Sermons and More from Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in Door County

Sermons and More from Saint Peter's Lutheran Church in Door County
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Sermons, Bible Studies, and other audio media from Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, Wisconsin. Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County is located in the village of Forestville, Wisconsin. We are a congregation of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. We are a confessional and liturgical congregation. Saint Peter’s is located at 316 W. Main Street, Forestville, WI 54213. Phone: 920-856-6420. Email: info@doorcounty.church. Website: https://doorcounty.church. We welcome listener comments, questions, and feedback.

Episodes

  1. Aug 3

    Sermon: Spiritual Pride & Spiritual Humility

    Title: Spiritual Pride & Spiritual HumilityText: Romans 9:1–13Location: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County; 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213; 920-856-6420Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church serves Luxemburg and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin. TranscriptToday we are taking up the theme of spiritual humility, and in contrast to spiritual pride. And there’s a great story from the life of Martin Luther that I think really illustrates our true position under God. After Martin Luther perished, there were many efforts by people to make sure that his dying faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and his commitment to the doctrine of justification, remain established, that nobody could say that he recanted on his deathbed or took back anything that he had taught. And one of the most fascinating pieces of evidence they found was on a little scrap of paper. And on this little scrap of paper, some curious writing there. Writing in both German and Latin, by the way. Lutherans love to do this. They love to mix up their languages. Our cornerstone, by the way, has both German and Latin on it back from the 1800s. And on this little piece of paper was a little bit of German and Latin. The German said, “Wir sind alle Bettler.” And then the Latin said, “Hoc est vere.” What does that mean? We are all beggars, wir sind alle Bettler. It is true, hoc est vere. Today, in our Old Testament lesson, Jesus, the Word of God in his pre-incarnate state, the Word of God is inviting us to be beggars. To receive food without payment and drink without money. And that certainly is a position of spiritual humility. That’s my prayer for us today, that through this sermon we would more and more put aside spiritual pride, but instead embrace spiritual humility and receive the gifts that Christ has humbly won for us. Spiritual Pride Spiritual pride—it’s a terrible malady, and it’s one that’s incredibly common all across the church and those who claim the name of Christian. Right now, there’s a really big movement called the New Apostolic Reformation, for example. What is the New Apostolic Reformation? It’s one of the most powerful, popular spiritual movements going on in the United States of America and across the world. How powerful is it? Guess what? The leader of the White House’s faith office is an adherent to the New Apostolic Reformation. And what does it teach? It teaches that God is appointing new apostles for this time, with an authority almost bordering on the apostles that were appointed by Christ himself. Now how do you know that the Lord has appointed you an apostle, or how can you know that someone has appointed someone else to be apostle? It’s a little bit hazy to me. But certainly you must come yourself to this idea that the Lord has granted you special authority over others. It’s a form of spiritual pride. There are other forms of spiritual pride. A few years ago, I was watching some TV show. I can’t remember what it was, but some lady was having various kinds of personal problems, and she was kind of depressed and hanging out in her apartment. And Sunday morning comes along, and her friend comes, bursts into the apartment and says, “Get yourself ready. We’re going to church.” The lady says, “I’m not going to church.” And the friend says, “What? Do you think you’re too good for church?” And she thinks for a moment and says, “Yeah, I do think I’m too good for church.” And isn’t that the case? The church—it’s a hospital for those who are sin-sick. And there are many people who don’t think they have that sickness of sin, and so therefore they see no need to receive God’s grace and mercy as he offers it in word and sacrament. There’s other forms of spiritual pride. So most of us, we probably don’t fall into that category that would consider ourselves to be apostles. It’s a beautiful Sunday morning, prime climactic real estate in Northern Wisconsin, and you’ve all chosen to be here instead of out on the lake or whatever it is. Certainly there’s some evidence there that you know that you need what the Lord offers here. And so maybe you might be thinking to yourself, spiritual pride, that’s not my problem. That’s the thing about spiritual pride. If you don’t think you’re spiritually proud, guess what? You have spiritual pride. How many of us, when we really get down to it, can say that we utilize the Lord’s gifts as we ought? How many of us can say that we pray as we ought, that we read the Scriptures as we ought, that we allow our speech to be salted with the Word of God to each other as we ought? The plain fact of the matter is, none of us can. In a sense, all of us turn up our noses at the gifts of God in one way or the other. All of us have spiritual pride. It’s one of the great enemies of true authentic Christian faith. The kind of faith that shows up to Christ as a beggar saying, “Lord, please give me your good gifts.” Predestination and Spiritual Pride And because of that, the Scriptures deal abundantly with this. Paul deals with this in the early church. He was dealing with this in Romans. We’ll get to that in a second, but as we talked about the kind of spiritual pride that would hold itself up above others on account of various kinds of spiritual gifts, Paul addresses that too. The same sort of thing where people were holding themselves up as super Christians with a special kind of authority, spiritual authority over others. That happened in the church at Corinth. So Paul said, “Look, the gifts of the Spirit are there for the sake of service of others. And even if you have incredible spiritual powers but have not love, then it’s all pointless,” in 1 Corinthians 13. And here in Romans, he is talking about another kind of spiritual remedy to spiritual pride, and this is the knowledge of the predestination of God. So last week we talked about predestination, and we talked about the wonderful blessing that the knowledge of predestination is. And here Paul continues on that. In the extended reading, which I had Arnie read, which went beyond what’s printed in the bulletin there, Paul uses predestination to address spiritual pride in the Roman congregation. Now, what kind of spiritual pride was going on among the Romans? At the Roman congregation, there were those who were holding themselves up above others within the congregation on account of their ethnic background. So there were those who were Jewish by birth, who could trace their lineage generation by generation back to Abraham, and not only this, but also observed the Old Testament law. All the various kinds of laws and strictures that were given to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, they continued to practice, and they held themselves in a higher status over those who couldn’t trace their background back to Abraham, what we often call the Gentiles, and who themselves as well didn’t live according to those Old Testament principles. And Paul’s trying to cut them down a little bit. Trying to cut them off at their knees in a couple different ways. So first of all, Paul undercuts them here in this passage by talking about what it means to be descended from Abraham. What that does and doesn’t mean. And he references, first of all, Isaac, and says, “Think about Isaac.” Abraham had two wives. He had Sarah on the one hand, and he had Hagar on the other. From Sarah, he had Isaac. From Hagar, he had Ishmael. Why was one son chosen over the other? And St. Paul argues there is really, in a sense, nothing to commend Isaac over Ishmael. It was God’s sovereign choice. Now, there might be a little bit of a weakness in that argument, because someone might say, wasn’t Sarah a free woman and Hagar a slave? Therefore surely Isaac would receive the promise instead of Ishmael. Paul says wait. Just a second. Think about the sons of Isaac. Esau on the one hand, Jacob on the other. They had the same mother, Rebecca. And according to the ways of the world, it might be thought that Esau would be the favored one. He was the firstborn after all. He was as well his father’s favorite. And yet, it wasn’t Esau, but it was Jacob who inherited the promise. And this was determined by God before either of them had even come to be. So surely it wasn’t that God looked ahead and said Esau is going to be this incredible person, or rather, Jacob’s going to be this incredible person, so I’m going to give him the promise. No, it was entirely God’s providential decision and choice before any of them had even come to be. It had nothing to do with them, but it was purely about God and his decision and his choice. And so yes, you may be descended from Abraham according to the flesh, and there is much benefit to that. And he lists many of these benefits after all. He says, to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises, the patriarchs, and the greatest blessing that from their race according to the flesh, Jesus Christ would be born. But even all these things, they aren’t deserved. Pure blessing. Pure gift. Didn’t earn it. God just saw fit to give it to you. So because of this, there is no room for spiritual pride. If anything, you ought to acknowledge how humble your situation is, that God would simply give these things to you out of His grace, out of His mercy. And that point applies to us in a slightly different form, but it still applies to us today. Our status with God has nothing to do with our abilities, with our works, with our virtue, with our knowledge. But instead, our status with God has everything to do with Him, with His sovereign choice. And the flip side of that doctrine of predestination, God’s sovereign grace, is the doctrine of justifica

  2. Jul 6

    Sermon: The Blessing of the Nation

    Title: The Blessing of the NationLiturgical Date: Pentecost 6 Proper 9 ACalendar Date: July 5, 2026Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213. 920-856-6420.Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County serves Baileys Harbor and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin. TRANSCRIPT In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Today, we celebrate with great thanksgiving the 250th anniversary of our great nation. We praise and thank the Lord for the blessings that He’s given to this great nation, the blessing that He has given us through this great nation. To think that we stand as the most prosperous, most powerful nation that the world has ever seen. It truly is something from the hand of God, and something for which we ought to give Him thanks and praise. That’s the theme of our sermon today, the blessing of the nation. We’re going to be talking about how, first of all, it is God who caused our nation to arise. Second of all, we’re going to talk about the fact that the Lord blesses us through our nation. Third of all, we are going to talk about the fact that we are called to actively work for the wellbeing of our nation. Finally, we’re going to talk about how above all we belong to another nation, another kingdom, another city: the kingdom of heaven, which has been won for us through Christ Jesus, our Lord. God Who Caused Our Nation to Arise I’d like to start off today by reading from the Book of Acts, in chapter 17. There, St. Paul is addressing the Athenians in what we now call Greece. And he says this: God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. In this passage, St. Paul relates the fact of what we as Christians know, that it is only through the hand of God that any nation arises. It is only through the hand of God that any nation prospers. It is only by the hand of God that the borders of the various nations are set. 250 years ago, our nation came about through ink on paper, through the writing of Thomas Jefferson and the endorsement of all of those who signed the Declaration of Independence. Our nation has been preserved ever since then, through its tender early years as a tiny upstart nation among these great superpowers France, England, Spain. As we continue to grow in power still we faced other kinds of obstacles and other kinds of threats. We had the Civil War, and God saw us through that. And then finally, the two great wars, World War I and World War II. Wars, in a sense, of existential import. And God saw us through these as well. Then finally, in the last 70, 80 years, the Lord has caused our great nation to grow into a hegemonic superpower. The most prosperous, the most powerful nation that the world has ever seen. Now, to the unbeliever they look at this and what do they see? They see pens writing on paper and the Declaration of Independence. They see guns firing in the War of Independence. They see, once again, guns firing through the various other wars. And in our final period here, they see economic systems at work. Certainly all of that is the case. But as Christians, we understand the truth that behind all of these things, it is the hand of God who has been working. And because of this, we lift up our praise and thanks to Him on account of these great blessings. Turning Blessings into Gods Speaking of the praise and thanks to Him, this is a place where perhaps I feel a little despairing about our nation. Acts chapter 17, as we just read, why did God do this? God did this that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him. What ought to be the reaction of our people to these incredible blessings? We ought to be a people marked above all by greatness of faith. There should be more people in pews this Sunday morning than there were at fireworks displays last night. And yet the opposite is the case, is it not? And here we come to a great trouble on account of our sinfulness. The Lord gives us blessings. He gives us great goods, and we are to receive those goods from the Lord as the blessings that they are. We ought to steward those blessings towards His purposes, and we ought to give thanks to the Lord for these blessings. And yet, on account of our sinfulness, we have this tendency to turn goods into gods, little “g” gods. And certainly this is the case with even the great good of a nation. Instead of receiving this gift from the hand of God and therefore causing their hearts to rise up to God in thanksgiving, instead people end up worshiping the gift rather than the giver. Let it not be for us, we Christians. But instead, let us recognize the blessing that our nation is from the hand of God and how God continues to bless us through our nation. The Lord Blesses Us Through Our Nation This comes to our second point today, that the Lord blesses us through our nation. I’d like to read to you from Romans chapter 13. Another writing of St. Paul. And he starts off here in Romans talking to the Romans in a very similar way that he does to the Athenians. Talking about the fact that it’s the Lord who established civil power. He says this, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” So we just heard that point from Acts when he was talking to the Athenians, that every authority in this world is established by God. He then goes on to say this, “Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good and you will receive his approval.” Now, I want you to listen to this, “For he is God’s servant for your good.” He’s God’s servant for your good. The Lord brings us great blessings by means of our nation. And because the Lord brings us great blessings by means of our nation, therefore it is our duty to render obedience to the nation, to the state, insofar as it doesn’t ask us to do anything contrary to the Word of God. Now, I’m gonna take you back to catechism class. Many of you might remember the explanation to the fourth commandment as you studied the Small Catechism. The fourth commandment is about honoring father and mother, but it’s more than just honoring father and mother. It’s about honoring all authority that the Lord has given into our lives, whether that’s our employers, our teachers, our government, or our fathers and mothers. It says this is the first commandment with a promise. The promise is this: That if we honor father and mother and every other authority, including our civil government, it will go well with you, God says. It will go well with you. In what way? The Lord grants us many blessings through our civil government. One of the ways that the Lord blesses us is through a system of laws, for example, that allows us to conduct our affairs with each other in ways that are fair, in ways that are equitable, in ways in which we don’t have to have recourse to violence because the state will enforce these things for our sakes. Why are people not able to come and just take our home from us or to take this church property from us? Because the laws of our nation establish what it means to have title to a property. Why is it that businesses want to do business in the United States of America? A big reason for this is on account of our laws. That if you violate a contract, there will be recourse to the courts, and the courts will enforce the terms of your contract as long as the contract itself is lawful. The government protects us as well from those who would do ill. If I drive recklessly in a way that endangers the community, there’s a good chance I’m gonna get pulled over, slapped with a fine, maybe even thrown in jail. This acts as a deterrent against those who would put us in harm’s way on account of their recklessness. The Lord grants us many great goods by means of our government, and therefore we are called to obedience to it. Actively Work for the Wellbeing of Our Nation But not only obedience, but also we are called to actively work for the wellbeing in turn of the nation. Even as the Lord grants us wellbeing through the nation, we are called to work for the wellbeing of the nation. Last week’s sermon, we discussed Jeremiah and how he confronted a false prophet by the name of Hananiah. Hananiah was a priest, but was attempting to give prophecy and ended up giving false prophecy. Hananiah prophesied that even while God had allowed Babylon to exercise authority over Judah, and therefore take away a number of the precious implements and instruments of the temple worship, and as well take away Judah’s great leaders, their great people of commerce, their great generals and aristocrats, and as well even the king himself. Hananiah said within two years, everything’s gonna go back to the way it was. Those temple instruments are gonna come back. These people who are exiled are gonna come back. Jeremiah had a much darker message. He said, “No, Hananiah, you’re wrong. In fact, actually, it’s gonna get worse than it currently is.” But still, Jeremiah had a word of encouragement to those who were caught up in the deepest, darkest aspect of all of this, those who had been ripped away from their homeland and exiled to Babylon itself. In Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah pens a letter to these exiles. And it’s a fascinating thing ’cause here are people who are living in a state which is not their own sta

  3. Jun 29

    Sermon: Dying with Regard to the Law

    Title: Dying with Regard to the LawText: Matthew 10:34–42Liturgical Date: Pentecost 5 Proper 8 ACalendar Date: June 28, 2026Location: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County. 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213. 920-856-6420.Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church serves Ephraim and other areas within Door County. Transcript In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ our Lord said, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Today we’re going to be talking about death and the law in three different ways. First, we will talk about death through the law. Second, death to the law. And finally, death unto the law. We’ll tease out some of these fine distinctions. Living in the Past: The Example of Hananiah Have you ever met or known someone who kind of lives in the past? A lot of times it’s a guy who hasn’t updated his wardrobe since high school. Maybe he lives on his high school athletic accomplishments. He hasn’t gotten the notice that times have changed—that the man he once was thirty years ago no longer exists. He’s failing to live in the now because he’s failed to die to the past. We have something similar in our Old Testament lesson today. Jeremiah is confronting Hananiah, and Hananiah is a man who has failed to die to the past and is failing to live in the present situation. In what way? Hananiah has failed to die to the past because he does not recognize God’s judgment for what it is. As we meet Hananiah and Jeremiah at this point in the Book of Jeremiah, Babylon has already come. This great empire, with its headquarters in what we would now call southern Iraq, has overwhelmed Judah. In the process, they have carried off some of Judah’s greatest treasures. First, quite literally the treasures: you might remember the various items, implements, and vessels that God had instructed Israel to fashion for worship in the tabernacle and then eventually in the temple. Babylon had carried off a number of these. Not only that, but Babylon had also carried off many of the people—the highest among the people of Judah: their great merchants, their great generals, their nobles, and even the rightful Davidic king himself. They carted them off back to Babylon. In the king’s place, they installed their own puppet king, one the Judahites would have considered illegitimate. Hananiah is saying, “In two years, it’s all going to go back to the way it was. In two years those vessels are going to come back, and the king will be restored to his rightful place on his throne in Jerusalem. We will, in essence, be reliving what they thought was their golden age.” Jeremiah says, “Okay, that’d be great if that happens,” but actually (and this is beyond what we read today) he says it’s going to get worse than what we’re presently experiencing—and it’s going to get worse for you, Hananiah, because you are actually going to die within a year’s time. Both of those prophecies came true, by the way. Hananiah ought to have died to the past. He ought to have recognized the Babylonian takeover of Judah for what it was: God’s judgment over the fact that they were already dead in the past. They were dead because they failed to keep God’s law. They failed to love the Lord their God with all their heart and soul and strength and mind. Instead, they allowed themselves to be led astray by idolatry. Not only that, but they had failed to show the brotherly love that the Lord had instructed them to show. So much of the Old Testament law exists to establish and maintain a brotherhood among the children of Abraham, and they had rejected this purpose of the law. People misused each other, abused each other, and violated God’s commands with regard to one another. They were already dead, and they ought to have recognized that death and died to the past. But Hananiah failed in this regard. Death Through the Law At the center of our sermon today, we understand that under the law we stand dead, and that we therefore die to the law by faith in Christ. But on the other side of that, we are empowered to live unto God and to live unto His gracious will for us—to live unto the law. St. Paul in our epistle lesson today has a really complicated argument. I’m probably going to oversimplify it, but I’ll simplify it for you to help us see two major themes. We’re actually going to take the second theme that he brings up first, which is that through the law we die. We die through the law. In what sense? The law arouses disobedience to God on account of our sinful nature. St. Paul goes on at great length about this. He says, “Apart from the law, sin lies dead. I once was alive apart from the law, but then the commandment came. Sin came alive and I died. The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.” The law of God is certainly there for the sake of our life, for the sake of our wellbeing. If we obey the law of God, things would tend to go well for us and for our families. This is a big part of what God was indicating when He set the law before the Israelites and said, “Keep this and you’ll live, but depart from it and you’ll have curses.” But here’s the thing: because we are sinful, we take that opportunity to live through the law and instead die through it. We take it as an opportunity toward disobedience. I know I reuse my examples, but I love this one. You’ve heard it multiple times, but I think it’s a good example, so I’m going to say it again. When my little nephew Luke was two years old, I was watching him and told him, “Don’t touch the remote control.” I said that for his wellbeing, because if he touches that remote, it’s never going to work again and we’re never going to be able to get the cartoons up that he wants to watch. So, “Luke, don’t touch the remote control.” What did he do? He went and touched it with the tips of his fingers to show that he was touching it—not because he wanted to touch it, but because he wanted to rebel against me. That’s our situation as sinners. We are all spiritual two-year-olds who take the commands that the Lord has given us—good and righteous commands that are there for our wellbeing—and we take them not as an opportunity of obedience to Him and an expression of love toward Him and toward our neighbor, but instead as an opportunity to rebel. “Okay, God, you told me not to do this, so therefore I’m going to do it. God, you told me to do this, so I’m not going to do it.” That’s our situation under the law according to our sin, and therefore the law kills us. Under our sin it increases our sinfulness, and therefore we stand condemned and judged under God’s righteous rule. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the good thing for us is to recognize that—to not be like Hananiah and think things were fine before, so therefore God will return us back to that situation. No. Instead, what is good is for us to recognize the fact that we are dead, and therefore to die unto our sinful selves. In the book of Romans, a few chapters before our reading today (chapter 3), we find these words: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” We will not be justified in the sight of God according to the law, because through the law we become rebellious sinners according to our sinfulness, and therefore we understand our sinful nature. And we therefore do not even try to justify ourselves before God. That’s a good dying to the law. St. Paul goes on: “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” Death to the Law And so this is the second dying with regard to the law we’re talking about. Through the law we die, but through faith in Christ we die to the law. And that’s actually the first point that St. Paul is taking up today: that through faith in Christ we die to the law. For by faith we are united to the work of Jesus Christ for us on the cross. As it says in Romans chapter 6, all of us who are baptized into the death of Jesus—so that even as Jesus Christ rose from the dead, so also through this washing of rebirth and regeneration we have the promise that we too will live. If by faith we die with Jesus—this death in which He died to take the consequences for our sins—therefore we die to the law as well. The law can no longer condemn us. The law can no longer stand in judgment over us, because in Christ we have already been judged. And through Christ we have also received His righteousness. And therefore we die to the law. That is gone and passed. Just like that guy who is still reliving his high school days thirty years on ought to die to who he was, so also in Christ we die to who we were. Once we were sinners, once we were condemned, but now we are righteous, we are holy, and we stand as God’s children. Die to the law by this means. Living Unto the Law And as we die to the law, we then live to God and live unto His will. And we live unto the law—not under the law, but rather fulfilling the law as God has always desired us to fulfill it. Not as external compulsion, but rather out of internal heartfelt desire. As it says, “I no longer live; I’ve died. Christ lives in me.” And as Christ lives in us, therefore we follow in His footsteps. As Christ says, take up his cross and follow Him. Now, as we take up the cross of Christ and follow Him, this cer

  4. Jun 23

    Sermon: Glad Confession

    Title: Glad Confession Text: Gospel: Matthew 10:5a, 21–33Liturgical Date: Pentecost 4, Proper 7 ACalendar Date: June 21, 2026Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door CountyPreacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson St. Peter’s serves Sturgeon Bay and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin. Transcript Introduction: A Glad Confession of Christ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Christ our Lord said these words in our Gospel lesson for today: “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.” On the basis of this passage, we are going to be talking about making a glad confession of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Father’s Day and the Power of the Tongue Today is Father’s Day, and when we observe Father’s Day, it is hard for me not to think of that old classic country song. I love classic country music. The song is “Daddy’s Hands.” “Daddy’s hands were soft and gentle, and Daddy’s hands were hard as steel,” and so on it goes. Certainly, when we think of fathers, we might think of hands, right? The hands that provide, the hands that protect, the hands that guide, the hands that correct, and so on. There is a lot of truth to that. But really, when it comes to fatherhood, there is another member of the body which is even more powerful than the hands. And what member of the body is that? The day is going to come — and it has already begun in my household — when these hands can’t do that guiding and correcting and protecting anymore in a physical way. The day is even going to come when these hands can’t even do any kind of providing whatsoever. In a sense, these hands will, in time, become weak. And instead, I will need protection and provision and even guidance. It is the way the world goes. So what is going to help with that provision and protection and guidance when these hands are no longer able to? It is the tongue. When I think of fatherhood as a father, the tongue is probably the most important part of the body. I would not be a father were it not, for example, for the tongue. When, twenty-three years ago, I said, “I do,” that set me on the course of being a father. And as a father, even while these hands have been important, what has been even more important is the tongue — giving words of guidance, words of instruction, words that protect from even worse enemies than those who might assault the body: from those enemies which might assault the soul, the heart, and the mind. Even when I am long dead and gone and in the grave, and perchance if the Lord has blessed me and prospered me, those words will continue to guide and provide and protect even while I am in the grave. Our tongue is a powerful force. It is a way of guiding our lives. It shows who we are. And on account of this, therefore, it is good for us to gladly make confession of the faith that dwells in our hearts — to gladly confess in word that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Savior from the sins that we have committed, and the one who has earned us eternal life. That is what our sermon is all about today. What “Confession” Really Means Now, as we talk about this and about making a glad confession, that choice of words might be a little bit confusing to you. Confession? Isn’t that when you say that you did something wrong? Yes, that is one definition of confession, absolutely. But there are other ways that term is used, and we are using it in one of these other senses. Another sense of the word confession is simply giving voice to what you believe, and that is the sense in which we are using “confession” today. It is a very important word for our congregation here at St. Peter’s. We are what is often called a confessional Lutheran church. What does that mean? It means that we have bound ourselves to certain statements regarding the Christian faith. They are enclosed in a book called the Book of Concord. You are most familiar with the Creeds, which are part of the Book of Concord, and also with the Small Catechism, which is also in the Book of Concord. The church as a whole has dedicated itself to that. That is a confession. And also as individuals, we are called by Christ to make glad confession about what we believe regarding Him and the work that He has accomplished for our sakes. Life Is Led by the Tongue One of the most important reasons why we ought to be glad to confess our faith is, first of all, that life is led by the tongue. There are many passages which indicate this. In Proverbs chapter 18, verses 20 and following, we find these words: “From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied. He is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.” What Solomon is telling us in the Book of Proverbs is that the tongue has a way of shaping our life, and we will receive the fruits of what we speak. We have many other passages in Scripture which indicate this. We have, for example, James, which talks about the tongue being like a rudder which guides a ship. Now, here is not what I am saying. There is a whole bunch of talk out there, especially on social media, about “manifesting,” for example. That is not what we are talking about. We are not talking about creating reality or manipulating God just simply by what we speak. But rather, what I am saying is this: what we speak certainly does yield in our lives certain ways of being and certain results. So for example, back in 1993, I took my confirmation vows. That was a really special day in which I confessed that I have a desire to live as a Christian my entire life, to believe as a Christian my entire life, and that has guided the choices that I have made in life. That is one example of how what we speak shapes our lives. Today in our Epistle lesson, St. Paul warned us and said, “Present your members in service to God,” because the way that you use your members will affect the way that your soul goes. And so it is with the tongue. If, for example, we in contradiction to this principle speak unwholesome speech — as it warns us against in the Book of Ephesians — if we speak unwholesome speech, it makes us more likely to engage in unwholesome behavior in other ways. All of a sudden now our hearts and our souls become a little bit more and more comfortable with sin. It is possible that all just rolls like a snowball to the point in which saving faith no longer abides in us. But what if we use our tongue in other ways? What if instead of using our tongue in unwholesome speech, it is salted with the Word of God? Not in a Bible-banger, holier-than-thou way, but rather in a way which seeks to encourage, to lift up, to give instruction and wisdom to those around us. This will be a blessing to those around us and a blessing to us as well. When we speak the Word of God, this helps to shape our hearts. What if instead of allowing unwholesome speech and curses to come upon our tongue, prayers and praises to God come upon our tongue? That is a way that God shapes and forms us as well. We learn this in the Small Catechism. There in the Lord’s Prayer, Luther constantly is making this point when he says that we pray, “Hallowed be Thy name.” It is not like God’s name isn’t holy if we don’t pray for it to be holy. It is already holy. Instead, what we are praying is that God’s name would be kept holy among us, that we would keep it holy. When we pray “Thy kingdom come,” it is not like God was not reigning on His throne before we prayed, and now He is reigning on His throne now that we prayed. That is not how it works. God already reigns. But instead, when we pray “Thy kingdom come” — which is itself a form of confession — the Lord uses this to shape us and form us so that His kingdom will be reflected in our lives as we lead lives of loving obedience to Him and lives of loving service to Him. Prayer ultimately is saying to the Lord God, “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” This cannot help but shape and form us. And it helps as well to shape and form others around us. A Call to Fathers: Salt Your Words with God’s Word We, and I call upon the fathers this day in this regard: I believe the Lord has called fathers especially to salt their words with the Word of God. To daily open the Scriptures and to read the Bible with the young ones the Lord has entrusted to you. It can be very simple. It does not have to be this hard, onerous thing. What I encourage you to do, maybe if you are not in the habit, today would be the day to get in the habit. Pick one book of the Bible. A good book of the Bible to pick might be the Gospel of John. Open it up and start on chapter one, and just read from heading to heading with the young ones at your table. Very simple. That will take all of two to three minutes. And then after you have read that, teach them how to pray. Maybe you do not feel comfortable saying prayers in your own words in your household. I think that is a good thing to get to, but a good start would be just to simply pray the Lord’s Prayer together. I can guarantee you that as you read the Word of God as a family together — and I lay this at the feet of the fathers of the congregation to take leadership with this — and as you pray together, the Lord will shape you and form you and as well shape and form your household and the individuals within your household. It is a very powerful thing. We make glad confession because it is a way that the Lord shapes and forms us. We also make glad confession because it is also a reflection. This is not a contradiction but rather this is the wonderful cycle that the Lord has given us. We confess that the Lord would

  5. Jun 16

    Sermon: The Compassion of Christ

    Title: The Compassion of ChristText: Mattthew 9:35-10:8Liturgical Date: Pentecost 3, Proper 6 ACalendar Date: June 24, 2026Location: St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213. 920-856-6420.Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Saint Peter’s serves Ephraim and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin. Scroll to the bottom of the page for the PDF. Full text: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. You may be seated. The Compassion of Christ Today we heard from our gospel lesson these words: “When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.” Compassion—not self-righteousness, although he was indeed righteous. Not disgust, even though certainly on account of what he witnessed he could have felt that, but rather compassion. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today: the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we read this passage, I think our initial reaction is that Jesus has compassion upon them because these are sympathetic individuals, right? Some of the imagery that’s used there leads us to think, “Oh, they’re like these fluffy, cute, white sheep that maybe wandered away, but still they’re sympathetic.” But actually, I think the imagery that St. Matthew is using here—and some of the other ways these crowds are described—paints a very different scenario than what is in our mind’s eye. We’re going to dig into that a little bit. A Personal Contrast: Disgust vs. Compassion But by way of digging into it, I want to contrast the reaction of Jesus—this reaction of compassion—with a reaction that I had a few years ago when I witnessed various crowds. A few years ago, Mary and I were celebrating our twentieth wedding anniversary. I took the weekend off from church here. We still went to church down in Chicago where we were visiting, but we took the weekend off here. On Saturday, as we were walking around downtown Chicago, let’s just say we weren’t in Forestville anymore. They had a big music festival going on downtown. If you’re not familiar with these, this is kind of the big thing with young people these days—massive music festivals with twenty thousand, thirty thousand, forty, fifty, sixty thousand people. I think there was a forty-thousand-person music festival downtown that day. And that sounds wholesome, right? Young people going to listen to music. In a way, I guess that part of it is. But certainly a lot of the activity around it wasn’t, including a lot of the attire that people—especially young women—were wearing as they walked around downtown Chicago. And that wasn’t even the worst of the attire that we witnessed that day. There was also a very niche lifestyle convention going on downtown. I won’t go any further than that, but let’s just say we went back and took refuge in our hotel room. I muttered to myself, “My goodness, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.” I was filled with disgust at what I witnessed. I think a lot of us feel the same when we’re scrolling social media or watching TV—we might be filled with disgust at the things we see, or maybe self-righteousness. But when Jesus was witnessing these crowds, he was seeing something akin to that—probably even worse. Because Jesus, as the Son of God, can see the heart of man. Imagine all the iniquity he witnessed as he looked out on those crowds. Matthew describes them as crowds that were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. The True Meaning of “Sheep Without a Shepherd” Once again, to us that sounds somewhat sympathetic—these cute, fuzzy, woolly sheep being chased around, harassed, helpless. But when you really think about it, “sheep without a shepherd” is one of the strongest images Scripture gives for willful, active rebellion against God—going our own ways. Isaiah chapter 53, one of the most poignant prophecies of the passion of Jesus Christ, uses the image of sheep: “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” Now I think you can probably fill in the blank here: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” And so on it goes. The strongest image—one of the strongest images—that the Scriptures have given us of active, willful disobedience against the Lord and rebellion against his righteous rule is the visual of a sheep that has gone astray. And that is why these individuals were like sheep without a shepherd. It’s not that God had simply ignored them. No, the Lord God had gathered up this people out of Egypt and rescued them from the mouth of those who were trying to devour them. This flock the Lord had led out into the wilderness and shepherded them there. And then, as a good shepherd, he led them through that valley of the shadow of death into the green pastures and beside the still waters of this good and pleasant land of Canaan. In reaction to this shepherding goodness and faithfulness of the Lord, the people had pledged in the time of Moses, “We will obey. We will do what you have commanded.” And that’s reasonable, because the commands of the Lord are light. His yoke is easy. His burdens are joyful to take upon us. His commands are good, and they were given to them for their wellbeing. They are given to us for our wellbeing as well. The Goodness of God’s Commands and Their Consequences In fact, the Lord promised, “If you do these commands that I set forth before you here at Sinai, you will do well. Things will go well for you.” And it makes sense. For example, according to the Fourth Commandment, if we honor father and mother—and therefore all the various authorities the Lord has put into our lives—things will tend to go well for us. God promises it, right? That’s the first commandment with a promise. The other commandments have promises as well. What if, according to the Eighth Commandment, instead of exposing our neighbor or speaking ill of our neighbor, we are discreet with the trusts our neighbor gives us and we uplift our neighbor in word and reputation? Others will trust us. Things will tend to go well for us. What if, according to the Sixth Commandment, we honor our marriages and the marriages of others? Once again, things will tend to go better for us and for our neighbor. What if, according to the Seventh Commandment, instead of taking what doesn’t belong to us, we protect the possessions of those around us—not only protect their possessions but help them to improve them, and also help our neighbor to improve his means of acquiring income? Once again, things will tend to go better for us. We’ll have no lack of business and cooperation from our neighbors in our lives. But those people had chosen to go their own way. And because of this, they were suffering the consequences in their lives on account of sin—both the sin that they had inherited from Adam and their own sin which they had committed. Healing Every Disease and Every Infirmity Now here we’re going to be extending and probably challenging a way that we typically see things. We’re working backwards here. So we started at verse 36. We’re going to go back to verse 35: “Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” Certainly some of these various diseases and infirmities… (There’s a reason I’m calling them infirmities versus afflictions. We’ll get to that in a second.) Some of these individuals would have suffered on account of the fall of humanity in general. We heard in the epistle of Paul to the Romans that through the sin of the one man, Adam, death has come into the world. And so therefore all the consequences of sin have come into this world through Adam—all the sickness, all the disease, all the pain, all the various kinds of oppression in the world, whether political or moral or physical—all of this on account of the sin of Adam. Sometimes we suffer those things not on account of any sin of our own. For example, when it was asked of Jesus about the man born blind, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus said neither, but rather this has happened to him so that the glory of God could be displayed in him. Sometimes we suffer not through any active sin of our own, but rather on account of the fall of humanity and the fall of the world. There are other kinds of afflictions and other kinds of consequences of sin that we absolutely do suffer on account of our moral ills. Boy, people don’t like to hear this these days. People want to cordon off the consequence of sin from the sin in our minds, and I think that the translators of the English Standard Version fell prey to this mindset, by the way. Now, don’t get me wrong—I like the ESV and generally I just believe that I’m dumb, and so I’m going to follow the translation that’s given to me because the people translating are way smarter than me. But here’s one circumstance where I think being dumb helped. When I was looking at this particular passage, I noticed that the word they translated as “affliction” was a really curious word. Maybe “affliction” wasn’t the right translation there. The Greek word is malakia. You don’t have to know that, but here’s the interesting thing about malakia. Malakia is not a

  6. May 26

    Sermon: 3 Myths & 3 Biblical Facts about the Holy Spirit

    Title: 3 Myths & Facts About the Holy SpiritText: Acts 2:1–21Liturgical Date: Pentecost (A)Calendar Date: May 24, 2026 Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213; 920-856-6420. Preacher: Rev. Christopher Jackson Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church serves Luxemburg, Wisconsin, and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin. Transcript In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And on this great and holy day of Pentecost, we’re going to be taking up the theme of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Gift of the Holy Spirit A choice of words is deliberate, the gift of the Holy Spirit. ‘Cause indeed the Holy Spirit is a wondrous gift that the Lord grants His people. By the Holy Spirit, He grants miracles, the greatest miracle being the miracle of the transformation of the heart. By the Holy Spirit, He opens our minds to hear the Word of God and to understand it as He’s given to us in the Holy Scriptures, and He continues to extend it to us as well in the Holy Sacraments, and that’s at the core of what our sermon is today. We’re going to be talking about various myths about the Holy Spirit, three myths about the Holy Spirit, and three facts about the Holy Spirit in contradiction to these three myths. Two Images of Pentecost Now, to help begin to illustrate this a little bit, I’d actually like for you to take a look at these two images right here. So most Sundays we use the pre-printed bulletins that we get from our publishing house, and generally I like them, generally they’re great, but they’re almost universally terrible on Pentecost. Almost universally. I’ve seen multiple versions of… I’ve been doing this long enough, you see when they start to recycle them after a few years and there’s a few versions and they all kinda portray something like this. On special feast days when we’re doing things like processions and chanting the psalm, we’ll put down the full bulletin and I’ll put another image on there. So there you go. That’s the image that Pastor Chris chose. That might look strange to you, but that’s actually an image from one of the very first editions of the Martin Luther Bible. So one of the first Bibles printed in the vernacular language, the German language. So this was an early Lutheran image of Pentecost. Now let’s take a look at some of the differences here, ’cause it’s gonna help to illustrate some of the myths and the facts that we’re gonna be talking about with regards to the Holy Spirit. So the biggest difference you might see is, one’s color, one’s black and white. That’s just the nature of the technology, the printing technology that was available in their times, but there’s other differences, right? Now take a look at first of all, where the fire is. Now the Greek is ambiguous about where the fire was upon their heads. There is a Greek word for directly on top of. That’s not the word that was used. It’s an ambiguous term. Where upon the heads, it’s up for artistic interpretation. The ones who made the color one here, they interpreted on top of the heads. In our mind’s eye, that’s probably the way we usually see it, but it could have been upon their lips. And why did the artist choose that? To indicate the truth, that the giving of the Holy Spirit was the gift to understand the scriptures, to understand what they had witnessed in Christ, and to therefore then preach it. So quite literally, they have tongues of fire. I love that, right? What else do we see here? Okay. The disciples, the apostles that are receiving the tongues of fire upon their head they are amazed at this. They are having an ecstatic experience about this, and the people who are witnessing it are also having ecstatic experience and are filled with wonder over as well these tongues of fire coming on their heads. None of that’s in the Bible. None of that is in the Bible, right? It doesn’t say the disciples were filled with awe and wonder over these tongues of fire that came upon them. It says after these tongues of fire came upon them, they preached. And the people were not filled with awe and wonder over these tongues of fire coming upon them, but instead they were filled with awe and wonder over their preaching, right? Very big difference. And so I like how in this one, instead of this awe and wonder, instead they just have gratitude and reverence to God for this wonderful gift. And that’s my hope for you today. That’s the point of this sermon, is that you in turn would have gratitude towards God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Myth 1: Miraculous Signs and Wonders Because the plain fact of the matter is that in American religion, we have made the Holy Spirit into a club to beat people over the head with instead of a gift to be received with gratitude and a gift which empowers us to give as well towards others. That’s at the center of our sermon. How does American religion turn the Holy Spirit into a club to beat others over the head with? The first is by claiming that the Holy Spirit and the gift of the Holy Spirit is primarily about miraculous signs and wonders. So signs and wonders that are visible, that are, that are– cause awe and so on and so forth. This is very often associated, for example, with the Pentecostal movement. Now, we do have a few Pentecostal churches in the area here. Back when I served in the South and lived in Missouri, this was a much bigger phenomenon than it is here, but it– we can still find influence of this idea here. And the Pentecostal movement will often say that their– your salvation, if you are truly saved, that’s going to be accompanied by various signs and wonders. So things like speaking in a tongue. Maybe it’s a tongue that doesn’t even exist on earth, but rather is a tongue– what they might call a tongue of angels some sort of mysterious spiritual tongue, or maybe doing a work of healing or predicting the future or something like this. They’ll say these are the kinds of miraculous signs and wonders that you will show if you are saved. And people will say things like, “Oh, they don’t actually teach, they don’t actually preach that,” but I can tell you that they in fact do. I’ve used this story multiple times. You’ve heard it before about how when I was in high school, a friend of mine, I was driving down the road with her and she said, “Chris, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that He died for my sins. I believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but I’m not saved and don’t think I’m going to heaven.” And I asked her why is that?” She said I’ve been going to this church and they’ve been telling me if I’m truly saved, then I’m going to be able to do something like speak in a tongue or to do a miraculous act of healing or to prophesy about the future and so on.” And I told her, “Look, the Bible doesn’t say that. The Bible clearly teaches that, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life,” right? If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, I believe you’re going to heaven. You should have seen the weight fall off her shoulders. You should have seen the joy on her face. That’s just one way that people turn the Holy Spirit into a club, a demand rather than a gift. The Greater Gifts: Faith, Hope, and Love And this turning the Holy Spirit into a demand rather than a gift, a lot of times this is out of an effort to build oneself up and one’s status at the expense of others. St. Paul addressed this in the book of Corinthians. There, there was a number of people in the Corinthian congregation who were claiming that they had a special miraculous spiritual gift like the ones that we’ve been just talking about. And St. Paul doesn’t deny that they might have this, but he points to even bigger gifts and better gifts that every Christian will have as a gift of the Holy Spirit. “Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, ‘Jesus is accursed.'” Now, here’s a linchpin in his argument here. “And no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit.” Part of what St. Paul was saying here is, look, you may have some sort of miraculous gift, and if you do, praise the Lord for that, but each and every one of your brothers and sisters in Christ who have confessed Jesus as Lord is no less spiritual than you. That is a gift of the Holy Spirit. And he goes on to talk about this. He goes on and addresses some of these various spiritual gifts, but at the end of chapter 12, he says this: “Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?” And then he says, listen to this, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts And I will show you a still more excellent way.” And then he goes on to that classic wedding text that we read at weddings, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, right? And that’s a good text to read at weddings, but a lot of times we miss the context of this. Paul is not so much talking about romantic love in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 as he is talking about the miracle of the transformation of our hearts to beat with love for God and to beat with love for the neighbor. He goes, “If I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and unders

  7. Apr 23

    Sermon: The Resurrection Transforms Our Minds, Wills, and Emotions [Easter 2026]

    Text: Matthew 28:1–10Liturgical Date: Easter ACalendar Date: April 5, 2026Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213. 920-856-6420.Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County serves Luxemburg and other locations around Northeast Wisconsin. TRANSCRIPT In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Alleluia. Christ has risen. He has risen indeed. Hallelujah. Christ is risen, and our good shepherd has crossed through the valley of the shadow of death and he has emerged unto the green pastures and the still waters of eternal life. And we, his sheep, his flock, follow him. Christ has risen, and he, the second and greater Moses, has led us through the waters as on dry ground. And our enemies—not the enemy of Pharaoh and his soldiers, but rather the enemies of sin, death, and the devil—lay at the bottom of the abyss. Christ has risen, and the lying tongue of the devil, this lying tongue which would seek to corrupt our minds with his falsehoods, his lying tongue that would seek to corrupt our wills unto that which is evil, and his lying tongue which would seek to bring our emotions down into darkness, has been utterly cut off. But instead we hear the message of the tongue of the angels. “He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell the disciples that he has risen from the dead and do not fear.” The Angel’s Message to Mind, Heart, and Guts With these words, the angel informs our minds of the resurrection. He gives us the resolution of the will to live as Christians who know that truth. And he as well preaches not just to our minds, not just to our hearts, but he also preaches to our guts: to have joy. Our guts? Pastor Chris, what in the world are you talking about? In the ancient world—and I don’t think this is a mistake that the angel addresses all three aspects of this—the inner life could be divided between the life of the head, the life of the heart, and the life of the guts. Well, the life of the head. This makes sense to us, right? This is where rationality is; this is the seat of knowledge. And the angel proclaims to us that the tomb is empty and Christ has risen. And my prayer is that we would be confirmed in this knowledge. But the angel preaches to the women and also thereby to us that this ought to lead to a particular way of life for the women. They were to go and tell the disciples about what they knew, and that the disciples, in the knowledge of this, should also act in accordance and go and return to Galilee where they knew they could find him. And so also the angel preaches to us. And in the ancient world, the things that have to do with resolution, with loyalty, the principles that you live your life by—well, that was a matter of the heart. The Flightiness of Our Emotions Today we are filled with Easter joy. It is a joy to see all of you gathered here today. I’m sure that as you came and you saw your fellow Christians gathered here, you were filled with joy as well. It is a joy to hear that Easter proclamation, that Christ is risen. It is a joy to sing that wonderful tune, “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today,” and the joy will continue throughout the day in whatever way that is—eating candy, participating in egg hunts, getting together for a family meal. What a blessing to have this Easter joy. And yet our feelings can be so flighty. So now we have joy, but even within this same day, when the family has gone off on their ways and all of the detritus of our celebrations is lying around and it’s late and you’re tired and there’s a sink full of dishes and there’s a mess in the living room, maybe your joy isn’t gonna be quite so pronounced. And maybe you might even speak a cross word to a loved one. It happens. I know it happens. And we are filled with joy today, but maybe tomorrow when we have to go back to work and the day-by-day continues, well, maybe at that point the Easter joy starts to wear off. The Weakness of Our Will And now we come to the will. As we said, the will in the ancient world had to do with the heart, with the principles, the loyalties, the way that we lead our life. And today, on Easter Day, we can feel as if we intend to lead our lives according to the truths of the gospel, and we resolve to do so. “Lord, I’m going to try to—it was so wonderful to be in your house, to receive the gospel of the Lord, to worship with my fellow Christians, and Lord, I intend to be better about getting back into church more often.” But then the next week comes and the next week maybe our will isn’t as strong as we thought. Maybe our will shows weakness in other ways. You know the will is a little bit more steady than the emotions. Our hearts beat steadily day to day, but even our hearts can start to get a little out of rhythm. Maybe even our hearts can start to beat in the wrong way. And man, I’m gonna talk to men specifically here. I think this is a particularly male problem in which at certain points in our lives our wills can become weak and we can have a great change. We see this in the gospels, by the way. We see this in the passion narrative. Judas Iscariot, who ought to have been bound in bonds of loyalty—that ought to have been a matter of the will—instead showed a weak will and a desire for the worthless drops of silver over the precious gospel and the precious gold of Jesus Christ. We see this not only in Judas Iscariot, but we also see this in Pontius Pilate. He knew what was right, but he didn’t have the will to act in accordance with what was right and therefore he gave over an innocent man to die. Or we might think of Peter who, in a moment of resolution, said, “Lord, I will never deny you,” but instead out of weakness of will did so over the curious inquiries of a servant girl. You know that stereotypical male midlife crisis? You get down to it, that’s a crisis of the will. My brothers and sisters in Christ, my prayer for you is that your Easter joy would carry over beyond today. My prayer for you is that your Easter resolution to live as a Christian would be something that carries you through year to year. The Transforming Power of Resurrection Knowledge But how? On the same way that the angel and Christ Jesus sought to transform the will and the heart of the women here at the tomb—and that’s through the knowledge that he has risen from the dead. The angel demonstrates to the women the resurrection. He rolls back the stone from the tomb. And this gets to something that just utterly drives me nuts. Every once in a while you’ll see a picture of the resurrection and it’s got a picture of the stone rolled away from the tomb and Jesus like walking around the corner. That’s not how it was. If you read this closely, that’s not how it worked. I’ve seen stained glass of this, sadly, in churches. No. Jesus rose from the dead. Do you think stone could hold him back? No. The angel didn’t roll away the stone so Jesus could get out. The angel rolled away the stone so the women—and so that we—can look in and know that he had risen from the dead already. Now, the women showed good resolve. They showed a good will in that they did what the angel told them, but yet still the emotions were a little bit flighty. They did depart with joy and also with fear. How did Jesus address that? Once again, through knowledge. He showed himself to them in another demonstration of his resurrection so that their fear—and he says to them once again, “Do not be afraid”—so that fear would give way to joy. My prayer for you, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that through the knowledge of the resurrection every day would become a little bit more like Easter in your resolve and in your emotions. We Can Be Certain Christ Has Risen But here we come to a problem, Pastor Chris. Well, how can I know that Jesus rose from the dead? How can I know that? I was not there. Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is completely and utterly reasonable to believe the truth that Jesus rose from the dead. There is an empty grave in Jerusalem, and the witnesses of this fact were willing to go to their deaths proclaiming that truth. Now you can get people to lie, you can do that, but when they lie, it is hard for them to link up their stories. This is why when detectives seek to get to the truth of the matter, they separate the witnesses so they can get each individual’s own stories. We have the stories, the accounts of the apostles, and they’re all unified on this fact. Not only this, but all but John went to their graves proclaiming this. They lost their lives in bloody witness to this fact. Now you can get people to lie and you can get people to together agree to a lie. But you cannot get a group of people to together die for a lie. They might die for a just cause. They might die for the truth, but you’ll not get them to die for a lie. No, my brothers and sisters in Christ, we can be sure and confident of the truth that the grave is empty and that Christ is risen. Make the Creed Part of Your Daily Life Here’s the one thing that I’m going to put a little bit of an extra burden on you for this day that I would like for you to do. Maybe you’ve got a copy of the Apostles’ Creed in your small catechism. Take a picture of that in your phone. You look at your phone every day. Or maybe if you’re not a big phone person, instead of taking a picture of the Apostles’ Creed, you can cut out the Creed from the bulletin today. Maybe you take that to your desk, you tape that to your mirror, or you tape that to your dashboard somewhere. You see it each day, and when you see it, recite it. Recite these wondrous facts so that your mind would be conformed to them. Recite the tr

  8. Mar 5

    Sermon: Jesus, the Man of Sorrows

    Text: Isaiah 53:4-5Date: March 5, 2026Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. JacksonLocation: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, 316 W. Main St., Forestville, WI 54213, 920-856-6420 This sermon was preached as part of our Lent Midweek service. Transcript Today we are continuing our series on the Song of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah—one of the most beautiful and clearest prophecies regarding our Messiah, the Savior Jesus Christ, and his passion and death for our sakes. Today we are taking up the theme that he, as the Suffering Servant, is the one who has borne our griefs. The Inevitability of Grief The book of Job, in the fourteenth chapter, tells us, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.” Notice what Job said. He made this very universal statement: no matter who we are, we will have troubles, we will have griefs, we will have sorrows. It’s not a question of whether we will have them or not. We will have them—whether we are non-Christian or Christian, unbeliever or believer. We will have griefs. We will have sorrows. The question becomes: what kind of griefs, what kind of sorrows? Because we’re going to look at this in just a few minutes. The Apostle Paul tells us that there are two kinds of grief and sorrow: the kind that leads to repentance and therefore to hope of eternal life, and on the other hand, the kind that leads to death. Humanity’s Attempts to Escape Grief Even though it should be obvious to us that we can’t escape grief and sorrow in this world, it doesn’t keep people from trying. And there are all kinds of ways that people try to escape grief and sorrow in this world, and they establish patterns. The Bible is clear: you can’t do it. We have examples of this—we just read from Job. Some of the best examples come from the life of Solomon. We’re going to be talking about a number of these in the wisdom literature. Solomon was a man who accomplished many things. One of the things he accomplished was the accumulation of great wealth and riches. He was Solomon the man who owned gold mines. After all, he could literally pull money from the ground. That’s who Solomon was. And with this wealth and riches he built palaces, maintained huge retinues of people to serve his every need. And yet in the book of Ecclesiastes, when Solomon—I think roughly in midlife, having his midlife crisis—looks back on all this accumulation of goods and accumulation of money, he says, maybe it wasn’t all that I thought it was. It says in Ecclesiastes chapter 5, “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet.” He goes day to day exerting himself out in the fields or on building projects or whatever it is that he puts his hand to. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not let him sleep. Solomon is taking stock of his wealth and his riches and he realizes, you know what? This is filling me with anxiety. People think they can escape grief and sorrow on account of accumulating riches. It brings all kinds of other sorrows as well—anxiety: Am I going to get sued? Are people going to come after me for the wealth that I have accumulated? Are the friends around me really my friends, or are they here just for what I have? Paul says in 1 Timothy, those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare which drowns men in destruction and perdition. Escaping Through Pleasure Others seek relief from pain and misery and sorrow and grief through pleasure: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” The old saying, right? And so they pursue worldly pleasures. They pursue perhaps fast and loose living. They seek to drown their sorrows—drown their griefs—in alcohol or perhaps drugs. And it’s a very common thing. We talk about how a lot of drug abuse is on account of trying to avoid one’s demons and to find release from pain and grief. And Solomon too, it seems, was one who pursued pleasure in various forms. But in the book of Proverbs he says this, in the fourteenth chapter: “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.” I’m sure a lot of us can relate—laughing on the outside and feeling grief on the inside, or pursuing a few moments of forgetfulness in alcohol, but after that mirth comes the heaviness of regret. No, you can’t escape grief and sorrow with pleasure. Escaping Through Accomplishment Others seek to escape grief and sorrow by means of accomplishment. And certainly Solomon was a man who sought to escape grief and sorrow by means of accomplishment—various accomplishments: a man of great building projects, a man who had some measure of military success, a man who was able to do so much that his kingdom was the awe and envy of other kingdoms all around him. And yet Solomon looks around at these things and says, in Ecclesiastes 2, “Then I looked at all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labor that I had labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind.” Solomon realized that ultimately these things had a great deal of trouble entailed in them, and even the greatest projects in time will crumble. Escaping Through Knowledge and Wisdom Still others look to escape grief and sorrow through knowledge. They think, if only I can dial in through knowledge and through the discipline of applying that knowledge a particular way of life, or if only I can apply certain principles to my life, then I’ll be able to avoid grief and I’ll be able to avoid sorrow and I’ll be happy and joyful. Solomon was a man of great wisdom—in fact, the Scriptures say the wisest man to live. And let’s not make any mistake about it: wisdom is a good gift of God. We ought to pursue wisdom. God commended Solomon for seeking wisdom when God appeared to him and Solomon asked for wisdom so that he could rule over the kingdom well. And God commended him and said, yes, I’ll give you wisdom, and I’ll also give you other things that you haven’t asked for—many things that we’ve talked about, such as fame and riches and so on. Accomplishment. Wisdom’s a good thing. But an escape or a release from sorrow? Oh, Solomon says, “For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.” The Biblical Reality: Grief Is Unavoidable We keep trying to avoid sorrow. We keep trying to avoid grief. We think that we can outrun it. We think that we can outmaneuver it. But we ought to know that it’s unavoidable. We ought to know that it is a fact of life. We ought to know this from our own experience, looking around the world, and we ought to know this as well from the Holy Scriptures. And the Holy Scriptures are clear about this: you cannot avoid it. But there are two kinds of grief and sorrow. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7, “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” So the question isn’t “Will I have grief and sorrow or not?” The question is, “What kind of grief and sorrow will I have? Will I have the kind of grief and sorrow that leads to repentance and salvation and a clear conscience, or will I have the kind that leads to despair and doubt and lack of faith?” Godly Grief: A Gift from God That’s the question. And notice how Paul describes the good kind of grief. It is godly grief. Do you know what that means? That means that this is a grief that we can’t get for ourselves. It is a grief that is a gift when God transforms it. And that’s why people keep running out of their own will and out of their own abilities trying to outrun grief and trying to outrun sorrow. But the answer is that we can’t do it. But we need God to transform it for us. And that’s precisely what Jesus did—the man of sorrows, the man acquainted with grief. That is precisely what Jesus did for us, because he took upon himself that second kind of grief. He took upon himself that grief that produces death, because he took upon himself the grief that is entailed with regret and shame, the grief that comes from sin and doubt and faithlessness. Now he had no sin and he had no doubt and he was certainly faithful, but he took all of that upon himself on the cross. And by this means—this is what Jesus did—by this means Jesus closed the gate of death to us when he died for our sakes. But in turn, through this work, he opened the gates of heaven and eternal life to all of us who trust him—that trust itself a gift of God by the power of the Holy Spirit and through the word of God. Through that gift—not anything that we could do, but only something that God can do—the Lord has transformed our hearts so that, freed from the regret and grief of sin, therefore the sorrows and griefs of this world are transformed. Because these lead to repentance—yes, sorrow for the sins that we have committed, but above all, trust in Christ. And where we have that trust, we know that while grief and sorrow is there with us today, we know that it is limited and we know that it has its end, and we know that in the world to come we will have unending bliss and unending joy, and therefore we have hope. Conclusion: Hope in the Man of Sorrows And that’s how Jesus Christ, the man of sorrows, the man acquainted with grief, transforms our grief into something which is not always looking back at what has gone wrong in the past and not looking down in sorrow, but rather looking forward to the release, the relief, and the joy and the dignity and the holiness and the glories of eternal life. And all praise and honor and glory be to Jesus, the man of sorrows. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The post Sermon: Jesus, the Man of Sorrows first appeared on Saint Peter's Lutheran Church.

  9. Feb 26

    Sermon: The Foolishness of God

    Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18–31Liturgical Date: Epiphany 4ACalendar Date: February 1, 2026Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. JacksonLocation: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County316 W. Main St.Forestville, WI 54213920-856-6420 Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church serves Sturgeon Bay and other communities in Northeast Wisconsin. Transcript In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So I’m going to have to apologize to you all today. I know that you enjoy Pastor Chris’s 25- or 27-minute sermons, but today’s not going to be one of those days. I’m sorry. You’re just going to have to go back and listen to some sermon archives or something like that to get your fill. We’ve got those on our website and so on. We’re going to be keeping it a little bit short today because my voice is rather weak. I was up singing in the choir last night and had some speaking parts as well with that. And then this morning I had to yell at my dog. And in addition, coming off a little bit of sickness, so my voice is a little weak. Well, that’s a good illustration of the principle at play here that we’re going to be talking about. We heard today from St. Paul in 1 Corinthians: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human might boast in the presence of God.” And every time I hear that passage, my mind goes back about 25 years ago. I was a college student at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana. And I typically went to one of the town churches there Sunday to Sunday. I was at the town church there, and a lay reader got up—someone who is not good at reading, as Mary is, rather someone who evidently had a great deal of eye problems. He was a gentleman as well that a lot of people probably would look down on. He was a person who had rather shabby and aged clothes, and really just was struggling with the reading. Yeah, what a great illustration of the principle here, because here he is—a man barely able to read these words on the page to the congregation—and yet communicating timeless truths and communicating that one truth which is more powerful than any other truth in the world: This truth before God, we have nothing to boast of. Even those who are mighty and powerful and strong in this world—for God, we have nothing to boast of. But God has done something for us and something the world would consider weak and foolish, which is the death of His Son. And by this He accomplished what nothing else could do: hearts turn to Him in faith, by this receiving eternal life. The Greeks Demand Wisdom Paul talks about how the Greeks demanded wisdom and the Jews demanded signs. What exactly is he talking about there? Greeks demand wisdom. Christianity ran counter to the prevailing philosophical views of the day in the Greco-Roman world. A few hundred years before the time of St. Paul, there was a philosopher by the name of Heraclitus. I’ve talked about him before. Heraclitus, as he was sitting by a creek in Greece, was looking at those waters flowing by. And this creek, this river, was never the same moment to moment. It was changing every single moment—ripple here, a glimmer there, a swell here, a trough there—always changing. Even the riverbed itself was changing. You could see how the pebbles and the sand were getting carried along in that stream. And he realized that the entire world, the entire physical world, is like this. He said, panta rhei—“all things flow.” Yes, it’s most evident in something like a stream, but in the stream of time, everything flows, everything changes. Nothing stays the same. Well, this led to the question: How can you lay hold of the eternal, the timeless—that which doesn’t change, but rather always remains the same? Because only that can be real. You know, this whole idea flipped on its head the prevailing philosophy of the day. (Our day, we’ll get to that in a second.) But in the Greek mind, this wasn’t really real—because how can you say this is real if it changes and if it comes to naught? What’s real is that which is eternal and timeless and unchangeable. And by the time of St. Paul, the idea is that you get access to the eternal, the unchangeable, by means of the mind—through the mind, come to the knowledge of eternal principles which remain the same all the time. That’s what was going on in the Greek mind. And here we can see how the cross of Christ, the message of the gospel, was foolishness to the Greeks. Because the message of the gospel is this: that the eternal, unchangeable God—the source of all wisdom—actually became a part of this changeable world; that He, by taking on human flesh, became a part of all this; and that we apprehend the eternal, the unchangeable, by faith in God. And that faith comes to the suffering Christ. And this whole idea—the idea that through literally a man’s blood flowing out of him (remember when I said that philosopher, panta rhei—this blood flowing out), that by means of that blood we would have access to the eternal—foolishness. The Prevailing Philosophy of Our Day lNow, the prevailing philosophy of our day, if you can call it that, is very much different. The prevailing philosophy today is that the only thing real is the touchable, the tangible, the things of this world. Once again, the world considers us Christians foolish. Why? Well, because we believe in things that cannot be seen: God in heaven, His eternal law, the righteousness that has been won for us by Christ and the cross. These are things which are apprehended by faith, not by sight. And so for different reasons, the world and its philosophy still considers us foolish. The Jews Demand Signs And the Jews—this, I think, is a word against modern-day religious people. The Jews demanded signs. St. Paul says, what kind of signs were they seeking? They were seeking the favor of God and the apprehension of God’s plans and purposes in what we might call great end-time signs—huge movements, not miracles per se. They weren’t miracle chasers. But the Jews, in order to believe that a man was a true prophet, wanted something like what Moses accomplished—you know, bringing the people of God out of their Egyptian slavery, something of that magnitude—or maybe something of what happened at a later date, when the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem and this huge mighty world superpower force, which literally had toppled every other kingdom in front of them like dominoes, was stopped at Jerusalem and inexplicably just packs up and leaves. And the knowledge that this could only be by the power of God. That’s the sort of thing the Jews were looking for—the knowledge of God and your status with God by virtue of these huge signs. And so maybe they were looking for something like the restoration of Israel back to independence or something of that nature, which obviously Christ hadn’t accomplished, hadn’t even set out to accomplish. And so for the Jews as well, Christ was a stumbling block. You know, I believe Christ remains a stumbling block for many of those who are religious, including those who consider themselves Christians, because many Christians still look for signs all around them to understand God’s will, to understand who God is. There are those who have, I believe, erred views of Revelation, by the way. But those who, on the basis of Revelation, will open up the newspaper and look for fulfillment of what they consider to be various prophecies in the book of Revelation—and usually their predictions on the basis of this all, actually all the time, they’re always wrong, by the way. Or maybe it’s not through that, or they want to see or experience or know God through something tangible like an emotional experience. A lot of people don’t believe God is there and doing His work unless there’s a big crowd and it’s whipped up to a certain kind of frenzy, and they say, “Look, God’s not present and God’s not doing His thing unless we can see some sign like that.” And for them, once again, Christ crucified is a stumbling block, because Christ crucified—that message of the gospel—it’s a message which is offensive to many people, even those who consider themselves Christian. And if you preach the forgiveness of sins won for us by the blood of Christ Jesus, many people are turned off by this message. We Preach Christ Crucified But brothers and sisters in Christ, even while the message of the cross is a stumbling block to many, and even while the message of the cross is foolishness to many others, yet here at St. Peter’s we join with St. Paul in this commitment: that we preach Christ crucified. Because it is that message of Christ crucified which can do something that nothing else can do—turn hearts to trust in God and receive eternal life. The philosophy of the age considers trust in God to be just simply a non-issue, and so you discard it altogether. Philosophical or scientific pursuit, as good as it can be—and it can be very good, mind you—ultimately cannot turn hearts to God. Seeking for God in various tangible signs like numbers, emotional states, what’s happening in the news—this too is a dead end. Through the prophet Micah, God chided His people and said, “Look, what more could I have done for you, Israel? I literally brought you out of Egypt—one of the greatest signs the world has ever seen—and yet you do not believe, and yet you do not repent. How much more could I have done for you?” There’s one more thing yet—not this great sign of a geopolitical event or a mass movement of emotion, but rather a far greater sign: the sign of Jonah, the sign of a man blee

  10. Jan 26

    Sermon: Spiritual Renewal

    Text: Matthew 4:12-15 | Liturgical date: Epiphany 3 A | Calendar Date: January 25, 2026 | Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County serves Sturgeon Bay and other areas in Northeast Wisconsin. Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County316 W. Main St.Forestville, WI 54213920-856-6420 Text: Matthew 4:12-15 | Liturgical date: Epiphany 3 A | Calendar Date: January 25, 2026 | Location: Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christopher D. Jackson Transcript Opening Invocation In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Introduction to Spiritual Renewal Today we’re taking up this passage spoken by the prophet Isaiah in our Old Testament lesson today, and recorded as well in the Gospel of Matthew: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them the light has dawned.” And on the basis of these words, we’re going to be talking about spiritual renewal. Personal Story: The Gift of Glasses One of the most important experiences of my life happened in third grade. I actually think that it was a turning point in my life, and had it not happened, there’s a good chance I might not even be your pastor today. What was that turning point? Already in third grade, I got glasses. Yeah, that was significant. I couldn’t see the chalkboard at school. That’s how bad my vision was. So yeah, maybe my grades wouldn’t have been very good. I wouldn’t have learned. Maybe I wouldn’t have been qualified to go to seminary. So there you go—third grade, transformative event. A big renewal in my life. And just to give you a sense of what kind of renewal this was, it really opened up the world to me. Oh, I fought against getting glasses. I didn’t want them at all. But after I got them on, the drive home—it was like the whole world had opened up to me. Did you know trees have leaves? Of course you all have. I didn’t know that until I got glasses. To me, trees were just these big, blobby things. I knew they had leaves when I got close up to ’em, but I couldn’t see them unless I was standing right up next to the tree. I couldn’t see my pastor’s face. I couldn’t see what was being written on the chalkboard. Huge renewal in my life. A major transformation. And it happened through three things. The Need for Community in Renewal First of all, it happened in community. I needed people to rally around me. I needed my parents and my teachers and others to say, “I’m not sure you can see that well, Chris.” I needed people to rally around me for that, and I needed people to give me the formal diagnosis. I needed people to manufacture those glasses, and I needed the nice lady to fit them to my face, right? I needed people. I needed a hard diagnosis. Oh, I fought against that diagnosis. I tried to trick the eye doctor into thinking that I actually could see when I couldn’t. I fought against that, but I still got that hard diagnosis, which I didn’t want, but I got it anyway. And finally came the gift—a blessing, hard-won, not by me, but by my parents and by all these others: the gift of the glasses. And as I said, major transformation, major renewal. There come times in all of our lives where it seems that our eyes are not dim, but rather our faith, our hearts. Perhaps we have doubts. Perhaps we’re not making progress like we would like against some besetting sin. Maybe our confidence is wearing a little thin. The need for spiritual renewal can take many and various forms, but I think it comes for all of us. And in these lessons that we just read, we see the formula for spiritual renewal, which is God blessing us through community, through the church; through the hard diagnosis of the law; through the blessings of the gospel. And that’s the formula. That’s the route for spiritual renewal, which we’ll be taking up today. Isaiah’s Prophecy and Its Fulfillment This prophecy of Isaiah, reiterated by Matthew and fulfilled by Christ—it’s all about spiritual renewal, by the way. What does it mean that the land of Zebulun and Naphtali was dwelling in darkness? What does that mean? Zebulun and Naphtali were the very periphery of the people of God, of Israel, in multiple senses. They were on the periphery of the people of God geographically to begin with. Why? In what sense? The heart of their life—politically, culturally, especially religiously—was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was pretty far south in Israel. Zebulun and Naphtali, however, were the tribes which settled at the very northern edges of the domain, all the way up at the border of Syria. So they were at the very periphery of the life of the people of God physically, and that led to them being on the periphery spiritually as well. That’s probably the more important thing here, because they were up in this region bordering on these Gentile nations’ areas, which eventually came to be called by the name Syria. Because they were up in this area, they had a great deal of influence—a lot of cultural and religious pressure—on them by these nations. In fact, the border sometimes seemed to be a little bit porous, and these nations would set up little communities, sometimes sanctioned by their imperial powers over them, sometimes just happening by themselves. And with them came their religious beliefs and their religious customs: belief in the foreign false gods and goddesses, and religious customs to go along with them—idolatry, worship of these false gods and goddesses. This led to something, first of all: weakening identity among those peoples as being God’s people, as being Israel. And even among those who still did identify as being Israelites, false belief, false practice, false trust crept in among them. They were beset by spiritual darkness, by being led astray by falsehood. And Isaiah here is saying something downright shocking, utterly baffling. Isaiah is saying, this region—marked by idolatry, marked by casual adherence to the law of God and belief, marked by not the most identification with us—that’s where renewal is going to begin. That’s where spiritual renewal for the people of God is going to kick off. Big surprise. You might expect it to happen in Jerusalem. You might expect it to happen in Judea, the area around Jerusalem. But no. Isaiah says it’s going to happen in these hinterlands, in these borderlands, in this place beset by spiritual darkness. Jesus’ Ministry and the Spread of Faith And that’s why Jesus withdraws to Galilee there, by the way—to fulfill that prophecy, to begin his ministry there, to begin the renewal of God’s people in the place least expected, as prophesied by Isaiah. And something interesting happens, by the way: this renewal begins to creep out from there. As Isaiah foresaw, people begin to follow Jesus, not only from Galilee, but also from Judea, from Jerusalem, from across the Jordan—another place where idolatry was known to be practiced—and even, get this, Syria. This land of Gentiles, which had been this negative pressure, this negative religious pressure on Israel—it starts to go the other direction. Now true faith is seeping out from Galilee into these Gentile lands. Syria—Gentiles who adhere to false religions, the Decapolis, this region of people of Greek culture who worship these false foreign gods—believers are being recruited from there. How did this happen? First of all, this spiritual renewal—it wasn’t individual. Now, individuals did have a greater sense of the knowledge of God, a greater faith. That much is clear. But it didn’t happen alone, and it never happens alone, by the way. It was communal. What happened in community? In what way? We can see this in several ways. First of all, we see that the prophecy itself is communal. What does Isaiah say? “For those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them has light dawned.” And what does Jesus do in order to, you might say, increase the reach of his movement? He recruits a community around him. He recruits the disciples to join him in this joyful work. We read about how he commissioned here Simon, Andrew, James, John—and that’s just the beginning. He recruits them to be his disciples and his eventual apostles so that they might join him in being fishers of men. This is a work which is accomplished amongst the community, and it is a work which is accomplished through community, and it is the absolute same today. Many people, when they want to give a formula for spiritual renewal, they say you have to draw into yourself. You have to do this, do that. And it’s all individualistic. It’s really just, in a sense, they put the Lord—this idea: it’s just you and God. But that’s not how God works. It’s not how Jesus works. The Role of the Church in Spiritual Renewal God desires to do his work for us through the Christian Church. And we here at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church are an outpost of this movement, which already began in Galilee. Jesus is using St. Peter’s Lutheran Church to build one another up in faith and to call those who have no faith to the faith through the message of law and gospel, which we’re going to get to here in a moment. And this should cause us to realize two things. First of all, I want this to cause us to make use of, thank the Lord for, be grateful for the blessings that the Lord offers here at St. Peter’s. Jesus does his work here. We don’t need to wonder how the Lord intends to grow our faith, to make us trust more in Him, and to reflect his love. All the more, if we want to receive the

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Sermons, Bible Studies, and other audio media from Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County, Wisconsin. Saint Peter’s Lutheran Church in Door County is located in the village of Forestville, Wisconsin. We are a congregation of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. We are a confessional and liturgical congregation. Saint Peter’s is located at 316 W. Main Street, Forestville, WI 54213. Phone: 920-856-6420. Email: info@doorcounty.church. Website: https://doorcounty.church. We welcome listener comments, questions, and feedback.

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