- Mar 11, 2025
- 5 min read
[Matthew 28:18-20] And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Ever Walking with Jesus
Eat your vegetables. Play outside. Share with your siblings. Don’t touch that electric outlet! And don’t put the dog’s toy in your mouth. Dads and moms begin teaching their children from a very young age.
By word and example, parents are teaching their children – intentionally and in ways we don’t even realize – from the time we bring them home from the hospital.
A quick, rudimentary google search will tell you that children begin learning from the moment they’re born, and, likely, even in the womb.
That kids start learning from the very start is known, I’m sure, by most parents, even without looking it up. From their very beginning, kids are developing rapidly – their body – their abilities – their mind – and developing their will. Learning wants and likes and dislikes.
And, developing trust, faith. The comfort of their mother’s presence. The safety of their dad’s voice. Faith in their parents’ hearing – that calls for help will be heard.
This all starts without the ability of words, and develops in the years ahead in ways that can be spoken. Eventually, even reasoned about. From birth onward (even into adulthood), mom and dad are teachers. Sons and daughters are learning from you.
Because learning starts from the beginning, Christian parents naturally apply the words of our Lord Jesus in this morning’s Gospel [Matthew 28:18-20] from the beginning. “Make disciples of all nations…” beginning with those in your care.
From their beginning, God wills our children to be disciples of Jesus, receiving what He gives and being shaped by His Word taught.
So, why baptize the little ones? Because from their very beginning, as from our beginning, children have need for what Jesus has done for them.
Baptism is not a stand-alone act but connects the baptized to the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. They are baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection [Colossians 2:12; Romans 6:3-5], connecting them now to what Jesus did back then.
From our beginning, we need our Savior.
For example, we know, tragically, that from the very beginning of life, death is already an adversary. But Jesus is the victor over death – by His death and resurrection – for young and old – You are “…buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him” [Colossians 2:12]. He gives life to our mortal bodies, so that, though we die, yet shall we live [John 11:25]. Since death affects even the young, baptism is for the young.
Original sin – the sin-fallen human condition – is also already affecting us from our beginning. There is a moral brokenness already in us, in our inherited human nature, from the start. It’s already in there. And as our will begins to develop, there is sin, showing itself.
Since sin already affects us at our beginning, the Savior from all sin is given at our beginning. Jesus is the balm and healing for the condition we suffer – and the atonement and forgiveness for the wrongs we do.
Jesus is, therefore, our Savior from sin from as young as we need Him. “Baptism now saves you” [1 Peter 3:21]. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” [Mark 16:16]. “Cleansed…by the washing of water with the word” [Ephesians 5:26].
And we baptize our young ones because baptism is for believers. Scripture shows, abundantly, that faith in Christ is there in our infant years and even in the womb.
John the Baptist leapt for joy in his mother’s womb at the presence of Jesus in Mary’s womb [Luke 1:44]. The little ones praised Jesus in His triumphal entry: “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise” [Matthew 21:15-16].
And the Psalms say, “Upon You I have leaned from before my birth” – “You made me trust (believe) You at my mother's breasts” – “from my mother's womb You have been my God” [Psalm 22:9-10; 71:6]
So, as we heard, Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 19:14]
Since Jesus said, “make disciples… baptizing them, teaching them…” (He said it in that order), it follows that, just as we parents teach our kids from the beginning, we also will baptize them from the beginning.
This baptism stands at the beginning of a whole life of teaching – a whole life of you parents being your children’s teachers, your children’s missionaries . You’ve adopted a life of forming them as disciples and of bringing them to the place of teaching, to equip yourselves and them in God’s Word.
The Word of God creates and sustains their faith in Christ. The Word of God guides them in God’s Commandments and Jesus’ words. And the Word of God sets in their hearts constantly the forgiveness of Jesus their Savior.
They cannot continue in the faith without the constant knowledge that God forgives them and God loves them. They will drift from that knowledge if the hearing of God’s Gospel is absent or infrequent.
And, parents, your sins are forgiven. Jesus has forgiven the sins and failures of dads and moms, having taken all that sin into Himself, and having died for it on the cross. You walk in His forgiveness, as you seek to ever walk with Him in the raising of your children as His disciples.
As young children develop into young adults, their minds become more introspective and discerning, and so does their faith. Faith takes on new aspects: a need to understand; a more conscious discerning of God’s gifts; engagement in self-examination in their repentance; and an intentional use of Confession & Absolution and the Lord’s Supper for the forgiveness of sins and help in doing better.
These things develop in a young disciple’s faith – and in that of older disciples, all of you here – when the Word of God accompanies the mind and heart which, in natural course, develops as God has designed. (One way we mark this is by Confirmation.)
“Make disciples… Baptizing them… teaching them… And behold, I am with you always – all the days – even unto the end of the age.” All of your days, to the end of days. Ever walking with Jesus, because Jesus is ever with you, as you raise up His little ones.
So be encouraged, and be blessed to be dads and moms of any age. Amen.
- Mar 11, 2025
- 1 min read
Sermon Text - Luke 9:28-36
Now about eight days after these sayings [Jesus] took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
- Mar 11, 2025
- 5 min read
[Luke 6:27-31] ““Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them”
As He Has Done for Us
When you’re walking down a path, what’s at the end of that path is where you’ll end up. Not what I wish or think, but what is really at the end of that path is where I’ll end up.
Also in life. I’m heading toward what’s at the end of the path I’m on. Adam leads to death. Christ is the way to life. “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
“As in Adam all die…” We don’t come from ourselves, and we didn’t begin with ourselves. Our human nature, body and soul, comes from those we’re made out of – our parents and those before them.
We are “in Adam” – by our natural conception and birth, we come from and are made of the fallen human nature of our first ancestor who, by his sin, brought sin, and therefore death, into the human nature we come from and share. We call the sinful nature in us our “old Adam”.
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” [Romans 5:12]. “Because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man” – “one trespass led to condemnation for all men” – “by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners.” [Romans 5:17-18]
This explains the fallen moral condition we all have, in various ways – and the broken physical and mental condition that we experience. What is in us from Adam is broken. In Adam, all die.
“Dying” is more than just physical death. As we’re talking about it here, death, hand-in-hand with sin, is a path we’re walking on “in Adam” which is directed away from God. Death is a fall from fellowship with God and a trajectory of walking away from Him. It is spiritual death. At the end of this path is God’s wrath in hell, a complete separation from His love. In Adam, all die.
What does the path of our old Adam look like? It is seen in the the things that are opposites of God’s commandments, will, and design – such as:
Having other gods besides Him; using God’s name in vain; failing to call on His name in prayer and praise; not gathering to worship Him. Neglecting my neighbor’s physical welfare; unfaithfulness in marriage; unnatural sexuality; stealing, or only looking to my interests instead of the interests of others; gossip, half-truths, and lying; coveting what others have.
And the fallen path of our old Adam is seen in its symptoms: sicknesses, pains, anxiousness, heartache, and physical death. It’s a hard path. And, left on our own, it goes to worse places.
The death at the end of our path in Adam is not merely a natural consequence of the trajectory we’re on but is a debt of punishment owed that must be paid and is forever snowballing. In Adam all die. But…
“In Christ, all are made alive…” There is a New Man, a second-Adam – a new beginning of a new creation in you – a New Man for us to restart from, to be reborn from, who Himself is the Life and the very pathway of Life. [2 Corinthians 5:17; John 14:6]
In Jesus Christ, you are made alive again. In Adam, we were dying because of the pathway we were walking in. In Christ, we are saved because of the pathway He walked. His pathway to the cross for us.
By His perfect life and death on the cross, Jesus redeemed you – bought you back and brought you back to Life. Back to God. In Him “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” [Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 1:7]
Jesus is the second-Adam, the new-Man. The Man from God. The Son of God. In fact, He is God-made-man. In Jesus, God became one of us to bring life back to our human nature.
Jesus fulfilled God’s commandments, will, and design for human life perfectly, without sin, in our flesh. He offered up His perfect life as the God-pleasing sacrifice for our life.
On the cross, He carried the sins of the world, of mankind – your sins – in His flesh and went before God on your behalf as the Sinner – sinless, but carrying your sin – and fully suffered the hell that was due for us.
Jesus went all the way to the end of our path in Adam ahead of us, and said, “It is finished” – “It is paid in full” [John 19:30]. And Jesus overcame what our old Adam could not have. He overcame death and took up His life again [John 10:18]. His resurrection.
Jesus saved you by the path He walked. Having saved you, now He sets you on the pathway of His resurrected life. Alive in Christ, you are now on the pathway of life in Christ.
In our Gospel today, Jesus describes this new pathway of resurrected life, which you were set on in your baptism – “in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” [Romans 6:4].
This path of resurrected life, on which your feet have been set in baptism, looks like this: It looks like doing for others what He has so freely done for each of us.
It looks like what we read this morning [Luke 6:27-38]: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” – as He has done for us – “To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” – as He suffered His face to be struck for our sake – “and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either” – as He has covered our sin, freely, by the robe of His righteousness [Isaiah 61:10; Romans 4:6-8].
“Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” As He has done for u. “Be merciful… Judge not… condemn not… forgive… give…” As He has done for us.
“For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” [Romans 5:17].
He has freely set us on the path of life. At the end of this path is the unearned gift of the resurrection of the body and perfect life with God forever – for sinners like us – a gift we don’t deserve.
So, as He has been so good to us, let’s walk on the path of life He’s given us and be good to one another and to those who sin against us. Amen.
