“God Shines His Love to Others through His Redeemed Saints”
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
In the name of the Father and of the risen X Son and of the Holy
Spirit. [Amen.]
Dear fellow redeemed saints, grace, mercy, and peace from God the
Father and the resurrected Christ Jesus our Lord [Amen.]
“Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine!
Never was love, dear King, Never was grief like Thine.
This is my friend, In whose sweet praise
I all my days Could gladly spend!”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
430:7)
Epistle
Reading............................................................... 1
John 4:1-11 [12-21] (esp. 7-11)
7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves
has been born of God and knows God. 8Anyone who does not love does not know
God, because God is love. 9In this the love of God was made manifest among
us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through
him. 10In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11Beloved, if God so
loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Prologue: A little historical background following the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead reveals the following: “Heathen people
who observed the brotherly love of Christians toward one another marveled at
what they saw and cried out: ‘Behold, how they love one another!’ The
renowned Roman lawyer Marcus Minucius Felix, who lived in the second
century, became a true Christian, and he testified of the early Christians:
‘They loved one another, even before knowing one another (personally).’ Of
course, many heathen people remained what they were and scoffed at
Christianity. For example, Lucian, who also lived in the second century,
and sneeringly wrote of them: ‘Their Master (Jesus Christ) has made them
believe that they are all brethren.’” (Encyclopedia of Sermon Illustrations
compiled by David F. Burgess. Copyright © 1988 Concordia Publishing House,
St. Louis, MO. Page 28.)
Now, before I get too far into this sermon, I have a small
personal aside. Today’s Gospel Reading was the text that my first preaching
professor in my first seminary sermon class over 40 years ago used to
introduce the basic elements of sermon preparation. The Reverend Doctor
Henry Eggold, whom we reverently, respectfully, and lovingly referred to as
“Papa Bear” because of his evident love for us and large physical size,
patiently coached us in identifying a basic theme and supporting parts of
the text to transform it into a sermon. But above all and in other pastoral
theology classes as well he constantly reminded and encouraged us to “preach
the Gospel.” Of course, he wasn’t telling us to ignore or eliminate God’s
Law but to give the Gospel its rightful position above the Law thereby
reflecting Saint Paul’s instruction to the Romans that the Gospel (the good
news about Jesus) “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes.” (Rom 1:16 ESV)
That good news is none other than the gracious fact that God loves
us with an undeserved love that’s never-ending, self-denying, and
self-sacrificial. It’s a love that Jesus clarified when He said: “God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have eternal life.” And He further explained that
“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order
that the world might be saved through him.” (St John 3:16-17 ESV) A line in
today’s Introit said it this way: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow
to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Ps 145:8 ESV)
This sin-stained world seems to be spiraling deeper and deeper
into the pit of disobedient rebellion. That’s evidenced by efforts to
approve what God condemns such as homosexual activity, same-sex so-called
marriage, living and sexing together outside the formal marital
relationship, efforts by biological males and females to change the
appearance of their bodies into the opposite gender through various means
including surgery that’s ultimately mutilation, indifferent attitude toward
faithful participation in public worship, an ever-increasing mind-set of
entitlement, damaging and destructive rioting in the streets of our cities,
and the list that’s shaped by transgressing God’s Ten Commandments could go
on and on without end. Of course, the concept of individualism (“It’s all
about me, me, me!”) stands behind those and all other sins. Our first
mother, Eve, demonstrated that when she followed Satan’s temptation to grab
and eat the forbidden fruit instead of obeying God’s command to leave it
alone … and successfully lured Adam into doing so as well. In an effort to
combat such sins and all others as well, we prayed in today’s Collect:
“Grant that we may love what You have commanded and desire what You promise,
that among the many changes of this world our hearts may be fixed where true
joys are found.”
So it is that God’s love is for everyone and His will is for us
who already know His love to freely and generously share His love with
others. In other words, …
“God Shines His Love to Others through His Redeemed Saints.”
Today’s First Reading gave a good example of that. It told about when
Philip evangelized the Ethiopian eunuch by explaining to him the meaning of
Isaiah chapter 53, verses 7-8, namely, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and
beginning with this Scripture he told [the Ethiopian eunuch] the good news
about Jesus.” (Acts 8:35 ESV) Undoubtedly Philip told him that …
I. The Truth about God Was Revealed in the Person and
Work of Jesus Christ. (1-3)
1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether
they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3and every spirit that does not
confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which
you heard was coming and now is in the world already.
The Apostles’ Creed’s Second Article “speaks about Jesus
Christ—His person and His work.” It tells what Holy Scripture reveals,
namely: “Jesus Christ is ‘true God, begotten of the Father from eternity,
and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary.’” In addition, the work of
Jesus Christ was that of a Prophet, meaning that He “preached personally
during His life on earth, validating His word with miracles, especially His
own resurrection;” a Priest, meaning that He “fulfilled the Law perfectly in
our stead (active obedience) [and] sacrificed Himself for our sins (passive
obedience);” and a King, meaning that He “1. rules with His almighty power
over all creation …; 2. governs and protects especially His church …; [and]
3. finally leads His church to glory in heaven … .” (Luther’s Small
Catechism with Explanation. Pages 120f. & 127-130.)
That truth about Jesus Christ reveals and relates the truth about
God Himself and serves as the truth by which all other teachings about Him
must be tested in order to determine whether they are true or false.
Whatever accurately agrees with that truth is dependable and reliable.
Whatever does not agree with that truth is, well, uncertain and unreliable.
Regarding that truth, today’s Introit stated: “All your works shall give
thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! My mouth will
speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever
and ever.” (Ps 145:10, 21 ESV) Of course, that truth also includes the
truth that …
II. Believers in Jesus Have Victory over Satan. (4-6)
4Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in
you is greater than he who is in the world. 5They are from the world;
therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 6We are
from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not
listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
World War II came to an abrupt close when the atomic bombing of
two cities in Japan killed innumerable amounts of people and destroyed
massive amounts of buildings. But that war and that victory pale in
comparison with the war Jesus fought against … and decisively won over …
Satan and his evil comrades.
The Easter Gradual that began on Easter Sunday and will continue
through the 7th Sunday of Easter declares: “Christ has risen from the dead.
[God the Father] has crowned him with glory and honor, He has given him
dominion over the works of his hands; he has put all things under his feet.”
(adapt. from Matt 28:7; Heb 2:7; Ps 8:6 ESV) That war that Jesus fought
with His and our archenemy, the devil, was waged throughout His incarnate
life on earth and especially during Holy Week, on Good Friday, and during
His time in the grave. But with our Savior’s resurrection from the dead on
the third day, “The strife is o’er, the battle done; Now is the victor’s
triumph won; Now be the song of praise begun. Alleluia!” (Lutheran Service
Book. 464:1) That is, Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed!
Alleluia!
With His atoning death Jesus liberated us from the stranglehold of
Satan, the world, and our sinful flesh. And with His triumphant
resurrection Jesus confirmed all He had done as being good, right, and
salutary. Through Spirit-given faith in Immanuel, His victory is our
victory. We are free from those vicious enemies and free to thank, praise,
serve, and obey almighty God.
We can now live out that freedom by loving and serving almighty
God through loving and serving one another. We can also live out that
freedom by repenting of past and present sins, receiving God’s merciful and
gracious forgiveness, and replacing those sins against God with sanctified
obedience of His holy will. And, we can live out that freedom by daily
recalling with celebration our Baptismal identity as children of the
heavenly Father, strengthening our trust in Jesus by reading and hearing God’s
Holy Word, basking in His Holy Absolution spoken by His servant-pastors, and
properly partaking of Christ’s body and blood that are really present in the
bread and wine of Holy Communion for the certain assurance of forgiveness of
our sins, salvation, and eternal life.
So, all of us who “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Rom 10:9 ESV) are
His redeemed saints … branches of the vine that is Christ, the Son of the
living God. What Jesus spoke to His disciples in today’s Gospel Reading
applies also to us: “Already you are clean because of the word that I have
spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide
in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be
my disciples.” (St John 15:3-5, 8 ESV)
All of that is to simply say in summary: …
“God Shines His Love to Others through His Redeemed Saints.”
May all of us, and especially Ian Jolley, who is [our / St. Peter’s ] newest
confirmed/communicant member, be magnifying glasses through which God shines
His love to others, knowing and believing that …
I. The Truth about God Was Revealed in the Person and Work of Jesus
Christ. (1-3)
and joyfully celebrating that …
II. Believers in Jesus Have Victory over Satan. (4-6)
Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X risen Son and of the Holy
Spirit. [Amen.]
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