1 John 4:1-11 [12-21] (7-11)
[Acts 8:26-40; St. John 15:1-8]
5th Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Sermon
..............................................................................................................
1 John 4:7-11
“God Shines His Love to Others through His Redeemed Saints”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and 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: Well, the time is [almost / finally] here for 28 of
our congregation’s youths “relying on God’s promises given in Holy Baptism,
to make a personal public confession of the faith and a lifelong pledge of
fidelity to Christ.” They will do so in [tomorrow’s / today’s 10:00 a.m.]
[in just a few minutes in this] Divine Service after having been “instructed
in the Christian faith” that has prepared them to appropriately examine
themselves in order to properly partake of Christ’s body and blood in the
Blessed Sacrament of Holy Communion. (Luther’s Small Catechism with
Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis,
MO. Page 245.)
As we approach that important event let’s talk a little about
today’s Epistle Reading. Just as a personal aside, this was the text that
my first preaching professor in my initial seminary sermon class 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 of dominance over 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
you 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 sinful 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,
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 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. For that reason 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 you
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, that “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 relates the truth about God Himself
and serves as the truth against which all other teachings about Him must be
subjected in order to determine whether or not 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 fact
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 massive amounts of people and destroyed
innumerable buildings. But that war and that victory pale in comparison
with the war Jesus fought against … and decisively won over … Satan.
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)
With His atoning death and triumphant resurrection Jesus liberated
you from the stranglehold of Satan, the world, and your sinful flesh.
Through Spirit-given faith in Immanuel, His victory is your victory. You
are free from those vicious enemies and free to thank, praise, serve, and
obey almighty God.
You can now live out that freedom when you love and serve almighty
God by loving and serving one another. You can also live out that freedom
by repenting of past and present sins, receiving God’s merciful and gracious
forgiveness, and replacing your transgressions against God with sanctified
obedience of His holy will. And, you can live out that freedom by daily
recalling with celebration your Baptismal identity as a child of the
heavenly Father, strengthening your 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 your sins, salvation, and eternal life.
So, all you 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 you: “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 that …
“God Shines His Love to Others through His Redeemed Saints.”
May all of you, and especially [this year’s / you] junior confirmands, 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)
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 Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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