The 7th Sunday of Easter

SERMON - We Have Every Reason to Rejoice!

INI

Text: Romans 5:6-11

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

In Christ Jesus, in whom we rejoice as we celebrate fifty years of grace, dear fellow redeemed:

50 years—that is a long time, relatively speaking! Friday morning as Dan Nelson and I prepared the Men’s Breakfast, he mentioned with a twinkle in his eye that he had an important event to attend later that day—the graduation of his youngest grandchild…his grandson’s kindergarten graduation in St. Peter. In the eyes of a five or six year old, 50 years seems like forever! On the other hand, three years ago we invited Pastor Gordon Radtke to return to this pulpit to share with us a message from God’s Word as we celebrated our congregation’s 140^th Anniversary! 50 years is a relatively short period of time in comparison to 140 years!

Yet, 50 years is an important milestone in the history of any venture, and so as we celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of our Church of the Lutheran Confession, both our congregation and our synod have reason to rejoice! God has been faithful to us and has filled our individual lives and our corporate ministries with His blessings! During the last 50 years here at Immanuel alone the Holy Spirit has worked His saving grace through baptism within the hearts of over 850 children and adults. God has blessed over 350 couples with the gift of marriage, and witnessed over 980 individuals make their confirmation vows. He has encouraged and sustained through the sermons of His called servants the families and friends of more than 670 of His departed saints. Indeed God has been active among us! Consider then, as well, God’s providential hand in guiding the establishment of Immanuel Lutheran High School, College, and Seminary and His gift of the Ingram Estate in Eau Claire as its permanent home. Those of you who have had an opportunity to visit the campus in the last year and tour its new administration/classroom building can testify to the beauty and functionality of that tremendous gift of our God! Consider the opportunities we have had to join other Christians in establishing nearly 40 confessional Lutheran congregations throughout our United States. In addition, we have been blessed to work with like-minded Christians in twelve different foreign countries on four different continents to proclaim the gospel to tens of thousands of people we will probably not meet until we stand together before our Father’s throne in heaven.

Truly, WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO REJOICE! But our greatest reasons to rejoice remain what they always have been from the very first year of our existence as a Lutheran synod—reasons outlined in the words of St. Paul in our text. We are sinners saved by Jesus’ death, and we are sons and daughters saved by Jesus’ life! Our celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Church of the Lutheran Confession is not chiefly about anything we have accomplished, but rather about what our God has accomplished for us through Jesus Christ! Let us, therefore review God’s gracious activity on our behalf!

I.

Yes, we are sinners saved by Jesus’ death! Paul writes: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”

God’s law reveals clearly our condition by nature. We are sinners, who must confess regularly as we did once again this morning that we sin against God by our thoughts, words, and deeds, and we do so every day. Let no one think that God looked down from heaven upon us and decided to save us because we were so worthy—such nice people with only minor flaws and, therefore, truly deserving of rescue! That simply is not the case. “Grace” is undeserved love, and God bestowed upon us His grace in spite of the fact that we were “ungodly” and while we were “still sinners!”

Why is that so important to remember? The reason why it is so important to remember is we find our true hope and spiritual security in God’s grace and work, rather than in ourselves or our works. By nature we are drawn to the delusion that we really are not so bad, and that with only a little bit of effort we can take care of our moral shortcomings ourselves. We are drawn to compare ourselves to others rather than with God’s holy law, and we can always find someone worse than ourselves. We are drawn to systems which use the law to offer programs by which we can feel good about ourselves and pat ourselves on the back—systems which ultimately and inevitably will fail, for as the Scriptures reveal: “By the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Romans 3:20).

God’s law condemns us, because we cannot achieve the perfection that it demands, but thankfully God’s law is not His only message to us! In fact, it is not even God’s primary message for us. God’s gospel message lifts us up and gives us hope! The good news of the gospel is that God loves us in spite of our sins. The good news of the gospel is that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Jesus came and laid His life down for us—“Christ died for us,” Paul says, and in view of Jesus’ death we have “now been justified by His blood!” When Jesus cried out, “It is finished” (John 19:30), He was proclaiming that He had paid the penalty price for all of our sins. God, seeing and accepting that atoning sacrifice, has declared us not-guilty. By faith our sins have been replaced by the righteousness of Christ. In view of our justification before God, Paul is able to assure us that, “We shall be saved from wrath through Him!” Consequently, we do not have to live with a sense of foreboding as we look ahead to our eternal future. Heaven, not hell, will be our home. God is beside us each day, not as a fearsome Judge, but as a loving, heavenly Father to whom we can look for help and upon whom we can depend in view of His grace and mercy!

This message speaks to the primary purpose of our Immanuel congregation and our synod, the Church of the Lutheran Confession. We are here to comfort and assure sinners that they have been saved by Jesus’ death. Oh, yes, along the way we help feed those who are hungry and provide shelter to those without homes. We operate a school to provide instruction in a variety of subjects and provide space for the Washington Park Association to meet so that everyone’s life in our neighborhood will be improved. But those things, while important, pale in comparison with the importance of sharing God’s message of salvation. This God has enabled us to do for over 140 years as a Christian congregation and now for 50 years as a member of the Church of the Lutheran Confession. Truly, WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO REJOICE! We are sinners saved by Jesus’ death!

II.

Paul goes on further to explain that we are also sons and daughters saved by Jesus’ life! He writes: “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

God’s plan for our salvation and His work on our behalf are described in the Bible with many powerful terms. Paul has already used the judicial term—justification. That suggests a judge declaring the verdict of not-guilty upon us. Now Paul uses a social term—reconciliation to further describe the blessings we receive through God’s effected salvation. Reconciliation refers to the removal of a barrier between two parties—a normalization of a relationship. In this case, God and all human beings were separated from each other by sin. The blood of Jesus was the payment both necessary and sufficient to remove the sin-barrier. The apostle John informs us: “He Himself (that is, Jesus) is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:2). “Propitiation” means a satisfactory payment. Jesus, therefore, paid the price necessary to remove sin and so to reconcile us to God. Now, instead of being His enemies, we are not merely His friends, but His adopted children! Paul writes in his Epistle to the Galatians: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (4:4-7).

Paul explains that not only does Jesus’ death assure us that we have been saved by the removal of our sins, but that also His resurrection assures us of that same fact—that we “shall be saved!” In His life we have the promise of our eternal life, for Jesus says, “Because I live, you willl live also” (John 14:19). As we draw to the close of another Easter Season, we reaffirm through the proclamation of the gospel that message which has brought joy to the hearts of believers for two thousand years!

By the grace of God the preaching of both God’s law and gospel have been preserved here at Immanuel and in our Church of the Lutheran Confession for the past 50 years. That is a great blessing, for which we can be so very grateful! There are many of you here today, because you have left former fellowships where that cannot be said. The question then is—will that message of both law and gospel be preserved among us for the next 50 years? It will if we treasure it, rejoice in it, and share it as the Lord gives us opportunity. May we be led always, as Paul suggests, “to rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ!” It is in connection with God’s plan of salvation and His providential care that we can say that WE HAVE EVERY REASON TO REJOICE! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting
Soli Gloria Deo!