ONE IN HOPE AND DOCTRINE
Rev. Mark F. Bartels
Old Testament Lesson;
Genesis 11:1-9
Gospel Lesson;
John 15:26-16:11
Sermon Text;
Acts 2:37-47
At our second service today, we will be confirming twelve young people in the Christian Faith. What exactly does that mean, when these young people are confirmed in the Christian Faith?
You know, as I think about those twelve young people, I realize they are going to be coming of age, in many different ways, in the next few years.
For example, one or two years from now, those young people, when they turn 16 years old, are going to come of age, and they are going to be given the keys to their parents’ car. They are going to have the right and the privilege to drive a car. That is a real coming of age, isn’t it? Along with that coming of age, while it carries with it a great privilege, it is also a great responsibility, because we know the dangers that can be involved with driving a car. And so, what we are telling those young people, when they turn 16, is that they have reached the maturity that they are able to drive a car, and have that responsibility.
A few years later, when they turn 18, they will come of age, again. Our government, the government of the United States of America, will tell them, that they have the right to vote. That is a great privilege, and also a great responsibility, because their vote can determine the destiny of the United States of America. We are telling them they have reached the maturity level that the responsibility can be safely put into their hands.
A few years later, they will turn 21. When they turn 21, our government will tell them that they have the right and the privilege to legally drink. And while that is a great privilege, along with it also goes a great responsibility, because we know that there can be a real danger involved in the wrong use of alcohol and it can actually take people’s lives.
And so, our young people are going to be coming of age, maturing as they go along, and given great responsibilities.
Today they are getting confirmed. And I would like to suggest to you that what happens today, what happens today in our second service, is greater than putting car keys in a sixteen year olds hands. It is greater than putting a ballot in an eighteen year olds hands. And, it is greater than the responsibility that is given to someone, when they turn 21 years old, and they are told that they can legally drink alcohol. What is happening in our second service is this: We are receiving these twelve young people into our midst, as what we call communicant members.
Now, what does it mean to be a communicant member of the church? What it means is that next Sunday, when we have the Lord’s Supper, when people come up to this altar railing, those twelve young people, for the first time in their lives, placed into their hands,
will not be keys to a car,
will not be a ballot that they can vote on,
and will not be a bottle of beer that they can drink,
but placed into their hands will literally be, the body and the blood of Jesus, our Savior.
And, next week, for the first time in their life, they will take to themselves something that is far more important than keys to a car, or anything else. It is something that scripture tells us (just like driving a car), takes great responsibility. Receiving the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood, the very body and blood of our Savior Jesus, takes with it great responsibly and great privilege.
You know, the Bible tells us that we can eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord in an unworthy manner. The Bible tells us that we can eat and drink the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ to our own judgment. And so, by confirming these twelve young people today, I am telling you, and am assuring you as the pastor, that these twelve young people have reached the maturity level in Christian faith where they, in a responsible, mature way, can take to themselves the very body and blood of Jesus, our Savior.
Now what does that mean to be able to take to yourself, in a responsible way, the body and blood, the very body and blood of our Savior?
We believe that when our young people come to this altar rail next Sunday for the first time in their lives, and they kneel down and receive the Lord’s Supper, we believe that they are absolutely united with us, by the Holy Spirit in two ways. Number one, I want all of you other communicant members out there to know that I have assured our young people, I have assured these twelve young people, that when they come up here next week, and they kneel down at that railing, if they kneel down next to you, even though they may not know you personally, I have assured them, with a good conscious, that they can kneel down next to you and know that they are united, absolutely united, with you.
Anyone who comes up here, to the Lord’s Table, at this church knows that we are all united together; we are all united together, as sinners. The Lord’s Supper is for one type of person and one type of person only. That is someone who wants his or her sins forgiven. Jesus says,
"This is for the forgiveness of your sins."
I have assured these young people, that when they come up here, united with them as one body, will be their fellow Christians who also recognize that they are sinners and want their sins, desperately want their sins forgiven. We will be kneeling down here together. And we will be acknowledging before God Himself, our own private sins, whatever they may be. All of us understand that our private sins have the ability to condemn us for all eternity. That troubles me, and brings me to repentance and sorrow over my sin, with the hope that those sins would be gone from me and forgiven.
I have assured our young people that everybody who comes up here will be united with them in the repentance of sins.
I have also assured them that everybody who comes up here and kneels down next to them, understands that our sins are forgiven. We understand that the very body of Jesus, our Savior, forgives our sins. The Bible says,
"He Himself
bore our sins in His body on the tree."
We understand that our sins are forgiven, by the very blood of our Savior. The Bible tells us
"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanses us from all sin."
I have assured our young people that when they come up here and they kneel down next to you, you are united with them. And, you believe the words of scripture. The Bible tells us that God does not hold our sins against us, because Jesus, and only Jesus, could pay for our sins and satisfy God’s anger against us. You believe that you are declared not guilty, because of what Jesus has done.
I have also assured them that the reason you are up here is the same reason they are up here. We are united in the understanding that when we come up here to the Lord’s Supper, we individually receive everything that Jesus won for us. The Holy Spirit meets us up here, at the Lord’s Table.
I have assured them, (along with you), that when they come to the Lord’s Supper and the pastor stops in front of them (and in front of you), as the pastor speaks, (not his words, but the Words of Jesus), it is as if Jesus Himself was standing in front of you. It is as if Jesus was saying to you, (not to anyone else), but to you personally and individually, "Are you troubled over your sins? Do you wonder if your sins are forgiven? Do you wonder if I died for you? Do you wonder if I have purchased your sin?"
Then, Jesus extends His hand, and says, "Take. Take and eat. This is my body. This is my blood. For you."
There our Savior gives himself to you, individually and personally. There can be no mistake about it.
Jesus died for me.
Jesus paid for my sins.
He absolutely assures you, there, by giving you personally the very body and blood that died on the cross, so that you know what happened on the cross, happened for you. There the Holy Spirit works to comfort you with the full and complete forgiveness of your sins.
I have assured our young people that you are united with them in that belief. We are united, as we come up here to the Lord’s Supper. We are united in faith. And, we are untied in the belief that our sins are forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.
We are also united in doctrine, in teaching. The Bible tells us,
"We, who are many,
are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf."
There the Bible tells us that when we come up here to the Lord’s Supper, we are one. There is no greater display of absolute unity, on this side of the grave, than here at the Lord’s Table. Here at the Lord’s Table we are united. We are confessing and professing absolute unity with one another, based on the truth that the Holy Spirit has led us to, through the Words of Scripture. I have assured these young people that when they kneel down next to you, even though they may not know who you are, with a good conscious, they can know what you believe. And, you know what they believe. We are united with each other in doctrine and teaching. We are united. We are one with each other. The Bible calls us to a unity in doctrine and teaching that is based on the truth of scripture, which the Holy Spirit leads us to.
Imagine that here at Holy Cross we simply invited anyone up here, who wanted to come to the Lord’s Supper, even though we don’t know anything about the person. And, imagine that here at Holy Cross we don’t say that you have to be united in doctrine or teaching, to come up here to the Lord’s Supper.
When you kneel down next to that person, you don’t know what they believe. They might believe that Jesus is not really God. They may believe that there are mistakes in the Bible. They might believe that Jesus didn’t really do any miracles. They might believe that you have to do good works, to earn your way to Heaven. If you kneel down next to that person, you are professing absolute unity with them. You are saying, "We are one."
If they have false teaching, you are saying, "I accept that false teaching. I support you in your false teaching, even a false teaching that could lead us astray from our faith."
I have assured our young people, (and I want to assure you, too), that here at our Lord’s Table, we are united. We are united in teaching, and we are united in doctrine. We can profess with a good conscious, an absolute unity, based on the simple, clear, plain words of scripture. We are one in doctrine.
Why is that so important? Let us imagine that this evening, Holy Cross blows up. Holy Cross Church ceases to exist. You have to pick a new church. And so, your family sits down and takes out a piece of paper. On that piece of paper you start to list what you are looking for in a different church, since Holy Cross doesn’t exist anymore. What would you put on that piece of paper, as the criteria for what you are looking for in another church? Would you put down there, "We are looking for a church that has a lot of things for our youth to do. We are looking for a church that has a lot of fun activities for adults to be involved in. We are looking for a church that has a lot of fun music."
While all of those things may be somewhat important things, none of those things are the absolute critical thing. What is the purpose of going to church? The purpose of going to church is to be strengthened in faith in Jesus, our Savior. How is our faith strengthened? The Bible tells us,
"No one can say
Jesus is Lord,
except by the Holy Spirit."
Only the Holy Spirit can build us up and strengthen us in our faith. We can’t do it on our own.
And so we must ask ourselves, "Where does the Holy Spirit promise to work to strengthen me in my faith, keep me in my faith, and build me up in my faith?"
The Bible gives us a very simple answer. The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit works only through Word and Sacrament. There is a Bible passage that says,
"Faith comes from hearing the message,
and the message is heard through the Word of Christ."
Jesus said,
"Lead them in the way of truth.
Your Word is truth."
Jesus said that He would send the Spirit of truth. The Spirit would lead us in the way of truth. We know the Holy Spirit is the one who builds us up in our faith. He does it through the truth.
The truth is found in the Word of God.
We know that the Holy Spirit does not work through falsehood, does not work through false teaching and false doctrine. He can’t work through those things.
The Holy Spirit works through the truth.
And so, if you were to choose where to go to church, if Holy Cross didn’t exist, you would want to find a church that teaches the Word of God in its truth and its purity, and administers the Sacraments in their truth and their purity. We know that would be a place where the work of the Holy Spirit would be unhindered by any falsehood. And, there would not be the danger of me being led astray by false doctrine. The Holy Spirit would work there, to build me up and keep me in my faith.
Unity in doctrine is important for our souls, because the Holy Spirit promises to work through truth, and unity is always based on truth. Our scripture reading says that the early Christians devoted themselves, they "devoted themselves, to the apostles’ teaching (that is truth, as it is found in scripture), and to the fellowship, (that is unity based on the truth), and to the breaking of bread and to prayer", (breaking of bread is a scriptural word for the Lord’s Supper and the breaking of bread and prayer is the scriptural word for the worship services).
They devoted themselves to those things. Why? One of our congregations in our synod had a Christian Day School, just like we do. They had two young people who got confirmed one year, along with the rest of the confirmation class. A young man and young woman got confirmed. They knew what scripture said. They confessed their faith in Jesus as their Savior, as the only way to Heaven.
After they got confirmed, the pastor didn’t see them again. For ten years, he didn’t see them, again.
One day there was a knock at the door of the church. The pastor went to the door and there was this young couple, this young man and young woman, who he hadn’t seen for ten years. He said, "Oh, it is so good to see you!"
They said, "It is good to see you, too, Pastor. We are going to get married and we would like you to marry us."
So the pastor said, "Come on in and let’s sit down and talk."
So, as they were sitting down and talking, the pastor said to them, "You know, now that you are getting married, I really want to encourage you to get back to church and use the Word, and the Means of Grace in your life."
The young man looked at the pastor and said, "Pastor, I don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, do I?"
The pastor looked at the young man and said, "Well, that is true. You don’t have to go to church to be a Christian, but I have question for you. If you were to die tonight, and God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into my Heaven’, what would you answer?"
The young man thought a little bit and said, "Well, Pastor, I know that I have not gone to church the way I should, but I do say my prayers and I know that I am not as bad as a lot of other people."
What was he depending upon? He was depending upon his good works.
Then the pastor asked the young woman the same question, and she said, "I don’t know what I would say to God."
The pastor looked at that young couple and said, "I want you both to see what happened. Ten years ago, you both knew the right answer to that question. You knew, ten years ago, that God lets us into Heaven only because of what Jesus did for us and because we believe in Jesus. But today, neither one of you knew the right answer to that question. Somewhere, during these past ten years, you lost your faith and you didn’t even know it."
Why did they lose their faith? They lost their faith, because they stayed away from the one tool that the Holy Spirit promises to use, to keep us in our faith. That tool is the Word - the Word and Sacrament, where the Holy Spirit works through the truth, to keep us in our faith in Christ, as our Savior.
Our young people today are committing themselves to the faithful use of Word and Sacrament. Let us all commit ourselves to faithful use of Word and Sacrament. Let us be like those early disciples and devote ourselves to the apostle’s teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer. And let us be united in faith in Jesus, as our Savior, and united around the truth.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
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