Text: Acts 2:42-47
Facebook live: God gives life through his word and gifts!
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Teaching, Fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.
It sounds a bit like our weekend this past Easter! It sounds like a formula for success.
Easter breakfast gave us time to fellowship and gather as the body of Christ.
We heard the word of God and the proclamation of his resurrection and the work of Jesus by the Spirit in the life of the church.
We gathered together at the table of the Lord receiving his true body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins and strengthening of our faith.
And, we prayed for our needs and for the need of those we know and care for.
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 his word and gifts!!
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 focus called Witness, Mercy and Life together that fits this focus of the early church and our life together here at Peace as well.
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.
God gives life through communion and the Apostle’s teaching and that is our Witness, Mercy and Life Together!
I’ve mentioned my friend’s daughter Michelle before:
This past week she received an award as she finished her service in the Pentagon over the last few years. She will be heading back to Colorado Springs to resume teaching at the Airforce Academy.
It caused me to reflect on her life and an Easter not far removed from this past one.
At times we find ourselves in tough situations and I remember an Easter past when Michelle was serving in Afghanistan as a pilot in the Air Force.
Her 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 Easter morn 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 was given and received, and appropriately they sang, “How Great Thou Art!”
That’s a bit different from our Easter service here and our regular Sunday services! But the elements of Word, Fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer continue here and wherever the Lord’s people are gathered.
Prayers, we pray them every week in our services and daily for many of us in the church - is conversation with God. We bring our prayers and petitions to the one who holds our life in His hands through the mediation of his son and this is truly a blessed communion for us all.
Prayer can be a powerful blessing and we all need to avail ourselves of it daily. As we celebrate today all the Lord’s blessings, we can’t forget prayer, especially the faithful prayers of those, who keep and have kept us united in him.
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.
God gives us life together through communion and the Apostle’s teaching!
Jesus said:
10 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
We know the Good Shepherd’s voice through his word, and by that word, communion, fellowship and prayer, which is communication with God continues. By that, you know him who is the way the truth and the life!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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.
God gives us life together through communion and the Apostle’s teaching!
Jesus said:
10 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
We know the Good Shepherd’s voice through his word, and by that word, communion, fellowship and prayer, which is communication with God continues. By that, you know him who is the way the truth and the life!
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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