LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 75

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

CONVENTION SERMON

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable
Your servants to speak Your word with great
boldness.

—Acts 4:29 NIV

O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation
of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, our. strength and
our Redeemer. Amen.

May the God of Hope fill you with the peace and joy of
believing that believing in Him you may abound in hope.
Amen. a

Brothers and sisters in Christ, why are you here? One
answer is simply, “because we’ve been sent.” Many of you
are delegates of the 6,000 congregations ‘of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod, and you've been sent to listen,
to learn, and to set policies for the life and ministry of
God’s people. Others are advisory delegates, and you've
been sent, too, by your boards, colleges, institutions, com-
missions, and the many groups that you represent, as well.
Many others have been sent, too—guests, visitors, fellow
Lutherans from the greater Pittsburgh area—who also feel

“sent” to a delegate convention of The Lutheran Chureh—
Missouri Synod. But I submit to you that all of us are here

this evening—and the thousands, even the millions of peo-"

ple we represent all over this land, and indeed all over this
world—we’re all here because we've been sent. “Even| as
My Father has sent Me, so send I you,” said our Lord. “Go,
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them! i in
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things.” But, Go! I have sent
you!

And then just before His ascension, as St. Luke tells|us
in the first chapter of Acts, He promised to His disciples
of ajl times and places, “You will receive power from the
Holy Spirit when He comes upon you, and you will be My
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”

Why are we here? We are here because we have been
sent. Some of us are here in a very special way because

we've been sent to help this little corner of God’s kingdom .
realize again that its mission to all of the world is to|be

sent to seek and to save the lost for whom the Lord Jesus
Christ lived and died and rose again. To that end, we've
chosen as our theme some words from Holy Scripture that
summarize for all of us the task that we have committed
ourselves to in these days as those sent by God. Those
words are printed above my head, they are printed in your
order of worship, you will hear them again and again—
With Great Boldness . . . Tell Everyone What HE Has Done.
Those words are based upon a prayer, a prayer of the ear-
liest Christian church recorded in the book of Acts in chap-
ter 4. May I read that simple prayer for you just now and
ask God’s Spirit to work in your hearts through that word
this evening. May that prayer become your prayer and our
prayer throughout this wonderful church body of ours, las
we seek to know what it means to be sent—and then! to
go. The prayer is this: “Now, Lord, consider their threata
and enable Your servants to speak Your word with great
boldness.”

|
|
i
'

” With Great Boldness! You don’t really get the picture
jof what those words mean unless you bear in mind what
shas gone on in this chapter, and in fact in the preceding
‘chapters of the book of Acts. Recall the miracle of Pente-

‘cost, when God’s gift of speech was poured out upon the

shearts of the disciples and they proclaimed the-risen and
‘living Christ, and the power of His resurrection came alive
‘in the hearts of people, and they believed in Him. Just a
‘few verses later, after the coming of the Holy Spirit, we
read about those marvelous early Christians and the fel-
‘lowship they enjoyed with each other as they were filled
{with awe at the wonders, the miracles and signs, and the
lapeaking with power of these early Christian “sent ones.”

_ They broke bread in their homes and ate together with

‘glad and sincere hearts. And the Lord added to their num-
‘ber daily those who were being saved. And then in Acts 3,
‘Luke reports this most unexpected miracle that surely had
‘all the tongues in Jerusalem wagging.
‘One day when Peter and John were going to the temple
ito pray, they saw a crippled beggar who had been there
from his youth asking for alms, known by many of the
‘worshipers in the temple. He was over 40 years old, we
learn later. One day Peter, with the power of God and the
miraculous gift of healing, speaks to him about the risen
(Christ and the power of the Spirit. And he gets up and
walks! That got the people nervous—and we read in chap-
iter 4: “The priests and the captain of the temple guard
and the Sadducees came to Peter and John while they were
‘speaking to the people about Christ and His resurrection.”
Predictably, they were greatly disturbed, but it was be-
cause the disciples were teaching the people and proclaim-
ing in Jesus the resurrection of the dead. “They seized