Open this Sermon in a “New Window”

CONFIRMATION Service / (PALM SUNDAY)

March 16, 2008

Good Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church

Sioux Falls, SD

Rev. Norman F. Seeger

Philippians 2:5-11

⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, ⁷ but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross!

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11

"CONFESSORS OF CHRIST, IMITATE CHRIST!”

1. Proclaim Jesus’ Name (Above All Names)

2. Emulate Jesus’ (Humble) Attitude

Dear Disciples of Jesus the Christ,

"Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!" crowds joyfully cry as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt Palm Sunday. Laying coats on the road & placing palm branches in his path, people welcome him as if he is a conquering king coming home after winning a war, but Jesus is actually coming to Jerusalem to be crucified. As he often told disciples who do not fully understand his predictions, Jesus is to be crucified as the one innocent sacrifice able to absorb & erase our guilt. Rightly shouting, "Peace in heaven & glory in the highest!"[LK 19] souls welcome Jesus as the Christ, the promised Messiah who will produce blessings far greater than many in this earthly-oriented crowd might imagine – blessings we know Jesus will win by overpowering sin & Satan as he refuses to disobey any of God’s orders before he defeats the devil & death by lowering himself onto a bloody cross where he suffers as our Savior who will rise to life & leave our tomb empty Easter Sunday.

Palm Sunday people are confused about Jesus winning forgiveness & eternal life for us in part because our heavenly king comes wrapped in human humility. Would a real king ride a donkey? Would a conquering king be accompanied by apparently harmless fishermen? Confused eyes do not see what people’s hearts hoped to hear. Fortunately, as we today profess a faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit creates & keeps increasing, I hear clarity, not confusion. I hear people – probably understanding Jesus better than souls who welcomed him Palm Sunday -- offering our Lord’s answers as friends ask about forgiveness or eternal life. Today I hear sanctified souls plainly proclaiming God’s truths of sin & salvation. On Confirmation Sunday, I hear young saints publicly confess Jesus as our Savior while standing in front of our Lord’s altar. I also hear our Lord warn us not to let Confirmation’s pride replace Palm Sunday’s confusion.

Pride is a potential problem, a trap Satan sets as we publicly profess faith in Jesus Christ. Satan particularly urges confirmands confessing Christ to think we are important. When we smile endlessly while cameras keep clicking after our service this morning, Satan wants us to feel as if the world revolves around us, as if God should be happy I am willing to call him my Father. Satan also tempts confessors of Christ to assume I am wise enough to figure out our Savior, which can ultimately lead us to rely upon our own wisdom rather than letting the Spirit lead us through the Scriptures to only rely upon Jesus for forgiveness, for faith, for our eternal life. Young friends, our Lord’s desire is that we display humility, not pride -- clarity, not confusion -- as Paul urges confessors of Christ to imitate Christ. Confirmation Sunday – every Sunday -- I pray we will proclaim Jesus’ name above all names while we emulate Jesus’ humble attitude.

Why would I proclaim Jesus’ name? Why would I call Jesus my Savior? What my wisdom will never be able to totally understand inspired apostle Paul beautifully delineates as he describes Jesus’ humble attitude & actions when God the Son also became the Son of Man as he was conceived in the virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. Born in Bethlehem, Jesus, “being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness. Being found in appearance as a man, Jesus humbled himself & became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

Born of Mary -- becoming a human being like you & me, but not inheriting Adam’s original sin because he is conceived by the Holy Spirit – Jesus looks like any other baby born in Bethlehem, but this God-Man is much more than a human being. Growing in stature as we grow when we are teenagers, Jesus is at the very same time our eternal God, who never changes. Always omniscient, Jesus, our all-knowing God, grows in wisdom as he ages in Nazareth. Our world’s Creator in the beginning becomes a perfect creature. Is anyone of us wise enough to truly understand how eternal God the Son can become in time the Son of Man? Not I! Not you. Yet we know without a doubt -- Scripture clarifies our understanding -- from eternity through eternity, Jesus always was &, with the Father & the Holy Spirit, Jesus always will be our one true, triune God.

Born in time – born a human being -- Jesus always possesses all the power of God, power he uses to turn water into wine at a wedding in Cana, power we see as he opens the blind eyes of Bartimaeus or brings a dead young man of Nain back to life. A human who possesses the unlimited power & wisdom of God, Jesus acts as God when he forgives the sins of a paralytic whose friends lower him through a roof, when he reads the minds of critics thinking he cannot forgive sins because only God can forgive whereas Jesus is obviously a man. We hear God speaking as Jesus refutes every false accusation with logic no man’s mind can counter. Jesus’ actions, Jesus’ words tell us this man Jesus is God, so he has no desire to become God. Unlike Eve in Eden -- who wanted to be more than the perfect person she already was, wanted to become like God by eating forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil -- Jesus never tries to lift himself a little higher. Jesus never even worries about maintaining his position.

Amazingly, mercifully, Jesus lowers himself onto our level when God the Son willingly becomes a human being. Becoming man, God the Lawgiver is born as a human who is subject to the law, a position where Jesus willingly obeys the law perfectly as our replacement, permitting God to graciously credit us with his righteousness. Lowering himself a little farther as he seeks not to be served but humbles himself to serve as the Savior who pays our sins’ ransom price of death, Jesus innocently yet willingly climbs that cross where he is cursed by God & is hellishly forsaken by God before his suffering & death are accepted by God the Father as full payment for every sin. In a manner human intelligence cannot completely comprehend, this man Jesus is always God, although Jesus does not always use all his godly attributes. Jesus eats, sleeps, weeps & walks. Jesus lets himself be arrested by soldiers he could knock to the ground with one word. Jesus is convicted by judges unable to find any evidence of any crime he could have committed. Jesus, eternal God & Man in one person, is finally crucified for our sins before rising to life the third day so we will know God has declared us sinners fully & freely forgiven.

Looking at Jesus, are we wise enough to see God the Son empty or humble himself to become man as well as being God? Does anyone understand Jesus lowering himself to serve as everyone’s Savior by innocently suffering as our Substitute? No, human minds cannot comprehend God becoming man, cannot imagine God’s grace handing eternal life to souls whose sins only deserve death. Thankfully, so the blessing of eternal life Jesus won on his cross would not be lost by our ignorance, God powerfully raised Jesus from his grave Easter Sunday. God triumphantly lifted Jesus into heaven forty days later. Seating his Son in an all-powerful position at his right hand in heaven, “God exalted Jesus to the highest place & gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven & on earth & under the earth, & every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

God would clarify man’s confusion. Today – as our confirmands confess faith in Jesus Christ -- we are pleased to see God’s plan working. Jesus was put to death to pay every sin’s penalty – Scripture rightly reports his cross’s cause & consequence -- Jesus was raised to life to guarantee us God’s forgiveness. While we will forever be unable to fully understand how “true God / true Man Jesus” lived, died & rose to redeem us, the Holy Spirit has taught us to simply trust our Savior’s sacrifice for our sins. The Holy Spirit has graciously given us faith, guiding us to confidently proclaim & profess Jesus as our Savior & Lord – the one & only Savior our world will ever know.

Palm Sunday’s confusion is dispersed. No donkey, no crown of thorns, no simply human appearance raises any doubts in our minds after Jesus triumphantly rises from his tomb & victoriously ascends into heaven. When we young saints confirm our faith today, when we publicly confess Jesus is Christ, the Savior God sent to free us from sin & Satan, I pray our pride will also disappear. Never boasting about believing in Jesus, as if we wisely figured out God’s plan for his Son to serve as our Substitute -- as if our intelligence could even comprehend God the Son being separated from the Father in hell as he hangs on his cross so we will live with him in heaven – I pray we simply thank God for giving us faith in Jesus, for teaching us to trust every truth he reveals in his Word.

Faithfully continuing to confess Christ, I pray we will always emulate Jesus’ humble attitude in our own lives, as Paul urges. Like Jesus riding into Jerusalem Palm Sunday, lowering himself onto his cross to redeem our sins & win eternal life for us by dying as our sinless, sacrificial Substitute, I pray we saints whom God has adopted as his sons by giving us faith in Jesus Christ also humble ourselves to willingly serve one another, obeying our Lord’s orders as faithfully as Jesus followed his Father’s orders live & die as our Redeemer. Putting away pride, I pray we humbly wait for God the Father, who exalted his Son Jesus, to also exalt us, knowing – as he promises in Scripture -- God, who raised his Son Jesus, will also ultimately raise us from our graves to glorify us as he glorified Christ.

Confirmands, please, do not become confused nor be trapped by pride. Led by the Holy Spirit teaching us God’s scriptural truth, keep confessing Jesus as our Savior every day as clearly as & even more clearly than you are confessing Jesus Christ today! Please, do not become confused nor be sidetracked by pride. Guided by the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scriptures, always imitate Jesus' humble attitude & actions in your life! Please, do not become confused nor blinded by pride, but be assured – as he promises in his Word -- God will raise you, God will glorify you; God will exalt you as certainly as he raised, glorified & exalted Jesus, who humbled himself to die on a cross, so we saints can clearly, constantly confess, “Jesus is Christ, my Savior; my Lord!”

Amen.