EASTER - WEEK 1 - THURSDAY

LESSON: 2 CORINTHIANS 2:14-17

I can do all things in him [Christ] who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

If I really believe from the bottom of my heart that my Lord Jesus Christ, by His resurrection from the dead, has gained the victory over all that can distress me (sin, death, and all evil); that He wants to be close to me and with me so that there is nothing lacking to me in body and soul; that in Him I have enough of everything and that no misfortune can harm me; if I really believe all this, it becomes impossible for me to become faint-hearted and weak, no matter how heavily sin or even death press upon me.

Faith is an ever-present reality telling me, “If sins oppress you and death terrifies you, fix your whole attention on Christ. He died and rose again for your sake; He has overcome all misfortune; what can really harm you?”

If any other misfortune, such as sickness or poverty, presses heavily upon you, close your eyes to it and do not let your reason gain the upper hand. Cast yourself upon Christ and cling to Him; in this way, you will be strengthened and comforted. If you look to Christ and rest your faith in Him, no evil that you may encounter is so great that it can really harm you and make you despondent. Where true faith exists, peace must also follow. It cannot be otherwise.

SL 11:728 (9)

PRAYER: Thanks and praise be to You, heavenly Father, for the riches of all the blessings available to us in and through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially the wonderful peace of heart and mind which is ours even in the midst of trial and tribulation. Keep us ever in Your love and grace, in and through Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:352-63.

LESSON: ACTS 14:19-22

We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character. Romans 5:3-4

True Christian peace, which calms the heart and brings contentment to the soul, is not necessarily the accompaniment of a time when no misfortune is at hand, but it can come to men in the midst of misfortune, when all without is anything but peace. This is the difference between earthly peace and the peace of Christ.

Earthly peace arises from the removal of the external evils that have destroyed peace. When foes assemble before a city, there is no peace; but if the foes are removed, peace is restored. The same hold for poverty and sickness; when they press upon you, you are discontented. But when they are removed and you are rid of your misfortune, you once again enjoy external peace and quiet. Such an alteration of fortune does not necessarily change a man; after his troubles are gone, he can remain just as dejected as he was before their removal. The only difference is that he felt them and was disturbed by them when they were present.

Christian or spiritual peace brings about a change. Outwardly, misfortunes in the shape of enemies, sickness, poverty, sin, the devil, and death can certainly continue to press upon you without intermission. In spite of all that, as a Christian you have peace, strength, and consolation inwardly in your heart. A Christian heart is never unduly disturbed by misfortune, and indeed, it is even more courageous and joyful in the face of misfortune than when the latter is absent. That is why it is called by St. Paul a peace which passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7).

SL 11:726 (7-8)

PRAYER: Grant us Your grace, heavenly Father, so that we may never waver in our faith but ever stand fast in the peace and hope secured for us and assigned to us in and through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:352-63.

LESSON: ROMANS 10:14-17

“He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Luke 10:16

Christ enters our hearts and takes His stand there through the office of the ministry. Since God has given orders that His Word should be preached, we should never in any manner despise the mortal man in whose mouth that Word has been placed, so that we do not form the opinion that each individual must wait for a special sermon from heaven which God Himself preaches to him verbally.

Therefore, if God grants faith to anyone, He employs the regular means which He has appointed for this purpose. He accomplishes His end through the preaching of men, through an external, human word.

He enters through a closed door when He enters a human heart by means of the Word without smashing or disturbing anything. When God’s Word comes, it does not injure the conscience, disturb the understanding of the heart, or upset the external senses as those false teachers do who smash all doors and windows, break in like thieves and leave nothing whole and undisturbed, and bring it to pass that the whole of life, conscience, understanding, and the senses become completely unhinged and lose all rhyme or reason. Christ does not do this.

God’s Word proclaimed by men converts sinners. There are two factors involved: preaching and faith. His coming to us is the preaching or proclamation. His standing in our hearts is faith. It is not enough for Him to stand simply before our eyes and ears; He must stand in our midst, in our hearts, with His gift of peace.

SL 11:726 (4)

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, awaken and increase in us a true reverence for Your saving Word proclaimed to us by the ministers of Your Word, so that, in this manner, Christ our Savior may take His stand in our hearts with His message of peace and joy as a result of His glorious resurrection from the dead. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:352-63.

LESSON: JOHN 20:19-31

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19

As Christians, we must apply the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ to ourselves individually. It is not enough simply to believe that He rose from the dead, for such a faith in itself will not mean peace and joy for us, nor power and might. You must also believe that He rose for your sake and for your benefit. He was not raised into glory for His own sake alone but that He might help you and all who believe in Him and that through His resurrection He might overcome sin, death, and hell.

This is also indicated by the way in which Christ enters through the locked doors and steps forth and stands in the midst of His disciples. The manner in which He stood here in the midst of the disciples resembles that manner in which He also stands in our hearts. In this way, He is also in our midst, just as He was standing there among the disciples.

When He stands in our hearts in this manner, we hear His loving voice speaking to our conscience, “Be at your ease: there is no need at all for any anxiety. Your sins are forgiven you and removed from you and nothing can henceforth harm you.”

SL 11:725 (2-3)

PRAYER: Lord God, heavenly Father, in Your great love for us, You gave Your Son to suffer and die for our sins. By His glorious resurrection from the dead, You have demonstrated that the sacrifice of Your Son has been accepted and that now all is well with us in time and eternity, in and through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:352-63.

LESSON: MATTHEW 27:1-14

In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the expiation for our sins. 1 John 4:10

You must learn to look right through the sufferings of Christ and see His friendly heart, how it is filled with love for you, and how it moved Him to assume the heavy load which your conscience and sins laid on Him. In this way, your heart will be warmed towards Him, and your confidence and faith will be strengthened. Thereupon you should mount even higher through Christ’s heart to God’s heart and see that Christ would never have manifested His love for you if God in His eternal love had not willed it. Christ rendered obedience to God’s love in His love for you.

In this way, you will discover the fatherly heart of God in its wonderful goodness, and, as Christ Himself declares, you will be drawn to the Father through Him. Then you will also understand Christ’s saying that “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

To come to a true knowledge of God, we must not try to find Him simply in His power of wisdom, which can be bewildering, but we must grasp Him in His goodness and love. In this respect, faith and confidence have something to cling to, and man becomes truly born anew in God.

SL 11:581 (14)
AE 76:431

PRAYER: Make it ever more clear and certain for us, heavenly Father, that in all that Christ our Savior bore and suffered for us sinners, love was operating and that in this manifestation of love You have clearly revealed our inner and true nature to us, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

LESSON: MATTHEW 26:69-75

Jesus our Lord … was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Romans 4:25

You cast your sins from yourself on to Christ when you firmly believe that His wounds and sufferings are your sins, that He bore them and paid for them as Isaiah declared: “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Peter also says: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,” that is, the cross (1 Peter 2:24), and St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, AV).

On this and similar passages you must stake everything in full reliance, and the more so if your conscience is giving you serious trouble. If you do not do this but presume to quieten your conscience by way of your own penitence and satisfaction, you will never find peace and end up in despair. It does not matter how much penitence and satisfaction we have to offer; our sins keep on piling up and gaining the upper hand. But when we see them borne by Christ and conquered by His glorious resurrection from the dead and we have boldness of faith, our sins are dead and blotted out. For they could not remain on Christ. They have been swallowed up by His resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pains in Him, that is, no signs of sin.

SL 11:580 (13)
AE 76:430

PRAYER: Thanks and praise be to You, Lord Jesus, for the complete victory over sin which You gained for us when You bore our sins on the cross and destroyed them in Your glorious resurrection from the dead. Amen.

THE WEEK OF EASTER - THURSDAY

LESSON: 2 CORINTHIANS 4:13-15

Jesus said to her, “Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20:17

In these words of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, as reported in John’s Gospel, Jesus sets forth a very clear explanation of the benefit and profit of His death and resurrection. “Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

This is one of the great consolatory passages of the Gospel at which we can knock with all boldness and confidence. It is as though Christ is saying here, “Go, Mary, and tell my disciples, those deserters, who really merited punishment and eternal damnation, that my resurrection will redound to their great advantage. Through my resurrection I have brought it about that my Father is your Father and my God your God.”

A few brief words! But they contain a very important truth, namely, that we have a trust and confidence in God which is the equal of that which Christ, the very Son of God, Himself has.

Who can grasp such boundless joy? Who can explain how a poor, miserable sinner can call God his Father and God, even as Christ Himself does?

SL 11:606 (9)

PRAYER: Dear heavenly Father, Your ways in Jesus Christ our Lord are beyond all our powers of understanding and telling. Grant us the faith to cling with all our hearts to the benefits and profits of our Lord’s resurrection, that with Him You are our Father and our God in and through Jesus our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:215-221.

LESSON: ROMANS 8:14-17

[Let your adorning] … be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. 1 Peter 3:4

The title that we are Christ’s brethren is so exalted that no human heart can really comprehend it. Unless the Holy Spirit confers this grace, no one can say, “Christ is my brother.” No man’s reason would be bold enough to make such a claim, even though it may occasionally be made with the tongue, as in the case of our modern charismatics. Nor is it enough just to make such claims—this must be a matter of the heart—otherwise it is pure hypocrisy.

If you really know this in your heart, it will become something so great and important for you, that you will keep quiet about it rather than chatter about it to all and sundry. To be sure, face to face with the magnitude of this blessing, you may even have your doubts and uncertainties whether it is really true or not. Those who are always crying, “Christ is my brother, Christ is my brother!” are not necessarily Christ’s true brethren.

With a true Christian it is very different. For a true Christian it is a wonderful thing to hear that he is Christ’s brother. The flesh is dismayed at this, and not so very much will be said and openly acknowledged about it all.

SL 11:605 (7)

PRAYER: Give us at all times a quiet, confident faith, O Lord, not given to empty and foolish boasting, but fully trusting in your assurance that we are Your brethren in and through Your glorious resurrection from the dead. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:215-221.