This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am
Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Prayer: Let the words of my
mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,
our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
The Easter Vigil which we are celebrating tonight is a wonderful occasion which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ in a very special way, calling to mind the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead, and that he rose from the dead in history.
It’s one thing for us as Christians to have faith, but our faith is also rooted and grounded in real things that actually happened, in history, at particular times and in particular places.
And so, tonight, we have read some key moments in the history of the world and of God’s people, as we read them in the Bible. We read about the creation of the world. We read about the way in which Noah and his family and the animals were saved from the flood on the ark. We read about the way in which the people of Israel were saved from the Egyptians when Moses parted the Red Sea. We read about the wonderful way in which Ezekiel saw God clothe a valley of bones with flesh and blood and put breath in the mouth in such a way that they became a mighty army. We read about the way in which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were rescued from the fiery furnace in Babylon. These events happened at various times and we thank God for these events and for the wonderful way in which God did many mighty and wonderful things.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is also a wonderful thing, that God did, and is something that he did in history. Jesus actually died and was laid in a tomb, at a particular time, but also, he actually rose from the dead, and stood up and walked out of the tomb at a particular time and at a particular place. And this is the wonderful event that we celebrate and commemorate at Easter.
Also, at the same time, we read that after Jesus rose from the dead, he commanded that the disciples go out into all the world and preach the Gospel. Now, what is this word, “Gospel”? Where does it come from? In the Greek language, the word is “evangelion”, which is where we get the words in English, “Evangelical” or “Evangelist”. But what does it mean? You don’t just invent a new word and expect everyone to know what it means.
The word “Gospel” means “good news”. And normally, before Christians used it, it had to do with when there was a battle or a war, and then the war was won, there was a victory, the enemy was defeated. And so, someone had to go back to the towns and villages from the battlefield and tell everyone what had happened, that the enemy had surrendered or fled, and that we had won. And so, this was the wonderful “good news” that a person had to bring to the people back home.
At Easter time, we also celebrate the wonderful good news, that Jesus has risen from the dead, that he has won a wonderful victory.
In Luther’s Small Catechism, we have a wonderful summary of the way in which Christ has redeemed us. He writes that Jesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.
On Good Friday, we spoke particularly about how Jesus purchased us from all sins, from the death and the devil. He offered his own life and blood as a priest offering himself as a sacrifice for us. He paid the debt and the price to God because of his justice and righteousness, which we owed because of our sins. Jesus stood in our place, and the wrath of God was turned away from us.
But also, Jesus has won a wonderful victory. Luther writes there that Jesus has purchased and won me from all sins, from the death and from the power of the devil. We don’t see that this is a victory until Easter, because if Jesus were still in the grave, if he were still in the tomb, there would be no atonement and there would be no victory. St Paul says: If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. But he also writes: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, with the resurrection of Jesus Christ comes the forgiveness of sins, and the promise of everlasting life together with him. And this is a wonderful victory! It’s a wonderful celebration! The battle has been won. The war is over. We are at peace with God. This is the Gospel, the wonderful good news of our salvation!
But there’s one more thing that we celebrate and commemorate tonight in a particularly special way, and that is Holy Baptism. The Easter Vigil was a traditional time in the history of the church when people would be baptised. We also spoke and confessed our baptismal vows just earlier.
Why is this? Why the focus on Baptism here at Easter? Well, there’s a question that many Christians ask, and that is a question that is still right at the forefront of many people’s mind constantly. The question is: how does the death and resurrection, and the atonement and forgiveness and salvation that Jesus won for us, apply to me personally? How do I receive it?
Well, of course, many Christians would say, we repent of our sins, and we believe the Gospel. And this is true. However, we often ask the question: how do I know that I left the kingdom of darkness and entered into the kingdom of light? How do I know that my conversion was genuine?
You see, many Christians look back to their conversion in all these things, but the problem with doing this is that when people to convert to Christianity, they are new to the faith, and many of their sins, and bad motives, and all kinds of strange things are mixed up in it all, and it causes doubts. People might think: when I gave my heart to Jesus, I felt pressured, or maybe I had too much coffee, or lemonade? Was it really me that converted, or was it just the sugar and the caffeine talking?
Sometimes, people have gone to these large churches, or a Billy Graham crusade, where there is an altar call. And they go up the front and commit their lives to Jesus. But then, a year later, they go to another one. A year later, they go to another one. And then they start to think: actually, which occasion was my conversion? Was it the first, the second, or the third time I went forward? Or maybe, I never genuinely converted at all. And then, what about someone who was raised in the Christian faith by Christian parents, and has always known Jesus, and has never known any different?
There are also many preachers that point people to the change that happens in our hearts after we convert to Christianity. And they say: the way you know that you are a true Christian, is that you can see God working the new life in you. But also, Christians will also look into their hearts and see many sins, they will see a lot of darkness, they will see many problems, many struggles, many temptations, and then they start to think, “Am I really a Christian?” Even there are preachers, who say that if you can’t see this new life in your heart, or you can’t see any improvement, it’s not that you have fallen away from the faith, it means that you had never genuinely converted in the first place.
And so, people are left with despair. And there is a tremendous amount of despair in this kind of Christianity. Now, it is true: we should repent of our sins, we should bring our sins and our troubles to God, and we should seek to live the new life which God has given us. However, this is a daily thing, a thing that happens again and again, and is constantly going on.
If we read the Book of Acts, where we see many people convert to the Christian faith, they are always told to repent and believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. But also, they are always baptised immediately.
Baptism is the occasion where everything that Jesus did on the cross and in his resurrection is applied to us. That’s why after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus sent this apostles out to all the world to preach and to baptise. Baptism is often the forgotten link today between what Jesus did in the past, and his personal rescuing and saving of you now, in your life.
So, just as Jesus’ death was a historical event, and his resurrection from the dead was a historical event, which didn’t happen in someone’s heart, but happened in history before our eyes, so also, your baptism is a historical event, it doesn’t happen somewhere in your heart, but it happens before your eyes.
And this is so important, too, because if our faith is to trust in anything, it must trust not in our work, or our personal conversion, or the changes that we see or don’t see in our own hearts. It must trust in God’s work, in something that he has done outside of us, apart from us. In baptism, we see the water and we hear God’s word about it, and we trust that God has worked a wonderful salvation which he applied to us personally. Jesus died and rose again from the dead back then, and then in baptism, we read in Romans, that we are buried with Christ and risen with him. Just as St Peter says on the day of Pentecost: Repent and be baptised everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So, let’s thank Jesus for the wonderful gift of his death and resurrection, let’s thank him for the wonderful way in which he has saved us through his wonderful atonement and for the way in which he has given us his victory over sin and death and the devil. Let’s also thank him for the gift of Baptism, where he has applied and given all these things into our hands, and let’s commend our lives into his hands, and seek each day to live the new life which he has given to us as a gift. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Amen.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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