Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: 1. Peter 1,3-9. Quasimodogeniti

Monday, April 4, 2016

1. Peter 1,3-9. Quasimodogeniti

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

1. Peter 1,3-9 2416

Quasimodogeniti 036

Agape, Chionia, Irene, Virgins, Martyrs at Thessalonia, 304

3. April 2016

1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank You, that of Your, ineffable grace, for the sake of Your Son, You have given us the holy gospel, and have instituted the Holy Sacraments, so that through the same we may have comfort and forgiveness of sin: We beseech You, grant us Your Holy Spirit, so that we may heartily believe Your Word; and through the Holy Sacraments day by day establish our faith, until we at last obtain salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (Veit Dietrich for the Quasimodogeniti)

2. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith – more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your lives.

3. St. John the Apostle and Evangelist tells us this morning in his Gospel: »Then Jesus said to Thomas: „Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.“ Thomas answered Him: „My Lord and my God!“ Jesus said to him: „Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed“« (John 20,27-29). We are those whom Jesus said are blessed: we have not seen the risen Jesus; we have not touched Him; nevertheless, we believe in the risen Jesus for we have heard the proclamation of the gospel and the Holy Spirit created faith in this Jesus.

4. The Apostle Peter lists some specific fruits of our faith in the risen Jesus:

i. we are born again to a living hope

ii. we have an inheritance that is imperishable,

undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for us

iii. God’s power guards our faith for the salvation to

be revealed in the last time

iv. our faith is tested by trials of fire so as to purify it.

5. To believe in Jesus is to be born again. Jesus and Nicodemus had this discussion in John 3. Jesus told him: »Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the reign of God. No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life« (John 3,5.12-14). To be born again is to simply believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. This faith in the crucified and risen Jesus is a faith with a living hope. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us: »Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen« (Hebrews 11,1).

6. Our living hope is in God’s promise of the imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for us. This hope and inheritance is grounded upon Christ Jesus Himself. Jesus ascended to heaven 40 days after His resurrection to prepare this inheritance for us. Jesus told the apostles on Maundy Thursday: »In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, then would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, then I will return and will take you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also« (John 14,2-3). Jesus also promised us that at His ascension His Father will send to us the Holy Spirit to guide us and encourage us in the steadfastness of faith (John 14,26).

7. Jesus will return with our heavenly inheritance on the last day. The Apostle Paul tells us that on the last day Jesus will give every Christian a crown of righteousness (2. Timothy 4,8).

8. As we await our Lord’s return, He will purify our faith in Him by testing us with trials. This discipline is intended to strengthen and purify our faith in Him, just as fire purifies and refines gold by removing other metallic impurities (1. Peter 1,7). The Apostle James encourages us by writing: »Count it all joy, for the testing of our faith produces steadfastness« (James 1,2-3).

9. Thomas saw the risen Jesus and He believed. We have not seen the risen Jesus and we believe. This not seeing yet believing is part of the test that the Holy Spirit gives us. We have heard the proclamation of the apostles who saw and believed, and in this preaching the Holy Spirit created faith within us. The Apostle Peter tells us: »Although you have not seen Jesus, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your lives.« And Jesus tells us: »Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed« (John 20,29).

10. John and the other Gospel evangelists wrote their Gospels so that we could read their testimony and believe in the risen Jesus. Paul and the other apostles wrote their Epistles so that we could read their proclamation of what the risen Christ means to us and the world. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to remain faithful to the gospel we have heard and received, namely that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the grave on the third day. There is not any other gospel, and if we hear a different gospel than that of the Gospels and Epistles, then we are to mark such gospels and preachers as false. At. Paul exhorts us to remain steadfast to the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ (Galatians 1,6-9), for this gospel proclaims that we are only justified through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 2,15-16). We believe even when the world refuses to believe the gospel. We believe in spite of the persecution and mockery the world heaps upon us for having faith in the risen Jesus. We believe as Thomas believes, and we confess as he confesses: Jesus, You are my Lord and my God! In this gospel we live, hope and trust unto life everlasting. Amen and Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Thou has done great things for us, particularly rising from the grave, so that believing in Your resurrection from the dead we hope in our own resurrection by Your hand on the last day. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Monday, April 4, 2016

1. Peter 1,3-9. Quasimodogeniti

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