no, no, your son will do that. I'm going to build you a house instead. [00:04:03] That's the drama of 2 Samuel 7, that really important text. But we're not reading any of those verses. [00:04:10] We start in verse seven. Let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. [00:04:20] Let your priest be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy. For the sake of your servant, David, do not turn away the face of your Messiah. Well, it says here, anointed one. But remember, whenever you see anointed one in the Old Testament, you got to translate that into Messiah. [00:04:38] That's the Hebrew word for anointed one. And remember the Greek word for anointed one, Christ. [00:04:45] So you can read it. Do not turn away the face of your Messiah. Or if you want, do not turn away the face of your Christ. [00:04:52] It's so important. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body I will set on the throne. That's that second Samuel 7 being reflected on in this psalm. [00:05:05] The Lord has chosen Zion. He's desired it for his dwelling place. This is my resting place. Forever and ever here I will dwell. I have desired it. [00:05:13] I will abundantly bless her provisions. I will satisfy her poor with bread. There it is, the bread I Wonder sometimes if there's so much bread on this day, fourth Sunday in Lent, so much talk about bread that like the church, ancient church fathers were like this deep into Lent, and they were like, well, I'm just hungry. [00:05:30] So they're reading all these Bible passages about bread and says, let's talk about these today. Well, maybe it makes it worse. [00:05:37] Her priests I will clothe with salvation. Her saints will shout with joy. There. I will make a horn sprout for David. Remember, the horn is the indication of political power. [00:05:47] Well, and maybe spiritual power and maybe mercy. [00:05:50] There's a lot to do with the horn. But if you think of the horn like, you know, how we should think of the horns is like a crown. [00:05:58] A king wears a crown. You know, it has all those little like triangle things going up all around it. Those are horns, indications of authority. [00:06:07] That's there. There's other horns. Like the horn of the altar was where you would grab on for mercy. There's the horn that they would blow the shofar, the trumpet. [00:06:18] But these, this horn is like a. It's the crown. [00:06:23] I guess you could think of the Vikings that wear the. Those helmets that have the two horns coming out the side. [00:06:30] It's kind of funny, though. [00:06:32] I will make a horn sprout for David. I've prepared a lamp for my anointed, for my Messiah. His enemies I'll clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. [00:06:44] So Jesus will stand. [00:06:47] He will be radiant with glory. It's beautiful. And here the Lord. [00:06:52] It's important for us to know that the Lord has chosen Jerusalem for that place, that he'll come to accomplish his saving work. And he's done it. [00:07:00] And now when we hear Jerusalem or Israel or the holy place, we can think church. Because Jesus, when he says, go into all nations, has spread out Jerusalem to all the earth. Wherever the Christian calls on the name of the Lord, that's Jerusalem. [00:07:17] How good is that? [00:07:18] The Old Testament lesson is Exodus 16. [00:07:23] You'll hear if we do it right, you'll hear this announced. Uniquely in the church, I like to use this format. I'll say the Old Testament lesson is from the second book of Moses, commonly called Exodus. And the reason that we do that is because higher critics and those progressive Christians which love to see the Bible through political lens and don't see the first five books of the Bible as belonging to Moses, but rather as these different sources. [00:08:00] If you've taken like a Bible as literature course or you were exposed to this JDEP theory that the books of Moses are compiled from these different source texts and all put together. And you can tell by the emphasis if it was a Yahwist or an Hallowist or a. Or a priestly cast or a Deutero. I can't remember what the D is. The guy who wrote Deuteronomy, they all had their own sort of agendas and they were writing these things, pretending that they were from the Lord, but really they were kind of political propaganda pieces, which is so. I mean, it's wrong and it's ugly. I mean, can you imagine that Exodus is just this piece together, sloppy document that was kind of culled from scraps of ancient propaganda. Ooh, I wonder, you know, I mean, there's people who teach this. [00:08:56] Some of you, I wouldn't be. I wouldn't mind hearing from you all if you learned this JDEP anywhere. Kerry did growing up in the Presbyterian USA Church. I did growing up in the elca. He was always working there in the background. And what I wonder now is these people who actually believe this stuff that, you know, this text is just mythological propaganda. Why do you spend your life reading it, studying it and teaching it? [00:09:27] It's so strange to me if it's not true. [00:09:33] Anyway, it's a beautiful passage. So remember that Exodus 19 is when we get to Mount Sinai. Exodus 20 is when we get the Ten Commandments, and that's when Moses disappears into the cloud. [00:09:46] Well, remember that. What Exodus 3 is when the Lord appears to Moses. Exodus 12 is the Passover and the escape from Egypt. So if we're in Exodus 16, we're between the Passover, we're after the Red Sea, before Mount Sinai. So we're in that time. [00:10:04] And what happens is the whole congregation grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the people of Israel said to them, oh, that we would have died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full. [00:10:19] For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger. [00:10:24] The people are hangry, and they. [00:10:30] Some of you know what that's like. [00:10:32] But it's an amazing thing how hunger or whatever suffering makes you forget how bad it was. They're always remembering the meat pots of Egypt, the bread of Egypt. Remember back in Egypt, we had leeks and mushrooms and cucumbers and mmm. [00:10:49] Now we got nothing and we're just going to die. This wilderness is about to become a huge, big cemetery for all us Israelites. [00:10:58] Now the Lord is going to provide for them, and he's going to provide in a very specific way. He's just going to provide from heaven. [00:11:06] So normally the bread comes up out of the ground and you got to plant it and you got to scrape it and put the seed down in there and sit around and wait and then harvest, etc. But the Lord's going to say, no, I'm going to give you a daily dose of bread and on Friday I'm going to give you a double dose so you'll have something to eat on Saturday. [00:11:28] And so the Lord does he provides this manna. Amazing. It's just amazing. [00:11:34] But the people are grumbling. They want the meat. So the Lord is going to. Before this. [00:11:38] This is. You read some of these passages. [00:11:42] Verse 12. It says, I've heard the grumbling of the people. This is the Lord talking to Moses. I've heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, at twilight, you'll eat meat. That's the quail that he sends. In the morning you shall be filled with bread. [00:11:55] Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. [00:11:58] In the evening, quail came up and covered the camp. And in the morning, dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, manna, what is it for? They didn't know that what it was. And Moses says, it's the bread that the Lord has given. [00:12:16] Gather it of each of you, as much as you can eat. You shall take an omer according to the number of persons that each of you has in his tent. [00:12:25] They gathered, they measured it. It's all this miracle food. It came from heaven down to earth. And that's going to be the key to the sermon that Jesus preaches after he provides the bread to the 5,000. So let's skip forward to the Gospel lesson. It's John, chapter six. [00:12:46] After this, Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which sea of Tiberias. Remember that the feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle. Well, maybe aside from the resurrection, the only miracle that is given to us in all four gospels. [00:13:02] There's a lot of miracles that are in Matthew, Mark and Luke. [00:13:05] Some miracles that are just in John, some that are just Matthew, some that are just Mark. You know how that goes. But there's only one aside from the resurrection that's in all four of them, and it's this one. The feeding of the 5,000. [00:13:17] And it's because John wants to give the context of this beautiful I am the bread of life passage that's going to follow this. We don't. We don't have that sermon. That's your homework to take. John, chapter six. Read the rest of it. It's beautiful. [00:13:33] Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me. [00:13:37] And this is Jesus expounding on the manna that came down from heaven. What he's saying there, how about this for wonderful, Is that Jesus is saying, normally bread comes up out of the ground, but when the Lord wants to accomplish his miraculous provision for his people, he sends bread from heaven. [00:13:56] Normally, people come up out of the ground, if you will. We come from Adam, but to provide for us salvation. This one, our Lord Jesus came down from heaven so that this manna becomes a picture of the incarnation. [00:14:14] We're all from the dirt from Adam, but Jesus is the man from heaven. [00:14:19] But this is not yet going to be about that. It's first going to be about the fact that the Lord provides bread. A large crowd was following him because they saw the signs he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain. He sat down with the disciples. The Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. John loves to give us the timing notes. In fact, this little line. Here's an interesting point. If you just had Matthew, Mark and Luke and you were trying to figure out how long the ministry of Jesus was, you would think that maybe it was a year and a bit 13, 14 months. But John gives us all of these indications of the Passover and all of these different feasts that are happening. And so it's through the Gospel of John that we know that Jesus ministry was three and a half years. [00:15:02] This is one of those little notes. Small point, but interesting. It's one of those things. [00:15:08] It's one of those things that we probably don't preach about from the pulpit because we're trying to maximize that preaching time there. But it's good for driving a church to think about this stuff. The feast of the Jews was at hand. Lifting up his eyes and seeing that a large crowd was coming towards him. Oh, we also then note that this was a pilgrim feast where the people were going to Jerusalem and maybe they were stopping to see Jesus. [00:15:36] So that's also important. [00:15:41] Jesus says to Philip, where are we going to buy bread so that all these people can eat? Now, Jesus said this to test Philip. He knew what he was going to do. Philip answered 200 denariI would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little. [00:15:55] A denarii, we'll remember, is one day's labor wage for one day's labor. Now you say, pastor, how come you tell us what a denarii is, but you don't tell us what an omer of bread is? The answer is because I don't know how much an omer is. [00:16:11] Thanks for pointing it out, guys. [00:16:14] Okay, so all right now. Now that I admitted that to you, I have to pause and go look. Alright, hold on. [00:16:20] Okay. Apparently it depends on who you're looking at, but an omer is between 0.85 gallons to 0.45 gallons. About so. Think half a gallon or almost a whole gallon. That's how much an omega. An omer is of manna. That's a lot of bread. [00:16:44] A half gallon of bread. That's not too bad. [00:16:47] Okay, where are we? Oh, yeah. Philip said 200 denarii, 200 days work, couldn't buy enough bread so that everybody would just have a little bit. [00:16:56] This is a lot of people. [00:16:58] One of his disciples, Andrew Simon Peter's brother, said, there's a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. [00:17:05] But what are they for? So many. [00:17:07] Jesus said, have the people sit down now. There's much grass in the place. So the men sat down, 5,000 in number. If you look this miracle up in Mark, you can see how he is grabbing all the language from the 23rd Psalm. There was green grass, and he made him to sit down in the green grass by the still waters. It's beautiful. [00:17:28] And Jesus then took the loaves, the five loaves he had given. Thanks. He distributed them who were seated, so also the fish as much as they wanted. [00:17:36] And when they had eaten their fill, he told the disciples, gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost. So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the fragments that were left. So they started with five loaves and they ended with 12 baskets after everyone had eaten. [00:17:53] This is so good. When the people saw the sign that had been done. Remember, John specifically calls miracles signs because they don't only bless the people who receive the gift, but they also point to the deeper reality of who Jesus is. [00:18:08] That's the difference between a sign and a miracle. A sign is a preaching miracle. I suppose every miracle is a sign in that way because it proves that Jesus is the one who can do miracles. But specifically, this sign is showing that Jesus is the one who answers our prayer for daily bread. [00:18:24] So they Said, indeed, the prophet who was to come into the world is this one. [00:18:28] That's that quote from Deuteronomy 18. I'll raise up a prophet like you from among the people. [00:18:33] It's directly referenced here in this insight that the people have. This is the one. But perceiving that they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, Jesus withdrew to a mountain by himself. So they say, yes, he should be the king, because he's providing for us this bread. [00:18:50] And Jesus says, nope, not this way, I'm not. My body is the bread of life, and I will provide that for the life of the world. [00:19:01] But I'm not going to be a bread dispenser to provide for your bodily needs. Well, he is that, but I'm not going to be that kind of king. [00:19:15] The kingdom that I'm coming to establish is a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of peace, a kingdom of mercy by the forgiveness of sins, a kingdom established by the spilling of blood. And his exaltation will be his crucifixion, his crown, his thorns, and so forth. [00:19:35] But in the midst of all of that, and this is great, Jesus will not be sort of locked in permanently as this, but he is teaching us. And here's the lesson that we need to learn, that he provides all that we need for this life as well as for the life to come. [00:19:51] Jesus gives daily bread. That's why we pray. [00:19:55] Give us this day our daily bread. [00:19:57] Absolutely beautiful. So while we tend to think of Jesus as the one who provides for all of our spiritual needs, which is true, he is also the One who provides for all of our physical needs. [00:20:10] And when we need something, we pray and the Lord provides. [00:20:18] The second reading is from Acts. The Epistle is Acts chapter two. So we'll circle back around and catch that up. [00:20:24] This is after the the preaching of Pentecost Day sermon from Peter. And then remember the huge baptism of all those thousands of people. [00:20:35] So those who received the Word were baptized and they were added that day, about 3,000 souls. [00:20:41] They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. [00:20:47] So there was four things that marked that early apostolic church. The apostles doctrine, fellowship, koinonia. That's probably we can understand it as fellowship in the apostles teaching. Breaking of bread, that's the Lord's Supper and prayers. That's the liturgy. So they had sermon confession, if you want to read it this way. So they had readings and a sermon, the apostles teaching, they had the confession of the Creed fellowship. They had The Lord's Supper. And they had the prayers, which is still what we're doing all these thousands of years later. We're just doing the same thing that they did right after Pentecost. It's kind of cool. [00:21:26] And awe came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. They were caring for each other, they were generous with one another and day by day attending the temple together. [00:21:46] So they were going to the temple to hear the Word taught and breaking bread in their homes. So they had the Lord's Supper apart from the temple. In these house churches they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. [00:22:05] And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who were being saved. [00:22:09] So the word of the Lord grew. This is this glimpse into this early beautiful picture of Pentecost and how glorious it is for us to see it too. That the Lord's Word continues to come, that his church continues to grow, that we continue to rejoice in his gifts day after day after day. Marvelous. The hymn is Jesus priceless treasure hymn 7:43. [00:22:37] It's a my favorite stanza. I got to figure out what number it is is when it just lists these things that Jesus is for us. [00:22:49] It's a beautiful old hymn. [00:22:52] I'm looking now. Johann Frank 1618-1677. So I wonder. This comes around 1650. [00:23:02] Jesus priceless treasure Fount of purest pleasure Truest friend to me Ah, how long in anguish shall my spirit languish yearning Lord for thee Thou art mine, lamb divine I will suffer not to hide thee Not I ask beside thee. [00:23:18] Hence here's probably why this is a Lent for sermon or Lent for him. Stanza 4. [00:23:27] Hence all earthly treasure Jesus is my pleasure Jesus is my choice Hence all empty glory not to me Thy story told with tempting voice Pain or loss or shame or cross shall not from my Savior move me since he deigns to love me. [00:23:47] I think Stanza 2 is my favorite. In thine arms I rest me Foes who would molest me cannot reach me here Though the earth be shaking, every heart be quaking Jesus calms my fear Lightning flash, thunder crash yet though sin and hell assail me Jesus will not fail me. [00:24:05] And then look at Stanza well 3 and 5. Do this thing that we were talking about. When were we talking about that? With the vicar? Maybe it was with the seniors Bible study Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was when we were doing our funeral planning with the seniors Bible study on Thursday morning and we were talking about hymns to have at our funeral and someone was talking about I'm baptized into Christ and how there is a prayer, a stanza from that hymn that talks to the devil. [00:24:38] I am baptized. [00:24:42] Satan, cease your accusation. [00:24:44] I'm baptized into Christ. Stop your ugly accusation. I can't remember it. I can't think of it now because I'm thinking of this, that in stanza three of this hymn, it also talks to the devil. [00:24:54] So the vicar. You guys will be proud to know that I've given the vicar the assignment to look through all of the hymnal and find the stanzas where we actually sing to the devil. That's a kind of a weird thing, but it happens in a number of hymns. I think Luther had a few stanzas where it happened as well. That'd be an interesting Bible study, wouldn't it? [00:25:16] Vicar, I hope you're listening to this and reminding you that that's an assignment that you've got because look at stanza three. [00:25:23] Satan, I defy thee. [00:25:25] Death, I now decry thee. Fear, I bid thee cease, world. Thou shalt not harm me Nor thy threats alarm me while I sing of peace. God's great power guards every hour Earth and all its depths adore him Silent bow before him. So that's one stanza. We're singing to Satan, to death, to fear, to the world and to all the earth. Then look at stanza five. Evil world, I leave thee. [00:25:51] Thou canst not deceive me. Thine appeal is vain. Sin that once did blind me get thee far behind me. Come not forth again pass thy hour. O pride and power. Sinful life, Thy bonds I sever Leave thee now forever. So in that stanza, we're singing to the evil world. We're singing to sin. We're singing to pride and power unto the sinful life. Get behind me. Ah, hence all fear and sadness. Get out of here. Fear. [00:26:18] See you later. Sadness, for the Lord of gladness, Jesus enters in. I think it's amazing that we got to pay attention to this, that the. When we were singing the hymns. Who are we singing to? And here we're singing to. We're singing to sin and to death and to the devil. Get out of here. [00:26:36] Because we belong to Jesus. It's a bold confession. [00:26:39] It's really fantastic. [00:26:42] All right, that'll probably have to do it for today. [00:26:44] Bible class on Matthew. Hope to see you there. Lent Wednesday continues with our Bible class at 4. And service at 6. Drive safe. See you soon. God's peace be with you.