LAY READER SERMON, 1 June 2025 Anno domini, Church of Redeemer (AOC), Fairbanks, Alaska. (prepared by Bishop J. Ogles.)
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.” John 17:12
For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us. Isaiah 33:22
The Collect.
O GOD, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; We beseech thee, leave us not comfortless; but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. AMEN.
“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalms 19:14
During the past week, we observed Ascension Day and the coming of the Comforter who is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost brings that Comfort that exists in Christ alone. He will not speak of Himself, but bring to our remembrance all things written concerning our Lord Jesus Christ.
One aspect of comfort is the sense of security we enjoy in that comfort afforded by our redemption in Christ. It should be a great comfort for us to know that Christ has not lost a single soul that the Father has placed in His hands. It is as true today as it was 2,000 years ago. In our day, we are kept secure through the agency of the Holy Ghost acting on behalf of our ascended Lord Jesus Christ.
In the 17th chapter of the Gospel of St. John, we have the precious words of our Lord’s final prayer prior to His crucifixion. His prayer was not for an impossible comfort in His suffering on the cross, but for our comfort and security in His absence. His thoughts were forever for those who believe and who are entrusted into His hands by the Father.
Christ is our Ark of Salvation just as surely was the Ark of Noah God’s salvation during the Great Deluge. He is the Door of the Ark that none can close save Christ Himself. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” John 10:9
No one can know the Father without knowing the Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is not, as the NIV and other spurious translations aver, the ONLY Son of God – but He is the ONLY BEGOTTEN Son of God. The elect are sons and daughters of God by means of adoption while our Lord Jesus Christ is the very issue of the Father. He has the very nature and character as the Father. That which belongs to the Father, belongs to the Son by the Testament and Will of the Testator. “And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. Hebrews 9:15-22
The prayer of our Lord pleads that the Father will keep His elect one in Him as He is One in the Father, and we, therefore remain One in the Father and the Son. (v21)
The Lord concludes His prayer with a powerful principle of Love: “ . . . the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:26 Without that love, how can any claim sonship with the Father. Without that love, none could adhere to the summary of the Law of the Ten commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”. Matthew 22:37-40
Do we have that love of Christ that defines the Christian character and describes a life of sacrifice and kindness to others? Just as 1 Corinthians 13 counsels, without that love, all other of our works are useless.
Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah describes nature of Christ in four distinctives: Judge, Lawgiver, King and Savior.
Christ is our Judge. As we are told in John 1:1-4, He is the Word, and it is by His Word that we are judged. Though we do not judge others by whims of emotion or opinion, we are commanded to judge with righteous judgment which is the same measure by which our Lord judges sin.
Christ is the Lawgiver. Whatsoever our Lord defines as sin, so must we define sin. Sin is the transgression of the Law – short and simple. (see 1 John 3:4). The Law of Commandments is clearly provided in both the Old and New Testaments, but the Law of Love is the Anchor upon which those Commandments hang. Love is the one characteristic that enables us to do no intentional harm to any other – but to do good to all inasmuch as it is possible. If we love our parents, we will not bring shame or dishonor on their names. If we love our neighbor, we swill not allow him to go without food or clothing. Our love for God is evidence of our salvation for it was our Lord who loved us first. Our love is a reflection of His own love. (1 John 4:19)
Christ is our King, in fact, He is the King of Kings. His majesty sits enthroned in the hearts of all who love Him. From the Temple of our hearts, His kingship overseas all of our actions – the very motivation of our hearts. We bow humbly before Him and seek always to do His will and earn His royal favor.
Christ is our Savior. Of greatest concern to the redeemed sinner is Christ as our Savior. While we were yet dead in our trespasses and sin, He quickened us and made us alive in Him. We could do NOTHING to earn that great salvation, it was all a work of His Sovereign Grace. (see Ephesians 2:1-4) “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
As our Collect avers, “ . . . exalt us unto the same place whither our Saviour Christ is gone before, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end.” Since Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, we must follow Him wheresoever He goes – not only to the shores of Galilee, to the banks of Jordan Waters, to His rest in mountain prayer, but also to the way of the cross in dying to self (as He did) and living for others. Not only do we suffer death to self, but resurrection life in Him, and ascension to the Father as He ascended.
May God bless us all with a renewed spirit of love and obedience as we follow in the steps of our Master, Judge, King, Lawgiver, and Savior.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
