LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2007, Page 101

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4. One Message—Christ!
A Message of Love to a Desperate People—Acts 3 and 4
Introduction
This morning, our Bible Study is going to be driven by
two chapters of God’s Word and two of my favorite hymns.
So much my favorites, that I’ve let it be known to my family
that my wish would be to sing them at my funeral. They
are old hymns, but not that well known. They cannot even
be found in Lutheran Worship nor the new Lutheran Service Book. But they are in the 1941 Lutheran hymnal, and
before they get forgotten, I want to have this great assembly sing them as part of this Bible Study.
The theme assigned to me is “A Message of Love to a
Desperate People.” Desperate people are people who have
no hope. Wow, do desperate people (without any hope) ever
need a message of love. I want to divide this Bible Study
into two parts following the outline on pages 403–404 of
Today’s Business. The two parts address the fact that there
are only two kinds of people in this world. Those who know
they are desperate people and those who don’t know they
are desperate people. Because, of course, standing on our
own before a holy God, we are all desperate people. Some of
us know it; and some of us don’t. And we are here this
morning to celebrate that God’s love is here, at least today,
for both groups.

I. His Love Is Here for Those Who Know They
Are Desperate.
In Acts 3, as Peter and John are going up to the temple
they meet a man lame from birth being carried up to the
temple to beg for alms. Here is a man without hope . . . desperate . . . lame since he was born. And the first verse of
one of my favorite hymns, “Come Ye Disconsolate” describes his condition:
Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish;
Come to the Mercyseat, fervently kneel,
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that Heav’n cannot heal.

There are many who come Sunday after Sunday to our
churches with wounded hearts . . . filled with anguish.
Many of our family and friends are languishing in the trials
and tribulations of this life’s fallen world. I am certain this
morning that there are some among you in this great delegation of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod who have
sorrows that heaven alone can heal. Many times in our lives
we need consoling because the circumstances of our life
have left us disconsolate, desperate.
Peter says to the man asking for money in Acts 3: “I
have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” And leaping up,
he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and
praising God.
Folks, do you remember another day in Jesus’ earthly
ministry when another crippled man was lowered down
from the roof by his friends? Remember how before Jesus
healed him physically he told him his sins were forgiven.
And in the dialogue that followed, Jesus asked that won-

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derful question: “Which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or take up your bed and walk?” The greatest gift a
desperate person needs to open is not the elimination of
earthly struggles, but the forgiveness of sins in the name
of Jesus. In verse 19 of Acts 3, Peter reminds those who
were questioning this healing miracle, “Repent therefore,
and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that
times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
Every one of us is desperate for the forgiveness of our sins.
Every one of us on our own is dis-consolable. Every one of
us in the darkness of our sin is straying like sheep without
a shepherd. We need light. We need hope. We need love.
The love of Christ that is here for desperate people who
know their desperation and reach out in repentance and
contrition for a healing that can only come from heaven,
this is earth’s greatest sorrow . . . that heaven alone can
heal. Verse 2 says it:
Joy of the desolate, Light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure;
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
Earth has no sorrow that Heav’n cannot cure.

And where is that forgiveness offered to the desperate
who know their condition? And what is the source of such
hope? Where indeed do we find the voice of the Comforter
tenderly saying, “Earth has no sin sorrow that Heav’n cannot cure?” We know the answer. We are the “means of
grace” church. Christ’s love is here for desperate people in
the Word and Sacraments. Christ’s love is here [hold up the
Bible] in His promises of hope. The Holy Ghost has called
me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified
and kept me in the one true faith. Christ’s love is here in
His church, which Augsburg VII confesses is the “assembly

2007 Convention Proceedings