Message written for June 28, 2026 based on Matthew 10:28-33 and Romans 5:12-21. 

Message:            “Perspective”

 

Grace to you from God our Father, the creator of heaven and earth, and from Jesus Christ, His Son our Lord, who turned death into life and gave us salvation. Amen. 
Consider these verses…
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:28-33 (ESV)
 

Have you every considered your position in the world or in life in general?
Have you every laid on the ground at night and looked up into the sky and tried to count the stars or see the constellations? 
Have you every wondered of the vastness of God’s creation… considering stars and galaxies far beyond our sight …or the microscopic cells, atoms, DNA, RNA, the building blocks of everything in the world, bacteria, microbes and other unseen essential elements that keep our world intact, productive, and beneficial for us to live.
 
In our physical world, God has placed everything precisely where it needs to be, to generate and regenerate life as we know it. The cycles of water, the growth of plants, the sunlight, the placement of the earth in the solar system… even in the midst of natural disasters… the ability that God built within living cells for regeneration and restoration heals what was broken and brings balance back to the earth that God created. 
There were times when I was farming, exhausted from work, milking cows in the middle of the night,… I would step away from the barn, lay down on an empty wagon and look up at the stars… “Who am I that God should care about me?
 
“In this world of planets and stars, galaxies that stretch on, seemingly forever, the earth in a very small place… and yet, it is perfectly positioned for life… not too hot… not to cold… although there are places where it stays very cold and places that some might consider to be too hot for comfort. But why just earth?
“As the planets get further away from the sun, they become too cold to sustain life or closer to the sun they become too hot for living. God placed us here and keeps us here (in orbit) to protect us, provide for us, and sustain us.
 
On another occasion, I noticed an ant moving next to me. A vey small ant… carrying a load bigger than he or she… I must seem to be like a giant to that ant. I had blocked its path. It had to either go over me or around me. It was undeterred, it made an adjustment, and continued on its mission… whatever that mission was. 
We have a bird feeder for hummingbird hanging on the wall of our garage. One day I observed ants going up and down on the wall over to the hanger of the feeder, down the hook, onto the wire, and down inside the feeder itself. They would dip into the sugar water and retreat the same way they came. Some fell into the water and drowned, others used the ones in the water to keep from drowning, but they kept come and going, they were on a mission of gathering food for the colony.
 
Ants aren’t the smallest living beings on earth. Some are so small that they can only be seen by looking through a very powerful microscope. And each of these God created for a specific purpose and duty… a mission, vital to the ecosystem of the world in which we live. 
If God knows the number of hairs on my head (and that number is changing everyday), and He knows every bird in the sky, and of every breed, around the world. And cares about them… And knows the ants under our feet and assigns them with tasks and missions.
 
THEN HE ALSO CARES ABOUT ME!
 
The context of Jesus’ teaching in our reading from Matthew is when He was sending out His disciples to do ministry. He was preparing them for rejection and giving them HOPE. He told them NOT to fear death or those who could put them to death, but the ONE we are to truly fear is GOD, the ONE who holds eternity in HIS hand. We are to have a healthy fear of God.
By HIS POWER, He brought everything to life and He created a perfect world.
Sin corrupted that world. And Death entered that world.
Death destroys the physical life that was created, but the spiritual life remains…
 
In the beginning there was peace and harmony… all living beings lived together without fear and without eating each other… cats, dogs, lions, tigers, and bears, even dinosaurs, lived on plants and vegetation… but when sin entered the world… every living thing turned into enemies of each other. 
Blood which carried the breath of life and kept beings alive was considered sacred.
Yet, to cover the shame of sin and the nakedness of Adam and Eve, animals had to be sacrificed. God used their blood as a temporary atonement for Adam and Eve’s sin. The skins of animals covered the physical nakedness of Adam and Eve, while the blood of the animals covered the sin and guilt of their sin.  
 

Life blood that was considered sacred, also became part of the food chain.
Animals began to consume each other… some animals became more blood thirsty than others and lived solely on the meat and blood of others; all living beings became enemies of each other… they lived in fear; the fear of death. 
Man was no different. Shorty after Adam and Eve sinned… one of their sons (Cain) killed his brother (Abel) out of jealousy. Ironically, it was because God accepted Abel’s offering and rejected the one that Cain brought. Some have different theories on why God did this, but the clearest theory found in the Bible states that God knew what was brewing within Cain’s heart, and rejected his sacrifice with a warning not to let his sin take control of his actions… Cain failed to heed the warning and let his anger lead him to the taking of his brother’s life.
 
Like Cain, we all, that is all human beings, have sin brewing within our hearts, we are by nature enemies of God. And because of sin, all of us will someday die.
For many that will be a very sad day, for they do not know the Lord.
They have rejected Him and the salvation HE brings. They want salvation on their terms. They want to control their destiny. They don’t want to surrender to anyone, even the God who created them. 
Jesus warned, “Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. …  
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:28-33 (ESV) 
God loved us ALL so much that HE sent Jesus to pay the price for our sin. He died as the ultimate sacrifice, a one time for all sin, sacrifice that satisfied the demand of the LAW … blood was shed to pay the price for the sin … His sacrifice covered our sin and shame, just as the skins of animals covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve.
 
The wages of sin is eternal death (HELL), separation from God for eternity.
The life that was created in each person physically will die, but spiritually will live forever. In the end all will be raised up again in our physical bodies, some to live in heaven with God, some to live forever separated from God in hell.
Jesus our LOVING Savior and Redeemer, is also the ONE who will judge all people and determine who gets to live with Him forever in Heaven and who does not.
 
Luther, began each explanation in his catechism with the words, “We are to fear, love, and trust in God…”
The Psalmist wrote, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…”
This is the relationship of God with us… our creator who made the heavens and the earth and everything in-between… took on flesh, became human, lived, suffered, and died, to pay the price for our sin,… it is HIS free gift to us… we are compelled to love HIM for it. We receive it by faith (trust). He has given us His word. He has promised to forgive our sin. We trust and take HIM at His word. We trust that we will receive forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ.
 
In our other reading for today from Romans 5:12-21, Paul wrote, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Through the obedience of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, the price for our sin is paid, and we are made righteous before God. It is counted to us by faith… faith in the promise.
When I look up at the stars, I am reminded of the power and glory and love of God for me. That is healthy fear. I love God because He first loved me. I trust in Him because He has proven Himself faithful to me. My life matters or Jesus would not have died to save me from my sin. May this perspective bring you peace today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.      
 

 
“Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.”

 Written on May 3, 2026 for the 5th Sunday of Easter. Message based on Acts 17:1-15.

Message:            “Don’t take my word for it…”

“The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” Acts 17:10ff (ESV)*

When I was a young boy taking Confirmation classes at my school, we were taught to search the scriptures by our pastor, Rev. Rodel Eberly. Let me give you the background story… I attended a Lutheran grade school from 1^st through 8^th grade. The first hour of every day was devoted to religious instruction, much like Sunday school classes, but at a much deeper level. We were taught the Bible stories, required to memorize scripture verses, and also several hymns from “The Lutheran Hymn Book” or as we referred to it “TLH.”

As a young child we were just taught the stories and then tested on our ability to recall what we had been taught. But as we advanced in years, we were taught to be more critical thinkers. It wasn’t enough to just repeat what had been taught to us, but we had to explain or give evidence for how we answered certain questions, that meant that we had to be familiar with the whole Bible, proof text, sources, and cross references.

Our Confirmation classes were held every morning during the first hour of school Monday through Friday. We were taught from and had to memorize most of Luther’s Small Catechism. We also played some fun Bible games, such as Bible baseball, (an invention of our pastor to get us to quickly look up and quote various Bible passages that would answer a specific question that he had raised), and of course, it was a competition that pitted one team against another with turns of being either on the offense or defense, that allowed us to either block or score points in the game. I don’t remember all the rules… I just remember that it was high spirited… and a fun way to get us to know our Bibles.

Another thing that our pastor had us do during those two years was to write our own personal version of “The Explanation of the Small Catechism” found in the back of Luther’s Small Catechism. He was formally a church planter and an evangelist. His idea was for us to be able to answer questions a non-Christian would have regarding the Bible and God’s plan of Salvation. The format was very much the same as that of the Questions and Answers found in the back of the Catechism, but the twist was, that our pastor would ask us to suggest a question as the starting place… such as “Who is God?” and “How do we know for certain that God exists?” And then we would answer the question by referencing scripture verses that supported our answer.

For several weeks we would (as a class) raise questions and find the answers to these questions in the Bible. These were then documented and typed out for print. At the end of the year, the project was completed, and we each received our very own copy of this work. I still have mine in a spiral three-ring binder… somehow it survived our multiple moves… mostly intact.

The point of this refection is to encourage you to be like the Bereans. That is what Pastor Eberly taught us. He told us NOT to take his word for the truth about Jesus Christ, but to study it for ourselves, to know with certainty, that what he was teaching us was the truth.

Our pastor was ahead of his time in many of his approaches. He encouraged home group Bible studies. (While many of his colleagues felt that they were the only ones who were qualified to lead a Bible study because of their seminarian training.) Pastor Eberly’s approach was that God would guide the leaders of Bible studies, if they taught purely from the Word of God and let the Word of God interpret itself.

At one time our little congregation had 10 small groups meeting for weekly Bible studies. I believe that there were at least three or four adult Bible study groups to choose from that met on Sunday mornings during the Sunday School hour. That was many years ago, although the number of study groups has declined, it is still a tradition that has survived over the years in that congregation.

When questions arose, our pastor was there to help us search for answers. Sometimes, it got messy, sometimes he needed to be corrected, and sometimes the Bible study leaders needed to be reined in. Through it all and down through the generations that have come and gone, there is still an active core of people in this congregation who have made Bible study a priority in their lives. They, much like the Bereans, find great satisfaction in searching the scriptures… and their ministry in their community reflects their commitment.

Pastors come and pastors go… but the Word of God remains. God’s Word doesn’t change… it is static! However, God’s Word changes whatever it touches and that is the dynamic part of being connected to the Church… to Jesus Christ… and to other believers in Jesus Christ.

We must be aware that there are those who would like us to believe that God’s Word changes and needs to be updated to fit with our current social practices. They want justification to continue to live in sin without the feeling of condemnation. These people read their own thoughts and desires into the Word of God. They reject what they don’t like, or question the authenticity of the parts that speak out against them and their lifestyle choices. They mis-read or mis-interrupt God’s Word. They ‘cherry-pick’ verses here or there, and take them out of context, to support their actions, and are quick to judge others who don’t agree with them… these people are like the Jews that Paul encountered … “But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.” Acts 17:13 (ESV)*

The Jews were convinced that they were right and Paul was wrong… it didn’t matter to them what the scriptures said… it didn’t matter that Jesus had fulfilled the prophecies concerning the Messiah… they refused to believe, and in the language of today, ‘protested’ the ministry of Paul… stirring up the people against him, to the point that he had to be sent away by his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ for his own safety.

We are living in times much like that of Paul and the early church. False prophets (religious leaders) have taken over many Christian churches. They have closed their minds to the truth of God’s Word. They are proclaiming something other than the Word of God. They deny sin and the forgiveness of sin. They deny Jesus as the Son of God. They preach a different form of ‘love’ and ‘acceptance’ … which is their idea of ‘grace.’ They preach tolerance and inclusion, but NOT confession.

If we let our guard down, we could be taken in by their smooth words and carefully constructed arguments. Our only defense is to be thoroughly grounded in the Word of God… study it… and know what it says (in context)… and apply it.

God’s Word tells us that we are sinners in need of forgiveness…    and that by faith we have received that forgiveness through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
When we acknowledge our sin… when we confess our sin… when we recognize that we need Jesus to forgive our sin… we can also be sure that He has done it… and we can live with confidence that we are God’s children by adoption through this gift of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

* “Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.”