10-7-2012_Our Witness In The Church_1 John 4:7ff.

The first sermon in a series on the LCMS emphasis on "Witness" as part of an emphasis on Christian living/stewardship.  The text is 1 John 4:7ff., John's exhortation for Christians to "love one another."

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Pentecost 17B_9-23-2012_Why It's Good To Be A Child

It's good to be a child.  It's good to be a sponge which absorbs the grace of God through His Word and gifts of forgiveness and life.  Christ's kingdom is about taking the lowest seat and letting God exalt us by grace.

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Pent 16B_9-16-2012_A Lord Who Is Above It All

The humanity of this text is striking...as is Jesus' divinity in remaining above the arguing, the fears, and the doubts.

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Pent 4_6-24-2012_Great Music At The Party

The little congregation in Jerusalem is making beautiful music.  Their continual devotion to the apostles' teaching, the life together, the breaking of bread, and the prayers is leading to a life together of mercy for everyone around them and they are enjoying the favor of the entire city.

This sermon was preached on June 24 at St. John's Lutheran in North Prairie.

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Pentecost 2_6-10-2012_Are We There Yet?

The first in a series Pastor Torkelson has developed for the 125th anniversary of St. John's in September.  The series is out of the early chapters of Acts and is called "Joining The Party."

Today's text is Acts 1:1-11 and speaks to the disciples failure to grasp the present reality of Christ's kingdom, His party for sinners.

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Pentecost_5-27-2012_That One!

Jesus speaks to His disciples with a pointed specificity regarding the Holy Spirit.  "That one will guide you in all truth."  He is the Spirit of Truth.

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ENCORE--His Game, His Turf, His Rules--Epiphany 4--1/29/2012

Jesus heals a demon-possessed man in Mark 1 as if he owned the place.  That's because He does.  He bosses the spirits around and orders them to be quiet.  It's His game, His turf, His rules--And that's Good News for us.

Because St. John's had a mission Sunday with guest preacher on May 20, we offer this sermon from this year's archives.

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Easter 6_5-13-2012_I Wanna Know What Love Is

Jesus instructs His disciples again on love just before He will define it for all eternity on the cross.  His disciples needed this instruction because, as Paul writes, "we see in a mirror dimly..."  Especially when it comes to love.

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Easter 5_5/6/2012_You Can't Do Nothing

Jesus' use of a double negative, "apart from me you can't do nothing," underscores that when it comes to salvation, we truly cannot do anything to earn salvation.  It also underscores that the Christian life is a life lived "in Him."  In Him, we can do all things.  It's only apart from Him we can do nothing.

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Easter 4_4-29-2012_The Voice Of The One Who Loves You

Why do we confirm?  Not as a ticket to the Lord's Supper, not as a rite of passage, not as a graduation.  We confirm that our youths are beginning to recognize the voice of Christ, the Good Shepherd, as the voice of the one who loves them to death and to eternal life.

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Easter 3_4-22-2012_His Assurance To Us

Christ's physical presence after His resurrection was both the source of doubt and assurance as the disciples reckoned with the fact of His rising again.  In the flesh, Jesus reassured them of His victory and commissioned them to spread the Good News of repentance toward the forgiveness of sins.

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Easter 2_4-15-2012_We Always Have An Advocate

Christ is risen...and our confidence is up.  With Christ's return imminent, this is not the time to let our confidence flag, our courage falter, and doubts to fester.

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Why Do You Seek The Living Among The Dead?--Easter Sunday--4/08/2012

The angels' question has an air of obviousness to it, but the fact of Christ's resurrection was far from obvious to His disciples.  We, too, seek the living in places where only death reigns.  The world's "sin bins" are no better than the grave itself.  Real life is found in God's holy houses, in the presence of a Christ who is risen, where His Word and Sacraments feed, strengthen, and nourish.  Real living happens only here.

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His Blood Be On Us And Our Children--Holy Thursday--4/05/2012

These words of the bloodthirsty mob are richly ironic in that they are both a curse and a blessing.  The curse they called down on themselves was exactly what God the Father had in mind:  His Blood...on you and your children...for the forgiveness of your sins.

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He Remembers--Sunday Of Lent 2--3/4/2012

God remembers us in our sin because our sin means we do not remember our God and His grace.  This sermon was preached at the early service on March 4, 2012.

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Lent 1 Midweek Sermon--He Saved Others. He Cannot Save Himself

Can a statement be true and not true at the same time?  The religious leaders insult which is the title for this sermon probably qualifies as both.  Surely, it was within Jesus' powers as the Son of God to save Himself, but then He wouldn't be saving you now, would He?

This sermon is a continuation of the Double Edged Sword series preached for our Lenten series.

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Passion Sunday--Father, Forgive Them...

Nobody knew what they were doing on Good Friday, but it was also true of the crowds on Palm Sunday and the disciples in the Upper Room on Thursday evening.  Christ's passion is a passion for people who "do not know what they are doing."  Only He knows what He is doing.  He is saving the world from its own sin.

This sermon continues the Lenten Series, "The Double-Edged Sword."


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"Lent's Little Breather"--Sunday Of Lent 4--3/18/2012

The theme of the fourth week in Lent is "laetare" or "rejoice."  Right in the middle of Lent, just before we move into Lent 5 and the heaviest part of the season, we get a little breather as we contemplate God's undeserved love for the world as Jesus expressed it to Nicodemus.

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Lent 5 Midweek--The King Of The Jews

“No More Kings” was a rally cry in the American Revolution, but Jesus proposes to be a king and proposes that we live under Him in His kingdom.  What sort of king is He?

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"It's All About Perspective"--Sunday Of Lent 3--3/11/2012

Jesus’ cleansing of the temple early in His ministry in John 2, His first action on His first visit to Jerusalem, must have made a whale of a first impression.  How did the people understand this violent gesture?  How do we?

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Lent 4 Midweek Sermon--Behold The Man!

Pilate is the source of yet another “double-edged saying” in the Passion of Christ.  His comment “Behold the man!” of  a Jesus who has been flogged and dressed up as a king is meant for dramatic effect.  Still, it is the truth.  In Him is the fullness of humanity.  All of its sins and all for which the Son of God was willing to die.

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Lent 3 Midweek Sermon--Truly This Man Was The Son Of God!

This remarkable statement was made by a centurion, an outsider, a know-nothing with regard to the promises of God in the Old Testament.  Yet, somehow, the centurion looks at the dead Jesus hanging from the cross and challenges us to see there the Son of God.

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Lent 2 Midweek Sermon--What Is Truth?

Our midweek series is “The Double-Edged Sword: The Double-Edged Sayings Of Christ’s Passion.”  The series builds on the medieval interpretation of the “double-edged sword” of Heb. 4:12 as the double-edges of “letter/spirit.”  Some of the utterances of the Passion, particularly said by those OTHER than Christ, have ironic double meanings, or at least deep meanings.

This sermon contemplates Pilate’s sardonic question of Jesus, “What is truth?”

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Ash Wednesday 2012--It Is Better For One Man To Die

Our Lenten series for 2012 kicked off on Ash Wednesday.  The series was titled, "The Double-Edged Sword: The Double-Edged Sayings Of Christ's Passion."  Tonight's "double-edged sword" is the words of Caiaphas when he put his "hit" out on Jesus, "better for one man to die than the whole nation perish."  These words are ironically true, even from God the Father's perspective.  They also fit nicely with the ashes/death theme of Ash Wednesday itself.


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Welcome!

Welcome to St. John's new new sermons site.  We had too many problems with the one on wordpress, so we thought we'd try a different blog service.

Hopefully, if this one works, we should get a successful podcast going which you can subscribe to directly and through iTunes.

Hope this works.

Sincerely in Christ,
Pastor Torkelson