Skip to content
nimble_asset_clc_logo_header

 

Church of the Lutheran Confession

Search Archives
Search
Lutheran Spokesman page head image

Connect with Us

Contact

Letting the Lord Have the Limelight

“I, the servant, am inadequate and unworthy. We, the Lord’s people united by His Word, are inadequate  and unworthy. But that’s OK; that is exactly the way Jesus wants it to be.”

At Immanuel Lutheran Seminary, students will often sense inadequacy toward their role as future ministers of Christ. Their inadequacy is more than just a perception. It’s the only right response when looking at oneself with honesty and in view of what the ministry requires and deserves from those who serve. All things considered, the proper realization is this: “I, the servant, am inadequate and unworthy. We, the Lord’s people united by His Word, are inadequate and unworthy. But that’s OK; that is exactly the way Jesus wants it to be.”

As forerunner to the Messiah, John the Baptist understood this truth and how it pertained to his role in serving Jesus. He said in John 3:28-30: “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John knew the key to success in the work of proclaiming the Gospel. It’s not about the preacher or the missionary; it’s not about the members or the prospects either. It’s about Jesus. He, the Savior and Lord of the Church, must increase; but we—pastors and teachers, students and members—must decrease. Easier said than done, one might say. We all know how to make the work of God’s kingdom be about us in some way: our increasing workload, our lack of time and resources, our inability to do this or that. Our flesh makes self-awareness become self-absorption. As we increase in our own eyes, that too is a part of our inadequacy.Letting the Lord Have the Limelight

The Holiest of All

“Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is… The Holiest of All

The Ongoing Conversation

Jesus_ascension_1Lutheran theologian A.L. Graebner wrote of Christ’s ascension into heaven that it was “the glorious termination of His visible conversation with His church on earth” (Outlines of Doctrinal Theology). Writing in 1898, he was using the word conversation in the older sense of interaction. During His time in this world, especially during His three-year public ministry, Christ interacted visibly with His fellow human beings. Also after His resurrection, He appeared visibly to His disciples and spoke to them during a period of forty days. But then He was taken up into heaven as His disciples watched, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. After that there were only a few extraordinary appearances of Christ such as those to Paul (1 Corinthians 15:8) and John (Revelation 1:10-18).

But wasn’t Christ’s time in this world also a conversation in the sense in which we use the word today? In His ministry as recorded in the four Gospels, Christ engaged His people in a three-year conversation. That was a conversation that was truly unique, in which the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father declared to man the unseen God.The Ongoing Conversation

A New Covenant

STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says: ‘Behold, the days are coming,’… A New Covenant

I Will Fear No Evil

The Good Shepherd by Bernhard Plockhorst - public domain, originally published before 1923 in UK and USA.
The Good Shepherd by Bernhard
Plockhorst – public domain, originally published before 1923 in UK and USA.

Violence is on the rise! 

There are shootings in schools, bombings in coffee shops, heavily-armed militia marauding in the streets. Terrorism has the world gripped in fear. Nowhere is safe! Immorality is rampant! The world demands recognition and acceptance of all the sins of the flesh. Churches have become corrupt! As we look forward to celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, Catholics and the large Lutheran bodies are working toward a restoration of full fellowship between the two groups. Ironically, the issues that still separate them today are not the issues that Luther fought to reform—many of those have already been surrendered by the Lutherans. What still separates them is the moral laxity of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which accepts homosexuality and the ordination of women.I Will Fear No Evil

“We Have Such A High Priest”

“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises”   (Hebrews 8:1-6).“We Have Such A High Priest”