Stanisław Wyspiański, Motherhood, 1905, National Museum in Krakow, Kraków, Poland. Detail.

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Easter 5 2026 Confirmation Sunday
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Hamilton, Ohio
Pastor Kevin Jud
May 3, 2026
Acts 6:1-9, 7:2a, 51-60,  1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14

Sermons online: 
Text and Audio:         immanuelhamiltonchurch.com   click “sermons”
Text:                           pastorjud.org   
Audio:                         pastorjud.podbean.com 
itunes:                         bit.ly/pastorjud
Full Service Audio:    bit.ly/ImmanuelWorship

            Think back to when you were little.  What is your earliest memory?  How old are you?  What are you doing?  I remember when I was three years old or so at preschool and the teacher is reading the book Stone Soup and the whole class is working together to make a pot of soup — not exactly sure why that stuck with me.  Now go back two or three years earlier until you are two weeks old.  What are you thinking then?  What are you doing?  What do you most desire?  You do not remember being two weeks old, but you can figure out what it is that you most desired.  You want mom to hold you tight and feed you.  You want to nurse.  You want milk.  A clean diaper and a burped belly and a nap are all good, but the thing you want the most is milk.

            St. Peter writes in his first letter …1 Peter 2:2 (ESV) 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation,”

            Like a newborn craves milk, crave pure spiritual milk.  So what is it?  What is the pure, spiritual milk?  To find out, we back up just a little in Peter’s letter to Christian exiles scattered throughout modern day Turkey.  1 Peter 1:23 (ESV) 23 … you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;”

            What is the pure spiritual milk?  It is the living and abiding word of God.  It is the Good News of forgiveness of sins through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. 

In baptism you were born again of water and the Word of God. You were born from above through water and the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came into you through the Word of God and now dwells in you making your body His temple.  You are forgiven and declared holy and pure and are given eternal life through the Word of God. 

            Our confirmands today will declare for themselves what was spoken for them at their baptism.  They will renounce — they will reject — the devil and all his works and all his ways.  They will declare belief in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit with the words of the Apostles’ Creed.  I will ask them, “What is the Word of God?”  The confirmands will declare they believe the prophetic and apostolic scriptures; the Old Testament and New Testament, are the inspired Word of God, and the teachings of Luther’s Small Catechism drawn from the Word of God are faithful and true. And then I will ask questions regarding their intentions with the pure spiritual milk; the living and abiding Word of God.

            I will ask, “Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?”  Basically, do you intend to keep coming to church?

            “Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, even to death?”  Are you like the wise man in Matthew 7?  Matthew 7:24 (ESV) 24 “[Jesus said] Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

            The Word of God is pure spiritual milk.  The Word of God delivers to you forgiveness of sins and eternal life won for you by Jesus. You have been born again through imperishable seed; the living and abiding Word of God. 

Our confirmands today will publicly declare that the Word of God is more important to them than anything in this world. This is radically counter to the ways of our society.  The world wants you to idolize money and fame and power and your own body.  The world wants you to live for yourself because you only live once.  The temptation of this life is to think that your body and your stuff are most important. But you know…stuff is temporary and will degrade and be destroyed.  What about your body?  What do we learn on Ash Wednesday?  Dust you are and to dust you shall return.  Your physical body is fleeting as we learn in… 1 Peter 1:24–25 (ESV) 24 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.”

            Your flesh is fleeting but the Word of the Lord remains forever.  God’s promise to you in your baptism is for this life and for after this life, it is a promise for eternity.  Abide in the Word of God.  Cling to Word.  Newborns need milk.  You need the Word of God.

            As a follower of Jesus continually recommit to remaining in God’s Word.  The devil desperately wants to separate you from God’s Word so your faith will starve.  Fight back.  Establish a habit of daily Bible reading so you are constantly fed by the pure spiritual milk. Learn the Word of God so well you can easily spot a false teacher.  Get started. Start small if needed.  Read a chapter in the morning with coffee, or before bed, or together at the dinner table, or listen to the Word while you are on the bus, or in the car, or out for a walk.  Drink pure spiritual milk each day.  If you work up to three chapters a day you will read the entire Bible each year. Find what works for you to form an ongoing habit of being in the Word.  If helpful, I have various Bible reading plans available at both entrances to give you some alternative ways of working your way through the Holy Scriptures. Pick a way and daily remain in the Word for the Word of God is pure spiritual milk. 

            If a newborn could talk, what would she say after nursing before falling asleep?  Perhaps, simply, “Thanks be to God!”  How do you respond each Sunday when you hear the Word of God read? “Thanks be to God. Praise to you, O Christ.” 

            Peter goes on to instruct how to live together as those born again for eternity through the living and abiding Word of God.  1 Peter 2:1 (ESV) 1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.”  The devil is always trying to tear Christians apart with false teaching and jealousy and discord.  As baptized, redeemed children of God craving spiritual milk and building up the spiritual house you reject all malice, all deceit, all hypocrisy, all envy and all slander and instead you live together in love and humble service — forgiving one another abundantly as Christ forgives you.  As the followers of Jesus…1 Peter 2:4–5 (ESV) 4 …you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

            As followers of Jesus, born again by imperishable seed, you are living stones.  You are the living stones of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth.  You are a holy priesthood.  As a holy priest of God, you sacrifice selfish living for yourself in order to live for God.  You reject the ways of the devil and the world and your own sinful desires because you are a new creation in Christ Jesus.  You know the Word of God is your source of salvation.  As newborns need milk, you need the Word of God so you come to worship each week to hear God’s Word and receive Holy Communion. 

            A question for the confirmands, and everyone else here.  For how long will you come to worship to hear the Word of God and receive Holy Communion? For how long?  For how long will you crave the pure spiritual milk?  For how long will you need the Word of God?

You are in it for the long run.  You will need pure spiritual milk until the day we wheel you down the aisle one last time covered by the white pall. 

Newborns need milk, you need the Word of God — so you come each week to confess your sins and hear that your sins are forgiven.  You come to drink the pure spiritual milk of God’s Word and receive the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Nothing is more important.  As Peter tells Jesus in John 6:68 (ESV) 68 … “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,…”

            Babies need milk. You need pure spiritual milk; the living and abiding Word of God.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.