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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.
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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.
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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.
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