Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Jesus Writes Your Name In Heaven

Luke 10.1-2, 16-20

The late Bible scholar John Stott once said, “Pride is your greatest enemy, humility is your greatest friend.”

According to the National Geographic’s kid’s website, the Pufferfish can inflate into a ball shape to evade predators. Also known as blowfish, these clumsy swimmers fill their elastic stomachs with huge amounts of water (and sometimes air) and blow themselves up to several times their normal size … But these blow-up fish aren’t just cute. Most pufferfish contain a toxic substance that makes them foul tasting and potentially deadly to other fish. The toxin is deadly to humans—1,200 times more deadly than cyanide. There is enough poison in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.

Like Pufferfish, human beings can blow themselves up with pride and arrogance to make themselves look bigger than they are. And this pride can become toxic to a marriage, a church, a friendship, and your faith.

In this morning’s Biblical text, chosen for us by the lectionary, we are going to be hearing from Luke 10.1-12 and 10.16-20.  

In this piece of history, we are going to hear Jesus sending out 72 of his followers to do the work of God in the world.  However, while doing God’s work, these disciples slipped back into the sin of pride and self-righteousness, finding purpose and meaning in their good deeds instead of remaining focused on God’s good deeds toward them in saving them and allowing them to be part of His mission of loving others into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Let’s hear from our text now.

Luke 10:1–20 tells us this:

[1] After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. [2] And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. [3] Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. [4] Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. [5] Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ [6] And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. [7] And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. [8] Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. [9] Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ [10] But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, [11] ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ [12] I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

[16] “The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

[17] The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” [18] And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. [19] Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. [20] Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (ESV)

Last week, we heard that Jesus was on a mission from God.  

Jesus’ mission from God was to deliver forgiveness for Sin and eternal life in Heaven to those who repented and believed in His sufficiency to do those promised things.

This week, we hear that as believers, as Christians, as disciples of Jesus, we are commanded to go out into our homes, work places, schools, and towns, to be active participants in Jesus’ mission on earth.  We are given the blessing of doing the same work that Jesus’ was doing on His mission from God.

As a Christian, Jesus’ mission supernaturally becomes your mission.

Can you believe that?  Through faith, God considers us to be worthy of partnering with Jesus in this world to verbally share the Good News of salvation, while loving others with grace and mercy so that they ultimately know and understand and find comfort in the love, grace, and mercy of God toward them!

In our Biblical text for this morning, we are told that Jesus sends out 72 of his disciples—in teams of two so that they are not alone and will have support, encouragement, and a prayer partner along the way.  Jesus sends them into the surrounding towns, villages, and cities to preach the Good News of Jesus come to them as God’s Savior.  

As they travel from place to place, they will be proclaiming the same message that Jesus proclaimed.  They will be proclaiming, “Repent and Believe for the forgiveness of your Sin.”

This mission was not only an active mission while Jesus was alive with them, the mission is an active mission for Jesus’ followers until the day He returns and brings us home into God’s Kingdom of Heaven.  That is why after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which defeats the power of Sin and death for you, Jesus’ final words were words of command and blessing to you, reminding you of the active mission that you are on while waiting to be brought home into God’s arms.

In Matthew 28:18–20, Jesus says this to His followers before He leaves them and ascends back to His throne in Heaven:

[18] …“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (ESV)

Let’s be honest.  Being saved from our Sin and being daily empowered by God to choose the good part of every hour, we get to do some really cool things.  We get to love God and love others.  

However, while doing that Godly stuff, we can easily and quickly slip back into Sin and become conceited and prideful.  

That’s what happened to Jesus’ disciples as He empowered them to heal the sick and preach the Gospel.

When Jesus’ disciples did those things, seeing the power of God, the Creator and Redeemer, flowing out from them, pride creeped in and they became more excited about the awesome things they were doing than they were about the awesome thing that God had done for them in sending Jesus to save them.

When the disciples return to Jesus after being out in the mission field, they are overwhelmingly excited because they saw miraculous things happen.  They were celebrating because when they preached and exalted Jesus alone for salvation, they saw demons run away and Satan fall from power.  They saw people turn from their Sin and find forgiveness and life.  

Even though those were great things that they were seeing done through their words and actions, the disciples were taking the credit for making all of that happen instead of giving the credit to God, the Father in Heaven, and Jesus, the Son, who were the actual power behind the miracle of saved and transformed lives.

So, even though good things were happening for the Kingdom of God through the disciples work in the world, they forgot that they were doing these things for God’s glory and began glorifying themselves and each other.

So, Jesus graciously and gently rebukes and corrects His disciples, pointing them back to the real Good News in their lives.

Jesus says to them:

“Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. [20] Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus points out their sins of pride, conceit, and self-righteousness, showing them that they have returned to finding comfort in their good deeds instead of Jesus their Savior.

In other words, Jesus was retelling them what was said by God in Proverbs 16:17–20.

Proverbs 16.17-20 says:

[17] The highway of the upright turns aside from evil;

whoever guards his way preserves his life.

[18] Pride goes before destruction,

and a haughty spirit before a fall.

[19] It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor

than to divide the spoil with the proud.

[20] Whoever gives thought to the word will discover good,

and blessed is he who trusts in the LORD. (ESV)

Let’s be honest once again.  It is easy to get lost in the amazing good deeds that God lets us do and lose sight of the greatest good—God’s saving of us in the person and work of Jesus Christ in His life, death on the cross for our sin—sins like pride, conceit, and self-righteousness.

Let me give you and example from my week.  

This week, I got to do one of my favorite things that I get to do as a pastor.  This week, I got to stand alongside a family that lost a loved one.  

I got to send notes of condolence.  

I got to pray for a family who was grieving and mourning.

I got to offer my unconditional availability for any of their needs or wants during this time of loss.

I got to attend the funeral of the lost loved one.

I got to attend the burial of the lost loved one.

I got to attend the family lunch in remembrance of the lost loved one.

Not just as a Pastor, but as a brother in Christ, as a Christian, as a disciple of Christ, I got to be an ambassador of Christ, and a reminder and example of Jesus’ presence with them as they walked through the valley of the shadow of death.

But, in order to do all of these good Godly things that I am called to do, I had to give up a full day of my normal church work.  That meant no studying, no sermon writing, no contact with the other sheep in the flock, no administrative work.

After the church service, as we were doing the slow caravan-like drive along the Southern State Parkway from the funeral in Patchogue to the burial in Farmingdale, going 25 miles on the highway, attempting to stay connected to the processional of cars in front of me, I began to think about all of the good deeds that I didn’t have to do, but that I got to do as a Pastor and Christian when it came to this family’s loss.

And, as I said a few minutes ago, it is very easy to get lost in the amazing good deeds that God lets us do after we come to a saving faith and lose sight of the greatest good—God’s saving of us despite our inability to earn His love through good deeds.

So, that is what happened to me.

In my thoughts, while driving in the processional, I very easily and quickly began to pat myself on the back for all of the good deeds that I was doing for this family.  I was feeling really good about myself and all of the sacrifices I made during the week to support this grieving family.  

Pride rushed in.

Conceit rushed in.

Self-righteousness rushed in.

And, I began to think about how thankful the family should be for my sacrifices and how pleased God should be with me because of my sacrifices.

But, thanks be to God for His grace in using His Holy Spirit to bring to remembrance what I read and learned in preparation for this morning’s sermon.  As I was detouring back onto the road of pride, conceit, and self-righteousness, I remembered the last line of today’s Biblical text which says, 

“…do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Again, only by the grace of God in my struggle with Sin, was I led in that moment to confess my Sin, ask for forgiveness, and rejoice in my forgiveness secured for be my Jesus, while also thanking God that my name is written in heaven.

You may be wondering about that phrase, “your names are written in heaven.”  And, you may be asking, “Is there a literal place that my name is written in Heaven?”

Well, the answer is, “Yes! There is a book in Heaven that your name is written in if you repent of your Sin, your disobedience to God’s rules for life and love, and place your trust in Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the only path to God, the Father in Heaven.”

In Revelation 20:11–15, the Apostle John describes this book containing the names of the saved when God graciously allowed him a peek into Heaven.

John tells us this:

[11] Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. [13] And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. [14] Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15] And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (ESV)

If you are sitting here this morning, knowing that your name is not written in the book of Heaven, this is the day of forgiveness and salvation for you.  Hear Jesus’ words, “Repent of your Sin and believe.” Jesus is calling you! Respond with faith in His sufficiency to forgive your Sin and write your name in God’s book of life in Heaven.

This morning, take your responsibility seriously and be an ambassador of Christ every day in every place that you go.  Always pray for the fruits of the Spirit to overflow out of you and rely on the Spirit to give you the words to say in all situations.  These things are promises from God to you.

However, along the way of living in a manner worthy of Christ out in the broken and fallen world, as a sheep among wolves, prayerfully ask God to guard you from falling back into the sin of pride, conceit, and self-righteousness where you find joy and hope in your good deeds.  And ask that instead, you would keep focused on Jesus’ good deeds of living, dying, and rising from the grave in order to ensure your name is written in the book of life in Heaven.

This is the Word o God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

July 6, 2025.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

A Mission From God

Luke 9.51-62 / Galatians 5.16-26

In his 2017 book, The God Shaped Heart, author Timothy Jennings writes of the dangers of unrecognized heart issues:

Hypertension—high blood pressure—has been called the silent killer, but medical professionals didn’t always realize this. In fact, some doctors argued that hypertension was a made-up disorder that didn’t need to be treated at all. For instance, in 1931 Dr. J.H. Hay proclaimed, “The greatest danger to a man with high blood pressure lies in its discovery, because then some fool is certain to try and reduce it.”

Tragic results followed from this idea. Consider the true case of Frank. Frank was diagnosed with hypertension in 1937 at the age of fifty-four. His blood pressure was 162/98 and was considered by physicians at the time to be “mild hypertension.” No treatment was initiated. By 1940, his blood pressure was running 180/88. In 1941, his pressure was 188/105. He was encouraged to cut back on smoking and work. But his condition didn’t improve.

By 1944, his pressure was running higher, and he suffered a series of small strokes. This was followed by classic symptoms of heart failure, so he was placed on a low-salt diet with hydrotherapy and experienced some improvement.

But by February 1945, his pressure was 260/145, and on April 12, 1945, he complained of a severe headache with his blood pressure measuring at 300/190. He lost consciousness and died later that day at the age of sixty-three. Perhaps you know him better as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States.

In this morning’s text, chosen for us by the lectionary, we are going to hear more about the dangers of unrecognized heart issues. However, the heart issues that Jesus tells us about, in this Biblical text, have more than immediate physical consequences.  The heart issues that Jesus points out have spiritual and eternal consequences.

Luke 9:51–62 shares this piece of history with us:

[51] When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. [52] And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. [53] But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. [54] And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” [55] But he turned and rebuked them. [56] And they went on to another village.

[57] As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” [58] And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” [59] To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” [60] And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” [61] Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” [62] Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (ESV)

The first thing we hear in this text is that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.

Why does the Gospel writer Luke tell us this fact? What does this mean for Jesus and His disciples?

Well, borrowing the words of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd in 1980’s, The Blues Brothers, Jesus and His disciples could answer “our faces are set on Jerusalem because,” “We’re on a mission from God!”

And, what was the mission from God that Jesus was on?

The mission from God that Jesus was on was to save you and me, and every other man, woman, and child, at every point in mankind’s history, from having the wrath of God poured out upon us condemning us for our Sin.

When asked why the baby given to Mary and Joseph should be named Jesus, the answer was, “for He will save people from their sins” (Matthew 1.21, ESV).

On His way to Jerusalem, where Jesus would would solidify the forgiveness of Sin by dying on the cross in our place, Jesus was stopping along the way to prepare the people to be reconciled to God with His simple message of, “Repent and Believe.”

However, just like today, people reject that message for many reasons.

Some think, “Who are you to tell me that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness? Don’t judge me!”

Some think, “I am a good person doing good things that will certainly earn me points in the afterlife—whatever that looks like. I don’t need to confess anything or ask for forgiveness.”

While others think, “There is no god.  Or, we can’t know if there is a god.  Stop throwing that God-talk in my face.”

Something similar happened in the village of the Samaritans that Jesus wanted to visit.  The Samaritans made it clear that they didn’t want or need Jesus.  They didn’t want or think they needed His message of Good News.  And, they didn’t think they needed what He was offering them—forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God, their Father, their Creator and Redeemer.

So, as today’s Biblical text tells us, Jesus was never able to set foot in the Samaritan village to bring His Good News of forgiveness and eternal life because His disciples were told that Jesus wasn’t welcome in that place.

In reaction to the Samaritans rejection of Jesus, Jesus’ disciples do what we often do.  Jesus’ disciples jump to immediate and total judgment of those that deny Christ.  They ask Jesus if they can call down fire from Heaven to completely destroy these unbelievers and wipe them off the face of the earth with eternal punishment.

At this point an interesting thing happened.

The interesting and Good News for you and me is this part of the story where we see Jesus’ reaction to the the Samaritans rejection of Him and His disciples sinful quick-to-judge attitude.  

Jesus tells His disciples that He does not wish for them to punish the Samaritans for their unbelief.  In fact, Jesus rebukes His disciples for their sinful attitude of being quick-to-judge others.

This is the interesting part because it shows us nothing less than the overwhelming patience and grace of God with sinners like you and me.

It is God’s desire, as Scripture tells us, that every man, woman, and child come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ alive, dead, and resurrected for their eternal good.

In order for that to happen, God is patient with us along the way because He knows that Sin makes us stubborn and we will be quick to deny Christ, like the Samaritans did.  And, like His disciples, we will be quick to claim self-righteousness, and quick to Sin in ways such as judging others for their faults while we are unrepentant sinners ourselves.

God loves us.  So, God gives us more than one chance, more than 1000 chances, more chances than we will ever know, to hear about Jesus Christ and respond with faith.

After this incident with both the Samaritan villagers and the disciples following their hearts into the Sin of denying Jesus and His Commandments, which prompt us to love God and love others, we are given a few more examples of people wanting what their sinful hearts want and not the blessings that Jesus offers them.

One person wants to follow Jesus for all of the blessings that He has to offer them, but doesn’t want the suffering and rejection that come from doing what God commands instead of doing what the broken world encourages.

And, two other separate individuals want to follow Jesus only after they have take care of matters at home and feel like everything is in order as they would like it to be.

In 1862, American Poet Emily Dickinson wrote, “The heart wants what it wants, or else it does not care.”  This quote has made it’s way into popular culture in numerous ways.  Two examples from my lifetime were Woody Allen using it in an interview in the 1990s and Selena Gomez stealing it for a song in 2014.

The sad reality is that we hear Dickinson’s quote and miss the warning in it.  We don’t hear that our heart is selfish and doesn’t care about anyone or anything except what will make us happy in the immediate moment.  We only hear what we want to hear. So, we hear that our heart should be our light and our guide, leading us to true happiness.  

When my son was younger, he watched a show on the Disney Channel called Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  In one segment of one of the episodes, Jake danced around his pirate ship  encouraging children with the terrible advice to “always follow you heart.”

What we miss in all of this heart-talk is the truth of humanity.  The truth is that the heart is sinful from the moment of conception.  Our default setting is to follow the heart and what the heart wants, even though what the heart wants is to deny God and destroy others.

In 2 Peter 3:8–18, the Apostle Peter, speaks of God’s grace-led patience with us.  Peter says:

[8] But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. [9] The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. [10] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

[11] Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, [12] waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! [13] But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

[14] Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. [15] And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, [16] as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. [17] You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. [18] But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (ESV)

Jesus was on a mission from God.

The mission from God that Jesus was on was to fix the ultimate problem with your heart—the problem of Sin that made you selfish, self-centered, and self-righteous, denying your need for God’s intervention to forgive you and give you the new life that leads to an enteral home in His Kingdom of Heaven.

And, as you are told, Jesus’ mission was completely successful.

Through Jesus’ sinless life, sacrificial atoning death on the cross, and victorious defeat of death in the resurrection, your Sin is forgiven, you are made righteous and sinless in God’s eyes, and you have been made victorious over death’s power to kill and condemn you.

So, today, as we have been set free by Jesus Christ to live and love with brand new hearts set on God our Father in Heaven and the things above, not the things of this earth, I ask you to hear and heed Paul’s words from Galatians 5:16–26 which say to you:

[16] But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. [17] For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. [18] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. [19] Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, [20] idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, [21] envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. [24] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

[25] If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. [26] Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (ESV)

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

June 29, 2025.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Don’t Stop Believin’

Galatians 5.1-15

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I die before I wake,

I pray the Lord my soul to take.

An age-old bedtime prayer that took on very real and imminent meaning for me this week and probably for many of you as well.

With talks of the fast enriching of Uranium in a non-sanctioned country desiring death to the West, night time missile exchanges in the Middle East, a two week decision making time table given by the President of the United States, and finally the destruction of nuclear weapon sites in Iran, certainty of God’s love, God’s concern, God’s sovereignty and God’s protection came to the forefront of our thinking.

In the midst of war and rumors of war, most normal functioning human beings wanted one thing this week—to be certain of personal safety.

And, some of us could sleep with the certainty of safety while others of us were overcome with worry and anxiety.

Interestingly, in the opening lines of 2022 article from INews reads: “Those of us without traditional religion are left to make our peace with uncertainty. … There’s nothing comforting about being agnostic.” 

For those of us unfamiliar with the term, agnostic means to be indifferent about the existence of God.  Agnostics believe we can’t know if God exists or if God does not exist.  They are different from atheists.  Atheists come down hard on the belief that there is no God. Agnostics instead say that there is just no way of knowing.

In the article, Eleanor Margolis laments her agnosticism and muses about the benefits of faith.

Speaking of the Russia/Ukraine war in 2022, Margolis says, 

It was in February, and while Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, that I started to wonder if it was time to find God. Definite God, that is. Not the half-hearted agnostic one built on a Jenga tower of uncertainty. The addition of a heightened nuclear threat from Putin made me desperate for a vengeful Old Testament God. Someone (to) smite the warmongers and oligarchs, the evil ones “know not what they do.” When nothing is left of civilization but the cockroaches.

The last time I felt so envious of religious people was when my mum was dying of cancer. Certainty about an afterlife sure would’ve come in handy then. And prayer might have created the illusion that I had some power over the situation. Instead, I was treated to the spiritual equivalent of the shrug emoji. I became a devout follower of one true religion of the 21st century: uncertainty. Those of us without traditional religion are left to make our peace with uncertainty.

In this morning’s Biblical text, as we return to the New Testament book of Galatians, a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the churches gathered in the region of Galatia during the first Century A.D., the Apostle Paul speaks about what brings certainty of personal safety in God’s arms and what takes that certainty of personal safety in God’s arms away from us.

Let’s hear from Galatias 5.1-15 together now.

Galatians 5.1-15 says:

[1] For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

[2] Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. [3] I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. [4] You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. [5] For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. [6] For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

[7] You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? [8] This persuasion is not from him who calls you. [9] A little leaven leavens the whole lump. [10] I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. [11] But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. [12] I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

[13] For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. [14] For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [15] But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. (ESV)

In verse 1, Paul makes clear what brings us certainty of God’s love for us and certainty that we are safe forever in God’s arms.

Paul tells us that we can be certain of God’s love for us and certain that God will safely bring us home into His Kingdom of Heaven through faith in Jesus Christ alone.  

Maybe this sounds familiar:

[16] “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:16–17, ESV)

Paul then moves on to tell us what steals our ability to be certain that God loves us and will keep us safe in His arms.

Paul does this by pointing to the false teaching that some of the Galatian Christians are following and which is putting them in a place where they can never be sure of God’s love for them.

Paul points out that when they return to the Law and try to earn God’s love, they will never find comfort that they have done enough to please God.  They will never find the comfort they are looking for or be certain of God’s love because in Sin it is impossible to please God.

One of the specific things that was stealing the Galatians certainty of God’s love for them was returning to the Law based act of circumcision.

As a reminder, circumcision is a surgical procedure in which the foreskin is removed from the male, usually during infancy.

In Genesis 17, God introduces the act of circumcision to His people, the Hebrew people at that time. God required that on the 8th day after birth, every Hebrew male was to be circumcised as a sign that they were included in God’s covenant family.  Circumcision was the physical mark that reminded them that they were different than the peoples of the world around them that did not circumcise their males and whom were not part of God’s eternal family.

At that time, for those people, a male and his family could not be included in God’s family without being circumcised. 

However, as the Apostle Paul mentions over and over again, with Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, God began a new covenant that allowed inclusion into His eternal family through faith in Jesus, the Savior, alone.

But, as we have been seeing since the very beginning of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians, false teachers were troubling and confusing the Christians by telling them that their faith in Jesus Christ was not enough for them to find comfort and hope in God’s love for them.  These false teachers were telling them that they needed to add the physical works of the old covenant to their faith in Jesus in order to be forgiven of Sin and saved for Heaven.

Some of the Christians were buying the lies of the false teachers and were walking away from their faith in Christ to go back into slavery to Sin in an attempt to earn God’s love by being good people in their own strength.

This is a serious mistake and their denial of Christ’s work in His life, death, and resurrection, has major consequences as the Apostle Paul points out.

First, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds causes you to be severed from Jesus.

That means, if you want to rely on good works and religious deeds to get you to God in Heaven, you will be cut off from receiving Jesus’ gifts and blessings.

Second, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds will lead you to a place where you then have to keep all of God’s Laws perfectly to be accepted by Him in the end.

Third, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds means you have forsaken God’s love for you and grace toward you.

Fourth, Paul says that attempting to earn God’s love by your good works and religious deeds means you have no hope of being called righteous and ready for God’s Kingdom of Heaven.

In all of this returning to Sin and self-reliance, you will not be able to truly experience love or give out love because in your separation from the new covenant of God’s grace living in you and working through you, you willing make yourself a slave once again to Sin.  This means that once again, godless selfishness and self-centeredness will be your way of life.

Paul makes it clear that circumcision and Christ are incompatible with one another.  If there is any saving value in religious ordinances (e.g. circumcision) apart from the cross, then Christ’s death has been in vain.

As we heard Paul say earlier in Galatians, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Galatians 2.21, ESV).

Let me put this into contemporary language: 

If you go to church, sing songs, and study the Word, thinking this is how you’re going to work to earn God’s favor, then you are no different from the over one billion Hindus in the world today who are bowing down to their gods. 

If your Christianity is a check-off box in order to make you feel good about yourself before God, in order to save your skin on the day of judgment, then your Christianity is no different from every other religion in the world, and ultimately it will condemn you. 

Paul is uncovering a scheme of the Devil in the first century that continues in the twenty-first century. It is subtly and dangerously deceiving. What if Satan’s strategy to condemn your soul involves not tempting you to do all the wrong things, but instead leading you to do all the right things with the wrong spirit? What if Satan actually wants you to come to church, lead a small group, teach, and lead your home in an upright way? What if he’s in favor of you doing all those things, just so long as you think that by doing those things you’re working your way to God? 

You say, “Well, I pray.” Big deal, Muslims pray. 

You say, “Well, I go to worship.” Big deal, Hindus go to worship. They worship all day long. 

You say, “Well, I study the Bible.” So do Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they can quote it better than most Christians. 

You say, “Well, I go on mission trips.” So do Mormons—scores of them give years of their lives to do so. 

If your Christianity consists of slavery to religion in order to make yourself right before God, then it’s just as if you’re giving yourself to the pagan religions of the world. 

But Christianity is radically different from those worldly religions. 

Rather than slaves of religion, we are sons in a relationship with God . As we heard a few weeks ago, Paul says that the Galatians know God, and then he pauses and says, “or rather have become known by God” (v. 9). To use the language of 4:1-7, we are sons of God. Why would we live like a slave to religion when we are sons in a relationship with God? God knows us intimately, and the idea here is of deep, personal knowledge. We know God, and He knows us!

Paul doesn’t ever mince words.  He knows the severity of the penalty for not trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation as well as the severity of the penalty for those that lead others astray by offering more or less than Jesus Christ Himself offers.

That is why Paul says that he wishes those who don’t want to trust in all that Jesus says and teaches, and also tell other people to follow their feelings and the ways of the culture over what the Scripture explicitly says, would emasculate themselves.  

Jesus doesn’t offer you the freedom to Sin. Jesus always says to those that come to faith in Him for the forgiveness of Sin and eternal life, “Go, and sin no more!”

And, Jesus doesn’t offer you the burden of the Law.  Jesus doesn’t say, “I’m not enough, so do religious-like things to ensure your salvation.

Jesus offers you the freedom to live and love as you have first been loved and given abundant life through repenting of Sin and placing your faith and trust in Him alone to take you back to God, your Father in Heaven.

This morning, may the truth of God’s Word fill your heart and mind today, the truth that because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for you, you are free from having to work your way out a sinful and ungodly life, and may you experience the freedom that comes from knowing and following him.

This morning, repent of your Sin and believe in Jesus your Savior.

Then, and only then, can you be absolutely certain of God’s love for you and certain that God will safely bring you home into His Kingdom.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

June 22, 2025.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Confirmation Testimonies 2025

These student testimonies are unedited. I am sharing them just as they wrote them.

Andy Ghibaudi

I was raised in a catholic home and I was baptized. We try to go to church every Sunday.  If not, my mom will put mass on the TV, but we always went to church during the holidays like Easter, Ash Wednesday, midnight mass, and Christmas Day because it is also my birthday.

I learned that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior by accepting Jesus as my Savior and following him.

Jesus Christ is important to me because when I feel lost, I know I can count on him for guidance and strength to keep going. If I do something wrong, I can pray for forgiveness.

My faith in Jesus Christ affects my daily life by the way he guides my choices, and when I am having a bad day, I know I can pray to him.

Confirmation is important to me and my family, and it makes me feel closer to god.

My favorite verse is Psalm 56:3 – “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”

Emily mcguinness

I was 3 months old when i was baptized. Growing up I went to children’s church most Sundays, there I would learn about the story of God and Jesus while doing fun crafts. 

I learned that Jesus Christ was my lord and savior by going to children’s church and reading  the children’s bible at home with my older brother and mom.

 Jesus Christ is important to me because he loves me and he saved me. He gave his life for the forgiveness of our sins. We  need Jesus because he offers forgiveness for our sins and shows us how to live a life that’s pleasing to God.

  My faith in Jesus Christ influences my daily life by shaping my desicions.My faith encourages actions that reflect compassion, forgiveness, and kindness toward others, shaping interpersonal relationships and community involvement. In the end, it offers a sense of purpose and direction, guiding decisions and bringing resilience during the face of challenges.

 Confirmation is very important to me because it’s a chance to confirm my faith as my own decision and to receive the Holy Spirit’s gifts. When I was a baby I was baptized so i didn’t really have a say in it or understand what it was.Now that i am older I will be able to understand the word of God better than before. 

 My favorite bible verse is romans 1:16, in romans 1:16 it states “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes”.This is my favorite scripture because it means that us Christians shouldn’t be embarrassed to share our faith because the gospel has the power to save anyone who believes, no matter who they are.

Kenzie Moore

Growing up, I was not raised by christian parents. 

Here and there I would go to church with my god mom. 

I was not baptized at a young age because my family didn’t go to church. This means that I didn’t grow up surrounded by the Christian faith. 

I learned that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior because of my family. My mom found an advertisement for Bethel’s VBS where my two younger sisters went for their first time. From that point on, me and my family have been going to church every Sunday. 

Jesus Christ is important to me because he never lets something happen that I can’t handle. I need Jesus in my life because he knows what’s best for me in life. 

My faith in Jesus affects me in my daily life because with Jesus’s faith, life is so peaceful. 

Confirmation is important to me because it helped me get closer to God. 

My favorite bible verse is Proverbs 3: 5-6. This verse says “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your path”. This is my favorite bible verse because it talks about putting all your trust in God and not doubting his abilities.

skylar Reign Moore

My mom was raised catholic and my dad was raised christian. Even though they were both raised religiously my siblings and I were not.

And of course my parents didn’t stop us from learning about God, we were just never given the opportunity to. I’ve always known God existed but I never knew anything about him or his story. That is until my family and I moved to this town. The summer my family moved here was the summer of 2020. My grandma had mentioned a vacation bible school at Bethel Lutheran and Brethren Church. I went to the Vacation bible school with my little sister. That was the first time I really got to know God. That week I learned so many things about God and I also learned about God’s love for me. 

After that week I asked my parents if we could go to church every Sunday. And that is what we did. Ever since then I found so much love for going to church. I started learning that Jesus is my lord and savior by reading the bible. Reading the bible has answered so many of my questions. 

My faith in Jesus gives me purpose, comfort, and a sense of community, making my daily life feel more meaningful and guided. Confirmation is super important to me because it helps me feel closer to my faith and my church. It’s like a big step in showing that I’m serious about my beliefs and ready to grow more in my christian journey. Confirmation is also a special time to celebrate with my friends and family. 

One of my favorite bible verses is Ecclesiates 3:11.

This bible verse states “He made everything beautiful in his time”. 

This verse means a lot to me because it makes me realize that everything is God’s creation. No matter if you think something is not the best looking. God created everything and everyone. Thank you for listening to my journey. I hope my story inspires you to seek and strengthen your own faith. God bless you.

Drew Schumacher

Very early in my childhood, my family was part of an Evangelical Lutheran church. I was baptized in that church, and my family was very active. We left abruptly after the passing of my brother and my parents never returned. My family really ceased activity together after that as well.

I knew from a young age about Jesus, but my family and the world told me He wasn’t for me. As a result, it pushed me so far away from God that it was like He was never there. Through a chain of fortunate coincidences you might say, or divine intervention I think, I ended up here at Bethel and unwittingly befriended Pastor Fred. My friendship with Him and my marriage to a God-fearing Christian woman opened my eyes to the fact that Jesus was most definitely for me.

Jesus takes my heavy burdens and life in His service has awarded me a peace that I could never imagine. I need Jesus because even on my worst days with Jesus in my life, they far exceed my best days without Him.

My life today is no longer just my own selfish desires and no longer a life of self-servitude. As a result, I get to bring altruism into aspects of my life that used to only serve as an opportunity to run on self-will alone. Outside of being a husband and a father (which I couldn’t do without Jesus), and outside of taking care of this church (which I wouldn’t do without Jesus), I get to conduct business in a moral, Christian manner. And my life is happy as a result.

For me, even though it may have felt strange being the only adult besides Pastor Fred in confirmation class, I felt a strong desire to do what would have been asked of me at their age had I been brought up in the church. Being called into ministry, it seemed important to put the work in even while taking seminary courses: And if I’m being honest, there’s nothing that interests me more to learn about than God.

My favorite Bible verse is Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may now what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.”

This verse reminds me not to give in to Earthly desires and ambitions but to instead focus on what Jesus has done for me in His life, death and resurrection, and to align my compass with Him and His perfect will. 

fred scragg 6

I was raised by Christian parents. I was baptized when I was three months old at Bethel. At my baptism my parents and the church agreed to help me grow in Christian faith. I know these people pray for me. When I was baptized I was let into the family of God.

I learned that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior in many ways. My preschool teachers at Bethel taught me about Jesus. I went to Bethel Kids and Children’s church and now Youth Group. Most importantly my family and I read the Bible and pray every night.

Jesus is important to me because he is the only way to heaven. Jesus helps me know how to act and be kind to others. Jesus is always there and I can talk to him about anything. I need Jesus in my life because he forgives me even though I am not perfect.

My faith in Jesus affects me in daily life today by helping me when I do something wrong. Jesus helps me know how to do the right thing. Jesus helps me act right because he helps me understand I do things wrong. Jesus helps me not worry when people I know get sick or bad things happen to them because he will help them.

Confirmation is important to me because it helps me come to a deeper understanding of Christianity. Confirmation helps me get to know Jesus better. Confirmation lets people know who prayed for me that I want to learn more about the

Bible and Jesus. 

My favorite Bible passage is Psalm 23.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This is my favorite Bible passage because it lets me know that God is with me and will help me in times of need.

vera shamara

Christian parents raised me. They did not go to church a lot when i was younger and we really only started to go regularly when i was 11. The very same year we started going ,me and my sister got baptized. My mom made the decision to baptize us as she was looking for a church for quite some time.

When I started going at eleven years old I went to children’s church where Cristie taught me a lot about Jesus and what he did for me. Through her teaching I started believing more and more. Later during the summer during VBS when I was still young enough to participate in games and crafts Pastor Fred came in and told us about Jesus’ resurrection and what he did for us and that really solidified my faith.

Jesus is very important because he is the way to eternal peace and happiness. He saved us from sin not letting sin devour us. He is important in my life because he keeps me from falling into the endless bottomless pit of sin saving me from it. 

My faith has changed me, making me nicer and more thoughtful. I don’t fall into sin as often as I would have before believing in Him. I am more knowledgeable in terms of the bible understanding it much better and its meaning.

Confirmation is important to me because it really solidifies my faith in Christ. I learn more about what God’s intentions are for me. Confirmation teaches me about the history behind God’s word and amplifies my learning experience. 

My favorite verse is Luke 1:35 “ And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” This verse is important to me as it describes how Jesus will be born and how the promise of a Savior is fulfilled. The verse is all about how Jesus was conceived and came to us.

jacen talleur

I was baptized by my Godfather, Pastor Fred, at Bethel. I attended Bethel Nursery School and both my parents were involved within the church.  Growing up my parents and I attended church and I was able to hear and learn about Jesus

I learned that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior by attending church, talking to my parents and attending Confirmation. I have also learned this through prayer and reading the Bible.  I also learned about Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior through events at the church such as VBS.

Jesus Christ is important to me because he helps me in my everyday life and gives me faith that I can be better person if I do something wrong. I need Jesus Christ in my everyday life because having him in my life makes me feel safe and happy. He is always there for me in times that I need him.

My faith in Jesus Christ affects my daily life because I know I can always trust him. I can also rely on my faith in Jesus Christ to help me be hopeful that I can do the best I can through everyday life. Another reason why Jesus Christ affects my daily life today is that help spread his good word to my peers.

Confirmation is important to me because attending Confirmation has taught me the importance of Jesus Christ. It has also helped me build a stronger relationship with Jesus Christ and the church.  I also got to share Gods Word with the other confirmands.

My favorite bible verse is Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” It is my favorite verse because it helps me with overcoming challenges. I especially use this verse when I play basketball because it reminds me that Christ is always with me and it gives me strength to do my best.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Wasted Years?

Galatians 4.8-20

Every human has an intimate relationship with time. 

A few years ago, someone in this room today, was telling me about a lesson they were trying to teach their boys.  The lesson was that the one thing you need but can never get more of is time.  The example he used was his boys wasting their time with long showers.

To this very day, I can’t take a quiet, peaceful shower without thinking of the “big mistake” I am making.  Thanks, a lot!

The Oxford English Dictionary informs us that the word “time” is the most commonly used noun.

Researchers have found that the average person sleeps, or attempts to sleep, about nine hours a day. If the person lives to 80, he or she will sleep for 30 years. People who die at 80 will also have lived 700,000 hours, with 90,000 of those hours on the job.

What are we doing when we aren’t sleeping or working? 

In the US, the second-largest use of our time is … television. 

According to Nielsen, we spend four hours a day watching it. We’re not talking about YouTube, TikTok, Instagram reels, or Facebook stories.  Just plain TV. 

If you are watching live TV, nearly a quarter of that time is commercials. Multiply the numbers out over a lifetime, and you’re likely to spend well over two years of your life just watching commercials. And, the crazy thing is that TV isn’t even a majority of the media we consume. 

According to the same Nielsen study we spend 11 hours a day consuming media, which includes reading, listening, and watching.

The Roman philosopher Seneca wrote:

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.”

We live in a world with innumerable distractions from productivity.  

Where have you found yourself wasting time? 

Have you spent large amounts of your time paralyzed from getting things done because of worry and anxiety?

Have you found yourself thinking, “I can’t believe 2 hours went by,” after you stopped scrolling through social media?

Do you find yourself binge watching shows and movies now that almost everything is available immediately with the simple click of   button?

Have you felt guilty for sleeping and sleeping and sleeping until most of the usable portion of the day has passed?

Do you find yourself often incapacitated and slowed down and useless because of the amount of drinking or drugging you allowed yourself to partake in?

We all waste time even though we often feel the guilt of doing so afterward.

In this morning’s text, from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches gathering in the region of Galatia during the first Century, Paul is questioning if he wasted his time with the Galatians because they seem to have forgotten everything he taught them about Jesus and Christ-like living.  Specifically, Paul sees the Galatians wasting their time with false beliefs like Jesus isn’t enough and wasting their time by going back to their sinful ways of living after having been forgiven and set free through God’s love and grace.

Let’s hear the Apostle Paul’s words of rebuke together now.

In Galatians 4:8–20, the Apostle Paul says this:

[8] Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. [9] But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? [10] You observe days and months and seasons and years! [11] I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

[12] Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. [13] You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, [14] and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. [15] What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. [16] Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? [17] They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. [18] It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, [19] my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! [20] I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. (ESV)

Paul begins this section of his letter by reminding the Galatian Christians of the dichotomy of who they used to be and who they are now.

Paul begins with the bad news of their former life without God’s love poured out on them in Jesus Christ.

Last week, from Galatians 4.1-7, we heard that before we were included in God’s family as a son or daughter through faith in Jesus, we were a son or daughter of Satan, the devil.  We were living in opposition to God’s standards for life and love by living and loving ourself more than anything else.

Paul returns to this theme of wasting time in sin by mentioning that before we found ourselves in believing in Jesus as both Lord and Savior, we were wasting our time as slaves to false gods.

Interestingly, this week, I saw yet another pathetic attempt by an atheist or, more likely, agnostic, to disprove the Bible by claiming they clearly see a contradiction within the words of Scripture. 

The uninformed and obviously Biblically illiterate challenger stated something like, “If the Bible says there is only one God, how come it also tells you to not put other gods before the One True God?”

What this disgruntled keyboard warrior didn’t do was their homework.  If they did their homework, they would have known that the Bible calls anything that we consider more important than the One True God, the Creator and Redeemer of humanity, a false god.  The Bible calls these things—things like money, power, sex, relationships, friendships, family—false gods.  They are labeled false gods because we are attributing to them the ability to sit over us and give us meaning, purpose, and a reason to exist, when in fact they have no living power to do such things.

Paul’s rebuke of the Galatians here is similar to the correction that he provides to the Christians in another city, the city of Ephesus.

In his letter, to the Ephesian Christians, Paul says this:

[20] But that is not the way you learned Christ!—[21] assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, [23] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:20–24, ESV)

After reminding them of who they used to be, Paul reminds them of who they are now because of Jesus.  They are known by God the Father in Heaven and in turn know God the Father in Heaven as their are officially His eternal sons and daughters.

But, the problem is this.  Even as eternal sons and daughters of God, they are still struggling with believing the truth of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  They are also struggling with acting as good representatives of God the Father in Heaven.  

Paul sees the Galatian Christians wasting their time with lies that lead them away from the rest and peace that Jesus died to give them.  Paul also sees the Galatian Christians wasting their time by returning to a life of loving themselves and forsaking God and the people around them that need to know the love of God for themselves.

Because of their struggle to firmly believe in the truth that faith alone through God’s grace also forgives and saves, as well as their struggle with doing the right and Godly things all of the time, the Apostle Paul fears that his time working with them was a waste of his time.

Was Paul wasting his time?

Absolutely not.

How do we know that Paul wasn’t wasting his time preaching and teaching the Gospel, also known as the Good News of Jesus Christ?

Well, the same way we know everything else that is important.  The Scripture tells us.

First, Paul confessed in the book of Romans that he too struggles with sin even after being saved by God through faith in Christ.

In the book of Romans, also found in the New Testament part of the Bible, Paul says that he struggles everyday with knowing what is right but doing what is wrong.  That is why he comes to the conclusion of praise to Jesus who forgives because with Jesus there is now no condemnation and damnation for the sinner.

So, Paul is thankful for the Bible and for Bible preachers and teachers who remind him of his salvation and his responsibility afterwards to walk and live in a manner worthy of Christ striving after Godly thoughts, words, and actions with the help of the promised and given Holy Spirit.

Second, as Isaiah 55:10–11 says:

[10] “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

[11] so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (ESV)

And, as John 12:32 has Jesus saying:

[32] And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (ESV)

When I was being trained in the church for pastoral ministry, I would meet in the church office in Staten Island with my then mentor and pastor, the church’s worship leader, and any elder that was in attendance that morning.  My mentor/pastor, would pray every Sunday and ask Jesus to draw men and women to himself as Jesus was lifted up through His Word during the service.  My pastor/mentor was praying for what Jesus promises to do as found in John 12.32.

The Apostle Paul was not wasting his time preaching to and teaching the Galatians from God’s Word, the Bible, because it is living and active and when Jesus is exalted as the only one who forgives sin and gives righteousness, He is always at work drawing men and women to Himself for rest, and peace, and hope in what He has accomplished for them in His life, death, and resurrection.

After lamenting the time he wasted away from family and everyday life while endlessly touring with his band Iron Maiden,

Adrian Smith penned what has become one of the band’s biggest hits throughout their 50 year career.

In “Wasted Years”, Smith says:

So understand

Don’t waste your time always searching for those wasted years

Face up, make your stand

Realize you’re living in the golden years

It is here that Smith urges us to not waste more time worrying about the time that we wasted.  Realize that you have the gift of today and can make different and better choices.

The same is true for you this morning.  Jesus’ death on the cross has provided you the forgiveness from God that you needed for misusing and wasting some of the limited time that God has given you on this earth.  You don’t have to waste more time worrying about the time you wasted disobeying God both before faith and even going backward into sin after faith, like the Galatians were.  

Through faith in Jesus, your Sin, that wasted your time on this earth by stealing time you could have been joyfully loving God and loving others, has been removed from your record and will never see the light of day ever again.  That is God’s grace working for you because of God’s love for you.

Psalm 118:17–24 says:

[17] I shall not die, but I shall live,

and recount the deeds of the LORD.

[18] The LORD has disciplined me severely,

but he has not given me over to death.

[19] Open to me the gates of righteousness,

that I may enter through them

and give thanks to the LORD.

[20] This is the gate of the LORD;

the righteous shall enter through it.

[21] I thank you that you have answered me

and have become my salvation.

[22] The stone that the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone.

[23] This is the LORD’s doing;

it is marvelous in our eyes.

[24] This is the day that the LORD has made;

let us rejoice and be glad in it. (ESV)

Like God’s ambassador, the Apostle Paul, did with the Galatians, God has also done with us.  He has shown us our sin and corrected us.  He has answered our confession of sin with forgiveness.  God as provided salvation for us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

So, let’s live today in the day that the Lord has made and given to us by rejoicing and walking in a manner worthy of Christ, choosing the best part of every hour.

I am going to rewrite the quote from Seneca, the Roman Philosopher, that heard at the beginning, to fit the truth of today’s Scripture.

Even though we have a short time to live, we waste a lot of it. A sufficiently generous amount of time has been given to us for the highest achievements (of loving God and loving others) if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing.

Without Jesus and His Word, you are always wasting your time living apart from God going the wrong way down a one-way road hitting everything in sight.

However, with Jesus and His Word, you are making the best of every hour being led to repentance and faithful living through the correction and guidance of God the Father in Heaven.

With faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are living in the golden years!  

With faith in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are living in the time when God’s love, God’s grace, and God’s mercy are being poured out upon you every second of every day. 

This morning, repent of your Sin and believe in Jesus, God’s Savior.  Then, go out into the world and live in a manner worthy of Jesus so that others are drawn to the love of God in Christ that brought you peace and can also bring them peace.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

June 1, 2025.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

The Promise Keeper

Galatians 3.15-29

Have you ever experienced a broken promise?

Do you know what it feels like to have a promise made to you only to have the promise maker break that promise to you?

Here’s a more personal question…

Have you ever made a promise to someone only to break the promise you made to them?

Life is filled with promises made and promises broken.

I don’t believe there is a more public example of broken promises than those that exist in the realm of politics.

Every politician and every political party makes promises to you, promises that they know they can not ultimately keep.

Here are a few examples from the last 100+ years in the United States of America:

Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the slogan “He kept us out of war,” only to enter World War I a year later.

Lyndon B. Johnson promised in 1964, “We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” During his presidency, the U.S. entered the Vietnam War and Johnson did not seek reelection.

Richard Nixon in 1968 claimed to “have a secret plan to end the war” and promised to find a way to “peace with honor” in Vietnam, but American troops were not withdrawn until 1973 — a little more than a year before Nixon resigned.

Jimmy Carter campaigned on solving the energy crisis, but his speeches about conservation and attempts to add solar panels to the roof of the White House weren’t good enough. He was unable to get support for a gas tax, and the energy problem only worsened during his presidency.

Ronald Reagan promised to make a constitutional amendment allowing school prayer during his campaign, and although he proposed the amendment in 1982, it never went anywhere.

George H. W. Bush famously promised in 1988: “Read my lips: No new taxes,” only to sign a bill raising taxes during his first and only term.

Bill Clinton campaigned on a renovation of the health care system before he took office in 1993. Although he attempted health care reform — “Hillarycare” — it ended in failure.

Politifact tracked Barack Obama’s 533 promises and found that he broke 52% of his promise while in office as the President of the United States of America.

In our Biblical text for this morning, from our very slow crawl through the New Testament book of Galatians, we are going to hear the Apostle Paul speak about the difference between God’s Law and God’s Promise.  More specifically, we are going to hear that we only have hope in life because God is both the Promise Maker and the Promise Keeper.  He will never leave us or fosake us.  He will ensure that we will be brought home into His Kingdom of Heaven.

Continuing on in his letter to the churches in the region of Galatia during the mid-first Century, the Apostle Paul says this:

[15] To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. [16] Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ. [17] This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterward, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. [18] For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

[19] Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. [20] Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

[21] Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. [22] But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

[23] Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. [24] So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. [25] But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, [26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. [27] For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. [28] There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [29] And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (ESV)

The driving force behind Paul’s words in this section of his letter is the desire to make the purposes of God’s Law and God’s Promise clear to the churches that he is writing to.

Let’s start with the purpose of God’s Law.

In Confirmation, I have the students memorize the following paragraph because it is pivotal for understanding our Christian faith.

The paragraph that explains the purpose of God’s Law goes like this:

The Law is that part of God’s Word which tells us what we must do and what we must not do.  It has two, possibly three uses: 1) to curb our natural tendencies by telling us what we must do under penalty of punishment or failure; 2) to convict of sin by describing where we have failed to keep the law, thus showing us our need for a Savior; and 3) to coach the believer regarding what Christ has given the believer to do.

There are three uses of God’s Law according to the Bible.  None of those uses of God’s Law provides you with a way to earn forgiveness of sin or reconciliation with God.

That’s means, God’s Law does not have the power to save you. 

Over and over again, Scripture makes it explicitly clear that due to the corruption of sin in the human heart, it is impossible to please God by keeping His Law.

The purpose of God’s Law is to show you what he wants you to do and not do.  The purpose of God’s Law is to show you that you do not measure up to God’s standard of holiness.  The purpose of God’s Law is to show you your need for His help.  The purpose of God’s Law is to lead you to your need for His Savior—Jesus.  And, the purpose of the Law is to guide you in living your life in a Godly and Christ-like way after you come to faith and find yourself believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Hebrews 11.6 speaks this truth when it says, 

[6] And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (ESV)

Next, the Apostle Paul addresses the purpose of God’s promise.

What is the purpose of God’s promise?

The purpose of God’s promise is to give you hope for today, hope for tomorrow, and hope for a peaceful eternity with God.

God’s promise gives you this hope by assuring you that through Jesus’ life lived perfectly, death to pay the price for sin, and resurrection from the grave to beat the power of sin and death to separate us from God, you are forgiven of your sin, set free from condemnation, and rescued from destruction.

In this Scripture, Paul gives the history of God’s promise.

Paul makes a few things clear. 

First, Paul mentions that God’s promise came to humanity before God’s Law.

Second, Paul mentions that the fact that the Law came after God’s Promise doesn’t make God’s Promise void.  

And, third, Paul mentions that God’s promise was made official through a covenant made with Abraham.

Let’s discuss the absolute Good News of the covenant and the covenant process.

The Hebrew term בְּרִית bĕriyth for “covenant” is from a root with the sense of “cutting.”

In the ancient world, the process of making a promise official was to cut animals in half and walking between them.  This was a pledge, from the promise maker to the promise receiver, that if the promise keeper broke their promise may such a fate as being cut in half befall them.  

When God makes His promise to humanity, through the Father of God’s people, Abraham, God chooses to pass through the cut animals Himself.  He doesn’t ask Abraham to walk through the pieces and promise to be forever faithful in keeping God’s Law because God knows that sin has corrupted humanity and neither Abraham nor any other human could ever keep a promise to perfectly live according to God’s standards.

If the human, Abraham, was asked to make and keep a promise to God, we would all be damned to Hell because we are breakers of God’s Law by nature.

The Good News we have today and always is that God is the promise maker and promise keeper.

Even when you are a promise breaker, breaking your promise to love and honor God with your heart, mind, body, and soul, God keeps His promises to you.

God promises you that He will do whatever it takes to rescue you from the condemnation and destruction of sin.  

And, God did that by entering our world in the flesh of Jesus Christ to be condemned and destroyed for you.

In Jesus, God keeps His promise to love you.

In Jesus, God keeps His promise to forgive you.


In Jesus, God keeps His promise to save you.

In Jesus, God keeps His promise to be gracious and merciful to you.

In Jesus, God keeps His promise to lead you and guide you through His Word and His Law.

In Jesus, God keeps His promise to be with you always, to the very end of the age.

Even when we forget God and turn away from Him, God’s promise to us is never broken.  God  never forgets us and God never turns away from us.  

As 2 Timothy 2:13 tells us:

[13] if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself. (ESV)

The original owners of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company had the reputation for being people of integrity. The following story reveals their commitment to do the right thing—even when it cost them:

Northwestern Mutual was founded as the Mutual Life Insurance Company of the State of Wisconsin on March 2, 1857. Originally located in Janesville, Wisconsin, the fledgling company relocated to Milwaukee in 1859. Shortly after, the company experienced its first two death claims, when an excursion train traveling from Janesville to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, derailed, killing 14 people, two of whom were policy owners. With losses amounting to $3,500 and having funds of only $2,000, company President Samuel Daggett and Treasurer Charles Nash personally borrowed the needed funds to pay the claims immediately.

Later when asked why they didn’t simply default on the payments, they replied it would not have been the right thing to do to their fellow man. They both agreed they would rather see the company fail than neglect their obligation to those who trusted them to keep their word.

Lewis Smedes, the late Professor of Theology at Fuller Seminary,  says:

Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God.

What a marvelous thing a promise is! When a person makes a promise, he reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: he will be there even when being there costs him more than he wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.

With simple words of promise, “I will never leave your or forsake you”  and, “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith,” God, our Father in Heaven, creates a island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty for you.

Hebrews 10:23 says:

[23] Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. (ESV)

And, Hebrews 13:8 says:

[8] Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (ESV)

This morning, as you stare into the mirror of the law, you see that there is no hope of you ever being an exact replica of God in thinking, speaking, and doing.  That type of Law abiding life is impossible because the original sin into which you are born.  You enter this life, at the exact moment of conception when male sperm combines with a female egg, already corrupted by the sin passed onto you by both parents.

So, being grace-filled and merciful toward you, God promises to do for you what you cannot do for yourself.  God promises to live the uncorrupted life for you in the human life of the God-Man, Jesus, that is required for entrance into His Kingdom.  And, God promises to give you full credit for that perfectly lived life simply through faith in Him and His Son Jesus who did it all for you.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

May 11, 2025.

Prayer:

Mighty God,

Your Word penetrates our hearts and exposes the truth about our thoughts and intentions. It uncovers our self-confidence and self-centeredness, as well as. the secret sins that we hide so successfully from one another. The truth is that we cherish and love many evil thoughts in our hearts, even when outwardly we pretend to be full of spiritual desires. We harbor hatred and anger for those around us, along with jealousy and pride. We judge and condemn others in our hearts, or we envy them and lust after them. Even our good deeds are deeply stained by wrong motives.

We often wait to serve others until people are watching us, so that we may be admired and glorified. We speak your truth impatiently and harshly in order to prove ourselves. Father, forgive us not just for our sinful actions but for our corrupt and perverse hearts.

Jesus, 

thank you that you came to deliver us from our sinful self-centeredness. Your heart was always perfectly aligned with the Father’s Word. Your thoughts as well as your actions were always pure and undefiled, filled with love for those around you and compassion for lost people. You worked hard in the Father’s service, but you also rested confidently in the Father’s power. Even though you are the LORD of Glory and eternally deserving of praise, you never glorified yourself. Instead, you laid aside your glory and became a humble servant, defeating the forces of Satan through your own death and winning victory in our place.

Holy Spirit, 

teach us not to trust in ourselves or in earthly sources of power and strength. Enable us to trust completely in Jesus, our great High Priest, who faithfully intercedes for us. Help us not to be unduly discouraged by the heavy load of guilt that so easily clings to our hearts. Instead, whenever we see clearly the sins of our hearts, enable us to fly to the Scriptural truth that in Christ the penalty of those sins has been paid for, once for all. Remind us that we are now clothed in Christ’s perfect righteousness, and that therefore there can be no condemnation left for us. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Crossed Out Curse

Galatians 3.10-14

You may have heard someone refer to a specific aspect of life as being “both a blessing and a curse.”

Something can be both a blessing and a curse when it offers positive outcomes but also carries negative consequences or challenges. 

Some examples of this are,

Intelligence: Intelligence can be a blessing for learning and understanding, but a curse if it leads to boredom or frustration.

Money:  Money can be a blessing for buying things that you need to survive, but a curse if it leads to worry, theft or envy.

Sensitivity: Being sensitive allows for strong empathy and a deep appreciation for life, but it can also make it difficult to cope with negativity and criticism.

Creativity: Creative individuals can produce amazing art and ideas, but they may also struggle with perfectionism and difficulty following rigid rules.

Love: Loving someone deeply is a great blessing, but it can also be a source of pain and anxiety, particularly if the relationship is challenging.

Many of our passions, talents, character traits, and possessions can be dichotomous by releasing both joyous highs and soul-wrenching lows into our human experience. 

In our text this morning, we are going to hear about something, more specifically, a someone, that is both a curse and a blessing.  From the next pericope, or next section, of Galatians that we are up to, the Apostle Paul talks about Jesus being both a curse and a blessing.  

Let’s get right into the Bible text now.

In Galatians 3:10–14, the Apostle Paul says this:

[10] For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” [11] Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” [12] But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” [13] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—[14] so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. (ESV)

I am sure that when we hear about being cursed, many non-Biblical ideas and images flash through our minds.  

Maybe we think about the Evil Queen who feeds Snow White a cursed poison apple that puts puts Snow White into a indefinite period of sleep.

Maybe we think about the Golden Idol in Indiana Jones, that when removed from it’s pillar, begins a series of death traps culminating in Indiana Jones nearly escaping the crushing weight of a giant boulder.

And, if you are as old, or even older than me, maybe you think about the cursed Hawaiian Tiki statue that Peter Brady finds in a construction pit and then wears around his neck, only to be met with a string of bad luck, including a tarantula crawling on him in his hotel room bed.

Well, these ideas and images of curses and cursed items bringing danger and bad luck have nothing to do with the curse that the Apostle Paul is talking about in this section of his letter to the churches in the region of Galatia.  But these ideas and images are what pop-culture presents to us and they often taint and misinform our understanding of the Bible.

So, let’s ask a series of questions about this morning’s Biblical text and get the answers to those questions so that we can better understand the Good News of Jesus that the Apostle Paul is proclaiming to us.

Let’s begin:

What does it mean to be cursed in Biblical language?

To be cursed in Biblical language is the opposite of being blessed.

To be blessed is to have God’s love and favor on you and in your life.  To be blessed means that God makes you perfectly fulfilled in every way, forgiving your sin and giving you the righteousness you need to enter His Kingdom of Heaven.

Therefore, the opposite of that—to be cursed—is to not have God’s love and favor on you and in your life.  Instead, those that are cursed by God have God’s anger and wrath poured out upon them, punishing them for their unbelief and sin.

Next:

How does one become cursed by God?

The text tells us that a person is cursed, meaning that they are in danger of being punished by God’s wrath for their sin, when they attempt to be forgiven of sin and made right with God through giving him a list of His laws that they followed and the good deeds that they did.

And:

Why does attempting to make God love you with your behavior put you in a place where you are deserving of God’s punishment?

Well, the text also answers this question.  In order to be worthy of God’s love by doing good deeds and Godly works, you would have to obey every command of God perfectly from birth to death.  You have to live every second of every day doing ALL things written in the Bible without ever getting any of it wrong.

Because of original sin, the sin which you inherit from Adam and Eve at the very moment you are conceived in the womb, it is impossible to live and love in the way God commands.  

And, thinking that your record reflects more good stuff than bad stuff doesn’t do you any good because as Jesus’ brother James tells us in his Biblical letter found in the New Testament:

[10] For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. [11] For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. (James 2:10–1, ESV)

However, there is always hope for you to have a fresh start as faith in Christ enables you to be born again.  With the help of the God’s Holy Spirit, that makes its home in you the very moment that you find yourself with faith in Jesus Christ as your Redeemer, you are strengthened and empowered by God Himself to choose the good part of every hour.

Many rejoiced on Palm Sunday during Jesus’ parade into Jerusalem because they knew God’s grace had sent Jesus to be their Savor and Redeemer.

However, even though we are given the picture of a celebratory parade on Palm Sunday, this event is, in actuality, the beginning of a week long funeral march.  

Jesus rides into Jerusalem as the people’s champ—“Do you smell what God’s Rock is cooking?” Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, came not to sit on the throne in the earthly temple or palace, but to sit on the throne in God’s Kingdom of Heaven.  

Jesus enters the city to the praise of his followers, but leaves the city 5 days later to the weeping of his friends and family.

Palm Sunday culminates in Jesus’ death on the cross on Good Friday, but also Jesus’ resurrection from the grave on Easter Sunday.  

Holy Week, beginning today, has both joyous highs and soul-wrenching lows for those that are known by God the Father in Heaven and in turn know God the Father in Heaven in the person and work of Jesus Christ for them.

The path that Jesus rides and then walks during Holy Week was willingly chosen by Him to ensure your eternal blessing.  Innocent Jesus became cursed by God and was hung on the tree of the cross to be fully and completely punished by God’s anger and wrath in your place.  

In another letter that the Apostle Paul wrote, also contained in the Bible’s New Testament, he explains the Good News of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday for you when he writes this, in Ephesians 2:1–10:

[1] And you were dead in the trespasses and sins [2] in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—[3] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. [4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—[6] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, [7] so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [10] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (ESV)

In Galatians 3.11, the Apostle Paul quotes the Old Testament book of Habakkuk which says, “But the righteous one will live by faith.”

Martin Luther, the 16th Century church reformer, first read Habakkuk 2:4 when he was a monk living in a monastery, but he didn’t understand it at the time. Later he went through a period of illness and depression as he imagined himself under the wrath of God. Lying in a bed in Italy, fearing he was about to die, Luther found himself repeating over and over again, “The righteous will live by faith.” He recovered and went to Rome, where he visited one of the famous churches there. The pope in that day had promised an indulgence forgiving the sins of any pilgrim who mounted the tall staircase in front of the church. Pay your money, climb the staircase, and you can have your sins or someone else’s forgiven. People flocked to climb the staircase on their knees, pausing to pray and kiss the stairs along the way. Luther’s son later wrote the following of that experience for his father: “As he (Luther) repeated his prayers on the Lateran staircase, the words of the Prophet Habakkuk came suddenly to his mind: ‘The just shall live by faith.’ Thereupon he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as the chief foundation of all his doctrine.” Luther later said, “Before those words broke upon my mind I hated God and was angry with him. . . . But when, by the Spirit of God, I understood those words—‘The just shall live by faith!’ ‘The just shall live by faith!’—then I felt born again like a new man; I entered through the open doors into the very Paradise of God.” 

This morning, our readers shared the story of Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem from the Gospel of John.  These texts were chosen by the lectionary for this morning.

In the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, we get other accounts of what happened on Palm Sunday.  These other accounts of that day tell us some of the things that the crowd was shouting and singing as Jesus passed by.

Luke 19:37–38 tell us this:

[37] As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, [38] saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (ESV)

And, Matthew 21:9 tells us this:

[9] And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (ESV)

Palm Sunday is the beginning of the full and complete public declaration that Jesus is the One that takes you who were dead to God because of sin and makes you abundantly alive in the eternal love and freedom of God.

Without Jesus, you remain cursed, condemned, and dead to God.

With Jesus, you have been set free from the curse of sin and have become blessed, and are brought back to life by God at the price of His One and Only Son in your place.

The people rejoiced on Palm Sunday because God’s promised Redeemer and Savior had come to them.

I invite you also to repent of your sin and rejoice that God’s promised Redeemer and Savior has come to you.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

April 13, 2025 / Palm Sunday

Prayer:

King of heaven, 

We long to worship you today with hearts full of joy, but we have sinned countless times and we have no crown of glory or obedience to wear before you. Our dancing is turned to mourning when we think of our sin. We understand that we are like the mockers who scoffed at Jesus as he died, the rebels who pressed the crown of thorns deeply onto his sinless head. We are undone and wonder how you could ever love us and welcome us as cherished sons and daughters. Father, forgive us for hearts that doubt you and turn away from you many times each day. Forgive us for worshiping other gods, and then running away in cycles of shame and guilt because we are disappointed in ourselves. Forgive us for believing that our sin is so much stronger than your love and grace. 

Lord, 

thank you for your perfect Son, who never sinned, yet became sin for us. Thank you for allowing his head to be bloodied by that thorny crown, so that you could lift up our heads and crown us with your steadfast love and mercy. Thank you for your deep and infinite love that willingly crushed your only Son so that his wounds could pay our ransom. Dear Father, thank you that our sin is dealt with, fully paid for, and that we have become the righteous through faith in the work of your Son. 

Father, 

we are desperately weak people who constantly need your help. Please turn our eyes toward your radiant Son to see his head now crowned with glory and honor, always pleading in our defense. Help us remember all the benefits that flow toward us because of our redemption in Christ. Give us such great love for your Son and gratitude to you, that we are transformed into people who want to obey you with all our hearts. Make us children who love with the same kind of love that we have received from you. Cause us to point one another to Christ as our only hope for surviving this fallen world and our own sinful hearts. Thank you that nothing can keep us from reaching our heavenly home, where we will see your Lamb seated on his throne, crowned with radiant glory, where we will fall at his feet and worship for all eternity. Amen.

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Gathered. Not Scattered.

Luke 13.31-35 & Galatians 2.15-21

Every town and city has something that is it famous for.

Huntington has Walt Whitman’s birth place. New York has the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, Times Square, Broadway, and Central Park.  San Francisco has its cable cars. Seattle has its Space Needle.

And Longview, WA has its squirrel bridge called The Nutty Narrows Bridge. Spanning Olympia Way, is a local landmark.

The Nutty Narrows Bridge was built in 1963 by a local builder, the late Amos Peters, to give squirrels a way to cross the busy thoroughfare without getting flattened by cars. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to dodge traffic to and from the Park Plaza building where office staff put out a nutty feast for the squirrels. Many times, workers near Park Plaza witnessed squirrels being run over. It didn’t take long before squirrels started using the bridge. They even escort their young across, teaching them the ropes. In addition to the Nutty Narrows Bridge, four additional bridges have since been built, the most recent bridge was installed in May of 2015. The sixth bridge is in the works.

In the busyness of every day life, there are dangers that threaten to stop us in our tracks and prevent us from making it back into our bed at night.  We have to become wise in order to know what paths to walk and which paths to avoid in order to stay safe not only today, but for tomorrow and the future.

In this morning’s two Biblical texts, we will hear about the ultimate danger we face while living life.  We will also hear about how to avoid and escape that danger that will leave us flattened and dead if we don’t take the safety bridge put in place for us.

Let’s get into our first Biblical text now.

Luke 13:31–35 says this:

[31] At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” [32] And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. [33] Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ [34] O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! [35] Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” (ESV)

The Gospel message is both serious and soft (gentle).

The message of the Gospel is serious because it tells you of our dire condition.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it tell you that Sin separates you from God.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it speaks the truth that you are lost in Sin from the moment of conception due to the inheritance of Sin from your first parents Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it informs you that your aren’t only lost in Sin but that you are actually dead in Sin meaning you are lifeless and unable to do anything to help yourself get back to God.  The message of the Gospel is serious because it tells you that because of Sin you are scattered away from God and running around without protection from the danger of being punished by God’s wrath.

In this morning’s Biblical text, we hear that the Gospel is not only serious, but it is also soft, meaning, gentle.  Jesus says that He came to gather you to Himself in order to cover you and protect you from the danger that you are in because of Sin.

The Gospel, ultimately meaning, “Good News” from the Greek evangelion, tells you the Good News that while you were still a sinner sinning, God poured out his love for you and chased after you in the person and work of Jesus Christ.  

Using the illustration of a mother hen gathering her babies under her wings to protect them from ultimate harm—death—she gives them shelter even if it means she has to die in the act of protecting them.

Let’s explore the mother hen for a moment.

When a hen senses danger, her parental instincts kick in and she brings all of her little ones under her wings so that predators, such as foxes, cannot see her babies and therefore cannot steal them, harm them, or kill them.  The mother’s love is so great that she is willing to take all of the hurt, suffering, pain, and even die, from enemy attacks, if necessary, by making herself a shelter to protect her offspring.  

One commentator shares this information:

“Fire is a terrifying thing to trapped animals as to people, if not more so. When a farmyard catches fire, the animals try to escape; but, if they cannot, some species have developed ways of protecting their young. The picture we have [in Luke 13.31-35] is of a hen, gathering her chicks under her wings to protect them. There are stories of exactly this: after a farmyard fire, those cleaning up have found a dead hen, scorched and blackened – with live chicks sheltering under her wings. She has quite literally given her life to save them.” (Wright, 171)

The way the hen brings her brood close so that she can protect them is an incredible demonstration of true love because there is the willingness present in the mother to sacrifice her well-being and even her life to save the children she loves.

This morning’s Biblical text tell you that Jesus has come to you and for you because Jesus desires to gather you under the protection of his cross where you are fully protected from the wrath of God that will you destroy you because of your Sin.

In Jesus, the grace of God gathers you in.  It doesn’t scatter you out and away.

So, that leads us to ask the question, “How, exactly are we gathered to God and not scattered away from Him?”

Well, the Apostle Paul addresses and answers that question Galatians 2:15–21 when he writes these words:

[15] We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; [16] yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

[17] But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! [18] For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. [19] For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. [20] I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [21] I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (ESV)

As an aside, there are two verses here that you should have highlighted in your Bible and committed to memory. Those verses are 16 and 20.

Now, in order to fully grasp most of Paul’s letter to the Galatians we have to learn to properly distinguish the place of God’s Law and God’s Gospel in every piece of Scripture that we read.

So, let’s begin by answering the question, “What is the Law of God?”

In a paragraph written by one of my seminary professors, that summarizes pieces of The (Lutheran) Book of Concord, and that I make every one of my Confirmation students memorize, we are told that God’s Law has three uses in our life. Here is that paragraph:

The Law is that part of God’s Word which tells us what we must do and what we must not do.  It has [three] uses: 1) to curb our natural tendencies by telling us what we must do under penalty of punishment or failure; 2) to convict of sin by describing where we have failed to keep the law, thus showing us our need for a Savior; and 3) to coach the believer regarding what Christ has given the believer to do.

What we have to notice is that there is no place in God’s Law that says, “Following God’s Law is possible and it will save you from your sin.”

That’s where we have to ask, “How then can I be forgiven and saved for God’s Kingdom of Heaven?”  Or, in a more specific question, “What is the Gospel?”

In another paragraph written by one of my seminary professors, that summarizes pieces of The (Lutheran) Book of Concord, and that I make every one of my Confirmation students memorize, we are told what God’s Gospel (or, Good News) provides for us and accomplishes in our life. Here is that second paragraph:

The Gospel is that part of God’s Word which tells us what God has promised to us and has done for us in Christ Jesus.  It is good news (Gospel) which is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1.17) which when preached causes one to be born again (1 Peter 1.23-25) as faith comes through hearing this word (Romans 10.17).

After hearing these two paragraphs describing the Law and the Gospel, we can better understand why Paul tells the Galatian Christians that “we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2.16).

Jesus doesn’t want forgiveness to be impossibly hard.  

Jesus doesn’t want to lose you.  

Jesus wants to rescue you. 

After all, as 1 Timothy 2.4 tells us, it is God’s will that all men and women are saved.”  This is all shown in Jesus’ preaching.  Jesus’ message was “Repent [of your sin] and Believe!”  Jesus’ message was not, “Work hard, do the right things, struggle, worry, doubt, and then maybe God will think you are good enough.”

Jesus gathers us under the protection of arms spread out on the cross by faith alone.  We are not welcomed under the cross of Christ by obedience to God’s Law because God’s Law is impossible for a human to fully complete.  You are welcome under the protection of Jesus’ cross and death by simple fish in Him and His work there for you.

On December 26, 2004, the third-largest earthquake ever recorded by seismograph occurred deep beneath the Indian Ocean. It registered 9.1-magnitude on the Richter scale, and the shock waves produced tsunami waves more than one hundred feet in height, traveling five hundred miles per hour and reaching a radius of three thousand miles. This deadliest tsunami in history claimed 227,898 lives, but one people group living right in its path miraculously survived without a single casualty.

The Moken are an Austronesian ethnic group that live on the open seas from birth to death. Their handcrafted wooden boats, called kabang, function as houseboats for these sea gypsies. Moken children learn to swim before they learn to walk. They can see twice as clearly underwater as landlubbers. And if there were an underwater breath-holding contest, it would be no contest. But it wasn’t any of these skills that saved them from the tsunami. What saved them was their intimacy with the ocean. 

The Moken know its moods and messages better than any oceanographer, reading ocean waves the way we read street signs.

On the day of the earthquake, an amateur photographer from Bangkok was taking pictures of the Moken when she became concerned by what she saw. As the sea started to recede, many of the Moken were crying. They knew what was about to happen. They recognized that the birds had stopped chirping, the cicadas had gone silent, the elephants were headed toward higher ground, and the dolphins were swimming farther out to sea.

Fishermen in the same vicinity as the Moken were blindsided by the tsunami and had no survivors. “They were collecting squid,” said one Moken survivor. “They don’t know how to look.” The waves and birds and cicadas and elephants and dolphins were speaking to those Burmese fishermen, but sadly they didn’t know how to listen.

A local anthropologist who speaks Moken said, “The water receded very fast and one wave, one small wave, came so they recognized that this is not ordinary.”

The Word of God is speaking to about your Sin and your Savior,Jesus.  The Word of God tells you what the dangers of Sin are and what the dangerous sins are.  The to Word of God tells you to look out for Sin and it’s sins and to repent of those sins before the wave of His wrath makes it to your boat or shore.  The Word of God is giving you the signs you need to know in order to not be one of the casualties of God’s wrath that punishes those stuck in unrepentant Sin.

Don’t be like King Herod and the Pharisees who looked at Jesus and did not recognize God’s saving grace in their life.

Instead, Look and recognize that Jesus gently gathers you to God, under the protection of His arms that are spread out on the cross to shield you from the destruction that comes because of God’s deadly storm on Sin.  In the process of the crucifixion, because of His love for you, Jesus willingly takes the full brunt of the storm that so that you can escape alive and live in ultimate safety today, and forever, in the arms of your Creator and Redeemer—God the Father in Heaven.

I encourage you to wake up everyday preaching The Gospel to yourself while being readied to walk through life doing the good deeds that God has prepared for you to do.  According to one of today’s Biblical texts, you can find help every morning by repeating Galatians 2.20 along with the Apostle Paul which says, 

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 16, 2025

Prayer:

Glorious God, 

We praise you for the privilege of knowing you. We have lived in this world, yet often have been ignorant of its Creator; we have enjoyed your tender care without knowing you as the provider. In blindness we have enjoyed sunlight, and we have listened to voices all around us while profoundly deaf to spiritual truth. We have understood many things without knowledge of your ways, and have seen the world yet failed to see Jesus. We live each day as sovereigns of our own kingdoms, carrying out our desires and bending others to our wills. Instead of submitting humbly to those you have called us to obey, our souls rise up with prideful indignation, inflamed with desires for self-determination. We fear that if we love others sacrificially, we will lose the world, and so we fight for our kingdom to come and our will be done. Father, forgive us for our sin, and for the great damage we do to others as we sin. 

Lord Jesus, 

you have entered into the darkness of our world in order to possess us and save us. You submitted to the will of your Father, loving us sacrificially as you carried our cross up the hill of execution and died in our place. With your perfect obedience and death, you have crushed the head of the serpent forever and wrapped us in the silken robes of your righteous submission and sacrificial love. In losing yourself, you gained the treasure for which you longed: our salvation. Jesus, thank you. 

Holy Spirit, 

grant that we may weep in praise of the mercy that we have found. May we tell others as long as we live that you are a pardoning God who pursues proud and selfish sinners and transforms them into grateful, humble, loving, and sacrificial saints. Though we are weak in this life and only make small beginnings in obedience, may our hearts expand with joy to think of the great treasure that is ours in Christ. His perfect love casts out our fear, for though we continue to sin, there is no condemnation left for us, and an eternity of joy has been purchased by his blood. Give us boundless gratitude and increasing grace to live in submission to your perfect and loving will, and to sacrifice ourselves as he laid down his precious life for us. In Christ’s name, amen.

Benediction:

God in peace today.  Jesus gently gathers you to God through his life, death, and resurrection of you. 

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

A Seat at God’s Table

Galatians 2.11-14

Do you practice what you preach?

Can the beliefs and morals you speak about and teach your children about be clearly known by the way you live day to day?

Do the words that come out of your mouth match the actions of your daily life?

Now, here is the BIG QUESTION with a BIG SCARY WORD that may make you tense up:

Are you a straight-up hypocrite who says one thing but does the exact opposite?

There are many ways that hypocrisy rears its ugly head. Here are a few ways to spot hypocrisy:

Do you treat those in power differently than you treat the common man or woman?

Do you give advice but fail to follow your own guidance?

Do you promote tolerance but judge others who don’t conform to your way of thinking?

Do you volunteer others but rarely raise your own hand to offer help?

Do you live one way in public but another in private?

Do you say one thing to someone’s face but another thing behind their back?

Well, I have some bad news for you.  I know the truth that you are a straight up hypocrite from time to time and can answer with a confident, “Yes!,” to many, if not all, of the above questions.

You may ask, “How does Pastor Fred know I am a hypocrite?”

Well, I know you are a hypocrite because I, a less than perfect, broken human born into Sin, am also a straight up hypocrite from time to time.  And, because we are human, we are the same.

This morning’s Biblical text, from the next part of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia during the first century following Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, shows us that the original disciples of Jesus also struggled with hypocrisy because they too were simply human.

Galatians 2:11–14 tells us this:

[11] But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. [12] For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. [13] And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. [14] But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” (ESV)

Since this text focuses on an interaction between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter, let’s first ask, “Who was Peter?”

Peter was, as we heard a few weeks ago in this sermon series, one of Jesus’ original 12 disciples.  He was an OGG (original Gospel Gansta). 

In this moment, Paul confronts Peter because Peter is a classic case of believing the right things but behaving the wrong way.  Or, as we began this morning, this is a classic case of being a hypocrite.

Peter (a Jewish man) believes and teaches that the age-old Jewish laws have nothing to do with receiving God’s love in your life.  God doesn’t just love one people group.  God loves all people in all groups around the world.

But, here, Peter gets up from a table with fellow believers and stands to the side because they are not Jewish in background like him.

How do we know that Peter knew and believed the right things but was behaving in the wrong way?

We know that Peter knew what he was doing was wrong because we have the encounter between God and Peter recorded for us in the Bible in which God directly tells Peter that separation of people based on rules and laws and dietary restrictions is wrong and ungodly.

In the Biblical book of Acts, the book that tells of the beginnings of the Christian church immediately following Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, we are told that an Italian centurion (that is, a non-Jewish man) invited Peter to his house.  Now, in the mid-first century, that invitation would have clearly meant that they would share a meal together.

Upon receiving the invitation, Peter gets nervous because, as a man with a Jewish background, he was used to having dietary restrictions in his life that were put in place by God for his people generations earlier.  This invitation, if he were to accept it, meant that he would be served food he wasn’t allowed to eat.

Knowing this struggle within Peter’s heart and mind, God graciously intervenes to let Peter know the Good News that in Jesus Christ all rules and regulations for attempting to be Holy have been cast away as they were impossible to completely fulfill, leaving one separated from God the Father in Heaven forever.

Let’s hear about the intervention of God and the new life that God was creating for Peter, for you, and for me.

Acts 10:9–48

[9] The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. [10] And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance [11] and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. [12] In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. [13] And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” [14] But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” [15] And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” [16] This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.

[17] Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon’s house, stood at the gate [18] and called out to ask whether Simon who was called Peter was lodging there. [19] And while Peter was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. [20] Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.” [21] And Peter went down to the men and said, “I am the one you are looking for. What is the reason for your coming?” [22] And they said, “Cornelius, a centurion, an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.” [23] So he invited them in to be his guests.

The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him. [24] And on the following day they entered Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. [25] When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshiped him. [26] But Peter lifted him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am a man.” [27] And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered. [28] And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean…

[34] So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, [35] but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. [36] As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), [37] you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: [38] how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. [39] And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, [40] but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, [41] not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. [42] And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. [43] To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

[44] While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. [45] And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. [46] For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, [47] “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” [48] And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. (ESV)

Why did God make a point of miraculously telling Peter that age-old dietary restrictions no longer have a place in his life?  

Well, God needed Peter to understand that dietary laws that were used to keep people groups separated had been abolished, by God, so that all men and women could sit around the same table and enjoy life together.

By uniting and allowing all of humanity to sit together at the same table and eat the same foods, God was teaching that the time had come in which all of humanity, regardless of age, ethnicity, race, gender, and socio-economic status, were welcomed into God’s Kingdom.  And, they weren’t welcomed and accepted through following rules and laws like dietary restrictions. They were welcomed and accepted only through a common faith in their Savior, Jesus.

This uniting of people from all walks of life through a simple faith in God’s promised Savior, Jesus, gives Peter, Paul, and us, a picture and foretaste of Heaven.

The Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah, speaks of the world-uniting eternal table at God’s feast in Heaven when he says: 

[6] On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

[7] And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

[8] He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 25:6–8, ESV)

In verses from Psalm 23 that have brought many of us comfort throughout our lives, King David, the song writer says of Jesus:

[5] You prepare a table before me

in the presence of my enemies…(Psalm 23.5, ESV)

And, in the last book of the Bible that speaks of the end of history and the in-breaking of eternity, we are told that an angel says to the Apostle John:

[9] …“Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” (Revelation 19:9, ESV)

If Peter believed the right thing—that reconciliation with God only comes through faith in Jesus our Savior—why did Peter change his behavior to reflect the wrong belief—that reconciliation with God comes through obedience to Laws and Commands and Good Deeds?

Peter became a hypocrite and changed his behavior so that it didn’t match his beliefs because of fear.  

Peter feared being rejected by his old friends.  

Peter feared the negative and critical opinions of others about him that would be spread. 

And, Peter feared confrontation from those that believed differently than him.    

So, instead of standing strong in the truth with God on his side, Peter caved and chose the path of hypocrisy which in turn led many away from the comfort and truth of the Gospel and placed them back under the burden of trying to act the right way in order to make God happy.

Commenting on this section of Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, the 16th Century Church Reformer, Martin Luther said:

“[Peter] knew the doctrine of justification better than we do.  And yet how easily he could have been responsible for such a terrible ruin by his deed and example if Paul had not opposed him!  All the Gentiles would have fallen away from the preaching of Paul and would thus have lost the Gospel and Christ Himself.  And this all would have happened with the appearance of holiness.”

“For to avoid foods this way is to deny Christ, to tread His blood underfoot, to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit, against God, and against everything holy.  Therefore if one has to lose one or the other, it is better to lose a friend and a brother than to lose God the Father.”

“I am making such a point of all of this to keep anyone from supposing that the doctrine of faith is an easy matter.  It is indeed easy to talk about, but it is hard to grasp; and it is easily obscured and lost.  Therefore let us with all diligence and humility devote ourselves to the study of Sacred Scripture and to serious prayer, lets we lose the truth of the Gospel.”

How did Peter know what was right and what was wrong?  Through God’s Word speaking to him.  For Peter, God chose to speak to him in a dream.

How do you know what is right and what is wrong?  Through God’s Word speaking to you.  God chooses to speak to you through His written and preserved Word known as the Holy Bible.

Peter was told by God Word in his dream that salvation—the forgiveness of sin, including the sin of hypocrisy and leading others away from the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and eternal life—comes to you only through faith in the innocent life of Jesus sacrificed over to death on the cross and risen from the grave on Easter morning.  Good deeds and following commandments will never get you to God.  

And, you are told through God’s Word in the Bible that salvation—the forgiveness of sin, including the sin of hypocrisy and leading others away from the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ, and eternal life—comes to you only through faith in the innocent life of Jesus sacrificed over to death on the cross and risen from the grave on Easter morning.  Good deeds and following commandments will never get you to God.  

I give you comfort, encouragement and exhortation for today and the week ahead of you from another Biblical letter, this time to the churches in Colossae.

In Colossians 2:8–23, God says to you, through the Apostle Paul’s words,

[8] See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. [9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

[16] Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. [17] These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. [18] Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, [19] and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

[20] If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—[21] “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” [22] (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? [23] These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. (ESV)

As the Apostle Paul demonstrated in his confrontation with the Apostle Peter, our struggle with hypocrisy doesn’t leave us hopeless.

Hypocrisy is just one sin, among countless others, that breaks God’s command to always be truthful in our words and actions.  

The sin of hypocrisy is forgivable, just like every other sin is forgivable, through confession to God the Father in Heaven, repentance, and belief in His Sin forgiving Son, Jesus Christ.

Today is a happy day because Jesus washed your sin away.  You’ll never be the same again, forever you are changed.

I invite you to sing it out, Jesus is alive;

The empty cross, the empty grave;

Life eternal, Jesus has won the day.

This morning, repent of your sin, believe the Gospel, and take a seat at God’s table, where a place has been prepared for you by Jesus.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

March 2, 2025

Prayer:

God of all grace, 

We are weak and forgetful people, easily distracted by the joys and sorrows of our lives. We are capable of great thoughts concerning you one moment, yet we forget your kindness and live as though we had no hope the next. Forgive us, Father, for the unbelief that clings to our sinful flesh and clouds our minds with doubt and fear. 

Jesus, 

thank you for clinging to us, even though we let go of you repeatedly. You held fast to the gospel in your living, dying, and rising again, always obeying your Father and setting your face toward the hill of sacrifice. You never forgot your mission or resisted your calling, but faithfully lived and died in our place. You endured mocking, beatings, and crucifixion for the joy set before you. Thank you that we are that joy; now fill us with your joy and cause us to find great delight in you. Though we may be quick to forget you and need reminding often, you never forget us. Instead you intercede for us daily before your Father, and you are preparing for the day when we will feast with you in heaven. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! 

Holy Spirit, 

produce in us growing faith that we may live in Christ. May all our desires rest in him constantly. Make Jesus our greatest hope and all our glory. May we enter him as our refuge, build on him as our foundation, walk in him, follow him, conform to him, rely on him, and obey him. Let us never be ashamed of him or his words. May his death comfort us, for we have been loved with unfathomable love. May his resurrection assure us that his obedience was perfect, his sacrifice accepted, and his work finished. Help us to hold fast to the gospel we have believed: to cherish it in our weakness and to profess its power when we stand strong. Deepen our faith and guard our hearts and minds with the helmet of Christ’s salvation, the breastplate of his righteousness, the shield of his faith, the sandals of his peace, and the sword of his truth. In his strong name we pray, amen.

Benediction:

Go in peace today, you have a seat at God’s table in Heaven.  Invite others to join you by living in such a way that your behavior matches your belief. 

Posted on by Fred Scragg 5

Money Talks

Mark 12.41-44

Tailored suits, chauffeured cars

Fine hotels and big cigars

A French maid, foreign chef

A big house with king-size bed

Hey little girl, you want it all

The furs, the diamonds, the painting on the wall,

Come on, come on, listen to the money talk

These lyrics, highlighting a luxury lifestyle that is all up for grabs if you have enough money, come from AC/DC’s 1990 hit song, Money Talks.

In a Westernized world, dominated by capitalism, we all know that money talks.  If you want it or need it, you have to flash the cash.

However, as the Bible warns us several times over, money is an addiction.  We can become so engulfed in wanting that new car or that next vacation, that we are willing to throw away and sacrifice, time with our spouse and kids, time building supportive relationships with our friends, and leisure time for stimulating our brain.

In Biblical terms, money can very, very easily become an idol.  An idol being something that we chase after and trust more than God our Father in Heaven who has created us and promised to provide for our every need.

In this morning’s text, we hear how two different people handled their money when it came to giving a financial gift to the Temple and how their money talked and what it said about their beliefs.

Mark 12:41–44 says this:

[41] And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. [42] And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. [43] And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. [44] For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” (ESV)

In this story, recorded for us by the disciple Mark, we see that Jesus was in the temple and observed people as they came to put their monetary gifts in the offering box.

If people were giving money at the temple, we have to ask questions like, “why were they giving money at the temple?, and “what was that money being used for at the temple?”

Well, the Jerusalem Temple had 13 trumpet-shaped offering boxes in the Court of Women, where people could place contributions for specific purposes: 

Offering boxes 1 and 2 were where you paid the temple tax. One chest was for the current year and one chest was for the previous year.

Offering boxes 3 through 7 were for turtledoves, pigeons, wood, incense, and golden vessels.

Offering box 8 was for money left over from sin offerings.

Offering boxes 9 through 12 were for money left over from guilt offerings.

And, offering box 13 was for voluntary contributions.  In today’s church language, we would call this a “free-will offering.”

The boxes were shaped liked trumpets so that coins could easily be dropped in while making a noise signifying the act of giving.

To sum all of this up, people would give money at the temple so that the temple had the resources it needed to continue operating and doing the work of God in the world.  

So, with all of that historical context, we can easily transfer the question and answer about financial giving to our monetary gifts at the church today.

Why do we give money at the Church on Sunday Morning?  Why do we bring money and put it in the offering box in the foyer?

We give money at the Church so that the Church has the resources it needs to continue operating and doing the work of God in the world.  To be more specific, the Church uses the money to share the love of God in the Good New of Jesus Christ alive, dead, and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins, the gift of righteousness, and eternal life in Heaven.

To be very specific, to do that work of God here at Bethel, the money given as an offering to God is used to provide Bibles and teaching curriculum to Children’s Church, Women’s Bible Study, Confirmation, Youth Group, Bethel Kids, etc.  

The money given as an offering to God is also used to make donations to people doing the work of God in our community and nation.  We are currently making monthly donations to Helping Hand Rescue Mission (a Huntington Station mission that provides food, clothing, and various other daily resources to those in need) as well as a chaplain at Urban Sky (who brings Bibles and teaches Bible Study at a women’s prison in Denver Colorado).

And, the money given as an offering to God is used to pay the utility bills, maintenance bills, the pastor’s salary, as well as other operating expenses, to ensure that the church is ready daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly to welcome people in to hear the proclamation of the Good News and be comforted by the grace and mercy of God for them in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Our text shows three reasons why people give financial gifts at the Temple and Church. Those three reasons are (1) Showing Off, (2) Obligation, and (3) Thankfulness.  

Let’s begin with giving money at the church to show off and increase our pride.

In our text, Jesus sees the rich putting large sums of money into the offering box.  By comparing them to the giving of the poor widow, Jesus illustrates that they weren’t using their financial donations as an act of thanksgiving and worship, but instead they were using their financial giving to put on a show and gain praise from others for being generous.

Jesus speaks about this wrong way of making a financial offering in His Sermon recorded in Matthew 5-7.  

In Matthew 6:1–4, Jesus says:

[1] “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

[2] “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. [3] But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, [4] so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (ESV)

Let’s move on to the idea of giving money to the Church because you feel like you have to and are being forced to.

Over the Christmas break, I was having a conversation about God’s command for us to financially give in the Church.  Those that I was having this conversation with shared that they did not like the part of the Church Service when the offering was taken.

They shared feelings of forced obligation.

The forced obligation would often cause them to scramble in their pockets and purses for something to put in the offering plate or box in order to save themselves from embarrassment.  

My conversation partners are not alone.  I am sure we have all felt those feelings (and maybe still do) when it comes to supporting God’s Church with our money.

However, when God commands financial giving to the church, He does not do so to embarrass us or strong arm us.  

Those feelings only come out of our sins of greed, pride, and showmanship.

We think things like:

“Who is the Church to request my hard earned money?”  

“I work so that I can do the things I want to do and buy the things I want to buy!”

And, “If I am going to give, I am going to make sure people see me give and talk about my giving and generosity to others.”

These selfish and self-centered thoughts, words, and actions, fly directly in the face of God’s design for money.

Deuteronomy 8:18 says:

[18] You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. (ESV)

And, since God has given you the means to receive money for your daily needs, Proverbs 3:9 says:

[9] Honor the LORD with your wealth

and with the firstfruits of all your produce; (ESV)

Finally,

[6] The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. [7] Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (2 Corinthians 9:6–7, ESV)

So, that brings us to the poor widow who gave all that she had to live on.

Several years ago, there was a homeless man who came to Bethel on a regular basis.  Social services had placed him at one of the motels nearby on Jericho Turnpike and he would walk here on Sunday mornings and sit in the front pew.

Back then, before the COVID pandemic when we passed offering plates around, I would watch him every Sunday morning, reach into his pockets and pull out a few coins to place in the offering plate.  At one point, after a service, he said to me, “I don’t have much, but that will never stop me from giving an offering because I am so thankful for what God has given me and I want to make do my best to make sure other people will know that He has given them Jesus too!”

To say I was humbled to the very core of my being would be an understatement.  

Just like the poor widow in this morning’s text, this homeless man was giving money to God’s Church out of pure thanksgiving with joy.

This morning, are you concerned with,

Tailored suits, chauffeured cars

Fine hotels and big cigars

A French maid, foreign chef

A big house with king-size bed

The furs, the diamonds, the painting on the wall,

Or, are you concerned with,

The cross of Christ, forgiven sin

Righteousness, eternal livin’

Being generous, sharing love,

The will of God, in Heaven above?

The poor widow, in our Biblical text, was concerned and consumed by,

The cross of Christ, forgiven sin

Righteousness, eternal livin’

Being generous, sharing love,

The will of God, in Heaven above.

Hearing all of this, we know that we have not been faithful mangers of our money or good stewards of the money that God has given us.  We have been greedy, selfish, and stingy.  So, what do we do?  

We do what we do with every other sin, we confess it, repent of it, and place our faith in Jesus who always treated money in a God honoring way.

When asked about paying taxes by people who didn’t want to pay taxes, Jesus said, 

[21] …render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Matthew 22:2, ESV)

Through faith in Jesus, which fully unites to Jesus, we are given Jesus’ perfect record of always using money for God honoring purposes. 

The poor widow joyfully and thankfully realized that God gave to her more than she could ever give to God.  She realized that she could never out-give God.

The poor widow knew this because her Savior, Jesus, was standing before her in the temple.  She knew that she was wretched and sinful, separated from God.  But, she also new that God’s desire was to reconnect her back to Himself.  So, God gave His One and Only Son, Jesus Christ, to forgive her sin, cleanse her of her lifetime of disobedience to God’s commands for life and love, and reconciled her relationship with Him eternally.

You can imagine her singing these words as she was placing her offering in the box:

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

  Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

    “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!

God is the greatest giver.

He doesn’t give you nonsense.  He gives you want you need.

After providing for your ultimate need—forgiveness—God also promises and fulfills his promise to give you what you need on a daily basis.

The poor widow’s generously giving all of what she had financially shows her absolute trust in God’s daily provision as well.  

Continuing on in 2 Corinthians 9.8-15, we are told this:

[8] And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. [9] As it is written,

“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;

his righteousness endures forever.”

[10] He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. [11] You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. [12] For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. [13] By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, [14] while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. [15] Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (ESV)

When your God-given money talks, does it say, “Look at me, I am so generous!,” or, does your money say, “I have to pinch and store up and watch every penny because deep down I don’t really trust God to provide for me?”

Or, when your money talks, does it say, “Look at the Grace of God for you in Jesus Christ!”

This morning and this year, put your money where your mouth is.

Joyfully and with thanksgiving, let your money talk and say, “There is Power in the Blood!”

Joyfully and with thanksgiving, let your money talk and say, God’s love for me is so great that it is actually fully, “Indescribable!”

Joyfully and with thanksgiving, let your money talk and say, “To God Be the Glory!”

I exhort you and encourage you, like the poor widow in this morning’s Biblical text, respond in thanksgiving to God’s giving of Jesus to you by honoring God with your money and give generously to His Church and her ministries that allow other people to hear, receive, and believe, the Good News of forgiveness and eternal life that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is the Word of God for you today.

This is the Grace of God for you today.

Amen.

Reverend Fred Scragg V.

January 12, 2025.