Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ - January 12, 2025 - The Baptism of Our Lord - Text: Romans 6:1-11

Last Sunday was the end of our Christmas celebration. I hope everyone celebrated up until last Sunday. Last Monday was the day we celebrated the Epiphany of our Lord. The word “epiphany” means appearing. Epiphany is the day we celebrate the appearing of the Savior to the first non-Jews, to the Gentile Magi who had traveled from the east to see the newborn King. We, as Gentile Christians, especially celebrate Epiphany because this day reminds us that Jesus was born, not just for His own people, but for all people, for Jew and Gentile alike.
 

To set the stage for our text for this morning, we want to make note that Paul’s words in our text come after his explanation of justification, that is that we do not justify ourselves, we do not  make ourselves right before God, especially by anything we should think we do, but we are made right before God by grace, through faith. Again, we are made right, we are passively made right, even apart from anything we do. Now we move to our text.
 

Paul’s question is, “Does Grace give license to sin?” We begin at verse one, “1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (v. 1-4). Our human thinking and logic is this, that more sin means more forgiveness means more grace, so in order to help grace abound we should sin more. And I guess, according our human, tainted by sin logic, that would be the logical conclusion. And we might add that this is the way of the law and of law thinking, which, again, is the way we, as sinful human beings, tend to think.
 

The fallacy of our law logic is that we have forgotten the gospel. We have forgotten that faith means one does not want to sin. Perhaps we have forgotten that when we live according to the law the temptation to sin is even greater. We all know how it is, when we are told not to do something the temptation to sin is greatest. “Don’t eat the cookies you will spoil your dinner.” “Oh, I have got to have one of those cookies.” However, to live according to the Gospel frees us from temptation. The Gospel reminds us that we are already forgiven. We are forgiven because Jesus paid the price for our sins, He died for our sins. Because we are forgiven, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will want to not sin.
 

As Paul puts it, death causes one to no longer be susceptible to temptation, in other words, being tied to Jesus’ death means one is no longer susceptible to the stimuli of temptation. Certainly temptations will continue to come, but being reminded that our sin caused Jesus to die, the Holy Spirit stirs in us to resist temptation and sin.
 

But Paul is not finished, he continues, “5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin” (v. 5-7). Paul reminds us of the importance of Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is not simply a ritual. It is not an act of obedience, that would be pointing to us as if it were something we are doing. Holy Baptism is a sacrament, a sacred act, instituted by God and connected with His Word which ties us with Jesus. Paul says we have been united with Jesus. The word united literally means we have been planted with Jesus. When a seed is planted in the ground it dies and then comes to life. Likewise, through Holy Baptism, our old nature is drowned, is killed and we arise as new creatures.
 

In this uniting with Christ, His life is our life. Here we are reminded that this is the fulness of the Gospel, not simply that Jesus died for us, but that He lived for us. God’s demand is that we are perfect and we fail at being perfect. We fail miserably at being perfect, and it is getting worse. You know, I believe one of Satan’s greatest victories today is that our churches are beginning to look like the rest of the world. Instead of the Christian community shaping our society, too often our society is shaping our Christian community. Have you noticed that what was taboo and illegal in our society a few years ago is now legal and even encouraged. The same can be said for what was taboo and prohibited in our churches. Things that would not be thought of years ago as being allowed in church are now hailed as meet, right and salutary, and anyone who opposes such is called intolerant, a bigot and mean spirited. You may recall that this is indeed what happened to Jesus during His earthly life as He called all people to repent. The fact that Jesus’ life becomes our life through our being united with Him in Holy Baptism first and foremost gives us confidence in our forgiveness and salvation and it also gives us courage to stand up and, at least according to our society, be intolerant, bigoted and mean spirited.
 

Not only has Jesus’ life become our life, by faith in Him His death is our death. Remembering the fact that if we are born once (physical birth only) we die twice (physical death and eternal death), but if we are born twice (one’s physical birth and Holy Baptism) we only die once (physical death), we rejoice that Jesus has suffered eternal death and hell for us in our place so that we will only suffer physical death, we will only fall asleep in the Lord. By His death Jesus has paid the price for our sins.
 

And finally, Jesus’ resurrection is our resurrection. Because Jesus rose again we know that death and the grave have no power over us, we know that we too will rise again. Thus, the fulness of the Gospel is that Jesus has taken care of everything for us in His life, death and resurrection and He offers everything free to us.
 

But Paul is still not done. He goes us to remind us that we need not fear. “8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (v. 8-11). We just celebrated Jesus birth. Today we celebrate His baptism and the beginning of His earthly ministry. In a few weeks we will begin the trek to the cross. On the cross Jesus defeated death. Not only did He defeat death, but He rose from the dead.
 

The reason Jesus was born was to give His life as a ransom for all. As our substitute, His death was once and for all, in other words, it never needs repeating. So, because He died, because we are united with Him in His death, we no longer need to fear death. For us, the only death we may face is a falling asleep in faith, a passing on from this world into heaven.
 

Again, Jesus’ defeat of death and our connection to Him means we never need to fear death. By faith in Jesus we are not subject to the second death, eternal death and hell, because that is the death He faced and defeated for us.
 

What does this mean? Paul’s words remind us that Jesus took care of our sin. That Jesus took care of our sin does not give us a license to sin. That Jesus took care of our sin does not gives us a license to emulate the world. Yes, there are a lot of things that are legal in our country today, things that were not legal years ago, and for good reason. Just because something is legal does not mean it is good or not sin. And just because we know we are forgiven does not give us encouragement to go out and sin either. As a matter of fact, the fact that we are forgiven is what gives us the encouragement to not sin.
 

Temptations do abound in our world today. In times of temptation we fall back on our faith in Jesus who helps us especially during times of temptation. As we remember Jesus’ baptism this morning we might also remember that right after His baptism He was lead into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days and yet during those forty days He never sinned. And as He has suffered all the temptations we might suffer and even greater temptations, and never sinned, so we know that He is with us to help us to fight against temptation and sin as well.
 

This morning then, we are reminded that Jesus gives gifts. Jesus gives faith and forgiveness. Jesus gives these gifts through means, namely through the means of grace. He gives faith through His Word, the Bible as well as through Holy Baptism. He gives forgiveness through these means as well and through Holy Absolution and through His Holy Supper.
 

And Jesus gives life and salvation, again, through His means of grace. What a great God we have. What a loving God we have. What a gift giving God we have.
 

Unfortunately the fact remains that we do continue to sin, that is our nature. We sin and then we come up with excuses, or exceptions as to why our sin is valid. Paul’s words to us this morning remind us of the good news, the Gospel, that through our baptism, through faith given to us, we are united with Jesus so that our sins have been taken care of, so that we do not need to be afraid of the consequences of our sins, eternal death and hell, but instead we may be confident that we are forgiven and that we have life, even eternal life. It is this good news, this Gospel that encourages us to live God pleasing lives. And even when we fail, which we do daily, even when we backslide, which we do weekly, there is still forgiveness. As always then, we are pointed to Jesus who does all and gives all. To Him be all the glory. For His names sake. Amen.

Knowing Hope - January 5, 2025 - Second Sunday after Christmas - Text: Ephesians 1:3-14

This morning we continue to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child, God in flesh, Jesus. Our Gospel reading moves us some twelve years from last week when Jesus was presented in the temple to Jesus participating in the Passover with His parents in Jerusalem, perhaps this may even be His own bar-mitzpha wherein He is now considered an adult in the Jewish community.
 

Our text is the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He begins this letter as he begins most of his letters, with words of praise. Paul begins by saying, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” or literally, “‘Good words’ be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God is praised, or using not so good English, He is “good worded” in connection with Jesus. God is praised because Jesus has accomplished His work of salvation and is seated in the heavenly realms. God is praised because He has accomplished what He said He would accomplish. His Word, spoken and written, have been fulfilled in Jesus, God in flesh, who gave His life for all people.
 

Paul continues by telling us that God is praised because He chose us, before creation, to make us holy and blameless. We did not choose God, neither do we choose Him. He chose us. He chose us, not because of anything deserving within us, not because He knew we would do anything to deserve His choosing. He chose us by the death of His Son which He told us would happen.
 

Paul goes on to tell us that in love, that is in agape Christlike love, God adopted us and made us a part of His kingdom. He did this according to His good will and pleasure. It is God’s will that all people come to faith and are saved. And He works out His will according to His plan of salvation.
 

God’s plan of salvation is that according to His grace, His undeserved love, a love that is freely given, He gave us His Son, the Word made flesh to give His life for ours. It is through the death of the One He loves, His only Son, that He works His plan of salvation.
 

Continuing on in our text, Paul says it so well, explaining that the mystery of God is that it is God’s will that all people are saved, however we do know that some people are not saved because they refuse God’s gift of salvation. Even Jesus says that we are to “Struggle to enter in through the narrow door, because many, I say to you, will seek to enter in and they will not be able” (Luke 13:24). One of my commentaries puts it this way, “the struggle through which one enters is repentance,  which is a work of God in the human heart. The struggle is produced when the Word of God . . . calls one to repent and trust in Christ, but sinful human nature wars against God’s Word. The struggle is resolved as the old Adam is put to death by the Law and the person of faith is raised to new life with Christ by the power of the Gospel.” To say that another way, our struggle is that our sinful nature can only refuse and reject the gifts of God, so it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace, the Word of God in particular, that we are given faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
 

Paul goes on to explain, “7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory” (v. 7-14).
 

Paul gives a true definition of grace that is that grace is the free outpouring of Jesus’ blood, not God’s giving us the ability to do anything. Perhaps you have heard me say it this way before that Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Grace is gift. Indeed, to require or to imply that anything is required according to grace means that it is no longer grace. To say one is saved by grace, but all one has to do is, x, y or z, would mean it is no longer grace, but the x, y, or z that would save. Remember, grace plus anything is no longer grace, but the anything. Just as zero plus anything is the anything, so it is with grace. Grace plus works, means works is what saves. Grace plus being good, means being good is what saves. Grace plus accepting Jesus as your Savior, saying the “Believers Prayer”, means that it is the accepting or the saying of a prayer that saves. Grace that is true grace is gift and always and only points to Jesus. Jesus does and we are done to. Jesus gives and we are given to.
 

In His wisdom and understanding, true wisdom and understanding, Godly wisdom and understanding, it is God who has lavished us with His grace. Certainly in our finite human wisdom we cannot fathom nor understand God’s wisdom and understanding. Oh, we might think we are wise and understanding, as we find many in our society who think they are as smart or even smarter than God and can explain this world and its existence outside of and without God, but we know that our own human wisdom is limited and even more is tainted by sin and the curse given in the Garden of Eden. Certainly, God’s foolishness is so much wiser than man’s wisdom just as God’s weakness is so much stronger than man’s strength. We would do well to always remember that when so called brilliant men of science speak and what they say is contradictory to what God has said, we would do well to believe that the brilliant scientist is wrong and has made a mistake and perhaps needs to go back and see a better explanation, and instead we will trust what God says.
 

God reveals the mystery of His love in Jesus, reconciling the broken relationship of Himself to His creation from Genesis. As we have discussed before, for too many in our sin filled world, they cannot understand how a Creator God could love His wayward, sinning creation so much that He would give His all even His life to make it right. Even more, how can a Creator God, knowing that His creation would rebel, even create it in the first place. Yet, God’s love is so great, even beyond our understanding.
 

God’s will is that all people are saved and to that end He sent Jesus and now He sends His Holy Spirit who works through the means of grace to give us faith and to make us a part of His eternal kingdom. God is not slow in His return as some count slowness, but He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, that is how great His love is toward us all.
 

As I read these words from our Epistle lesson today I realized how relevant and how fitting Paul’s words are for us today. And so I come before you to tell you that as Paul prayed for the Ephesians, so I pray the same thing for you.
 

First, I want to remind you that God has chosen you. He has not chosen you because of something you have done, or will do. In the same way He does not disown us because of something we do or do not do. He has chosen you because He has given the life of His Son, whose birth we just celebrated, for you.
 

Next, I want you to know that you are saved by God’s grace alone. Again, this is not something we can accomplish in and of ourselves. This is not something we can earn, deserve or work for. We are saved by God’s grace, by His undeserved love for us. We are saved by the blood of Jesus poured out for us on the cross. But we are not saved for no reason. We are saved and given a purpose, indeed a response of faith. First and foremost we are saved to be loved by God and He does love us and has shown us His love in the giving of His Son. Next we are saved so that we might respond by doing good works. Yes, we are to do good works. We are saved so that the faith which is given to us at our baptism, at our conversion, is reflected in our love for each other, indeed, in our reflecting His love for us to each other.
 

My prayer, then, is that you will continue to make use of the means of grace so that you might be strengthened in your faith. In the same way that you were brought to faith by God’s good Word, I pray that you will continue to use that good Word to be made stronger in your faith. Remember, the mystery of why some are not saved is because they refuse God’s gifts. We refuse God’s gifts by not making use of the gifts that He gives, the gifts of His means of grace, the gifts of His Word and Sacraments. My prayer is that you will make good use of that good Word, written and given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
 

And my prayer for you is that you will have the hope, that is the certainty, of heaven. Too often I hear a person say, “I hope when I die I will go to heaven.” I pray that you can say, “I know that when I die I will go to heaven.” I pray that you will have that certainty because that certainty comes from the good word of the Lord. That certainty comes from knowing the Good Word of Jesus. That certainty comes from faith given by the Holy Spirit and strengthened by Him through His Word and sacraments.
 

I read a shirt once that read, “So many books, so little time.” If you like to read you know how true that is. There is a plethora of reading material available in our country today. Unfortunately, not all of it speaks favorably or even speaks of the most important Word, the good Word, the Word made flesh, the Word given to us to eat and drink at His holy Supper. I will continue to pray for you, that the Lord will continue to give you a real hunger for His Word, that you may be weaned off the milk of the Word and hunger for the meat and potatoes of God’s Word through which the Holy Spirit will strengthen and deepen your faith in the Lord and your love for each other. May it be done to the glory of the Lord. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Hope and Future - December 31, 2024 - New Year’s Eve - Text: Jeremiah 29:11

Every year during the season of Advent we invite the children to come forward during the children’s message and we talk about the Advent wreath. Each Sunday we talk about the different candles and the meaning of each one. This year during the Wednesday services and concluding with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we have been talking about the Advent wreath and what each candle represents especially for the adults of the congregation. This evening we conclude our series and this calendar year by looking to God’s Word of hope for us for our future.
 

If you have ever watched any “end times” movies, apocalyptic movies as they may be called, you may notice that none or at least very, very few if any predict a bright future. Most all depict a rather bleak future, one with a lot of death and destruction. Of course, from our sinful human nature as well as how bad we see that life truly is in this world, that idea might be more fact than fiction. And here I would add, at least for the unbeliever who truly has no hope for any future. But what about for us Christians?
 

It is said that the Old Testament has been given to us in light of the New Testament. In other words, because God knew what He was going to do in the New Testament, He has given us the Old Testament to lead us to the New Testament. Which brings us to the example of Israel, God’s chosen people. Remembering that God lives in the eternal present and that He already knows all, not that He predestines anything, but that since God knows all we see His great love for us in His creating us in the first place. Anyway, in the Garden of Eden we have God’s first promise of hope and future in the promise of a Messiah, a Christ, a Savior.
 

Later in Genesis God makes an unconditional covenant with Abram whose name He changed to Abraham that the Christ would be born through His line of descent. Now remember that Abraham was an idol worshiper when God called him as we are told he had to put away his idols and leave his land. God’s covenant with Abraham was unconditional relating back to His covenant with Adam and Eve that is that God would send a Savior for all people (of all places of all times). Later we have God’s conditional covenant with Moses and the Children of Israel, His chosen people. The conditional covenant with Moses and Israel was that if they obeyed His commands they would retain the land and greatness as His people. So we have the unconditional covenant of eternal salvation as complete gift from God to us. And we have the conditional earthly covenant of an earthly land and kingdom, which as we know, has been lost.
 

Of course, as we have followed their history, they failed time and again. Time and again they would allow the temptations of those around them to lure them into sin, idolatry, adultery, and other great shame and vice. When they would fall away God, in His love would discipline them. He would send armies to overtake them and enslave them. Of course, when disciplined they would remember God and cry out to Him for help and deliverance.
 

And of course, again we know their history, God would hear their cries and He would send someone to save them. And we see that this history continually repeated itself during the years of Israel’s existence as a nation, at least up until the time of Jesus. And we well know what happened at the time of Jesus, whose birth we just celebrated. Too many Israelites were still seeking a social political Savior, a Mosaic Savior instead of an eternal spiritual Savior, an Abrahamic Savior.
 

Yet, we may see in their failure and discipline a vision of our own lives. In our own lives we have God’s call to life at our conception wherein we are given a body and soul and a life in this world. Hopefully soon after birth we have God’s call to faith through His Word and Baptism. At our Baptism God, using the hand of the pastor puts water on us and with the mouth of the pastor speaks His name on us, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At that moment we are given faith, our sins are forgiven, God writes His name on us and He writes our name in the book of life. All is well, at least for a while.
 

As we live our lives, we also live lives of temptation. The devil, the world and our own sinful nature continue to lead us in to sin, despair and other great shame and vice. We sin in thought, word and dead. We sin sins of omission and commission. Indeed, our nature is to sin and we simply cannot help but sin, and yet that is no excuse. Our personal lives very much reflect the lives of the nation of Israel. We constantly fail, we constantly sin, we constantly break the commandments. And we do not even need practice.
 

And the Lord disciplines us, perhaps not in the way in which He disciplined Israel, in other words, He does not necessarily send nations to enslave us, although having said that we may wonder about our own country and just how sinful it has become and at what point God may indeed allow us to lose our freedoms as we see has happened in countries around the world. Yet, God does call us to repentance so that we do come and we confess our sins and God who is faithful and just does forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And yet, just as Israel did, so do we, we go out and sin more.
 

Indeed, our lives are lives reflecting the lives of Israel in our failure, our sin, our repentance, our forgiveness and our failure and sin again. Thanks be to God that He sent Jesus, again, whose birth we just celebrated, to be born into our time in order to bring us forgiveness.
 

God’s love is shown in this that even knowing our nature, sin, God created us anyway. Even knowing that He would have to enter human history as a man, God created us anyway. Even knowing that He would have to suffer the punishment for our sins, the punishment He instituted, the punishment of hell, for us, He created us anyway.
 

And so, as we just celebrated, God sent Jesus, true God to take on human flesh, to be born as a true human. As we confess in our creeds, true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and true man born of the virgin Mary. Jesus came to do for Adam and Eve what they were unable to do, obey one command. Jesus came to do for the nation of Israel what they were unable to do, obey ten commands. Jesus came to do what we are unable to do, live obedient lives. And so He did. The fullness of the Gospel is that Jesus came to live for us. After living the perfect life demanded of us Jesus then took our sins, all our sins, your sins and mine and the sins of all people of all places of all times and He paid the price of hell for us in our place and He died for us.
 

And yet, as we celebrate His birth in the shadow of the cross we know the whole story, He did not stay dead but He rose from the dead defeating sin, death and the devil. And Jesus’ suffering and death earned forgiveness for us and for all people. As we are so often reminded, when we come to the Lord’s Table we eat His body and drink His blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. As we eat His body and drink His blood He becomes a part of us. His life becomes our life. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. And His eternal life in heaven becomes our eternal life in heaven. There is indeed, no greater hope, that is certainty, and future.
 

So, what is our hope and future? What will 2025 bring? Sorry to tell you, but only God knows. Only God knows what will happen and as I say that let me assure you that does not mean that God predetermines nor predestines what will happen. For our part, we may make resolutions of things we might desire to change in our lives. We may make resolutions without God in mind or with God mind. And yet, even though we may make such resolutions, we still continue to be like Israel, not so good at keeping our word. Thanks be to God that His word is certain.
 

On His part, we continually have God’s promise of hope and future. Indeed, for us Christians God has a hope and a future for us, not necessarily in this world, but for eternity. Our ultimate hope and future go back to Eden and to Abraham, that of heaven. And so we live our lives as a response to all that God promises and gives but only with God’s help. As always, not only is our being made just and right in God’s eyes all His work, so our living lives of faith is also according to His work in and through us.
 

So, our encouragement for this coming new year is to continue making regular and diligent use of the means of grace. Be in Divine Service to hear the word, to be reminded of your baptism, to hear the most beautiful words in the world, that your sins are forgiven, the word of Holy absolution, partake of the Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Supper wherein you are as close on this earth as you can be to those dearly departed saints that are family and friends. Our greatest comfort, hope and future do not come from inside of us but outside, from Jesus to us and then we reflect that hope and future to others, with the help and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
 

As we end this year, 2024 and look forward to a new year 2025, although we do not know what is ahead, we have the certainty that God is with us, that He will never leave us nor forsake us, that His plans for us are ultimately to be with us in His home in heaven for eternity. And quite frankly, it does not get any better than that. To God be the glory, for Jesus’s sake. Amen.

Bear, Forgive, Love - First Sunday after Christmas - December 29, 2024 - Text: Colossians 3:12-17

We have seen His star. We have been to the place where He was born. We have seen the baby in the manger. We  have celebrated the birth of our King and our Savior, Jesus Christ. We are four days into our celebration of that first Christmas day and again I would encourage you, do not be like the rest of the world, continue to celebrate. Celebrate for the full twelve days of Christmas. As we continue celebrating Christmas and Jesus’ first coming, at the same time we continue to look forward to our Lord’s second coming when He will come to take us from this vale of tears to be with Himself in heaven to live with Him there forever. We even encourage His coming again as we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” and by saying, “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly!”
 

Until our Lord comes again we will remain here on His earth striving with the help of the Holy Spirit to live lives faithful to His Word. In our text for this morning we read Paul’s words to the Colossians, and his words to us, words of encouragement in living in this world. Beginning at verse twelve Paul says, “12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (v. 12-13). Here Paul is listing some of what we call the fruits of the spirit, that is the results of the faith that has been given to us through the means of grace, by the Holy Spirit. Please notice that the very first thing we hear in these verses is the fact that it is God who has chosen us. From before the creation of the world God chose us to be His people. At our baptism God made us His own. He claimed us, He put His name on us, He clothed us with the righteousness won for us by Jesus on the cross. The very fact that God chose us and made us His own does not negate our response to His great love for us, rather it is His love, His choosing us which moves us to respond with righteous living.
 

It is only because of what God has done for us that we can do the things Paul is encouraging us to do, namely to have compassion, be kind, be humble, be gentle and patient. It is only because God first loved us that we can we bear with each other and forgive as the Lord forgave us. We just celebrated Jesus’ birth. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, yesterday, today and all this week we continue to rejoice as we remember the birth of baby Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, in Bethlehem. As we celebrate His birth with rejoicing we also sadly remind ourselves that the very reason for His birth was to live for us, that is to live the perfect life demanded of us, to take all our sins upon Himself, to suffer and die for our sins so that we might be forgiven. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loves us.
 

We read of this love picking up in verse fourteen where Paul says, “14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (v. 14). The type of love about which Paul is speaking is the kind of love that only God can have for us, that is agape love, a selfless concern for us, so much that He gave His only Son to die for us. As you have heard me describe before, that in the same way that the moon has no light of its own, but only reflects the light of the sun, so too the love our Lord has for us is the type of love we can only reflect because we have no love of our own. As the moon reflects the sun’s light so we reflect the light of Christ, the Son of God.
 

It is this love which brings about perfect unity and Christian fellowship. This perfect love is what the Holy Spirit stirs in us to strive for while we are here on this earth, understanding that we will never completely reach this perfect love until we are in heaven with our Lord. Until we reach perfection in heaven we pray for the help of the Holy Spirit to lead us daily to be more and more Christ-like, more and more loving.
 

In verse fifteen Paul continues in his progression of thought by saying, “15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful” (v. 15).  The peace of Christ of which Paul is speaking is true peace, the true peace which comes only from God.  It is the peace we have at the cost of Jesus on the cross. It is the peace we have from knowing that we are forgiven. You know what I mean, how guilty we feel as we remember our sins.  Our guilt is overwhelming at times. Without forgiveness we would have no peace from our guilt feelings. But because of Jesus’ forgiveness we no longer need to feel guilty and without those feelings of guilt we have true peace.
 

Having true peace leads us to respond by being thankful. We were reminded at Thanksgiving and again today that true thanks comes only by kneeling at Jesus’ feet and confessing Him as the giver of all good gifts and blessings. Unless we acknowledge that Jesus is the giver of all that we have we can never be truly thankful.
 

Picking up at verse sixteen Paul encourages us and gives us hints as to how we are to thankfully respond to all our Lord has done for us. We read, “16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (v. 16-17). We respond by remembering our Baptism, by being in God’s Word, by confessing our sins and hearing His most wonderful words of absolution, “Your sins are forgiven,” and by being given His body and blood to eat and drink in His Holy Supper. Paul tells us to let the Word of Christ live in us. We do this by remembering our Baptism, by taking in God’s Word, that is by reading the Bible, by having personal and family devotions, by attending Divine Service and Bible class and by begin given Christ’s body and blood in Holy Supper. We do this by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, especially in Divine Service and at home devotions.
 

It is God’s word living in us which moves us to live as witnesses of our faith. How do we live as witness of our faith? We have a wonderful example in our children. Wednesday or even Tuesday evening for some, we watched as our children unwrapped their Christmas presents. How they beamed with excitement. How they could not wait to show and tell their friends what they got. They may even have wanted to bring their new toys to church to show their friends. They were bearing witness of their new possessions. What a wonderful example their witness is to us. We have an even more wonderful possession, the gifts of faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. How much more do we beam with excitement and anticipation as we share those gifts, the greatest gifts of life and salvation with others.
 

Today is the first Sunday after Christmas. We have “seen” God’s gift of His Son who’s sole purpose for being born was to die. Week after next we celebrate Epiphany the day the Magi came bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. In nine and a half weeks we will celebrate Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, followed by Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and the Pentecost season. We celebrate and remember these events year after year. We do this because we need the constant reminder, lest we forget, of who we are, whose we are, and what our great God has done for us.
 

We have just read Paul’s words of encouragement for living. God’s Word is filled with words of encouragement for holy living. We remember the words of the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” How unfortunate that so often we hear God’s Word in the negative rather than the positive. God gives us His positive words of encouragement and instead we hear them in the negative as, “if someone does not do wrong to me I will not do wrong to them.” Or we hear them with a condition, that is we think, if someone is nice to me I will be nice back to them. God gives us His word in the positive and with action. We are to actively go out and do good to others, have compassion on others, be kind to others, be humble, be gentile and patient with others. God does not say, “if others are to you,” rather He says, “go and do.”
 

God’s Word tells us that as we are going, as we are living our lives in our various vocations we are to be His witnesses into all the world. We are to be good witnesses, showing the faith that is in us through our thoughts, words and our deeds. When we remember all that our great God has done for us, the sending of His one and only Son, the suffering and death of His Son, His resurrection from the dead, the gifts of forgiveness, deliverance from the guilt as well as the punishment for our sins, the promise of new life here on this earth, and life eternal in heaven. When we remember all these things how can we do anything else but let His gifts overflow in us and pour out to others with a great witness to our great God.
 

But, how are we to do it? In and of ourselves we are not able to bear witness, or do anything else for the Lord. It is only with the help of the Holy Spirit that we can bear witness of our great God in thought, word and deed. We give thanks that the Holy Spirit works God pleasing thoughts in us, that He works good words to others through us and that He works good works through us, not that we deserve any credit but, that the Holy Spirit is praised for all our good works.
 

The title of our message for today is Bear, Forgive, Love. These were the three key words to our text. Because God chose us; because God clothed us in the righteousness which Christ earned for us on the cross; because the Holy Spirit works in us we are able to bear with each other, forgive each other and love each other. And we say, all praise and thanks to you, dear Lord. To You be the glory, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.