SERMON for the 6TH SUNDAY of EASTER: April 27, 2008
"Because I Live, You Also Will Live"
Submitted by,
Rev. Kurt Hering
Trinity, Layton, Utah
"If you are reading this in the paper then I am no longer of this world but
have passed on to the eternal world promised by Jesus. Hopefully, I am
headed up and not down."
How sad! God, our Father, does not want us to have any such doubt about the
eternal world, about Jesus' promise. Our salvation and eternal life with him
are secure and finished - that is what your Baptism means and delivers.
I hope that sometime between the writing of this obituary and his death He
heard the Word of His Savior and yours from our text today, or at least
something like it: "Because I live, you will live also."
Do you see how simple, how direct, how powerful those seven words are? They
are a veritable prescription for life - written by God, filled by His Son,
and delivered by the Holy Spirit!
"Because I live, you will live also."
This is the commandment within the commandments of which Jesus speaks in our
text today. When He talks about keeping His commandments, it is in the sense
of how your doctor tells you to be sure to have your prescription filled and
to take it regularly - as prescribed.
Jesus, the great physician, is wherever His Word of forgiveness of sins is
to give you life: "Because I live, you will live also."
As certainly as Adam and Eve were given life by the very breath of God in
the beginning, so to the very Words of God breathed upon you give you
eternal life. "Because I live, you will live also."
Do you know anybody who thinks like the man who wrote the obituary - that
hopefully (i.e. *maybe*) they will go up instead of down? Then as Peter
tells you in today's Epistle, "be ready to give a defense to everyone who
asks you a reason for the hope that is in you." For just such a person with
just such doubt gives you the perfect opportunity to speak to them about the
Gospel you have received, and continue to receive, here at Trinity Lutheran
Church. Every Sunday here you can count on receiving Christ's prescription
for eternal life - the forgiveness of sins.
"Because I live, you will live also."
You will live!!! Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in the year
2525, forever! You will live is a future tense without end because the one
who says, "Because I live, you will live also," is the "same yesterday,
today and forever!" [Hebrews 13:8]
This prescription for life, a life that begins with Baptism into the name of
the one who gives it for the forgiveness of sins and continues every time
you hear that Word of forgiveness and receive it along with His body and
blood in the Sacrament, and the certainty of its effectiveness is given
throughout Scripture. Hear more from the Word about that, starting with
today's reading from Acts:
"Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that
the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art
and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now
commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on
which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has
ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the
dead." Acts 17:16_31, NKJ
Last week's Gospel:
John 14:2_3 "In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that
where I am, there you may be also. (NKJ)
Perhaps the most beloved and oft quoted verse in Christianity:
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
(NKJ)
The Gospel from Good Shepherd Sunday:
John 10:27_29 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall
anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is
greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand.
(NKJ)
John 11:23_26 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said
to Him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last
day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who
believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and
believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (NKJ)
Eph 2:4_9 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up
together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in
His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest anyone should boast. (NKJ)
Col 2:11_14 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made
without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the
circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were
raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the
dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all
trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was
against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way,
having nailed it to the cross. (NKJ)
Rom 6:5_11 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing
this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has
died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the
dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death
that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He
lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJ)
So dear people of God, do not let your hearts be troubled. You need never
wonder if you are going up or going down. Jesus promise is not lottery or a
game of Deal or No Deal where you don't know the outcome until the case is
opened. It is not a matter of finding out when you get there. It has been
prescribed, pre written in the book of heaven for you. Jesus the very Son of
God, the risen Savior says:
John 14:27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid." (NKJ)
"Because I live, you will live also." For all of your sins are forgiven --
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
___________________________________________________________________________
'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise
noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such
gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_
_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author, as well as
for quoting or use in a congregational setting
_with_or_without_attribution_.
Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list.
Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster.
Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>
For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach
For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at:
Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
