He was raised for our Justification.
4620 Cypress Gardens Road
Winter Haven, FL 33884
ph: 863-324-7263
alt: 863-221-8893
cjohnk
Trinity Sunday, June 16, 2019
Romans 8:14-17,
In the name of the Holy Trinity the Holy Spirit moves us to call God, our Father through Jesus Christ,
Dear Fellow-Redeemed:
God makes bold proclamations in the Bible:
I am the Lord Thy God…Thou shalt have no other gods.
And again:
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.
Jesus proclaimed:
This is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ who Thou hast sent. Jn. 14:2
And Jesus commissioned His disciples to tell the world about God as He said. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today we celebrate the Holy Trinity. We celebrate the Only true God. God describes Himself as being Three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that the One True
God call us His children. He loves us and He leads us. We hear:
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. God is our Father.
God created all things. Believe God or believe a scientific theory. God created all people but only those His Spirit calls to faith are His children. God is Father in different ways. Jesus is
His only begotten. No one is like Him. We confess Him saying:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God and light of light, Very God of Very God, begotten, no made, Being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things
were made.
Jesus who is One with the Father, also became One with us. He was conceived and born from the womb of a human being, a virgin. He is the Man who is God. God tells us that His Son has glory equal to Himself. He was not created. He is incomprehen-sible, eternal, and almighty in the same way as God, the Father. He is unique.
We are not only begotten of the Father from eternity. We are creatures. Without God’s support we would not exist. God provides for all creatures even those not lead by His Spirit, even those who stridently deny the Trinity. All are creatures.
Our first parents were not content being children of God. They sought freedom. They wanted to do things their own way. Instead of following God, they desired to become gods unto themselves. This now is the desire of every living human being. We all want to do what we want to do from our birth to old age.
God had to call us back. His Son came to us to seek and to save that which is lost. The Holy Spirit comes to us by Word and Sacrament. By those means alone, God calls us to faith and
created faith in our hearts. Jesus said, John 16:13.
When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you of things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
Those led by the Spirit follow Him to Jesus. Jesus said,
If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed, And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free", and again, "Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth.
The true God emancipates us. He recreates us in His image. He resurrects us giving us new birth. He leads us to the freedom of faith. It is the freedom of eternal life. God gives us this is the freedom by means of His word. And we are His children.
It is difficult for most to understand why God would love us, why God would love sinners. So many think God loves the better folks, those who deserve His love. So many think that God’s children are better than others or ought to be. Some Christians act this way. Those outside the Church call us hypocrites.
We do not always follow the Holy Spirit. We do not always act the way we ought. We act like the sinners we are. But then Jesus died for sinners. We confess our sins. We do not brag about being holy. We repent. Humble believing sinners are God’s children and God is our heavenly Father.
Our Jesus is Savior. His makes sinners acceptable to the Father. He came to take away evil. He came to be punished for the evil we do. He earned the declaration from God that we have been forgiven, that we are not guilty. So God’s children gather here around God's word, not because we are better, but because we need God’s forgiveness. We need God’s constant reminder that He forgives us for Jesus’ sake.
God’s children have full rights as God's Children.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father'.
And after all God has done and continues to do for us, sin-ners still amaze Him. Some deny to His face that He exists. We make jokes about Him as we piously look to the sky and thank Him for fulfilling sinful desires as if God would do such a thing. We curse God in tragedy. Ironically sometimes the most blatant deniers of God, at times of calamity and distress cry out frantically for His help. These are they who have the spirit of
bondage unto slavish fear. They are not children.
God frees us from slavish fear. In Jesus we see God's heart. We no longer fear His anger or the Judgment. Our fear becomes loving respect of our gracious Father.
God’s Spirit has lead us to know and believe our Almighty Creator, the awesome God of the Universe, is our Father. God invites us to call Him Abba, Daddy or papa. To Him we can
always cry for help. He hears us cries as a Father hears a son.
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Think of a bad little boy who angered his father. He looks to dad with frightened, pleading eyes: "Do you still love me, Dad?" We ask: "Are you there for me? Do you still love me, Father?" God always affirms His love. He tells us our very cry to Him confirms that we are His children. That is His Spirit at work.
In the pages of His word, the Spirit confirms His promise. Thousands of passages apply His comfort to us assuring us that
we are always His children. On Abba Father, Dr. Luther said,
"This is but a little word, and yet notwithstanding it comprehendeth all things. The mouth speaketh not, but the affection of the heart speaketh after this manner. Although I be oppressed with anguish and terror on every side, and seem to be forsaken and utterly cast away from Thy presence, yet am I thy child, and thou art my Father for Christ's sake: I am beloved because of the Beloved."
The result of God making us His children by faith in Jesus,
If children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heir with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
It is a great honor. God exalts and glorifies His children with Jesus. As Jesus suffered and died for us to make us worthy of being God's Sons, we suffer. We die. And in the resurrection and by His ascension, He was glorified. With Him we are gloried according to His promise in His cross. This is our glory.
It is no small thing, that which we celebrate. All three persons of the Holy Trinity worked to assure all of us that we are the dearly beloved children of God. The Father waits on our every cry. The Son stands before us with nail-pierced hands. The Holy Spirit leads us, guides us and protects us until the Holy Trinity glorifies us in heaven. We are the children of the Holy God. God's children inherit God's home.
This is the only true God.
AMEN, SOLI DEO GLORIA!
Maundy Thursday, April 18, 2019, W.H.
Matthew 26:26-30,
And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
In the name of the Lord whose angels rejoice with us as we eat and drink at His table,
Dear Fellow Redeemed:
Lutheran people ought to be well versed in the words and meaning of the Sacrament of the Altar. Every confirmed Lutheran memorized not only the words just read, the words we call the words of institution, but also the teaching of Dr. Luther in the Small Catechism. We may not fully grasp the meaning of Jesus’ words but we know them.
Satan regularly tempts us to doubt Jesus’ words and the meaning of His supper but we continue to confess to believe Jesus. We are reminded regularly of what we must believe and do to properly participate in His Holy Supper.
The night Judas betray Jesus, the night He celebrated the Passover for the last time, the night of His last supper, He took
bread and blessed it and gave it to the disciples and said,
“Take, eat, this is My body...Drink from it all of you, For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.”
We do what Jesus did. We take bread and wine. It is real bread and wine. The bread is a wafer. It has no yeast. Israel only ate unleavened bread during the Passover. The Passover also required the ceremonial drinking of four cups of wine passed from person to person as in “Drink ye all of it.”
Jesus transformed the Passover meal into His meal, His Supper. He says the bread we eat and the cup we drink is much more. He called this bread and this wine something very much more. Every time a pastor and congregation repeat His actions, and we hear His words and because they are His words this bread is His body and this wine is His blood given for us for the forgiveness of our sins. He said it and nothing more.
We confess that the bread and wine are not mere symbols of His body and blood as crucifix or a cross is a symbol of Jesus’ suffering. He did not call these earthly elements symbols. He said these elements are His body and His blood. We do not believe bread is changed into the body or the wine is changed into the blood. Bread does not stop being bread. Wine does not stop being wine. He said bread is bread and wine is wine. He also said consecrated bread is His body and consecrated wine is
His blood. Paul calls consecrated elements both in I Cor. 11:
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes. Whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
Everyone who communes at this altar receives not merely bread and wine but also His body and blood. Not just believers receive His body and blood. Jesus did not make the sacrament dependent upon our faith. He did not say, “This is My body, This is My blood because you believe or if you believe. Our faith does not make His body and blood. Bread and wine are His body and blood because He said they are. “This is My Body, My blood.”
Jesus also connects this bread and this wine with the forgive-ness of sins. Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. This brings us to the foot of His cross where God in human flesh took the sins of all sinners. He became sin. He took our blame. The anger God has toward all evil ends at Jesus’ cross. It is as if we are being punished ourselves as Jesus dies.
We are forgiven. In the meal, we eat and drink the very body crucified for us, the very blood for the forgiveness of sins.
In Hebrews we are told not to be content with milk but to grow:
For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For every-one who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
Do not settle for the minimum. Do not remain children in the faith. Grow strong. Eat strong food. In the Sacrament we have strong food. It is strong and healthy food for our faith. It is God’s banquet feast.
This all has been an introduction. We get to the point we do not always remember about the Sacrament. It is a meal, a special meal. It is the greatest meal. We come to this table by God’s invitation. We come to His house to eat His food
Jesus often spoke about meals, banquets. He spoke of a King who invited people to the wedding feast for His Son. Imagine the King’s chagrin when those invited didn’t want to come. They made excuses. They lost out. The King sent His servants to bring others to the feast, as many as they could find.
We are invited guests. Though unworthy, we have the honor of coming to God’s house for dinner. He welcomes us. He serves the food. He is the food. It is food for eternal life.
This feast is desirable because of the promise Jesus connects to it. By eating at God’s house, we give His our guilt and shame. He gives us His holiness and grace. We are free. We are eternal.
This brings us to the last verse of the reading, the verse we most often do not think about. It is full of promise. After Jesus
had given His disciples His body and blood, He said:
But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."
The promise is real. Every time you eat this food and drink this cup, Jesus reminds of you a better feast. Today, He is with us in bread and wine. As we partake of His meal, Jesus promises that we shall eat and drink with Him in heaven. Jesus is talking about certainty, of knowing the future. He wants us to know beyond doubt that we will feast in heaven with Him. This is the promise of communion.
Surrounded by fellow believers, at the banquet table of God, we will eat and drink with Jesus forever. This meal is a pledge of the joyous banquet we will eat with Jesus in heaven. As we eat here, so we shall eat there.
One last thing, we have been talking about the angels for weeks. They are with us in the meal as they will be with us in the heavenly mansions. Here, it is not something we can see. If it were, this church would be a spectacle. Our liturgy reminds us as we sing before we celebrate. As this supper reminds us of our heavenly banquest with Jesus in heaven, it takes us to Isaiah and
the six winged Seraphim who sang “Holy, Holy Holy”. We hear,
“With all the angels and archangels, and all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify His holy name, evermore praising Him and saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy”.
Let this take root. This is our moment of heaven on earth. Jesus is with us. The angels are with us. And we are with God as we shall always be forever and ever. This is what we believe. This is what God says. This is our faith.
Amen. Soli Deo Gloria!
Amen. Soli Gloria Deo!
Copyright 2009 Resurrection Lutheran Church - Winter Haven. All rights reserved.
4620 Cypress Gardens Road
Winter Haven, FL 33884
ph: 863-324-7263
alt: 863-221-8893
cjohnk