EASTER 5, B – May 10, 2009

SCRIPTURES – Acts 8:26-40; 1 John 4:1-11; John 15:1-8; Psalm 145 

I was at a conference last week for the pastors of our New England District. Our conference presenter was from The Sending Place, an organization that prepares people for short term mission trips, and during one of his presentations he reported that in a recent survey of active Christians – people who are regularly in church on Sunday – 70% said that they had never seen God do anything in their lives. “That’s incredible!” I thought. Surely people are looking at things in the wrong way! For a Christian to think that God is not doing anything in his life is like the branch of an apple tree saying to the tree: “Look at me! I am putting forth these beautiful flowers and leaves, and in the fall I will be full of luscious apples. You, meanwhile, just stand there doing nothing. What good are you?”  

God is constantly at work in the lives of us, His Christians. You can be sure of this, not because of what you think you see or don’t see, but because of what Jesus says in John 15: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Think about these words. Do you believe in Jesus, believe that He has saved you from the consequences of your sins and made you God’s child by dying and rising again for you? Well, I suppose you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t believe in Jesus. Well then, Jesus, the eternal Son of God, lives in you! As the branch of a vine has the sap of the vine flowing into it, nourishing it and giving it life, so you have Christ in you, giving you life and bring-ing forth fruit. You are alive in Christ! Through your faith in Him, then, what can you do? 

Don’t ever think that you can’t do anything, or that God is doing nothing in you or through you. Now, there are those who do nothing for Jesus. He speaks of them in John 15: “apart from me you can do nothing.” Those who are apart from Jesus, who don’t believe in Him and so don’t listen to Him, truly do nothing. Oh, this is not obvious to us. There are plenty of unbelievers who are good people: good mothers and fathers; good neighbors; hard working and law abiding. They do good things in this life, and their lives are a blessing in this life. But, those are the defining words: in this life. Jesus tells us what pleases God and receives His blessing after this life and for eternity, and they are only the works that He produces in and through us. Apart from Jesus, you see, there is nothing good in us, for we are filled with sin and death. Are not the sinful thoughts and desires that plague us, even us Christians, evidence of this? We are also told in 1 John 4 that the spirit of the antichrist is at work in this world. We live in a sinful world, folks, in which evil spirits and teachings are at work, and great is their destruction!

q   I walk down Stonybrook Road every day. It is beautiful this time of year, with many different flowering plants. There is one tree on that street which I especially enjoy: a weeping cherry tree that puts forth beautiful pink blossoms. Last week I noticed that only half of it was blooming. The other branches were bare and dead. Some type of bug had infected it, it seems, and was killing it. Sadly, a few days later it was gone, cut down and removed.

Take this to heart on this Mother’s Day. We live in a world which is filled with many deadly pests, antichristian spirits which seek to burrow into our lives and our children’s lives to infect and kill us. Many teachings and practices which are opposed to Christ are promulgated. They will fill us if Christ’s words are not filling us! How sad it is when children who once gladly sang about Jesus and loved His Church now avoid it and never speak of Him. How sad when they accept and follow ideas and beliefs that the Bible warns against. Don’t let antichristian spirits and teachings fill you and your children, for they will bring forth fruit that God will reject as no good and throw away! “apart from me you can do nothing.” Let Christ fill you! Have His words in your ears, your minds, and your hearts! He will then live in you and fill you, and as a branch that grows from a good tree brings forth good fruit, so He will bring forth good fruits from you. 

What fruits? Let’s see: Jesus, the eternal Son of the living God, fills us. Does that mean we can do anything? Well, not exactly. “My Father is the vinedresser,” Jesus says. “Every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” This means that God does not bless and prosper every dream and desire and plan of ours. He prunes, cuts away what we think will be good to bring forth what He knows will be good. This means that sometimes our plans will fail and our desires will not be fulfilled. Sometimes things that we think would be good will fail while things that we believe to be evil will prosper. Or, the good that is done will not be seen to be of any lasting benefit.

q   I had an idea for this sermon. I looked up the history of Christianity in Ethiopia. I was hoping to see it traced to the 1^st century and maybe even to the eunuch in our reading from Acts 8, to whom Philip spoke of Jesus. But, I had no such luck. There seems to be no record of Christianity in Ethiopia until the 4^th century. This Ethiopian eunuch to whom Philip preached Jesus, whose name we do not even know, disappears into history. How did he live as a believer in Jesus? Did he tell others about Him? Was Philip’s witness long-lasting? Who knows?

And, so it goes with our own lives and witness. What long term impact will this church have? And, what about your own life and witness? What fruit will it bear? 

We cannot know such things. And so, we leave them to Jesus and hold to what He tells us, confident that He will bring forth much fruit in our lives and from our lives. We don’t always see what Jesus is doing in our lives, but we can be sure that He is doing great things! 

What things? Well, again, pay attention to what Jesus says and believe Him. “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you,” He says to His disciples. This means that as you listen to His words and believe them, you are made clean. Your sin is overcome and wiped away – God no longer sees it; it is no more – and every antichristian spirit is overcome. “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” God lives in you and by His Word overcomes every evil in you! In Christ, you are His holy children. Isn’t this incredible? How greatly God is working in your life as you hear His holy words! 

Jesus goes on to say, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” He’s talking about prayer. What a great and awesome thing is prayer! God hears our prayers because of Jesus and responds to them! Don’t ever think that, if the only thing you can do for someone is to pray for him, you aren’t doing much. The almighty God is listening and will respond! And, don’t ever think that your prayers aren’t that great because you aren’t very important. “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you,” Jesus promises. Every prayer of every Christian, irregardless of who he or she is, is great and mighty because of Jesus and His promise! 

These are but a couple of the great things God is doing in you and through you. Don’t ever think that God is not doing anything in your life because you don’t see some great thing happening. You are baptized into the Triune God and made His child in your Baptism, and that is great! The almighty and eternal God now lives in you, and that is great! The things you do – whether changing a diaper, as Mary changed Jesus’ diaper; or working faithfully in your daily job, as Jesus worked as a carpenter; or visiting someone who is sick and helping out, as Jesus tended the sick; or simply going about your daily life, not worrying endlessly but trusting in God to take care of you, as He promises to do – these are not little, insignificant things. They are the works of God’s holy children, who have life in Christ. They testify to His love and mercy in Christ. They are Christ at work in us and flowing through us, as the sap flowing through the vine brings forth fruit from the branch. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit… By this my Father is glorified.”