200419 Easter 2 Order of Service
Sermon Manuscript:
When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning he appeared
to several disciples in different places, as you yourself can read about in the
last chapters of the Gospels. Our Gospel reading today tells us what happened
on the evening of Easter Day as well as a week later with Thomas. On the
evening of Easter Day his disciples were in lockdown in an upper room of a
house, fearing the Jews. Locked doors are no problem for Jesus with his
glorified body. He appeared, showed them his hands and his feet, and said, “Peace
be with you.” That is what is meant when we say, “God bless you.” When we
say, “God bless you,” we are saying, “May God make it so that things go well
for you today.”
So when Jesus said, “Peace be with you,” he was
saying, “Let your hearts be at rest, for things are set right. Look at my hands
and my feet. Although I died in agony with big fat nails stuck through my
limbs, I am dead no longer. I am the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever
believes in me will live, even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes
in me will never die.”
These are kind and generous words to these disciples who
have not been very faithful or admirable. Jesus does not say, “What’s wrong
with you?” or “Shame on you.” He says, “Everything is going to be fine. The
bloody cross has made it so—just look at my hands and my feet. I did this for
you—for your blessing.”
Then we have some words that are very important for
understanding the nature of the Gospel ministry and the Christian Church that
is created by that ministry. If you want to know who Christians are and what
they do, then this is one of the best places to go.
Jesus said, “Just as the Father has sent me, I am also
sending you.” After saying this he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy
Spirit. Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven. Whenever you do
not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus says he is sending the apostles. The word “apostle”
means “one who is sent.” Jesus was sent from the Father to do and make known
the Father’s will, so also these apostles were sent out by Jesus. When the
apostles went out they did not preach their own will, their own ideas. They
were sent out with a particular mission. They were to forgive the sins of those
who repent. They were to bind the sins of those who do not repent. In this way
the will of the Father that is accomplished in the Son finds its home in the
hearts of those who believe by the power of the Holy Spirit. The will of the
Father is that we should be set free from our slavery to sin, death, and the
devil and become his beloved children by being baptized into Christ his only
Son.
You and I and all Christians are creations of this Gospel
ministry that was set in motion by Jesus’s sending of the apostles. The lineage
of our Christian faith passes through the generations all the way back to these
apostles. There is a genealogy. For these apostles went out and preached. Some
of those who heard them believed. From among those who heard and believed, God
raised up fathers and mothers who taught their children, witnesses and martyrs
who prevailed against the devil’s and the world’s attacks, pastors and teachers
who preached the Word. They corrected, rebuked, and encouraged with great
patience and careful instruction. Through these people, who made known the will
of our Triune God, some more people heard and believed. So on and so forth, it
has gone down through the ages until this very day.
Christians are made through the preaching of the Gospel. The
Gospel is not just preached through preachers, or pastors, but by all who make
known the will of God toward us poor, miserable sinners. When Christian fathers
and mothers preach to their children, their words are certainly not less
efficacious than a pastor’s preaching—so long as they are not making things up
out of their own head, but are faithfully making known the will of God that is
given to us in the Scriptures, that has its fulfillment in the great, saving
deeds of our Lord Jesus Christ. As long as folks speak of the words and deeds
of our great God and Savior, then that Word will go to work in those who hear
it.
There is no greater kindness that we can do for our children
than to bring them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. There is no
greater kindness that we can do for all the people we love, than to speak to
them about the wages of sin being death, but the gift of God being eternal life
in Christ Jesus. Even if we were able to make our children into the smartest,
most honorable, most glorious people on earth by training them and sending them
to the right schools, and so on, what difference does all that make if they are
not trained in the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ that
enables us to escape death and hell? Hell is plump full of people who were
glorious and happy in this life, but who had no regard for the preaching of
Christ’s disciples. “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but
to lose his soul?” Jesus asks.
The Gospel ministry that all Christians participate in is
the salt of the earth that preserves it from rotting and decaying. The devil
would like nothing more than that all people are corrupted and rot, both while
they live as well as eternally in the grave and in hell. Christ’s resurrection
from the dead, that all Christians believe in, and therefore receive, is what
fights against his foul delight in all that is putrid and gross. Jesus is the
resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in him will live, even though he
dies, and whoever lives and believes in him will never die. Such a believer in
Christ passes through the door of death and enters into eternal life with God.
So if the Gospel ministry belongs to all Christians, then
what about pastors? How do pastors fit in with all of this if Christians
already have the preaching of the Gospel? This question has troubled the
Lutheran Church for 200 years. This is unfortunate for a couple of reasons.
First, when something is controversial among Christians it
is only natural for people to assume that the matter is unclear in the Bible.
If something is unclear, then it doesn’t seem like a worthy topic to spend a
person’s time on—unless that happens to be a hobby of theirs. It makes it seem
unimportant.
Second, when something is controversial you end up getting a
huge body of literature about it. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry writes a book
about it, and so it becomes a massive task to sort out what all these people
say and don’t say. This makes the task seem impossible.
The result of all this? People don’t talk about it. That’s
unfortunate, because who pastors are and what they do isn’t as unclear as people think it is. There
is also a lot of practical importance in understanding what God is doing
through the Gospel ministry in general and what pastors do in particular. So
although I certainly won’t get into the ins and outs of the 200 year old debate
with you, I’d still like to speak with you about it.
A Bible passage that I think is especially helpful in
understanding what pastors are is Ephesians chapter 4. There Paul speaks about
how when Christ ascended into heaven he gave gifts to his dear Christian
disciples. Paul says, “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets,
the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in
the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining
to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”
Paul lists the gifts that Jesus gave: apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors and teachers. What is the nature of these gifts? What do
they do? How are they helpful? We heard that in our Gospel reading today. They
have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. They forgive the sins of those who
are sorry for their sins, and they tell those who are not sorry for their sins
that they are not forgiven. This Gospel ministry is something that all people
can and should do, whenever the opportunity arises, but Christ also gives us
the gift of pastors to help us. So how should we regard pastors? They are gifts
of God.
Now I am sensitive to how this probably sounds. It sounds
like the pastor is saying that he’s a gift of God—what a proud thing to say
about himself! But that is not how I see it. When I consider myself I see many
sins and weaknesses that not only hamper me personally, but even hamper my work
as a pastor. So I do not see Michael Holmen as the gift of God to you, I see
the fact that you have a pastor to preach, teach, and administer the Sacraments
to you as the gift from God that is given for your benefit.
In this way, also, the apostles were gifts of God to the
people to whom they were sent. They were a light shining in a dark place—not
because of some outstanding quality they had as Peter, Bartholomew, or
Matthias, but with the Gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ that they
were given to make known. Through them God spoke, and when and where it pleased
the Holy Spirit, people where converted to faith in Christ. Likewise, through
your pastor God speaks (so long as he speaks according to the Scriptures and
not according to his own thoughts). When and where it pleases the Holy Spirit,
people are converted to faith in Christ.
This is not said to glorify apostles or pastors. Apostles
and pastors should regard themselves as unworthy servants, and when they start
to think more of themselves than they ought, then trouble is at hand, as the
Gospels clearly show us. What I’ve said is not meant to glorify apostles and
pastors, but to glory the grace of God.
I can give thanks to God also, for I am just as much a
beneficiary of his grace as you are: I have been blessed with someone who
baptized me. I’ve been blessed by someone who catechized me. I’ve been blessed
with wonderful teachers in the seminary who opened up the Scriptures for me.
I’ve been blessed with pastors who have given the Sacrament of the Altar to me.
Without these gifts that have come to me through the various men who have been
pastors in my life, where would my faith be? Would I repent of my sins and
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? I am dependent upon the same Gospel that I
have been tasked with delivering to you. It is still necessary that the Gospel
ministry continue to expose my sin, make me fear God, and take refuge in the
cross of Jesus Christ.
So it is also with you. I have not been your only pastor. By
sending you the gift of pastors, ministers of the Gospel, Jesus has given you
the Holy Spirit and made you heirs of eternal life. This is not in opposition
to the good Gospel work that has been given to you through Christian fathers,
mothers, siblings, friends, and so on. It is not in opposition to these gifts,
but a gift on top of other gifts. It is similar to the gifts of God’s
forgiveness. Baptism forgives sins. The Lord’s Supper forgives sin. These
things are not in opposition to each other. They are both directed towards the
same thing.
So it is also with all who testify to the saving power of
Jesus’s blood. The more gifts there are in this regard the better. The more
people there are testifying to Jesus the Savior, the more Satan’s evil designs
of death and corruption are smashed and destroyed. Thank God for the gifts God
has given to you. Thank God for your Christian spouses, fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, fellow congregation members, and pastors
that God has given to you through the years. They have done more good for you
than you are aware of.
They come from God, and it is good to give him thanks for
them, for our Gospel reading today shows us that it is through the preaching of
the Gospel that sinners are saved from what they deserve for their sins. Do
your part, and thereby become this gift of God to others, by telling people the
truth about life. Make them fear God as sinners who have offended him, then
tell them the good news that Jesus has atoned for sinners by his holy precious
blood and his innocent suffering and death. In this way Satan is beat down under
our feet. But where the Word of the Gospel is not at work, there you have the
devil’s kingdom, and he will surely take his prey. We are not playing games
here. Therefore, do your part! The Lord will help you. Just ask him.
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