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EASTER SUNDAY
"When Christ arose, He brought with Him complete
righteousness. For He arose for the sake of our righteousness, Romans 4:25. So
then, when you, in a similar fashion, arise from sin through true repentance,
you are justified from sins, for faith lays hold of this completed
righteousness in Christ, by which we are enabled to stand before God."
Johann Gerhard Eleven Easter and
Pentecostal Sermons, Malone: Repristination Press, 1996, p. 80. Romans 6:3-4;
Romans 4:25. [Note: order the Gerhard sermons from Repristination Press, hunnius@aol.com
"That the Lord Christ, after His resurrection, wishes peace
to the disciples and eats the broiled fish and honey comb in their presence,
and thereby portrays the benefit and fruit of His resurrection. For through His
death and resurrection He has reconciled us with God, His heavenly Father, so
that we may from now on, through faith in Him, have peace with God, have peace
in our hearts, and have peace against the accusations of the devil and our
conscience. When a war lord victoriously overcomes the enemy, peace follows
after. So also, since Christ has overcome all His and our enemies in His
victorious resurrection, He can thereafter wish [us] peace...Through Him, Samson's
riddle was fulfilled: From the eater came something to eat and sweetness from
the strong one...He is the powerful Lion from the stem of Judah, Rev 5:5, which
mightily fought and overcame so that ours souls find honey-sweet food in
Him."
Johann Gerhard, Eleven Easter
and Pentecostal Sermons, Malone: Repristination Press, 1996, p. 52. Judges
14:14,18.
"Furthermore, another reason for stating that the Lamb of God
was slain from the beginning of the world is that God the Lord, soon after the
Fall in the beginning, made the promise that He wanted to have the Seed of the
woman step on and crush the head of the hellish snake; and, it would also occur
that the snake would bite the woman's Seed in the heel. This stinging of the
heel is none other than that Devil's inflicting himself on the woman's Seed and
bringing Him to the cross."
Johann Gerhard, Eleven Easter and
Pentecostal Sermons, Malone: Repristination Press, 1996, p. 60. 1 Corinthians
5:7-8; Genesis 3:15.
"He who follows his feelings will perish, but he who clings
to the Word with his heart will be delivered."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 245.
Mark 16:1-8.
"For when the heart clings to the Word, feelings and
reasoning must fail."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 246.
Mark 16:1-8.
"Therefore the Holy Spirit must come to our rescue, not only
to preach the Word to us, but also to enlarge and impel us from within, yea,
even to employ the devil, the world and all kinds of afflictions and
persecutions to this end. Just as a pig's bladder must be rubbed with salt and
thoroughly worked to distend it, so this old hide of ours must be well salted
and plagued until we call for help and cry aloud, and so stretch and expand
ourselves, both through internal and through external suffering, that we may
finally succeed and attain this heart and cheer, joy and consolation, from
Christ's resurrection."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 253.
Mark 16:1-8.
"If I do not believe it, I will not receive its benefits; but
that neither renders it false nor proves that anything is lacking in
Christ."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 258.
Mark 16:1-8.
"For this reason one should not be too credulous when a
preacher comes softly like an angel of God, recommends himself very highly, and
swears that his sole aim is to save souls, and says: 'Pax vobis!' For those are
the very fellows the devil employs to honey people's mouths. Through them he
gains an entrance to preach and to teach, in order that he may afterward
inflict his injuries, and that though he accomplish nothing more for the
present, he may, at least, confound the people's consciences and finally lead
them into misery and despair."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 322.
Luke 24:36-47.
"Thus we have two parts, preaching and believing. His coming
to us is preaching; His standing in our hearts is faith. For it is not
sufficient that He stand before our eyes and ears; He must stand in the midst
of us in our hearts, and offer and impart to us peace."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
xd., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 355.
John 20:19-31.
"The first and highest work of love a Christian ought to do
when he has become a believer, is to bring others also to believe in the way he
himself came to believe. And here you notice Christ begins and institutes the
office of the ministry of the external Word in every Christian; for He Himself
came with this office and the external Word."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 359.
John 20:19-31.
"Now God drives us to this by holding the law before us, in
order that through the law we may come to a knowledge of ourselves. For where
there is not this knowledge, one can never be saved. He that is well needs no
physician; but if a man is sick and desires to become well, he must know that
he is weak and sick, otherwise he cannot be helped."
Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols.,
ed., John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, II, p. 370.
John 20:19-31.
"Who are the people, therefore, to whom God makes known the
resurrection of His Son? Women of little learning and poor fishermen."
Sermons of Martin Luther, The House
Postils, 3 vols., ed., Eugene Klug, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996, II,
p. 22. Luke 24:13-35.