Fourth Sunday of Easter
April 13, 2008
Text: Acts 2:42-47
During the seven Sundays of Easter, we are using our first readings from Acts for the texts of our sermons. The past two Sundays, we heard Peter’s sermon on Pentecost when he proclaimed to his listeners that they could know with certainty that God has made Jesus, who was crucified, both Lord and Messiah. Last Sunday, we heard the result of Peter’s preaching that about 3000 of his listeners were cut to the heart and were baptized.
This morning our text from Acts tells us what happened next. “The newly baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” This account gives us four scenes that describe what the first followers of the Risen Lord did as the result of their baptism. Each of the scenes raises two questions, how did this happen and could this happen to us?
In the first scene, we see that “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.”
Before their baptisms, these 3000 new Christians may have never heard of Jesus; if they did, they may have ignored, or even rejected him. Some of them may have been in the crowd that called for Jesus’ crucifixion. We could say of these new Christians that prior to their baptisms they had no devotion for Jesus. Now, having been baptized, they were devoting themselves to his teachings as they heard from the apostles. They had more than a seeker’s interest in Jesus. They were centering and committing their lives to their new Lord and Messiah. How did this happen? Could this happen among us?
The second scene that our text from Acts presents to us is that the earliest Christians devoted themselves to being in fellowship with one another. They were bound together in a community. Out of their devotion to Jesus, these early Christians became a community in which they bore one another’s burdens, took an interest in each other’s welfare, and they gave of their time and labor for one another. Loving one another as Jesus taught, they did not let anyone of their fellowship want for the necessities of life. How did that happen? Could this happen among us?
The third scene is that these early Christians devoted themselves to what was called “the breaking of bread.” In these meals, held in the homes of the early Christians, we have the beginnings of our Holy Communion liturgy. What they ate was not lunch or dinner, but a ritual meal remembering that on Easter evening in Emmaus, the Risen Lord made himself known in “the breaking of the bread.” Devoted to this meal, the early Christians opened their homes to the three thousand plus believers. It would take about 150 homes, inviting 20 persons to each home, to accommodate this devotion, and yet they did it. How did it happen? Would we do this?
The final scene shows the early Christian’s devotion to the prayers in the Temple. The text says, “Day by day, they spent much time together in prayer.” They did not just occasionally come together to pray, but they devoted themselves to being together in prayer everyday. Prayer and worship were important to these new believers. How did that happen? Could it happen among us?
Each of these four scenes is part of the transformation that took place among the early Christians. These four scenes can be summarized by the phrase – the believers were devoted and they were together. Is this an idealistic description of the church, or could such a transformation happen to us?
At first, we might concur with the idealistic interpretation and say that “that was then, this is now.” The story of the early Church is one of those Bible stories that happens so perfectly but have no relevance to us here and now. Life is not just like that. Besides, all the apostles are long gone. No body is around doing the signs and wonders that Jesus did.
We could also make the argument in this way: that the 3000 baptized in Jerusalem must have been special people. The community must have had a special calling from God, a particular blessing that made it work for them. Some special quality in these people brought about their transformation.
Both of these explanations leave us out. We live in the here and now. We do not have any special blessings or qualifications. We are just simple folk, who live here in Carlisle and who attend the church here called First Lutheran. Could this transformation happen to us?
Yes, it could, because it was the not the powers of the 3000 baptized that made it happen. It was the Holy Spirit, who empowered the transformation of these newly baptized. Peter’s sermon proclaimed the gospel to them. The Holy Spirit enabled and empowered their minds and hearts to accept and commit to Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Messiah. The Holy Spirit transformed them; they did not transform themselves. Martin Luther wrote, we do not come to faith by our own reason or understating, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was driving and directing the early Christian believers. What the early Christians did was place their trust in the Risen Lord. They elected to live in the power of God. They lived and moved and had their being in the Spirit of Christ that had been poured out upon them in their baptism.
The Holy Spirit is pouring out its power on us, transforming us to be devoted and together in the presence of the Living Christ. It is happening in our community of believers that our lives are centered and committed to the apostles’ teaching that is now preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures. It is happening among us that we are bearing one another’s burdens and are giving of ourselves for one another. We are devoted to the sacrament of Holy Communion in which Christ makes Himself truly present in the forms of bread and wine. We are devoted and together in our prayer and in our worship. None of this can happen unless the Holy Spirit has empowered it to happen.
The early Christian community elected to live in the power of God mediated through the Spirit of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. May we continue to do the same, that our community of faith will truly be the church in which the Lord Jesus Christ has His way.