{"id":11662,"date":"2026-10-27T05:31:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T12:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11662"},"modified":"2026-10-27T05:32:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T12:32:39","slug":"his-word-is-power-and-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11662","title":{"rendered":"His word is power and protection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><a href= \"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/P-A-23-1-Thess-2.pdf\">Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1 Thessalonians 2:9-13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A Sermon for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do you know any magic words? To be sure, we know of magic words in fairy tales. Like \u201cAbracadabra\u201d and \u201cOpen Sesame.\u201d In the Middle Eastern folktale, <em>Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves<\/em>, at the command, \u201cOpen Sesame!\u201d a door hidden in a rock wall opens to reveal a cave filled with treasure. In Cinderella, magic words turn pumpkins into royal coaches, and mice into coachmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In short, in fairy tales there are words that can make things happen. What about real life? What about our life as Christians?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The name of God is like a magic word. In the Old Testament there\u2019s idea that when you have somebody\u2019s name, you have access to them, to their power and protection. We think of the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3:14. The Lord gives them his name, Yahweh, and from then on, they can call on him. Even more than that, he has power over them, power to protect them and guide their destiny. He is their Lord; they are his people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We find this same idea in Paul\u2019s letter to the Thessalonians about \u201cthe word of God.\u201d Paul writes: \u201cAnd we thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a word from men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers\u201d (I Thessalonians 2:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There it is. The word of God, the power of God, at work in you. You can\u2019t see it. You can\u2019t feel it. But it\u2019s there, working in you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What is that word? It\u2019s the \u201cthe gospel of God\u201d (verse 8), and the Thessalonians found out about it because it was preached to them. It came from outside of them. They had to hear about it: \u201cWe preached to you the gospel of God\u201d (verse 9). That word carries the power of God to make things happen, to achieve his ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like in Genesis 1. It says seven times: \u201cthe Lord spoke and it was done.\u201d It\u2019s his speaking that does it. He speaks and brings something out of nothing. He speaks and brings forth the heavens and the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Psalm 104:7 says: \u201cThe Lord rebuked the waters and they fled.\u201d He spoke and the dry lands and the waters separated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Or think of the dry bones in Ezekiel 34. The dry bones are the people of Israel and it says: \u201cLet the people of Israel hear the word of the Lord.\u201d And they do and they come alive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, then the Word of the Lord is that which creates. He creates with the word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Second, the word of the Lord is his promise and his promise doesn\u2019t fail. Listen to Isaiah 40:8-9: \u201cThe grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever.\u201d God\u2019s word doesn\u2019t not fail. What he says, he does. That\u2019s different from the grass which withers and dies. God\u2019s word is different from our words and promises which fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Third, there is the danger of itchy ears, of other gospels, of going astray, of churches losing their way. One of the most fearsome verses in the Bible is Amos 8:11 which says: \u201cBehold the days are coming when I will send a famine, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.\u201d That\u2019s bad news, really bad news; it means we can get lost, go astray, and lose the word of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We Lutherans say \u201cthe Word\u201d has three meanings. First of all, the Word is Jesus Christ himself. That\u2019s spelled out neatly in John 1:1: \u201cIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u201c This is obviously a play on the first verse of Genesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses say that John 1:1 means the Word was divine or a god of sorts. But that\u2019s not right. If you know Greek and that the grammar has certain rules, you know it really says the Word was God. That\u2019s who God is. And you can\u2019t twist the translation into saying something else.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then in John 1:14: \u201cAnd the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father.\u201d The Word is God and God is the Father of Jesus Christ; he is not just the Creator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the New Testament. God the Father and God the Son identify each other. It\u2019s an aspect of the scandal of particularity. God is not \u201cFather\u201d in general. God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">261 times in the New Testament God is said to be \u201cthe Father,\u201d and God as Creator is found only 14 times. This is a way of countering the idea in Hebrew literature (Proverbs, Ben Sirach, Wisdom of Solomon) that the Creator is known through the law, the Torah. As John 1:17 says: \u201cThe law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">God the Father vindicated the Son by raising him from the dead, establishing his authority. God the Father can only be understood in relation to the Son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In sum, the Word of God is, first of all, Jesus himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the second place, he comes to us in the preaching of him, the proclaimed word, not only in sermons, but also in hymns and prayers. In these ways he comes to us, claiming us as his own, giving us faith and eternal life. As Paul writes: \u201cFaith come by hearing and hearing comes by the preaching of Christ\u201d (Romans 10:17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That takes away many misunderstandings. It means that God is not some \u201cX\u201d in the sky that we can or should name according to our whims or sense of what or who God is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some say that instead of addressing God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we should and could make up other names, and for example, call God \u201cRainbow, Ark, and Dove.\u201d Or: \u201cOur parent in heaven.\u201d But we shouldn\u2019t do that because in doing that we make ourselves \u201cGod\u201d and \u201cLord.\u201d When we give God other names, call God whatever we want, what we are really doing is being pretentious, acting like gods ourselves, the ones in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rather, the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, who called God his Father and invited us to pray in his name to Father as \u201cOur Father,\u201d giving us access to his power and protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Paul says in our text today: \u201c. . .&nbsp; we were ready to share with you the gospel of God . . .\u201d (verse 8) . . . we preached to you the gospel of God\u201d (verse 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not only in Paul but also in 1 Peter 1:23-25: \u201cYou have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.\u201d Then I Peter quotes Isaiah: \u201cAll flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever\u201d (Isaiah 40:6-9) And concludes: \u201cThat word is the good news which was preached to you\u201d (1 Peter 1:25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To sum it up so far: The word of God is first, Jesus Christ himself. And second, the word of God is the proclamation, the preaching of Christ. One more to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the third and final place, there is this book, the Bible, which we also call \u201cthe word of God.\u201d The Bible is a holy book, a treasury of the vast cloud of the witnesses to the One who led the ancient Hebrews out of slavery, and who came himself to die and rise again. Only he could solve the terrible problem of evil, sin, and death, and he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bible is a book about life and death and God, not a book of secular history and science, as we think of those things today. Our faith is not threatened by studying the Bible because our certainty is in him, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ himself, and he is living now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What then about 2 Timothy 3:16, which is sometimes translated as: \u201cAll scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First, that\u2019s a misleading translation of the Greek. (Not a predicate adjective, but an attributive adjective.) What it says is not: \u201cAll scripture is inspired by God,\u201d but: \u201cAll inspired scripture is profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the early church every baptized Christian was believed to be \u201cinspired,\u201d along with all writings that pointed to Christ alone. How should they, the early Christians, sort all the letters and writings and gospels floating around? Decisions about which letters and gospels to include in what was to become the Bible were based on whether the particular writings in question were trustworthy. Did they point to the cross and resurrection? Or to something else. This is what mattered. (See Everett Kalin, \u201cThe Inspired Community.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To sum it all up, the Word of God has three meanings: First, the Word is the Lord himself (\u201cthe Word became flesh\u201d). Second, the word is the proclamation, the preaching of Christ. Third, the word is the written witness, that collection of materials, sermons and letters which point to him, his cross and resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, there are important consequences of this for our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First of all, the word of God is the power of God. It is \u201cnot the word of men,\u201d as it says in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, but it is really the power of God. The Lord does what he says, and he says what he does. His word is sure, his promises, true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Second, the Lord comes to us in his bodily word. It\u2019s not a head trip or about hearing only. It\u2019s not up to us to think it right. We don\u2019t and we can\u2019t. He comes in his bodily word, in Baptism and the Lord\u2019s Supper. He forgives and redeems our bodies as well as our minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Third, it means we are not like those who can only, as Shakespeare put it: \u201ctrouble deaf heaven with our bootless cries.\u201d Heaven is not deaf. Our prayers are not bootless, useless. Rather, he, the Lord of heaven and earth, has, through his word and sacraments, claimed us as his adopted children. We are his. We are Christians. He has given us his name, and with his name comes his power and protection. Amen<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 Thessalonians 2:9-13<\/p>\n<p>A Sermon for the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n<p>Do you know any magic words? To be sure, we know of magic words in fairy tales. Like \u201cAbracadabra\u201d and \u201cOpen Sesame.\u201d In the Middle Eastern folktale, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, at the command, \u201cOpen Sesame!\u201d a door hidden in a rock wall opens to reveal a cave filled with treasure. In Cinderella, magic words turn pumpkins into royal coaches, and mice into coachmen.<\/p>\n<p>In short, in fairy tales there are words that can make things happen. What about real life? What about our life as Christians?<\/p>\n<p>The name of God is like a magic word. In the Old Testament there\u2019s idea that when you have somebody\u2019s name, you have access to them, to their power and protection. We think of the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3:14. The Lord gives them his name, Yahweh, and from then on, they can call on him. Even more than that, he has power over them, power to protect them and guide their destiny. He is their Lord; they are his people.<\/p>\n<p>Select <a href=\u201dhttps:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=11662\"> here<\/a> to read more or select<a href= \"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/P-A-23-1-Thess-2.pdf\"> here <\/a> for a pdf version.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11662"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11668,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11662\/revisions\/11668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}