In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus says in John chapter sixteen, our Gospel lesson for today, “Whatever you ask the Father in my Name, He will give it to you.” This, of course, is a wonderful promise from God’s Word about the gift of prayer. Jesus not only invites us to pray. But He also encourages us to believe that God will actually hear our prayers and answer them. And yet, if these wonderful words from Jesus about prayer are not understood correctly, they can have a negative effect not only on our prayer life, but even on our life of faith in general. In fact, if we misunderstand what our Lord means in this verse, as many people often do, it could lead us completely away from God’s actual will for our lives.

And so, what a perfect text for us to talk about on the day that we recognize our high school graduates here at St John. Certainly, as was the case for many of us in the past, when you graduate from High School you are thinking about your future plans. You are thinking about what you’re going to do with your life, and hopefully, if you’re a Christian, you are trying to discern what God wants from your life. You are prayfully considering the different paths and options that God has laid before you, evaluating those things in light of His Word, and you are diligently seeking His approval over which one to take. And in the midst of all that, Jesus says, “Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.”

So, in this morning’s sermon, as we recognize our gradates and pray for God’s continued blessing on their future, let us think a little bit more about what these words from Jesus mean and what they don’t mean.

We’ll start with what they don’t mean first. Obviously, when Jesus tells us in our reading from John chapter sixteen that God the Father will give us whatever we ask for in His Name, He doesn’t mean that if we simply conclude every one of our prayers with the words, “In Jesus’ Name,” then whatever we said will automatically come true. Praying in Jesus’ Name is not a magic formula for getting whatever we want from God. That’s not what God’s Word teaches us about the gift of prayer.

According to the Bible, some prayer is good prayer and some prayer is bad prayer, and God will not necessarily answer our prayers just because we end them with certain words. Listen to what James says about prayer in the fourth chapter of his Epistle. He writes, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” Apparently, some of the people that James was writing to thought that they could use prayer to get whatever they wanted from God. They thought of prayer as an instrument to gratify their own sinful desires. But that, of course, is not the purpose of prayer. And praying in that kind way will not bring about the same result that Jesus is talking about in our reading.

Or think also about what our Lord says concerning prayer in Matthew chapter six, which is the place in the Bible where Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer. There Jesus says, “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” When we Christians pray to God, we shouldn’t act as if we are trying to get God to do things that He otherwise doesn’t want to do. That’s what the pagans believed about prayer. They thought that if they impressed their gods enough with the way that they prayed to them, if they said enough fancy words, or kept saying the same words over and over again, then their gods would eventually break down and give them whatever they asked for. But again, that is not the right way to pray. Prayer is not about bending God’s will to our own. It is about conforming our will to His. 

And lastly, think about what Jesus teaches us concerning prayer in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in the Temple. You know how the parable goes. Two men went into Church one day to pray. But one man used his prayer to brag about himself, and the other man used his prayer to humble himself. One man thanked God that he wasn’t a sinner like other people were, and the other man cried out to God to forgive him for his sins. And who did Jesus say had the better prayer? Who did Jesus say went down to his house justified that day? Whose prayer did God really answer? It was the man who asked God for forgiveness, and not the man who asked God for praise. 

Clearly, according to the Bible, not all prayer is the same. And just because we end a prayer with certain words, such as, “In Jesus’ Name,” that does not automatically mean that God will give us whatever we ask for. That cannot possibly be what Jesus means.

So, what does He mean then? Well, simply put, when Jesus tells us in our reading from John chapter sixteen that “Whatever you ask the Father in My Name, He will give it to you,” our Lord is talking about asking for things in faith. He is saying that when we as God’s children bring our requests to Him, trusting that for Jesus’ sake, and because of what He did for on the cross, God will hear our prayers and answer them in the exact perfect way, then we can have every confidence in the world that He will.

Like every other Christian discipline, true prayer is an act of faith. That’s what it means to pray in Jesus’ Name. It means to trust in Jesus and to receive from Him whatever it is that He gives with thanksgiving. Faith isn’t about getting what we want, it is about accepting whatever God wants. It is about trusting that whatever God gives us is always best, because He already gave us His Son, so now we can come to Him and ask for other things too knowing that He will never give us the wrong thing. As Jesus says elsewhere, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg will instead give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Now sometimes even when people recognize that praying in Jesus’ Name means praying in faith, they still get it all wrong. For example, not too long ago there was a very popular religious movement in America called the “name it and claim” movement, also known in some circles as “the power of positive thinking.” Proponents of “name it and claim it” theology taught that if you wanted something bad enough, and had enough faith that God would give it you, then you could literally get whatever you wanted. If you wanted a new car, simply “name it and claim it.” If you wanted a new house, simply “name it and claim it.” If you wanted a completely new life, where all of your wildest dreams came true, then simply “name it and claim it” and all of it would be yours. The “name it and claim it” folks maintained that if you believed in Jesus enough, there was nothing that Jesus wouldn’t give you. And if you didn’t get what you wanted from Jesus, then you must not have had enough faith in Him to begin with. 

But just because we don’t always get exactly what we want as God’s children, that does not mean that we don’t have faith in Him. Did Saint Paul not have faith in Jesus, when he pleaded with the Lord three times to remove from him the thorn that was in His flesh and God told him, “No.” Did King David not have faith in Jesus, when he prayed and fasted all night that his son wouldn’t die, and God did not let the baby get better? Did Moses not have faith in Jesus when He asked God to let him cross over into the promised land and instead the Lord only let him see it from a distance? And what about the prayer that Jesus Himself prayed in the garden of Gethsemane? In the mystery of His state of humiliation, our Lord prayed multiple times that if it were possible for the cup of His suffering to pass from Him, that God would take it away. Did that mean that Jesus did not have enough faith? Of course, it didn’t. Jesus had perfect faith. He completely trusted in the will of His Father at every single turn. And yet, Jesus still had to go to the cross and suffer for our sins.

Lots of times today people act as if prayer is all about trying to figure out God’s secret purpose for their life. Many Christians almost drive themselves to despair, looking for direct answers from God over things that He has completely left up to our freedom. Where in the Bible does it tells us that we should expect direct signs from the Lord about what job we’re supposed to take, what college we’re supposed to attend, or who we’re supposed to marry? Where do the Scriptures tell us that God is going to speak to us through extra-Biblical revelations so that we can have precise directions for every little thing that we face on a daily basis? They don’t. And when Christians act like they do, and when they act like prayer is the means by which we can figure it all out, they turn prayer completely backwards and take away all of the comfort that God gives us through it. What happens when a person thinks that God will show him what to do even in instances where His Word is silent? What happens is that the person makes a decision, the decision leads to hardships, and then they doubt whether or not they made the right decision. Then their conscience becomes burdened over something that God never even commanded them to do in the first place.

The point in all of this is that God’s ultimate will for our life is not something that is hidden. It is very clear in the Bible. As Saint Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification.” God wants us to live holy lives according to His Word, where we repent of our sins and put our faith in Jesus. He wants us to do that, so that we will go to heaven when we die. Remember what the Catechism says about God’s will? First, it reminds us that “the good and gracious will of God is done even without our prayer.” Then it tells us that “God’s will is done when He breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let His kingdom come; and when He strengthens and keeps us firm in His Word until we die.”  That’s God’s will for our lives. It isn’t a secret. It isn’t a mystery. It isn’t something that we have to worry about trying to figure it. God wants us to go to heaven. God wants us to be saved.

And when we pray for things with that perspective in mind, then it becomes easier to see how God actually does give us everything that we ask for in Jesus’ Name. Think again about those examples from earlier. No, God did not take away the thorn from Saint Paul’s side, but He did give him something even better. God gave Paul the assurance of His grace. God reminded Paul how His power is made perfect in weakness so that Paul could continue to trust in the Lord and be saved. No, God did not let King David’s son get better from his sickness in this earthly life, but He did usher David’s son into everlasting life early. Remember what David said, “He cannot come to me, but I will go to him.” No, God did not let Moses go into the promised land, but He did take Moses directly to the promised land of heaven. Which is better, a piece of land in the Middle East that people are still fighting over or a place in our Father’s House where there are many rooms? And no, God did not take away the cup of His wrath from Jesus, but by letting His only begotten Son drink it, God satisfied His wrath over sins of the whole world and made it possible for everyone who believes in Jesus to be saved.

God always answers the prayers that we pray in faith. Even when we don’t know what to pray for, and even when we unknowingly pray for things that could harm us, as it says in Romans chapter eight, the Holy Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. God takes our feeble prayers and He polishes them up, and then He provides the perfect response to them. He does that not by giving us necessarily what we always expect, but by giving us exactly what we need the most in order to remain faithful to Him and go to heaven when we die.

No doubt, we have many different things on our hearts and minds this day. Our graduates in particular are probably thinking a lot about their future and what’s going to come next in their life. It’s a good time to think about prayer. We can’t do anything without God’s help. That’s what prayer is all about. When we pray to God, we are acknowledging that we need Him, and that there’s nothing that we can do apart from Him. But simply praying to God is not enough. You also need to pray in Jesus’ Name. Praying in Jesus’ Name does not mean simply ending every prayer with certain words. It means praying in faith and trusting in God’s mercy. It means relying on the Scriptures and believing that Jesus always wants what is best for you. It means having confidence that regardless of what He sends your way, God’s purpose in all things is your eternal salvation. He sent His Son to die for it. He sends His Holy Spirit through the Word and Sacraments to give it. And He gives you the gift of prayer so that you can rest within it.

So, may the Lord bless each and every one of our graduates this day that their prayers, and more importantly, their faith, would never faulter. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

One of the defining characteristics of our time is widespread skepticism. While in times past there was an overall consensus, at least among members of Western Civilization, that certain things were right and certain things were wrong, and that truth was actually something that could be known, nowadays even the concept of truth itself is under attack. Many people assume that it is impossible to know the truth and that there is no such thing as objective or absolute truth at all. Case in point, how often do we hear people say things like “well that’s just your truth” or “I’m just living my truth,” as if two things could be true at once even if they are contradictory to each other? Sadly, by today’s standards, claiming to know the truth is not only considered to be arrogant, but in many cases, it’s almost seen as immoral: “Who are you to tell me what’s true and what isn’t? What makes you so special that you think you have the truth all figured out? Don’t you dare impose your truth on me.”

That is the situation that we find ourselves living in as twenty-first century Christians, and it is very serious problem that we as the Church need to address. We especially need to address it today, because today at St John Lutheran Church we are celebrating Confirmation Sunday. Three of our young people are about to stand in front of this congregation and make certain vows about what they believe and how they intend to live their lives. Among other things, one of the questions that they will get asked is this: “Do you confess the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, drawn from the Scriptures, as you have learned to know it from the Small Catechism, to be faithful and true?” To which the confirmands will respond, “I do.” 

That is what we Lutherans think about the truth. Not only do we think that it can actually be known, but we also believe that by God’s grace, and His grace alone, we actually have it. We believe that what we teach in this Church is nothing other the pure, unadulterated truth. So, in today’s sermon, on the basis of our Gospel lesson from John chapter sixteen, where Jesus talks to us about this exact thing, let us consider together how we know the truth.

The first and most fundamental thing that everyone must recognize when to comes to knowing the truth is that ultimately all truth comes from God. As Jesus says very clearly to His disciples in our reading, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth.” According to Jesus, the way that a person comes to the knowledge of the truth is not by his or her own intellect and abilities, but by the intervention and revelation of the Holy Spirit. The truth is not something that we establish, it is something that we receive. It is something that God gives to us. It is something that the Holy Spirit makes known to us.

We are not the source of ultimate truth. Despite what so many people teach these days, truth does not come from inside of a person, but from outside of them. Just because we feel like something is true, or think that something should be true, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is. The Disney corporation might make some very entertaining and enjoyable movies, but they are dead wrong when they teach little children to follow their own hearts. Listen to what the prophet Jeremiah says about the human heart in Jeremiah chapter 17. He writes, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” And then there are the words of Jesus from Matthew chapter 15. There our Lord tells us, “Out of the heart comes evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander.” Far from being the source of truth, God’s Word teaches us that our hearts are the source of sin. And that is why if we want to know the truth, we must not listen to ourselves, but to God. We must listen to the Holy Spirit.

And yet, simply saying that we must listen to the Holy Spirit if we want to know the truth, is, of course, not enough to actually know the truth. We also have to know how the Holy Spirit speaks to us and where He wants us to listen for His voice. Often times, Christians today will claim that they have direct access to the Holy Spirit. Since the Bible teaches us that when we get Baptized, we receive the Holy Spirit, and that now He lives within us, many people think that means that now the Holy Spirit speaks to them directly. When they have a certain strong feeling about something in their lives, they will say that “God laid it on their heart to do it.” Even if that thing is not something that is talked about in the Bible, and sometimes even if it is directly spoken against in the Bible, people will ignore it on the basis that the Holy Spirit told them otherwise. This is literally the exact argument that every liberal congregation which has deviated from God’s Word because of popular culture trends in the last fifty years has made. Why does the ELCA ordain women to the pastoral office and say that it’s okay for two men or two women to be married to each other even though the Bible says otherwise? They do it because they say that the Holy Spirit led them to that conclusion.

But this is no different from those who claim that we should simply follow our own hearts. Just because the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts does not mean that everything that we feel in our hearts necessarily comes from Him. We are still sinners after our Baptism. Even though the guilt of our sins has been washed away by the water and the Word, our sinful nature remains. Yes, we are being made new in the image of God our Creator, but our regeneration is only begun. It is not complete. And that is why simply saying that the Holy Spirit told you to do something as a Christians because you feel strongly about that thing doesn’t mean that it’s true.

Where does the Holy Spirit speak to us? Where does He Himself tell us to listen for His voice so that we can know the truth? He tells us to listen to the Bible. The Bible does not just contain God’s Word, the Bible is God’s Word. Every bit of it is the inspired and inerrant Word of God. Listen to what we read about the Bible in 2 Timothy chapter 3. There the apostle Paul, who spoke with Jesus in person, and saw Him in His resurrected state with his own two eyes, says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.” The word in that passage for breath is the same word for Spirit. You could just as easily translate it as “All Scripture is Spirit breathed,” as in, all of it comes from the Holy Spirit. Or think about what Saint Peter writes in 2 Peter chapter 1. This is a great passage to bring up when someone claims that the Bible is just the opinions of certain Christians and not really the opinion of God Himself. Peter writes, “For no prophecy was every produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”

When we read the Bible, it is not just men who are speaking to us. It is God who is speaking to us. Even when Jesus was being tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, how did our Lord respond to his attacks? He responded with the Bible. Jesus quoted the written Word back to Satan thereby showing all of us just how reliable it really is. As Jesus also tells us about the Bible in John chapter 10, “the Scriptures cannot be broken.” And as He says in John chapter 8, “If you continue in my words, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

Not only is the Holy Spirit the source of ultimate truth, and not only does He reveal that truth to us in the Bible, but He also guides us into all truth by using the Bible to do it. Sometimes when Christians quote the Bible to try and prove a point they are met with the response of, “Well, that’s just your interpretation.” I can still remember one time when I was in college and I told one of my roommates that we shouldn’t be getting drunk because the Bible tells us not to, and he dismissed my rebuke by claiming that what I said was just my own interpretation of the text. Of course, when I asked him how he interpreted the text differently so that it meant the exact opposite of what it plainly said, he didn’t have any response.

If we approach the Bible with the intent of looking for the answer that we already want to hear, then we will never be able to find the truth there. No, the right way to read the Bible is to let the Bible speak for itself. As the Old Lutherans used to say, “Scripture interprets Scripture.” When you come across something in the Bible that is confusing or hard to understand, you go back to the basic truths of the Bible and you let those guide you in your study. That is what Jesus is talking about in our reading from John chapter sixteen when He says that the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Those are the basic teachings of the Bible.

First, there’s what the Bible teaches about sin. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” – “We are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity” – “All sin is lawlessness.” You know what is sinful and what isn’t by looking at the Ten Commandments, and those commandments show us that we need a Savior. 

Next, there’s what the Bible says about righteousness. “No one is righteous, no not one” – “Abraham believed in God and it was credited to him as righteousness” – “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” According to God’s Word, true righteousness, or the kind of righteousness that gets us into heaven, doesn’t come from us, it comes from Jesus. Christ is our righteousness, and we receive His righteousness through faith alone. We get it not by doing a bunch of good deeds, but by believing in the promise that for His sake our sins are forgiven.

And lastly, there is what the Bible teaches us about judgment. Jesus will “come to judge the living and the dead” – “After death comes judgment” – and “My Word will judge them on the last day.” This life is not all that there is, and the time is coming when Christ will bring it to an end. We need to be ready, and the only way to be ready is by feeding our faith with God’s Word and Sacraments so that it doesn’t die out before we die.

These are the truths that the Holy Spirit leads us into. They are the basic teachings of the Bible and the tools that we use to read the Bible correctly. When we come across something that we don’t understand in the Scriptures we look at it through the lens of those passages that are very easy to understand. Then the other passages become clearer and clearer.

Yes, it is true that that the Holy Spirit does not teach us everything that we might want to know in the Bible. But He does teach us everything that we need to know. He teaches us everything that we need to know to be saved. As we read in 2 Timothy chapter three, “the Scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation.” That’s why God gave us the Bible. And that’s how He wants us to use it. He wants us to listen to it and let the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth. 

Confirmands, now I am speaking to you directly. I can assure you without a doubt in my mind that you are going to be bombarded by all kinds of different messages in your life that will try and pass themselves off as the truth. I know it because I’ve lived it. I went to public high school. I went to the big college. I remember what things were like fifteen years ago for me, and I can’t image what they are going to be like for you. People will tell you things and expect you to believe them without any consideration. They will make ludicrous claims about all kinds of nonsense and pretend that what they’re saying is common knowledge. Outside of the church you will be told that all truth is relative and that you can’t be sure of anything expect for the stuff that is popular at that particular moment in time. And inside of the Church you will hear from many how the truth is given to us directly and that the Holy Spirit talks to us apart from the written Word.

I’m telling you all of this not to scare you, but to prepare you. As you will soon confess in your Confirmation vows, the source of all truth is the Bible. That means that you need to know the Bible. That means that you need to keep coming to Church to hear the Bible read and pay attention when the meaning of the Bible is explained by the pastor. Just because you learned the Catechism once doesn’t mean you can’t forget it. Even Martin Luther said that he recited the whole Catechism every single day. God’s Word isn’t just for kids. It’s for everyone. And the older you get the more responsibility you need to take for yourself. Be in Church. Be in your Catechism. Be in your Bible. 

Because even though all of that might sound like a burden, you know that it is a blessing. Having access to the God’s Word is the greatest blessing of your life. It is the greatest treasure God has given you, because in giving you access to the Bible, you have access to Jesus. You have access to the One who is the way, and the truth, and the life. You have access to the one who lived and died for all of your sins so that you can have access to your Father in heaven.

So, do not grow tired of listening to the Bible. Let your heart and your ears be opened to the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit who wrote them will guide you into all truth through them. He will guide you to Christ your Savior. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Even though Mother’s Day is not a Church holiday, but a secular one, that, of course, does not mean that the Church has nothing to say about it. On the contrary, motherhood is such a high and noble vocation that Jesus even uses it to make a comparison between the joy that a Christian has in heaven and the joy that a mother feels after she gives birth to a baby. As Jesus says in our Gospel reading today from John chapter sixteen, “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So, also, you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice.” Given these words of Jesus then, it is entirely appropriate that we would spend some time this morning talking about God’s gift of motherhood and what the Bible teaches us about it.

The first thing that the Bible teaches us about motherhood is that it is God’s institution. When we say that something is God’s institution, what we mean that it is something that God Himself made and that He Himself established. We human beings did not bring into existence the very first mom, nor are we ourselves truly responsible for who becomes a mom today. That is something that God does. God made Eve, whose name means,” the mother of all living,” and God gave her to Adam, and then God blessed their union with children, making her a mom.

Not unlike marriage, fatherhood, and the pastoral office, motherhood is the creation of God Himself. And since it is His creation, and not ours, He is the one who tells us what it should look like and what should happen in it. It is God who places individuals into the vocation of motherhood and it is God who determines what they should do when they have been placed into it.

Only women can be moms. It is a sad thing that this truth needs be said out loud today, but it does. A man cannot be a mom. A man cannot have babies. Despite what some news media outlets report these days, there is no such thing as a man who got pregnant. That is impossible. Not all women are mothers, but all mothers are women. And a woman is a biological female. A woman is not a man who feels like a woman. A woman is not a man who dresses and acts like a woman. A woman is someone who is born with the body parts and genetics, which, when working properly, are capable of conceiving and bearing a child.

Yes, motherhood also, of course, includes adoption. Women who have not been able to give birth to children of their own, but who instead, take into their own homes and raise as children the children that were born to others who could not take care of them are still moms. They are no less moms than those who carried their children in their own wombs. Even while He was hanging on a cross, dying for the sins of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ said to the His mother Mary in reference to Saint John, “Woman, behold, your son.” And from that hour forward the Bible tells us that John took her into his own home. John treated Mary like his mother, because she was his mother. Because adoption makes real moms.

But again, you still need to be a woman to be a mother. Motherhood is not some random and meaningless design that has no purpose or rationale behind it and that anyone can enter into if they want to. God knows what we need. God knows that children need a mom and a dad. God knows that two dads will not work and God knows that two moms will not work either. God teaches this truth to us in creation itself, in which we see that without a mom and dad a child cannot be born to begin with. 

Not having a mom is not the way that God designed it to be. Not having a dad is not the way that God designed it to be. God designed it so that children would have one mom and one dad. Sometimes, due to circumstances that are completely out of our control, and sometimes due to our own sinful behavior, children are deprived of their father or their mother. But this is something that we grieve. It is not something that we celebrate. And it is certainly never something that we actively try to bring about.

There are some things that only moms can teach. And there are some things that only dads can teach. When the Bible talks about what moms do and what dads do, those things are not identical. The offices of motherhood and fatherhood are not interchangeable. Like husbands and wives, moms and dads are each called to do their own part for the sake of those whom God has placed in their lives. The most important thing that moms can do is to see to it that their children are raised in the Faith. Yes, God calls on fathers to be the heads of the household, or the spiritual leaders, who are the main teachers of the Faith in the home. But godly mothers support and encourage them in this task. And when there is no father present, or when the father refuses to do his job, mothers take up the task themselves. They do what Lois and Eunice did, who out of all the women who ever lived, out of all those who accomplished things that this world calls great, the Holy Spirit saw fit to record in the pages of Scriptures simply for passing on the sacred deposit of the Faith to young Timothy. We Christians support the vocation of motherhood as God designed it to be and we treat with the highest dignity and respect because God’s Word teaches us that motherhood is His own institution.

The second thing that the Bible teaches us about motherhood is that motherhood is a blessing. Motherhood is not just God’s institution. It is not just something that God created and established. It is something that He created and established for our good and the good of the whole world. Yes, motherhood comes with many unique challenges and crosses as every mom will surely tell you. But motherhood is not itself a cross. Motherhood is a blessing. Motherhood is a blessing because children are a blessing.

In the very beginning, even before the fall into sin, the Scriptures tell us that God blessed Adam and Eve, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” That is what God thinks about motherhood and that is what He thinks about married couples having children. He blesses it. He gives it His own divine approval and support. God shows us even at the beginning of creation how much He Himself values the vocation of motherhood and the act by which a woman becomes a mom in marriage.

The world we live in today has a very low view of motherhood and a very low view of things like childbearing. Even though God blesses marriage, and even though God offers His unique blessing to husbands and wives being fruitful and multiplying in marriage, many people, and especially young people, are taught to avoid these blessings.

Young men and women are told that they should avoid getting married and having children until they have accomplished all of the things in life that they want to accomplish, because getting married and having children will only get in the way of those things. They are told that getting married and having children is a hinderance to more important things in life like their career and traveling the world. They are told that a life-long commitment to just one other person, where one of the main intentions is to bring forth and raise up godly children, is a waste of their time or at least that it should be thought of as an afterthought. Young people burn with lust, and instead of encouraging them towards chastity and the pursuit of a pious spouse, they are told to play pretend marriage with others, and enjoy all the pleasures of marriage without any of the responsibilities. Even when young people do get married and begin to think about having children, often times they are told to make those decisions based on things like money and personal goals. They are told to limit the amount of children that they have so that they can continue to do all things that they liked to do before they had kids. And in the worst possible cases, when children are seen as too inconvenient or too burdensome, young moms are encouraged to end the lives of their children while they are still in the womb.

But what is missing from all of this is the Word of God. What is missing from all of it is Jesus. You can search the whole Bible and you will not find a single passage that speaks in a derogatory way about Christian men and women getting married with honorable intentions, having children, and living a simple life where they raise those children in the faith. You will not find one verse in the Bible that teaches you to put pleasure, having a career, sight-seeing, living in a big house, and driving a nice car above being a faithful mom or dad who welcomes God’s gift of children and raises up little ones in the instruction and fear of the Lord. What you will find though are passage like this one from Psalm 127, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them.”

Putting off marriage and having children for selfish reasons and treating those things as burdens instead of blessings is wrong. Limiting the number of children that you have in marriage purely because of worldly things like money and convenience is wrong. Motherhood is always a gift and never a curse. It is true that not everyone receives the gift of motherhood just like not everyone receives the gift of marriage. There are many gifts in this life that not everyone receives. God gives different gifts to different people when are where He wills it. Some people, like Saint Paul himself, serve the Church as single people their whole lives, and God smiles upon their service for the sake of Christ. Some people do not want to be married, because they do not struggle with living a chaste life outside of marriage, and that is a wonderful thing too. Some people want to be married, and some people want to have children, and God, for reasons known only to Him does not permit it to happen. But desiring a certain gift, and not receiving that gift does not mean that God does not love us. It does not mean that we are more or less valuable in the eyes of God. Our worth comes not from how many children we have been able to have, but whether or not we are God’s child. And yet, we can still recognize the great gift of motherhood and of children, even if it is not God’s greatest gift. 

The greatest gift that God gives us is eternal life. The greatest gift that He gives is the life that Jesus won for us when He laid down His life for our sins on the cross. There is nothing that we have in this life that can compare with that. There is nothing in this life that we can take out of this life with us when we die. We cannot take our money with us when we die. We cannot take our job with us when we die. We cannot take our house with us when we die. All of the achievements and promotions we received from work won’t matter when we die. None of the sites we’ve seen in this life will compare to what we will see in eternity. But it is possible to take one thing with us. By God’s grace, we can take our children with us. Whether they are our own children or the children of others that we have cared for as our own, if they are taught to believe the Gospel and trust in Jesus, will see them in heaven for all eternity. We will stand arm in arm with them on the Day of Judgment and not be put to shame. And this truth impresses upon us other truths. It teaches us to value children. It teaches us to value marriage and motherhood. 

The third and most important things that God’s Word teaches us about motherhood is that our true mother is the Church. Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 12 that “whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” And the apostle Paul writes in Galatians chapter 4 that the Jerusalem above, meaning, all believers, “she is our mother.” The Bible tells us that our true family is the household of God. It tells us that our true mother is the Church.

The reason why it so important for us to see that our true Mother is the Church, and the reason why is it so important for earthly mothers and fathers to teach their children to see this truth too, is because even though our earthly moms are wonderful, even though they are true gifts from God for which we should give thanks, there is one thing they cannot do for us. They cannot save us from our sins. Only Jesus can save us from our sins. And we receive the forgiveness of sins only through the Church. We receive the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us on the cross only through the means of grace that God gives us in Church. We are brought into the family of God, only by the work of the Holy Spirit, who calls us by the Gospel. We are made God’s children only by the power of the Holy Spirit, who causes us to born again through the waters of Baptism in which He washes away all of our sins. 

Maybe you have a bad relationship with your mom. Maybe you have done or said things to your mom that you regret or maybe she has done or said things to you that you resent. Maybe you desperately want to be a mom, but have not been able to be one yet. Maybe you are bitter about being a mom and secretly wish at times that you weren’t one. Maybe you are convicted over the things that God’s Word says about motherhood and marriage. And maybe you struggle to honor those things in the way that you live your life. But whoever you are, and whatever struggles you are dealing with because of your sins or the sins of others, there is hope for you.

There is hope for you because there is one who was also born for you. There is one who when the fullness of time had come, was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. Jesus Christ is the hope of all. He is the hope of sinful mothers. He is he hope of sinful children. He is hope of all those who suffer for their sins and sins of others, because He suffered the true cost for all of the world’s sins on the cross. In this world that is full of sin, in this world that looks down on God’s institutions like motherhood, and chaffs in anger over how God has lovingly designed marriage and families, in this world that thinks little of the little children, we do not only bring the Law of correction which uncover sins and calls people to repentance. We point people to the Gospel. We point people to the Christ Child that was born of His virgin mother, born to die, and through His dying give us new life.

No, Mother’s Day is not a Church Holiday, but that does not mean that the Church has nothing to say about it. On the contrary, God’s Word holds up the vocation of motherhood as a high and noble calling. It teaches us that motherhood is God’s own institution. It teaches us that motherhood is a blessing because children are a blessing. And it teaches us that our true mother is the Church. May the Lord help us to receive His teaching about motherhood with thanksgiving, and honor our moms with the respect that they deserve. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Bible describes the relationship between Jesus and His Church in a number of ways.  Jesus is the Bridegroom and His Church is the bride.  Jesus is the Head and His Church is the body.  Jesus is the Vine and His Church is the branches. Jesus is the Cornerstone and His Church is the temple.  And Jesus is the King and His Church is the Kingdom.  Every one of those different metaphors that the Bible uses is intended to teach us something unique about the precious relationship between Christ and His Christians.  But in today’s Gospel lesson from John chapter ten, we get to hear about what is perhaps the most beloved metaphor of them all. Jesus is the Shepherd and His Church is the sheep. So, on the basis of this metaphor, and what Lord says about it in our reading, let us consider together in today’s sermon some of things that Jesus does for us as our Good Shepherd.

The first and the most important thing that Jesus does for us as our Good Shepherd is, of course, die for our sins. As Jesus says in John chapter 10, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” Everything else that Jesus does for us would not make any difference in our life at all if He had not laid down His life for us on the cross. Nothing else in our life would matter, because no matter what our life was like, it would still be doomed to end in the exact same way. Some day we would still have to answer for our sins, and those sins would condemn us. As the Bible tells us elsewhere, “The soul that sins shall die,” and “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Despite the impression that is often given today by those who don’t know God’s Word, our sins are real and they are bad. They are so bad, in fact, that the only way for them to be forgiven is that someone has to die for them. Someone has to pay for them. Someone has to offer to God such a perfect and holy ransom for them that it actually has the power take them away. And that someone, of course, is Jesus. Remember what Saint Peter writes about Jesus in 1 Peter chapter 2. He writes, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot.” Part of the reason why Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd is because Jesus is also the Lamb of God. Jesus takes care of His lambs first and foremost by taking the place of His lambs and dying for their sins. As we read in Isaiah chapter 53, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned – every one – to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

The atoning death of Jesus for our sins is the central teaching of the Bible. When Saint Paul came to the city of Corinth, he told the people there that he decided to know nothing among them expect “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” It is not that the atoning death of Jesus for our sins is the only teaching in the Bible, but it absolutely is the main teaching. It is the basis for everything else that the Bible teaches us. If we don’t get what the Bible teaches us about the death of Jesus right, we will get everything else that it teaches us wrong. Think about, for example, what the Bible teaches us about good works. The Bible teaches us about good works all over the place. In fact, there is hardly any place in the Bible that does not talk good works and how we Christians are supposed to do them. But if we try and talk about good works without talking about the death of Jesus, then we will end up saying something about good works that the Bible doesn’t say at all.

Why do we Christians do good works? Why do we Christians seek to love and serve our neighbor in the various vocations that God has given us? Why do we honor God with our bodies and flee from things like sexual immorality and every other sin? Do we do it to earn God’s favor? Do we do it to win a place in heaven? No! We do it because we have God’s favor. We do it because we have a place in heaven. We turn away from our sin and seek to live holy lives in accordance with God’s Will, because we have been bought with a price. We have been redeemed by Jesus. Our God shepherd Jesus has laid down His life for us, and that is why we lay down our lives for each other in humble obedience to God’s Word. We do it because of what God has already done for us.

Jesus did not go to the cross and die for us because of something that we did for him. He did it of His own accord. As He says in our reading, “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” Anytime that anyone gives the impression that a person is saved because of the things that they do, they rob Christ of His glory and they rob themselves of their comfort. They undermine what is the most essential thing that Jesus does as our Good Shepherd, He lays down His life for His sheep.  

The second thing that Jesus does for us as our Good Shepherd is gather us together through His Word. As Jesus also says in our reading, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice, so there will be one flock, one shepherd.” Besides laying down His life for us on the cross in order to purchase the forgiveness of sins for us, Jesus also brings that forgiveness to us. The death of Jesus for our sins would not do us any good at all if we didn’t know about it and if we didn’t believe it. In the same way that winning the lottery doesn’t do a person any good if they don’t know that they are sitting on the winning ticket, it doesn’t do sinners any good if they don’t know that their sins are forgiven. 

So, God makes His forgiveness known to us. God brings us His grace. That is why we Lutherans call them “the means of grace.” The means of grace are God’s Word and Sacraments. They are the tools that God uses to bring us the forgiveness that Jesus won for us on the cross. God uses Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the Absolution from the pastor, and the preaching of His Word to bring people forgiveness. That is where our Good Shepherd speaks to us and those are the only places where He wants us to listen for His voice: in the pure teaching of His Word and in the right administration of His Sacraments.

Jesus warns us in our reading that there are other voices that try and pass themselves off as His voice in order to get us to follow after them instead. He says, “He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.” All over the place we are surrounded by false teachers and false teachings which can draw us away from Jesus. We are threatened by “hired hands,” who try and deceive us in into believing all kinds of things that are not actually true, and that can cause us real physical and spiritual harm.

One of the most deceptive false teachings that we encounter in the world today is the teaching that what a church teaches doesn’t really matter. Since there are so many different religions in the world, and so many different denominations in the Christian Church, many Christians ignore their differences and say that our differences are unimportant. They say that doctrine is unimportant. They contend that doctrine only divides people and that if we would only put our doctrinal differences aside, then we could finally get things done. Then we could actually bring people together and make this world a better place. But the people who teach that we should put our doctrinal differences aside, and ignore certain things that the Bible teaches which we can’t agree on, are actually teaching something wrong. They are teaching something wrong, because they are looking for the voice of Jesus in the wrong place. They are seeking unity in the wrong way and through the wrong means. How does Jesus gather His Church together? How does Jesus unite His Church and bring people to faith so that they may be one? It’s not through ignoring His Word. It is through teaching His Word. It is through doctrine. The word doctrine literally means “something that is taught.” People don’t become Christians by avoiding doctrine. They become Christians by listening to doctrine. They come to faith by hearing the pure doctrine of God’s Word and believing it. As Jesus tells us very famously in Matthew chapter 28, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded.” 

When people try and claim that it is impossible to know what the pure doctrine of God’s Word is, so we should just not talk about things that we can’t agree on, they are saying something that is in direct contradiction to what Jesus says in the Bible. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.” Jesus says, “If you continue in my words, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” According to Jesus, it is possible to know exactly what our Good Shepherds sounds like. It is possible to be able to distinguish His voice from every other voice that there is. Just like sheep know the difference between a hired hand and their shepherd by listening to the sound of their voices, we Christians can know the difference between true teachers and false teachers by listening to what they say. We can know the difference by comparing what they say to what Jesus says in the Bible.

The Bible never tells us to put our doctrinal differences aside. In fact, it tells us the opposite. As we read in the book of Jude, “Contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” And as Saint Paul tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 4, “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the doctrine. Persist in this, for by do so you will save both yourself and your hearers.” It is through doctrine that we know of our forgiveness. It is through doctrine that we know of our salvation. It is through doctrine that we can know that one day we will go to heaven when we die. All of those things are doctrines! They are different teachings of the Bible that Jesus uses to bring us to faith and save us. Because, again, that is another thing that He does as our Good Shepherd. He gathers us together through His Word. 

And the last thing that Jesus does for us as our Good Shepherd is He knows us and He reveals Himself to us. As Jesus also says in our reading, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.” In laying down His life for us and gathering us together through His Word, Jesus shows us who He is. He shows us His character. He shows us what He is like, and how deeply He loves us, so that regardless of what we are going through in our lives, we can have certainty that our lives belong to Him.

Jesus knows what you are going through in your life. He knows what you are going through in your life, because He is the author of your life. As the Bible tells us, “He formed you in the womb” – “He counts every hair on your head” – “Your days were written in His book when as yet there was none of them” – “He is acquainted with all your ways” – and “He knows when you rise up and when you lie down.” Jesus is not unaware of your suffering, nor is He unable to put your suffering to good use. It’s true that we don’t always know how God is using our suffering for good. We don’t get the bigger picture. But God does. And that is what He promises to do for us in Hs Word. That is what He reveals to us in the Scriptures. Remember what we read in places like Romans chapter 8. There it says, “[God] works all things together for the good of those who love Him,” and “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?” We know that God will give us everything that we need in this life because He has given us everything that we need for eternal life. We know that no matter what happens in our lives, our lives will be okay, because in Jesus our lives will never end.

As a shepherd knows each one of his sheep, Jesus knows each one of His Christians. Just like we know His voice, He knows our voice too. He hears the bleating cries of His sheep. He listens to our prayers. There is not a single prayer that we pray that Jesus does not hear. There is not a single thing that we ask for that He does not promise to give answer to in whatever way is best for us. As Jesus says elsewhere, “Ask anything in my name and I will give it.” That does not mean that Jesus will give us whatever we want, but it does mean that He will give us whatever we need. Our Lord knows what we need. We do not always know what we need. Sometimes we think that we know what we need and we are wrong. But Jesus is never wrong. Jesus knows everything and it is enough for us to know Jesus. It is enough for us to know what He has done for us on the cross and what He promises to give to us through His Word. 

When we know what Jesus has already done for us on the cross and what He promises to give to us through His Word, that is, when we know that all of our sins have been forgiven, then that allows us to face every day with confidence no matter what the day brings. Even if we don’t escape from suffering, we know that our suffering will eventually come to an end. We know that because Jesus’ suffering came to an end. Not only did Jesus lay down His life for us, but Jesus took it up again. Jesus died and Jesus rose. And that means that all those who trust in Jesus will rise from the dead too. They will live even though they die.

Yes, we live our lives sometimes like sheep among wolves. But we are not without a Shepherd. And our Good Shepherd takes care of our every need. He lays down His life for us. He gathers us together through His Word. And He reveals Himself to us so that we can be at peace.  Dear Christians, Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. And there is nothing better to be than that. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.