Today’s Scriptue

Psalm 32         Isaiah 12:1-6   2 Corinthians 5:16-21             Luke 15:-3, 11-32

 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

 

            What’s new with you these days?  Do you have a new job or a new car?  Is there a wedding or a new grandchild coming up in the family?  Did you or are you taking a special trip?  Or about your medical condition and what parts did you replace, eliminate, correct or adjust?  Or maybe you are here with the same coat, same car, same house, same hair.  What’s new with you?

 

            Please turn to page 303 in the front section of Lutheran Worship.  In the right hand column is the section on Holy Baptism from Martin Luther’s Small Catechism.  At the very bottom of this column is the question, “What does such baptizing with water indicate?”  Together, let us read Luther’s answer. 

It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

  Where is this written?

St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six:  “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  [Romans 6:4]

 

            How many of you were baptized in the last year?  How many of you were baptized in the last 5 years?  How many of you were baptized in the last 10 years?  How many of you were baptized between ten and thirty years ago?  How many of you were baptized between thirty and sixty years ago?  How many of you were baptized more than sixty years ago?

 

            In today’s readings, Luther’s explanation to baptism and in the passage from Romans, there is something very new with you today?  Whether you are still dripping wet from your baptism or if that baptism was so long ago that the water has re-circulated the earth numerous times and your body feels as if it has gone around with it all of those times, there is something very new with you today and every moment of your life.

 

            Day by day in this earth we keep running into the same old things.  Work.  Pay the bills.  Fix this and that.  Get along with this person and try to avoid that one.  Put gas in the car and get upset about the price escalating again and again.  And tomorrow is another day to work, pay the bills, fix this and that….   I keep falling back into the same old habits.  I wanted to turn over a new leaf this year and attend Bible Study, read devotions and the Bible daily, but I keep falling back into that same old ruts.  I do not feel very new at all.

 

            Isaiah writes that the Lord was angry with me but has turned that anger away.  God does not like sin.  In fact, God hates sin.  God punishes sin with death and that specific death is hell and hell gets old in a hurry.  Even thinking about it gets old in a hurry.  In sinful weakness, not one person can turn this picture around. 

 

            God loves you and does not want you to be this way.  His will is to make you new again.  “Surely God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid…The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” [Isaiah 12:2].  In (Isaiah) chapter 40 God tells that those who trust in him will renew their strength. 

 

            In the parable of the prodigal son Jesus demonstrates that God restores those who come to him in sorrow for sins of the past and trusting in his graces.  The broken son thought he would be fortunate to be servant or slave to his father, but was restored as if he had never left.  He was made a new person by his father who rejoiced in his return. 

 

 

            Outside of faithful believers, the world regards Jesus as just another person.  As we get close to Easter we will read the special articles and watch the documentaries that try to put Jesus in old terms.  He lived, he was popular, and he died.  The world does not trust God.  The world does not accept something new from the natural science we understand.  The world does not accept Jesus as the Son of God and Savior for all of the world.  The world does not accept that God alone won salvation for all people and that God will eternally punish all who do not believe him at his word alone.

 

            That is what God is telling us through Paul, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”  It is as difficult to look past our earthly and sinful selves as it was to look past Jesus’ human nature to see his divine nature.  Paul once regarded Christ from the worldly point of view as did everyone else including the disciples before the resurrection.  Now we know.  We know Jesus who is God, the Son of God, the Son of Man, our Prophet – Priest and King, our Redeemer, our Brother, the Mighty Counselor the Prince of Peace, the anointed one, the Christ, our Savior, our brother and our comforter.  He is almighty, he is all knowing, he is eternal, he is in heaven and he is Immanuel here with us.  And he has made you his very own, a new creature.  You cannot be his if you are covered with sin.  You are his and like him when you are made new again by his work. 

 

            Verse 17, if in Christ you are a new creation.  Something created is made from nothing.  Something created means that it was not in existence before.  In Christ, you are something new, something you were not before as our heavenly father has adopted you as his own dear child. The old sinful stuff is gone to the grave with Christ.  He gives you the new n the resurrection from that grave with him.

 

            Verse 18.  All of this new stuff is from God and from God alone.  He is the one who reconciled us, that is brought us together again with him.  Without Christ we are enemies against God.  Jesus wins us over makes us agreeable to God again.  It is a new relationship. 

 

            Verse 19.  God reconciled the world in Christ.  This is an important item.  In reconciling the world, Jesus died for all sinners and all sins.  No one is left out.  The price Jesus paid is for all.  The gift is received by those who believe.  That is called faith.  “Not counting men’s sins against them.”  That is forgiveness.  That makes you a new person again, and again, and again as each moment of each day God forgives the trusting sinner.

 

            Verse 20.  “Therefore,”  means because God has done this to us, “we are Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us.”  Note that when God makes you his new dear child, he does not immediately zap you up into heaven.  He has a neat job for you, a new job.  That job as an ambassador is to bring his message to others.  In this new life do you feel God’s love?  Are you living his love with others?  Are you showing that love in your thoughts, words and deeds and telling the truth of salvation in Jesus alone to others so they will be made new, saved too?

 

            That is why we gather together in our services, to be reinforced with this newness that God has given you.  That is why we have Bible Study to grow firm and confident in this newness that God has given you.  That is why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper weekly so that you receive this newness in the Christ’s forgiving body and blood present only in this bread and wine.  That is why we have ABLAZE sessions going and more scheduled, to bring this newness to the surface in our lives in order to bring this newness to those who today do not have it. 

 

            What’s new with you?  God’s love never gets old.  Forgiveness of sins never gets old.  The joy of having eternal life through Jesus never gets old.  God’s grace, mercy and peace never get old.  Look around you this morning.  There is not an old one in the group.  Let’s keep that going and growing.