WORSHIP VIDEO LINK (linked after 10:45 AM Service)
WORSHIP AUDIO LINK
SERMON AUDIO LINK
BULLETIN
SERMON TEXT BELOW
Pentecost 17 2026 130th Anniversary New Members Proper 20
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
September 20, 2026
Is. 55:6-9, Phil. 1:12-14, 19-30, Matthew 20:1-16
Sermons online:
Text and Audio: immanuelhamiltonchurch.com click “sermons”
Text: pastorjud.org
Audio: pastorjud.podbean.com
itunes: bit.ly/pastorjud
Full Service Audio: bit.ly/ImmanuelWorship
My Grandma and Grandpa Jud lived on a little farm in Henrietta, New York near Rochester. When I was little, they gifted me with 25 shares of stock in a local photography company. Maybe you’ve heard of it, if you are Gen X or older. The Eastman Kodak Company. Kodak was everywhere. They were the biggest player in film and photography. At its peak in 1988 Kodak employed over 145,000 people. I sold my shares in 1988, not because I knew Kodak had peaked, but because I needed money to buy a diamond ring. When I sold, the stock was about $50 a share…$138 a share in today’s money. Today Kodak is trading around $9 a share…$3.25 in 1988 dollars. That would have only given me about $80 towards a diamond. Kodak went from king of the industry to a pawn. It is still around, but now only employs about 3,500 people.
What happened to Kodak? Well…I take a lot of pictures and record a lot of video, but I haven’t purchased film in probably 30 years. Digital photography basically killed Kodak. In business you often have to adapt or die.
Ask the folks that used to work at Sears Roebuck and Co., or Blockbuster, or Radio Shack, or Toys R Us, or Circuit City, or K-Mart and so many others. Adapt or die. That is the way of the world.
What about for the Church? Does the Church need to adapt or die?
In our Gospel reading today it seems that God is not a very good business owner because is lousy at compensation management. His vineyard is bleeding cash because He is paying a full day’s wage for not a full day’s work. But that is the point, isn’t it? That is the lesson that Jesus is teaching. The way Jesus does what Jesus does is not how we would do it. The way Jesus rules, also known as the reign of heaven or the Kingdom of Heaven, is not the way of the world. No matter when you come into the reign of Jesus you receive the same salvation as everyone else in the Kingdom.
You do not earn forgiveness through your long, hard effort. Forgiveness is a gift from God made possible through the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross and confirmed by His resurrection from the dead. Jesus earned your forgiveness and He established three ways to deliver forgiveness to you. Baptism, the Word of God and the Lord’s Supper. These are represented in our front window.
Jesus institutes baptism for the forgiveness of sins. He starts it and says to do it. Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
On the day of Pentecost the crowds are cut to the heart by Peter’s sermon. They know they have sinned by having Jesus crucified, and they cry out, Acts 2:37–38 (ESV) 37 …, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Baptism delivers forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit. So we make disciples by baptizing and teaching.
Jesus gives the Church the authority to forgive and retain sins on His behalf. Jesus teaches the disciples in….Matthew 18:18 (ESV) 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” On the evening of Jesus’ resurrection day, He appears to His disciples and tells them…John 20:21–23 (ESV) 21 … “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” You gather together each week and begin worship by confessing your sins and then the Pastor speaks in the stead and by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ, “I forgive you all your sins,” and your sins are forgiven.
Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper as stated in the catechism. “The holy Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul write: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.”
In the same way also, He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying: “Drink of it, all of you; this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”[1]
You gather here each week to do what Jesus said to do and receive into your body, His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of your sins.
Jesus gives three ways for the Church to deliver forgiveness from the cross to you; the sacrament of baptism, the Word of God in absolution and reading and singing and preaching, and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The Word and the Sacraments. Sacrament comes from the Greek word mysterion, mystery. We do not know how God makes baptism and holy communion work, but He promises they do. God’s ways are not the world’s ways.
In the Augsburg Confession, presented by the Lutheran princes to the Emperor in 1530, the Church is defined in Article VII. What is the church? [1] Our churches teach that one holy Church is to remain forever. The Church is the congregation of saints [Psalm 149:1] in which the Gospel is purely taught and the Sacraments are correctly administered.[2]
Jesus has given us His way. Martin Luther was thrown out of the Roman Church because he wanted to go back to Jesus’ way. It is not the world’s way. But God told us that… Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV) 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Adapt or die does not apply to the Church. The Church cannot adapt to the world because the Church is not of the world. God’s ways are not the world’s ways. If the Church adapts to the world it will cease to be the Church. Jesus built His Church on the truth that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The Church cannot change the message or the methods given by Jesus. The Church will continue to struggle against the forces of the devil, the world and our own sinful natures, but remaining faithful to Jesus, the Church will survive… and will triumph when Jesus returns.
Faith in God has been ongoing for 6,000 some years since God created Adam and Eve. It has been 4,000 some years since God’s covenant with Abraham. Christianity has been spreading for 2,000 years since Jesus was crucified, buried and raised from the dead. Martin Luther rediscovered the truth of Christianity and we have been clinging to the Word of God as Lutherans for 500 years. Immanuel Lutheran Church and School has been preaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion for 130 years. Starting at the courthouse, then 55 years on Front Street surviving fires and floods and 75 years here at 1285 Main St. surviving a flooded basement and expanding three times. We now have the North Campus and we are pondering what God has for us to do to further His Kingdom.
Over the years, Immanuel planted churches in Middletown and Liberty Township. We rejoice at what has been given to us from those who have gone before and we pass on what we have to those who come after us, if possible, better than we received it. Today, with joy, we recognize our newest members of the Immanuel family who join us in doing what we have been given to do until Jesus returns.
Looking back 130 years, 500 years, 2,000 years, 4,000 years, 6, 000 years, what do we do now in the present? What does the future hold? We keep doing what Jesus has given us to do. We teach the truth of God’s Word. We baptize. We repent and confess. We receive absolution. We gather together at the altar to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus. We do not adapt to the ways of the world. We do what Jesus has given us to do – always looking forward to the day when He returns. Amen
[1]From “VI. The Sacrament of the Altar” in The Small Catechism, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Pocket Edition. © 2005, 2006 Concordia Publishing House.
Source: https://bookofconcord.cph.org/en/small-catechism/communion/
[2]From “Article VII. The Church” in The Augsburg Confession, Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, Pocket Edition. © 2005, 2006 Concordia Publishing House.
Source: https://bookofconcord.cph.org/en/augsburg-confession/chief_articles/article_vii/
From the Pulpit 