"People With a Purpose" Part I

Sermon: Third Sunday of Easter year A

The Rev. Matt Kennedy

The Church of the Good Shepherd

How many of you were listening or watching the coverage this week of the death of Pope John Paul II? This pope was a great man and a courageous man who stood for the truth of the Christian faith. When it comes moral issues the John Paul II was a rock. And, as you’ve probably heard in the news coverage this week, his courage and faithfulness in proclaiming the timeless moral teachings of the bible won him many critics. As I was watching the news coverage I happened to see a reporter for CNN, give voice to the main problem many people had with John Paul II. She said, and I’m paraphrasing, that now that the pope is dead the church has the wonderful opportunity to change its old fashioned teachings on sexuality and marriage and traditional values. The Church can now get with the times. I generally don’t watch the news when they’re talking about religious issues because I always end up wanting to throw something at the television but I wanted to watch the news about the pope so I kept watching. But no matter what channel I turned to this reporter’s sentiments were repeated by other reporters, pundits, commentators, and politicians revealing, I think, a deep cultural misunderstanding of what exactly the church is supposed to do.

What is the purpose of the church? When I say the word “church” I don’t just mean, Good Shepherd, I mean THE Church made up of every Christian denomination: Protestant, Catholic Orthodox, and evangelical. The Church worldwide, what is it’s purpose? I ask this question for three reasons. First, there is a definitive answer. The Church worldwide does have a purpose and mission defined by God in his Word that he intends for each individual congregation to recognize, understand and act on. Second Churches that fail to act on that God given purpose die. I don’t mean they necessarily close their doors and fold, but they die all the same. If you’ve been to a dead church before you know what I mean. There is a certain zombie-like quality to them. The people shuffle in say their prayers, hear the sermon, get their communion and shuffle out and they repeat the same cycle over and over again, week by week, year by year, breathing and technically alive but comatose. No growth, no energy, no movement, no life. Third, churches that recognize and act on that purpose thrive. By thriving I don’t necessarily mean that they are bulging at the seams, there’s always numerical growth in a living church, but that growth is a by-product coming out of an active commitment on the part of the leaders and the people of a given church to act on the purpose that God laid out for The Church in the beginning. This active commitment brings life because it opens the church doors to the Spirit of God who comes in and begins to fill the place with life.

So here at Good Shepherd our life now and our future life together depend on whether or not we recognize and act on the mission God has given. Fortunately for us, we’ve been given a perfect model of a church acting out its God given purpose in Acts 2. There are five actions modeled for us in Acts 2 that together fulfill God‘s purpose for the church and provide a blue print for what a thriving church does and looks like. As we walk through Acts 2, compare this biblical model to Good Shepherd and asking yourself, “are we fulfilling the purpose God has given us?” I’ll only be talking about the first and most important action of the Church this morning.

The great thing about acts 2 is that it’s essentially a delivery room account of the birth of the church and the very first sermon ever preached by a Christian pastor, Peter on the day of Pentecost. Jesus has already risen from the dead and he’s ascended into heaven and just like he promised, he didn’t leave the disciples to fend for themselves. He’s sent the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower them to proclaim the good news that Jesus is alive. In the reading today, the disciples have just now received the Holy Spirit. That morning they’d been huddled in a room praying and then suddenly there was a rushing wind and the Holy Spirit entered each one of them and together they rushed outside and began telling people about Jesus. But even though they spoke in their own language, Aramaic, everyone listening, and there were Jews from all over the Mediterranean in Jerusalem that day to celebrate a festival, heard them in their own native tongues. And because of that as it says in Acts 2:13 some people thought that maybe they’d been drinking too much wine

In verse 14 you’ll see that Peter stood up and began to speak to the crowd.

The first thing he does you’ll notice is assure them by saying, “these men are not drunk. It’s only nine in the morning.” Instead he says, what you’re seeing and hearing is in fact the fulfillment of the words of the prophet Joel, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” (Acts 2:16-17) . And then he goes on to quote the whole prophesy in vv. 17-21.

Now, pay attention to what he does right after he’s gotten the crowd to the point where they’re ready to listen. Look at verses 22-24, “Men of Israel, listen to this, Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.” Man what a guilt trip. Peter doesn’t proclaim a soft-soap gospel. He doesn’t say “I’m okay your okay. We’re all nice people and God’s nice too. Jesus came to pat us all on the head and give us a warm fuzzy feeling.” Instead he says, you’ve been waiting for your messiah, we’ll he’s come and you’ve killed him, but God raised him from the dead. The first sermon ever preached by the leader of the first church begins with the stunning accusation and conviction that everyone is guilty of sin.

Now how on earth, you might be thinking did the church ever get off the ground preaching a message like that? The assumption of many churches and church leaders is that in order to grow you have to shape the message to fit the culture. In fact, the fastest growing churches are those that have continued to preach and teach the gospel in accordance with the scriptures. The ones that are dying are those that have changed the teaching to try and fit the times. There’s a reason for that. There’s no power in a dying world and likewise there’s no power in a church that conforms to it; only death and stagnation. The Church has to tell the whole truth, even when it hurts. The truth Peter told did not originate with him. It came by and in the power of the Holy Spirit from the very throne of heaven and it has been announced and revealed to us in the words of the Bible So Peter had no choice but to tell the truth about sin and neither do we. And while the world is dying, there’s divine life-giving power in truth.

Look at verse 37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” When the gospel is preached faithfully it is powerful enough to change lives. The people were cut to the heart because they knew that Peter was telling the truth. The Holy Spirit had convicted their hearts and under that conviction they were ready and willing to hear and receive what Peter said next, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and you children and for all who are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Yes, Peter says, we are sinners, but in Jesus Christ there is the promise of forgiveness and eternal life for those who repent and accept him.

Now skip down to verse 41: “Those who accepted this message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

Do you see what happened? By telling the truth about sin and then following that proclaiming the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ, God used this first church to change the lives of three thousand people. Three thousand people who God loved and wanted as his children were given new hope and a new lives that day.
Proclaiming the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to convict and transform the world is the first action of the church, the first task that every congregation is called to do in order to fulfill the God’s purpose in the world. It’s hard to tell the truth sometimes, people don’t always want to hear it, but those who hear and accept it live transformed lives here by the power of the Holy Spirit and eternal lives with Christ in heaven and that is what God sent his Son to accomplish; that’s what he wants because he loves the world and he wants everyone to be with him.

Over the last two years I personally know that at least 11 people here at Good Shepherd have given their lives over to Jesus Christ for the first time. Many more have had their faith deepened and have grown significantly in their relationship with God and that’s wonderful but as far as conversions go, we’ve had 11. Not quite 3000, but 11 is good and it’s not due to Anne’s or my ability to preach or teach, it’s due to the fact that we together as a church have been willing to proclaim the truth of the gospel unvarnished, to talk about sin and to proclaim God’s forgiveness and mercy. This willingness has opened the doors of this church to power of the Holy Spirit and I think we can all feel it. This church is alive and as long as this active willingness to proclaim the gospel remains, the Holy Spirit will continue to work through us and we can expect more people to have their lives changed here. So that’s the first task, to proclaim the full gospel of Jesus Christ.

Next week we’re going to talk about another task described here in Acts 2 and I’m actually going to give you homework. Read Acts 2:14-47 three times before next Sunday and see if you can find the other tasks that this first church engaged in and whether or not we are doing the same.