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Sermon Devotionals 
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Each devotional is based off the previous week's text so that you can still take part in receiving God's Word.
 
“Do You See What I See?” by Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 24th, 2025
   When the Apostle Nathanael first met Jesus, he was skeptical. “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (v.46) were the words he spoke when he first heard of Jesus. His skepticism continued when upon his arrival at the place where Jesus was staying, Jesus greets him by saying: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” (v. 47). To which Nathanael responds: “How do you know me?” (v.48)
   Nathanael had never met Jesus before and yet here Jesus claimed to know his heart - to know that he was honest. Nathanael understandably is hesitant. However, Jesus’ response to Nathanael proves that He does, in fact, know Nathanael’s heart and everything else about him. Jesus tells him where he has been. In verse 48 Jesus says, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”
   Upon hearing Jesus tell him where he had been, a switch suddenly flips within Nathanael. Jesus had no way of knowing where he had been. There were no phones or cameras or GPS to locate him. Jesus had to have just known. And more than known, Jesus tells Nathanael that He had seen him under the fig tree. Jesus must be able to see everything.
   And this highlights something very important about Jesus. He sees and knows everything. He sees and knows all you do and all you’ve done. He knows the intimate thoughts and desires of your heart. Everything, good or bad, is done in full view of Jesus.
   Now for some this might be a scary thought. But for Nathanael, it brought him joy as he exclaims: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” But why does knowing that Jesus sees everything bring Nathanael joy? It’s because the God of the Universe, Jesus Christ, knew Him intimately. And this is the same reason it should bring us joy.
   Think, for a moment, about this. Jesus sees all your hurt. He sees all your pain. He sees when you cry alone at night. He sees the pain you feel when someone you love hurts you. He sees your anxiety and your stress. He sees it all. And He doesn’t just see your pain and leave you to deal with it yourself. He did something about it.
   Jesus died and rose again so that your pain might be healed. Jesus’ resurrection guarantees that all people will rise from the dead, and for those who place their faith in Him, He guarantees eternal life without pain and without suffering.
But not only does Jesus see and care about your hurt, but He sees and cares about your sin. Jesus knows every detail of everything you’ve ever done wrong. He knows all of the dark thoughts that have crept in the deep recesses of your mind. He knows all the things you’ve done when you thought no one was looking. He knows it all. But instead of despising you and abandoning you to your own wickedness and to rot in hell, He loved you and experienced hell on the cross so that if you trust in Him, and ask Him to take all your sin from you, you won’t have to go to hell. He will forgive you. And that is cause for joy.
   But not only does Jesus see you, but if you believe in Him, He gives you the opportunity to see and know Him. In verse 51, Jesus tells Nathanael that because he believed, he would see: “heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
   What Jesus is referring to here is two Old Testament passages which illustrate who He is and what He will do. The first passages is Genesis 28:12 where Jacob has a dream in which he sees a ladder go up to heaven and angels ascending and descending the ladder. The second passage is Daniel 7: 13, 14 in which the Son of Man receives the eternal and glorious kingdom of all nations. And now in the Gospel of John, Jesus says that He is the fulfillment of those passages.
   Jesus is the ladder which will unite heaven and earth, and He is the Son of Man who at the end of time will receive the glorious heavenly kingdom. What Jesus is talking about is His return. When Jesus returns heaven and earth will be united as they were in the Garden before the Fall. And Jesus will rule and reign over all nations and peoples for eternity. And Nathanael, and all who believe will witness this amazing sight. In short, as Revelation 21:3 says “The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God”.
   What Jesus is promising in our text is that you will get to dwell with Him. And to dwell with someone is more than just being a roommate. To dwell with someone is the live in an intimate relationship with them. And as Jesus describes Himself in this text, that is exactly what He is describing.
   And this should also bring us joy. Not only does Jesus sees us for who we are and love us and care for us in spite of all He sees. So, does He promise that if you believe in Him, you too will get to know Him in His entirety as you dwell with Him for eternity. And what could bring us more joy than that?
"Fiery Divisions" - Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 17th, 2025
   Perhaps one of the most painful things that we can face are family divisions. Even more painful are family divisions due to our faith in Jesus Christ. We as Christians have been blessed with so a great a gift from God, and we so desperately want to share it with our family who do not believe. Yet when we do, often we are met with - at best - apathy, and - at worst - anger and great division. But in Luke 12:49-53, Jesus recognizes that great pain that we experience and gives us hope, both for ourselves and for our families.
   In verse 49 Jesus says: “I came to cast fire upon the earth, and would that it were already kindled.” Now, this statement can at first seem both frightening and confusing. In reading this, the first thing that may come to mind is Judgement Day. And yet, Jesus is not talking about Judgement Day, but a different day: Pentecost. Jesus is talking about when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles in “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3).
   But the Holy Spirit did not just come to the Apostles, but now is given to each and every believer. Like a fire, when the Holy Spirit enters into your heart He incinerates all sin, vices, and wickedness and in its place He fills you with love, joy, peace, patience, and all the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23). And these virtues themselves take on a fire-like quality as they start in your soul as a small ember, and as they are fed by the fuel of Word and Sacrament, they grow until like a raging wildfire they engulf your entire body and soul in the flames of holiness and righteousness as you stand before God at the end of time.
   Now, Jesus doesn’t just give the Spirit begrudgingly. No, He gives it freely and willingly as He says again is verse 49: “And were that it were already kindled!” At the time that Jesus spoke these words, the Holy Spirit had not yet come into the hearts of believers - He couldn’t do that until Jesus had ascended into heaven. But Jesus so desperately wished that the Spirit could come! But it wasn’t yet time.
   But today it is time! The Spirit has come into the hearts of every believer, working to cleanse them of all unrighteousness. And that means that if you believe in Jesus, the Spirit is in you. Sometimes we wonder if we have the Spirit because we don’t think we feel Him. But this verse here guarantees that Jesus wants to give you the Spirit and if you believe in Him, He has given you the Spirit. Because Jesus came to give the Spirit.
   But the gift of the Holy Spirit and the salvation that comes with that gift can lead to painful difficulties. The most painful being family division. And this division can take many forms. It can be passive aggressive comments like calling someone a “goody two-shoes.” Or, it can be more evident, such as arguments. Sometimes, it can even result in family members not talking to one another ever again. I would venture to say that many of us have experience this at one time or another.
   But in our text today, Jesus recognizes this reality as he says in verses 51-52: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.” The interesting thing about these verses, however, is that Jesus doesn’t just tell us that family division will happen, but He tells us to expect it. In fact, He goes so far as to say that He came to bring division.
   Now, we might be confused by this. Didn’t the angels at Jesus’ birth sing “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men”? How can Jesus say He came to bring division? Well, Jesus did come to bring peace. However, until the time when Jesus returns and makes all things new, that which was meant to bring peace will bring division, because good and evil will always be against each other.
   When God takes you from wickedness and fills you with His Spirit making you holy and righteous, those who are still wicked and enslaved to their sin will be repelled by you just like two ends of a magnet. And this repelling happens in even the most intimate of relationships. And seeing and feeling the division that exists between our loved ones because of our faith in Jesus can be one of the most painful things we as Christians can experience.
   But in the midst of this pain, Jesus gives us hope. In verse 50 He says: “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.” Now, at first this verse seems to be about as confusing as verse 49, but what Jesus is talking about here is what the early Church writers called “Jesus’ baptism by blood.” And this “baptism by blood” is none other than His death on the cross. And it is in Jesus’ death on the cross where we find hope when we experience family division.
   You see, on the cross Jesus also experienced family division. As Jesus cried out “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) we see a great mystery. The One God in Three persons was divided. God the Father abandoned God the Son. The Trinity was somehow split. And as Jesus was abandoned by the Father, He experienced hell or separation from God (2 Thess. 1:9). And as Jesus experienced hell on the cross, He guaranteed that all who believe in Him would receive salvation through the Holy Spirit.
   But this guarantee which Christ gave on the cross was not just for you. It was for everyone. Jesus died in order that all might be saved - including your family. Just as Jesus longed for the Holy Spirit to come at Pentecost; just as He longed for the Holy Spirit to enter into your heart; Jesus longs for the Holy Spirit to enter into the hearts of your unbelieving family. Which means there is still hope for them to be united with you in the Body of Christ.
   And that is where our hope comes from in the midst of the pain we experience from our family division. We have hope that there is still time for them. And in that time, God can use you to pray for your loved ones and share His Word with them so that they might receive the Spirit.
   We have received a great gift from God in receiving the Holy Spirit. While it is true that the gift we’ve been given can bring us pain, especially in family divisions, Jesus offers you hope for your family today in the cross. And so, if you are experiencing pain of division in your family due to your faith: turn to Jesus. Trust in His love for your family, and know there is hope that someday they too may experience the joy of the Holy Spirit.
 
“Defining Faith” - Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 10th, 2025
   What does it mean to “have faith”? This question seems simple. We know we must have faith in Jesus to be saved, but when we stop to think about what it actually means to “have faith” we can have difficulty finding an answer. However, as we read the Bible, we find that God gives us the very answer we are looking for. In Hebrews 11:1 God tells us that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Later in verse 6 He goes to explain this even further: “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” From these two verses, we can put together an answer for the question of what it means to have faith. Faith is a conviction. Faith is an assurance. And faith acts.
   First, we find that faith is “the conviction of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). This is further clarified as the belief that God exists (Heb 11:6). In other words, to have true faith is to believe that God is real. But we can’t just believe that any god is real. Most of the world believes that a god exists, yet most of the world does not have true faith. No, we must believe in the Christian God. We must believe in the Trinity - One God in Three Persons. We must believe in Jesus as God’s only Son who is fully God and fully man. In essence, we must believe what we confess each Sunday in the Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds.
   This belief in the Christian God is called the “conviction of things not seen” because while none of us witnessed the events of the Bible, we still believe it! However, we do not believe blindly. The world sees faith as a blind hope based on the feeling that something is true, despite all evidence pointing against it. Yet we believe because time after time, we see God’s Word proven true.
   Perhaps the greatest evidence of all for our faith is the evidence for the resurrection. In Lee Strobel’s book The Case for Easter he points to the fact that out of every atheist scholar who seriously studies the resurrection there is only one who attempts to explain how the tomb was empty and how 500 people saw a risen Jesus. And that explanation is that the disciples stole Jesus’ body and that His secret identical twin brother appeared to everyone! The evidence for the resurrection is so strong that most people would rather be silent than try to give an explanation.
   Faith is the conviction and belief that the Christian God is real because the evidence so strongly points to its reality.
   Secondly, faith is the “The assurance of things hope for,” (Heb. 11:1) or the belief that God “rewards those who seek Him” (Heb 11:6). You see, merely believing in the Christian God is not the entirety of faith. Even the demons believe that God is real (James 2:19). True faith is believing that the Christian God brought salvation to YOU.  
   You see, Jesus left His heavenly glory and set it aside to become a poor baby for you. He lived a perfect life so that you don’t have to be burdened by trying to keep God’s law perfectly. He was whipped, cursed, and nailed to a cross - dying, so that your sins might be forgiven. And Jesus rose from the dead so that you too might rise again. Jesus did this all for you. Not just for the world in an abstract sense, but for you personally. And having the assurance and believing that Jesus did all this for you so that you might spend eternal life with Him in heaven, that is the second part of true faith.
   Finally, true faith takes this conviction and belief in the Christian God and the assurance and belief that He has saved you and it acts. Verses 4 - 16 of Hebrews give example after of example of men and women from history who had true faith and acted on it.
   Perhaps the most well-known of these examples is of Noah. Verse 7 says: “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household.” You’ll notice here that the text doesn’t say” “By faith Noah sat there.” Instead it says: “By faith, Noah did something!”
   In giving these examples, God tells us something very important: Faith always works. You see, “faith alone” doesn’t mean that all we have to do is believe and then we can go about living our lives however we want. “Faith alone” means you don’t need to worry about doing good works to get into heaven, because having faith in Jesus will get you there. And now, that you are saved, you can do good works - not out of fear of God - but out of love for Him and confidence in His promises to you in the face of the difficulties of life.
   When God came to Noah, He told him something that must have sounded ridiculously hard and crazy. There was a flood coming that would wipe out the whole world, so Noah was supposed to build a big boat and put a bunch of animals on it. Imagine what Noah’s neighbors must have thought! Yet, Noah believed that God was the Almighty Creator of the world and that He would save Noah and his family from this flood. So, in faith, Noah built the ark.
   In a similar way, God often asks us to do difficult and seemingly crazy things. He asks us to defend the truth of marriage, sexuality, and life even when the world would call us intolerant and wicked for it. He asks us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us such as terrorist or dictators. Sometimes He even asks us to lay down our lives for Him.
   And yet, despite how difficult these things appear, when you place your faith - even faith as small as a mustard seed - in God and trust in His power to protect you and His promise to give you eternal life, you can act on your faith even in the scariest and most difficult of circumstances because God will take care of you.
   So what does it mean to have faith? It means to be convicted that God is real, to be assured that He has saved you, and to act on that conviction and assurance - going about and doing His work and will in the world until all believers receive their reward: eternal life with Jesus.
“The Meaning of Life” - Rev. Marlen (Mikey) Meester || August 3rd, 2025
   Does life have any meaning? This is a question that mankind has asked since Adam and Eve fell into sin. Even today, many people, perhaps even you, have asked this question. Fortunately, God knew that we would ask this very question and in His great goodness provided us with an entire book of the Bible to answer this deep question. That book is Ecclesiastes.
   In the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon begins by saying: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecc. 1:2). Now, “vanity” isn’t a word we use too often today. However, in more modern terms, what Solomon is saying is: “Meaningless! All is meaningless.”
   And there is our answer: According to Solomon - According to God: Life, on it’s own, is meaningless. But why? How did Solomon come to such a depressing conclusion? Later in Chapter two, Solomon explains: “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.” (Ecc. 2:18-19). What Solomon realized throughout his life, was that everything he worked so hard for would eventually go to someone else - and he had no idea if they would use it wisely or destroy it. According to Solomon, life is meaningless because nothing that we do lasts forever.
   And we can see this in our own lives. I can name only one of my great-great grandparents. All of the others have been forgotten. And a couple of generations from now, you and I will likely be forgotten too. How many of our favorite shops and restaurants from childhood are gone? How many family farms have been sold to someone else? All of these things that we once cherished so dearly eventually go away and will be forgotten. Even the most successful people and the greatest inventions are ultimately meaningless. No matter how influential a person or invention has been, all it takes is one asteroid to hit the earth at the right time and all humanity is wiped out completely, and none of those people or inventions matter. What we see from our own lives confirms what Solomon saw from his. Ultimately, life, on its own, is meaningless.
   But while this seems like a rather depressing thing to think about, Solomon gives an answer to the meaningless of life. And what he tells us is that while life, by itself, is meaningless. Life with God has meaning.
   In Chapter two Solomon writes: “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?” Here, Solomon tells us that the meaning of life with God is to enjoy what God has given you. Sometimes, I think we are afraid to enjoy life. We want everything to be “special”.
   My mom recently threw a party all because she had some candles she wanted to use. Years ago she had bought some fish candles. And the only time she ever used one was on my first birthday. The rest, however, she kept packed away for a “special day.” However, that special day never came. And so, 25 years later, she decided that she should just enjoy the candles. And so, she threw a party. The meaning of life is to enjoy what God has given us, whether it is fish candles, a bowl of ice cream, or a pair of new shoes. God wants us to enjoy the gifts He gives us.
   But not only should we enjoy His gifts, but also the jobs that He calls us to do. Because when we do the work God calls us to in joy, we have the potential to make an eternal impact. Without God, when you feed the hungry it ultimately doesn’t matter - that person will go hungry again, and ultimately you both will die and be forgotten. But with God, when you feed the hungry with the joy of Christ, God can use you to bring that person to Him, so that when you both die, you can spend eternity being satisfied in the presence of Jesus.
   The meaning of life is to enjoy the gifts and work that God has given you. But do you know why God has given these things to you? It is because of His Son Jesus Christ.
   In John 10:10, Jesus says: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Jesus came in order to give you and abundant life. And while this is certainly true of heaven, this is also true of here on earth. All of the good gifts that we receive on earth today are because of God’s love for us which He ultimately expressed as Jesus was nailed to the cross. And these gifts are glimpses and promises of what is to come for those who trust in Jesus. So that as you sit around with your loved ones, enjoying their company, what you are experiencing is a glimpse and promise of what heaven will be like as you experience eternal and perfect fellowship with all who trust in Jesus.
   So, does life have meaning? On its own, no. But with God, yes! With God, the meaning of your life is to simply enjoy the gifts and work that He gives you, trusting that it is a promise and glimpse of the enjoyment yet to come when Jesus returns.