Father, Forgive Them March 5, 2025 Ash Wednesday Text: Luke 23:34

This year, during the Wednesdays of Lent we will look at the words Jesus’ spoke from the cross. In the four Gospels we can count seven different times that Jesus spoke. The seven times that Jesus spoke were during His last six hours of life on the cross from nine o’clock in the morning, when He was nailed to the cross, until about three o’clock in the afternoon, when He died.
 

The very first words we have recorded of Jesus speaking from the cross are the words, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” So, we begin with the words, “Father, forgive them.” Jesus first words are not words for Himself, but words for us and His words of plea for us are directed to His Father, and our Father, in heaven. Jesus prays as our intercessor. He prays for us because the very reason He is dying on the cross is because of our sin which has separated us from the Father in heaven. There is only one thing which will undo what was done in the Garden of Eden and which is done by us on a daily basis, that one thing is forgiveness. The only way to get that forgiveness is through the shedding of blood, the giving of life. Remember in the Garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve that they were not to eat of the fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that they eat of it, they will surely die. And God was not speaking of only a physical death, nor of an immediate physical death. He was speaking of an eternal life in hell death. He was speaking of hell.
 

And remember, the price for human sin is human death. Although God established the ceremonial law of the sacrificial system in the Mosaic law, all those animal sacrifices did not suffice for the forgiveness of human sin. The price for human sins was and is human life, thus, we understand that Jesus had to be truly human in order to be our substitute. But, not only was He our substitute on the cross, but also for our whole life. The perfect, obedient life demanded of us Jesus came to live for us in our place as our substitute. Indeed, the fullness of the Gospel is the fact that Jesus lived for us, then took our sins, suffered the price for our sins, hell, died and rose for us.
 

As we are so often reminded, God created us to love us and so the very first thing we see is that Jesus first thoughts on the cross are for us. It was for us that He gave up all the glory that was His as true God in heaven. It was for us that He took on human flesh and blood, being born as a human, being born as one of His own creation. It was for us that He lived perfectly, obeying all the Laws perfectly. It was for us that He took our sins upon Himself. It was for us that He came to give His life, so that we might have forgiveness of sins; so that our relationship with the Father might be restored, so that we might have life, yes, physical life, but even more importantly, so that we might have eternal life, life in heaven.
 

And so Jesus words are words asking for forgiveness. Jesus does not ask that our sins be excused. He does not ask that they be overlooked. He asks that they be forgiven, paid for, dismissed, and remitted. Of course, we know that Jesus, and really only Jesus can make this request because He is the One paying the very price for our sins, giving His life on the cross. Note also, that Jesus’ life was not taken from Him, but He gladly laid down His life and gave His life.
 

Jesus asks that we be forgiven, “for they do not know what they are doing.” Jesus is not making any excuses for us, He is merely explaining our sinful human nature. We act, not knowing what we do. We merely go along with the crowd. Notice the soldiers. They acted in ignorance. They did not know who Jesus was. They did not know that they were putting to death the Son of God. They were merely following orders.
 

Notice the followers of Jesus. They acted in ignorance. Some of the same people who one week earlier were standing on the road waiving Palm branches and shouting, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest,” were the same ones who shouted, “crucify Him.” They did not know what they were doing, they were merely going along with the crowd.
 

Notice Jesus’ disciples. Even they acted in ignorance. They all talked a good talk. Remember Peter, “even if everyone else deserts you, I will not,” and he went on to deny that he even knew Jesus and he denied it three times. Remember all the disciples discussing who would be first in the kingdom of heaven and they all ran off and left Jesus to fend for Himself. And whenever Jesus talked about His impending death, they wanted to hear nothing of the sort. After all, what kind of Savior would He be if He died. It was not until after the resurrection that they began to understand God’s plan of salvation.
 

Look in the mirror and we see ourselves. Yes, Jesus is looking through time and He is seeing us and He is speaking about us. We do not know what we are doing. Daily we sin much and are in need of forgiveness. Daily and deliberately we break the commandments. We simply cannot help ourselves. We are conceived and born in sin. Every intention of our hearts is evil all the time. Our nature is simply to sin and we do it well without any practice.
 

Jesus came, not just for the people of His day, not just for the people from the beginning of time until His time. Jesus came to give His life for all people of all places of all times. He came for you and for me. He came because we act in ignorance, daily, resisting and refusing God’s gifts. Yes, we have His Word. We know what is right and wrong, yet, we continue to do the wrong. We just cannot seem to help ourselves.
 

Lent is a time to be mindful of our sins. Jesus’ first words on the cross are a huge reminder that it was for us, for you and for me that He came to die. It was our sins that put Him on the cross. It was our sins that deserved death.
 

Jesus died because of and for me. He died because of my sins. Because I daily sin much and am in need of forgiveness, because I sin in ignorance, which is no excuse. Because I sin without even realizing that I sin. Sure, I know some of the sins that I commit, but I sin, more often than I know or realize because I do not know or recognize that what I am doing is sinning.
 

Jesus came to live and to die so that we might have forgiveness, so that we might have absolution. Again, ignorance is not an excuse for sin and absolution is not a licence to sin, rather, forgiveness and absolution attest to the fact that the sin was paid for by Jesus’ death on the cross. Jesus shed His blood, He gave His life so that we might be forgiven.
 

Jesus’ death brings absolution for the world. Jesus died for all people of all place of all times. “Father forgive them,” means all those who have a part in Jesus’ death. We all have a part in Jesus’ death because we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
 

But even more important to you and me than the fact that Jesus died for all people is the personal fact that Jesus died for you and me. Jesus’ death brings absolution for you and for me. The sin which separated us from the Father has been removed. We can now be confident that even though we sin, mostly in ignorance, because we do not know what we are doing, our sins are forgiven.
 

Today is the beginning of Lent. What better words could we have from the Lord than these, that we begin with words of forgiveness. That we begin with words of Gospel. That we begin with words that remind us that it was because of God’s great love for us, a love that cannot be understood according to human terms, but a love that can come only from God, a love that brings Jesus’ death, the shedding of His blood for us, the giving of His life so that we might have forgiveness and life. Jesus prays for us, “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

We Are His House - March 2, 2025 -b The Transfiguration of our Lord/Last Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: Hebrews 3:1-6

Peter, James and John were privy to witness something the rest of the Apostles did not get to witness, at least not while on earth. Peter, James and John witnessed Jesus in all His glory and Peter’s response was, “Let’s build three houses.” Of course, we are let in on the fact that Peter did not know what he was saying and we might notice that James and John said nothing. And we know Peter, he says it like it is, no thinking, simply blurting out what is on his mind. Peter’s instinct was that this experience was, and if you will pardon the pun, a great mountain top experience and as is the case with most such experiences, we do not want them to end so we want to find a way to keep them going. Peter’s thought, “Let’s build three houses,” so this experience will not have to end. So, this morning, we will focus our attention on looking at the building of at least one house. In order to build a house that will last, the first thing that must be built is the foundation.
 

In our other readings for this morning we get our foundation. In the Old Testament reading we have the account of the death of Moses. Moses was a faithful leader in Israel. He did not choose his lot to be such a leader and as we know of his life, his history, he was rather a reluctant leader making excuses and asking the Lord to send someone else.
 

In our Gospel reading we have the account of the transfiguration of Jesus, the account of what marks our celebration of this day, this Sunday, Transfiguration Sunday. It must have been some sight to see, the transfiguration of Jesus, or as the Greek word literally says, the metamorphosis of Jesus. Jesus was morphed, that is He was changed so that the Apostles saw Him in His heavenly glory. Why this change? So that He might be able to consult with those who were already in their heavenly glory, Moses and Elijah, the great leader and law giver, and the great prophet of Israel.
 

In our text for this morning, we have words from the writer who, later in chapter eleven, recounts for us the great men of faith and in this text he gives us, what amounts to, a comparison of two great men of faith, Moses and Jesus. As for this man, Moses, he was a great man, especially by human standards we would say he was a great man. He was raised by the daughter of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Certainly he attended the best of schools, had the best teachers, and gained knowledge concerning everything that was known in his day. Later he continued his education while caring for sheep in the wilderness, giving him knowledge concerning life outside the protective confines of the kings castle.
 

More important than his education, was the fact that he was faithful. He was a faithful servant of the Lord. As we said earlier, he was reluctant, but he did lead and he did lead as the Lord commanded him to lead. Even while facing the adversity of the people he was leading he remained faithful to the Lord and to His leading. As a matter of fact, his faithfulness was seen in the glow of his face from his communing with the Lord.
 

And in essence, in one sense we might say that Moses “built” the children of Israel. They were slaves. They were in bondage. They were not wilderness nomads, but shepherds. They were not soldiers and fighting men, but workers. As Moses lead them out of bondage of slavery they had to learn how to live in the wilderness as well as how to be soldiers. Moses lead them, taught them, and even ruled them as prophet, priest and judge.
 

And finally, Moses brought them to the border of the promised land. But, of course you may remember, because of his own frailty and sin, because of his own doubt and disobedience, because he hit the rock instead of speaking to it, Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, but he did bring the people to the point of entering into their promised possession. This Moses, is certainly a great man and a great leader.
 

Yet, the writer of Hebrews tells us that there is one greater than Moses and of course we would agree, that the one greater than Moses is Jesus. Moses was a great man, Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is the one who hears and answers our confession, giving us forgiveness of sins.
 

Moses was faithful, reluctant, yet faithful. Jesus was faithful. He was not reluctant, but of His own will gave up the glory that was His in heaven in order to be born a man, in order to be our Savior. He actively obeyed all God’s laws perfectly. He actively fulfilled all God’s prophecies perfectly. He was faithful even to the point of death, death on a cross. He passively allowed Himself to be crucified and nailed to the cross. He came, freely. He lived perfectly. He freely obeyed all God’s laws. He freely fulfilled all God’s promises concerning Himself. He freely took our sins upon Himself. He freely was obedient, even obedient to death on a cross.
 

Thus, Jesus “built” the true “Israel.” To be a part of Israel is not something that one gains through a birth line, it is not a physical right or entitlement, it is not automatic, rather it is a gift that is given through faith and through faith in Jesus Christ alone. A true “Israelite” is not one by birth, but a true “Israelite” is one who has faith in Jesus alone. All believers, that is all who are members of the Holy Christian Church are true “Israelites.” You and I, those who have faith in Jesus Christ alone are true Israel.
 

Most of all, we see Jesus as greater than Moses, because, although Moses brought the Children of Israel out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt, Christ brings us out of our bondage of slavery to sin and ultimately He brings us to heaven, the greater promised land.
 

What does this mean? Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Today is the day we see Jesus in His heavenly glory while here on earth. We have been following along with Jesus’ life. We witnessed His birth, lowly, humbly, born in the small town of Bethlehem and placed in a manger. We witnessed the announcement to the shepherds as well as their visit to see the baby Jesus. We witnessed as the Magi from the East, led by God by the star, traveled many miles in order to be the first Gentiles to witness and worship the Christ Child, God in flesh, God incarnate, God in flesh made manifest. We witnessed Jesus’ presentation in the temple and we heard Simeon’s words professing that this was the Messiah who was promised of old. We witnessed Jesus’ baptism and heard the voice of God the Father pronouncing Jesus as His Son. We witnessed Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness and saw how He never gave in to Satan’s temptations and never sinned. And today we bear witness of the beginning of the end, at least the beginning of the end of Jesus’ earthly life. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent. When Jesus comes down from the mountain He is ready to go to Jerusalem one last time, in order to be crucified.
 

The writer of Hebrews presents us with Jesus who is greater, even than Moses. The writer writes concerning the fact that the one who builds the house is greater than the house itself. As we have said, Moses helped to build the Children of Israel, but Jesus is the ultimate builder. Moses helped to build a people who, unfortunately, as we have been studying in Bible Class, time and again broke their covenant with the Lord, and even gave up their covenant. Their ultimate giving up of the covenant is seen in their rejection of Jesus.
 

Jesus came to fulfill all the law and the prophets. And He did fulfill all the law and the prophets perfectly. At His transfiguration we have Moses, the giver of the Law and Elijah, the great and even the greatest prophet in Israel come down from heaven in order to make sure Jesus had accomplished and was accomplishing all that He came to accomplish. In essence, Jesus came to do what all the people of Israel could not do and to do what we cannot do. God’s command to Adam and Eve was to obey Him and not eat of the forbidden fruit, yet they failed, they disobeyed and ate. God’s covenant with the Children of Israel was that He would be their God and they would be His people. They were simply to believe in Him and obey His commands, yet they failed. Time and again they failed and ultimately at their rejection of Jesus they failed. God’s command to us is that we are to be perfect even as He is perfect, yet, time and again we fail. Daily we sin much and are in need of forgiveness. Daily we sin, not against just one commandment, but two, three and sometimes even all ten. As we confess, we sin in thought, word and deed. We sin sins of omission, not doing as we ought and sins of commission doing the things we should not. Indeed, our greatest need is not the physical comforts of this world, as God provides all that we truly need. No, our greatest need is forgiveness of sins. Without forgiveness we would be left in our sins and eternally lost and condemned, but with forgiveness is life and salvation. Not only does Jesus take care of all our physical, bodily needs, He has taken care of our greatest need, forgiveness of sins. And that is what He came to do and what He did.
 

Thanks be to God that Jesus has not, does not and never will fail. The very foundation of the Christians Church, the New Israel, if you will, is Jesus Christ Himself. As Peter confessed and as Jesus acknowledged His confession, Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and on this confession, on Jesus Christ Himself God builds His Church. The covenant, first given in the Garden of Eden, first given even before there was a Jew and a Gentile, the first covenant given to all people continues even today. The covenant reiterated to the Children of Israel was broken, not by God, but the Israelites, meaning they gave up having a part in His covenant, at least the earthly part, the Mosaic Covenant. The covenant that was first given and continues today continues to be a covenant of grace. Jesus makes us a part of His kingdom by grace, through faith. Jesus is the foundation of the House of the Holy Christian Church. Jesus is the one who has accomplished everything that needed to be accomplished. And He gives everything to us. Yes, the children of Israel were a great people, but the people of God, the people of Christ Jesus are even greater as He is the foundation, the chief cornerstone, and the Builder.
 

This morning we come and once again we witness something great. Truly we witness the greatest thing we can witness here on this earth. Every Sunday morning we are privileged to come and bear witness, not only of our Lord, through the witness of His Word and Sacraments, but we are also privileged to bear witness of our forgiveness and our salvation. Our reaction, each and every Sunday morning, might rightly mirror that of the Psalmist who spoke well when he said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’” (Ps. 122:1). Or our reaction might mirror Peter’s reaction in our text, “Let’s build three houses,” “let’s not leave this place,” “Don’t make me go home.” My prayer for us all is that as the Lord has His way with us, our desire might be even more the desire of Peter, the desire to continue to be given the gifts the Lord has to give. To Him be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Christ Has Been Raised - February 16, 2025 - Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 15:(1-11) 12-20

Today is the Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany. Next Sunday will be the seventh and last Sunday after the Epiphany. The following Sunday is the Sunday of Transfiguration which is followed by Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, and I would add an, “Already!” So now you might be asking, “If we have not yet gotten to Lent why do we have an Easter text for this Sunday?” Three possible answers are; 1) because every Sunday is an Easter Sunday; 2) because the resurrection is the climax of Epiphany; 3) and because we want to prepare ourselves for the Lenten season by moving our focus to the death and resurrection of Jesus. Our Epistle lesson for today also helps us focus our attention on one essential difference between the Christian church and all other religions. We in the Christian Church worship a risen, living God. All other religions worship some dead person or some dead person’s ideologies. Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us to show us that we do worship a risen, living Lord. Paul’s method of argument is what we would call an argument from negative consequences. In other words, Paul argues, “look what sad shape we would be in if Jesus’ resurrection were not a fact, as it is.”
 

As we begin looking at this text we can see that Paul has some opposition in the church, or in the community surrounding the church at Corinth. Evidently there were some people, philosophers, maybe even those we call Gnostics, who were proclaiming that there is no resurrection. Certainly we understand that Paul is writing to us today, because we still have those in our world who deny the resurrection of Christ. Some even denying the very existence and life of Christ. As we read and hear Paul’s words to us this morning we understand that not only is Paul writing to settle the problem and to show the Christians at Corinth that Jesus did rise from the dead, his words have great meaning and value to us as we too might set out to “prove” Christ’s resurrection in our world today.
 

As Paul begins his argument, notice that he keeps himself out of the argument. He simply points to Christ and His Word. These are not Paul’s words. Paul does not speak for himself he is merely passing on what he first received from the Lord. Thus, these are the Lord’s Words. It is like Paul telling them, if you have an argument, take it up with the Lord. Likewise, this is how the pastor should preach every Sunday, not his words, but the words of the Lord. If you have an argument, do not take it up with the pastor, take it up with the Lord, because they are His Words which are simply delivered by the pastor. Of course, this does not negate our being as the Bereans, checking out what the pastor says to make sure that what he says is from the Lord.
 

So, we get to Paul’s argument. And again, as we mentioned, he argues from the negative. He begins by saying, “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised” (v.16). Simple enough, if this is true, that the dead are not raised,  then the opposite cannot be true, that the dead are raised. Paul asserts, however that the opposite is true, that is that the dead are raised, because Christ has been raised and there have been eyewitness accounts of Christ’s resurrection. This fact that the dead are raised means that it is not true, that the dead are not raised. Even Paul himself witnessed Christ raised from the dead on the way to Damascus. So, we know that it is not true, that is that if the dead are not raised then not even Christ as been raised, because we know that it is true that Christ has been raise so then the dead are raised. Bottom line, the dead are raised, which means there is a resurrection of the dead.
 

Paul’s second negative argument states that, “if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (v.17). How well we know of the importance of forgiveness. Without forgiveness we do not have life, eternal life or salvation. Without forgiveness our faith would be futile, we would have no hope. The negative consequence, if Christ has not risen from the dead, that would mean hell for us all. However, and thanks be to God, we know that we are not still in our sins. We have Jesus’ words as He spoke to many people when He said, “Your sins are forgiven.” So, if our sins are forgiven, then Christ has been raised from the dead.
 

Paul continues his negative argument stating that, “Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (v.18). If Christ had not been raised from the dead, not only would we have no hope for ourselves for life and eternal life, there would be no hope for those of our loved ones who have already died. Paul calls them the ones who have fallen asleep. Even if they “fell asleep,” that is even if they died with faith, they would still be lost, and Paul adds the big “if”, “if Christ has not been raised.” How would you be able to face anyone who has had a loved one fall asleep, that is die? If there were no hope of a resurrection, death would be the final victory. Yes, we know that Jesus told the thief on the cross, “This day you will be with me in paradise.” The thief died and is in heaven, with Jesus, so Jesus must have been raised. And those who have already fallen asleep, those who have already died must also be in heaven. Now that is hope, or as we stated a couple weeks ago, as Christians that is a certainty.
 

Finally, Paul’s last negative argument is that, “If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied” (v.19). How true! If we are hoping for eternal life, life after death; if we are putting all our hope in Jesus’ resurrection for this eternal life; and if Jesus really did not rise from the dead and if there really is no eternal life, then our hope is hopeless, our hope is useless, we are to be pitied. Another way of saying this is: If the commercial is true, “you only go around once in life, so you have to grab for all the gusto,” then why should we waste our time in reading the Bible, going to church, attending divine service, praying, praising Him and the like? If this life in this world is all we have, if this life is all that we are going to have, then we should be spending our time making a name for ourselves and leaving our mark. And unfortunately, this attitude is the attitude of much of our society. Too often our own actions show that we put more hope and trust in our lives in this world than we do in our eternal life. We spend more time busying ourselves with the things of this world and trying to convince ourselves and others that this is what we should be doing, rather than spend our time getting ourselves ready for our real life, our lives in heaven.
 

Our text has one last verse. And by the time we get to the last verse of our text I think we are ready to say, “thank God.” Paul moves from his negative arguments to stating emphatically, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (v.20). Paul’s words are words of reassurance that Christ has been raised. He does not state it here, but we can read through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and we can read through the first part of Acts where we have testimony after testimony, eyewitness account after eyewitness account of those who saw Jesus risen from the dead.
 

And we know that, because Christ has been raised from the dead this fact means that we too will rise again. Christ is the “first fruits” of those who have fallen asleep, who have died. Christ is the first one who was raised from the dead, showing His total defeat of sin, death and the devil. Through our Baptism or conversion we have a part of Christ’ resurrection. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. He rose, we too will rise.
 

Thus, we consider ourselves not to be pitied. For us there is hope, not the “iffy,” “maybe” hope of this world, but the sure and certain confident hope of faith in Christ. We know that Christ was raised from the dead. We believe the eyewitness accounts. We trust God and His Word as He told us that this resurrection would happen. We believe Jesus as He speaks to us through His Word and as He comes to us through His means of grace.
 

I said it as I began this morning, but I believe it bears repeating. We, Christians, members of the Christian Church, the Christian religion, if you will, are different from all other religions in the world. All other religions worship either an idol, a dead person, or the ideologies of a dead person. Even the humanists of our own society here in America tells us that we should worship what amounts to ourselves. Which means we become our own gods, goddesses, or idols. We are told to look inside ourselves, to look deep down inside ourselves to find the answers to life’s questions, to find the comfort, hope or joy we might gain from this life. Self worship amounts to worshiping a dead god as well because we are living in bodies that are set to die while still on this earth. On the other hand, as Christians, we worship a living God. We worship a God who gave up the glory that was His as God, took on human flesh and blood, became one of His own creation, lived the perfect life demanded of His Father, took all our sins, our disobedience, suffered and died for us in the most cruel of deaths, death on a cross, and rose again.
 

Paul’s words in our text encourage us to believe the testimonies that we read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. As we read these testimonies we have faith in the facts of the resurrection.
 

The facts of the resurrection give us faith in our forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ death earned forgiveness for us on the cross. With forgiveness we have hope in and the certainty of our eternal salvation.
 

Because of what Christ has done for us, living the perfect life demanded of us for us in our place, taking our sins and paying the price for our sins, for us, giving His life for ours, because of the forgiveness we have, because of the assurance of heaven that is our, and because the Holy Spirit works in and through us, we then reflect that love for others as we share the good news of salvation with others, through our thoughts, our words and our actions.
 

How fitting it is that we have a resurrection text as our text for this morning. Yes, we did just celebrate the birth of our Savior, Christ the Lord, but we are reminded that He was born to die. In just two weeks we will celebrate Transfiguration Sunday after which we will begin tracing Jesus’ last days of ministry to and through Jerusalem, following with Him to the cross and the grave before we celebrate what has been our text for today, His resurrection. May the Lord give us the strength that we need as well as the understanding and eyes that see as we live our lives to His glory. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Excel in Building up - February 9, 2025 - Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20

This week we continue in our reading of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. Last week we learned about love in particular we learned about agape love that is about a love that is a self-less concern for another person, a love so great that one would lay down their life for another person. And what we learned about this type of love is that it is a God-like love, and truly a love that only God can have for us. Agape love is that love with which only the God-man Jesus can love. Paul reminded us that there is no greater love than this agape love our Lord has for us, so much that He gave His life for ours on the cross. This week Paul reminds us that it is this love that the Lord has for us which we dimly and imperfectly reflect to others. In our reflecting the Lord’s love to one another, we build up the body of Christ, which is the church. Paul continues telling us about spiritual gifts, in particular those gifts which God gives to us at our Baptism or conversion. Those gifts which we are to use for the edification, the building up of the church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. Those gifts which are to be used for extending God’s kingdom, sharing His Word with others, especially those in our own neighborhood, and thus, those gifts which we use to give glory to our Lord.
 

I want to begin this morning by answering the question, “what are spiritual gifts?” True spiritual gifts come with two criteria; they are those gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit and those gifts that are given only to Christians. In several of his letters Paul lists some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I say some, because Paul never intends to give a complete listing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul never intends to give a complete list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, because you cannot give a complete list of the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives gifts even some for which we are unable to name. He gives all the gifts that He has to give and He gives a whole lot more. That is just the way it is with God and the gifts He has to give. Remember, God does not do fractions. He does not gives us some of His gifts now and tell us He will give us some of His gifts later. God always gives us the whole lot of His gifts now and a whole lot more later. Thus, in his letters to the Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians Paul outlines some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, you have heard some of these mentioned and the fact that each list does not list the exact same gifts of any of the other lists is another reminder that Paul is not trying to make an exhaustive list of such gifts. Some of the gifts Paul mentions are: the gifts of prophecy, pastoring, teaching, wisdom, knowledge, exhortation, discernment, giving, helping, mercy, missionary, evangelism, hospitality, faith, leadership, administration, miracles, healing, speaking in tongues, interpretation, apostleship, celibacy, intercession, martyrdom, and serving, just to name a few.
 

The Holy Spirit gives Spiritual gifts only to Christians. These gifts are not to be confused with talents that people have, although they may be similar. People, Christians and non-Christians alike have many talents, such as arts and crafts, music and acting, sports and recreation, and the like. I guess we could put it in simplistic terms and say that the difference between talents and spiritual gifts is that spiritual gifts have more of a spiritual nature to them. Or better said, spiritual gifts are those gifts the Lord gives for the sake of His people, that is so that we might be strengthened in our faith and so that the Lord’s kingdom may be extended, that is so that we might share the good news of salvation with others so they too might be a part of God’s kingdom, so that He may be given praise and glory.
 

Spiritual gifts are given by the Holy Spirit at our Baptism or conversion and are given for the purpose of edifying the Church, that is, the Body of Christ. If what a person is doing is not edifying the church then they are either not using their spiritual gift, or they are misusing their spiritual gift. Evidently this was at least a part of the problem in the church at Corinth, people were misusing their spiritual gifts. They were using their spiritual gifts as a way of “one-up-man-ship” with others. “I am better than you because I have this spiritual gift.” Much like people continue to do in the Christian church still today. “If you do not have a certain spiritual gift, or show that you have a spiritual gift, then you are not saved,” is what we are told. Paul would tell us that this is not how we build up the body of Christ and so instead of using our gift to edify the church we would be using our gift to tear down.
 

We are given spiritual gifts so that we might use them to bringing glory to the Lord. If we are using our spiritual gifts for any other reason, such as for self glory, then we are not using them to the glory of the Lord and instead we are misusing them. And we are sinning. If we are not using our spiritual gift in service to the Lord in this place then we are sinning sins of omission.
 

Getting to the practical part of spiritual gifts, how do we know what is our spiritual gift and how do we know how to use it? Your spiritual gift is something you like to do and is something you find “easy” to do. It is something that you do for the building up of the body of Christ, the church. It is something you do to the glory of the Lord. There are a “ton” of books available about spiritual gifts. I would not recommend any. Instead I would recommend reading through Paul’s letters to the Romans, the Corinthians and the Ephesians. Read through the lists of Spiritual gifts that Paul gives and then experiment. Try doing some of the things that are mentioned. Your spiritual gift or gifts are those things that “come easy,” are enjoyable, and are done for the edification of the body of Christ and to the glory of the Lord. But remember, as I have spoken about before, you may never know what your individual spiritual gifts is and that is okay. The important thing is not that you can identify by name your own personal spiritual gifts, but rather that you use your gifts for the purpose of encouraging and building up the body of Christ, to extend His kingdom, and to give praise and glory to His Holy Name.
 

I said it earlier, but I do need to say it again, God gives us spiritual gifts to use. If we do not us the gifts that God gives to us, then we are sinning, we are sinning by refusing the gift that He has given to us. Likewise, if we misuse our spiritual gifts, using them to tear down, rather than build up the body of Christ, or using them for self glory, rather than using them to the glory of the Lord, we are also sinning.
 

We will want to exercise caution when exploring our spiritual gifts. I know I have talked about this issue before, but it has been some time ago. There are those who would encourage us to identify what gifts we have so that we can use them for service in God’s Kingdom, unfortunately this identification may also lead us to think that if we have not identified ourselves with any one particular spiritual gift then we have an excuse to not serve the Lord in other ways. In other words, if we were to identify our own personal spiritual gift, we might end up thinking, “well, I would like to help on this particular board or committee, but my spiritual gift lies in another area, so I cannot serve.” And that would not be using the gifts God has to give, but would indeed be refusing the gifts. And also remember, not using God’s gifts is gift refusal and is sin.
 

As I was looking at this text and working on this sermon I got to this point and I had to ask the question that I hope you are asking, “where is the cross?” My first answer is rather simplistic, but it works. It is the cross on which Christ died that He earned our greatest spiritual gift, forgiveness of sins. Without the cross there would be no forgiveness, there would be no life, there would be no eternal life, and there would certainly be no spiritual gifts. None would be needed.
 

As I have done so at times in the past, so I continue to remind you that the main work of the Holy Spirit is to point us to the cross and to point us to Jesus. He points us to the cross through the means of grace, the Word, the Bible, Holy Absolution, and the Sacraments, Holy Baptism and His Holy Supper. If we absent ourselves from these means, we no longer see the cross. Without the cross there is no forgiveness and where there is no forgiveness there is no salvation. The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus and the cross through the means of grace, and as He works faith and strengthening of faith in our hearts, as He fills us with spiritual gifts. He gives us the gifts which we need to point still others to Jesus and the cross.
 

That brings us back to the point I mentioned earlier, if we do not use our gifts, then we are sinning, because to not use our gifts is to refuse the gift. And gift refusal means no gift.
 

We would do well to heed Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians. In order to heed Paul’s exhortation we will first, be mindful of the fact that God promises and does give us spiritual gifts and we are to use our spiritual gifts. Again, I would suggest making use of your Bible rather than some other book on Spiritual Gifts. Read through, especially, Paul’s letters to the Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians. Try out some of the things mentioned. Your gift is that thing in which you find joy, peace, comfort in doing, and rewarding.
 

Second, we will use our gift for edifying the Church. If we are using our gifts to make ourselves look like someone we are not, if we are using our spiritual gift to put down someone in order to raise up ourselves, then we are not using it to edify the Church. We are using our spiritual gift properly when we are using it for the building up of the body of Christ.
 

Third, we will use our gift to the glory of the Lord. Similarly to what I just said, if we are using our gift for self-glorification instead of for giving glory to the Lord, then we are misusing our gift and we are sinning. Using our spiritual gifts to the glory of the Lord means that we use our gifts as we are motivated by the Lord, as He moves us to use our gifts and then as we use them to His glory.
 

This morning we are reminded that God gives. God gives us life at our conception, new life at our Baptism, forgiveness of sins and eternal life. God also gives us spiritual gifts to be His people in this place. That does not mean that we are perfect, by no means, because we still carry around our sinful nature. It is a struggle for us in life to use our gifts for the edification of the Church and to the glory of the Lord. My prayer for you is that as you continue to be in the Word, that you will continue to remember your Baptism, hear those most precious words of Absolution, that is that your sins are forgiven, and partake of the Lord’s body and blood in His Holy Supper, the places where our Lord comes to us to give us the gifts He has to give. And my prayer is that He will continue to work in you to use your gifts, the gifts He gives to you, for the building up of the body of Christ and to the praise and glory of the Lord. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The Greatest Is Love - February 2, 2025 - Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany - Text: 1 Corinthians 12:31b - 13:13

Love is a many splendid thing. Love is that real good feeling you get inside. Love is never having to say “I’m sorry.” Love is a verb. Love is . . . and you fill in the blank. There are many clichés about love and we could spend some time going through all the clichés and telling what is right and not so right about each one. I think the Greeks were on to something when they decided that there was more to love than what one word could explain, so they have several words for our one word love. Maybe you have heard some of these words, maybe not. One word for love is, phila. Phila is a word which means brotherly love. We get the word, Philadelphia from this word, which means, “city of brotherly love.” Another word for love is the word, eros. Eros is more of a physical attraction and physical love. We get the word, erotic from this word. This word has to do with physical attraction. And the word with which we are probably most familiar is the word, agape, which means a selfless concern for another person, a love so deep that you would give you life for that person. Unfortunately, I do not know of any word in the English language that contains this word. Evidently and unfortunately we do not talk about this type of love very often. In our text for today the word which is translated love is this word agape.
 

We begin looking at our text for this morning by looking at the end of our text. Our text ends by saying “so now faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (v. 13). This verse begs three questions, What is faith? What is hope? What is love? First, what is faith? It has been said that faith is based on the things of the past. This definition makes sense because we have faith in something we know is a fact or because we have seen it in the past. As Christians, we have faith in Jesus because the Holy Spirit, working through the Holy Scriptures shows us that He is the promised Messiah. This faith is supported by the events of the past, the facts as laid out in the Bible, by Jesus birth, life, suffering, death and resurrection which happened in the past.
 

Faith is also a gift. Faith is given to us. For most of us our faith was given to us at our Baptism. At our Baptism the Holy Spirit put faith in our hearts. It is this faith which grasps all the other gifts and blessings which are given to us through Holy Baptism. Yet, we understand that it is not faith that saves us, but it is the object of our faith that saves. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ and His life, death, and resurrection. Faith is like the hand that reaches out and grasps the gifts which God has to give. God gives us the hand. He gives us the ability to use the hand. He gives us the object that He puts in our hand. Notice the focus is all on God who does all and gives all. So we see that faith is important, but even more important is the object of faith.
 

What is hope? It has been said that hope is based on the future. We look forward to something and we hope that it will happen. We hope that we will be able to move into our new house. We hope it will rain or we hope it will be clear weather. We hope we will pass a test. We hope we can afford payments on a new car. We hope we will have a healthy baby or healthy children. We hope for many things.
 

There is a distinction, however, between the hope of this world and the hope of the Bible, the hope we have as Christians. The hope of this world is an uncertainty, just as predicting the weather is an uncertainty. The hope of this world is an iffy, maybe hope. As Christians we have the hope of forgiveness of sins and eternal life. But our hope is not a maybe hope, as is the hope of this world. Our hope as Christians, the hope of the Bible, is a certainty, a reality, even a truth. As Christians, we know we have forgiveness. We know we have life. We know we have eternal life. These things are ours now. As for eternal life, as for heaven, certainly we will not move in until our time on this earth is complete, until we pass away, or until our Lord returns, which may be in the late or even near future, but it is ours as a possession now.
 

What is love? Love is said to be based on the present. As I said earlier, the word that is translated love in our text is this word agape. Agape is a Christ-like love, a selfless concern for another person. A love which moves one to put another’s wants, needs and desires before their own. A love for someone, so much, that a person would lay down their life for another.
 

Agape love is the very fact that God created the world. Even in His divine foreknowledge; even knowing what would happen; even knowing that His creatures would mess up His creation; even knowing that Adam and Eve would sin; even knowing that He would have to take care of their sin and our sin; even knowing that He would have to die on the cross; knowing all that would happen before it happened; God still created the world, that is truly agape love.
 

Agape love is the fact that God promised to send a Savior. He did not have to send a Savior, or promise such, He could have simply decided to do away with all He created, but that is not what He did. After His creation messed up His perfect world, God showed His great love, His agape love by immediately stepping in and promising to take care of the sin of Adam and Eve who ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. God came to them in the Garden and confronted them with their sin. As a part of His confrontation He promised to send them a Savior, Christ the Lord.
 

And so, agape love is seen in God, taking on human flesh, being born a man, to give His life for ours on the cross. Love is God restoring the relationship that was broken between He and His creation. Love is not that we loved God, but that He first loved us and gave His life for us. While we were still in our sins, striving, struggling against God, actually being His enemies and being hostile against Him, Jesus gave His life for ours.
 

And love is Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to bring us to faith, to strengthen us in our faith, and to keep us in faith. We do not choose Jesus, He chose us, past tense, even before the foundations of the world were laid, He chose us. Love is the fact that God created us and that He gives us life at our conception. Love is that fact that God gives us new life through faith, given through His Word and through Holy Baptism. Love is that God continues to strengthen us in the faith He gives us through our remembering our Baptism, through our hearing His words of Holy Absolution, through our reading and hearing His Word, and through our eating and drinking His body and blood in His Holy Supper.
 

Our Lord loves us so much that He gives us life at our conception. He gives us new life at our Baptism. He gives us forgiveness of sins. He gives us eternal life, earned by Jesus giving His life for ours on the cross.
 

This week, instead of asking, “what does this mean?” of this text, I think we would ask the question, “how do we ‘use’ this text in our daily lives? We could use this text as a litmus test for love. Of course we need to be mindful of the fact that if we did attempt use this text as a litmus test of love it would show us that we fail miserably. We fail miserably because we cannot love others as God loves us. It is humanly impossible to love as God loves. It took the God-man Jesus to love in such a way and only Jesus can love in such a way.
 

Which means that this text shows us that we cannot love as God does. God loves us with a pure love, a perfect love. We love from motives that are not always or necessarily Godly or God-like. We love conditionally, or temporarily. We are better at phila and eros love. God loves perfectly, unconditionally, and eternally. God and only God loves with agape love.
 

This text shows us that Jesus is our example, but He is more than just an example. If we put Jesus up as just an example and were told that we had to be like Him in order to be saved that would lead us to despair, because we cannot be like Him. Or it would lead us to works righteousness thinking that we could actually be like Him, which we know is impossible. Jesus is our example, yes, but He is so much more. He is also the fulfillment of His example. He loved us as our text says, because we are unable to. He loved us and gave His life for us. He is the Author and Perfector of our faith. He loves first.
 

Jesus is our example. He fulfilled His example and now He works His love in and through us by the power of the Holy Spirit working through the means of grace. We have used this example before and we will continue to do so because it is such an appropriate example. We are like the moon. We have no light of our own and to use the words of our text, we have no love of our own. We merely reflect the light, the love, which is shined on us from the Son, the Son of God who shows us what perfect love is in the giving of His life for ours. Finally, Jesus moves us to our ultimate goal, to love to the glory of the Lord. Of course, we realize that is perfection and we will not fully reach that goal until we reach eternity.
 

Love is . . . Love is a part of our whole being, physical, spiritual, emotional. Love is a part of our present which is motivated by our faith in the past and our hope, our certainty for the future. Love is this, that God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life. Love is basking in the forgiveness won for us and given to us by Jesus. Love is our response of faith, even rejoicing and saying, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

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.