Grace Lutheran Church Versailles Mo

Grace Lutheran Church Versailles Mo A congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod that faith gathers around the preached Word and the sacraments in liturgical worship.

A member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
Sunday Worship is 10:30 AM
Sunday School is 9:30 AM
Wednesday Bible Study is 7 PM

04/19/2026

The Gospel for the Third Sunday of Easter is John 10:11-16.

I Know My Own
A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “I AM the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.” Jesus said those things for your comfort and assurance.

1. God’s people have been called His sheep (Ezekiel 34:12) and “the flock of God” (1 Peter 5:2) for thousands of years (e.g., Numbers 27:17, 2 Samuel 24:17). You are the baptized of Christ. You are therefore God’s people and sheep: “the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7). In today’s Gospel,

• when Jesus said, “I know My own,” He was talking about His original twelve disciples, but NOT only them. Jesus was also talking about a certain man whom He had just healed of blindness (John 9), and about all the other people during those days who saw Jesus face-to-face, heard His Words, received His gifts, and followed Him.

• when Jesus said, “I have other sheep who are not of this fold,” He was talking about you, and about your fellow Christians here with you. Jesus was talking about ALL the baptized of Christ. Our Lord knew, even during the days of His humiliation, that He wanted you to be in His flock—and He was earnest about it: “I must bring them also.”

o “I have other sheep.” At the time those Words were spoken, the holy Christian church was not yet as large as it now is, or as it one day shall be. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Christ is indeed risen, but He is NOT done with His work. Since the day of His resurrection, Jesus the Good Shepherd has been seeking and gathering His beloved sheep in the power of His resurrection. Century after century, He has continually added His “other sheep” to the sheepfold of eternity.

o “I must bring them also.” Those Words indicate the preaching of the Church, the administration of Baptism, and the service of the Holy Communion. Through these things, Jesus the Good Shepherd does His ongoing gathering. With these things, Jesus provides His sheep with good pasture and strong protection against every enemy. Do NOT doubt that you are your Lord’s precious lamb (John 21:5); do NOT doubt that He has called you by name (Isaiah 43:1); do NOT doubt that you shall “dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6). Because you are the baptized of Christ—“the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7)—King David’s Words have been made your Words. You should say, with complete confidence in the resurrected Christ:

The LORD is MY shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes ME lie down in green pastures and beside still waters.
He restores MY soul. MY cup overflows (Psalm 23:1-3, 5).

2a. “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own.” The connection you now have with Jesus is a divine mystery. Human words can only provide the outlines of the divine mysteries; “there is no speech, nor are there words” (Psalm 19:3) that can explain the full depth “of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). God tells us His mysteries by telling us things that sound like opposites.

Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Here are two opposites that describe the divine mystery of your connection—your relationship—to the Risen Christ:

• First, Jesus is your sacrificial Lamb. At your Baptism, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) became the Lamb of God who takes away your sins in particular. “You were washed” (1 Corinthians 6:11, cf. Acts 22:16).

• For as much as Jesus is your sacrificial Lamb, He is also your Good Shepherd. At your Baptism, the Good Shepherd became your Good Shepherd, making good His oath and promise in today’s Gospel: “I have other sheep. I must bring them also.”

Hence, the mystery: Both of those opposites are equally and entirely true. Both of those opposites deserve your sustained attention and lifelong devotion. Those two opposites are your Aaron and your Hur (Exodus 17:12): they shall hold up your arms, ensuring your victory, sustaining you and bringing you at last to “your heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:2). “For the sheep the Lamb has bled. Alleluia!” (LSB 463.2) “Why should cross and trial grieve me? For I am His dear lamb, [and] He my Shepherd ever” (LSB 756.1, 4). “Let Him prove a faithful shepherd, that no lamb be led astray” (LSB 681.1)

2b. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Modern preachers sometimes like to focus upon the negative characteristics of sheep: sheep go quickly astray; sheep eat things they shouldn’t eat; sheep easily die, etc. If we push beyond the superficialities, we shall see truly comforting things. Why does God call us “the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3) and “the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7)?

• We are called sheep because God “was made Man” (Nicene Creed). To turn a phrase, God was made Lamb. The sacrificial offering of Jesus for the sins of the world was fully established “before the mountains had been shaped, before He made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world” (Proverbs 8:25, 26). Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19, cf. Exodus 12:5).

That is part of the reason why God’s people are called “sheep”: that they may know what their redemption looks like. The names “my sheep” (Ezekiel 34:5, 11) and “my flock” (Jeremiah 23:2) prepared us for the Incarnation of our Lord, when God made His appearance on earth in human flesh. Jesus “had to be made like His brothers in every way” (Hebrews 2:17). By calling His people “My sheep,” God the Father taught our Old Testament fathers to wait for a sacrificial lamb to come into their midst. “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8).

• Here is the other side of the coin: We are called sheep also because of today’s Gospel. “I AM the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me.” Among all the animals on earth, sheep were designed from the creation to have a shepherd. Sheep were created for domestication; they were created to be dependent upon man. Sheep are therefore ennobled by the Shepherd who watches over them, defends them, and provides for them. The Shepherd completes the sheep, bringing them into the fulness of what they were always meant to be.

In the first and second generations of our human existence, Adam’s son “Abel was a keeper of sheep” (Genesis 4:2). Abel was a shepherd in the image of the Christ. Abel’s blood and death arose from his faithful treatment of the sheep under the eyes of God (vv. 4-5). The sheep have benefited from the faithful care of a shepherd ever since:

o “That the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep without a shepherd,” prayed Moses (Numbers 27:17).

o “The Most High God led His people out like sheep,” sang Asaph (Psalm 78:35, 52).

o “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11), declared the LORD.

o “I AM the Good Shepherd,” said Jesus. “I know My own.”

3. “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.” Were today’s Gospel not already wonderful enough, comforting and assuring us with the knowledge that we have a Good Shepherd who watches over us, these precious Words add more: “I know My own and My own know Me.” Jesus even added a point of comparison for us, in order to make those Words to us even more wonderful: “just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

• When Jesus said, “I know My own,” He was NOT merely indicating that He knows your name. He also knows “your devils and your deeds” (to borrow words from Joni Mitchell). Christ Jesus our Lord knows absolutely everything about us, His willful and afflicted sheep, and He still desires to be with us; He still desires to gather us and to make us His own. “I have other sheep. I must bring them also” because I do NOT want them to perish (2 Peter 3:9). This is an amazing thing: Knowing all that He knows about us, Jesus nonetheless said, “I must bring them into My flock also.” The Words “My own” further indicate that He was speaking with love and joy and NO chagrin. Our Lord is NOT ashamed to say, “My sheep” and “My flock.”

• Here is an equally amazing thing: Jesus also said, “My own know Me.” With those Words, Jesus was NOT merely acknowledging that you know you are a Christian, or that I am familiar with our Lord’s name. No. When Jesus said, “My own know Me,” He was crediting to us “all mysteries and all knowledge” (1 Corinthians 13:2), “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), and even the perfect knowledge that God Himself has in eternity! Christ Jesus our Lord said in today’s Gospel that you and I each know our Good Shepherd in the same way and with the same intimacy that the heavenly Father knows His eternal Son, and the Son His Father. “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

Neither you nor I know Jesus the Good Shepherd as well as His heavenly Father does. Jesus knows that about us. He nonetheless regards us as having perfect knowledge of Him. In this Gospel, Jesus credited us with perfect knowledge of Him, speaking the mystery of God: “My own know Me.” Draw comfort from those Words.

o In the same way that perfect holiness has been credited to me in Christ, despite the fact that “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 6:15);

o in the equal way that the blood of Jesus shall likewise declare you “guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8), in spite of any and all guilt you have incurred against your God and your neighbor;

o so, too, perfect knowledge of Jesus our Good Shepherd is likewise credited to both of us in today’s Gospel: “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

Why did Jesus credit perfect knowledge to us, even though we all still need to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18); “growing up in every way in Him” (Ephesians 4:15)? Jesus credited perfect knowledge to us because lack of knowledge kills. Lack of knowledge kills, but Jesus came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

• “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” said the prophet (Hosea 4:6);

• “My people go into exile for lack of knowledge” (Isaiah 5:13);

• “because they hated knowledge” (Proverbs 5:29).

Jesus does NOT want us, His other sheep, to be destroyed for lack of knowledge. Therefore, He has credited all knowledge to us; He has declared both your knowledge and mine to be equal to that of Him who knows all things: “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.” Those Words were spoken for your comfort, your joy, and your peace; those Words were written for your certainty, so that you may truly rest in Him who gives you rest; that you may indeed “dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6).

04/19/2026

The Gospel for the Third Sunday is John 10:11-16.

I Know My Own
A Sermon for the Third Sunday of Easter

Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Jesus said in today’s Gospel, “I AM the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.” Jesus said those things for your comfort and assurance.

1. God’s people have been called His sheep (Ezekiel 34:12) and “the flock of God” (1 Peter 5:2) for thousands of years (e.g., Numbers 27:17, 2 Samuel 24:17). You are the baptized of Christ. You are therefore God’s people and sheep: “the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7). In today’s Gospel,

• when Jesus said, “I know My own,” He was talking about His original twelve disciples, but NOT only them. Jesus was also talking about a certain man whom He had just healed of blindness (John 9), and about all the other people during those days who saw Jesus face-to-face, heard His Words, received His gifts, and followed Him.

• when Jesus said, “I have other sheep who are not of this fold,” He was talking about you, and about your fellow Christians here with you. Jesus was talking about ALL the baptized of Christ. Our Lord knew, even during the days of His humiliation, that He wanted you to be in His flock—and He was earnest about it: “I must bring them also.”

o “I have other sheep.” At the time those Words were spoken, the holy Christian church was not yet as large as it now is, or as it one day shall be. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Christ is indeed risen, but He is NOT done with His work. Since the day of His resurrection, Jesus the Good Shepherd has been seeking and gathering His beloved sheep in the power of His resurrection. Century after century, He has continually added His “other sheep” to the sheepfold of eternity.

o “I must bring them also.” Those Words indicate the preaching of the Church, the administration of Baptism, and the service of the Holy Communion. Through these things, Jesus the Good Shepherd does His ongoing gathering. With these things, Jesus provides His sheep with good pasture and strong protection against every enemy. Do NOT doubt that you are your Lord’s precious lamb (John 21:5); do NOT doubt that He has called you by name (Isaiah 43:1); do NOT doubt that you shall “dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6). Because you are the baptized of Christ—“the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7)—King David’s Words have been made your Words. You should say, with complete confidence in the resurrected Christ:

The LORD is MY shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes ME lie down in green pastures and beside still waters.
He restores MY soul. MY cup overflows (Psalm 23:1-3, 5).

2a. “I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own.” The connection you now have with Jesus is a divine mystery. Human words can only provide the outlines of the divine mysteries; “there is no speech, nor are there words” (Psalm 19:3) that can explain the full depth “of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). God tells us His mysteries by telling us things that sound like opposites.

Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Here are two opposites that describe the divine mystery of your connection—your relationship—to the Risen Christ:

• First, Jesus is your sacrificial Lamb. At your Baptism, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29) became the Lamb of God who takes away your sins in particular. “You were washed” (1 Corinthians 6:11, cf. Acts 22:16).

• For as much as Jesus is your sacrificial Lamb, He is also your Good Shepherd. At your Baptism, the Good Shepherd became your Good Shepherd, making good His oath and promise in today’s Gospel: “I have other sheep. I must bring them also.”

Hence, the mystery: Both of those opposites are equally and entirely true. Both of those opposites deserve your sustained attention and lifelong devotion. Those two opposites are your Aaron and your Hur (Exodus 17:12): they shall hold up your arms, ensuring your victory, sustaining you and bringing you at last to “your heavenly dwelling” (2 Corinthians 5:2). “For the sheep the Lamb has bled. Alleluia!” (LSB 463.2) “Why should cross and trial grieve me? For I am His dear lamb, [and] He my Shepherd ever” (LSB 756.1, 4). “Let Him prove a faithful shepherd, that no lamb be led astray” (LSB 681.1)

2b. “The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Modern preachers sometimes like to focus upon the negative characteristics of sheep: sheep go quickly astray; sheep eat things they shouldn’t eat; sheep easily die, etc. If we push beyond the superficialities, we shall see truly comforting things. Why does God call us “the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:3) and “the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7)?

• We are called sheep because God “was made Man” (Nicene Creed). To turn a phrase, God was made Lamb. The sacrificial offering of Jesus for the sins of the world was fully established “before the mountains had been shaped, before He made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world” (Proverbs 8:25, 26). Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), “a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:19, cf. Exodus 12:5).

That is part of the reason why God’s people are called “sheep”: that they may know what their redemption looks like. The names “my sheep” (Ezekiel 34:5, 11) and “my flock” (Jeremiah 23:2) prepared us for the Incarnation of our Lord, when God made His appearance on earth in human flesh. Jesus “had to be made like His brothers in every way” (Hebrews 2:17). By calling His people “My sheep,” God the Father taught our Old Testament fathers to wait for a sacrificial lamb to come into their midst. “God will provide for Himself the Lamb for a burnt offering, my son” (Genesis 22:8).

• Here is the other side of the coin: We are called sheep also because of today’s Gospel. “I AM the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me.” Among all the animals on earth, sheep were designed from the creation to have a shepherd. Sheep were created for domestication; they were created to be dependent upon man. Sheep are therefore ennobled by the Shepherd who watches over them, defends them, and provides for them. The Shepherd completes the sheep, bringing them into the fulness of what they were always meant to be.

In the first and second generations of our human existence, Adam’s son “Abel was a keeper of sheep” (Genesis 4:2). Abel was a shepherd in the image of the Christ. Abel’s blood and death arose from his faithful treatment of the sheep under the eyes of God (vv. 4-5). The sheep have benefited from the faithful care of a shepherd ever since:

o “That the congregation of the LORD may not be as sheep without a shepherd,” prayed Moses (Numbers 27:17).

o “The Most High God led His people out like sheep,” sang Asaph (Psalm 78:35, 52).

o “Behold, I, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out” (Ezekiel 34:11), declared the LORD.

o “I AM the Good Shepherd,” said Jesus. “I know My own.”

3. “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.” Were today’s Gospel not already wonderful enough, comforting and assuring us with the knowledge that we have a Good Shepherd who watches over us, these precious Words add more: “I know My own and My own know Me.” Jesus even added a point of comparison for us, in order to make those Words to us even more wonderful: “just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

• When Jesus said, “I know My own,” He was NOT merely indicating that He knows your name. He also knows “your devils and your deeds” (to borrow words from Joni Mitchell). Christ Jesus our Lord knows absolutely everything about us, His willful and afflicted sheep, and He still desires to be with us; He still desires to gather us and to make us His own. “I have other sheep. I must bring them also” because I do NOT want them to perish (2 Peter 3:9). This is an amazing thing: Knowing all that He knows about us, Jesus nonetheless said, “I must bring them into My flock also.” The Words “My own” further indicate that He was speaking with love and joy and NO chagrin. Our Lord is NOT ashamed to say, “My sheep” and “My flock.”

• Here is an equally amazing thing: Jesus also said, “My own know Me.” With those Words, Jesus was NOT merely acknowledging that you know you are a Christian, or that I am familiar with our Lord’s name. No. When Jesus said, “My own know Me,” He was crediting to us “all mysteries and all knowledge” (1 Corinthians 13:2), “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27), and even the perfect knowledge that God Himself has in eternity! Christ Jesus our Lord said in today’s Gospel that you and I each know our Good Shepherd in the same way and with the same intimacy that the heavenly Father knows His eternal Son, and the Son His Father. “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

Neither you nor I know Jesus the Good Shepherd as well as His heavenly Father does. Jesus knows that about us. He nonetheless regards us as having perfect knowledge of Him. In this Gospel, Jesus credited us with perfect knowledge of Him, speaking the mystery of God: “My own know Me.” Draw comfort from those Words.

o In the same way that perfect holiness has been credited to me in Christ, despite the fact that “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 6:15);

o in the equal way that the blood of Jesus shall likewise declare you “guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:8), in spite of any and all guilt you have incurred against your God and your neighbor;

o so, too, perfect knowledge of Jesus our Good Shepherd is likewise credited to both of us in today’s Gospel: “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.”

Why did Jesus credit perfect knowledge to us, even though we all still need to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18); “growing up in every way in Him” (Ephesians 4:15)? Jesus credited perfect knowledge to us because lack of knowledge kills. Lack of knowledge kills, but Jesus came “that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

• “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” said the prophet (Hosea 4:6);

• “My people go into exile for lack of knowledge” (Isaiah 5:13);

• “because they hated knowledge” (Proverbs 5:29).

Jesus does NOT want us, His other sheep, to be destroyed for lack of knowledge. Therefore, He has credited all knowledge to us; He has declared both your knowledge and mine to be equal to that of Him who knows all things: “I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father.” Those Words were spoken for your comfort, your joy, and your peace; those Words were written for your certainty, so that you may truly rest in Him who gives you rest; that you may indeed “dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (Psalm 23:6).

04/12/2026

The Gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter is John 20:19-31.

Resurrection Priorities
(Forgiveness and Faith)
A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter

Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. Today’s Gospel teaches two things: 1) the forgiveness of sins and 2) faith. In this Gospel, as matters of priority, Jesus attached His resurrection to both of those things: 1) the forgiveness of sins and 2) faith.

• The resurrection of Jesus is indicated in this Gospel with these Words (among others): “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week.” Early that same morning, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John had visited our Lord’s tomb. They found it empty (John 20:1-10). Later that same day—“on the evening of that day”—Jesus visited His disciples, fully risen from the dead, never to die again (Romans 6:9).

• Jesus made the forgiveness of sins His first order of business. Forgiveness was spoken to the disciples: “Peace be with you.” Forgiveness was likewise given through the disciples to the world; to us: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness, it is withheld.” Jesus made the forgiveness of sins the first work of His resurrection, the first gift of His resurrection, the first priority of His resurrection. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) Your sins are forgiven.

• The second priority of our Lord’s resurrection is your faith. Jesus connected your faith to His resurrection when He said to Thomas in part two of today’s Gospel, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”

1. “Now Thomas was not with them when Jesus came and stood among them” in the first part of today’s Gospel. We call that disciple “doubting Thomas,” but we are mostly trying to be nice. Thomas was NO mere doubter; he had become an unbeliever, fallen from faith. Thomas was so firm in unbelief that he took an oath: “Unless I see and touch, I shall never believe.” Jesus overcame unbelief for Thomas, replacing Thomas’s human act of rejection with the divine power of faith.

Many Gospels teach us many things about faith. What does today’s Gospel teach in particular? This Gospel teaches us to associate our faith with the resurrection of Jesus.

• Like all other Gospels, today’s Gospel teaches us WHAT to believe. In particular, this Gospel teaches that Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)

• Today’s Gospel also teaches WHY we believe; it teaches the source and power of our faith and HOW it is possible to believe: Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) This Gospel emphasizes that

o faith does NOT get its power from what the eye can see: “Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails,” blithered Thomas, “I will never believe.” No. “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.”

o faith is NOT powered by what may be touched or grasped, “for you have not come to what may be touched” (Hebrews 12:18): “Unless I place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.” No.

Faith gets its power from the resurrection of Jesus. Faith IS the resurrection of Jesus, alive and well and now dwelling inside of you.

Today’s Epistle can help us with this point: that faith IS the resurrection of Jesus now living inside of you. The Epistle was written by St. John, who also wrote today’s Gospel. John was there present—both times—when Jesus “came and stood among them.”

Here is what John said in today’s Epistle: “This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith” (1 John 5:4). What an amazing thing to say!

• John knew very well that the resurrection of Jesus has overcome the world. With his own ears, John had earlier heard Jesus say, “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). With his own eyes, John looked into our Lord’s empty tomb and saw it empty (John 20:5). John likewise rejoiced in today’s Gospel “when they saw the Lord.”

• Here is the amazing thing: Even though he knew the resurrection, John did NOT point to the resurrection in today’s Epistle. John pointed instead to our faith: “This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith” (1 John 5:4).

John was NOT denying the resurrection of Jesus. John simply equated the resurrection of Jesus and our faith. The line of thinking John wanted us to follow is this (syllogism):

• The resurrection of Jesus overcomes the world.

• Our faith overcomes the world.

• Our faith is therefore the resurrection of Jesus.

It can be no other way! We believe IN the resurrection, to be sure; we also believe BECAUSE of the resurrection, by the power of the resurrection. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) “So we preach and so you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:11).

2. Faith is only the second part of today’s Gospel. In the first part of this Gospel, when “Jesus came and stood among them,” He made the forgiveness of sins the first priority of His resurrection.

• Forgiveness of sins was spoken for you: “Peace be with you.”

• Forgiveness of sins was also handed over to you, so that you may turn and give it to others: “If YOU forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if YOU withhold forgiveness, it is withheld.”

What does Jesus want you to do, as a result of His resurrection from the dead? He wants you to use the power of His resurrection to forgive and to withhold forgiveness from other people—including and especially those who have sinned against you. The Small Catechism calls that power “the Office of the Keys.” The resurrection of Jesus has given the Office of the Keys also to you: “If YOU forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if YOU withhold forgiveness, it is withheld.”

Jesus also established the way for you to decide who should be forgiven and who should NOT. “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” With those Words,

• Jesus was NOT saying that we should use the Office of the Keys based upon our emotions. Our Lord did NOT say, for example, “Withhold forgiveness from those who anger or hurt you, and give forgiveness to those who treat you well.” It would be an abuse of the pastor’s office if he were to withhold forgiveness from people who might have irritated or injured him. So, too, you must NOT withhold forgiveness from others, on account of the way those others made you feel. The forgiveness of sins is NOT about emotions; the forgiveness of sins is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!)

• Jesus wanted us to speak His forgiveness on the basis of His Word alone, for His Words “are spirit and life” (John 6:63). When Jesus died to forgive the sins of the world, “He gave up His Spirit” (John 19:30). When Jesus rose from the dead, “He breathed on His disciples and said, “receive the Holy Spirit.’” That same Spirit has likewise been given also to you by your resurrected Lord.

Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) The resurrection of Jesus

• has been poured into you; it lives now within you in the form of faith.

• is “the power at work within us, which is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). The resurrection of Jesus is even powerful to overcome the strong forces of your pain and my anger.

• therefore makes it possible for us rightly to forgive and to withhold forgiveness, in keeping with our Lord’s promise: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness, it is withheld.”

3. We all know how difficult it can be to forgive, especially “from your heart,” as Jesus requires (Matthew 18:35). You are NOT alone in the struggle to forgive, and NOT nearly as isolated in your emotions as the unbelieving world wants you to think you are.

When St. Paul wrote his First Letter to the Corinthians, he used the phrase, “common to man.” Paul was NOT merely talking about males, but about all people in general. “No temptation has overtaken you,” he said, “that is not common to man” (1 Corinthians 19:13)—to mankind, to all people everywhere.

The phrase “common to man” indicates that we all understand certain things about each other, even without explaining all things to one another. The phrase “common to man” indicates that we all understand what fear, indignation, and pain all feel like. I understand that you get angry—sometimes, really angry. You understand that I have the capacity to feel pain—sometimes, debilitating pain. By contrast, the unbelieving world wants you to think that no one can feel your feelings quite like you do. Please bear in mind that the unbelieving world is full of flatulence.

“If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness, it is withheld.” Paul’s phrase, “common to man”

• assures me that you understand my fear; especially how afraid I feel for the salvation of my loved ones. You can sense the grasping feeling I get in my chest when I see my loved ones deliberately living apart from the faith and against God’s commandments.

When Jesus gave us the Office of the Keys in today’s Gospel, He did NOT mean for us to speak forgiveness to the unrepentant just because we are afraid; just because we desperately want to see them change their ways. Jesus does NOT want us to use the Office of the Keys as a way of giving false assurances to the unrepentant, speaking to them as if their sin does not really matter. No. As the catechism explains, love requires us to “withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant for as long as they do not repent” (Small Catechism).

Fear is “common to man.” In today’s Gospel, “the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews.” The resurrected Jesus chased away the fears of the disciples; He has equal power to chase away our fears as well. The resurrection makes it possible for us to do what needs to be done for our unrepentant loved ones: “If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

• also promises you that I know what your anger and your pain feel like, based upon the various sensations of anger and pain that I myself have felt. You and I both have been angered to the core by someone; we both have been harmed; we both have suffered injustice of one form or another; we both have wanted our vindication. When we each feel tempted to withhold forgiveness because of anger and injury, we suffer a temptation that is “common to man.”

Here is good news: “The LORD has brought about our vindication” (Jeremiah 51:10). Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!) When the resurrection of Jesus was delivered personally to you and personally to me, it took the form of faith. Our faith IS the resurrection, and the resurrection IS our faith. The resurrection will also make it possible for each of us finally to do—and eventually, to do with “gladness of heart” (Isaiah 30:29, 65:14)—what must be done: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.”

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Versailles, MO
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