"Know These Things!" Roman 8:28-39
July 25, 2021
Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
"Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am to be baptized with..." Jesus asked James and John as they desired the places of honor in His kingdom. The honor of the pastoral ministry is to serve and not to be served. It is to be marked with the sign of the holy cross in baptism and preach nothing but Christ and Him crucified to sinners. As Daniel Warner, continues his education towards being called into the pastoral office St. Paul teaches him to: "Know These Things!" Romans 8:28-39. Preached for St. James the Elder, The Apostle - 25-July-2021 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Tell City, Indiana by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert.
Episode Notes
St James The Elder, Apostle July 25, 2021
Sermon Text: Romans 8:28-39
I.N.R.I. A mother just wants the best for her boys. History records, “Mat 20:20-21 Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. (21) And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." We hear in Mark’s gospel that James and John immediately echo their mother’s request to our Lord. Jesus warns the “sons of thunder” Mar 10:38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"
Daniel, after two years of studying Christ’s Word and doctrine at CTSFW, you look forward to a year of vicarage. A year to apply what you have learned in academia to the real world. Then will come your final year at the seminary and the Lord through His Church will call you to follow Him into the pastoral ministry. Like Salome, your mother is proud of your following Jesus into this office. Still Jesus’ Words may haunt you - “you do not know what you are asking for....” Preaching Christ’s Word purely and administering His sacraments according to His command is a dangerous vocation. On the night one of His twelve disciples would betray Him, Jesus says, Joh 15:18-20 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (20) Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”
July 25th, western Christianity, celebrates St James the Elder, brother of John - the first apostle to be martyred for confessing that Jesus is the Christ - the only Savior of the world. King Herod Agrippa 1st would order James beheaded to please the majority of the mob at Jerusalem. Preaching is a bloody business and preachers are marked men. Satan will enlist his allies of the world and your own sinful flesh tempting you to false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Christian clergy in America suffer burn out as they are often attacked by well meaning members within their congregations for not producing. Their own fallen reason leads them into despair for not doing enough.
Daniel you will be a marked man when you are called into this bloody business of being a Lutheran pastor. Jesus calling Paul to be His apostle to the gentiles told reluctant Ananias: Act 9:15-16 "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. (16) For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Learn from Paul the Preacher of the Cross to: “Know These Things!”
Baptized into Jesus’ suffering and death for our sins upon the cross. Vested with the robes of His perfect fulfillment of God’s Law. Breathed alive by His victory over Satan and the grave in His resurrection. We are marked with the sign of the Holy Cross. Dr. Luther calls us to begin and end each day speaking this blessed reality out loud as we trace the cross upon our bodies. Cling to this blessed assurance! (Vs.28) The Triune God is at work through all things for your good. Paul echos the words of Joseph to his brothers, that although they meant him evil - God meant it for good - to save many lives by what he had suffered. On the basis of this verse Dr. C.F.W. Walther assured young pastoral candidates that God the Holy Spirit knows every congregation they will serve and the length of their service in each area. Daniel, know that our Lord Jesus will work all things, even the trials you’ll face in the parish for your eternal good. Dear Christians know that God who sealed you as His own at the font of your baptism is at work in your life for your eternal good. A blessed life is often not an easy life - for it breaks our own stubborn sinful will - that God’s good and gracious will keeping us in His Word and faith until we die might be done.
“All things work together for good” we hear the promise God the Holy Spirit makes us here, but immediately our sinful fleshly reason twists it into a work we must do when it hears, “to those who love God.” Satan the lying religious spirit accuses us saying, “You haven’t loved God enough - that is why you have cancer - depression - poverty - and on and on.” Satan lies! Breathe forth the truth that John, the brother of James records: “1Jn 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And again, “1Jn 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us. God the Father loves you in Christ Jesus and by His Holy Spirit has called you according to His purpose!
How can you be certain of this? (29-30) You have His Word on it! From eternity, before you ever were a twinkle in your mother’s eye, God had foreknew and predestined to form you in Christ Jesus to be His beloved children. Where did this happen? At the font He called you by name: “Daniel, I baptize you,” Jesus spoke through the mouth of your pastor and then sealed your adoption with His name: “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Cling to your baptism as your greatest gift and assurance that God is working for you and through you. He speaks you forgiven - justifies you daily and richly within Christ’s Church in absolution. He will also bring your baptism to completion raising your body from the grave to glory on the Last Day. Know that you are a beloved baptized child of your heavenly Father. Trust that He is at work through all the trials in life and rejoice that daily and richly He blesses you with all that you need to support this body and life.
Still dark days will come. The apostles faced despair and doubt when Jesus was crucified and buried. They cowered in fear even after they heard of His physical resurrection. They were persecuted for preaching after Pentecost. Imprisoned. Impoverished. Hated by the world for turning it upside down. False preachers within the church accused them of not following the rules. James would be the first to die. He who was one of the inner three of Jesus’ apostles - had the privilege of glorifying God with his death for preaching the Cross. In the first eleven chapters of Acts nothing is recorded of the work of James. We read of Peter and John - then James resurfaces to be martyred. So Daniel, you are not pursing the preaching office to make a name for yourself, but to know nothing among your congregations but Christ and Him crucified! (Vs.31-32). Know that Jesus is crucified for you and the fellow sinners you will be called to serve. Know that when your flesh doubts, and parishioners condemn - that God is for you! Look only to the crucifix and see that God the Father loved you perfectly sending His only begotten Son. Look and see the perfect love of Jesus, who although sinless, became sin for you and all this world. Look and by the power of the Spirit of Truth cling to His Word and promise to give you all things needful for eternity.
Drink the cup that Jesus drank - as did St. James - the cup of Christ’s blood in wine - no longer a cup of God’s wrath - but of His grace and life flowing into us from the Tree of Life - the Cross! (Vs. 33-34) When Satan, your conscience, the world comes accusing you of being a sinner. Flee to Jesus and receive from a fellow pastor the healing of private absolution. Hear from him, as from Jesus Himself, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.” Then come quickly, every Sunday, to His feast to be filled with cross won - empty tomb certified - forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In God’s eternal court you have been judged - forgiven! Take heart Jesus prays for you constantly. Jesus prays with you and through you, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.” He will deliver you from all evil! Know that Jesus rules over all things in this world - even over the civil realm that His Gospel might be preached!
Know that you don’t go into the preaching office alone! Know dear Christian that you are not abandoned in life. (Vs.35-37) Satan will attempt to tear you from God’s love, the world will chime and along with your own sinful flesh. Lay hold only of Christ’s Word. He is your Good Shepherd - He doesn’t abandon you when the wolf comes to scatter the flock - He defends you with His own blood laying down His life and taking it up again to seal to you His victory! For Christ sake we are killed daily and rise again daily to new life - lay hold of Jesus’ promise of victory over the grave! “Joh 11:25-26 "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. (26) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" Echoing Martha’s faith confess, Joh 11:27 "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
What will you suffer for Christ’s Name sake? St. James suffered arrest and execution. St. Paul would suffer beatings, shipwrecks, hunger, terror, and heart break over Christians who fell away from his flock. Know that these things will never tear you from God’s love for you written in the living nail scarred hands of Jesus! (Vs. 38-39). Knit by God’s grace and eternal foreknowledge into Christ Jesus. Called to be baptized into His baptism within His Church. Called to the Feast to drink His Cup every Sunday at His Table. Justified daily and richly by His Holy Spirit in words of absolution. Let the world rage against us with death and life. Let Satan marshal his forces to war. Let your fleshly reason try to terrify you about the future. Know that in Christ Jesus you are loved by your heavenly Father. Therefore begin and end every day of your life, of your vicarage - “In the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Trace the sign of His victory upon your flesh. Confess the Truth of Christ’s Doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed. Pray with Jesus to your loving heavenly Father to hallow His name through your preaching, teaching, and life. Know that His kingdom will come by His Spirit through His Gospel spoken, poured, fed, and freeing. Trust that He is at work in all things for good as you give Him alone all glory.
Some speculate that according to tradition St. James made it all the way to preach the Gospel in Spain, before returning to Jerusalem and being martyred in 44A.D.. If so this isn’t recorded by Luke in Acts - a pastor doesn’t keep stats - he simply does the work he is called to do - preaching the Gospel, administering the sacraments, forgiving or retaining sin. His only goal is that people forget him and remember only Jesus Christ crucified for their sins and raised again for their justification. Amen.
Sermon Text: Romans 8:28-39
Sermon Theme: “Know These Things!” by Rev. Nathan J. Rusert
For Seminarian Daniel Warner's farewell and godspeed to serve vicarage at Philadelphia Lutheran Ministries, Philadelphia, Penn.
I.N.R.I. A mother just wants the best for her boys. History records, “Mat 20:20-21 Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. (21) And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." We hear in Mark’s gospel that James and John immediately echo their mother’s request to our Lord. Jesus warns the “sons of thunder” Mar 10:38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"
Daniel, after two years of studying Christ’s Word and doctrine at CTSFW, you look forward to a year of vicarage. A year to apply what you have learned in academia to the real world. Then will come your final year at the seminary and the Lord through His Church will call you to follow Him into the pastoral ministry. Like Salome, your mother is proud of your following Jesus into this office. Still Jesus’ Words may haunt you - “you do not know what you are asking for....” Preaching Christ’s Word purely and administering His sacraments according to His command is a dangerous vocation. On the night one of His twelve disciples would betray Him, Jesus says, Joh 15:18-20 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. (19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (20) Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.”
July 25th, western Christianity, celebrates St James the Elder, brother of John - the first apostle to be martyred for confessing that Jesus is the Christ - the only Savior of the world. King Herod Agrippa 1st would order James beheaded to please the majority of the mob at Jerusalem. Preaching is a bloody business and preachers are marked men. Satan will enlist his allies of the world and your own sinful flesh tempting you to false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice. Christian clergy in America suffer burn out as they are often attacked by well meaning members within their congregations for not producing. Their own fallen reason leads them into despair for not doing enough.
Daniel you will be a marked man when you are called into this bloody business of being a Lutheran pastor. Jesus calling Paul to be His apostle to the gentiles told reluctant Ananias: Act 9:15-16 "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. (16) For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name's sake."
Learn from Paul the Preacher of the Cross to: “Know These Things!”
Baptized into Jesus’ suffering and death for our sins upon the cross. Vested with the robes of His perfect fulfillment of God’s Law. Breathed alive by His victory over Satan and the grave in His resurrection. We are marked with the sign of the Holy Cross. Dr. Luther calls us to begin and end each day speaking this blessed reality out loud as we trace the cross upon our bodies. Cling to this blessed assurance! (Vs.28) The Triune God is at work through all things for your good. Paul echos the words of Joseph to his brothers, that although they meant him evil - God meant it for good - to save many lives by what he had suffered. On the basis of this verse Dr. C.F.W. Walther assured young pastoral candidates that God the Holy Spirit knows every congregation they will serve and the length of their service in each area. Daniel, know that our Lord Jesus will work all things, even the trials you’ll face in the parish for your eternal good. Dear Christians know that God who sealed you as His own at the font of your baptism is at work in your life for your eternal good. A blessed life is often not an easy life - for it breaks our own stubborn sinful will - that God’s good and gracious will keeping us in His Word and faith until we die might be done.
“All things work together for good” we hear the promise God the Holy Spirit makes us here, but immediately our sinful fleshly reason twists it into a work we must do when it hears, “to those who love God.” Satan the lying religious spirit accuses us saying, “You haven’t loved God enough - that is why you have cancer - depression - poverty - and on and on.” Satan lies! Breathe forth the truth that John, the brother of James records: “1Jn 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” And again, “1Jn 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us. God the Father loves you in Christ Jesus and by His Holy Spirit has called you according to His purpose!
How can you be certain of this? (29-30) You have His Word on it! From eternity, before you ever were a twinkle in your mother’s eye, God had foreknew and predestined to form you in Christ Jesus to be His beloved children. Where did this happen? At the font He called you by name: “Daniel, I baptize you,” Jesus spoke through the mouth of your pastor and then sealed your adoption with His name: “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Cling to your baptism as your greatest gift and assurance that God is working for you and through you. He speaks you forgiven - justifies you daily and richly within Christ’s Church in absolution. He will also bring your baptism to completion raising your body from the grave to glory on the Last Day. Know that you are a beloved baptized child of your heavenly Father. Trust that He is at work through all the trials in life and rejoice that daily and richly He blesses you with all that you need to support this body and life.
Still dark days will come. The apostles faced despair and doubt when Jesus was crucified and buried. They cowered in fear even after they heard of His physical resurrection. They were persecuted for preaching after Pentecost. Imprisoned. Impoverished. Hated by the world for turning it upside down. False preachers within the church accused them of not following the rules. James would be the first to die. He who was one of the inner three of Jesus’ apostles - had the privilege of glorifying God with his death for preaching the Cross. In the first eleven chapters of Acts nothing is recorded of the work of James. We read of Peter and John - then James resurfaces to be martyred. So Daniel, you are not pursing the preaching office to make a name for yourself, but to know nothing among your congregations but Christ and Him crucified! (Vs.31-32). Know that Jesus is crucified for you and the fellow sinners you will be called to serve. Know that when your flesh doubts, and parishioners condemn - that God is for you! Look only to the crucifix and see that God the Father loved you perfectly sending His only begotten Son. Look and see the perfect love of Jesus, who although sinless, became sin for you and all this world. Look and by the power of the Spirit of Truth cling to His Word and promise to give you all things needful for eternity.
Drink the cup that Jesus drank - as did St. James - the cup of Christ’s blood in wine - no longer a cup of God’s wrath - but of His grace and life flowing into us from the Tree of Life - the Cross! (Vs. 33-34) When Satan, your conscience, the world comes accusing you of being a sinner. Flee to Jesus and receive from a fellow pastor the healing of private absolution. Hear from him, as from Jesus Himself, “Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven you.” Then come quickly, every Sunday, to His feast to be filled with cross won - empty tomb certified - forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In God’s eternal court you have been judged - forgiven! Take heart Jesus prays for you constantly. Jesus prays with you and through you, ‘Our Father who art in Heaven.” He will deliver you from all evil! Know that Jesus rules over all things in this world - even over the civil realm that His Gospel might be preached!
Know that you don’t go into the preaching office alone! Know dear Christian that you are not abandoned in life. (Vs.35-37) Satan will attempt to tear you from God’s love, the world will chime and along with your own sinful flesh. Lay hold only of Christ’s Word. He is your Good Shepherd - He doesn’t abandon you when the wolf comes to scatter the flock - He defends you with His own blood laying down His life and taking it up again to seal to you His victory! For Christ sake we are killed daily and rise again daily to new life - lay hold of Jesus’ promise of victory over the grave! “Joh 11:25-26 "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. (26) And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" Echoing Martha’s faith confess, Joh 11:27 "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
What will you suffer for Christ’s Name sake? St. James suffered arrest and execution. St. Paul would suffer beatings, shipwrecks, hunger, terror, and heart break over Christians who fell away from his flock. Know that these things will never tear you from God’s love for you written in the living nail scarred hands of Jesus! (Vs. 38-39). Knit by God’s grace and eternal foreknowledge into Christ Jesus. Called to be baptized into His baptism within His Church. Called to the Feast to drink His Cup every Sunday at His Table. Justified daily and richly by His Holy Spirit in words of absolution. Let the world rage against us with death and life. Let Satan marshal his forces to war. Let your fleshly reason try to terrify you about the future. Know that in Christ Jesus you are loved by your heavenly Father. Therefore begin and end every day of your life, of your vicarage - “In the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Trace the sign of His victory upon your flesh. Confess the Truth of Christ’s Doctrine in the Apostles’ Creed. Pray with Jesus to your loving heavenly Father to hallow His name through your preaching, teaching, and life. Know that His kingdom will come by His Spirit through His Gospel spoken, poured, fed, and freeing. Trust that He is at work in all things for good as you give Him alone all glory.
Some speculate that according to tradition St. James made it all the way to preach the Gospel in Spain, before returning to Jerusalem and being martyred in 44A.D.. If so this isn’t recorded by Luke in Acts - a pastor doesn’t keep stats - he simply does the work he is called to do - preaching the Gospel, administering the sacraments, forgiving or retaining sin. His only goal is that people forget him and remember only Jesus Christ crucified for their sins and raised again for their justification. Amen.
Content Copyright Belongs to Emmanuel Lutheran Church
5761