Full Transcript for 07/05/2026

it is following this text where Jesus then speaks in praise to the Father. 00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:44.960 He says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to little children. 00:03:45.680 --> 00:03:50.960 Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 00:03:55.199 --> 00:04:01.439 How much like the wise and understanding are we instead of little children? 00:04:03.360 --> 00:04:10.400 How often have we heard it said by someone, you know, if Jesus would just show himself to me, I believe in him. 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:21.040 Or better yet, if he would only do a miracle in my life, I would have faith and believe. 00:04:24.079 --> 00:04:26.319 But we're a faithless generation. 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:37.360 Even when miracles are done right before our eyes, it does not cause us to have faith and believe. 00:04:40.079 --> 00:04:44.399 Faith truly comes by hearing and hearing the word of Christ. 00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:45.439 I'm pretty sure St. 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:46.959 Paul gets it right. 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:56.079 We can only know Christ when he is revealed to us by the Father by the presence of the Holy Spirit. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:01.279 We can only know the Father when He is revealed to us by the Son. 00:05:03.199 --> 00:05:06.800 That which is gracious belongs to the Father. 00:05:07.199 --> 00:05:12.079 That which is revealed to children belongs to the Father's gracious will. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:20.959 But still yet, Jesus holds up children as the paradigm for faith in Christ. 00:05:22.879 --> 00:05:31.839 For faith is a work of God, a unique gift of the Holy Spirit, so no one can claim it as a result of something they've did or decided. 00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:52.720 Our Lord is not pointing out that children have some special quality, some unique character that makes it possible for them to come to faith in Christ, but rather that becoming a Christian is exactly parallel to being born into this world. 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:55.519 It's a gift. 00:05:56.560 --> 00:05:58.319 It's God's creation. 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:03.680 We're called children of God not because we chose to be born. 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:06.560 Never has such a thing ever happened. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:14.000 We are children of God because our Lord makes us his children. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:18.720 We are only born again when it happens outside of our own wills. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:23.439 No one here asks to be born of their mothers. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:28.240 Likewise, no one can ask to be born again by God's Holy Spirit. 00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:37.920 Birth is a thing that is always done to us, that's worked out by the will of someone other than us. 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:44.560 So in today's gospel text, Jesus brings us to the same point. 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:50.399 It is the Father who has revealed this to children. 00:06:51.360 --> 00:06:55.600 Even the children can't take credit for what the Father reveals. 00:06:55.839 --> 00:06:58.000 It belongs to the Father. 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:03.279 Jesus, in this text even, gives all credit to who? 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:05.439 To the Father. 00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:10.879 For it is the Father's will that makes believers out of all of us. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:16.639 But Jesus has a way of taking it one step further. 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:31.040 He says, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:37.759 If you want to know God the Father, well, you must know God the Son. 00:07:38.079 --> 00:07:44.480 If you want a relationship with the Father, you must be united to the Son. 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:50.319 It is good for us to be children. 00:07:52.720 --> 00:08:00.480 For in order to be sons and daughters of the Most High, we must be made to be made God's children first. 00:08:02.639 --> 00:08:05.600 For what is it that Christ actually says? 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:13.279 No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:20.560 So then only Christ knows the Father, and only those who the Son reveals the Father to. 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:24.160 So you can't have the Father without the Son. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.759 You can't have a relationship with God without Christ. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:36.480 For doesn't our Lord also say elsewhere, no one can come to the Father except through me. 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:39.840 Again, in St. 00:08:40.000 --> 00:08:48.879 John's Gospel, unless you are born again from above of water in spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:55.360 So we should not expect to know God apart from Christ. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:08:59.679 Nor should we encourage such a faith among the people of God. 00:09:01.679 --> 00:09:07.360 Only the wise in understanding of this world assert their logic over the word of Christ. 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:14.480 Only the wise in understanding will see it as their own interpretation versus another's. 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:20.720 Only the wise in understanding of this world will be blinded because the Father has hidden it from you. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:24.320 But the word of Christ will stand. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:28.080 We don't need to defend the truth of God's word. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:38.240 God's own word bears witness for us if we've submitted to it, and it will witness against us if we have not submitted to Christ on the last day. 00:09:38.960 --> 00:09:41.600 Jesus gets the last say. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:51.759 We become wise and understanding and fail to be like children when we fail to repent and submit to his word. 00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:57.440 And wherever his word is rightly preached and his sacraments are rightly given.

00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:19.759 What our Lord is giving out, well, we have to receive it like children, as those who have everything provided for them, and then faithfully respond with repentance and thanksgiving and praise and proper gifts, even of tithe and offering. 00:10:20.320 --> 00:10:32.320 But furthermore, we should also concern ourselves with all the Lord promises in his word, as well as those who have received the objective promises of Jesus. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:37.360 For where does Christ promise to be connected to us? 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:41.759 Where have we been put under the yoke of Christ? 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:43.840 As St. 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:49.120 Paul says, in baptism we have put on Christ. 00:10:49.679 --> 00:10:53.120 And in baptism we are made heirs of God's promises. 00:10:53.919 --> 00:10:58.320 In this world, apart from Christ, we're harassed and helpless. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:04.000 Apart from Christ, we grope around and we labor and we're heavy laden. 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:11.279 But when we have received the yoke of Christ upon us, his burden is light. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:25.600 And when Christ has been placed on us in our baptism, we're no longer of the yoke, under the yoke of slavery of sin, but we've received the yoke of Christ, which is our freedom. 00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:31.200 In baptisms, we are made to be children. 00:11:32.320 --> 00:11:34.320 Made to be children of God. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:42.559 It is a miracle that you get to witness with your own two eyes. 00:11:44.559 --> 00:12:07.200 And it's not like the wise and the understanding of this world who turn their backs and have no response to God's word and works done in their midst, but like little children who need to receive what their heavenly Father is giving out, letting themselves be cleaned with the absolving words of Jesus and fed and nurtured with his holy food. 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:17.120 It's right for us to become those who need their faces cleaned and their bottoms wiped by their Father. 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:27.279 Children who turn to their heavenly Father in every need and want, trusting that He alone will provide all that is good from above. 00:12:29.360 --> 00:12:33.200 Remember, are not two sparrows sold for a penny? 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:38.639 And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father who is in heaven? 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:48.080 But you, you, dear beloved baptized saints, are more worth way more than any sparrow. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:54.879 Because you have been united to Christ and have put on Christ and have been made part of him. 00:12:58.960 --> 00:13:03.919 When we are made to be children under Christ, our Lord puts us on the receiving end. 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:20.720 When we are made to be children like infants who cannot feed or clothe themselves, we are given all that we need to clean us and feed us with Christ's own fulfilling word and his blessed sacraments. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:26.720 As children of God, we are made to receive all that Christ has for us. 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:31.840 And like children, we submit to our Father who is in heaven. 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:41.039 Like young children who receive all they need from their parents, we're made to submit our wills to the Heavenly Father's will. 00:13:42.799 --> 00:13:55.519 We either have Jesus and all the promises that come with the Son paying the price for our sins on the cross and putting us into a right relationship with God the Father, or we don't. 00:13:57.919 --> 00:14:07.360 It's good for us to be children, because only children have the inheritance that is promised from their heavenly Father. 00:14:07.679 --> 00:14:11.919 The slave does not remain forever, the Son remains forever. 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:16.399 So if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:23.360 We should desire to be identified as little children. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:36.559 For the baptized, believing child of God is forgiven of all their sins and has the promise of eternal life and rest from all their labors. 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:42.000 You, dear saints, are God's children. 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:44.240 Amen. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:50.240 Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:50.799 Amen.