Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen.

“And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women….” It’s amazing what the Holy Spirit can accomplish, isn’t it? In some respects, the Holy Spirit gets the short end of the stick when it comes to the Trinity: God the Father does the creating and God the Son does the work of redemption. The Holy Spirit makes a few prominent appearances, like at the Baptism of Jesus, but otherwise, the Holy Spirit isn’t mentioned a lot, until you get to books like Acts, where the Holy Spirit is seen to be very active.

If you remember from your days in Confirmation, for some it’s more recent than others, you will remember that the work of the Holy Spirit is to create and sustain faith in an individual. We confess with Martin Luther, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” Luther goes on, but suffice to say, the work of the Holy Spirit is important to the life of a Christian, to your life, and to all those who believe.

But the true work of God is not always popular. At the time of Jesus, we see just that with the Pharisees and Sadducees. In fact, we see that today in our reading from Acts – “But the high priest rose up, and all who were him (that is, the party of the Sadducees), and filled with jealousy they arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison.” Preaching the true Gospel clearly did not sit well with the religious leaders of the day because it weakened their powerbase and popularity. Nonetheless, the apostles were not interested in popularity, but rather of Jesus’ command – “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

The teaching that we have is what gives us eternal life. It is that teaching that makes us children of God, called by the Holy Spirit, and it is that teaching that keeps us in the true faith. But just as we hold that faith near and dear to us, there are those outside these doors that could care less for this faith; even worse, they will do all that they can to debunk the Christian faith because in their eyes, it is nothing more than rubbish.

What we must remember, each and every one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, is the power of the Word of God. Simon Peter reminds us, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” The important part of what he says comes at the beginning: “You have the words of eternal life…” You will not find any other words of eternal life aside from what God has authored, from what Jesus has done for us.

So, Sadie, since today is all about you, let’s pick on you for a moment. I’m sure that since you are mere moments away from being confirmed in the faith, that must mean you have all the right answers to all the right questions. We’ve covered the Small Catechism twice now, so I’m sure you have it all memorized, right? Looking around the sanctuary this morning, I see many others who have been in your shoes: they have gone through Confirmation, they have learned the Small Catechism, though I hope it’s not too rusty. They have even been confirmed, just like you will be. But for many sitting in the pews, their Confirmation Day was many years ago, and yet here they still sit. Why is that?

The life of a Christian does not end with Confirmation Sunday. The life of a Christian continues all the days of your life. From the moment that baptismal water hits your head, you belong to God, and you will belong to God everyday of your life, even after your heavenly Father calls you home. All of these people know that, and yet here they sit, week after week, as they should, as you should. They come because this is where God said to come, to the place where He is to be found, to the place where He promises to deliver His gifts.

The apostles, after the resurrection, needed these gifts but were fearful of their lives because of what had happened to Jesus. They knew that the same could very well happen to them, and so they hid and locked themselves in a room that no one could get into – no one that is, except Jesus. Jesus comes and stands beside them, saying “Peace be with you.” Jesus comes to them, to assure them that He has risen from the dead as He said He would and that there should be no need of fear.

It’s a great little exchange between Jesus and the apostles, except for one thing: Thomas isn’t there to hear it. And so, when he is told what had happened, he refused to believe: “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” That’s very much the attitude we can have, but it’s one that we shouldn’t have. You and I have not seen Jesus in the flesh, either before or after His resurrection, but that doesn’t change the fact that Christ has lived, Christ has died, and Christ has risen again.

Martin Luther once wrote that the devil’s greatest and deadliest arrow in his evil quiver is the arrow of doubt, which he fires with deadly sniper precision into the hearts of all believers in Christ. Thomas and the disciples were not immune to this. You and I are not immune to this either. Don’t we doubt that God will do what He says He will? Don’t we doubt the gifts that God gives to us in His Sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper?

You and I do not have the luxury of gazing upon the resurrected Jesus and believing as did Thomas. Instead, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which creates faith in us. It’s one thing to see and believe, but a complete other to believe solely based upon faith and without seeing. That’s us. That’s the Church today. Centuries after Christ’s death, people believed and continue to believe today. They did not have Christ to hold their hands as did the disciples, or to show His wounds to strengthen their weak faith as did Thomas. No, they believed based upon the faith that was granted to them by the Holy Spirit. They were able to confess with Thomas, just as we are: “My Lord and my God!” That is why Sadie, today is a special day for you, but it’s not. While today you will be confirmed in the faith granted to you at your Baptism, it’s just another Sunday for the Christian, another day where we are privileged to come and gather around God’s means of grace for us.

We have been given this wonderful gift of faith, the ability to believe what Christ did for us on Calvary’s cross, and now we see that because of that action, we are given life in His name. To those who believe receive redemption, salvation, and eternal life through Jesus Christ. This comes to us in the gift of Baptism, where we have God’s name placed upon us. This comes to us in the gift of the Lord’s Supper, where we feast upon the body and blood of Jesus and receive His forgiveness. It comes to us each time we hear the words of Absolution pronounced over us. It will come to us again when we leave this world and enter into the heavenly mansion prepared for us.

We have received life and received it abundantly. Given to us so that we may live, one life had to be sacrificed, and that life is Jesus Christ. The peace of Christ is with us. It comes to us when we are forgiven. It comes to us as we believe in Christ and all that He has done for us. New life is given to us, a life that is not deserved, but given to us with nothing done on our part. This new life washes over us and we are made clean by the blood of the Lamb, shed for the sins of the many, including you and me. Dear friends in Christ, “Peace be with you.” Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Epistle, which was read earlier.

Jesus’ resurrection changed everything. When you’ve been rescued from a lethal situation or restored to health, there’s a new sense of life. The psalmist writes, “I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.” The psalmist delights in the Lord because “when I was brought low, he saved me.” In today’s Epistle, Peter revels in the kindness of our Father. He rescued us from our dire predicament. Not only did He pour out His Son’s blood to ransom us, but He raised Him from the dead, changing everything for us. Peter proclaims to us that the resurrected Jesus makes you eternally free.

Peter says, “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” From our forefathers, from our first parents, we inherited a disease, one that cannot be cured by conventional means. We inherited the curse of sin and there is nothing that you or I could do about it. Sadly, there are many that think they can do something to purge their sinfulness. They will use such things as silver or gold and they will find themselves unable to ultimately do anything for their sins.

But silver or gold or things of this world cannot and will not do anything to cure the curse of sin. Peter’s words here serve as part of Luther’s Explanation to the Second Article: “not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death….” Things such as silver and gold are here today and gone tomorrow. They are temporal things and will eventually wear out. But Jesus is forever. Jesus is eternal. Jesus’ death and resurrection are the only means of salvation, that through His blood shed upon Calvary’s cross, sin is defeated.

St. Peter is very specific with his words and with good reason. He speaks of God’s people being “ransomed.” It means they were redeemed and delivered from the punishment of sin. When we speak of terms of ransom, it usually means something is paid in order to redeem or buy back. And in the case of our sins, the price paid is none other than the life of Jesus Christ. His blood was shed, “like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” And so we sing that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, doing so by His blood shed upon Calvary’s cross.

That would be great if everyone thought like that but they don’t. As we see at the time of Christ, salvation did not come through the Messiah but by man’s adherence to the Law of God. This would be fine if it were possible for us to keep God’s Law but we can’t. In order to keep the Law of God, one must be like God, meaning perfect and holy. But man is the furthest from being perfect and holy. Man is the complete opposite of who and what God is, therefore making any attempt by man of keeping the Law impossible. But that’s not what was taught by the religious leaders of the day. It was taught by the Pharisees that you could keep God’s Law, or rather, they could keep God’s Law perfectly.

That thinking is alive and well today. Many think that salvation is based on what they can do. But if that were the case, then Jesus would be pointless. Jesus is what brings about salvation, and if you can earn salvation yourself, then Jesus is nothing more than a figurehead. Luther dealt with that thinking. He was taught by the Church that salvation is achieved by Jesus and your own actions. The more he tried, the more he found that he was further away from salvation by his own works. And so Luther says, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith.”

Apart from Christ, there is no hope. If Christ is not risen from the dead, then the world’s thinking make sense. It can be no other way. But our Epistle does not end there. It says, “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” To put it another way: Christ is risen from the dead.

My dear confirmands, heed these words: “the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” You have heard me preach the same thing for more than the last two years: You are a damned sinner, but Christ has come to forgive you your sins. That’s the basis of my sermons week in and week out. You might be tempted to think to yourself that you don’t need to hear that sermon anymore because you already know what will be preached. But I urge you to reconsider. Yes, the message is the same, but it is a message that you and I need to hear, not just every Sunday, but every day of our lives. We need to hear of our sin and what that means for us – death and the wrath of God. We need to hear of Christ and the lengths He goes to forgive us our sins and make restitution with God so that we may stand before Him as forgiven children.

Right now, you are wearing a robe. This robe marks that you have been covered in Christ’s righteousness and that you have been forgiven all of your sins. But for many, when you wear a robe, you think of one thing: graduation. You will wear a robe when you graduate high school. That robe signifies that you will be leaving high school and moving on to other things. When you graduate college, once again you will wear a robe, signifying that all of your hard work has led up to that day called graduation. But in the church, confirmation is not graduation. Looking out into the congregation, I see a congregation full of people who, like you, went through confirmation and probably wore a robe on the day they were confirmed. But here they sit, many, many years following their confirmation. Do not think of confirmation as graduation, for there is only one that a person “graduates” from church – that is, when Christ calls us home to be with Him forever. And even then, you only “graduate” from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant, but you remain part of the Church.

For all of us, young and old, sin reduced you to grass, withering and falling to death. But that is not for you anymore. Jesus Christ became flesh just like you. He was born, He lived and He died: but His body did not see corruption. He rose again three days later. By His life and death and resurrection, He reversed the curse of sin. He restored to you everlasting life. In other words, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us—and now the Word of the Lord remains forever.

Christ is risen from the dead! Therefore, while life in this world is temporary, it is not the end. Death remains the enemy, yes; but it remains the conquered enemy under your Savior’s feet. Hear this news: you have been ransomed. The price has been paid for your sins: “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of lamb without spot or blemish.” Because of sin, your lot was a temporary life in this world, followed by an eternal death far worse than you could imagine. But the eternal Son of God, foreknown before the foundation of the world, came into this world and paid the price for your sin. He redeemed you at the cost of His own blood. And having paid that price to redeem you, He will not leave you or forsake you. That is His promise, His Word: and the Word of the Lord remains forever.

Our holiness comes in the forgiveness of sins, which is nothing other than living our Baptism.  We are to be holy; so God makes us holy. He has set us apart, that we would receive His gifts with thanksgiving.  To this end He has raised His Son Jesus from the dead, so that our faith and our hope are in God.  God gives us this faith and hope as He has given us His Holy Spirit at our Baptism, who creates in us saving faith in Jesus Christ, the faith He strengthens through the preaching of the Gospel and through Holy Absolution, the same faith He feeds and nourishes through the body and blood of the Lord.  By the work of the Holy Spirit, we are holy, made holy through the Word and Sacraments, for in these Means of Grace our risen Lord has attached Himself, to give His gifts to you and for you!

Today, the same Savior comes to you. He speaks His Word to you. He is the Host of the meal, giving you His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. He has died and He is risen, so that He might wash you clean, purify you with His own blood. He lives forever; and because He lives forever, so will you. You’re not grass anymore: in Christ, eternal life is yours. This is the Good News that is preached to you, the Word of the Lord that endures forever: you are forgiven for all of your sins. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon is the Acts reading, which was read earlier.

There is bad news and good news for you today from the mouth of Peter. The bad news: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” But there is also good news for you as well: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Within the same statement, there is both bad news and good news. Often times, a statement has either bad news or good news, not both. However, for Peter, as he begins his wonderful sermon, this statement is filled with both bad and good news.

As far as the bad news goes, it’s rather more of a statement: “this Jesus whom you crucified.”That is not something that you want to here, that you are the one who sent Jesus to be crucified. Peter announces this to “all the house of Israel.” In other words, he is addressing everyone. For you confirmands, that also applies to you. You helped to crucify Jesus Christ.

Imagine what that must have felt like when the people heard that statement. Even the disciples were standing there as well and that statement was addressed to them also. With the exception of Judas, the disciples could never think of doing anything to harm Christ. And now Peter is telling them that it was they who crucified Christ. It was all those who were there who crucified Christ. It was all of Israel who crucified Christ. A large portion of the crowd might have been present at Christ’s crucifixion but none of them hammered the nails into Christ themselves. What Peter meant by his statement was that it was their sins that sent Christ to the cross. It was the sins of the disciples. It was the sins of the crowd. It was the sins of all of Israel. It was your sins.

The statement that Peter makes is one that cuts deep because it’s not a message that anyone wants to hear because it makes us come to reality with ourselves. It makes us acknowledge that we are sinners. It makes us acknowledge that because of our sins Christ had to go to the cross in the first place.

Those who were gathered there felt a huge amount of pain at the words of Peter. “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”” They were willing to do whatever it took to right the situation. They wanted to feel better, if not for Christ’s sake, for their own. The shame they felt was enough to kill them. The disciples, especially, had the utmost respect for their Teacher. There was so much that He taught them, so much more they could have learned. But when they saw their Master crucified, they ran. They hid. They were ashamed and afraid. Now they are together. Feelings of shame and fear overtake them and the crowd. They were greatly troubled that they had sinned against God and killed the Christ.

The feelings that they felt 2000 years ago we feel today as well. It is hard not to. What if I told you that you alone were the cause of death of the Savior? What would you feel? If only your sins were present, Christ would have died for your sins. Why? Death entered through the craftiness of Satan and ruined what God had created, what had been deemed “ good” and “very good.” There was only one way to purge that death: through the death of an innocent. That’s where the good news comes in to play.

Peter says that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. It means that because He is both Lord and Christ, His death and resurrection have proven to be sufficient payment to God. Solely by what He has done for us on the cross, all those sins from Adam unto the present have been paid for. They have been atoned by the blood of Jesus that was shed upon the cross. For you five young adults, that blood ran over you in your Baptism and now you come before the Lord’s altar and confirm that faith granted to you all those years ago.

So what is left to the Christian, both then and now to do? We’ve already run in shame. We’ve already mourned and now are taking responsibility for our actions, that we have crucified Christ. There is only one thing left for us: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Peter here uses the word “repent” simply to mean “believe.” This involves a changing of the mind effected by the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel in which an unbeliever becomes a believer. Peter invites the crowd to trust the forgiveness Jesus had already accomplished.

This repentance is not a condition for receiving forgiveness as the text implies: “for the forgiveness of your sins.” Such a thought would make forgiveness dependent upon human action. We are “dead in [our] transgressions and sins.”This repentance is all God’s doing by grace. Peter ties the forgiveness of sins to faith, baptism, and the Holy Spirit. When God empowers believers to share the Gospel, the Holy Spirit works through it to create faith in the hearts of unbelievers and to nourish the faith of those who already believe.

For the five of you, today is the day where your faith is called into question, for this is the day where you speak on your own behalf, to confirm that faith granted to you, that faith which your baptismal sponsors stood in place of you and affirmed, that you would be raised in the faith, that you would be taught the Lutheran doctrine. In just a few moments, you will have that opportunity to affirm that faith which was granted to you in your baptism. The questions that will be asked of you are not questions to be taken lightly, for they truly are life and death questions, questions which have been asked to countless Christians before you and will be asked to countless Christians after you. Of all the questions that will be asked of you in your lives, there can be no greater question than this: “Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?”

It is because we are dead that Jesus has come. It is because we need to have our sins forgiven that Jesus has come. It is because of God’s great love for His creation that Jesus has come. It is because of this wonderful gift that we are able to stand before God our heavenly Father and receive His graciousness, His invitation to be His beloved children. That comes from our repentance and baptism in Jesus’ name.

The best part of Peter’s sermon is what he leaves out: your action. Aside from repentance, which is the part of man, there is nothing else for you to do. All the action is solely the work of God for us. That is the way it is meant to be. That’s the way that Jesus spoke His entire ministry – He is the subject of the verbs, He is the one who is doing the action. We graciously receive all that He has to offer, namely the forgiveness, life, and salvation that comes about because of what Jesus Christ has done.

We have heeded the words of Peter through our baptism. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith….” Through our baptism, we have been marked as children of God. Through the Lord’s Supper, we continue to sustain our faith by the food that Christ gave to the disciples and to His Church.

Take heart, for “this Jesus whom you crucified”, has taken your sin from you. You have died in Christ and have been forgiven all of your sins through His death and resurrection.

Before we get to the part that you five have been waiting for all day, let me make one last request, no, rather an invitation. Come see me next Sunday, for I will have a gift for you. And I will have a gift for you the Sunday after that and the Sunday after that and every Sunday until Christ our Lord calls you home. Your coming and receiving these gifts aren’t of value to me or even to your parents, but are of great value to you, for these are the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.