05/03/2026

Grace, mercy, and grace, mercy, and peace, of course, peace.

How can I forget peace?

Right?

See what happens when I take too long a health hiatus?

Of course I'm jesting, but it seriously is nice to be upright and of some service once again, even if it's only for a few more weeks before my retirement.

Now I hope my pastor friends from sister churches were jesting as well when they heard that I have before me last couple of times to preach to you, they began to prod me, saying, Mike, are you really going to let them have it on your way out?

Maybe uh take something from Stephen's message today to his Jewish audience.

Uh in Acts chapter 7, Stephen says to those listening, you stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Is there any prophet they did not persecute and kill?

Ah, it's chilling.

Well, I told my pastor friends, no, I am not going to start name-calling at this point for two reasons.

Number one, Stephen got stoned to death for it.

And I'd hate to be left for dead just a few weeks shy of my retirement.

My wife would kill me if I died.

Not that you find kind folks would pick up stones against me.

I don't believe that.

But secondly, this preacher knows that he preaches to himself as well.

When I point a finger at you, there are those three fingers pointing back at me.

And yes, I know I could be as stiff-necked as the best of them, or in this case, the worst of them.

Now, one thing they did teach you in seminary in preaching class is thou shalt not use the pulpit as a bully pulpit.

Do not bully your flock.

Now, to be sure, God's word is already a two-edged sword.

And you might remember all too early, uh clearly, that is, from Lent, that frightening passage from Hosea chapter 6.

Hosea 6 · chapter mention

Therefore, declares the Lord, I cut you in pieces with my prophets.

I killed you with the words of my mouth.

God's word is a two-edged sword, with the one edge being the law, and it cuts down our human pride.

The law cuts to the quick our wicked heart, exposing our sin and threatening with the condemnation of death our just wages for sin.

So that's the one edge, the law.

And it doesn't really need any extra name-calling on our part to do its work.

God's word convicts all by itself.

It cuts down very effectively those who are prideful.

But what about the other edge of this two-edged sword?

That's the gospel.

And it's recently become even more real to me from the good surgeon's scalpel that was used on my very own heart.

That side of the sword brings life, brings healing, salvation from what otherwise would have been sure death.

So God's word cuts us down on the one hand, that's the law, and it brings healing and salvation through the gospel.

On the other hand, in short, God's word afflicts the comfortable and comforts the afflicted.

In our gospel lesson today from John chapter 14, it's indeed all about the gospel.

John 14 · chapter mention

The law had already done his work, its work, when Jesus tells his disciples, let not your hearts be troubled any longer.

Jesus speaks a desperately needed word of comfort there to the twelve.

Let's get into that first verse of John chapter 14 by setting it in its context properly by looking at what flows out of the previous chapter, John chapter 13.

John 14 · chapter mention John 13 · chapter mention

In John chapter 13, we find very real reasons, good reasons why the hearts of the disciples would have been quite troubled indeed.

John 13 · chapter mention

Troubled because that room in which this discourse is taking place, that upper room as it is called, was not nearly as peaceful as the paintings tend to make it look.

Jesus has just laid some very heavy things on his disciples.

He told them, One of you will betray me.

Not I, protests Peter.

Peter, you will deny me three times.

Then to their to trouble their hearts even more, Jesus reveals, and I am going away.

And just like that, everything they thought they could rely on begins to fall apart.

Their whole world as they saw it was unraveling, and they clearly moved out of their comfort zone.

Their rabbi and messiah, messiah that they had hoped at least, is leaving them.

Now their future is uncertain.

Turned upside down, just like that.

Your whole life can change in a day, can't it?

And to trouble them further, Jesus brings their own faithfulness into question.

That's a troubled heart with a capital T, if I've ever seen it.

And if we're honest, that's not too far from our own hearts at times, isn't it?

As you already know, troubled hearts don't only show up in upper rooms, they show up in hospital rooms or in waiting rooms.

Troubled hearts show up when that dreaded phone call comes, or when the diagnosis is pronounced, or when the strength doesn't come back as quickly as you had hoped.

Troubled hearts show up when your own future feels uncertain, or when your body feels fragile, or when your heart, as even the heart itself, fails you.

I know that one.

And what Jesus offers is what we all need at that point.

It's into just this very time of trouble that Jesus' word of comfort comes.

He doesn't give a lecture, he doesn't give a lesson at this point, he gives a promise.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me.

Jesus' promise is anchored in nothing other than his own crucifixion and resurrection.

It's an Easter promise, therefore, isn't it?

Jesus doesn't send a do-it-yourself YouTube video to his disciples, and people don't operate on their own heart.

And Jesus doesn't prescribe a pill to cure the disease of death.

No, Jesus says, trust me.

Trust me with your troubled hearts.

Jesus has special credentials to make that statement.

He told those who wanted to kill him, destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.

He was talking about the temple of his body.

He was talking about the very real blessing of forthcoming Easter, that first Easter Sunday.

Because Easter is not just an event that we remember from the past, but today, every Sunday, we celebrate Easter because it's about something that gets delivered to you today.

It's a basket, if you will, an Easter basket filled to the brim with Christ's gifts that He now gives you.

So the question becomes then, what's in your Easter basket?

What does the crucified and risen Christ actually place into your hands for troubled hearts like yours and mine?

Well, let me suggest at least three gifts from our gospel lesson today.

The first one, a place prepared.

Looking at verse 2 there in chapter 14.

An actual temple where God dwells, not a temple made by human hands, mind you.

No, in this temple where God dwells, you're invited to enter as well.

And we've seen that very entrance before our eyes here this morning.

Nicholas was baptized into the body of Christ, the church of God, where God dwells with his people.

This is what it means to be in Christ.

If you are in Christ, you're a member of the body of Christ.

I go to prepare a place for you, the soon crucified and risen Christ says to the twelve.

Such a powerful promise you and I can cling to even on our own deathbeds.

You know him who has taken away your sin and who has overcome death by the power of his resurrection, that first Easter.

That's our Easter blessing.

There's a place for you in Christ.

That's the first gift we look at from the Easter basket.

And you will be where Christ is.

That's a place and that's a promise.

Secondly, a way that is certain and secure from John 14, 6.

I am that way, Jesus says.

The truth and the life.

Jesus says this, and only Jesus can say that with any weight tied to it.

No politician, no world religious leader, no billionaire CEO, no Nobel Prize-winning scientist could ever say that and engender within your heart any genuine hope for troubles.

They all amount to empty claims.

They all die or are dead already, and they stay that way.

Jesus' tomb is empty.

That's the difference.

Only the one who tasted death for you and spit it out, or rather, I should say, death got a taste of the Holy One and spit him out of the grave.

Death in the grave having come down with a severe case of indigestion.

Like Jonah, who is burped up out of the great fish.

Sorry, Pastor, I had to mention that, Jonah, for the sermon.

This grave robbing Jesus, this conquering Christ is not a way among many ways.

No, this Jesus is in a category all to himself.

No one comes to the Father but through him, through his atoning sacrifice for all your sins and his resurrection to eternal life.

Eternal life.

That's the second gift this morning in your Easter basket.

Better than chocolate.

And you don't have to blindly grope through this present darkness to find the way to eternal life.

This way comes to you.

Not through some abstract idea or confusing philosophy, but concretely, which leads us to your third gift this morning in your Easter basket.

Thirdly, a presence that comes to you in word and in sacrament.

Here's where those blessings, not just for the disciples back then and there in the upper room, but through the church's stewarding of these gifts, word and sacrament.

They extend from then down through the quarter of time, the gifts of word and sacrament come and they are performative.

What they did back then, they still do.

That is, they accomplish exactly what they say.

They deliver what they describe through baptism.

Nicholas, in fact, is united to Christ in both Christ's death and Christ's resurrection to eternal life.

Nicholas has received that and now possesses today the very gift of eternal life.

Amen to that.

And so do you, my baptized brethren and sister.

Eternal life is in your possession as well.

And to renew your confidence in that accomplished fact, there is a sacrament also for you today, as well, at the altar.

In your Easter basket is the gift of real presence by the promise of him whose word is truth and life.

The risen Christ does not simply say, Come find me.

He calls your name.

And once he comes to you, then he says, Come follow me.

Jesus is present in the breaking of the bread, and Jesus is present in holy baptism.

And this is the way Jesus takes aim at your troubled hearts.

He gives you a new heart straight out of Ezekiel 36, right?

I will take from you your heart of stone, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you, and move you to obey my commands.

This is the way we follow, with new hearts full of Easter joy, hearts washed, hearts claimed by Christ, hearts that therefore belong to him now, and that's okay.

It is he who has made you, and now he has redeemed you.

He's remaking you in his image, the very image we were meant to have and to keep from the very beginning.

It's all gift.

Little Nicholas was never asked to swipe his credit card.

Little Nicholas was never asked to do anything, just receive.

Kind of like when you were born.

You weren't asked about coming into this world, I don't think.

No one consulted you beforehand.

You did nothing yourself but just received the gift of life that you inherited.

This is how God's gifts, both spiritual and physical, come to us.

Grace upon grace.

Through baptism, God places his name on us, as Pastor Jonah mentioned at the ceremony.

And through baptism, God places his promise upon us.

And that's all your standard issue Easter basket now.

And in just a few moments, as at the Lord's Supper, the same Jesus says to you, My baptized child, do not let your hearts be troubled, and then places into your hand the very body, the very blood of himself.

Now not only are you in him through baptism, but he is in you through the supper.

Such sweet comfort indeed.

John 14, 20, just a little beyond our reading today, says, In that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Friends in Christ, we are in that day.

Behold, today is the day of salvation, forgiveness of sins, life, salvation.

The same risen Christ who spoke these things in the upper room to his disciples in John 14, now comes to you in water and in bread and in wine.

So what's in your Easter basket?

No chocolate bunnies, no marshmallow pips today, no sentimentality or do-it-yourself wishful thinking, but Christ Himself, who has prepared a place for you, who is the way for you, who is here coming to you again and again, Sunday after Sunday, supping with sinners and giving them real food, soul food, as well as for the body?

Does this mean even for the most faithful church attender here this morning, that your heart will never feel troubled again, or that your body will never feel weak again, or that your future will never appear grim?

Well, did Jesus feel weak at times?

Was his soul ever heavy or his heart burdened?

As you follow him and are being fashioned after him, these painful experiences won't be foreign to you either, as long as we all walk through this valley of the shadow of death.

But the table he sets before us is in the very presence of our enemies, and it's a testament to his victory that he's already claimed over our enemies.

Sin, death, and the devil.

The gospel silences the devil's accusations.

If Christ is for you, who can be against you?

Sins are forgiven, and death has lost its sting, being domesticated and demoted to a peaceful slumber only, as we await the resurrection of our bodies and our own transformation into glorified bodies like his, which is the first fruits of the resurrection.

So at times you may still feel that your future is uncertain, but your Savior is never uncertain.

And because he lives, because he comes, because he gives, therefore your heart.

Yes, even your troubled heart has every reason to trust also in him and to be at peace.

The peace that only he can give, not as the world gives.

Now at the beginning, I stumbled just a little bit, didn't I?

Grace, mercy, and grace, mercy, peace.

Shalom, right?

How could we forget?

How could I forget?

Because that is exactly what Jesus is giving his disciples in John 14.

Let not your hearts be troubled.

This is not just a suggestion either.

That peace, God's peace, is spoken straight into fearful hearts.

And it's the same peace given out here today, at the font, at the altar, where you sacramentally partake of the once-for-all sacrifice that brought us peace.

The very body and shed blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

He forgives you all your sins today.

You walk out of here debt-free because although we owed a debt we could not pay, he paid a debt we did not owe, he did not owe.

He paid our debt.

And he paid it in full.

So that triad that I stumbled at, grace, mercy, peace, they really do flow one from the other and form an organic whole.

Grace, God's undeserved favor, sending us his own dear son, mercy, the sinless Christ taking on the sinner's punishment, and peace, the resulting peace with God.

Peace for troubled hearts.

That's what we get from the restoration of a harmonious relationship with God, our Maker.

And it means ultimate peace for troubled hearts.

It's a peace that does not depend on the strength of your heart or mine, but rather rests on the faithfulness of your Savior.

He is the faithful one to the very end.

So, yes, grace, mercy, and peace.

They're not just words I forgot for a moment.

They're a comforting summary of the gifts Christ has placed into your Easter basket.

Given, delivered, all yours in the name of Jesus.

And just to prove we're still in the Easter season, He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

Hallelujah.

And now may that very same peace of God that passes all human understanding guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.