Sunday 7th November, 2010 - Judge for Yourselves - Acts 4:13-22

(Sorry for the lack of sermons. The new construction is affecting my routine. I'll try to post the older sermons later in the year.)

Today's post is the sermon I was going to preach this morning, but had to give cliff notes due to heater being broken...:)

13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. 

Last week, we left Peter in the company of Christ’s religious enemies, boldly declaring (through the presence of the Holy Spirit) that Jesus was the only way to salvation. I challenged all of us to carefully consider what was being said by Peter and to apply that challenge to our own thoughts about Christ.

Today, we get to read the response that Peter received from the Sanhedrin Council, which you could call Jerusalem’s Grand Jury. It was uniquely made up of both members of the religious moralistic right – the Pharisees – and of the progressive academic left – the Sadducees. Both of these opposing groups had come together to face a new foe – the Christians – a radical grass roots movement that was beginning to upset the status quo.

Both sides in the Sanhedrin  were shocked by the simple courage that both Peter and John displayed. These were uncultured and uneducated, unsophisticated and ignorant men. Luke even uses the Greek words ‘agrammatos’ and ‘idee-o-tace’ to describe them, which can be interpreted to mean ‘illiterate idiots’, or as the Scots and some Southerners would say, “Peter and John were a right pair of eejits.”

The Sanhedrin didn’t know what to make of them. On the one hand, they were two coarse and common fishermen from the boonies of Galilee, who were just a comical novelty to the sophisticates of Jerusalem. But on the other hand, a miracle had taken place in which a well-known crippled beggar had been completely healed in the name of a religious rabble-rouser whom they had sent to be crucified by the Romans.

18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 

Peter and John were annoying to the temple priests; they were offensive to the self-righteous lawmakers; and they were a potential threat to the recent peace that Jerusalem had experienced after Jesus was killed. The Sanhedrin had to do something quickly and effectively, so they opted for the usual punishment that all reactionary authorities use against radical movements: they threatened Peter and John and censored them from speaking or teaching at all in the name of Jesus.

You know on this day (Nov 7) in 1793, the illustrious leaders of the French Revolution abolished Christianity in their land. They wanted to do away with Christ and set up their own religion where Human Reason, Intellect, and Enlightenment were glorified and worshipped. They tried to replace God entirely by putting their own achievements on pedestals and deifying their own deeds. They even had 2000 churches destroyed and Christian leaders either executed or exiled. But within a decade, their revolution was dead and within a generation, the church was re-established across France.

It seems to be that when Christ and His followers are ridiculed, oppressed, silenced, and censored, then an amazing thing happens: the Church goes underground and begins to grow at an amazing rate. This is what is happening to Christ’s church in China – so many millions of people are becoming Christians annually that within 25 years Communism in China will go the way of that in Europe – it will fail and it will fall – and up from the ruins of a misguided 20^th century idealism, the Christian church will emerge triumphant.

The Sanhedrin thought that they had solved their problem by censoring Peter and John. Little did they know, however, that their troubles had just begun.

19 But Peter and John replied, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God.

In another Holy Spirit filled statement, Peter pushes back against the pressure and conditions that the Sanhedrin was imposing upon the two fishermen. He boldly and defensively, but not defiantly, informs them to judge for themselves what is right or wrong in the eyes of God about their situation. As for Peter and John, they simply insist that they cannot help speaking about what they have seen and heard. In other words, they know the truth about the miracle and no amount of priestly oppression or clerical censorship will dissuade them from preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Every generations of Christian believers since then has had to deal with the same issue. It comes to us in different forms, at different times, through different cultures, and in different circumstances, but the challenge is always the same: will Christianity cave in to societal pressure and seek cultural acceptance, or will it boldly declare the Gospel Truth, even although it may be unpopular?

My friends, the courage of Christianity is found in the faithful lives of ordinary believers who do not give in to peer-pressure, but instead they display divine power in their dedication to Christ. They simply know what is honestly right in a world gone horribly wrong.

Peter and John, by the powerful in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, knew that simple truth on the day they faced the Sanhedrin. On the other hand, the religious leaders had surrendered their hold on God’s truth, in order to appear to be politically correct to the Roman authorities. In their efforts to maintain the status quo and to appease their rulers, they relinquished their divine right to spiritually lead the nation. Peter and John had spoken the truth; they had performed the miracle in Jesus’ Name: they could not deny this, nor could the Sanhedrin…and what was the outcome of their faithfulness to Christ?

V20 All the people were praising God for what had happened! Amen.

Sunday 19 September - Acts 2:29-41 A Good Day's Work

It just seems like yesterday, but I can remember when the Disney movie, “Mary Poppins” was first released in Scotland. I was seven years old at the time and everybody I knew wanted to see Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke sing and dance and laugh on the big screen. Sadly, I also knew that I wouldn’t get to see it because my Dad was unemployed at the time. In fact, it would be three years later, when my Mom worked as an usherette at a downtown cinema, that I would get to see it for the first time.

The movie was released in Scotland during Easter. To coincide with this, my local Glasgow newspaper had a young actress dress up as Mary Poppins and she went throughout the city subdivisions distributing chocolate Easter eggs. The newspaper even printed where she would be and so on Easter Sunday in 1964, I got up early and quietly left my home to walk about a mile to where Mary Poppins was meant to be. I waited and waited and waited. But Mary Poppins did not come and eventually I went home empty handed and completely dejected. I found out later that Mary Poppins had given away all of her Easter eggs in other subdivisions, so there was no point in coming to where I was. It’s funny, but even today 45 years later when I see parts of the movie on TV, I still remember my disappointment.

The Jewish people had waited for hundreds of years for the Promised Messiah to come into their land and rid them of their enemies. The Christ, the Anointed One, chosen and sent by God, would restore their dignity, their status, and their place at the top of the world as God’s Holy and sacred people. The messiah would solve all of their problems and making them feared and respected by all the nations around them. They waited and waited and waited.

And then their Messiah came, but instead of following Him, they fought with Him. Instead of rejoicing, they rallied against Him. Instead of crowding around Him, they crucified their Messiah. They had missed the moment; they had misunderstood; they had made a major mistake.

When Peter preached to them on the day of Pentecost, he didn’t beat around the bush or mince his words. “This Jesus, whom you crucified, has been made Lord and Christ by God.”

The people in Jerusalem were horrified by what Peter said. They knew that Jesus had been a great teacher, a miracle worker, and a prophet. But now they were being told that the Holy One, whom they had been waiting for across the centuries and generations, had actually been this person Jesus whom they had sent to His death. They had destroyed the One who was meant to deliver them from their enemies. They had falsely accused and executed the Messiah who was meant to embrace and free them.

The terrifying thought that must have crossed their minds was this: if we killed the Holy One who was sent by God, God will be mad at us and will probably destroy our nation. He will give us into the hands of our enemies and everything that we have striven for over the past five hundred years will be gone. (In fact, this actually did happen about 43 years later when the Romans completely Jerusalem and Herod’s Temple). So they asked Peter what they could do to avoid God’s displeasure and wrath.  To which 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.”

That message was not what they wanted to hear. They wanted to be told how many sacrifices at the temple could be made to make them clean. They wanted to be able to repeat many of the psalms in order to be absolved. They wanted to know what religious rituals and temple rites they had to perform to appease God’s wrath and make things better.

Instead, Peter tells them to change their ways and turn their lives around completely. He insists that they ask Jesus, not God or a priest, for forgiveness. And to cap it all, Peter uncompromisingly informs them that they all need to be baptized – in other words to humble themselves and make a public act of contrition, that would identify them with Jesus, in front of the priests who arrested Christ and the Roman authorities who executed Him.

Do you fully understand what Peter is asking them to do? It would be the spiritual equivalent of burning the US flag and giving up our American citizenship in order to say “Sorry” to the rest of the world for our actions. The Jews in Jerusalem believed that they were exempt from this kind of act of repentance and contrition because they made special sacrifices, gave of their tithes, kept religious festivals, read the scriptures, and said their daily prayers. But those traditional rituals were just outward customary practices that showed they were devoted to their religion, but not their Redeemer.

I think that you know where this sermon is headed. We are no different from the people in Jerusalem. Peter is preaching to us just as much as he was preaching to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost. If those Jewish people way back then, who were so meticulous about their old time religion and keeping the faith, had to repent and change their lives completely, are we deluding ourselves today in thinking that we are exempt from repentance just because we come to church, say our prayers, sing our songs, and give our offerings?

When the great Reformer John Calvin, the Father of Presbyterianism, was writing about this passage, he urged his readers to make repentance and to seek Christ’s forgiveness each and every day. If church people were willing to do this, Calvin believed that they would become totally addicted to God and not to religious rites or superstitious beliefs.

Finally, we are told from this passage that Peter continually preached to the people for a long time. Luke writes in verse 40: “With many other words he warned them, and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

He could have been preaching to our world, our society, and even to our Western church today. We have so corrupted our beliefs, justified our mistakes, and so brazenly exhibited our sins that we are all in need of being saved from our generation. We are so far from Christ’s Truth that we have lost His Way and are in danger of losing His life. We crucify Christ through our careless ways; we nail Him to the Cross with our neglect of faith; we execute Jesus by embracing the world’s ways instead of Christ’s.

If we truly want our sins to be forgiven, we need to truly repent and change our ways. Half measures and half hearted attempts won’t cut it. It’s all or nothing with God. Almost persuaded, almost repentant, almost turned around won’t do it. Good enough is not good enough; that’ll do just won’t do at all.

In the end, three thousand people accepted what Peter had to say and acted upon his message. In one day, the local congregation in Jerusalem went from 120 souls to over 3000 members and became the first mega-church in history. It was a good day’s work for the Lord.

The question we need to ask ourselves today is this: are we ready to add ourselves to that number? Are we willing to accept Peter’s straightforward and uncompromising message? Will we make repentance and seek Christ’s forgiveness on this day, at this hour, in this holy moment?

Prayer.

Sunday September 12 - Acts 2:22-28 - Death Destroyed

22 "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know.

Years ago, I had a friend in Glasgow, Scotland, who lived his life for the gospel and Christ’s Church. Every day he was doing something connected to the work of Jesus, whether it was preaching or teaching, leading youth to Christ, or praying and praising God. In fact, one of my other friends once truly remarked: “If Robert didn’t have Jesus and the Church in his life, he would have nothing left.”

That’s almost like saying “If Knoxville didn’t have a university, it would be nothing,” or “If America had not cherished life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, it would never have become independent.”

With regard to today’s passage, Peter’s first message could also be characterized in a similar way: 

(i)      That without the miracles of God in his life, the gospels of Christ would never have been written       

(ii) that without the Crucifixion and Christ’s Death on the Cross our sins could never be forgiven      and

(iii) that without the Resurrection of Christ, we could never hope for everlasting life.

With no miracles in His life, Jesus just becomes a Galilean itinerant preacher.

Without the Cross, Jesus would have lived to an old age and died in obscurity.

Without the Resurrection, Christ’s bones would have turned to dust long ago, leaving no mark upon the history of the world.

So without the miracles, without the Cross, and without the Resurrection, there would be no Gospels, no churches, and no faith called Christianity.

When Peter preaches about the miracles, wonders, and signs that Christ accomplished, Luke uses three important Greek words to describe them;

Dunamis = powerful works revealing the supernatural character of God …dynamic

Teras = deeds that inspire amazement, marvel, and awe…terror, terrifying

Semeion= signs that point to the spiritual truth about God and Christ…sermon

23 This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.

So, as Peter preaches his message, he emphasizes the miracles of Christ first and foremost in order to connect with his listeners because for the past three years the people of Jerusalem have all been hearing and talking about this miracle worker from the North, Jesus of Nazareth.

The Big Fisherman then talks about the Cross of Christ and His manner of death. He doesn’t mince his words, so he puts the blame for Jesus’ execution into their hands, as well as the Roman authorities. This is either a very brave or an entirely foolish thing to do. Peter is identifying himself with Jesus, who was politically executed by the Roman militia. He could have been arrested on the spot for insurrection, open defiance, and inciting the crowds. Peter was also associating himself with a detested, defeated, and dead religious fanatic. The crowd could have turned upon him at any moment and stoned him to death.

But Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit and he speaks with undeniable authority. Perhaps some of the gathered crowd had also been part of the mob that shouted for Christ to be crucified. Most of them, perhaps, had not raised their voices against Jesus, but when He walked through the streets of Jerusalem painfully carrying His Cross, they indifferent and uncaring. As John Calvin stated centuries ago,

“All of them had defiled themselves either with their silence, or else through their carelessness.”

Because Jesus died on the Cross, many Jews did not believe that He was the Messiah, the anointed King from God. This is why Peter preaches to them that Christ’s Death on the Cross was pre-ordained, pre-determined, and pre-destined by God. The Messiah had to suffer death in order to sacrifice Himself for the sins of the people. Jesus had to die to save them all from God’s wrath. Remember, without the miracles, there is no Gospel. Without the Cross, there is no salvation.

And this brings me to a very important teaching moment. Moslems refuse to accept that Jesus died on the Cross. Instead, they falsely believe that God whisked Christ away into heaven and that either Judas Iscariot or Simon of Cyrene took His place. They deny that Jesus died at Calvary and, in so doing, they deny His capacity to sacrifice Himself for our sins. That is why we as Christians should not and cannot worship with Muslims. Without Christ’s sacrificial death, there is no salvation.

24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 

Without the miracles, there is no Gospel.

Without the Cross, there is no salvation.

Without the Resurrection, there is no hope of eternal life.

The third main point that Peter makes to the gathered crowd is that Jesus rose from the dead. “Death could not keep its hold on Him,” said Peter. To some of his listeners, this would have been absurd. Even today, more than 2/3rds of the world’s population cannot accept that Jesus rose from the grave. As one commentator once wrote:

“No religion stands or falls with a claim about the resurrection of its founder in the way that Christianity does.”

Or as John MacArthur, one of America’s best living preachers said, “The resurrection is the crowning proof that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Without it, His death becomes the heroic death of a noble martyr, the pathetic death of a madman, or the execution of a fraud.”

Peter’s own people could not accept that Jesus was their Messiah because He died. The Messiah was meant to rescue the Jewish nation from their enemies and re-establish their exalted place as the premier people on earth, the holy Chosen Ones of God. What they didn’t realize was that their greatest enemy was not the Romans or the Greeks, Herod or Caesar. Their greatest and most fearful foe was death which meant eternal separation from God. The death rate then, as it is now, and as it shall be until Christ returns, is one hundred percent. Everyone who ever lived in the past is dead. Everyone who lives today will almost certainly die. And everyone who has still to come into the world will also experience death, unless Christ comes back in our and their lifetime.

The Messiah delivers His people eternally by destroying the power of death. He liberates them to everlasting life through His supreme sacrifice. The greatest miracle, the greatest wonder, the greatest sign of God’s love is this – the Resurrection of Jesus.

So, to once again sum up Peter’s sermon: Without the miracles, there is no Gospel.   Without the Cross, there is no salvation.        And without the Resurrection, there is no hope of eternal life.

Hallelujah! In Christ alone, we have all three…J

Sunday September 5 - Acts 2:14-21 - The Sermonator

One of the most remarkable things about the Book of Acts is the complete transition that the original disciples go through. Fifty days prior to the Day of Pentecost, they were a bunch of bewildered believers whose leader had been executed. They hid for their very lives and hoped to get out of Jerusalem safely. They were the biggest bunch of losers on the planet. All that they probably wished for was to get back home and put all of this “Jesus the Christ” stuff out of their lives forever.

And then the First Easter occurred which changed them completely, to be quickly followed by this amazing Day of Pentecost. These losers are now the biggest winners on the planet because they have hit the spiritual jackpot. They are filled with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. They speak in other languages and rush out from the Upper room into the busy streets of Jerusalem to begin their own ministries for Christ.

And the biggest loser of all, Simon Peter the Fisherman, who recently had been scared out of his senses by the accusations of a young maid which caused him to curse and deny being associated with Jesus, was now on point duty for the group and fearlessly preaching a courageous message. He was no longer just a fisherman, he had become The Sermonator! His life was not about catching fish anymore, but now it was about preaching the gospel and catching/fishing for the souls of people, just as Christ had prophesied three years ago.

It’s also important to note that the first work, the first act of ministry of Christ’s Church comes through a sermon. Throughout the centuries, the sermon has been the human vehicle for getting God’s Word out to the world. Peter begins a Christian process that will have a dynamic impact on the lives of billions of people across the ages. Without sermons, the Church would never have been known throughout the Roman Empire. Without preachers like Peter and Paul, people would never have known about salvation from Christ. Even our own Reformed denomination without the fiery sermons of Luther, the doctrinal preaching of Calvin, and the uncompromising messages of John Knox, would never have started or continued.

These days, it’s quite easy to debunk preachers and belittle sermons. Some say its old fashioned, irrelevant, and a poor way to communicate God’s truth. Some people complain that preachers preach too long, go off on tangents, and talk about obscure theological points that no one ever thinks about these days. Sermons were good for Paul and Silas, Peter and the rest of Christ’s gang, but this is the 21^st century, so you can email me, IM me, text me, tweet me, facebook me, and even skype me, but for goodness sake minister, don’t ever preach to me!

And yet, God will continue to use this archaic, old-fashioned, and unsophisticated method to touch the hearts of millions of people throughout this planet today. In African mission huts and American mega churches, the Gospel will be preached. In small adobe churches of South America and medieval cathedrals across Europe, Christ will be proclaimed. In the illegal house churches of China and on street corners in busy metropolitan areas, God’s word will be actively expressed through sermons. Don’t ever underestimate the spoken power of Christ’s church on Earth. The world may want preachers and sermons to go away, but men and women across this planet will forever speak the truth of the gospel and of salvation through Jesus Christ alone, even though their hearts will be pounding and their voices shaking.

So what does Peter preach? How does it relate to his listeners? And what kind of message can we glean from this sermon today?

Firstly, Peter begins by refuting the claims that he and the disciples are drunk. “Don’t be absurd,” he more or less tells them. “It’s only nine in the morning. We are not drunk with the spirit of alcohol; we are filled with the Holy Spirit.”

And then Peter relates what he has just said with an 800 year old prophecy. The prophecy was first spoken by the ancient prophet Joel, who exclusively preached to the people and region around Jerusalem. The prophecy was first proclaimed when the land of Judah was plagued by locusts, sickness, and famine. The people believed that they had offended God by breaking his covenant with them, and so they were being punished for their sins. Joel’s role was to call them back to God through a time of repentance, which would lead to a new covenant with God and a fresh start for everyone.

The citizens of Jerusalem were very familiar with this prophecy, so Peter is claiming its fulfillment in what happened on that Day of Pentecost. He is saying to the crowd that the Holy Spirit can be poured out upon them too, and that they will prophesy, dream dreams and cast visions. This will happen if they will open their hearts and minds to what Peter has to preach, as well as receiving what the Spirit has to give.

When we first began to talk about renovating this church building that we all love dearly, we were all fearful about the process. We’d never done anything like this before and there were times when it felt as though the whole project would fall through because the burden seem greater than we could carry. But as time went on, we began to realize that this was God’s work for our generation, and that no matter how overwhelming it felt to us, God was and is more than able to carry us through this renovation, reconstruction, and renewal.

I don’t know about you, but each Sunday my heart soars as more parts of this project are completed. Through God’s favor, we are rebuilding this place and more people are coming to see what’s going on. As we add walls and rooms, we also grow in God’s Word and Spirit. As we reconstruct the entrance, we are also rebuilding our faith. It’s not only the pouring out of the concrete that is changing us, it’s the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. I talk to you constantly about the old Greek word ‘epiklesis’ which is the sanctifying of the church through the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit. Well, look all around you inside and outside of this sanctuary – you’re seeing epiklesis in action – you’re witnessing a sanctifying by the Holy Spirit before your very eyes!

As Peter ends the first part of his sermon, he quotes Joel’s words, “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved.” This touches upon one of the biggest questions that people all over the world express: “Do we all go to heaven when we die?” Surely if this is a prophecy which has been fulfilled at the first Christian Pentecost, then it must mean that everyone is saved.

But if we play close attention to the words, we will realize that salvation only comes to those who know the Name of the Lord. You cannot call out that Name without knowing who to call. Or as that other courageous preacher in Acts once wrote in his letter to the Romans:

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?

How can they hear without someone preaching to them? And what is the Name of the Lord? Simon Peter, the Big Fisherman and Great Sermonator, will explain it to us next week. To paraphrase the words of the Governor of California: “He’ll be back!”

Links

Biography on Saint Peter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter

History of Book of Joel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Joel

What is a sermon?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sermon

Home Study and Personal Reflections       

1.         What made Peter stand up in front of the people in Jerusalem and preach?

2.         Why are sermons used by God to convey His message to people?

3.         What is the best sermon that you have ever heard? How does it affect your life today?

4.         What vision do you have for your life? What dreams are being realized at the church?

Sunday August 29 - Acts 2:1-13 The Day the Spirit Came

The Christian Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples in the Upper Room at Jerusalem has been described as “A turning point in the history of God’s kingdom” and  as “A Spiritual Renaissance in the history of man.”

This amazing event which saw the Christian church being established on earth, took place on the Jewish festival of Pentecost. Fifty days after the Passover celebrations (7x7 +1), the Jewish people held another feast which had agricultural and religious connections.

Agriculturally, it was the time of harvesting the early crops of the season, so it was a celebration of the first fruits. Theologically, it was also the time when the Jews commemorated Moses bring the Law (Ten commandments) to the Hebrew people.

Symbolically, this meant that the coming of the Holy Spirit is both the first fruit of Christ’s Church on Earth and the promised fulfillment of the Law. This is the actual transition of the Old Covenants into the New Testament. As Christians, we no longer live in the time of religious law; we live in the New Age of the love of Christ!

John Calvin stated that this miraculous event took place on Pentecost in order to make the event more famous – Jerusalem was filled with many pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean and Middle East. In the great assembly of people, there would be greater fruit (testimony and witnesses) of the event.

This is why worshipping collectively at church each week is also important. We come here to worship God, but this is also a sacred time when we are spiritually inspired, empowered and equipped TOGETHER to make us more EFFECTIVE in the surrounding community (eg. 1x1 = 1 witness …140 x1 = 140 witnesses)

The crowd assembled in Jerusalem according to religious customs and Old Testament commands. Thousands of them would leave empowered and embraced by the Holy Spirit to begin the Church around the world.

NB EKKLESIA = Greek word for Church which means “those who are called out”

I preached from notes that morning and need to rewrite this. Updates will follow, as well as study notes.

Last Sunday - No sermon

It was Rally Day at Erin last Sunday, so there was no sermon from me. This coming Sunday (29 August) I'll be taking up from where I left off. The passage for the week will be Acts 2:1-13 - The day of Pentecost.

Sunday 15 August - Faithful Witnesses - Acts 1:15-26

One of the biggest issues that the Church is facing today is about the authority of the Bible. People question whether or not a holy book which sums up human history in just over six thousand years and took 1500 years to compile is relevant in the 21^st century. Because of this, traditional customs and values are constantly being scrutinized, challenged, and changed. What was good enough for Paul and Silas may be good enough for old time religion but, according to some, it certainly isn’t good enough for modern people.

Today’s passage from Acts deals with similar questions. Luke continues to write about the beginning of the Christian church as an apologetic, an answer, and as an historical and theological reply to those who were asking such questions as:

Where did Peter get his authority to preach? What makes the Gospel different from other religious messages? What really happened to Judas Iscariot and did Jesus make an almighty mistake in choosing him in the first place?

I’ve mentioned to you to look out for and watch what the Holy Spirit does throughout the Book of Acts. In today’s passage, several noteworthy things and teaching moments take place. Luke writes that Peter stood up amongst the Gathering and suggested that they find a successor for Judas. Peter believes that this is necessary to perfect their leadership number of twelve in order to maintain continuity with the twelve tribes of Israel.

Peter also states that Judas’ betrayal of Christ was foretold a thousand years beforehand, through the work of the Holy Spirit inspiring King David as he composed several psalms. This maintains the continuity of the first Christians with their Jewish roots, but it also showed them that the Holy Spirit had been working for centuries in the sacred history of Peter’s people in order to bring about salvation through Christ.

This is very important for us to understand and accept because it deals with the authority of scripture, which is one of our major issues facing our people today. The Holy Spirit actively inspired David to write words in his psalms which became fulfilled prophecies in Christ’s lifetime. The Holy Spirit did this and we need to remember that. As John Calvin wrote five hundred years ago, “Such manner of speeches bring greater reverence to the scriptures… (because) …they were directed by the Holy Spirit.”

This is why I personally think it that questioning the authority of the scriptures is not something to be undertaken lightly, or to glibly cast aside the Bible because of its cultural contexts. The great arrogance and mischief can arise when we question Biblical authority because we are in danger of saying and believing that we know better than the Holy Spirit about the Word of God. And that, my dear friends, was the very first temptation and sin in the Garden of Eden when the serpent tempts Eve beginning with the words “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1)

But why is Peter mentioning Judas at all and why does Luke fill in the details about Judas’ death?

Peter is bringing resolution for himself and the rest of the Gathering. Judas had been with them for three years. Despite his obvious faults, he was still one of them. John Calvin stated that “It is not to be doubted that the disciples did remember Judas with grief and sorrow.” In the midst of all their joy about the Resurrection of Christ, the shadow of Judas’ betrayal and tragedy of his death still affected them. To bring closure to their sorrow, they have to appoint a successor. To find relief from their grief, they have to accept that the Holy Spirit foretold this long ago.

Luke fills in the details about Judas’ death and his gory ending, not because he wanted to shock his readers, but because in Luke’s time there were already rumors surrounding what had actually happened to the traitor. Some misguided Christians, who would later be known as Gnostics, began to think that Judas did not commit suicide but that he nobly sacrificed himself by taking Christ’s place on the cross. Their stories are very similar to what Charles Dickens would write 1800 years later in his famous book “A Tale of Two Cities” where the anti-hero Sydney Carton dies at the guillotine in place of the hero Charles Darnay. No doubts the Gnostics of the past would love to have borrowed Dickens’ words and place them in the mouth of Judas Iscariot as he died on the Cross for Jesus: “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.”

But this never happened, which is why Luke includes the gory details about Judas’ death – a fatal falling to the ground which causes his stomach to burst open and all of his intestines fall out – which happens when someone dies and dangles from a rope for a while and then the noose breaks. (This is also why in England traitors were hung and disemboweled).

This in turn brings us to another question: did Jesus make a mistake in choosing Judas in the first place, or as John Calvin put it: “It seems a strange thing that Judas, who was chosen by Christ for such an excellent ministry, should fall so filthily.”

Did Jesus make a mistake? Well that’s like asking “Did God make a mistake in creating Adam and Eve?” The short answer to both questions is a loud and affirmative “No.”

The mistakes that were made by Judas, Adam, and Eve were all committed through their own free will and subsequently their own foolish choices. Judas fell away, not because he had been compelled to through prophecy, but only by the malice of his own heart. John McArthur, a great contemporary preacher that I admire, has this to say:

“Judas represents the greatest example of wasted opportunity in all of history.”

McArthur also goes on to say: “Although he was counted among the apostles and received his portion in their ministry, Judas was obviously never saved.”

“Judas was obviously never saved.” We all make mistakes and Judas tragically paid the price for his act of betrayal. He couldn’t live with himself or of the fact that he had placed Christ into the hands of His enemies. If Judas had been saved, he might have heeded Christ’s warning to him before the Last Supper. If Judas had been saved, he might have been able to go into hiding and come back to Christ after the Resurrection and plead for forgiveness. Had he been saved and if he had done that, Judas would have been shown mercy by Jesus and fully restored to God’s favor. But Judas was not saved and so he believed that God could not help him, nor could Jesus be gracious to him. And so the tragedy of Judas lies not in the sad fact that he committed suicide, but that he did not give Christ the opportunity to forgive him. He died in his sins, instead of being saved from them.

When Peter talks about the need to find a successor for Judas, he also lays out the conditions and qualifications for such a person. It would have to be someone who was with Jesus from the very beginning and who had seen the Risen Christ. In other words, it had to be someone who had remained a faithful follower of Christ, and an exclusive witness of his Resurrection. This new apostle would have to preach the Gospel and take the exclusive message of the Resurrection to other people. He would have to have been taught personally by Christ and have been an eye witness to the post-resurrection appearances of Christ. In other words, he had to validate his faith with personal accounts of who Jesus was and what actually happened after He rose from the dead.

This brings us to a very important point about sharing the gospel. Many misguided Christians believe that sharing the gospel is about good deeds, kind words, and nice acts of compassion. These are wonderful things to do on behalf of the church, but sharing the gospel is not about how many good deeds we get done in a day. Sharing the gospel has always meant one important thing – it is about telling a dying world full of dying people that Christ still lives! Without the Resurrection, there is no gospel, and without the constant telling of the Resurrection, there will be no salvation. As Paul the apostle once wrote to the church of Corinth, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”

Finally, a successor is chosen. The Upper Room Gathering of about 120 people selects two candidates and leaves the final choice up to the Holy Spirit using the customary method of applying lots. This is the last occasion in the Bible that lots are used. After the Great Day of Pentecost, lots will no longer be needed because the Holy Spirit will directly guide the apostles and Christ’s church.

The use of lots is not like throwing dice or picking door prizes. The apostles use the lots as a sacred means of giving the final decision over to God. This is not spinning the bottle, the tossing of a coin, or hoping for a win. This is sacred nomination and final affirmation given by the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us that they say together a very special prayer: Then they prayed, "LORD, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry...."

Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, Matthias is chosen, whose name actually means “The gift of the Lord.” We don’t hear anything else about this new apostle in the Bible, but some ancient documents of the early church say that Matthias first preached the gospel throughout Judea and then he went down into Ethiopia and Sudan to preach to cannibals and pagans. He was eventually crucified, so Judas’s successor actually went to the cross for the sake of Jesus and his Gospel.

So what have we learned today? (1) The Holy Spirit has been at work for thousands of years.                   (2) Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit, so we should all be wary of believing that we know better than the bible.   (3) If we are open to the Holy Spirit, then He will guide us clearly; but if we become divided, we will end up making bad choices as a Church and will suffer the consequences.

Prayer:        Lord, You know everyone’s heart here today. Show us the way, through the Sacred Presence of the Holy Spirit, that our church should take to fulfill Your ministry and mission in this community. In Your Holy Name, we pray. Amen.

Study Resources

Links

John Macarthur’s Bible Study page: “Grace to You”

http://www.gty.org/

Apostle Matthias Information

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10066a.htm

Home Study and Personal Reflections    

1.       What made Peter suggest that the Upper Room group needed to choose a successor to Judas??

2.       What do you think about Luke’s account of Judas’ death? What makes us feel sorry for Judas?

3.       How much of a priority is Christ in our lives? Do we ever allow other things to take His place?

4.       Where does the authority of the Bible come from? Why should this make us cautious about criticizing the Scriptures?

Sunday 8 August - All in the Family - Acts 1:10-14

Acts 1:10-14

A couple of years ago, when Evelyn and I took our youngest daughter Lauren to the airport to start her journey and mission trip to Tanzania, Africa, we waited with her up until the last possible second. We stood in line with Lauren to make sure that her tickets and luggage were validated. We walked her up to the security gate and hugged her just before she got into line. We watched her go through the security system and saw that she picked up her carryon bag and shoes. She then turned the corner and disappeared out of view. We just didn’t want to let go of her physically or emotionally until she was totally out of sight. And before the terrible events of 9/11, we once would have waited until the flight took off and watched the plane until it went up into the clouds.

The disciples felt the same thing. They peered intently at the sky until their eyes were sore. They didn’t want to lose sight of Jesus. They wanted Him to always be there. They didn’t want to give Him up emotionally because once He was gone from view, then the responsibility of His Mission and God’s kingdom would firmly be placed upon their shoulders.

Perhaps they were also hoping that Christ would change His mind, turn around, and head back down to Earth. If that was the case, then they were quickly given a reality check by the two angels who suddenly appeared beside them.

"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

This was the first lesson that the disciples were given without Jesus being present after the Resurrection. This also became crucial to their ministries and mission, their preaching and message. Christ would return, suddenly and surprisingly. No amount of wishing would bring Him back before His appointed return, but when it did happen it would occur swiftly and suddenly, without words or warnings.

So this shaped their discipleship of Christ. They were to live their lives appropriately as Christ’s followers and in the strong belief that Jesus would return at any time.

Two thousand years have almost passed since that day of the Ascension and we have perhaps grown complacent about Christ’s Second Coming, but let’s seriously remember this: we are now two thousand years nearer to His imminent return than these first disciples ever were – should that in itself not make us more careful and circumspect about how we live our Christian lives? We are, time-wise, nearer to Christ’s Second Coming than any generation before us, so instead of being complacent, shouldn’t we be even more prepared?

I find it interesting to note that John Calvin, the great reformer, uses this passage to support his argument against the transubstantiation doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. They believe that the bread and wine in Communion actually becomes the real body and blood of Jesus Christ. John Calvin argued that because Christ ascended into Heaven, and would not return to Earth until God’s appointed time, His actual body and blood could never be present with us. If that was the case, then it would mean that Jesus had broken His promise and disobeyed God; it would also mean that the two angels lied. For Calvin, Christ’s Spirit is present with us in the preaching of the Word and the celebrating of the sacraments, but Jesus’ physical presence won’t ever be experienced on Earth again until He finally returns at the Second Coming.

Talking about returning, the disciples eventually walk away from the Mount of Olives and head back into Jerusalem. This is a very brave thing to do – they are headed back into the heart of enemy territory where Christ Himself had been arrested, tortured, and executed. At any given moment an informer, guard, or even a priest could have recognized them as Christ’s followers.

We are told from Luke that the distance was a Sabbath Day’s walk, which meant that it was only three quarters of a mile of a journey. They head upstairs to a large guest room which may have been the same Upper Room where Christ shared their Last supper together before His crucifixion. This location would help them to keep emotionally connected to Christ, in much the same way that we all feel when we visit a family home, a past workplace, or even an old church that we used to go to. In that room, they had shared Christ’s last moments of teaching and giving. As they broke bread together and prayed there, they must have re-experienced that holy and sacred time.

This is why I think it’s important to bring our families to church on a regular basis. We need to give them a sanctuary, a trysting place, a holy place of worship and prayer in their lives. It’s really important for them to feel spiritually loved and embraced by God in His House. And it’s especially important for our new college students and school leavers. They need somewhere to come back to and belong, to pray in and worship, especially during crucial times and major issues in their young lives. If it was good and healthy enough for the first disciples to return to the upper room, it’s also good for all of us to return to those holy and sacred places that have impacted our lives with the presence of Christ.

Luke mentions the names of the eleven disciples who return to the Upper Room. At one point, ten of them, excluding young John, had run away from Christ when He was being crucified. Now they all return together, obeying Christ’s last command to wait in Jerusalem. They did not know what was going to occur, but they also did not question Christ’s command.

For at least ten days, they would have met together in the room with some of Christ’s own family. This would have brought about some interesting group dynamics and an intense therapy session for all of them.

Think about it for a moment; Christ is gone, so the old wounds amongst them may have opened up. There was John and James, the ambitious sons of thunder who went to Jesus in secret and asked for favorable places of prominence in Christ’s Coming kingdom. They even caused an argument within the group about who was the greatest among them. Now with Jesus gone up into heaven, the old argument could have quickly resurfaced.

And then there was Peter, who had proudly declared that he would have laid down his life for Christ, and yet he had been scared off by a mere girl, a serving maid outside the Sanhedrin.

Added to the mix, were Jesus’ own family members – his mother and his brothers. From the gospel passage that we read this morning (Mark 3:20-21, 31-35) we know that before His Resurrection that they didn’t fully support Christ’s ministry. At one point, they thought that He was crazy and anxiously sought to bring Him back home before He did Himself any damage.

So you have all these people, followers and family with major dysfunctions and they are gathered together, almost like a funeral party, to mourn Christ’s absence and grieve His disappearance.

But something almighty has changed them…and that change has occurred through the Resurrection. They have seen Christ alive after being dead, and so their lives will never be the same again. There is no ‘greatest’ amongst them because Christ’s greatness cannot be equaled. There is no denial amongst them, because they have seen Jesus with their own eyes and heard Him speak with their own ears. And there is no fear of craziness or insanity in Christ, because He has proved to them who He actually is – the Savior of the world and the Everlasting Son of God.

And so this time in the Upper Room becomes a sacred moment of peace and reconciliation, humility and fellowship, recommitment and restoration. They all joined together in constant prayer – praising God for what had occurred and communicating with Christ’s Spirit. They could not see Him or touch Him, but through focused and determined prayer, they could feel His presence with them as they spiritually connected to Him. They were beginning to become a family of faith. They were beginning to become what we would one day call ‘church.’

So to sum up, what have we learned from this passage today?

Firstly, that Christ will one day swiftly, surprisingly, and suddenly return, therefore we should live each day as Christians who expect His imminent arrival.

Secondly, that Christ invites and brings together failures of all kinds to become His followers, and that we each have a holy and human need for sacred gathering places.

And finally, that to become church, we need to constantly pray together, worship together, and just be together, so that we may experience fellowship as a true family of faith.

Prayer:        Lord Jesus, thank You for returning to Heaven so that Your Church could be established and that we, two thousand years later, may be given the opportunity of being restored to God through the forgiveness of our sins. Help us to become a loving family of faith, a compassionate congregation, and a community church of disciples and followers, servants and messengers. In Your Holy Name, we humbly and thankfully pray. Amen.

Home Study and Personal Reflections    

1.       Why do you think that Jesus returned to Heaven and did not stay on earth to be with His disciples and family?

2.       How can we live our lives each day as if we are anticipating Christ’s imminent return? How will that belief affect our everyday choices?

3.       Where are the sacred places in our own lives? In what ways do we experience Christ and faith there?

4.       How can we make our church more effective at making us followers of Christ and a true family of faith?

Other Resources                              

Mount of Olives

http://tinyurl.com/ydcefhb

Ascension of Jesus

http://tinyurl.com/5w4zfm

Being the Church 2 by William Loader

http://tinyurl.com/26sh3tl

Kids Pages –Jesus Ascends

http://tinyurl.com/2feg26j