LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1992, Page 76

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16 CONVENTION SERMON

Peter and John,” St. Luke says, and they put them in jail
until the next day. Were they terrible criminals, or were
they not? They were speaking and preaching in the name

’ of Jesus Christ the resurrection of the dead and doing it
in the open, in the temple where everyone could see and
hear. “But many who heard the message believed, and the
number of men grew to about five thousand.”

Five thousand may seem somewhat small compared to
the size of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. But
when one bears in mind that the total number of residents
in Jerusalem at that time-was perhaps not more than 25
to 30 thousand people, it’s amazing that five thousand al-
ready believed in Jesus! We don’t know whether this is on
top of those who had come’ to faith on Pentecost, or the
sum total, but clearly a lot of people believed!

That couldn’t go on, could it? The rulers of the people,
as you read Luke’s majestic account of this, got together
and had a little miniconvention. They said, “What are we
going to do about this problem, the healing of this man
who sat by this gate all these years, and the preaching of
the resurrection from the dead, that in the name of Jesus
Christ there is life, and that the one whom we crucified
lives, and He lives in the hearts and the words and the
power of these disciples.” .

So they brought them in and tallked to them and told
them that:this couldn’t go on, that they were stirring up
the people. Peter says it so simply, “It’s by the name of
Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, but whom
God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you
healed. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given to men by which we must
be saved.” And now comes Luke’s introduction of our theme
word, “boldness.” They listened to Peter, St. Luke says,
and when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and
realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men,’ they
were astonished and they took note that these men “had
been with Jesus.” What are we going to do about it, they
asked? If we put them in jail and show too much muscle,
too much pressire, we'll surely cause an uprising among
our people. Let’s keep this thing from spreading any far-
ther and warn them, as St. Luke says in verse 17, to speak
no longer to anyone “in this name.” And they called them
in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all
in the name of Jesus. And again, note Peter's word of bold-
ness. Judge for yourselves, he says, whether it is right in
God’s sight to obey you rather than God, for “we cannot
help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” After
further threats, they let them go.

Immediately the apostles hurried back to their friends,
we're told, for a convention, a small one again, of that early
church. What was this strange thing going on in their
midst? Here they were, telling people the great and good
news of the resurrection and life in Jesus Christ, and their
leaders are hauled off and scolded. They are threatened
and told not to speak in His name. What did they do? When
they heard this report, they raised their voices together in
prayer to God. They didn’t organize politically, they didn’t
decide to fight power with power, or anything like that.
They prayed a magnificent prayer. “Sovereign Lord, You
nade the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything
in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth
of Your servant, our father, David.”

They then recited the familiar words of Psalm 2 and
applied them to this situation, about the nations raging
and the peoples plotting in vain, the kings of the earth
taking their stand. And then the words of our text: “Lord
grant to us, Your servants, to speak Your word with great
boldness. Stretch forth Your mighty hand and do these
wonderful signs, so that people will, through Your Word,
come to see You and believe You, the resurrected one.”
After they prayed, St. Luke says, the place where they were
meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy ©
Spirit. And, they spoke the Word of God boldly.

What a wonderful word: boldness, parrésia. Again and
again in the book of Acts it’s used to describe the speaking
of leaders of the early Christian church. To be sure, they -
were threatened, persecuted, driven out of synagogues,
beaten, treated in a most unkind way—all because they
were trying to proclaim Him who is the King of kings, and
the Lord of lords, the stone whom the builders rejected.
But they spoke His Word, and they did it with boldness!

Tonight, my brothers and sisters, and throughout the
convention in our praying and our working together, that
is our prayer, too. We ask the Lord Jesus Christ and His
Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with that same courage, not
only to believe in Him as our risen and ascended and for-
giving and loving Lord, but to go because we've been sent
into all the world with the message about what HE, not
we, but about what HE has done for us and for all people.

There are four parts to that prayer. Think about them,
pray about them with me for just a moment. “Lord, con-
sider their threats.” Think about the threats that you and
I face today. Nothing is quite so striking or extraordinary,
I suppose, as what Peter and John had been through. They
were harassed by the leaders, Praise God, we live in a
country that cherishes and prizes the freedom of religion
and the freedom to worship our God. But perhaps in its
own way our time poses even more of a threat to the proc-
lamation of the Good News than this period of history that
we read about in the book of Acts. We are threatened by
our own insecurity, our own complacency, our own tradi-
tionalism, our own timidity, our own fear—it’s not at all
surprising to hear news commentators describe this time,
right now in the United States and in all the world, as one
did just a few days ago on an evening news station, as a
time of global disorientation. Threats, dear Lord, threats
within and threats without; dear Lord, consider them. Con-
sider our own weakness, our own tendency to bite and
devour and to scold and criticize each other and to focus
on ourselves, when our hearts should be so filled with the
Good News and the life and the light of God in Jesus Christ,
that we, like the early disciples simply go because we've
been sent. Lord, consider their threats!

“And enable Your servants.” Enable us, dear Lord, be-
cause we can’t do this alone. Peter and John and the early
Christians were but servants praying to the Sovereign
Lord. They knew their role, and so do we. We are servants.
We are a servant church, asked to be God’s people for other
people, and we need His enablement. Consider their
threats and enable Your servants!

“To speak Your Word.” So many times we think we have
to do new and great programs, that we have to restructure,
organize, pass the perfect resolution, have just the right
people in place for everything we think needs to happen.