LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 88

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88

CONVENTION ESSAYS AND BIBLE STUDIES

Acts is no ending at all—it is open-ended. The story continues, the story of those who know when they are living and
who know that they are sent. Their story. Our story. …
C. Because each of us, all in different ways, are all sent!
1. Remember that the Acts of the Apostles is “selected
acts of a few apostles.” And apostles are unique people; eyewitnesses of Jesus. Of all the people gathered here today—
not one of us is here today called to be exactly what they
were, or to do exactly what they did.
2. But then there are, in Acts, all of the “little people”
who are there, but not in the spotlight. As you read Acts,
don’t try to identify so much with the apostles. Think about,
notice all the little folk. The people in Acts 4:34 who “as
many as possessed land or houses sold them and brought
the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’
feet.” Who were those people? We don’t know their names;
but they gave testimony that they were living in the last
days brought about by the death and resurrection of their
Lord Jesus.
Notice the little people in Acts—mostly unnamed,
mostly behind the scenes. The disciples in Damascus who
let Paul down the city wall at night. Simon the tanner from
Joppa, in whose house Peter stayed. The six Christians who
accompanied Peter when he went to visit Cornelius (Acts
11:12). The unnamed elders of the church in Ephesus who
wept with Paul on the beach as he traveled toward
Jerusalem. And on and on and on. Because they knew that
they were sent. The story goes on still, to this very day, to
this very place.
And you and I are sent, each of us in a different way.
Pastors don’t just happen to be in a particular congregation. No, the Holy Spirit placed you as overseers and undershepherds of God’s flock. He sent you there, to bear testimony to the risen and coming Christ. Teachers and other
church workers—God has sent you to the places where you
serve. All of us; you didn’t just happen to be in that family,
or in that job, or in that neighborhood. You have a vocation
from God there in that place. It is your station, your place
in life that God has given to you. He sent you there so that
Christ’s love may be reflected in your love for others, so
that they may glorify your Father who is in heaven. He
sent you there, so that you might learn how to speak of
human need and divine solution, of Jesus who was crucified by sinners and for sinners, raised in victory for all, and
coming again in glory.
When we read the book of Acts, the main character is
Christ Himself, and St. Luke begins purposefully. Turn
with me to Acts 1:1—he writes, “I made the first account, O
Theophilus, about all the things which Jesus began to both
do and teach.” What happens in the book is Christ’s work.

It is God who takes His mission to save a lost and dying
race out to the ends of the earth.
But God uses people. And He works faith in them, and
true understanding, and they become His instruments.
Why did they go to the ends of the earth? They knew when
they were living. And they knew God had sent them. Those
core convictions will also be enough to continue the mission
that God is still taking to the ends of the earth.
Oh, and there’s one more, just one more small thing.
III. They Learned Just How Wide Open
Was the Heart of God
It seems easy to think about it in the abstract—God’s
heart, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, is wide
open to the whole world, to all people. Sure, why not; of
course. “You will be My witnesses to ... the ends of the
earth.” Fine.
But that means Gentiles. All your life as a Jew you’ve
been taught that the Gentiles were idolaters, pagans, ungodly, lost, far off. And it was right—what you were taught
was right. But it’s easy to take that truth in a way that God
never intended it. Those idolaters, those ungodly people—
God’s heart is not open to them. God doesn’t care about
them. They are unclean. Stay away from them.
You know the story. You know how hard it was. In Acts
10, God had to club Peter over the head with a vision three
times before he was ready to go to the home of a Gentile.
And after he went, Peter took grief from other believers for
what he had done. And they had to hold the first great
church council in Jerusalem to deal with this question:
“How wide open is God’s heart? Even to the Gentiles? Is
Christ’s work sufficient even for them?”
Yes. Even for them. For His heart was wide open to
Peter, who denied Christ in the darkness surrounding the
fire in the courtyard of the high priest. And God’s heart was
wide open to Saul of Tarsus, persecutor of the church. And
God’s heart is open wide enough, because of Christ, to welcome sinners like ... you. Even a sinner ... like me.
So it means that His heart is open to the ends of the
earth. And that truth will continue to take His people, take
us to the ends of the earth. The time is growing short; salvation is nearer than when we first believed! We are living
in the last days, and the Risen One is coming again. To the
ends of the earth—each of us is sent in a specific way, to
shine light into the darkness where God has placed us. To
the ends of the earth—because that’s how far Christ’s arms
reach since He stretched them out for us on the cross.
That’s why they went. That’s why we will go—to the ends of
the earth.
Jeffery Gibbs, Assistant Academic Advisor
Concordia Seminary