Be Steadfast in Your Receiving of Christ

First Communion Sunday

May 24, 2015

John 6:53-57

Be Steadfast in Your Receiving of Christ

In the name of the Father and of † the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Many years ago each of you was baptized into God's family. And since our congregation is blessed with many people who aren't from here, most of you weren't baptized here.

But that's the great thing about the blessed Sacrament of the Font. You could be baptized in Chicago or Tulsa or in a submarine or on the moon, and it's still and always will be a good Baptism.

Today will be the first time you'll receive Christ's forgiveness through the Sacrament of the Altar. But it's likely that you won't be receiving Holy Communion here at this altar for the rest of your life. For school and then work and family, you'll probably move to another congregation in another part of the country.

But wherever you go, be steadfast in receiving Christ. This is what you get to do as a member of the Church. You get to go to God's house as His invited guest and He serves you forgiveness through His Words of the hymns, liturgy, and preaching and through Holy Communion.

Very soon you won't have your parents living with you and encouraging you in your steadfast receiving of Christ and His gifts.

So be wise and seek out others who will continue to do so. Find friends who grasp that going to church is what they get to do. Find pastors who gladly bring you Jesus at church and into your home. Find a spouse who loves lots of baptized little babies and loves receiving Christ in Preaching and His Supper every Sunday. Raise up those little believing babies as children who love to pray with you every day.

This is the great good work that God gives you to do: to receive His gift of forgiveness.

[Jesus said:] "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink [My] blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is real food and My blood is real drink. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. (John 6:53-57)

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. Alleluia! Amen!