Deo Gloria
December 31, 2024
New Year’s Eve Sermon
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: 1 Peter 1:22-25
Theme: Another Year Passes—God’s Word Still Stands!
- The Word of God is living and active.
- The Word of God gives life.
- The Word of God lasts forever.
“They sure don’t make toys the way they used to.” How many times haven’t you heard that statement? How many times haven’t you said it yourself as you stared at a broken toy your children just got for Christmas, or one you just gave someone else? Years ago it seems as though toys were made out of sturdier materials and seemed to last a long time. In fact, I still have some of the toys my mom and dad gave me for Christmas when I was little. Our kids even played with them at times when they were little. Today most toys seem to made out of cheaper materials—quite often plastic—and they just don’t seem to last very long.
Well, what is true of toys is also true of the years in which we live. They don’t seem to last very long either. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating Thanksgiving, and Easter was barely a couple of months ago. It just doesn’t seem possible that it could be New Year’s Eve already. The years seem to fly by so quickly. And the older you get the faster they seem to fly. I guess it’s one of the facts of life, one of those inevitable truths that we cannot change even if we wanted to: time marches on. Seasons come and go. One year passes into another. In the midst of all this temporary-ness there stands the Word of God. It remains constant. It remains changeless. The Word of God still stands.
Tonight, as we prepare to usher in yet another new year, we’re going to take a closer look at this permanent fixture in our lives called God’s Word. As we do, we’re going to take special note of three things, three timeless truths to which we can fasten the rope of our faith for reassurance and stability. Listen for these truths as we read the words of Peter found in 1 Peter1:22-25.
The first truth we want to look at is that the Word of God is living and active. The Word of God is not a dead word. The words of the Bible are not just a bunch of words of the page. The words recorded on the pages of Scripture are not just a bunch of dull, lifeless, uninspiring and irrelevant verbiage. No, as Peter states in v. 23, the Word of God is living. It’s alive. It’s vibrant. It’s powerful. That’s what the author of the book of Hebrews says about it too:
The word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (4:12)
Back in the days when these words were written, a double-edged sword was the sharpest instrument around. Today we might say something like sharper than a scalpel or sharper than a laser beam. And the Word of God is just that, sharper than even a laser beam. Try as he might, a doctor armed with a laser beam could never penetrate to the depths of your being. He could never reach your soul. Yet how many times hasn’t it happened that we have been cut to the heart by the Word of God, that the Word of God has broken through all of the walls of denial we had erected and convicted us in our inmost being of our sin? Or how many times hasn’t it happened that the Word of God has penetrated the darkness of our grief and lifted our spirits when even our friends were at a loss for words? Here is evidence. Here is proof that the Word of God is living and active.
Here is more: The Word of God is what God used to create the universe. “Let there be light,” God said, and there was light. “Let there be dry land,” he said, and there was dry land. “Let there be plants and animals,” he said, and there were plants and animals. All God had to do was speak the word and it came to be. Such is the power of God’s living Word.
Because the Word of God is living and active, it always has an effect. We may not be able to see that effect, but it always has an effect. As God says in Isaiah, ch. 55, “My word will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”(v. 11). To some the Word of God brings comfort. To some the Word of God brings warning. To some the Word of God gives guidance. To some the Word of God gives encouragement. To some the Word of God brings stinging words of rebuke. To some the Word of God brings the sweet comfort of forgiveness. Such is the effect of God’s Word, for the Word of God is living and active.
Secondly, the Word of God gives life. Of course, the life it gives is not physical life but spiritual life. This is what Jesus is talking about in John, ch. 6, where he says, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life”(v. 63). Through his Word God imparts spiritual life. It doesn’t come from watching the Vikings on TV. It doesn’t come from drinking lots of “spirits” over the holidays. It comes from the Word of God.
In fact, that is what brought about our rebirth. Listen again to what Peter says in v. 23: “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring Word of God.” God’s Word is the active ingredient in Baptism. It certainly isn’t the water. God’s Word is what gave us a spiritual birth. God’s Word is what changed our stubborn, unbelieving hearts into hearts that believe and trust in God. God’s Word is what has created faith in our hearts, faith to believe that that baby who was born in Bethlehem is our Lord and Savior. You and I are children of God today, we have real life in our hearts and will have eternal life in heaven some day because of the Word of God.
And if we want to remain children of God, it’s important that we keep this life-giving Word in our lives. Your faith is not like one of those solar-powered watches that never need a new battery. All you have to do is make sure it gets a little light every so often and you’re good to go. Actually your faith is more like your cell phone. You constantly have to charge it up. It seems like every other day the battery is running low again and you need to charge it up. Our faith is like that. It needs a continual supply of energy. It needs a steady stream of life from God’s life-giving Word in order to remain healthy and strong.
Now I know we all know this. I’m sure we’ve heard it many times before. But I wonder sometimes if we really believe it. I wonder sometimes because I don’t always see a love for God’s Word among us. I wonder sometimes because I see people in our church family who think hearing and reading and studying God’s Word really isn’t that important. I wonder sometimes because I see people who have time for a lot of other things, but yet don’t have time to read and study God’s Word with fellow believers here at church or with their family at home. That concerns me as a pastor. It concerns me because it tells me that Satan’s tactics are working to a certain extent and God’s people are getting sidetracked from the one thing they truly need.
This coming Sunday we’re going to be starting a Bible study on the life of Joseph. And then later in January we are going to be offering our small group Bible studies again for a period of 4 weeks. I encourage you to join us as we study God’s Word together with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. But even if you don’t, the one thing I hope you will do is start the New Year off right and make time for God’s life-giving Word in your daily life.
The third timeless truth we want to take note of this evening is that the Word of God lasts forever. The Word of God is even more durable than the Energizer Bunny. The Energizer Bunny may keep going and going and going. But eventually, one day it will run out of power and stop. God’s Word, on the other hand, will just keep on going and going and going and going. It will never stop. This is Peter’s point in vv. 24+25: “For ‘all men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.’” Even though it may seem to a first-grader that someone who is 80 or 90 years old has been around forever, they haven’t been. People do not live forever. In fact, even today with all of our medical advances most people here in our country do not live to see their 80th birthday. People too are only temporary tenants in this world.
And the same is true of their fame and accomplishments. Even though many hope that such things will immortalize them, most are not remembered. For example, some of us may remember who won the Super Bowl last February, but what about the Stanley Cup last spring? Or who won the World Series back in 2014? Or who won the Oscar for best actor in 2014? Or how about the Oscar for best actress in 2004? I could guess, but the truth is I don’t know. “All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the Word of the Lord stands forever.” Moses is dead and gone, but the Word of God is still here. The prophet Isaiah is dead and gone, but the Word of God is still here. The disciple Peter is dead and gone, but the Word of God is still here. Memorable figures such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are dead and gone, but the Word of God is still here. And when you and I are dead and gone, the Word of God will still be here.
What a comfort that is! What a tremendous comfort for you and me! Everything around us may change, including the year in which we live. Even we ourselves may change. But God’s Word does not change. It remains constant. What God’s Word said a thousand years ago it still says today, and will say a thousand years from now. It doesn’t change. People may try to reinterpret the Bible or redefine what it says, but that doesn’t change what it says. Its voice still rings loud and clear: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”(Genesis 1:1). “Haven’t you read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?”(Mt 19:4+5). “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”(Romans 3:23). “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Ro 6:23). “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”(John 3:16). “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die”(John 11:25+26). “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool”(Isaiah 1:18). “Surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age”(Mt 28:20). These are the words and promises of God. What they say today they will say tomorrow and a hundred years from now as well. We can ignore them if we want, but we cannot nullify or eliminate them. The Word of God lasts forever.
No, they don’t make toys the way they used to. For that matter they don’t make cars the way the used to either, or clothes, or TVs, or appliances. None of them seem to last the way they used to. Even the better made ones will eventually break or wear out; but not God’s Word. God’s Word endures. God’s Word still stands and always will. As Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away”(24:35). Yes, another year is fading into history, but the Word of God still stands. Amen.