SERMONS

LCMS Lectionary Summary C
 
Sunday – Divine Services:  10: 15AM
Holy Communion Each Sunday
 
 
 
 
 
SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
5 October 2025
 
Habakuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
2 Timothy 1:1-14 
Luke 17:1-10

 

We Walk by Faith, and Not by Sight, in the Peace of Christ’s Forgiveness

 

We are surrounded by “destruction and violence” (Hab. 1:3) because of the Law “is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth” (Hab. 1:4). In fact, the Law cannot rescue us from our enemies; it is our fiercest enemy of all. Therefore, not by sight, experience or feeling, nor by works, “the righteous shall live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4). “Temptations to sin are sure to come” (Luke 17:1), but as often as we sin, the LORD rebukes us, turns us to repentance and forgives us. We pray that He would thus “increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). And indeed, He does! Though we are His “unworthy servants” (Luke 17:10), He prepares His Supper for us, dresses us properly and gives us His body and blood to eat and drink. He appoints pastors for us, “by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:1). For the Gospel brings “life and immortality to light” (2 Tim. 1:10). This we believe. Therefore, “follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard,” by which He guards you “in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:13).

 
 
 
 
SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
28 September 2025
 
 
Amos 6:1-7
1 Timothy 6:6-19
Luke 16:19-31

 

Our Help Is Not in Worldly Riches
 

“The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side,” and “the rich man also died and was buried” (Luke 16:22). The poor man Lazarus, who knew many bad things on earth, began to be comforted forever, whereas the rich man, after a lifetime of good things, began to be “in anguish” (Luke 16:25). Therefore, “woe to those who are at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1), for “the revelry of those who stretch themselves out shall pass away” (Amos 6:7). The wealthy are urged “not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,” but “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Tim. 6:17–18). Covetous desire for what God has not given is idolatry and “a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Tim. 6:10). Contentment belongs to faith, by which the Christian has “great gain” in godliness (1 Tim. 6:6).

 
 
 
 
 
ST. MATTHEW
21 September 2025
 
Ezekiel 2:8-3:11
Ephesians 4:716
Matthew 9:9-13

 

St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

 

Our ascended Lord gives “gifts” to His Church. In particular, He gave apostles and evangelists like St. Matthew, prophets like Ezekiel, and still gives pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:8, 11). All are for the common good … empowered by one and the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:7, 11). They speak Christ’s truth in love” to wind- and wave-tossed children so that the saints may be equipped, served and built up as the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12–15). Christ is not only the head of this body, He is her Good Physician (Matt. 9:9–13). He has come not for the well but for the sick, not for “the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:13) — even notorious tax collectors like Matthew. Christ’s team of spiritual physicians must serve faithfully. Their instrument is “thus says the Lord God,” to be spoken “whether they hear or refuse to hear” (Ezek. 3:11). To those stubborn, rebellious patients who believe they need no physician, the word “of lamentation and mourning and woe” must be fearlessly spoken: God’s Law calls to repentance (Ezek. 2:10). To those who recognize their trouble and sickness, the salve of the Gospel is to be applied. So Christ works to save us, as Matthew’s Gospel records.
 
 
HOLY CROSS DAY
14 September 2025
 
Numbers 21:4-9
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
John 12:20-33
 
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross
 

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). Then look to His holy cross. For just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, so Jesus, when He is “lifted up from the earth, will draw all people” to Himself (John 12:32). He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” to save us (Phil. 2:8). Everyone who is bitten” by the ancient serpent’s venom of sin, when he sees” Christ “shall live” (Num. 21:8). The true holy cross is lost to history, and we cannot return to Calvary to find our salvation. So, Christ brings the New Testament in His blood to us. We preach Christ crucified …. the power of God and the wisdom of God,” though foolishness to the unbelieving world (1 Cor. 1:23–24). It pleases God, “through the folly” of the cross we preach, “to save those who believe” (1 Cor. 1:21). We find the fruit and benefit of this holy cross poured out in Holy Baptism, spoken in the preaching of Holy Absolution, and delivered in the body and blood given and shed there for us. Thus are we strengthened to take up our crosses, sanctified by His              (John 12:25–26).

 
 
 
 
THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
7 September 2025
 
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Philemon 1:1-21
Luke 14:25-35
 
Christ Jesus Has Paid the Cost of Discipleship for You
A disciple of Jesus Christ will “bear his own cross” (Luke 14:27) and follow the Lord through death into life. Discipleship is costly because it crucifies the old man with “all that he has” (Luke 14:33), in order to raise up the new man in Christ. The disciple disavows “his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life” (Luke 14:26), in deference to Christ. That way of the cross is impossible, except that Christ Jesus has already paid the cost. His cross is set before you as “life and good, death and evil” (Deut. 30:15). Taking up His cross is to “choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him” (Deut. 30:19–20). To live that life in Christ is also to bear His cross in love, “that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord” (Philemon 14).
 
THE TWELVE SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
31 August 2025
 
Proverbs 25:2-10
Hebrews 13:1-17
Luke 14:1-14
 
We are Humbled and Exalted by the Cross of Christ
 

“Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled,” Jesus proclaims, but “he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 14:11). For your hope is in the name of the Lord, who humbled Himself unto death on the cross and was exalted in His resurrection. So, are you humbled by His cross, and “at the resurrection of the just,” He will say to you, “Friend, move up higher” (Luke 14:10, 13–14)? By His grace, the King will honor you “in the presence of a noble,” where your eyes will gaze upon the Prince, His dearly beloved Son (Prov. 25:7). As He has dealt so graciously with you, “do not neglect to do good and to share what you have” (Heb. 13:16), and “do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers” (Heb. 13:2). Humble yourself and exalt your neighbor.

 
 
THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
24 August 2025
 
Isaiah 66:18-23
Hebrews 12:4-29
Luke 13:22-30
 
The Cross of Christ is the Way into the Kingdom of God
 

With the cross of Christ, the time has come “to gather all nations and tongues” (Is. 66:18). The sign of the cross is set forth in the preaching of the Gospel, the declaration of the LORD’S glory “among the nations” (Is. 66:19). Many “will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29), but only by the narrow way of the cross. Those who refuse to follow Christ crucified will ultimately find only “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Luke 13:28), whereas Christ’s disciples, called from all the nations, will eat and drink with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God. They will come into “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb. 12:22).