Thank you for permitting me and funding me to attend the 28th annual symposium on Exegetical Theology and the 36th annual symposium on The Lutheran Confessions this past Tuesday, January 22nd through Friday, January 25th. It was a very great blessing to me and to our fellow Saint Paul's member Mr. Joshua DeYoung who plans to apply to the seminary towards becoming a pastor in The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

I attended all of the offered papers (over 15) and took 89 pages of notes. This was my time to be fed and nourished and it was worth every dime. I was also lifted up in being able to worship in Kramer chapel on campus. I saw many former classmates, other fellow pastors I know, dear faculty members, and other friends at this event. It was absolutely inspirational.

The papers were very pertinent and addressed the realms of homosexuality, the sanctity of life, and the controversies surrounding marriage in the 21st century. All of these issues as you know are a great challenge to Christ's Church in the 21st century and I feel as though I am now better-equipped to address these important matters with Christ's love and Christ's Word.

I was able to introduce Josh to several professors, we received an invitation to the president's reception after the banquet at his home, Josh met with admission counselors, toured the seminary, worshiped in chapel (sat next the prominent Rev. Dr. David P. Scaer), and he also attended every paper offered. We are now home safely and glad to be home.

Tomorrow gives me the opportunity to address one of these very challenging topics. I hope you will view it as an opportunity to be further equipped and always, always empowered by the forgiving Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let me just say that much of this sermon is celebrating the gift, yes, the very great gift of children.

I hope to fill you with the Word, with Holy Absolution, and with the Holy Sacrament. Invite a friend. Let us gather together as the people of God.

Here are some additional reminders:

It is my great joy in the Lord to serve you dear Christian. I hope to see you tomorrow in God's house!

In Your Service and To Christ's Glory,

Pastor

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's sermon:

Sermon

“The Church – All of You – Are Christ’s Epiphany…

Especially For The Unborn”

Rev. Dr. Alfonso O. Espinosa

Introduction: We’ve Been Talking “Epiphanies”…the Wise Men following the Star; The Baptism of Christ; The Holy Spirit in your life (last week); but there is another and it is our life together as the people of God, the body of Christ, the Holy Church esp. as we stand together to speak the truth in love -- even if we are persecuted -- in the face of evil in the world.

 

And it is important in this regard that we cut to the chase and speak of those things which are most difficult to address and stand against. Luther addressed this principle:

“Neither is it of any help if someone would say, ‘I will gladly confess Christ and His Word in every other article, except that I may keep silence about one or two that my tyrants may not tolerate…’ For whoever denies Christ in one article or word has denied the same Christ… [in] all the articles…” (Luther’s letter to Graf Albrecht von Mansfeld on June 3^rd, 1523, Concordia Journal/Fall 2009, p. 356f)

 

1. It is so easy to be silent about so many things nowadays!

 

2. Why is it so sinfully easy?

 

1. We like to avoid controversy, confrontation, and offense.
2. Closely related is that we want to be liked.
3. And frankly we all experience the gravitational pull of universalism in American religiously…the goal is to simply have a general “belief in God,” “to be a good person,” and to avoid absolutisms whenever possible. After all, if you do this, then you can maintain that you are not a “judgmental” person…after all, didn’t Jesus say, “Do not judge. (Matt 7:1a)”?! Answer: Jesus did, but He did not mean do not discern between good and evil OR do not take a stand against evil…He meant do not condemn (leave eternal destinies in the hands of God where they belong)…but on the other hand, you must take a stand…not in order to demonize people (for we are all sinners), but in order to be faithful to God and in order to truly love your neighbor!

 

3. How important is this?

 

Matthew 5:13: “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

 

4. Part of our problem, is that we let way too much time go by and just put things off…and tomorrow never comes! Like I have been putting things off as your pastor and it’s been bothering me.

 

5. For the first time in pastoral ministry and I’m sure only by the grace of God, I began to lead a “life-ministry” in my congregation at Living Word Lutheran Church, The Woodlands, TX while I served there from 2002-2010. We had a very simple and focused and pro-active approach: we participated in “40 Days of Life” with other Christian Churches (trans-denominational) in the Houston Area that organized to stand vigil at the local Planned Parenthood centers in the Houston area, including the largest complex of Planned Parenthood on the North American Continent in Houston, TX.

 

6. As many of you know Planned Parenthood was started by Margaret Sanger who was the greatest modern advocate and leader of abortion in America in the history of our country.

 

7. You know about the Holocaust and the 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazi’s. While I traveled in Germany recently, I saw a very large memorial to those Jews in Berlin…it was striking and commands an ongoing memorial so that the Holocaust would never be forgotten.

 

8. Well there are other things that mustn’t be forgotten nor ignored by the Christian Church if we are to be Christ’s light in this world. A lot happened last week: the country celebrated the contributions of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, President Obama was inaugurated, but did you catch the significance of Tuesday, January 22^nd? It was the 40^th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, when legalized abortion in America became a reality. Again, we remember the 6 million Jews who were the murdered victims of the Holocaust, but we cannot forget, we must never forget either the 50…the 50 million unborn babies who had no defenders when they were murdered (think of all the people in the state of California plus millions more, murdered)…and make no mistake about that regardless of the most or least sophisticated reasons for conducting those abortions, innocent human beings have been slaughtered in the womb. Let it said plainly and simply: abortion is a crass violation of God’s 5^th commandment: “Thou shalt not murder.” As a country, we are without excuse.

 

I will continue this sermon tomorrow and lead us to the single, most important reason in Christ that we are moved by the Gospel to love the Lord's gift of life beginning at conception.

Bless you dear Christian!

 

Dr. Espinosa

 

The Scripture come right out and say it: "Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior." (Isaiah 45:15) But why? This might seem like an extraordinarily frustrating article of the faith. Why would God do that? Doesn't He want to be seen? Doesn't He want to be known? The questions themselves infer confusion and misunderstanding. Of course the Lord wants to be known, but the question is really about in what way? His way -- the good and necessary way; the way for our own good -- is that He makes Himself certainly knowable, but in a way in which He is hidden. We will explain in tomorrow's proclamation and the sermon will climax in this truth shining a light on you, His child. One of the ways in which God hides Himself is in you!

Come to Church. Invite a friend. Receive His Word and Sacrament and be strengthened.

Don't go along with the world's posture. The world decides what it needs. It does not heed the Word of God.

The Word of God says, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another -- and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25) How 'bout that? Gathering for worship is God's plan; God's will. Let us respond in faith and thanksgiving even as we experience once again His service to us as He comes to serve with His Word and His Sacrament. He said, "do this in remembrance of me..." (1st Corinthians 11:24).

The Lord intends to bless you tomorrow morning and I rejoice that I get to serve you!

In Your Service and To Christ's Glory,

Pastor Espinosa

p.s. in the children's message, I will reveal four (4) ways in which God hid Himself and hides Himself...can you guess these ways?

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's sermon!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. As you know “epiphany” is about God being manifest. We need for this to be the case, because if God did not reveal Himself then we would never know Him, nor would we ever be saved. This is why we have to be careful when we encounter the popular objection to believing to God: “Why should I believe in a God that I cannot see?” This objection along with many other objections is used to keep a safe distance from faith and from entering into a relationship with the Living God, especially when it is presupposed that such faith is unreasonable and without warrant.

 

Unfortunately, the answers that come back from Christians to those who state this objection are often inaccurate. How many Christians with good intentions will answer the objection, “Why should I believe in a God that I cannot see?” with something along the lines of, “You just need to believe.”? What is perpetuated here is the idea of “blind faith”. Now it’s easy to be confused about these matters. After-all, at first glance it may seem that the Bible itself supports such an idea. Consider for example Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Well there you have it: faith is the conviction of things not seen. Case closed. Christians must therefore believe in blind faith. Not so fast.

 

There is a biblical context and backdrop to these words. To put it simply: if God suddenly appeared in all of His glory – in front of you and me right here and right now – we would all be in a lot of trouble. As sinful human beings, we would be overwhelmed. No one can see the full glory of God and survive. Even to Moses, God said, “Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” (Exodus 33:23) The ancient church father Tertullian commented on this state of affairs: “It is not permitted us to contemplate the sun, in the full amount of [its] substance which is in the heavens, but we can only endure with our eyes a ray” (ANF3:609).It is in this respect that the Bible records God speaking these words in Exodus 33:20: “But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

 

This is why we sometimes explain this situation in terms of God “hiding” Himself. He hides Himself not in the sense that He is undetectable, but in the sense that we do not and cannot see His full glory. This is indeed an important biblical teaching. Listen to the words of Isaiah the prophet: “Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.” (Isaiah 45:15)

The rest of the sermon gets into how the Lord REVEALS Himself and continues to do so among His Epiphany people!

It has been said that one cannot really understand the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ without being aware of the significance of Christ's baptism by John the Baptist. At first glance it seems like a passing historical incident, but the event is touched on by all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, though a little indirectly in John's Gospel). Needless to say Jesus' baptism was and is extremely important to our salvation and for our confidence in the grace of God for our lives. Why? This is what the sermon is about tomorrow. I shared the sermon this afternoon while visiting Pastor Herb Geisler (as he rehabilitates) and while I was doing so a gentleman by the name of "Frank" came into the room and listened. At the conclusion of the sermon, Frank wiped away tears and enthusiastically introduced himself to me. We talked about God's free grace, but our launching pad was Jesus' baptism!

There is a lot packed into our Lord's baptism. Among other things it solidifies and guarantees our new identity because what the  Father says of Jesus, the Father says of you. Again, this will be thoroughly explained tomorrow.

The Holy Supper of our Savior will also be served and you will once again receive Christ for you for a new day, to strengthen you and to keep you in the forgiveness of sins and the love of God as Jesus will say to you, "Take and eat, this is my body...take and drink, this is my blood."

Tomorrow includes:

9:30 am: Children's Sermon during the Service.

10:45 am: Fellowship and Refreshments.

11:00 am: Bible Study and Sunday School.

12:00 pm: Parish Council Meeting in the Cafe.

1:30 pm: 7th and 8th grade Confirmation at my residence.

I hope to see you tomorrow in God's house!

In Christ,

Pastor

p.s. Our next Voter's Assembly meeting is Sunday, January 27th, 2013

p.s.s. Our next New Member Sunday is February 10th, 2013

Here is an excerpt from tomorrow's sermon:

“With You God Is Well-Pleased”

(Luke 3:21-22)

Pastor Espinosa

 

“²¹Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, ²²and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”

 

Introduction: There Are Many Ways to Approach Life

 

A. In the multitude of ways in which you strive by your own standard or righteousness OR by approaching life in accord with God’s standard and righteousness.

B. If we choose our standard or righteousness, we enter into a sinful maze that leads to disaster as we try to follow the vast-array of “god-substitutes”: (from Keller’s The Reason for God, 290-291)

1. If you center your life and identity on your spouse or partner, you will be emotionally dependent, jealous, and                  controlling. The other person’s problems will be overwhelming to you.

2. If you center your life and identity on your family and children, you will try to live your life through your children until they resent you or have no self of their own. At worst, you may abuse them when they displease you.

3.  If you center your life and identity on your work and career, you will be a driven workaholic and a boring, shallow person. At worst you will lose family and friends and, if your career goes poorly, develop deep depression.

4. If you center your life and identity on money and possessions, you’ll be eaten up by worry or jealousy about money. You’ll be willing to do unethical things to maintain your lifestyle, which will eventually blow up your life.

5. If you center your life and identity on pleasure, gratification, and comfort, you will find yourself getting addicted to something. You will become chained to the “escape strategies” by which you avoid the hardness of life.

6. If you center your life and identity on relationships and approval, you will be constantly overly hurt by criticism and thus always losing friends. You will fear confronting others and therefore will be a useless friend.

7. If you center your life and identity on a “noble cause,” you will divide the world into “good” and “bad” and demonize your opponents. Ironically, you will be controlled by your enemies. Without them, you have no purpose.

8. If you center your life and identity on religion and morality, you will, if you are living up to your moral standards, be proud, self-righteous, and cruel. If you don’t live up to your standards, your guilt will be utterly devastating.

 

OR you can put all of the man-made systems of righteousness aside and go with God’s plan…

C. But here’s the rub (the impossible challenge in one respect at least), God’s plan is the “righteousness of God.”

1. This teaching in God’s Word has multiple facets. It has the facet of God’s saving righteousness, esp. as we know it in St. Paul’s “righteousness of God (Rom 21f.),” but it is a concept that is also alongside of God’s justice. (Kittel, ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Volume II, 195-197)

2. It had a very precise sense, however, when in a parallel to our Gospel in Luke 3 this morning – in Matthew 3 – Jesus said as he approached John the Baptist (who is practically beside himself and aghast at the idea that Jesus would come to him for baptism):

 

Matthew 3:15: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

D. At Jesus’ baptism Jesus is touching on that aspect of the “righteousness of God” that expresses itself in “the right conduct of man which follows the will of God and is pleasing to Him, for rectitude of life before God, for uprightness before His judgment. (Kittel, 198)”

1. In other words, “the righteousness of God” includes the idea of doing what is pleasing to God.

2. And at this juncture in which the righteousness of God might be isolated in accord with this biblical and legitimate definition, we find ourselves still in a mess.

3. All of the man-made systems of righteousness only lead to satanic confusion and sinful addictions, so we try to do the right thing and turn to God’s way…

4. That is, the effort to do what is pleasing to God; to live in the righteousness of God.

a. We try to think the right way, but our thoughts betray God’s righteousness.

b. We try to desire the right things, but our hearts are found to be corrupt in light of God’s righteousness.

c. We try to commit ourselves to right ways, but our sin keeps rearing its ugly head, and we fail in accord with the                                 standard of God’s righteousness.

d. God knows how His righteousness in our lives should be expressed: we should love Him with all of our hearts (with all that we desire); with all of our souls (with all that we commit to); and with all our minds (with all that we permit to characterize our thought-lives), but we fall-short. In sin, we love ourselves more than God…our own desires, our own commitments, and our own thought-lives betray God...for all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. (Ro 3:23).

 

Part 1: All of These Reasons Are Why Jesus’ Baptism Was Vital for Our Being Rescued from These Terrible Circumstances!

 

[The rest of this sermon explains the power of Christ's baptism for us!]

Without the Epiphany -- the showing forth of Christ's glory -- we would have never known that the babe born on Christmas was and is the very Son of God. The Epiphany demonstrates the appearance of Jesus as God on earth. We are taught to properly know who are Savior Jesus really is throughout the season of Epiphany.

Tomorrow in particular will lead us to study the account of the magi who followed the star of Bethlehem and we will see just how miraculous an event it was as we will not only proclaim about the significance of the star, but also the significance of the magi themselves. Their reflection of God's grace for us as well is inspirational and amazing.

In addition, Christ will show forth His grace and mercy to you again through His Holy Supper as you receive His true body and blood for the forgiveness of all -- not just some or most -- but ALL of your sins.

I look forward to serving you tomorrow in God's house at Crean Lutheran High School, 12500 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine.

Exit Sand Canyon from 405 or 5

Head Northeast towards hills

Cross Irvine Blvd.

Turn right on Saint's Way

Service starts at 9:30 am, Sunday School and Bible Study start at 11:00 am.

Here is an excerpt (the introduction) of tomorrow's sermon:

Introduction: Popular images that don’t quite represent Scripture. Case and point: The Epiphany “Kings” or “Wise” Men Who Followed the Star:

 

1. Calling them “kings” is something that did not occur until the 6^th century; calling them “wise” did not occur until the 8^th century! (Gibbs, Concordia Commentary: Matthew 1:1-11:1, 123-124)
2. But our cultural images have built up these popular ideas about the magi who came to pay homage and adoration towards the baby Jesus (who was about two years old and was now being raised in the house of Joseph and Mary). This also corrects our typical “manger scenes”: the magi never made it to the manger, but traveled for many months to see the baby Jesus when much time passed after His birth. So the shepherds worshipped at the manger, but the magi bowed down before Christ in the humble home of Joseph and Mary many months after the birth of Christ.
3. In the typical manger scene we have the poor shepherds and then the elaborate magi right there with them, but the biblical evidence states that the magi arrived long after the shepherds and furthermore Scripture will not let us be too terribly impressed with the magi.
4. Magi were often servants of rulers who oppressed the people of Israel as we seemingly have depicted in the book of Daniel. They were most certainly not kings, but again, servants.
5. Furthermore, any good Israelite would never admire their so-called “wisdom.” Ancient astronomy was often associated with the occult. From a Jewish perspective, this was a form of false and idolatrous knowledge and learning. For the people of God at the time, this would be something to be shunned.
6. But even more fundamentally disturbing is that these magi were Gentiles…they were outsiders in relation to the people of God…they did not belong in association with the Holy Messiah!
7. So who were the magi…they were not really kings, but servants; they were not really wise, but were known for occult science; and they were not even among God’s people, but Gentiles! How much should these men – in terms of their own persons and credentials – be admired? Not at all! And yet…these are the ones who came seeking Christ!

In Your Service and To Christ's Glory,

Pastor