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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Pastor Wolfmuller, and this is the Sunday Drive to Church podcast for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost. It's July 6th, the year of our Lord 2025. We'll start with a collect for the day.
[00:00:11] Beautiful collect. It's about. You know, we are in this season of Pentecost, or Trinity, the summer season, which is about the church. And this collect captures that idea. We're praying for the church and the growth of the church and the life of the church. Let's pray.
[00:00:26] Almighty God, you have built your church on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.
[00:00:34] Continue to send your messengers to preserve your people in true peace, that by the preaching of your word, your church may be kept free from all harm and danger through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
[00:00:51] That collect really reflects so beautifully. Romans, chapter 10, where it talks about, how are you going to. All who call the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how will you call on him whom you haven't heard? And how will you believe. Wait, wait, wait. How will you call on him whom you haven't believed and how you believe if you haven't heard? And how will you hear unless you're preached to? And how will they preach unless they're sent? In fact, that's really the idea of the Gospel lesson from Luke chapter 10. It's an amazing text. It's the sending of the 72, where Jesus sends out, well, his disciples plus 60 others.
[00:01:23] The Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two in every town and place. And this is when Jesus says, the harvest is plentiful, the laborers are few. Pray earnestly for the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. And then he says, okay, now go.
[00:01:39] I'm sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. That sounds risky. Carry no money, bag no knapsack, no sandals. Greet no one where you enter the house. Peace be the house. And if they greet you, peace will rest upon him. If not, it will return to you, stay in the same house, etc. So Jesus is giving these instructions for the 72 to go out ahead of him and preparing the way for Jesus as he's winding his way down towards Jerusalem for the Passion Week. Then he has some woes to dish out. This is again still in the Gospel lesson, which is going to set our theme for the Sunday from Luke chapter 10.
[00:02:15] Woe to you, Chorzin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago and sank cloth and ashes. But it'll be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And woe to you, Capernaum.
[00:02:35] Will you be exalted to the heavens. You shall be brought down to Hades.
[00:02:39] So that Jesus is saying, look, all those examples of judgments that went before Tyre, Sidon, even Sodom and Gomorrah, which is mentioned in the parallel in Matthew. The people of Israel think, well, at least we're not that bad. And the Lord says, you're actually worse, because the things that are happening in your midst, the grace of God that's being shown to you is so much more profound than it was to them then. This text, this is verse 16. And this is one of our sades doctrinae, one of the texts in which we seat our doctrine, the doctrine of preaching and the office of the ministry. Really?
[00:03:14] Jesus says, the one who hears me.
[00:03:17] Sorry, let me say it right. The one who hears you hears me.
[00:03:21] And the one who rejects you rejects me. And the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me. Now, this was a huge. Wow. This was part of the huge controversy of the Reformation. And the Roman Catholic Church used this text to say, look, the Lord Jesus speaks through his infallible magisterium. Whatever the Pope says, that's what God says. After all, whoever hears you hears me. And the Lutheran says, you're taking it the exact opposite. Whoever hears you hears me should mean that we're saying the things that the Lord said.
[00:03:53] Not that the Lord gives us the authority to say whatever he wants and then he backs us up, but rather we're authorized to speak on behalf of the Lord, to preach what he preaches. After all, even Jesus says, I don't. I'm only saying to you what was given me to say by the Father.
[00:04:11] The 72 return with joy. This is great.
[00:04:14] They come back to Jesus after this mission and they say, lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
[00:04:19] And then Jesus responds, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. This is the result of the preaching of the Word. The devil is dethroned. Behold, I've given you authority, says Jesus, to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall hurt you. But. But don't rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
[00:04:42] So Jesus says to the disciples and the pastors and all his people, I've given you authority to overthrow the devil.
[00:04:52] But your joy comes not from that, but rather from the promise that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life. This is our joy. We, which is the cause for our rejoicing, which we can go to. Let's see, what do we want to do next? Let's go backwards. Psalm 66. Psalm 66 is. I think we can ask Dylan about this. I think almost all of the times that we see Selah in the psalms, that little phrase, we don't know exactly how to translate it. It's almost always a psalm of David, except for this one. 66, 20 verses. We're going to sing the first seven together.
[00:05:27] Make a joyful shout to God. All the earth. Sing out the honor of his name. Make his prai glorious. Say to God, how awesome are your works. Through the greatness of your power, your enemies shall submit themselves to you. All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you. They shall sing praises to your name. Come and see the works of God.
[00:05:45] So this great hymn of praise for the works that the Lord has done. And then the rest of the psalm is going to go forth and list those works that he's done. You've tested us. You've refined us as fire.
[00:05:57] I'll go into your house with burnt offering. Come and hear you who fear God will declare what he's done for my soul. This is verse 16. We don't have this tomorrow, but it's beautiful. Beautiful psalm. In fact, if you wanted a. A great prayer as you're getting ready for church to pray, the whole of Psalm 66 is really wonderful. Then we have Isaiah 66, so that's nice. Isaiah 66, Psalm 66, 10, 14. This is also a. A call to rejoicing.
[00:06:24] Isaiah writes, this is the last chapter of Isaiah. Did we mention this last week or a couple weeks ago? I have this book here. What is this book called?
[00:06:34] Through the Scriptures, I think it's called. It's a Bible study book that I stole from my grandma.
[00:06:40] Where is that? Ah, here it is.
[00:06:45] Explore the Book by Sidlo Baxter.
[00:06:50] He's got to be some sort of Baptist guy.
[00:06:53] That's why my grandma's got them. This is an old book. I kind of like this book. It was 1960.
[00:07:00] He likes to see the patterns in the Bible. He sometimes stretches the pattern a little bit much.
[00:07:06] But this guy sees in the outline of Isaiah an outline of the entire bible.
[00:07:15] So there's 66 books in the Bible and there's 66 chapters in Isaiah. There's 39 chapters in the first part of Isaiah, and then there's 27 in the last part of Isaiah.
[00:07:27] So he will see Isaiah 1, parallels with Genesis, Isaiah chapter 2, parallels with Exodus and Isaiah 40, parallels with Matthew and Mark and Luke. In fact, Matthew does quote Isaiah 40 quite a bit. That means if we're in the last chapter, Isaiah chapter 66, we are in the Revelation chapter of Isaiah.
[00:07:49] And a few times this little, the way he sees the parallel between the whole Bible and Isaiah works out pretty good. Now, sometimes it's really, really a stretch, but it's not bad when you're looking at Isaiah chapter 66, because it's all about the new heaven and the new earth and the new creation that the Lord is going to accomplish after the last day.
[00:08:11] And so remember in Revelation at the end, it says, I saw the new Jerusalem coming out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband. Well, listen to what it says here.
[00:08:21] For behold, says the Lord. Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream. You will nurse and be carried on the hip and bounced on the knees. This is of the of Jerusalem, of the city of God, of the Church.
[00:08:38] As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. You shall be comforted in Jerusalem, you shall see, and your heart shall rejoice.
[00:08:48] Your bones shall flourish like the grass.
[00:08:52] And the hands of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.
[00:08:59] Absolutely stunning.
[00:09:01] Just beautiful. So we have this promise of the new heaven and the new earth which the Lord creates. Jerusalem, a joy.
[00:09:08] Rejoice with Jerusalem, all you who love her. Whenever you see. By the way, whenever we see Jerusalem or Mount Zion in the Old Testament prophecies, we can just think the church, the church. And sometimes it will be talking quite literally about the city, which is the city where the church dwells. But most often it's talking about the people of God, the church.
[00:09:32] Galatians, chapter six is our Epistle lesson. We bounce around a little bit. We get the first 10 verses and then verses 14 to 18. This is the last chapter of Galatians. So Paul's kind of wrapping up his argument, his letter to the Galatians. Remember he started out just blasting away at them. I mean, no thanksgiving, no nothing. Just I astonished that you've fallen away so quickly. Who has bewitched you? I mean, remember, he's spitting fire. But it seems like he softened a little bit here at the end as he's winding down his argument. Brothers, he says, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.
[00:10:12] Keep watching yourself, lest you two be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. Let each one test his own work. Then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. Each will have to bear his own load. Now, this is an amazing thing. So Paul says, because you could look just at that first paragraph and say, all right, now which is it? Do we bear one another's load or do we each bear our own load? And the way Paul wants us to think about it is in regards to myself, I want to bear my own load. I want to carry my own weight. But in regard to my neighbor, I want to go to him and help him.
[00:10:53] It's our natural instinct flipped on its head because we normally think, well, people should help me, but I should just worry about myself. Paul says, no, it's the exact opposite.
[00:11:03] You should take care of your own stuff.
[00:11:06] No one should need to help you, but you should be helping everybody else. And this is what it means to be part of the church. There's all these one another passages that the scripture puts before us. That we love one another, that we bear with one another, that we comfort one another, that we care for one another, that we bless one another, that we forgive one another.
[00:11:25] This is what it means to be part of the church, that we have one another. There. I was thinking about this just this morning. I was making some notes about it.
[00:11:33] This is not a completed thought. You're catching me in the middle of an idea that hasn't matured yet. But I was thinking about how we, at least I normally preach to each one of you. In other words, when I'm preaching, I'm thinking I'm preaching to a bunch of Christians, bunch of Christian individuals. Sometimes I'm thinking about preaching to Christian families, but mostly to each person.
[00:11:57] But when Paul writes his letter, he is really writing not to each person, but to the entire church.
[00:12:04] And he addresses the church as a body, as a unit.
[00:12:09] I was thinking, how could we do that as well? How could we think about dear St. Paul Lutheran Church, that we as a church believe things, confess things, do things, feel things, that we're interacting with the world as a body, as a Church body.
[00:12:28] I don't know exactly. I'm thinking about it, and if you have ideas, I'd love to hear about it. But it's a real biblical way of being that we are in this thing together and we're going to need each other more and more as the days draw short and as we get closer and closer to the return of Christ. So it's one of these things to make sure that we are talking to each other, that we're catching up with each other, that we're praying for each other, that we know the people who are next to us, that we're not embarrassed. Sorry.
[00:12:56] I know I should remember. Tell me your name again and that'll remind the person to put on their name tag that we know each other so that we can. So that we really are a body together.
[00:13:07] Paul continues. One who's taught must share all good things with the one who teaches. Don't be deceived. God's not mocked. What you sow, you'll reap.
[00:13:15] So that we are to invest in the kingdom of God. That's part of the stewardship that we have as Christians.
[00:13:22] The one who sows to the flesh will reap corruption. The one who sows to the spirit will reap eternal life. Wow.
[00:13:27] So let us not grow weary in doing good. And the due season will reap if we don't give up.
[00:13:32] As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, but especially those who are of the household of faith.
[00:13:38] So we are looking to serve and bless every person around us, but we are most especially looking to see how we can care for Christians.
[00:13:45] We skip a few verses to get Paul saying, be it far from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
[00:13:59] Ah, so that Paul is not the world does not have a claim on Paul. He's already been crucified. He's died already. He's. He's already. His grave is. His foot is half in the grave. That's how we say it. Which means he's halfway to heaven.
[00:14:13] Neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision. What do you care about that stuff but a new creation. That's what Paul says. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy beyond them and upon the Israel of God. That's the church.
[00:14:28] From now on, let no one cause me trouble. I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Maybe this was the scars from all of the trauma that Paul had to endure. And then he finishes the letter with the. With the benediction, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.
[00:14:44] We rejoice that we don't boast either, except in the cross of Jesus, which is the strangest thing to boast, in that our God is dead, that our God is hung on a tree, that our God is weak and crucified. But this is the Christian boast.
[00:15:03] This is beautiful, the hymn of the day. Well, he has some beautiful hymns. Actually.
[00:15:08] The opening hymn is one of everybody's favorites. God's own Child. I gladly say it.
[00:15:16] I am baptized into Christ.
[00:15:18] A couple of weeks ago, we had the hymn that turned to the devil and said, hey, quit bothering me. This is another one of those hymns.
[00:15:27] Satan, hear this proclamation. I'm baptized into Christ. It's beautiful. We'll rejoice in that.
[00:15:34] The hymn of the week is Jesus is Common, Brings pleasure eternal. Hymn 5:33 in LSB. This is one of these. It's under the Redeemer section. One of these great hymns about Jesus. Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal. Alpha, Omega. That's Alpha. Let's just look at the words here. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek Alphabet. So it's like A and Z.
[00:15:58] The beginning, the end, begin. Oh, that's what it says. Alpha, Omega, beginning and end.
[00:16:03] Godhead, humanity, union. Supernal. Boy. One line is the divine nature, human nature joined together in the personal union. O great Redeemer, you come as our friend heaven and earth now proclaim this great wonder. Jesus has come and brings pleasure eternal. Jesus has come now see bonds rent asunder. Fetters of death dissolve, disappear. This is Jesus setting people free from death. He sets us free from our guilt and our fear, lifts us from shame to the place of his honor.
[00:16:32] That's marvelous. You know, one of the things that we have to really think about, one of the great gifts of the gospel is not just this remission of guilt that the Lord takes away, the guilt of all the bad that we've done, but the covering of shame that the Lord Jesus also takes away. The things that have been done to us, these sins, whatever sort of bad things that have happened to us that threatened to define us. Jesus says, I'm taking those away too, and I'm covering you with my righteousness and washing away all of these things with my blood. It's marvelous. Jesus has come as the mighty Redeemer. See now the threatening strong one, disarmed.
[00:17:15] That's the devil. The strong one he's disarmed by the Lord Jesus. And this is a confidence that we have in him, that the parable. Remember the parable of strongman, that the strong man, when he is fully armed, his goods are at peace. But when someone who's stronger comes, he takes it from him. That's the parable of what Jesus has done. Jesus breaks down all the walls of death's fortress, brings forth the prisoners triumphant, unharmed. We are now the prisoners of war that are recaptured by Jesus. That's part of our redemption.
[00:17:47] Jesus has come as the King of all glory heaven and earth O declare his great power Capturing hearts with a heavenly story Welcoming now in this fast fleeting ponder his love Take the crown he has for you Jesus has come. He's the King of all glory.
[00:18:04] Marvelous.
[00:18:07] Let us walk with Jesus eternal Father, strong to save and God bless our native land Remembering that the Lord has given us this country in which we're free to gather to confess the name of Jesus.
[00:18:20] We don't have to fear the government stepping in, trying to put the kibosh on the preaching of the Gospel. God be praised that the Lord has awarded us that freedom. Now, one other quick note. If you made it this far, we're going to move this Sunday into Divine Service Setting four, which is kind of our simple summer liturgy. So it's a more simple liturgy. I think we'll be in Divine four for July and August, if I remember right. So we'll have the next couple of months with again, I think Jonathan, I called it. I think Jonathan looked at me sideways when I called it the summer liturgy. It's kind of light liturgy, but we were going to move into that for a couple of months, and then we'll be back to Divine 3 once we get into the fall. So that's coming as well. All right. Carrie told me on Sunday. Oh, look at. That's about perfect. I got in the car with Carrie after church last Sunday to drive down to the deaf church, and I was like, right in the middle of explaining the gospel, and she says, you, Sunday Drive to Church podcast has gotten a little long. I think you should shoot for 20 minutes.
[00:19:25] So look at this. I'm at 19:26. If I can just stretch it out for 30 more seconds.
[00:19:31] If I stop at 20 exactly. It would be like a little miracle. Well, we're going to start Bible class on the Augsburg Confession this week, so make sure to come for that Augsburg Confession. We'll do the little history of Augsburg Confession. Then the vicar will teach next week on the first article on God. Pastor Peterson suggested that, and I think it's a good suggestion. And we just have a couple of more weeks with the vicar.
[00:19:54] Don't forget to talk to them, Sarah, bless them, et cetera, because they leave in two weeks. All right. See you soon.