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. Instead of a death sentence, those brothers hear the words of deliverance.
  4. 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.
  5. Five promises were seemingly all those apostles, staring into the sky, had to go on. Five promises that were more than enough.
  6. The price was really paid. Your sin remains buried in Christ’s tomb.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. The seemingly small, the particular, the previously overlooked, magnifies in importance.
  10. The death and resurrection did indeed really happen. They are accomplished historical facts, and by them, so too is the forgiveness of our sins and justification before God.
  11. This day and its meaning provided the opportunity for an anonymous author to write a poem for Sheer Thursday about Judas' betrayal of Jesus.
  12. He represents our likeness, fulfills it, and so has the prerogative to reproduce his likeness in us.