Mark's thoughts: Facing the world's antipathy once again, through faith in Christ

 

We are well aware that we live in a time that is very different from what it was before.  As you read this, we are just leaving “Pride Month” in which we have been swamped by our culture’s virtue signaling as it celebrated homosexuality and transgenderism.  We know that the percentage of the population that identifies as Christian, much less actually practices the faith, is declining.  More than that, we know that our culture is increasingly antagonistic toward the Church and the Christian faith.

These changes, and the speed with which they have been occurring, can be the source of deep concern. They are certainly not what we want to see happening.  However, we need to recognize that they are also not something that is completely new for Christ’s Church. We need to be reminded about what our brothers and sisters in Christ faced during the first centuries of the Church’s existence.  We learn from this that the Church has faced this before. We also find encouragement that the Spirit of Christ sustained the Church in the midst of those things, and even caused her to grow.

In his book Destroyer of the gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World, the scholar Larry Hurtado lays out the evidence for how the Roman world’s reaction to Christianity was unprecedented. While different religious groups may have fallen out of favor and been repressed for a time, this did not continue and they were allowed to be present and practice again.  However, Hurtado notes that when it comes to Christianity, “the combination of popular abuse, cultured critique, and official repression across the better part of three centuries, locally at first and the empire-wide toward the end, has no parallel” (pg. 35).

Christians attracted a unique antipathy from pagans around them.  When the Roman writer Tacitus (around 112 A.D.) described how in 64 A.D. the emperor Nero blamed the Christians for the fire that destroyed much of Rome and killed many of them, Tacitus referred to Christians as “hated for their abominations” and described them as promoting “a deadly superstition” (pg. 21).  Christianity was classified by Romans not as a “religion” (something that was acceptable to society), but as a “superstition” which meant that it was unacceptable and even dangerous.

Around 110 A.D. Pliny, who was the imperial ruler in Bithynia and Pontus (Asia Minor, what is today Turkey) wrote to the Emperor Trajan about how he was handling people who were being denounced as Christians.  Pliny said that if they renounced Christianity making prayer to the gods and cursing Christ they were set free.  Non-Roman citizens who refused to do so were executed, while Roman citizens were sent to Rome for trial (pg. 22-23). What is notable is that Christians were considered worthy of death, simply because they were Christians.

Why did Christians attract this unprecedented response?  In order to understand a key reason, we must recognize that while we are able to separate religion from secular life, there was no such distinction in the ancient world.  Instead, the gods were part of every aspect of life.  This was true in the home, in social gatherings, in the city and in the empire.  The well being of life on all of these levels required reverence for the gods.

However, Christians refused to worship or take part in the rituals and worship of the gods. Paul reported about the Thessalonians: “you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).  As this statement indicates, not only did Christians stop worshipping the pagan gods, they declared that these gods were mere idols.  They weren’t real. Paul stated this shared understanding when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 8:4, “we know that ‘an idol has no real existence,’ and that ‘there is no God but one.’”

 

When a person converted to faith in Christ and began to live in this way, it caught the attention of others.  Hurtado observes:

These newly converted Gentile Christians would have seemed to fellow pagans, however, to be making an abrupt, arbitrary, bizarre, and unjustified shift in religious behavior. This total withdrawal from the worship of the many deities was a move without precedent, and it would have seemed inexplicable and deeply worrying to many of the general populace … It would have seemed to the general public a kind of religious and social apostasy, an antisocial stance (pg. 53-54).

Christians were willing to do this because they knew that Jesus Christ is the crucified and risen Lord.  Through him they had forgiveness and salvation.  Paul told the Romans, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).  They knew that God had defeated death through Jesus, and that our Lord will raise us from the dead on the Last Day.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ” (1Corinthians 15:20-23).

 

This is the same confidence that we have.  God’s Spirit has called us to faith through the Gospel – the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for us.  God “has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). We have received God’s love in Christ, and we know that nothing can separate us from that love.

 

Christians have faced the world’s disdain and hatred before.  God sustained the Church in the face of this.  He will do the same in our days as well. We know this because we have faith in Jesus Christ.  As Paul told the Romans at the end of chapter eight:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity - 1 Jn 4:16-21

 

Trinity 1

                                                                                      1 Jn 4:16-21

                                                                                      6/19/22

 

          It’s June, so it’s that month again.  Everywhere you look on social media you see rainbows and rainbow colors.  And it’s not just individuals who do this, but especially large corporations go out of their way to display it. Even the United States Marine Corps had an item on social media that that shows the tips of bullets in rainbow colors.

          Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great.  I am just a little puzzled about why the world gets so excited about it.  It’s not the kind of thing I would expect.  To be sure, I am thankful that God has attached his promise to the rainbow that he will never again destroy the world with a flood.  But why exactly does the world get so excited about this in June?

          Of course, unfortunately as we all know, the rainbow colors with which we are inundated during the month of June have nothing to do with God’s promise to Noah.  Instead, it is Pride Month, the month when the world declares that we should all celebrate an alphabet of sin: LGBTQ. At least, that’s what it used to be – well after the “T” and “Q” were added.  It was Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual. Then Transgender and Queer were added. But I think the “Q” can also be “questioning.” And after doing a search on the internet, I am now more confused because it can also be described as LGBTQIAPK: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgrender, Questioning or Queer, Asexual, Pansexual, and Kink. Stay tuned, I am sure more letters will be added.

          During Pride Month we hear a great deal about love and acceptance. The way our text from First John begins, it sounds like it is going to be a perfect fit for what is going on in the world this month. John says in the first verse, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  There you go, God is love.  But then the apostle goes on to say, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.”  “Day of judgment”? Well apparently, the love John has in mind probably doesn’t mean the same thing that the world does.

          Our text this morning drops us mid-stream into what John is saying.  Just before our text the apostle has already defined how God has loved us. He wrote: “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”  John declares that God revealed his love by sending his Son into the world.  Just before our text the apostle says, “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.”

          With these words, John gives us the apostolic witness to the incarnation – that the Son of God became flesh. He writes as an apostle because he was with Jesus Christ who is true God and true man.  John says in the first verses of the letter: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.”

          Just before our text, John has said, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  We learn that God’s love has been shown by his action to deal with our sin. John spoke about sin at the very beginning of the letter when he wrote, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

          John’s statement about sin, explains why in our text he is talking about having confidence for the day of judgment.  Unlike the world that celebrates Pride Month, John knows that God is the holy God before whom sinners cannot exist. There really is sin – thoughts, words, and deeds that violate God’s will and ordering for life.  And this sin is not just a matter of breaking some rules.  It is sin against God himself.  John knows that God judges sinners, and that he will do this with finality on the Day of Judgment on the Last Day.  He will damn sinners to the eternal condemnation of hell.

          John has told us at the beginning of this letter that we are sinners.  That knowledge doesn’t exactly come as a surprise to us. When we think about the Ten Commandments and compare them to our lives, it becomes very clear that we sin against God all the time.

          But John says that God’s love has been revealed as he sent his Son into the world. This love starts with God, because we were incapable of doing anything.  What God did was to send “his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”  The word “propitiation” means that Jesus Christ died on the cross as the sacrifice that made atonement for sin. God judged our sin in Christ, and in this way he gave us forgiveness and removed the sin that stood as a barrier between us and God.  He took away the sin would have brought God’s judgment.  John says in the first the chapter that “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

          The Lord Jesus died on Good Friday as the sacrifice for our sins.  Yet the love of God did not simply result in death.  Instead, on Easter God raised Jesus from the dead. Christ has defeated death by his resurrection, and he will give us a share in his resurrection when he returns on the Last Day.  Jesus said, “For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

          This is why John says in our text, “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.” God’s love for us reaches its goal when we know that we are the forgiven children of God.  We have confidence for the day of judgment. It is not something we fear.  Instead, we long for it because as the forgiven children of God we know that it will be the vindication for God’s people and the beginning of life that is very good once again.

          But as John states repeatedly in this letter, that’s not the end of it – not by a long shot.  Instead, John says at the end of our text, “We love, because he first loved us.”  The starting point for love is God.  He loved us when we were unlovable – when we were sinners.  He has shown us this love through death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. And now, because God has loved us in this way, his love causes us to love others.

          John reminds us that we have received the Holy Spirit.  Just before our text he has written, “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” You received the Spirit when you born again of water and the Spirit in Holy Baptism.  God’s action in giving us rebirth is the source that prompts us to respond to God’s love.  Near the beginning of this chapter John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

          In our text, we learn that the love we share is a very concrete and objective thing.  It is love that is directed towards our neighbor.  John says at the end of our text: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

          The love we have received from God in Christ prompts us to love the brother or sister whom we know in our life. First and foremost this describes the love we have for one another as Christians.  The apostle says immediately after our text, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.”  You believe in Jesus Christ because you have been born of God, and so as you love God, you love others who have also been born of God – you love other Christians.

          United by God’s love for us in Christ and living as those who have been born of God, we love one another.  John tells us clearly that this love is one of action.  Earlier he has said:  By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

          God’s love calls us to love one another in deed and in truth.  This begins at your home.  Husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughter, brothers and sisters are all called to live in love toward one another.  We are called by God’s love in Christ to help, support, and encourage one another in every way that we can. Just as God has forgiven us in Christ, so also we forgive one another. The forgiveness we have received through Christ is the greatest form of love God has given to us, and so it is the one most needed as we – who are sinners – live with each other.

          And at the same time God’s love in Christ is intended for the whole world.  Jesus died on the cross for the sins of every person. Therefore, our sharing of God’s love does not end with those who are part of the Church.  It extends out to every neighbor.  It does so as we tell others about Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for them.  It does so as we help our neighbor in any way that we can, for are called to share love in deed and in truth.

          John begins our text this morning by saying, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.”  God loved us by sending his Son into the world to suffer and die on the cross as the sacrifice that takes away our sin.  He raised Jesus from the dead on the third day in order to give us eternal life and resurrection on the Last Day. Because of this not only do we have confidence for the day of judgement, but we pray, “Come Lord Jesus!” And in our lives, we who have received God’s love in Christ share that love with those around us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            

 

         

 

                 

 

Commemoration of Elisha

 

Today we remember and give thanks or the prophet Elisha. Elisha, son of Shaphat of the tribe of Issachar, was the prophet of God to the northern kingdom of Israel ca. 849-786 B.C. Upon seeing his mentor Elijah taken up into heaven, Elisha assumed the prophetic office and took up the mantle of his predecessor. Like Elijah, Elisha played an active role in political affairs. He also performed many miracles, such as curing the Syrian army commander Naaman of his leprosy (2 Kings 5:1-27) and restoring life to the son of a Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:8-37). A vocal opponent of Baal worship, Elisha lived up to his name, which means "my God is salvation." 

Collect of the Day:

Lord God, heavenly Father, through the prophet Elisha, You continued the prophetic pattern of teaching Your people the true faith and demonstrating through miracles Your presence in creation to heal it of its brokenness.  Grant that Your Church may see in Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the final end-times prophet whose teaching and miracles continue in Your Church through the healing medicine of the Gospel and the Sacraments; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

(Treasury of Daily Prayer, 431)

Sermon for the Feast of Holy Trinity - Jn 3:1-15

 

Holy Trinity

                                                                                      Jn 3:1-15

                                                                                      6/12/22

 

          When the weather forecast in the winter says that Marion is going to be hit with a heavy snow fall, what is your response? After almost sixteen years of living here, my assumption now it that it is not going to happen. Either it will swing south of us and dump snow in Kentucky, or it will swing north of us and the snow fall will be further up in Illinois.  I have seen it happen too many times to trust that the weather forecast is correct.

          Now perhaps my perspective has been influenced by the “snowmageddon debacle” that I experienced here at Good Shepherd a number of years back.  As some of you will recall, the weather service was certain that Marion was going to get hammered with snow.  The city of Marion was convinced it was going to happen due to the official emergency weather reports it received, and had its employees on alert and ready to go.

          The heavy snow was expected to begin arriving around 5:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.  There was going to be no way to cancel church in time to let people know. So we made the decision to announce on Saturday evening that services would be cancelled for the next day.  We wanted people to stay safe. I woke up the next morning to find that there was barely a dusting of snow on the ground. The storm had completely missed us. And then I had to hear about how some of our members had to go over to Carbondale in order to attend church that morning.

          In spite all of their technology and science, weather services struggle to predict where storms are going to go and what they are going to do.  They prove mysterious and unpredictable, and we get used to living with that fact.

          In the Gospel lesson this morning for the Feast of Holy Trinity we are reminded that the way God works is mysterious. As we reflect further, we find that if this is true, how much more it is true about the nature of God himself. However, the very fact that know about this mystery reveals how God has acted in amazing way to save us.

          Our text begins by telling us that Jesus received an interesting visitor. We learn, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’”

          Nicodemus was not just a Pharisee, but a prominent man among his people. He came to see Jesus – and he did so at an unusual time. He came at night.  In his statement we learn why.  Nicodemus had not come to attack Jesus or fight with him.  Instead, he was genuinely interested in who Jesus was. He thought Jesus’ miracles – his signs – showed that he was a teacher sent from God. And that was a fact he did not want to be known publicly.

          Our Lord responded, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus was completely confused as he considered how this was physically impossible. So Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” He pointed Nicodemus in a different direction – one that dealt rebirth through the work of the Spirit.

          Next Jesus stated why this was necessary.  He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The flesh – fallen humanity – can only give birth to more of the same.  The Spirit alone can bring about rebirth. Then Jesus added, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

            Nicodemus was completely lost, He said to Jesus, 

“How can these things be?”  Nicodemus wasn’t able to understand Jesus at this point.  But Jesus pointed him in the direction that ultimately would provide understanding when he said, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

            Jesus had spoken about the mysterious work of the Spirit. Next, he had spoken about how he would be lifted up. Then in the two verses after our text we hear, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

          In these verses we hear about the Spirit, and about God who sends the Son.  On two different occasions in the Gospel Jesus refers to how the Father sent him. During the recent Gospel readings we have heard about how the Father will send the Holy the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ name, and about how Jesus will send the Spirit from the Father.

          Father, Son and Holy Spirit - they are all over John’s Gospel.  Based on what God had revealed about himself in the Old Testament, this is puzzling.  In Deuteronomy, Moses told the people, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Again and again the Old Testament repeats the truth that there is only one God – Yahweh, the Creator of heaven and earth. Every other so called god is a false god – a nothing.

          Along the way, there are hints that there is more to the story.  God says, “let us make man in our image.”  The book of Proverbs speaks about wisdom in a way that seems like more than just personification. We hear about the Spirit of Yahweh. But that is all we can say.

          Only through the incarnation of the Son of God does God reveal more about himself.  John begins the Gospel by saying: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”  We hear about God and the Word. They are distinct. And yet the Word is God – he was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him.

          Then John tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The Word is the Son of God.  As we learn in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the incarnation of the Son of God occurred as he was conceived by the work of the Holy Spirit.

          It is through the incarnation of the Son of God, that God fully reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Nothing has changed since the Old Testament.  There is still only one God. But we learn that this one God is three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is the Holy Trinity – three in One. Each person of the Trinity is God. The Father is God. The Son is God. The Spirit is God. And yet there is only one God.

          How this is so is a mystery that we can only receive in faith. God is God, and you are not.  You and I are his creatures and we are not capable of wrapping our little minds around the almighty God. We can understand the content that God has revealed about himself, but not how it works.

          What we need to remember is why we know this in the first place.  Jesus says in our text, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

          We know about the Holy Trinity because God acted in his love to save us.  Just after our text the Gospel goes on to say, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

          We needed this salvation because we are like all other people – we are sinful.  The flesh gave birth to flesh.  Sinful parents produce sinful children. It has been that way since Adam and Eve disobeyed God. And we see this in our lives as we put God second, and our interests first. We see it in the way we treat other people.

          Yet we know about the triune nature of God because the Father did send forth the Son as he was incarnate through the work of the Spirit.  Jesus Christ was lifted up on the cross in death as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world – who takes away your sin. But then God raised him from the dead on the third day.

          The risen Lord has ascended and been exalted to the right hand of God.  But as he had promised, he has sent forth the Spirit.  Through the work of the Spirit, you have been born again.  You have been born from above.  It happened in Holy Baptism as you are born again of water and the Spirit.  It happened because God has called you to faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.” This is what God has done for you. This is what Jesus Christ will do for you when he returns in glory on the Last Day.

          On this Feast of the Holy Trinity we ponder the mystery of our triune God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  God has revealed this about himself, and so we believe it even though we can’t explain it.  Yet our reflection on the Trinity has only been made possible because God has acted in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ, to give us forgiveness and salvation.  Our very knowledge of the Trinity has bears witness to God’s amazing love for us.

         

 

         

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

 

 

         

 

Sermon for the Feast of Pentecost - Acts 2:1-21

 

Pentecost

                                                                                      Acts 2:1-21

                                                                                      6/5/22

 

          Americans are often criticized for not learning foreign languages.  To be sure, Spanish, French and German are taught in many high schools, and people study foreign languages in college.  But when compared to people from Europe, our population as a whole has far fewer individuals who can converse using languages other than the one in which they were raised.

          Now certainly, it would be a good thing if more of us knew how to speak in other languages.  But I am always struck by how this criticism fails to take into account the situation that exists here.  The United States is a very large country.  There are over a dozen states in this nation that I have never even been to during my life.  It’s not like Europe where travel can quickly take you from one nation to another where a different language is used. Instead, I can drive farther than I ever want to drive and never need any other language than English. To be sure, there is a growing presence of Spanish in some areas.  But that doesn’t change the fact for the majority of Americans, English is the only language they are ever going to need and with which they are going to interact on a regular basis.

          Today we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost was an event that featured the use of many foreign languages.  It was an occasion when the disciples of Jesus Christ spoke in foreign languages they had never studied and did not know. These foreign languages were made possible by the Holy Spirit whom the risen, ascended, and exalted Lord Jesus had poured out upon his church. As he promised, Christ has given the Spirit to the church, and the Spirit continues to be at work in our midst today.

          During his ministry John the Baptist had said, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”  John prepared the way for the coming One.  This One would give the Holy Spirit.  John also said that he was the One who would bring God’s end time judgment.  John declared about him: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

          John was exactly right about Jesus Christ. But what he didn’t understand was that the Christ would suffer and die, and then be exalted in his ascension.  He would be the coming One not once, but twice.

          Jesus suffered and died on the cross on Good Friday.  He was buried in a tomb.  But then, on Easter, he rose from the dead just as he said he would.  The Book of Acts tells us, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” There could be no doubt about Jesus’ resurrection as the disciples were taught by him, and ate and drank with him.

            Act then tells us, “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."  Jesus said that they would receive the Holy Spirit – the promise of the Father.

          Forty days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven.  He withdrew his visible presence, and the disciples remained in Jerusalem awaiting what the Lord had promised. They waited for ten days. You have to wonder what that was like for them. The most incredible thing in the world had happened.  Jesus Christ had risen from the dead after winning forgiveness on the cross.  He had fulfilled the Old Testament. They knew this yet now they were waiting because the Lord had told them, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

          The disciples had to wait for ten days.  Then on Pentecost, God acted in a dramatic way.  We hear in our text, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

          A sound like a mighty rushing wind and the appearance of what looked like tongues of fire on the disciples announced that God was acting.  Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in languages as the Spirit gave them ability.

          Faithful Jews from many different areas had chosen to come and live in Jerusalem.  The sound coming from the disciple’s location attracted attention and drew them to that place. What they found was astonishing because they heard the disciples telling the mighty works of God in their own languages. They recognized that these were not cultured and well traveled men.  Instead they were from Galilee – men you never would expect to know these languages.

            The crowd was amazed and asked “What does this mean?” But others mocked them saying that they were filled with new wine – that they were drunk. Peter stood up and declared that it was absurd to say they were drunk – it was too early in the day.  Instead, what they were experiencing the fulfillment of God’s promise. He said, “But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;

even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.’”

          Peter announced that Pentecost was the outpouring of the Spirit that was part of the last days. And this fact led him to proclaim Jesus Christ and what he had done. He said: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know--this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

          Peter told the crowd “you crucified and killed” Jesus. Now they shared in corporate responsibility for the action of their leaders, and certainly some of them may have cheered for the death of Jesus.  But ultimately, we cannot escape these words either.  It was because of us that God delivered Jesus up to death.  It was because of our sin that God sent the incarnate Son of God to be the sacrifice on the cross to win forgiveness.

          In death, Jesus received the cup of God’s wrath against our sin.  However, Jesus had not remained dead.  Instead Peter declared, “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”  Jesus had been the fulfillment of David’s prophecy in Psalm 16: “For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.”

          Then Peter arrived at the central truth of what was happening.  He said, “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”  The risen Lord, ascended and exalted to the right hand of God, had poured forth the Holy Spirit.

          Jesus Christ has ascended and been exalted. But this doesn’t mean that he has left us. It doen’t mean that his power is no longer present among us.  Instead, the Holy Spirit is the means by which he continues his work.  Jesus had promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

          You have received the Spirit in the same way that the crowd did on Pentecost. We learn that the hearers were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “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.”

          Through baptism you have received the Holy Spirit. Through the work of the Spirit God has called you to himself. He has called you to faith in the crucified and risen Lord.  You have received the forgiveness of sins, and that forgiveness continues to be true for you as you confess your sin, repent and return in faith to God’s promise about baptism.

          In the last verse of our text, Peter completes his quotation of Joel with the words: “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  In its original Old Testament setting, “Lord” referred to Yahweh, the God of Isael.  But now, Yawheh the Creator of heaven and earth has revealed himself as the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  He has done this through the incarnation of the Son of God, as Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. 

Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One is Lord.  God has called to you to faith in him through the work of the Spirit. And as you continue to call upon the name of the Lord – as you continue to believe in Jesus – you have the assurance of salvation.  You know that your sins are forgiven.  You know that to die is to be with Christ.  You know that the ascended Lord will return in glory on the Last Day to raise up your body.

The Book of Acts describes how the Spirit caused the church to proclaim the Gospel – to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen from the dead - in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.  You believe because the Spirit caused the Gospel to come all the way to you.

But your reception of the Spirit and of this salvation does not end with you. The Spirit’s power that called you to faith now moves you to speak about Jesus Christ to others.  You have a simple message to share: Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of all and then rose from the dead.  The rest of the work is up to the Spirit who calls people to faith when and where he pleases.  You are simply called to be witnesses to Jesus Christ – to pass on the witness about the crucified and risen Lord by which the Spirit has called you to faith and sustains you in that faith.

Jesus Christ died on the cross to win forgiveness for you.  God raised him from the dead on Easter in order to defeat death.  In his ascension he was exalted to the right hand of God.  On Pentecost the exalted Lord Jesus poured forth the Holy Spirit upon his church.  He did this so that we can call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.  He did this so that we can share the crucified and risen Lord Jesus with others.

 

 

 

Commemoration of Justin, Martyr

 

Today we remember and give thanks for Justin, Martyr.  Born at the beginning of the second century, Justin was raised in a pagan family. He was student of philosophy who converted to the Christian faith and became a teacher in Ephesus and Rome. After refusing to make pagan sacrifices, he was arrested, tried and executed, along with six other believers. The official Roman court proceedings of his trial before Rusticius, a Roman prelate, document his confession of faith. The account of his martyrdom became a source of great encouragement to the early Christian community. Much of what we know of early liturgical practice comes from Justin.

Collect of the Day:

Almighty and everlasting God, you found your martyr Justin wandering from teacher to teacher, searching for the true God.  Grant that all who seek for a deeper knowledge of the sublime wisdom of your eternal Word may be found by you, who sent your Son to seek and to save the lost; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

(Treasury of Daily Prayer, 1301)