Acts 3 : 12-19 Luke 24 : 36-48 Sermon If you have spent any proportion of your life in churches, and perhaps even if you haven t, you will be used to hearing that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It is a phrase which is in all the creeds and is never too far away from our readings and our prayers, our hymns and our sermons. At least I hope it isn t. Yet sometimes we have to be ready pause and think about that. To ask, before repeating it once again, not just do I really believe that? But perhaps more significantly to ask: if I really believe that what difference does it make to me. It may have become a familiar thing to say but it is still a huge thing to say. If Jesus really was the living breathing presence of God walking and loving upon the earth, and people like me put him to death, that is not just another fact that we can repeat as if we are saying that the earth goes around the sun, or the grass is green. More than that, if even death that did not stop him from being the living breathing presence of God upon the earth, that is not just something to say and then move on as if we have commented on the weather or passed on a football result. If all of this is really true then everything else in life is going to look different, then the purpose and the meaning of my life is going to be different. Christ rose from the dead - I know that my redeemer liveth. If I really believe that what difference does it make to me? Now this is where it is interesting to go back and see what happened in the lives of those first disciples. Because for them the statement that Christ rose from the dead was certainly not a familiar sounding phrase. They had no choice but to accept that it had happened. Jesus had stood with them and talked with them and eaten with them days after they had seen his body sealed in a tomb. The many bewildering questions which they had to grapple with were not about whether it happened or not - they were about what it all meant. There must have been philosophical
questions to do with their understanding of life and death and time and eternity, long held assumptions which were now being challenged and changed. But there were the also more personal questions, the more pressing questions, about what it meant for them. Now that they knew this, now that they have been given this insight, what were they going to do next, what were they going to do with the rest of their lives? Now that they know that the here and now is not the whole picture, that their short span of years on the earth is not the whole story, their assumption about God existing only as some distant being is not entirely true, what were they going to do next, what were they going to do with the rest of their lives? As I said last week, over the weeks of this Easter season I want us to follow their struggle to find good answers to those questions, for in doing so it might help us to find good answers to them. So having thrown all of that big stuff at you, here is the good news and the less good news from this morning s readings. The good news is that we are told of Jesus coming to the disciples specifically to explain it all to them. Actually I love the description we get in Luke s gospel of this encounter. Jesus appears in the room with them, and not unnaturally the disciples think they are seeing a ghost. The description given sounds like a scene from Scooby doo, for those who are familiar with those stories. We get the adjectives; startled and terrified and frightened, joyful and disbelieving and wondering, all within a couple of verses. And in the midst of all of that chaos and terror and excitement, Jesus looks at them and says is there anything to eat in here? When Jesus eats with people in the gospels it is always significant, and here the act proves that he is no more a ghost now than on that recent night when they had all shared bread together in an upper room. Then, when they have all calmed down a little, Jesus gives the explanation. And this perhaps is the less good news for his explanation brings as many questions as answers.
He has two key points as he opens their minds to what it is all about. Firstly he says that all of this had to happen. He tells them that it should always have been clear, in what he said and from clues in the ancient scriptures, that when the messiah came he would have to suffer and die and rise again on the third day after his death. What they had witnessed what not a tragic surprise but part of a divine plan. It was not a sign of God's weakness before the powers of this world but a measure of his devotion to the well being of all hs people. Well OK. They could go away and research that and piece it all together and that would help. They may not have understood it all but it is an enormously positive message. Secondly, he tells them the reason, the purpose behind the events which have unfolded in their presence. All of this had to happen, he says, so that repentance and forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed in his name to all nations. Now why did all of that have to happen so that repentance and forgiveness of sins could be proclaimed? Such information is not given. Perhaps that is more than we could understand or more than we need to know. The many different theories of atonement which students of the scriptures have come up with over all the years since suggests that there is deep mystery here. Deep mystery, but also deep faith, as expressed in the words of our last hymn Why should I gain from all of this? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart, his wounds have paid my ransom. We are left with plenty of questions, but somehow, the reasons for all that had happened centre around repentance and forgiveness. And while we are not given an explanation to satisfy our curiosity, we are given a purpose to direct our living. Those who believe and who know that Christ rose from the dead are to be in the business of proclaiming repentance and forgiveness to all the world. It is worth noting that Jesus gives them a purpose but not a plan. He does not tell them to form committees and raise funds and to construct buildings and to hold outreach events He certainly does not tell them fall out with those who come to understand his words differently, or to slaughter those who believe differently all of which has often happened in his name. The purpose and the mission given to those who believe that he rose again
is clear enough: repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations. So whatever else the resurrection might have meant for them, and whatever it might mean for us, it is going to be centred on repentance and forgiveness: experiencing it and proclaiming it. In our passage from Acts this morning we get a glimpse of what that meant in practice for the first disciples. We know that they had experienced repentance and forgiveness for themselves, especially Peter who had blatantly and publicly betrayed Jesus when fear had taken over from faith. They may not have understood how they could be forgiven but they knew it was real and they knew the difference it made. From being weighed down with guilt, they were now standing up tall. From being shut in with fear they were now sharing their possessions without anxiety. From hiding behind locked doors they were now speaking out openly. They knew that forgiveness was real and they knew the difference it made. And so they lived their lives and they spoke to others in ways which allowed the message of Jesus to be proclaimed. Last week we read about the quality of their commitment to one another, the way their new freedom fear allowed them to give and to share selflessly. This week we read of how they were also ready speak out clearly and boldly and directly. Not only does Peter talk about the terrible things the leaders of the people have done, the appaling miscarriage of justice which has taken place; he tells the people who are listening that it is their fault, that they share the guilt. you rejected the Holy and Righteous One you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. He is not just saying that things need to change in their society, but more directly he is telling people that they need to change, that they need to repent and start doing the right thing. Then, he more or less repeats exactly what Jesus had told them, the good news about God still being at work in all of the mess and the pain to bring about a holy purpose. 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets that his Messiah would suffer. 19 Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.
so that your sins may be wiped out. He is proclaiming what he himself has experienced, and what Jesus had told them it was their job to proclaim. In fact he gives a very visual picture of what God offers. The ink that was used at that time had no acid in it to grip the paper, so whatever had been written could be wiped away with a damp cloth. Any mess that was created, and mistakes which were made, could be wiped away to allow for a clean start. I guess today we might talk about deleting and reformatting. The preaching is bold and assured because those proclaiming it know within themselves that what they are saying is true. They proclaim repentance and forgiveness to the whole community, to a society which has rejected the ways of God, and which needs to change its ways. Yet they proclaim it also to individuals, to people who need to recognise their part in what has gone wrong, and who need to change their ways. That is also there in our last hymn: it was my sin upon his shoulders, my voice which mocked him, it was my sin that held him there, my pardon he accomplished In ways which were bold and authentic and political and personal, in their relationships and in their words what the earliest beleivers proclaimed was all about repentance and forgiveness. That was their faith, that was their purpose, that is what it meant for them to know that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And if we really believe that it is true. If we take seriously these words of Jesus in Luke's gospel, and the example of the disciples in the book of Acts, then living and proclaiming repentance and forgiveness to all the world, becomes the point and the purpose of our lives also. It is a message of God's comitment to a broken world, a message of hope and reconcilliation, a message of release and liberation, a message to celebrate and to share in every possible way. Thanks be to God, for the good news, and for the purpose it brings to the lives of those who believe.