SCRIPTURE: Acts 5:27-32
TEXT: 5:29 But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. THEME: INTRODUCTION The Easter lectionary sermon series is on WDDTRM: What Difference Does the Resurrection Make? We begin by looking at what has happened to Peter and John. They began with a foot race to the empty tomb on Easter morning. I was getting props ready to tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection to the preschoolers. One of the props is at the bellows of the old pipe organ. I set the hatch opening ajar and descended stone steps leading down to a dark crypt like space. There I lay a cloth neatly folded as if removed from the body of Christ. The props were staged for telling the Easter story as Kauka Kanani walked by the opened hatch when two cats came bounding out of the opening. I named cats Peter and John, discovering the empty tomb Then running back to tell the others. SCRIPTURE Peter and John were witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit (we’ll get to that story in a few weeks). And now Peter and John are found preaching, teaching and healing in the name of Jesus in the streets. They were warned to stop, were arrested, and miraculously escaped from prison. They were back on the streets, preaching, teaching and healing in Jesus’ name. And were arrested again and brought before the Sanhedrin. They were repeat offenders. They said, “We gave strict orders not to teach about Jesus and yet here you are.” They respond by saying, “What are we gonna do? Do we do what you say or do what God says?” Besides you didn’t like what God had to say, when Jesus was among us. You thought that you could silence the voice of God by murdering Jesus. You were wrong on both accounts. And now you want to silence us. Who are we going to obey, God or yourselves? We haven’t seen your miracles, healings, or miraculous escapes. But with God we have seen a resurrected Jesus and been filled with the Holy Spirit and prison doors opened and commanded to tell the message of Jesus. Who are we going to obey?” There were a lot of things that God had revealed to both the High Priest and the Apostles, but if our minds are not open, then we could miss what God is revealing to us. APPLICATION What difference does the Resurrection make in what we obey? When Jesus was resurrected in the tomb, he was alive, and did not stick around for people to come to see him. When we are alive, we are out in the world, on the move. As witnesses of the risen Jesus, as those who have had the Holy Spirit poured out in their lives, the Apostles are alive, out in the world. They are in the streets, teaching about Jesus with signs of the presence of God in caring and by having compassion for others. Those they reached were healed and released from the unclean spirits that possess them. In some regards the church has taken the strategy of the Temple, here we are come and see us in the tomb. But Jesus’ ministry, adopted by the Apostles, is taking the ministry of God to where the people are. This is riskier. Harder. We lose our home court advantage and have to think on our feet, be vulnerable to God, and adapt to whatever situation we find ourselves in. Using what we know about God in ways that can be helpful to draw us all nearer to God. The single thing that has drawn me into the crisis in Ukraine has been the photographs. Those pictures of the bombed-out buildings, the rubble neighborhoods, the bodies found in the trenches, the abandoned skeletal tanks, and the citizens fleeing for safety as new refugees, and immigrants. The sad goodbyes as abled bodied men bid farewell to their families to become soldiers with unknown fates, to defend the hope of their love ones’ futures. The ministry has taken to the streets, by welcoming refugees, sending aid to feed, clothe and shelter those fleeing to safety, prayers for all of this and peace. Russia has turned off their humanity to possess Ukraine. I heard an NPR report of a Ukrainian Library that proves that Ukraine was never a part of Russia. Proof doesn’t matter to a mad man. There is enough proof in the Ukrainian resistance that they don’t want to be Russian. And yet the lies continue, the false reports of victory, and the continued threats of more devastation. He is deluded as his mind is close to any other reality. This is what the mission field looks like in the streets of the Romain Empire, of Nazi Germany, of Ukraine, and in our United States and the streets of Maui when the Lord frees us from the safety of the prison door and leads us out to the streets to live our faith in Christ. See what is around you, the people, the hunger, the illness, the fear, and trying to get by, the injustice, the resistance to do things in a better way. Be compassionate instead of judgmental. That is what I like about the Food Pantry. The stories I hear from the people who distribute food is about helping, and caring for those who have become part of this community, dare I say ‘church’. Use our brain to think about what we could do to help. What resources do we already have? What agencies might we engage? How is the Lord leading us to engage with our world? CONCLUSION There is no King, no Pharaoh, No Emperor, No Queen, No Autocrat, no Czar no Empress who has died and risen from the dead, been resurrected with witnesses and sent an empowering spirit so followers may continue to serve others. Jesus is the only one. Jesus is unique. And proclamation worthy. Jesus’ resurrection shatters all other templates of salvation and forces us to rethink everything with a Loving God who creates, forgives, loves and adopts us as people in the family of God forever. This is worth talking about no matter what anybody says. In fact, this is exactly what the angel who opened the prison door tells the apostles to do, 20 “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” We have our orders.
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