Sermon on Acts 2:36-47

Sermon on Acts 2:36-47

Pastor David Wietzke

3rd Sunday of Easter (A)

April 30, 2017

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter replied, “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. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. (Acts 2:36-47)

3000 converts the first day. The Christian Church got off to a fast start on that day Peter preached in our first lesson, the day of Pentecost. And really it has been growing ever since.

I shared some of the verses of our first lesson with our church council recently, and I mentioned that in the 'photo album' of Christian history this is the very first picture. This is the very first gathering of Christians there ever was, the church in Jerusalem in the weeks just after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. And what a beautiful picture it is! The church is growing, it has great fellowship and unity, displays of power and displays of love. Every church since then has tried to get back to that perfect-looking picture of what a church should really be.

It's easy to see places where we fall short of this. But let's not deny the wonderful reality that in many ways what happened on Pentecost and afterward is still going on. Because after all this is the church of Jesus who is still risen from the dead, the church that he rules over with the same Holy Spirit that was given from the very beginning.

The power of the risen Jesus is displayed in his church!

1. The power comes through the Word and baptism

2. This power shows itself in the lives of God's people

I. The power comes through the Word and baptism

Filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter had preached a powerful sermon that day. We heard some of his words last week. Today we just get the final verse of his message: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Jesus' resurrection proved that he was the promised Messiah. But in Peter's sermon, that sentence was a message of terrible warning. He was condemning the people for murdering the chosen servant of God, the Messiah! They had made the Lord of heaven and earth their enemy and conspired against him! The miracles of Pentecost and the words of Peter convinced his hearers that he was telling them the truth.

Terrified, "cut to the heart" as the reading states, the people asked, "Brothers, what should we do?" Now at last Peter had the chance to share the good news that Jesus had come to win. “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. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

This is how Jesus builds his church: with a powerful Word, a powerful call to repentance that cuts to the heart and with an invitation to receive his grace and forgiveness. And still today people hear that call, and have been cut to the heart, repent, and believe. You and I have felt the sting of guilt when God's law convicted you of your individual sins forwhich you had no excuse. And you have felt the joy of God's incredible message that those sins of yours can be, and are, truly forgiven by God, because of Jesus' death, through repentance, faith and baptism.

We should take special note of what Peter says about baptism here. He tells us three important things about that sacrament, all of which, sadly, have been attacked and denied by false teachers and too many churches.

·  First, he says that baptism is "for the forgiveness of sins." It's not just a symbolic washing, but a powerful sacrament that really and truly delivers God's grace and forgiveness to people!

·  Second, he says that those who were baptized would "receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Again, this is denied by so many churches today who separate the Spirit from baptism. Some churches even talk about a 'water baptism' and a 'Spirit baptism' as if they were two separate things. Peter says that the one baptism Jesus gave us delivers his Holy Spirit to us!

·  And finally, he says that baptism is for all ages. "Every one of you," he said; "the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off." Jesus had said that baptism was for "all nations." Peter agrees and states that everyone, specifically children, can and should be baptized! Again, the Lutheran practice of infant baptism, which so many churches tragically refuse to offer, is exactly in line with what the Bible says.

For awhile now our society has promoted tolerance above all things, as perhaps the most important virtue that there is. (That may be starting to change as people are now seemingly less tolerant of any view they don't agree with!) There's certainly a sense in which Jesus calls us to be tolerant--after all, he tells us to show love toward everyone. But you'll notice that Peter did not preach a sermon of tolerance on Pentecost day. He did not say, "Don't worry, God loves you just the way you are." No, we're told, "With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” The powerful message of the early church was not that God would tolerate their sins, but rather that his terrible judgment was coming--and yet that there was relief, escape and forgiveness for those sins through the risen Lord Jesus, that all might repent, be baptized and believe.

II. The power of Jesus is still on display in the life of his church

I think every pastor and missionary would wish that we had the results to show that Peter did for that great sermon--3000 baptisms on the spot. Or to be able to do the things that those early leaders did, "Many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles." But make no mistake about it, the power of the risen Jesus is still very much at work in his church today just as it was there in Jerusalem long ago.

The early church in Jerusalem showed that the power of Jesus was at work in their hearts, not merely through miraculous signs. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer... All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Unity. Generosity. Caring for those among them who were in physical need. Fellowship and gathering to eat together. And most importantly, regularly gathering to hear and learn the Word of God. This was how the Spirit of Jesus was powerfully at work in those early Christians--just as he is among us.

Each week God's people gather for here worship and Bible study. In the season of Lent we gathered eight times in six weeks for food and fellowship. People prayed for those who were hurting. Two infants were brought here to God's house to be baptized. Joyful praises were sung from the heart by all ages on Easter morning. The same things that went on in the church long ago still occur today among us.

There's more. Last week a couple of men came up to the altar and I handed them three metal bowls. Two minutes later they came back up. And in those two minutes God's people gave more than $4,600 for the Lord's work. An astonishing thing! How many causes or charities do you think would be happy with that kind of response. And this happens not just rarely but every single week, with similar results. What power is at work to move 90 people to give so generously? It certainly isn't the witty story telling ability of the pastor that produces that kind of power. It's the power of Jesus at work in his Word. It's the conviction that you have, every bit as real as those early Christians long ago, that not only is that message true, but that you want to do what you can to help those with spiritual needs to hear the message of salvation.

Now I don't tell you all this to give you a big head. To be sure, we don't always fit this beautiful picture of the early church. There are quarrels and greed, there is apathy and a lack of urgency toward spiritual things, not to speak of all the private sins of our own lives that cry out for the need to repent. We are far from perfect. If God's law cut to the heart those people in Jerusalem, how much more should it cut us to the heart who have continued to sin even after we heard this tremendous message about Jesus!

But don't ever feel like the power of the Word and of baptism has gone away. Jesus lives, and so does the Holy Spirit that he sends. And the message of Jesus' church is just as strong to save as it was on Pentecost Day. And the Christian joy, love, and fellowship that we have here with one another is just as vital and beautiful a thing as it was in the book of Acts long ago.

Conclusion

Jesus lives. And because he lives, his church lives. The world has changed a great deal since Jesus spoke to those two men on the road, since Peter preached to that crowd; but it's still the world people who sin and grapple with guilt, still people who are lost without God, people who need to hear the Gospel. And the same powerful truths preached by Peter and still true and they are still powerful. May his power be on display in us--in the truths we proclaim and in the lives of love we live toward one another! Amen.