With An Undying Love Ephesians 4:23-24; Isaiah 12:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4, 12–17; John 3:16-17
Grace, mercy and peace to you, from God, our faithful Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who loves us with an undying love.
“With an Undying Love” is our message, based on the last two verses of Ephesians: 23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
What a wonderful blessing Paul left with his friends, more than that, his family, his brothers and sisters in Christ.
What a wonderful blessing this is for me to leave you with, my dear friends, my family in Christ.
23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
This is a powerful blessing from the One who loves us most, and the One who can most truly and powerfully bless us.
With an undying love, God blesses His children.
Motivated by love, our Heavenly Father created us in His image, so that, in His love, He might bless us every day in every way.
By our sin and selfishness, the opposite of love, we foolishly turned our back on God and fell away from Him and His blessing. Although our love for God failed, His love for us didn’t.
With an undying love, God sent His Son, to redeem us and restore His blessing upon us.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
These words of Jesus to Nicodemus, and to us, say it all.
This is what my 13 years with you have been all about; and this is what it was all about before I came here to you, and this is what it’ll be all about after I leave and your next shepherd comes.
It’s all about the great and undying love of our Lord to save and bless us.
With an undying love, the Father sent His Son to rescue us from our sin, and from death.
With an undying love, Jesus died for us; He died for our forgiveness, rose for our salvation, and ascended into glory, to rule and reign for us, in love and power...
… and to send the Holy Spirit to us in holy Baptism, to live in us, with the power to believe, and to love our Lord with an undying, never-ending, everlasting love.
Like a broken record, over and over again, you’ve heard me talk about this amazing love our God has for us, and the amazing things His love does for us
While God’s love doesn’t get more amazing every day, every day I’m more amazed by it.
In the end, it’s the one thing we have to take with us.
But that’s okay, because when we have Christ’s love, we have it all, and we have the best!
23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
I can’t think of better way to live, and die, and then rise, than with an undying love, for Christ and for each other.
In our Epistle, Paul paints a beautiful picture for us of what it looks like when we love and treat each other as our Lord loves and treats us, with a holy love.
12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and … forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you…
14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Love covers and completes it all.
I thank God for the love you’ve shown to me and my family these 13 wonderful years; these have been blessed years.
We’ve shared many joys together, and many sorrows. God has with been with us; He’s helped us and blessed us through them all.
And He has many more blessings in store for you, and much more for you to do in His name, much more love and grace to share, in your church, your home, your community, and beyond.
Confident of this, I leave you with the best there is, God’s love, His forgiveness and salvation for you in Christ, for you to rejoice in as you carry out your mission of knowing Christ, and making Him and His redeeming love known.
In this mortal, temporary world, pastors come and they go; it’s just the way it is and has to be; but our comfort is in knowing that our Lord never leaves.
It isn’t easy for me to leave you, my family I love, but it comforts me to know that I leave you with everything, because Christ stays, and so His love and blessing stays.
As He promised when He ascended, “Lo, I am with you always.”
And in Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
And Deuteronomy 31:8 promises, The LORD himself … will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”.
Do not be discouraged, be confident in faith and love, because Jesus stays with you; with an undying love, He stays with you…
… with all His grace to cover you, His absolution to forgive all your sins…
… His body and blood in His Sacrament, to comfort and strengthen you…
… holy Baptism to wash you and make you His child, His Word to teach and guide you…
… His Spirit to renew you, His Gospel to assure you of His salvation…
… and His fellowship for you, His dear family in this place to love, care for, and support you.
As I leave, I leave you with Gospel and that means I leave with everything, but I also go with everything, because Christ, who stays with you, also goes with me.
He is always with us all, who love Him with an undying love, until He brings us all together again at last.
I came to you with my wife beside me, and I leave you with her waiting for me in glory, and for her dear daughters, her grandchildren, and all her dear and faithful loved ones, waiting to greet us with tears of joy.
And as she waits she lacks nothing, because the Lord, our Shepherd, is with her, blessing her more wonderfully and abundantly than we can imagine.
This is true for all our faithful departed loved ones in Christ; how happy they are as they wait for us to rejoice with them!
Isaiah says, … the Lord God is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.” “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously... 6 Shout, and sing for joy, O people of Zion…”
How gloriously He has done for our faithful, departed loved ones, and for all His saints in glory…
… and how gloriously He will do for us, and all His faithful children, when He raises us and glorifies us for all eternity…
… and how gloriously He has already done for us, and still does for us, as He so richly and generously blesses us with His amazing love and gifts.
And so we, too, sing and shout for joy, and serve Him with gladness!
The wonderful thing about God’s people saying goodbye, is that they don’t say really goodbye, it’s more like, “auf wiedersehen”, meaning, “until we meet again”, or “see you later… alligator.”
By faith in Christ, we know we’ll see each other again, in this life or the next, and so I say to you, “auf wiedersehen”, “until we meet again”.
God willing, next August, I’ll be back for some of those world famous, best tasting pork chops. So I hope to see you then.
But for sure, with an undying faith in Christ, we’ll all see each other again in glory, and rejoice!
Most of all, we’ll see our Beautiful Savior, who will embrace us and welcome us home, and we’ll be amazed and rejoice like we’ve never been amazed and never rejoiced before.
Until that glorious day, 23 Peace be with you, brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to you all, who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
May His peace, which passes understanding, always and forever, guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who loves us with a great and everlasting love. Amen.