Sermon for 7/9/23: Fifth Sunday After Trinity

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Defending Your Hope

I Peter 3:8-15

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

 

Jesus Christ instituted and established the Ministry of the Word when He sent out the apostles as His first pastors. The duties of this Ministry are simple: Christ’s pastors are to preach His Gospel and administer His Sacraments. This is the net that brings people into the church. The pastor must faithfully preach and teach the faith he has received from Christ. This teaching is from heaven. It is from the Holy Spirit. The Gospel and the Sacraments are the means by which the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the Holy Christian Church on earth. The Word does not come from men; it is Christ Himself coming to His people and serving them through His Called pastor.

When you receive the Word of God through faith, you have a hope living within you. It is true that we live with doubts, and sometimes the doubts can cause us real spiritual pain. But the Holy Spirit brings us confidence through the Means of Grace. When you begin to doubt your faith and wonder about your future and even question your salvation, the last thing you should do is to fade away from the Church. Instead you should run to worship every Sunday. The Gospel is not a dead letter or a myth devised in the hearts of men; it is the power of God to save you. God overcomes your doubts and replaces uncertainly with true faith.

The fact that God chooses to live within us in the midst of our sins and doubts shows us how much He loves us. He won’t abandon you in your need. We waver; we wonder; we doubt. But God keeps on coming to us in the Gospel. Baptism keeps on washing us; it remains the washing of rebirth throughout our lives. We aren’t born again only when we are baptized; we are born again daily when we drown all our sins and doubts in the life-giving washing with which the Holy Spirit has washed us.

This is also how you “sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” It may sound strange to sanctify God, as He is already holy. But God teaches you here to confess Him for who and what He is. And before you can confess what you believe to others, you must know yourself what you believe and in whom you trust.

Your faith ought to be the topic of the daily conversations of every Christian. It is not only pastors who ought to be interested in theology. When we talk about what we as Christians believe, we are talking about what’s most important. Are you ready to defend the faith when called upon to do so—even when a gun is pointed at you? Do you know why you believe what you believe? Where does your hope rest? How do you know you are going to heaven? Are you sure? There is nothing wrong with going to your pastor with questions about what the Word teaches. He’s your servant to speak the Word to you. But your pastor cannot believe for you. Faith is always personal, and it rests on the Word, centered around the death and resurrection of Jesus for your forgiveness. It rests on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Everything God teaches you is important. He doesn’t talk to hear His own voice. He wants you to receive His teaching as if you were hungry for it.

When Christians become fat and satisfied in their faith, they begin to lose interest in learning God’s Word. They take the truth for granted and even begin to despise the Word. They want something different, something to tickle their ears, something new and exciting. They tire of repenting of their sins; they tire of crying out to the gracious God who forgives them for the sake of Christ. They tire of the same old Law and Gospel preaching. They tire of the daily contrition and repentance to which God called them in Holy Baptism. There are so many unfaithful preachers today—so many Joel Osteens and Joyce Meyers and Benny Hinns, ELCAs and Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons and Muslims—because we sinners demand them. St. Paul predicted this when he wrote to Timothy, saying, “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will raise up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

In the face of these enemies of the Gospel, God calls on every Christian to defend the faith. It is your duty to ensure your pastor preaches only the pure Word of God, to make sure you and your family hunger and thirst for this Word. God calls on every Christian to defend the hope God has given him. It is our duty to confess Jesus Christ and His holy Word. When we do this, God speaks through us, just as surely as He speaks through pastors. We must speak not in a spirit of arrogance or pride, but in humility and fear. After all, we live by mercy, and it is only by God’s grace that we know the truth.

What is the reason for your hope? You must confess, even in the face of death, that your Savior, Jesus Christ, took away your sin on the cross and gives you eternal life in His Word and gifts. Do you believe that, dear Christian? Then confess it, defend it, and don’t ever back away from it. 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.