Quasimodo Geniti (1st Sunday after Easter) + 1 John 5:4-10 + April 3, 2016
Order of Holy Communion - Pg. 15
Hymn #196 I Am Content, My Jesus Liveth Still"Readings
Collect for Quasimodo Geniti
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who have celebrated the solemnities of the Lord’s Resurrection may, by the help of Thy grace, bring forth the fruits thereof in our life and conversation; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Sermon on the Epistle
Grace
and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1) “For whatever
is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome
the world – our faith.” With these words, John highly extolls faith,
heaping great praise upon our faith and ascribing to it great power over the
world, even victory over the world. The world is everything that is set against
Christ and His gospel. In John 1:10 John writes that Christ “was in the world, and the world was made by
him, and the world knew him not.” The world, being steeped in sin and
diluted by its own self-righteousness, failed to recognize its very maker when
He appears in human flesh. In John 7:7 Jesus tells the disciples, “The world cannot hate you; but me it
hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” The
world is full of evil works, not just outward evil like adultery and
immorality, greed and stealing, or murder and slander. The world is evil
because it does not believe that Christ is the Son of God, nor does it want to
repent of its sins and believe the gospel. When the world is confronted with
Christ and His gospel, it responds in vitriol and hatred. Jesus also says that
the world is ruled by the devil, of whom He says in John 12:31 “Now is the judgment of this world: now
shall the prince of this world be cast out.” The world of which St. John so
often speaks is everything that is set against Christ, everything that does not
want to hallow His name or let His kingdom come.
2) The reason faith is our victory over the world, over
sin, death, and the power of the devil, is that it is born of God. If faith were a work of man, a decision we made for Jesus, or a
giving of one’s heart to Him, then it would be worthless to overcome the world
because it would be an act of man. That faith is not an act of the human will
or decision St. John teaches when he says that “whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” Only things born of
God can overcome the world. John ascribes nothing to our natural human powers
or will or decision. Our own works cannot overcome the world. If we held up our
own works before the devil in order to drive him away, he would only laugh and
us and show us how terrible and filthy even our best works are. Even the prophet
Isaiah says that “all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). If we were to hold up
works before the evil conscience which is burdened by sins that would be
fruitless as well, for our works have no power to overcome the guilty
conscience. Our own works are fruitless to inspire boldness of heart in the
face of an evil conscience and in the face of temptation and death. Since faith
is that which overcomes the world, our sin, the guilty conscience, and all the
devil’s might, faith is truly something “born
of God.” St. Paul says this in Ephesians 2:8, that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
3) Christ works this faith in us by the Holy Spirit. The
Holy Spirit creates faith in the hearts of men, so that men are reborn through
the waters of Holy Baptism. This is what St. John speaks of in the next verses
of the epistle. “This is He who came by
water and blood – Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And
it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.” Christ cames
to sinners to regenerate them “by water
and blood.” After Christ had suffered for the sins of the world and died, a
Roman soldier pierces his side to tell whether or not He was truly dead, “and immediately blood and water came out”
(John 19:34). The water mingled with
blood which drained from Christ’s side is a witness that He was truly dead, not
swoon as the heathen teach. This water and blood mingled together looked forward
to Holy Baptism, the application of water to sinners, which Paul calls “the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
Baptism is not plain water, but water combined with God’s Word. It is not water
of a specific amount, for Christ never commands a specific amount be used. What
makes the water of Holy Baptism, even the smallest amount, able to make one “born
of God” is that it is water combined with God’s Word of promise. St. Peter says
in 1 Peter 3:21, “baptism doth
also now save us.” Baptism saves sinners, regenerates them by bestowing
faith upon them and the forgiveness of sins, because the Word of Christ
connects it the salvation won by His own blood on the cross. What St. John is
effectively saying here is that Christ comes in waters that run blood red,
since baptism takes the redemption earned at the cross and applies it to
individual sinners.
4) The Spirit also works faith in men’s hearts through the
preaching of the Gospel. This is what St. John means when he says, “It is the Spirit who bears witness, because
the Spirit is truth.” Jesus had told the disciples in John 15:26 that “the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from
the Father, he shall testify of me.” John uses the word “testify” or “bear
witness” in the same sense as “preach.” He does this in the first chapter of
his gospel when he writes about John the baptizer bearing witness to the
Christ. John was preaching about the coming Messiah, the lamb of God who would
take away the sins of the world, and apply that redemption to sinners in
baptism and the preaching of the gospel. Paul says that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God” (Romans 10:17). So the Holy Spirit ties
Himself to the Word of God and the Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy
Communion. Luther wrote about this that “Wherever
such witness is borne, there certainly will be some fruit. The witness never
fails of effect. Some surely will be reached; some will accept it and believe
it. Since it is the witness of the Holy Spirit, and the apostle says here, the
Spirit beareth witness, he will be effective, producing in us that to which
John refers when he says we are children of God, and have the victory and
eternal life. So the Word – or the Gospel message accompanied by the witness of
the Spirit – and faith are vitally related. In the last analysis they are
inseparable.”[1] These are Christ’s means
of grace, the instruments He uses upon us to create faith in us and sustain
that faith, the faith which is our victory over the world.
5) How does faith do this? Because it clings to Christ’s
victory at the cross and empty tomb. When sin assails you and temptation haunts
you, faith alone is your victory over that temptation. If we are to
successfully resist the temptations of the flesh, the world, and the devil, we
must cling to Christ crucified for our sins, for there in the image of the
crucifix we see the price our Lord Jesus willfully paid for our sins. When the
evil conscience assails us that we are terrified at our transgressions and
ashamed of our sinfulness, faith clings to the absolution Christ speaks to us
through the words of His called and ordained servants whom Christ has entrusted
with His office of forgiving and retaining sins. Faith believes the Word of the
pastor is the word of Christ Himself, so that when the pastor absolves you,
faith believes that it is Christ in heaven absolving you. When turmoil,
persecution, hardship, cross, and suffering approach you, faith is confident
that Christ has already overcome all these things. Faith knows that they are not
punishment for sins but chastisements of God the heavenly Father, for thus He
disciplines all those he adopts in Holy Baptism. Faith is confidence and
boldness of heart that, “for the sake of his beloved Son, God will be merciful
and will not condemn us for our sins and unworthiness if we believe in him.
Such faith as this stands fast and gains the victory; neither the devil nor the
gates of hell can prevail against it.”[2]
6) We see a picture of such faith in the gospel lesson we
heard a moment ago. Thomas, and all the disciples for that matter, cannot, by
their own reason or strength, believe the good news that Christ has risen from
the dead. They hide behind locked doors for fear of the Jews. They are in the
grasp of fear and unbelief. Yet Christ comes to them and bears witness that He
is indeed alive, and when they see the risen Christ, their unbelief is
dispelled so that they rejoice in the return of their Lord. The fear of the
Jews dissipates, for they know that the Jews and the world can do them no harm
since their Jesus lives. Thomas, stuck in the throes of unbelief, refuses to
believe the gospel unless he can feel the nail prints in Jesus’ hands and
thrust his hand into side of Jesus from whence the water and blood was drained.
Jesus comes to Thomas to rescue Thomas from his unbelief and deserved
damnation. Jesus appears to Thomas to bear witness to His own resurrection,
then calls forth faith in Thomas’ heart once again when He tells Thomas, “Do not be unbelieving but believing”
(John 20:27). The Spirit works faith in Thomas’ hard heart and brings forth one
of the greatest confessions of faith in the Scriptures, “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28).
7) This faith of Thomas, and the rest of the eleven,
enlivened their souls so that they no longer feared their sins and their
deserved punishments. The threats of the Jews no longer confounded them. The
accusations of their consciences no longer perplexed them. Christ had inspired
faith in their hearts, even the heart of unbelieving, recalcitrant Thomas, by
the power of His Word. Their faith was their victory over the world, over sin,
death, and the power of the devil, even as your God-given faith is your victory
over all these things and more, because it’s not born of you, its born of God,
created by the Holy Ghost through His means of grace, so that you might be confident
that the redemption won by Christ is for you, and that you may be bold to trust
all the promises Christ makes to you when He baptized you with water combined
with His Word that ran blood red. Amen.
May
the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, guard your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.