Lutheran Church of the Resurrection

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One of the primary doctrines of the Christian faith is, what is called, "final perseverance." Basically, it says that only those who DIE in the one, true faith will be saved. I meet people who tell me that they used to go to the Lutheran church when they were little, or they used belong to this or that church, or they used to pray a lot and read their bible, but they haven't 'practiced' their religion for a long time. I'm never quite sure if they're asking me to help them to reconnect with the Christian faith, or if they're telling me that they've already had their ticket to heaven punched, and "once punched always punched."

The Scriptures make it very clear that you CAN loose your salvation by falling from faith. One of the saddest verses in the New Testament comes in the 6th chapter of John's gospel, where we read, "many of Jesus' disciples turned back and no longer walked with him." (John 6:66).

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus warned His followers of the trials and tribulations that they would experience because they follow Him. Jesus cautions them saying, "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." (Mat.10:22). At the end of His ministry, as He prepared His disciples for His departure from them, He warned them that tough times lie ahead saying, "And then many will fall away." "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." (Mat.24:10,13). Whenever you hear Jesus say something at the beginning of His ministry that He then repeats again at the end of His ministry, this is something that we need to be especially alert to. Read the rest of this entry »

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Everyone who's ever been a parent will readily agree that parenting is hard work. Children don't just grow up and become responsible adults all by themselves. They don't come preprogrammed with the data necessary to be able to discern what is dangerous from what's safe or what's right from what's wrong. They have to be taught these things, and that's the work of parenting, and it's hard work.

Children don't come into the world with a sense of responsibility. In fact, they come into the world with the definite impression that the whole world is there to serve them. Being responsible for themselves and responsible to others and society is something that has to be taught. And that's the work of parenting and it's not easy work.

What would make the job of parenting a whole lot easier is if children at least understood that they don't know these things and that they need to be taught these things and that their parents and other authorities who are older and wiser than they are and know and understand things better than they do. So, if parents said to their children, 'don't touch,' and the child, 'if you say so,' and didn't touch, that would make the job of parenting so much easier, wouldn't it? Or, if when a parent said, 'time for bed, you need you rest,' the child went to bed because, after all, parent's must know what's best, and if they say I need my rest then I must need my rest and so I better go right to bed, that would make the job of parenting so much easier. Read the rest of this entry »

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We come now to the ninth and final stop on our tour through the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. Self-control. This facet of the fruit of the Spirit ranks right up there with patience as, "oh yea, we need help with that one."

How often do our appetites and impulses and desires and tempers take control of us? How many times have we committed ourselves to weight-loss, quit smoking, lower cholesterol, regular exercise, ballroom dancing, money management, reading, writing, foreign language, quilting, golfing, tennis, and daily devotions programs, only to hit a plateau or get discouraged or distracted and quit because we lack self-control. How many times have certain temptations touched a specific desire, and lacking the self-control that we should have, we've let our desires control us and cause serious harm?

As I prepared this past week for this sermon on "self-control," I realized how much self-control the preacher needs to exercise to keep from turning this whole business into some form of spiritual guidance to help us stick to whatever self-improvement programs we commit to. Or, spiritual guidance to help us kick some bad habits that we can't seem to control on our own. Don't get me wrong. It's not that the Holy Spirit is uninterested in these very practical issues of everyday life in this world. He certainly is. But to make these things the final goal of His work is absurd if not idolatrous. Read the rest of this entry »

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We come now to the eighth stop on this nine stop tour of the fruit of the Spirit. It strikes me that there have been two threads that have run through each of the facets of the fruit of the Spirit and that bind them all together.

First, each of these facets of the fruit of the Spirit applies perfectly to God. But in none of these have we been able to point to ourselves and say, 'now that's what I'm talking about.' But whether it be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness or faithfulness, the same point has been made so far in each sermon, God is each one of these things by nature. And each and every one of these attributes of God is embodied in the person of Jesus Christ.

The second thread that has run through this series is that these attributes that pertain only to God, are the very attributes that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us. But in us they don't come naturally, the only come super-naturally. In our baptism, the Triune God has taken us to Himself and made us His own. The work of the Holy Spirit is to conform us into the image of God, so that the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness of God is manifest in our life.

Those two threads that we have seen run through all of the fruit of the Spirit so far are present as well on this eighth stop – 'gentleness.' Read the rest of this entry »

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"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and this morning we consider, 'faithfulness.'

Whenever we talk about faith, we always want to understand that faith is one of those things that cannot stand all alone. "Faith" all by itself, is a meaningless word. Faith must always have an object. It must always be faith in something or someone. To say, "I have faith," means absolutely nothing. But to say "I have faith in the government," or "I have faith in my horoscope," or "I have faith in Jesus Christ," now that means something. It means that you put your trust and your confidence in the object of your faith.

"Faithfulness" works the same way. "Faithfulness" never stands alone. All by itself, it's a meaningless word. It must always be "faithfulness according to" something. And that 'something' is the promises and commitments we make. The quality of our 'faithfulness' depends on how will we keep the promises that we make. 'Faithfulness' is a matter of keeping your word. "Faithfulness" and "promises" go hand in hand.

What that means is that the quality of our faithfulness is based on history and past performance. Are you faithful? Will you keep the promises that you make to me? What's your track record? If I've been 'unfaithful' in the past, then you have good reason to doubt that I'll be faithful in the future. But if I've kept my word in the past, then you have good reason to believe that I'll be faithful in the promises that I am making in the present and will make in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

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"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,' and now this morning we focus our attention on 'goodness.'

To get an idea of what this "goodness" that the Spirit is out to produce in us is, you have to go all the back to the beginning. In the beginning, when God made the world and everything in it, after each day's work, God saw what He made and "It was good." When He was all finished with His work of creation, "God saw all that He had made and it was VERY GOOD." Every piece and part was GOOD and all of the pieces and parts worked together exactly like they were supposed, including the man and the woman. It was all exactly what God had in mind. Everything conformed exactly to God's will.

And really, what else would you expect from God? After all, God is GOOD. Over and over again the Scriptures repeat the glad refrain, "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good…" (Psalm 107:1). There is no evil in Him. So of course, all that He does is GOOD. All that is GOOD comes from God and is according to His GOOD will.

The corollary is just as true. All that is not good, all that is evil, does not come from God. Diseases, murders, injustice, these things are not good and therefore they do not come from God. But God's goodness is greater than all of that is not good. His goodness overcomes it. God is able to work all things for GOOD to those who love Him. Read the rest of this entry »

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"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, and KINDNESS."

The word in the original language of the New Testament is "Kreystotais," The word has to do with being useful, helpful, beneficial. The King James Version translates it as "gentleness." "Kindness" and "gentleness" are very closely connected to each other.

Last Sunday our focus was on 'patience.' Several of you mentioned after the service that you appreciated a sermon on patience because it's one of those things that we know that we lack and we know we need to work on.

I don't think that 'kindness' is quite like that for us. Oh, occasionally we may be disappointed with ourselves because we were unkind to someone. But for the most part we're not mean. But how often have we thought about how we might deliberately show 'kindness,' not just to someone, but to everyone? How often do we pray that the Lord would help us to show kindness to everyone whom I will come into contact with this day?

I guess what I mean to say is, when it comes to patience, we're aware when we're not being patient like we should be. But how many opportunities for us to be kind do we walk right past every day and it simply never registers with us that we did not show kindness when we could have, and should have. It's not that we were mean. We're just not kind. Read the rest of this entry »

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A father was doing the grocery shopping with his young son who was sitting in the shopping cart. The child was obviously unhappy and was letting his unhappiness be known. The father said, 'patience Albert,' patience Albert.' Finally, all the items on the shopping list were in the cart and the father made his way to the check out line. They were all two or three deep and so they had to wait. Still screaming and crying, the father repeated over and over again, 'patience Albert, patience Albert.' A woman who was in line behind the father and son, leaned forward and said, "sir, let me commend you for your patience with baby Albert." To which the man replied, "oh thank you, but I am Albert."

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and PATIENCE."

Touching briefly on ground we have already covered, the fruit of the Spirit is singular, not plural. It's not the 'fruits of the Spirit' but one, single, solitary fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love and all that follows are the facets of love cut by the Spirit, with His chiseling tools of Word and Sacraments. Like a precious diamond, there is a facet of love that is joy and another that is peace and another that is patience. In his famous 13th chapter to the Corinthians, St. Paul reminds us that if love is anything at all, "love is patient." Read the rest of this entry »

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"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." This morning, we continue our "walk by the Spirit" focusing on this facet of the fruit of the Spirit called "peace."

'Peace.' Such a great, yet elusive thing. How many FORMAL 'peace treaties' have been painstakingly worked out between one nation and another only to be broken no sooner than the ink has dried? How many INFORMAL 'peace treaties' have been negotiated between husbands and wives, family members, between friends, which turned out to be nothing more than brief delays in the battle?

The problem with 'peace treaties,' is all that they can do is try to regulate the EXTERNAL conflict between two parties. "Don't cross this line. Don't fire that missile. Don't push the button." But they can't control the INNER conflict that may well continue to rage if when the EXTERNAL conflict is under control. Truth is, unless the heart and mind are changed, even the most binding 'peace treaty' is a fragile thing. How many 'middle-eastern peace treaties' have their been over the centuries and peace is no closer because hearts and minds have not been changed.

On the other hand, where hearts and minds are changed and where an INNER reconciliation takes place, it's amazing how bumps in the road are smoothed over and infractions are overlooked and transgressions are settled by forgiveness rather than retaliation.

Of course, this is where our 'walk by the Spirit' is leading us. It is the Holy Spirit who changes hearts and minds. That's His business. As we said last Sunday, the work of the Holy Spirit is "conversion." And the Word and the Sacraments are the tools of His trade. He works an 'INTERNAL' peace that produces an 'EXTERNAL' peace.

The Holy Spirit Creates Conflict and Peace

As we said last week, this 'conversion' that the Holy Spirit wants to work in us 'internally' so that we bear fruit 'externally' works in two directions.

Sometimes the Spirit works through the Word to create 'conflict' in us where we are currently at peace. There are some things that do not cause us conflict that should. We've acquired certain habits, certain attitudes, certain ways of going about things, what St. Paul calls, "the works of the flesh," that should us a good deal of internal conflict in us but that we have made peace with.

Jesus Christ is the "Prince of Peace." Yet He instructs His 12 disciples saying, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword." (Matthew 10:34). Where we have made peace the false gods and sinful ways of this world, Jesus intends to create conflict and disrupt our tranquility. The divine bringer of peace is also the divine disturber of peace.

Here's a good example of how the Holy Spirit does this. St. Paul says he was living in perfect peace with his sin. It was only when the Holy Spirit, through the Word said, "thou shall not covet," that the conflict began. What had been peaceful and tranquil life lived contrary to God's Word, became an all out war inside Paul. "I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind." (Rom.7:23). But it was in the midst of this conflict and war that the Holy Spirit created inside Paul that He led Paul to a real peace based on Jesus Christ.

So, as the Holy Spirit works to create His INNER peace in us, very often it is necessary for His work to begin by destroying the peace that we have created for ourselves and creating a conflict within us and our 'works of the flesh." The old must go so that the new can come. No one puts new wine into old wineskins. Especially not the Spirit of God.

The True Peace of Christ

In place of our old peace, which is really no peace at all, the Spirit works to produce in us the true peace that Jesus Christ has won for us by His suffering, death and resurrection from the dead.

To all who are sick and tired of conflict with others, family members, friends, enemies, spouses, Jesus says, "Come to me, and I will give you rest." His rest is His peace. For now, it's not the absence of conflict and warfare, but His rest and peace in the midst of it all. "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

To all who are weary of the conflict and the battle that rages within over our sinful ways and God's holy way, the Prince of Peace says, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you." (John 14:27) His Word gives what it says.

The peace that Jesus has won for us and established for us is a threefold peace.

I. First, He has established for us a peace with God.

In the Old Testament, God gave instruction to Moses for the offerings that the people of God are to make. They're recorded in the book of Leviticus. There are basically three different kinds of offerings to be made and each has a different purpose. There are 'burnt offerings' that are for the forgiveness of sins. There are 'grain offerings,' that are for giving thanks to God for our daily bread. And there is a 'peace offering' that is for making peace with God.

The reason that God establishes a 'peace offering' is because we are not at peace with God nor is God at peace with us as long as we continue to rebel against His Word and put our trust in false gods. But by establishing a 'peace offering' for Israel, God was saying, 'I want to be at peace with you and I want you to be at peace with Me. And here is the way of peace between us.'

The peace offering was an animal sacrifice, to be roasted over the fire and eaten by the priests and the people in the Temple. It was a holy communion with God. The eating of the 'peace offering' was God's declaration that He was at peace with man AND the people's celebration of the reconciliation of God with them.

Now in these New Testament days we no longer make a 'peace offering' to God. And that's because Jesus Christ is the 'peace offering' to end all 'peace offerings.' God the Father has provided the sacrifice. And the Lamb has been slain and roasted on the spit of the cross over the fires of hell. And now, in Holy Communion, as we eat the sacrifice here, God declares His peace with us and we celebrate the reconciliation that He has been established between God and man by that same sacrifice.

So, St. Paul writes to the Romans saying, "therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom.5:1). The peace treaty between God and us has been worked out between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Written in the blood of His beloved Son. Signed and sealed signed upon your forehead and upon your heart in your baptism, marking you as one with whom God is at peace. Therefore it is a firm and solid peace that is lasting and eternal based on the grace of the Triune God.

II. Second, Jesus has established for us a peace with one another.

The Trappist Monk, Thomas Merton once wrote, "Man is not at peace with his fellow man because he is not at peace with himself. And he is not at peace with himself because he is not at peace with God."

The foundation for peace with one another is our peace with God. The 'peace offering' that Jesus made was for true reconciliation between God and all mankind. Through the offering of His Son, almighty God is at peace with you and at peace with your neighbor, and at peace with your enemy. This means that the way is opened up for us to be at peace with one another.

St. Paul explains that the peace that we have with God is the basis for our peace with one another like this. "He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that He might create in himself one new man in place of two, so making peace." (Eph.2:14).

So, this peace that the Holy Spirit is at work to produce in us is not just a peace with God. There's no room here for us to seek peace with God but not our neighbor. Jesus instructs the crowd about the right reception of the 'peace offering' when He says, "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift." (Matthew 5:23-24)

The peace that we have with God through faith in Jesus Christ brings the power for reconciliation in our human relationships. His offering for our peace means that our conflict and warfare with others is not just between us and them. Jesus is right in the middle of every conflict and war with His peace to make peace on earth.

III. Third, Jesus has established for us a heavenly peace.

When the promised Prince of Peace was born of the virgin Mary, the angels announced that He had come to bring "peace on earth." And He has done just that. But it is a peace on earth that is comprehended and experienced by faith alone.

But our faith is weak and we're filled with doubts that cause us to stumble and fall. We desire to walk by the Spirit in the bond of peace but our selfish desires and stubborn pride get the best of us. Rather than seeking peace with God or our neighbor, we seek to justify our actions, protect our position and prove that we are right and you are wrong. As long as we live in this sinful and fallen world, peace is always going to be elusive and fleeting.

Also, we may strive to live at peace with God and by His power working in us, strive to be reconciled and live at peace with our family members, our friends and enemies, our spouse. Yet sometimes, it's the other party that doesn't want any part of it. So we struggle to live with an INNER peace even while we face EXTERNAL conflict.

And so we look forward to that "peace of God which surpasses all understanding." We can't understand it because we have never experienced it. But there will come a time when our INTERNAL peace will be perfected, matched by a perfect EXTERNAL peace. And what has been so elusive in this world will be an abundant harvest of fruit in the world to come.

For now, "let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body." "And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Col. 3:15 Philip. 4:7)

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When was the last time we sang, "Joy to the World" in June? As we make our way through the Fruit of the Spirit as St. Paul lists them in Galatians 5, can you guess that the second fruit of the Spirit is 'Joy'?

Paul writes to the Galatians listing the Fruit of the Spirit as follows: "the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." (Galatians 5:22).

Last Sunday we examined the fruit of "Love." We said that it's first on the list for a reason. It's the place you begin to "walk by the Spirit." It's the soil in which all that follows grows. Where the love of God is bearing its fruit of forgiveness and new life through faith in Jesus Christ, then the rest is sure to follow. St. Paul says, if we strive to produce these fruit of the Spirit "but have not love," it's all wrong. Without love, "I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal." Apart from love, "I am nothing and I gain nothing." (1 Cor. 13:1) Read the rest of this entry »