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