Text: 1 John 5:1-8
Facebook live: You are God’s own child baptized into his name!
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
On this Mother’s Day it is certainly a day where we remember and thank our Mother’s for all that they do and have done for us, but it is also a day where we thank the Lord – for those who have been given to us in this life and stand in their place - and care for us with their love. And by that love, God has made us his own through the water of his care.
Stanza 1
Baptized into your name most holy,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I claim a place, though weak and lowly,
Among your saints, your chosen host,
Buried with Christ and dead to sin.
Your Spirit now shall live within.
Our epistle in 1 John begins:
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
For you and I and all who have been born a new, this work of God began when we were baptized. We were marked by Christ as his own, having been born again and adopted into his family - and having our sins washed away in the waters of Holy Baptism - we joy in God’s work and our new life as God’s child.
The work of God began for many of us as infants. God’s work was certainly greater than our ability to speak this truth as babies for ears to hear at our baptism - and so as we’ve grown up and have been taught what this work of God is – we continue to proclaim this truth and live as God’s adopted children to his glory.
Stanza 2
My loving Father, here you take me
To be henceforth your child and heir.
My faithful Savior, here you make me
The fruit of all your sorrows share.
O Holy Spirit, comfort me
When threat'ning clouds around I see.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Our first reading in Act relates this truth:
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
This gift also comes by means of another gift – the Lord’s working in Baptism. Through the means of grace we have received the Holy Spirit, and have overcome the world, conquering sin, death and the power of the devil through this baptismal washing uniting water with the word and Spirit and creating faith in we who were once dead to God.
God has united us to himself in a special way and we confess with our mouths this truth that Jesus is Lord, and that believing that God has raised him from the dead - we are saved - have been saved - and will continue to be saved!
Salvation is God’s promise and is delivered through his means.
The word of terror that the devil brings – that you aren’t good enough - has been defeated at the cross and Jesus has declared his victory for you, even to the gates of hell that sin, death and the devil have been defeated and overcome by our Lord and we who confess this faith receive all that Jesus won for us in this most blessed gift.
This is most certainly true.
Stanza 3
My faithful God, you fail me never;
Your promise surely will endure.
Oh, cast me not away forever
If words and deeds become impure.
Have mercy when I come defiled;
Forgive, lift up, restore your child.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
For you and I who have been brought to faith the keeping of the Law has been completed in Christ, and so as we stay connected to the true vine that is Jesus, and feed on his word, we are seen by the Father in perfect righteousness because Jesus has kept the Law perfectly on our behalf and we, in Christ, reflect that perfection.
In the world we reflect the brokenness of sin in this world as well.
As a little boy I was too young to even remember this incident. But my mother told it to me relating her shock and embarrassment.
I was probably 2 years old and with my mother at a store. While she was shopping a lady, she knew came over to talk with my mom and while they were visiting, she looked at me and asked, “What is your name little boy?” To which I quickly replied, “Damn it, Russell!”
My mom was mortified. I had obviously heard that a lot from her because I didn’t know my name apart from that phrase.
What we reflect in the world has consequences.
Now, not to have my mom take all the blame for bad judgment while teaching her child.
When my daughter Amy was 2 years old, Monica and I were taking her and our dog for a walk. As we walked near the Nature Center in our sub, I saw a squirrel. Knowing that our dog Tawney, would get excited and want to chase the squirrel, I pulled the dog to a stop and had Monica and Amy stop to distract the dog until the squirrel was out of sight. While we waited, Amy looked up and said, “Damn squirrel.”
I lived my mom’s grief.
I too had let the word of sin taint my life.
But, the word of sin and the world has been overcome in Christ!
Stanza 4
All that I am and love most dearly -
Receive it all, O Lord, from me.
Let me confess my faith sincerely
And help me your own child to be!
Let nothing that I am or own
Serve any will but yours alone.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Belief is God’s work!
The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
That is how the Apostle Paul comforts his first readers of this epistle. And for we who many years later hear his same voice proclaimed through the Gospel promise by the Holy Spirit believe and have the same gift of comfort and peace now and always through the assurance of simple water and word connected, received, and revealed.
What a blessed comfort!
Martin Luther writes in his Lecturing on the First Epistle of St. John:
Thus the water cannot be proclaimed without the blood. Nor is the blood of Christ given without the water of Baptism. Besides, the blood and the water do not come to us except at the insistence of the Holy Spirit, who is in the Word. Therefore, those three cannot be separated, but the three do one thing …
For these three constantly accompany one another, and through the word a daily immersion and a perpetual baptism takes place, a perpetual shedding of the blood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, a continual cleansing of sins.
AE 30 pg 316 Lutheran Study Bible pg. 2180
We as God’s children and all God’s children who have been baptized have and receive God’s forgiveness and have salvation in his name.
We all fall short, sure – but the blood of Christ paid the price that overcame sin death and the devil and has opened the gates of heaven for we who believe. The waters of Holy Baptism, united with the word of God, washes away our sin and by the Holy Spirit we believe and have the assurance of God’s forgiveness now and into eternity.
The devil will continue to damn us. But God in Christ has rescued us from damnation to eternity.
Baptized into Your Name Most Holy!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
On this Mother’s Day it is certainly a day where we remember and thank our Mother’s for all that they do and have done for us, but it is also a day where we thank the Lord – for those who have been given to us in this life and stand in their place - and care for us with their love. And by that love, God has made us his own through the water of his care.
Stanza 1
Baptized into your name most holy,
O Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I claim a place, though weak and lowly,
Among your saints, your chosen host,
Buried with Christ and dead to sin.
Your Spirit now shall live within.
Our epistle in 1 John begins:
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God,
For you and I and all who have been born a new, this work of God began when we were baptized. We were marked by Christ as his own, having been born again and adopted into his family - and having our sins washed away in the waters of Holy Baptism - we joy in God’s work and our new life as God’s child.
The work of God began for many of us as infants. God’s work was certainly greater than our ability to speak this truth as babies for ears to hear at our baptism - and so as we’ve grown up and have been taught what this work of God is – we continue to proclaim this truth and live as God’s adopted children to his glory.
Stanza 2
My loving Father, here you take me
To be henceforth your child and heir.
My faithful Savior, here you make me
The fruit of all your sorrows share.
O Holy Spirit, comfort me
When threat'ning clouds around I see.
4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
Our first reading in Act relates this truth:
44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
This gift also comes by means of another gift – the Lord’s working in Baptism. Through the means of grace we have received the Holy Spirit, and have overcome the world, conquering sin, death and the power of the devil through this baptismal washing uniting water with the word and Spirit and creating faith in we who were once dead to God.
God has united us to himself in a special way and we confess with our mouths this truth that Jesus is Lord, and that believing that God has raised him from the dead - we are saved - have been saved - and will continue to be saved!
Salvation is God’s promise and is delivered through his means.
The word of terror that the devil brings – that you aren’t good enough - has been defeated at the cross and Jesus has declared his victory for you, even to the gates of hell that sin, death and the devil have been defeated and overcome by our Lord and we who confess this faith receive all that Jesus won for us in this most blessed gift.
This is most certainly true.
Stanza 3
My faithful God, you fail me never;
Your promise surely will endure.
Oh, cast me not away forever
If words and deeds become impure.
Have mercy when I come defiled;
Forgive, lift up, restore your child.
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
For you and I who have been brought to faith the keeping of the Law has been completed in Christ, and so as we stay connected to the true vine that is Jesus, and feed on his word, we are seen by the Father in perfect righteousness because Jesus has kept the Law perfectly on our behalf and we, in Christ, reflect that perfection.
In the world we reflect the brokenness of sin in this world as well.
As a little boy I was too young to even remember this incident. But my mother told it to me relating her shock and embarrassment.
I was probably 2 years old and with my mother at a store. While she was shopping a lady, she knew came over to talk with my mom and while they were visiting, she looked at me and asked, “What is your name little boy?” To which I quickly replied, “Damn it, Russell!”
My mom was mortified. I had obviously heard that a lot from her because I didn’t know my name apart from that phrase.
What we reflect in the world has consequences.
Now, not to have my mom take all the blame for bad judgment while teaching her child.
When my daughter Amy was 2 years old, Monica and I were taking her and our dog for a walk. As we walked near the Nature Center in our sub, I saw a squirrel. Knowing that our dog Tawney, would get excited and want to chase the squirrel, I pulled the dog to a stop and had Monica and Amy stop to distract the dog until the squirrel was out of sight. While we waited, Amy looked up and said, “Damn squirrel.”
I lived my mom’s grief.
I too had let the word of sin taint my life.
But, the word of sin and the world has been overcome in Christ!
Stanza 4
All that I am and love most dearly -
Receive it all, O Lord, from me.
Let me confess my faith sincerely
And help me your own child to be!
Let nothing that I am or own
Serve any will but yours alone.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Belief is God’s work!
The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23
That is how the Apostle Paul comforts his first readers of this epistle. And for we who many years later hear his same voice proclaimed through the Gospel promise by the Holy Spirit believe and have the same gift of comfort and peace now and always through the assurance of simple water and word connected, received, and revealed.
What a blessed comfort!
Martin Luther writes in his Lecturing on the First Epistle of St. John:
Thus the water cannot be proclaimed without the blood. Nor is the blood of Christ given without the water of Baptism. Besides, the blood and the water do not come to us except at the insistence of the Holy Spirit, who is in the Word. Therefore, those three cannot be separated, but the three do one thing …
For these three constantly accompany one another, and through the word a daily immersion and a perpetual baptism takes place, a perpetual shedding of the blood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, a continual cleansing of sins.
AE 30 pg 316 Lutheran Study Bible pg. 2180
We as God’s children and all God’s children who have been baptized have and receive God’s forgiveness and have salvation in his name.
We all fall short, sure – but the blood of Christ paid the price that overcame sin death and the devil and has opened the gates of heaven for we who believe. The waters of Holy Baptism, united with the word of God, washes away our sin and by the Holy Spirit we believe and have the assurance of God’s forgiveness now and into eternity.
The devil will continue to damn us. But God in Christ has rescued us from damnation to eternity.
Baptized into Your Name Most Holy!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit
Amen
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