Biblical · Confessional · Liturgical · Sacramental
Delivering Christ Jesus
and His Gifts for You
A confessional Lutheran parish and school in Random Lake, Wisconsin — gathered around Word and Sacrament since 1855.
Sundays at 9:30 a.m. · Divine Service
Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. · Divine Service
Our Church
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church in Random Lake, WI gathers at Sherman Center to receive Christ’s gifts of Word and Sacrament. We are a confessional, liturgical congregation of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, faithful to the Scriptures and the Book of Concord. Visitors are always welcome.
Our School
St. John Ev. Lutheran School in Random Lake has served families with Christ-centered education since 1855. Children grow in the faith through daily catechesis, the liturgical life of the parish, and a rich academic curriculum rooted in the Lutheran tradition.
Sermons, Catechesis & News
Recent sermons, Bible studies, and articles from St. John.
- Jeremiah Chapter 20
Last week Jeremiah smashed a jar in the garbage valley. This week we find out what it cost him: Pashhur, the chief officer of the temple police, beats him and locks him in the stocks overnight, and Jeremiah opens his mouth and says the worst thing anybody says to God in the Old Testament — O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded (Jer. 20:7). Then watch one word walk through the next five verses: God prevailed over him, his friends expect to prevail against him, and they will not — because nineteen chapters back the promise was already standing, they shall not prevail against you (Jer. 1:19). His enemies cannot win against him precisely because God already did. - “Two Sermons Were Preached That Day” Trinity 14 2026All ten lepers believed Jesus, and all ten were cleansed by nothing but His word on the road. Then the priests preached them a second sermon — only God cleanses leprosy, your obedience did this, don’t you dare give the glory to a man from Nazareth — and nine believed that preacher instead, praising God with their tongues while blaspheming Him in Christ. They had a Bible verse, and they thought they did well. “Your faith has saved you” is Christ’s ruling handed down against theirs: not the going, not the offering, but faith alone, because Jesus alone was already cleansing before they had walked ten steps.
- “Strive to Enter but Only through Christ” Friday of Trinity 13 (observed) 2026Jesus commands you to agonize your way through the narrow door, and in the same breath says the many who try will not be strong enough. So the striving He commands cannot be strength. Luke uses that agony word exactly twice — once here, where Christ commands it, and once in a garden, where Christ does it. He did the agonizing, and He heard “Depart from Me” at the shut door, so that the sentence over you is that He knows where you are from: the font.
- Jeremiah Chapter 19Last week the Lord sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house to watch wet clay wadded up and made again. This week He sends him to buy a finished flask — fired, narrow-necked, the kind that cannot be mended — and to carry it through the Potsherd Gate to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, where Judah burned its sons to Baal, a thing God says never came into His mind. Before the elders and the priests he smashes it on the ground, and the word with the shards is that it “cannot be made whole again” — the Hebrew is healed (Jer. 19:11).
- “He Had Compassion On You” Trinity 13 2026The lawyer answers rightly — love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself — and then negotiates the second table: Who is my neighbor? Jesus tells of a man stripped, beaten, and left half dead, seen and passed by priest and Levite, and found by a Samaritan whose guts turn with compassion, who pours oil and wine, carries, and leaves a blank check with the innkeeper: whatever more you spend, I will repay when I come again. You are the man in the ditch, and He had compassion — He came where you are, bound you in oil and wine, brought you to the inn, and paid it all.
