Sermon
for Easter 7, Exaudi, May 24, 2020
To you the elect,
temporary residents in the world,…who have been chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be
obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be
multiplied to you. Amen.
1
Peter 4:7-11 7 The end of
all things is near. So have sound
judgment and be self-controlled for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, love each
other constantly, because love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Serve one another, each
according to the gift he has received, as good stewards of the many forms of God’s grace. 11 If anyone speaks, let
him do it as one speaking the messages of God.
If anyone serves, let him do it as one serving with the strength God
supplies so that God may be
glorified in every way through Jesus Christ.
To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. (EHV)
Let
your whole life glorify Christ.
Dear fellow
stewards of God’s grace,
The opening words of Peter’s letter tell us that God
chose us for obedience and to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. Then, just before the words of our sermon
text, Peter wrote of how sometime soon every person “will have to give an account to the one who is ready to judge the
living and the dead.” (1 Peter 4:5)
Here, Peter warns, “the end of all things is near.” Thus, as we draw closer to meeting our Judge,
the Holy Spirit teaches us to Let your whole life glorify Christ.
Now, most
likely, none of us will ever face a firing squad, or find ourselves mounted on
a horse with a rope around our neck to be hung until dead, like in the old
movie westerns. In fact, if we should
ever be in a predicament like that, we would have a good idea of how much time
we had left, and the answer would be, “very little!” Even this pandemic that has the whole world
in turmoil isn’t likely to kill anyone without warning, but the truth is, none
of us knows when our time will end, which is why Jesus warned His followers, “Be alert, because you do not know on what
day your Lord is coming.” (Matthew
24:42)
We don’t know when we might be called from this
life, nor does anyone know when Jesus will return to judge the world for all
its wickedness. Yet, the Lord doesn’t
want us wasting the moments we are given. God keeps His Church in this world so that the
Gospel will be proclaimed and many more people may be brought into the kingdom
of heaven, but that doesn’t mean we are all called, or well-equipped for public
speaking—many of us are not. Still, we
must remember that “Actions speak louder than words!” Certainly, we have all been reminded of that
truth countless times in our lives. The Holy Spirit tells us, through Peter, to
live our lives as a constant testimony to the Savior who won our freedom from
sin and death, so that in Letting
your whole life glorify Christ, you
proclaim the Lord’s salvation to a troubled world.
Peter tells
us to “have sound judgment and be self-controlled for the sake of your prayers.” The point is that our lives, our worship, and
every interaction with God in our prayers is to be purposeful and led by a
desire to accomplish His will. We should
make ample use of our time here on earth to bow before the Lord in confession
of our sins, praising His mercy, trusting His gracious love that provides all
things for us, and pleading on behalf of those who still need to hear what
Jesus has done to save them. Not asking
just for material things but that we and all people be blessed by God’s Word.
Peter
reminds us to take the blessing of prayer seriously. God invites us to come to Him in every
need. He also wants us to be watching
for every opportunity to pray for those around us. Only the Holy Spirit can convert anyone to
faith in Jesus. Yet, we can and should
pray for anyone and everyone who might yet hear the Good News. Trusting that “The prayer of a righteous person is able
to do much because it is effective,” (James 5:16), we can share God’s Word
with lost and wandering souls and pray that the Holy Spirit opens their hearts
to hear His Gospel and believe it.
Peter
wrote, “Above all, love each other
constantly, because love covers a multitude of sins.’” There are likely times we struggle with this command. Sure, we love our children, our
grandchildren, and our friends. We find
it easy to love those people who like us and treat us well. But do we, sometimes, struggle to love those
who make our lives miserable? Do you
ever find yourself wanting to retaliate when someone treats you poorly? Sometimes it can seem so hard to love, but
notice that last phrase, “love covers a
multitude of sins.”
This is
our salvation. Christ’s love has already
covered all of your sins. All those
times when we struggle to love—covered!
All those times when you forgot to pray for your neighbor—covered! All those times when we neglected to lend a
helping hand—covered! Those times when
you are frustrated by the authorities or obnoxious neighbors—covered! All those times when you find yourself hating
someone instead of loving and reaching out to the unlovable—covered by Jesus!
And that,
dear friends, is simply amazing! Every
sin of the world has been covered by the blood Jesus shed on the cross. Now that certainly doesn’t mean we are free
to do anything we want. It means we have
been set free from the punishment we deserved for the sins we commit all the
time.
Back before
the civil war, the law in our United States required that any slave who escaped
from his master had to be returned to that slaveholder. The master was even allowed to enter the free
states to try to recover his runaway property.
Now consider this, with His holy life and sacrifice, Jesus purchased the
freedom of every person on the face of the earth from the kidnapper and slaver who
had held us in bondage. Christ set us
free and says, “Don’t go back.” Jesus
doesn’t want any of us to be returned to that evil slave-driver, nor does He
want us to volunteer to serve that wicked foe, anymore.
The
Almighty God has given His pure Word to set us free from the slavery of sin,
death, and the devil, and in order that we can proclaim to the world what Jesus
has done to rescue us and everyone, He continues to give us every good thing so
that we can be His witnesses for freedom to a world still suffering in bondage
to that evil tormentor known as Satan.
Jesus’
death on the cross paid for our release from the devil’s chains. The truth is it paid for everyone else’s
too. So, if Jesus paid for everyone’s
sins, wouldn’t it be marvelous to be able to share that good news with al
others? You know the answer—of course it
is. Even though we know that not
everyone will believe us, we have the great joy of being able to carry Jesus’
Good News wherever we go, and our loving service is a living testimony until
some hear the Gospel and believe.
The Holy
Spirit tells us, “Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Serve one another, each
according to the gift he has received, as good stewards of the many forms of
God’s grace.” I have to admit, the
Holy Spirit sure knows my weaknesses. It
is so easy to find myself grumbling when I have to do something extra or go out
of my way for some jerk who couldn’t care less about me or the kind of day I’m
having. How about for you? Do His words hit you, too? Thanks be to Jesus, He covered all sins.
In
addition to the great gift of forgiveness we have received, you and I are truly
blessed when we are given the opportunity to be hospitable to someone
else. We each have been equipped with
some “of the many forms of God’s grace,” in order to help others. God
gives us the opportunity to be a blessing to others so that we can share His
love with those who need it, and we all need it!
The Holy
Spirit gave us our marching orders when He had Peter write, “If
anyone speaks, let him do it as one speaking the messages of God. If anyone serves, let him do it as one
serving with the strength God supplies.” What is the message of your life? None of us knows the hour God will call us
home, but we all should live testifying with loving actions so that your whole life will
glorify Christ. In fact, that is how the world
sees that we are God’s redeemed children.
No, we’re not earning any part of our salvation by doing so, but if we
choose to follow any other path, we are giving ourselves back into bondage to
that horrible thief who stole us from God in the first place.
A lot of times, we find ourselves worrying about
what to say, or how to say it. We don’t
need to worry; our Lord will provide the way. Jesus
told His disciples, “You will be brought
into the presence of governors and kings for my sake, as a testimony to them
and to the Gentiles. Whenever they hand
you over, do not be worried about how you will respond or what you will say,
because what you say will be given to you in that hour. In fact, you will not be the ones speaking,
but the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:18-20) Never fear. When the Lord puts us into position to speak
or to act, He puts His words on our tongues and the tools in our hands, so that
what we know about Jesus becomes obvious to others, and God often gives us
ample opportunity to share our faith with other people simply by the way our
actions speak louder than words.
Therefore, when God puts someone in your life who
gives you grief, learn to forgive and to help even that unlovable person,
because we once were just as unlovable before the Lord loved us anyway. When we find it takes extra effort to help
someone, we need to remember how Jesus has helped us by taking the punishment
and death we each deserved. We remember
the nails driven through His hands, the crown of thorns on His head, and that
each one of us deserved all the torture and punishment He suffered, but because
of Jesus, we won’t have to suffer the curse of hell, because He already
suffered even that for you and me.
Dear
Christian friends, we are to serve our Lord by serving the people of this world
“so
that God may be glorified in every way through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever
and ever.” God glorified Himself
through His Son who entered this world to save you and me, and God is glorified
by every sinner who repents and believes in Jesus. Nothing you can ever do will glorify God more
than simply living in the true faith that Jesus died and rose again for
you. Jesus has been given all authority
in heaven and on earth for the glory He brought to the Father with His perfect
life and innocent death: all for you and me and every other person who ever
lived or will live. Nothing more is
needed to make us right with God.
This
sermon text may sound like a lot of law, but make sure you hear, as well, the
Gospel that flows throughout it. We
serve the Lord, because of His great love for us. We serve our neighbor, also, because of God’s
great love for them and for us.
I want to
read a little bit from St. John’s Gospel before we close. Jesus told His disciples:
This is my command:
Love one another as I have loved you. No
one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his
friends. You are my friends if you
continue to do the things I instruct you. I no longer call you servants, because a
servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because
everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and
appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will endure, so that the Father
will give you whatever you ask in my name. (John 15:12-16)
Jesus obeyed His Father’s command to love the world
with a holy life and His sacrifice on the cross. By God’s grace, we are connected to Jesus by
faith so that Christ’s command, and His holiness, become ours also. The Holy Spirit made us Jesus’ friends by
bringing us to faith in Him. Because Jesus
laid down His life for you and me, His death saved us from an eternity in the
pit of hell. Anything He asks of us here
on earth is a marvelous trade in our favor.
Dear friends, your whole life is your testimony to Jesus’ amazing
love. Let your whole
life glorify Christ. Amen.
The peace
of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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