Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

Behold the Man

We do not gather today to admire a noble martyr. We are not here merely to remember an example of courage under suffering. We are not here simply to reflect upon injustice, cruelty, or the tragedy of human violence. No, we are here because our sin required this. This truth, as difficult as it is to confess, is the great offense behind Good Friday and, indeed, the Christian religion. But it is also the source of our greatest comfort.
The offense is this: your sin is so serious before God, so damnable, so deserving of wrath and judgment, that nothing less than the suffering and death of the Son of God could atone for it.
And the comfort is this: that suffering and death have now been offered for your salvation, forgiveness, and life. Good Friday is not sentimental nor is it mild. Good Friday is where God shows us what sin really is and what its cost is. Sinners do not like that. By nature, we always want to minimize our guilt. We want to call sin a weakness, a mistake, a lapse in judgment, a rough patch, a personal struggle. We want to excuse it, explain it, manage it, or compare it favorably to the sins of others.

Body Given Blood Shed - Holy (Maundy) Thursday 2026

Tonight is a night of gifts. That may not be the first thing we think of when we think of Maundy Thursday. Usually our minds go to the Upper Room, to Judas slipping away into the darkness, to Peter’s coming denial, to the agony in Gethsemane. Everything is moving rapidly toward the cross.
But here, before Good Friday arrives in full, before the nails and the spear and the cry of dereliction, our Lord Jesus Christ gives gifts to His people. More to the point, He takes time to give them on the night when He was betrayed.
He gives them not to worthy men, not to disciples who had proven themselves especially courageous or faithful, but to weak men, sinful men, frightened men. He gives them to men who are about to fail Him. He even gives them to weak men such as us.
Tonight, we hear of the gift that is His incarnation and death, the gift that is His Supper, and the gift that is His Church. All of it comes from Christ. All of it is given in His gracious love. All of it is for sinners.

Betrayed by a Kiss - Holy Wednesday 2026

Loyalty is celebrated among us, and rightly so. It is easy to see its virtues. Loyalty inspires confidence. Loyalty is the proper reward for good leadership. Loyalty deserves every praise we can muster for it.
  The opposite, betrayal, is horrific. It is cowardly, the product of a weak constitution. It is demeaning; it repays good with evil. It shocks because it is so undeserved. No doubt, we have all experienced its icy grip. Whether it was a playground scuffle that led to the betrayal of a friend, a stolen romantic interest, or being taken advantage of in business by someone thought of as a friend, the stab of pain in the bowels is unmistakable.
   Worse, the more goodness we find in someone, the more horrible the betrayal. A good man who is left behind to die in war by a cowardly soldier is a tragedy. Turning the very Son of God over to cruel men who seek His ruin is indescribable in its wickedness

A Grain of Wheat - Holy Monday 2026

Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him during the week called “holy.” He had learned from His childhood that He was and is the suffering servant from the prophecy according to Isaiah. He knew that He would be lifted up, that is, crucified, between two criminals, and in this way He would be glorified. His hour of glory would see Him with His knees bent at less than a 90-degree angle, His arms stretched, not broken, and pierced with nails to hold them out. He would hang there, on that cross, in nakedness, in shame, having been beaten to a pulp, His flesh having been made raw by the cat of nine tails, whips, and a gruesome crown of thorns.
Is this glory? Per Jesus’ own words, yes. By worldly standards, no. One source is Truth, and one is deceived. The world tries to sell you a bill of goods wherein suffering is inglorious, wherein the avoidance or the fleeting from pain and sorrow is true glory. But what about Jesus’ Words? “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” 

Behold, You King King Comes to You - Palm Sunday, 2026

Palm Sunday is certainly a day of joy, but it is a serious joy. There are palm branches, singing, and shouts of “Hosanna to the Son of David!” But Palm Sunday is not simply a cheerful introduction to Easter decorations and springtime religion. It is the beginning of the Passion. It is the public presentation of Christ as King, and at the same time, it is His deliberate march toward the cross. Teachers of Scripture, exegetes, call this event the triumphal entry. And this shift in tone in the Gospel record from the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus to His setting of His face to Jerusalem for His death is why the triumphal entry matters so much. On Palm Sunday, Jesus shows us what kind of King He is, what kind of salvation He brings, and how He saves His people.
Zechariah prophesied this blessed event 550 years before it happened. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey.” That one verse gives us the heart of Palm Sunday.

Who is Your Father?

“Who is your father?” That is not a question we ask very often, at least not directly. We might ask about family, background, where someone comes from, but not in this sort of straight-forward manner. It even seems rude. But this is a question at the center of the conflict in our Gospel reading today.
Jesus is speaking to the Jews, to those who pride themselves on their lineage, and they insist: “Abraham is our father.” Their patrimony, that is their inheritance as being descendants of Abraham, was the basis of their identity. It was their confidence. It is the basis of their claim to righteousness before God. And Jesus did not let that stand. He pressed the issue and sharpened the question. In so doing, He exposed what truly makes someone a child of Abraham and what does not. Even more, He also presses the same question upon you: who is your father?

Washed and Renewed

The words of St. Peter are striking and difficult to misinterpret. “Baptism… now saves you.” Baptism is something that the Holy Scriptures ascribe great importance. Our Lord Jesus, after His resurrection, sends His Church with this command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…” These are not marginal statements. They are not optional add-ons to the Christian life. They stand at the very center of what Christ has given His Church to do and to proclaim.
Despite the importance of Baptism, it is sadly often misunderstood. Some treat it as a mere symbol, something we do to show our commitment to God. Others neglect it altogether as total optional and indifferent in the Christian life. But Holy Scripture speaks very differently. Baptism is not our work for God, it is God’s work for us. So today we consider what Baptism is, what it gives, how it is received, and why it is such a deep and abiding comfort for the Christian.

3P1S Episode 26 - Marriage Under the Cross or Culture?

Welcome to the 3 Padres and a Shepherd Podcast. Today, we take up the topic of marriage—yes, marriage: under the Cross or under culture?
In other words, where has the church begun to misunderstand marriage by adopting the expectations and worldview of the culture, rather than receiving marriage as it is given to us in the Word of God?
Stick around. In this episode, we are going to do some good old-fashioned myth-busting—exposing the false, cultural assumptions about marriage that have quietly crept into the church and, in many cases, have been baptized as if they were true.

The Bread King

Lent has a sober tone. In it, we hear about sin, repentance, and the suffering that will lead Christ to the cross. While this is generally true, here in the middle of Lent there is a small break in the tone of the season. This Sunday is traditionally called Laetare, a Latin word that means “Rejoice.” The name comes from the ancient introit of the day: “Rejoice, O Jerusalem.” This temporary relaxation of the seriousness of Lent reminds us that there is joy even in the most serious of circumstances. Life, after all, is not so simple as to give us joy at one time and only sorrow at another. Funerals remind us of this with the mix of laughter and tears that accompany them.
So even during the somber, serious season of Lent, the Church pauses to rejoice.
The reason for that joy is what we see in our Gospel today: Christ provides abundantly for His people. The miracle of the feeding of the five thousand is one of the most well-known miracles in the entire New Testament. In fact, it is the only miracle of Jesus other than the resurrection that is recorded in all four Gospels. That alone tells us something important. The evangelists, that is to say, the writers of the four Gospels, want us to see that this miracle is not just a story about an abundance of bread. It reveals who Jesus is, what kind of King He is, and what kind of care He has for His people.

When You Pray

Prayer is one of the most basic and familiar parts of the Christian life. Even those who know very little about Christianity often know that Christians pray. Yet familiarity can sometimes hide the deeper truth. Because prayer is common, we may assume we already understand it. But when we listen carefully to the words of our Lord in the Gospel, we discover that prayer is not quite what many people imagine it to be.
In the world around us, prayer is often treated as something dramatic or impressive. It becomes a performance. The person who uses the most elaborate language, the longest sentences, or the most emotional expressions is assumed to be the most devout. In other cases, prayer becomes a way of drawing attention to oneself. The act that should be directed toward God quietly becomes directed toward other people.
But Jesus speaks very differently about prayer.