Zion Lutheran Church - Bancroft, NE

06/04/2026

Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday on 05/31/2026

“Your Majestic God”

Text: Psalm 8:1-9

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He’s risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our crucified and FOREVER risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text for this morning’s sermon is the Psalm we confessed for our Introit. It was Psalm 8.

Today, in the Athanasian Creed, we confessed the one true God in a very majestic way. We declared each Person of the Trinity to be uncreated, yet there are not three uncreated, but one Uncreated. We confessed each Person of the Trinity to be eternal, yet there are not three eternals, but one Eternal. We acknowledged that each Person of the Trinity is almighty, yet there are not three almighties, but one Almighty. [And] in doing so, we confessed that the one, true God is incomprehensible. While there are things we can know about our God Who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there are also many things that are beyond our limited human understanding. [And] in my opinion, no creed does a better job than the Athanasian Creed in explaining what we do know about God and confessing what we don’t know about God.

However, some people don’t like to confess this creed because of the way it ends, and this is especially true as Lutherans who rightly believe, teach, and confess that works don’t save us. But rather, we’re simply saved through grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone, and actually, that’s what the Athanasian Creed confesses. But, we question this when the creed with the statement, “At His coming all people will rise again with their bodies and give an account concerning their own deeds. And those who have done good will enter into eternal life, and those who have done evil into eternal fire.”

Now, most don’t have too much of an issue with the fact that those who have done evil will be sent into eternal fire. Instead, most Lutherans struggle with the statement, “And those who have done good will enter into eternal life.” It catches some of us off guard, and after we hear it, we think, “Did I just confess works-righteousness?”

Well, fear not dear Lutheran because that’s not what this section of the Athanasian Creed is confessing. Instead, you should think about this statement as referring to those who have only done good. Now, when you think of it this way, you should ask yourself, “Who do I know who has only done good in this world?” [And] of course, other than Jesus, the answer is, “No one.” As Romans 3:23 says, “[A]ll have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

So then, what does this creed mean when it says that those who have done good will enter into eternal life?

Well, you just spent about 3 to 4 minutes rightly confessing the Trinity as being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three Persons in one God. [And] along with this, you also confessed the two natures of Jesus as being both fully God and fully man, and as a result of rightly confessing the Triune God and the true identity of Jesus, you also confessed that this enabled Jesus to die on the cross as payment for your sin, to rise from the dead to show He paid for your sin, and to ascend into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father where Jesus uses this place of authority to dispense His forgiveness all throughout the world. [And] this forgiveness from Jesus isn’t partial forgiveness, or even a forgiveness that covers a majority of your sin. Rather, the forgiveness of Jesus covers ALL your sin. As the Lord declares in Jeremiah 31:34, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

[And] so, when you believe and confess everything mentioned in the Athanasian Creed, that means all your inherited sin, as well as all your sins of thought, word, and deed have been forgiven and forgotten by God. Your sins have been removed from you “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). [And] since this is true, that means the only thing that remains with you are the good things you’ve done… the times when you’ve kept God’s commandments… the times when you’ve loved the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength… and the times you’ve loved your neighbor as yourself.

You see, the forgiveness of Jesus Christ is so complete that, when God looks at you, He only sees the good things that you’ve done, and therefore, it’s those who have done good as a result of the forgiveness of Jesus Christ who will enter into eternal life.

This, then, is describing you, dear Christian. You have only done good because the blood of Jesus’ cross covers all your sin. Of course, only the majestic God could do such a thing. [And] the Good News for you today, which we heard in our Psalm, is that THE MAJESTIC LORD IS YOUR GOD. The One Who is capable of creating all things and earning your redemption is the God Who has claimed you as His Own in order to give you eternal salvation.

(THE MAJESTIC LORD IS YOUR GOD.)
(I. …Who conquers His enemies in weakness. [vv. 1 & 2])
(II. …Who is mindful of you. [vv. 3 & 4])
(III. ...Who became a little lower than the heavenly beings. [vv. 5-9])

I.

Of course, one of the unusual things about the way this salvation is given is that the majestic Lord Who is your God conquers His enemies in weakness. We learn this in the first part of our text when it says, “1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. 2 Out of the mouth of babes and infants, You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”

When we confess that the Lord’s name is majestic, we’re saying that He’s extremely impressive. The Lord is so magnificent that His glory can be seen all throughout the universe. In our Old Testament reading from Genesis 1 & 2, we heard the real history of how the Lord created the world and the universe all around it. It’s a beautiful and grand depiction of how all things came into existence through a purposeful creation brought about by a purposeful Creator.

[And] yet, the Lord uses humble means to conquer and defeat His enemies. The Lord has the ability to be grand and astonishing, and no doubt, He was at times. He saved the Children of Israel from the Egyptians by separating the waters of the Red Sea so that the Israelites could walk across on dry ground (Exodus 14). But, He did it through Moses who was a guy with a speech impediment, he killed a man, and he spent 40 years of his life trying to hide from God. The Lord also majestically defeated the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel by sending down fire from heaven to consume a drenched bull and the altar it was lying on (1 Kings 18:20-40). But, He did it through a man in Elijah who ran away in fear because he was afraid that Queen Jezebel would kill him for defeating and killing all the prophets of Baal.

[And] of course, we could continue with other Biblical accounts as well. There were flawed judges and kings who the Lord used to save His people. There were apostles like Peter and Paul who made awful decisions that led to horrible sinful acts, and yet, no two people were more successful at spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ than these two men.

These are the babies and infants who are mentioned in our text that the Lord uses to conquer His enemies. Our text tells us that the Lord uses babies and infants “to still the enemy and the avenger”. The Hebrew word for “still” could also be translated as “destroy” or “put to rest”. [And] so, what this tells us is that the Lord uses what appears to be weak and useless to bring about His victory. As 1 Corinthians 1:25 says, “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Of course, the ultimate way the Lord did this is by the cross of Christ. To this world, worshipping as God a Man Who died weak and helpless on a cross is extremely foolish. Why would anyone want to worship a God Who couldn’t even save Himself?

Well, the reason we worship and follow Jesus is because it was by foolishly staying on the cross that Jesus redeemed us. By not saving Himself, Jesus saved you and me and all Christians. [And] now, you and I are the babies and infants that the Lord uses to establish His strength so that He can defeat His foes.

Certainly, we don’t look like much. None of us are famous outside of our own community. You live in Nebraska, which is considered by many to be an insignificant state. Every four years, we’re referred to as being part of “fly over country”, which is simply a polite way of saying most people fly over our state in order to reach other states that are considered more important.

[And] yet, despite the fact that we look insignificant, the Lord uses each of us within our families to spread the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which defeats God’s enemies of sin, death, and the devil within the lives of our children, grandchildren, parents, and other family members. [And] as a congregation, the Lord uses you to support pastors, teachers, and missionaries all around the world so that the enemies of God can be defeated in the lives of people we’ll never meet.

We have a majestic Lord Who graciously chooses to use ordinary people like us to accomplish extraordinary things in this world.

II.

Of course, all of this starts from the fact that the majestic Lord is your God Who is mindful of you. The next part of our text tells us this when it says, “3 When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, 4 what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?”

The God Who called creation into existence as we read about in Genesis 1 knows you by name. In fact, He knows you so intimately that He knows you better than you know yourself.

Buddhism claims that god is so great and so beyond human comprehension that there’s no sense in trying to reach him. Instead, the best thing to do in life is to avoid the extremes so that you can live your best life possible. The atheist joins the agnostic in saying that, if there is a god, he or she is too great and too busy to worry about your problems, so you might as well fix your problems yourself. They might even encourage you to be your own god so that you can determine your own destiny.

However, our text takes the exact opposite approach. Certainly, it acknowledges the greatness of God. The expansiveness of the universe is beyond comprehension. Scientists can look at it through a super powered telescope, and yet, that’s all they can do. Unless technology advances beyond our wildest dreams, we will never be able to send a person on a rocket outside of our solar system. [And] there are hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of galaxies the size of ours, and even bigger, in this universe. The Lord is, indeed, majestic beyond human understanding.

Yet, our text tells us that this awesome God used His fingers to intricately place the moon, stars, and all of creation exactly where He wanted it. [And] best of all, this majestic God thinks about you. Actually, He’s so mindful of you that He cares for you in body and soul. There’s not a thing about you that the Lord doesn’t know that you need or even that you want.

In fact, the whole reason God brought about creation was so that He could share with you the perfect love that exists between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God didn’t create humans because He was lonely or because He wanted something to do. Instead, the Lord created you because that’s what His love led Him to do.

[And] so, the idea that your problems are too small for the Lord to worry about just isn’t true. Jesus even goes so far as to tell us that each hair on your head is numbered. It’s not simply that God knows the number of hairs on your head, but even more impressive, Matthew 10:30 tells us that our Lord is so majestic that each of your hairs has a number.

Of course, the best way that God showed His love for each of us was by dying on the cross for us in the Person of Jesus Christ. The God of all creation couldn’t bear the thought of you spending eternity in the pain and torment of hell, and so, He sent Jesus to pay the price for your sin because you couldn’t. [And] to make this even more astonishing, Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:44-46, in “The Parable of the Hidden Treasure” and in “The Parable of the Pearl of Great Value”, that if you were the only sinner on earth who needed to be saved, He would have still given up His place in heaven to take on human flesh so that He could die on the cross to save you. There IS no greater love than that in all of the universe, but that’s the kind of love the Lord your God has for you. He is, indeed, majestic, and He primarily uses His majesty to give you the salvation Jesus earned for you on the cross.

[And] since Jesus used His majesty to care for your biggest need, which was earning victory for you over sin, death, and the devil, you can also trust Him to care for all your temporal needs as well, according to His good and perfect will. The Lord is mindful of who you are and what you need, and as such, He desires to care for you in body and soul so that He can lead you from this life into the peace and joy of the life to come.

III.

[And] this is gift of forgiveness and eternal life is only possible because the majestic Lord is your God Who became a little lower than the heavenly beings. The last part of our text tells us this when it says, “5 Yet You have made Him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned Him with glory and honor. 6 You have given Him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under His feet, 7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

The Triune God intended for this to be a description of Adam and Eve and all of their children. They were made a little lower than the heavenly beings, and as such, we heard the Lord give them “dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26).

Now, we still have this. We still have a remnant of this dominion because we were created in the image of God, although that image has been severely diminished by our sin. [And] therefore, we don’t have dominion over creation like we should. Instead, rather than humanity perfectly ruling and directing nature, many times, nature lashes out at us. Humans are attacked by wild animals. Hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes ravage our cities, states, and countries. [And] nature doesn’t always cooperate. [And] so, our dominion over creation is minimal compared to what was given to Adam and Eve prior to the fall into sin.

Therefore, to restore humanities dominion over creation, God took matters into His Own hands. He sent His Son Who made Himself lower than the heavenly beings for a little while when He took on human flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ, and as a result, He restored humanity to its original place of having dominion over all of creation.

Of course, we haven’t received the full benefits of this restoration yet, but that Day is coming. Those who have been redeemed by Jesus through the waters of Holy Baptism will, once again, have full dominion over all of creation, just like Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden.

This, then, is why Jesus told us in our Gospel reading for today from Matthew 28(:16-20) that “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to [Him]”. Now, since He became a little lower than the heavenly beings to earn our salvation, Jesus’ humanity has therefore been exalted to receive the same power and authority as His Divinity, and He uses this power and authority to restore the holiness and dominion that all humans were supposed to have.

We have this restoration right now, but not yet are we fully able to realize this because we still live in a world corrupted by sin and full of destruction. [And] so, in the meantime, as we look forward to that Day when our holiness and dominion is fully restored, Jesus remains mindful of you by renewing you through Holy Absolution in the majesty of His grace and forgiveness given in Holy Baptism. The Holy spirit assures you, through the read and preached Word of God, that the Lord uses His majesty to provide for all of your needs of body and soul. [And] the Father invites you to the Table of His Son so that through Jesus’ body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, you can be preserved in body and soul until life everlasting.

In other words, the Holy Trinity uses His majesty to give you the gifts of forgiveness and eternal life, and to keep you in these gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. [And] additionally, the Lord also uses His majesty to care for your temporal needs as well according to what He knows is best for you.

This, then, is Who the true God is. This is the God that you confessed today in the Athanasian Creed, and this is the God Who comes to you each and every week through His Word that surrounds His Sacraments because He’s so mindful of you that He wants to care for all of your needs of body and soul.

He certainly isn’t a distant god who’s off in the far reaches of the universe tending to his own needs and desires, and the true God isn’t concerned about satisfying His Own needs at your expense. Rather, the majestic Lord is your God Who desires to use His majesty for your good. He brought about your creation and the creation of all things so that He could bring you into the perfect and holy love of the Holy Trinity. [And] He’ll continue to use His majesty for your good because the Lord desires nothing more than for you to experience the reality of His majesty for all eternity. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He’s risen indeed! Alleluia!

Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in our crucified and FOREVER risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

05/25/2026

Sermon for The Day of Pentecost on 05/24/2026

“The Spirit Is in the Water”

Text: John 7:37-39

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He’s risen indeed! Alleluia!

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our crucified and FOREVER risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen. Our text for this morning’s sermon is the Gospel reading. It was John 7:37-39.

We all know that life can’t exist without water. Whenever we land a robot spacecraft on a distant planet or moon, one of the tasks of that robot is to find water because that would indicate the potential for life.

We also know that one of the greatest needs for people living in poor countries is clean water. Many countries can’t afford the infrastructure required to provide clean drinking water to large groups of people, and as a result, the people suffer from treatable diseases and malnourishment that often leads to death.

Of course, living in Nebraska, we’re very familiar with the need for water. Prior to moving here, the only time I heard a discussion about inches of rain was when it was an extreme downpour that resulted in being doused with two or more inches of rain in a short period of time. But after living here, you quickly learn that every tenth of an inch of rain matters.

Then, back in January of 2025, we learned that a lack of water not only keeps crops from growing, but it can also be a dangerous fire hazard. When houses started catching on fire in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, they quickly realized they didn’t have enough water to fight the fires. As a result, over 10,000 homes and 23,000 acres were burned. [And] of course, we know that, earlier this year, drought conditions led to 820,000 acres being burned by a wild fire in western Nebraska.

[And] so, water is very important for life. With all of our advancements in technology, we will never overcome our need for water as a basic necessity of life.

Of course, the reason water is so vital to everyone on this planet is because that’s how God designed this world. [And] since God designed the world to be this way, water appears all over the Bible in both real and symbolic situations. Two Sundays ago, we talked about how the water of The Flood saved Noah and his family from the evil of the world, and this foreshadowed how God now saves us through the waters of Holy Baptism (1 Peter 3:13-22). Additionally, in 2 Kings 5, when Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, had leprosy, Elisha told him to wash seven times in the Jordan River to be healed. Naaman did it and was healed, and this pointed forward to how the waters of Baptism heals us of our sickness of sin. [And] certainly, we could continue with many, many examples of how water is used in the Bible to point to the life our redeeming Lord has given to us.

So now, in our text, as Jesus was attending The Feast of Tabernacles, the necessity of water in the Bible and in our daily lives is used by Jesus to tell us that HE’S GIVEN THE SPIRIT TO YOU IN HIS LIVING WATER. Jesus uses the image of water to point to the fact that He’s the source of the Holy Spirit Who gives you life that leads to eternal salvation.

(JESUS HAS GIVEN THE SPIRIT TO YOU IN HIS LIVING WATER.)
(I. …from His side. [vv. 37 & 38])
(II. …because He was glorified. [v. 39])

I.

As we look more closely at our text then, Jesus specifically tells us that He’s given the Spirit to you in His Living Water from His side. Now, unfortunately, every English translation of our text states that this Living Water of Jesus flows from the heart or belly of the person who believes in Jesus. However, a more accurate translation has the Living Water flowing from Jesus’ side, not from the believer. I’m not going to get into all of the particulars of why it should be this way. If you’re really interested, I can give you a copy of the commentary that points us in this direction. But considering this, I’m going to read the more accurate translation for you, and that will be the basis for our discussion on this section of the text. It reads, “37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me, and let him 38 who believes in Me drink.” As the Scripture has said, ‘Rivers of Living Water will flow from His side.’””

In other words, the believer is the one drinking Living Water from the side of Jesus, not giving out the Living Water. So, let’s discuss this.

As we mentioned a moment ago, Jesus was in Jerusalem attending The Feast of Tabernacles, which was also known as The Feast of Booths. Along with Passover and The Feast of Weeks (or Old Testament Pentecost), The Feast of Tabernacles was one of the three festivals that God commanded the Israelites to keep every year.

This festival was observed by living in tents or booths all around Jerusalem. It was a reminder that the Israelites lived in tents for 40 years as they wandered in the wilderness from Egypt to the Promised Land. [And] this festival recognized the fact that the Lord faithfully provided all things for His people as they wandered, and therefore, they could trust that the Lord would continue to faithfully provide for His people in the future.

Now, you may remember that one of the ways the Lord provided for His people in the wilderness was by giving them water from a rock. The way this was celebrated at The Feast of Tabernacles was by the priest leading a procession of people every day for seven days from the Temple to the Pool of Siloam where he would fill up a golden pitcher with water from the pool. They would then proceed back to the Temple where the priest would pour this water at the base of the Temple altar. This water not only symbolized the water God provided for the Israelites in the wilderness, but it also symbolized the waters of creation, which we’ll hear about next week in our Old Testament reading from Genesis 1, and it also symbolized the water that would flow from God’s eternal Temple in the new heavens and new earth. As New Testament Christians, we would say that it this water from God’s eternal Temple is the River of Life that we read about in Revelation 22.

Considering what this water symbolized, it was thought of as living water. It symbolized the life God brought about at creation, the life God preserved in the wilderness, and the eternal life that God gives to all who are redeemed by Him.

So, it’s within this context, then, that Jesus stood up and proclaimed that Living Water would flow from His side. In other words, Jesus was proclaiming Himself to be the fulfillment of this Feast of Tabernacles ritual. He IS the true source of Living Water, and this would become clearer when Living Water flowed from His side when He was crucified.

No doubt, the people didn’t understand what Jesus was saying. In fact, immediately following this statement by Jesus, John 7:40-43 tells us that there was confusion and divisions among the people about what Jesus meant and Who He was. If Jesus was the fulfillment of this water ritual conducted during The Feast of Tabernacles, then He must be the promised Messiah. However, the Jewish leadership thought Jesus should be arrested rather than praised as the Messiah, so there were many questions.

Furthermore, they had no idea what Jesus meant by drinking water that flowed from His side. How was that even possible? [And] if it was just a figure of speech, what did it mean?

Of course, being on the other side of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, we know what Jesus meant. The water that flowed from Jesus side is the water that was mixed with blood which flowed from Jesus’ side at His crucifixion. That water, as the next part of our text indicates, gives the Holy Spirit Who, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, is “the Lord and Giver of Life”. He gives life because He brings to you the life that Jesus earned for you through His death on the cross that paid for all your sin, and His resurrection from the dead which shows that Jesus has, in fact, defeated sin, death, and the devil for you.

We’ll talk more about this giving of the Spirit in a moment, but before that, we also need to address this statement by Jesus that the Scriptures tell us that “Rivers of Living Water will flow from His side”. Unfortunately, there isn’t any singular verse which tells us this. In other words, Jesus wasn’t citing a Bible verse, but rather, He was citing a theology. It’s the same way that the Bible never calls God “Triune”, but we would say that Holy Scripture teaches us that God is three Persons in one God, and therefore, we refer to the true God as being the Trinity since there are many, many verses throughout the Bible which teach this doctrine.

[And] so, when Jesus refers to Himself as the source of Living Water, His first reference is to the rock that gave water to the Israelites in the desert, which is specifically recorded in Exodus 17:1-7. The Apostle Paul tells us most specifically that Jesus was the source of this water. In 1 Corinthians 10:1-4, he wrote, “1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were Baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.” So, Jesus was the source of the Living Water that followed the Israelites in the wilderness.

Similarly, Ezekiel 47:1-12 talks about water flowing from God’s eternal temple, and as we know, Jesus tells us in John 2:19-21 that He’s the true temple. Therefore, from this temple, Who is Jesus, He gives us true and eternal life. He’s the source of Living Water because He gave His life to save our life.

II.

In fact, the last verse of our text tells us that Jesus has given the Spirit to you in His Living Water because He was glorified. That verse reads, “39 Now this [Jesus] said about the Spirit, Whom those who believed in Him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

First, you need to know that Jesus isn’t saying that the Holy Spirit was inactive or didn’t exist or was absent until the New Testament. The Holy Spirit didn’t all of a sudden appear out of nowhere on the Day of Pentecost. Yes, He showed up in a dramatic way through a rushing wind and by placing tongues of fire upon the heads of the apostles so that they could speak in languages they were never taught.

However, as we read in our Old Testament reading for today from Numbers 11(:24-30), the Holy Spirit was present and active in the Old Testament. Additionally, in our Introit from Psalm 104, we confessed in verse 30, “When You send forth Your Spirit, [we] are created, and You renew the face of the ground.” [And] next week, we’ll hear in Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” So, the Holy Spirit was living and active all throughout the Old Testament.

However, what the Holy Spirit couldn’t do was testify to the world about the salvation won by Jesus. You see, when our text talks about Jesus being glorified, it’s talking specifically about His death on the cross. Yes, the resurrection is magnificent. No doubt, at His ascension, Jesus was coronated as the king of all creation with “All authority in heaven and on earth…” being given to Him (Matthew 28:18) Yet, Jesus’ greatest glory happened when He was crucified on the cross, and the reason He was in His glory at that time is because that’s when He was accomplishing His Father’s will, and His Own will, of earning salvation for all humanity. Jesus achieved His greatest work when He redeemed humanity because we couldn’t redeem ourselves.

So since this has happened, now the Holy Spirit can be given to the world to testify to you and to all people about the Living Water that flowed from Jesus’ side at His crucifixion. You see, it was no mistake or simply a detail proving His death when Jesus was pierced on the cross by the Roman soldier. Rather, this was a deliberate reference to the start of the new creation.

As I’m sure you know, Eve was created by taking a rib out of the side of Adam, and from the side of Adam, God created new life. Of course, we all know what Adam and Eve did. They destroyed life on this planet by bringing us death as a result of their disobedience. Now, as a result of their rebellion, you and I are born into this world of death in which we only add to its corruption by our own sin and disobedience.

However, Jesus, the new Adam, came to give us life, and He gives us life from His pierced side just like Adam gave to Eve. Only, the life Jesus gives can’t be corrupted or destroyed because, while Adam can only give poisoned flesh to his descendants that ends in death, Jesus only gives Living Water that ends in eternal life for all who believe in Him. [And] the way you receive this Living Water is very simple. It comes to you wherever Jesus gives you the Holy Spirit. [And] as Jesus tells us in John 6:63, “The words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” Therefore, wherever and whenever the Word of Jesus is spoken, the Holy Spirit comes to you to give you the Living Water that flowed from Jesus’ side so that you can have life both today and for all eternity.

This, then, is the purpose of God’s Holy Word and Sacraments. They deliver to you the Holy Spirit Who brings to you the Living Water that flows from the cross of Christ. You, of course, receive the literal Living Water of Jesus in Holy Baptism where the water mixed with blood that flowed from Jesus’ side on the cross washed away all your sin. In Holy Absolution, the refreshing Living Water of Jesus renews you in the grace and forgiveness of your Baptism. Through the read and preached Word of God, the Holy Spirit assures you that the Living Water of God’s promises to you through Jesus Christ are yours both now and for all eternity. [And] in the Lord’s Supper, the Living Water of the blood that flowed from Jesus’ side fills the cup that you drink while His body that hung on the cross fills the bread that you eat so that the Holy Spirit can use the forgiveness of Jesus’ cross to preserve you in body and soul until life everlasting.

But of course, Jesus had to be glorified first before the Holy Spirit could deliver this to you. No doubt, throughout the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit worked faith in the hearts of the people through the hearing of God’s Word which promised that a Savior would come to be the ultimate sacrifice. [And] certainly, this proclamation of God’s Word gave His people forgiveness and eternal life as they looked forward, with confidence, to the day when the Lord would finally fulfill His promise of providing a Savior.

Since this has happened, the Holy Spirit now works a little differently. We heard this in our Second reading for today from Acts 2(:1-21). Rather than looking forward to the cross, Peter and the other apostles let all who were there in Jerusalem know that God had kept His promise through the person of Jesus Christ. [And] as a result, an earthly Temple was no longer needed.

Certainly, the Lord let the Temple in Jerusalem remain for a few more years until 70 A.D. But by its destruction without any promise of it ever being rebuilt, the Spirit of God no longer dwells in temples or buildings made with hands. Instead, the Holy Spirit now lives in you. As the apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 3:16, you are now the temple of the Holy Spirit. Since Jesus’ Living Water now covers you and dwells in you, so does the Holy Spirit and the eternal life that He gives.

[And] so, in Jesus, you have a water that’s more valuable than any water on this planet. The water of this world, while necessary, can be dirty, contaminated, too salty, and even unusable. But, that’s not so with Jesus’ water. His water is Living Water, and therefore, it always gives life. It always forgives. It always nourishes you unto eternal life.

No doubt, you can reject this Living Water. You can turn away from the Holy Spirit and His gifts that He delivers to you from Jesus’ cross, but there could be nothing more foolish in all the world. The Living Water that flows from Jesus’ side has been given to you so that God’s forgiveness and eternal life are yours today. [And] as you continue to drink this Living Water from Jesus, the Holy Spirit will strengthen and preserve you in the one, true faith until life everlasting. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He’s risen indeed! Alleluia!

Now the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in our crucified and FOREVER risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

May 24, 2026: St. John's Beemer