LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 92

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92

CONVENTION ESSAYS AND BIBLE STUDIES

acteristically befalls God’s “sent ones” (Luke 13:34). As His
“sent ones” they are now witnesses of the real presence of
the crucified and risen Lord in the proclamation of Jesus’
words and deeds, in Baptism “with the Holy Spirit and with
fire” (Luke 3:16), and in the Supper at which He gives His
body and blood as food and drink (Luke 22:14–20). To be
His witness involves more than simply testifying to the historical facts of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
The mission of the church to the world will recapitulate
Jesus’ suffering and journey to Jerusalem. For the church’s
teaching will embrace Jesus’ teaching—His words, the
Word—in the Service of the Word, and His miraculous
presence in the Service of the Sacrament—His body given
into death and His blood shed for the forgiveness of sins.
The disciples will be clothed for the journey with the power
of the Spirit, who will bear witness to the true presence of
Jesus in their midst. And because of the mission carried out
with Jesus’ Word and witness, the apostles will suffer rejection. As Luke will demonstrate in the Acts of the Apostles,
the proclamation itself is to shape the church’s history. It
will be a history of suffering and rejection and death for the
sake of the Crucified One. Only through death and resurrection will the church complete her journey in Christ. It
must ever be so, because the disciples have gone from being
“eyewitnesses” to being “ministers of the word” (Luke 1:2).
Thus, in His ministry Jesus prepares His disciples for
mission by giving them the following key elements:
• Proclamation of the kingdom of God
• Greeting of peace and fellowship
• Witness for the life of the world

After they were baptized and 3,000 Jews were added to
the new Christian community, the mission continued by
Word and witness. St. Luke reports the means by which the
church grew in Christ:
Acts 2:42
“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching
and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
For preaching this Gospel, Peter and John are arrested.
And despite their arrest, because of the compelling words
that they preached and the conviction of their message, the
church continues to grow in the midst of persecution:
Acts 4:1–3
“And as they were speaking to the people, the priests
and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came
upon them, annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the
dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody
until the morrow, for it was already evening. But many of
those who heard the word believed; and the number of the
men came to about five thousand.”
For preaching the Gospel, Stephen is martyred. But despite his martyrdom the church continued to grow. Without Stephen’s martyrdom and the consequent persecution
and scattering of the church, the mission to Judea and
Samaria would not have happened as it did, in fulfillment
of Jesus’ own words. As one church father put it: the seed of
the church is the blood of the martyrs:
Acts 7:54–8:2

III. The Disciples Continue the Pattern
for Mission in Acts
The church in Acts grew by the Spirit, as Jesus predicted before He ascended into heaven:
Acts 1:8
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has
come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of
the earth.”
At Pentecost, Peter is the first “minister of the Word” as
the Jewish mission begins. Standing before Jews from all
over the Roman Empire, Peter preaches the Gospel as
Jesus taught him to do:
Acts 2:22–24, 38–39
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a
man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through Him in your midst,
as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God
raised Him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it
was not possible for Him to be held by it . . . Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord
our God calls to Him.”

“Now when they heard these things they were enraged,
and they ground their teeth against him. But [Stephen],
full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory
of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and
he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of
Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out
with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him. Then they cast him out of the city and
stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at
the feet a of young man named Saul. And as they were
stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’
And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do
not hold this sin against them.’ And when he had said this,
he fell asleep. And Saul was consenting to his death. And
on that day a great persecution arose against the church in
Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”
James’ death and Peter’s arrest are also indications that
fiercest persecution continues in Jerusalem as Paul and
Barnabas are about to begin their mission to the Gentiles
that will take the church to the “ends of the earth”:
Acts 12:1—5
“About that time Herod the king laid violent hands upon
some who belonged to the church. He killed James the
brother of John with the sword; and when he saw that it
pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This
was during the days of Unleavened Bread. And when he
had seized him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to