EASTER 2 – April 11, 2021 – Acts 4:32-35
“RESURRECTION POWER”
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the First Reading from Acts 4. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- Our text is a kind of summary of how things were going in the early church, following the Day of Pentecost. Our text states that “with great power the apostles were giving their testimony.” Even though the Lord Jesus had ascended, He kept His promises to the disciples – to be with them and to empower them by the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- This was important, for the building up of the church – people coming to faith. Earlier in this chapter we read that “many of those who had heard the Word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.” [Acts 4:4] Now, some of this growth had been set up by Jesus, His preaching and teaching and His miracles. However, the apostles participation “with great power” was also essential in building the church.
- Actually, Peter had exerted great power by miraculously healing a man who was lame and a beggar. He did so in the Name of Jesus and by His power. This aggravated the authorities who then threatened the Peter and the others to quit preaching about Jesus. So just before we get to this description in our text we read the prayer of the apostles: “Lord, look upon their threats and grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your Word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the Name of Your holy Servant, Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness.”
- This was the “RESURRECTION POWER” at work in the early church, and this same “RESURRECTION POWER” continues within the life of the church to this very day. Everything that we have in the church, every good thing that is done in the church today comes by the same means – the Lord Jesus, His Name, and the Holy Spirit. It is clear from our text that:
I. Jesus Provides Power For Preaching
Acts 4:29,31 “Grant to Your servants to continue to speak Your Word with all boldness. . . . and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the Word of God with boldness.”
A. They Preached Repentance Just As Jesus Did
Acts 4:10,11 “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.”
B. They Preached The Gospel – Encouraging Faith In God’s Love And Salvation
Acts 4:12 “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.”
C. They Were Preaching The Resurrection Of Jesus And Our Coming Resurrection
Text: “With great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.”
Acts 4:2 “They were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.”
Statement: Yes, the point of Jesus resurrection is that in Him we too will have resurrection – on the Last Day. This is the teaching of Holy Scripture both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is the blessed destiny that God planned for fallen, sinful mankind. It requires repentance – seeing the sin for which Jesus died, so that we can have the joy of His salvation, a salvation available no where else and in no one other than Jesus! But the effect of such faith and blessedness is “RESURRECTION POWER.”
Application: The purpose for this writing is the same as that stated by John in our Gospel reading: “These things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His Name.” And these things are also written that we, within the church, may also have “RESURRECTION POWER” as we continue to preach and teach Jesus Christ, His salvation and His resurrection! And we see some of the effects that this blessed gospel and the power of God had on the early church:
II. God’s Great Grace Was Upon Them All
Text: “And great grace was upon them all.”
A. So That They Had Peace And Joy In God’s Love
Acts 9:31 “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up.”
Acts 13:52 “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”
B. Likewise, There Was Perfect Unity Of Heart And Soul
Text: “The full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul.”
C. There Was A Pious And Proper View Of Personal Wealth And Property
Text: “And no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. . . . As many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”
D. So There Was No Need Whatsoever In The Early Church
Text: “And it was distributed to each as any had need.”
E. It Was Distributed By Apostolic Oversight
Text: “The proceeds of what was sold was laid at the apostles’ feet.”
Statement: Our administration of the resources God has given to us does not take this form of communism – communal control of property, as it did in the early church. However, the principles that moved them to do this are equally applicable to us. We ought not look at the things that belong to us as solely our own, but rather as gifts of God that are given with the common good in mind. Therefore, if anyone in the church has need, our resources are intended to provide for them.
Application: What moves and motivates this is the powerful love of God in Christ Jesus, and the faith given by the Holy Spirit. But it is also the “RESURRECTION POWER” which Christ gives to His church, the Holy Spirit. This is part of our testimony to Jesus – that we trust in Him not in our wealth, that we love Him more than wealth or possessions, and that His love moves us to be loving and caring and generous people.
Conclusion: The church is the church, whether in the early days or today. We may not have Apostles around today through whom God heals and performs great “signs and wonders,” but we do have His Word and His Sacraments, and we are empowered to this day to preach and proclaim the resurrection in Jesus!
Likewise, His love continues to move us to look at all of our possessions and resources as belonging to the common good. This too is evidence and witness to the “RESURRECTION POWER” of the Holy Christian Church.
God grant that each of us belong to this church, by genuine faith and trust in Jesus, and that we also be growing in the blessings Jesus pours out upon His church. Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.