Saving Souls: Christ's Work, not ours

Saving Souls: Christ's Work, not ours 
by Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, President of The Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod 

The Synod does a lot of research to know what works. For instance, Concordia Publishing House just published a fantastic new book by the Rev. Dr. Mark Kiessling, LCMS Youth Ministry director, and DCE Julianna Shults, Youth Ministry program manager. The book is Seven Practices of Healthy Youth Ministry, and it’s the culmination of extensive research, surveys and interviews designed to find out what works in youth ministry and what has the highest likelihood of retaining youth in a faithful Lutheran congregation. Go to cph.org to buy your own copy! You’ll be surprised at what we’ve found. 

In other news, the Synod is embarking on a significant church-planting initiative. Here, as with Youth Ministry, we’ve spent years studying the data to know what practices (always under the Scriptures and our Lutheran Confessions) have yielded and continue to promise the best results in church planting. These are just two examples of the thoughtful, informed and long-term preparation behind the work your Synod is doing. There are many more I could offer from the LCMS Office of International Mission, Mission Advancement, Communications and the Office of Pastoral Education. 

We want to be good stewards of the resources you’ve entrusted to us to do the work you’ve asked us to do. It’s a matter of trying to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” as Jesus says (Matt. 10:16). But for all our research, we must confess that nothing we do makes anyone a Christian. By God’s grace, we might clear out the junk in front of the door, but the work of saving souls is Christ’s. 

In fact, more often than not, the Lord does His work of converting sinners quite in spite of us. I recently heard LCMS Eastern District President Rev. John Pingel preach about how the times he spends, hour upon hour, with a person or family who needs Christ often seem to result in nothing, while a moment with a passing acquaintance or a chance incident happens to bring a person to church. 

Who of us could have imagined an LCMS church plant in Rome (LINK)? Your LCMS missionary in Rome, the Rev. Tyler McMiller, reports that people are hungry for the comforting, pure Gospel preserved in the Lutheran Confessions. Read about how a handful of young men stumbled across the LCMS via the internet, one thing led to another, and now we have a confessional Lutheran church plant just a couple of miles from the seat of Roman Catholicism. Even in Rome, when people find out what they can expect to receive from our Lutheran pulpits and Lutheran altars, they seek us out. 

It is like how Luther describes why we should go to confession: “If this were explained in detail and if the need that ought to move and lead us to make confession were pointed out, then one would need little urging or coercion. For everyone’s conscience would so drive and disturb him that he would be glad to do what a poor miserable beggar does when he hears that a rich gift of money or clothing is being handed out at a certain place. So as not to miss it, he would run there as fast as he can and would need no bailiff to beat and drive him on. For those who really desire to be true Christians, to be rid of their sins, and to have a cheerful conscience already possess the true hunger and thirst. They reach for the bread, just as Psalm 42:1 says of a hunted deer burning in the heat with thirst, ‘As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for You, O God.’ In other words, as a deer with anxious and trembling eagerness strains toward a fresh, flowing stream, so I yearn anxiously and tremblingly for God’s Word, Absolution, the Sacrament, and so forth” (Brief Exhortation to Confession, 23, 32–33). 

No amount of research or planning can save anyone. God will save all of His elect. This is the wonderful comfort of the Doctrine of Election. If a year from now we discovered that all our supposed best practices, based on the best research and statistics, were completely wrong, it would not change the number of God’s elect by a single one. All His elect will be saved. We simply cannot mess up His good and perfect work. 

“We know that out of pure grace, without any merit of our own, we have been elected in Christ to eternal life. No one can pluck us out of His hand [John 10:29]. He has not only promised this gracious election with mere words, but has also certified it with an oath and sealed it in the holy Sacraments. We can call these to mind in our most severe temptations and take comfort in them, and with them we can quench the fiery darts of the devil [Ephesians 6:16]” (FC Ep XI, 13). 

God’s elect will be saved, to be sure, but God wills to save His people through His blessed Word spoken through miserable sinners like us, and it is our deepest privilege to participate in His mysterious work of electing — of saving — sinners. People all over the world are seeking out The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod for our clear confession of the Word of God. They want what we have; the blessed Gospel of the free forgiveness of sins, without any work or merit on our part. There are more requests from sister churches and emerging church bodies all over the world than we can manage. We have requests for over 200 more missionaries worldwide. There is a worldwide hunger for the clarity of the Gospel. The harvest is ripe, indeed!

Special Presentation April 21, 2024 by the LHF

Join Us Sunday April 21st, between services, for a Special Presentation by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation

PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS … can you imagine teaching your young child about Jesus, without having any kind of Sunday school materials, or even a basic Bible storybook? This situation is a reality for many Lutherans around the world, but the Lutheran Heritage Foundation is helping to change that. Next Sunday, Rev. Robert Marshall, an LHF representative, will preach at our worship services. Plan to join us during Bible class at 9:15 when Rev. Marshall shares the exciting mission work LHF is doing worldwide.

Our Mission: The Lutheran Heritage Foundation
Imagine trying to understand Scripture in all its richness without the benefit of Luther’s Small Catechism, or trying to teach young children about basic Bible stories without books like A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories.

For Lutheran churches around the world, these situations are reality. They don’t have the basic books, so vital to understanding the Lutheran faith, because no one has translated them into their languages.

Through the mission gifts of people like you, LHF translates, publishes, distributes and introduces books that are Bible-based, Christ-centered and Reformation-driven.

In more than 90 countries and 145 languages, thousands of people have come to faith in Christ because they’ve been able to read books like The Good News About Jesus or Luther’s Small Catechism in their own languages.

LHF has published the catechism in more than 110 languages with dozens more requested. In the past decade, LHF has published and distributed over 1,300 titles and 3 million Lutheran books to pastors, seminary students, missionaries and churches – all at no cost to them.

Help guide unbelievers to Jesus Christ. Give to the LHF mission today.

The Lutheran Heritage Foundation is a Registered Service Organization of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). Click here to read about the beliefs and practices of the LCMS.

Pick Your Free Copy of “Portals of Prayer”

Pick Your Free Copy of Portals of Prayer in the Narthex or in the Atrium
APRIL - JUNE 2024 ISSUE
Portals of Prayer is a favorite of readers looking for ways to stay in God's Word with easy, daily devotions.

A great way to start each day, readings feature a Bible passage, meditation, and prayer in an easy-to-read format. Portals of Prayer is great for personal devotions and can be used to open church meetings or Bible studies. Published in the convenient and popular pocket size, large-print, or digest editions. Published quarterly, authors change each month.

Portals of Prayer has been a source of strength and comfort since 1937.

Who are … Lutherans for Life

Our Mission … Equipping Lutherans and their neighbors to be Gospel-motivated voices For Life

Our Vision … Every Lutheran, both individually and in community, upholding the God-given value of human life and influencing society to do the same

Our Philosophy … Lutherans For Life believes that the Church is compelled by God’s Word to speak and act on behalf of those who are vulnerable and defenseless. The crisis of our times is the repudiation of biblical truth manifested in the wanton destruction of innocent human life through legalized abortion-on-demand and the growing threat to the lives of others through legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia. Therefore, as Lutherans For Life, we will strive to give a Gospel-motivated witness to the Church and society on these and other related issues, such as chastity, post-abortion healing, and family living. We will call God’s people to compassionate action and foster life-affirming

There will be no Mid-Week Service on 4/17

There will be no Mid-Week Service on Wednesday April 17
Our regular schedule will be back in effect the following week.
Which is, Worship Service with Communion at 2:00 p.m., followed by a 30 min. Bible Study at 2:30 p.m.

Keep up to date by checking on “This Week at Zion” using THIS LINK.
In case you missed it, check out the “Monthly Newsletter” using THIS LINK
Bulletins are archived at “Bulletins” using THIS LINK
And finally, and archive of recent posts can be found in the “News Archive” using THIS LINK

VIDEO: Sunday April 14, 2024 - Complete Service

View the bulletin for Sunday, April 14, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings & Sermon for Sunday April 14, 2024

View the bulletin for Sunday, April 14, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
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First Reading -- Acts 3:11–21 
While [the lame man who was now healed] clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s, astounded. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all. 

“And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” 

Epistle Reading -- 1 John 3:1–7 
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the twenty-fourth chapter. 
As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. 

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”