May 8, 2011 3rd Sunday of Eastertide - Mother's Day
Acts 2: 14a: 36-41, Psalm 116: 1-4, 12-19, 1 Peter 1: 17-23, Luke 24: 13-35
Disciples ActingOUT: Resurrection Power (2nd in series)
On Mother's Day, we celebrate all those persons in our lives who have mothered us. In them we see a love that is quite like the love of our God, caring, protecting, nurturing, self-sacrificing and empowering. Today we ask a special blessing upon them, and say thank you!
Today is the 2nd in our series Disciples ActingOut. As I mentioned last week we are looking at the book of Acts. Act is Luke's sequel to his gospel; the place where he chronicles the activities of the early church and the ACTions of the disciples who took the gospel OUT from Jerusalem to Samaria and Judea and to the whole of the Mediterranean world. Today we are going to hear about Resurrection Power...and we will be thinking about the question: How can a believer have power of anything?
To set the background for this sermon hear these words from Psalm 116:4: "O, Lord, I pray, save my life." Even king David, the most revered king of Israel was in many ways just like you and me. He faced times of uncertainty, chaos and fear. He also faced a condition known to many of us today...the feeling of powerlessness. "O, Lord, I pray, save my life!" He wrote. King David, let it be said was one of God's favored. Yet he too, at times, felt defenseless, weak and overwhelmed.
Do you in your daily life ever feel powerless? I know that I do. When I look around the world, around the country, around the county, around Long Shoals, when I see and hear about all that goes on that is not in the name of the Lord...yes! I feel powerless over those things. When I learn of people who have been hurt, abandoned, belittled, betrayed and used...yes! I feel powerless. When people come to me with overwhelming spiritual questions, vital decisions, and dire life circumstances...yes! I feel powerless.
It's actually pretty common. Today however, the good news I bring to all of us is this: Feelings don't really count all that much when it comes to the power of God within us. We may feel powerless as believers over many things, but that is just a feeling. Feelings can be quite deceiving.
The Acts passage for today is a continuation of Peter's sermon, part of which we read last Sunday. The message Peter preached on Pentecost came through the power of the Holy Spirit who had just arrived and indwelled the believers that very day.
We don't have the entire text of Peter's sermon, just bits and pieces. (When Luke wrote about Peter's sermon, he had probably forgotten the details of the sermon. It's like today, if you remember anything of this sermon, it will be the part in which God spoke to you and not much else.) Anyway, what we know is that on this day, the power of God was moving like a mighty tsunami. When Peter urged the people to be saved...3,000 souls were baptized and added to the number of believers. 3,000...umm...that's some power of God moving in the hearts of people!
In the book of Acts we read about the disciples over and over again doing things that are powerful: Peter and John encountered a lame man at the entrance of the temple by the Beautiful Gate, and healed him. He had been lame all of his life, more than 40 years (Acts 3: 1-10). There was the man from Lydda, Aeneas, who was paralyzed (Acts 9:32-35), and let's not forget the woman named Tabitha, whom Peter raised from the dead (Acts 9: 36-43).
Luke records Paul's miracles and acts of power as well. Exorcising demons (Acts 16: 16-24), raising persons from the dead (Acts 20: 7-12), and healing the sick (Acts 28: 7-10). I don't know what you think, but I think that being able to do such things requires more than a slight of hand, it requires a power that is only wielded by God. Peter and Paul were not the source of these abilities. Their power came from God. Both of them always gave the credit for every miracle, which many times they referred to signs, to the power of Holy Spirit by the name of Jesus Christ. God was the seat of their power to do anything they did.
So does the fact that God acted this way through the early disciples mean that we have the same kind of power? Well, I'd say...yes, but... What I think is that today disciples do have the same power in that it originates from the same source: God. But does God express that power in the same way in each of us. There is certainly very much debate on that question. Signs and wonders exactly like the disciples performed still happen today I think, though many would say that they don't. What I say is that God acts as God acts.
In the Bible, ultimate power is expressed as belonging to God alone, who is limitless in God's ability to accomplish anything God intends. The Holy Spirit, who came on Pentecost and indwelled all believers, and who still indwells disciples today, is God's empowering presence in the life of people.
The early church believed that ultimate power came from knowledge of God, that is knowing God personally and placing one's will in submission to God's. Today we understand that God's power is at work in people, sometimes those who don't even know that God works through them. All good things come from God.
The NT Church teaches us by example that God has given us power to live a Godly life. 2 Peter 1:3–4 (NRSV) 3 His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature.
The power that you and I possess through the Holy Spirit is the power to live a holy life, and to accomplish those things that God intends to be accomplished through us. Is it the power to cast out demons, raise the dead, and heal the sick? Yes it is, if that is what God intends.
We also have power to:
· Proclaim the Gospel
· Love the unlovable
· Live fearlessly and boldly
· Be generous, welcoming, kind
· Be obedient to what God calls us to do
· Live peaceably, control ourselves (not others, only ourselves)
· To forgive, let go of grudges, prejudices, hurt and pain others have caused us
· To avoid sinning
· To endure suffering
· To express joy, praise, and gratitude
· To use the gifts that God gave us to God's glory...
Power? We have it friends. We can live fully, fearlessly and flawlessly...if we choose everyday to be saved; if we choose every day to let the power of God direct our ACTions and our discipleship.
When a Christian feels powerless, friends it's just a feeling. So I want us all to remember that what we feel sometimes will deceive us into thinking that we are powerless. We are not. In the worst of times, and in the best of times, God, through the gracious Holy Spirit, lives within us to give us what we need in every situation. All we have to do is turn God's power loose in our lives and let God move through us. To God be the glory. Amen.
©2011 Judy H. Eurey
