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

Even from the earliest times, Christians have always set aside certain days of the year to remember important events and important people from the Bible. Today, in the historic Church calendar, it’s the commemoration of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. That’s why we have the color red on the altar instead of green. Red is the color of blood, and both of these two men were martyred for the Gospel, meaning, both of them shed their blood confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord.

In today’ sermon, I’d like to do two things in commemoration of these two saints. First, I simply want to take some time to explain why it’s okay to observe saint days in the Church at all, and how to do this correctly. And then, I want to talk some more about what we learn from these two saints specifically. 

Lots of times we Lutherans can be hesitant to talk about the saints because we are very aware of how easily this topic can be abused. This is definitely one of those instances where you might hear the phrase, “Pastor, that’s too Catholic.” But claiming that because Roman Catholics do something we automatically shouldn’t do that thing as Lutherans is not actually a good metric for quality decision making. There are a lot of things that Roman Catholics do that we do as Lutherans too. Catholics baptize babies. Are we going to stop baptizing babies just because the Catholics do it? Catholics read the Bible in church. Are we going to stop reading the Bible on Sunday’s just to prove how we’re different from the Catholics? Catholics wear vestments, they light candles, they sing hymns, and they have Communion. Clearly, we are not going to stop doing any of those things just because the Catholics do them too. That would be ridiculous.

And the same thing applies to remembering saints from the Bible. It’s not that we shouldn’t do this at all, but rather, that we should do it in the right kind of way. We should do it in accordance with what the Scriptures teach us and apart from all of the abuses that we see in Rome.

Obviously, it’s wrong to pray to the saints and look to them for help in times of need. God’s Word teaches us that we should pray to Him alone and no one else. As we read in 1 Timothy chapter 2, “There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Just so you know, though, whenever you talk to a Roman Catholic about why praying to the saints is wrong, you should expect them to ask you a question. More than likely, they’re going to ask you whether or not you ask other people to pray for you sometimes. And then they are going to say that praying to the saints is the same thing as asking other people to remember you in their prayers. It’s sound legit, but the problem is that that is not what they’re actually doing. Here is a prayer that is sometimes prayed in Catholic churches, “O Mary, conceived without stain, pray for us who fly to thee. Refuge of sinners, Mother of those who are in their agony, leave us not in the hour of our death, but obtain for us perfect sorrow, sincere contrition, [and] remission of our sins… so that we may be able to stand with safety before the throne of the just but merciful Judge, our God and our Redeemer.”

That prayer speaks for itself. Not only does it teach people to look to Mary in times of need and not to Jesus, but it gives the impression that through her intercession we can receive the forgiveness of our sins. It’s hard to think of something that is more blasphemous than that. Asking your grandma to pray for you when you’re sick isn’t the same thing as pleading with her for the forgiveness of your sins. Jesus doesn’t tell us to go to someone else for that. He tells us to come directly to Him. As He says in Matthew chapter 11, “Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.”

Besides praying to the saints and looking to them for help in times of need, it's also wrong to talk about the saints in such a way that we hardly ever talk about Jesus. Even if we don’t pray to them, or look to them for forgiveness, if all we ever do talk about is how great they are and how we should be more like them, it’s going to give the impression that we’re saved by copying them instead of through trusting in Jesus. But what does Jesus say? He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus gives us access to heaven, not the saints. Jesus died for our sins, not the saints. Jesus has the power to answer our prayers, and help us in our time of need, not the saints. Jesus is our Savior, not the saints.

And yet, just because we shouldn’t talk too much of the saints, that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t talk about them at all. Of course, we should talk about the saints! The Bible talks about the saints. The Bible literally records for us the lives of these faithful people so that we can learn from them. It has never been the position of the Lutheran Church that we don’t talk about the saints at all or remember them in worship services. What is the name of our church? It’s St John Lutheran church. Listen to what it says in the Augsburg Confession, which is one of our confessional documents as Lutherans, something that was so important to our ancestors that they literally carved its initials in stone on the walls of this very building. The Augsburg Confession says, “Our churches teach that the history of saints may be set before us so that we may follow the example of their faith and good works, according to our calling. For example, the emperor may follow the example of David in making war to drive away the Turk from his country. For both are kings. But the Scriptures do not teach that we are to call on the saints or to ask the saints for help. Scripture sets before us the one Christ as the Mediator, Atoning Sacrifice, High Priest, and Intercessor. He is to be prayed to. He has promised that He will hear our prayer. This is the worship that He approves above all other worship, that He be called upon in all afflictions.”

We don’t worship the saints. But we do learn how to worship from the saints. We learn how we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God like they did. And that’s why it’s okay to observe saint days in the Church. Again, not to praise them, but to learn how to better praise Jesus.

Just think about those two saints that we are commemorating this morning in church, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Look at how their lives bear witness to the mercy of God in Christ. Neither of them had a stellar background before they became Apostles. Peter was a lowly fisherman, and Paul made it his life’s mission to murder Christians. Have you ever spent some time around a sailor? It’s probably not your first choice for who you’d want to be your pastor. And you certainly would be taken back if your pastor had a notorious reputation for physically hurting people just because they believed in Jesus. But that’s who God chose. God chose what was weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what was low and despised by others to demonstrate His great mercy and love.

Peter and Paul had their faults. One of them denied the Lord three times after swearing with a vow to be faithful to Him, and the other one held people’s coats and cheered for them while they stoned a guy to death for being a Christian. And yet, God forgave them both. God brought them to repentance over their sins and then He gave them the gift of faith to trust in Jesus for forgiveness.

God not only brought Peter and Paul from spiritual death to spiritual life, but after that, He even used their life for His service. It was from Saint Peter’s mouth that God chose to reveal that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, as we heard about in our Gospel reading. It was the same mouth that once denied the Lord three times, that the Lord used to preach a sermon that converted 3000 souls in a single day on Pentecost. At one point, Peter was so weak in his faith that he was afraid to even be associated with Jesus at all, but then Jesus filled him with the Holy Spirit and caused him to write down Epistles that have strengthened the faith of countless Christians during their most intense persecution and suffering.

And then there’s the apostle Paul. It’s hard to image a bigger turn around then his. Paul went from trying to kill Christians, to trying to make everyone he met a Christian like him. When Paul stood before King Agrippa, facing the possible death penalty, he didn’t even try to use that time to get himself released from prison. Instead, he used it to try and get Agrippa to convert. And when Agrippa said to him, “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian,” Paul responded, “Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am.” Few people have ever suffered what Paul suffered for the sake of Christ. He was stoned. He was beaten. He was flogged. And he was put in prison. But that didn’t stop him from proclaiming to good new of salvation in Jesus. Paul went to the end of the known world preaching the Gospel, establishing churches, and writing more books of the Bible than anyone else.

The point of all of this is that if God could forgive Peter and Paul, and use them for His service, He can forgive you and use you too. If God can change Paul, who once called himself the chief of sinners, then He can change you too. If God can absolve Peter, who once pretended that he didn’t even know Christ, then God can absolve you too. No, we shouldn’t use the examples of these men to excuse our sin, or to make light of it, but we absolutely can use their example to comfort ourselves when we sin and our sorry for it with the promise that Jesus will forgive us. 

Have you ever denied the Lord? Have you ever pretended that you didn’t know what the Bible said about something because you were too embarrassed to say it? Have you ever been ashamed of what the Scriptures teach because there were other people around who didn’t believe them, and would have made fun of you for confessing them? Have you ever secretly wished that something from the Bible wouldn’t come up in conversation so you didn’t have to talk about it? Don’t lie. You know you have. Maybe not out loud, but I bet you have in your heart. And God sees the heart too. God sees the heart, but God can also cleanse the heart. God can give us a new heart, and forgive us for the sins that soil our hearts. He did it for Peter and Paul, and He promises to do it for you too.

When we hear about what these two men did in spite of their sins, it should embolden us to do the same. Just like when a little boy hears about Babe Ruth calling his shot and hitting a home, and then he wants to go outside and play baseball, when we hear about Saint Peter and Saint Paul, it should make us zealous to serve the Lord like they did.

I’m not saying that we should all become missionaries or act like we have the ability to write a book of the Bible, but I am saying that we can all be faithful in our calling, and do our own part in service to God’s Kingdom. It may not look as spectacular or feel as fulfilling as what Peter and Paul did, but that doesn’t mean that it is any less valuable in the eyes of God. Remember what the hymn says, “If you cannot speak like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, you can say He died for all.” It's a little bit cheesy, but that’s a good line. The Scriptures teach us that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who is brought to repentance. There is literally a party in heaven every time a dad gets out the Bible and does a devotion with his wife and kids. All the vault of heaven resounds when a Christian invites their neighbor to church, or takes the time to try and explain the Scriptures to them. God sees it when His children suffer for the sake of His Name, even if it was just that other people laughed at them for believing what the Bible says. God sees it, and He smiles upon it for the sake of His Son.

Yes, it's wrong to pray to the saints. It’s wrong to look to them for help and for forgiveness. But it’s not wrong to learn from their example. Peter and Paul were sinners. But they were also great men that God in His grace used to do great things. They died for the faith. They showed us that some things are worth dying for. Jesus is worth dying for. The confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is worth losing your life for. Maybe you won’t be martyred for the faith. Most people aren’t. But that doesn’t mean that you won’t suffer for the faith. That doesn’t mean that you won’t lose things because of what you believe. Everyone loses something. But nothing compares with what you gain as a Christian. You gain heaven. You get a seat at the table with Peter and Paul. You, the lowly sinner that you are, get a spot with these great men. Why? Because Jesus took your spot. Because just like He died for them, Jesus died for you too so that your sins would be forgiven and so that you would have a place in heaven also. So, be like Peter and Paul, trust in Jesus for forgiveness and use your life to serve Him and not yourself. In Jesus’ Name. Amen

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

There are a lot of important questions that we have to grapple with in this life, but the most important one of all is what happens after this life is over? What happens to us when we die? Almost everybody has something to say to this question regardless of their religious affiliation. Some people will tell you that you can’t be sure about what happens to you when you die, so you might as well not try and answer the question at all. Others will say that nothing happens when you die and that this life is all that there is. In some places its taught that when you die, depending on how good of a person you were in this life, you can return to the world reincarnated as a different a living thing entirely. Another dominant perspective, which is popular even among many Christians, is that when you die you go to a place of cleansing where your soul is purged from the effects of your sin until you’re holy enough to enter God’s presence. And many people believe that everyone simply goes to better place when they die no matter what. That’s what people say.

But today in our Gospel reading from Luke chapter 16, we get to hear about what Jesus says. We get to hear about how God answers this question. In the account of the rich man and Lazarus, the Author of Life Himself, the one who died and rose again, and holds in His hands the keys to death and hades, tells us what happens when we die. So, in today’s sermon, let us consider together a few things that we learn.

The first thing that we learn from this passage about what happens when we die is that after someone does there are only two possible places where we can go. As Jesus says in our reading, “The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” Here Jesus reminds us that the only two places where you can go after you die is heaven or hell. At the moment of your death, when your soul is separated from your body, which is what death is, immediately your soul is present in either one of two places. You either go to Abraham’s side, or you go to a place called “Hades.”

Abraham’s side is simply another way from the Bible of talking about heaven. As Jesus also tells us in Matthew chapter 8, “Many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” The reason why the Bible uses the language of sharing a meal to describe heaven is because that captures the essence of what heaven is. Heaven is eternal fellowship with God and all of His saints. Heaven is unending communion with the Lord and those who belong to Him. Remember what Saint Paul says about heaven in Philippians chapter 1. He writes, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.” And then there is the way that Saint John describes heaven in the book of Revelation. He tells us that, “they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in his temple; and He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence.” While there may be different things that happen in heaven, the essence of heaven is simply being with God forever. 

On the other hand, then, that also shows us what the essence of hell is. Whereas heaven is all about being with God forever, hell is about being separated from God forever. Since God is the source of everything that is good, being apart from Him can only mean something bad. That’s why Jesus doesn’t just refer to hell just as Hades, which literally means “the realm of the dead,” but He also says that the rich man who went there was in torment. He was in agony, because apart from God and His love, that is all that there is. There is only suffering. As we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might.” If we don’t have God with us to protect us and provide for us, then there is no protection or provision at all. Since God is love, as we heard in our Epistle lesson today, being apart from Him means experiencing no love at all. Again, that is the essence of hell. It means being separated from God and His love forever.

One of the biggest errors of our time is the idea that everyone goes to a better place when they die no matter what. Sometimes this is referred to in theological terms as “Universalism.” Even though that’s a big word, it isn’t that complicated of a topic. More than likely you’ve seen “universalism” first hand if you’ve ever been to a funeral for someone who wasn’t a Christian. Often times at those funerals you will hear people console one another by saying that “so and so” must be in a better place now. The assumption is that either there is no such thing as hell at all, or that if there is, it’s only reserved for the extremely wicked. And yet, while that may give a certain kind of comfort to those who have experienced loss, it is also a delusion that has not basis in the Word of God. In fact, the Bible teaches us not only that hell is real, but sadly, that is where the vast majority of people actually end up. As Jesus tells us in Matthew chapter 7, “For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” Either way, the point remains that when you die, you either go to heaven or hell, and both of those places are very real.

The next thing that we learn from the account of the rich man and Lazarus is that after we die our eternal state is fixed. When the rich man cried out for Lazarus to come and dip his finger in water to cool his tongue, Abraham told him that it was impossible. He said, “And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to here.” According to the Bible, there are no second chances after we die. As soon as our soul leaves our body and makes its way to Abraham’s side or to the torments of Hades, that’s it. You can’t leave heaven, and you can’t get out of hell. As we also read very clearly in the book of Hebrews, “After death comes judgment.” It’s not as if there will be more time to get right with God and repent of your sins and trust in Jesus if you are not already doing that when your last hour comes. The idea of purgatory or reincarnation, both of which give the impression that such things are possible, completely ignore the witness of the Scriptures, and give false confidence to people who instead need to be warned.  Rather than teaching people to take their sins more seriously, these false doctrines end up teaching people to take them less. They trick people into thinking that they can keep on doing something that they know is wrong because later on there will always be more time to get forgiveness. But that is simply not true.

Every time that the Bible describes the afterlife it does so by using absolute terms. Remember what Bible tells us that Jesus will say to the sheep and the goats on Judgment Day. He says, “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Both heaven and hell are described as eternal realities. In hell, their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. In heaven, the day never turns to night and the righteous never stop shining. After we die, our eternal state is fixed. It can’t be undone.

And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the account of the rich man and Lazarus teaches us that where we end up in the afterlife is entirely dependent upon how we received God’s Word in this life. When the rich man died and went to hell, he wanted someone to warn his brothers so that they wouldn’t end up in the same place that he was. But when Abraham told him that his brothers already had Moses and the prophets, as in, they already had the Bible, the rich man said that wasn’t good enough. Instead, he wanted someone to go from the dead and tell them directly. To which Abraham responded, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”

The reason why where we end up in the afterlife is entirely dependent on how we receive God’s Word in this life is because the Bible alone is God’s tool to give us saving faith in Jesus. The Bible is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to teach us about the work of Christ. It is how we learn about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so that through trusting in His sacrifice we can be saved.

God’s Word could not be clearer that we are saved through faith alone. We are not saved by our own good works. We are not saved simply because we avoided certain things and never did anything extremely bad. Whether or not we think that what we’ve done is or is not bad does not mean that God sees it in the same way. God sees all of our sins at once. He sees every single moment of our life in an instant. All of our wicked thoughts and every single one of our wicked deeds are laid bare before His eyes. Even our deepest and darkest secrets that nobody else knows about but us, and that we would be horrified if anyone else found out about, are not hidden from the Lord. And, according to Him, a single sin by itself disqualifies us from being saved on our own. One solitary transgression makes us unfit for His righteous and holy presence. As we read in the book of James, “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.”

Ultimately, then, it is not the mere act of committing a sin that sends people to hell, but rejecting the forgiveness of sins that comes from Jesus. Unbelief is what dams, and faith is what saves. That is not because faith in Jesus is a virtue by itself like love or bravery, but because faith in Jesus means receiving the virtues of Jesus. It means trusting in His righteousness and not your own, which God says, counts as yours when you do. Remember what we heard in our Old Testament lesson today. It said, “Abraham believed in the Lord, and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

Many people today want to go to heaven, but don’t want to listen to the Bible. They want to be in a better place when they die, but they don’t want to be in the place where God promises to be with them now. They don’t want to go to Church and hear the Word of God. But you can’t have God without His Word. And you can’t have heaven in the afterlife, if you won’t come to heavenly feast that has already begun in this life.  We don’t go to Church simply so that we can be saved by the mere act of going. We go to Church to receive God’s Word and Sacraments. We go to Church to get the forgiveness of our sins. We go to Church so that our faith can be fed, and so that through the witness of Moses and the prophets, together with the words of Apostles and the Evangelists, we can keep on learning to repent of our sins and put our trust in Jesus who died for them.

In the account of the rich man and Lazarus Jesus teaches us about exactly what happens when we die. When we die, we either go to heaven or hell. At the moment of our death, our eternal state is fixed, and there is no changing it after it happens. And the only way to avoid hell and come to the joys of heaven is by listening to the invitation of salvation proclaimed to us through God’s Word and believing it. It is by receiving the forgiveness that comes from Jesus. When we listen to the Bible, we are preparing ourselves for the moment of our death. When we come to Church to take Communion, we are already getting to experience the communion with God that never ends. May the Lord Jesus open our hearts to hear His Word so that someday when our hearts stop beating the angels will come and carry us to Abraham’s side. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

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

A few years ago, when I was studying to be a pastor at our sister Seminary in England, I was on my way into town one day to buy some groceries when a street preacher decided to single me out from the crowd. He pointed at me and said, “You there, if you die tonight what’s going to happen to you?” I respond with something like, “If I die tonight, I’ll be with Jesus in heaven.” The man was pleased with my answer up to that point and proceeded to asked me what I can only assume was his standard follow up question, “So, you’re saying that you’ve been born again?” I said, “Yes,” and then he asked me if I’d like to talk about it with him for a little bit. But when I started to tell him how it happened a few weeks after I was born when I got baptized as a baby, the man cut me off mid-sentence and said, “That’s not possible.” I asked him why he thought so, and he said something to the effect of, “Because babies do not have the rational capacity required for faith, therefore babies can’t be born again.” When I told him that Jesus seemed to disagree, citing a few passages from the Bible that talk about babies believing and little children entering the kingdom of God, the man proceeded to tell me a story about how he once saw a woman miraculously healed from a goiter. At that point, I kept on going to get my groceries.

It's without question that according to God’s Word in order for a person to be saved and go to heaven when they die, they have to be born again. As Jesus Himself tells us very clearly in our Gospel lesson today from John chapter 3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And yet, as my conversation with the street preacher in England showed, there is a lot of confusion about what it actually means to be born again and how that happens in a person’s life. So, since this is such an important and controversial topic, and since we have a reading in front of us from the Bible that speaks to it directly, what I’d like to do in this morning’s sermon is simply take some time to explain what it means to be born again and how it actually happens.

We’ll start with what it means to be born again. According to God’s Word, the essence of what it means to be born again is to have true saving faith in Jesus. As we read very clearly in 1 John chapter five, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” This is also what Saint John tells in the first chapter of his Gospel. There he writes, “But to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” And, of course, this is the exact thing that Jesus Himself was talking about in His conversation with Niccodemus from our reading. After explaining how a person must be born again to receive the kingdom of God, which is another way of talking about being saved, Jesus said, “So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” Therefore, to be born again simply means that person believes in Jesus and trusts in Him for forgiveness and salvation. It means that they have true faith.

Now, sometimes the Bible will also talk about being born again in the context of living a godly life. As we read in 1 John chapter 3, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” But even though this passage talks about being born again in the context of living a godly life, that does not mean that being born again is something more than having true faith in Christ. Rather, when a person has true faith in Christ, that faith shows itself in the way that they live. It is not as if people who are born again never sin anymore at all, but rather that their attitude toward their sin has changed. Besides trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, they also try and fight against their sin and suppress it in their life. Instead of “making a practice of sinning,” that is, sinning on purpose, those who have been born again do their best to avoid sinful things and repent of the times when they fail. They are sorry for their sins and want to do better. But none of this would be possible in the first place if they did not already trust in Jesus and have the Holy Spirit. It would not be possible if they did not have faith. As the author of Hebrews tells us, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” So, again, that is the essence of what it means to be born again. It means to have true faith in Christ.

In the second place, then, it’s important for us to also understand how this happens in a person’s life. How does someone become born again, meaning, how does a person come to saving faith in Jesus? As I’m sure many of you already know, nowadays the term “born again” or “born again Christian” is almost always associated with the concept of “decision theology.” Decision theology is the teaching that in order for a person to be saved they have to make a conscience decision of their own free will to come to faith, or, as it is often said, “give their heart to Jesus.” Upon having an intense spiritual experience, where a person becomes overwhelmed by the knowledge of their sinfulness, they are told to pray a special prayer, sometimes called the “Sinner’s Prayer,” where they invite Jesus into their life and ask Him to be their Savior. After that, it is said that the person has been “born again.”

But there are a lot of problems with this particular understanding of how a person is born again. On the one hand, Jesus tells us very clearly in John chapter 3 that being born again is not caused by an act of our own free will. When Nicodemus asked Jesus how it was possible for a man to climb back into his mother’s womb to be born a second time, Jesus explained how being born again is not a matter of something that we do, but something that the Holy Spirit does for us. As Jesus says in our reading, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” And remember what Saint John said in that passage that I quoted earlier from John chapter 1? He said that we Christians are born again “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The reason why being born again, or coming to faith in Jesus, is not something that we do on our own, but something that God must do for us, is because on our own we do not have the ability to do it. That’s what Jesus is getting at in our reading when He tells Niccodemus that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” We aren’t born “basically good” as many people so often think. We are born sinful. According to our first birth from our earthly parents, we received from them a fallen and sinful nature. The worst thing about this sinful nature is that it leaves us incapable of bringing ourselves to faith in Christ. It renders us hostile to God and unreceptive to His Word.

Listen to how Saint Paul describes our spiritual condition prior to our conversion in Ephesians chapter 2. There He writes, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Notice that when Saint Paul describes our spiritual condition prior to our conversion, he calls us spiritually dead. He doesn’t say that we are spiritually weak. He doesn’t say that we are spiritually wounded. He says that we are spiritually dead. How is it possible for a person who is spiritually dead, meaning they have no spiritual power within themselves, to do the most important spiritual work of all like bringing themselves to faith in Jesus? It’s impossible! It can’t be done! And that’s why decision theology, which teaches people not only that it can be done, but that it must be done for a person to be saved is so wrong. It stands completely against the teachings of the Bible. It gives the impression that we are born again because of something that we do. But that’s not how a person is born again.

Rather, a person is born again not when they give their heart to God, but when God opens His heart to them by giving them the gift of faith through His Word. It happens when the Holy Spirit, who works through the preaching of the Gospel, causes someone to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus, raising them to new spiritual life. As Saint James tells us in his Epistle, “Of His own will, [God] brought us forth by the Word of truth.” And as we read in 1 Peter chapter 2, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.” When God’s Word is preached, and the message of salvation in Jesus is accurately proclaimed, that’s how God changes people’s hearts and gives them eternal life. That’s how He gives them faith. It is exactly how Isaiah describes it in Isaiah chapter 55, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” God always and only causes people to be born again through His Word. 

At this point in the sermon, then, it’s important for us also to say a few things about God’s gift of holy Baptism. It is the official position of the Lutheran Church that God causes people to be born again through our Baptism. The reason why we teach this is because of something else that Jesus says to us in our reading today from John chapter 3. Besides telling us that a person must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus also teaches us that one of the places where this happens is in our Baptism. As He plainly says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one in born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Now, as I’m sure you know, many people do not believe that God causes us to be born again in Baptism. But there is no getting around the clear Words of Jesus. And instead of ignoring them, we should try and understand them. The reason why Jesus can tell us that Baptism gives a person the new birth from above is because Baptism is a Sacrament connected with God’s Word. Baptism joins the Spirit filled Word of God with the physical element of water. It’s not the water in Baptism that does something special, it’s the Word. Again, when God’s Word is spoken to us and over us, that is, when the Gospel is applied to us, that’s how God gives us the gift of faith and causes us to be born again. And that’s why God can use Baptism to do it. Because Baptism is God’s Word. It is the Word of God connected with the water.

Whenever we maintain that Baptism truly does give a person new birth, we should be prepared to respond to what others who deny this reality will most likely say in return. The most common argument that we hear from those who deny baptismal regeneration, which is what this teaching is called, is that if Baptism truly did cause someone to be born again, then why are there so many people who have been baptized that no longer live a Christian life? But the answer to this accusation is actually quite simple. Instead of saying that those people who got baptized but now reject the faith never had real faith to begin with, we can simply recognize the sad reality that it is possible to lose your faith. It is possible to fall away from the faith. As Jesus reminds us in the parable of the sower, “The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in a time of testing fall away.” Or remember what Saint Paul tells us about the sad case of those two men named Hymenaeus and Alexander? Paul says that they made “shipwreck of their faith,” meaning, they had faith, but then they destroyed it. That’s what can happen to anyone who has been born again. Instead of listening to God’s Word and cooperating with the Holy Spirit who is at work in their life through the Word, they can suppress God’s Word and turn away from it. They can plug their ears to what God’s Word is telling them so that they no longer listen to God’s Word anymore at all. But that doesn’t mean that they were never actually born again. It means that they gave up their birth right and forfeited their inheritance.

And yet, God’s Word also teaches us that our Baptism is not something that can be undone. Since it is His work and not ours, even if we should, for a time, turn away from it, that does not mean that God will not turn away from us. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He will patiently wait for our repentance for as long as possible. In mercy, He promises to reach out to the lost with His Word of Law and Gospel, in order to safety return them to His fold. As we read in Philippians chapter 1, Saint Paul writes, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” These words should not be taken to mean that we can live a sinful life on purpose and still go to heaven, or that it is impossible for people who have been baptized to go to hell, but rather that everyone who is sorry of their sin and clings to their Baptism should have the confidence that Jesus will not abandon them no matter how bad their sin has been. He will forgive them, and continue to make them new, until the day that they are made completely new in heaven. God will finish what He started in their Baptism. He will bring them to the culmination of their new birth, where they received the gift of faith through His Word.

The other day I was thinking about that conversation I had with the man in England and it finally occurred to me why he told me the story about the woman he saw who got miraculously healed from a goiter. He told me that story because he could not show me anywhere in the Bible where it says that Baptism does not save us and that infants cannot be born again. And since he couldn’t give me the Word of God, he thought that it might be just as good to give me a miracle. But he could have told me about a thousand miracles. He could have performed one there right in front of me on the street. And yet, none of that would have made the Scriptures any less clear. Being born again is when a person is brought to faith in Jesus. This is isn’t something that we do for ourselves, it is something that God does for us. Just like we received earthly life from our parents apart from any decision of our own free will, we receive eternal life from our Father in heaven purely through His grace. We receive it when God’s Word is preached to us and the Holy Spirit causes us to believe it. We receive it when the Gospel is applied to us personally at our Baptism and all of our sins are washed away. We receive it as a gift. God can give that gift to anybody. He can give it to babies. He can give it to adults. He can give it to whoever He wants. So may the Lord help us to cherish this gift, and guard the new life He has given us through His Word. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.