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

Language is a funny thing. When you look at words, how they’re formed, what they mean, it is interesting to see how they came to be. There are words that long and words that are short. We have words that are easy to pronounce and words that are not easy to pronounce. One word in the English language is 28 letters long, antidisestablishmentarianism. It’s a word that you won’t hear a lot. There’s even a 45-letter word, but I won’t begin to try to pronounce that word. But there is one word in the English language that is a very difficult word for us to comprehend. That word is not a long word; rather, it is only 2 letters long. The word is “if.” It is conditional. It indicates that should you do this, then you will receive that. It requires action, usually on your part, to receive the intended results that you desire.

That is how Jesus begins His discourse here. He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we don’t love Jesus. Because of our sinful nature, we want absolutely nothing to do with God. We utterly despise Him and everything that He stands for. We can’t love Jesus on our merits or work, and we surely can’t keep His commandments. That should be the end of it all. We don’t want God, we hate God, and we despise God. So in turn, God should not want us. God should hate us. God should despise us. But that is not the way it is. God chose to love us when we were unlovable in our sin. Through His great love and mercy, He gave to us His only-begotten Son. By the work of Jesus Christ, we have been given the gift of Jesus and His forgiveness, won for us on the cross.

Jesus knows that we cannot love Him. God knows that we cannot love Him, yet that doesn’t stop them from loving us. God loved us when we were unlovable and promised Jesus. Jesus loved us when we were unlovable and gave Himself to us and promised the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have been promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Here, Jesus tells us, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Really? God would promise us a Savior for breaking His one command of not eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Jesus would give to us Himself even when we are incapable of doing what He says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Speaking for myself, I know that I’m not perfect. And speaking for all of you, I know that you’re not perfect either. None of us are perfect, nor has there been anyone who is perfect, except for Jesus Christ. He is the one and only who has ever been or ever will be perfect. You and I are far from perfect. In fact, we are so far beyond perfect that the only thing you and I should receive is death and damnation. Yet, despite all of that, God still loves us. Despite our grievous sins, God still loves us enough to send to us a Savior. Despite our grievous sins, Jesus still loves us to send us the gift of the Holy Spirit for the building up of our faith.

Through the gifts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Jesus continues to come to us, just as He says He would. Through these simple and ordinary means of water, bread, and wine, Jesus gives to us that which we need most – His forgiveness, His life, His salvation. He gives to us freely and gives out of His great and abundant mercy.

You are His disciples, and because you are His disciples, He promises to keep you in His care and does so through the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, there is one problem with that as well. On account of our sin, we fall short of keeping God’s gifts as we should. We neglect to be in God’s Word, both privately and corporately. We do not hunger and thirst for the Sacrament which Christ gives of His own body and blood. We do not love our neighbor as we should. There is a reason for this: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” From the greatest to the least, we all have sinned; we all have missed the mark. But the Lord knows that the only way we can even begin to keep His gifts holy and sacred is if we receive help, so He sends another Helper, another Advocate. The Holy Spirit is our second advocate. He helps us in our weakness. He especially helps us by bringing to remembrance the words of Jesus, by bearing witness to Jesus, and by taking what is Jesus’ and showing it to us. He helps us by giving us the truth, the true knowledge of God, and by actually remaining not only alongside us, but in us, for “he dwells with you and will be in you.”

It is through this Helper, through the Holy Spirit, that you and I are given the miraculous gift of faith, faith not in ourselves, but in God who is the One who makes promises and keeps them.

Christ promises to keep His disciples in His care by coming to them directly. How does He come to you? He comes in the ways that He has promised – through His Word and through His Sacraments. The writer to the Hebrews says, “In many and various ways, God spoke to His people of old through the prophets. But now, in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son.” He comes to us through His body and His blood, in a meal that you feast upon for the strengthening and nourishing of your faith.

To have Christ means that you have the victor over sin, death, and the power of the devil. Having Christ, then, is to live in faith. And when we have Christ, we also have the Father.

Jesus didn’t just say that He loved you; He showed His love to you. He kept you and keeps you. He kept you from being destroyed by sin when He died for you. He kept you from being destroyed by death when He rose for you, and He keeps you today in His Word and in His Spirit. By Christ and His actions for you, He has shown the love of God to you, and because God has loved you, now you are able to love Jesus, because He has removed from you all of your sins and made you holy by His blood. 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 this morning is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

What a thing to say, and what a time to say it. It is the Last Supper, and the cross is near at hand. Jesus predicts His betrayal, and Judas disappears into the darkness. Peter declares that he will never abandon the Savior; Jesus replies that Peter will deny Him three times before the night is over. Betrayal. Denial. Death. Things are going to crash down soon.

And if Jesus is put to death, where will the disciples go? These are men who care enough about spiritual matters to abandon all and follow Him; but if He is dead, what is left? They could turn to the Pharisees, who preach salvation by way of behavior – that you can be saved by keeping their rules. But Jesus Himself called them “whitewashed tombs”; that is, they look very good and pious on the outside, but inside they are dead in hypocrisy and sin. There’s no salvation there. They could check out the Greeks; in the tradition of Aristotle and Plato, the Greeks still place a high regard on knowledge and truth, and they’ve done so much with philosophy and their study of man, why he is the way he is, and how the world should be. But despite all the knowledge, the world still isn’t that way. No salvation there, either. Then again, there are tons of heathen religions around, pointing to their oracles as ways that people can get in touch with a god and achieve real life; but everyone’s experience is so different that none of it really makes sense in the end. And, in the end, there is no hope.

For you and I, there is indeed hope. Our hope lies not in this world, but it lies in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and what He has done for us. Jesus tells the disciples, “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Our hope lies in the promises that God has made to us through His Son Jesus Christ. Instead of reasons for despair, the disciples realize the good news that the cross of Jesus Christ overcomes troubled hearts with the promises, assurances, and benefits of our great God.

Christ has overcome troubled hearts by commanding faith in His great promises established by the cross. It was through the cross that all the promises God made came to fruition. It was through the cross that the promise of salvation was fulfilled. It was through the cross that you and I received life. Troubled hearts are no match for the Word of Jesus. The disciples, on the night before Jesus was betrayed, had troubled hearts. You and I will have troubled hearts at some point in our lives. Jesus commands faith, not once but twice. He says, “Believe in God; believe also in me.” It is belief in God that brings about faith. It is belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and His redemptive work that brings salvation, for salvation cannot be found in anything other than Jesus and His salvific work for us.

There is no need for troubled hearts, as they are overcome by the Lord’s amazing promise of what God has in store for us. We look at this world and we see how much it has suffered because of sin. We have wars. We have disease. We have death. We all have seen the effects of sin on this world and we ask ourselves, “Is this it? Is there more to this thing called life?” And the answer is no, this isn’t it. There is more to this thing called life, or at least life as we know it. There is salvation. There is forgiveness. There is everlasting life. No matter how good or how bad your life may be on this earth, there is more waiting for you. There is a room in heaven that your Savior has prepared for you. If that isn’t good enough, Jesus also tells us, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” Jesus will personally take us to our eternal rooms, rooms prepared by Jesus when He said from the cross, “It is finished” because there at the cross, Jesus paid for your sin, giving to you that key to your room in heaven.

Then Jesus speaks the all-familiar words to Thomas and the other disciples. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If you want words of assurance and comfort, then these are the words for you. Jesus comforts the disciples with what they had previously learned and experienced. With these words, He reminds us that He is the world’s one Lord and Savior.

These words, Jesus also speaks to you. He spoke these words to you on the cross. He spoke these words to you at your baptism. He speaks these words to you this morning. He speaks these words when you feast upon His body and blood. He speaks these words to you each and every day of your life, and He will speak these words to you as you draw your final breath.

Christ is the one and only source of blessed existence and life for us. In our sin is death, the separation from God. Left to ourselves, we should remain in this separation forever, dead beyond hope. In the person of Jesus, God sent us “the life.” Take away Jesus, and the way, truth, and the life are gone. All hope of God and heaven outside of Jesus is vanity and worse. “Except through me” is absolute and final. Despair would be the order of the day for this world, except for this wonderful news that our Lord declares. Despite the sin and evil of the world, there is a Way. The way is not what we would expect. The way is not a route or a set of directions. Instead, it is a person – Jesus Himself. We cannot travel this route. Instead Jesus must take us. In fact, that is exactly what He promised when He said, “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”

Through the blood that flowed from His body on the cross, Jesus is the way. Through the Scriptures which testify He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, Jesus is the truth. Through His taking our sin and our curse upon Himself, Jesus is the life. What comfort this is to our troubled hearts! In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God which 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 this morning is the Gospel, which was read earlier.

How do you enter your house? If you’re like most people, it’s by one of two ways: either you enter the front door or you enter by your garage door leading into the house. That’s the normal way. Think about what that says. It says that you belong there, that it is your house and you have permission to enter it. Now imagine if you entered your house say through the living room window. It seems odd, doesn’t it? If someone were to drive by and see you entering through the window, what do you think their first thought would be? Obviously, they would think that someone was breaking into the house. You see, when you enter the house through the window, it gives the impression that this isn’t your house, that you don’t belong there.

In our Gospel for today, St. John records for us a parable of Jesus talking about sheep, a shepherd, and robbers. Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.” Imagine before you a pen of sheep. There is one way into the pen – through the door. When the shepherd enters through the door, the sheep recognize him as their shepherd and they follow him around the pen and wherever he would lead them. But if a person enters the sheep pen through an unusual way, the sheep are thrown off. They know that something is amiss.

Shepherds are a major part of the Scriptures. Psalm 23 is probably the most well-known psalm of them all. We all know the beginning words: “The LORD is my shepherd.” Who is your Shepherd? The Lord is your Shepherd. Jesus is your Shepherd. He leads you and He restores you. He comforts you. He prepares a table for you. He anoints your head. He does everything for you. And in our Introit this morning, Jesus tells you one more thing that He does for you. He says, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Today, on this day, the day often called Good Shepherd Sunday, we recognize what our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ did; by dying on the Cross, He laid down His life for His sheep. That is precisely what a shepherd does – lays down his life for the life of the sheep.

Your Lord has laid down His life for you because He loves you. Christ Jesus is our Shepherd out of His pure grace. He did not decide to be our Shepherd because we deserve Him. We deserve the Butcher, not the Shepherd. But Jesus comes to us in love anyway. He nurtures and tenderly cares for us sinners. He truly desires to be the Shepherd for you and for me. He does what any true shepherd does – He gives His life in defense of the sheep. He gives His life in defense of you and me.

Jesus, as the Good Shepherd, does what a shepherd does. He enters by the door. He speaks honestly, without concern for Himself. That’s what any good shepherd does. The shepherd puts the sheep before himself. He will sacrifice himself to insure the safety of the sheep that are entrusted to him.

Jesus our Good Shepherd has gone before us to prepare the way for His flock. He has gone before us to make sure that the way is safe. He has guaranteed that safety by laying down His life for you and for me. He has gone before us and taken our place. He has taken our rightful punishment on Himself so that what is ours now becomes His.

Christ Jesus continues to shepherd His flock today. He leads us beside living waters, and feeds us the best food. In Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, Christ cares for His sheep. He bathes us in Baptism, and washes us with His cleansing Blood, so that we are absolutely clean. He makes us healthy with a proper diet of Word and Sacrament. As He absolves and proclaims and preaches His Gospel, He heals our spiritual diseases and binds up our wounds.

Who cares for sheep better than our Good Shepherd? Who paid a greater price than He? Who is more loving and generous and attentive? Who has faced greater wolves than Jesus faced: sin, death, and the devil?

Your Good Shepherd did all of this for you out of the love for the Father. We have a loving Father who gave to us at so great a cost what we needed the most: salvation.

Christ is your Good Shepherd, who has laid down His life for the sheep, for you. He has gone to the cross to redeem you from sin; He has suffered God’s judgment so that you might be His people. And so the psalm declares, “we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”

Your Good Shepherd has laid down His life for you, and now He has taken it up again. He is risen from the dead, just as He said He would, for the grave cannot silence Him. He declares, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me.” Today you hear His voice, for even today He speaks and His Word does what it says it will do. To you He cries out, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” To you He cries out, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” To you He cries out, “I am the resurrection and life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” He declares this to you in His eternal Word; and by the work of His Holy Spirit, you hear His voice and follow Him. He is your rest. He is your resurrection. He is your life. He is your Good Shepherd.

Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.” When we walk through the door that is Christ, we walk into His death and His resurrection. We walk into His forgiveness. We walk into His holiness. We walk into the new life that is only found in Christ. While the thief “comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, “came that [you] may have life and have it abundantly.”

You are sheep of the Good Shepherd, who has laid His life down for the sheep. Your Shepherd does not come to lead you to slaughter; instead, He has already been led to the cross in order to give you life. He does not come to rob you of all that you have in return for His help, but to give you freely of the grace and salvation He has won. He does not call upon you to work hard to snatch grace from Him by your works and labors; He calls you to freely receive. That is why He leads you beside still waters. That is why He speaks His Word. That is why He prepares a banquet table for you, even in the presence of your enemies.

He has done all these things for you. He is your Good Shepherd. By His Word, He has voiced His salvation to you. He is your Door, and through Him you have come into the Kingdom of heaven. In the name of Jesus, amen. Now the peace of God which 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 this morning comes from the First Reading, which was read earlier.

Just a couple of weeks ago we celebrated one of the most important days in the Church year. This day for us is a day that if it were not a part of Christ’s life, then Christianity would be radically different, probably not even Christianity at all. The day I’m referring to is Good Friday. Without Good Friday, without the crucifixion, there would be no resurrection. There would be no salvation of sins. There would be no Christianity.

Hear these words from St. Peter again: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Let me put it another way: “You crucified your Savior!” That’s pretty much what Peter says to the crowd wondering what all the fire and wind and commotion of Pentecost are about. Everything you’re seeing and hearing – it’s because of something you did when you killed Jesus!

Imagine what that must have felt like when they heard it. The disciples were Christ’s most trusted friends. 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. 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 their sins that hammered the nails. It was their sins that kept him on the cross.

More importantly, it was our sins that sent Christ to the cross. It was our sins that hammered the nails. And it was our sins that kept him on the cross.

They 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.

An African convert put it this way: “When the story of Christ’s death was first read to me, I cursed Judas and Pilate, the Jews and the soldiers. But when I understood it, I cursed myself, for I, too, have crucified Christ.” No truer words have been spoken. It is easy to place the blame on someone else, as he originally did, though it is very hard to accept one’s own actions, especially if we “didn’t” do it. We don’t want to be on the hook for Christ’s crucifixion. We love Jesus. We would never want to hurt Him, much less kill Him. Surely this can’t be us! But it is us. We are guilty of Christ’s death.

Luther put the blame of killing Christ squarely where it belongs – on himself, on you, and on me. Who killed Jesus? You did. I did. We all did. Confess it, because it is true. What Peter said on the first Pentecost is spoken rightly to us all this morning: “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

So what is left to the Christian, both then and now to do? We’ve already ran 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.

Unless you are willing to take the rap and be in the company of the real and hardened sinners who killed Jesus, then you are putting yourself outside that astonished group of killers whom He justified by His blood. If you will not confess your crime with the crowd that Peter preached to, if you will not admit “God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified”, then you simply will not know the power of His forgiveness, because forgiveness of sin is what Peter proclaims to those who crucified Jesus.

What about the ones who are not guilty of His death, not guilty of any sins? What about them? Listen to these words from 1 John – they should sound very familiar to you: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” We’re all guilty, whether we want to admit it or not. We are guilty to the very fiber of our being, guilty of crucifying our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, by our sins. But even for as guilty as we are, there’s forgiveness. The psalmist writes, “If You, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared.” You and I, as guilty as we are, have been forgiven of murder. In fact, Christ death brought about the resurrection of our death, because we are born spiritually dead because of our sin. Through His life, death, and resurrection, you and I have been given this wonderful gift of forgiveness, given to us in our Baptism into Christ.

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 which 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. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God which 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 this morning comes from the Epistle, which was read earlier.

The day which we celebrate Easter has come and gone for another year, but the meaning of Easter goes beyond just a single day. Rather, it lasts for 50 days. The reason why: there is too much joy to keep in just a single day. Our text for today highlights the importance of Easter: resurrection.

Peter writes, “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” In the opening sentences of his letter, Peter twice calls to mind the election of God’s children from eternity. God has chosen each of us to be His own. The Holy Spirit makes us confident of this through faith in God’s promises. Though our faith makes us “strangers in the world,” yet we have “grace and peace … in abundance,” knowing the love of the Father who chose us, of the Son who died in our place, and of the Spirit who sanctifies us.

One must ask themself this question: Why? Why would God do what He did? Why would God promise to send a Savior, a Savior who would be His only-begotten Son, only to have Him die? Christ’s death brought about His resurrection – not only for Himself but for all believers as well. That translates into a resurrection for you and for me. But we’re still left with the why. Peter tells us it is “according to his great mercy.” It’s is God’s mercy for His beloved creation that He did what He did and that He continues to do what He does.

God was not content with having His creation die in sin. From the very moment that man fell, He promised a Savior. This was His beloved creation. It was so beloved by God that He declared man to be “very good.” In creating the world, He deemed it only as “good.” But man, on the other hand, created in the image of God, that is holy and perfect, without sin, only man was deemed to be “very good.”

What God gives to us is a gift. It is a gift like no other gift. This is a gift that you can’t buy at Wal-Mart. This is a gift that you can’t order off of the Internet. It’s a gift that you cannot repay, for it is a gift that is given freely. This is truly a one of a kind gift. This gift brings with it eternal blessings, such as the forgiveness of sins, everlasting life, and salvation.

Having been brought to faith, we are different from the way we were before. We have been reborn with the restored image of God. Our Old Adam has to take the back seat. The new man is now at the wheel – with a lot of help from his lifelong driving instructor known as the Holy Spirit. And though the Old Adam is there right behind us, “through faith” we “by God’s power are being guarded.” The Old Adam in the back seat keeps trying to grab the wheel, but our faith is the metal-mesh screen between the front and back seats, as in police cars, preventing him from taking control. And it is the power of God, ours through the means of grace, that makes the screen strong enough to resist even the most savage attacks of the Old Adam. Oh, he may distract us with all his screaming and hollering and thus cause us to swerve occasionally, but he cannot take control unless we ourselves let our guard down. Our “living hope” is that Christ, who has conquered sin and death, has given us the promise of eternal life.

So what are we supposed to do with this wonderful gift given to us? We rejoice! You and I have been given such a wonderful gift by God in the resurrection of Jesus that we should do nothing less than rejoice! We rejoice because our sins have been forgiven. We rejoice because we have been given everlasting life. We rejoice because we have been called children of God. Why wouldn’t we rejoice at that!

But as St. Peter says, our rejoicing is for a little while, because “you have been grieved by various trials.” There are many trials that we face in our lives. Throughout these trials, our faith must be anchored in Jesus Christ, for He is “the founder and perfecter of our faith.” All of this is done to test the genuineness of your faith. It is the Lord who declares it necessary for us to undergo these trials, compared by Peter to the test used to prove if gold is genuine or not. Peter had tasted the bitterness of failing such a test, but he also knew the sweetness of Christ’s forgiveness and promise of future help. We, too, have God’s promise that no trial will be more than we can bear, for our faith and our eternal salvation are worth far more than perishable gold.

Just as Jesus tells Thomas in our Gospel reading today, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” Peter makes the same point in our text. He says, “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 souls.” Peter also heard that as blessed as Thomas and the rest were by Christ’s reassuring presence, those who would not see Jesus but would still believe in him would likewise be blessed. We look forward to something we have not seen and which was promised to us by someone whom we have not met. The world calls this foolishness. We call it a miracle.

The fact that you and I have been given faith is indeed a miracle. God chose to love us when we were unlovable in our sin. Through His great love and mercy, He gave to us His only-begotten Son. By the work of Jesus Christ, we have been given the gift of Jesus and His forgiveness, won for us on the cross.

What God has given to us is truly a gift, a gift that is given to us freely, a gift that requires nothing from us. At first glance, it might appear to be a little strange. We feel a bit uncomfortable receiving something without keeping score so that we make certain of returning a similar amount. But if this is truly a gift, that means the recipient has not earned it because the earning aspect would take away the gift aspect. That’s precisely the point! Salvation is given to us without any merit or worthiness on our part – and without our having to prove to anyone that we have earned it. This gift of salvation had been made available for all of us by God.

For Peter, there is great cause for joy. The cause for joy in our relationship with God is not that we have discovered Him, but the simple realization that He claims us as His own. Being called a child of God with your sins forgiven – there truly is no better gift than that! In Jesus’ name, amen. Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, amen. The text for the sermon comes from the Gospel, which was read earlier.

What a week this has been! This time a week ago, crowds were gathered as Jesus rode into Jerusalem. They laid their cloaks upon the ground to make a path for Jesus to walk upon. They shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” While confused a bit and not fully understanding who this King was riding into Jerusalem, they shouted His praises. Unfortunately, this praise would be short lived.

Tuesday marks the beginning of the end with Judas Iscariot going to the chief priests and betraying his Master for the price of thirty pieces of silver. On Thursday, He instituted His Supper for the disciples and for us. But when Friday comes, it is a complete 180° from what we saw on Sunday. The kangaroo court trial which Jesus faced was nothing more than a mockery of justice. Peter, the right hand of Jesus, the steadfast disciple, denied Jesus not once, not twice, but three times. The people, when given a choice of having either Barabbas or Jesus released. Barabbas the prisoner, tried and guilty, or Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God who is guilty of nothing. What should have been a no-brainer turned into quite the opposite. The crowd shouted for Barabbas to be released. While Pilate tried to speak to their senses of having Jesus released, the response was “Let him be crucified!”

When Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, everything changes. There, we see how God has turned His back on His Son. You may think that it is a cruel and heartless thing for God to do. How could any father turn his back on his son, let alone God the Father turn His back on Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son? But this was necessary. It was necessary for you. It was necessary for me. It was necessary for your sins and mine. All of this was set in motion from the beginning, from the fall into sin; this plan of salvation was begun.

Following our Lord’s three day rest in the tomb, Jesus emerges from the tomb triumphant over sin and death. When the women arrive at the tomb, the tomb is empty. There were at least two things the women were expecting to find. First, the large stone to still be in place at the opening of the tomb. Now, that stone was rolled away. The second thing they expected to find was a dead Jesus in the tomb. When I say dead, I mean dead as a doornail dead, three-day flesh rotting Jesus dead. Instead, there is nothing there except the burial linens.

Today, we do not come here looking for a dead Jesus. The angels at the tomb tell the women and us that Jesus is not here and He is not dead. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.”

It’s been three days. Here we are standing at the mouth of the tomb and what do we see when we look into it? Nothing, for Christ is not there because He is risen from the dead. That is what this day is all about – resurrection. It is about how Christ is no longer dead, but has been raised from the dead.

When you and I die, we die eternally. We do not survive death – we are annihilated by it. When we die, we remain dead. That’s the way it is, unless God chooses to do something to dispute the power of death. But because Christ has been raised from the dead, we too will be raised from the dead. When this mortal life comes to an end, we need fear nothing, because we have received the gift of being raised to new life in Christ Jesus.

Here these words from St. John. “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” These words are spoken by Jesus to Martha just after the death of Lazarus. Martha needed a reminder of what Jesus was all about. He had to remind her that though Lazarus was dead, he would not remain dead. You and I receive that reminder each and every Sunday when we come here to this place and hear about the great love that God has for us, in that He would send His one and only Son into this sin-filled world to give to us the greatest gift we could ever receive: Himself.

Who could blame the women for disbelieving? Angels, “in dazzling apparel”? The dead body of a Man coming back to life? They had seen Jesus raise other people from the dead 3 times: Jairus’ daughter, a young man from Nain, and Lazarus. But Jesus had died. Who could raise Him from the dead? God could and God did.

If we believe that Jesus is not risen, then He could not save us. If He was merely a man, then He would not be worth worshiping. But if you do believe He rose, then you know that Christ is more than a Man. He has conquered death. He has destroyed sin and crushed Satan. With His life, death, and resurrection, He has rescued you from the grave. Although your sins should have made you die, and stay dead, yet Christ broke death’s power, so that you will live and rise to eternal life.

Christ is risen from the dead. He is risen before His people know it. He is risen before His people believe it. He is risen to give them faith and life; and so He is risen for you. But this you can know for sure – of this you can be certain: Christ has died and Christ is risen from the dead. You haven’t seen Him face to face yet, but He tells you it is so in His Word. Faith comes by hearing, not by seeing; and as the resurrected Jesus said to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” That’s you!

Do not be afraid, for the joy of Easter Sunday is not just that Jesus died and Jesus rose, but that Jesus died for you and Jesus rose for you. He has borne your sin to the cross, and He has suffered for it there. He has died your death and been laid in the tomb, but now the tomb is empty. So will yours be, for Christ is risen to raise you, too. He declares that He no longer holds your sins against you, because they are gone. He has taken them away in death, and He has not brought them back with His resurrection. So where your sins would confuse you as to God’s attitude toward you, whether or not He loves you, do not be afraid and have no doubt. If God has paid such a price as to sacrifice His own Son to redeem you, He has nothing but grace and mercy, love and life for you now.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Now the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, amen.