1. Lutherans have a unique heritage that makes teaching predestination doubly difficult.
  2. We can do nothing to warrant entry into the kingdom of God nor are we getting in if we think a seat at God’s table is something to which we are entitled.
  3. The Battle of Frankenhausen stands as a warning for what can happen when we abandon the Word God has given us and chase after some vision of our own imaginations.
  4. Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
  5. A Christian story untethered from the reality of Christ and his mercy toward sinners becomes a mere fable, while a sermon disconnected from the hearts of its listeners remains a hollow oratory.
  6. Eucatastrophe is the coming untrue of all sin, evil, and death. And where that starts is the empty tomb of the risen Jesus.
  7. The price was really paid. Your sin remains buried in Christ’s tomb.
  8. When Jesus appeared again to his disciples on that first Easter evening and again a week later with Thomas and the Emmaus disciples, what did Jesus show them? His hands.
  9. Like the serpent on the pole, God still puts real-life things up for us to look to for salvation.
  10. Jesus continues to do the same for me and for you as he did for his disciples. He still shows up for us. He still speaks his peace to us.
  11. Don’t get in the habit (or, if you already do it, get out of the habit) of saying, “I could never talk about these things the way my pastor does.”
  12. What is faith to believe? The simple words of promise that Jesus Himself gives to us in Scripture: “This is My body. This is My blood.”