Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

The Last Day

When our Lord teaches about the Last Day, He does not speak to terrify His people but to prepare them and to comfort them. Despite what is often portrayed in popular culture, the Last Day, Judgement Day, Armageddon, this day is not a cause for alarm or terror. No, for us Christians it is to be a day of great joy. Here in Matthew twenty-five, Jesus gives us a picture of that Day. For those who have rejected Christ it comes as a threat, but for us Christians it comes as a promise fulfilled and a joy anticipated. “The Son of Man will come in His glory.” The One who died for you, rose for you, forgave you, and baptized you will return for you. Today our Lord teaches us what His return will be like, what His judgment will reveal, and why you Christian saints can face that Day with confidence and joy.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Destruction

There are some passages of Scripture that seem strange to us at first glance. That is to say, the sayings or events are difficult to unpack without some insight into the historical context. This passage from Matthew 24 can seem like one of those. Jesus speaks of abominations, desolations, fleeing to mountains, and vultures gathering around a corpse. And yet these words were not only meant for people long ago that heard them as the Lord spoke them, but they are also for us, His Church at the present time. Christ is teaching us how to understand the times in which we live and how to remain steadfast in faith until He comes again.
Jesus begins by speaking of the “abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel.” To His disciples, this must have evoked memories of great desecrations, foreign armies that desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem, pagan sacrifices offered in the holy place of the Temple, and how God’s sacred place, this same Temple on Mount Zion, was defiled. But Jesus points His hearers forward to an event that would happen about forty years after He spoke these words. That is to say, the fulfillment of this prophecy spoken by Daniel  recorded in chapters nine and eleven of his book, the fulfillment of this prophecy was found in the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Roman armies under Titus, the same Titus who would go on to be Emperor of Rome in 79 AD.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

What Faith Holds

Faith is not a vague feeling, a general notion that everything will turn out all right. Faith is not a spiritual pep talk we give ourselves when life gets hard. Faith is confidence in a Person, specifically in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world to destroy sin, death, and the devil.
Faith always has an object, and the proper object is Christ and Him alone. Christian, saving faith clings to Him, not because we always understand how He will help, but because we know He can and will. This is what is shown to us in today’s Gospel lesson. Two very different people, from opposite ends of society, are driven by desperate need to the same Lord. One is an important synagogue ruler. The other is an unclean, forgotten woman. Both find their hope in Jesus, and both receive life from Him.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Blessed Are...

Our Lord Jesus, ascending a hill, a mount, sat down and began teaching His disciples. What followed is arguably the most famous of His speeches, the Sermon on the Mount. In particular, the section that has since come to be called the Beatitudes which we read today, are among the most familiar and yet most misunderstood passages in all of Scripture.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit... Blessed are those who mourn... Blessed are the meek…” I think it is a fair assumption that many of us find these words family, poetic, and even beautiful. But if we stop and think about them we ask a simple but needed question, “How are people suffering these things blessed?”               
Poor, mourning, meek, persecuted; none of that sounds like a blessing! And yet Jesus declares them blessed. He speaks these words not as advice for how to become blessed, but as a description of what His kingdom looks like and what it means to belong to Him. The Beatitudes describe the reality life of faith, the life that flows from Christ’s righteousness, and the life that clings to Him even when suffering in weakness.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

3P1S Special Episode: Who is God's Israel?

In this special episode of the Three Padres and a Shepherd Podcast, we step into the theological deep end and ask a bold question with special guest Rev. Harrison Goodman: Who is God’s Israel? Is the modern nation of Israel the fulfillment of God’s promises? Are Christians obligated to support the reinstatement of Old Testament sacrifices in Jerusalem? And how do we rightly understand God's ancient people - the Jewish people—especially in light of Romans 11?

3P1S Episode 20: The Theology We Sing! Discerning Good Christian Music

In this episode, we are diving into "The Theology We Sing! Discerning Good Christian Music." Not every song is created equal. Some proclaim Christ, others... well, not so much. And so, why do we sing, and how do we discern good Christian music from bad and shallow music? How do we analyze the true from the trendy? Does it matter what we put on our lips in worship?

The Kingdom Ours Remaineth

Five hundred eight years ago, a monk with a troubled conscience took a hammer, a piece of paper, a deep conviction that the Word of God must not be silenced and nailed a list of  95 theses on the church door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Martin Luther didn’t set out to start a movement or to divide the Church. He simply wanted clarity. He wanted the pure Gospel. He wanted the certainty that sinners are justified by faith alone in Christ alone apart from works, apart from indulgences, apart from human merit.
And what followed was not the peace and comfort that one would expect from the pure proclamation of the Gospel, but conflict and turmoil. The Reformation may have been intended as  a polite academic debate, but it led to a period of violent upheaval, both spiritually and politically. The Gospel was restored to its proper place in  a world that had long been held captive by human traditions and self-righteousness.
This should have come as no surprise. Hostility to the Gospel on the part of the world was nothing new. We might think the Reformation is behind us, that such battles belong to history books. The Reformation wasn’t just a 16th-century event. It is the daily reality of every Christian. The same Gospel that set Luther free is still under attack today. And this is precisely what our Lord Jesus describes here in Matthew chapter eleven.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Love Commanded, Love Given

It was the last week of Jesus’ earthly ministry and the tension in Jerusalem was thick. The Pharisees and Sadducees were desperate to trap Him, that is, they wanted to catch Him saying something that would discredit Him before the people or give the authorities grounds to arrest Him.
They had already tried to politically entrap Him by asking “Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” Jesus’ answer silenced them.
Then the Sadducees had tried to entrap Him theologically by asking about marriage and the resurrection. Jesus refuted them too, saying, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” In today’s reading from Matthew,  a lawyer, a professional in the Law of Moses, steps forward with what might at first glance seem an innocent question: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Let Not Your Hearts be Troubled: The Funeral of Irene Meyer

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, family, and friends of Irene Meyer: there are moments in life when words seem small and our hearts are heavy. The death of a mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, and friend brings such a moment. Even when we know death will come, it still feels like an intrusion, a reminder that this world is not as God intended it to be. And yet, into such moments, our Lord Jesus speaks the words we need most: “Let not your hearts be troubled.”
Find out more in this sermon for the funeral of Irene Meyer from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!

Humility and Healing

There are few situations in which self-exaltation and self-aggrandizing are considered acceptable. Indeed, it is almost always seen as being in bad form. You know the type. The person who talks a little too much about himself, who always manages to turn the conversation back to his own accomplishments, who wants to make sure you know how important he is. Such people quickly prove themselves insufferable.
And even if others play nice to keep face or because the self-important have social or business power, deep down, people do not enjoy being witness to this sort of arrogance.
More to the point, Jesus does not care for self-importance. He, who of all people has the greatest claim to honor and glory, did not conduct Himself in that way during His ministry. Instead, He chose the way of humility, simplicity, and service, even unto death for us sinners.
Find out more in this sermon from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!