"Father, Thy Kingdom Come Within My Heart!" Deut. 10:12-21
Series: The Lord's Prayer
October 16, 2022
Rev.Nathan J. Rusert
The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity The Pharisees ask a Law question. Jesus asks a Gospel question. The Pharisees seek to trap Jesus in His own words. Jesus seeks to "trap" them in the saving reality of who He is as the Messiah (Matt 22:34-46). The Law requires you to "fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul" and to "love the stranger" (Deut 10:12-21). Failure to keep the Law perfectly brings judgment. On the other hand, the Gospel brings the grace of God given by Jesus Christ, that you may be blameless in the day of His return (1 Cor 1:1-9). Jesus is David's Son yet David's Lord, true God and true man. He is Love incarnate who fulfilled all the demands of God's Law on our behalf, that we might be saved from the Law's condemnation and sanctified in the Gospel's forgiveness. Thereby we see that "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Introit: (Psalm 122:1,6,8-9; antiphon: Ecclesiasticus 36:16-17a) Pastor: Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for You: and let Your prophets be proven faithful. Congregation: Hear the prayer of Your servants, according to the blessing of Aaron upon Your people. P: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!” C: Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you! P: For my brothers and companions' sake I will say, “Peace be within you!” C: For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good. All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. P: Give peace, O Lord, to those who wait for You: and let Your prophets be proven faithful. C: Hear the prayer of Your servants, according to the blessing of Aaron upon Your people. Collect Of The Day O God, because without You we are not able to please You, mercifully grant that Your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. + Deuteronomy 10:12-21 + “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, (13) and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? (14) Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. (15) Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. (16) Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. (17) For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. (18) He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. (19) Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (20) You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. (21) He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Gradual: (Psalm 122:1,7) I was glad when they | said to me,* “Let us go to the house | of the LORD!” Peace be with- | in your walls * and security within your | towers!” +1 Corinthians 1:1-9 + Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, (2) To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours: (3) Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (4) I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, (5) that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge— (6) even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you— (7) so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, (8) who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. +The Lutheran Confessions Responsive Reading: The Lord’s Prayer+ P: As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household. What is the second request of dear true children to their dear True Father (The Second Petition)? C: Thy kingdom come. P: What does this mean? C: The kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come to us also. P: How does God's kingdom come? C: God's kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity. P: What is The Third Commandment? C: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. P: What does this mean? C: We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. Verse: (Psalm 117:1) P: Alleluia! Praise the LORD, all nations! C: Extol him, all peoples! Alleluia! + Matthew 22:34-46 + But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. (35) And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. (36) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (37) And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38) This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (41) Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, (42) saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” (43) He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, (44) “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? (45) If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” (46) And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.
Episode Notes
The Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity 16-October-2022
Sermon Text: Deuteronomy 10:12-21
Sermon Theme: “Father, Thy Kingdom Come Within My Heart!” by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”(Ps.122:1) Twice in the propers for this day, we have echoed these joyous words of King David. With great joy David approached Jerusalem with his eyes fixed on the Lord’s House. At the Lord’s House, in David’s day the tent church or tabernacle, our Creator drew near to His sinful creatures through sacrifice to speak His forgiving life sustaining Word. His Word that would in the fulness of time take on our human flesh in the womb of the Virgin. King Jesus would rejoice to be in His Father’s House as a 12 year old Boy. He would rejoice to preach and teach in the Temple and synagogues where all Jews gathered. He would rejoice to bear our iniquities and carry our sorrows on His innocent shoulders to Calvary’s crest to be sacrificed for our sins on the cross. He would rejoice to rise three days later bringing us sinners peace and reconciliation in His living flesh and blood with our God and Father. Forty days later He would rejoice to ascend on high, to be enthroned at the Father’s right hand, that He might fill all things as True Man and True God - to rule over all things in Heaven and on earth.
On the day that Jesus ascended to fill all of creation, that He might be with us always as True Man and True God, His disciples asked, Acts 1:6 "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Even after three years of instruction from the Master, they did not understand the extent or scope of the Father’s Kingdom. Ten days later the Kingdom would come as God the Holy Spirit was poured out through the preaching of Christ’s doctrine. On that day God the Holy Spirit opened the ears of 3000 men, women , and infants to be baptized and made alive by grace through faith in Jesus’ cross alone. For two millennia Christ’s Kingdom has advanced forcefully around our globe under the cross. Unbelief doubts for all it sees is the cross, for the glory of Christ’s kingdom is hidden until the King returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Therefore this morning learn from King Jesus to pray: “Father, Thy Kingdom Come Within My Heart!”
Kingdom building...has been Satan’s subtle lie from the day of his rebellion against his Creator. Satan wanted to build God’s Kingdom according to his own wisdom, for his own glory, in his own way. When his rebellion failed and his horde of demons were thrown out of heaven to earth - he turned his sights on the crown of God’s creation - mankind. Satan whispered to our first parents that they could be their “own gods”, build their own kingdom, exalt themselves to the heavens, and forget God’s love and His life sustaining Word. Far from building a kingdom, our first parents rebellion, chained us in sin, rebellion, doubt, Satan’s lies, death, and the just sentence of hell. Breaking faith with their Creator and His Word brought us only death.
After 430 years of slavery the Lord God rescued the children of Israel from Egypt. His mighty ten plagues against the false gods of the Egyptians testified that He alone is God. He had swallowed up the mightiest army in the world in the waters of the Red Sea to preserve His people in peace. Still they rebelled, even after hearing Him speak His holy Ten Commandments from Sinai. Moses goes up to the mountain to talk with the Lord for 40 days, and they fashion their own gods - a golden calf to lead them back to easy slavery in Egypt. Moses returns carrying God’s Law on two tablets of stone. Seeing their rebellion - he dashes them on the ground and judges the idolaters. This history he recounts to their children and grandchildren in Deuteronomy 10.
That generation was not allowed to enter the promised land - for they didn’t trust the Lord to build His Kingdom through His Word of promise. Their enemies seemed to great and powerful for them to conquer. They broke faith with their Lord God, their Good Shepherd, who had won all victories for them and fed them bread from heaven. Trusting in their own reason and strength they broke faith - and would die in the wilderness - only faithful Joshua and Caleb of that generation would enter the promised land. Now Moses teaches their descendants (vs.12-13) Trust in the Lord. Walk in His Ways. He shall establish His Kingdom as He has promised. It is His work not yours!
King Jesus teaches us to pray with Him. (LSB. pg.324 2nd Pet.W.D.T.M?) The Kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayers. Satan’s lie is that we must build Christ’s Kingdom on earth for him. The anti-christ teaches us to take our eyes off of King Jesus, to shun His cross, to reject the victory He seals to sinners in Holy Baptism, the freedom He speaks in absolution, and the life sustaining peace He feeds us in His living body and blood present in bread and wine. False teachers from Mohammed to Joseph Smith to Lenin and Marx all think that man must build a utopia on earth by their own reason and strength. False anti-christian religions like Jehovah Witnesses teach that man must make God’s kingdom come on this earth. Sadly our sinful fallen reason agrees - we think we must do something. In the past fifty years, Christianity in America, instead of preaching Christ’s Word calling all to repent and believe the Gospel - has turned to slick marketing campaigns to build its numbers. It gathers a lot of people, but never builds a single Christian Church. “The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.”(AC VII)
‘Father, Thy Kingdom Come!” is a call for us to repent of breaking faith with King Jesus, His Word of promise, and God the Holy Spirit working through His living Word! We have despised preaching and God’s Word. Instead of gladly hearing and learning it, we have turned our itching ears to the latest fad of our dying culture. Repent and believe in King Jesus alone! (Vs.14-15). The Lord God in grace choose the pagan Abram and called him from death to faith in Christ Jesus. He set His unending love upon them in Christ Jesus - they were stubborn rebellious sinners - He is grace - He is love! Learn! (LSB. pg.324 2nd Pet.W.D.T.M? H.D.G.K.C?)
The Father’s Kingdom comes when He gives us His Holy Spirit! We don’t deserve this gift. God the Holy Spirit comes to our spiritual rotting rebellious corpses washing us alive through Christ’s sin cleansing blood in holy baptism. He continues to breathe His Holy Spirit upon us through Christ Jesus’ Word of peace - forgiving our sins richly and daily within the House of the Lord - The Church - the local assembly of two or three gathered in Jesus’ Name - the Only Name that saves! (Vs.16) Moses commands the descendants of that rebellious generation to watch their hearts. The rock hard covering of their heart needs to be removed - not by their own reason or strength, but by God the Holy Spirit making them new again. Listen to the words of the adulterous lying murderer that you sing after the sermon today - Psalms 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (11) Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” King David was glad to go into the House of the Lord for there alone Christ’s forgiveness flowed for sinners and His Holy Spirit restored us from within by grace.
The Father’s kingdom comes to real honest sinners. (LSB. pg.324 2nd Pet. H.D.G.K.C?) The Father gives us His Holy Spirit that by grace we are made alive to believe His Holy Word - Jesus made flesh to pay our price in full upon Calvary - Jesus risen sealing us victory over death in baptism - Jesus alive forgiving daily and richly within His Church - Jesus ruling over all human history - Jesus coming again to bring creation to its consummation. Learn! (Vs.17-21) Made alive in Christ we live His Word in our daily lives.
We are the Father’s very hands to care for the fatherless child in the womb - not allowing it to be slaughtered. We care for the aged the widowed. We care for the sojourner, supplying the hungry with food as the Lord God has prospered us. It was Tuesday of Holy Week in the House of the Lord, after Jesus had silenced the Sadducees that the Pharisees tested our Lord querying Him about the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." God’s Kingdom comes when God the Holy Spirit makes us alive in faith towards God in Christ Jesus and love towards our neighbor. Faith looks up and receives all from God the Father through Christ Jesus. Love looks outward to care for those whom the Father has created, Christ has redeemed, and the Spirit would breathe life into through His forgiving Word.
God’s Kingdom comes here in time. In the House of the Lord - His Kingdom of grace. His Kingdom comes to bring us there to eternity. Corinth wasn’t a likely mission station - it was a port city full of vice. Still the Lord called Paul to preach there - after being thrown out of the synagogue Jesus comforted His apostle, Acts 18:9-11 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; (10) for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city." (11) And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Paul fixes the eyes of Christ’s Church in Corinth on eternity - their hope wasn’t in their numbers - but in the life of the world to come. His words apply also to Emmanuel. Listen! 1 Corinthians 1:7-9 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, (8) who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Then pray, “Father, Thy Kingdom Come!” Hear your Father’s Word and promise, “Dear children, do not fear - trust My Love for you in Christ Jesus - trust my Word - My Kingdom has come among you - I will preserve you in My Word and Faith by God the Holy Spirit until you see the face of King Jesus coming in glory. Amen.
Sermon Text: Deuteronomy 10:12-21
Sermon Theme: “Father, Thy Kingdom Come Within My Heart!” by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
I.N.R.I. “I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”(Ps.122:1) Twice in the propers for this day, we have echoed these joyous words of King David. With great joy David approached Jerusalem with his eyes fixed on the Lord’s House. At the Lord’s House, in David’s day the tent church or tabernacle, our Creator drew near to His sinful creatures through sacrifice to speak His forgiving life sustaining Word. His Word that would in the fulness of time take on our human flesh in the womb of the Virgin. King Jesus would rejoice to be in His Father’s House as a 12 year old Boy. He would rejoice to preach and teach in the Temple and synagogues where all Jews gathered. He would rejoice to bear our iniquities and carry our sorrows on His innocent shoulders to Calvary’s crest to be sacrificed for our sins on the cross. He would rejoice to rise three days later bringing us sinners peace and reconciliation in His living flesh and blood with our God and Father. Forty days later He would rejoice to ascend on high, to be enthroned at the Father’s right hand, that He might fill all things as True Man and True God - to rule over all things in Heaven and on earth.
On the day that Jesus ascended to fill all of creation, that He might be with us always as True Man and True God, His disciples asked, Acts 1:6 "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Even after three years of instruction from the Master, they did not understand the extent or scope of the Father’s Kingdom. Ten days later the Kingdom would come as God the Holy Spirit was poured out through the preaching of Christ’s doctrine. On that day God the Holy Spirit opened the ears of 3000 men, women , and infants to be baptized and made alive by grace through faith in Jesus’ cross alone. For two millennia Christ’s Kingdom has advanced forcefully around our globe under the cross. Unbelief doubts for all it sees is the cross, for the glory of Christ’s kingdom is hidden until the King returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Therefore this morning learn from King Jesus to pray: “Father, Thy Kingdom Come Within My Heart!”
Kingdom building...has been Satan’s subtle lie from the day of his rebellion against his Creator. Satan wanted to build God’s Kingdom according to his own wisdom, for his own glory, in his own way. When his rebellion failed and his horde of demons were thrown out of heaven to earth - he turned his sights on the crown of God’s creation - mankind. Satan whispered to our first parents that they could be their “own gods”, build their own kingdom, exalt themselves to the heavens, and forget God’s love and His life sustaining Word. Far from building a kingdom, our first parents rebellion, chained us in sin, rebellion, doubt, Satan’s lies, death, and the just sentence of hell. Breaking faith with their Creator and His Word brought us only death.
After 430 years of slavery the Lord God rescued the children of Israel from Egypt. His mighty ten plagues against the false gods of the Egyptians testified that He alone is God. He had swallowed up the mightiest army in the world in the waters of the Red Sea to preserve His people in peace. Still they rebelled, even after hearing Him speak His holy Ten Commandments from Sinai. Moses goes up to the mountain to talk with the Lord for 40 days, and they fashion their own gods - a golden calf to lead them back to easy slavery in Egypt. Moses returns carrying God’s Law on two tablets of stone. Seeing their rebellion - he dashes them on the ground and judges the idolaters. This history he recounts to their children and grandchildren in Deuteronomy 10.
That generation was not allowed to enter the promised land - for they didn’t trust the Lord to build His Kingdom through His Word of promise. Their enemies seemed to great and powerful for them to conquer. They broke faith with their Lord God, their Good Shepherd, who had won all victories for them and fed them bread from heaven. Trusting in their own reason and strength they broke faith - and would die in the wilderness - only faithful Joshua and Caleb of that generation would enter the promised land. Now Moses teaches their descendants (vs.12-13) Trust in the Lord. Walk in His Ways. He shall establish His Kingdom as He has promised. It is His work not yours!
King Jesus teaches us to pray with Him. (LSB. pg.324 2nd Pet.W.D.T.M?) The Kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayers. Satan’s lie is that we must build Christ’s Kingdom on earth for him. The anti-christ teaches us to take our eyes off of King Jesus, to shun His cross, to reject the victory He seals to sinners in Holy Baptism, the freedom He speaks in absolution, and the life sustaining peace He feeds us in His living body and blood present in bread and wine. False teachers from Mohammed to Joseph Smith to Lenin and Marx all think that man must build a utopia on earth by their own reason and strength. False anti-christian religions like Jehovah Witnesses teach that man must make God’s kingdom come on this earth. Sadly our sinful fallen reason agrees - we think we must do something. In the past fifty years, Christianity in America, instead of preaching Christ’s Word calling all to repent and believe the Gospel - has turned to slick marketing campaigns to build its numbers. It gathers a lot of people, but never builds a single Christian Church. “The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.”(AC VII)
‘Father, Thy Kingdom Come!” is a call for us to repent of breaking faith with King Jesus, His Word of promise, and God the Holy Spirit working through His living Word! We have despised preaching and God’s Word. Instead of gladly hearing and learning it, we have turned our itching ears to the latest fad of our dying culture. Repent and believe in King Jesus alone! (Vs.14-15). The Lord God in grace choose the pagan Abram and called him from death to faith in Christ Jesus. He set His unending love upon them in Christ Jesus - they were stubborn rebellious sinners - He is grace - He is love! Learn! (LSB. pg.324 2nd Pet.W.D.T.M? H.D.G.K.C?)
The Father’s Kingdom comes when He gives us His Holy Spirit! We don’t deserve this gift. God the Holy Spirit comes to our spiritual rotting rebellious corpses washing us alive through Christ’s sin cleansing blood in holy baptism. He continues to breathe His Holy Spirit upon us through Christ Jesus’ Word of peace - forgiving our sins richly and daily within the House of the Lord - The Church - the local assembly of two or three gathered in Jesus’ Name - the Only Name that saves! (Vs.16) Moses commands the descendants of that rebellious generation to watch their hearts. The rock hard covering of their heart needs to be removed - not by their own reason or strength, but by God the Holy Spirit making them new again. Listen to the words of the adulterous lying murderer that you sing after the sermon today - Psalms 51:10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. (11) Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.” King David was glad to go into the House of the Lord for there alone Christ’s forgiveness flowed for sinners and His Holy Spirit restored us from within by grace.
The Father’s kingdom comes to real honest sinners. (LSB. pg.324 2nd Pet. H.D.G.K.C?) The Father gives us His Holy Spirit that by grace we are made alive to believe His Holy Word - Jesus made flesh to pay our price in full upon Calvary - Jesus risen sealing us victory over death in baptism - Jesus alive forgiving daily and richly within His Church - Jesus ruling over all human history - Jesus coming again to bring creation to its consummation. Learn! (Vs.17-21) Made alive in Christ we live His Word in our daily lives.
We are the Father’s very hands to care for the fatherless child in the womb - not allowing it to be slaughtered. We care for the aged the widowed. We care for the sojourner, supplying the hungry with food as the Lord God has prospered us. It was Tuesday of Holy Week in the House of the Lord, after Jesus had silenced the Sadducees that the Pharisees tested our Lord querying Him about the greatest commandment in the Law of Moses. Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." God’s Kingdom comes when God the Holy Spirit makes us alive in faith towards God in Christ Jesus and love towards our neighbor. Faith looks up and receives all from God the Father through Christ Jesus. Love looks outward to care for those whom the Father has created, Christ has redeemed, and the Spirit would breathe life into through His forgiving Word.
God’s Kingdom comes here in time. In the House of the Lord - His Kingdom of grace. His Kingdom comes to bring us there to eternity. Corinth wasn’t a likely mission station - it was a port city full of vice. Still the Lord called Paul to preach there - after being thrown out of the synagogue Jesus comforted His apostle, Acts 18:9-11 Now the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by a vision, "Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; (10) for I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city." (11) And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Paul fixes the eyes of Christ’s Church in Corinth on eternity - their hope wasn’t in their numbers - but in the life of the world to come. His words apply also to Emmanuel. Listen! 1 Corinthians 1:7-9 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, (8) who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (9) God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Then pray, “Father, Thy Kingdom Come!” Hear your Father’s Word and promise, “Dear children, do not fear - trust My Love for you in Christ Jesus - trust my Word - My Kingdom has come among you - I will preserve you in My Word and Faith by God the Holy Spirit until you see the face of King Jesus coming in glory. Amen.
Content Copyright Belongs to Emmanuel Lutheran Church
5761