Easter Day
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
There are many people here this morning who do not normally come to Sunday services. By some deep movement in our souls, we are drawn to the church on Easter Sunday and on Christmas. Consequently, every congregation plans for an overflow crowd on those days. There are also many among our regular members who, though they attend church rather regularly, have never really been caught up in the message of Easter and who therefore regard the whole celebration with a certain amount of indifference, if not skepticism. If you are such a visitor or indifferent member, then perhaps our text from Acts for the morning is intended especially for you.
The verses 10 through 43 from the tenth chapter of Acts are made up of a sermon that the Apostle Peter proclaimed in Caesarea in the first century A.D. But to catch the full meaning of that sermon, we need to examine the context of the sermon that tells us the
circumstances under which Peter is preaching.
Peter is a guest in the house of one Cornelius, a Gentile centurion in the Roman military. And actually, by Jewish law, Peter has no business being there. He is a Jew, a member of God's covenant people, set apart for God's purpose, and so as it says earlier in Acts 10, it is unlawful "for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation" (v. 28). In fact, Peter is roundly criticized later by the Christian Jews in Jerusalem (11:1--2). But Peter has had a vision, a very strange vision, of all kinds of unclean food lowered from heaven on a great sheet, and he has heard the voice of God saying to him, "What God has cleansed, you must not call common" (v. 15). Three times he hears that. At the same time, the Gentile centurion Cornelius, who has been attending the Jewish synagogue, praying, and giving alms to the poor - a just and pious man - has been visited by an angel who tells him to summon Peter from Joppa to his house in Caesarea. Cornelius has done that. He has sent his servants to fetch Peter. And when Peter agrees to go with them to the Gentile Cornelius' house, Peter realizes that is what his vision meant, that God has cleansed and accepted not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles.
So that is the way Peter begins his sermon to those Gentiles gathered together in Cornelius' house. He tells them, "God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (v. 35). That's good news for us, isn't it, for all of us who don't come to church very often or for all of us who are rather indifferent toward Easter? If we nevertheless pray to God and think about him and lead decent, honorable lives, we are acceptable to God, as the Gentile Cornelius and the crowd in his house were acceptable to God. And other folk who see themselves as dedicated Christians have no right to look down on us. God shows no partiality. All of us are valuable in his sight.
That which should give us pause in Peter's sermon, however, is that Cornelius and the other Gentiles in his house are not yet saved (cf. 11:14), and neither are we Gentiles. In fact, all of us, whether we be dedicated Christians or indifferent Easter observers or just common, decent folk who rarely darken the door of the church - none of us is saved, either by what we do or by what we have left undone. And by that our text means that no one of us is given eternal life. All of us are going to die and disappear into dark and dust, with only an aging stone to mark the memory of us on this earth. All of us are going to die eternally, because we are sinners, unfit to enter the eternal Kingdom of God. All of us are lost, apart from God's work in Jesus Christ.
In his sermon to the Gentiles, therefore, the Apostle Peter must tell the Gentiles and us the story of that man from Nazareth. After the time of John the Baptist, Peter recounts, Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Spirit and made the permanent recipient of it. He went about doing good and healing those who were under the power of evil spirits. Because of his words and acts, he was crucified by Jews and Gentiles on a Roman cross. But then - and this is the important point - God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And, proclaims Peter, we are witnesses of that. That was not revealed to every one, but only to those of us who had been his disciples. We ate and drank with the risen Christ. We saw him once again alive. And he commanded us to testify that God made him Lord of all and the Judge of the living and the dead, both in this life and in the final judgment to come.
There is the crux of the matter for us, isn't it? Jesus Christ is now risen Lord, and it is he who will decide whether you and I will enter into the joy of God's eternal life or into the darkness of the grave forever. Our eternal life or death depends on the decision of our Lord Christ about you and me. We well might ask on this Easter Sunday, "Lord, what must we do to be saved?" Certainly no one of us is going to earn our salvation by being decent, or by attending church on Easter or Christmas, or even by being the most dedicated members of this congregation. The grace of God's salvation is given freely. God shows no partiality.
But, the Apostle Peter tells us Gentiles in his sermon there in Caesarea, every one who believes in Jesus Christ and trusts him alone to save us - everyone - all of us - receive forgiveness of our sins through Christ. Our evil, our wrongdoing, our terribly human weaknesses no longer bar us from God's eternal life. Christ is risen over all evil and sin and risen over the grave, and in him, by trust in his saving work, we can inherit his eternal life with the Father. We can be granted repentance and forgiveness unto life, as it is expressed in the next chapter of Acts (11:18).
The Gentiles in Caesarea who heard Peter's sermon and believed its message received the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit. And consequently, they were baptized into the Christian Church and became the people of their Lord, given the joyful certainty of life everlasting with the Father (10:44--48). We Gentiles here this morning, no matter what our past works or piety, can have the same joy and certainty given to that little Gentile group in the first century A.D. God shows no partiality. God's forgiving grace is extended to us all. But Easter is a matter of eternal life or death, and our loving God wants so much for us to choose life.
The verses 10 through 43 from the tenth chapter of Acts are made up of a sermon that the Apostle Peter proclaimed in Caesarea in the first century A.D. But to catch the full meaning of that sermon, we need to examine the context of the sermon that tells us the
circumstances under which Peter is preaching.
Peter is a guest in the house of one Cornelius, a Gentile centurion in the Roman military. And actually, by Jewish law, Peter has no business being there. He is a Jew, a member of God's covenant people, set apart for God's purpose, and so as it says earlier in Acts 10, it is unlawful "for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation" (v. 28). In fact, Peter is roundly criticized later by the Christian Jews in Jerusalem (11:1--2). But Peter has had a vision, a very strange vision, of all kinds of unclean food lowered from heaven on a great sheet, and he has heard the voice of God saying to him, "What God has cleansed, you must not call common" (v. 15). Three times he hears that. At the same time, the Gentile centurion Cornelius, who has been attending the Jewish synagogue, praying, and giving alms to the poor - a just and pious man - has been visited by an angel who tells him to summon Peter from Joppa to his house in Caesarea. Cornelius has done that. He has sent his servants to fetch Peter. And when Peter agrees to go with them to the Gentile Cornelius' house, Peter realizes that is what his vision meant, that God has cleansed and accepted not only the Jews, but also the Gentiles.
So that is the way Peter begins his sermon to those Gentiles gathered together in Cornelius' house. He tells them, "God shows no partiality, but in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (v. 35). That's good news for us, isn't it, for all of us who don't come to church very often or for all of us who are rather indifferent toward Easter? If we nevertheless pray to God and think about him and lead decent, honorable lives, we are acceptable to God, as the Gentile Cornelius and the crowd in his house were acceptable to God. And other folk who see themselves as dedicated Christians have no right to look down on us. God shows no partiality. All of us are valuable in his sight.
That which should give us pause in Peter's sermon, however, is that Cornelius and the other Gentiles in his house are not yet saved (cf. 11:14), and neither are we Gentiles. In fact, all of us, whether we be dedicated Christians or indifferent Easter observers or just common, decent folk who rarely darken the door of the church - none of us is saved, either by what we do or by what we have left undone. And by that our text means that no one of us is given eternal life. All of us are going to die and disappear into dark and dust, with only an aging stone to mark the memory of us on this earth. All of us are going to die eternally, because we are sinners, unfit to enter the eternal Kingdom of God. All of us are lost, apart from God's work in Jesus Christ.
In his sermon to the Gentiles, therefore, the Apostle Peter must tell the Gentiles and us the story of that man from Nazareth. After the time of John the Baptist, Peter recounts, Jesus of Nazareth was anointed with the Holy Spirit and made the permanent recipient of it. He went about doing good and healing those who were under the power of evil spirits. Because of his words and acts, he was crucified by Jews and Gentiles on a Roman cross. But then - and this is the important point - God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And, proclaims Peter, we are witnesses of that. That was not revealed to every one, but only to those of us who had been his disciples. We ate and drank with the risen Christ. We saw him once again alive. And he commanded us to testify that God made him Lord of all and the Judge of the living and the dead, both in this life and in the final judgment to come.
There is the crux of the matter for us, isn't it? Jesus Christ is now risen Lord, and it is he who will decide whether you and I will enter into the joy of God's eternal life or into the darkness of the grave forever. Our eternal life or death depends on the decision of our Lord Christ about you and me. We well might ask on this Easter Sunday, "Lord, what must we do to be saved?" Certainly no one of us is going to earn our salvation by being decent, or by attending church on Easter or Christmas, or even by being the most dedicated members of this congregation. The grace of God's salvation is given freely. God shows no partiality.
But, the Apostle Peter tells us Gentiles in his sermon there in Caesarea, every one who believes in Jesus Christ and trusts him alone to save us - everyone - all of us - receive forgiveness of our sins through Christ. Our evil, our wrongdoing, our terribly human weaknesses no longer bar us from God's eternal life. Christ is risen over all evil and sin and risen over the grave, and in him, by trust in his saving work, we can inherit his eternal life with the Father. We can be granted repentance and forgiveness unto life, as it is expressed in the next chapter of Acts (11:18).
The Gentiles in Caesarea who heard Peter's sermon and believed its message received the gift of faith from the Holy Spirit. And consequently, they were baptized into the Christian Church and became the people of their Lord, given the joyful certainty of life everlasting with the Father (10:44--48). We Gentiles here this morning, no matter what our past works or piety, can have the same joy and certainty given to that little Gentile group in the first century A.D. God shows no partiality. God's forgiving grace is extended to us all. But Easter is a matter of eternal life or death, and our loving God wants so much for us to choose life.
