Title: God gives life through communion and the Apostle’s teaching!
Text: Acts 2:42-47
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Life is a matter of building. Each of us has the opportunity to build something -- a secure family, a good reputation, a career, a relationship to God. But some of those things can disappear almost overnight due to financial losses, natural disasters and other unforeseen difficulties.
What are we to do? Daniel Webster offered excellent advice, saying, “If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work on brass, time will efface it. If we rear temples, they will crumble to dust. But if we work on men’s immortal minds, if we impress on them high principles, the just fear of God, and love for their fellow-men, we engrave on those tablets something which no time can efface, and which will brighten and brighten to all eternity.”
DANIEL WEBSTER, secretary of state, speech to the City Council, Boston, Massachusetts, May 22, 1852.—The Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, vol. 13, pp. 518–19 (1903).
Morning Glory, July 3, 1993.
That is the joy and that is the goal with which we are brought to faith by our loving God that through His gifts and by communion and fellowship with Him we have a life, in Christ, by Christ and through Christ.
God gives life through communion and the Apostle’s teaching!
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
St. Luke in his book of the Acts of the Apostles gives an account of the early church. Last week we heard of Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter 2 that cut to the heart of those who heard the Law of God’s condemnation bringing them to the point of asking, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37b
To which Peter replies:
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Now coming to faith through the Gospel brought some 3000 souls into the church through Peter’s sermon but now we hear what the church did with and for those who repented and were baptized.
They heard the word of God proclaimed which is the Apostles teaching. They had fellowship one with another both in community and in communion with that same doctrine of the word. The breaking of bread in fellowship meals as well as with the Lord’s Supper that, as we heard last week, opened the eyes of their understanding so that they could see who Christ Jesus truly is and what he had done and finally, prayer, which is conversation and communion with that one and same word of God – Jesus Christ.
Our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has a mission statement called Witness, Mercy and Life together that fits this focus of the early church and our life together here at Peace as well.
God gives life through communion and the Apostle’s teaching!
The Apostle’s teaching, which is the word of God and what that word means, is the witness of who God is and what we have become in Christ.
As His children we are called by Christ to be in worship, to hear His word to know that, as sinners, we all fall short of God’s requirements, but we also know that God has made a way in the person and work of Jesus Christ to bring us back into fellowship with him. This fellowship we now have with each other as His children, celebrating our life together in communion around the table of the Lord, as we together confess that the body and blood of Christ that was given and shed for you is now truly received with the bread and wine bringing forgiveness of sins to those who receive this merciful gift by faith.
Apart from faith it is impossible to please God or to come to him because we all are judged as sinful and unclean and separated from the love of God found only in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ill.
At times we find ourselves in tough situations. I was talking to my friend Paul on the phone and his daughter Michelle is serving in Afghanistan as a pilot in the United States Air Force.
Michelle’s Easter was a bit different than yours and mine. For her - worship started on the roof of the hospital at her base … at sunrise … overlooking the mountains and the dawning of the day as the F-16s began taking off on their missions in the distance.
The second service was at 8:00 am and for this service she played guitar and sang hymns of praise. Just before the Lord’s Supper in the service, the sirens went off as mortar and rocket fire came upon the base. Everyone hit the floor. One soldier chuckled in the midst of the attack as he saw Michelle put her guitar over her head. “What kind of rocket you plan of stopping with that.” He asked? Michelle kind of chuckled too knowing that it wouldn’t do much good but was a natural reaction.
Soon the all clear was given and the service continued, the words of institution were said, the Lord’s body and blood given and received, then appropriately they sang, “How Great Thou Art!”
Not much different from our Easter service … without the rockets!
the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers.
God gives life through communion and the Apostle’s teaching and that is our Witness, Mercy and Life Together!
Prayers … we pray them every week in our services and daily for many of us in the church. This conversation with God brings our prayers and petitions to the one who holds our life in His hands through the mediation of his son.
Prayer can be a powerful blessing and we all need to avail ourselves of it daily. As we celebrate this Mother’s Day we can’t forget prayer, especially the faithful prayers of our mothers, who keep and have kept us in constant prayer.
Ill.
As I talked to my friend Paul and about his daughter Michelle in Afghanistan we also remembered how far we’ve come since the day of playing 6 nights a week in our band at Captain Ahab’s bar in Wyandotte, Michigan.
Paul said about his mother Marian, “She was in constant prayer for us all.” You see she had two boys Paul and David. She also had surrogate sons Russell and John who played in places that I’m sure she didn’t think we should be. But like all good mothers, she couldn’t stop us from playing and gigging, but she could pray to the Lord that He would protect us and get us to where He wanted us to be.
None of us really liked the bars and the fights that might go on as well and we sure didn’t want to be there but Marian’s prayers, my mom Eleanor’s prayers and the prayers of Connie Ganos too kept us before the throne of grace and out of trouble. David has been a high School teacher now for 36 years, Paul is an Environmental Chemist and leads worship at St. Augustine Lutheran Church in Troy, John is a Lawyer and me … well, God uses the weak to confound the strong. God knew that if He could turn Russ Tkac into a pastor … well He was also truly able to use all things for the good according to His purpose, connecting himself to human flesh, turning water into wine, raising Himself on the third day and bringing people who are dead in sin to life and faith in Jesus Christ through the washing of regeneration with the word.
God bless our mothers on this day and always for the faithful prayers offered on our behalf and may we all continue to be connected to the the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Forgive me for paraphrasing Daniel Webster but:
“If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work on brass, time will efface it. If we build temples, they will crumble to dust. But if GOD works on men’s immortal hearts and minds, through the apostles' teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers the just fear of God, and love for their fellow-men, will be engraved on their hearts and minds as tablets of stone which no time can efface, brightening their lives and the lives of all who are called by faith to believe in Jesus Christ unto all eternity.”
God gives life through communion and the Apostle’s teaching!
May the Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be and abide with you all now and forever!
Amen
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