9.28.25 Sunday Drive to Church

[00:00:00] Good morning, St. Paul Lutheran Church. It's Sunday, September 28th, year of our Lord 2025, the 16th Sunday after the feast of Holy Pentecost, the Sunday of the Lazarus and the rich man. [00:00:14] This incredible story that Jesus tells. It's a parable, I think, but it's a unique parable. It's not introduced as a parable and it's the only parable that Jesus tells where the characters are given a name. Lazarus. [00:00:30] Some people have thought maybe this is a true story and it's talking about Lazarus, the friend of Jesus who died. But either way it's pointing to us. [00:00:39] It's pointing to us the reality of death and dying and what it means to be well prepared to die. And really all the scriptures are going to rotate around that theme for us this morning. [00:00:55] Going to pray the collect. I'm on the front page of the bulletin. Don't miss the picture that's there. It's the story of Lazarus and the rich man in three panels. So first is the rich man feasting with his friends with Lazarus sitting outside in his sores. [00:01:10] And then Lazarus dies and the angels are carrying his soul to paradise with Abraham. And then the rich man dies and whew, that that future for him is pretty brutal pictured there. [00:01:25] So don't miss the picture that's there. Take a look at that. Let's pray. [00:01:31] Oh God, you are the strength of all who trust in you. And without your aid we can do nothing good. [00:01:39] Grant us the help of your grace that we may please you in both will and deed through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. [00:01:52] Amen. [00:01:54] All right, I mentioned before, all the scriptures are going to kind of revolve around that same, that theme of trusting in the Lord even when dying. That's going to be the case for the psalm. I don't know if the epistle actually is. Just remember how the epistles, especially during the summer of the three year lectionary, somewhat unrelated to the other texts. That's going to be the case. We're in First Timothy 3, but the Psalm and the Old Testament lesson from Amos 6 are all going to be the same. [00:02:27] Hope my voice is all right. First thing Sunday morning recording. This is truly a Sunday drive to church. I mean, I'm not driving to church, but I'm getting ready to recording this for you guys. [00:02:37] This is when I should probably do all my recording, when my first morning voice is that low radio voice. Anyhow, hopefully it's working out all right, so Psalm 146. Remember the last of the Psalms, once we're in. Where is it? 140. Wow. 1461-471481-49150. These are the great Alleluia psalms. So they all began. Praise the Lord. Alleluia. Alleluia. That's how Psalm 46 begins. You can't see it in the English because it translates to alleluia, to praise the Lord. That's what it means all the way to the end. Then Psalm 150 is Hallelujah all the way. [00:03:16] So you have this growing crescendo of praise to the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I'll sing praises to my God while I have my being. [00:03:25] Verse three is probably why the psalm is chosen, because it says, put not your trust in princes, in a Son of man in whom there is no salvation. [00:03:38] When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. [00:03:45] So here's the rich man who's feasting sumptuously with all his friends in the finest of clothes, and he's got all the nicest stuff. But then, blip. He dies. And it's all over. [00:03:59] It's all over. All the good times end. [00:04:05] The contrary is in verse five of the psalm. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God, who made heaven and earth and all that's in him. He keeps faith forever. [00:04:17] He executes justice for the oppressed. He gives food to the hungry. He sets prisoners free. He opens the eyes of the blind. He lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. [00:04:28] Now that's going to be the contrast. By the way, this is beautiful there in the psalm. I didn't notice it till I was reading it right now. Because, you know, one of the dangers of interpreting Lazarus and the rich man is we say, well, look, Lazarus was rich, and then he became poor. [00:04:42] The poor man. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. [00:04:45] The rich man was rich, and then he became poor. Lazarus was poor, then he became rich. So the goal is to be poor in this life so he can be rich in the life to come. The poverty, though, that Jesus is going to point out. Well, that Abraham is going to point out is in this phrase that he speaks across the gulf to the rich man. They're in torment about his brothers. They have Moses and the prophets. Let him hear them. [00:05:12] They won't believe if someone rises from the dead. In other words, the contrast is not wealth and poverty. [00:05:21] The contrast is wealth and righteousness. [00:05:25] So in the psalm, how does it say it here? The princes who have no salvation die and it's done. But the Lord loves the righteous, those who trust in his promises. [00:05:43] It's beautiful. The Old Testament lesson is from Amos, chapter six. I want to come into you again. We put the dates of the writing of these scriptures in the bulletin for you. And we try to put who they're, you know, who writes them, where they're written, when they're written. You'll notice on Amos, written by the prophet Amos, Bethel, published in Jerusalem, 750. Okay, so that should, should remind you of a few things. First, 750, you might not remember what's happening in 750, but you should remember the date 722. [00:06:20] That's one of these major, 10 major dates in the Old Testament. [00:06:24] So what are these? Let's see, 10, 10, King David is crowned. [00:06:30] He reigns for 40 years. So that takes it to 970, Solomon, then 930, the death of Solomon, division of the temple, Rehoboam and Jeroboam. And Jeroboam, remember, is ruling in the north. And he sets up the, the two alternative temples in Dan and Bethel, where he puts the golden calves there so that the people in the north, the ten tribes of the north, won't go down to Jerusalem to worship the Lord there, but they'll stay up north. And so their hearts are drawn away from Jerusalem. So Amos is preaching in Bethel, that place of the false temple, the false worship. And 750, that's about 28 years before the destruction of the north. [00:07:16] So Amos is warning the people of Israel, the northern kingdoms, of the destruction that is to come. And we're going to hear it in a couple of these woes that he's going to give to them in the verse today. Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, who feel secure on the mountains of Samaria, notable men of the first nations who come to the house of Israel, Passover. And so then Amos says, look, I want you to go and visit three places. Go visit Calneth and see from there go to Hamath the Great, then go down to Gath of the Philistines. These are three cities that have recently been conquered. Calnath was over on the Tigris river, had been recently overcome by Assyria. Hamath was just conquered by Jeroboam ii. Gath was recently conquered by Uzziah. [00:08:06] I mean, it's amazing, think about this, that here's all these cities that were recently overthrown. And Amos says, why don't you go visit those guys? And then he asks, are you better than these kingdoms, or is their territory greater than your territory? In other words, those cities are actually stronger. They had stronger walls, stronger armies. They were more ready for the day of destruction, and they couldn't resist. And you, here you are, you who put far away the day of disaster and bring near the seat of violence. So you say, ah, nothing bad's ever going to happen. We'll just keep living how we want that seat of violence. And then look, woe to those who lie on beds of ivory, stretch themselves out on their couches, who eat lambs and calves and sing idol songs. [00:08:56] This is this description of luxury. [00:08:59] I mean, if you're eating a lamb or a calf, it's because you don't even need the cow to grow up to get all that extra meat. We would just eat the baby. Sheesh. [00:09:08] And laying on beds of ivory, sing idol songs to the sound of the harp, and like David, invent themselves instruments of music. They say, look, David did all this music stuff. We're just the same as David. [00:09:20] David did it in praise to the Lord. Here you're doing it in praise to yourself. It says in verse 6, who Drink wine in bowls. [00:09:28] It's not enough to drink wine, and cups they get, give me a bigger bowl. You know, this is like, you got to think of like the big margarita bowl. It's like a punch bowl. [00:09:39] Hey, give me one of those guys. I want the whole bottle in the glass. [00:09:45] They drink wine in bowls. They anoint themselves with the finest oils. [00:09:50] Therefore they shall not be the first of those who go into. Or, sorry now, therefore they shall be the first of those who go into exile. [00:09:58] The revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away. [00:10:03] It's a beautiful description, a horrible, beautiful description of the rich man and what his life comes to. Well, we'll come back to the Epistle, because these all fit together with the parable of the rich man. It's in Luke 16, 19, 31. And that's a good reminder too, that when you see these passages in Luke, if you're anywhere between, like Luke 10 and probably Luke 18, you're in what's called the journey narrative. There's a. In Luke 9:51, there's a verse that says Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem. [00:10:41] And really from that point on, Luke is telling of Jesus journey from the north, down through Perea, over on the Jordan side of the Jordan river and then up by Jericho and then up into Jerusalem. And a lot of that material is really unique to Luke. [00:10:58] So the parables that are told there, the stories that are told there, they're just in Luke. Including the three parables from Luke 15, the lost coin, sheep and sons. And now this is also just in Luke, Luke 16. So when you're in that kind of area of the Gospel of Luke, you're thinking, oh, it's probably just Luke, chances are. And that's true too. This. This story is only in Luke. [00:11:25] And it's this comparison story. [00:11:28] It's really nice. Jesus is going to say, okay, there's two guys. They live. They're neighbors. I mean, the rich man might not know that Lazarus is his neighbor. How amazing that the rich man isn't named either the O. [00:11:42] I think there's an old name for him, Dives. Dives, which is connected. I think it's just the word for rich man. [00:11:50] But Jesus doesn't give him a name. [00:11:53] He just calls him the rich man. He's not even 100 with him. But Lazarus. How about this? Lazarus has a name. Jesus knows him. [00:12:01] There's a rich man was clothed in purple fine linen, feasted sumptuously every day. [00:12:06] Then at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus. Covered his sores. [00:12:10] He desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Remember the Canaanite woman? Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master's table. [00:12:21] Just give me the leftovers. [00:12:23] The dogs. Benching the dogs. The dogs came and licked his sores. I think that's gross. Although when you read like the church fathers on this, they always talk about how the only friends he had was the dogs. [00:12:34] Instead of Lazarus cleaning his wounds, the dogs were cleaning his wounds. [00:12:39] I don't know if this is. [00:12:41] I mean, he's in a bad way. That's the point. [00:12:45] The poor man died. And then what happened? He was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. [00:12:51] The rich man also died and was buried and in hell, Hades being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. What a reversal. [00:13:04] And now we have to say, okay, so that this reversal takes place is maybe the first point of the story. But then why? Why does Lazarus go to Abraham's bosom? And why does the rich man go to hell? [00:13:18] That's what's got to be sorted out now. So the rich man calls out, father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in Water and cool my tongue. I'm in anguish in this flame. [00:13:28] Abraham says, nope, can't do it. [00:13:32] He says, remember, in your lifetime you had good things, Lazarus, in like manner, bad things. Now he's comforted. Here you're in anguish. And besides all this between us and you is a chasm fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able. None may cross from there to us. [00:13:49] Then he said, I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house. This is the point. Send him to my father's house. I've got five brothers. They may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment. [00:13:59] Finally he thinks of someone else. But still he's not thinking of Lazarus. I mean, amazingly, he still wants Lazarus to serve him. [00:14:05] Come on, Guy, it's terrible. Anyway, Abraham says they have Moses and the prophets. [00:14:14] Let them hear them. [00:14:16] And he said, no, Father Abraham, if someone goes to them from the dead, they'll repent. And he says if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced. If someone should rise from the dead. [00:14:26] This is important for us too, because we just think seeing is believing. [00:14:32] And Jesus is here reminding us, as Abraham preaches to this rich man, that faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of God. [00:14:43] If you want faith, you got the Scriptures. And it's not going to matter if someone rises from the dead. That's not going to help you. [00:14:52] In fact, the Pharisees saw Lazarus rise from the dead. [00:14:58] And what happened, it made them want to kill Jesus even more. [00:15:03] So the story is explicated in that way. So we'll talk about that in the sermon. I don't want to tell you too much. The hymn of the day. Lord, thee I love with all my heart. [00:15:13] This is a beautiful hymn. Martin Shalling. It's an old Reformation hymn. Let's see, Martin shawling lived from 1532 to 1608. [00:15:23] So think what Luther died 1546. That second generation of the Lutherans. [00:15:31] This hymn is a comprehensive one. [00:15:34] Lord, Thee I love with all my heart I pray Thee ne' er from me Depart with tender mercies, Cheer me, Earth has no pleasure I would share. Listen to this line here. Yea, Heaven itself were void and bare if Thou, Lord, were not near me. In other words, Lord, if you're not in heaven, I don't want to be there either. I want to be where you are. Amazing. [00:15:52] Should my heart for sorrow break my trust in Thee can nothing shake? [00:15:56] Thou art my portion I've sought Thy precious blood My Soul has bought so. Lord, I'm seeking you. You've already sought me and won me with your. [00:16:06] And won me with your suffering and the pouring out of your blood. Lord Jesus Christ my God and Lord my God and Lord, forsake me not. I trust thy word. Beautiful. [00:16:16] Then this life. [00:16:20] Stanza 2. Yea, Lord, twas thy rich bounty gave my body, soul and all I have in this poor life of labor. Lord, grant that I in every place may glorify thy lavish grace and help and serve my neighbor. Let no false doctrine me beguile. [00:16:36] Let Satan not my soul defile. Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow Thee. That's the sanctification verse. Lord, let me love you, serve you, bless my neighbor in every place. Don't let any false doctrine come into my mind. Don't let the devil tempt me to fall away or defile my soul in any way. [00:16:57] Let me take up my cross and follow you. So that I in patience bear the suffering of this life. Beautiful. [00:17:04] And then it ends in death. [00:17:06] Lord Jesus Christ my God and Lord, my God and Lord in death thy comfort still afford. [00:17:12] Then here's the third stanza that's taken straight from our text. When we die, Lord, let at last thine angels come to Abram's bosom. Bear me home, that I may die unfearing and in its narrow chamber keep my body safe in peaceful sleep until thy reappearing. [00:17:33] And then from death awaken me that these mine eyes with joy may see. O Son of God, Thy glorious face, My Savior and my fount of grace, Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend and I will praise thee without end. [00:17:46] So it goes from death to the burial of the body. And my soul being carried to Abraham's bosom. [00:17:55] And then the resurrection on the last day. And seeing the Lord Jesus face to face. This is a beautiful hymn. I'm always trying to talk people into putting this hymn at their funeral. And more and more and more it's happening. But even if not, this is one of the chief hymns that I'll sing at the funeral home when we go for the viewing or something like that. It's a hymn that's just absolutely comprehensive and is a prayer for everything that we need in this. [00:18:25] Like it says in this poor life of labor that the Lord would sustain us all the way through and bring us at last to the joys of heaven. [00:18:33] Okay, last thing to make note of is the epistle, first Timothy three. [00:18:39] This will be our last shot at one Timothy for a while. We'll be in second Timothy, next Sunday for the epistle. [00:18:45] Remember, there's three letters from St. Paul. Four. Sorry, four letters from St. Paul to individuals. [00:18:56] First second Timothy, Titus and Philemon. All the others are to churches. And of the three of the four letters, three, three are two pastors. First two Timothy. Titus. [00:19:07] Titus and Timothy were companions of Paul, especially Timothy. [00:19:13] He was early with Paul, I think in Lydia. No, where Paul picked up Timothy in middle of Turkey, in Asia, Iconium. [00:19:25] Anyway, he was circumcised. [00:19:28] He came from his Jewish grandmother and mother. But Timothy wasn't ever circumcised. Had a Greek father, at least a Roman father. [00:19:38] He joins Paul in his ministry. He's with him all over the place. And he's being sent here and there. He writes to the Philippians. He says, I'm going to send you Timothy soon. [00:19:51] I wanted to send him now, but I had to send Epaphroditus. But I'm going to send Timothy. There's no one like him who shares in all my labors at the end of his ministry. [00:20:02] And this is after the. This is part of Paul's journey after the close of the Book of Acts. So Acts ends with Paul in prison, but he doesn't die there. He probably goes to Spain and then back to Crete and then Ephesus and then Macedonia, and then like to Philippi and then maybe back to Ephesus and then up to Troas where he's arrested and then goes to Rome where he's beheaded. It's hard to piece it all together. [00:20:27] So this is probably written Macedonia, so probably Philippi or in the region of Philippi, writing back to Timothy, who he left in Ephesus. And one of the big burdens that Paul places on Titus in Crete and Timothy in Ephesus is you got to start training and ordaining pastors. So he's giving instructions about who can be and serve as a pastor. And that's really what our text is. He says the saying is trustworthy. If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. That overseer is the word bishop. It's good for us to remember. And he's then going to talk about deacons. [00:21:04] When we have these words, bishop or pastor or elder or deacon. [00:21:11] In the Pastoral Epistles of Paul, it's really talking about the pastors who might have different functions in different places. So the overseer is probably the pastor who's working on a team, who. Who's a senior, something like that. Deacon. It might be the associate pastor, but it's all talking about the one pastoral office. He says he has to be above reproach, husband of one wife, sober minded, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money, must manage his own household well, et cetera. [00:21:46] If someone doesn't know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? [00:21:51] It's interesting that it's unique that you see how a man is with his family in the estate of the home. [00:22:01] And that's part of how you consider how a man will be in the estate of the church. [00:22:07] So there's this connection between the home and the church which Paul is making here. There's a really interesting verse that it's easy to pass over, but we should make note of it. Verse 6. He must not be a recent convert or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. [00:22:25] That little aside where Paul's warning Timothy hey, if someone's a new Christian, a new convert, don't make them a pastor right away. The danger is they get prideful and puffed up and they fall into the devil's condemnation. This verse is probably the verse that gives us the most information about why the devil fell. [00:22:47] This little aside, it's amazing that he was puffed up with pride and then fell. [00:22:55] He must be well thought of by outsiders so that he may not fall into disgrace, into the snare of the devil. Luther makes a point on this. He says that the pastor has to have a life of love, of virtue for those outside the church, and he has to have the true doctrine for those inside the church. [00:23:13] Because the Christians can endure a pastor. They know the pastor's a sinner and they can endure certain things. But he has to teach the truth, otherwise the Christians can't stand him. You've got to go out, you can't be a pastor anymore, you got to leave. But the world looks at a pastor and doesn't care about what he teaches, doesn't care about the doctrine, only cares about his life. [00:23:34] So you have to have good doctrine for the people and you have to have a good life, good doctrine for the Christians and a good life for the not Christians. And that's true. I mean, how much scandal is there in the church? Well, even the Christians are scandalized when a pastor falls into gross sin. [00:23:52] But the world looks at the pastors and the Christians and judges not what they say, not their doctrine, judges their life. [00:24:01] So both are necessary. Paul says you got to hold to the doctrine and you got to live a life that's commendable to those who aren't in the church. [00:24:12] He then goes on to deacons and the list is very similar. [00:24:17] Verse 13. Those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus. [00:24:25] So it should be that serving in the church in this way strengthens our faith in Christ. [00:24:31] May God grant it. [00:24:33] Okay, that's pretty good for what you got coming for you. Remember, don't forget to look at the bulletin. [00:24:39] We're going to do our Augsburg Confession study in Bible class. We're at Augsburg Confession seven on the church. Seven and eight maybe this morning. We'll see how that goes. [00:24:50] So don't skip that. Make sure you come to that as well. And I think that's all. We'll see you soon. God's peace be with you.