Lutheran Logomaniac
By Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Podcast Description
Sermons from Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin (LCMS)
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Pure and Cleansed – Presentation 2012 | Todd A. Peperkorn, STM Holy Cross Lutheran Church Rocklin, California The Presentation of Our Lord (February 2, 2012) Luke 2:22â32 2012Presentation TITLE: âJesus Presents You Pure and Cleansed to Godâ Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. Our text this evening is the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple. The Law of God given to Moses required that a woman, after giving birth, would be set apart for forty days. She could not go to any holy place or touch any holy thing for forty days after giving birth to a son. This was called the period of her purification, because giving birth, even in the best of circumstances, always involves pain and blood. All the way back at the Garden of Eden, the Lord told Eve that she would suffer in child-birth. Even in the giving of life itself, there was an understanding that death is at the door. And death is a very unholy thing, for it is born from sin. Itâs really hard for us to understand the idea of uncleanness and purification as the Scriptures teach. We just donât think in those categories today. How could Mary be impure because she gave birth to a Son? Itâs offensive to think about this. What could be more natural than giving birth? What could be more normal than that? Of course giving birth and bearing children is a good and salutary thing. Children are always a gift from God and blessing of the Lord. But because of the sin of Eve and Adam, with this blessing from God comes a cross. Letâs face it. Children are messy. They start out messy, and it only gets messier as they get older. The messes just change. And the messiest child of all is what we commonly call an adult. Our lives are full of messes, ones that we cause or ones that seem to fall into our laps. Life this side of the grave is messy business thanks to this common sin which infects us all. The Scriptures understand this very well, and so every mother at forty days was to bring a lamb to the Temple for a burnt offering and two turtledoves or pigeons for a sin offering. In this way she was cleansed by the death of these animals, and made pure once again. The only way that a mother could be made clean was by death and sacrificed. That was the only way it happened. The same was true for the son. From the time of Mount Sinai, every firstborn male child of the sons of Israel was holy to the Lord, and dedicated to service in the Temple of God. But since the tribe of Levi were the tribe of the priests, all of the other firstborn sons were redeemed, or bought back from Temple service forty days after their birth. The price for the redemption of a firstborn son was five shekels of silver. So this forty days was a time of purification for Mary and preparation for Jesus to be presented at the Temple of the Lord. Jesus, the true Temple of God, came to visit the earthly Temple. So it is that this young girl, Mary by name, was purified for forty days after the birth of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of this time, she and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple, along with two turtledoves to make sacrifice, as the Law of Moses required. They were a Jewish couple doing what new families do, to purify the mother and present the Son in the Temple and redeem Him from sacrifice. But this time it was different. This time Mary does not simply bring two turtledoves for her own sacrifice. This time she brings the sacrifice, the one sacrifice of all time, which would cleanse and purify all of us from sin and death forever. Now this is a bit of a culture shock for you and I. We just donât think this way. But it is true. Jesus is presented at the Temple of God in Jerusalem and so fulfills the Law of God. They bring the two pigeons to fulfill the Law for Mary His mother, but they do not bring the five shekels of silver for Him. Like the prophet Samuel many, many years before, | 2/3/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
Changed (Transfiguration 2012) | Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is the Gospel just read, the Transfiguration of our Lord from St. Matthew chapter seventeen. God loves to hide things, so that He may reveal them at the proper time. King Solomon once wrote, âIt is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.â (Proverbs 25:2 ESV) What this means for us is that God hides things because it is for our benefit, not because heâs trying to keep secrets. He hides Himself because He knows that if He were to reveal Himself to us in His full glory apart from Jesus, we could not bear it because of our sin. That is why Peter, James and John fall to the ground when He is revealed. They realize that they are not worthy to be in Godâs presence. Like Moses standing before the burning bush, they know that if everything is revealed, they would be consumed. They know, like the centurion from last week, that they are not worthy to be in the presence of God Almighty. They are afraid. And they are right to be afraid. Adam and Eve, after all, fled from the presence of God when they knew their sin (Genesis 3:8). Oddly enough, we have forgotten our unworthiness in the presence of God. As a culture, perhaps more than any other description, I would say that we are a people without shame. We dress up our children like harlots. We steal and slander one another at every turn. We take Godâs gift of life and turn it into a convenience to be aborted if other dreams seem more important. We have no shame as a people. And yet we somehow also have a profound lost of self-esteem and self-worth. Now when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, his face shone from being in the presence of God. The people were afraid to come near to him. The reason Moses went up Mt. Sinai here in Exodus is because of this little episode we call the Golden Calf. In a short period of time, the people of Israel had gone from rejocing in God delivering them from the hand of Pharaoh, to worshipping a calf made of melted jewelry. Moses actually crashed the tablets of stone on the ground, broke them, and many people died. So it should be no surprise when Moses comes back down a second time, that they are afraid. His glowing presenced reflected the glory of God, and it terrified them. They went from having no shame, to having so much shame and guilt that they could not bear it. This is you, dearly beloved. We play games with our sins. We act as though we can pick and choose how these things work. We bite and manipulate one another, all in the name of fairness or justice or even just being right. But as the author to Hebrews puts it, âIt is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.â (Hebrews 10:31) So the fear of Peter, James and John is entirely understandable. They can handle the healing Jesus. They can handle Jesus the teacher. They can even handle Moses and Elijah (at least in their minds). In fact, that little picture or image is so good that they want to CLICK, hold on to that picture. But when the voice of God Himself speaks from the cloud, well, that is too much. They cannot bear to hear the voice of God apart from Jesus. It is then that this beautiful picture emerges. The pictures is these three, as well as you and I, kneeling before the Transfigured Lord, and Jesus then reaches down and touches them and says, âRise, and have no fear.â (Matthew 17:7) With these words, everything really does change. Jesus touches them, reaches out to them, speaks words of comfort to them, and they lift up their eyes and see Jesus only. This, beloved, is how we enter into the presence of the almighty God. We enter through the blood of Jesus. We enter into His presence with the touch of our Lord. It is this touch, this hidden Word, that changes everything. Does this comfort you? It can and it will. For you enter into the presence of God Almighty here, in this place, | 2/1/12 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 2 Episodes |
Customer Reviews
Definitely recommend
Awesome sermons from a faithful, Christ-centered Lutheran pastor!
Christ Centered Sermons!
Pastor Peperkorn's sermons are a work of art! He properly distinguishes Law and Gospel and always delivers the fruits of Christ's cross and resurrection to the hearer! I highly recommend that you listen to his preachment.
Great site and podcast!
And that's not just because I'm the author. To be fair though, I am a Lutheran pastor, not a buddist. Don't know why it is categorized wrong.
Listeners also subscribed to
- Pastor Wolfmueller Podcast
- Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller
- View In iTunes
- Bethany Lutheran, Naperville, IL
- Bethany Lutheran Church
- View In iTunes
- Word of God Evangelical Lutheran Church - Pana, Illinois
- Word of God Evangelical Lutheran Church
- View In iTunes
