Acts 2:22-24, 36-42 Save Yourself This is the ninth and final installment in this series of new beginnings. I don t really like sermon series, because you or I may try to force similarities between biblical stories or scripture texts where none may actually exist. It s all very subjective, and I think we may already read the Bible too subjectively. But yet this is a series, so we do want to connect the passages in some way, you expect that I know. I have tried to let each sermon stand on its own, although mainly, I suppose, because it is way above my concentration level to remain focused on one thing for two solid months. Well, today there are a couple of points I cannot avoid; two things we should emphasize from this passage which hold true for all the stories we have considered in these post-easter sermons. If you wish to ponder these two prominent concepts, you can go to the church website and look at the sermons again, or contact the office and Jan could email them to you. Or, you could simply read the texts themselves and see the common threads. What you are looking for are two themes important throughout all of scripture from first to last: 1) God will provide a way of salvation or deliverance, and 2) God upholds the community, or creates a new community out of a past tragedy, made up of those he has delivered. How clear
are these points in this scripture today? In Peter s response to the heartfelt cry of the people in verse 37, What shall we do? he says, Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. There is the salvation from destruction provided by God, that people may call upon the name of the Lord and so, experience God s promise and presence; and those who did as Peter said became part of the community of faith, as verses 41 and 42 tell us. Remembering these two points of emphasis in scripture- 1) God saves, and 2) God creates community- is one helpful way of understanding the meaning and purpose of the Bible. I almost recycled an old sermon from Acts 2 for you today. It was years ago and you have never heard that sermon before, so I could have done it. But there are a few things in today s scripture we should examine in a different way, to keep with the current theme of new beginnings. The old sermon may have been a better one, but this sermon is briefer, so I think you ll be pleased. It is an unfortunate result of time management that last Sunday and today I have had to omit a major portion of Peter s Pentecost sermon. But we can summarize the content of his sermon in few words: Peter ascribed certain Old Testament scriptures as prophecies about Jesus, and professed that he was crucified
and God raised him from the dead. These are the very central elements of the gospel message throughout the New Testament. This core message is what we have read in this edited passage, and so, the last words of the sermon contain Peter s call for a response from his hearers, coming out of his pronouncement of God s provision for the way of deliverance- the name of Jesus the Lord and the activity of the Holy Spirit. And then the consequence of this Pentecost event is the creation of a faithful and unified community. Now, there are a couple of more things I wish to say based upon Peter s final words in verse 40, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. First, of course we must recognize that we cannot save ourselves. God saves. But Peter here issues the altar call to those thousands that day, urging the people to decide; save yourself is a homiletic device. Save yourself is not a theological statement; we should not read this verse- or any verse- and understand that there is some thing we could do that could ever make us right with God. It is what God does, and thus, the theological statement is found earlier, in verse 39: the promise of God, the presence and work of God, the openness and availability of God to everyone; it is demonstrated by the Spirit that has come, and by the word that calls
us to faith. Save yourself is that word, just like Peter s command to them, Repent ; a call to faith and a call to come out of the crooked generation. Which is the second thing. The crooked generation, what does that mean? It certainly does not mean that everyone outside our understanding of Christian faith is evil and wrong and condemned. Crooked means here a worldview that is off kilter, unhealthy, and selfish because it is out of sync with God s view of lifeeither greatly or slightly. And generation means it is a shared worldview. It means society and not individual viewpoints. Generation describes the culture, the spirit of the times. It s not descriptive of one generation over against another. It is not a comparison of what we might consider to be the good or noble or righteous attributes of the older generation held up against a younger one, or vice versa. It is not a judgment we can make about another person; it is rather, the way of the world. And even those who try to live well are still part of society, part of this generation. But we are called to be separated from it. Called to be part of the new society- the fellowship of believers, a different way of understanding the world because of our faith in God, a radical change into a different culture where God s Spirit resides, where we live in the complete trust of God s faithfulness, living with
one another in prayer and worship and hospitality and encouragement; where we live as servants of one another. But let me put it this way: this one single hour per week at church does make us part of the new society, does not save us from the crooked generation, but rather, humble repentance and sharing the new life in fellowship with one another. In our scripture the new community of God is compared to the crooked generation. It is the comparison on one side of the prideful world- made up of even good and religious people- that crucified the Lord, and on the other side, of the humble community that lives and sacrifices for the sake of others. It is a different individual outlook towards life, and even more, it is participation in God s family, the family that unites together to help others in need, sharing all things, eating together and giving praise and thanks to God. It is not only that our hearts are changed by the good news of Jesus Christ, but that our hearts are bound together, and that we are part of a community, people saved and made whole so that we may love and care for others. So as we read the story of the church in Jerusalem in those first days, we can see the kind of fellowship they share, all those who have come together because of
their faith in Jesus the Lord. The verses immediately following our text detail how the people shared everything, were together everyday in worship and study and table fellowship. In verse 44, we read that all who believed were together ; it is a short phrase in the original Greek, one which is repeated in verse 47- though translated with different words in English- where we read, that the Lord added to their number. But it means something like this: the Lord is present with his people, and is actively working within the community; that he joins us together, binds us together for comfort and help and encouragement; that he calls us to be his, that he himself will never leave us, and will never leave us without others to give sanctuary and hope, direction when we are lost or hurt, food and shelter when we are bereft. And the Lord uses us to provide the same to our brothers and sisters. Sometimes he may call us together in times of disaster, to offer our possessions, to share food and homes, to distribute to those in need, to have everything in common, as verses 44-45 say. But in all times, we worship God together. As one united community we come together to give God thanks with glad and generous hearts. In the name of Jesus we worship, we share, we break bread. In the name of Jesus we are all together; and in Jesus name we all belong to God. In the name of Jesus, we are joined together with God, and God is together with us.