THE WEEK OF ASCENSION - FRIDAY

LESSON: 1 PETER 2:7-10

“He will bear witness to me.” John 15:26

If the Holy Spirit is in your hearts, He will speak through you and make you sure and certain that the Gospel is the truth. From this conviction will also flow your witness to the Gospel.

What is the Gospel? It is the testimony concerning Christ, that He is the Son of God and the Savior, besides whom there is no other Savior.

This is also what Peter means in his first epistle when he reminds us that we are “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). We have been chosen by God to proclaim Christ and to make Him known. Such testimony is certainly necessary, even though it always arouses the wrath of the world. The cross follows such testimony or witness.

There will be insurrections against the Gospel. Princes and lords will rise in anger, and all that is great in the world will oppose the Gospel. The world always finds it hard to listen to the Gospel and to tolerate its proclamation. Hence, the Gospel is always a proclamation that arouses hostility.

When Christ and faith in Christ is proclaimed as the one source of salvation, the wisdom of the world is placarded as tomfoolery and nonsense. One of these must give way. So, the world rejects the Gospel and remains as it was.

SL 11:996 (10-11)

PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, grant us the courage and faith to witness clearly and consistently to the faith awakened in our hearts by Your gift of the Spirit of truth. If our witness involves us in a cross, Your Counsellor is greater than all and every opposition. Keep Him ever at our side, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 3:244-254.