Jesus Has Chosen and Appointed You for Life with Him

The fact that you are here in the Lord’s House to worship Him this morning is no guarantee that you are walking in His Word. Your “worship” is no protection against the judgment of His Law. But if you would live, and not die, then do what He commands you.

Love one another. Worship Him in that way. Love one another. That is His Commandment. It is a solid summary of His Law — that, in love for the Lord your God, you love your neighbor as you love your own self, and you serve your neighbor with your whole body and your whole life.

So, then, what does that mean exactly? Where do you even begin, and how should you proceed?

It’s not a matter of your own choosing. It’s not a matter of deciding, “Okay, I’m willing to do this, I’m willing to do that.” It is a matter of where the Lord has chosen to appoint you. Wherever He has called you to be, wherever He has stationed you, that is where you are to live, and that is where you love your neighbor. That is where you serve the “other” whom the Lord has set before you.

Do so according to His Word, that is, according to His Commandments. You have especially the Ten Commandments, which clearly guide you in what you are to do, and in what you are not to do. His Commandments determine and define and describe what “love” is. That’s not an emotion in your heart, but to do good and not evil. Love gives good things and does no harm to the neighbor.

Where you have done harm, make amends as you are able. And where you have failed to do good, begin to do it now. Do what you are called and given to do in your own particular place.

Mend your ways and deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, lest He bring misfortune and calamity upon you — and lest He remove His Word from your midst.

It’s really a question of who your friends are. As simple as it sounds, that’s what it amounts to. Who are your friends? And by that, I don’t mean that you get to pick and choose who the people you will love are. The point is not that you show partiality or favoritism among your neighbors in this body and life. No, it’s whether you’re a friend of Christ Jesus, or a friend of the world.

So, who do you love? Jesus, or the world? Where is it that you look for life? Is it in Christ Jesus, in His Word, or is it in the world and all its stuff?

If you are a friend of the world, then you’ll perish along with the world and its wealth. Whereas, if you are a friend of Christ Jesus, then you will be hated by the world, and you will be persecuted, and you will perish right along with your dear Lord Jesus Christ. But you will also rise and live with Him, as well, and partake of His inheritance, which is imperishable in heaven.

Don’t suppose that you’re going to play both sides against the middle, not without getting crushed in between the Rock and the hard place. That other Jude — Iscariot — he tried to play that game, and you know that he was lost. And that other Simon — Peter — he was in danger of the same, denying his friendship with Jesus: “I don’t know that guy!” But by the grace of God in that same Lord Jesus Christ, Simon Peter was called to repentance, and he was saved and bore much fruit.

You, then, where you have denied the Lord Jesus, Repent, and befriend Him who has befriended you in mercy, grace, and peace. That is the key: Jesus has called you and made you His friend!

It’s not about goofy secret handshakes or secret clubs. It isn’t “fun ‘n’ games.” But the Lord has befriended you, first of all by laying down His Life for you; and there is no greater love than that, with which He has loved you even unto death upon His Cross. And then He has also befriended you by the preaching of His Word to you, and thereby with His voice giving you His own Father.

See how He has taken you in! He has named you with His own Name, the Name that He has from His Father, the Name that He shares with His Father from all eternity, even to all eternity.  He has become your Friend by giving you that Name, by the preaching of His Word, by speaking to you.

And so it is that, when the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ raised Him from the dead, He caused you also to be born again, His child, to a new and living hope, unto the Life everlasting.

That sure and certain hope and that eternal Life are yours in Christ Jesus. He has given that to you in Holy Baptism, along with His Name, His Father, His Holy Spirit, His forgiveness of your sins, and every other grace and blessing, more than you could ever imagine. And He gives it all to you, again and again, by the preaching of His Word, especially His Holy Gospel, whereby He forgives your betrayals, your denials, your enmity, your lack of love, and every other sin within your heart and mind, words and actions. That is why we rejoice in the Holy Apostles of Christ Jesus, who were called and sent to preach that beautiful good news of the Gospel; and that is why we remember with thanksgiving St. Simon and St. Jude (not Peter and not Iscariot) on this day.

It was the Lord Jesus who chose these men. They were lightly esteemed by the world, to say the least. Indeed, they were persecuted, and they were martyred for His Name’s sake. But they were befriended by the Lord and beloved of God in Christ Jesus. How shall we love them any less?

Why did Jesus choose these guys, these two men concerning whom we know almost nothing? Why did He choose them? It was for Love’s sake: For the Love of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit, He loved them, even to the end. And He loves His Church on earth, even to the close of the age, to whom He called and sent His Holy Apostles to preach and to act in His Name and stead.

In the same way that He has chosen you and appointed you to love and serve your neighbor, so has He chosen and appointed St. Simon and St. Jude, and countless other pastors and teachers ever since, even to this day, to love and serve you and His whole Church with His Word. And wherever that Seed of His Word is sown, there He bears much fruit, which remains unto Life everlasting.

Now, the fruit of His Word is the fruit of His Cross, and so it is borne in suffering, in great distress, even in martyrdom. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the early Church, and that is still true. It is in dying with Christ Jesus that you are raised up to live in and with Him, now and forever.

St. Simon and St. Jude are remembered together, because they are said to have suffered and died together in Persia. You also bear the Cross, even unto death, for the sake of Jesus’ Name. And you also, like the Holy Apostles — for you are no less beloved than they are — you, like the Holy Apostles, are protected by the Word of Christ through faith in His Resurrection from the dead.

When the Church remembers and gives thanks for the saints who have gone before us, it is in the hope that we also share the same Resurrection and the same Life, which is theirs and ours by faith in Christ Jesus. It is hope, because it is not yet seen. But it is a sure and certain hope, because it is as sure and certain as Christ Himself is true. And it is for you, as surely as He speaks His Word to you, as surely as He has named you with His Name and anointed you with His Spirit in Holy Baptism, and as surely as He feeds you with His own holy Body and precious Blood. 

Though you cannot yet see Him, and though you do not feel or experience His Resurrection in your mortal flesh, which still gets sick and gets hurt and shall die, even so, you love and trust in Him, and you hope in His Flesh and Blood, because He has befriended you, and because He has chosen you, and He has called you to Himself. And the Lord who loves you does not lie. He strengthens you, and He is with you. And if you are called to lay down your life for His Name, then He shall stand with you, even to the last.  He strengthens you especially by forgiving you all of your sins. He does it over and over and over again, and thereby gives you His own eternal Life in place of your death. His indestructible Life in both body and soul, both now and forever, is yours in Him.

Consider that His Body was made desolate upon the Cross, an abomination, cursed by God. In fact, He became a curse, like Shiloh and Jerusalem; and He was destroyed like that once great Temple.  But in His Resurrection the Lord your God has established His House on earth for you and for all.

The Lord’s House is found wherever the Word of Christ the Crucified is preached, wherever Holy Baptism is administered in His Name, and wherever His holy Body and precious Blood are given and poured out in remembrance of Him.

Not only that, but as your dear Lord Jesus feeds you with the Fruits of His Cross on the one hand, it is also the case that His Resurrection from the dead and His Ascension to the Right Hand of the Father, His own crucified and risen Body and His own holy and precious Blood — these are your true and salutary worship of the living God. In Him, you and your thanksgiving are received unto your Father in heaven, and you are saved in the glorious company of the Apostles, the Prophets and Martyrs and all Saints. It is in that company that you stand in your dear Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Jesus Is a Friend of Yours

There is the Risk of love and friendship, and the Cost: when you give yourself to and for another person. Not only do you expend yourself, but you are open and vulnerable to being hurt (in any number of different ways).

To make yourself weak in this way — in love and friendship — is actually an exercise and demonstration of real strength; which does not seek its own protection and advantage, but extends itself to serve and protect and do good to others: even at great cost, and sometimes even without any reciprocity.

The Lord Jesus has exercised the greatest strength, in the greatest Love, by giving Himself for you, and laying down His life for you. He has chosen to do so in love, and He has loved you in this way, not because you were His friend — but while you were His enemy! — in order to befriend you; or, rather, to befriend you precisely by and with and in this great love for you, unto His death upon the Cross.

He has paid this Cost to love you and to be your Friend. And He has taken this Risk to open Himself to you, to reveal and give Himself to you, and to make Himself vulnerable.

Thus, for the sake of His great love, and because of His great love — for you and all the world — He was hated and persecuted and put to death. And by His own friends on earth, He was betrayed, abandoned, denied, and doubted.

You also have tasted the risks and the costs of love and friendship, and, once bitten, twice shy, it is tempting to flee from your neighbors; to retreat into yourself; to guard and protect yourself, by all means, and at all costs, from everyone else.

But the Lord Jesus has chosen you — in love — He has called you to Himself, and He has appointed you, to go and bear good fruits in His Name. Such good fruits are the fruits of His Cross, and they are the fruits of love: that you should love one another, as Jesus loves you.

He has befriended you. You, now, be a friend of His. Live as He lives. Love as He loves.

That means bearing the Cost — and the Cross — of genuine friendship for your neighbor; and, really, more than friendship. It means a divine love, even for those who hate you and persecute you. So that you sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against you.

You take the Risk of loving and serving and caring for your neighbor. You make yourself vulnerable and weak. You open yourself to hurt and rejection. All for the sake of the Love of God in Christ Jesus, your Lord: your Friend.

That is what the Holy Apostles did — St. Simon and St. Jude, and the other Apostles. That is what they did, and that is how they lived, in going forth to bear the good fruits of the Cross according to their calling and appointment as preachers of Christ; like the Old Testament Prophets before them!

It was certainly a Risk to be identified as a friend of Jesus. But, loving Him, and loving the world for which He died, they preached faithfully in His Name; for which they, too, like Him, were hated, and persecuted, and put to death.

Was it worth the Risk, and worth the Cost? Indeed, it was.

Their love was not pointless or meaningless, nor was their friendship with Jesus foolish.

For, on the one hand, as the Lord Jesus had chosen them in love, called them to Himself, befriended them, and named them with His own Name, so did He bring them through death into life with Himself.

And, on the other hand, their Ministry of the Gospel, though met with such hostility and violence, also did bear the good fruits of the Cross; so that the Church grew and increased and spread. Those who once were far off were called to the friendship of Christ, and they were born again to a new and living hope.

So also have you been called and born again to that same hope: in the Resurrection of Christ Jesus from the dead.

That is the hope in which you take the Risk and pay the Cost of love: for one another, for your family and friends, for your fellow Christians and for your neighbors in the world, and even for those who hurt you and take advantage of you.

The Church into which you have been called — the household and family of God, the circle of Jesus’ friends! — the Temple and City of God, on earth as it is in heaven — the Church is not a “safe haven” in the sense that here you are free to continue in sin, to avoid the costs and risks of love and friendship, and to set aside the Cross of Christ.

But the Church, which is the Body of Christ the Crucified, is a refuge of repentance, in which you are saved from sin, and you are set free to bear the Cross in love.

You have heard His Commandment: that you love one another.

That is the life to which He has appointed you.

He knows the Risks. He knows the Cost. He knows the hurts and heartaches. He knows the disappointments and deep sorrows.

But, just as He has all things from His Father, so does He give Himself and His Life to you.

He knows the Risks and the Costs, because He has borne them for you — and God has raised Him from the dead. So does He raise you, also, in Himself.

Again, the Church is not a “robber’s den,” where you run away to hide out from the Lord and from your neighbor. But, it is a place of peace and rest and safety for those whom the Lord has befriended in love — for you, who are His friend by the Gospel.

Here, all your sins are freely and fully forgiven. Here, you are safe, and you are loved. Here, you are fed with the good fruits of the Cross. Here, you are given the life of your dear Lord Jesus. And though you do not yet see Him — but you love Him and believe in Him (by grace through faith in His Word) — what is now revealed to you by the Gospel, under the Cross, shall be openly revealed in the Glory of His Resurrection at the last, when your faith and life in Christ Jesus will be shown to be more precious than gold.

As it was for St. Simon and St. Jude, so it is for you, and so shall it be — for you and all the faithful — forever and ever: In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.