1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,633 Alleluia, Christ is risen. 2 00:00:02,533 --> 00:00:04,800 He has risen indeed, Alleluia. 3 00:00:05,433 --> 00:00:08,233 In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 4 00:00:09,066 --> 00:00:12,966 I don't know if you know this, but this is the best time of the year. 5 00:00:13,633 --> 00:00:15,766 The post-Easter glow. 6 00:00:16,933 --> 00:00:20,866 Because you've worked really hard the past several weeks. 7 00:00:22,233 --> 00:00:26,433 Perhaps you've fasted, pretended to fast. 8 00:00:28,700 --> 00:00:30,900 You've made all the bulletins. 9 00:00:31,300 --> 00:00:39,966 You have wrangled uncountable paper jams in the copier that just happened to come up during the Wednesday of Holy Week. 10 00:00:41,133 --> 00:00:45,166 You've preached more sermons than you could have imagined you would ever be preaching. 11 00:00:46,666 --> 00:00:50,833 And the crazy thing is that people showed up to hear it. 12 00:00:51,833 --> 00:00:59,266 And then it looks like people actually believe the things that you're talking about in preaching and singing and all of this wonderful stuff. 13 00:00:59,300 --> 00:01:09,266 And then you wonder, is anyone actually going to take their Friday night to come to church on Good Friday to hear about the saddest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world? 14 00:01:10,666 --> 00:01:11,666 And they show up. 15 00:01:12,566 --> 00:01:19,366 And then on Saturday night, you wonder, are they going to spend their Friday and Saturday night here in the church? 16 00:01:20,633 --> 00:01:22,033 The Easter vigil. 17 00:01:23,500 --> 00:01:26,266 And then the word of God draws them in. 18 00:01:27,566 --> 00:01:37,000 And so you sing, you celebrate, and you receive the gifts and you preside and you preach and you hear all of these wonderful things. 19 00:01:37,033 --> 00:01:43,433 And the gifts are given more than any other time of the year and it is absolutely glorious. 20 00:01:43,433 --> 00:01:52,966 And then on Easter Sunday afternoon, it all kind of stops and you sit down and you rest. 21 00:01:54,533 --> 00:02:03,200 So last week, after Sunday morning, after celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and the divine service, 22 00:02:03,266 --> 00:02:08,900 my mother-in-law asked me when the kitchen at my house and she says, 23 00:02:09,933 --> 00:02:15,733 the fourth man in the furnace, is that Jesus? 24 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:20,133 And you all know the answer here. 25 00:02:21,600 --> 00:02:23,966 Is the fourth man in the furnace Jesus? 26 00:02:24,966 --> 00:02:28,266 Is this the second person of the Trinity? 27 00:02:28,833 --> 00:02:33,366 Is this the pre-incarnate Christ there in the fiery furnace? 28 00:02:33,966 --> 00:02:35,900 Is this Jesus? 29 00:02:38,033 --> 00:02:45,466 So I said to my mother-in-law, who I love very much, I said, well, hold on a second. 30 00:02:45,866 --> 00:02:52,900 I went into the other room and I grabbed my copy of Dr. Gieschen's Angelomorphic Christology. 31 00:02:54,300 --> 00:02:58,633 I hand it to her and I say, well, it's complicated. 32 00:03:01,733 --> 00:03:04,833 Read this and get back to me. 33 00:03:08,266 --> 00:03:11,566 So what am I supposed to preach to you fine people today? 34 00:03:11,633 --> 00:03:13,900 That Jesus is going to be with you in the fire? 35 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:18,133 That the angels will protect you no matter what happens? 36 00:03:20,466 --> 00:03:21,033 Maybe. 37 00:03:22,466 --> 00:03:23,300 It's not wrong. 38 00:03:24,733 --> 00:03:26,966 But today I want to talk about something else. 39 00:03:27,933 --> 00:03:31,266 Something else that I know that you all are also thinking about. 40 00:03:32,933 --> 00:03:34,066 The bagpipes. 41 00:03:37,733 --> 00:03:42,600 The bagpipes. And I know that you were thinking about it the third time that you read it. 42 00:03:44,766 --> 00:03:51,933 How many more times is he going to have to list off all of these instruments? 43 00:03:52,766 --> 00:03:54,733 We know, we get it. 44 00:03:54,966 --> 00:03:59,366 At this point you could just say, whenever you hear the guys playing the music on the instruments, 45 00:04:01,833 --> 00:04:03,033 we get the picture. 46 00:04:04,133 --> 00:04:08,233 You have a schedule. You have other things to do after chapel today. 47 00:04:09,033 --> 00:04:15,933 And then there's this wonderful fact that this reading comes at the end of a whole long series of readings 48 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:18,733 during the Saturday night Easter vigil. 49 00:04:18,733 --> 00:04:27,066 We hear about Adam and Eve and we hear about Noah and the flood and Abraham and Isaac and the delivery at the Red Sea. 50 00:04:27,333 --> 00:04:32,033 And these stories are your stories and you're there walking through the Red Sea. 51 00:04:32,133 --> 00:04:35,766 And then it's getting late and it's getting dark outside. 52 00:04:35,933 --> 00:04:40,933 And I wonder if people are seriously going to put up with this for much longer. 53 00:04:40,933 --> 00:04:46,766 Is the lector going to make it through all these readings and you pull out Daniel chapter 3, 54 00:04:46,766 --> 00:04:51,566 you thought you knew the story, but at that point all you can think to yourself is, 55 00:04:51,833 --> 00:04:55,766 I didn't know how much Daniel talked about the bagpipes. 56 00:04:58,033 --> 00:04:59,166 But there they are. 57 00:05:00,433 --> 00:05:04,766 Every single time he lists off the bagpipes. 58 00:05:04,933 --> 00:05:11,733 Every time you hear the instruments, the horn, the pipe, the lyre, the trigon, the harp, the bagpipe, 59 00:05:11,733 --> 00:05:19,166 and every kind of music bow down and worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 60 00:05:19,533 --> 00:05:22,866 So they sound the bagpipes and what happens? 61 00:05:23,966 --> 00:05:27,033 They all bow down and worship. 62 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:30,166 All of them. 63 00:05:31,433 --> 00:05:37,733 Except Hananiah, Mishael, and Ezraiah. 64 00:05:39,000 --> 00:05:40,833 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 65 00:05:40,966 --> 00:05:43,300 They stand to lose everything for this. 66 00:05:43,633 --> 00:05:45,333 They're living in exile. 67 00:05:45,333 --> 00:05:47,733 They've got pretty good jobs there. 68 00:05:47,766 --> 00:05:51,733 And it's about as comfortable as Babylon could be for them. 69 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:59,733 They can keep it all if they just bow down and worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 70 00:06:02,066 --> 00:06:06,033 They don't even have to actually believe the idol is real. 71 00:06:06,700 --> 00:06:08,766 They can just go through the motions. 72 00:06:09,433 --> 00:06:13,366 Hear the bagpipes, bow down, just do it. 73 00:06:14,833 --> 00:06:18,433 But these three men say, no. 74 00:06:20,033 --> 00:06:22,566 Why would we worship a piece of gold? 75 00:06:23,866 --> 00:06:24,333 It's not real. 76 00:06:24,466 --> 00:06:25,266 It can't do anything. 77 00:06:26,366 --> 00:06:29,033 So we're just not going to do that. 78 00:06:30,233 --> 00:06:34,200 So they hear the bagpipes and they say, no. 79 00:06:36,033 --> 00:06:47,333 And then people find out and they turn them in because, see, this is not okay because Nebuchadnezzar is king of the universe and what he says goes. 80 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:52,033 And so if you say no to him, this is bad news. 81 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:03,533 So what happens when you are faithful and when you stand up against what everyone else thinks is right? 82 00:07:03,533 --> 00:07:11,600 And what happens then when you're the only one standing up for what is right and true? 83 00:07:12,966 --> 00:07:23,933 What are you going to do when you hear the bagpipes and when you see the golden image and you see everyone else bowing down and worshiping? 84 00:07:24,733 --> 00:07:28,466 Are you going to bow down and worship? 85 00:07:29,933 --> 00:07:31,866 Even though you know it's wrong. 86 00:07:33,633 --> 00:07:35,533 Are you going to justify yourself? 87 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:41,866 Are you going to justify your idolatry and say, it's just this one time? 88 00:07:43,666 --> 00:07:44,466 You might. 89 00:07:47,133 --> 00:07:48,533 You may have already done this. 90 00:07:51,133 --> 00:07:54,066 And some of you may have already been through the fire, too. 91 00:07:54,666 --> 00:08:00,666 It could be that you have already heard the sound of the music and bowed down and worshiped the idol. 92 00:08:00,666 --> 00:08:04,366 The powers that be said bow and you did. 93 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:13,000 And I would love to stand here and give you instructions on how to be the next Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 94 00:08:13,100 --> 00:08:16,133 And maybe that is something that we need to do right now. 95 00:08:17,366 --> 00:08:20,666 This is why we have heroes in the church, after all. 96 00:08:21,833 --> 00:08:29,833 Remember, men like Bonhoeffer, who this very day stood and was killed for it. 97 00:08:33,866 --> 00:08:37,666 Because, dear brothers and sisters, idols are being set up all around us. 98 00:08:38,833 --> 00:08:47,833 They are in our churches, they are on the outside, and the bagpipes are already sounding, commanding you to get down and to worship. 99 00:08:50,566 --> 00:08:56,633 And when I figure out how to ultimately resist these things, I will get back to you. 100 00:08:58,300 --> 00:08:59,666 What idols are you worshiping? 101 00:09:00,866 --> 00:09:02,900 You know in your head they are not real. 102 00:09:03,533 --> 00:09:07,133 You know how foolish it is and you know that it is not faithful. 103 00:09:07,700 --> 00:09:10,333 And yet you bow down for all sorts of reasons. 104 00:09:11,466 --> 00:09:16,633 How many people were in Babylon and we have a story of three men who stood up against it. 105 00:09:18,366 --> 00:09:22,666 At the end of the day, you know that it is wrong and you know that it is sinful. 106 00:09:23,833 --> 00:09:26,633 But at the end of the day, know this also. 107 00:09:26,633 --> 00:09:41,266 At the end of this story, the three men and Nebuchadnezzar himself all believe and confess the true God of Israel. 108 00:09:41,633 --> 00:09:43,666 There is no one else like him. 109 00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:52,800 You can watch from the outside or you can go through the furnace, but the Lord Jesus Christ works all things for your good. 110 00:09:54,233 --> 00:10:00,733 The rest of the book of Daniel, the rest of the Bible I dare say is full of these stories. 111 00:10:01,466 --> 00:10:08,966 The kings oppress the people of Israel and the God of Israel continually turns them to himself. 112 00:10:10,766 --> 00:10:20,100 Rome itself, who carries out the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ, is eventually turned to Him, who they killed. 113 00:10:20,766 --> 00:10:27,866 And consider this in this wonderful afterglow of Easter that no one believed Jesus. 114 00:10:29,433 --> 00:10:33,000 Not one. Not a single disciple. 115 00:10:33,133 --> 00:10:41,266 But there at the foot of the cross, Longinus the soldier pierces his side and first declares, truly this was the Son of God. 116 00:10:42,733 --> 00:10:45,100 Peter denies him. I don't know him. 117 00:10:45,100 --> 00:10:50,133 Thomas! Thomas says, no, I will never believe. 118 00:10:51,833 --> 00:10:53,100 And what does Jesus do? 119 00:10:55,366 --> 00:10:59,700 He's not angry. He's not vengeful. 120 00:11:01,066 --> 00:11:05,566 Instead he comes to them and he gives them faith. 121 00:11:07,666 --> 00:11:12,433 And like Thomas, we confess, my Lord, my God. 122 00:11:14,300 --> 00:11:22,633 I pray that you will have the confidence and the faith to be bold when you hear the bagpipes. 123 00:11:24,800 --> 00:11:25,733 Of course I do. 124 00:11:27,766 --> 00:11:29,433 Take your stand for the faith. 125 00:11:31,466 --> 00:11:32,866 But know this also. 126 00:11:32,866 --> 00:11:46,866 When you don't, when you fall down, whether it is by accident or on purpose, the Lord Jesus Christ is still raised from the dead. 127 00:11:47,633 --> 00:11:52,666 And you cannot undo that, no matter how hard you may try. 128 00:11:54,733 --> 00:11:56,933 Redemption is inevitable. 129 00:11:58,300 --> 00:12:00,266 Resurrection is yours. 130 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,533 Because no matter what, Alleluia Christ is risen. 131 00:12:06,366 --> 00:12:09,000 He is risen indeed. Alleluia. 132 00:12:09,466 --> 00:12:11,766 In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.