Pentecost

When God poured out His Holy Spirit on the disciples at Pentecost, everything changed.  The disciples were no longer men who cowered behind locked doors.  They became proclaimers of God’s love, confronters of sin, and preachers of salvation!  They became obnoxious to the sensitivities of the World, so those who denied Jesus killed them, but the disciples’ boldness was so great that they would not turn away from this singular message:  Jesus is God in human flesh, and He was crucified and rose for you!  

Peter said that as God gave His Spirit to His people He fulfilled a prophecy from Joel:  “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”  

Wow!  

I find this passage striking – not because of the inclusion of women in God’s work, that has always been God’s way, but – because of why the dreaming and prophesying take place.  God’s work is done because He has poured out His Spirit.  Our dreams, our visions, and our prophesy flow from the Spirit of Jesus at work among us.  

This is significant because our hearts are often inclined to consider the work of the Church to be our work.  We have to figure out how to reach our community.  We have to set objectives to train our children in the faith.  We decide how to spend the funds of the congregation.  We determine where the church will go, what it will do, and how we will be.  Or perhaps the pastor tells us these things and then we follow.  

However, that is not what I see in this text.  The Spirit of the Lord gives life to God’s people.  It is the Spirit who casts a holy vision for us to pursue.  He is the one who plants a dream in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit empowers our prophecy – not a prediction for the future, but present proclamation of His Word.   

This text changes the questions we often ask from focusing on us to focusing on God.  “What should we do?” becomes, “What would God have us do?”  “Where are we headed?” becomes, “Where is God leading us?”  “What do I think?” becomes, “What does God say?”  

Those who follow Jesus, like you and I do, follow because Jesus has given us His Spirit.  It may have happened when you were baptized.  It might be that you heard God’s Word and the Spirit made faith in you.  However it happened, the Spirit did His work to create faith in you, and He is still at work to keep that faith alive, to lead you, to shape your life, and to lead and shape our life as a congregation of Jesus-followers.  

This is work that the Spirit does through the Word and Sacraments; the Means of Grace.  Therefore, I want to encourage you:  Read your Bible – the Gospels and Psalms are very accessible – and attend worship.  Remember that you are baptized, and you have the Spirit in you.  (And if you’re not baptized, call me, and let’s talk about that!)  Receive the Lord’s Supper and be strengthened in faith.  And pray.  Pray that the Spirit would lead, guide and empower us to follow Him as He points us to Jesus.  

Overwhelmed and Overcoming

I hope you all had a good Mother’s Day yesterday.  I know that this holiday, as with all holidays, is often experienced by people with widely different, powerful, and complex emotions.  Please know, that however you experienced yesterday, God is with you. 

During our worship services we commissioned our Haiti mission team.  We (Heather Collins, Denise Klaus, John Janosik, and me) are excited to head south and to get to work.  This week will be one of preparation and last minute arrangements.  (For instance:  Does the guest house have bedding?  We don’t know, so we’re trying to find out!)  Please keep us and our families in your prayers.  Also, keep your eyes open for a prayer service on next week’s Wednesday so that you can participate in it, too. 

In yesterday’s sermon, we talked about how sometimes we begin to feel overwhelmed by the challenges and struggles of life.  Sometimes the pains of life – health issues, family conflict, political injustice and the like – drive us to despair.  In reality, they should drive us to prayer.  There are times that the best answer is to throw our hands up and pray, “God, this is too much for me!  Have mercy and help me through this difficult time!” 

Those are not magic words though.  Prayer is not an incantation that forces God to do what we ask.  Rather, prayer is the cry of faith. 

We boldly cry out in prayer because of our faith in Jesus.  It is in Him that we know that our sins are forgiven, because His blood cleanses us from all unrighteousness.  It is because He said, “I will come again,” that we know that this world will end, and we live in anticipation of that Day.  It is because He was given to death for us that we know God’s love in our lives.  Indeed, “God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”  Therefore, it is in Jesus that we overcome the world and its problems. 

Christians are sometimes accused of being utopian, “Pollyannas,” and people who do not understand reality.  People slanderously speak of us as if our faith was fantasy and our hope was only hokum.  They do not understand that Jesus deals with reality and He acts in real time … even if it is His timing, it is still real time. 

John highlights the earthiness of our faith as He talks about the testimony God has left us in water, blood, and the Spirit.  God does not deal with us only by spiritual means, He also deals with us physically.  Water and blood are very physical matters.  Water and blood are present at birth, reminding us that Jesus was truly born, fully human, and able to understand our need.  Water and blood also remind us of Jesus’ death, for when the soldier pierced His side, blood and water flowed, showing that He truly died and paid for our sins.  And we experience the water, blood and Spirit’s testimony in Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and the Word of God. 

Life can be overwhelming sometimes.  But we have overcome the world through Jesus.  Let that drive you to prayer, too, as you rejoice in His salvation and ask for the power to share the hope you have in Jesus with others. 

Question to Ponder:

What in life makes you feel overwhelmed?  How have you prayed about this? 

How do we show our love for God?  What does 1 John 5:3-5 say about this? 

How can we say that God’s commands are not burdensome?  What role does Jesus’ salvation play in that?

What do you know about your own baptism?  How can you refresh your memory of the promises you received that day? 

When you come to the Lord’s Table, what runs through your mind?  How do the words, “Given and shed for you,” impact you? 

When have you experienced God in the midst of very earthy experiences?  How does knowing that God works in the physical part of life impact your view of work?  Family life?  And other aspects of life in this world? 

Confirmation Sunday

Yesterday was a special day at Gloria Dei.  We saw and heard 9 youth confess their faith in Jesus as their Savior, essentially saying, “As a child my parents told me what to believe, but now this faith is my own.”  They confirmed their faith, and they were confirmed as members of our congregation!  

Do you remember your confirmation?  

One memory that stands out the sharpest when I think of my confirmation was Testing Sunday.  This was, in no small part, because I thought that I was very ready for that review of the Small Catechism having spent 9 years as a student in the Lutheran School and having had to memorize the Catechism (or at least parts of it) every year.  However, my father was not convinced, and we spent a large part of that Saturday night drilling the explanations Luther had penned for the Six Chief Parts.  I was not nearly as ready as I thought I was, but I was well prepared by the time Dad was done with me!  

As stressful as Testing Sunday was for so many of us, that test pales in comparison to the testing the world has given us for our faith.  Before our confirmation and since, the devil, the world, and our sinful nature have often urged us to live for ourselves, to disregard God’s Word, to treat it’s message lightly and take it for granted.  We’ve been tempted in many different ways, and, only too often we have fallen short.  

Thanks be to God, that ultimately the test of life has been taken and passed for us by Jesus!  His blood purifies us from all unrighteousness, and He is our confidence before God!  After all, a Christian is first and foremost a forgiven sinner!  Now our confidence is not in ourselves, but in what God has done.  John reminds us in 1 John 4, “Greater is the one in you than he who is in the world!” 

We overcome this world because, in our Baptism, through the Word of God, and by the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Spirit is given to us to create faith in our hearts, forgive our sins, and give us everlasting life.  He is the one who is in us, and He draws us into Jesus as His redeemed people.  

What a wonder it is that God has loved us so much that He created us, redeemed us at the cost of Jesus’ life, and now dwells within us through the Holy Spirit.  (Salvation is a truly Trinitarian activity!)  Indeed, this is love, not that we loved God, sought Him out, or found Him, but that He loved us, sought us, found us and “sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)  

I’d like to encourage all of us to remember the things we learned when we took confirmation or new member classes.  Dig out the Small Catechism and give it a read.  Remember the great message of Law and Gospel that we learned there.  And remember, that we’re not done learning, but God continues to teach us about His love and grace every day in His Word.  

Questions to Ponder

Throughout 1 John, the apostle refers to his readers as “dear friends” (literally “beloved”) and “dear children.”  How do those titles, “beloved” and “little children”, strike you?  Why do you think John repeats them over and over?  

John encourages us to test the spirits.  How can we know if a spirit is from God?   (v. 2-3)  Why do you think he stresses “in the flesh”?  

Where do you see evidence of false prophets and antichrists in our world today?  

How does v. 4 apply to you in your life?  Are there circumstances that you are facing where these words need to be applied?

How has God made His love known?  (v. 9)  Is that significant for how we show love?  Why or why not?

What does it mean to abide in Jesus?  (reference John 15:1-17)

Walking in the Light

Aged and very experienced in ministry, having studies at Jesus’ feet in person for three years, the pastor had also lived under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit for many years afterward.  His reputation was legendary; his resume amazing.  He was the only disciple to actually see Jesus’ crucifixion.  He was one of two disciples to go to the empty tomb on Easter morning.  He had preached the Gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the Earth (at least as far as Ephesus).  He had suffered persecution and exile for the sake of Jesus.  He had written a Gospel, and had recorded the Revelation Jesus had given him.  Now, late in life, the man we know as St. John puts pen to paper and writes, “My dear children ….”  
 

The letter, 1 John, formed the basis for our message this past Sunday, and throughout the Easter season, we will focus on the words that the old saint (he was about 100-years-old when he died) lovingly penned for his congregations as he was moved by the Holy Spirit to write.  His message stands as a sort of testimony to his spiritual children, including us.  He reminds us of what is basic to the Christian life in this letter; beginning with Jesus’ sacrifice and forgiveness.  

There is very much a sense of a parent passing on to a child that which is most important in this letter.  John was deeply concerned for our spiritual life as he wrote, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.  And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”  He wants to know that his “children” are walking in faith, trusting in Jesus’ forgiveness, and living as disciples – followers of Jesus.  He put it this way, “Walk in the light.”  

As parents, this is something we can sympathize with.  Little makes us prouder than seeing our children – even grown children – living in the faith and following Jesus.  We pray for this, and try to pass the faith on to them so that throughout their lives they will live in the hope of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Few things break a parent’s heart like a child who walks away from the faith.  

So, where did John begin when he wanted to encourage us to walk in the light?  He says, “…the blood of Jesus, [God’s] Son, purifies us from all sin.”  Walking in the light, having fellowship with God begins with forgiveness.  John wants all of us to know that “if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”  

Above all, the Christian life is about being forgiven.  We are purified by Jesus’ blood, and acceptable in God’s sight because of what Jesus has done for us.  That’s good news!  But that good news is not only for us Christians.  It is meant to be shared with others.  To use John’s vocabulary it needs to be proclaimed and testified to.  We get to tell others what we have seen and heard – our experiences of Jesus’ salvation in our lives – so that those who don’t know Jesus can be gathered to Him, built up in Him and purified of their sins, too.  

I encourage you to walk in the light, brothers and sisters, as you live as God’s forgiven children. 

Questions to Ponder

Look at 1 John 1:1-3.  Why do you think John puts so much emphasis on hearing, seeing, and touching?  How have you heard, seen and touched the salvation John is talking about here?

In 1 John 1:4, John says, “We write this to make our joy complete.”  What did he mean by that?  What would make your joy complete?  

What does John mean by his use of the images of darkness and light?

What sins are you holding back that you need to get honest with God about?  How do 1 John 1:9-10 help you do that?  

Why is the end of 1 John 2:2 important for us as modern day disciples? 

Easter's First Importance

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

I hope you had a blessed celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.  

On Sunday we read one of my favorite scripture lessons, an important one for all of us to know and have engrained in our hearts and heads.  It is 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 - For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.  

I like this passage so much for three important reasons.  

First, I like the way it talks about passing on the faith.  “I passed on to you,” Paul says.  The Christian faith is ultimately something that is “passed on” from one person (a Christian) to another (who becomes a Christian).  People don’t catch Christianity by osmosis.  You can’t get it like some sicknesses just by being the same room with someone who has it.  Christianity must be passed on – to our children, our neighbors, our co-workers, and even our enemies.  The heart and mission of the Church – every congregation and every Christian – is to connect people to Jesus.  We want to pass Jesus to people so He can work in them and create faith in them.  

Second, I find the words, “as of first importance,” to be compelling.  Congregations often struggle to find what they are about.  They get wrapped up in worship styles, building programs, education programs, and church “business.”  The message of the scriptures, though, is that there is one thing that is passed on as of first importance, that is the message of Jesus, crucified and risen.  The main thing for us is passing on that message to others as we go about gathering people to Christ; building believers in Christ, and serving the world as Christ.

And third, I love the way this so succinctly summarizes the Gospel message:  Christ died, he was buried, he rose, and he was seen.  How do we know we have salvation in Jesus?  The Scriptures testified that this would happen, witnesses saw that it happened, and it has been handed down to us. 

As we go through the Easter season, and all of our seasons, what matters most for Gloria Dei?  What is the main thing for us?  Simply, it is Jesus crucified, buried, risen and seen.  That is our hope, and that is the message we now pass on as of first importance.  

Happy Easter!