LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 95

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(Rev. 5:9), sends His apostles and pastors and people out, to
preach Christ crucified and to bear witness to His bleeding love
to everyone, to every single one.
We preach Christ to all. What an opportunity we have in our
day, with so many immigrant communities settling all around
us in this land, and with so many opportunities to preach Christ
and to partner with those who are preaching Christ in other
lands. “For God shows no partiality” (Rom. 2:11). “For God so
loved the world….” (John 3:16). For God “desires all people to be
saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,” Jesus said,
“baptizing them…and teaching them” (Matt. 28:18–19; cf. Matt
24:14).
We preach Christ crucified to all, for “He is the [reconciling
sacrifice] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins
of the whole world” (1 John 2:2 ESV, revised).
And, finally, just a brief comment on the pronoun itself. We
preach Christ crucified.
Statement number ten: God has entrusted this task to us.
There were times in the world when God Himself came and
spoke, came and preached, you could say. To Adam and Eve, to
the patriarchs, at Sinai, at Jesus’ Baptism and Transfiguration.
There were other times when God sent angels for this, like the
Angel Gabriel announcing the birth of the Savior to Mary.
But marvel at this. When it comes to preaching the Gospel of
Christ Crucified to all the nations of the earth, God has not
taken this glorious work solely into His own hands, nor has He
commissioned the mighty angels. He has called us. Us! It does

no good to debate whether this was wise; it’s what God Himself
has ordained.
And why would God choose us? In closing today, let me just
offer one answer to that question, an answer that I recently
came across, expressed very nicely, in the introduction to the
published sermons of Dr. John Tape. Pastor Tape writes, “Why
would God choose me to share His word with His people? Is He
that hard up for preachers? No, He could place angels in the
pulpit every week if He wanted. But because of His great love
and kindness to me, He has granted me such a privilege.” 20
Brothers and sisters, delegates to our 68th Convention of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the pronoun “we” is plural.
We preach Christ crucified. And why would God choose us to
share His word? Because of His great love and kindness to us, He has
granted us such a privilege.
And He has granted us a further privilege. To carry out this holy
task, this Great Commission, together. We preach Christ
crucified, alongside the glorious company of the apostles, the
goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs,
and alongside one another. Thanks be to God.
Let us believe that and embrace this shared privilege from God,
and His gift to us of one another. The purpose of our Synod, and
the purpose of this convention, is not to contend against one
another, but to align ourselves, with joy and resolve, to the
Scriptures, to the Confessions, to one another, and to the great
work of preaching Christ crucified to all.
We. Preach. Christ. Crucified. God strengthen us and bind us
together in this task, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.

We Preach Christ Crucified: The Power of God on the Cross
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Associate Professor of Practical Theology Rev. Dr. Abjar Bahkou
68th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • July 31, 2023
In the first “Hobbit” movie, entitled “An Unexpected Journey,”
Gandalf, the wizard, meets Bilbo Baggins and asks him to be
part of the adventurous journey to retake the Lonely Mountain
from the dragon, Smaug. Bilbo is hesitant and does not want to
take this journey nor be part of it. He wants to remain in his
comfort zone with his books, sitting on his comfortable rocking
chair. A conversation between Bilbo and Gandalf starts, and the
wizard tries to convince Bilbo to be part of this journey. In this
dialogue, Bilbo asks Gandalf, “What insurance would you give
me that this journey will succeed?” to which Gandalf responds,
“I have no insurance, but I can assure you that if you take this
journey with us and be part of it, you will never be the same.”
“You will never be the same!” When we are baptized in Christ, we
are not the same person we were before. We are alive in Christ:

“… if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has
gone, the new is here!” (2 Cor. 5:17 NIV). As a new creature in
Christ, all that we have, body and soul, come from the hand of
a generous Creator. The Creator became a creature of our flesh
and blood to redeem us from sin, death, and the devil. That
good news of this redemption was brought to us in Word and
Spirit.
The spirit enables us to call God our “Father” with the boldness
and certainty born of faith. Baptized in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, we have died with Christ and so live with
Him as we await the resurrection of our bodies. In the
meantime, we live in repentance and faith, confessing our sin
and receiving the absolution from Christ Himself on the lips of
His servant. In the Sacrament of the Altar, Christ Jesus comes to

20
John W. Tape, The Collected Works of Dr. John W. Tape, Volume
One: Sermons (Lulu Publishing, 2021), introduction.

Convention Essays

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2023 (68TH) LCMS CONVENTION | 95