Untitled Sermon

First Article Gifts

We are jumping ahead today to the next section of our catechetical sermon series on what we believe teach and confess. If you would like to review any of the sermons on the ten commandments they can be found on our facebook page.

Today we will begin discussing the baptismal creed, the creed that we are all baptized in, the Apostle’s creed. But first, what is a creed? A creed is a statement of faith. Everyone has a creed that they live by and for Christians it is the Apostle’s creed, which is the basic creed that all Christians confess. It tells of the basic doctrines that Christ’s church teaches, and it does so in three parts called articles.

Today we will be looking at the first article, “I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” This is a brief statement of faith, which expresses what our Gospel reading today explains, and certainly the entire scriptures confess what this article teaches. That God is the creator and the preserver of all life.

Our text describes it this way. “THEREFORE, I TELL YOU, DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT YOU WILL EAT OR WHAT YOU WILL DRINK, NOR ABOUT YOUR BODY, WHAT YOU WILL PUT ON. IS NOT LIFE MORE THAN FOOD, AND THE BODY MORE THAN CLOTHING? LOOK AT THE BIRDS OF THE AIR: THEY NEITHER SOW NOR REAP NOR GATHER INTO BARNS, AND YET YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER FEEDS THEM. ARE YOU NOT OF MORE VALUE THAN THEY?” In addressing the issue of anxiety to have bodily needs met Jesus makes an appeal to creation and let’s the creation that God the Father made be an example of His care for all of creation, including people.

He first appeals to the birds of the air. The birds are not anxious about what they will eat. They do not plant seeds, they do not gather worms into barns, but rather they get what they need for food for the day. It may not be a lot, but it’s enough. And most importantly of all is that it was all provided by God the Father Almighty who created them.

I. God the Father knows what His creation needs. Jesus even gives lilies and grass of the field as examples. Again, flowers and grass do not pick cotton and spin and yet they display a beauty that is unmatched. “EVEN SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE.” And that is what God the Father does for the grass of the field that is there today and tossed into an oven and gets burned up.

And aren’t you also a part of what God has made? If God the Father knows what the needs of birds and grass are, things in creation that cannot speak for themselves, and do not even hold the image of God, how much more will God the Father provide for your needs? “ARE YOU NOT OF MORE VALUE THAN THEY?…O YOU OF LITTLE FAITH?”

Man has a special role in creation. Humans are given dominion over the earth to be God’s agents of His mercy and grace and to be co-creators with Him. Certainly humans have a role in taking care of God’s creation as His agents to preserve that which He made. We do this through planting and preservation of wildlife. There are even times when we work the environment to make it easier for the things that God made easier to thrive.

At the same time God provides for us what we need through His creation. Today, things do not normally pop up out the blue. The Father does not create things out of nothing today, but rather uses vessels, channels, or other things in creation to help preserve us. Often times this comes in the way of people working together to provide for the needs of others. Nonetheless, when things are provided for it is a gift from God our Father because He is the one who worked things in a way that provided that which we need.

God provided the seed of the ground to be planted by farmers to be harvested one day for the feeding of people and other animals. God provides the animals which we eat for meat, and their skins and other synthetic materials of which we cloth ourselves. Through using the things that God provides, we build homes and all the luxuries that are placed in the home. It is even through the creation that is provided by God of which we build families. Certainly, everything that we have in this life is a gift from God. The good things that we have are not a result of our good works. Rather, the blessings that God provides rain down on all people, the rich and the poor, the good and the wicked. God desires to preserve life, and he does so even in unexpected ways.

II. In the greatest way that God the Father preserves life is by providing the greatest gift of all - His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ that we see creation and preservation playing out even in our day. Every time we see a baptism, we see the creation of a new person who was born of water and the spirit. In the waters of baptism into the death of Christ we see God the Father bring forth another one of His children into His eternal care and preservation. In the waters of your baptism you are eternally preserved by the Father’s Word which makes you a child and an heir of His eternal kingdom.

GOD OUR HEAVENLY FATHER PROVIDES FOR ALL THAT WE NEED.

God the Father knows what His creation needs.

The Father provides not just for physical needs, but also for our spiritual needs.

The Father does this because of His fatherly, divine goodness and mercy.