Peace Lutheran Church
2025 Sermons
Posts Tagged "Easter"
Third Sunday of Easter
April 30, 2025
Text: Acts 9:1-22
(1) Resistless conviction that “Jesus whom he persecuted,” now speaking to him, was “Christ the Lord.” (See on Ga 1:15, 16). (2) As a consequence of this, that not only all his religious views, but his whole religious character, had been an entire mistake; that he was up to that moment fundamentally and wholly wrong. (3) That though his whole future was now a blank, he had absolute confidence in Him who had so tenderly arrested him in his blind career, and was ready both to take in all His teaching and to carry out all His directions. (For more, see on Ac 9:9).
Blind rage to Physical Blindness to Physical/Spiritual Light
Outline
1. Saul blinded by rage
i. We blinded by our sins
2. Saul literally blinded by our Lord
i. TBTG that He does not literally blind us!
3. Why? Turn into His instrument
i. Made us His people in Baptism, strengthens through HC, that we can be His people.
Sermon
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen indeed! Alleluia!
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 First Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, chapter nine verses one through twenty-two.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you like the sun? The sun can be really bright sometimes. Many times, it can be so bright that it hurts our eyes as well as our bodies. Some people have even died because they were out in the sun too much. In our lesson for today, we hear of Saul, you would know him better as Saint Paul, He was blinded by our Lord. Why was Saul blinded? How does Jesus use Saul as well as us 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. Saul blinded by rage
In 1976 Bruce Springsteen recorded a famous song on his album, Greetings from Asbury Park. That song, Blinded by the Light. In our text, Saul is blinded by more than just the light. He is blinded by pure intense and zealous rage. He has taken his intense zeal for the law of God as taught by the Pharisees and turned it against those people who call themselves Christians. He is constantly threatening punishment, even death, for them. Saul’s fury was no passing outburst but enduring. Like other indulged passions, it grew with exercise and had come to be as his very life-breath, and now planned, not only imprisonment, but death, for the heretics. Saul goes to the High Priest and asks him for letters, “that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ” Bound for trial to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem all the way from Damascus, around 150 miles away, far outside of the Sanhedrin’s jurisdiction and authority to possibly face the same trial and death as our Lord.
I pray that none of us have been as blood thirsty as Saul was. Yet, Saul’s zeal goes to show just how far our sinful nature will go in the pursuit of something that it deems as good. How many of us have put time, effort, and energy into a wide variety of activities, only to find all of that effort simply tossed aside when something else comes by? We are enticed into thinking we need better cars, better electronics, better. We put all of our effort, all of our resources into getting bigger and better things. How has that worked out? We think that we are doing good by doing this, but it is vain and gets us nowhere. A chasing after the wind.
Sometimes, like Saul, we fool ourselves sometimes into thinking that we are doing what God really wants us to do. Saul thought that he was doing God’s work by persecuting those who believed differently than himself. Many Christians fall into this very same trap of pride and sin when they think of themselves as better than those around them. When someone comes into church wearing tattered jeans, a bright pink mohawk, and covered in tattoos, how would we treat them? I pray that we would treat them kindly and welcome them with open arms. Yet, many people would have the same reaction as Paul, ‘Really Lord, they are so different! Why are they here? Why are they wearing that? Do they not have anything better to wear?’ It even happens on a daily basis. We are blinded by zeal then we think that we know better than our teachers and do not do our homework. When we mistreat friends and loved ones because they did something that we did not agree with. We puff up our pride and think ‘Certainly, I would have done things a whole lot differently. I would not have made the same serious mistake as them.’ Yet God was about to take Saul’s misplaced zeal and put it towards the use of His kingdom.
2. Saul literally blinded by our Lord
It took an act of God to convert Saul. On that road to Damascus, the Lord Jesus appears to Saul. He reveals that in persecuting the Christians, Saul is persecuting the Lord Himself! “I, I am Jesus, whom thou, yea, thou art persecuting!” That charge, that accusation of persecuting is thus driven into the soul of Saul to the hilt. Here was the revelation, not only of Jesus, who with one stroke swept away all the lies Saul had believed about him as a mere man, etc., but also the revelation of what Saul was engaged in: persecuting this glorified Jesus in his disciples: “I—thou!” Saul is literally blinded by the light of our Lord. He is led into Damascus and there eats or drinks nothing for three days. His physical blindness personifies how blind Saul’s heart really is inside. For all of His supposes good works, for all of his zeal, His fearful sin lay heavily upon him, and the Lord permitted it to crush him for three days. Shut off from the world, blind, abstaining from food, with no one to help his soul’s distress, his proud self-righteousness was conquered, and there remained only a sinner in the dust who ever after felt himself chief of all sinners.
Thanks be to God that He does not likewise cause us physical blindness because of our sins. Though we would well deserve it, God in mercy does not do it. Though like Saul, our sins should weigh just as heavy upon us. We should be crushed, our souls in pure distress, when we consider our sins against God. All those times when we have misplaced our own zeal. Gone after the things and pleasures of this world, rather than focusing on the things that God would have us do. It should crush us into the dust.
3. Why? Turn into His instrument
Why does the Lord so crush Saul as well as us? That we may put our zeal to the best use as His chosen instruments. As the Lord tells Ananias when he complains about going to Saul. But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Ananias goes and Saul is healed. Something like scales fall from his eyes. He is baptized and then refreshes himself with food and drink. Saul does not delay in doing the work that God has given him to do. He stays a few days with the disciples in Damascus then immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God. Saul’s unique purpose is that he was chosen by God to carry His name before Gentiles and kings. Saul was the one who would spread the Gospel to those who had never heard it before. In order to do this, he was blessed with a unique zeal. The same zeal and passion that had once been used to persecute Christianity God now uses it for His glory, to preach and proclaim the Gospel to people far and near.
We likewise are God’s instruments. God has chosen us solely by His grace, the same as He did Saul. God has called us through the waters of Holy Baptism. He has cleansed us with water and the Word. God places His name upon us and calls us His dear and beloved children. He takes great sinners, cleanses us, and give us the great task of proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God to the world.
To this end, God has made all of us unique. He has given us a wide variety of gifts. Whether it be that you are good at speaking, good at playing a musical instrument, good with accounting and numbers, good at curing the human body of illnesses and sicknesses. Every single one of us is unique and special in our vocations, the roles that we currently are in in life. If you are a student, then you have the work and purpose of studying and getting good grades, of witnessing your faithfulness by obeying your teachers and others in authority. If you are a parent, you have the work of raising your children in a Christian way, and helping them to grow in the Christian faith. If you have a spouse, you have the work of caring for one another, of loving and treating each other in a kind Christian way, of modeling for others what a marriage founded upon Christ looks like. As Christians, all of us have the duty and purpose of spreading the Gospel to others, in whatever shape that takes in our daily lives.
Conclusion: Thanks be to God that He uses one as zealous as Saul, not for persecuting His church, but for strengthening it and growing His kingdom. Help us, likewise, dear Heavenly Father, that we may be so zealous for Your kingdom and to use our gifts and skills, for Your glory and the praise of Your name. Until that day when we will likewise see Your Son shining in all His Glory.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleuia!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Second Sunday of Easter
April 26, 2025
Text: Revelation 1:4-18
Outline:
Resurrected to be
1. Be His Prophets
2. Be His Priests
3. Be His Kings
As a prophetic community the church mediates the word of God made known in Jesus to the world. As a priestly community the church mediates to the world God’s reconciliation of the world in Jesus, the Sacrificed Priest, and instead of sacrificing to the emperor on the Roman altar, the church sacrifices itself on the true altar of God (cf. 6:9–11). As a royal community the church represents and signifies the rule of God as already present in the world.
Sermon
Christ is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!
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 Revelation of Saint John’s chapter one verses four through eighteen.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. Have you ever been given a job to do? Maybe mom or dad told you to clean your room, take out the trash, help with the dishes. I know you have a job to do as a student, to obey your teachers, learn everything that you can and be good to your classmates. We have a job to do as Christians. It is a job given to us by Jesus Christ. He gives us the job of going out into all the world, proclaiming what He has done by His death and resurrection from the dead. How can we do this great job? How does Jesus help us? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. Be His Prophets
Christ has Risen! He has risen indeed! Alleluia! This is a very interesting text to have for the Second Sunday in Easter but it is one that gives to us great comfort today. In our text, the Risen Christ stands before Saint John in all of His glory. John turns and sees the incarnate deity of Jesus. His hair is white as wool, His eyes and feet like blazing bronze. His face is shining stronger than the sun shining in full brightness. John sees Jesus ruling and reigning over all things, holding everything in His hands, especially His beloved Church.
The Lord gives John a simple message for the church. The Lord remains His beloved of who He is. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Having been crucified, died, and buried, Jesus is no longer dead. Having been raised from the dead, as the firstborn of the dead, Christ now rules and reigns forever and ever. As the God-man, Jesus is fully using His divine power and authority for our good, the good of His church, and the good of all the nations.
Thus, why John writes this letter, beginning with the seven churches, that all believers might know the One to whom they belong. That they might have comfort knowing that our Lord is indeed in control of all things, as they do the work that He has given them to do. Christ is our Prophet, our Priest, and our King forever as the anointed messiah seated at the right hand of the Father. As believers, we share in this ministry and work upon this earth. Through Christ’s threefold office, we share in His works as His prophets, His priests, and His Kings upon this earth.
Firstly, how are we, His prophets? We share in Christ’s work as His prophets because of what we proclaim to others through our thoughts, words, and deeds. We claim to be Christians. Christ-ian! The ian means little therefor Christian means little Christ. When others interact with, and observe our actions, our actions impact how others view Christ and His Kingdom. Through our thoughts, words, and deeds, we constantly proclaim the wonderous works of what Jesus has done for us, and for the world.
We show that we are different than others because we reject our sinful nature, the temptation of the devil, and our sinful flesh. We do not indulge or follow our passions because we have been freed from them. We have been freed from their control by the death and resurrection of Jesus. He has claimed us as His own, therefore, we follow Christ. He has redeemed us from the everlasting death and damnation, that we deserve because of our sins, by the shedding of His holy and precious blood up the cross. Much like the Prophets in the Old Testament, we are not perfect. We make mistakes, we make grievous errors, and sin against His Word. Yet, God in His great mercy and love, still deigns to use our actions and words to proclaim His glory. As we prayed in our Collect this morning, we do indeed prayer that He would help us that by our lives and deeds we may proclaim Christ as God and Lord.
2. Be His Priests
As we proclaim Christ as God and Lord, we are fulfilling our second task. The task of being His priests. We are greater than the priests of old, not we have any excuse to inflate our pride, but because the sacrifice that we present is greater. Unlike the priest of old who offered sacrifice after sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, we remind the world of Jesus’ great sacrifice upon the cross. There, He paid the price for the sins of the entire world. Jesus fully appeased the wrath of God as proven by His resurrection from the dead. This means that no matter who you are, no matter what you have done. It is forgiven because of Jesus. Throughout our lives, we are mediating throughout the world God’s reconciliation of the world in Jesus, the Sacrificed Priest. Jesus, as God in the flesh, is the great High Priest and Himself became the Victim in our stead.
In instead of sacrificing to the emperor on the Roman altar, the church sacrifices itself on the true altar of God. We sacrifice of our very lives to what God has given us to do. It is not easy to follow God’s commands given in His Word. To sacrifice our time, our talents, our treasures to what He has called us to do. It would be much easier to sleep more this morning than go to church. Many people show this same kind of attitude, thinking nothing of the long hours or the great cost of investing in their kids happiness for sports, or drama, or other extracurriculars. Yet, ask them for a mere hour on Sunday, or even more during the week, and many say no they cannot give that much, to the One who has given them everything they have, even their very lives! We emulate Jesus’ great sacrifice as we sacrifice of ourselves, not to earn anything from God, (we are not saying we are better because we are poorer!) but rather to praise Him for giving to us everything. Help us O Lord, to properly steward what you have given to us, including our very lives.
3. Be His Kings
Thanks be to God that He does indeed give us the help we need to steward everything that He has given to us. In, and through, Christ God has made us rich beyond comparison to anything in this present world. He has made us kings already ruling and reigning with Christ. As Saint Paul tells Timothy in his second letter, “The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him.” And “If we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us.”
We have died and been buried with Christ in the waters of Holy Baptism. Our sins have been forgiven, and we have been washed in the precious blood of the Lamb. As He now lives and reigns for all eternity so too will we. Even if our bodies turn into dust, they will be raised to life again. When Christ comes again, every eye will see Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and pay Him the honor that is rightly due to Him as the Father has given Jesus the name that is above every name.
Conclusion: As we go about our lives, facing the great enemies of the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, let us rejoice in the great comfort that Jesus has given to us. He is indeed the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last. He is with us always as we do the tasks that He has given us to do, until the Day when all flesh shall be raised and we shall see Him enthroned in glory forever.
Christ has Risen! He has risen indeed! Alleluia!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Easter 10am Service
April 20, 2025
SERMON OUTLINE
Introduction to the series theme
David shared in the joy at the right hand of the Lord
We live in a time when real joy and peace are in short supply
The world’s “cures”
David knew heartache
Where does David look?
The Lord is at his right hand
This psalm is really all about Jesus
He did not see corruption
Christ did not decay in the tomb
Remember Jesus’ words
All of these events were the hand of the Lord
Christ ascended to the right hand of the Father so that He could be with us forever
The risen Christ brings us eternal joy at His presence in Word and Sacrament
SERMON
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
My dear beloved flock, the text for our meditation today is the 16th Psalm as well as the Holy Gospel according to Saint Luke the twenty-fourth chapter verses one through twelve.
Boys and girls, I pray that you are doing well today. How close is your shadow? It’s pretty close to you. You always see it with you if you are outside playing, reading a book, or going to bed. Did you know that there’s Someone who is even closer to you than your shadow? It’s Jesus! Today, we celebrate the best day of all. We celebrate that Jesus is no longer dead. Jesus rose from the grave. He is alive! He lives forever! Where is Jesus? He is with you. He will never leave your side. He is closer to you than even your shadow. How does Jesus’ resurrection and being near you help you and give you comfort? Ponder that question as we celebrate that
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
Our hands are central to the ways that we interact with the world. In the Scriptures, the Lord uses “the hand of the Lord” as a constant reminder to us of just what He can do. Throughout Lent, we have seen how the Lord has used His Hands, symbolic, as well as literal, throughout Holy Scripture for the good of people. We saw the many ways that Christ’s hands were at work. He saved Peter from the deep, defeated the devil, healed diseases, raised the dead, and held all things in His hand. Today, Christ’s ever-present hand delivers on all His promises, offers us protection, and guides us into life eternal.
King David, nearly a thousand years before Christ, writes in Psalm 16 about the Lord’s hands,
He says:
You make known to me the path of life;
in Your presence there is fullness of joy;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. (v. 11, emphasis added)
David has the quiet confidence found at the right hand of his Lord. In the Lord’s presence, there is life and everlasting joy. How was it that David could write those words of joy and peace a thousand years before Jesus’ resurrection? What do they have to say to us, now nearly two thousand years after His resurrection? Where does this peace at the right hand of the Lord come from? Where does the peace and joy come from when David says that at his Lord’s right hand?
We live in a time when peace appears to be in short supply. We’ve seen the hands of this sinful world at work. Hands focused on restlessness, anxiety, spite, and even downright hatred are blasted across our screens on a daily basis. People recognize that there is something wrong. Of course, many are quick to offer remedies with cures like “self-care” and “do what makes you happy” and any number of band aid fixes. “There is nothing wrong with you. You need to put yourself first to solve your problems and anxiousness in this life.” But how is that working? Is the answer to the problems of this world just to turn in on ourselves more and more? Are we to seek comfort and refuge in the work of our hands? That would be to make ourselves the gods of our lives. For a god is anything or anyone in which we seek refuge.
David writes, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply” (v. 4).
David knew what hardship and heartache was. His predecessor, King Saul, tried to put him to death. His own son, Absalom, wanted him dead. David knew the gravity of the work of his hands in his own sin, the internal toil of his own dreadful actions after taking another man’s wife, Bathsheba, and how that sin caused the death of their firstborn son. David’s very bones wasted away within as he tried to hold his sin in. David did not shy away from confessing his sin before the Lord. David knew it all, and he knew the judgment that he deserved. And yet, in the midst of that, he speaks of peace and joy.
David’s answer for us is not “Look inside yourself to find your inner strength.” It is not “Try harder.” It is not “Grin and bear it. It must get better eventually.” David knows that the work of your own hands will not do. David tells you instead to look to the One who has been right there all along, even if you tried to ignore Him. “I have set the LORD always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken” (v. 8). David speaks as if the Lord is right there by his side at his right hand. Closer than even David’s own shadow. If the Lord is with you, then you can place your confidence in Him and Him alone. If you know that the Lord is holding on to you, then you know that nothing in this world is greater than Him. You are not alone. Even if you have neglected His presence, He has not neglected you. His promises remain true for you today, no matter how long it has been!
“Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let Your holy one see corruption” (vv. 9–10).
The Lord is with David, holding him in His hand—the Lord who led Israel with a pillar of fire by night and cloud by day. The Lord who has given him the promise that even if he should die, he will be raised. He would not be abandoned to Sheol. That is the pit where all those who die go. That is where we deserve to be abandoned in an eternal death because of our sins. But David knows that he will not be left there. Even his flesh dwells secure, because God has the final say about this bodily life as well. God will bring him back to life on the Last Day. David’s hope—his faith, his belief—was all bound up in the Lord. Bound up in what the hand of the Lord can do.
This psalm of David has been pointing forward to Jesus all along. David’s hope was all in Jesus and what He has done for David and for us. Written one thousand years before Christ, this psalm is all about Jesus’ resurrection. When the Son of God took on our human flesh, He took on human hands. In Christ, the hand of the Lord has become literal. Because of Jesus, we can say, unequivocally, that God has hands. Real hands. Real hands that can accomplish what He sets out to do. Jesus used His hand by the power of His Word, creating, casting out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, washing, feeding, and being nailed to the cross—all for you.
Christ came to a world fallen and in disarray. A world under the curse of sin. He was delivered into the hands of sinful men, indeed, the works of our own sins. Christ’s hands were nailed to the cross. He took all this world’s sin and fallenness; even though He “knew no sin,” He became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21), and He took it all to the cross, where He bled and died for it all.
But that is not the end. The women carried spices to the tomb in their hands, expecting the need to add fragrance to a corrupted and decaying body. Instead, they found the stone rolled away to reveal an empty tomb! As David’s psalm said, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let Your holy one see corruption” (Psalm 16:10). David’s tomb was still present at the time of the apostles to testify that he had died and had not yet been raised. But Jesus was not abandoned to Sheol, the place of the dead, nor did His body decay and see corruption.
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
Jesus was raised on the third day. He was raised to new life to never die again (Romans 6:9). This is what the angels remind the women at the tomb: “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise” (Luke 24:5–7).
These angels were reminding the women of the promises of Jesus, reminding them to remember His words, reminding them that the hand of the Lord had been at work all along, and reminding that He is alive just as He said. This is all the hand of the Lord.
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
And He lives to this day. He ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He reigns over the whole world. He lives today to give to you the forgiveness that He has won to you. You have been united with His death and resurrection in the waters of Holy Baptism. He is always with you. He will never leave your side. He is always with you. He hands you His very body and blood in the blessed Eucharist for your forgiveness and strengthening of your faith. Because Jesus is with you, you know that what applies to His resurrection also applies to you! When Jesus returns, He will raise you and all believers to be with Him forever.
Jesus has promised you that you will never be abandoned, He will be with you until the very end of the age. Death does not have the final say. Throughout your life, Jesus is holding you in His hands. In His hands, Jesus still bears the glorious marks that prove His great and steadfast love for you.
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
The peace of God which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Easter 630am Service
April 17, 2025
SERMON OUTLINE
God’s creation versus our “creation”
Created with purpose
Ex nihilo versus nihilism
You are “fearfully and wonderfully made”
Our hands still make a mess of things
Our Lord’s hand is still at work
The Word through whom all things were made
The perfect image of God
He has re-created us
We are now His workmanship
Our hands are now blessed because He does the work through them
SERMON
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
Christ, the one through whom all things were created, has been raised! He is the hand of the Lord, our Creator, at work for us!
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
It is very satisfying to make something with your hands. From cooking a meal, woodworking, to working on a car, from building a shed to repairing something that was broken. It involves intentionality and purpose to bring something to fruition. It is very fulfilling to make something of beauty, order, and functionality out of this often-chaotic world in which we live.
From Genesis, we know that our Lord loves to create with order in mind. Three and three. God creates the space then He fills the space. He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. God created everything ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” We need something to work with: the raw materials and so on. The Lord did not need any of that. Simply by speaking, He brought everything into existence. The last of His creatures was man, whom He formed in His own image, with His own fingers, from the dirt. “Male and female He created them” (1:27) to be the stewards of this creation. Humanity has meaning and purpose because God has made us with intention. God made all of this out of nothing, ex nihilo.
Sadly, some have bought into the lie that this world is just the result of a series of accidents resulting from matter that has always existed. But if you follow that thinking to its logical conclusion, a world that was not created with intention gives no reason to value human life, truth, right and wrong, and certainly not beauty. They fall into the trap of nihilism, that nothing matters at all, and it devastates many in our fallen world.
But you not a mistake nor an accident of nature. Each one of you was made by our gracious Creator. Each one of you was made with intention and love. David writes this in Psalm 139, “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well” (vv. 13–14). The Lord has also formed and shaped you. He has given each of you a DNA set from the moment of conception. He gave you a heart that began to beat in the early weeks of life. Even your unique fingerprints started to form in the first trimester. As technology increases its capabilities of observation, the wonder and awe at God’s creation of the human body does not decrease. It increases! Each of you has been “knitted together” in your mother’s womb. You are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” That is God’s hand at work still today.
God has created us with a purpose and made us into stewards of His creation. Even in our limited ways, the Lord has gifted us with the desire to make and fashion this world with order, function, and beauty.
This desire has been marred by sin in this fallen world. We cannot farm the land without the sweat of our brow (Genesis 3:19). Creation seems untamable and beyond our control. Our sin twists and distorts the creative endeavors of our hands into the desire to be more than creatures.
Our sin leads us to think that we can simply take things into our own hands and make ourselves according to our own plans, neglecting God’s created order. There is a reason why this world is fallen. We are the cause of it. Sin has been brought into God’s creation because Adam and Eve thought they were better off being their own gods. And the work of human hands has wrought catastrophe. It didn’t take long before Cain had the blood of his brother Abel on his hands. We see the continued effects of it across the world in the sinful assault on people created in the image of God. Lord, have mercy! We have so marred the image of God to make it unrecognizable. The work of our hands leads to death. Our attempt at re-creating paradise only leads to greater failure and exhaustion. Our only hope is that the hand of the Lord is still at work.
In John 1:1, we hear, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” And in verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
That Word is Jesus. Everything has been made through Jesus. He is the hand of the Lord at work. He took on real flesh-and-blood human hands in the incarnation. He became like one of us in every respect except sin (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He is God in all His creative power in the flesh. He is the only one who can re-create this world that we have made into a chaotic mess.
Jesus has restored the image of God to us. Colossians 1:15 says Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” He took our humanity into His hands and died for us in order to redeem us. All throughout our Lenten series, Jesus’ hand has been at work to set this world right, casting out demons, healing diseases, and raising the dead. All this work testifies to who He is as the One through whom all things were created. All of it testifies to the fact that He is the beginning of a new creation that only God could make happen. He is the only one who can forgive sins. He did all the work that was necessary to atone for our sins on the cross on a Friday, the sixth day of the week. It was the day when He completed all that He had come to do. When He said, “It is finished,” there was nothing left to do (John 19:30). And on Holy Saturday, the seventh day, the Sabbath, He rested from all His labor in the tomb. He did not stay in that tomb but rose from the dead!
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
He rose on a Sunday, for which we are now celebrating. Sunday is the eighth day, the first day of a new week. Sunday is the day of a new creation. For Christ’s resurrection is different from all the other times when people were raised from the dead in Scriptures. All those who were raised died again. But He rose from the dead to never die again (Romans 6:9). Christ’s resurrection is the beginning. For a day is coming when all of creation will be restored. The whole of creation will be renewed on the day of His return. Those who reject Him will be raised to judgment. But all who believe in Him will be raised to everlasting life!
How is it that we believe? Until the day when Jesus comes again, God is still creating out of nothing. By the Word of God, which is outside of us, God speaks into our ears. He creates faith in people who were once far off, and brings them near. This faith is not our work. It is merely the open hands that receive what He has accomplished. It is all a good and gracious gift. Just as Paul says in Ephesians 2:8–9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Faith itself is a gift and God’s work. Faith does not look inward but always looks outward holding onto God’s promises: His creating, redeeming, and sanctifying Word; His promises splashed on us in Holy Baptism; and His promises fed to us in Jesus’ body and blood at the Lord’s Supper. We can never do enough to accomplish rest. But because of His work, we live in Christ’s Sabbath rest, accomplished by the cross. Our salvation does not depend on us but solely on the work of Christ, the Word made flesh, God and man, for us!
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]
Paul continues in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” As people redeemed by the work of His hand, we are His workmanship. Even the good works that we do come from Him. They flow from the faith we have been given. Our good works are not a basis for our salvation nor do they improve our standing before God. For we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. We have no need to justify ourselves by the work of our hands. Instead, God now uses our hands to do the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” He has given us these good works, and He given our heads everything needed, that we may love and serve our neighbors simply because our neighbors are in need. Our God, who has created, redeemed, and sanctified us, gets all the glory!
God’s creative work has been shown in Christ! His glorious power to save us has been shown in us as He saves and recreates us. We have favor with God because Jesus’ hands were pierced. His blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins. But those nail-marked hands are the hands of the One who lives forever and ever.
Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]