1st Sunday after Easter: Date: April 3, 2016
– THE SERMON: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Theme: Jesus’ Resurrection and the Enduring Word.
I. The Seed of the Spirit which purifies Your Soul
II. The Word Endures Beyond the Glory of Man
III. The Word by which the Gospel Was preached to You.
( Pastor Theodore Barthels )
Bulletin: Read Bulletin
Sermon: Read Sermon
THE ORDER OF SERVICE: p. 5 (187)
HYMNS: 210; 206; 196; 207:2
THE GOSPEL LESSON: John 21:15-24
When Peter had denied the Lord he had denied his faith. He was left spiritually damaged by his great sin. When a risen Jesus appeared at the Sea of Galilee He cleared the matter once and for all and restored Peter to his calling as an apostle. So Jesus restores our souls again and again with the assurance of His love and forgiveness.
THE OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: Genesis 32:22-31
Jacob was facing a crises in his life. Esau, the brother whom he had wronged, was coming toward Jacob’s family with a band of armed men. That night Jacob wrestled with the Lord, who appeared in a human form. Jacob held on tight and would not let go unless the Lord blessed him. With Jesus as our risen and ever- living Lord, we too can take hold of Jesus with faith filled prayer. We can hold unto Jesus in our every need, and not let go until He blesses us.
Sermon
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
2100 16th Street SW
Austin, MN 55912-1749
Pastor Ted Barthels
Sermon preached on
April 3, 2016
1st Sunday after Easter
Scripture Lessons: Genesis 32:22-31; John 21:15-24
Hymns: 210; 206; 196; 207:2 (187)
Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sermon Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because
“All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. (NKJV)
This is the Word of God.
Sanctify us, oh Lord, through Your truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
In Christ Jesus, Our Risen Savior, Fellow Redeemed:
INTRO: Impact of the Resurrection
The last words of our closing hymn verse this morning express an important truth: “None can fully sing the glory of the resurrection story!” (The Lutheran Hymnal 207:2) The impact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is so great and so multifaceted that it is easy to miss some of it, and be the poorer for it spiritually.
Of course we know the hope of our own resurrection that comes from Jesus’ resurrection. It assures us that resurrection is real and not only that it can happen, but that it will happen. However, we also know that the resurrection of all the dead will include a resurrection to condemnation for far too many people in this world. Knowing the impact of Jesus’ resurrection includes the assurance of God’s full acceptance of the price Jesus paid with His holy precious blood to redeem us from sin and death. The resurrection proclaims that we are justified.
Other factors that receive less of our attention still have tremendous importance for us for faith and life. The resurrection reveals that Jesus is who He claimed to be, who God proclaimed Him to be – the Christ the only begotten Son of God! Jesus Christ is our ever-living Lord. Our source of help in times of trouble is not found in One who is long dead and gone, but One who is a living power with all authority in heaven and on earth. He sits at the right hand of God the Father, where He makes intercession for us. We can cling to Jesus every bit as tightly as Jacob did when He wrestled with the Angel of the LORD who is the Son of God before the incarnation. We can confidently testify with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25). “He lives to silence all my fears, He lives to wipe away my tears He lives to calm my troubled heart He lives all blessings to impart” (The Lutheran Hymnal 200:5). Yes, Jesus’ resurrection really impacts us as we face the challenges, the temptations, the trials and tribulations of this life. We are blessed to know that we have a Savior who has died for us and rose again and lives for us.
The focus of our text this morning is the resurrection impact regarding the reliability of what Jesus said. He said many things, but nothing was more central to the truth of salvation than the necessity for Him to go up to Jerusalem where He would suffer many things at the hands of His enemies, be crucified, and the third day rise again. His disciples couldn’t, even wouldn’t accept that word of Jesus before His death. It was too hard a saying. It went against their feelings for Him, their enthusiasm for Him, their ideas of what the Christ should be. Jesus’ resurrection was the fulfillment of all He taught of His mission. So the Spirit would present to us the impact of —
THEME: Jesus’ Resurrection and the Enduring Word.
Our text begins by presenting the Word as —
I. The Seed of the Spirit which Purifies Your Soul.
1 Peter 1:22-23 “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever.”
This portion of our text doesn’t only speak to the power of Jesus’ resurrection in our hearts, but also its power in our lives. The one cannot be separated from the other. If one has been purified in the heart that will show in one’s life. It will be revealed in the love we show toward one another.
The power for this comes to us from the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t comes from our own natural emotions. It doesn’t comes from our good nature. By nature we are selfish, not selfless. By nature we love conditionally, watching, waiting for reciprocity. This love is different. This love is pure. It comes to us from above. It is a fruit of the Spirit who has changed our hearts.
But what does this have to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Much in every way! It starts with the fact that the Spirit works by planting a seed in our hearts that is different from any seed the world may produce. We have been born again, spiritually reborn by the planting of an incorruptible seed which lives and abides forever! That seed is the Word of God!
The Word of the Lord is characterized as mythology by many in the world. People claim that it was written by superstitious men revealing antiquated ideas and values that have little to do with us in our modern world. They declare that the Scriptures are full of contradictions. As I was driving to church in Spring Valley a religion talk show came on public radio with a discussion of the four gospels and what they say about Jesus and His life and mission. The conversation began with the stated assumption that the gospels are full of contradictions. That’s not the truth. That is the devil’s lie.
What Jesus’ resurrection reveals is the reliability of the Word of God. From the very beginning the Holy Scriptures reveal God’s grace at work in the world. All of the Word directed man’s attention to the Savior who was to come into the world. Time and again the prophets wrote of Jesus, of His sufferings and death, and of His resurrection; prophesies written by different men spread over centuries, and yet every Word of God was proven to be true as every Messianic prophecy found its fulfillment in Jesus. The resurrection affirms the Word as the incorruptible seed that lives and abides forever. And so the Spirit has planted that seed in our hearts that the power of Jesus’ love should appear in our lives.
II. The Word Endures Beyond the Glory of Man.
1 Peter 1:24-25 “All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”
Here Peter quotes Isaiah 40, giving us the perspective that come from knowing Jesus’ resurrection. All flesh is as grass. We don’t go on forever. Our accomplishments are not forever. Our glory is not forever. Everything in this world passes away. And surely the glory of man is temporary at best, and most often both flawed and exaggerated. The flower of man’s glory fades away.
That is not the way it is with the Lord. His Word endures forever. The evidence is found in Jesus, who is the Word made flesh. He who came in fulfillment of the Old Testament Scriptures is the power of those Scriptures. Every word of God, every promise, every assurance, every comfort that we derive from the Word comes to us through Jesus, who lived and died and lives again forevermore.
This leads us to the ultimate conclusion presented for us in our text:
III. This is the Word which by the Gospel Was
preached to You.
It is the gospel that lies at the heart of the Word. It is the gospel of a crucified and yet risen Lord that God used to present to us the Word of reconciliation. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:19).
This is what the Word of God is and ever shall be because “God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). We live through Jesus because He “bore our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). He died for us just as the prophet Isaiah foretold.
Isaiah 53:10-11 “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 11 He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, For He shall bear their iniquities.”
And yet God’s promise in David’s prophetic psalm was also fulfilled in Jesus’ resurrection. “For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. 11 You will show me the path of life” (Psalm 16:10-11).
In all the Scriptures we see the powerful truth of the Gospel presented to us so that we might know the salvation that comes to us through Jesus Christ our crucified and risen Savior “who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25).
This is the Word that endures forever, whose glory is eternal, which brings us life everlasting and peace with God for “this is the Word which by the gospel was preached to you” the gospel of a crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ our Lord.
AMEN.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.