Sermon 19th May 2019 - 5th
Sunday of Easter
Text: Acts 11:1-18 – Do not hinder
God
With all the scandals in the church
these days why are you still coming to church?
With all the negative press about
Christians these days why are you still a Christian?
With all the other things you could
be doing with your time and money why do you come to church?
With all the scientific arguments
working overtime to disprove the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus and the
resurrection and everything to do with the Christian faith, why do you still
believe in Jesus?
For me, and I believe for you and
others, it’s because of today’s text from the Book of Revelation:
And I heard a loud voice from the
throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with
them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and
crying and pain will be no more.
Regardless of what society deems the
church to be and what today’s world can offer with all its glitz and glamour,
technology advances, health and medical advances – it cannot provide what the
Christian faith offers:
Death will be no more; mourning and crying and
pain will be no more.
There might be a variety of reasons why
you could easily turn your back on the church and God but what are you giving
up if you do?
It’s like the situation when Jesus is
teaching his followers about who he is and they find it really difficult to
accept.
And John says: From this time many of
Jesus’ disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Jesus asked the Twelve. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we
go? You have the words of eternal life.
And that’s the crux of the issue.
The church is not perfect.
Christians aren’t perfect.
But the Christian faith offers what
no one else can offer – eternal life in heaven with no more suffering or death.
And that’s where things WILL be
perfect.
There is no doubt that the world
around us has changed and sometimes it’s really hard to accept the changes
around us.
And it’s the changes in the world
that has caused the world to move away from the church.
But despite the changes we know that
even though the world may move away from God, God never moves away from the
world.
And his Holy Spirit is working hard
to reconcile the world with God as God is reconciling the world through Christ.
He can’t walk away from the world –
he loves the world so much that he gave his one and only Son as a sacrifice to
ensure we would be with him forever.
Over the generations there has been
pressure for the church to change and it has been it ever so slowly that the
church has responded.
The music has changed.
The seating has changed.
Confirmation of our children has
changed.
The style of worship has changed.
But the central message of the church
must NEVER change no matter how unpopular or out of touch it may seem – that
Jesus Christ died for my sins and that everyone who calls on the name of the
Lord will be saved.
The word “sin” is so foreign to our
world today but we need it because Jesus died for our sins – that’s the Gospel
message.
That is non-negotiable – in fact Paul
says that if anyone comes with a different Gospel they are to be condemned.
But Peter, in our first reading
today, shows how radical the parameters of the message can be challenged – not
the message but how it is delivered.
Peter was challenged by the Holy
Spirit to go to Joppa to meet with a Gentile by the name of Cornelius.
While he is there the Holy Spirit is
received by Cornelius and his household.
Peter is scolded by the other
disciples because this is deemed as against the rules of purity.
But Peter explains to them his vision
where he sees all kinds of unclean animals that were previously forbidden as
food and he is told to eat them.
Peter objects to which God responds:
What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.
And so Peter says: If then God gave
them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who was I that I could hinder God?
That must have been very challenging
to Peter and the disciples who were so devoted to their laws of purity that
were given through Moses.
And no doubt this would have caused
great division between them and the devout Jews who could not accept a change
to the ways they were always done.
Sometimes in our attempts to protect
the way we have always done things we can lose what is at the heart of the
Gospel.
That God loved the world so much that
he gave his one and only Son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.
And that’s what John is describing in
his Revelation – eternal life where death will be no more; mourning and crying
and pain will be no more.
Jesus made a clear distinction between
what was sacred to the Gospel and broke down many barriers that were holding
the gospel away from people – eating with sinners – touching and restoring the
leper – freeing the woman caught in adultery – the man with the withered hand –
the bent over woman were healed on the Sabbath.
And he enshrined those actions within
the new commandment – love one another as I have loved you.
It’s hard and it’s challenging when
things around us change but we must identify those things that are peripheral
to the Gospel and those that are central.
And what is central – and has been
and will remain to Lutheran teaching – is Word and Sacrament.
The Word of God cannot be compromised
as even Pilate said when the Jews wanted him to change the sign above Jesus’
head – this is the King of the Jews – what is written is written.
And the sacraments – Baptism and Holy
Communion.
These are the means of Grace by which
God assures us that we shall not perish but receive eternal life where death
will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
They are not symbolic and neither do
they represent God’s grace and love.
They ARE God’s grace and love where
water and word combine – where bread and wine have Jesus’ Body and Blood – in
with and under.
They are the Gospel in action – they
are God’s love which we are to example to one another.
Sadly defending the way we have
always done things has often gotten in the way of the Gospel.
Traditions are important but once
they hinder the Gospel and our love for one another then they are no longer
serving the spread of the Gospel.
“Who are we to hinder the work of
God”
But we must distinguish between
tradition and doctrine.
Bread and wine is not tradition but
the teaching of our Lord.
The King James Version of the bible
served a good purpose in the church but once the old English no longer served
our changing language other translations better served the church.
Infant baptism is not a tradition but
a teaching of the church.
Pipe organ serves a good purpose in
the church but so does contemporary music.
St Paul says to watch your doctrine
closely not your tradition.
And so for Peter, even though the
laws of purity had served Israel for many centuries now came the time to spread
the Gospel further which meant God gave permission to extend his Holy Spirit
into previously unclean situations.
Maybe God has challenged you with
some of the changes that the church has undertaken for the sake of the Gospel.
We have not always made decisions
that have pleased everyone and that’s really difficult but we need to be aware
that this is where Satan can enter.
How easy would it have been for Satan
to side the other disciples against Peter.
That happened in Galatian when Peter
was criticised for that which is what Paul called “another Gospel” and
condemned those who persuaded Peter to now think differently about Gentiles
receiving the Holy Spirit.
Our church has recently made
decisions that have hurt people.
Our church has done things in the
past that has hurt people which is coming out in the Royal Commissions.
Not only do these actions hinder the
gospel but how we respond also hinders the gospel.
And that’s when we need to remember
Jesus’ final command before he died to love one another as I have loved you –
and by this all people will know that you’re my disciples.
And the opposite is true too – when
we don’t love as Christ loves – forgiving one another – then we hinder the
gospel and stop being witnesses as his disciples.
It’s hard – just as it was hard for
the disciples to accept what Peter had done that went against centuries of
teachings from Moses.
They wouldn’t have understood why God
would do it – just as we don’t always understand why God does some things – but
they were prepared to trust for the sake of the Gospel and not hinder God.
God’s will is for all to be saved and
to come to a knowledge of the truth – a will so important to God that he
allowed his own Son to be sacrificed.
Let us also trust God and allow his
will to be done which is not always OUR will.
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