Dear Christian friends:

During the past few years we have heard and read much about new lifestyles (ways of living). Many young people today live different or other ways than our traditional American way. A few years ago we had the hippies. We have men and women living together like married couples, but they are not married. We have groups of people living together in communes, often on a farm. Perhaps there are other new lifestyles that I do not know about.

We Christians also have a special way of life. Sometimes people call the Christian way, "the Way." Our way of living should be better than the way the unbelievers live. We Christians have a wonderful, beautiful lifestyle. But often we do not appreciate that way enough and do not really live the Christian way. In our text we learn about that lifestyle and find help to appreciate it and live it.


We Christians live with faith in Jesus Christ, our beautiful Savior and our dear Lord.

Many, many people, 85% of the people now living on earth, do not live with faith in Jesus. They are not Christians. They do not have forgiveness of sins and they do not know.that God loves them. They cannot go before God in prayer with boldness to ask Him for something or to thank and praise Him. They have no Savior, no dear Lord to serve and please, no help in time of trouble and no hope in time of death. They may be rich and appear to have a nice way of life, but not really.

We Christians have a much better way of life. We live with faith in Jesus Christ. He is our beautiful Savior and our kind, good Lord. This we learn from our text. Jesus explained to His disciples that He, the Son of Man, must be arrested, condemned and killed by the government and then arise from death after three days. (verse 31) Jesus' disciples did not understand what He meant. (verse 32) But we understand what He meant; right? Do you understand what He meant? If you are a Christian, you understand very well. Jesus is trying to tell His disciples that He, the Son of Man is also the eternal Son of God, the promised Savior of the world. He is telling them that now it is time for Him to make happen God's eternal plan for saving sinners and that God's plan is that He, Jesus, must die on a cross for all men's sins and then arise from death on the third day, as the prophets of the Old Testament had prophesied. After it happened the disciples understood and believed. They then rejoiced in Jesus and lived the Christian way or lifestyle. We, like the disciples, believe in Jesus. We live with faith and hope in Jesus. We do not despair in time of trouble or death when we feel guilty as the unbelievers do. We live with His forgiveness and with peace and hope and joy in our hearts. We have a wonderful lifestyle, much better than unbelievers.

And because we live with faith and hope in Jesus, we also have love in our heart. We live with love for God and our neighbor. This, too, is part of our beautiful Christian lifestyle. This also our text shows.

The twelve disciples here in our text had not yet learned to live the Christian way or lifestyle. They did not yet live with faith in Jesus and with love for one another. On the way to Capernaum they argued with one another about which one of them was the greatest. (verses 33-34) They were not living like humble Christians who love and serve one another, but like unbelievers with much greed and pride. They were very jealous of one another.

I am sad to say that we still see that happening among church members today. In every church where I have served, I have seen church members become jealous of one another. I, sometimes, see that happening also here at Pilgrim Lutheran Church. When that happens there is much trouble and problems, The church members do not cooperate, but quarrel and contend about many things and the church does not grow. St. James warns the church members about that as we read in the Epistle Lesson before, (James 3:13-18) It is very bad when church members do not live the Christian way or lifestyle.

When Jesus saw that His disciples were jealous of one another and not loving and serving one another, He preached to them and said, "If anyone wants to be the greatest, then he must humble himself and become the servant of all." (verse 35) Loving one another and helping one another is the Christian way of life. The unbelievers in the world do not love one another and help one another, but we Christians should. Jesus' love should live in our hearts, and His love can live in our hearts if we regularly attend to His Word, remember our baptism and go often to the Lord's Supper. Then we receive His love and forgiveness and humble service to us. Then we can love and forgive others and serve them, too.

I'm sure that when we compare our past way of living with Jesus' way, we must feel ashamed because we often fail to live with faith in Jesus and with love for others.

We should do like the Presbyterian men who were having a voters meeting at their church. The Pastor asked one man to say the opening prayer. The man delayed and felt ashamed and said, "Pastor, before I pray I must confess my wrong against another member. I have been hating this man for a long time because of a wrong I thought he did to me; I have been his enemy, but I must ask him to forgive me before I pray." Then he went over to the other man to take his hand, and he was surprised to hear the other man say, "I want to confess that I have hated you, too. It was not a Christian thing to do, and I want to quit trying to get revenge." Each one then gripped the other's hand and then they all prayed. After the prayer all the voters were confessing their wrongs to one another and forgiving one another. They showed real love to one another, which they had not shown for a long time. (Life's Hidden Power)

My prayer and hope is that this will happen also to our voters here at Pilgrim and to all our members. Let us live with faith in Jesus and then love and forgive one another and serve one another. This is our beautiful Christian lifestyle.

Amen.