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B, Easter 4 Mt. Calvary Lutheran Church, Brookings, SD Rev. Matthew Wurm April 26th, 2015 Confirmation Sunday Acts 4:1-12 There is no other name, under heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved. 1 John 3:16-24 God’s command is to believe in the name of His Son, and to love one another. John 10:11-18 Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. Theme: O Little Flock Goal: That the flock would listen to its Good Shepherd Malady: The flock hears other voices and wanders away Means: The Holy Spirit, by Word and Sacrament chases after you Relation: Run away dog… or run away cat. Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from our resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The sermon text for today, Good Shepherd Sunday and Confirmation Sunday is Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men, by which we must be saved.” Jesus Christ, the only name under heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved, St. Peter testifies to in our first reading from Acts 4 before all the rulers, elders, teachers of the law, Annas, the high priest, Caiaphas, and all their families too. This Peter, who weeks earlier, on the night when Jesus was betrayed and arrested, denied that He even knew Jesus three times before the rooster crowed in the morning. This Peter, now stands up before the whole assembly and declares for one and all to hear loud and clear, “There is no other name under heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved,” and that Name is Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ. In a few minutes, these five confirmands, Jason Nixon, Daniel Littlecott, Luke Timmerman, Michelle Mileham, and Makenzie Caylor will do much the same. They will be invited to stand up here before all of you, their church members and their families too and make the same confession as Peter, that there is no other name under heaven, given to men, by which we must be saved. It will be a great moment of joy to hear from the mouths of these growing and maturing young men and women that they confess with their mouths what was said for them at their baptisms and then back up what they say with their mouths with actions louder than words when they commune with each other and the entire church of Jesus Christ. 1 It will be a moment of joy for parents and sponsors of these catechumans and many of you alike as the words that were spoken for them at their baptisms’ we now hear coming from their very own lips. “Do you renounce the devil?” These parents and sponsors were asked at their baptisms, and they responded “Yes, I renounce him.” “Do you renounce all his works?” Yes, I renounce all his works. “Do you renounce all his ways?” Yes, I renounce them. “Do you believe in God the Father Almighty?” Yes, I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord? “Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” It will be a moment of joy, but also a realization of fear. Why, because, you from baptism and confirmed again at confirmation are naming the devil as your enemy as you renounce all his works and all his ways and confess the name of Jesus Christ as your only Lord and only leader, your Good Shepherd, you are forever now willfully going to spiritual battle against the enemy. From your baptism forward, especially from confirmation day forward the devil will try all his tricks and do all kinds of deception to get you to listen to his distracting, deceptive, voice of death and stray away from the one who came to you as your Good Shepherd and brought you into His fold. The devil will try to get to you stray from your Good Shepherd’s fold by deceiving you to think that confirmation is graduation and no more Sunday school or Bible study is needed. That everything that is needed to know of God’s Word you already know because you are now “confirmed”. Bible class and Bible study is no longer needed because you have put in your time, you’ve done what was required of you, you have confessed Jesus as your Lord and Savior, now life’s a breeze. Ha. The moment you think you are strong enough to neglect God’s Word and Sacrament’s in Bible study and in attending the Divine Service in church is the moment you turn away from your Good Shepherd’s fold and begin to wander away. The voices of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, they are loud and strong. Incessant! Causing us to doubt whether or not Jesus really rose bodily from the grave as Thomas doubted and refused to believe unless he could touch and see. The world- All the advertisements, the media, the American consumerist economy that is driven not by care for the neighbor, but greed for self, the peer pressure at school and at work, the distain of Christians in the world, the complacency and indifference of parents, all that and more seek to deceive you and look to distract all of us from hearing the voice of our Good Shepherd which we say is our own. The lure of wealth, pleasure, and a life of ease is a deceptive lie from the father of all lies because Jesus says if you want to follow Him, you will also have to bear a cross. Finally, our sinful nature; Because of sin, we were all born enemies of God, yet in His mercy, He called you and He called us to faith by water and the Word and made us His own dearly loved sons and daughters—now enemies not of God, our creator and savior, but enemies of the devil. And that sinful nature will always be at us to tempt us to doubt, or be lazy, or out of pride, sin and do exactly what we are commanded not. 2 But there is good news in this epic battle of good and evil between God and the devil for the eternal possession of your soul. Your Good Shepherd’s love for you is incessant. Even if you spend your entire life reading God’s Word for 8 hours every day and attending every church service you can, you will still just scratch the surface of understanding how great the Father’s love that He has lavished upon you. You will be tempted to be lead astray away from your Good Shepherd’s fold by the voices of the devil, the world, and your very own sinful nature, but your Good Shepherd will be coming after you by the workings of the Holy Spirit, running after you, chasing after you to bring you back into his fold, where you may have life and have it to the full. Confirmation Sunday. Yes, it’s a commitment that (we) you make to (our) your family, to our church, and to God that you will continue in Bible study and continue to receive God’s Word and sacraments with us in the Divine Service on Sundays, but cannot be your work alone. In fact, it’s not any of your work, but purely the work of the Holy Spirit who called you to faith by baptism and now moves you to make a public confirmation of your faith. By this confirmation, you are publicly stating that the Triune God is your God, and we, in this church are united to you and you to us like a family, not of distant relatives, but brothers and sisters brought together by the blood of Christ. Families don’t give up on one another. Sure, they’ll fight, they’ll disagree, but they love each other and they are committed to one another’s best interests. Luke, Jason, Daniel, Michelle, Makenzie, we are family, brought together by the Holy Spirit adopting us all as Christ’s brothers and sisters and our bond of faith and love in Christ runs deeper than blood. It’s a bond of faith in Christ’s blood who latched hold of you, who latched hold of me, who latched hold of all who confess faith in the name of Christ Jesus and brought us together with a grip that didn’t slip. It’s my prayer that all of you and all of us will continue to stay in the fold of our Good Shepherd so that we may always hear and follow His voice and when we wander, that He comes to our rescue. In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. May the peace of God which surpasses all human understanding guard and keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. 3