"The Keys" Matthew 16:13-20

Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen

Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys…

In the Name of Jesus

Imagine yourself walking through the grocery store one day minding your own business when a stranger walks up to you and asks to borrow your car keys.  What is the look you give?  Are you the type who will hand over your car leys to anyone who needs a ride? 

How about this.  You are sitting in your favorite chair in the living room, half way between watching the baseball game and sleeping, and your 16 year old child comes to you and says mom/dad, can I have the keys to the truck?  I would bet we could debate the two scenarios and there might even be some of you here who would be more inclined to give the keys to the car to a stranger over your 16 year old child.

What would you need to know?  If someone wants to borrow your car, what do you need to know?  Where are you going?  Who is going with you?  What time will you be returning?  Do you plan on filling it up with gas at the end of the night? 

Believe it or not, Jesus had keys he wanted to hand over.  They weren’t keys to his Ford truck, they weren’t keys to his tractor, they weren’t even keys to his parent’s donkey.  Jesus had for the disciples the keys to the church.  And he needed to hand them off.  Because, whether the disciples liked it or not, soon the time would come when Jesus wouldn’t be with them.  Rapidly approaching was the time of his death and in turn the time of his ascension.

But Jesus couldn’t just had them over to anyone off the road.  He had a question for the disciples.  He wanted to know what they had learned from him so far.  Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  Fair enough.  It gets right to the point.  Jesus as the head of the church, wanted to see what the disciples would answer.  And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

The right answer.  This is what the Old Testament church, the believers, were looking for.  With his teaching, they thought that he was John the Baptist.  They would have sounded a lot alike in their teachings.  But Jesus asks this question to call to mind the great debate and divide over who he was.  Not many looked at him as the promised Messiah.  Some thought he was the second coming of the prophet Elijah for which they were eagerly waiting.  Some thought he was nothing more than just another prophet, a great teacher and healer.  Now it was time for the real question, the real test.  He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”    

Before we get to the disciples answer, let’s take a moment to answer this question ourselves.  Who is Jesus?  We could look at the disciples answer and think, oh, it’s so nice that we don’t need to worry about any division like that today.  There is such unity on who Jesus was and what his role for coming to earth was. 

But we would be blind to the truth.  Because the truth is there is even more confusion now that before.  Even among those who know Jesus came to earth to be our Savior, there is confusion over how he would have acted towards other.  Society, Christian society, wants to peg Jesus as a loving and accepting man who welcomed everyone for who they were.  Yet fail to remember how he called out the woman at the well’s sin.  Fail to remember that for those who turned the temple into a market place he over threw the tables.       

Of the disciples, Peter is first to answer.  Which typically means he is about to open his mouth and insert his foot.  But not this time.  Peter, very astutely, answers You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.  And immediately Peter gets rewarded for such a strong confession of his savior.  And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

Peter gave the confession upon which the church would be built.  And after affirming Peter’s confession our Lord gives him, all the disciples really, a gift.  He says I will give you the keys.. Keys!  Keys?  To what?  They keys to the donkey out back?  These were no ordinary keys.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.  What are these keys for then?  Sometimes we call them the keys of the church. 

So first I think we must understand what the church is for.  What is the church for?  Some people think that the church is here to entertain them.  They want to come to church and have an eye pleasing experience.  Some people think that the church is here to make them feel good.  They don’t want to be told that they are sinners deserving wrath and punishment.  Some people refuse to come to church because it is crawling with hypocritical sinners and they think that those type of people do not belong here. 

But these are not the reasons why the church is here, why the church exists.  The church is not entertainment, it is not a place for perfect people only.  If that were true our pews would be empty and you wouldn’t have a pastor.  But we could argue that second one.  The church is here to make you feel good.  But with it the church is also here to make you feel bad. 

For the church is here to teach you about the love of God, the sacrifice of Christ, which happened because we had fallen into sin.  But here is where the keys to the kingdom of heaven come in.  Our Lord says I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Our Lord is giving the disciples, the church, the keys to unlock the kingdom of heaven through the forgiveness of sins.  This is what we hear more in detail after Jesus’ resurrection in the Gospel of John.  He comes to them in the locked room for the first time and says Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.  Through forgiveness, only after we are shown the absolute horridness of our sin, we are made perfect, we are given the peace of mind which only Christ can give.  For we are reminded of what Christ has already done for us.   

And the promise keeps getting better, because it is for you.  The Keys which Christ gave the disciples gave his church, are for you.  For it was for your sins that Christ went to the cross and forged the key by his suffering and death.  Because he died for your sins, because of your baptism, because of your life of confession, the kingdom of heaven has been opened for you. 

It is for this reason that we have the Office of the Keys and Confession always tied together.  Because what is confession if there is no absolution to release you from the weight of your sins and what is forgiveness if you have nothing to repent of?  Office of the Keys.  The Keys of the kingdom of heaven.  Luther says this concerning them, The Office of the Keys is that special authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent. 

Not only are these keys for YOU, they are also, as you just heard FOR you.  Meaning, they are given to you, the church. When our Lord said these words, and handed over the keys to the kingdom, he was preparing for what would soon happen, meaning his death, resurrection, and most importantly, his ascension into heaven.  He was preparing them for live after him.

They were to be his voice, his presence in the midst of the people.  We still have that today.  While the keys are given to the church, the church then properly calls men and places them into the office of Holy Ministry.  (LSB 326) The Catechism says concerning this I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us according to this divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our Lord dealt with us himself.  You have called me to be this for you.  To be the one who administers the keys properly and effectively within Grace Lutheran Church and within the community. 

This morning we got to see it again.  To see the office of the Keys open up the kingdom of heaven to another young soul.  Brynlea, you have been added to the multitude of believers.  You have had your name added to the book of life by your washing this morning.  You are now a part of a church that is full of sinners who know they are sinners.  But who long for hearing the words which you heard this morning 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. 

The giving of the keys.  A milestone for any 16 year old.  Wanting to feel the power of the car beneath them for the first time.  But even more, the giving of the spiritual keys.  The keys that unlock eternal life.  Given first to Peter who gave the great confession and has continued in the church built on The Rock, built on the confession of Jesus Christ. 

By the grace of God may the Office of the Keys be used responsibly here at Grace and throughout the world so that we many continually praise and ever confess our Lord and Savior as the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  

Amen

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"Take Heart" Matthew 14:22-33

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.

In the name of Jesus

The disciples spend their lives around the one who daily worked miracles.  I can’t see how that could get old.  Seeing the Lord change the lives of so many people, with simple words, with simple touching, with the love and compassion of a tender father, it must have been so amazing.  The disciples had to have strong faith, have such a great trust and belief in the Lord.  To wake up each day, not knowing what they were going to see, but knew they would be left awe of their master.  Well, maybe not quite. 

The disciples again found themselves in a familiar place.  On a boat, out on the water, which again seems to be anything but calm.   Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds.  And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them.  Jesus had sent the disciples out ahead of him while he dismissed of the crowd, the 5,000 from last week’s reading, and went up on a mountain to pray alone. 

Hard to tell if this storm was as bad as the storm in Matthew chapter 8, when Jesus and the disciples were headed across the sea and encountered that storm of the century.  And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him.  And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.  And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

It is very interesting our Lord seems to lead the disciples into danger.  I mean, in our account for today, Jesus makes, maybe even forces his disciples onto the boat.   Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side.  In storms where twelve men, who were well accustomed to the sea, find themselves fearing for their lives, Jesus is the one who placed them into it.  They might have even thought it would take a miracle to get them out of the storm.  If only they knew someone who could help. 

Storms, impossible tasks, impossible situations present themselves to us every day.  We are presented with opportunities to show God’s love by speaking, by sharing, by helping, by being a Christian example.  We wonder why we are in the situation, we wonder what it would take to get out of the situation.  We might say it would take a miracle to be relieved of the task that was in front of you.  You have heard of the fight or flight reaction, what is your reaction, fight or flight, when it comes to mission work, witnessing, being that beacon of light to people in a world of hurt?

It’s so easy to run and try and hide.  To think, doesn’t God know that I am not worthy of such a task, that I am not a worthy servant, I am not capable of witnessing like God wants me too.  I would be more comfortable in my home town, in my home church, in my home.   I am sure these thoughts have crossed the minds of pastors and missionaries alike.   

   

Do you remember that miracle that the disciples were praying for to get out of the storm, that we pray for to get out of a difficult task that we don’t feel worthy of doing?  By the grace of God it took a miracle to put you into that situation.  He calms our fears just like he calmed the fears of the disciples who thought they saw a ghost on the sea and said “Take heart, it is I”.  God takes all that you have experienced in your life, all the trials, all the difficulties, all the joys, and prepares you for the task ahead.  God sends out into the mission field those who feel under qualified, those who think they can’t do the work, those who are sinners. 

Our Epistle reading was from one who was completely unqualified to do God’s work.  In fact, he persecuted, tortured, even killed Christians.  He was unqualified  because when called to him on the road, he was not even a believer.  But God, by his infinite grace, took that man, Saul, called to him, and converted him.  He took the most unlikely man, Paul, a man who calls himself the Chief of Sinners, and put him into His service.  If God used him, he will also use you. 

The importance of the task of taking the Gospel message to the ends of the earth lies in our epistle reading from Paul.  How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?  And how are they to hear without someone preaching?  And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”  But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?”  So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. 

God uses his children to spread the good news so that all may call upon him.  Yes he uses you who are a sinner, you are as unqualified as the next person.  But in that which you are to witness about, the Cross, the tomb, the Savior, your sins, your reproach are taken away.  God in his infinite wisdom, took away any excuses we might have, any doubts we might have about doing his work.  You think you are not special?  God created you.  You think you are a horrible sinner?  God sent his Son to redeem you from your long list of sins.  You think you are a nobody?  The Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel and sanctified you in the waters of Holy Baptism to do his work.  Take heart and know that it is God, who works far more abundantly through us than we even know, who has called you into his service.   

God calls us, God sends us to do his mission work.  He sends us into situations where we are not comfortable.  He send us into situations that are not a guaranteed success, by our standards.  He sends us not where we think we need to be, but where he knows we need to be.  And as we struggle witnessing to our friends, neighbors, our family, as we struggle living a life of example, he says to us “Take heart, it is I”.  I have called you, I will strengthen you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.   

The question you are sent to answer, the same question which the disciples had during both storms.  Who is Jesus?  When Jesus calmed the storm they asked amongst themselves, who is this who even commands the sea to stop.  When Jesus walked miraculously on the water, the disciples thought it was a ghost.  Still today, people ask who is it that who does such great things?  Who is with us during times of grief?  Is there any help? 

There most certainly is.  Jesus, the name above every name, Immanuel, God with us, is just that.  With us.  He is with us, to give us strength, courage, words when we are called to bear witness to his great and awesome deeds.  He is with us to comfort us, to uphold us, to cleanse us in times of great worry and need. 

  

There are people all over the world who are thirsting for the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  There are people all over the world who would give up their most prized worldly possessions to have what you have on a weekly basis.  They desire to know the one who walks on water, feeds 5,000 men with just five loaves of bread and two fish, who died on the cross and rose again.

What a blessing to know the one whom people around the world desire to know, even the one whom people are giving up their lives for.  As God calls us to share his saving name, remember one of the most important mission fields, and the best place to start, is in our back yard. 

God bless us always as we find ways to be a mission church.  May he bless us with a servant attitude that we show Christ’s love in all that we say and do, for the sake of His Kingdom.  Now to him who set the foundations of the earth, who set the limits of the sea, who has numbered our days in his way, be glory forever and ever. 

   Amen.  

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"Our Daily Bread" Matthew 14:13-21

Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Amen

Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, this is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.

In the Name of Jesus

I would suspect most of us here this morning don’t have worry about where our next meal is going to come from.  There is a large number of people in our country, in our state, probably more than we would like to think in our town that face this dilemma each day.     

The disciples found themselves in between the preverbal rock and hard place.  All Jesus seemed to want was a little alone time.  To climb on the boat and withdraw from the crowds reflect.  Easier said than done when you are as well-known as Jesus of Nazareth was. 

Still, Jesus needed some “alone” time.  With the great crowds he had been teaching in parables to, and how Jesus was confronted with some terrible news.  With fame can also come from bad fortune.  Hear the beginning of chapter 14.  At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus, and he said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.”  For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”  And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet.  But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.  Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.”  And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given.  He sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.  And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus.

This is the news Jesus receives at the beginning of our text then today.  Understandably Jesus wants to withdraw from the crowds and reflect, maybe even teach the disciples, who knew John and had just buried him, a lesson on death and the cost of following him. 

Whatever his reason was, it didn’t work.  Desiring so much to be with them, to be in their presence and witness amazing things, the crowd followed them.  Curiosity got the better of some 5,000 men that day, not including women and children.  As they took note of the boat, and the crowd following on shore, they all ran to the place where Jesus and the disciples were headed and beat them to their destination. 

So much for the disciples’ time of rest.  Jesus, although an attempt had to have been made to persuade him otherwise, had compassion on this large crowd.  He knew that they needed the true word, the true Gospel, more than he needed rest.  So going ashore he began to heal and undoubtedly teach this crowd many things.  Between teaching the crowd on the other side of the sea, the boat trip, and the healing and teaching of the 5,000, it quickly became late.

It was late, it was desolate, and it was time to eat.  The disciples doing the logical thing, tell Jesus, send these people away so they can go get some food.  After all, that is why they came over to this side of the sea, to care for the needs of the body as well as the soul.  They say this is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.  Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.  However their Master had other plans.  You give them something to eat, Jesus says.

What was he thinking?  How could the disciples feed 5,000 men plus women and children?  Did Jesus know how much food and planning that would take?  They couldn’t call the kitchen ladies to come fix food for this many people on extremely short notice.  They only brought enough for themselves, five loaves of bread and two fish.  Mark notes in his Gospel that it would take two hundred denarii to feed this group.  This was an unbelievable amount of money to spend.  A denarii was one days wage, so it would have taken over half of a year’s salary to feed this group.  The disciples probably reminded Jesus that back when he called them to be his disciples; he made them give away all their earthly possessions to the poor and therefore might not have 200 denarii to spend in this situation. 

They recognized the needs of the people in their midst, and they were trying to care for them as they saw fit.  They were being good shepherds of God’s flock.  But still the disciples were blind to who was in their midst.  They thought that they had given to this crowd all that they could.  They had heard from Jesus his great teachings, heard about the kingdom of heaven.  But now they had to look elsewhere for physical means, physical nourishment. 

As God’ children, as members of his church we fall into the same trap, rut, temptation, which the disciples did.  Here is God’s house, God’s oasis in the sinful desert.  Come have your hunger and thirst for heavenly food quenched.  Come hear the Word of God, come be washed in the Holy waters of Baptism.  Come feast on the body and blood of our dear Savior Jesus Christ.  Hear the amazing Gospel that through these things your sin is forgiven and eternal life is yours.  But you have to look elsewhere for earthly needs.  We will look after your soul, but can’t help with body. 

It would have been real easy for our Lord to say to the crowd just what the disciples wanted him to do.  I have given you eternal life, I have fed your soul with great things, now you must go fill your bellies.  But our God cares for our whole being.  He cares for us spiritually and physically.  He could not let the crowd go hungry.  He loved them, he cared for them, he was their shepherd. 

Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”  And he said, “Bring them here to me.”  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

The Lord gave to the crowd the Gospel of eternal life.  He fed them with heavenly things and they were full.  Now he has given them the Gospel of physical life, one which we would do well to take note of.  Our God is loving.  He alone is the creator of the world.  He oversees it all and provides for all its needs.  You are a part of his beautiful creation, you are his child.  If he gives to the birds of the air, the beasts of the field the provisions for daily life, how will he not also give you the same and more?  We confess each week, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.  Martin Luther says of this, I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that he has given me my body and soul, eyes, ear, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them.  He also gives me clothing and shoe, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have.  He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life. 

Friends in Christ, the Gospel is not something which we are waiting for, eternal life is not everything given to us.  We are not waiting for the Gospel to happen.  The Gospel is seen on a daily basis.  Our body is a blessing, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, where we live, what we own, it is ours be the grace of God.  We live in a up and down economical time right now.  We are learning, some the hard way, that jobs are not a guarantee, even jobs held for a long period of time.  Money is not a guarantee.  While we may have an overabundance one day, the next we might be struggling to make ends meet.  We live among people who are hurting, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  Just as the Lord called on his disciples to lean on him and trust in him when the means did not match the need, so we are constantly called on to lean solely on the Lord our God.  His grace is sufficient.  We know so well of how he turns lack into abundance by his grace. 

It is easy to forget this, especially when we go so long having what we need.  Yet, it is even in those times, he calls to us to reach out to those around us.  Reach out to the hurting, and bring them the love of God.  There are so many ways to do this.  Yes we reach out with the word of God on our lips, with the comfort of God always with us.  But we do this by showing that God’s people, God’s house, God himself cares just as much about our physical wellbeing as he does our spiritual wellbeing. 

The Gospel for eternal life….the Gospel for Tuesday.  The Gospel of spiritual blessings….the Gospel of physical blessings.  We must remember and proclaim both to the world.  God provides for all our needs of both body and soul.  To him be glory forever and ever.  

                                                                          Amen

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