First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

The Day of Pentecost, May 23, 2021
Text: Acts 2:1–21
Theme: The outpouring of the Holy Spirit
Other Lessons: Ezekiel 37:1–14; Psalm 139:1–12 (13–16); John 15:26–27; 16:4b–15
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
1. The reading from Acts 2 serves as our sermon text for this morning.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: – ‘Cleanse me from my sin, Lord,
put thy power within, Lord,
take me as I am, Lord,
and make me all thine own’ (RH Pope, 1879–1967).
1. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Introduction
1. Today, We Celebrate the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. 1. Christ, before ascending to heaven, promised his believers that another counselor would come (John 14:16). 2. God kept his oath by sending the Holy Spirit among the believers.
1. For the believers on Pentecost Day.
1. We’ve all seen pictures of this incredible day. 1. The Holy Spirit is God, and he is spirit, which means he doesn’t have a physical body. 2. However, he appeared like the form of fire to the people gathered to celebrate Pentecost. 3. Why did the Holy Spirit do this? 4. For the sake of people, he became “visible.” 5. He wanted people to see the evidence of his presence and be comforted. 6. God is powerful, and whenever the Lord would interact with his creation, especially with his crown of creation, that is humanity, something extraordinary happens.
1. Acts 2 gives that long list of people gathered in Jerusalem from all over the Roman world. 1. Why were they in Jerusalem in the first place? 2. Pentecost was one of the major Jewish feasts, and people from all over the Jewish resettlement would converge on Jerusalem to worship the Lord during this feast.
1. It’s interesting that Pentecost was the occasion to thank God for the harvest of crops, especially wheat. 1. The point of the feast was to emphasize that the Lord was the one who gave the ability to work (Deuteronomy 8:18). 2. Additionally, the Jews reminded themselves that it was God who made crops to grow and yield the harvest, that the Lord was responsible for everything. 3. Perhaps the Jews were tempted to view only the physical blessings on Pentecost, but God sent the Holy Spirit to focus on his desire to save the souls of people as well. 1. “God wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (see 1 Timothy 2:4). 4. A festival of harvest would now become a festival of God harvesting souls!
1. So the Holy Spirit gave to his small band of believers special abilities to speak in different languages. 1. Obviously a remarkable miracle! These men of Galilee were able to speak their messages not only in the Greek language, which all those visitors to Jerusalem could already understand, but in the local “native” languages of these people from all the various regions of the Roman Empire and beyond. 2. An amazing miracle! 3. How sweet for all those listeners! 4. It’s the part of the Pentecost story many remember best.
1. Unfortunately, believers in other church bodies that are not Lutheran single out Acts 2 to be very special, fixating on this speaking in tongues. 1. Unfortunately, they then miss the real importance of Pentecost Day, for two reasons. 1. One, they overlook that the different “tongues” spoken by the apostles on Pentecost were recognizable languages, clearly understood by the hearers, not ecstatic “tongues” or “prayer language” that fellow worshipers can’t understand, as encouraged by certain church denominations. 2. Two, the focus should not be on the people speaking in other languages; attention should be given to the One who gave these abilities. 2. It’s a common temptation to praise the creation rather than the Creator. 1. The believers who had gathered on Pentecost were proclaiming the “wonders” of the Lord (verse 11). 2. The text gives no details on what these first messages were all about. 3. However, they were surely connected to how the promises given to the Old Testament people were fulfilled in Christ, just the way that Jesus explained to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:27).
1. After hearing these languages, what were the reactions of the people? 1. Some were amazed. 2. But some started to mock that these Galileans were drunk. 3. Peter, the disciple who had denied Christ three times to save his own skin, now stood up courageously and defended these brothers by reminding all those gathered of the words spoken by the prophet Joel. 4. God made the promise to pour out his Spirit on all people. 5. Pentecost is the time when his promise was fulfilled. 1. The Old Testament believers trusted that the Lord would follow through on what he said.
1. For us, Christ’s believers today.
1. How is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy relevant to us?
1. The Holy Spirit continues to convert to faith people of all nations and continues to preserve people in the faith, just the way he did in the first century, with both Jews and Gentiles, males and females, slaves and free. 1. These faithful people of God then carried out the “Great Commission” themselves. 2. They truly became the witnesses of the love of Christ, and the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed in many places.
1. We are the evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit done by the voices of those faithful Christians. 1. The Gospel has reached our ears and hearts. 2. We’ve heard what brought these first few believers together: 1. Jesus—his death on the cross, his rising from the grave, that he has taken away our sins. 2. The Holy Spirit has ever since been announcing Christ crucified. 3. That’s the reason we now know Christ as our Savior. 4. God’s desire to save started from the beginning of time, and he’s still at work. 5. The Holy Spirit is strengthening our faith through the Gospel and Sacraments. 6. The Word of God is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16).
1. That same assurance then energizes us to be the people of Pentecost. 1. As Paul says: 1. “We are the jars of clay bearing the treasure” (see 2 Corinthians 4:7). 2. The Lord uses people like us, sinful and weak, to speak the Gospel to others. 1. How can we do this? It is the Holy Spirit living in us who is saving people, and he alone is enabling us to proclaim his Gospel.
1. Whenever we are disappointed at our frailties and sins, we remember our gracious God, who sacrificed himself for us on the cross. 1. He did not remain dead there but kept his promise by conquering death. 2. By his conquering power, given to us by the Holy Spirit, our God will accomplish his will through us, just the way those lowly Galileans became the proclaimers of the almighty God on Pentecost.
1. This will be the mission of the Church until that other day the prophet Joel foresaw, that Peter preached about on Pentecost: 1. “The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day” (Acts 2:20). 2. Jesus is coming back again. 3. Our Lord Jesus Christ will come back to judge the living and the dead. 4. Because of his sacrifice and forgiveness, proclaimed to us at Pentecost, proclaimed by us since Pentecost, we and countless others will welcome that Last Day with praises of Christ that will never end.

Conclusion
1. “It’s no longer Greek to me!” people who were gathered for that first Christian Pentecost Day might have exclaimed.
1. The crowds—you heard the list (Parthians and Medes and Elamites, from Phrygia and Pamphylia)—they all had homes somewhere else. 1. And yet, to God’s faithful people in those days, Jerusalem was always to be like coming home. 2. Like going off to college on the other side of the country, then getting a job there and staying. 3. It’s your address: 1. it’s where you have your things and pay your taxes. 2. But, oh so sweet to get back to Mom and Dad’s . . . 3. The hometown cooking 4. The friends you have not seen in years 5. And hear the down-home phrases, maybe even fall back into your old accent again.
1. Faithful visitors to Jerusalem hadn’t been able to do that, because their “native languages” were the languages of all those distant countries. 1. When they came to Jerusalem, they could get along just fine with Greek. 1. It was the lingua franca (the common language) of that day. 2. Jews living in different parts of the world knew it, but it was impersonal, for business, not for intimate conversations among friends and family. 3. It would have been wonderful to hear God’s good news, the Gospel, in their native languages. 4. Then Jerusalem would be like coming home—even hundreds of miles from where they lived.
1. Well, that’s what suddenly happened at Pentecost. 1. Suddenly they could hear the wonderful works of God, Jesus’ death and resurrection for their salvation, as the sweet words of Mom and Dad, the way they meant the most. 2. That is what has happened to us as well. 3. All thanks, praise, and glory be to our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
1. Let us pray: – ‘Be thou my armor, my sword for the fight,
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
Thou my soul’s shelter and thou my high tower
Raise thou me heavenward,
O Power of my power’ (EH Hull, 1860–1935, from Old Irish, ‘Be thou my vision’).
1. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
1. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

The Ascension of Our Lord, May 13, 2021
Text: Acts 1:1–11
Theme: Jesus is enough!
Other Lessons: Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15–23; Luke 24:44–53
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
1. The first reading from Acts serves as our sermon text for this morning.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: – O, the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be
When I let the Savior’s pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered,
“All of self, and none of Thee!”1

Yet He found me; I beheld Him
Bleeding on th’ accursèd tree,
Heard Him pray, “Forgive them, Father!”
And my wistful heart said faintly—
“Some of self, and some of Thee!”
1. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
1. Our parish used to have a Christian day school here at this location, and often when a child going into kindergarten was enrolled here, the child would go through a separation phase with his or her parents. 1. That typically means the child cries for days until becoming accustomed to being in kindergarten and also learning that the parents always return for pickup at the end of the day. 2. Parents come back because they love their children!
1. Jesus likewise loves us, and although he has ascended to his Father, he has promised to take us to the place he has prepared for us in his Father’s house. 1. We may cry while we’re here—for all sorts of reasons this sinful world throws at us—but we can rest assured that in his love for us, Jesus will return for us (Acts 1:11).

1. In this season of trouble, we ask, “Haven’t we suffered enough pain? Where is the good the Lord has promised to us?
1. The young couple had spent the last forty weeks in such excitement waiting for the birth of their first child. 1. The nursery was decorated, and the baby shower had been held. 2. Both parents enjoyed week after week hearing their friends in church commenting on how her stomach was growing as God was busy knitting together this precious child. 3. Now, at their due date, all that needed to happen was for their new bundle of joy to be born. 4. But then the unthinkable happens. 1. The mom-to-be notices that her child has stopped moving in her womb. 2. A trip to the emergency room brings them to their knees when the physician tells them that no heartbeat can be found. 3. Their unquenchable joy and anticipation quickly have become unspeakable suffering and sorrow. 4. They ask: 1. “How can this happen? 2. Why now? 3. Isn’t it enough that we’ve waited so patiently? 4. And the hardest question of all to answer: Where is God in all of this?”
1. On the other side of the country, a “seasoned” couple gets ready to celebrate their sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. 1. The children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren would all be coming home to make their joy complete. 2. The guest bedrooms have been prepared. 3. The food has been ordered and paid for. 4. The pastor has been invited to come give them a blessing at the celebration. 5. Just a few more days and they would start making the trips up to the airport to bring the family home. 6. But then the unthinkable happens. 1. Two days before the anniversary, the bride of sixty-five years awakens to find that her husband—the love of her life—died in his sleep. 2. Their unquenchable joy and anticipation have become unspeakable sorrow. 3. The bride and so many of the family ask: 1. “How can this happen? 2. Why now? 3. Isn’t it enough that we’ve waited so patiently? 4. Where is God in all of this?”
1. In times of tragedy, it may seem that Jesus’ resurrection isn’t enough—but only a setup for betrayal, leaving us again by ascending back to heaven.
1. We as Christians, who are saved entirely by grace through faith outside of any works, are so richly blessed by our God. 1. Yet of course we continue to live here in this sinful world: 1. A world full of trouble. 2. Disease. 3. Uneasiness 4. Stress 5. Crime 6. Fear 7. Mourning 8. Depression 9. And if all that were not enough, even death.
1. How easy it is for us as Christians: 1. In the good times: 1. To allow the words of the author of Hebrews to echo in our hearts: 1. “For he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6). 2. But in times of great human sorrow and tragedy, how is it that those same words of God can seem like a cruel betrayal? 1. Do we find ourselves like Jesus’ disciples at his ascension, staring into the sky, wondering what just happened, and perhaps asking: 1. “Isn’t it enough that we’ve suffered so? 2. Where is God in all of this?”
1. The disciples had been through so much with the Savior. 1. They’d witnessed the first of his many miracles: 1. turning water into wine, 2. and then his healing lepers with his word, 3. calming storms and seas, 4. walking on water, 5. raising the dead. 6. They were there—albeit hiding in the shadows—during Jesus’ Passion. 7. The horror and shock to learn that their beloved master was dead. 8. Dead, dead, dead! 2. And then the great fulfillment of Jesus’ promise on that glorious third day. 1. He is not dead, but risen from the dead! 2. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! 3. They were thinking: 1. “Jesus really is who he said he is, and he did what he said he’d do! 2. Now things are in order! 3. Now that we really know Jesus, now that he’s resurrected and alive, things will finally be good for us!”
1. And so they ask him: 1. “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). 2. In other words: 1. “Jesus, will you now get rid of these Roman occupiers? 2. Will you finally shut the mouths of these Pharisees who hound us day and night? 3. We’ve surely been through enough! 4. Now life will finally get better, right?”
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, are we any different from Jesus’ disciples? 1. Now that we are Christians, our lives should be better. 2. Jesus will never leave us or forsake us, so this world can no longer inflict its cruelty on us, right? 1. The expectant parents and the bride of sixty-five years who just lost her husband may answer differently. 2. The woman who has been suffering for years with the pain of advancing diabetes ravaging her body and causing her to endure another amputation may answer differently. 3. Jesus’ disciples, after forty glorious post-resurrection days, but then: 1. “as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (verse 9), might answer differently: 2. “Jesus, you’re leaving us again? 3. Wasn’t once enough?” 4. “God, where are you in all of this? 5. I know you died on the cross for my sins and rose again to bring me eternal life. 6. But earthly life—this time right now—it’s hard for me!”
1. And Jesus doesn’t answer directly: 1. “It is not for you to know times or seasons” (verse 7).
1. But already now, Jesus’ death, resurrection, and even ascension is the fulfillment of God’s promises.
1. Jesus Is Enough . . . for This Time and Season and the Next. 1. I don’t have to tell you that this temporal life, this time and season, is difficult, because each of us has suffered in one way or another. 1. We each have faced tragedies in our lives. 2. Our challenge as Christians, however, is to remember—and apply to the here and now—what the disciples heard as Jesus was lifted into the cloud: 1. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (verse 11). 2. Is that not just for another time?
1. The answer is a big fat No. 1. In his final moments with the disciples, Jesus is telling them to let go of the past and to stop worrying about the future. 2. Already now, Jesus’ death, resurrection, and even his ascension is the fulfillment of God’s promises. 3. Yes, already now. 4. From the fall of man, when our first parents plunged humanity into the sin and death of breaking God’s Law, God promised Good News—the Gospel—of sending a Savior to fix our brokenness. 5. Jesus is that Savior. 6. And his saving work has now been accomplished. 7. Yes, Jesus Is Enough . . . for This Time and Season and the Next.
1. Therefore, because of Jesus, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are already with us now.
1. The Father reminds us: 1. “Isn’t it enough for you that the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among you?” 2. The same Word that spoke our world—and each one of us—into existence became flesh and lived with us on earth, died for us, and rose again on our behalf!
1. And that same Word speaks these same words to us in our times and seasons of suffering and sorrow: 1. “You will receive”—have now received!—“power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (verse 8).
1. Jesus, in all of his sufficiency for our lives, reminds us: 1. “Isn’t it enough that the Word become flesh is with you daily and in every moment right now through the power of the Holy Spirit? 2. Isn’t it enough that the all-availing sacrifice of my body and blood on the cross has forgiven your sins and secured your future, promising the day when you will never again know pain, suffering, sorrowing, mourning, or death?” 2. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection allow us to shift our focus from our earthly existence with all of its troubles: 1. COVID and the fear and anxiety it brings. 2. Violence in the streets. 3. People not coming back to church as we would like.
1. By his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus gives us something much better to focus: 1. Our heavenly glory! 2. And he gives us the Means of Grace to do so! 3. By Jesus, for Jesus, through Jesus, with Jesus, God has triumphed over the troubles of this world and points us to a glorious future with Christ. 4. Therefore, Jesus is enough!
1. And knowing that we are waiting for Jesus’ return here in this earthly setting, far from leaving us alone, he gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. 1. Not only so, but Jesus comes to us through his Word, through our Baptism, and in the most real and true way through the bread and the wine, sustaining us with his body and blood. 2. God Incarnate intimately with us here today! 3. Already now! Jesus is enough!
1. And Jesus will return to take us to the place he has prepared for the next season.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, just as Jesus ascended into heaven as God Incarnate, the Word made flesh, he will come again in the same manner: 1. The Word made flesh.
1. He will fulfill his promise to take us to the place he has prepared for us: 1. for the next season, eternity. 2. We have this promise in the best of days and the worst of days, and we have his holy presence as the fulfilment of this promise. 3. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way” (verse 11).

Conclusion
1. There’s the story of a mother who would bring her young son each morning to preschool, kiss him good-bye, and tell him, “I’m leaving you in good hands.” 1. Years later, as the mother became aged and dementia took its toll on her, the son, now a middle-aged man, took his dear mother to a nursing home. 2. As he said good-bye, he kissed her and told her, “I’m leaving you in good hands.” 3. The mother, who could barely remember a conversation she had just five minutes earlier, began to weep as she remembered those same words that she’d uttered to him so many years ago.
1. When Jesus ascended back to heaven so many years ago, he left us in good hands, for he sent his Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8). 1. That’s as true for us after countless generations as it was when he made the promise to our first forebears of believers.
1. Of what I remember in German class in high school and college (which is not much), there is one phrase I will never forget: 1. Genug ist genug (enough is enough)
1. Guess what? Jesus ist genug for us today, tomorrow, and forever. Amen.
1. Let pray: – Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and, ah! so patient,
Brought me lower, while I whispered,
“Less of self, and more of Thee!”

Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea,
Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered:
Grant me now my supplication—
“None of self, and all of Thee!”
1. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
1. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
1. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.

Easter 5, May 2, 2021
Text: John 15:1–8
Text: Faith and fruit
Other Lessons: Acts 8:26–40; Psalm 150; 1 John 4:1–11 (12–21)
1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.
1. The Gospel lesson serves as our sermon text for this morning.
1. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:
691 Fruitful Trees, the Spirit’s Sowing
1 Fruitful trees, the Spirit’s sowing,
May we ripen and increase,
Fruit to life eternal growing,
Rich in love and joy and peace.

2 Laden branches freely bearing
Gifts the Giver loves to bless;
Here is fruit that grows by sharing,
Patience, kindness, gentleness.
1. Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.

Introduction
1. Spring is busting out all over! 1. Fields have been plowed. 2. Seeds have been sown. 3. Gardens have been tilled and planted. 4. Now comes the work of tending to those fields and gardens. 5. We do this with an eye to the future. 6. We look forward to the harvest: whether it be corn, wheat, tomatoes, carrots, and potatoes.
1. God’s glorious creation at this time of the year brings out the farmer or gardener in many of us—for some more so than others! 1. God’s Word today speaks to each of us, whether or not we’ve ever done any farming or gardening. 2. We know what our Lord Jesus is talking about in this section of the Gospel of John, where he speaks of the vine and the branches. 3. God’s Word is very clear. 4. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches. 5. God has created us branches to bear fruit. 6. And his Word is clear about how this will happen: 1. God is the one who enables us to produce fruit. 2. He does that through our connection to the vine, who is Jesus Christ. 3. If Jesus is a part of our lives through faith as Savior and Lord, then fruit will appear.
1. Jesus, the Vine Divine, Works a Fruitful Life in Us through the Connection of Faith.
1. It truly is only in the branches’ connection to the vine that we bear fruit.
1. Fellow branches connected to the vine, what are some examples of the fruit Jesus talks about here? 1. From other places in the Word of God, we know that this fruit includes the attitudes found inside us, described in Galatians as “fruit of the Spirit”: 1. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23) 2. This fruit also includes the God-given ability to resist sin and the power to live a Christian life filled with good works in service to those around us. These are examples of the fruit Jesus wants to see in each of us.
1. Fruit of faith: 1. Service projects I was involved in high school, college, and seminary. 1. Canned food drive with Youth for Christ. 2. Helping members with yardwork. 3. Helping the neighborhood in St. Louis/New Orleans. 2. Did I have to do any of those things so as to improve my standing before God? No! 3. Should and ought I to have done them? Yes! As an expression of my faith and share God’s love with others.

1. If you were to admire and commend fellow Christians for their fruit-bearing, they would likely say, “Thank you, but it’s no big deal.” 1. They might also say, “To God be the glory.” 2. Do you know why Christians would say such a thing? 1. Because their strength and ability to produce such fruit comes from Jesus, the life-giving vine! That’s why. 3. In verse 5 of our text, Jesus says: 1. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”
1. Then, Jesus quickly adds this warning: 1. “Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned” (verses 5–6).
1. People who have big trees in their yards will tell you that, along with the blessings of big trees: 1. their beauty, 2. the curb appeal they give to the property, 3. the shade they provide
1. They also make a big mess. 1. Seeds, leaves, twigs, and branches fall. 2. The owners often have a growing pile of branches somewhere on their property. 3. Use as kindling in a backyard firepit is not far off for those branches. 4. Or maybe burial at the city dump. 5. And speaking of that, have you ever seen the “dead branch section” at the dump? 1. It’s not a pretty sight!
1. In our lives as the people of God, we don’t want to become like those dead branches. 1. How do we prevent such death, when it comes to our relationship with God and bearing fruit for him? 2. Jesus makes it clear in our lesson today. 3. The key to our remaining vital, living branches and not becoming dead branches in the kingdom of God is to remain connected to the vine, Jesus, and to receive life from him. 1. This Vine Divine, Jesus, gives his life for us and then to us through God’s Word and Sacraments.
1. That’s why Jesus came to earth in the first place: 1. to bring and to give life. 2. Before Jesus came to us with his life-giving work, we and all humankind were helplessly dead branches whose destiny it was to be picked up and thrown into the fire. 3. We were lifeless, fruitless, worthless, dead-in-sin branches! 4. But at the right time, even when we were lifeless, fruitless, worthless, dead-in-sin branches, Jesus Christ, true God from heaven, was planted in this world. 5. Jesus was and is the Vine Divine, and he came to bring life to us all!
1. Our heavenly Father had a most unusual plan to bring us life through the Vine Divine, his beloved Son. 1. The plan for life would involve death. 2. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, would have to suffer and even, for a time, be cut off from God the Father as Jesus took upon himself on the cross the sin and eternal punishment of all humankind. 3. The vine, Jesus, died. 4. He was buried. 5. But in three days, he rose from the dead. 6. Forty days later, he ascended into heaven. 7. And from heaven, Jesus Christ, the living Lord, has given you the great gift of the Holy Spirit, who, through the tools of God’s Word and the Sacraments, keeps you connected to the vine, giving you and keeping you in saving faith: 1. active, fruit-bearing faith.
1. What grace! 1. What a blessing it is that, by God’s power through the mighty life-giving message of Jesus Christ, you and I remain connected to the vine and we live forever! 2. Oh, how God loves you and wants you to be a living branch and his dear child now and forever!
1. This love of God for us ought to be so precious that we let nothing get in the way of regular worship and the study of God’s Word, unless poor health or immobility prevents us from gathering with fellow branches of the vine for worship. 1. You know that from the Word of God today you’re hearing that life comes from the Vine Divine, Jesus. 2. Please know as well that life flows to you through his precious Gospel promises found throughout the Bible, for your reading any time during the week, and that it’s given to you personally here in the Lord’s Supper. 3. So you come here, or you hear and read God’s Word on your own and with others, and you are strengthened in your faith. 4. In our worship services, you receive Jesus’ very body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, bringing to you all the life-giving gifts of Jesus, including his forgiveness for all your sins and the strengthening of your faith. 1. Yes, through his Word, your faith is strengthened. 2. In Your Baptism, you are a child of God. 3. And in the Lord’s Supper, you remain connected to the life-giving vine, Jesus.
1. From our fruit-bearing faith connection to the Vine flow other blessings too.
1. This faith connection to Jesus is of utmost importance. 1. But there is much more Good News! 2. There are more benefits that flow to us, according to what he tells us today in his Word. 3. These benefits are centered in the way his words shape our wills to align with what he wants for us, in two very important ways. 1. The first benefit is prayer. 2. Our Lord says in verse 7 of our lesson today: 1. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” 2. Here, Jesus invites us to pray. 3. This is a special kind of prayer. 4. This is prayer aimed at carrying forward the work of Jesus. 5. This is prayer based upon God’s Word and will. 6. This is prayer that acknowledges before God and man: “Not my will, but thine be done.” 7. This is prayer that trusts a loving Father in heaven to provide for all our needs of body and soul.
1. A song by singer/songwriter Keith Green and his wife Melody says in very simple terms what prayer should be in connection with our lives and with the Lord: – Make my life a prayer to you
I wanna do what you want me to
No empty words, and no white lies
No token prayers, no compromise
1. Besides a life of prayer, another benefit of staying connected to Jesus by faith is the delight of glorifying God by our fruit-bearing. 1. Jesus says in verse 8: 1. “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” 2. Jesus makes us his followers through his words, and we in turn reveal that we are his followers through our fruit: 1. Our attitudes 2. Our words 3. Our actions. 2. Knowing Jesus and living in him affects how we talk about others, where we go, what we do with our time, how we spend our money. 3. We live with purpose and hope. 4. Oh, we still can have fun, but this is the best kind of fun! 5. People notice we’re a little bit different than others, and they may wonder why. 6. We can say we’re different because Jesus is our Savior and God is our loving Father. 7. We want to live a “thank-you” life to God; 1. we want to honor him with our lives. 2. That is what it means to bear fruit that glorifies God.

Conclusion
1. On the night before his death on the cross, Jesus spoke to his disciples as a group in his teaching on the vine and the branches (John 15:1–8). 1. Each of the disciples was a branch of the vine. 2. But they were connected to him together. You are a branch of the vine, and we in the Church are branches together. 3. You are a branch among many branches. 4. God has made us for community and for conversation, with God and with one another.
1. This life, this connection Jesus gives us through His very self, is always in season. 1. There’s always a harvest, for Jesus is the faithful Vine Divine. 2. And as we are connected to him through faith, he promises we will be fruitful branches.
1. Fruit-bearing that glorifies God includes the good work of treasuring one another in the Church, regarding one another as precious children of the heavenly Father and brothers and sisters in Christ. 1. We are to care for and encourage the connections each of us have with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 1. Weep with them as they mourn. 2. Rejoice with them as they express their joy. 3. Encourage them, building them up in the faith. 4. Nurture the connections you have here at church, just as you would care for the connections between you and your family members, between you and your friends. 5. The people sitting around you are not only friends and family; they are also the redeemed of God. 6. Nurture the connections you have with people outside the faith and outside the Church. 7. Who knows? The Spirit might draw them to the Divine Vine, Jesus Christ, through your fruitful living, through your words and actions. 8. May the Lord God grant this for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
1. Let us pray:
3 Rooted deep in Christ our Master,
Christ our pattern and our goal,
Teach us, as the years fly faster,
Goodness, faith, and self-control.

4 Fruitful trees, the Spirit’s tending,
May we grow till harvests cease;
Till we taste, in life unending,
Heaven’s love and joy and peace.
Text: © 1984 Hope Publishing Co. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110000247
1. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20-21)
1. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
1. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1. In the Name of the Father…Amen.