Preparing for Worship - August 24, 2025

The Psalm for this Sunday is Psalm 50:1-15. The psalmist is Asaph, chosen by King David to serve in the tabernacle in Jerusalem, along with his sons. (See 1 Chronicles 15:16ff and 25:1-2.) Asaph speaks the Word of the Mighty One, God the Lord, coming from the heavenly Zion to the earth and especially to His chosen, covenant people of Israel. He comes to testify against His people for their wickedness (see v. 16 ff.) even while they are offering continual sacrifices to Him. He is not hungry and in need of what they offer. The whole world is His. What He wishes is that they would come to Him with genuine thanksgiving for His goodness and mercy and wishing to keep their vows and promises to Him and others. He also wishes that His people would trust Him enough to call upon Him when they have troubles and believe that He will deliver them, for their good and His glory.

The Old Testament lesson is Isaiah 66:18-23. In these closing verses of Isaiah’s prophecy, the Lord promised that in a coming time, He would reach out to gather people from many “nations and tongues,” even those “far away, who have not heard His fame or seen His glory.” People of many nations would be brought to faith “as an offering to the Lord” and be His servants, as the Jewish Priests and Levites of past days were. (See 1 Peter 2:5-6,9-10.)  And when a whole new existence comes, “new heavens and a new earth,” all flesh, all believers in heaven, will come to worship before the Lord.” This whole new existence “shall remain” forever. (See Hebrews 12:26, 2 Peter 3:13, and Revelation 21.)

The Epistle lesson is Hebrews 12:4-24 (25-29). Times of trouble and persecution were coming for God’s people in the early church, and temptations also to abandon the faith in those difficult days. Still today, there will be struggles with sin and temptation, and the Lord may have to discipline us because He loves us. Earthly fathers discipline as seems best, but our spiritual Father always disciplines us for our good, though it may be painful, that he may “train us” in His ways. The Lord can strengthen our “drooping hands” and “weak knees,” so that we can carry on, even in hard times. We can also “strive for peace” with fellow believers and watch out for “roots of bitterness” that can be very harmful. (See Deuteronomy 29:18-20.) Especially, we encourage one with the promises of the Gospel and not with the fear of the Law, though we need both. We are confident of the “heavenly Jerusalem” that God has prepared for us. We have been “born again” to faith and a new life through our baptism and the Word of God, and we are counted “righteous” and “perfect” in God’s eyes through our continuing faith in Jesus and His blood shed for us to give us the “better Word” of his forgiveness for us. The things of this existence can be “shaken” and will not remain. But we are receiving an everlasting kingdom that cannot be shaken, in Christ.

The Gospel lesson is Luke 13:22-30. Someone asked Jesus a theoretical question about how many people would be saved. Jesus is more concerned about each of us and that we may be saved by entering “the narrow door.” (See also Matthew 7:13-14.) The door is narrow because it is Jesus and only Jesus through whom we may be saved. Jesus clearly says this in John 10:7-9 and John 14:6. God Himself brings people into His Kingdom through the gift of baptism and the Word of God. People can resist and reject this gift, though, and there are many temptations to question it or leave it behind. There are those who question whether Jesus can exclusively be the Savior. They would prefer to say that there are many ways and roads to eternal life, though Jesus and the Scriptures say that there is salvation in no one else but Jesus. (See Acts 4:12 and 5:28-32.) Some also think that if they know of Jesus and have had some casual contact with Him and His teachings, that is enough. The Holy Spirit wishes to bring us to repentance, genuine sorrow for our sins, and faith and trust in Jesus and what He has done for us. He wants us to battle sin as we follow Christ, and not to continue to be workers of evil without continual repentance. Some also think they will get serious about spiritual matters later in life and wait too long, till the door is shut by death, or just never get around to thinking about these things. Jesus gives the sober warning of the alternative, “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in hell and eternal separation from Him. (See also the last verse of Isaiah 66:24, right after our OT reading for today.) All this is why Jesus uses the Word He does in v.24: “Strive” to enter the narrow door. The Greek word here is the one from which we get the English word “to agonize.” It is also in the present tense, which means it is to be an ongoing action. It could be translated something like “Keep on agonizing in entering the narrow door.” We can never get through that door on our own or through our own effort. We have faith and are saved only by God’s grace and through the Holy Spirit. But it can be an agonizing struggle, at times, to stay in the faith and confidence in Christ. (The same basic word is used in our Epistle lesson, Hebrews 12:4, in describing our continuing struggle against sin.) That’s where we need continuing help through the Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God and the Sacraments, to stay where we need to be, in faith and trust, in this life. The Lord will bless and strengthen us as we continue in Him and His Word. We will recline with Him one day in the heavenly Kingdom. But as Jesus warns, there are those, like too many of God’s chosen people, the Jews, who were first in God’s eyes, but will be last, separated, by rejecting or forgetting the only Savior, Jesus. As for us, as believers, we keep trusting that God will be with us and give us strength to continue in our struggles of the faith. As we hear in Philippians 2:12, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” To God be the glory! He alone is our Savior!