Emphasis Preaching Journal

Acts 4:32-35
According to the latest government statistics (for 2013), 14.5% of Americans are in poverty. The behavior of the first Christians reported in this lesson seems to confirm the wisdom of early 20th-century humorist and author Don Marquis. He once observed, “I have often noticed that when chickens quit quarreling over their food they often find that there is enough for all of them. I wonder if it might not be the same with the human race.” Sharing all possessions with the confidence that there is enough for everyone is a social experiment even America’s founders advocated (much to the surprise of free-market intellectuals and their political lackeys). Alexander Hamilton wrote: “Happy it is when the interest which the government has in the preservation of its own power coincides with a proper distribution of the public burdens and tends to guard the least wealthy part of the community from oppression” (The Federalist Papers, pp. 222-223). Maybe America ought to try this biblical ideal, and the Church advocate for it.
Mark E.
 

1 John 1:1--2:2
No doubt John means when Christ first came. Not the creation of the world! He is telling those he is writing to that his acquaintance with the Christ is very personal and physical, and not just a tale he heard or read. This is firsthand experience.

Our testimonies are most often secondhand, though Christ can come to us in a very real and personal way. No, we do not see him or touch him, but when he has come into our life in a very meaningful way we have no doubt that he came to us -- and so we can tell others that he is real and that he hears our prayers and answers us! Almost every church may have someone with a personal touch of God. (Have them raise their hand in worship.)

When I ask Christ a question and the answer comes up in the next scripture I read or the next words I hear, I have a feeling that he answered me.

When I was a child I almost died of asthma, and it bothered me in my ministry when I would have home Bible studies and have an allergic reaction to a cat or dog in the house. It could take me a few days to recover. When one of the ladies in our group offered to pray for me at age 42, I accepted it willingly. I did not realize it until the following week, but from that day on I was never allergic to animals. It may be a nice story to tell someone, but that may be all it is unless the person you tell it to has also had that experience. But our lesson wants us to believe that Christ can come to us as he did to those in our lesson. Then we can have fellowship with other believers.

How often we read in scripture that God is light and that “darkness” is evil. Think of a dark room. You can hide anything in it and you won’t see it. Our evil deeds may be hidden to our eyes, but God sees them when He turns on his light -- and his light shows them to us. We can’t hide anything from him. God wants us to walk in him. If we do we will see our sin, and we can ask him to purify us through what Christ has done for us.

Too often we might be ready to confess our sin, but how often do we feel it is not much compared to others who are real sinners? That can be one of our worst sins! Turn to Christ, confess, and be cleansed! We have that opportunity every day, but especially at communion service.
Bob O.


1 John 1:1--2:2
I have a fascination with lighthouses, and over the years I have visited many of them and collected many replicas. Reading about lighthouses brings me great pleasure. Living in the Great Lakes area, I picked up a book titled Great Lakes Lighthouses: Bonfires and Beacons (written by Larry and Patricia Wright with photography by Larry Turner). Its combination of writing and pictures captures some of the most interesting stories and beautiful lighthouses ever to guide ships through the dangerous waters of North America’s inland areas. 

The book’s authors comment on how navigation on the seas and lakes had been a dangerous business. In ancient times without navigational aids, shipwrecks were common and deadly. Families soon began to light bonfires on hilltops and along shorelines so that their fishing boats could navigate homeward after the sun set. In later centuries, shore pirates would take advantage of this practice. They would light their own bonfires to lure unsuspecting ships onto rocky crevices and then plunder them.

As time marched along with an increase in trade plus the added need to protect warships, it became necessary to develop more efficient ways of marking the shorelines. The light changed from bonfires to hanging firepots, then to lanterns in trees or fire in barrels. The open fires were used as night beacons, but according to the Wrights the smoke from these fires would also signal danger. Smaller fires, torches, and lanterns served to signal harbor entrances.

One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the Pharos in Alexandria, built around 280 B.C. to guide ships into the Nile. It stood 400 feet high, but was destroyed during an earthquake in the early 1300s. Pharos came to mean lighthouse. The science of lighthouse construction is known as “pharology.” 

Over the years lighthouses as we know them were built and manned by lighthouse keepers, whose job was to make sure that the light was always kept shining. Additionally, they rescued sailors whose boats were crashed along the shore. Lighthouse keepers were always a brave and dedicated crew. According to the Wrights these people have “weathered the worst of storms and rescued countless seamen in distress. One regulation stipulated that a lightkeeper must make at least three rescue attempts. More than a job, lighthouse-keeping was a way of life.”

Jesus is the great light that has come to rescue the world from sin, death, and hell. His death on the cross signaled to Satan that righteousness and life would prevail. As lightkeepers, our job is to help rescue the perishing and to care for the spiritually dying souls of humankind!
Derl K.


John 20:19-31
In Luke’s gospel the apostles and disciples (a pretty large group) receive the Holy Spirit as promised by Jesus in a dramatic, vibrant, and just plain loud event 50 days after the resurrection, on Pentecost (the feast of first fruits), 50 days after Passover. That word Pentecost includes the Greek word for “fifty.”

In John’s gospel the giving and receiving of the Holy Spirit happens some 50 days earlier, not long after the resurrection and before the ascension. Unlike the scene in Acts 2, this is a deceptively quiet scene where something tremendous is unbottled and the apostles are filled to bursting with the Holy Spirit.

For some the only true conversion comes with fire and thunder, and yet here we see the authentic, powerful reception of the Holy Spirit without all the bells and whistles. Instead of a self-gratifying emotional experience, this passage bundles the gift of the Holy Spirit with a serious task -- forgiveness. This is a big responsibility that many people don’t want. And who can blame them? Saying he had the power to forgive sins is part of what got Jesus in trouble in the first place. And now he wants us to take on the mantle of the ones who can forgive?
Frank R.


John 20:19-31
Too often the story of Doubting Thomas leads us to focus on the negative, on his doubts and the ones we have. Martin Luther suggests that we think more positively about this text, in the Easter spirit we continue to celebrate this Sunday. The story of Doubting Thomas, he claims, is an illustration of the power of the resurrection (Complete Sermons, Vol. 1/2, p. 409). Thomas becomes an entirely different man (Ibid., p. 411). And ancient sources report that Thomas went on to become a great evangelist (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 1, p. 132).   

 Doubt is not good for you; it robs you of happiness. Almost a century and a half ago French Catholic priest Joseph Roux wrote: “When unhappy, one doubts everything; when happy one doubts nothing.” This insight fits the findings of neurobiologist Andrew Newberg (with Mark Waldman, Why We Believe What We Believe, pp. 11-12) that doubt is the result of inefficient ways of living and also interferes with healing processes, for when we are convinced about the possibilities of healing our brains send chemicals to the rest of the body which stimulate the immune system.

Above all, the story of Doubting Thomas is about the love of God. Martin Luther claimed in another sermon that the story is written for our sakes so that we may learn how Christ loves us, and how amiably, fatherly, gently, and mildly he deals with us and would like to deal with us (Complete Sermons, Vol. 6, pp. 58-59).
Mark E.