Live in harmony with God your Father.

 

Sermon for Trinity Sunday, May 26, 2024

Grace, mercy, and peace be yours, forever, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Romans 8:12-17  ¹²So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it.  ¹³For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die.  But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.  ¹⁴Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!”  ¹⁶The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.  ¹⁷Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him. (EHV)

Live in harmony with God your Father.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            The nature of this text almost forces a person to compare life in our earthly families with the life given to us in God’s heavenly family.  Consequently, our experience with our earthly father may well color how we perceive our relationship with our heavenly Father, who is not only our Father, but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who made it possible for you to Live in harmony with God your Father.

What I mean when I say that your relationship with your earthly father may well color how you see your heavenly Father, what I mean is that if you have a great, kind, loving, and generous dad here on earth, you likely expect that is exactly what you will see in your heavenly Father. 

On the other hand, if you haven’t had a good relationship with your dad, perhaps fought with him, or if he was extremely judgmental and hard to live with, if he had many faults, or especially, if you suffered abuse or indignity at his hands, you might not feel any comfort at all from the idea that God is your true Father.  Many people with such an experience might not want to have anything to do with any father.  Or they may be terrified of what their Almighty Father might do to them.

Therefore, let’s begin by examining what sin has done to the father’s role in this world.  Because we are all under the curse of sin in this world, every father falls short of the goodness God would expect us to live.  No father could live up to the perfection we each might want and certainly, God would demand of us.  Worse yet, fathers are as susceptible to sin as anyone else, so sometimes, that means a father makes a very bad example in this life. 

Dear friends, if you were someone caught in such a painful situation, understand that this is not the father God means.  This is what happens when sin controls the man.  However, the writer tells us to Live in harmony with God your Father.

So, let’s open our eyes to what the Holy Spirit really wants us to see.  St. Paul was given to write, “So then, brothers, we do not owe it to the sinful flesh to live in harmony with it.”  In other words, whether you had a great dad, or a man of human wreckage as your earthly father, God wants us not to be controlled by the sinful nature we inherited from our parents.  Every person on earth was controlled by sin.  Our natural flesh was infected and infested with the unwillingness to live a holy life.  Yet, because Jesus lived and died for the whole world, He has paid the debt we owed to God for the sin of every person. 

Furthermore, because the Holy Spirit worked faith in the hearts of those who believe and trust in Jesus and what He has done for us, we who believe in Jesus are no longer controlled by Satan, sin, or death.  Because we have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God, we, who once were slaves to sin and subject to the devil’s accusations, have been set free to live under the authority of the Holy One who purchased our freedom.  We are no longer subject to the authority of the flesh which wanted only to sin.  Plus, we no longer need to be terrified of God’s judgment—a fear that might have kept us hiding from God’s loving kindness, as demonstrated by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Paul wrote, “For if you live in harmony with the sinful flesh, you are going to die.  But if by the Spirit you put to death the actions of the body, you will live.  What our natural man leads us to do leads to eternal punishment and death in the eternal condemnation intended for the devil and his angels.  Our God does not desire that for any person.  Therefore, He sent His Son to end death for those who believe.  Thus, through faith in Jesus, we are connected to the life, death, and the resurrection of Jesus, our Savior, as St. Paul observed earlier in this letter, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4)  It is through the Spirit-given faith in Jesus that we put to death the actions of the body. 

Through this faith, we live!  Along with that, through this faith, God makes us His own dear children.  Paul explained, “Indeed, those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.  For you did not receive a spirit of slavery so that you are afraid again, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we call out, “Abba, Father!”  When the Holy Spirit works faith in us through Baptism or the hearing of the Gospel of all that Jesus has done to set us free from the devil’s control, He is working in us the reality that God has adopted us into His family.  Now consider the most benevolent, generous, kind, and just Father that has ever been, or ever can be—the One who created this world and everything in it and sent His only begotten Son to rescue us from the darkness of death—has counted us—who once were enemies and lost—as His own dear children to whom He gladly gives all things, who disciplines us in His divine care, and from whom He willingly hears our prayers, and answers them!

St. John marveled at this news rejoicing, “See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)  Now, a father who truly loves his children will do everything in his power to provide what they need in life, and he will provide the discipline and training that will guide them into being the best citizens they can be for the good of their family and neighbors.  This is precisely what we have in our heavenly Father.  He gives us everything we need for life here on earth, but especially so that we may enjoy everlasting life in our heavenly home with Him.

Children who have a father like this, should gladly want to be like their father and to do all they can to please him.  Thus, trusting in our heavenly Father, St. John wrote, “Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed.  We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is.  Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as Jesus is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)  This is basically the same thing Paul expresses here in that you should Live in harmony with God your Father. 

We live in harmony with God if we do His will.  When the disciples asked Jesus, “What should we do to carry out the works of God?”  Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God: that you believe in the one he sent.” (John 6:28-29)  How do we Live in harmony with God your Father?  We put our complete trust and confidence in Jesus who, on our behalf, lived in perfect harmony with His Father’s will.  Then, knowing that as long as we remain in this world, we still sin, we turn again and again to Jesus in repentance knowing that our sins are forgiven because of what He has done for us. 

What does that do for us in the end?  “The Spirit himself joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, we are also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, since we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.”  Through faith in Jesus, worked in us by the power of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, we inherit both forgiveness of all sin and eternal life in the mansions of heaven.  Since we are also heirs of the Son, we inherit the treasury of His Good works, counted to us by faith, so that we never stand before God dressed in the putrid, filthy, tattered clothes of our own sin, but rather, we are dressed in the glorious righteousness of Christ Jesus, God’s Son.

On Trinity Sunday, we recognize that only the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit gives us what we need, both, to live here on earth, and so that we might enjoy eternal life in the glories of heaven.  No other god, no other person, no other idea can do anything for our everlasting welfare.  Only the God of the Bible can help us.  Only the God of the Bible has already done everything needed to set us free from the devil and his chains.  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, for by this Three in One, we Live in harmony with God our Father.  Amen.

The Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way.  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen.

The Spirit gives life to dry bones.

 

Sermon for Pentecost, May 19, 2024

Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.  Amen.

Ezekiel 37:1-14  The hand of the Lord was upon me.  He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley, which was full of bones.  ²He had me pass through them and go all over among them.  There were very many on the valley floor, and they were very dry.  ³He said to me, “Son of man, can these dry bones live?”  I answered, “Lord God, you know.”  ⁴Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’”  ⁵This is what the Lord God says to these bones.  I am about to make breath enter you so that you will live.  ⁶I will attach tendons to you.  I will put flesh back on you.  I will cover you with skin and put breath in you, and you will live.  Then you will know that I am the Lord.  ⁷So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I was prophesying there was a noise, a rattling, as the bones came together, one bone connecting to another.  ⁸As I watched, tendons were attached to them, then flesh grew over them, and skin covered them.  But there was no breath in them.  ⁹Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the wind.  Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind that this is what the Lord God says.  From the four winds, come, O wind, and breathe into these slain so that they may live.”  ¹⁰So I prophesied as he commanded me.  Breath entered them, and they came back to life.  They stood on their feet, a very, very large army.  ¹¹Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.  They are saying, ‘Our bones are dried up.  Our hope is lost.  We have been completely cut off.’  ¹²Therefore, prophesy and say to them that this is what the Lord God says.  ‘My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from your graves and bring you back to the soil of Israel.  ¹³Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my people.  ¹⁴I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live.  I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it,’ declares the Lord.” (EHV)

The Spirit gives life to dry bones.

Dear sojourners in a harsh and foreign world,

            Ezekiel was God’s prophet to the exiled Israelites in Babylon.  In those troubled times, the people lived in despair of ever returning to their homeland, the land promised to their forefathers as an everlasting home.  Though the people had become hopeless, the God of their forefathers remains ever faithful.  Thus, in His vision to Ezekiel, God shows us that The Spirit gives life to dry bones.

The vision given to Ezekiel is that of a valley in the wilderness covered with the bleached bones of a vast multitude of slaughtered soldiers.  The condition of those bones showed that life was long past.  The bones had been picked clean by the vultures, scavengers, maggots, and bugs, then bleached dry in the hot desert sun.  The vision shows a people who had no life left at all.

For Jacob’s descendants, now in exile, God was answering the complaint of those who were saying, “Our bones are dried up.  Our hope is lost.  We have been completely cut off.”  They had lost their faith in God’s promise that this exile was for a limited time.  After a certain number of years, they would be returned to the Promised Land where they would again enjoy peace.  Because God wanted them to know that He is always true to His promises, the Lord had Ezekiel return to the people with this message:

My people, I am going to open your graves and raise you up from your graves and bring you back to the soil of Israel.  Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my people.  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live.  I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it.

Our question, of course, as it always is with the events that happened to Israel, is what does this prophecy mean for you and me?  This vision given to Ezekiel shows us that like the exiles of Israel, and those dry bones in the desert valley, you and I were once hopeless and without life in God’s kingdom.  Though we were born physically alive, we were yet dead in our trespasses and sins without any hope of forgiveness and peace with God and therefore, having no hope of life everlasting in heaven.

Now, this prophecy was meant immediately to restore hope to the people of Judah who were suffering as exiles in a foreign land.  Yet, it applies well to us, also, for we too are sojourners here on earth, in a place and time were there is much hardship, with increasing opposition from enemies both human and spiritual.  Therefore, without God’s aid and promises, we also would be hopelessly lost and our bones dead in condemnation.

But, The Spirit gives life to dry bones.  Our reality today is no different.  Though we entered this place and time devoid of spiritual life, God didn’t leave us in that condition.  In a fortunate circumstance, today, as we are celebrating Pentecost, the day we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit to God’s people and the source of life for our once dead souls, two young people will confirm the faith that the Holy Spirit put in them at their baptisms.

Ezekiel was instructed to prophesy to the dry bones, and he watched those bones then put on the physical evidence of living beings: the flesh and tendons and skin knit those bones together.  Still, those individuals had no life, so God told Ezekiel to prophesy, again, this time to the four winds that the breath of life might enter those still dead bodies.  Consequently, Ezekiel watched the result of his prophesying as the breath of God restored those bodies to living beings. 

This is a picture of what happened to you, Ian and Katelyn, and to all of us with you here today.  In Baptism, the Holy Spirit comes to us through the pouring on of water and God’s Word, and we are restored to life in God’s everlasting kingdom.  In that moment, your body likely didn’t feel any change, but God had put His seal of ownership on you.  By the blood and water Christ shed for us on the cross, your sins and guilt were washed away, and you were no longer under the control and power of Satan.  Because The Spirit gives life to dry bones, the devil can no longer accuse you of being dead to God, for the Spirit has breathed into you new life with ownership of a home in heaven,

Just like with those dry bones in the desert of the vision given to Ezekiel, you and I had no ability to bring ourselves back to spiritual life.  Yet by the power of the Holy Spirit, God breathed life into us just as much as He had breathed life into Adam in the Garden of Eden.  Then, from the day of your baptism, the Holy Spirit has been strengthening your spiritual life through the Word of God proclaimed to you in our worship services, through your personal study of God’s Word, and for the last few years in your study of the catechism.  By this Holy Gospel, you have been brought to believe in Jesus who rescued you from eternal death by His holy life and innocent sacrifice on the cross.  As St. Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

Dear friends, God wants us to live lives of faith in His Son and to give faithful service in His kingdom, and we rejoice in the opportunity to do so.  At the same time, we know that our lives here on earth will come to an end, and that this can happen at any moment in time.  With more and more enemies of God emboldened to attack believing Christians, you may find yourself put on the defensive, or even put you in danger of death for your faith.  Yet, through faith in Christ Jesus, we will not be afraid, and even if fear should come to trouble us, we have God’s promise of forgiveness, now, and victory in the end.  

Furthermore, just like those exiles of Judah in Babylon, God has promised us that He will raise us from our graves so that we may live with Him forever in the Promised Land of heaven.  Always remember that the lives we live here on this dusty planet are not the end of your story.  Therefore, whether we may live or die, God has promised us that when the trumpet sounds on Judgement Day, we will experience the promise given through Ezekiel that long, long time ago: “‘Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you up from your graves, O my people.  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live.  I will settle you on your own land, and you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it,’ declares the Lord.”  The message God gives is clear, no matter the circumstances, He has our best interest at heart, and the most powerful being anywhere has your everlasting life as His goal.  So that we never feel the need to boast in ourselves, and so that we never need be afraid, The Spirit gives life to dry bones.  Amen.

God will fully supply your every need, according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.  Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever!  Amen.

We are sanctified in God’s name for eternal joy.

 

Sermon for Easter 7, May 12, 2024

To all those loved by God…called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

John 17:11-19  Holy Father, protect them by your name, which you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.  ¹²While I was with them, I kept those you gave me safe in your name.  I protected them and not one of them was destroyed, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.  ¹³“But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so that they may be filled with my joy.  ¹⁴I have given them your word.  The world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  ¹⁵I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One.  ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  ¹⁷“Sanctify them by the truth.  Your word is truth.  ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, I also sent them into the world.  ¹⁹I sanctify myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth. (EHV)

We are sanctified in God’s name for eternal joy.

Dear fellow redeemed,

            The older I get, and the more I study God’s Word, the more I realize how different God is than the world, and how great a contrast there is between God’s interactions and will compared to that of a world suffering under Satan’s control and lies.  Whether they realize it or not, the people of the world are ruled by the devil.  This makes them lustful, greedy, untrustworthy, and selfish in everything they think or say or do.  I do not say this to put anyone down, because we all entered this life in the same condition.  We all were born thinking only of ourselves and what we needed or wanted.  Born with no love for God or anyone else, we all, little babies included, were subject to the curse of sin which is death.

In contrast, God was neither born nor made.  He has, in fact, existed forever.  Furthermore, He created this world and everything in it, not because of some great desire to have more stuff, or to have something to rule over or torment.  Rather, because He is love and desired a relationship with people to whom He might show His love, God created this world to be a home for us and a place in which He could provide for us and demonstrate His love for us in ways we only begin to understand. 

However, because mankind fell into the devil’s trap, sin became our natural condition.  But, God demonstrated His love for us by sending His precious Son to rescue us from the permanent exile in torment that our rebellion against God required.  While mankind always seeks to gain something for itself, God seeks to give.  While sinners often demand vengeful satisfaction for hurts, God seeks to forgive.  While the world looks at everything selfishly, God, who created the world, wants to give us something even more and better than anything we might experience in this life.  Therefore, God the Father sent Jesus to be our Redeemer and Rescuer, and here, Jesus shows us that as those who are led to believe and trust in Him, We are sanctified in God’s name for eternal joy.

Before He was betrayed into death, Jesus prayed what is known as His High Priestly Prayer.  In it, He prayed for the Father’s help in winning our forgiveness and freedom from the devil’s chains, and Jesus prayed for His disciples, and for you and me, and everyone.  Particularly, Jesus prayed for those who follow Him: “Holy Father, protect them by your name, which you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.  While I was with them, I kept those you gave me safe in your name.  I protected them and not one of them was destroyed, except the son of destruction, so that the Scripture might be fulfilled.”

In these few words, we learn that God is holy, that He is perfect in every way and every action.  More than that, we learn that God protects those who are His by putting His name on them.  While Jesus physically walked this earth, He protected His disciples by the power of His Father’s name. 

Dear friends, you may remember that in your catechism class, you learned that God is jealous for His name, and that every part of the Bible is part of God’s holy name.  It is by His Word, His Son Jesus, that the disciples had been safe as they walked with Jesus.  Satan and all his minions and powers couldn’t touch Jesus’ followers while Jesus was among them physically. 

There is one exception.  Judas Iscariot was determined to trade Jesus for a few silver coins.  It is not because he could not be saved that Judas was lost, but rather, that he treasured this world’s things too much to see that Jesus offered something so much better.  Judas wouldn’t believe that Jesus came into the world to give him eternal life in heaven.  Therefore, Judas traded the gift of eternal salvation for 30 coins that ultimately brought him no value but led to the destruction this whole world faces.

Before leaving this world after His suffering and death for our sins, Jesus prayed for those who trusted Him that the Father would protect them from the world’s hatred.  Because of the broken nature sin has put in all people, the natural reaction of the unbelieving world is one of hatred and animosity toward God and therefore hatred for God’s people.  Notice what Jesus says, “But now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so that they may be filled with my joy.  I have given them your word.  The world hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”  In other words, Jesus prays that We be sanctified in God’s name for His eternal joy.

People often wonder why Christians so treasure God’s Word and fight to keep it pure and holy.  The reason is because every word of the Bible is God’s Word given to lead us to Jesus and thus to open the gates of heaven for us.  This Word of truth comes to us through Jesus, both the words He spoke as He walked this earth, and the whole of the Bible given to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.  Jesus gave us this Word from the Father to give us life and to protect that life until our days on earth are ended when we are called home to everlasting joy in heaven.

This morning, we have an excellent opportunity to see God in action.  A little baby is brought to the Lord for reconciliation.  That little boy was born a sinner just like all the rest of us.  Yet, unlike the world which often despises children, God loves children just as much as He loves His own dear Son.  In this, we also see what Jesus was talking about as He prayed, “I am not asking that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the Evil One.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them by the truth.  Your word is truth.”  This morning, with the water and Word of Baptism, God has set Artie apart as one of His own precious children, along with you and me.

Now, Jesus was not abandoning the disciples as He left this world.  Rather, He left them here, with their sins forgiven and paid for, so that God’s Word would be spread to save more and more people for God’s care and everlasting love.  God desires to have His house filled with believing souls upon whom He can pour His great love forevermore.  In order that we might be in the party of believers who enjoy everlasting life in God’s care, our guilt needed to be washed away, and the mark of the beast, which is rebellion against God, needs to be replaced with God’s seal of ownership as He puts His name on us.  He does this through the baptism instituted by Christ as “a washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7)

Jesus prayed to His Father, “I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world, so that they may be filled with my joy.”  Jesus came into the world to take away everything that hindered joy.  All our sins, along with our guilt and shame, were laid upon Jesus.  With His sacrifice on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty of death that God had warned of before man first sinned.  St. Paul explains what Jesus has done for us in Baptism in this way, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” (Romans 6:3-4) 

The thought of being buried with Christ might scare some people, but Jesus didn’t remain in that grave.  He rose from the dead just as He promised, and as we celebrated this past Thursday evening, Jesus ascended to heaven, fully alive, never to die again.  This is the joy that is ours through faith in Jesus, the faith granted to us in baptism and strengthened and grown through the hearing of God’s Word throughout our lives.  Because Jesus lives, we too will live.  Because He reigns in heaven for us, we too will be brought into the mansions of our Heavenly Father to live in the glory that is His.  For little Artie, and for all who walk with Jesus by faith, God has put His name on us as a seal of membership in the Family of God.  Through this faith in Jesus, we have a home in heaven where we will never again experience any suffering, sorrow, tears, pain, or death, but only joy and glory everlasting in God’s loving care.

Dear friends, though our time on earth is limited, Jesus has left us here, for now, so that many more people might learn of Jesus and be brought to the life of glory and freedom from sin that Jesus has won for us.  One of the ways this is accomplished is by bringing our children to the font, wherein God blesses them with purity of conscience and a future that lasts, because in that precious pouring of water and His Word of grace, We are sanctified in God’s name for eternal joy.  Amen.

Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Christ ascended that His body, the Church, would be built up.

 

Sermon for Ascension, May 9, 2024

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.  Amen.

Ephesians 4:7-16  ⁷But to each one of us grace was given, according to the measure of the gift from Christ.  ⁸That is why it says, “When he ascended on high, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to his people.”  ⁹Now what does it mean when it says, “he ascended,” other than that he also had descended to the lower parts, namely, the earth?  ¹⁰He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he would fill all things.  ¹¹He himself gave the apostles, as well as the prophets, as well as the evangelists, as well as the pastors and teachers, ¹²for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ.  ¹³This is to continue until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, resulting in a mature man with a stature reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ.  ¹⁴The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, when people use tricks and invent clever ways to lead us astray.  ¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we would in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.  ¹⁶From him the whole body, being joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows in accordance with Christ’s activity when he measured out each individual part.  He causes the growth of the body so that it builds itself up in love. (EHV)

Christ ascended that His body, the Church, would be built up.

Dear children of the living God,

            “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.” (Luke 2:14)  So sang the angels in the sky after Jesus’ birth, which is quite similar to what they sing around the throne of God with Jesus ascended to heaven, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.” (Revelation 5:12)  These two passages more or less bookend the story of our Lord Jesus.

Sadly, it is not a surprise that many churches won’t celebrate this day, so why do we celebrate Christ’s Ascension?  We celebrate as the ancient church celebrated Jesus’ ascension because it marks Christ’s return to His Father’s side where He is given authority to rule all things in heaven and earth for our everlasting good.  We celebrate because Christ ascended that His body, the Church, would be built up.

At His ascension, we celebrate that Jesus has completed all the work He needed to do as a Man on earth.  “It is finished!” just as He said. (John 19:30)  Every law was fulfilled.  With every prophecy concerning the promised Messiah completed, Jesus had lived in perfect obedience and in perfect harmony with His Father’s will, so that you and I and all people could be counted righteous in God’s sight.  Then, so that no sin could taint our souls before God, and so that the devil could no longer accuse any person of sin before God, Jesus paid the price for us all with His innocent blood shed on a cross, making that cross the altar upon which the Lamb of God, the only Lamb without blemish, gave up His life and His blood so that you and I are now marked as God’s possession no longer subject to the punishments reserved for the devil and his hoard.  All this we celebrate at the Ascension.

The disciples who followed Jesus those last three years of His earthly life, grieved much at the message that He would soon die, and they were terrified when His arrest happened and they saw the devastating, cruel treatment Jesus endured as He gave up His life to save us.  Yet, Jesus had forewarned them about what was to come, and in His forecast, He also promised a great blessing for you and me.  He said, “If I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.  When he comes, he will convict the world about sin, about righteousness, and about judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” (John 16:7-11)

In our text this evening, St. Paul wrote, “When he ascended on high, he took captivity captive and gave gifts to his people.”  Without Christ and all He has done for us, mankind would be captive to the devil’s whims and the curse of sin.  However, Jesus eliminated that disastrous end for all who believe in Him.  The devil couldn’t tempt Jesus to sin.  The grave couldn’t hold Jesus after He laid down His life to pay the debt we each owed for sin.  The victory is complete, but you and I and all people needed to learn of this good news, and we needed to be brought to faith in Jesus to enjoy His victory.  That is why Jesus returned to heaven.  From there, at His Father’s side, Jesus rules all things, and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son to work the transformation of our lives.

Paul confirms that Jesus is the Son of God who came down from heaven to win the victory for us.  He confirms that Jesus has always existed as the Son of God and therefore came down from heaven for the express purpose of winning our release from Satan’s chains.  At the same time, because Jesus is at His Father’s side in heaven, He provides us with the people who will carry out His will to share the Holy Spirit’s work with the world.  First, it was prophets, evangelists, and apostles carrying the message of forgiveness and salvation to a world lost in sin.  Today, it is missionaries, pastors, and teachers who the Holy Spirit empowers and equips to provide us with the message of salvation.

All of this is given and directed from above so that you and I are washed clean of our guilt in Baptism, as we hear the Good News of all Jesus has done on our behalf, and the Holy Spirit works through the message to give us new hearts of flesh in place of the stone-dead hearts of our birth in sin.

In our world today, it certainly isn’t hard to find conflict.  Even within the various branches of the Christian Church, there is far too much disagreement about the doctrines Scripture proclaims.  Needless to say, that is not what the Lord has intended for us.  The Holy Spirit remains at work through the Word to bring those who believe in Jesus into perfect harmony.  That perfect harmony, however, comes not here on earth, but in our eternal home above.  Thus, with that goal, the Spirit continues His work among us, as Paul writes, “for the purpose of training the saints for the work of serving, in order to build up the body of Christ.  This is to continue until we all reach unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God, resulting in a mature man with a stature reaching to the measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

In this world, there is much to trouble us.  There is danger on every side, enemies seeking to harm us both body and soul.  Sin still influences much of what happens in this world, for many still do not believe in the Savior God sent to help us.  You and I would not survive without God’s help, without Jesus’ help, without the Spirit’s help.  However, Jesus ascended to heaven so that we would never be alone in this fight for our lives.  Jesus promised, “I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.  In a little while the world will see me no longer, but you will see me.  Because I live, you also will live.  In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” (John 14:18-20)

In our text, Paul assures us that from heaven, Jesus is carrying out this promise, giving us His Word of grace to sustain, protect, guide, and keep us.  “The goal is that we would no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, when people use tricks and invent clever ways to lead us astray.”  Little children might be easily led astray, both by false promises and with fears, threats, accusations, and deceptions.  But, when the Holy Spirit is working in us, He is building up both our resistance to the devil’s misleading ways, and by Christ’s grace is making us unified in salvation.

Through His chosen speakers on earth, the Lord is at work through the power of His Spirit, so that, “speaking the truth in love, we would in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.”  Again, it all comes back to Jesus.  He is the source of our forgiveness before God, and He is the source of our life. 

In just a little over a week, we will celebrate Pentecost, in which we remember God sending His Spirit upon the disciples after Jesus ascended to heaven.  Without the words of assurance from Jesus Himself, and the Spirit He sends, those early Christians, and you and I, might face the future with great trepidation and fear, always wondering whether we would be preserved through all the troubles, hardships, and slips we endure through our time here on earth.

In Christ’s ascension, though, we are continually reminded that Jesus is at work to save us.  Here, Paul assures us, “From him the whole body, being joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows in accordance with Christ’s activity when he measured out each individual part.  He causes the growth of the body so that it builds itself up in love.”  Through the work of Christ and the activity of the Holy Spirit, we are being joined together as the body of Christ, to be united with our God and Savior in the marriage feast of the Lamb in heaven when He returns in all His glory to judge both the living and the dead. 

Christ has made us a holy, and acceptable people to the God who created the world and everything in it.  By the power of the Holy Spirit working in us, we are prepared to meet our Lord and to dwell with Him forever.  Tonight, we celebrate, because Christ ascended that His body, the Church, would be built up.  God grant that we hear His message, believe what Jesus has done for us, and rejoice in the grace God has showed us so that we will never be parted from Him again.  To God alone the glory.  Amen.

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.  Amen. 

God’s love brings good works and gives life.

 

Sermon for Easter 6, May 5, 2024

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.  Amen.

Acts 9:36-42  ³⁶In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas.  She was always doing good deeds and acts of charity.  ³⁷At that time she became sick and died.  After they had washed her, they laid her in an upstairs room.  ³⁸Since Lydda is near Joppa, when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to him, who urged him, “Come to us without delay!”  ³⁹Peter got up and went with them.  When he arrived, they led him to the room upstairs.  All the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing him the robes and clothing that Dorcas made while she was still with them.  ⁴⁰After Peter sent them all outside, he got down on his knees and prayed.  Then he turned toward the body and said, “Tabitha, get up!”  She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.  ⁴¹He gave her his hand and helped her stand up.  After he called the saints and the widows, he presented her to them alive.  ⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. (EHV)

God’s love brings good works and gives life.

Dear beloved in the Lord,

            There are times when our main reaction to an account like this is to ask, “Why doesn’t the Lord give us this same power to heal?”  At times when we are grieving the loss of someone special to us, it can be hard to feel unselfish.  We want those we love to be with us.  We want those who offer special help or service to us to continue to do so.  Thus, at times like that, it is easy for our selfishness to take control.  We want what we want, and we want God to do our bidding.  Sadly, our selfishness doesn’t solve the problem, nor does it cause God to be generous.

The truth is, though, God is always generous in His mercy to us.  Furthermore, it is God’s mercy in bringing us to faith in His Son as our Savior that motivates good works in those who believe in Him.  Therefore, we must say, and remember always, that God’s love brings good works and gives life.

Now, wanting our loved ones and good neighbors to live doesn’t necessarily indicate selfishness, for Jesus also wants us, and all people, to live and never die.  That’s why He came into this world to live for us and to die in our place to set us free from the curse of sin. 

At the time of the events of our text, those new Christians in Joppa had recently heard of the miraculous healings that apparently had been accomplished through Peter.  Therefore, knowing he was nearby, it is not surprising that they would send for his help at the time of their beloved and dutiful friend’s death.  They appreciated the love she had demonstrated for her neighbors.  They appreciated how she had served unselfishly those in need.  Furthermore, the motivation for her service wasn’t rooted in saving herself, or in trying to seek selfish glory.  Rather, as her neighbors knew, Tabitha was serving those around her as a testimony to her faith in Jesus, who gave Himself to save sinners.

Tabitha’s commitment to doing good works for those in need is explained by St. John in our epistle lesson for the day.  He wrote, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7)  To understand true love means to recognize that love is unselfish service.  Love doesn’t ask, “What’s in it for me?” but asks “What kindness am I able to do to help this person near me?”  We don’t often think of that when we talk about love, but so-called love, if it lacks that unselfish service, is merely affection or lust, at best.

We can honestly say that Tabitha was doing her works, not to seek some kind of reward, but because she loved her Savior, and she was thankful for what He had done for her with His life and death.  She is called a female disciple, not just a believer, but one who was committed to following Jesus and His unselfish ways.  In that, she is a role model for all Christians.  Even more so, she exemplifies how Christians are motivated by God’s love to show love with service to others in need. 

Since we all need to hear the Good News of what Jesus has done to save sinners, it is especially important that we imitate Tabitha’s selfless love for her neighbors as we share the Good News about Jesus with those we know still need to hear it.  It is through our willing service that God does much good even among those who don’t yet believe in Him.  Christians are often referred to as the hands of God for the good works we do for the community, country, and the world.  We are assured, also, that God listens to our prayers in whatever help is needed.  Therefore, your prayers for others in need are also a valuable service, whether your neighbors realize it or not.

Certainly, it is true that God’s love brings good works.  It is also true, and demonstrated in this miracle, that God’s love gives life.  I don’t believe we can say that Tabitha’s service was rewarded when she was returned to life at Peter’s prayer.  Without a doubt, Tabitha’s true reward is found in heaven.  However, God gave life back to her, more so, because her friends and neighbors still needed her, and so that they would be confirmed in their trust in Jesus as their Savior.  Peter never pretended that he had brought her back to life.  He preached Christ Jesus, and Him crucified, as the source of real life, life that doesn’t end.

Perhaps, that is what we best focus on today, that faith in Jesus gives life.  God, in His love for us, gave His Son into death so that we may live and never die.  God brought us into Christian faith so that we may serve our families, friends, neighbors, and even strangers in ways that help them bodily, but especially that call them to hear God’s loving Word and learn of the life that continues long after the body is laid in the grave.

In the early church, after Jesus was crucified but raised to life again, it was important that people experience these miracles to know that Jesus came to give life.  You and I have been given ample eyewitnesses to this truth.  Today, though, we no longer need personal miracles to be saved through faith.  In fact, Jesus assured us of this when He told the doubting Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

Our Gospel lesson this morning also shows us the way of love.  Jesus told His disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you.” (John 15:9)  Though we did nothing to deserve God’s mercy and grace, Jesus came into this world for the very purpose of saving the people who had rebelled against the God who created us and this entire universe.  Jesus lived and died to save those who had been murderers and thieves, cheaters and liars, lazy and selfish.  He gave up His throne in heaven in order to save the rebellious and lost.  Jesus laid down His life to rescue the traitors who turned against God’s love.  You see, Jesus lived and died and rose again, because every one of us needed His selfless love in order that we might enjoy life everlasting.  In other words, “God shows his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Here is a truth that is hard for every self-righteous sinner to grasp; we don’t deserve God’s love.  Because we all have sinned against God, the most anybody could reasonably hope for on his own is to have a big crowd of mourners at his funeral.  On our own, we might make enough friends who would care whether we lived or died, and almost every person who has ever lived had someone who cared about him or her.  Yet, no amount of weeping mourners could give life to the dead body.  Only through faith in Jesus Christ, the very Son of God, who entered our world on a mission to save, is any sinner promised, “Because I live, you also will live.” (John 14:19)

Because Jesus, God’s Son, has already pleased His Father in heaven, in our place, by living a perfectly holy, obedient life to fulfil every law and will of His heavenly Father, the whole world has been forgiven of sin.  Furthermore, because Jesus rose from the dead exactly at the time He foretold He would, you and I have been assured that Jesus is the Son of God and all His promises are true. 

Those who believe in Jesus soon come to desire to live for Him out of thanks for all He did for us.  Now, that doesn’t mean we never sin again, not does it mean we never stumble.  However, Jesus has made us righteous before God, and Jesus promises, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me will live, even if he dies.  And whoever lives and believes in me will never perish.” (John 11:25-26)  Because Jesus rose from the dead, we are assured that our sins are forgiven and that our bodies will also be raised to live forever on this world’s last day.  And because Jesus loved us so well, His Holy Spirit was sent to bring us the Good News of what He has done for us, and it is through that Good News that we were brought to believe in Jesus.  Then, with the Holy Spirit working in us, we too want to live for Jesus.  We want to help our neighbors.  Of course, we don’t always get it right, but Jesus’ love keeps us trying, and it keeps us being counted holy because of what He has done for us. 

Dear friends, even as this world seems to grow increasing selfish and concerned only about earthly things and bodily feelings, and even as the people of this world grow ever more hostile to the God who gave His life in our place, this promise remains ever true, God’s love brings good works and gives life.  God grant that His love always remains active in you.  Amen.

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and in his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and establish you in every good work and word.  Amen.