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This Sunday Podcast - 3rd Sunday of Easter
15 Plays5 days ago
S1:E3 - Pastors Phil Brandt and Matthew Hardaway continue th
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to this Sunday, our weekly podcast where Pastor Brant and I dig into the readings for the coming Sunday of the church year. This week we'll be looking at the third Sunday of Easter. I'm going to open us up with the call out of the day for our prayer, and I'll have Pastor Brant lead us in our reading.
Opening Prayer and Significance of Resurrection
00:00:24
Speaker
We pray. O God, through the humiliation of your Son, you raised up the fallen world. Grant to your faithful people, rescued from the peril of everlasting death, perpetual gladness and eternal joys. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Amen.
Peter's Address at Pentecost
00:00:48
Speaker
a man Reading for this week, the first reading comes out of the second chapter of the Book of Acts today. This is the great event of Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And it starts with Peter standing up and addressing the crowd that has been drawn to the sound of the wind and the fire and the fire poured out upon the heads of the disciples. Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them.
00:01:17
Speaker
And now our reading takes a little bit of a skip. We actually skip over the content of the of the of the sermon that Peter preached, and we come really to his conclusion.
00:01:30
Speaker
Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.
00:01:41
Speaker
Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
00:01:53
Speaker
Peter said to them, 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. 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.
00:02:14
Speaker
And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who were received who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
00:02:34
Speaker
Here ends the reading.
Post-Easter Church Attendance
00:02:38
Speaker
Talk about an altar call. No kidding. I've always thought this was sort of the the standard to which all my sermons are held. you know if I don't have 3,000 baptisms after this sermon, it's a failure.
00:02:50
Speaker
No. but i ah it It is an absolutely amazing passage.
00:03:00
Speaker
And and i i really think that that you know we're we're on the second Sunday of Easter, and the world kind of gets Easter Day a little bit. you know there's There's celebration. There's people who go, it's Easter. And yeah know oftentimes our churches are full.
00:03:21
Speaker
um But that Sunday after Easter is oftentimes a moment when when a lot of the people who are going to go to church once this month, they went last Sunday. And so this Sunday is a little thin for us.
00:03:35
Speaker
and ah and And I think it's really interesting that they've chosen this reading to to ah to to address us this week. That, that that you know, really, the the gospel of Jesus Christ, this this proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus, has this impact around the world. and And on this day when maybe it's a little hard for us to see it,
00:04:03
Speaker
it's really It's really important to remember that. yeah I mean, I had an old missionary in my congregation in my parish I used to serve, and
Growth and Perception of Christianity Worldwide
00:04:17
Speaker
he had done the math. And I don't know if he did it or whether he picked this up somewhere. He never gave me the the source on it. But he said, just do the math on on the on the reality of Christianity today. He said,
00:04:28
Speaker
There's about, you know, so many Christians in the world. But at that point, it was a little over a billion, you know, maybe a billion and a half, pushing two. And he said, the truth is that there's a whole bunch of them died today.
00:04:45
Speaker
But there's also, the truth is that Christianity worldwide is still growing. it's growing It's growing today. And he said, just to maintain the numbers that we have of Christians, there have to be about 100,000 people every day of the year who for the very first time say, I'm a Christian.
00:05:17
Speaker
ah that is Yes. And it just goes to show how our brains, least my brain, struggles. I understand, you know, tens of thousands, hundred thousands, millions, billions.
00:05:30
Speaker
But when you're telling me it's a hundred thousand... In my brain, like, it should only take, what, 100 days, 10 days to get to another billion people?
00:05:40
Speaker
Granted, we have Christians that are dying in the faith. Right, right. But it's still, it's like, whoa, that's a lot of people. Well, it it really isn't. I mean, I happen to serve in the Northwest. You're in the Northeast. You know, these are these are places where where a lot of folk are are really have a perception of Christianity in retreat. Right.
00:06:01
Speaker
yeah You know, that that that a lot of the churches are having ah just a shadow of the numbers that they used to have. um ah You know, 10%, you know, I mean, I think a lot of churches are, you know, at about a 20% capacity for what they what they could worship in those places. And they built those churches, you know, 50, 60 years ago, because they needed that much space. um and And they feel like their church is in retreat. And and the the reality is that that Christianity worldwide continues to have this um this this growth. it it is It is not shrinking. It is growing. and But even just to maintain at the current numbers, you need about 3 million Christians every month.
00:06:47
Speaker
You need about 36 million Christians every year because that's about how many die. Yeah. And if you just break that down, that's about 100,000 people, not just this Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. Every day of the week this week, another 100,000 people are added to that number. So for the very first time are baptized as a child. Maybe they are they they they stand up and say, I'm a Christian in some way.
00:07:19
Speaker
And those numbers are in fact Pretty incredible. i mean, the Christian church is the largest, oldest, continuously operating yeah institution in the whole world.
00:07:34
Speaker
And yet here we are Sunday after Easter. And and here we're looking around... It doesn't feel like it. It doesn't look like it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're looking around our our our little church and we're seeing a lot of empty spots in the pews and we're wondering where some of that where some of that is going to happen to us. And, you know, this jesus Jesus says the spirit blows when and where he wants to and I don't get to control that. And so I have to, you know... ah there's There's a lot of Sundays where I also look around and I go...
00:08:06
Speaker
you know Jesus, what what are you doing? I don't know.
Significant Conversions and Mass Baptisms
00:08:11
Speaker
I would really like some idea what's what what you got in mind here because it doesn't seem, it this doesn't seem to be working for me right now.
00:08:19
Speaker
yeah and And a lot of times I need to have, well, that crusty old missionary in my my congregation who revised me says, ah you know, Phil, it it's actually happening.
00:08:31
Speaker
You may not see it, but it's actually happening. And ah God's spirit is continuing to use the words of people like Peter and and and you and me and and and missionaries and pastors around this world. um And it's it's growing. I happen to know a ah fellow who's ah a pastor in India. And one Sunday he baptized 600 people.
00:09:01
Speaker
And I'm like, how... How did you do that? That would just be exhausting. mean, I don't know that I would be able to. What kind of an assembly line baptism have you got going here? But but yeah, no, he gathered together 600 people. And I don't know that he participated or that he was the actual pastor baptizing all 600. But he participated in this this event in in... in the church of the IELC, the iel see the the ah India Evangelical Lutheran Church that baptized 600 people in one day.
00:09:35
Speaker
just relax If you did it for 10 hours, that's 60 people an hour. That's one minute baptism per minute. for Logistically, yeah. that's That's a big day. That's a really big day. and And you wonder how did how did this happen in in in Jerusalem on that first day? you know i mean, cut to the heart. What do we do? Peter says, repent and be baptized. And 3,000 people took him up on it.
00:10:06
Speaker
it's just
00:10:10
Speaker
It's just an almost unthinkable moment. an unthinkable event for us, but yet Jesus is
Community and the Holy Spirit
00:10:18
Speaker
doing it. he's he's He's still working this. And sometimes it's one person at a time.
00:10:24
Speaker
Sometimes it's, you know, it's it's bunches at a time. But this this Holy Spirit is still is still working in the world. And that's that that's hard for us to see. And I think it's really important to have a community of Christians and a community of people who can remind us, you know, it's happening.
00:10:43
Speaker
And so my friend in India, where the spirit was blowing that day, gets to tell me that the same spirit is blowing in my heart and in my people and in this little community where I am. And and and he could do it. I mean, i I also used to live in, my first parish was in Salt Lake City. And yeah and and my people were oftentimes kind of grousing about the fact that we were a tiny little minority there.
00:11:09
Speaker
The town we lived in was 92%.
00:11:13
Speaker
um LDS, Mormons. but but yeah I said to him, well, you know, i mean God could do this. He he could have the the prophet of the Mormon church stand up and say, I had a vision. i think we were wrong. I think the Lutherans are right.
00:11:33
Speaker
but i've said oh I don't know if I said this last week. Possibly, possibly not. I'll make a mental note not to say this again. it might If Matthew could pick his dream call, I'd want to be a like a secret agent in the Mormon church. Go in with, as a Lutheran pastor, not tell anybody, and just work my way up the ranks to where I'm the grand prophet. Yeah.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, the Lutheran Church grows hundreds of thousands. But but that all i mean that's that's silly, obviously. but But it does highlight this theme that I see running through many people.
00:12:17
Speaker
We, as human beings, can only understand a glimpse of when the divine is working. and So, and we can't, we don't recognize it most often. We're not gonna able to see it.
00:12:32
Speaker
But we have this desire to understand, to to compare, to measure, and and scripture gives us numbers. There's nothing wrong with that, without using numbers.
00:12:44
Speaker
But numbers aren't the only way to measure how God is working through his church.
Personal Miracles and Care in Christianity
00:12:51
Speaker
Yeah. and Like he you were saying, maybe it's the person who, you know, was baptized a long time ago, and maybe they weren't raised in the faith. Maybe maybe they, you know, they fell away from it. And maybe one of those numbers is they wake up one day and the spirit works through them. They're like,
00:13:09
Speaker
it's Yeah. like You know, as pastors or as brothers and sisters don't see that. And we can't just tick it off as, oh, yeah, there's the other one. You know, but it's still, God's still bigger than our system of numbers, obviously.
00:13:24
Speaker
Well, yeah. and and and And I guess, yeah, I mean, you're right. You you always have to hear these numbers with that with that sense that Jesus often, yeah he rarely does mass miracles.
00:13:37
Speaker
um You have the feeding of the 5,000. Numbers and the feeding of the 4,000. But most of the time when you see Jesus, for instance, doing a miraculous thing, he's pulling somebody ah away from the crowd.
00:13:52
Speaker
he's He's pulling them aside. And and even even those those teaching moments that Jesus has with his disciples, you know, when they're talking about, well who's greatest in the kingdom? And and he grabs a little kid.
00:14:04
Speaker
and And he says... um you know, that that this is the great one in the kingdom. that that That God's metrics are way different than ours.
00:14:18
Speaker
And you and I might say, well, I didn't baptize 3,000 people after my sermon on Easter morning um or Pentecost or whatever day we're picking. um But yet,
00:14:30
Speaker
here I was maybe running after a woman in my congregation who's who's, you know, entering dementia and she lives alone and I'm i'm helping navigating range, ah a community of people to take care of her, to help her, you know, in Jesus' metric.
00:14:51
Speaker
All right. you he He turns a lot of things upside down and and says that that this may be a particularly profound kingdom moment in which God's kingdom comes, his will gets done, his name is hallowed in in this moment of of when of when we have you know God's people simply caring for this this ah this little like know this little vulnerable person.
00:15:27
Speaker
that that Jesus has identified that that this is the one to whom the kingdom of God belongs, and that this is the this is the real object of the kingdom. And so, yeah, I mean, I i don't want to just sit here and measure my sermons based on how many people get baptized this Sunday, but I but i do want to say that that Jesus is still doing this work.
00:15:50
Speaker
yes and And his spirit is still blowing throughout this world. And and in fact, I'm sure it's more than 100,000 because Christianity continues to grow.
00:16:01
Speaker
It continues to see more adherence.
Resilience and Growth of Christianity in China
00:16:04
Speaker
And when I talk to my friends who are in sometimes in places like Africa and India and China, um yeah, it it there's some really amazing stories. ah ah One of the really great narratives I remember hearing was I had an old friend when I was a child, he was an old missionary again, and he had served in China.
00:16:31
Speaker
And he and his wife had fled um in front of the the the advancing communist forces down the Yellow River, and they had fled, they'd been forced out of China.
00:16:43
Speaker
And he had come to the United States and served parishes for the rest of his life, but always had this sort of ache for these people, for the for the Chinese members of his congregation that he had left behind.
00:16:55
Speaker
And I remember him coming and talking to our youth group when I was a kid in a church in in the Midwest, and they brought him in, and he talked about that and and how much he he said, we don't know, I have no idea what's happened. We know that the Cultural Revolution has gone on. We know that all of these, the you know that that there was a great hostility to these Christian communities inside the Chinese governmental system at the time.
00:17:20
Speaker
And we don't know. and then he he passed away. He didn't get to see this, but he always sort of had me thinking about that. And and I had another friend who was in Lutheran Hour Ministries.
00:17:33
Speaker
And apparently after the the relaxation of all of this in 1989, roughly, when ah I think it was then Chaoping comes to power and he sort of relaxes some of this. And there's this big push to get ah the Chinese citizenry to learn English.
00:17:50
Speaker
um Lutheran Hour Ministries comes back in because they have this great tape ministry of all these people speaking idiomatic English. It just happens to be sermons. But the Chinese are just glad they have some English for that they could give their people. And so they end up being able to get back into China and they get back into some of those communities where the missionaries had worked. And the the fear was that they were going to come and find that those communities had just been wiped out.
00:18:19
Speaker
and that there was there was nobody there. And when the missionaries left China in 49, there were about a million Christians, maybe two.
00:18:31
Speaker
know It's hard to count. um When they got back in, they were utterly stunned to find something like 30 to 60 million Chinese Christians, and that if things keep going like they are, if we're on the cusp right now, that that China will become the largest Christian nation in the world.
00:18:55
Speaker
And you just go, oh yeah, that Holy Spirit, he's still doing stuff. He's still doing this kind of stuff. And so, um you know, for it's it's really easy for us to get discouraged.
00:19:08
Speaker
and And I see this text as having having an absolutely wonderful encouragement for preachers, but also for congregants who are, who are you know, in in these in situations like my parish, maybe your parish, um where the where the the the the the numbers, we look at the numbers and we we could easily get discouraged. and And to know that, no, we're actually part of something that is enormous. We're a part of a worldwide movement.
00:19:36
Speaker
And the Holy Spirit does, like, he blows when and where he wants to. and and And that moment may come here, and it may come next week here.
00:19:48
Speaker
And so I live in this perpetual hope that that I am still part of a movement of a of a of a big thing that God is doing right now.
00:20:02
Speaker
Yes.
Universal Application of Biblical Teachings
00:20:04
Speaker
thats just people it's ah the what's What's the Greek word I'm trying to think of? Ekklesia. Mm-hmm. that that That is so much more, that that that group of believers, like, called together, called out to be set apart for God's work and his service and to be a part of his kingdom.
00:20:24
Speaker
It's with's not just our little congregation or or just the, dare I say, Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in the United States of America. No, no, it is.
00:20:36
Speaker
God. Not too good on a rabbit hole. In our Sunday school class, we were looking in, where were we at? Oh, just in the Gospel of Matthew, where it is very obvious that Matthew wants the people to know his primary audience, if i remember correctly, being the the Jewish people, and people that that you know could trace their lineage back to the world and we're proud of it. He's very, very just blatantly open that it's not, Christ did not come just for y'all.
00:21:12
Speaker
Mm-hmm. came for the Gentiles. He came for the whole world. and And we get to see it now in some really amazing ways. Yeah, the two I see the encouragement in that also. just It's on the other side of the stinking earth.
00:21:28
Speaker
I can't see it. I have no clue what they're saying, unless they know English. But yeah, it's the spirit does. And that's the same spirit that dwells in me.
00:21:39
Speaker
the And that that gets poured out on those, on maybe on those kind of rare occasions when I do a baptism. When we see a witness of baptism here in my parish, that's the Holy Spirit, that same Holy Spirit is is doing that work.
00:21:55
Speaker
A couple other things in this in this text I just want to point out that are really fun, um that I think are really are really worthwhile. um
00:22:07
Speaker
peter's Peter's law development in this sermon is really intense ah because he's really talking to the people who would have been in that square yelling, crucify him, crucify him.
00:22:26
Speaker
Now, it says there were people from all over the world, but and they were some of them had come for the festival. But we also know that there were also a lot of resident people in Jerusalem who had come, sort of returned to Jerusalem, who who had come, that they were part of the Jewish diaspora, that there was sort of a ah back migration of particularly religiously zealous people.
00:22:53
Speaker
who were living in Jerusalem. These are the groups that are going to be, you know, the synagogue of the freedmen and of the people of Cyrene Cilicia, people like that, that we're going to see in three weeks when we get the—or in two weeks, excuse me—when we get to the to the stoning of Stephen.
00:23:11
Speaker
These are the same guys. and And they're also from all over that basin of of the me of the eastern Mediterranean. where all of these places that in earlier in chapter two, it says, these are the guys who were there.
00:23:26
Speaker
And um ah and and that that peter Peter really says to him, you crucified him. Now, you we tend to read that as ah as a, okay, here I'm reading Peter talking to those guys. All right, so that Barb got, but think about being one of those guys that Peter said that to.
00:23:47
Speaker
You know, that God made him both Lord and Christ, whom you crucified. Peter's saying to them, you got on the wrong bus.
00:23:59
Speaker
All right, you got you you are opposing God. And God has demonstrated that by the resurrection of this Jesus.
Apostles Responding to the Holy Spirit
00:24:09
Speaker
That has validated Jesus and invalidated what you have done.
00:24:17
Speaker
and And now with this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they hear these guys speaking in all of these languages and they see these tongues of flame and they hear this wind. you know this is clearly a divine event. God is at work here. And and peter Peter is saying, and this is, you you got to understand, this is disproving what is.
00:24:40
Speaker
you have done. this is This is God's judgment on what you have done. what's What's really fascinating to me about the book of Acts and and so much of it is that that oftentimes the disciples are simply following and and they're they're following what the Holy Spirit is doing.
00:24:59
Speaker
They are they are ah at time and again looking and saying, oh, the Holy Spirit's doing that now. I guess we better get on board.
00:25:11
Speaker
Rather than rather than you know sort of coming up with their their plan of the way this should go and then praying for the Holy Spirit to bless what it is that they're trying to do and and looking to to tell God what it is that that should happen next.
00:25:29
Speaker
No, they're they do that and it never works. I'm just sitting here thinking, wow, that's like the story of my life. they remember they are god i think this is a great idea. could you like i hope it's a good one that you like it too. yeah I'm not paying attention to you maybe as well as I should. I'm not seeing where you're working. oh But could you please bless this one also? And then just, yeah.
00:25:55
Speaker
It doesn't work. but But yet here they hear here we see that that one of the things that I think Luke really sort of valorizes or or commends among the disciples, among the apostles, is that they simply have their eyes open to see what the Holy Spirit is up to.
00:26:12
Speaker
And they are they are there's following. yeah i mean You see it with the Cornelius story. you know Peter waits till corn peter Peter sees the Holy Spirit fall on Cornelius and he kind of says, well, I guess we got to baptize him now. But here you also, you you kind of see that that that Peter is saying, is is kind of doing that same sort of evidentiary um logic with this, that look, this this outpouring of the Holy Spirit that has drawn you into this today, here's what that means.
00:26:48
Speaker
and And But yet what's so interesting is he's talking to the very guys who shouted crucify him, crucify him. You killed this Christ. you And they and they the they are cut to the heart. you know They say to Peter, what brothers, what should we do?
00:27:08
Speaker
you would
00:27:10
Speaker
yeah Assuming all of these things are true. What hope is there for us? and And Peter's response is exactly the response that we give to every sinner. Repent.
00:27:22
Speaker
If you're not already, be baptized. And you will receive the Holy Spirit. that that That Peter was able to speak to the very people who had stood in that square and yelled, crucify, crucify.
00:27:40
Speaker
Because Jesus had prayed, Father, forgive them.
00:27:45
Speaker
And the Father heard that prayer and empowered Peter to be able to say to even those kinds of people,
00:27:55
Speaker
the Spirit is for you, it's for your home, it is for your children, it is for people who are, maybe by what they have done, like you guys did, far away from God.
00:28:08
Speaker
And it's for the people who are nearby. It's for everybody. and Like we talked about last week, Peter's able to witness to the actual events because he's there.
00:28:19
Speaker
I can't do that, but I can witness to how Christ has worked and the Holy Spirit's worked in my life. And in that, it's like, okay, well, i can I've heard this response before. you know Okay, that was you.
00:28:33
Speaker
who But whether it's me serving as a pastor earlier in my life when everybody would be laughing right now if they found out I'd become a pastor.
00:28:44
Speaker
Really? Matthew became a pastor? Well, here, let me tell you that story. Because, you know, maybe you remember some of the silly things, trying to be careful with the S word there, you know, or I'll just say it, some of the stupid things we did.
00:28:59
Speaker
Some of the really stupid things we did. Okay, I did those things. But now you're telling me that God loves me. What do I what do? i do it's I think that conversation could be had or is happening maybe a lot. But I know as ah as a pastor, ah hear from the flock. We don't know what necessarily to say. How how do I engage in this conversation? Where do I go? It's Acts.
00:29:26
Speaker
It's Peter. yeah Yeah, I think Luke is giving us this this amazing— um ah he Luke doesn't oftentimes— the the the book of Acts doesn't wear its theology openly on the on on in statements. the The narrative voice in Acts almost never comes out.
00:29:46
Speaker
So after the first verses in Acts, where he says, oh, Theophilus, I'm telling you, I'm continuing this story— it's like the the narrator, Luke, sort of disappears into the background.
00:29:59
Speaker
But he's always there. And I think one of the things that you see him doing right here is really saying that that this Jesus of nazareth Nazareth, his death, his resurrection, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, this means that forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to every sinner.
00:30:21
Speaker
and And one of the ways that he does that is he has pet He recounts this story of Peter speaking to the very people that he can honestly say, you crucified him.
00:30:35
Speaker
and you are and and and and And yet that forgiveness is for you. Right. what What you did was not holy. It was not...
00:30:48
Speaker
Setting aside for a moment, this was God's plan, specifically Jesus. But but on a person-to-person level, okay, yeah, you've made mistakes in your life, maybe some really bad ones.
00:31:02
Speaker
and A big thing here, are I think our society at times doesn't like to be told that they did something wrong Who are you to tell me that I did or what my choices are are wrong? What's right for me is right for me. It's been around for decades now. But Peter doesn't skirt that.
00:31:21
Speaker
yeah Yeah. You did something wrong. Now repent of it and turn around. Do your 180 and go, you like you said earlier, go be baptized. If you've already been baptized, you need to repent. Well, you know what that is.
00:31:35
Speaker
Go do it. Yeah. i had ah I had a young woman in one of my classes I taught a number of years ago, and we were talking about this very thing in in some of the Pauline material.
00:31:48
Speaker
ah ah it was ah It was a class on biblical theology, an introduction to the Bible kind of a thing. And um she absolutely believed that people could not change.
00:32:02
Speaker
um And it was really wild. ah the the kind and And there were other students I could see who agreed with her, you know, that that they they couldn't imagine that a racist could ever be anything else.
00:32:17
Speaker
Wow. That, a you know, that a ah that that somebody who was abusive or had been, um had been you know, an angry, hurtful person could ever,
00:32:31
Speaker
have a change of heart and ever be different. and And she could not imagine it. Now, I think from her perspective of her anthropology, which was completely reductively materialistic, I mean, she was she did she she approached this completely from the perspective of there is no actual God.
Hope and Transformation through the Holy Spirit
00:32:52
Speaker
I think she's right.
00:32:55
Speaker
um But I think one of the other things that's really important here is that that it wasn't just the apostles that the Holy Spirit was poured out on that day. Right. And that Peter talks about that. Get baptized. You receive the Holy Spirit too. That that Holy Spirit was blowing through that whole crowd that day.
00:33:16
Speaker
And that that, in fact, you know, one of the things that that the apostles, that the gospel does is it offers real hope for a different future and a different present, a different person, you know, that I can be a different kind of person.
00:33:35
Speaker
And and ah Paul's ministry is is full of that in his letters and things like that. ah But I think what Luke is doing is he's kind of, narrativizes this. he never He never takes a step back and says, see, this means anybody can be forgiven and be um and become a different person. They can become a Christian.
00:33:58
Speaker
He never actually, you know, turns to the camera, you know, turns to the reader and addresses the reader that way. He just tells these stories and lets you draw those conclusions that and lets you arrive at them. And I think this is so masterfully done right here. He's he's going to make sure that you know that the that the people who who who called for the death of Jesus, and and the Gospels are pretty clear, that that it was that societal pressure on the Romans that pushed the Romans to actually have Jesus crucified.
00:34:32
Speaker
mean It kind of lays that on those citizens of Jerusalem who were out there you know shouting outside of Pilate's palace that day.
00:34:46
Speaker
um they were they were ah They were the ones who were responsible for this. And and and luke Luke wants you to know that.
00:34:59
Speaker
that these people who did you know the greatest crime in history, the biggest sin ever of killing God's only begotten son, they also get forgiven.
00:35:11
Speaker
They also get that same Holy Spirit. There is nothing bigger than that. um You know, ah Paul can say chief of sinners, you know, he can kind of address us in his letters and say, I'm the chief of sinners. He even loves me. um but But I think one of the things Luke is is is really doing here is is articulating a theology of God's universal forgiveness that's really important to hear.
00:35:35
Speaker
and it's kind of a little bit hard to hear in this. And then finally this thing is save yourself from this crooked generation.
00:35:43
Speaker
i always ah I've always been really, like, Why did Peter say that?
00:35:49
Speaker
Why did he, why did he, I wonder why he he he wanted to to to say that. Why did Luke pull that part of his speech? Because, I mean, clearly, it says it says with many words Peter exhorted that.
00:36:03
Speaker
He doesn't tell us any of those words except these. And I always want to ask that question. Well, why did he tell me those words? You know, save yourself from this crooked generation.
00:36:15
Speaker
that ah I think one of the things that he's doing with that for his reader in the first century and for his reader in the 21st century is is really raising the stakes a little bit, that that that nobody is coming to this neutrally.
00:36:36
Speaker
All right, we are always, we are always, in in a crooked generation, and that's pulling on us. That is, that is save yourself from that. You're being pulled by the current.
00:36:49
Speaker
You are in that stream, and it's pulling you along. You've got to get out of that, that this is always a matter of urgency for people.
00:37:01
Speaker
I think it's a fascinating text. I'm really looking forward to preaching on this one, and I think it's going be a hoot.
Applying Scripture to Modern Life
00:37:09
Speaker
There we go. It's the Holy Spirit working through its work. but But how words written thousands of years ago still are applicable today. o And that always.
00:37:25
Speaker
just and and I'm just constantly surprised by it. Not surprised. I shouldn't be surprised. But in awe. Mm-hmm. That, oh, we we life gets so complex and we we always you know think we're making it easier, but we're really just making it more complex. Computers, AI, ah you name it.
00:37:46
Speaker
And yet, you know, we think, well, maybe that's the world we live in. So our faith is just as complex. It is, but there's also parts of it that aren't.
00:37:59
Speaker
It's as simple as seeking forgiveness, receiving it, repent, And what? Go try again. Yeah. Pick it up. God starts you with and with a new you every day. Amen. A new you every day.
00:38:17
Speaker
Great text. Thank you very much for the conversation, Matthew. I always enjoy this. Yeah, I do too. I too look forward to a week four. Yeah. So until then, have a blessed week.
00:38:31
Speaker
You as well. And for those of us, or those of you all listening and watching, thank you. And we look forward to interacting with you guys again next week. And if you're preaching, preach them a good one.
00:38:43
Speaker
Please do.