Christian, Make This Your Focus!

3rd Sunday of Easter, 5/8/11
Acts 2:14a, 36-47


Christian, Make This Your Focus!
I. Inward repentance
II. Outward fellowship


If you paid any attention to the national and world news this past week, you repeatedly heard the sentence, “It changed my life” or, “My life hasn’t been the same since.” And almost without exception, the speaker was referring to the attacks of September 11, 2001 on our nation. The people who were directly involved recall how they survived the attacks and what a difference it made. Or they recall the loss of a loved one in those attacks or in the rescue efforts immediately following the attacks. And now that the one who planned those attacks is dead, they experience another act of closure. For others, those attacks propelled them into action, enlisting in the war on terror or joining a police or firefighter force. Whatever the case, that day made them look at their lives and think about their lives in a different way and the effects are ongoing.

The Jews on Pentecost who listened to Peter’s sermon didn’t experience a physical bombing that changed their lives forever, but they did experience a spiritual bombing. Without a doubt it was a defining moment in their lives. One of the opening verses of our text reads, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart.” What Peter had told them affected them deeply, negatively. They realized they had put to death the Son of God. And in the next moment, Peter shared with them the most wonderful news, the only news that could save them from eternal death in hell, the news that Jesus is their Savior from sin and that he forgives them.

We’ve all had that defining moment in our lives. It was the moment that we came to faith in Jesus. I would imagine that most of us don’t recall being cut to the heart. But we did come to faith in Jesus just as these people did and by the same means these people did—the word of God and the Sacrament of Baptism. That was a defining moment in our lives and it changed our lives forever.

But we forget that. We take it for granted. We allow other things to divert our attention. So today, the Lord uses this portion of his word to tell you, “Christian, make this your focus.” Let’s see exactly what he means.

Part I.

A few days ago I watched a short video segment on UTube that featured Dr. Michael Horton, a professor at a Presbyterian seminary in California. He was bemoaning the fact that far too many sermons in Christian churches are simply a list of rules to live by because people are under the impression that God exists to make us happy in our lives and thus they look for him to supply them with guidelines on how to live and be happy. In giving these people what they want, preachers are tragically avoiding the topic of sin and the need for repentance.

Peter made sure his hearers didn’t have that problem. He convicted them of the sin of rejecting Jesus as the promised Savior. Thus they responded, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Now, as good Lutherans, we know there’s nothing we can do to save ourselves or earn our forgiveness. With that being the case, please don’t misunderstand what these people were saying. God’s crushing law had done its intended work. They realized how helpless and hopeless they were. They realized there was nothing they could do. Their question arises, not out of a false sense of self-righteousness, but out of utter despair.

In a very real sense, this was their confession of sin. They realized how they had sinned against the holy God. They hadn’t measured up to God’s standard of holiness. They had willfully violated the commandments. They had done the unthinkable in rejecting and crucifying the Lord. They admitted their guilt and offered no excuses.

Peter realized their desperate spiritual state. He recognized that he had hopeless sinners standing before him, listening to his words. And he didn’t respond by saying, “Go home and really think about how terrible you’ve been and then come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you what to do.” No, he immediately responded, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” First, he told them to repent. He meant that in the fullest sense of that word, which means not only to be sorry for your sins—which they were—but also to trust in Jesus for forgiveness. This was a call for them to believe what he had told them about Jesus—that he was the promised Savior from sin.

Along with that, he called for them to be baptized. And that’s what they did. What followed was likely one of the greatest days of baptism in the history of the Christian church on earth. Our text tells us that 3,000 believed and were baptized that day. Incredible!

Through the gospel and through this Sacrament the people received the Holy Spirit. Some have said, rightly so, that the greatest gift that God can give to any sinner is the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is the one who brings all God’s great and saving gifts to us—faith in Jesus, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, membership in God’s kingdom. And that’s what these people received that day. It changed their lives forever and it started with inward repentance.

Christian, make this your focus—inward repentance.

Do you realize what an astounding thing repentance is? When you repent of your sins, you are doing what countless billions of people fail to do and suffer for it eternally. In repenting you are recognizing and admitting that every day of your life you reveal yourself to be, as we say, a poor, miserable sinner. You’re coming face-to-face with the fact that you cannot save yourself no matter how many “good” things you might do. Billions of people think the opposite about themselves. And then, the most astounding spiritual thing of all takes place—by the grace of God through the work of God the Holy Spirit alone, you believe that your sins are forgiven by Jesus’ holy life and his death on Calvary’s cross. So make that your focus, Christian! Don’t get distracted in your faith. Don’t think that there must be something else, something greater, something more. There is nothing else, nothing greater, nothing more! So make this your focus—inward repentance.

Part II.

With the downturn in the economy and the loss of jobs and income, maybe this statement isn’t as true for as many people as it was a decade ago: time is our most prized possession. You can never get it back. Once you spend it, it’s gone for good. You only have a limited amount of it and none of us knows for sure exactly how much time here we have.

Once these Jews before Peter had their defining moment, notice how it impacted their use of time. We read, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” I’d like to highlight one of those words and the way it impacted their lives. It’s the word “fellowship.” We use that word often and maybe without a lot of thought. But it’s a word full of meaning. These people realized that they had a relationship now with each other by faith in Jesus that went beyond the bounds of time. It was eternal and they wanted to experience and express it as much as they could. In other words, they now used their time to deepen the fellowship that they had.

The first way they did it was to study the teaching of the apostles. We would call it Bible study. They grew in the faith and in their knowledge of God’s truths for their eternal life and their life now on earth. They assisted each other in applying those truths in daily life and death situations. They helped one another understand how God’s word impacted their family life and their employment life. In doing so, their fellowship with each other expanded as they thought and believed the same way about things.

They also broke bread together in their homes. Their faith in Jesus drew households together and thus it was only natural for them to want to enjoy a meal together. They fellowshipped around food.

They also fellowshipped around prayer. In other words, they gathered together to pray about things. It doesn’t say here what they prayed about, but surely they prayed for the spread of the gospel. They wanted the saving word of God to be proclaimed to one and all. They likely prayed for God to use them to do so. What’s more, they prayed for strength and boldness. From the very beginning of the church, the preaching of the gospel met with opposition, sometimes deadly opposition. They prayed for their needs and the needs of others. In doing so, they built up their spiritual community or togetherness.

And, finally, they expressed their fellowship by serving each other. Listen to this description: “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.” Some have described this activity as a form of Christian communism where everyone shared all their possessions. That’s not what was happening here. There were those who realized that they had been blessed by God with more than they needed to live on. So when a need arose, they sold some of what they had and used it to support others. It was a genuine expression of their fellowship—their new fellowship with Jesus by faith in him and their fellowship with their brothers and sisters in the faith. It became the focus of their lives.

Christian, make this your focus—outward fellowship!

Unfortunately, this is perhaps the easiest aspect of your Christian faith to ignore and neglect. No one screams at you to have fellowship with them by studying God’s word together or praying together. No one demands that you attend a particular fellowship function. And the more we neglect it, the more the individual suffers and the whole body of believers along with it. So recall what you have—a united faith in Jesus as your Savior from sin. That faith has drawn us together. The Holy Spirit nurtures that faith through his word and sacrament. He builds us up in the faith and leads us to cherish the gift of fellowship that we possess. Christian, if it isn’t already, make it your focus! Amen.