Peace Lutheran Church
Posts Tagged "Confession"
Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 03, 2026
Text: Acts 6:1-9,7:2a,51-60
Theme: Faithful Confession
Outline
1. A faithful Confession of Law
2. A faithful Confession of Gospel
Sermon
Alleluia! 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 is the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the sixth chapter verses one through nine, and chapter seven, the first part of verse two and verses fifty-one through sixty.
Beloved Lambs, I pray that you are doing well today. Do you enjoy helping others? I know that you enjoy helping around the house. You enjoy helping to cook, play with your sisters and brothers. You enjoy helping out at church with ushering, handing out bulletins, and making sure that others are okay when they are sad. In our text, we hear about people helping out the Apostles. There is too much for the Apostles to do alone, so the disciples gather together. They pick seven men to help the Apostles out. One of these men is Stephen. He helps the Apostles, and us, to make a faithful confession in both word and deed. What is Stephen’s confession? How do we make a faithful confession in our words and deeds 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 Faithful Confession of Law
The Apostles need a lot of help. Daily their number has increased. The Apostles have been taking from what has been given by others, not by compulsion but given out of a loving and cheerful heart, for the needs of the poor. As their numbers have increased, so has the need. A complaint has arisen within the church. “by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. ” The Jews who were Greeks and followed more of the Greek ways of doing things were being neglected daily in food or funds. These people probably were not as well known to the Apostles in person as those who were Jewish. “Immediately the devil, the spirit of dissension and strife, inspired the thought that this was an intentional slight. Similar complaints and charges are sometimes made in our days also, and with as little ground. As long as fallible human beings are trying to serve other human beings that are just as fallible, mistakes are liable to happen, which should be adjusted without uncharitable grumbling.”
The Apostles act quickly to rectify the situation. They gather the rest of the disciples and propose a solution. The Apostles are to continue the ministry that they have been given by our Lord, prayer and preaching of the Word of God. While they do that, others can minister to the needs of others. This seems good and they appoint seven men, Stephen is one of them, to this duty.
Stephen continues to do this duty, full of grace and power, until a day comes when Stephen is dragged before the Sanhedrin on false charges. He is accused of speaking against the Temple as well as the Law of Moses. Stephen gives a lengthy and faithful confession before the same Sanhedrin who had been the betrayers and murderers of the just and holy Christ. He starts with Abraham and Moses, on down to the prophets. He elaborates upon their whole history as a Jewish people, showing that he is not against the Law. Rather, he holds it dear as a fellow Jew, especially as it points to Jesus Christ.
He ends his argument with these words “51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. ” Does that sound nice and loving? It sounds harsh and cruel. Yet, it is loving. It is, to use the words of Saint Paul, it is “speaking the truth in love.”(Ephesians 4:15) This would hardly seem to be the words of a “grace-filled” servant of the word. Stephen is faithfully confessing the Law. He is making the comparison that the Sanhedrin is acting in the same way as their fathers. Just as the Jewish people before them rejected the Prophets, hurt, and killed them, so too the Sanhedrin is doing now because they have rejected Jesus as well as the Apostles whom He has sent. Stephen is attempting to wake them. That they might see the darkness of their sin that they are living in, and be led to repentance.
We need to continue to be faithful confessors of God’s Law in our own day. We need to speak the truth in love, no matter how hard it may be to hear. Stephen’s bold confession, as well as where it leads him, but more on that in a moment, makes me humble. I think often about all the times when I should have spoken harsher words of God’s Law to wake up hardened sinners and break their hearts of stone. I think of the times when I should have been silent, when my witness was not needed, yet I spoke up anyway. The world, the devil, does not want us to be this faithful. The world and the devil tempt us to think that we have to always speak nice sounding words. We want to make sure that our words do not offend anyone. It is better for us to avoid the fight, avoid the confrontation, avoid being mean, even when people need to hear the faithful witness to the very Word of God.
2. Faithful Confession of the Gospel
Yet, we as Christians, especially me as your Pastor, are not called to be meek or scared. As Paul writes to young Timothy, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) We are called to be bold in love and self control. We do not let our passions or emotions control us. We are simply called to be faithful to the word of God, faithful to His Word of both Law, as well as Gospel, even if the world, and our sinful nature, does not want to hear it. We need to hear it just the same, no matter what may happen to us. Just look at what happens to Stephen for his faithfulness.
Stephen is granted a gracious vision of Heaven, where he sees the Lord Jesus, standing at the right hand of God, a fulfillment of the words that Jesus spoke to this very body when He was before them that they would see the Son of Man on the cloud of heaven. Jesus is standing, making ready to receive with open arms all those that rely upon the salvation earned by Him. Where He is, there shall also His servants be. 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
There is only one word that can describe this. Murder. Murder by an infuriated mob, in violation of all law. Yet, they know what they are doing. They observe some forms of the law, taking Stephen outside the city and having the witnesses cast the first stone. As the stones are flying all around him. As the stones make contact with his skin, breaking flesh, cracking bone, look at his faithful confession to the Gospel. Stephen does not cry out against them for vengeance. Rather he commits his soul into the keeping of the Lord Jesus, the same as our Lord did upon His own cross. With his last dying breath, Stephen releases the Sanhedrin of their guilt with a final word of intercession, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
A faithful confession of Law, as well as of Gospel, that spread the seeds of God’s word even as the people spilled his blood. Beholding this act is a young man named Saul, a persecutor of the Christian faith. You would know him better as Paul the apostle. The last words Saul heard from Stephen’s lips is a cry of forgiveness, a cry which I am sure rang in his ears for years afterward.
A cry of forgiveness, grace, and mercy, that still rings down throughout the ages to our very day. We continue to be faithful confessors of Law and Gospel. We see well our own sins. As the Psalmist says, they are ever before us. We mourn over them, turning in repentance to the mercy and grace that God has shown to us in Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus, sins are forgiven, souls are saved. Souls need to hear the words of the Law that they might know their need for a Savior as well as the words of the Gospel, that there is forgiveness and salvation because of Jesus Christ.
Thus why, we also are faithful to the Gospel. We do not leave people in despair, mourning in hopelessness, over their sins. Rather, like Stephen, we proclaim forgiveness. That God would not hold their sins against them but cleanse them because of what He has already done for the world, and us, in Jesus Christ. God laid upon Jesus our sins. Jesus bore the full wrath of God, He took our punishment. He died our death. Dying, Jesus destroys the power of death over us. We can indeed, fall asleep in Jesus, that we might rest in His peace. We rest in Jesus’ peace until that day when we shall awaken to everlasting life. We shall arise because Jesus has risen. Jesus is no longer dead but lives forever more.
As we live out our lives upon this earth. Let us follow the example of Stephen, being faithful confessors of both Law and Gospel, as we help those around us, meeting and ministering to their needs in both body and soul, until we see our Lord face to face.
Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
He has risen, indeed! Alleuia!
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
First Sunday in Lent
February 22, 2026
Psalm 32:1-7
“Confession and Forgiveness”
Outline
- Agony of sin, bones wasting away within trying to bottle things up
Confess and recieve Absolution, Forgives us all of our sins, because of JC, sends men into Pastoral office, not to sit in judgmentjudgment, but to give sweet balm of forgiveness of sins, strengthen and encourage flock.
Sermon
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 Introit, Psalm thirty-two verses one through seven.
Beloved Lambs, I pray that you are doing well today.
I am sure that you can guess what I have here. Right! I have a quilt! I know that you, as well as many other people, enjoy cuddling under a quilt, especially when the weather is cold like has been. One of my favorite things to do with a quilt, or blanket, is to... *cover self* Can you see me? No? Why not? Because I am covered. I am hidden under the quilt. That is what David says about our sins, that we can כְּס֣וּי kesuy, we can uncover our sins as well as cover them up. What happens when we cover them up? What happens when we uncover them? Ponder those questions as you hear the rest of the sermon. You may go back to your seats and those who love you.
1. Agony of sin, bones wasting away within trying to bottle things up
There is an old adage that states, Confess is good for the Soul. In our text for today, David speaks beautifully about why confession is good. He proclaims the joy of those who are blessed. The blessed ones are those who follow in God’s commands. They rejoice in His Laws and do not put up with scoffers and those who do evil. To quote the First Psalm, they are like a tree planted by the streams of water. How are they blessed? Because their transgression is forgiven, their sin is covered, and the Lord does not count their iniquity against them.
Transgress signifies the passing over a boundary, doing what is prohibited. Sin signifies the missing of a mark, not doing what was commanded; but is often taken to express sinfulness, or sin in the future, producing transgression in the life. Iniquity signifies what is turned out of its proper course or situation; any thing morally distorted or perverted. Iniquity, what is contrary to equity or justice. Guile signifies fraud, deceit, etc. To remove these evils, three acts are mentioned: forgiving, covering, and not imputing.
David speaks of the pain of those who attempt to cover up their sins. They are under the Lord’s wrath. “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Ps 32:3–4.” The psalmist here famously declares the agony that he was in for that season of his life when he refused to own up to and acknowledge the sins he had committed, his dishonesty tortured him. He did not feel well spiritually but also apparently this had physical manifestations as well. His inability to come clean before God became a kind of torture for him. It tore him up on the inside. It cost him sleep. Relief only finally arrived when he spilled his guts, as it were, and confessed to God the truth of who he was and what he had done.
It felt as though his very bones were wasting away though his inner turmoil and prick of conscience. For point of reference, the femur is the bone in the body that can withstand the most force. “The capacity of the femur is impressive, with a healthy adult bone able to withstand roughly 30 times the body weight in compressive force. For an average adult male, this translates to supporting approximately 6,000 pounds before fracturing.”1 That much force to just break a femur, how much agony for it to melt away!
Because we are sinners, that is our natural inclination. We sin. We break the Law of God not only in our thoughts, but in our very deeds as well. Just as David’s thoughts about Bathsheba led him to adultry, drunkeness, lying, and murder. So, our actions are just as horrible. We lie both to ourselves and to those around us. We put our trust in weak and feeble men, thinking that somehow things will be different than they were before. We doubt the power and provision of God, wondering if He really cares about us why do bad things still happen to us? We would rather take action into our own hands instead of waiting for His good time and action. We use His holy and blessed name for our own wants and desires, to call down curses when we fail to get our way. We get drunk on wine or beer to numb the pain of confronting our fears and our addictions. We lust after beauty, power, and authority, as well as many more sins. I could be here until the cows come home and that still would not be enough time to list every horrible thing that we do. Our natural inclination is to cover up our sins, under something more permanent than a quilt, so that no one can see them. We do not want to admit that we are wrong, much less hearing that we are not perfect, that we do deeds which to speak of should make everyone blush and turn away from us in pure disgust and shame.
Our bones in our silence waste away. We receive no reprieve whether we groan night or day, seeking peace and relief. Our conscience pricks us because we know that we should do better, we should be better! We should live in the light of Christ rather than loving the darkness that so deeply clings to us. Satan constantly flings our sins before our eyes, saying, “See, You are so unworthy of love, see how bad you truly are!” Our sins, as well as the sins of everyone in the world, clings like a stinking, festering, open wound that we can do nothing to heal.
2. Healing via Confession and Absolution
“I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
In the midst of wasting away in silence, David teaches how we can heal the festering wound of our sins. Not by covering them up, but by uncovering them, and laying them bare. David invites all who read this psalm to follow him in confessing their sins to the Lord and receiving the peace and comfort that forgiveness brings. No burden is more painful than an awareness of guilt and the impending judgment of a holy God. No joy is greater than confidence of forgiveness and peace with God. When we have sinned, let us come boldly to the throne of grace so that we may find forgiveness and peace in our time of need.
Confessing is hard. It means confronting our sinful nature in all of its ugliness, confessing our own weaknesses, our shame, bringing to light those thoughts, words, and deeds that we wish to leave buried in the dark. Yet, in confession and repentance, we find the healing that we most desperately need for our souls. When we come to confession, whether corporately and publicly in worship, or privately to me as your Pastor, we are coming to a Father who loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer upon a cross for you and rise again from the dead. We come to an almighty God who uses His power on your behalf to save you.
We come, not to wrathful and angry judge but One Whom, when you confess, has already promised to forgive because He has removed your sin from you, to use the words of Psalm 103, as far as the East is from the West by placed them upon Jesus Christ to bear all of His wrath in your place and mine. His wrath He has imputed, He has charged it to Christ and says, you are forgiven of all of your sins. One way that we can picture this, is imagine that you have a credit card. Upon that card you have wracked up one million dollars’ worth of debt. Someone has to pay it. If it is charged to you, could you ever pay it off? No, it would take you many years. Yet, suppose someone came and told you that it was already charged to their account. You do not own a single cent. That is what God has done. Jesus has taken our sins. They have been credited to His account, and covered by His blood, and you get His perfection, His righteousness, and His life everlasting.
It is the job of the men within the Office of the Holy Ministry, not to sit in judgement over you, like a stern taskmaster berating you because you did something wrong. Rather the opposite. It is their job to be the Absolution men, to declare the forgiveness that Christ has given to you. They take that wound that festers so deep, pours on oil and balm, and bandages it up. There is a joy in coming to confession, not because it is easy, but to hear that yes, that sin that so deeply pains you, that sin that you wrestle with night and day, every waking hour, that sin that so deeply festers and rots within you, is indeed truly forgiven by God. That is the difference between those blessed and those unblessed. The unblessed reject the mercy and love of God and leave their wounds to fester and rot under God’s just wrath. The blessed rejoice in the loving chastisement of God as their Father. They hear His call to repent and turn to Him that their wounds may be healed forever.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard, and keep, your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen