The Sanctified Life :: Ephesians 6:10-17
The lessons for the Church year after Holy Trinity Sunday most often focus on our lives in Christ. Some of our readings ... especially from the epistles ... are focused on values; some on morality. Some preach nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. But today, the lesson in front of us from Saint Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians delivers a challenging word. It is not a reading about morality. It is not about values. It doesn’t directly address Jesus Christ and him being crucified or risen. Our subject this morning is the most difficult we’ve attempted this year. Today’s reading is all about sanctification.
There, I said it. Sanctification. ... Sanctification is the five syllable, 50 dollar word our catechism uses to describe the transformation taking place in your life. It is probably a harder word to understand than that Hebrew I threw at you a couple weeks ago.
But suffice it to say ... Sanctification is the word that describes the work of the Holy Spirit in your life ... how God transforms you from sinner to saint. Sanctification describes how God equips you, renews you, rejuvenates you. Sanctification is the will of God for you (1 Th 4:3). God has brought you into his Divine Service to be sanctified ... made holy ... through preaching, teaching, praying, confessing, hearing, singing, communing.
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It’s that last item that we are concerned with today: the relationship between the Lord’s supper and your sanctification. Today’s reading doesn’t say anything specific about the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. But it does say a great deal about allowing ourselves to be empowered in the Lord and in the might of his strength. ... about allowing ourselves to be clothed with the full armor of God. We are good at hearing, praying, confessing, teaching, and singing. Being sanctified by the Lord’s Supper is the last piece of Divine Service armor. It completes it.
Saint Paul introduces all of this with the word finally ... reinforcing what we have just said about the sanctification of the Christian life being God’s goal for us in the world. Finally, allow God to transform your lives. What the Holy Spirit is after is not simply that we might have the mysterious quality called faith in Christ ... a faith that saves ... a faith that assures us our sins are forgiven ... The Holy Spirit seeks to use that faith in Christ to transform our attitudes, choices, deeds, generosity, and love. Our Lord Jesus Christ is inviting us with the greatest kindness to receive all of the treasures he has brought to us ... his truth proclaimed, his baptism that refreshes and restores, his supper that nourishes. We need his sanctification. It strengthens us.
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Let’s face it, being a Christian is hard work. In fact, it is exhausting. We are constantly fighting temptation. We cave to it. It embarrasses us. It causes us to withhold forgiveness from others. It causes us to question if God could really forgive someone like me. It causes us to think that if we speak of sin ... you know, our adultery, our abusiveness, our idolatry, our slander, our gossip and greed ... that we might be shamed. ... We then start to think that God could never forgive me. So we stop listening to his word, which urges us to allow his sacraments to sanctify.
As we continue wrestling with the world, wrestling against the subtle schemes and methods of the devil that suggest these means of grace ... baptism, absolution, and the Supper ... can somehow lose their specialness ... suddenly, we break down and hide from them. We convince ourselves that we aren’t worthy of them. You won’t surely die without them, the devil tells us. So we seek our own piety. We start leaning on our own understanding of what it means to live in Christ. Next thing you know we are playing follow the leader of Adam and Eve.
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Brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you in the name of Jesus to repent. Embrace his sanctification by returning to your baptism, longing for absolution, ... and finally and forever singing for joy in the Supper. He has forgiven you and he longs to nourish and nurture you.
HIS MEANS OF GRACE STRENGTHEN US FOR THE SANCTIFIED LIFE
This is our theme. Listen carefully to our word of the day again. Pay attention to how Paul encourages and equips you ... the members of Trinity Lutheran Church ... to be transformed in the sanctified life of Christ.
Paul writes ... From now on, let yourselves be empowered in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Let yourselves be clothed with the full armor of God in order that you are able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ... The struggle (we face) isn’t against flesh and blood, but is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, and against the spiritual things of wickedness in heavenly places.
On account of this, let us take up all the full armor of God in order that you may be able to stand against (these schemes) in the evil day, and having done all, to stand (firm). Let us take a stand, therefore, having wrapped around your life the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fastened your feet in preparation of the Gospel of Peace, in all having taken up the shield of faith in which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil one. And let us receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph 6:10-17).
The message is clear: This text from Ephesians isn’t a call for us to find strength on our own terms, in our own way, lowering the bar for our life in the church. There is strength, protection, and power only in the Lord. He alone is our armor. And he alone provides the armor. God doesn’t want us to be equipped with only minimal armor ... our own reason, our own strength, our own wisdom, our own piety. He is not calling on us to look deep within ourselves, or to defend ourselves. Our Lord wants us to maximize all of his might ... the power of his ways and means, his truth, his righteousness, his Gospel, his faith, and his life, all of which are proclaimed by his living Word ... our Lord Jesus Christ.
We know on our own ... We cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, or come to him. But the Holy Spirit has called us by the gospel, enlightened us with his gifts, and sanctified and kept us in the one truth faith. In the same way he calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Church and keeps it in the one true faith!
This is why Christ came to us to begin with ... He came to save us, to protect us from ourselves, and finally to sanctify us. We couldn’t go to him ... we aren’t holy enough. So he came to us in the flesh to make us holy, leading us to the sanctified life. The creator of heaven and earth humbled himself and became one with us. He withstood all the temptations of the devil. And then in righteousness, he took up the weight of the world ... its sin and shame. He carried it all to his cross so that God could pour out his wrath against your sin on his cross. He was beaten and bloodied for your sin. He was mocked and crucified for your sin. Jesus died on the cross to atone for your sin. He then took your sin to the grave so that it will never be heard from again.
And when God saw what his only Son had done for us, he raised him from the dead to give you and me and all who believe in Jesus a living hope that we who have been united with him in baptism will rise to eternal life too. There is no finer Gospel than this. But it doesn’t end there.
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Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us now be equipped with the fullness of this truth of God. This is the armor he is providing us. This is the armor that ensures our eternal life: his word and sacraments that strengthen us. He has chosen each of you to receive these sanctifying gifts.
Let us wrap our lives in the belt of truth ... that is God’s word. God’s word strips you down and leaves you naked and bare, exposing your sin. But because Christ has accepted us as we are ... sinners in need of a savior ... he then envelops our life with his cleansing Word ... a sanctified word filled with promises that give us peace of forgiveness to share with each other.
Over that truth, he equips us with the breastplate of righteousness. Our own righteousness is filled with holes and offers no protection. But Christ covers us with his righteousness in baptism so that you can stand firm against any attack of the devil.
To this he equips us with the gospel of peace as shoes. As Isaiah reminds us, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace ... and salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns (52:7). That is exactly what we do in the Lord’s Supper. Jesus delivers his promises of good news, peace, and salvation in this means of grace.
To this we add the shield of faith in Christ. And you know the truth here. You are saved by faith in Christ, and this is not of yourselves ... it is a gift of God. All of his promises protect you.
And this is why we are here. As we just sang ...
Though great our sins, yet greater still is God’s abundant favor;
his hand of mercy never will abandon us nor waver.
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Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have come to God’s Service today knowing that here he is eternally equipping us. Here, he delivers his gifts. In his Divine Service to us, our Lord is constantly reassuring us that we are chosen, forgiven, children of God ... and that we find strength in the unity he delivers. When we struggle in this world, particularly with our temptation and sins, we then know that we are not alone ... that he strengthens us and we can strengthen each other by the faith we all have in our common Savior who longs to lead us to the pinnacle of the Divine Service ... the Lord’s Supper. From now on, let yourselves be empowered in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Let yourselves be clothed with the full armor of God ... to his glory and our good ... in Jesus’ name.