German theologian Oswald Bayer said, “Every sermon has the function to set free, to free the sinner, and to say you are free, don’t fear.”
Did you hear that last Sunday, that Christ has set you free, as Paul says in Galatians 5:1? Or as my favorite Easter hymn puts it, “My heart from care is free; no trouble troubles me. Misfortune now is play, and night is bright as day”? (TLH 192, 5).
If you did thrill last Sunday to freedom from sin, death and devil, your spirit may still be slogging through the middle of this week. On the very first page of a new commentary from Concordia Publishing House, Dr. John Kleinig writes, “In 13:22 the author of Hebrews describes his letter as a “word of encouragement” (page 1). That made me think of 1 Peter 5:12, “I have written briefly to you, exhorting (or encouraging; the Greek word is parakaleo) and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.”
“Encouragement provides a wide range of emotional comfort…such as consolation in bereavement and freedom from guilt, cheer in unhappiness and relief from pain, solace in discomfort and release from anxiety, courage in weakness and liberation from despair. God’s encouragement of his discouraged people results in a change of emotional state, a change of mood, from sadness to joy, from fear to hope, from grief to jubilation, from uncertainty to confidence. Its purpose is peace (Isaiah 57:18-19)” (page 194).
“Every sermon has the function to set free,” Bayer said. No pastor can lay out all the ramifications of trusting in Jesus, they are so many, but they all come together in the last word the pastor speaks to you in the service, “And give you peace.”
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