Sermon

Grace and peace to you . . .

This parable is among the most important spoken by Jesus. It is one of 
only three recorded by Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is one of only a 
few which Jesus Himself interprets at length. This parable teaches 
what happens when the Word of God is preached. Since the parable 
describes people to whom the Gospel is preached, it is describing you. 
Thus, the dangers described in the parable are dangers that threaten 
you. The devil, the temptation to surrender the truth, the cares, 
riches, and pleasures of life all threaten to tear you away from the 
Word of God.

In Jesus’ interpretation of the parable, He leaves out one obvious 
detail: the identity of the sower. The sower is he who preaches the 
Word of God. Since Jesus draws no attention to the sower, every sower 
must fade in importance. It is not the sower who is important, but the 
Seed which he sows. It is not the preacher who is important, but the 
Gospel message he preaches. The truth that God has provided healing 
for you in the blood of Christ, bringing you life and hope though the 
death of His Son, this Gospel truth is what is important. It is not 
the men who preach, not Pastor Trouten, not Pastor Varsogea, not even 
St. Paul, who awaken you who were dead in trespasses and sins, but the 
powerful Word of God. That Word is what’s important.

Even when the preacher is Jesus Himself, He does not focus your 
attention on His person, but on His Gospel message. He does not seek 
His own glory, but the glory of Him who sent Him, namely, the Father. 
For this reason the Son laid aside His own glory and humbled Himself, 
even to the point of death by crucifixion. When Satan tempted Jesus 
with the glory of His identity as the Son of God, Jesus responded, 
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” [Lk 
4:4] Jesus is more concerned about the precious Word of God than His 
own glory as the Son of God. The importance of the sower depends on 
the importance of the Seed.

That Seed is the Word of God. But sinful men are unimpressed by words. 
You prefer deeds to creeds. This betrays your low opinion of mere 
words. In an age when man can unleash the power of a nuclear bomb or 
put men on the moon, mere words seem unimportant. But the sinful 
tendency to be more impressed by massive displays of raw, physical 
power than by words is really nothing new. God even had to correct the 
prophet Elijah in this regard. God exposed him to frightening displays 
of physical power in wind and earthquake and fire, but the Lord was 
not in any of them. He was in the still, small voice. The Lord God is 
found in the still, small voice of His Word.

In the Word of the Gospel is the power of almighty God. He does not 
lash you with hurricane winds or threaten you with an earthquake or 
rain down fire upon you in order to bring you into His kingdom and 
bear fruit in you. Certainly, God could unleash such power against 
you, for He holds all power in heaven and on earth. But God does not 
choose to make you Christian by such force. Rather, God sows the Seed 
of His Word, by means of unassuming sowers, and in this way brings you 
into His kingdom and bears His fruit in you. Powerful miracles may 
attract people, but they cannot build the Church. Flashy programs and 
clever tricks may attract people, but they cannot build the Church. A 
winsome smile and a charming personality may attract people, but they 
cannot build the Church. Any effort to build the Church with anything 
else than the pure preaching of the Gospel and the proper 
administration of the Sacraments, any such effort must fail. Any 
church built by means other than the Word of God purely preached and 
properly administered is not a Christian church.

God’s Word alone has the power to create life. God’s Word alone has 
the power to raise you from spiritual death and forgive your sins. 
God’s Word alone has the power to create faith in you. God’s Word 
alone has the power to draw you into union with God Himself. There is 
no power on earth like the power that is in those unassuming, 
apparently weak words of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These seemingly 
weak words are powerful because they are the very Word of God, 
begotten of the Father and bearing the Holy Spirit. As such, the 
Gospel is so much more than mere words.

This power of God in His Word bears fruit when it is planted in you. 
That is why the devil tries so hard to snatch the Word away. He raises 
objections to God’s Word through the use of your reason. He replaces 
God’s Word with the more reasonable teachings of men. Or the devil 
convinces you that God’s Word isn’t so important. But I am here to 
tell you that God’s Word is of the utmost importance. Not one jot or 
tittle will pass away before heaven and earth do. Why do think Pastor 
Varsogea and I lay so much stress on purity of doctrine? Pure doctrine 
is what the Seed of God’s Word teaches. Anything else is the devil’s 
seed.

Once the Seed of God’s Word is planted in you, you will come under 
fierce attack. The forces of darkness will bring their powers to bear 
against you. You will be tempted, not only to sin, but to give up the 
Seed of God’s Word. This temptation comes with persecution. Those who 
receive God’s Word because it gives them an emotional high are in 
particular danger. They have no root. They chase after revivals and 
the latest Christian fad. But fads fade. Revivals die out. Christians 
who are popular with the world yet shallow with God’s Word fall away. 
On the other hand, those who cling without compromise to every truth 
of God’s Word will be unpopular. Those who confess the Word purely 
will be persecuted. Nevertheless, the Seed of God’s Word is the power 
to sustain you in times of trouble.

The Seed of God’s Word is the power which sustains you throughout your 
life. But life has its way of distracting you from God’s Word. Cares 
and riches and pleasures lure you away from the Word. That is what 
happens to those who neglect or despise preaching and God’s Word, 
instead of gladly hearing and learning it. Those who neglect these 
means have the life of God choked out of them. Perhaps you know 
someone who once believed God’s Word, but since have been choked by 
the cares of this world. Maybe you feel the icy grip of cares and 
troubles tightening around your throat, threatening to choke out your 
faith. What hope is there for those being choked by cares and riches?

There is only one hope. You come to church to hear God’s Word. Here 
God Himself keeps your faith alive through His appointed means. Here 
God creates, strengthens, and sustains your faith, even against the 
attacks of the devil, the world, and your own flesh. At this font, God 
plants the Seed of His Word connected to life-giving water, and new 
life germinates within you. Corporately in this room, or privately 
through your Pastor, God gives you Absolution, His forgiving Word 
which removes the rot of sin and strengthens you against temptation. 
 From this pulpit the Seed of God’s Word is sown, week by week 
proclaiming to you God’s great gifts, teaching you more and more His 
tender mercy toward you, as His Word takes deep root into your heart. 
At this altar, Christ feeds you His Word enfleshed in bread and wine, 
and by these means God keeps you in the one, true faith, no matter 
what sins you have committed, no matter how fiercely you are attacked 
from without or within. That is the power of God’s Word.

In you who have received the Word with water in Holy Baptism, in you 
who have received the Word of Absolution, in you who have had the 
preached Word planted into your ears, in you who will have the 
enfleshed Word planted and poured into your mouth, in you the Word of 
God will bear its fruit a hundredfold. In you, the power of God will 
grow, as He transforms your will and His Word produces in you thoughts 
and words and deeds pleasing to Him. In you, His Word will continue to 
yield its fruit in season, week after week and year after year not 
just here in time, but hereafter in eternity. That is fruit a 
hundredfold. That is the promise of God’s Word. That is the power of 
the Seed. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes . . .

Pastor Trouten's 10 Year Anniversary at Bethany

Church Council President Mark gives Pastor Trouten a token of appreciation from the congregation.