- Jun 8
- 6 min read
[Ephesians 4:1-6] “…walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”
The Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace
Be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” [Ephesians 4:3]
Unity can require following the directions of the one who knows better. A box of disconnected boards, screws, parts, and pieces can become one whole tv stand, bookshelf, or cabinet when we keep to the directions of the designer. But when we follow our own reason or intuition instead, that unity of the whole may be disrupted.
So it is as a creature of God. We didn’t come from nowhere, but our lives, ourselves, our bodies, our relationships – these have been created and designed by a Designer. In faith and trust, we keep to the commandments and promises, the Word, of the One who designed us and our human life – as we enjoy the various kinds of unity created for our life. The unity of a family. The unity of a husband and wife. The unity of a church. The unity of a community.
But when we follow our own human reason or way of thinking instead – individually or as a society – the good things God created for us are disrupted or stripped away. This is because the good things of life – including these important unities we need and enjoy – are not human achievements made by our design but are gifts of God given by His grace and received and enjoyed according to His design.
In today’s Old Testament reading [Genesis 11:1-9], those men and women who built the city and tower of Babel were seeking their own kind of unity by human design, according to their reason, and, in doing so, achieved the very opposite of what they intended and lost the true blessing they already had.
Shortly before today’s reading in the book of Genesis, after the destruction of the Flood, God had renewed to mankind the blessing first given in Paradise, saying twice, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” [Genesis 9:1,7]
“Fill the earth” – spread abroad across the face of the earth, fill it. But the whole of mankind sought to do the opposite, as they saw fit: “They said to one another… ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (meaning, “so that we’re not dispersed…”). [Genesis 11:4]
Man’s own way. His way to heaven – “a tower with its top in the heavens.” Trust in man’s name instead of faith in God’s name – “let us make a name for ourselves.” And unity, by man’s design – “lest we be dispersed…” Banding together in one place, in defiance of, or thinking they knew better than, God’s blessing, “fill the earth.”
Knowing this would only be the beginning of what they would do, God says, “‘Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth.” [Genesis 11:7-8]
The God-given unity of “one language and the same words” man had originally enjoyed would now be lost. And their defiance of His blessing would fail – man would still be dispersed across the earth as commanded, but now as God’s judgment instead of as a blessing enjoyed.
Sin did then what it does now. Disregarding the Designer divides us apart from each other as well, disrupting those true forms of unity. Just as sin has done from the beginning – dividing Adam and Eve so they felt shame in each other’s presence – and dividing them from God and paradise [Genesis 3].
In the days of Babel, man was divided by languages and nations. But now, in these last days, the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us. Today we celebrate Pentecost. In today’s second Scripture reading, in Acts 2:1-21, we see the consequence of Babel reversed when the Holy Spirit is outpoured. Men and women of many languages, from many nations are united in the hearing of one Gospel:
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language… “We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” [Acts 2:1-11]
They heard the good news of Jesus, all in their own native tongue, though they spoke many languages. Pentecost reversed the disunifying effect of sin because the Holy Spirit delivers and applies the message and the forgiveness of Jesus’ saving work.
The Holy Spirit does not do His own thing. The Holy Spirit takes what God the Father has done in Jesus His Son and preaches and applies it to you. What has God done in Jesus?
“In Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” [2 Corinthians 5:19]. “We have been sanctified – made holy – through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” [Hebrews 10:10].
The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit makes you holy by applying to you the forgiveness of sins won for you in the cross of Christ. Because your sin is forgiven in the blood of Jesus, you are holy to God.
And because your neighbor’s sin is forgiven – in the blood of Jesus – and because your husband’s sin is forgiven – and because your wife’s sin is forgiven – and your children’s – and your parent’s – and your sibling’s – and your brother or sister in Christ – because the Holy Spirit makes them holy in the forgiveness of their sins, they are holy to you.
You who have all been made holy to God and holy to each other. That is the “unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” which we are “eager to maintain” – “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism…”
This is the unity that you have by God’s grace through faith in Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit poured out on you, as His baptized people here. Something that no human reason could achieve, but which is the gift of Pentecost —
— poured out in our day in Holy Baptism, as Peter said on Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off…” [Acts 2:38-39]
The Holy Spirit’s work of the forgiveness of your sins makes you holy to God and to one another right now. It’s always the basis of your unity together.
The Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification – of shaping and changing you – causes you to grow in that holiness toward each other and toward God, more and more, as you also make an effort to follow God’s direction and God’s design. This increases and strengthens your unity together, in all those important relationships.
Just as the Holy Spirit reversed the effects of Babel on the day of Pentecost, uniting those divided by language, the Holy Spirit just as certainly reverses the dividing effects of sin in our life today. So, “be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” And be confident that the Holy Spirit will accomplish His work in you. Amen.
- Jun 1
- 5 min read
[Luke 24:50-53] …Then Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.
Ascended to Be Our Intercessor
In the children’s sermon we covered, “I am with you always” – as Jesus promised, before ascending into heaven, “And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” [Matthew 28:20]. Jesus also ascended to send us the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit – poured out from heaven on Pentecost and upon you in your Baptism [Acts 1:4-5; Acts 2:38].
And Jesus ascended into heaven to take His rightful seat at the Father’s right hand, to exercise “all authority on heaven and earth” [Matthew 28:18] and to be “head over all things to the church” [Ephesians 1:22].
But now we’re going to talk about another purpose Jesus has in ascending into heaven – His role as intercessor. Jesus ascended into heaven to be your intercessor.
An intercessor is someone who talks to another on your behalf when you are in trouble or in need. The intercessor speaks on your behalf to make peace.
This past Thursday, on Ascension Day, I was blessed to preach the chapel service at St. Mark’s in Yonkers. There, the students heard the story of a young boy named Billy.
Billy loved to play baseball. He took his ball and bat and glove with him everywhere, even on his way to school. One day, while on his way to school, Billy couldn’t help himself. He tossed the ball into the air and took a swing at it with his bat.
He happened to be standing in front of his best friend’s house at that moment. It was a great hit. The ball soared through the air. And went straight through the glass window of his best friend’s father’s study.
Billy was terrified. He broke a window. His friend’s dad would be angry. And Billy had no money to pay for it.
So, day after day, Billy avoided the house, avoided his friend, avoided the father, and ducked his head under his hood and hurried past that house as quickly as he could when heading to and from school.
Until one day, Billy’s friend stopped him on the sidewalk. “Billy, why don’t you come over to my house anymore? Why do you always hurry by?”
Billy told his friend what he had done and why he was afraid. His friend said, “Let me go up and talk to my father for you.”
The friend did and came back down and said, “It’s okay. My dad says you can still come over.” Back to normal. Backyard play and dinner at the table.
Billy expected his friend’s dad to at least chew him out. To at least make him pay on a payment plan. But the father said, “My son has already spoken to me about it for you. And my son has paid it for you from his own allowance. There’s nothing more that must be done. It is finished.”
Back to normal because Billy’s friend acted as his intercessor.
Now, in real life, a broken window is not that big of deal and shouldn’t require such an ordeal. However, also in real life, my sins against God the Father are a big deal.
Our sins – the wrongs we do and the good we leave undone; the wrong things we are and the good we fail to be – our sins do rightly deserve and cause God’s anger.
As we confess, “all my sins and iniquities with which I have ever offended You and justly deserved Your temporal (in this life) and eternal (in the next life) punishment…”
At our worst, we live happily ignorant of our sin and the threat of God’s judgment. We can pass by His house, by His cross, or use His name, without any thought of our need for repentance – nor of our need for God at all.
That is the very depths of sin. The blindness of sin. Complete darkness that isn’t even looking for light. That’s our sin-fallen nature.
But when some light does shine on our darkness, then there is some fear of conscience. Excuses and reasons given, because we do know the wrongness of what we’re doing or failing to do. Avoidance of His house or of the things of God, because we know we broke the window and that we can’t pay.
But promises to ourselves or to God that, this time, we’ll do better, this time, we’ll make up for it – that’s not what we need first. That cycle repeats itself. That debt increases.
What we need first is an Intercessor to go up to God’s side, speak for us, and present the payment that covers us. And that’s what Jesus has done. Jesus, your Intercessor, who ascended to God’s right hand.
Jesus’ work as man’s Intercessor – as man’s Mediator – the go-between between man and God, who reconciles us to God - is possible, and sure and certain, because of His work of atonement. He has given Himself on the cross as the once-for-all, sufficient sacrifice for man’s sin. For your sin.
Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” [John 1:29]. He is the perfect and pure one who carried the sins of us all and died - and suffered all the anger and wrath that was due us - in our place. He paid what man justly owed. “It is finished” [John 19:30]. It is paid.
When Jesus rose from the dead on Easter morning, He was no longer suffering. The payment was made. But what did He retain in His hands from the cross? The nail marks in His hands and the mark in His pierced side.
When Jesus ascended into heaven in the sight of the apostles, He lifted up those same hands and blessed them [Luke 24:50].
And Jesus carried those same nail pierced hands into heaven, to His Father’s right side, to forever remind the Father of the price He paid for you.
Jesus, your ascended Intercessor, forever speaks to the Father on your behalf, forever telling the Father, “I died for them.” “I died for him.” “I died for her.” “Their sins are paid for.” Jesus forever speaks to the Father about what He has done for you.
So, do not fear. Because the Father hears Jesus, the Father also receives and hears you. The failures of yesterday don’t hinder your place in God’s house today. Peace has been made. Therefore, He hears your prayers prayed in Jesus’ name.
And do not pass by His house on Sunday morning without coming in. His Son has spoken for you. Be here where you’re called to be, receiving from Him all that you need most, for this life and the next. Amen.
- May 25
- 5 min read
[John 16:23-33] “…I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
On Earth, Heaven Is My Home
Remedies help, but sometimes only to a degree. And we’d rather not have the trouble to begin with. The light of the moon remedies the night’s darkness, but it’s still no sunlight.
The sun gives light, and burns. Sunscreen and aloe are the remedy for its rays. Medicine is the remedy for sickness. Tylenol dulls the headache. And chemotherapy and radiation might even completely eradicate the cancer. But what about life without sickness? That would be better.
Friends and good company are a partial remedy for grief, but death still stings. We might try many things to remedy guilt, but not even time stops it from rearing its head. Forgiveness is the remedy for sin. But what about a life in which I’m not a sinner? That would be better.
We don’t get to live in a world other than the one that exists. And we don’t get to choose to be born in a body other than the one we have. Nor can we decide not to have a sin-fallen nature. There’s no alternate universe available devoid of wrongs. This world and body are what we have.
So, it does little good to beat your head against the wall about how the world should be – or to be paralyzed in regret about what you should be or should’ve been.
But you can rejoice that God has provided, in Jesus, a solution which is more than a partial remedy – and live by faith in what you will be because of Him.
Jesus came into this world as it is. The holy Son of God, God with God the Father, became man. He lived the same life you live – in a world of wrongs – in this world of sicknesses – and at a time when there were fewer ways of lessening the reality of it all.
And Jesus, though He had no sin, lived in this world of sinners. He had only sinners as friends – only sinners as family members – only sinners as neighbors – and only sinners as disciples.
Yet Jesus, with His Father, so loved the world that He gave Himself for it. Jesus, who had no sin, took all sin – and all sickness and sadness – and all guilt and agony of soul – and all grief and sorrow – and death and condemnation – that of all the world – upon Himself on the cross.
Jesus suffered this world and overcame it. “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” [John 16:33]. Easter. Jesus rose from the dead.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He brought out of the grave – in Himself – the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth. And the fullness of a new, renewed humanity – a new, renewed human nature – for you, as yours.
Just as Jesus shared, in Himself on that cross, all that belongs to this fallen world, so also, in His resurrection, He shares all that belongs to Him – His holiness, purity, perfect health, and eternal life – with you.
He took what is yours to conquer it and to give you what is His – making for you a new home and new you.
The new home made for you is the new holy city, the Jerusalem from above, depicted in today’s second Scripture reading: “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God…
And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb… and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there… nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” [Revelation 21:10, 21–27]
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore…” [Revelation 21:4]. A new home.
And the new you and me will be you and me who are no longer sick and no longer sinners. There will be nothing unclean nor detestable in us. And no wrongdoers to harm us.
In that day, partial remedies and helps will cease. We will be completely new. And the former things will be forgotten [Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:4].
And, brothers and sisters, all this that the Son of God has done for you is so sure and certain – since it is sealed in His blood – that even what is still to come is already considered true of you by God right now: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” [2 Corinthians 5:17]
What will be true of you in that day because of what Jesus has done for you is truer and surer already right now than all we can see in the mirror, or in the world. Surer than the present is the future that you have with Him.
So, what about the present? Does it matter? Yes, the present matters. But it matters as the passing events and stops and breakdowns and repairs on the car ride along the way.
The good and bad things of the present are not ultimate but passing. Knowing this puts them into proper perspective. We are traveling through this life, but heaven is our home.
Because the car ride is often rough, let’s be thankful – thankful to God for the partial remedies and temporary relief we do often receive. Let’s give thanks to God for the joys that we do have. Let’s take seriously the duties and vocations He has given us, and the accomplishments we can pursue.
But let’s not bank our ultimate happiness on any of these. Like the griefs and sorrows, these good things will also pass.
What doesn’t pass – what doesn’t end – is the truth that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed, praise the Lord. Because of Him, even in this life, heaven is already your home. Amen.
