God's Work Won't Be Stopped

Transcript

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[0:00] God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. And we ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, we have here, again, like I said, a simple sermon about the resurrection. It's only three verses long. It's a really short one. And we're going to look at this mini-sermon about the resurrection in just a moment. The context is the apostles' defense in front of the authorities for their actions. And just look at it. We're going to ask Caleb maybe to bring the very first text slide back up that has verses 30. The next one.

[0:36] There we go. This has 30, 31, and 32. That's all we're interested in right now. So if you look at verse 30, it says, this is what Peter says, God raised Jesus whom you had killed. And so the disciples are not walking back from the accusation that even the religious leaders were sensitive to, that they were trying to put Jesus' blood on them. Peter says, I'm going to ask you to bring the very first text slide back up. And so the disciples Peter doesn't, you know, sort of that when you're proclaiming something, you can't lie, right? You have to tell the truth. Yes, it really was your fault. I mean, theologically, it's all our fault that Jesus went to the cross. But in the case of how the mechanics of it happened, these religious leaders had Jesus' blood on their hands. But so the proclamation, though, is that God raised Jesus. So he's starting with the resurrection. Then verse 31, God exalted him, which is to bring him to heaven so that Israel, Israel should repent. And very interesting, just as a quick side note, that the idea that a whole nation should repent for the sins that the nation had done. And so this idea of communal guilt and communal repentance is something that you do find in the Bible. We talk about that at other times,

[1:46] but here it is. And then verse 32, we are witnesses. So we have seen this, the resurrection always has to have a witness to it, somebody who's actually seen Jesus. Walking around, just like Thomas did in our reading. So we've seen it, and the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world, and he also testifies to the resurrection. And so that's it, three verses. God raised Jesus. Jesus is going to bring forgiveness of sins, and he's in heaven now. And then we are witnesses of this, and the Holy Spirit is witnessing also to it. Now, one note here, just as you might have noticed, and I've kind of put some emphasis on, sometimes when we talk about the Trinity, the point that some people make is that that word Trinity doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible. And that is true. The word Trinity does not appear anywhere in the Bible. The doctrine of the Trinity was developed by the early church. It took them hundreds of years to kind of get to that point where they sort of understood it.

[2:51] But just look at this three-sentence sermon, and you'll have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. in one verse after the other. Isn't that interesting? So even though the word Trinity doesn't appear, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being in the Scriptures together in context like this happens many times in Scripture. And so that is enough right there to develop the doctrine of the Trinity. And even some of the interplay between what jobs people have is in this tiny sermon. God exalts the Son. The Holy Spirit testifies to the resurrection. And so that's the doctrine of the Trinity. And so we say the doctrine of the Trinity is a little bit, it's a bit difficult to learn and understand and maybe even to believe, and that may be true. But there's plenty of passages in Scripture when we go looking for them that will undergird our understanding of the Trinity. And this is just one of those places. Now there's two things about this passage I want to highlight besides the Trinity language, okay? One is how it begins, and how verse 30 begins. When Peter says, or verse 29, he says, we must obey God first, right? And this is one of those brave things that you get one of those moments where, you know, we told you not to do this. And Peter says, well, we're, we are going

[4:09] to do it. And here's why. Because our, our, the priority of what we obey, if it was between the government or the people who have authority over us, the humans who have authority over us, or God who has authority to us, God must always come first in those equations. And so we have to obey God first. The church, and we understand this as Christians, we understand that the role of the government being over us is a gift from God. Luther called good government part of the daily bread that we pray for when we pray the Lord's Prayer, give us this day, our daily bread. And by that, we, we mean good weather, enough food, good doctors, good government, you know, all these things that are good for us that help us lead daily lives. A good government will protect its people. A good government will listen to their concerns. A good government will keep order in the land. It will punish evildoers, right? It'll have laws that are enforced fairly and equitably. That's what a good government looks like. And so in Romans, we read, and whether we have a good government or not is probably a debate that we're not going to have in this room. And we're not going to do that. But there are examples of governments that are good. And there are examples

[5:22] of governments that are bad, right? In Romans, we read that we are to obey an authority that's a good authority. The apostle Paul says we should, we should honor, you know, honor those who are in authority over us because they wield the sword. They keep order in the land and we should. So we should, you know what, when you go home today, you shouldn't speed. I'm just saying you shouldn't speed. You just paid all your taxes. I hope you paid the right amount of taxes. I mean, these are important things that we are required to do. When the church does something like try to build a building, we go to the city and we get a permit, you know, and then the neighbors have a chance to say, we don't want it, you know. So we try to keep the law. That's important. That's important for us as Christians, important for us as a church to live in the system of laws of the government that we are in. And different countries have different laws. Now, Peter is here carving out kind of an important exception, right? A Christian who's following the Spirit's promptings will never do anything that a good government forbids, right? He won't kill or murder or any of those, you know, or steal or anything like that. Being a good follower of Jesus and being a good citizen of your country of a good government will almost always

[6:34] entail the same sorts of behaviors. Loving your neighbor, taking care of each other, being good civic citizens, you know, being responsible citizens. But if a governing authority commands something that's against God's will or prohibits something that is God's will, both ways, then a Christian is supposed to choose God's authority over the government. And that can get you into trouble with the government. And this was a problem for the early church. At various times, Christians were required to worship the emperor as a god. So I'll give you a little bit of a history background. Towards the end of the first century, there was a Roman emperor named Domitian. He sent out a decree that everybody in the empire should worship him as God the Lord. That's what he commanded. The whole Roman empire. Can you imagine? The whole Roman empire. And I don't know what the arrogance of this emperor was. Like, it's not enough to be the emperor and rule this entire land and empire. But now I want everybody to say that I'm also a god. Wow.

[7:44] So residents were ordered to come to the public square and burn a pinch of incense, because that's sort of a form of worship, right? When you burn incense, it's like a prayer going up, and speak these words, for example.

[8:02] So if you remember the first great great great great great great great great great great do this or wouldn't do this. Many Christians couldn't or wouldn't do this. So just as one example, in 180 AD there were 12 Christians from the rural town of Siliam, which is in North Africa. They were brought to trial in Carthage while it still existed and they did not recognize the Empire of this world. They said, rather we serve that God whom man has seen, whom no man has seen nor can see with their eyes. And when each one confessed, I am a Christian, and they refused to worship the Emperor, they were sentenced to immediate beheading. And there were 12 of them in this particular case that this happened to. But you can multiply this story times thousands and thousands of Christians that were thrown into the arena to fight wild animals or fight each other or simply beheaded or crucified or all things like that. And so you cannot do what God forbids even if it costs you your life. And we have martyrs in the faith from the early centuries who can attest to this. And yet I believe this is still happening. Right. You cannot not do. At the same time you cannot not do what God commands. You cannot do what God prohibits which is calling the Emperor God. But you cannot

[9:31] not do what God commands which is to preach the gospel. And so if a government has a ban on preaching. about Jesus well that's a problem for us he explicitly commanded it that we preach about him in the Great Commission at the conclusion of the Gospel of Matthew right he's going to all the world and preach the good news so if you live in a country where you're told you may not preach the gospel then you're in the pickle too it's a tough time because you're a command that you are to preach the gospel now maybe you do it in a way that's that's in a way that the government can't catch you maybe that's a smart thing to do you know but maybe you'll be called on to preach in a way where the government can see you and then the government has a choice and you have a choice now I and and this again also is happening in this world but this is that exception that Peter that Peter makes use of we must obey God's authority first and so we recognize his authority is higher than that of the authority of the gospel that are in this place that was the religious leaders and I think just as a note we would say praise God that we live in a land where this is not an issue for us we are not forbidden from preaching the gospel so I'm thankful for

[10:45] the First Amendment for that and for many other things in the First Amendment I'm very thankful I mean it's a it's a wonderful wonderful thing other people don't have it so well that's for sure the question maybe is what are we doing with that freedom are we making the best use of that freedom that God gave us that daily bread of good government that gave us something like the First Amendment the second thing I want to draw our attention to is the section after the sermon so we can maybe make that that slide go away now thank you we have this wise Pharisee okay can you make that one go away you're good he's a teenager they need loss not asleep and such so that's good it's fine I go lost track we have this wise Pharisee named Gamaliel Gamaliel I love this name tree just kind of rolls off the tongue Gamaliel he seems like a nice guy he is a nice guy his name comes up later in the Book of Acts in chapter 22 when the Apostle Paul claims that he himself was a student of Gamaliel right and Gamaliel was considered one of the more lenient of the Pharisees internally his interpretation of the law he was more lenient and he was lenient towards the disciples in this case and so you might want to say if you want to get some

[12:03] that Paul was a poor student of Gamaliel. He didn't take Gamaliel's teaching to heart because Paul was present at the stoning of Saint Stephen and he approved of the whole thing. That was not a Gamaliel move at all, but that was Saul. But later Paul, I think maybe was like, oh, in all of his repentance for his persecution of the church, maybe he started channeling more of Gamaliel in his later life. And so he claimed himself to be a disciple of, or a student of Gamaliel in his youth. All the same, Gamaliel makes this very logical argument for letting the apostles go and not to try to stop them. It's really smart. He says, look, if this is nothing, it'll fizzle out. You know, Jesus died, his followers were scattered, just like all these other people that has that, that has happened to it. But he says, if God is behind it, there's no way to stop him. And so he says, look, if this is nothing, it'll fizzle out. There's nothing you can actually do to stop it. And if you try, you'll be opposing God's will, and you don't want to be in that spot. And so that allows then the apostles to go free. They continue to do their work. And Gamaliel's argument sort of carries the day, which is good. But I want to end on that note, because I think that's a good word for us too, this idea that

[13:19] there's this inevitability of whatever it is that God has his hand in. And that's good news, right? That's good news for us. It can be opposed, but if there's really nothing to it, it will fizzle out. At this point, I would say Christianity hasn't fizzled out after 2,000 years. I'm not going to say it's going strong, but it's still here. You know what I mean? Like this, you know, we built some buildings and things like that. The neighbors didn't like it, but here we are. It hasn't fizzled out. God has been behind it despite all of our failures as a church. And I say that with the church, with the capital C, the whole global church. So what God says to us in this, I think, is we need to be preaching the gospel all the time with words and with acts of love and service. We need to be preaching the gospel, but we're not in charge completely over how well it goes. And that's the good news in a weird way. We can't control how other people hear it, only how we say it. We can't control if they change because of it, only that we're open to changing ourselves because of what it speaks into our hearts. And that's the good news. And that's the good news. And that's the good news. And that's the good news. And that's the good news. And that's the good news. And that's

[14:26] So you kind of see where this is going. We're welcomed into a place where we're definitely called to all sorts of things by God and to do them with all the excellence and love that we can. And the Spirit gives us, as the Spirit gives us the ability to do it. But it is God who has a design for how that will go. And if it's nothing, it'll fizzle out. But if it's something, nothing can stand in its way. It's inevitable.

[14:55] And I think to a lot of people who look at the Christian faith, they look at it and it does seem like a nothing that will go away, right? And I do think the church is probably shrinking in our country, or at least many major denominations are getting smaller every year, though not so in other countries. The Christian faith is growing in other countries, which is exciting. I think we're not terribly impressed by what passes itself off as Christians in this country in some places, too. So not only is the church shrinking, but the church is going astray in some really alarming ways, I would say, and that's a real concern. So if those things are nothing, they will go away, and I think we can be confident of that. If there's not the scriptures holding it together, if there's not the witness of the gospel holding together, then it will fizzle away. If it's Christianity based on a political movement, political movements come and go every 10 or 20 years. Those churches will evaporate, or else they'll find their truth. So I think we're going to have to be very careful about that. And I think that's a true source back in the scriptures. Again, I can only pray that that happens. But if it's nothing, it'll go away,

[15:58] but if it's something of God, it has an inevitability about it. If God is behind it, the Spirit is empowering it, and the Son is living in it, then as Gamaliel says, nothing will be able to overcome it. And so I want to ask you to maybe make this goal with me, and it's one that's a freeing goal. It's a very freeing goal. And it's this, to work as hard as God gives us the time and ability to, to preach the gospel in words and works of service and love. To listen all the time for the Spirit to tell me where to go next and what to say next. Just be open to the Spirit's prompting. And after that, after you've done that, to rest. Just to rest and trust that God is doing something great. And that's, that's it. That there's this inevitability about what we, what will happen if God is with us. And that's good news for today. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for your word. Thank you for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thank you that this is not a nothing that disappeared, but that you have been behind it and that you make it grow. Father, make it grow through us in this world and in this community that we serve as our church. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

[17:19] Well, real quick now. We're gonna do something different. We're gonna bring back something we haven't done in a long time because of the pandemic. Which is our offer, offering. And our offertory. And so Jared's in the back. He has a plate. Is it empty? There's one thing in it. Yay. So many of you give online. So just imagine that you kind of virtually put something in the plate. We're not passing the plate because of germs. But we put it there. And Yuki is gonna play the doxology. And when she starts playing. We'll ask you to sit. stand and sing along. And then Jared is sort of going to symbolically walk forward with the offering and he's going to place it on the altar. And that's our offering that we bring before God. And so it's sort of our safer way of doing the offertory. We're going to give it a try this week. And if we like it, we'll just keep doing it this way. So go ahead, Yuki.

[18:41] Wonderful. And let's stay standing and continue to sing. Next up is Michael with Desiree. Desiree's desert song. This is my prayer in my hunger and need. My God is the God who provides. This is my prayer in the fire. In weakness or trial or pain.

[19:35] There is a faith proofed of more worth than God. So refine me Lord through the Lord. I will bring praise. I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice. I will declare. God is my victory and He is here.

[20:07] This is my prayer in the battle. When triumph is still on its way. I am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ. So firm on His promise I'll stand. I will bring praise. I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain. I will rejoice. I will declare. God is my victory and He is here.

[20:43] Desiree's desert song. This is my prayer in the fire. In weakness or trial or pain. There is a faith proofed of more worth than God. So refine me Lord through the Lord. This is my prayer in the fire. In weakness or trial or pain. This is my prayer in the fire. In weakness or trial or pain. This is my prayer in the fire.

[21:08] This is my prayer in the fire. This is my prayer in the fire. to see in every season you are still god is no weapon formed against me shall remain i will rejoice i will declare god is my victory and he is this is my prayer this is my prayer in the harvest when favor and providence flow i know i'm filled to be emptied again the seed i've received i will sow my jesus i love him my jesus i love him i know thou art mine for thee all the follies of sin i resign my gracious redeemer my savior art thou my savior art thou If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now.

[24:01] I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me, And purchased my power on Calvary's tree. I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow, If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now. I love Thee for wearing the thorns on Thy brow, If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now.

[24:54] I'll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death, And praise Thee as long as I live. For thou hast thou landed me breath. And stay with the death-dew lies cold on my brow. If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis now. For thou hast thou landed me breath.

[25:46] In mansions of glory and endless delight I'll ever adore Thee in heaven so bright I'll sing with a glittering crown on my brow If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, tis Thou