EASTER - WEEK 2 - FRIDAY

LESSON: PSALM 23

He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. Ephesians 4:10

You have heard how our Lord Jesus Christ, after His suffering and death, was translated and entered an immortal existence. We must not understand this to mean that Christ is now sitting idly up in heaven and that He is nothing but an object of continual joy to Himself alone. He has taken over the full kingship of His kingdom and is exercising full rule over His kingdom. He is the King of whom all the prophets and the whole of Scripture has so much to tell us. St. Paul says that he now fills all things. And so, we must ever regard Christ as being continually present in His kingdom and exercising the government of His kingdom.

We must not hold the view that He is sitting up in heaven in a state of idleness, but that from heaven above He now rules and fills all things, as St. Paul reminds us. He is especially concerned with His kingdom, which exists wherever the Christian faith exists. Therefore, His kingdom is present in our midst here on earth. In regard to this kingdom, matters have been so ordained that it should improve and become purer from day to day. This kingdom is not ruled by any forms of outward authority and might but by the oral preaching of the Word of God and, more especially, by the preaching of the Gospel.

SL 11:780 (6)

PRAYER: Your presence in our midst, Lord Jesus, is a source of great consolation and joy to us at all times. Continue to bless us, especially in the proclamation of Your Word of salvation. Let it always have free course in our midst, for Your mercy’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:17-31.