Pastor Chris Brademeyer’s Podcast

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.

Kingdom Divided?

Our Gospel reading presents the most basic conflict of our world, that between our God and the Enemy, Satan. That is to say, our Lord cast out a demon. Infirmity, in this case muteness, was cast aside and a man was healed. In Christ, the kingdom of God broke into this fallen world with power and mercy. One would think that such a miraculous overthrow of the Devil’s rule would be met with rejoicing. But instead of responding with joy, some accused Jesus of casting out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Other, more skeptical people, demanded additional signs from heaven.
What unfolded was not merely a dispute about a miracle. It was a revelation of the great spiritual reality that stands behind all human history: there are two realms, two rulers, two powers at work in this world. And Jesus says there is no neutral ground.

The Importance of Doctrine

Why does doctrine matter? Many well-meaning, perfectly sincere people, Christian and otherwise, claim that doctrine, that is teachings, are options, not truths. But this is not the historic Christian position. We have creeds, the Nicene, Apostles’, and Athanasian, that we written to lay out the boundaries of Christian discussions. That is, they divide true things about Christ and false things that lead away from Him. To be brief, doctrine matters because it gives us Christ as He truly is.
Christianity is not built on religious sentiment or spiritual emotions. It is built on a real Lord who lived, died, and rose in real history. If Christ is real, then what we say about Him can be either true or false, right or wrong. The historical reality of Jesus demands specificity. He is not a collection of ideas or mythologies from which we may draw at our leisure. He is a true and living Savior, who really became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Who really suffered and died and rose again.

3P1S Episode 25 - The Divine Call: The Role and Responsibilities of the Pastor

When does a pastor go too far and become a church tyrant? When does a church expect too much and make a pastor a church employee? Where is the line? In this episode, we cover the topic of the Pastor's Divine Call - and where his role and responsibilities begin and end.

Called to Holiness

The traditional name for this Sunday, the second in Lent, is Reminiscere. It means, “remember.” It comes from the Introit which says, “Remember Your mercy, O Lord, and Your steadfast love.” In this season of Lent, the Church prays that God would remember His mercy, which He loves to do more than anything else. And today, through the Apostle Paul in our Epistle lesson, the Lord also calls us to remember something else: that we have been called to holiness.
St. Paul wrote to the Christians in Thessalonica that, “This is the will of God, your sanctification.” It is not God’s will that you should be destroyed, forgotten, or condemned. No, God wants you, His people, to be holy. “God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.” This is a high calling. And it immediately brings us into conflict. This conflict is not firstly with the world out there, but with the sinful self within.