Sermon for April 19, 2026, Third Sunday of Easter

1 Peter 1:17-21 (Third Sunday of Easter—Series A)

“Redeemed By Jesus’ Blood”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

April 19, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is the Epistle Reading from 1 Peter 1:

¹⁷And if you call upon as Father the One who impartially judges according to each person’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your sojourn, ¹⁸knowing that you were redeemed from your futile ways of life inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things like silver or gold, ¹⁹but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless. ²⁰He was chosen in advance before the foundation of the world but was made known in the last times for your sake, ²¹who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

          If you would indulge me, please turn to page 322 in the front of the hymnal. There you will find the Small Catechism section on the Apostles’ Creed. On page 322, I’d like us to read together the meaning of the Second Article of the Creed, found on the bottom right column, following the words, What does this mean?

          Let’s read together the Explanation of the Second Article:

“I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”

          Did you perhaps notice some similarities to our Epistle reading? It would seem that Dr. Luther used the heart of our text in his explanation about God the Son. Peter wrote, “knowing that you were redeemed from your futile ways of life inherited from your forefathers not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless.” Luther wrote that the Lord Jesus, true God and true Man, “redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death.” I hope this helps you see how thoroughly Biblical our confession of Christ is in the Explanation of the Second Article. Luther wasn’t just putting pious words on a page; he was using the very Word of God to teach the Christian faith.

          And the Biblical, Christian faith is that we live as sojourners in this world. We go about our life in this world as a temporary stay in a strange land because, as Peter has written, “According to [God’s] promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13 ESV). Thomas R. Taylor put it this way in his 19^th century hymn, “I’m but a stranger here, Heav’n is my home; Earth is a desert drear, Heav’n is my home. Danger and sorrow stand, Round me on ev’ry hand; Heav’n is my fatherland, Heav’n is my home” (LSB 748).

          Heaven would not be our home were it not for a Father’s love toward His prodigal children. Like the son in Jesus’ parable, we once lived a futile life apart from God. We squandered our heavenly inheritance on reckless living, each of us going our own way, doing our own thing, without a thought toward God and His Word. We were people who did not fear, love, and trust in God above all things. We only put our trust and hope in ourselves, in our desires, and in our wants, all of which, polluted by our sinful nature, took us further away from our heavenly Father so that we ended up wallowing in the devil’s pigsty, only being fed by the pods that swine eat—slop, garbage.

          What a futile, useless, worthless life indeed! We thought of ourselves so highly, and yet, we were as nothing before the One who impartially judges according to our works. And our natural works are slop before the Lord. Remember what the Lord told us even about our so-called “good” deeds? Isaiah 64: “All our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment” (Is. 64:6 NAS95). With Paul, we must all cry out, “Wretched [person] that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24 ESV). Who will make us fit for a new heaven and earth where only righteousness and holiness dwell?

          It is our Father in heaven, who before the foundation of the world had already determined to save us lost and condemned people by having God the Son, the eternal Word, become human flesh and blood so that He might redeem us “from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil.” St. Peter has written that Jesus, True God and True Man, “was chosen in advance before the foundation of the world but was made known in the last times for your sake.” There is that beautiful Gospel promise “for you” at work.

          For you, Jesus left His heavenly throne and took to Himself a true human body and soul—conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. In this “state of humiliation,” Jesus endured hunger, thirst, want, and need, having no place to call His own. He was tempted by the devil. He wept in the face of death and grave, His heart full of compassion for the lost. For you, in His great love and compassion, God of God and Light of Light went to the cross so that He might shed His precious blood to redeem you from the futile life of sin and death lived under the devil’s power.

          Luther asked, “Now what is the treasure with which we have been redeemed? It is not perishable gold or silver; it is the precious blood of Christ, the Son of God. This treasure is so costly and noble that the mind and reason of no man can comprehend it. Just one drop of this innocent blood would have been more than enough for the sin of the whole world. Yet the Father wanted to pour out His grace on us so abundantly and to spend so much that He let His Son Christ shed all His blood and gave us the entire treasure.”^[1]

          The sinless, unblemished, and spotless Lamb of God, shed His holy, precious blood on the cross for you to take away your sins. He redeemed you, bought you back to Himself, with this great gift of Himself. Jesus took our place beneath the curse of sin, which is death. He suffered the full punishment for our sins, including hell itself, and died for us on the cross. Our punishment became His and His blessing through His blood became ours.

          And it is this very Jesus whom God raised “from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” We who were once turned away from God, forever separated from Him because of sin, have now been turned toward Him as our loving Father. Jesus the One-of-a-Kind Son of God has brought us home to our heavenly Father through the gift of faith in Him as our Lord. Through Jesus alone we are able to call God, “our Father” and trust in Him as dear children trust their dear Father. Picture the father in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son as the wayward boy comes home. We read in Luke 15:20, “But while [his son] was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.”

          Now take that image, and picture you and Jesus walking along together, as the Lord walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Only in our scene, Jesus is bringing you home to His Father. Jesus brings you back to God the Father, wearing Jesus’ own robe of righteousness. He brings you home healed and forgiven of your sins because He died and rose for you. As the Savior puts His arm around you, look at Jesus’ hands—they bear the marks of the nails. Here is the proof that Jesus’ shed His precious blood for you and that He is risen indeed. And your Father throws His arms around you and welcomes you as His own child. He rejoices that you are back safe. He gives Jesus the glory for saving you with His life, death, and resurrection.

Christ has brought you home to the house of your heavenly Father where you will live forever in His new creation. Now you live that new life by faith, but at Jesus’ coming, you will live it by sight—an abundant, holy, eternal life filled with the presence of God Himself.

          This is not some fictitious image. It is real. It has happened. God the Father has sent His only Son Jesus to redeem you. You have been saved by the blood of Jesus shed for you on the cross. He is now risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. Through the great gifts of forgiveness and faith in Him, the Savior has redeemed you and brought you home to His Father so that you may be His own child and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. This is most certainly true. Amen.

     ^[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 30: The Catholic Epistles, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann (St. Louis: Concordia, 1999), 36.