Mother's Day Sermon

John 6:63

It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Happy Mother’s Day! This is a very special day every year where we have the great opportunity to celebrate and honor all the mother’s and women in our lives and the sacrifices they make every day for their families. However, as great and wonderful as this day may be, it is not as joyous and happy for all people. Many individuals have suffered the loss of their mother, making Mother’s Day a rather somber and sad day. In addition, other people were not blessed with a loving and caring home life, possibly causing friction and animosity between them and their mother. Between these two factors, it makes preaching on Mother’s Day a rather complicated task. However, through prayer and seeking the Lord, I pray that this will be a meaningful sermon. Due to the complications surrounding Mother’s Day, I dug deep and thought what is the one quality that mothers across the globe have in common with God. And after many days and nights of thinking and praying it came to me. The one connecting quality that exists between mothers and God is that both give us life. Therefore this morning we are going to see how our mothers have given us life and the mystery that we find in the life-giving power of God Almighty. As always, I pray that this sermon will move and touch each individual and that we will leave this place with a better understanding of who God is.

The life-giving ability of mothers! Oh my! If there is any day out of a mother’s life that stands in infamy it is the day she gave birth to her son or daughter. My poor mama was in labor for over 15 hours! But as she has told me many times she wouldn’t trade that day for anything. We read that in the garden of Eden following the first sin ever commited, God places a curse upon Adam and Eve. We read of Eve’s curse in Genesis 3:16 where it says, “To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” So, I’m sorry women, but the pain you experienced during childbirth goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

What fascinates me is how childbirth and motherhood is a common theme throughout the Bible. Every Christmas we celebrate the virgin birth of Jesus Christ our Savior. Prior to the birth of Jesus, in the book of Luke, we read of Elizabeth and her birth of John the Baptist. If you will remember, Elizabeth was on up in years and her husband Zechariah doubted the message that the angel delivered to him. We even read of a baby moving in his mother’s womb. I know many of you mother’s can probably remember what it was like the first time you felt movement coming from within you. We read in Luke 1:44 when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, “For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” One lady even laughed at God when she was told that she would give birth. Do you remember who that was? Right, Sarah! We read in Genesis 18 that upon hearing the news that she would give birth to a son in her ripe old age, she laughed at God. However, we know that no one is truer to His word that Almighty God. What He says will come to pass. For you mothers this morning, I just want to say thank you for all that you endure and go through to keep this world going. Without you and the reproduction you offer to this world, we as a people would surely die off. It is on day’s like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day that I am reminded of the original, foundational institutions that God put in place. 1 man and 1 woman. In Genesis 2:23 we read of Adam’s first words to his wife, “Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”” May we as a church fight for and stand on these original and timeless institutions that God put in place. Thank you mothers for the purpose you serve on this earth and most importantly in God’s master plan!

Now, we know pretty well how mother’s go about giving us life and the curse that God placed on women after the fall in the Garden of Eden. However, did you know that God also gives us life? This is where our key text for this morning comes into play. John 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” Brothers and sisters, indeed we love to celebrate our mothers and the life that they gave to us. However, true life, everlasting life is only found in Jesus Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit!

Believe it or not this goes all the way back to the Old Testament. As I have taught and used in my sermons many times before, the Holy Spirit has many different forms in which He takes and one of the most common is wind and/or breath. If you will remember on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, the place was filled with a loud and blowing wind. Keeping that in mind, go back to the beginning with me. We read in Genesis2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” Woah! God, Almighty is the Mother of all creation, because it was and is through Him that we have life. From the beginning to the end it is Him, through HIs Son, and through the power of the Holy Spirit that we have life not only here, but also within the life that is yet to come.

I have always loved the story of Nicodemus. If you will remember, he sneaks off to see Jesus in the middle of the night to find out if He is really who He says He is. It is then Jesus teaches Him about the new and everlasting life that we as believers receive when we believe in Jesus Christ. We read in John 3, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Nicodemus marveled at the idea of having to be born again. Thankfully we live on this side of the empty tomb and have a better understanding of Jesus’ words. Thanks to our mothers we have life, but until we believe in our hearts and confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord and be born again, we will never have the true, freeing life that Jesus offers.

Brothers and sisters, I am so thankful for this special day in which we get to honor and celebrate the special mothers and women in our lives. It is my prayer that through this sermon today we have seen how women and mothers alike play a vital role in God’s master plan. I pray that we have seen how God was the first mother of all creation and how it is in and through Him that we have life eternal.