Acts 4:1-12
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. To our first reading, we have been going through the book of Acts for a while now, the Easter season assigns readings from from the book to show us the life and progress of the Christian church during that season. And in particular, we have been following up on a story that is about a miracle, what happens outside the temple, and then the fallout from that experience. And so several weeks ago, we read about Peter and John coming to the temple, and there was a paralyzed man begging outside, he asked them for money. And Peter says, silver and gold I do not have but what I have I give to you, in the name of Jesus, get up and walk. And of course, the man does. Not surprisingly, a crowd gathers, because that would be pretty amazing, right. And so Peter takes the time to proclaim a sermon to all of the people who have gathered in front of him. And it's basically, I didn't do this, Jesus did it. And then you killed him, and he rose from the dead. And lots of people hear and believe, as it says, In our reading, but many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about 5000. I think it's pretty amazing. That in four chapters, the number of Christians goes from about 120, to about 5000, men, not counting the women. Now, this large crowd, and all of the activity of the disciples leading up to this moment, draws the attention of the authorities. And they arrest Peter and John, they gather together with the high priests and all sorts of other people. And Peter gets the chance to do one more sermon. He says, It's not us. It's Jesus. And he ends his sermon with this, saying, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. There is no other name that no one else can save. That is because our God, Jesus Christ, is the only one who can bring about the resurrection of the dead. Right. As Jesus said himself, he has the authority to lay down his life, the authority to take it up again. And he promises that all who are in his flock will be raised to new life on the last day, called out of their graves. And the Sadducees are really mad, because Peter is proclaiming this resurrection, in the name of Jesus. There is no other name. Salvation is in no one else. Because only Jesus can raise us from the dead. This proclamation of the truth and power of Jesus's name, often comes across a number of objections in the hearts of people who were once part of the church and leave. Often they have various like moral and emotional objections to the church and the world that pulls them away. And today, what I'd like to do is have those objections confront this most powerful message that no one else can say. So the first objection that I hear a lot when people leave the faith and a Christian church is very simple. The people are mean, or they're hypocrites. Right? I'm sure you've heard that before. I went to a church, they said mean things about me. The pastor was kind of a jerk. He said things I didn't like to hear. They didn't welcome me. They were cold. And, you know, you've heard those things before, right? And, in fact, there was a time when congregations were famous for having knockdown, drag out fights in congregational meetings over things like the color of the carpet. Right? And what a surprise, a place that says, We are all sinners is filled with sinners, right? The people are mean, they're kind of jerks. And what this really raises is a question. Why do you join a congregation? Why do Christians gather around Christ and His Word? Is it because you need a place where everyone knows your name, where they shout NO HARM when you walk in? That's for all you old people, right? That's cheers. Now if you want that, there's a bar down the street. They're happy to take you in, they'll smile. And if you're a regular, they'll really like you. Especially the bartender. You can join a Lions Club, they meet every week to they'll welcome you and love you. Because you need a mentor. There's all sorts of people you can pay to do that. life coaches have become a thing. You can go online and pay someone to tell you what to do with your life and mentor you. That's what you need. There's no reason to go to a church for that. Why don't we join a church? Why do we gather together? It's not because the people are great, is it? It's very simple. Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. That's what we keep our eyes on. Right? Only Jesus can forgive our sin. Only Jesus can raise us from the dead. Only Jesus can give us eternal life on the day that he returns when he calls us out of our graves and makes the whole world new. And I don't know about you. But I don't know. I don't care how many jerks I have to live with to get that. Right. And you guys aren't jerks. It's pretty great here. But if you were, isn't it? Isn't Jesus worth it? Isn't the resurrection worth it? That's why we gather to receive the grace of Christ through His Word and Sacraments to have the Holy Spirit delivered us to confirm us in our faith and guide us and gather us until the day he returns. Because no one else can save. So that's why we're here. Another objection that people have when they look out at the world as they think, wow, there is so much pain and injustice and hurt in the world. Natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, fires, starvation, children getting sick and dying of shrapnel falling from the heavens and hitting a poor little girl who could never believe in a God who allows fill in the blank. Have you heard that one before? What this is, is people look at the world and rightly see it is filled with terrible stuff. Bad things happen to relatively innocent people. Good things happen to relatively evil people. And it's an affront to our sense of justice. We look at it and we go this is wrong. Somebody should fix PSpice
right, and God could come down, right? He could come down and end the wars on the earth, he could come down and hand food every starving child, he could knock away every disease amongst the children of the world and get rid of all the terrible things that happen to all the nice people, he can do that right? Why doesn't he was because the people who are looking at it this way, actually want to fix that's too small. They want salvation from the everyday hurts and pains. From that one sickness, that one disease that one earthquake, but in the end, everyone's still going to die. In the end, we're still gonna grow old bodies are gonna fall apart just a little bit at a time. And even if we breathe our last surrounded by family and friends at the ripe old age of 350, we still breather elapsed. That's not the fix, we need. The everyday stuff. We need a cosmic solution, one that will solve all problems, defeat all sin and destroy death forever. And that's what Jesus did. Right? On the cross, He invaded death, he entered into its realm and destroyed its power so that when he rose from the dead, he could raise us from the dead to let's not settle for a small solution and ask God for the tiny thing. Let's keep our eyes on the cosmic salvation, that God includes us in Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the dead on the last day. Yeah, and I mourn all of the problems that I see out in the world. And just as you do, it upsets me when I see injustice, it makes me sad when I see the hurt and the pain. But you know, we all know that there's a solution that God has chosen away, to bring all injustice all hurt to an end, in Jesus Christ, as Peter said, and there is salvation in no one else. But there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. It's only Jesus. The final objection is one that is related to that one. Often what I see is something terrible happens to you. And to a person is not out there in the world, and not far away place or down the street, but in your own life. And it sort of knocks you loose, and then people just slowly or quickly, stop coming to hear God's word. Stop gathering around his grace, and his peace. a loved one dies, and the memories just are too much. The kids start going through a crisis, and you're so focused on that that point, everything else turns away. And then you just start thinking, you know, God was really good. Why would he allow my life to be like this? Why isn't he fixing this? Somewhere along the lines, we started to think and believe that that's what God is for. fixing things. The God is there to provide the nice things we want in life. And if we pray hard enough, or work hard enough, or believe hard enough, his job is to give us that American dream. A good family, a nice house, a full bank account, and happy life, happy children. And the really surprising thing is that actually contrary to what God's Word says, it's all over the place where Jesus tells us Study, it's hard to follow Him, and that maybe even your life will get worse. Certainly got worse for Peter and John. And Jesus rose from the dead ascended into heaven and they got arrested a lot. And why? Very simply, there is salvation in no one else, as Peter says, and there is salvation and no one else, for there is no name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. And it's that salvation is what God promised. That's it. And what a gift that is, isn't that worth going through? Whatever? Isn't it worth crawling through glass beating on the church doors and let me in? Going through terrible things like the apostles did. Because it's eternal. It's resurrection from the dead. It's life that lasts forever. There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai