Chris Matthis

All Things New Chris Matthis

This is my third collection of sermons published for posterity and my family's future edification. The sermons in this book are not listed chronologically but rather according to the lectionary. For nearly every Sunday in Easter, I provide one sermon each for series A, B, and C of the Lutheran Service Book lectionary published by the Commission on Worship of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (my denomination). Most times it aligns well with the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) used by most mainline Protestant churches in the United States. Where it differs, you will still be blessed, I hope, to read and meditate on God's Word. In addition to sermons for the Sundays of Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost, I include two funeral sermons, both for practical and sentimental reasons. My father, who was a pastor, always had a reputation of being good at a funeral. In fact, this is an area where all preachers must succeed because there are fewer times in life where Easter joy becomes the basis for real life hope than at the death of a Christian loved one. For if the ones we lose belong to Christ, they are never truly lost; we will see them again, either when we die or on the Last Day when Christ returns. Either way, when we see Jesus face to face, we will see our Christian loved ones again. As Jesus told Martha at Lazarus's funeral, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" I hope that you do, or at least that you might, after reading these messages of life and hope. Until the Day of Christ's second Advent, we are caught in the "now, not yet" reality of a fallen world into which the kingdom of God is already breaking in. Jesus came to make all things new (Rev. 21:5). To him be glory forever! Amen.