Sometimes we hope for it in excited anticipation, and sometimes it catches us off guard; but in either case, the conversation of your and your neighbor’s faith may come up in a casual setting. For myself, as soon as someone asks me what I do for a living, what my job is, or where I work, I pray and take pleasure to see what challenge the Lord has presented me with, for the topic of faith undoubtedly comes up. But I’ve found in most cases that when this topic comes up, we hardly lift off into lofty scriptural topics, but rather say, “The Lord is good.” “Count your blessings.” “It’s good someone as young as you is doing what you’re doing.”

If you are like me, perhaps you’ve had many conversations like this: God is good, he’s blessed us with health, wealth, food, and drink, etc.; all like we confess in the first article of the Creed “I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of Heaven and earth…” and the fourth petition, “give us this day our daily bread…” This is a great place to start, but there’s another layer, isn’t there? What about, “hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done?” What about “the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life” and “Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord?” God has blessed us with many blessings, from food to family, water to wealth, home to health; but these only last as long as our flesh and blood walk this earth.

God gives us these earthly blessings, to be sure, but He does so to keep us alive in order to hear of His greater blessings, blessings that have an impact into eternity. God is good, giving you bread, but He in His gracious and merciful good comes to us in much more splendid gifts, gifts which impart the saving love of Christ to you and offer you the Holy Spirit to teach you and strengthen your faith. So, today, let us learn how God’s grace comes to us: first, by hearing the good news of our salvation in His Word; next, by hearing and feeling the washing away of sin to life anew in the waters of baptism; and finally, by tasting and hearing the new covenant sealed with Christ’s body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins.

Let these three means of God’s grace, all present in today’s service, be the meditation of our hearts, as we pray the blessing of our God: (Lord, sanctify us by Your truth. Your word is truth. Amen)

In our study of God’s means of grace given to us, we come to the first: the Word of God. And to begin, how does God come to you? Does He appoint someone over you to tell you when the Almighty has something new to say? No. Does He say, “I gave you reason and intuition. You’ll figure it out.” No. Does He say, “You’ll know when I talk to you. Trust me, you’ll feel it?” No. Although spiritual guides, human reason, and emotions and experience are blessings from the Almighty, let these all fall silent and bow to the only way in which God speaks to us: His Word. The Bible, written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the way in which He comes, and He uses this means to impart saving, life changing truth that impacts our soul and body.

Now one may ask, “how can words do this much? How can a simple book do this much? Don’t you think you are being a little dramatic?” About those who scoff at the Word, know that they will not be convinced unless the Holy Spirit uses the Word on them. And to those who have ears to hear, let them hear how powerful God’s Word is, starting with these examples: “Let there be light,” God said, and there was light. How about Jesus’ Words? “Be healed,” and many were healed. “Ephatha,” which means, ‘be opened,’ and the deaf man’s ears were opened to hear again, “arise, take up your bead and walk,” and the paralytic could walk. “Lazarus, come forth,” or little girl, I say to you arise.” God’s powerful word can create and can heal. The earth and all its fulness operate at His command. Therefore, this Word of God has tremendous power and honor and glory: His promises to the Old Testament Israel were all fulfilled, and the promises to you have been or else will be fulfilled. And so, know this, when God in His Word speaks to you in His Word, He means it: “Your sins are forgiven you!” “It is finished!” “Whoever lives and believes in me will never die” “I will come again and receive you unto myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

God’s Word has power then, and it’s not as if he only spoke with the likes of Moses, David, Isaiah, John, Peter, and Paul, and left us in silence, but He used these men to put down His Words for our salvation and learning. The Bible is what we have as God’s Word, and it is just as powerful as when it was spoken long ago. It will produce God’s desire and interest, just as sure as July rainwater and the nitrates of January snow will help the crops grow.

God’s Word works, first, in the way that Jeremiah describes it, “”Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” It will show you that you are a sinner in need of salvation, that you cannot do anything of yourself to please God, and that He is angry with us and His justice must be met. It will break your pride and false security like a hammer rending mountain of stone, and a fire consuming woody complacency. God’s Word is effective, yes, sharper than any double-edged sword. It is used to expose your innermost secrets…

Yet, this is not all it does. It is also said of the Word, the Bible, that it is the power of God unto salvation, more specifically spoken of the good news it teaches. Its good news is this: God, out of His grace and mercy toward you, sent His Son to live a righteous life for you according to God’s will, died to satisfy justice and declare you righteous, and rose again to give you the greatest hope of heaven. This is the power to save you, and it is also the very word that gives you the gift to trust in it as your own salvation, for faith comes by hearing and hearing of the word of God, that blessed means of grace.

We now give honor and praise to God and His Word in our next hymn: 775 from the worship supplement

God’s Word is so powerful, powerful to the point of working with earthly elements to seal salvation to you, strengthening of faith to you, and the forgiveness of sins to you. Our next means of grace you may not remember receiving, but many of you I’m sure have received this gift of the Holy Spirit. This next means of grace is heard in the word of God and felt in the water it is connected with. I speak of Baptism, which we were blessed to witness, and Stephanie was blessed to receive, this morning. This certainly is a gift, but it is on the one hand not a mere cute symbol of God’s cleansing love, rather, it is the real deal. It is also not a pledge of burden on her conscience, but a relief from guilt for her conscience to take hold of. It also, on the other hand, not a spell put on her. Trust me, I am not a wizard. No, it is a preaching of God’s Word connected with water. And though Stephanie will undoubtedly not remember this moment in her life, this moment will have a tremendous impact on her until she reaches her heavenly home. The same goes for all of you who have been baptized.

So, when Stephanie shuddered and cooed under the sprinkling, and when you no doubt went through something similar, something amazing happened. Forgiveness of sins was offered to you in this. This little washing connected with God’s Word has imparted a lifetime of sins expunged from your record, as if like scarlet red filth on a white shirt or dress, filth which seemed to be permanent, was suddenly removed, leaving you with that clean outfit of Christ’s redeeming grace. In this means of God’s grace you were delivered from death and the devil. That little water with the word, like a roaring, torrential flood thundering with shouts of “the Lord rebuke you,” has swept Satan away and the fear of death with which he attempts to tempt you to despair. And in this means of grace you also have given to eternal life to you. By this work of God’s performed this morning, Stephanie has the perfection of Heaven given to her. The same means has granted this to all of you as well.

Praise be to God for these tremendous gifts of grace, washing away through the flood of Jesus’ blood in the powers of baptism all that vexes our souls. This water has given us new life and renews our life from now to the halls of eternity. In this baptism we were buried with Christ it into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also walk in newness of life. So, for our final point on baptism, let me put it to you this way: in this life, you will never be rid of your sinful flesh. You will never achieve a perfect, holy life. Thank God that Jesus came to take the punishment that your flesh deserves and that He lived the perfect life required of you, for you. In baptism then, that old sinful flesh is being drowned constantly, day after day. Like a hero tackling a heinous criminal into a river and holding him there until he is no longer a threat, so the Holy Spirit does with your sinful flesh in baptism. He leads us to sorrow over our sinful ways and leads us to look to Christ’s cross where we see our flesh crucified once and for all. The Spirit also leads out of this river of baptism a new man, raised to life in Christ’s resurrection. He does this daily, and this new life of faith arises, that stands before God in righteousness and purity, seeking to do His will out of love, because He first loved us, cleansing us in the waters of life.

Let us now sing of Christ’s gift of baptism in our next hymn 751

The third and final part is yet another sacrament. In this we once again receive God’s grace, hearing it in His Word and tasting it with our mouths. In the night Jesus was betrayed, the night of Passover, all things, as Jeremiah prophesied, were made new. All sorts of Old Testament rules, from lentils to lamb, outfits to doorposts, were dropped for the teaching of one simple rule: “Take; eat. Take; drink.” The Passover, foreshadowing Jesus, was now over, for Jesus was there to have his body crucified and blood shed for the forgiveness of our sins. On Maundy Thursday, the day before His victorious death, Jesus offered us something new, something that would not foreshadow, but would rather serve as a preaching of remembrance, taking bread and wine, body and blood in remembrance of His work done on our behalf.

The hymnist Frederic Baue answers so many wonderful mysteries about this sacrament and does so in a scriptural way. First, he asks, “What is this bread?” Answer: “Christ’s body risen from the dead: This bread we break, this life we take, was crushed to pay for our release, oh taste and see—the Lord is peace.” In this sacrament the Lord Jesus seals peace with God to you. “Here is my body which was broken to establish peace with God. Take and eat! This gives you peace!”

And “what is this wine?” “The blood of Jesus shed for mine; the cup of grace brings His embrace of life and love, and so I sing: Oh, taste and see—the Lord is King.” This cup of grace gives to you His blood, which was shed to seal the covenant with God, the one-sided covenant that God has taken away your sins, though they be tall as k-2 or mt. Everest, in exchange for nothing at all. This is the Kings feast, His gift, take and drink!

Yet people get confused by this sacrament, “This can’t be Christ’s body and blood, this circlet of bread and cup of wine, can it?” As with baptism, it is neither on the one hand a spell performed to change it, (again I’m not a wizard,) nor is it a mere symbol to make us be better in our lives. It is a true preaching of forgiveness presented in God’s Word connected with bread and wine, Christ’s body and blood, which are truly present in this meal. And so, the hymnist says, “Yet is God here? Oh, yes! By Word and promise clear. In mouth and soul, He makes us whole—Christ truly present in this meal. Oh, taste and see—the Lord is real.”

And finally, to those members of Redeemer, Zion, and with our bond of fellowship, I ask the hymnists last question, “Is this for me?” I remember once on a woodland walk with one of my friends discussing the use of the Lord’s Supper. Along the way, we paused for him to catch his words amidst tearful breaths to let out this confession, “I haven’t communed in months. I’m not worthy enough. I’m not penitent enough. I shouldn’t be up there.” And so, I ask, “is this for him?” I told him, “That’s exactly why you should be up there. You’re a sinner, Jesus forgave your sins, and what you receive is the very thing that seals that to you: His body and blood.” Therefore, the Lord’s Supper is not a teaching of God’s stern wrath, but of His redeeming and saving grace. The hymnist has a similar answer the question, “Is this for me?” to each one of us: “I am forgiven and set free! I do believe that I receive His very body and His blood. Oh taste and see—The Lord is good.

The Lord is good, isn’t He? He gives us all our gifts, and He grants us eternal life through the hearing of His saving word, the hearing and feeling of the baptismal water with His Word which cleanses us for Heaven, and the hearing and tasting in the Lord’s Supper His covenant of one-sided grace which gives you forgiveness, life, and salvation. This is how God’s grace comes to you in the greatest and noblest of ways.