Never Without Jesus :: Acts 20:27-38

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And now I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace, which is able to build you up and to give the inheritance among all those being sanctified (v 32).

1. [Prayer]

Lord God, heavenly Father, you would have all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. By your almighty Word of Grace, break and hinder all counsels of those who despise your Word and Sacraments and who, by corrupt teaching, seek to turn us away from your means of grace. Enlighten us with the knowledge of your glory ... through the cross and the empty tomb ... until that day when our Lord returns on the clouds in glory ... through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. 

2. [Catechism]

Please now turn to page 322 in your [Lutheran Service Book] and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the second article of the Apostles’ Creed. As the head of the family should teach it to his household ... What is the Second Article? ... What does this mean? 

3.

Paul’s entire ministry was focused on this doctrine. 

He devoted his whole life to this Word of Grace, which is able to build you up and give to you the inheritance that God prepared for you. This Word of Grace has never changed and WILL NEVER change. This Word of Grace is the only Gospel Paul preached. There is no other Gospel (Gal 1:7; 1 Cor 15:3ff). This Word of Grace is proclaimed in Baptism, Absolution, and the Supper. This Word of Grace is that Jesus was born for you, to live for you, to die for you, to rise on the Third Day for your justification, and to sanctify you ... that is, to cleanse you of sin, thus setting you apart from the world, making you holy just as he is holy. 

Hearing and receiving this Word of Grace has been the strength of this congregation for 154 years ... [92 years here at Clinton]. The central activity of our congregational life together has always been hearing and receiving the Word of Grace in his Divine Service, which your service book ... on page XXIV ... says is “the name of the regular weekly service THAT INCLUDES the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.” This service delivers the fullness of the Word of Grace. This service is not ours. It is God’s. He gives us the fullness of the Word of Grace, fully realized in Jesus, the Word who saves by grace. 

We are never without Jesus in this service. In his service to us, Jesus unites himself with our congregation ... not only spiritually, but physically. In his service, Jesus brings us communion ... a word of grace that literally means “with unity.” He alone gives us unity. This then is why we do not hesitate to declare to you the whole counsel of God (v 27). As the Augsburg Confession emphasizes ... For the true unity of the church, it is enough to agree about the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments (AC VII). 

It is marvelous that God’s Holy Spirit uses the Gospel in this way to build HIS communion of saints ... that is, those who are sanctified by him for unity with him. This is God’s family and God’s church. He founded his congregation here so that we are never without Jesus.

This is why he calls, gathers, and enlightens us here. This is the place where ... just like the Emmaus disciples ... we come to know that we are never without Jesus (Lk 24:31; Mt 28:20). Are our hearts not kindled within us as we come to know that Jesus cleanses us himself in the washing of water in the word (Eph 5:26). Are our hearts not kindled within us as we come to know that Jesus provides the cup of blessing and the bread we break, which are the body and blood of Christ (1 Cor 10:16). Are our hearts not kindled within us as we come to know that his Word of absolution ... which is proclaimed by the called ministers of Christ ... is just as sure and certain as if our dear Lord Jesus dealt with us himself (Jn 20:22-23). 

Why then would anyone NOT want to receive these means of grace every time we gather? They give you the whole counsel of God and the Word of his grace (vv 27, 32), which is Jesus. 

This Good News of salvation is not simply information that we come to know. Nor is it simply things we do when we decide to do them. The whole counsel of God and the Word of his grace enable us to know we are never without Jesus ... that he is always giving and delivering to us what he promises ... the forgiveness of sins ... eternal life ... and salvation. This Good News of salvation actually brings unity to the Christian congregation. 

Why? When God gives us the forgiveness of sins, we then share that forgiveness with each other, as God in Christ forgave you (Eph 4:32). Let the hearer take heed.

We have this forgiveness of sins PRECISELY because of the blood of Jesus. As the  evangelist to the Hebrews proclaims, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness (Hb 9:22). This is why the Word of the Cross ... along with Baptism, Absolution, and the Lord’s supper ... is so offensive to so many people ... BUT to those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Cor 1:18). It always gives us Jesus.

The most amazing feature of New Testament worship, viewed through the counsel of the Old Testament, is the command of Jesus to drink his blood, which he calls my blood of the covenant ... the same blood he poured out on the cross ... and in the sacrament (Mt 26:26-28). Under the old covenant, the drinking of blood was strictly forbidden (Lv 17:14). Yet Jesus mandates that we take and eat, and take and drink for the forgiveness of sins in his new covenant. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the richness of his grace, which he poured out upon us, as with all wisdom and understanding (Eph 1:7-8). God delights to commend this to you ... You are never without Jesus. 

This is Paul’s unique message to every congregation he visited. It’s why he said in 1 Corinthians 2 that, I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified ... so that your faith would not be in my wisdom, but in the power of God (1 Cor 2:2, 5). It is the wisdom of men who try to deceive you into thinking there is another Gospel. But there is not another. ... Even if we or an angel out of heaven proclaims to you a Gospel that deviates from the one you received, let him be accursed (Gal 1:7-8).

In today’s reading from Acts 20, Paul has arrived in Ephesus and called together the elders of the church, in other words, your pastors, to remind them of this one truth (v 17) that God has obtained the church with his own blood (v 28). Heed the Word of God, keeping ... that is, treasuring ... all that [Jesus] has commanded you (Mt 28:20). All scripture is God-breathed, and it’s useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness that the man of God may be equipped toward every good work (2 Tm 3:16-17).

This fact must be kept in mind when we now hear Paul describe his constant preaching among the Ephesians. As Paul says, We must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus (v 21). The only way that is possible is to hear the Gospel. Repentance is not possible without the Gospel of God because repentance is faith in God’s promises. 

And what are those promises? 

Paul tells us in Titus: When the goodness and loving kindness of God our savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified in his grace, we would become inheritors according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7). 

Have you noticed that when this takes place, that you observe a lifestyle that pleases God and Christian men and women? That you don’t skip the Divine Service? That you eagerly receive the gifts of God he freely gives? That you long for Bible study and home visits so that you can learn to hear the Gospel? And that you then know you are never without Jesus? 

This is what the Holy Spirit has been doing for you since God established his family and church here in Appleton City in 1870 ... [or Clinton in 1932]. His Word of Grace always builds. It never divides. Every service features the reading and preaching of God’s Word from scripture to catechize as the head of the family ... God himself ... teaches it in a simple way to his household, as well as the means of grace that we receive only through faith.

As we commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace ... the Word of Flesh, who purchased and won for you forgiveness, life and salvation through the shedding of His blood and His resurrection to life ... may you discover a profound gratitude that he continues to call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify you. Let the Savior’s Words guide you, If you are thirsty ... come ... take the water of life freely (Rv 22:17). Make it your constant aim and ambition to grow in the Word of his Grace.

FOR MY PART, I VOW, ONCE AGAIN, TO NEVER STOP GIVING YOU JESUS 

Now may the God of peace who led from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you with all good to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing before him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen (Hb 13:20-21).

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