Good morning and welcome to the broadcast of the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
To help you follow along, the Order of Worship for today's service is available under the radio tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org.
The Lord bless you today through the hearing of His word.
Good morning and welcome to worship.
Good to have you here.
As you know, we have our worship in the park after this service.
You're welcome to come to that also, but then picnic after that, please come to that.
Let's begin with our opening hymn, 615, when in the hour of deepest need.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Amen.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
O Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them.
And I pray you of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the Holy.
innocent, bitter, suffering, and death of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Be gracious and merciful to me, poor, sinful being.
Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ.
I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the intro.
God
The Lord be with you.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than we either desire or deserve.
Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid, giving us those good things that we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Old Testament reading for the 11th Sunday after Trinity is from Genesis chapter 4 Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain saying I've gotten a man with the help of the Lord And again she bore his brother Abel Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions
And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain in his offering he had no regard.
The Cain was very angry and his face fell.
The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry?
And why has your face fallen?
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Cain spoke to Abel his brother and when they were in the field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother?
He said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And the Lord said, what have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
When you work the ground,
It shall no longer yield to you at strength.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
Cain said to the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
Then the Lord said to him, not so.
If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him could attack him.
This is the word of the Lord.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the song.
The epistle is from 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
Now, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and which you stand, and by which you are being saved.
If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am.
and his grace toward me was not in vain.
On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me."
This is the word of the Lord.
Please stand in honor of the gospel.
The Holy Gospel according to St.
Luke the 18th chapter.
Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted it themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
Two men went up into the temple to pray.
One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus.
God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I get.
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
The one who humbles himself will be insulted.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith as written in the words of the Nicene Creed.
maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God, a very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men
and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried and the third day he rose again according to the scriptures and descended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian, an apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We got sermon helps today from Reverend Rolf Preuss.
They both went to the temple.
They went to the temple to pray because it was in the temple that God promised to meet his people.
The temple is where the blood is.
God won't meet you except where the blood is.
Where there is no blood shed for you, God won't meet with you.
This is the way it's been since the fall.
After Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised a savior from sin who would crush the lying head of the devil.
But in so doing, his heel would be bruised.
He would suffer and die and rise again.
The shedding of his blood would be the price for the forgiveness of sins.
And the necessity of the blood was pictured by how God covered up Adam and Eve in clothing made from the skins of animals.
They hid themselves with fig leaves, but the fig shed no blood.
They were merely covering up.
But God covered them with animal skins, animals shed blood.
This prefigured the blood that Jesus Christ would shed on Calvary for the sins of the whole world.
The worship of God's Old Testament Church was saturated with blood, and at the center of our New Testament worship is the body and blood of Jesus given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.
God won't meet you Except where the blood is shed for you because the shed blood of Jesus is how God takes away your sin only a true savior can a brother Can take our place and offer his most holy obedience up to God as the sacrifice to take away our sin Only the true God can offer a sacrifice sufficient to appease his own anger against sinners Only Jesus can take away sin
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses sinners of their sins.
The grace of God is where the blood is shed.
The forgiveness of sins flows to us from the blood.
Without the blood of Jesus, no sinner can enter into the presence of the Holy God and presume to pray, praise, or give Him thanks.
The Pharisee didn't think of that.
He cared nothing for the blood.
He didn't think of God.
That's common amongst most religious people.
They don't think about God.
They think about themselves.
The Pharisees didn't pray to God.
His prayer was addressed to God.
But he didn't really pray to him.
He did not consider God.
He considered only himself.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men.
Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all I get.
He thanks God, but it's a mere pretense.
Prayer is an act of worship, but the Pharisee doesn't worship God.
He worships himself.
He twists God's law into a fake version of what it really is so that it will condemn his neighbor instead of himself.
clouds his own sin by comparing himself to people whose sins are obvious to the world.
He mentioned specifically the sins of extortion, injustice, and adultery.
And these first two were particularly common among the tax collectors.
Tax collectors work for the Roman government, and they notoriously extorted money from the people by charging them more in taxes than they really owed.
and simple and law-abiding people who live under a brutal government, such as it was, will do whatever they must to avoid conflict with that government.
The tax collectors knew this, and they took advantage of it.
It's hard to imagine a more loathsome way to make a living.
The Pharisee understood this, and he understood the popular opinion, so he appealed to it in his effort to persuade God of his own righteousness.
More than that He appealed to his own righteous deeds that went above and beyond the demands of the law He fasted not just on special occasions when it was called for but twice a week every week He tithed that as he gave 10% not just on those items that were subject to the tithes but in everything he had Surely God would be impressed with this man considering the alternative that
despised tax collector who lied and bullied people out of their money.
But he was wrong.
He presumed to stand before God while ignoring the blood shed for the forgiveness of his sins.
He went to where God met his people and he did not meet God.
He left the temple unforgiven.
He may have impressed a lot of people with his appearance of righteousness, but his pretense was worthless in the sight of God.
The tax collector, however, appealed to the blood.
That's all he had.
The word that we have translated in English, the mercy in his plea, God be merciful to me a sinner.
It's not the usual word used for mercy.
More literal or more precise translation is,
God be propitiated to me, the sinner.
This isn't a commonly understood word, so what does it mean to be propitiated?
Remember the temple is where God met his people?
The tax collector went to the temple because he wanted to meet God.
He wanted to talk to God, where God himself said he could be found.
That's why the temple was built.
It was to be the meeting place of God and his people.
And the most important part of the temple was a place called the Holy of Holies.
It was patterned after the original tent of meeting that contained the Ark of the Covenant, and inside the Ark was, among other things, the Ten Commandments engraved on the stone tablets.
And on top of the Ark was a covering made of pure gold.
This was called the Mercy Seat.
On either end was a golden angel, and the blood of a ritually sacrificed animal was
animal was sprinkled on the mercy seat.
This was to teach the people that their sins against God's commandments were forgiven by the blood of God's Son.
When the tax collector cried out to God for mercy, he chose the word for mercy that appealed to the blood of the mercy seat.
That signified the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
Be propitiated to me.
Propitiate means to set aside anger.
God sets aside his anger against our sins, not on account of our pleas for mercy, but on account of the blood, the blood to which our pleas for mercy appeal.
God sent his son to bear the punishment of our sins.
The Bible said that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.
God sees Jesus.
He sees him obey.
He sees him suffer and die.
His obedience and suffering propitiate God.
God is pacified.
His anger is stilled.
Our sins are swallowed up in Christ's suffering.
The precious gospel is what the sinful tax collector offered up to God in prayer.
God, I deserve nothing but punishment for my many sins.
I'm not worthy even to look up to heaven.
I'm a sinner.
Not just a sinner among many, some who are worse than me, but the only sinner.
My conscience sees no sins on anyone's soul but my own.
Be merciful to me.
Set aside your anger for the sake of the blood of your dear son.
Forgive me."
And so he did.
God forgave.
The tax collector left the temple justified by God.
And when God justifies you, pronounces you to be righteous, and by saying you are righteous, you are righteous because God cannot lie, here is the foundation on which our faith rests.
A man who offered up nothing to God, but what God offered up for us on the cross is the man who left the temple righteous in God's sight.
He didn't have anything to boast about.
He only had the blood and righteousness of Jesus, and that's all he needed.
That's all we need.
But the only thing we have to offer up to God is the blood and righteousness of Jesus.
And we are rich beyond measure.
The Pharisee had it wrong.
He thought doing good deeds and avoiding bad ones would gain God's approval.
He didn't understand.
It's out of the heart of evil.
It's out of the heart that evil comes.
It's out of the heart that love is expressed in word and deed.
The only one who can change this sinful heart is God The only way that God does it is through the gospel The law is not ours to use against others the laws gods to use he speaks and he indicts and he condemns You don't extort people out of their money or you don't deceive
in business dealings or you don't cheat on your husband or wife?
Why would you even consider these things?
You should be honest in your business dealings and faithful to your promises because this is what love does.
If you hold your neighbor up for condemnation, what does this say about you?
Love covers sin.
Love prays for repentance, forgiveness and faith.
Love does not stand in judgment.
True Christian love flows from the true Christian faith.
True Christian faith comes from the gospel.
The gospel is not the contradiction of the law.
It is the answer to the law.
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.
He bore in his own body our sins and the wrath of God against all sinners.
He suffered as the guilty one so that we, the guilty ones,
would be forgiven by his blood.
That's why we come to church.
We come to meet God in the blood.
The body nailed to the cross and the blood shed there to forgive us all our sins is given and received here in church today.
By sinners who could offer to God nothing more than that tax collector.
We come to eat and to drink.
We cry, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
Don't make excuses Don't pass blame or compare ourselves with others or hold up to God the good things that we have done that we imagine well outweigh the bad things we've done We lay claim to the blood of Jesus shed for us And when our Lord Jesus gives us his body and blood to eat and to drink and he tells us that this is for the forgiveness of sins We believe him and we leave church justified by God
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
We stand for the offertory.
Let us pray for the whole church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs Be merciful to us Heavenly Father for daily we are tempted by Satan and daily we sin and transgress your will For the sake of Christ Jesus and his bitter suffering and death upon the cross forgive us Lord in your mercy hear our prayer Almighty God who raised your son from the dead raise up men in your church with humble conviction of
St.
Paul to labor abundantly for the sake of preaching your grace in Christ.
Lord, in your mercy.
Amen.
O God, Father of all, build up the families of your church that they may share your own love and provide for their own in your name and with your blessing.
Lord, in your mercy.
Amen.
Gracious Lord, be merciful to our land that those with any authority would exercise it with wisdom and righteousness.
and that we would have peaceful days.
Be merciful to the nations of the world that wars would cease and harmony be restored.
Lord, in your mercy.
Merciful God, settle the solitary into the family of your church and go before all people in their trials, especially Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Daryl, Lois, Louis, Marlis, Tim, Greg, Grant, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Melissa, Mark.
Hethel, Dave, Peter, Fred, Harold, Joan, Jaden, Rick, Orphan, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene, George, Anne, Dawn, and Florence.
Grant them to rejoice in your goodness and grace, Lord, in your mercy.
Heavenly Father, bless us as we prepare to receive your gifts in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, or give our sins, strengthen our faith, and confirm us in the knowledge
that you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
Lord, in your mercy.
We thank you, Lord God, for all your people who have gone before us and now rest in your presence.
Keep us faithful with them until that day when you make all things new.
Lord, in your mercy.
All these things and whatever else you know that we need.
Grant us, Father, for the sake of him who died and rose again.
and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.
One God now and forever.
Amen.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
We continue with the service of sacrament on page
194.
Lift up your hearts.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God.
It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who on this day overcame death and the grave.
And by his glorious resurrection, open to us the way of everlasting life.
Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name.
ever more praising you and saying.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power.
and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread.
And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, take, eat.
This is my body, which is given for you, this due and remembrance of me.
In the same way also he took the cup after supper and when he had given thanks he gave it to them saying drink of it all of you This cup is the New Testament in my blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins This do as often as you drink it and remember us of me
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
Thank you for tuning in to the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
May the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.
You may call us at 715-723-6380 or stop by and visit 110 East Grand Avenue in Chippewa Falls.
If you're looking for a church home, we'll gladly tell you more about Zion or help you find a congregation near you.
These broadcasts are paid for by generous gifts made to our radio fund.
If you'd like to contribute, click the Give tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org, or send a check to Zion Lutheran Church Radio Fund, 110 East Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 54729.
Zion is a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod.
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Good morning and welcome to the broadcast of the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
To help you follow along, the Order of Worship for today's service is available under the radio tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org.
The Lord bless you today through the hearing of His word.
Good morning and welcome to worship Good to have you here as you know we have our worship in the park after this service You're welcome to come to that also, but then picnic after that please come to that Let's begin with our opening in 615 when in the hour of deepest need
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Beloved in the Lord, let us draw near with a true heart and confess our sins unto God our Father, beseeching him in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to grant us forgiveness.
Our help is in the name of the Lord.
Amen.
I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord.
O Almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor, miserable sinner, confess unto you all my sins and iniquities, with which I have ever offended you, and justly deserved your temporal and eternal punishment.
But I am heartily sorry for them, and sincerely repent of them, and I pray you of your boundless mercy, and for the sake of the Holy.
innocent, bitter, suffering, and death of your beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
Be gracious and merciful to me, poor, sinful being.
Upon this, your confession, I by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ.
I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the intro.
You got on high.
The Lord be with you.
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, always more ready to hear than we to pray and to give more than we either desire or deserve.
Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving those things of which our conscience is afraid, giving us those good things that we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
The Old Testament reading for the 11th Sunday after Trinity is from Genesis chapter 4.
Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain saying, I've gotten a man with the help of the Lord.
And again she bore his brother Abel.
Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a worker of the ground.
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions.
And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain in his offering he had no regard.
The Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry?
And why has your face fallen?
If you do well, will you not be accepted?
And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.
Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.
Cain spoke to Abel his brother and when they were in the field Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the Lord said to Cain, where is Abel your brother?
He said, I do not know.
Am I my brother's keeper?
And the Lord said, what have you done?
The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
And now you are cursed from the ground which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
When you work the ground,
It shall no longer yield to you at strength.
You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth."
Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Behold, you have driven me today away from the ground, and from your face I shall be hidden.
I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
Then the Lord said to him, Not so.
If anyone kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.
And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who found him should attack him.
This is the word of the Lord.
We turn to the yellow insert and sing together the song.
The epistle is from 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.
Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am.
and his grace toward me was not in vain.
On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, for it was not I but the grace of God that is with me."
This is the word of the Lord.
Please stand in honor of the gospel.
The Holy Gospel according to St.
Luke the 18th chapter.
Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted it themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.
Two men went up into the temple to pray.
One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus.
God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all that I get.
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
The one who humbles himself will be insulted.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Together we confess our faith as written in the words of the Nicene Creed.
Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God, a very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made, who for us men
and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate.
He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the scriptures, and descended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father.
And he will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe in one holy Christian, an apostolic church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
Amen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
We got sermon helps today from Reverend Rolf Preuss.
They both went to the temple.
They went to the temple to pray because it was in the temple that God promised to meet his people.
The temple is where the blood is.
God won't meet you except where the blood is.
Where there is no blood shed for you, God won't meet with you.
This is the way it's been since the fall.
After Adam and Eve fell into sin, God promised a savior from sin who would crush the lying head of the devil.
But in so doing, his heel would be bruised.
He would suffer and die and rise again.
The shedding of his blood would be the price for the forgiveness of sins.
And the necessity of the blood was pictured by how God covered up Adam and Eve in clothing made from the skins of animals.
They hid themselves with fig leaves, but the fig shed no blood.
They were merely covering up.
But God covered them with animal skins, animals shed blood.
This prefigured the blood that Jesus Christ would shed on Calvary for the sins of the whole world.
The worship of God's Old Testament Church was saturated with blood, and at the center of our New Testament worship is the body and blood of Jesus given and shed for you, for the forgiveness of sins.
God won't meet you except where the blood is shed for you because the shed blood of Jesus is how God takes away your sin.
Only a true savior, a brother, can take our place and offer his most holy obedience up to God as the sacrifice to take away our sin.
Only the true God can offer a sacrifice sufficient to appease his own anger against sinners.
Only Jesus can take away sin.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses sinners of their sins.
The grace of God is where the blood is shed.
The forgiveness of sins flows to us from the blood.
Without the blood of Jesus, no sinner can enter into the presence of the Holy God and presume to pray, praise, or give Him thanks.
The Pharisee didn't think of that.
He cared nothing for the blood.
He didn't think of God.
That's common amongst most religious people.
They don't think about God.
They think about themselves.
The Pharisees didn't pray to God.
His prayer was addressed to God.
But he didn't really pray to him.
He did not consider God.
He considered only himself.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men.
Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week.
I give tithes of all I get.
He thanks God, but it's a mere pretense.
Prayer is an act of worship, but the Pharisee doesn't worship God.
He worships himself.
He twists God's law into a fake version of what it really is so that it will condemn his neighbor instead of himself.
clouds his own sin by comparing himself to people whose sins are obvious to the world.
He mentioned specifically the sins of extortion, injustice, and adultery.
And these first two were particularly common among the tax collectors.
Tax collectors work for the Roman government, and they notoriously extorted money from the people by charging them more in taxes than they really owed.
and simple and law-abiding people who live under a brutal government such as it was will do whatever they must to avoid conflict with that government.
The tax collectors knew this, and they took advantage of it.
It's hard to imagine a more loathsome way to make a living.
The Pharisee understood this, and he understood the popular opinion, so he appealed to it in his effort to persuade God of his own righteousness.
More than that, he appealed to his own righteous deeds that went above and beyond the demands of the law.
He fasted not just on special occasions when it was called for but twice a week, every week.
He tithed that as he gave 10% not just on those items that were subject to the tithes but in everything he had.
Surely God would be impressed with this man considering the alternative that
despised tax collector who lied and bullied people out of their money.
But he was wrong.
He presumed to stand before God while ignoring the blood shed for the forgiveness of his sins.
He went to where God met his people and he did not meet God.
He left the temple unforgiven.
He may have impressed a lot of people with his appearance of righteousness, but his pretense was worthless in the sight of God.
The tax collector, however, appealed to the blood.
That's all he had.
The word that we have translated in English, the mercy in his plea, God be merciful to me a sinner.
It's not the usual word used for mercy.
More literal or more precise translation is,
God be propitiated to me, the sinner.
This isn't a commonly understood word, so what does it mean to be propitiated?
Remember the temple is where God met his people?
The tax collector went to the temple because he wanted to meet God.
He wanted to talk to God, where God himself said he could be found.
That's why the temple was built.
It was to be the meeting place of God and his people.
And the most important part of the temple was a place called the Holy of Holies.
It was patterned after the original tent of meeting that contained the Ark of the Covenant, and inside the Ark was, among other things, the Ten Commandments engraved on the stone tablets.
And on top of the Ark was a covering made of pure gold.
This was called the Mercy Seat.
On either end was a golden angel.
And the blood of a ritually sacrificed animal was
animal was sprinkled on the mercy seat.
This was to teach the people that their sins against God's commandments were forgiven by the blood of God's Son.
When the tax collector cried out to God for mercy, he chose the word for mercy that appealed to the blood of the mercy seat.
That signified the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
Be propitiated to me.
Propitiate means to set aside anger.
God sets aside his anger against our sins, not
on
account of our pleas for mercy, but on account of the blood, the blood to which our pleas for mercy appeal.
God sent his son to bear the punishment of our sins.
The Bible said that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.
God sees Jesus.
He sees him obey.
He sees him suffer and die.
His obedience and suffering propitiate God.
God is pacified.
His anger is stilled.
Our sins are swallowed up in Christ's suffering.
The precious gospel is what the sinful tax collector offered up to God in prayer.
God, I deserve nothing but punishment for my many sins.
I'm not worthy even to look up to heaven.
I'm a sinner.
Not just a sinner among many, some who are worse than me, but the sinner, the only sinner.
My conscience sees no sins on anyone's soul but my own.
Be merciful to me.
Set aside your anger for the sake of the blood of your dear son.
Forgive me."
And so he did.
God forgave.
The tax collector left the temple justified by God.
And when God justifies you, pronounces you to be righteous, and by saying you are righteous, you are righteous because God cannot lie, here is the foundation on which our faith rests.
A man who offered up nothing to God, but what God offered up for us on the cross is the man who left the temple righteous in God's sight.
He didn't have anything to boast about.
He only had the blood and righteousness of Jesus, and that's all he needed.
That's all we need.
But the only thing we have to offer up to God is the blood and righteousness of Jesus, and we are rich beyond measure.
The Pharisee had it wrong.
He thought doing good deeds and avoiding bad ones would gain God's approval.
He didn't understand.
It's out of the heart of evil.
It's out of the heart that evil comes.
It's out of the heart that love is expressed in word and deed.
The only one who can change this sinful heart is God.
The only way that God does it is through the gospel.
The law is not ours to use against others.
The law is God's to use.
He speaks and he indicts and he condemns.
You don't extort people out of their money or you don't deceive.
in business dealings or you don't cheat on your husband or wife?
Why would you even consider these things?
You should be honest in your business dealings and faithful to your promises because this is what love does.
If you hold your neighbor up for condemnation, what does this say about you?
Love covers sin.
Love prays for repentance, forgiveness and faith.
Love does not stand in judgment.
True Christian love flows from the true Christian faith.
True Christian faith comes from the gospel.
The gospel is not the contradiction of the law.
It is the answer to the law.
Jesus is the propitiation for our sins.
He bore in his own body our sins and the wrath of God against all sinners.
He suffered as the guilty one so that we, the guilty ones,
would be forgiven by his blood.
That's why we come to church.
We come to meet God in the blood.
The body nailed to the cross and the blood shed there to forgive us all our sins is given and received here in church today.
By sinners who could offer to God nothing more than that tax collector.
We come to eat and to drink.
We cry, God be merciful to me, a sinner.
Don't make excuses Don't pass blame or compare ourselves with others or hold up to God the good things that we have done that we imagine will outweigh the bad things we've done We lay claim to the blood of Jesus shed for us And when our Lord Jesus gives us his body and blood to eat and to drink and he tells us that this is for the forgiveness of sins We believe him and we leave church justified by God
Amen.
And may the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.
Please stand for the offertory.
Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.
Be merciful to us, Heavenly Father, for daily we are tempted by Satan and daily we sin and transgress your will for the sake of Christ Jesus and his bitter suffering and death upon the cross.
Forgive us.
Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Almighty God, who raised your son from the dead, raise up men in your church with humble conviction of
St.
Paul to labor abundantly for the sake of preaching your grace in Christ.
Lord, in your mercy.
Amen.
O God, Father of all, build up the families of your church that they may share your own love and provide for their own in your name and with your blessing.
Lord, in your mercy.
Amen.
Gracious Lord, be merciful to our land that those with any authority would exercise it with wisdom and righteousness.
and that we would have peaceful days.
Be merciful to the nations of the world that wars would cease and harmony be restored.
Lord, in your mercy.
Merciful God, settle the solitary into the family of your church and go before all people in their trials, especially Vicki, Lynn, Anita, Daryl, Lois, Louis, Marlis, Tim, Greg, Grant, Doris, Matthew, Megan, Melissa.
Mark, Ethel, Dave, Peter, Fred, Harold, Joan, Jaden, Rick, Thorfinn, Lacey, Marilyn, Marlene, George, Ann, Dawn, and Florence.
Grant them to rejoice in your goodness and grace.
Lord, in your mercy.
Heavenly Father, bless us as we prepare to receive your gifts in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.
Forgive our sins.
Strengthen our faith.
and confirm us in the knowledge that you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.
Lord, in your mercy.
We thank you, Lord God, for all your people who have gone before us and now rest in your presence.
Keep us faithful with them until that day when you make all things new.
Lord, in your mercy.
All these things and whatever else you know that we need.
Grant us, Father.
For the sake of him who died and rose again, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
Amen.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
We continue with the service of sacrament on page 194.
The Lord be with you.
Lift up your hearts.
Let us give thanks unto the Lord our God.
It is truly good, right, and salutary that we should at all times and at all places give thanks to you, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, everlasting God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who on this day overcame death and the grave.
And by his glorious resurrection, open to us the way of everlasting life.
Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify your glorious name.
ever more praising you and saying.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power.
and the glory forever and ever.
Amen.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you, this due and remembrance of me.
In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you.
This cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
This do is often as you drink it, and remember us of me.
The peace of the Lord be with you always.
Thank you for tuning in to the Divine Service at Zion Lutheran Church in Chippewa Falls.
May the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
If you have any prayer requests, please let us know.
You may call us at 715-723-6380 or stop by and visit 110 East Grand Avenue in Chippewa Falls.
If you're looking for a church home, we'll gladly tell you more about Zion or help you find a congregation near you.
These broadcasts are paid for by generous gifts made to our radio fund
If you'd like to contribute, click the Give tab on our website, ZionLCMSCF.org, or send a check to Zion Lutheran Church Radio Fund, 110 East Grand Avenue, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 54729.
Zion is a member of the Lutheran Church, Missouri City.
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