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Disclaimer: This is a transcript of Pastor Fenker’s sermon. It was preached from an outline, and the transcript taken automatically from the audio. Please forgive any typographical or formatting errors.

No one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

᛭ INI ᛭

Paul’s words are true. It is good for us to have the Holy Spirit. For, if you do not have the Holy Spirit, well then, you will not say Jesus is Lord. To say Jesus is Lord is a statement of faith, a statement of allegiance, as we’ll hear in just a moment. And Paul says, here that only comes because you have the Holy Spirit, Which means, left to our own devices, We would not say anything of the sort. In fact, we would then just call Jesus, accursed, if we did not have the Spirit. And this would be where our Small Vatechism teaches us these words that in regards to the 3rd article of the Apostles’ Creed. 


When we say, “I believe in the Holy Spirit,” We then believe from this passage that, “I believe that I cannot, By my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to him, but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel.” From this verse and others, we believe that we cannot believe.


It is not a matter of our thinking, our feeling, our doing. It is the power and work of the Holy Spirit alone. He creates faith. 
Where and when it pleases God, in those who hear the gospel. You have the Holy Spirit. He was a gift given you, given 1st in holy baptism. 


Holy baptism is indeed the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul says in Titus chapter 3. As Peter says in Acts chapter 2. When you are baptized, as Jesus commanded, you then receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. along with the forgiveness of all your sins.

The Spirit is at work. In the word of God. He inspired the Word of God, and he then blesses and works through the preaching of the, the preaching of the Word of God. We know this from the example of Lydia in the book of Acts. that Paul preached, and the Spirit opened her heart to listen and believe what Paul was saying. And Paul also says in Romans chapter 10, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ.

And so it is. If you say Jesus is Lord, you do so in the Holy Spirit, by the power of the Holy Spirit. For you are indeed his temple, and he speaks through you. But there is more at stake here. than just saying words or believing in Christ. For this statement, Jesus is Lord, is one that is a statement that’s not of feeling alone. 
It’s a statement of allegiance. It’s a statement of conviction. And it has real consequences. 


The creed here, Jesus is Lord, the earliest Christian creed had consequences. It sets you at odds. With the Roman government. 
In the Roman Empire, there was one Lord. Caesar. And to claim any other allegiance would be met with persecution and death. 


To confess that Jesus is Lord, would set you at odds with the Jewish religious authorities. For there is only one Lord. As the Lord reveals in Deuteronomy chapter 6, hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God is one Lord. And so to say, Jesus is Lord, would be to say that the Lord speaking in Deuteronomy 6 is none other than Christ himself. And that too was met with persecution. And death. 


So also in our day, it is a statement of allegiance and conviction that there is only one Lord, one ruler, one God, one person in charge of the universe, and that is Jesus Christ. put in that authority by his eternal Father. And he and his father are one with the Holy Spirit. And that sets us at odds with the world. 


We believe things that are contrary to the world. We ought to live differently than the world. Christians should. Our lives should be marked by allegiance to Christ and to him alone. He is the one, after all, who purchased and won us by his blood to redeem a people for his heavenly Father. So also you and me. 


And this is none other than the fruit of holy baptism, living out in your life, the spirit bearing his fruit out in your life. As we heard Paul say this evening, there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 
And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.

So it is, as we hear Paul say in Ephesians chapter 4. “There is one body and one spirit. Even as you were called to the one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, who is overall and in all.”

So also, you are baptized. You are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Christ also takes up his dwelling place within you along with the heavenly Father, and now we live differently. 


We live bearing fruit in our lives in all the ways that the Spirit himself works it out in us. This is no spiritual gift inventory. If we want some of these things, we should do as Christ commands us to pray to the Father. 


And the Father would give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. But we bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. All to the glory of God, and the benefit of our neighbor. 


And that is what it means to say, Jesus is Lord. That when that is worked within you, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the word of God, whether that’s the word of baptism, the word, of scripture, the preaching of the gospel, or even the words of holy communion, then that means something for you. It means you are saved. 
It means that Christ has become your Lord and Savior. Even as he has already died and risen for you. And it means that he now reigns within you. 


And that we ought not reject and spurn the work of the Spirit within us, but rejoice that he is the one working the diversities of gifts and the diversity of ministry, of service in our lives, the service that God is working through us, as Peter says, “As each has received a gift, let him use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s very grace. Whoever speaks, this one who speaks the oracles of God. As one who serves, who serves by the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs all glory and honor forever. Amen.”

Jesus is Lord. Your Lord, your savior. And to say that, The Spirit’s working that in you, His gift for you.

᛭ INI ᛭