Grace and peace are yours through Jesus Christ, who reconciled us to God and changed us from enemies to friends of God. Amen.

Gracious Lord, you have brought us together in a church body in which your Word is proclaimed in its truth and purity, in which the message of reconciliation through your Son is still the central teaching, and in which the focus of mission is to reach the lost and strengthen the saved. For this gift of your grace, we give you thanks and ask that you would rekindle our zeal for the work you have set before us. Amen.

This past Sunday I attended the installation of Pastor Thomas Meissner at Friedens, Kenosha. In the installation service, his fellow brothers in the ministry are invited to lay their hands upon his head and speak words of instruction and encouragement to him. This is what I told him. I said: Brother Meissner, the members of your congregation will ask you to do a lot – visit shut-ins and prospects, counsel the troubled, perform funerals, weddings, and baptisms. Some may ask you to be musical. Others want you to be funny. But any pastor can do those things. What sets you apart as a pastor in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod is your adherence to the truth of God’s Word. We in the WELS believe that we have the truth of Scripture and we zealously guard and defend that truth. If you are faithful to God’s truth, then people will overlook your deficiencies and your gifts will be increased. It is all based on the truth for Jesus says: "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." (John 8:31-32)

It is God’s Word that makes all the difference! It is what separates us in the WELS from the rest of Christianity. It is what gives the words I speak to children and adults its power. God’s Word is what makes the water of baptism special and effective. God’s Word is what causes Christ’s body and blood to be present in the Lord’s Supper. It is God’s Word that we come to in times of trouble, in times of doubt, when we seek strength, or when we are grieving. When we know nothing else works, we are assured that God’s Word works. God’s Word makes all the difference.

Our sermon text is taken from Paul’s letter to the Colossians. Paul writes this letter while he is in prison, and he is visited by a fellow minister, Epephras, who was the organizing pastor of the Colossian Church. Now Paul has never met the Colossians. He’s never been to the city of Colosse. But when Epephras comes to him and tells the Apostle about the Colossian Church, Paul sits down and writes a letter – a letter we today call the Book of Colossians.

Now there were a lot of good things happening in that church, but there were some bad things as well. Among the most unfortunate things were the heresies. The secular world was telling the Colossian Church what it should believe and teach. And the Colossian Church was listening to the voice of the world, rather than to the Word of God.

Now, we aren’t sure what all of the heresies were, but from Paul’s writing it seems that the Colossians were plagued by teachers of "a better way." Paul, in the verses of our sermon text, refutes that there is any "better way." God’s Word is the only way. It is the way to salvation and sanctification. Paul tells the Colossians and us that it is God’s Word that makes all the difference. It makes a difference in our relationship with God. It makes a difference in what we do with our lives.

Paul begins our text by writing: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior." Paul reminds all of us as Christians of the gravity what we were originally like from birth. Satan’s evil power had so manipulated us that we had lived in a state of alienation from God. According to our sinful nature, this alienation revealed itself in our hostility and hatred to the Lord. We were estranged from God. We were unfriendly and unpleasant to him. We isolated ourselves from him and wanted nothing to do with him. We were enemies of God.

This alienation revealed itself – and continues to reveal itself – in our evil behavior. Jesus tells us that we just have to look in the mirror to find out just how evil we really are: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander." (Matthew 15:19)

Collectively, these things make up an ugly package. But since we usually only see one or two of the tamer evils cropping up in our lives at any given time, we’re not very alarmed. We may not be perfect, but we’re not so bad. We like to think that pride, jealousy, greed, and hatred are only natural. We call this "human nature." But God calls it sin.

And it’s as old as the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve caved in to the devil’s ploy and joined his rebellion against their Creator. We call that first sin of our first parents "The Fall." It is an apt description, for in that one sin all mankind had a great fall. And just like Humpty Dumpty, we have never been able to put ourselves back together again.

"In Adam all die." That is the way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15:22. He is saying that every child of Adam and Eve – you and me – inherits a fatal flaw. That flaw is deadly! Since the fall into sin, all children born to human parents come into this world with sin engraved deeply in their hearts. There are no exceptions to this ugly reality for the Bible also says: "Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath." (Ephesians 2:3) Thus our problem before God is not merely the sins we do, but the sinners that we are – for sin penetrates our very heart.

Something had to be done. Jesus Christ did it. Sin, after all, cannot be reformed or remodeled. The only way to terminate sin is to kill it. And that’s precisely what God has done in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the great Terminator. He bore our sin in his own body, and it killed him. But in dying he destroyed death, and brought life and immortality to light. In rising from his grave he has shattered the power of the grave. In his resurrection from death he has broken the stranglehold of sin on mankind.

Now we can join with Paul in taunting death, for death no longer has any power over us: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)

Paul writes of this good news to the Colossians in verse 22: "But now [God] has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." Before, our relationship with God had been one of hatred and hostility. But now, our relationship is one of reconciliation and at-onement with God. It is a "return" to what the relationship had originally been between God and his first people.

This wonderful change was worked out once and for all in the all-sufficient suffering and death of Jesus Christ. Now Jesus can present us to God as "holy" – cleansed from all sin; "without blemish" – as a perfect sacrifice; and "free from accusation" by anyone, and especially by our archenemy Satan.

This great change took place in us when we heard the good news of God’s gospel. Paul continues: "This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven." It recognizes no racial or national boundaries. The gospel we have heard is a universal gospel. It is a gospel that saves all.

This gospel of God’s Word makes all the difference because it changes our relationship with God from one of hostility to one of love; from one of hatred to one of friendship; from one of isolation to one of reconciliation. We are no longer children of Satan who live only to please ourselves. But now we have been changed into children of Satan who live only to please God. Therefore, it is God’s Word that makes a difference in what we do with our lives.

A number of stories come to mind when I think of the awesome difference God’s Word makes in people’s lives. I know a woman who had smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for her entire adult life. When she finally decided to give up smoking, she knew it would be hard and she struggled. Then her young son came to her and said, "Let’s pray and ask God to help you quit smoking." After their prayer, she never had another cigarette.

When I do counseling with people, I admit to them right away that I’m not the greatest counselor. I’m not very good at figuring out answers to people’s problems. I am very good at Bible study, however. So when I do counseling with people, whether it is for anger management, depression, alcoholism, or marriage counseling, we look to the Scriptures to hear what God has to say about their difficulties. When the people don’t listen to God’s advice, there is no help for them. But when they humble themselves and apply God’s Word to their lives, there are amazing results!

Just before I left Faith in Radcliff, I had a member ask me to meet with a couple who was staying with him and were having some serious troubles with their relationship. I agreed, but only met with the boyfriend, because his girlfriend was so mad, and even afraid of him, that she refused to come. He talked about their relationship and how their situation was almost entirely his fault because of his temper. In his anger, he had even grabbed his girlfriend by the throat, but hadn’t actually hurt her. But that event scared her. After he had told me everything, we turned to James chapter 3 and discussed controlling the tongue, we talked about how Paul says "in your anger, do not sin" and how you can be angry, but only for the right reasons, and we talked about how Jesus could be angry in the temple courtyard and overturning tables, and yet not sin. Now, I didn’t expect to see him again. We had only met for about an hour. What can you do in an hour, I thought. And yet, he, his girlfriend, and their baby son, who had never been in our church before, now were all in church for Good Friday, Easter, and a few Sundays after. Now, they continued to need counseling, but their friend who had asked me to help them, said that the boyfriend was like a whole new person – kind of like Saul becoming Paul! God’s Word works, even if you only talk for an hour!

When you attend a funeral for an unbeliever, what do you say to the grieving? "I’m sorry." That’s about it. But what can you say to the grieving when you know the deceased was a Christian? You can say, "She’s in a better place." "She’s resting safely in Jesus’ arms." "Jesus has placed a crown of glory on her head, draped a white robe of perfection over her sainted body, and she is living in the heavenly mansion Jesus has prepared for her." "You’ll see her again." It is God’s Word that makes the difference, isn’t it? A Christian funeral isn’t a sad occasion. It is a joyous occasion because God has called another saint home. And because we are joyful, we almost always have food after the funeral. It is a way to enjoy the company and fellowship of our fellow believers as we talk about our dearly departed, Christian loved one. God’s Word makes the difference in how we react in times of sorrow and grieving.

I’m sure that you can think of plenty of your own stories of how God’s Word has changed your life and the lives of people around you.

God’s Word has power to effect these changes in people’s lives because the focus is on Jesus Christ and what he has done to save us. As Paul says: "We proclaim [Christ] admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ." God’s Word has worked, and it will continue to work as we preach Christ in our church, teach Christ in our school and homes, and proclaim Christ in our community.

The purpose for proclaiming Christ in God’s Word, is of course, so that on the last day, when we stand before God as Judge, every believer may stand confident and certain because we have been covered with the robe of righteousness that the Lord has himself earned for us all. It is God’s Word that makes the difference, now and for eternity! Amen.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. (Philippians 4:7)