Sunday, May 19, 2019

Sermon for 5/19/19: Fifth Sunday of Easter

RIGHT-CLICK HERE to download the audio file.


Called, Gathered, Enlightened, Sanctified

ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!


In the waters of Holy Baptism, you receive the Holy Spirit. You should remember from your Catechism that “the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” That is what the Holy Spirit does; it is His work. That is what Jesus tells His disciples. Honestly, though, this is not what usually comes to mind when talk turns to the Holy Spirit. Mention the Holy Spirit, and most think of televangelists, faith healers, speaking in tongues, special knowledge, and those who say, “God spoke to me in my heart.” All of that misses the real work of the Holy Spirit and destroys the Gospel.
Baptism, Absolution, the Word proclaimed and preached, and the Lord’s Supper: these are the Means of Grace, the things through which the Spirit works. Everything else which people claim is the Spirit’s work is a man-made idol. Baptism is where sinners, condemned to death and hell, are buried with Christ into death and raised with Him to walk in new life. It is with water dripping from your head that you received the Holy Spirit with all of His gifts: victory over death and devil, forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, and life in Christ. God makes Christians by water and Word. Faith and life do not come by the ears of God being filled with our words of promise, for those words are worthless and weak. Faith comes when you hear the Word and promise of God, for those words and promises are most certainly true.
You don’t have to be good to go to heaven. In fact, you can’t be good. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus says, “I came to seek and save the lost”— condemned sinners. Through the goodness and mercy of the Father, for sake of His suffering, dying, and rising Son, eternal life is yours as a free gift, delivered into your ears by the preaching and work of the Holy Ghost.
The holy Christian Church on earth is the hearing Church, not the seeing Church. The Word of God is first and foremost preached into the ears, not delivered into the eyes. This is preaching and Absolution. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” When you come to the altar, looking with your eyes, you see only bread and wine. But if you listen with your ears, then you behold Christ´s body and blood for you to eat and to drink for the remission of sins. Witness a Baptism with your eyes, and you see plain water. Listen with your ears, and you hear the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Ghost.
The Church lives by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” We live by faith. So if you wish to see Jesus, then stop relying only on your eyes; put your trust in what your ears hear. Just as the Virgin Mary, the mother of God, received Jesus into her womb by the preaching of the Holy Spirit in her ear, so too our Lord Jesus dwells within you by the work of Holy Spirit, who preaches Christ into your ears.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: You have been declared righteous for the sake of Jesus, who went to the Father through suffering, death, and resurrection. You are righteous because He put your sin to death on the cross. You are righteous because He gave to you His righteousness in the waters of Holy Baptism. You are righteous because He is your Mediator with the Father in heaven, imploring the Father to see in you the perfect righteousness of His Son. You are righteous because the Holy Spirit preaches the righteousness of Christ into your ears and into the very depths of your being, so that you may live eternally. ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

No comments: