Peace Lutheran Church
Posts Tagged "Sanctification"
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
June 27, 2024
Text: 3rd Article and it’s meaning
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
What does this mean? I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith. In the same way He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. In this Christian church He daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers. On the Last Day He will raise me and all the dead, and give eternal life to me and all believers in Christ.
This is most certainly true.
Outline:
1. We are dead in sin
2. Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments makes us alive again
3. With Holy Spirit in us, we can lead sanctified lives
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Third Article and its meaning.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. If I were dead, could I do anything? No, I could do nothing but lay on the ground. Nothing you could do would make me alive, it would take an act of God. Today we get a chance to discuss how God makes us alive through the Third Person of the Trinty, the Holy Spirit. How can we believe in what Jesus has done for us? How does God make us alive? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. Dead in Sin
So what does the Holy Spirit do? In Lutheran circles we do not talk about the Holy Spirit as much or as glamorous as the Pentecostals or Reformed churches. If you go to one of their churches, it seems as though the Holy Spirit is doing great things, speaking in tongues, prophesying. Here? It does not seem like the Holy Spirit is active, at least not in the same extreme ways. So what does He do? Is He active?
Indeed, the Holy Spirit is active, always though the Word as He has promised to be and do. He has not promised to be in prophecies or tongues. Thus why we do not look for Him there. Rather, we look for Him where He has promised to be where the Word is proclaimed.
So what does the Holy Spirit do? The first thing He does is call. He calls us through the Gospel because we cannot believe by our own reason or strength. Holy Scripture often refers to original sin as being dead in sin. What can dead people do? Nothing, they can lie on the ground. That is all! That is us because of original sin inherited from Adam and Eve at the Fall. We are dead. We can do nothing good. In fact, we choose evil time and time again. Just look at the continued struggle that you have against the Devil, fallen world, and your sinful flesh. You sin greatly and daily in thought, word, and deed. You do not always honor the Word of God. You lie, cheat, steal. How often have you thought badly about those placed in authority over us? You do all of this because you are dead in your sins. There is nothing that you can to save yourself. You could sooner believe that the sky was neon green than you could believe the truth of the Gospel without the Spirit first calling you to faith.
2. Holy Spirit through Word and Sacraments makes us alive again
How are the dead ones to be made living? It is entirely the work of the Holy Spirit. We do not focus much upon the Holy Spirit because He never focuses on Himself. He always points you to Jesus Christ. He points you to what Jesus did for you on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and salvation of your soul. He calls you through the Gospel and creates saving faith in you. “To this he called you through our gospel,” Paul writes, “so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:14; see also 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 4:4; Rev. 22:17). When the Holy Spirit calls, He does so through the Word. God always works through means. In the Word, read, preached, and physically applied in water, bread, and wine, the Holy Spirit creates and sustains faith. He takes your dead bodies and makes them alive by connecting them to Jesus’ death and resurrection from the dead. Even better, He does not leave us alone as individuals. Rather, He gathers us together into the Holy Church, the Body of Christ, that we might support, encourage, and mutually edify each other as we go throughout our earthly lives.
3. With Holy Spirit in us, we can lead sanctified lives
It is within the community of the church that the Holy Spirit acts in the lives of believers. Because He has justified us in Christ, He also sanctifies you. He makes you holy that you can do the good things that God has called you to do. As James writes, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (James 1:27) God doesn’t just demand that you love and show compassion; instead, God creates a heart that loves and shows compassion. God helps you to mature into people who strive to do good in the world. Like a beautiful piece of art designed to bring joy, God turns His people into a masterpiece created to do good in the world (Ephesians 2:10). With the Holy Spirit living within you, you are empowered to do His will. As we state in the Formula of Concord (Th. D., II, para. 66, Triglot, p. 907) “This is to be understood in no other way than that the converted man does good to such an extent and so long as God by His Holy Spirit rules, guides, and leads him, and that as soon as God would withdraw His gracious hand from him, he could not for a moment persevere in obedience to God. But if this were understood thus, that the converted man cooperates with the Holy Ghost in the manner as when two horses together draw a wagon, this could in no way be conceded without prejudice to the divine truth.”
This working of God plays itself out in our everyday lives. We do not grumble over the actions of those in authority over us. Rather we graciously submit to them as to God, calling them to repentance when they err. We forgive when people sin against us, graciously forgiven as we have been forgiven. When others admonish us, we admit our faults and gladly seek to amend them. We put the best construction on everything that we hear concerning others always speaking well of them and putting everything in the best possible light.
Let us rejoice, that God has justified us by the working of His Son, Jesus Christ. He has given us of His Holy Spirit to sanctify us, and graciously keep us in the true faith, until life everlasting.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Feast of the Holy Trinity
May 26, 2024
Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
Outline
A Vast Difference bridged by almighty mercy
1. A vast gulf separates us and God
2. In His Holiness God provides the means of sanctification, Coal/JC! God is almighty in His mercy
3. Whatever God is going to do, be a part of it. Just asks who will go, Isaiah says here am I
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the Old Testament lesson of Isaiah chapter six verses one through eight.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Have you ever looked in a mirror? I am sure you have. You look in a mirror to see yourself. Do you think God looks in a mirror? What does God look like? Does He have a big beard, a big flowing robe? What color is His skin? Isaiah in our text for today saw the glory of God in all of His splendor. Isaiah was scared. He was super afraid because no one can see God and live. Yet, God showed Isaiah grace and mercy. How does God show Isaiah mercy? How does God show us grace and mercy today? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. A vast gulf separates us and God
Isaiah has a vision of the Lord that shakes him to his very core. He “saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Isaiah sees Christ sitting upon the throne, ruling and reigning over everything in all of His splendor and glory as the Almighty King forever and ever. That would be frightening enough, yet Isaih sees even more. “2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.”
Isaiah sees the Seraphim, the burning ones, crying in unending praise to the Lord, proclaiming His eternal holiness. They hide their faces, unworthy of looking at the Lord. They hide their feet, ready at a moment’s notice to do His will, whatever it may be.
What Is Isaiah’s reaction? One of sheer panic and terror because of the vast gulf that separates him from God. In the face of God’s presence, in the midst of His almighty holiness, Isaiah realized he was subject to judgment. He was unclean. When seen next to the purity of God’s holiness, the impurity of human sin is all the more evident. The prophet’s has unclean lips, his attitudes and actions as well as his words, for a person’s words reflect his thinking and relate to his actions. Interestingly Isaiah identified with his people who also were sinful (a people of unclean lips).
Has much changed? We likewise stand in the presence of God ever single Sunday. We are face to face with His holiness. And we? We are anything but holy. As we confess every Sunday, we are sinners in thought, word, and deed. We are deserving of present and everlasting punishment, both now and forever because of our sins. Our sins of anger. Our sins of unclean thoughts. Our sins of words spoken in anger or frustration. Our sins of trying to put ourselves, the world, or our possessions in the place of God. We confess with Isaiah woe is me!
2. In His Holiness God provides the means of sanctification! God is almighty in His mercy
In the midst of Isaiah’s terror. “Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.” One of the Seraphim. Remember, one who is hiding his face from God, so how does he know where he is going? Where exactly is he going to put the coal? Flies towards Isaiah with a burning coal in his hand. Where exactly is he going to put the coal? Isaiah is thinking ‘Okay, this is it. I am a dead man. I have seen the Lord face to face, something even the angels in heaven who serve Him do not do! I am entirely unholy and unworthy. This is how I am going to die. I am going to be burned to a crisp by an angel with a coal.”
7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” Isaiah’s sins atoned for. The live coal symbolizes the total significance of the altar from which it came; that the penalty of sin was paid by a substitute offered in the sinner’s place. The symbol, applied to Isaiah’s lips assures him of personal forgiveness.
In His almighty Holiness, God provides a means of forgiveness, a means of purification for sin and sinners. For Isaiah, it was the burning coal that touched his lips. “See this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for.”
What is our means of forgiveness? For us men and for our salvation, Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, leaves His throne, enters into His creation in order to purify it by the shedding of His own blood. He suffers, bleeds, dies, and rises from the dead so that we might have the forgiveness of every single one of our sins. Like Isaiah, we are deserving of everlasting destruction. Yet what does the almighty God do? He is almighty in showing His great mercy. He gives you His very Word and Holy Spirit who creates faith for you to believe. He gives you here in the bread and wine of the Holy Eucharist. Jesus says This is my body. This is my blood. Given and shed for you. “See this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, your sin atoned for.”
4. Whatever God is going to do, be a part of it. Just asks who will go, Isaiah says here am I
What is our reply to this great mercy of God? We are used by Him as a part of His divine plan to carry His message to the world. Isaiah heard God calling who will go for us? Instantly he replies, Here am I send me. Only later does Isaiah find out exactly what all that calling entails, as well as all of the hardships that go with it.
We do not always know what God has called us to do, nor all of the hardships that wait for us. We know that God is calling us as Christians to do the good works He has prepared beforehand for us to do. Though His Holy Spirit, we reply to the grace and mercy that He has given us through His Son, Jesus Christ, by doing the works He has called and given us to do. We live out our lives helping others, resisting our sinful nature, rejoicing in the wonderous gifts that God has given to us. In joy and thanksgiving for the mercy and grace God has shown to us, we tell everyone that they too do not need to despair over their sins. The almighty God has provided the means of salvation for you, and for them. Salvation given by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for us.
Thanks be to God that He is almighty. That He shows to us unmerited grace and mercy.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Amen.