Church Sermon - April 18, 2004

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Epistle Lesson; Revelation 1:9-18
Gospel Lesson; John 20:19-31
Sermon Text; Acts 5:12-32

One warm, summer day, in a market place in the Netherlands, a group of people gathered together for a little entertainment. There were two young men, who were to provide the entertainment, on that first of July. Their names were John and Henry. It came as somewhat of a surprise to the people who had gathered, that among the entertainment, John and Henry sang a duet. Together they sang Christian hymns. Had you been there to hear that duet, it would have been probably the most powerful duet you would have ever heard in your life. The crowd that was gathered there, in the market place, was there to be entertained by watching John and Henry burned to death at the stake!

Their names were John Esch and Henry Vosse. They were two young monks, living in 1523, who had become Lutherans. They were preaching the Gospel that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And, they had been commanded to stop telling people the message that you are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. They were told, "If you don’t stop, we are going to burn you at the stake".

John and Henry didn’t stop. And, they were burned at the stake. Together, as they were burned at the stake, they sang hymns of praise to Jesus, our Savior. And so, they entered Heaven, singing praises to Jesus. Someday their ashes will be resurrected, and they will physically stand before our Savior!

Those two young men had courage - true courage! In fact, the Church is built on people, who had profound courage to spread the message of Jesus Christ, regardless of the cost to them, personally. Twelve of those people, who had profound courage to go out and witness the Gospel of Jesus Christ, after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, are the twelve apostles. (That would be the eleven original apostles, plus Matthias, who replaced Judas.) History tells us that all twelve of those men suffered profoundly, because they would not stop telling other people about Jesus. Eleven of them were martyred. They were put to death, because they wouldn’t stop telling other people about Jesus. Some of them were stoned. Some of them were put to death with the sword. Some of them were beheaded. Some were crucified. But, they would not stop telling other people about Jesus. The twelfth one was thrown in prison for the rest of his life, because he wouldn’t stop telling people about Jesus. These were men of profound courage.

Now, where did they get such courage? They were not always like that. You know that the disciples, (after Jesus died, and even during Jesus’ trail), were fearful men. We know that Peter was so afraid, that he denied Jesus three times. He was scared for his life.

We know that all of the disciples fled and ran away from Jesus, when He was arrested. They were scared.

We know that on Easter evening, as the Bible tells us, the disciples were all huddled together in an upper room. The doors were bolted shut, and they were huddled together, for fear of the Jews. They were afraid that the same thing that happened to Jesus was going to happen to them, and their lives would also be taken.

So what happened to these twelve men that changed them from fearful men, to men who had profound courage, so much courage that they were even ready to even die, instead of stop talking about Jesus, their Savior?

Two things had happened to them. Number one, they had literally seen the risen Savior. Number two, the day of Pentecost had come, and the Holy Spirit had been poured out on them. These twelve men had seen the risen Jesus Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, understood what the resurrection of Jesus Christ meant to them personally, and it, changed them. They understood that the resurrection of Jesus Christ means that Jesus is God. The Bible says, "God declared Him with power." He was declared, with power, to be the Son of God, when God raised Him from the dead. There was the ultimate proof, that their best friend was God, Himself!

Number two; they knew that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead had extreme personal significance to them.

When someone is punished for a sin, and are thrown in prison, when do they get let out? They get let out, when the punishment has been paid in full. When Jesus got up out of the grave, the disciples knew it was proof from God that full payment had been made for their sins. There is no more payment to be made. God is now satisfied.

That is why the Bible says, "He was put to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification." When He was raised to life, God was declaring, "You are not guilty anymore, because my Son paid for your sins."

The disciples knew that.

And now, because of Jesus, they were living a new resurrected life. They had the joy of the resurrection, the joy of sins forgiven, the joy of a desire to live for their Savior. They had the confidence that our Savior was with them and would keep them safe. They were living a new life. And so they went from men who were fearful, to men had profound courage, by the power of the Holy Spirit!

In today’s scripture reading, they had a choice to make. They had two very contrasting commands, two commands that were very different from one another. One of the commands was from the High Priest, and the leaders of the people. The command was this: "We gave you strict orders not to teach in that Man’s name anymore."

Along with that came threats. We don’t know what the threats were, but you can be assured, it was probably things like this: "If you don’t keep your mouth shut about Jesus, I have a sword, and I can stop your mouth from talking. If you don’t keep your mouth shut about Jesus, a pile of stones over your dead body will keep you from talking. If you don’t keep your mouth shut about Jesus, we’ll lop off your head, and then see if you can talk about Jesus."

There were serious threats made to the twelve disciples. And what was the motivation? The motivation was fear. We are going to motivate you, by fear, to stop talking about Jesus. That was the one command. "We gave you strict orders not to tell anyone about this Man, Jesus."

But then there was a very contrasting command. After they had been thrown into prison, an angel came at nighttime, and let them out. And, what did the angel say to them? The angel gave them a command. The angel said, "Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life."

Very contrasting commands. Here the people had told them, "Don’t you tell anyone. You have strict orders not to say anything."

And on the other hand, an angel of the Lord, told them, "You go right into the temple and don’t hold anything back. You tell everybody."

So what did the disciples do? They went right to the temple, and fearlessly, they opened their mouths, and they began to teach that full message of Jesus. Only this time the motivation for this command was love. (The other command was motivated by fear. "We’ll hurt you, if you don’t follow our command.") But God’s command was motivated not by fear, but by love. They were motivated by love, the deepest, most profound love that anyone can imagine. The Bible tells us

They knew the perfect love of Jesus, their Savior. They knew their Savior, God Himself, loved them so dearly that He had given up His very life to pay for all of their sins. They knew the love of Jesus, and that He loved them so dearly, He wanted them to be with Him forever, in Heaven! They knew the love of Jesus. That love of Jesus, that love He had for them, drove out their fear. In fact, it put in their hearts a true love for their Savior. They loved their Savior. And, they knew their Savior didn’t just die for their sins. He died for other people. They wanted to go and tell other people. So, fearlessly and courageously, they went to the temple and witnessed their faith in Jesus.

Now what about you and me? What about us? You know we have two very contrasting commands, too. On the one hand, we have pretty strict orders from this world, "Don’t talk about Jesus. We don’t want to hear about Him." Oh, those threats and those strict orders not to talk about Jesus may not be verbalized, but it is almost an unwritten understanding. When I am sitting around talking to my neighbors, I better not talk about Jesus, because they may not want to hear it. And, when I am at school, I better not talk about Jesus, because they might not want to hear it. And, when I am at work, I better not share my faith with my coworkers, because they might not want to hear it. And, when I am at a family gathering, I better not talk about Jesus, because there may be family members who do not want to hear about Jesus.

And, the motivation there is fear. "If you talk about Jesus, we are not going to be your friend anymore. If you talk about Jesus, we might make fun of you. If you talk about Jesus, you might lose an opportunity to get a higher paying job here at work. If you talk about Jesus, you may not make it into this circle of friends." The motivation is fear.

How many times have you and I given into that fear? How many times have we done that? How many times have we known we had an opportunity, a golden opportunity, to bring up the topic of our faith in Jesus, during a conversation, but didn’t, because we were afraid? How many times have we had the golden opportunity to invite somebody to church, maybe one of our neighbors, but we passed the opportunity up, because we were afraid of how they might react? How many opportunities have we had to give someone a gift, maybe a Bible or a prayer book, and we thought about it, but then we held back in fear, because we wondered what that person would think? Fear motivated us from spreading the Gospel message.

On the other hand, we have a very contrasting command from our Savior. While the world says, "We give you strict orders not to talk about His name." Jesus says, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to all creation." Jesus says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." There is His command.

The Bible says, "How can they believe on the One they have not heard of?" How can they hear, unless someone tells them? How many times, because of fear, have we failed to spread our faith in Jesus, as our Savior? We all have to raise our hands and say, "I have."

What should we do? We should come to our Lord Jesus Christ in repentance. Because our Savior, Jesus, is such an awesome Savior, He also died for our sins of failing to open our mouths and let the Gospel come forth from our mouths. Our Savior Jesus died for all of our sins, every one of them. Our Savior had His parched tongue cling to the roof of His mouth, in punishment for the fact that we have not used our tongues the way that we should. Our Savior had His mouth closed in death in the grave, because that is what we deserve to have happen to our mouths, because we are not using them to tell other people about Jesus, the way that we should. And by that, our Savior Jesus has taken away God’s anger at our failure to witness. We are freely, fully, and absolutely forgiven! God declares us to be not guilty, for Jesus’ sake! God tells us that Heaven is ours, because our sins are forgiven. What an awesome, loving Savior we have!

And, it is our Savior, who gave up His very life for us, who is the One who says, "Go. Go tell the whole world the Good News." The love of our Savior is a motivation far deeper than any fear, Brothers and Sisters. Our Savior loves me so dearly, that He has forgiven every single sin, at the cost of His own life. He’ll never hold them against me. How can I help but want, out of love for my Savior, to go out and tell other people about Him, and to trust His promises?

This is the risen Savior! This is the Savior, who has power over all things, who got up out of the grave. He holds in His hands the keys to death itself! And so, what if I go out into this world and they take away my life? My Savior is going to walk up to that grave. He is going to turn the key, and let me back out, someday! What do I have to fear? That is my Savior; my risen Savior, who has power over all things. And, He promises all things work together for good, to those who love God. So whatever they do to me, my powerful, risen Savior is going to work that out for my good, somehow. What do I have to fear?

There are people out there, who don’t know the message of the New Life, yet. Let’s be a mission minded people. Let’s be motivated by the love that our Savior has for us.

Amen.

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