Acts 16:25-34; 1 John 4:7-16
Grace, Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Especially this day, beloved of Jim and our Lord, Elaine his wife, Denise and Sheryl his daughters, Evelyn his sister, grandchildren, great grandchildren extended family and friends. Today we give thanks to our Lord that He has delivered Jim from the evils of this World. On Sunday night around 10:40p.m., Jim breathed his last and at that moment Jim’s soul was escorted by angels to be with the Lord.
His body remains with us and it will be buried as the Lord Jesus was buried but because of his baptism into Christ he will be raised on the last day where his soul will be once again be united with His body, a body changed and free from sin and the corruption of sin, an immortal body.
How could this be? How did this happen for Jim?
Two of the readings chosen for this service were also chosen for another significant day in Jim and Elaine’s life, their wedding day. Had Jim lived to August 15th they would have been married 47 years. The two readings answer the question for Jim and all of us as to how born sinners, rebellious in nature toward God are saved by him.
The first reading is from 1 John 4:16 which is also on the cover of today’s service folder. It says, “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” In our more contemporary translation the word dwelleth is replaced with abide. Both words depict a close relationship. In fact they more than imply living together or residing together.
This is the type of relationship that Man first had with God in the Garden of Eden before the fall. Adam abided in the Word until he rejected that word and then was cast from God’s presence but as we hear the context surrounding this saying, we hear God has restored this relationship because He never stopped loving that which he created. To have God abide in you is to have life.
What is this love? How did God restore this relationship and save mankind?
Once again the reading tells us. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
God the Father’s solution was to send His Son from heaven to this earth to dwell with man, to give Him to the World. So intimately did the Son of God dwell with Man that he took on human flesh. This reading by the way is one of the readings for Christmas Eve where we celebrate and give thanks for the incarnate gift of Jesus.
This was the only way God could save mankind by becoming one of them by abiding with them so that He may be the innocent bearer of Man’s sin. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World. He never committed a sin. He kept and fulfilled not only the letter of God’s Law but the Spirit of it.
This is something neither Jim or you and I could do and He served the sentence for not keeping the Law. He received God’s wrath for sin through His passion, suffering and death. This is what meant by the evangelist and Apostle John when He says that God the Father sent God the Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
God’s Love is shown through the sacrifice of His Son and the Son’s willingness to obey His Father. In God’s court, those who abide in Christ, are seen as Christ before the Judge, innocent! Jim is declared innocent! The saints are declared innocent! The great accuser Satan has lost his power to accuse the saints who are covered in the blood of the Lamb.
So how do we know we abide in God? This is also answered by our text. “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
First we see clearly that this is also a gift. God not only gives us His Son but he gives to us Spirit. But how do we get this gift? It is the gift given in Christian baptism. We hear this promise in St. Peter’s sermon in Act 2:38 and 39, where He says that in baptism the forgiveness of sins is given, and where there is forgiveness of sins there is life eternal. Along with the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit is also given.
The Holy Spirit is the cause of our faith in Christ. He keeps the church in the true faith as we spoke in the creed and enables to make the true confession, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. When Christians confess they are not speaking of a personal faith that comes from their sin ridden hearts but the faith that is taught by the apostles and found in the churches universal creeds. Therefore confess what God is saying in His Word.
It is in this context that we can look at the reading regarding the story of the saving of the Philippian jailer and his household. The jailer was frightened for his life because if the prisoners escaped he would be himself executed and his family would suffer without him and an income. Paul and Silas who were his prisoners, were conducting a church service when the earthquake broke open the jail . Perhaps the jailer was listening. They assured the jailer that he still had his prisoners, no one escaped.
The jailer in response turned to them and asked how he could be saved. Paul answered the question, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved you and your household.” Even though this is true there was nothing the jailer could do in and of himself to believe. So the jailer took Paul and Silas to his home and their Paul preached the good news of Jesus Christ and the promise they would receive through baptism including the Holy Spirit. And the result was that the jailer and his whole household was baptized. It was after this work of God to save the jailer and his household that “he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.”
Paul makes it clear that faith is not a work that we do but it is a gift from God. One can learn all he wants about the bible but unless one has the gift of the Holy Spirit given through baptism one cannot believe.
Jim is baptized and during his life he did accompany Elaine to divine services where he received the gift of absolution, the forgiveness of sins. Jim heard the Gospel a power unto salvation. This changed Jim’s heart it made him a new man. Even though we do not work for our faith, faith works and Jim was faithful to his marriage vows. He was a faithful father bringing along with Elaine his daughters to baptism and he cared for his mother-in-law bringing her into he and Elaine’s house to care for her. At Divine Service alongside Elaine he did his best to confess the faith and say the prayers.
It is not the amount of faith or the size of it that saves. It is rather the use of it that gives us confidence when temptation and trial come. You can stand firmly against that old accuser and ancient serpent Satan and say I am baptized. I have Christ’s righteousness. I have his inheritance. Jim is now enjoying his inheritance while we on earth who are baptized wait to join him and he rejoices now along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
This is how it happened. This is how we can say with confidence that Jim’s soul is safely abiding with His Lord. Since the Lord abides with him he is alive in Christ and He has the promise that as Christ arose he will rise again. That is the promise for all the baptized. It is all our Lord’s doing. Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever will be Amen!
Very beautiful. Thanks for posting. We will miss Jim.
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