As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17
He Opens Heaven
Have you ever been locked out? You get locked out of your house. You panic. What a relief when someone comes to the rescue. A friend with a key lets you in.
What a dreadful thought to be locked out forever. When humanity first fell into sin, the door to paradise was slammed shut. Access to God was cut off because of sin. Do you sense it still today? Does it seem like the door to heaven is still closed? Do you ever wonder and even worry, “Will God be pleased with me? Will he let me in?” What a relief when the one who holds the keys to eternal life comes to the rescue and opens heaven.
This is exactly what Jesus was sent to do: open heaven and unlock eternity for you and all who believe. These verses from Matthew chapter 3, mark the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry. When Jesus was baptized, something amazing happened—heaven opened! God the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and God the Father spoke words of affirmation, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Jesus’ work on earth had one goal in mind: to undo sin and reverse its deadly grip on you. On the cross where he died, all debts for your sins were paid. At his empty tomb, when he rose from the dead, he declared that nothing now stands between you and God.
Jesus gives these gifts in a personal way through baptism. When anyone is baptized, something amazing happens—heaven is opened! God gives his Spirit to comfort and strengthen. All sin is washed away. What God the Father declared about Jesus, he declares about everyone who is baptized, “This is my child! With this child of mine, I am well pleased!” This is what Jesus, your Savior, does for you. He opens heaven. Access to God, the loving Father, is granted now and forever.
Prayer:
God, our loving Father, thank you for sending your Son to be my eternal rescue. Amen.
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope. Isaiah 42:3-4
He Follows Through
Those working in environments where there is a great deal of brokenness can easily become discouraged. Those in a caretaker role can easily become drained as they try to meet the needs of the ones they serve. Often, we strive to serve and accomplish a task with high ambitions, but over time, we run out of energy and become discouraged.
The Servant of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, came down to ground zero to serve souls in dire need of saving and nurturing. He doesn’t get discouraged and give up. He follows through until the mission is accomplished. Before Jesus, the Lord sent many servants in the form of prophets, kings, and others who were to serve people. Some started strong but easily got discouraged. Some accomplished great things, but they had their limitations. Others served only themselves. They were only human, and none was able to follow through perfectly as servants of the Lord.
Jesus is different. He’s not only human. He is truly God from eternity. Making a promise is one thing. Keeping it is an entirely different thing. There are likely times in your life when you have been the victim of a broken promise, big or small. There are times when you promised something with every intention of keeping it, but for whatever reason, you couldn’t or didn’t follow through. Jesus has the divine authority to make promises, and he has the divine authority to keep promises.
God’s greatest promise was to save you from the brokenness and destruction of sin by declaring you not guilty. He promises to care for your soul for time and for eternity. Jesus followed through until his mission was accomplished and God’s promise was kept. This promise still stands today. It has endured thousands of years and has traveled thousands of miles. It has reached our distant shores and our troubled hearts and gives hope of life now and forever with the Lord.
Prayer:
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for following through on the greatest promise ever. Sustain me each day by your sure promises. Amen.
A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Isaiah 42:3
He Doesn’t Break, He Binds
When something is just about broken or on its last leg in our house, my solution is often, let’s scrap it! It’s not worth the money to fix. I don’t have the patience and the time to breathe life back into it. For me, it’s much easier to start from scratch and buy or build a new one. My wife has a more restorative approach. She doesn’t so quickly give up on the worn-out thing. She has a knack for salvaging the broken trinket and turning it back into a prized possession.
I’m sure it would be much easier for the Lord to look at the brokenness of the world and the brokenness of my life and just scrap it and move on. The reality for the world, and every person living in it, is that we were not just broken. We have broken God’s commands. We can’t mend our own brokenness. We can’t muster up enough strength to solve the problem of sin on our own. If you’ve ever tried, you eventually burn out and give up. But God doesn’t give up and move on. Why not?
Because of his great love for us, he doesn’t break. He binds. He doesn’t snuff us out. He breathes in new life. Isaiah points to Jesus in today’s Bible verse. Notice your Savior’s approach to you. Sometimes you might feel like a bruised reed ready to break under the weight of pressure and guilt. Jesus comes not to break but to bind and mend. He took extreme care and effort to save and restore you, giving his very life on the cross. He has forgiven all your sins, all the times you’ve broken a command.
He doesn’t break; he binds. He salvages and saves, and at the same time, he makes new those who believe in him. To souls once spiritually burnt out, he patiently fans into flame the gift of faith and gives new life full of peace, purpose, and hope. He restores what was once lost and makes that soul God’s prized possession.
Prayer:
Lord, Jesus, when I am bruised and ready to break, you bind up my brokenness and breathe in new life with your words of forgiveness and hope. May I always praise you for your salvation! Amen.
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11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like the Lamb, and he spoke like the dragon. 12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast on his behalf. He causes the earth and those who make their home on it to worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 He performs great miracles, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of people. 14 He also deceives those who make their home on the earth because of the miracles that he was permitted to perform on behalf of the beast, telling those who make their home on the earth to make an image for the beast who had been wounded by the sword but lived.
15 This beast was also given the ability to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast spoke and caused whoever did not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He also makes all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 in order that no one may buy or sell unless he has the mark—the name of the beast or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
2 The beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 One of his heads seemed to have been fatally wounded, [1] but his fatal wound was healed.
And the whole world that followed the beast was amazed. 4 They worshipped the dragon because he gave authority to the beast. They worshipped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can go to war against him?” 5 The beast was also given a mouth that spoke arrogant and blasphemous things. He was given authority to do these things for forty-two months.
6 The beast opened his mouth to speak blasphemies against God: to blaspheme his name, his dwelling, and [2] those who dwell in heaven. 7 He was also given permission to wage war against the saints and to overcome them, as well as authority over every tribe and people and language and nation. 8 All those who make their home on the earth will worship the beast—those whose names have [3] not been written from the beginning of the world in the Book of Life, which belongs to the Lamb that was slain. [4]
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
10 If anyone is to be imprisoned, [5] he is going to be imprisoned. If anyone is to be killed [6] with a sword, he is going to be killed with a sword.
Here patient endurance and confidence are needed by the saints.
Footnotes
Revelation 13:3 Literally slaughtered to death
Revelation 13:6 Or namely or that is.
Revelation 13:8 Some witnesses to the text read the one whose name has.
Revelation 13:8 Or written in the Book of Life, which belongs to the Lamb that was slain from the beginning of the world.
Revelation 13:10 A few witnesses to the text read The person who leads someone into prison.
Revelation 13:10 A few witnesses to the text read If anyone kills.
Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, [1] because the accuser of our brothers [2] has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 They conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives in the face of death. 12 For this reason, rejoice, you heavens and those who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, for the Devil has gone down to you. He is full of rage, because he knows that his time is short.
The Dragon Persecutes the Woman
13 When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman, who had given birth to the male child. 14 Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman so that she might fly to her place in the wilderness, where she is to be fed for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the presence of the serpent. 15 And the serpent spewed water out of his mouth, like a river, after the woman, in order to carry her away in the flowing water. 16 But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river, which the dragon had spewed out of its mouth.
17 The dragon was angry about what had happened to the woman, and he went away to make war against the rest of her children—those who keep the commandments of God and who hold on to the testimony about Jesus.
18 And he [3] stood on the shore of the sea.
The Beast From the Sea
Revelation 13
1 I saw a beast rising out of the sea. He had ten horns with ten crowns on his horns, and seven heads with blasphemous names [4] on his heads.
Footnotes
Revelation 12:10 Or Anointed One
Revelation 12:10 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.
Revelation 12:18 Some witnesses to the text read I.
Revelation 13:1 Some witnesses to the text read a blasphemous name.
1 A great sign appeared in the sky: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. 2 She was pregnant, and she cried out in pain and agony as she gave birth.
3 Another sign also appeared in the sky: There was a huge red dragon that had seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4 His tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman, who was about to give birth, so that he could devour the child as soon as it was born.
5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will shepherd all the nations with an iron rod. Her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6 Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God in order that she might be fed there for 1,260 days.
War in Heaven
7 There was also a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. The dragon fought back along with his angels, 8 but he was not strong enough. There was no longer a place for them [1] in heaven. 9 The great dragon was thrown down—the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and Satan, the one who leads the whole inhabited earth astray—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Footnotes
Revelation 12:8 Some witnesses to the text read him.
15 Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying:
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, [1] and he will reign forever and ever.
16 The twenty-four elders, who were sitting on their thrones before God, also fell on their faces and worshipped God, 17 saying:
We thank you, Lord God Almighty, who is, and who was, [2] because you have taken your great power and reigned. 18 The nations were angry, and your anger has come. And the time has come when the dead are to be judged, and when you will give the reward to your servants the prophets and to your saints, namely, to those who fear your name, the small and the great, and when you will destroy those who destroy the earth.
19 And God’s temple in heaven was opened and the Ark of his Covenant was seen in his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, crashes of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.
Footnotes
Revelation 11:15 Or Anointed One
Revelation 11:17 A few witnesses to the text add and who is coming.
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The Conference of Presidents (COP) met Jan. 6-9. At that meeting, the COP discussed the following items: The current number of pastoral vacancies. There are 162 total vacancies for pastor-trained […]
Enrollment in WELS schools this school year has decreased slightly from the 2024–25 school year, according to the recently released 2025–26 school statistics. Lutheran high school enrollment continued to climb, […]
On Jan. 9, Charles Vannieuwenhoven was installed as the administrator of the Board for Ministerial Education. Attending the installation and participating in the laying on of hands were the presidents […]
Leaders from The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS), the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS), and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) gathered last week near Jacksonville, Fla., for two days of theological […]