“The Life of the Church” Acts 2.42–47 Easter 4A May ’23

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this Good Shepherd Sunday, the 4^th Sunday of Easter, is taken from Acts 2:42-47. It’s entitled, “The Life of the Church,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                 Do you believe in God, serve your community, value close personal relationships, and marriage? A recent Wall Street Journal poll said those who answered yes would likely describe themselves as “very happy.” The survey pool was small—just a little more than 1,000 people—but some of these conclusions still ring true across America. For many years, the survey noted that the percentage of the least happy people stayed reasonably low, hovering around 10 percent, while the happiest always accounted for about 30 percent of respondents. But after 2020, those groups switched places. Now, a third of respondents say they’re “not too happy” while just 12 percent of people describe themselves as “very happy.” The same poll found that Americans don’t value marriage, religion, child-rearing, or community involvement as much as they used to. We see a pattern emerging here, which connects to what the book of Acts describes for us today about the life of the Church and the community Jesus our Good Shepherd gives to us. Churches devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship in the breaking of the bread, and prayers (Acts 2:42). Churches take care of people in body and soul.

3.                On Good Shepherd Sunday, the Church wraps itself around this most popular image of Jesus. Early Christian first portrayals of Jesus were as the Good Shepherd, surrounded by his sheep, taking care of them, as shepherds do. But how does he take care of you, how does he give you this abundant life that comes from giving up his life for his sheep, for you?

4.                Today’s First Reading from Acts shows you how he takes care of you and where he is to be found with his abundant life. It tells you about the days following Pentecost, that day the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and founded the Christian Church. It tells you about the life of the Church, a life defined first by gathering around Christ’s bodily presence in the liturgy—leitourgia—where gifts are received, the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation, and then, next, by the embodiment of Christ and his gifts in the world, where you serve your neighbor—diakonia—by loving them through your mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. The life the Good Shepherd gives to His Church is the life of worship & service.

5.                At that first Pentecost, the city of Jerusalem was filled with Jews from all over the world to celebrate the offering of the firstfruits of the spring harvest. Luke reports that on that first Pentecost, these Jews in Jerusalem “were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ ” (Acts 2:37). What caused them to ask this question was the preaching of Peter about Jesus—who said to these Jews: “This man Jesus, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Jesus to death, and God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. . . . Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified!” (Acts 2:23–24, 36)

6.                What Peter preached was the Gospel! He preached Jesus Christ crucified and risen! This is the Gospel that Peter experienced as he lived with Christ, the good news he witnessed as Jesus went the way of the cross to suffering, death, and resurrection. Your faith is founded upon these historical events, these acts of salvation. Christ died for your sin—and that’s a fact. The entire fallenness of this world was laid on Jesus, and in the moment of death, in Christ’s shed blood for the atonement of our sin, all creation died with him in a death that was so final that it shook the earth, caused the sun to become dark, and caused the dead in Jerusalem to rise. And then, in Christ’s glorious resurrection, he raised all of creation with him and freed it from the eternal bondage of its fallenness. Creation is now released because Christ, the new Adam, has come and liberated it.

7.                Instinctively, the Jews gathered at Jerusalem understood this and said to Peter, “What shall we do?” Peter’s answer is also our response to the Gospel: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

8.                Repent—be baptized—forgiveness—the gift of the Holy Spirit. This, too, is the Gospel, but it is the Gospel applied to you. Repent—turn from the darkness of sin to the light of Christ. Repentance means to turn your back on sin and greet Christ in faith as the one who forgives your sins. It means to come to Jesus with the simple faith of a child who in humility confesses the simple Christian faith that Jesus died for me. Baptism is where each of you first turned from darkness to light by the application of water with the Word of God. Pure grace. Grace that changed you from children of wrath to children of love. There the Holy Spirit came upon you, and you became members of the kingdom of which Christ is the King—there in those sacred waters, you were freed from sin, death, and the devil. Forgiveness is freedom—release from bondage. In Baptism you got the whole death thing over. You died in Christ and rose with him. You will never die again but live forever as Christ’s very own.

9.                Your Good Shepherd takes care of you in the life of the Church, as those early Christians were taken care of by their Good Shepherd in a very simple way—by gathering for worship around Christ’s bodily presence. We call this liturgy today. The early Christians called it leitourgia, which simply means God serving his world with Christ and his gifts. In worship, the Church was given by God the means by which it could center its life on the death and resurrection of Jesus. If there’s one attitude that characterized the life of the emerging Christian Church at worship, it was joy, for this was their new Jerusalem. It was here that they met God and God met them and they were changed by that confrontation for their eternal good.

10.             Acts 2:42. Remember that verse, for here Luke describes the life of the Church as worship: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”

11.             Luke defines worship in this way: the apostles’ teaching and fellowship in the breaking of the bread and prayers. Three simple things. Every Sunday, this congregation has all three of these things. In these things, Jesus is present here in his flesh, he is here to offer you the gifts of salvation—the greatest gifts that anyone can give and receive. He gives us himself and all that he has accomplished for us—life, salvation, forgiveness. Every Sunday, Jesus comes to us in his Word, as he did today through Peter, Luke, and John. And then after coming to us in his Word and preparing us for what comes next, he then sits down at table with us here as the host of the banquet that has no end. Here at this table, Jesus comes to us in his body and blood. Because Christ is present here, all who have died in Christ are also present with him. For wherever Christ is, there is heaven itself. Heaven is here, as we confess in our liturgy: “Therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.” Yes, from this moment on, by reason of your Baptism, you now participate in the feast of heaven, a feast that knows no end.

12.             Your Good Shepherd takes care of the life of the world through the Christ embodied in you, through your love, your forgiveness, your mercy, your sharing with the world the gifts given to you in leitourgia. We call that diakonia, service—serving our neighbor with love, Christ’s love. This is the Gospel, the whole Gospel. Christ first serves us with his gifts in leitourgia, and then we serve our neighbor as ambassadors of his love in diakonia.

13.             Acts 2:44–45. Remember those verses, for here Luke describes the life of the Church after they receive the gifts in worship: “And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.”

14.             Those early believers weren’t communists, pooling all their resources for the common good. They were Christians who had joined themselves to Christ bodily. Now through their bodies, in concrete, particular ways, they shared what Christ had given them with those in need. The Gospel gave them freedom to do this—to love as Christ had loved them by giving up his life for them as their Good Shepherd, to serve their neighbor as Christ had served them by giving his life as a ransom for many. This is the liturgy of life, where we serve others with Christ’s gifts, embodied in us, as he served us in the apostles’ teaching and in fellowship, the breaking of the bread and prayers.

15.             We are gathered here at worship to do what no one else in the world can do: proclaim for the life of the world that Jesus Christ has come, that he has shed his blood for the world’s sins, that he has risen from the dead for the world’s salvation, and that he is constantly present among us, offering his body and blood for our life eternal. There is power in our proclamation to the world that it has been redeemed, re-created, and renewed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here in this place, we have the forgiveness of all our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ, for here in this place the kingdom of God is present among us. We entered his kingdom in Baptism. Today our Lord welcomes us once again to the table of the kingdom. Come to the feast—the life of the Church—and then be what you have become in Christ: ambassadors of his mercy. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

“You Crucified Your Savior!” Acts 2.14, 36-41, Easter 3A, April ‘23

 

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word on this 3^rd Sunday of Easter is taken from Acts 2:14, 36-41 and is entitled, “You crucified your Savior!” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                “You crucified your Savior!” That’s pretty much what Peter says to the crowd wondering what all the fire, wind, and commotion of Pentecost are about. Everything you’re seeing and hearing—it’s because of something you did when you killed Jesus!

3.                Maybe it makes us a bit squirmy hearing it put like that: “This Jesus whom you crucified.” We don’t want to be responsible for something like that! I mean, we love Jesus! A lot! We would never want to hurt him, much less kill him. That can’t be us! So, we pass by this text without letting it touch us. We blame those first-century Jews for killing Jesus (with help from the godless Romans), and we shake our heads and assure ourselves it would have been oh-so-different had we lived back then. We’d never have done anything terrible to Jesus. We’d never give the Father reason to shed any tears over us! We’re Lutherans after all, for goodness’ sake!

4.                How quickly we forget! Martin Luther stood virtually alone among medieval theologians in not blaming the Jews for Jesus’ death. Instead, Luther put the blame squarely where it belongs—on himself, on you, and on me. Who killed Jesus? I did! You did. We all did it. Admit it! Confess it! It’s true. What Peter said on the first Pentecost is spoken rightly to us all, Acts 2:36 says: “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (v 36).

5.                But this is the paradox of the Gospel. It is bad news before it is good news. It is tragic news before it is glad tidings of new life. And to the degree that you tone down the bad news, shift the blame onto someone else for Jesus’ death, to that same degree you shift the beauty, the wonder, the forgiveness, the joy, and the life of the Gospel onto someone else. Because Jesus himself said of those who drove the nails into his hands and feet, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). Not “Father, forgive everyone for this,” but “Forgive them, the ones who are driving the nails and killing me. Forgive my murderers their sin!”

6.                Unless you are willing to take the rap and be in the company of the real and hardened sinners who killed Jesus, then you are putting yourself outside that astonished group of killers whom he justified by his blood. If you will not confess your crime with the crowd Peter exhorted, if you will not admit God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified, then you simply will not know the power of his forgiveness, because forgiveness of sin is what Peter proclaims to those who crucified Jesus. So, what about the ones who are not guilty of his death, not guilty of any bad sins? What about them? Well, the Gospel is simply not for them. They are on their own, with their own righteousness to present to God at the Last Day. And good luck with that!

7.                Dr. Luther’s colleague Philip Melanchthon once wrote Luther a letter in which he agonized over a whole array of trifling little sins that he’d committed, unkind words he’d spoken to friends, laziness with his work, an uncharitable attitude toward students (Melanchthon could be that most annoying of co-workers who sends you e-mails even though he’s sitting in the cubicle right next to you). Luther shot back a response in which he advised Master Philip that he ought to go out and commit a real crime, perhaps rob a bank or kill someone. Then he could quit worrying about trifling little sins and “join us in the company of real and hardened sinners who have had to flee for refuge entirely under the cross of Jesus Christ!” No word on what Melanchthon did with that letter!

8.                But you, my friends, need not worry about casing any banks this afternoon. You’ve already committed the most serious crime! You murdered the Lord of Life. You killed Jesus by hanging him on a tree! Can’t get any worse than that! And why do I say that you did it? Well, your fingerprints are all over the scene of the crime. The forensic evidence against you is overwhelming!

9.                The crime report says our sins put Jesus on the cross (“He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world,” 1 Jn 2:2). Now, you’re a sinner, right? You haven’t always been nice to your parents, have you? You haven’t always cleaned up your room and helped in the kitchen and told your parents, siblings, and friends how much you love them, have you? Of course you haven’t. None of us love God with our whole heart and love our neighbors as our selves.

10.             And that’s what convicts you. Every day, in all kinds of little ways, you show yourself to be a sinner. And St. Peter and St. John agree—it was sinners, all sinners, who killed Jesus: “Know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Your fingerprints are all over the cross. Maybe you have a blank spot in your memory where you were that Friday afternoon? Well, it doesn’t acquit you! It just shows you’ve repressed the whole terrible thing. But fingerprints don’t lie, and yours, my friends, and mine are all over the cross of Jesus.

11.             Which is a good thing! Because the payback our Lord gives to his killers is eternal life, forgiveness of all sins, and a place in his kingdom of everlasting bliss and joy. Because that’s the kind of Lord he is. That’s the kind of love he has for the unlovely. The love of God does not find what is pleasing to him but creates what is pleasing to him by the word of the cross.

12.             God tricked us, you see. He put himself in our way, knowing we would kill him, so that by his death he could bring an end to our sin and dying. It was a setup. God set us up for salvation by the death of his Son. And we are all accomplices.

13.             Our first partners in crime, when they heard this news and saw their fingerprints all over the cross, did not excuse themselves. They were cut to the heart and cried out, “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). And Peter answers, the loveliest lines in Acts, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:38–39).

14.             God called you in your Baptism. He made you his own child and heir. By putting the blood of Jesus on our hands, he has washed all our sin away and given life and joy in place of our sin and death. A great exchange! So take the rap. Admit you did it. Because God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified, so that in him you would be sons and daughters of God, holy and righteous by his blood. Get it? Peter points the finger at you, Peter implicates you in Jesus’ death in order to share Jesus’ life with you. Amen. And the peace of God, that surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. (Phil 4:7). Amen.

 

 

 

 

“We Obey God Rather Than Men,” Acts 5.29-42, Easter 2A, April ‘23

 

1.                        Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 2^nd Sunday of Easter is taken from Acts 5:29-42, it’s entitled, “We Obey God Rather Than Men,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                        Luther was to be martyred. In 1505, young Martin Luther entered the monastery. Within three years, he was ordained a priest. Soon after, Luther was sent on a trip to Rome, where he was sickened by the moral corruption there. In 1512, Luther received a doctorate in theology and was appointed professor of Holy Scripture at Wittenberg in Germany.

3.                        Luther spent long hours studying the Psalms, Romans, Hebrews, and Galatians. The more he studied the Word of God, the more he couldn’t agree with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, Luther disagreed with the teaching that man plays a role in accomplishing his own salvation through the conduct of good works. Neither could he agree that the pope had the authority to forgive sins through the selling of indulgences.

4.                        On October 31, 1517, Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses. They were written in Latin for academic debate. But, they were soon translated into German and distributed across the country. Immediately, Luther was called a heretic by friars and priests throughout the land. Many cried out for his public execution. Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor; Charles V, later Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain; and Pope Leo X all demanded that Luther be silenced.

5.                        The Scripture readings for the Second Sunday of Easter remind us that Christians are God’s witnesses, sent into the world. It was true for the first disciples. It was true for Luther almost five hundred years ago. It is true for you and me today. Regardless of the opposition of our society or dangers of our surroundings, we obey God rather than men. We declare that salvation is given as a gift to those who believe in Christ Jesus, the crucified and risen Savior.

6.                        Luther was summoned to Augsburg to meet with his cardinal. Cajetan showed Luther a papal bull written by Leo X. It announced the pope’s right to sell indulgences for forgiveness of sins. Also, it declared that faith was not necessary for one who receives the Sacrament. Luther responded that popes and councils have erred and even contradicted one another. They should be obeyed only when their pronouncements conform with Scripture.

7.                        In today’s Gospel, John tells how Jesus met with his disciples in the Upper Room. Jesus showed them his wounds and greeted them with God’s peace. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Then, Jesus gave them a simple command, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). Jesus breathed on them, blessing them with the Holy Spirit.

8.                        In the Acts of the Apostles, we catch a glimpse of the disciples doing what Jesus had commanded. Peter and the disciples had been teaching and preaching in the temple. They were brought by guards before the Sanhedrin and told that they must not preach about Jesus anymore. But Peter and the disciples refused to obey the Jewish Council. Even though they were standing before the religious, political, and judicial rulers of their day, the disciples openly declared that they would obey God rather than men. The disciples witnessed to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. They named Jesus the source of life and author of salvation. God had made the disciples to be witnesses for Jesus Christ and so had the Holy Spirit, who now lived within them!

9.                        It is extremely important to take note of the message that the disciples proclaimed. It was both Law and Gospel. That is, it not only declared what wonderful things Jesus had done. It declared what terrible things the Sanhedrin had done. The disciples confronted the Jewish council with the reality of their sin before God. “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree” (Acts 5:30). With these words, the disciples confronted the Sanhedrin with the truth that they had opposed God. They had rejected God’s Messiah by humiliating and murdering him. This was their personal sin against God, Scripture, and Israel.

10.                    At the same time, the disciples proclaimed the truth of God’s wondrous Gospel that was now being offered to each man of the Sanhedrin. God had exalted Jesus to his right hand and made Jesus the Author and Savior of life. The words of the disciples were a direct appeal to the Sanhedrin to repent and have faith in Christ, for the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of eternal life. The Holy Spirit inspired the disciples to speak, and the Holy Spirit empowered the Word of God to be effective. The Bible doesn’t record what happened in the hearts of the councilmen. We know Gamaliel immediately spoke on behalf of the disciples. Also, we know that later, some Pharisees and some of the Sanhedrin became Christians.

11.                    In the months after facing Cajetan, Luther would work at a feverish pace. He continued teaching and preaching, researching and writing, publishing and debating. The volume of material he produced is astonishing. By 1520, he was on record as disputing the infallibility of the pope, attacking Rome’s theology of the sacraments, and defining his position on justification and good works. Leo X answered by condemning Luther as a heretic and issuing a papal bull of excommunication. Luther’s response was to burn the papal bull. In 1521, Luther was summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms. Ordered to recant, he would not. Within days, the emperor declared him an outlaw and heretic, thus permitting anyone in Germany to kill him.

12.                    Luther was to be martyred! By God’s grace, he was not killed. He lived to be sixty-two years of age. Of course, he did not know that he would live that long. What he knew was that powerful forces were arrayed against him, seeking to silence him. So, why didn’t Luther just stop? Why didn’t he quit speaking and writing and teaching and preaching? Why didn’t he move to some quiet place where no one could find him, and just keep quiet?

13.                    Before the Council dismissed the disciples, they were flogged. They were ordered not to speak about Jesus anymore. But the disciples were not discouraged, just the opposite. They left “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41). They were honored to be dishonored for the name of Jesus. Instead of ceasing their witness, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus. Every single day they witnessed, in public, in the temple, and in private, from house to house.

14.                    Who would think, even in the remotest parts of Africa, there’s a celebration of Halloween? They don’t call it that. It’s called “Kun Dum,” the celebration of the dead and worship of ancestry spirits. A village chief declared that no one may use any drum during the festival of Kun Dum. Only he, as chief, may use a drum—the sacred Kun Dum drum. But, Pastor P. told his congregation, “We are African Christians. We worship Christ with the drum.” For this reason, he was targeted to be killed.

15.                    The story is miraculous, how Pastor P. escaped the murder squad, was protected by the police, and left the village. The miracle is increased in that during the following decade, Pastor P. established many new churches in the surrounding areas. Most miraculous of all, after ten years, Pastor P. returned to his village and built a new church (Acts 5:40–42). He is praying that one day, even the chief will become a Christian.

16.                    We are witnesses. We’ve looked at the witness of Martin Luther and the testimony of the apostles. These are our examples. This is our heritage. Like them, we have been called by Christ and inspired by the Spirit to be witnesses. We have been sent into our world, our culture, our time. Truly, we must confess that we do not witness as outspokenly as we should. We can be daunted by the opposing words or condemning actions of those who don’t believe in Christ. We can be tempted to remain silent or inactive. But we will not be silent. Even though we may receive rejection or dishonor, we will obey God rather than men. We will proclaim salvation as a gift through the crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. We are his witnesses! Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.