LESSON: ACTS 5:1‒11

“Everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.” Matthew 22:4

“Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment? Matthew 22:12

In order to provide guests for the marriage feast, the king’s servants must never cease to continue with their proclamation, inviting all whom they meet to come to the marriage feast. The king wants a full table at this feast. The most important, holy, and mighty people who were invited first would not come. As Luke tells the parable, the king then sent out his servants to invite “the poor and maimed and blind and lame” (Luke 14:21). These are the heathen, who were not numbered among God’s chosen people, had nothing about which to become presumptuous, and were quite glad to accept the invitation extended to them.

On inspecting the guests, the king found a scoundrel amongst the crowd, sitting at the table, whom he quickly recognized and condemned. He did not have a wedding garment. He had not come to this marriage out of any feeling of respect, but to disgrace the bridegroom and the king who had invited him. By this man is indicated those who are numbered among true Christians, who hear the Gospel and are to be found in the external fellowship of the Church but who merely make a pretense of accepting the Gospel in hypocrisy.

Here we see that the Church on earth, considered according to its external fellowship, is a congregation of such as hear the true teaching of the Gospel of Christ, and believe and confess it. They also have the Holy Spirit who sanctifies them and works in them through the Word and Sacrament. Among these, however, there are still to be found some false Christians and hypocrites.

SL.XI.1759,29‒30
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Lord God, You have told us very clearly in Your Word that only the pure in heart will see You. Give us such singleness of heart and mind that we may always serve You in spirit and truth, without any hypocrisy, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.

LESSON: 1 CORINTHIANS 2:6‒13

This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:32

It is always our own old Adam, the corrupted nature of man, which prevents our heart from fully recognizing the joy and consolation which should be ours as members of Christ’s kingdom. It is, and in some respects remains, a mystery, a secret, hidden, deep, concealed, and incomprehensible. That is also why Paul calls all this “a great mystery” (Ephesians 5:32). But it is nevertheless something great, excellent, and wonderful.

It is something mysterious, not only to the blind, foolish world which never even thinks of these high spiritual matters and does not understand them, but also to the beloved apostles and outstanding Christians who find that there is quite enough to learn and to believe. No matter how long they concern themselves with these matters, preach about them, and search them out, they are compelled to confess that there is a mystery in these matters for them in this life. Even St. Paul speaks quite freely about the limitations imposed on his understanding by the weakness of his flesh. He says, “I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions” (Romans 7:14‒15). David, too, raises complaints in many of his psalms. But there will be no mysteries in the future life, where we shall see without any coverings or darkness, and live in eternal joy.

In this present life, it can still remain in some respects a hidden, concealed spiritual marriage which one cannot see with one’s eyes or grasp with one’s reason. Only faith can grasp these matters, faith which clings to the Word alone which tells us about these things and which we may be able to grasp only weakly here because of the perversity of our flesh.

SL.XI.1753,14
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: There are many things in Your Word, especially in Your Gospel of salvation, heavenly Father, which are mysteries and beyond our understanding. Give us at all times the faith to accept Your Word and to believe it with our whole heart, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

LESSON: PHILIPPIANS 4:4‒7

“Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.” John 16:22

We must learn to accept and to believe the Word. Christ Himself proclaims this Word to us, and God has commanded us to believe it as the truth. To reject this Word is tantamount to calling Christ a liar. We must learn to believe and trust the Word despite what our feelings may be inclined to suggest to us.

If you are to believe the Word, you cannot cling to what your own thoughts or feelings may suggest. You must cling to God’s Word, no matter how little you actually feel or experience it. If you are a person who realizes his need and wretchedness, and have a hearty desire to participate in the consolation and love of Christ, give your ears and heart to Christ. Take hold of the comforting picture presented in the Gospel (Matthew 22:1‒14), in which He shows that He wants you to acknowledge Him and believe in Him. You can be sure, He has an even deeper love and concern for you than any earthly bridegroom has for his beloved bride. On the other hand, He expects such a heartfelt confidence and joy from you towards Himself that it exceeds that of any bride for her bridegroom.

We could all probably find any amount of cause here to reprehend our unbelief and declare, “If such warm, heartfelt confidence and joy can be found between a bride and bridegroom, after all a rather insignificant and transient matter, why do I not find greater joy in my godly and faithful Savior Christ, who gave Himself for me as my very own possession? What a wretched thing this unbelief is! It keeps my heart from being full of laughter and eternal joy.”

SL.XI.1752,13
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Lord, remove from us all diffidence, lukewarmness, and unbelief, and confirm us in the full joy of salvation, which is always ours in and through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

LESSON: MATTHEW 19:1‒6

Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body. Ephesians 5:28‒30

The love of a man and woman in marriage is a parable or a picture of the great, hidden, but wonderful union of Christ with His Church. All believers are members of that Church, and, as St. Paul says, they are members of Christ’s body (Ephesians 5:30), of His flesh and bones, as in the beginning, at the creation, the woman was taken from the man.

What a great, unfathomable, and unspeakable love God must have for us for the divine nature thus to become united with us and merged with our flesh and blood, for God’s Son truly to become one flesh and one body with us and to receive us into such a lofty status! He is not merely content to become our brother; He also becomes our bridegroom, turns to us and gives us as our very own possession all His divine blessings, wisdom, righteousness, life, strength, and power. Yes, we are even destined to become “partakers of the divine nature,” as St. Peter declares (2 Peter 1:4). All this He wants us to believe.

We have had this great honor and many blessings conferred upon us so that we should joyfully and in all confidence take comfort in this Lord like a bride in her bridegroom’s property and honor. Christ’s Christendom is, therefore, wife and queen in heaven and on earth; for she is called the bride of God who is Lord of all the creatures. In the highest manner possible, He gives authority and power over sin, death, the devil, and hell.

SL.XI.1750,8
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Thanks and praise be Yours, O Lord, for the wonderful love You have shown to us and bestowed upon us in the gift of Your Son. May we ever maintain the tie of love which unites us with Him, and experience all the joys of full and free salvation in His name. Amen.

LESSON: 1 TIMOTHY 4:1‒15

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22

Wherever the estate of marriage lives up to its name and you have what may be called a proper marriage with man and wife getting on well with each other, there is, first of all, true mutual trust and confidence on both sides.

Among other praise which Solomon bestows on a pious wife, he notes it as something especially praiseworthy that “the heart of her husband trusts in her” (Proverbs 31:11). He can rely on her, entrust his body and life, property and honor to her.

On the other hand, the wife’s heart is also attached to her husband; he is her greatest and most precious treasure on this earth. She knows that she can rely on him for honor, protection, and help in all her needs.

Such a united, perfectly mutual and constant trust of the heart is not to be found among other persons and estates as between a master and servant, a woman and her maid, not even between parents and children. For in all these cases, love is not equal in strength, not as completely mutual, and does not remain such a constant bond as it does in the estate of marriage ordained by God.

This has been God’s intention from the beginning, for He said after the creation of Eve, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

SL.XI.1749,6
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, already at the creation of the world You ordained the estate of marriage for man as one of his choicest and richest blessings. May all who are Your children and members of Your kingdom always regard this estate as something very precious and experience in it the true joy that you intended men to find in it, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

LESSON: ISAIAH 61:10‒11

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast.” Matthew 22:2‒3

The Lord Jesus Christ portrays the kingdom of heaven for us in this parable in a most loving and comforting manner. He tells us that in some respects there is resemblance between what happens in the kingdom of heaven and at a royal marriage feast. At such a marriage feast, the king’s son is given a bride, and it is a scene of the highest joy and splendor with many being invited to share in the joy.

Among all the parables by which God illustrates Christ’s kingdom for us, this is a choice and lovely picture. Christianity or the Christian estate is called a marriage, or a marriage union, in which God Himself chooses a Church here on earth for His Son which He, on His part, receives to Himself as His own bride.

Here, by means of our own life and experience, God wants to explain and indicate, as in a mirror, what we Christians have in Christ. Through the most common estate on this earth, that estate in which we were begotten, brought up, and have lived ourselves, he preaches a daily sermon and exhorts us to remember and to think of this great mystery, as St. Paul calls it in Ephesians 5:32.

St. Paul tells us that the union of a man and his wife in marriage, as ordained by God, should be for us an important, beautiful, and wonderful sign and a comprehensible, though spiritual, picture which demonstrates and indicates something special, outstanding, and important, something hidden and incomprehensible to human reason, namely, Christ and His Church.

SL.XI.1748,5
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, our beloved Savior, You have assured us in so many ways of Your unceasing love for us, and have proved it in Your suffering and death on the cross. Abide with us with all Your love, now and forevermore. Amen.

LESSON: MATTHEW 22:1‒14

The kingdom of God does not mean food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17

Christ forms the Christianity which He has brought into being in such a way that He calls it, and all that has reference to its sway here on earth, the kingdom of heaven. He does this to indicate that through the Gospel He has called a people for Himself on earth and separated them from the rest of the world. He does not call it a kingdom because He wants it to be fashioned and ordered just like any other external, secular regime, with worldly dominion, authority, goods, and the maintenance of external, secular righteousness, discipline, defense, and peace. There has been plenty of this set up from time immemorial, and this secular rule has been entrusted to man and left to the best of his abilities. Through sin, however, secular authority has been weakened and corrupted so that conditions are never quite as they should be, and a poor, wretched, and weak earthly regime is as weak and transient as this body of ours, this maggot-sack, and never continues any longer, even under the best of conditions, than bodily needs and conditions allow.

Over and above all this, God has ordered and set up His own heavenly regime for Himself, after making Himself known in His unfathomable grace and giving us His Word in addition. In this way, He has prepared and gathered together a people for Himself and saved them from His wrath, eternal death, and sin. They had fallen into this wretched condition through sin and were altogether unable to help themselves out of their troubles by any human wisdom, counsel, or might. In His grace, however, God leads them to a true knowledge of Himself, whereby they praise and glorify Him forever.

This is what Christ calls the kingdom of heaven

SL. XI.1747,2‒3
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Give us at all times a true and correct understanding of the nature and purpose of Your Church, heavenly Father, in which You bestow heavenly blessings upon us through Your Holy Spirit, given us in and through our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

LESSON: PSALM 32:1‒5

“Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic—“Rise, take up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Matthew 9:4‒8

If there were no human being on earth who could forgive us our sins, and there were only laws and works, what a feeble, wretched thing our poor, afflicted conscience would be! But now that God has filled every mouth so that it can say to its neighbor, “Your sins are forgiven you, no matter where you may be,” a real jubilee year has dawned for all men.

As a result of this, we should adopt a bold stance over against sin. When we encounter a brother who is in fear and trembling because of his sins, we should tell the poor man quite confidently: “Be joyful and assured, my brother, your sins are forgiven you! Although I cannot give you the Holy Spirit and faith, I can nevertheless proclaim them to you. If you believe, you will receive.” And those to whom Christ gives the Holy Spirit and faith, thank and praise God as the people did in the Gospel (Matthew 9:1‒8).

This also means that God has given man the power and authority to forgive sins. This is extending the kingdom of Christ, healing and establishing a troubled conscience. We do this through the Word. God grant that we may grasp it in this way.

SL.XI.1723,31

PRAYER: Blessed indeed are we, heavenly Father, in the knowledge and assurance of the forgiveness of sins. Let us never underrate this glorious message, even when it is proclaimed to us by one of our brethren, in and through Christ our Savior. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil–Gospels, 5:196-210.