“Bringing Our Children to Christ” (Acts 2:14, 36–41)
1. Sanctify us in the truth, O Lord, Your Word is truth. In the name of our crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 3rd Sunday of Easter, which also happens to be Mother’s Day, comes to us from the words of the Apostle Peter in Acts 2. It’s entitled, “Bringing our Children to Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Dr. Dale Meyer, of Concordia Seminary St. Louis, recently had this to say in his radio program the, Meyer Minute. You sometimes hear of parents who let their children grow up without formal religion because they don’t want to impose upon them a particular faith. That may be well-intentioned but it’s wrong-headed. It instills in a child the attitude that faith is a result of our choice based upon our understanding. No, taught St. Augustine. It’s the other way around. We don’t understand in order to believe but we believe in order to understand. Jesus says, “You did not choose Me but I chose you” in John 15:16. In a 1938 sermon for confirmation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian said, “Confirmands today are like young soldiers marching to war, the war of Jesus Christ against the gods of this world. It is a war that demands the commitment of one’s whole life. Is not God, our Lord, worthy of this struggle? Idolatry and cowardice confront us on all sides, but the direst foe does not confront us, He is with us. “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” (Eric Metaxas, “Bonhoeffer,” 309) So then, should we raise children spiritually unprepared and unarmed for the life ahead of them?
3. Dr. Meyer’s quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer does make us think doesn’t it? It’s more important than ever today to train our children in the Christian faith. As the proverb says, “Train up your children in the way they should go and when they are older they will not depart from it.” After all, there is so much out there in our secular culture today that can pull our children away from their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That’s why we thank God for godly mothers who teach their children about the life-giving Word of God and continually pray for their spiritual well-being.
4. On this Mother’s Day we take the time to honor our mothers for the sacrifices that they made for us or are continuing to make for us right now. Mothers do so much for their children don’t they? They cook and clean. They make sure that you wash behind your ears. Mothers show their children and their husbands love by their nurture and care for them in the home. They make sure that they have a first aid kit to bind up the wounds of their children after they come home playing. A Mother offers a shoulder to cry on after her child comes home from a hard day at school. But, the most important thing a mother can do for her children is to raise them up in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord. The most important thing a mother can do is bring her children to Jesus.
5. And how is this done? First, it involves bringing our children to the baptismal font where they are washed and cleansed of their sins, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s hear what the Apostle Peter has to say in Acts 2:14 &36-41, “14But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words… 36Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”37Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”
6. Did you notice Peter’s words there in Acts 2? That repentance of our sins and being baptized for the forgiveness of our sins in the name of Jesus is a promise that is not only for adults, but also for children. From Peter’s words we see that Baptism is a means by which God gives us his saving grace. It is for the forgiveness of your sins. This forgiveness, given through Jesus’ perfect life and death on the cross for us, is given to us sinners in Baptism. It is through Baptism that God sends our sins away, which is what the word forgives really means. And what God sends away is gone.
7. The Holy Spirit creates saving faith in Jesus when he comes into the person’s heart through water and the Word in Holy Baptism. And this promise of the Holy Spirit that Peter talks about here is for our children as well. God’s Old Covenant with Israel included them, and it’s unthinkable that the New Covenant would exclude them. Godly Mothers who love their children and want them to be saved and have eternal life will bring their children to the baptismal font, because they trust in the promise of Jesus who says in Mark 16:16, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved.” Martin Luther said this about bringing our children to the Lord in his Large Catechism, “We bring the child in the conviction and hope that it believes, and we pray that God may grant it faith. But we do not baptize it for that reason, but solely because of God’s command. Why? Because we know that God does not lie. I and my neighbor and, in short, all people, may err, But God’s Word cannot err.” And in Luke 18:15-17 we see that Jesus welcomes the little children to come to him because the Kingdom of God belongs to them. Our Lord and Master Jesus teaches us that the Kingdom of God comes to all who humbly trust the Lord, no matter what their age or status. Just as infants may inherit the parents’ blessing and property, so any person may receive the inheritance of God’s kingdom—salvation, Grace, faith and everlasting life are gifts of God.
8. Godly mothers put their hope and trust in God’s promises found in his Word to not only bring their children into God’s kingdom by having them baptized, but also by continuing to teach them the Word of God and point them to Jesus as their Lord and Savior. This means that they bring them to hear God’s Word in Christian worship as often as they can, that they bring them to Sunday School, and read them God’s Word at home. It may even mean giving them the opportunity to go to a Christian Day School and High School. But, most importantly it involves showing what it means to be a Christian by living out their faith and modeling a Christ-like character of forgiveness, love and humility to their children.
9. In Acts 2 the Apostle Peter says that Jesus is God’s Son and the Savior of the world. The only way to be saved from our sin, from eternal death and damnation in hell, and from the clutches of the vile viper Satan himself is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that happened through Jesus, God did. The teachings of Jesus came from God through the miracles God performed. Jesus died according to God’s plan and God put an end to the agony of death. God raised this Jesus from the dead and He has exalted Him at His right hand. Jesus received the Spirit from God and He has given that same holy Spirit to us through His Word and Sacraments. God made Him both Lord and Messiah. Everything is the work of God. This is how God came into the world. When we see Jesus we can say, “Behold here is our God.”
10. This is the calling for Christian parents. Not only for mothers, but also for fathers as well. It is to do what the Apostle Peter did in Acts chapter 2. To bring before their children the God-Man Jesus Christ. Behold here is your God. It is through Christ and Christ alone that we are saved from our sins. Without Him we are nothing. Today we praise God for the mothers and other godly women who are willing to bring our children to see Jesus our crucified and risen Savior. Amen.
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