Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the Old Testament of the Day: Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets, who prophesy to you, fill you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to every one who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”  [Jeremiah 23.16-17]

From the Epistle: For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. [Romans 8.13-14]

From the Holy Gospel: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” [Matthew 7.15]

This day on the historic Western church calendar has come, in Lutheran circles, to be called “Little Reformation Sunday,” for, in the midst of the Trinity season comes texts from God’s Word that sound the alarm about the battle for the Gospel.

At the time of the Reformation, nearly everyone in Europe considered themselves Christians. Yet, a great distortion of God’s Word had infected the Christian Church. It was nothing less than a distortion of the Gospel. It’s not that some would like to throw out the Gospel; rather, some just insist on misusing the Gospel, just as what happened at the time of the Reformation; just as what happened in the times of the lessons read to you today, on this Little Reformation Sunday. To these lessons your attention is invited, to become aware that “It Matters Who is Your Pastor.”

I.

We turn first to the Old Testament of the day, from the inspired pen of the prophet, Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived and preached in the days leading up to and following the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians around 595 B.C. His book is a written record of his ministry and of the opposition to it that he experienced. Prophets of the Lord God before Jeremiah all preached the same message: Repent, for disaster is coming upon you. This prophetic preaching has been pounded into the ears of the residents of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah for over two centuries. God even gave them an object lesson of the coming disaster by allowing the Assyrians to totally destroy their fellow Hebrews in the northern kingdom of Israel.

But the ears remained stopped. And now, Jeremiah has tightened the prophetic warning. It is too late, he says! The disaster is about to strike! He does not call people to repent so as to avoid the disaster such as their northern brethren suffered. It is too late for that! His message is this: Repent, so that you may have God’s forgiveness while the disaster strikes.

But no one wants to hear that. His message falls on well-hardened ears. They reject what He proclaims from God’s Law – they don’t want God’s Law barking at them – and as a result there is no Gospel for them in Jeremiah’s prophesies. Instead, court theologians of the day, wishing to be pleasing to both the king and the kingdom, prophesied good news – a virtual Gospel – to the people. “All is well!” “Come, join us in being happy, and make things even better! Don’t listen to that lone voice of Jeremiah – He doesn’t tell you what our loving God wants you to hear!” “It will be well with you! No disaster will come upon you! God loves you!”

To this, God answers through the mouth of His chosen and ordained servant: “I did not send these prophets, yet they ran! I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied; … Let the prophet … who has My word speak My Word faithfully … Is not My word like fire, … and like a hammer that breaks the rocks in pieces!”

And so in those days leading up to the terrible destruction of Jerusalem and God’s holy temple, there was a battle for the Gospel! The problem then is that the people want to hear a Gospel of pleasantry and happiness. But Jeremiah knows that such a message is not what God says. That message of love, joy, and forgiveness must always come second, after the message that brings repentance, which is never the Gospel, but always the Law.

In this very passage that you have heard as the Old Testament of the Day, Dr. Luther gets his favorite metaphor for God’s Law and how the Law is intended to work. Luther usually spoke of two uses of the Law. The one was the civil use, which addressed how God intends to keep order in sinful societies. The other use of the Law, the theological use, he called “the hammer,” from this very verse: “Is not My Word like a fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.

And so it is that the prophet Jeremiah has the lonely and resented task to preach the Law as the Hammer of God. He is to preach it despise the resentment it causes, which the hammer of the Law always causes. For only in repentance, which comes from the hammer, does God want the preacher to preach the comfort of forgiveness and the love of God, the message that we call the Gospel. This is why it is important today, as in Jeremiah’s day, for people to identify the preacher or pastor that God really intends His people to hear. There were many preachers, well-respected preachers, positive and motivating preachers in Jerusalem, but there was a only one, lonely preacher whom God had sent. “It Matters Who is Your Pastor.”

II.

In the Holy Gospel, you hear the warning from Jesus Himself: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves!”  Moreover, He says: “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father!” And what is that will of God? It is certainly NOT to proclaim, “peace, peace, where there is no peace,” as did the false prophets in Jeremiah’s day. Here is the will of God; this is what God intends for you to hear from your pastors: When Jesus is asked, “What shall we do, that we might do the works of God?” – He answers: “This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent!” You want to do good works? Believing is the good work! Having faith is the will of God, with which the Holy Spirit works everything else in the Christian life.

This is why Jesus concludes the Holy Gospel of the Day with these haunting words to those who “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your?’ The answer is, yes! Yet, Jesus says, I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness!’”

You see, there is no Gospel impact on sinful hearts without first the impact of the Law: First the hammer, then the healing and forgiveness and growth of humble faith! First, the death, then the resurrection! It matters who is your pastor.

St. Paul puts it well in today’s Epistle: If you live according to the flesh, you will die, even the fine, respectable, up-standing living going on the in church, which can be still living according to the flesh! But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live! Living in the Gospel is continually a process of killing and resurrection. It is a life of repentance. And in this repentance, this putting to death the deeds of the body, continually, God the Holy Spirit builds trust in God’s mercy, joy in God’s forgiveness, and peace in God’s faithfulness.

It matters who is your pastor, for it matters what you hear from God, namely, that you hear the true Gospel that always comes second, after the Law has done its hammering, upon which the Gospel becomes the continual final Word to you, promising the love, forgiveness, and faithfulness of your God!