Prepared to Make A Defense

Prepared to Make a Defense 

I Peter 3:13-22

     This weekend, as a nation, we take time to remember those who gave their life in the defense of freedom.  There will be parades and gatherings at cemeteries around the country.  Speeches will be made about giving the ultimate sacrifice.  It is good that we take this time because it can become too easy for us to become complacent about the freedoms that we take for granted in our country.  A time of remembrance like this brings us back to the reality that there are those in the world who would try and take those basic freedoms from us.  We must always be prepared to defend those freedoms. 

     That sounds a lot like what the Apostle Peter was saying in his first letter to persecuted believers in the early Christian church.  He was writing to encourage those who faced estrangement from their families and their community because they believed that Jesus was their Lord and Savior.  In more severe circumstances they even faced death because they were believers.  That can be a difficult challenge for a new believer.  It can be a difficult challenge for any believer.  A few weeks ago we had the privilege of hearing ten of our young members pledge their faithfulness to the Lord and His Church even to the point of death.  That can be easy to say when there are no threats because of your faith.  When you suddenly realize that if you persist in making a bold confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior you may lose your job, your family, your home or your life, you are facing a different story.  Those early Christians needed encouragement.  They needed someone to tell them, “If you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed.  Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.”

     At the same time, Peter was not just saying, “Don’t worry.  Be happy.”  In the verses that I read before as our text, he gives them a plan of action.  As we consider that today, may we take to heart the advice of Peter and resolve to do what Peter says in our lives.

     As I mentioned before, many of the early Christians had a difficult time because of their confession of faith in Jesus.  Peter didn’t try to ignore that.  Look at the reading again in your bulletin.  As you scan through it you will find many words that describe the challenges that those early Christians faced.  He mentions, harm, suffer, slander, revile.  That shouldn’t come as a surprise to us.  Jesus warned his disciples that there would be those who would try to discourage the faithful.  The devil is always out to destroy all that is good and he will use any means possible to shake the faith of believers.  He will use the world around you and he will attack you where you are perhaps the most vulnerable, your sinful human nature.  That is were the seeds of doubt and fear are felt the most. 

     The challenges to the faith of believers have not gone away.  All you have to do is look around you in the world, watch the news, observe the trends in society, see how the standards of morality have changed over the years, how boundaries of decency have been destroyed and you can see how hard the devil continues to work.  When Christians are depicted in the media as ignorant, intolerant, bigoted fools, for the sake of a laugh, you can feel the challenge to your faith.  When you see it often enough, it can begin to wear you down and if you are not prepared, it can destroy your faith altogether. 

     It is here that Peter encourages all Christians, those in the first century and down through the ages, right up to our own time, to take heart and do not fear.  His words of advice begin with the admonition, “In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.”  That is where you have to begin.  First of all, know that Jesus Christ is Lord.  He is true God.  He was no common teacher when He was here on earth.  He came to earth and took on our human form to be one of us.  He lived a perfect life for us and then He died as the punishment for our sin.  He rose again to proclaim His victory over the power of sin, death and the devil.  He is holy.  Without Him we would be lost.  But in God’s great love, He came to be our Savior.  He is the Christ, the Anointed One, anointed to be our Prophet, Priest and King.  Through Him we are reconciled to God.  We have new life now and life forever with Him in heaven.  Let there be no doubt in your mind that this is the One whom you love and trust and whom you worship and serve with all your heart, soul and mind.

     That being said, Peter continues by urging you to always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.”  Earlier I mentioned those who gave up their lives in the defense of freedom.  I am certain that they went into battle well prepared for they would encounter.  They had the skills necessary to do what their commanding officers expected them to do.  They were prepared. 

     In much the same way, you are to be prepared to make a defense of your faith.  If someone should ask you why you can be confident to live a joy-filled life or why you would be confident to face death unafraid, you could be able to tell then that you trust in the Lord and His promises to always be with you, that nothing can separate you from His love and that when you die, you will be with Him in the glory of heaven for all eternity.  You might be ready to say to me, “That’s easy for you to say, you’re a pastor.  You’re expected to know those things, but what about me?”  I would guess that the early Christians may have worried about the same things.  How do I get prepared to make a defense of the hope that I have?

     The best place to begin is the Scriptures.  That can be a daunting task if you really don’t know where to begin.  You could start at the beginning and just read through.  Many people have done that and it is a wonderful exercise for your faith.  The Scriptures not only inform you of God’s will but they also have the power of the Holy Spirit to work in you to strengthen your faith.  For some though reading through the Scriptures can be a difficult task.  You can get bogged down in the laws that are found in Leviticus and Numbers and you might be tempted to give up.  We Lutherans have a great advantage when it comes to getting in touch with God’s will.  We have the gift of Luther’s Catechism, that little book of instruction in the form of questions and answers that summarize for us the six chief parts of Christian doctrine.  It opens for us the Scriptures and help us to be prepared to make a defense of the hope that we have in Christ.  If you have confirmed your faith sometime in the past, you have studied that Catechism.  That is a beginning. 

     An important part of training is learning and practicing skills.  A good way to be prepared to make that defense that Peter spoke of is to practice the things that you would say.  Find someone else who needs the practice and practice on one another.  If you do it often enough you will become more and more comfortable in making that defense of the hope that you have in Jesus. 

     Be alert then for the opportunities that the Lord places in your life to be able to put to use those skills that you have learned.  Paul prayed that God would open doors for his ministry and you can do the same.  When those doors present themselves, you can be ready to make that defense of your faith.  Peter also urges us to do it with gentleness and respect.  You don’t want to drive people away but at the same time you want be give them an opportunity to hear the good news that is so important to you. 

     You also need to know that you will not always be able to convince someone to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit.  But you can be prepared to make the defense of the hope that is in you.  If you mess it up, if you are not well received, don’t be discouraged.  You have not failed.  There will be other opportunities.  Look to the Lord for forgiveness and strength,  Trust in His Word, remember your Baptism, be strengthened by the body and blood of Jesus in the Sacrament and look for the next opportunity.  Through those Means of Grace, you will be able to share God’s grace with those around you because you were prepared to make a defense of reason for the hope that is in you.   Amen

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

The Sixth Sunday of Easter

   

The Abiding Word of the Lord Is Yours

 The Abiding Word of the Lord Is Yours

 I Peter 1:17-25

     Today ten young members of our congregation will confirm the faith into which they were baptized.  They will confess their faith and they will promise to remain faithful to their Lord and the Church for the rest of their lives.  This is a special day for them and for their families.  After years of instruction in the faith, they are now going to speak for themselves and will enter into a new level of membership in the church.  Because they are confessing the faith that is believed and taught by this church, they are welcomed into communicant membership.  Along with the blessing of being able to receive the Sacrament, they, like all members of the congregation, have the responsibility to use their talents and gifts for the Lord’s work.  As we rejoice with them today, may we also find encouragement from God’s Word that will be helpful to us throughout our lives.

     We have some wonderful Scripture passages assigned for this particular day that speak to all of us but they are especially appropriate for our class of 2014.  There are words of warning.  There are words of encouragement and there are words of assurance.  As you consider what they have to say to you today, may you be able to take them with you and find comfort from the fact that the Word of the Lord is yours to use throughout your life.

     The first lesson for today from the book of Acts is the last part of Peter’s sermon on Pentecost in Jerusalem.  After hearing the part about Jesus being crucified and being raised from the dead, the crowd wondered what they should do.  Peter’s answer was, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”   Then he added, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”  If things were crooked, in other words, not what they were supposed to be, in that time, we know that they haven’t gotten any better today.  The church continues to warn young and old to be alert to the attacks on your faith.  The devil and the world are always trying to pull you away from God.  When you have a sinful nature to start with it can be very difficult to recognize and keep yourself away from the evil forces that try and trick you into ignoring the promises that you make to remain faithful to God.  What is a person supposed to do?  Peter said, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”  The only way to do that is by using the sources of strength that the Holy Spirit provides for us.  You know what they are.  They are the Word and the Sacraments, the Means of Grace.  It is there that you find power to overcome the forces that are trying to lead you astray.

     The Gospel lesson for today takes us along the road between Jerusalem and Emmaus.  It is there late on Easter afternoon that two disciples were walking home from all of the excitement of the weekend.  They were suddenly joined by a man who told them all about the things that had taken place and how they fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah.  When they came to the place where they lived they invited this stranger to stay for a bite to eat.  When He took the bread at the table and broke it and gave it to them, they realized that this was Jesus, their crucified and now risen Lord.  As they came to this realization, He vanished.  Their comments tell us something about how important the message of God’s love in Jesus Christ should mean to us.  They said, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”  How many of you can say the same thing when you think about all that you have seen and heard in the last few weeks?   During Holy Week you have had the opportunity to hear once again the story of the crucifixion and resurrection.  Has it just become the same old story or can you say that your heart burned within you as you heard that Jesus died for your sins and that He rose again to give you new life?

     This also applies to our confirmands.  During your instruction, hopefully you have come to an appreciation of God’s love.  As we talked about justification by grace for Christ’s sake through faith and you learned what each of those words meant, was it just a bunch of words or did you realize that this was talking about your eternal salvation?   Did your heart burn within you when you realized that God loves you so much that He gave His one and only Son for you so that you would not perish but have eternal life?  I pray that those words never become so familiar that they lose their meaning for you.

     It is in the Epistle lesson for today that we find some very important words that help each one of us to remain strong in the face of temptation and have a true appreciation for God’s great love, an appreciation that will help you to follow Luther’s advice in the last words of his explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed.  He ends the discussion of Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man, with these words, “that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity.”

     As Peter writes to the persecuted early Christians, he recognizes that there are going to be all kinds of temptations by the devil, the world and our sinful nature that will try and destroy our faith.  He reminds us that we have been born again not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God.  You have been born again through your Baptism by the power of the Holy Spirit and not just by any human desire or intention which can be here today and gone tomorrow.  It is the living and abiding word of God that brings you along, that helps you grow in your faith, that picks you up when you are down, that strengthens you in times of temptation.  Just to emphasize the how important it is that we trust in God’s Word and not in ourselves, Peter adds, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.  The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.  And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

     There a lot of things in this world that will seem very attractive to you.  It may get your attention for a time but as you know, what was the greatest thing that you had to have at one time, becomes forgotten only a short time later.  Like the grass and flowers that might look really great for a while, you know that at the end of the season they will wither and fall.  So it is with the attractions of the world.  They look great for a while but they soon fade away like the flowers.

     But you have received the one gift that will never fade away.  It is the Word of God that has been preached to you and taught to you and that will continue to be proclaimed until Jesus comes again.  It is yours.  The Word of the Lord remains forever.  You have had the blessing of being able to hear that word and you proclaim that you believe it every time you confess your faith in the words of the creeds.  It is that word that gives you comfort when you are upset.  It gives you peace when it seems like everywhere you look there is conflict.  It gives you hope when all earthly hope is gone.  It gives you direction for your life.  It reminds you that you are a sinner so that you look to Jesus alone for the forgiveness of your sins.  The best thing about it is  that it is always there for you.  The living and abiding Word of the Lord is yours now and until the time when Jesus comes again.  Amen.

Rev. Gerald Matzke

Zion Lutheran Church

Painesville, Ohio

Confirmation Sunday

May 4, 2014