My pastor with a student in Nigeria
(Tomorrow, the 2KR series continues)
This past weekend my pastor, Paul Strawn, preached the following sermon on confirmation Sunday at Prince of Peace Lutheran church in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota. I know some persons are wondering what “preaching sanctification” might look like today (we have some examples from Luther, referenced in the Formula of Concord – see here ; Pastor Holger Sonntag also recommends here and here). My pastor preaches sanctification regularly, which I submit simply means preaching Christ and all the gifts He has for us. This struck me as a good example, particularly in showing how the concept of the old and new man can be used in ways that connect with every believer’s experiences. I left the sermon’s format as my pastor had it in the word doc he sent me.
“Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.” Psalm 66:5
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
It is Martin Luther,
Who popularized the idea,
That not only are the 150 Psalms
The Hymnbook of the Bible,
But they are in fact,
A mini-Bible.
What did Luther mean?
He meant that everything that we need to hear
About God,
About our Creation,
Our Redemption in Christ Jesus our Lord,
And Our Sanctification by the Holy Spirit of God,
Can be found there,
In the Psalms.
And so we hear this morning,
This wonderful text
From Psalm 66
Which would urge us,
To Consider,
What the Lord God Almighty
Has done for us:
“Come and see what God has done!”
The ESV has it,
“He is awesome in His deeds
Toward the children of men.”
Luther’s own
Translation
Of this verse,
Probably catches it
A bit better:
“Come and observe the works of God,
Who is so wonderful with His actions
Among the children of men.”
And certainly our heavenly Father is just that:
Wonderful with His actions
Among the children of men.
And that is why,
For the last two years,
On Wednesday evenings,
Our Confirmands ___, ____, ____, etc.
Have been brought to the church here,
By their parents.
Why?
So that they might learn,
Of the wonderful actions of God
Among us,
Among the children of men.
When You think about it,
That is quite a privilege,
Even a wonder itself.
What is?
To be able to hear,
Repeatedly,
About wonderful actions
Of God among us:
How He has created us,
Redeemed us from sin
And death,
And the power of the devil,
Through His Son
Jesus Christ,
And how He sends
His Holy Spirit
Into our hearts,
So that faith can be worked there,
Sanctification occurring.
So that pastors
And teachers
And evangelists
Can be shaped
And formed
And so that
We might
Experience love,
And joy,
And peace
And patience
Kindness,
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
And self control.
All of these things
Are actions of God,
Accomplished among us,
Wonderful actions of God,
Which He accomplishes
Through His Word.
Why?
Because our Heavenly Father loves us.
“God so loved the world!” the most
Well known passage of Scripture
Begins,
John 3:16,
And it was God’s Love for the world,
Which caused Him to act, wonderfully
Even among our confirmands.
How so?
Well they exist,
Don’t they?
Here they are,
Sitting before us,
Every one,
A creation of God.
An amazing,
A wonderful,
Creation of God.
And what is more,
When these confirmands,
Were brought to baptism,
They became New Creations
In God,
The Holy Spirit,
Coming upon them,
Working in them faith,
So that they would grasp
Their Savior
With their hearts
And souls
And minds,
Yes,
They would believe in Jesus
As their Savior from sin,
And death,
And the devil,
And so would daily,
Have their sins
Forgiven
Again,
And again and again.
This truly is a wonderful action of God.
So wonderful in fact,
So wonderful an action of God,
(Driven by His love for us)
That God has made
Part of His definition of what love is,
A hearing
Always,
Of His Holy Word.
What am I talking about?
I am talking about the Ten Commandments.
What are the Ten Commandments?
God’s definition,
Of what Love is.
Yes,
We have our own definitions of love,
Don’t we?
But the only true definition of love
Is that Given to us
By the One who created love,
And who Himself
Is Driven by Love
And Who is Himself Love
And that is our Father in Heaven.
Part of that definition,
Of love
That our Father in heaven gave us,
Is “to remember the Sabbath Day,
By keeping it holy.”
“What does this mean?”
Luther asks in the Smaller Catechism
“We should fear and love God,
So that we do not despise preaching and His Word,
But Hold it Sacred
And gladly hear and learn it.”
Once again:
Why?
So that God,
Our Loving heavenly Father,
Can be wonderful with His actions among us!
He can admonish us,
When we sin!
He can forgive our sin!
He can give us joy,
And peace
And patience
Kindness,
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
And self control.
But of course,
It can all seem,
Like so much drudgery,
Can’t it?
Coming to church.
Attending confirmation instruction.
Opening up our Bibles,
And trying to find
A Bible verse.
Attempting to understand
What a Bible verse means.
Sitting and thinking.
Examining ourselves spiritually,
As the Holy Spirit,
Convicts us,
Of sin,
And righteousness
And judgment.
And what of our children?
What of trying to get them,
To Sunday School,
Or confirmation instruction?
It is not easy.
And of course it is not easy.
For when we fight
To get our children to church,
To the place
Where they can hear of the wonderful
Works of God,
We fight with ourselves
Don’t we?
We fight with the notion,
Of needing to hear the Word of God.
We fight with the idea,
Of having to be still,
So that we can know,
That God is God!
Why do we fight?
Why should we fight?
Why isn’t it easier?
The reason of course,
Is that our old man within us,
(The sin that still adheres to us)
Does indeed not want to hear the Word of God.
Why?
Well there is nothing there for him.
Our old man,
Our old adam,
Would like nothing better,
Than to be out in the world,
To be entertaining our flesh,
And to be flirting with the devil himself.
Not so the New Man.
Not so the New Creation within us,
Not so the wonderful work
Accomplished within us by God.
Our New Man,
Is the one
Who says to us:
“I was glad
When they said unto me,
Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
And also
“ Blessed is the man
Who walks not
In the counsel of the wicked
Not stands in the way of sinners
Nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
But his delight
Is in the law of the Lord
And on his law
He meditates day and night.”
Yes,
There is this New Creation,
Within us,
Which Scripture calls the New Man,
Which daily,
Even hourly,
Moment by moment
Does battle with the Old Adam
And does take the upper hand,
And should take the upper hand.
Who is this New Man?
That created within us
At our baptisms,
Which is formed in the image of Christ,
Which itself,
Never sins,
And never wishes to sin,
And would
Every day,
Strive to make our entire selves
In the image of Christ.
Of course
For that to take place,
Daily
A struggle occurs.
But realize,
That struggle does not mean that we are not Christians,
But that struggle means we are Christians
That daily,
The Old Adam within us must be put down,
That Daily,
The New Man must come forth and arise.
How to think about this?
One way,
Is to think that when we were placed,
As infants, or adults
Over the baptismal font,
And water was applied to us,
In the Name of the Father
And the Son,
And the Holy Spirit,
We never left that moment.
Yes,
The baptism ceremony,
Came to an end,
But the baptism itself,
Never did,
For once the Holy Spirit
Enter our hearts,
From that moment on,
The New Man
Within us,
Began to work
To fight
The Old Adam
So that daily,
By the power of the Holy Spirit,
We would become more and more
Like Christ.
And that becoming more and more like Christ,
Is that battle within us,
That battle which we do indeed feel.
It is God Himself,
Being wonderful with His actions within us!
Here is Luther on that Battle
From his Galatians commentary:
On that wonderful work of God within us:
“Thus there is great comfort for the faithful
in this teaching of the Apostle Paul’s,
because they know
that they have partly flesh
and partly spirit,
but in such a way
that the spirit rules
and the flesh is subordinate,
that righteousness is supreme
and sin is a servant.
Otherwise someone who is not aware of this
will be completely overwhelmed
by a spirit of sadness
and will despair.
But for someone who knows this doctrine
and uses it properly
even evil will have to cooperate for good.
For when his flesh impels him to sin,
he is aroused and incited
to seek forgiveness of sins
through Christ
and to embrace the righteousness of faith,
which he would otherwise
not have regarded as so important
or yearned for with such intensity.
And so it is very beneficial
if we sometimes become aware of the evil
of our nature and our flesh,
because in this way
we are aroused and stirred up to have faith
and to call upon Christ.
Through such an opportunity
a Christian becomes a skillful artisan
and a wonderful creator,
who can make joy out of sadness,
comfort out of terror,
righteousness out of sin,
and life out of death,
when he restrains his flesh
for this purpose,
brings it into submission,
and subjects it to the Spirit.”
So Luther.
So what does this mean parents,
But that by the power of the Holy Spirit
You overcame yourselves,
And brought your children
To confirmation instruction?
What does this mean
Confirmands
But that You overcame yourselves
And actually learned
Something
In Confirmation?
And throughout this whole
Process
What was going on
But
“the work of God,
Who is so wonderful
with His actions
Among the children of men”?
It seemed different
Didn’t it?
It seemed like such a struggle.
But that is the Christian life,
So often.
That life,
Which flows from the greatest struggle,
Between the Son of God,
And Satan,
That struggle,
Which was won,
By the Son of God,
Jesus Christ
Who offered Himself
On the cross,
After having never,
(Not even one time),
Fallen to the temptation of the devil,
Successfully,
Keeping His Human Nature,
His flesh,
From falling to the temptations,
Of the devil,
The world
And the flesh.
By doing so,
By conquering all three,
By Offering Himself For Us,
Christ Now,
Being Raised from the Dead,
And Seated at the Right Hand
Of the Throne of God,
Can and does,
Continue to Strengthen us,
Through His Word
And Spirit.
So what does that mean
For us this morning?
It means that Confirmation
Is not an ending
But only a beginning!
The instruction of these Children in the Christian faith,
Has only begun.
Even now,
As they have become more fully aware
Of the battle going on within them,
They will need
(More than ever),
Our prayers,
And encouragement
And yes,
Our insistence,
That they continue
To hear the wonderful works of God
Among the children of men.
What does that mean,
But that not only should we encourage these
Young men and women to come to church,
But we should set the example for them,
And bring them to church.
In other words
We are to continue to work
And struggle and strive
Against ourselves
So that the Lord
Who has begun
A good work
In each of these Confirmands
(As He has done
Within each of us),
Bring it to completion
In the Day of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting,
Amen.
