Good Christian Men Rejoice, our latest traditional carol for Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series), is an interesting example of how music evolves from an original through translations and into the present day.  I won’t often do a citing straight out of Wikipedia, but today’s is really fascinating, presented in a way one cannot duplicate.  In describing the carol as the Latin In dulci jubilo dating back to the 14th century, they offer this comparison chart. 

First verse textual comparison

Returning to my thoughts now:

Of course, the irony is that the addition of “men” in Neale’s version has now been changed in the gender-inclusive modern hymnals as Good Christian Friends Rejoice.  Frankly, it never bothered me to have it be “men,” especially among Christian friends.

Probably more curious to me is why “the manger” and “mother’s lap” remain the Latin even into the 1800s.  And what I think is more disturbing, theologically speaking, is the removal of “the Alpha and Omega” (the Beginning and the End), except for the version by Robert Lucas [de] Pearsall, the “de” being an ennobling addition by his daughter to his given name.

Fascinating for the times, is that the Enlightenment occurred between the translations by Wedderburn and Neale.  Why then did Pearsall’s version still have the Alpha and Omega?  Well, it turns out that Pearsall was a Romantic in the truest sense of the 19^th century Romantics.  He was a throwback of sorts, having a fondness for antiquarian interests, spurning the industrialization occurring all around him, and embracing historical aesthetics in his musical compositions.  While he began life as a Quaker, he was interred in a Roman Catholic cemetery which may explain why he returned to the Latin when he was received in the Catholic Church.

The Alpha and the Omega is a great title for who Jesus is.  It’s informative that 9 of the 12 New Testament references to the Alpha and the Omega, including ones where Jesus applies this title to Himself, occur in the book of Revelation. To remove the “last days” notion from Good Christian Men Rejoice rather diminishes the amazing truth of why we rejoice!  To Enlightenment sorts, the fact that Jesus Christ is the Beginning (truly before all recorded time) and He is the End (of all earthly history) doesn’t compute with their scientific understandings.  The Alpha and the Omega is also a title conveying both sovereignty and all authority.  Something that would be offensive to those of Enlightenment mindsets, and even today worthy of ridicule by those who worship science, this Alpha and Omega is Who was lying in a manger and in Mary’s lap.  Just amazing!

As you listen to this version by The Salvation Army Brass Quintet  ponder our Thought Focus for Today.

Thought Focus for Today: Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. 

How does it change your view of Christmas to know that the One who created everything…was chosen before time began…to be born, to enter into our human struggle as a baby, and to save us in His adulthood?  Then, of course, this baby at Christmas is also the One who sits on the throne with all power and glory as Eternal Judge to judge us.  Does it give Good Christian Men Rejoice a new meaning?

Good Christian men, rejoice with heart and soul, and voice;
Give ye heed to what we say: News! News! Jesus Christ is born today;
Ox and ass before Him bow; and He is in the manger now.
Christ is born today! Christ is born today!

Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye hear of endless bliss: Joy! Joy! Jesus Christ was born for this!
He has opened the heavenly door, and man is blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this! Christ was born for this!

Good Christian men, rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave: Peace! Peace! Jesus Christ was born to save!
Calls you one and calls you all, to gain His everlasting hall.
Christ was born to save! Christ was born to save!

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Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) began November 30th.  By way of reminder, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2014 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><

Today’s carol, Infant Holy Infant Lowly,  is the first one we’ve explored as of Polish origin through the course of our Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series).

It’s a good time to pause and remember that Christmas is a worldwide celebration.  From Jesus’ humble human beginning in the womb of virgin and His laying in a manger in Bethlehem, how did this Child’s birth become a worldwide event that we remember annually?

It’s due to what He did during His thirty-three years of walking this earth. 

We’re still talking about Him two thousand years later.

I, for one, really love that Christmas is celebrated around the globe by people of different nationalities, in different languages, and with hymns of different cultural flavor.  It’s a taste of heaven where there will be a great diversity!

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

Not much is known about Infant Holy Infant Lowly which was originally written as W żłobie leży.  The words were recorded in 1908 and translated into English by Edith Margaret Gellibrand Reed in 1921.

If “brevity is the soul of wit” (Shakespeare), consider how much of the Bible story is conveyed in Infant Holy Infant Lowly through only two short verses.   Enjoy this version by the King’s College Cambridge in their Lessons and Carols and ponder our Thought Focus for Today.

Thought Focus for Today: Have you ever thought about increase?  From an egg in a virgin’s womb in the first century to an international phenomenon still going two thousand years later, the increase goes from personal to local to international to the cosmos.  Someday, when Jesus returns, all the heavens will be resounding with the voices of angelic worship not unlike what happened at Jesus’ birth as the increase of His government reaches fulfillment in His eternal Kingdom.

1. Infant holy, Infant lowly, for His bed a cattle stall;

Oxen lowing, little knowing, Christ the Babe is Lord of all.

Swift are winging Angels singing, Noels ringing, Tidings bringing:

Christ the Babe is Lord of all.

2. Flocks were sleeping, Shepherds keeping vigil till the morning new

Saw the glory, heard the story, tidings of a gospel true.

Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow, praises voicing, greet the morrow:

Christ the Babe was born for you.

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Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) began November 30th.  By way of reminder, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2014 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><

Have you ever been hated?  I have.  In fact, if I tell you the truth and that’s my policy: 

I am regularly hated by quite a few people. 

It’s not a particularly happy experience, that’s for sure.  But, if you’re hated by the right people for the right reasons, it can actually be a good thing.  It’s kind of a back-handed compliment.

Jesus never won any popularity contests when He walked the earth. 

And He told us that if we genuinely follow Him, you know what?  We’ll probably face the same thing.

Such is the case of Peter and John in the flow of the Book of Acts.  They’ve been following Jesus’ Great Commission and His command to take the Gospel to the entire known world.  So they start off in the local temple and on the way in, they heal a 40 year old guy who had been crippled since birth—a guy they found begging at the temple gate called Beautiful.

Suddenly they find themselves in prison.  They’re pretty unpopular guys with a crowd of religious hoity-toity sorts who try to figure out how best to punish these two evangelists.  Thus we have the beginning of Christian persecution that would continue what Jesus had told them while He was still walking the earth:

John 15: 17 This is my command: Love each other. 18 “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21 They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin.

So, just as Jesus was hated, so now Peter and John also are hated.  Even the crippled guy was probably hated because if he’d just minded well enough alone, and he was still begging and still crippled, none of this uproar would be happening.  So threats and intimidation are necessary to shut up the former cripple and the disciples of Jesus.

Today, I’d like to look at the Believers’ Prayer found in Acts 4:23-30 and learn some wise strategies for coping with persecution, accusation, unpopularity, and being hated because of your relationship with Jesus.

Sometimes the actions against you are designed by our adversary Satan to dispirit you, like when I was scheduled to speak at a major event to hundreds of people.  The discouragement and hurtful comments can even take the form of someone who means well.  Just before speaking, one woman walked up to me and said,

I must say, you’re not nearly as unattractive in person as you are in that photo.”

I said “Thank you!” and then pondered how that really wasn’t a compliment as I went up to the microphone to begin a Bible teaching program.

Then sometimes you’re doing the Lord’s work as best as you know how and then the punishment comes after the fact.  I’ve lived a strange life.  For a season, I was actively involved in the charter school movement in IL, trying to give parents options for a quality education for their children that had all the academics and as little of the agenda as possible.  Consequently I was a guest a few times on the Milt Rosenberg radio program broadcast out of the WGN studios in Chicago throughout the nation.  Afterward, I received a piece of hate mail.  My first piece in which the man writing it was a linguistics professor who told me that I have an “annoying vocal lilt, common in children though most outgrow it by adulthood.”  I obviously didn’t in this guy’s view and then he went on to say that I “probably picked it up from some snappy cartoon character.”  Sometimes, if taken the right way, even hate mail can be hilarious.

But the point is that opposition will come in many ways—not just with knives and guns and wars–but sometimes in the form of hurtful words and accusations, even by other self-professed Christians who are losing their witness by loving the world more than loving Jesus.  You know what?  If we don’t find strategies for dealing with it, we too can become sidelined or stalled in our Christian walk, or worse get wrapped up in the culture to where we lose our witness entirely.

It’s actually fitting to look at this during Advent because Mary would be shunned by all good society and she risked even being stoned for adultery because, after all, who would believe her story?  “Well, you see, there was this angel…”

Mary—as we heard in our Advent reading this morning– adopts some of these very same strategies that we see in Acts.  We can too.  Let’s take a look at these strategies.  Beginning in

Acts 4:23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people

Strategy #1:  Stick together.  Seek fellowship and encouragement by finding those who will understand. 

It was kind of like a support group.  Peter and John went back to their own people (i.e. other disciples).  Mary fled to see Elizabeth not only to double check that it was true since Elizabeth was identified by the angel as someone who would understand and be external evidence.  If Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant when she was way too old to be a mother, Mary would know that at least that part wasn’t a dream.  It would give her strength and confidence.

So Peter and John leave the temple area and seek the fellowship of other believers.

4:23 (continued) and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

In other words, they told the group of believers the persecution they were beginning to face.  When Mary ran to Elizabeth, Mary didn’t have to get beyond the “Hi Elizabeth” before the encouragement started!

Why do we need to stick together when persecution is happening?  We support one another and can feed off of each other’s encouragement.  We need each other.  There’s safety in numbers.  Isolation and “divide and conquer” are Satan’s favorite tools for destroying the Church.  But we can avoid these if we stick together in love and truth.

Continuing in Acts 4,

24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God.

Strategy #2: Praising God always helps.

Elizabeth blesses Mary and in the process, Elizabeth praises God.  Mary then launches into a full-blown song.

It’s not quite like that scene from the King and I when Anna sings, “Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect.  And whistle a happy tune, so no one will suspect, I’m afraid.”  It’s not just the song.  It’s who we’re singing to.  Who we’re praying to.  Whose praise we’re engaging in.  The most powerful thing we can do as Christians is to praise God and let Him work on our behalf!

In a few weeks, we’ll get to Acts 5:40 … [The Sanhedrin] called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. 41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

Remember how I said that if you’re hated by the right people, for the right reasons, it can be a good thing?  It’s not like we’re trying to be as offensive as we can possibly be.  That is unchristian!  But the Gospel is offensive even when spoken in truth and love.  It’s not like we’re purposely trying to be a thorn in the side of society, but if we’re preaching the Gospel and sharing the Good News, opposition will happen.  When Christians shine Jesus’ light into the world it reveals both the flowers on the table and the spiders on the wall.  And the spiders don’t like the light.  Some will run, but others will bite.  So praise God.  We suffer disgrace for the Name.  In our passage today, the disciples break into a spontaneous prayer as the response to persecution.

 “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.

Strategy #3: Remind yourself of God’s sovereignty!

The believers recount many instances of God’s sovereignty.  They even begin by addressing this prayer:

“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them.” [He is the Creator—doesn’t get more sovereign than that.]

25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:   [He is the Living Word who spoke prophetically then and who speaks to us today!  This same sovereign God intervened with the prophets and the apostles and He speaks through us to a culture that would rather be its own god.  Reminding the world that God alone is sovereign is likely to ruffle some feathers.]

 “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ . [He is sovereign over all the nations and while God’s enemies may take a stand and gather to fight God, but ultimately that’s a losing battle because He is sovereign and they are not.  They are like a mist, a flower of the field that is here today and gone tomorrow.  We may not know our future, but we can know who holds it: our sovereign Lord.]

27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. [He is architect of His own will and no one surprises God on any of this.  Even suffering fits in God’s plan, oddly enough.]

All of this points to the fact that God knows what’s going on and He’s got it all under control even if we don’t understand how.

That’s what Mary praised God for!  God sovereignly remembered to be faithful to all of His promises and in the process lifted the humble and taught those self-righteous savior/king-wannabes a lesson.

Strategy #4: Press On!  Don’t let the discouragement prevent your following Jesus!

29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

These disciples asked for God—not to take away the threats—but to show Himself present in greater boldness.  Evidence that would be undeniable to others.

31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

This doesn’t mean that they became indwelled with the Holy Spirit since they were already believers.  This filling was like filling their spiritual gas tank.  They needed empowering to press on!

The final strategy becomes apparent only as we look at the entire prayer.  These disciples knew their Bibles.

Strategy #5: Immerse yourself in God’s Word.  There’s power there. 

This whole section is filled with Scripture quotations.  In fact, the whole Book of Acts is one OT reading after another.  There is a reason why I always want to have an OT reading as part of our Sunday worship.  We can find strength there.  Just like in today’s reading, the Lord is David’s strength and David strengthened himself up in the Lord.

You see, sometimes, we have no accountability group, no support, no friends to stand by our side, we’re deserted…a lot like Jesus was abandoned.  Standing alone is unpleasant stuff.   It happens more often for those who are in leadership roles or who are called to be a voice in the wilderness like John the Baptist.  But whether we’re leaders or just in places where safety in numbers isn’t available, it helps to know that God’s Word is planted in our hearts and it is the best weapon we have against discouragement, depression, loneliness, uncertainty, fear, and feelings of confusion.  There’s power there because Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

It can also help us to stand firm in the day of battle, even battling confidently by standing still.  Ephesians 6: 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

In this simple prayer of Acts 4:23-30, we see 5 great strategies for standing firm and living life with boldness.

1. Stick Together
2. Praise God
3. Remember His Sovereignty and that He knows the end of the story
4. Press On!
5. Know Your Bible

If we do these things, we’ll be fully equipped to deal with standing firm and standing alone.  We can cope with being hated, isolated, accused, insulted…because Jesus said this would happen when we truly follow Him.

Let’s pray.

The audio version of The Believers’ Prayer (click link) with 5 Strategies for Dealing with Persecution is now available on YouTube.  For those of you receiving these emails for the Advent Devotional Series, Carol Me Christmas! I still post both the audio and the sermon text versions of messages I preach on Sundays along with the day’s Advent devotionals.  I hope you enjoy these sermons and are blessed by them.  The Believers’ Prayer  (Acts 4:23-30) continues the sermon series of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles which began in August and can be accessed through the August-December archives.

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Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) began November 30th.  By way of reminder, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2014 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><

(Note:  For those of you receiving these emails for the Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) I still post both the audio and the sermon text versions of messages I preach on Sundays along with the day’s Advent devotionals.  I hope you enjoy these sermons and are blessed by them.  When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary (Acts 4:13-22) continues the sermon series of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles which began in August and can be accessed through the August-November archives.)

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When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary

Every once in a while, someone basically accuses me, “Who are you…?”  A lot of the time, it’s said with a sneer. (Fill in the blank):

• Who are you…to judge?
• Who are you…to say?
• Who are you…to try?
• Who are you…to think that?

Indeed, I often ask myself,

Who am I?”

Oftentimes, my answer to “Who am I?” is “Nobody…”  (Fill in the blank)

• Nobody special
• Nobody important
• Nobody worthy
• Or just Plain Nobody

In the realm of humanity, with our horizontal comparisons, we’re often just plain nobodies.  The bad news for humanity is we’re constantly comparing ourselves on some sort of worthiness scale.

Maybe your personal worthiness scale is Mother Teresa (good!) and Hitler (all the way down on the bad end) and you hope to at least be in the upper half of your graduating class.  More on the Mother Teresa end and leaving the lower half Hitlers to everyone else.

While I was away in Florida for the birth of my grandson, Ryan, I had the opportunity of driving my daughter to Ryan’s first pediatric visit.  While we were in the waiting room another young family came in.  With a baby about the same age.  The mom was beyond talkative about her baby doing this or that, having had her first bath plus clipped fingernails and loving it all, sleeping so well, and excelling at everything that a newborn can excel at!  After a vocal outburst…at the reception desk about how they have an appointment and need to be seen immediately, they were ushered away and I looked at my daughter and her beautiful baby and said, “Welcome to the world of competitive motherhood.”  We go from feeling like nobodies raising nobody children compared to somebody’s miracle child who will appear in every family Christmas newsletter as the star of amazing accomplishments, previously unknown to the human race.

The Good News is that God turns Nobodies into Somebodies. 

That’s what happens when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary.

Oh it’s not like the cartoon I saw of 3 women riding on mules back to Nazareth with bumper stickers on the back ends of the mules.  One woman mutters, “Well! If it isn’t Joseph and Mary…” The bumper stickers said, “Our son is an honor student.”  “Our son is in medical school.”  Mary’s said, “Our Son is God.”  The real Mary was much more humble than that, but when the Ordinary meets the Extraordinary we do become changed people.

We become Somebody special.  Somebody important.  Somebody worthy of receiving God’s particular notice and favor, even though–in and of ourselves–we’re unworthy from horn to hoof in the eyes of God and man.  In God’s eyes, though, we’ve always been His precious Image bearers and that’s what He sees when He looks at you and He looks at me, sinners though you and I are.

We go from being Nobodies to Somebodies with 5 important results. 

As we look at those on the second Sunday of Advent and I’d like to publically thank Bill Slater for having continued our series of Acts during the month of November.  I’m glad to be back among you as friends.  It feels good to be home. At home, nobody cares that we’re nobodies.  Among friends in church, we’re always somebodies because we’re a family of equally loved children in the eyes of God.

Today, we’re in Acts 4:13-22 and in the flow of Acts we’ve seen how Peter addressed a crowd of Nobodies and they became Somebodies in Christ.  3000 of them, Scripture says.  They devoted themselves to a study of the Word and praised God and grew from the earliest beginnings of a few Nobodies to a whole bunch of people God sees as Somebody chosen for heavenly dwelling because of Jesus Christ.

Peter and John were two such Nobodies who were plucked out of their fishing boats to follow Jesus.  But after following Him as His chosen disciples, what did they do?  They abandoned Jesus while He was reduced to a Nobody on a Cross in the eyes of man.

Psalm 22:6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

This Messianic Scripture speaks to His being—in the eyes of man at least–pretty much a Nobody.

But after Jesus’ Resurrection, His reinstatement of Peter and His encouragement of John the beloved disciple who abandoned Jesus too, Peter and John proved that changed lives make great testimonies!

Result #1 when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary: we go from Nobodies we are in the eyes of mankind in our competitive world to knowing we’ve always been Somebodies in the eyes of God.  Not because of who I am, as our song said this morning, but because of who God is.

But Result #2 when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary is that we get sent on an important mission!  Peter and John boldly went to the temple to evangelize.  They were Somebodies with a mission: to demonstrate the Life-Changing Jesus Christ!

What more powerful witness to the Life-Changing Jesus Christ than to heal a crippled man with no life other than to beg?  So they heal him, giving credit to God of course, and what happens?  This formerly crippled man becomes a source of contention among the people who thought they were definitely Somebodies in this world.  The religious leaders had quite a high view of themselves.  They didn’t quite like that the numbers of people listening to these Nobodies had grown from 3000 to 5000 when the leaders weren’t experiencing ministry growth!  It’s not fair.  Those disciples are Nobodies and we’re Somebodies!  Yet those Nobodies are doing nothing but continuing to grow in numbers with Peter and John talking about their journey to Somebodyhood by the power of Jesus Christ….the Son of God, the One treated as a Nobody—the stone the builders rejected—that has now become the Capstone.   Indeed, Peter proclaims,

Acts 4:12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, Nobodies turn into Somebodies with a mission and purpose.

If we were to look at the Christmas Story, we see Mary—a nobody from nowhere—and yet God finds something in her (a wholehearted devotion to God) that makes her a Somebody in God’s sight.  She is the most blessed among women and will bear the Christ Child we will celebrate on Christmas and the Savior whom we worship week after week here.

Mary was a brave and devout woman in a culture that viewed women as Nobodies.  And in Acts today we see nothing less than the story of Nobodies who became Somebodies because the Ordinary men met the Extraordinary Savior!  Let’s take a look at Result #3: These Nobodies turned Somebodies have uncommon courage:

Acts 4:13 When [the religious leaders] saw the courage 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.

Bill did a great job last week of showing that God uses ordinary people!  Peter and John were two such men.  While I was away, one of the preachers I heard was talking about how the Peter we see here in Acts and the Peter from the triple denials of the night before the rooster crowed with the Crucifixion bear little resemblance to one another.  Stop and think about it:  If the Peter of the Gospel story was all we knew, the church never would have started.  He was a coward.  He was a lyin’ three times deny’n man with selective amnesia blues.  He couldn’t even recall ever knowing Jesus, amazingly enough!

Oh, but what difference happens when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary!  Oh yes, Nobodies turn into Somebodies …and Somebodies with a mission and purpose.  The Resurrection changes everything and Peter is reinstated by the Extraordinary Risen Lord.  Suddenly this same coward becomes a man with purpose, with boldness, with total recall!  Amazingly enough.

When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, denying cowards become professing leaders.   And what do the religious leaders do?  Acts 4 continues,

14 But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. 15 So they ordered [Peter, John, and the former cripple] to withdraw from the Sanhedrin and then conferred together. 16 “What are we going to do with these men?” they asked. “Everybody living in Jerusalem knows they have done an outstanding miracle, and we cannot deny it. 17 But to stop this thing from spreading any further among the people, we must warn these men to speak no longer to anyone in this name.” 18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

The religious leaders’ solution?  We cannot deny it so we’ll squelch it.  We’ll threaten them and bring out that old inner coward that’s waiting to rear its head in Peter (especially since he’s the one speaking!)  We’ll silence them through intimidation!

But instead of responding by shutting up, Peter and John suddenly get a case of boldness:

19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. 20 For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, Result #4 is that Nobodies are free from fear to become Somebodies with boldness and who can’t stop talking about what has happened because of God.

The Sanhedrin didn’t know what to do:

21 After further threats they let them go. They could not decide how to punish them, because all the people were praising God for what had happened. 22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.

Result #5 is that it results in praise of God!  Remember what Scripture says about the crippled beggar who had been healed?  Back in

Acts 3:8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Yes, when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, Nobodies become Somebodies filled with praise of God!  And other people take notice.

What’s your take home lesson from all this?

First, so long as you have breath in your body, God’s not done with you yet.  When the Ordinary you and the Ordinary me Meet the Extraordinary Jesus Christ, Nobodies are turned into Somebodies.  Not one of us is undervalued or unnoticed by God. If you’re lonely and feeling like you’re invisible, God says No way!  You’re Somebody important to Him!

Second, when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, Nobodies become Somebodies on a mission and with a purpose!  Oh, not all of us will have a famous purpose like Mary, or the apostles Peter and John, but we all have purpose to use what God has given for His and our use for His mission of spreading the Gospel and the purpose of impacting a world and ushering in the Kingdom through our witness!

Third, when the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, denying cowardly Nobodies become professing leaders and truly Somebodies.  Fear doesn’t command us.  We have the Holy Spirit’s command over our own hearts and minds and because of Him, we can rise to lead in little and big ways!  Maybe your leadership will be to invite a family member …or a neighbor to our Christmas Eve presentation which will be a totally unique take on the traditional Christmas story.  We’ll be joined in worship by Jesus’ mother Mary who will remember along with us the story of the birth of the Savior!  Maybe your leadership will be to read the Christmas story aloud to your kids and grandkids from the Gospel of Luke.  Maybe your leadership will be to serve in GROW Plymouth or in a committee role to make Plymouth everything God desires it to be!

When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, Nobodies who are silent–with nothing to say– are turned into Somebodies who speak boldly and are given words by God to say!  For some of you that will be letters to the editor, for some of you, that will be rounding up your friends for an apologetics seminar in the New Year, and for some of you maybe your place of leadership is in your workplace or social media, introducing the most healing words ever spoken, the Gospel!

And finally, When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary, people see Nobodies (Peter, John, the crippled beggar) who have become Somebodies praising God.  This is one all of us can do.  Let’s praise God in our every moment and for every blessing and know that God can cause a world of Nobodies…even those who already think they’re Somebody…to sit up and take notice.

That’s what happens When the Ordinary man Meets the Extraordinary Savior. 

Let’s pray.

(This message was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI by Barbara Shafer on December 7, 2014)

The audio version of When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary (click link) is now available on YouTube.  For those of you receiving these emails for the Advent Devotional Series, Carol Me Christmas! I still post both the audio and the sermon text versions of messages I preach on Sundays along with the day’s Advent devotionals.  I hope you enjoy these sermons and are blessed by them.  When the Ordinary Meets the Extraordinary (Acts 4:13-22) continues the sermon series of Acts of the Holy Spirit and the Apostles which began in August and can be accessed through the August-November archives.

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Carol Me, Christmas (2014 Advent Devotional Series) began November 30th.  By way of reminder, if you haven’t signed up yet, you can receive these devotional studies in your email throughout Advent 2014 by entering your email address on the SeminaryGal.com home page in the space provided in the sidebar.  Or “Like” the SeminaryGal Facebook page to access them there.  If you like these devotionals, I’d really appreciate your letting others know so I can continue to spread the Good News far and wide.  Blessings to you, in Christ always, Barbara <><

Happy Thanksgiving 2014 from Seminary Gal!

Monica Lewinski.  Oscar Pistorius.  OJ Simpson.  Lindsay Lohan.  Tiger Woods.  Lance Armstrong.  Richard Nixon.  Pete Rose.  The list goes on of people who actually had a lot going for them until they did stupid things, immoral things, and/or illegal things that got them noticed for the bad in their lives instead of the good.  The bad ranges from shoplifting to gambling to lying to murder.  In the case of all the living ones, they’re still paying a price in one way or another.

Pete Rose—the Hit King–was interviewed on ESPN in a program “Outside the Lines” remembering the 25th anniversary of Rose’s banishment from baseball and he said,

I’ve been led to believe America is a forgiving country, and if you do the right things – keep your nose clean, be a good citizen, pay your taxes, do all the things you’re supposed to do – eventually you’ll get a second chance.”

Rose, you may remember was banned from organized baseball for gambling.  In the program, the interviewer, Jeremy Schaap, asked Rose to role-play his pitch to the commissioner for reinstatement.  Rose’s response was:

I wish some way in your heart you’d find an opportunity to give me a chance, a second chance…”

He’s looking for forgiveness actually—well, enough to get him into the Hall of Fame, though he admits he still gambles in legal ways.  When you think about it, professional sports figures and celebrities these days can get away with steroid use, beating up women, hiring prostitutes, fast driving-before-crashing cars, being drunks, being drug addicts; they get suspended for shoplifting, for dog fighting, for bullying, and host of other things we would be less likely to tolerate from lesser known people.  They get a pass because they’re famous.  Rose’s offense stands as remarkably tame in comparison to many of these things and yet, he’s still banished from baseball 25 years later.  His response?

“For anybody listening out there that has a skeleton in the closet, get it quickly as you possibly can,” Rose tells Schaap.  “Because as soon as you get it out, the healing starts; the process starts.”

We all have skeletons in our closet…and not because Halloween is coming up.  Because they’re there year-round, year after year, and many of us hope to take our skeletons—our offenses, our sins, our lies, our secret embarrassing mistakes of varying magnitude—to the grave without their ever becoming public. These skeletons of shame haunt us.  Fear of their becoming known while we’re still alive is a thought that keeps us awake at night.  So we try to push it out of our minds…but it silently consumes us.  Sin is that way.

Monica Lewinski can testify to how stupidity at the age of 19 still haunts at the age of 41.  Haunted for 2 decades.  22 years lost in bitterness and humiliation.  More than half her life has been spent carrying that weight of shame.  She’s been cut to the heart by the public exposure, but what has she done with it?

Even trying to cover it up with a crusade against cyber-bullying doesn’t take it away.  Talking about it doesn’t take it away.  A therapist, a social worker, a psychologist, and water under the bridge does not take it away.  Not when you’ve been cut to the heart like that.

Have you ever been cut to the heart?  By someone pointing out something you did?  By bringing it to light?  In a public way?  The Jewish hearers of the Apostle Peter in the book of Acts found out exactly how that feels.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been breaking apart Peter’s sermon to bring the various points to emphasis.  Today I’d like to read the whole thing, end to end, not because I’m looking to plagiarize Peter’s sermon as my own, but because now we can hear it how the Jewish hearers would have heard it.  It will make their response of being cut to the heart all the more understandable.

The text of Peter’s sermon is in our passage for today, Acts 2:14-36.

Acts 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 22 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ 29 “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”‘ 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “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. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off– for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

Peter doesn’t pull any punches.  He delivers the one-two punch:  You crucified the Lord.  You crucified the Messiah you’ve been waiting for.

36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.“

It’s no wonder that the people were cut to the heart.

For those who had been listening, knew their Jewish prophecies, and had been taking the message to heart, their skeleton was out. 

They’d killed the Messiah!  Now what?

37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

What shall we do?

Once you’ve crucified your Messiah, there is no going back and undoing it.

One day a little boy said some awful things to his parents.  As punishment, the dad sent the boy out with a box of nails and told him to nail all of them into the fence.  So the boy did and thought his punishment was through.  He said, “Pop, I finished.  All the nails are in the fence now.”  The dad brought him back outside and said “Now I want you to remove them all and put them back in the box.”  The little boy found it was harder to remove them than to drive them in…and he also found that they no longer fit in the box.  Finally he finished and came to his dad and said, “OK, Pop, I’m finished.  They’re all out.”  The dad took him outside and they sat on the grass and looked at the fence.  Light from the setting sun peeped through all the holes.  The dad said, “Son, what do you see?”  The boy replied, “I see a lot of holes.”  The dad proceeded to explain that careless words were like nails into a fence.  You can apologize and try to remove them, but there’s always a hole left behind.

Pete Rose found that out. You can say you’re sorry and even try to make up for mistakes by spending time in jail, but 5 months for tax evasion still doesn’t take it away!  You can try to make up for it by being baseball’s biggest fan and promoter!  You can try to make up for it by giving interviews and pleading with authorities to take the punishment away.  But like the fence, only forgiveness fills the hole left behind.

Forgiveness doesn’t come cheap.

It’s not enough for people to forgive you and for you to forgive yourself, but it’s a start.

All sins committed are actually committed against the Image of God in you and in me.  Because when we sin, we make the Image of God (broken through sin but never removed) shoplift or gamble or lie.  The offense is against God.  For these Jewish hearers, it was one step worse than that.  When your sin is crucifying God’s only Son, the Messiah, repentance is all you can do because the offense was eternal and limitless.

That’s the bad news: your skeleton is out and it’s huge and never goes away on its own.  It will haunt you ‘til the day you die and without God’s forgiveness, it will haunt you beyond the grave. 

Here’s the Good News:  God’s forgiveness is eternal and limitless…and enough to pay for any sins, even for crucifying your Christ…because God knew beforehand that you were going to do it.

So in verse 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

Then Peter continues by saying “And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off– for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”

Peter is not advocating a do-it-yourself salvation program, but he is begging them in every way he knows how to realize that the blood of Christ covers sin—the small secret ones and the great big public ones.  The blood of Christ forgives and takes away fear of the skeletons in the closet, under the bed, on the porch, or on the street corner for all to see.  There’s forgiveness in the shed blood of Christ.  You can “save yourself” by repenting and by identifying with the death of Christ through public baptism.  God is the One who fills the holes in the fence, but we can agree with God that only Jesus can give us victory over sin, only Jesus can save us, and that while our sins are as scarlet, God can wash us as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).

41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

That’s the key, isn’t it?  Accepting the message.  Accepting the Good News.  Accepting that we cannot do anything about our sins.  And accepting that God CAN and DID do something about our sins in the death of the person of Jesus Christ, your Messiah, the Son of God.

It’s amazing that this altar call at the end of one sermon produced about 3000 converts…

• 3000 people who were no longer in bondage to their sins,
• 3000 people whose skeletons were out before God, had been covered by the blood of Christ, and therefore were nothing to fear anymore,
• 3000 people who were set free to be the Image bearers God always intended that they would be…
• 3000 people who heard that there is a solution for sin and that His Name is Jesus.

And while it’s amazing that 3000 heard and responded, what’s even more amazing for us today is HOW it happened.  Peter preached a message that focused on sin and the Cross…something that’s suspiciously missing from much of Christianity today.  What is preached today is often what Richard Niebuhr famously described as,

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”

We tiptoe very carefully to avoid talking about sin.  But if we have no sin, what use is there for a Savior?  We’ve been convinced that we can’t—in a culture of moral relativism—even talk about sin without someone being offended and saying so.  We can’t talk about sin without someone turning on you and asking “Who are you to judge?”…and it’s no wonder the Church in America is slowly being made irrelevant at best and dying out at worst.  It’s what happens when we don’t have sin.  We don’t need a Savior.  We’ve come a long way since Jonathan Edwards preached about “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and brought about the Great Awakening.  Today, it’s more like Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s “Defining Deviancy Down,” by normalizing sin instead of repenting it.

Being cut to the heart means we know the truth of who we are and the forgiveness God offers.  In the movie, Walk the Line about the life of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, Johnny has just made it through a rough time of getting off drugs.  Johnny Cash thanks June for seeing him through this tough time and she simply replies that she had a friend who needed help.

• Johnny Cash: But I’ve done so many bad things.
• June Carter: You’ve done a few, that’s true.
• Johnny Cash: My Daddy’s right. It should have been me on that saw. Jack was so good. He would have done so many good things. What have I done? Just hurt everybody I know. I know I’ve hurt you. I’m nothin’.
• June Carter: You’re not nothin’. You are not nothin’. You’re a good man, and God has given you a second chance to make things right, John.

The next scene shows them going to church with June reassuring him that it was OK.  God’s house is a place to hear about forgiveness.  Forgiveness by God is even better than a second chance to do it right by ourselves.

Some of us are waiting for second chances when what we really need is forgiveness.

Where are you?  Are you waiting for a second chance to do things right?  Or are you waiting for a clean slate and a fresh start?  Are you looking for forgiveness?  That’s what being “born-again” is all about and it begins with being cut to the heart about our sins.  So where are you today?  Let’s pray.

When is the last time you were cut to the heart by something you’d done being made public?  How did you deal with it?  Listen to this message on the Apostle Peter’s sermon found in Acts 2:14-41 and see why 3000 people became followers of Jesus Christ that day!

My license plate proudly states “Land of Lincoln.”  Want to know why that is?  It’s because by many measures, Illinois hasn’t had an honest politician since then.  Land of Lincoln, our glory days!

• No one wants a license plate that says Land of Blagojevich since it’s hard to pronounce, harder to spell, and would probably involve a huge tax hike in order to fit such a long name on such a small space.  Art imitates life.  Hmm.
• No one wants a license plate that says Land of Lyin’ George Ryan…it brings back bad memories, especially as a truck license plate.  Hmmm.
• No one wants it to say Land of Daley Corruption even if the Daley machine and all its corruption happen more than daily, just like voting among the dead in IL…where voting is done early, often, and from beyond the grave.  Halloween will be celebrated on November 4^th in IL this year as the walking dead and the zombies come to cast their votes in Chicago, but they won’t walk to the polling places, they’ll be rounded up by bus.  Now that’s scary–the fate of the nation in the hands of such as these!

No, we keep “Land of Lincoln.”  Why?  Because he’s the favorite son of the State of Illinois even if he didn’t move there until he was in his 20s and he was born in Kentucky and lived in Indiana prior to that.  We were his third choice and it’s only to escape “milk sickness” that killed his mother years before when Honest Abe was only 9 years old.  But in IL, we’ll take what we can get—even third runner up—and we honestly appreciate Honest Abe hailing from our state.  He’s our favorite son.

Peter, in our passage of Acts today, invokes the name of the Jews’ favorite son, David.  He was not only their favorite son, but a favorite king, and the figurehead of the Davidic dynasty, the Royal House of David. 

David’s immediate legacy, though, included a cast of characters that may have started well, but finished poorly.  More like Dynasty the TV show or reality TV as the Kingdom was divided up and split apart and almost all of them ended in exile, some never to return.  No wonder it’s not the Solomonic or Rehoboamic Dynasty…which is even harder to pronounce than Blagojevich.

No, David is their favorite son, the head of the Davidic Dynasty and the one Peter’s Jewish listeners (both the devout Jews and the Jewish converts of Acts 2) would have known as Messianic in its meaning.  Peter’s a really smart guy and a Jew who understood how to talk to Jews.  First, he brings up Joel’s prophecy regarding the last days and nails plank #1: Jesus is the Messiah who ushered in the Last Days by his Resurrection from the dead.

Now he enters the part of his speech—his sermon, really!—where he’s appealing to their favored son, David, and all the Messianic hopes that had been building over the years since David ruled…had been building during the time of the Exile…and had been building during the time of Roman rule…and were going to be fulfilled during the last days.  These Jewish hearers hated Roman rule and at this point, they would have been all ears!

Peter’s Jewish hearers would have been filled with all the “House of David” Messianic hopes that became central to their understanding while the Jewish people had been in Exile after David’s son Solomon died and a period of hundreds of years!  What was that hope?

• Re-establishment of the throne of David
• Deliverance from oppressors
• People from all over would flock to Jerusalem to be in the presence of YHWH (Yahweh)—The Name of the Covenant-keeping God of Israel—in order to behold His glory!

But Peter clarified that hope of the Son of David, having learned at the feet of Jesus (and maybe also explicitly taught during Jesus’ post-Resurrection appearances before His ascending to heaven).  Peter knew that the Messiah is the Son of David, but is not a biological son alone like simple genealogy, as if Peter’s going online at Ancestry.com and plugging in “Jesus of Nazareth.”  (Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but a title meaning Messiah).  Son of David was his genealogy, but it was more than that.  It was Messianic.

Interestingly, Jesus never referred to Himself as the Son of David, perhaps to avoid the people’s viewing Him as a nationalistic, earthly, military leader.  That’s what the expectation was.  That’s what David was:  a military man.  David killed Goliath and that was just the start of his killing spree.  David KILLED to overcome and to free people.  (1 Chron 28:3).   Jesus is different.  Jesus DIED to overcome death and to set people free! (Romans 6:3-11).

Jesus is not just “a” son of David, but “THE Son of David” foretold as the Messiah in the promise to King David (2 Samuel 7:10-16) given through the prophet Nathan.

Therefore, not just a Son of David, but The Son of David/The Son of God, Jesus is a transcendent being—One whose glory and authority and power and holiness far surpasses that of an earthly leader.  In other words, this Messiah (Jesus) is not earthly.  He’s heavenly, first having come down to earth, but rising from the dead, and He lost nothing of His glory in the process.  His deliverance of “Israel” (the ALL of God’s people from last week) is not earthly, political, or militarily.  It will be heavenly redemption.  Jesus came down to earth to set men free, and He displayed God’s glory in the process.

So, with this as background of how Peter is approaching Jewish evangelism, let’s look at our passage Acts 2:25-35 to see how the Resurrection of a Divine Messiah is Key and even their favorite son David said so.

Acts 2:25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

This quotation is from a Davidic psalm, one that Peter’s Jewish hearers would have viewed as having Messianic importance.  David is speaking of a resurrection that he was anticipating for himself and for God’s Holy One.  It couldn’t be that David was thinking of himself as God’s Holy One.  Why?  Peter tells us:

29 “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 

(That is what we saw in 2 Samuel 7).

31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,

(The Christ is another word for Messiah.  Jesus, Messiah, is the Holy One!  And that a thousand years earlier, David spoke of a resurrected Messiah was huge!  It’s the KEY! )

“that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. “

To the Jewish hearers of Peter, the death of Jesus was definitely not a plus!  It had been proof-positive (in their minds) that he wasn’t the Christ.  Not that He was the Christ!  Why?  Because, according to Gordon Fee, a “crucified Christ” makes as much sense to these Jews as “fried ice” would mean to us.  It’s nonsensical.  How can you fry ice?

It’s more nonsensical than the CDC director saying you can transmit Ebola on a bus, but you can’t catch Ebola on a bus.  Huh?? It’s more than an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp, alone together, business ethics, or airline food which are just considered humorous contradictory terms.

In a very real way, the death of Jesus, to these Jews (and yet today, I might add) was the stumbling block, the #1 reason why he couldn’t be the Messiah.  Death is the ultimate disqualifier.  But Resurrection changes everything!

So Peter points out that Jesus didn’t remain dead.  He is alive just as their King David—their favored son—had prophesied!  And this is why the post-Resurrection appearances that we talked about in the earliest weeks of Acts were SO important!  Peter appeals to his having seen with his own eyes the Risen Lord!  He was a witness of the fact!

Resurrection of the Divine Messiah is Key!  And while it makes no sense for an earthly son of David who was a sinner like everyone else, it makes perfect sense when we’re dealing the Sinless One, not just the Son of David, but also the perfect Son of God.  It makes sense when we’re talking about the ways of the Almighty and the glory of the Son of God.

Peter continues:  33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he [Jesus] has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

(Do you see Peter looping back to explaining how the Ascension of Christ was proof that Jesus’ sacrifice for sin was accepted by God the Father and now the Holy Spirit was free to come in the last days?  And do you see how Peter is continuing to drive home the point that the speaking in tongues is NOT wine, but what they see and hear—what they are witnesses of!!!–is the pouring of the Holy Spirit and a sign that the last days the Jews have all been waiting for are now upon us?!)

It’s because of the RESURRECTION of THE DIVINE MESSIAH!  IT’S THE KEY!

Peter continues appealing to the favorite son, “34 For David did not ascend to heaven,”

(It wasn’t David, earthly David or any earthly David offspring…but Jesus who is the Son of God in addition to THE Son of David who was exalted to the right hand of God!  Resurrection of the Divine Messiah is KEY!)

34 For David did not ascend to heaven,” and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”‘

Our English translations simply do not do this justice.  In Psalm 110:1, the Hebrew words would be “YHWH (Hashem, The Name which is Yahweh) said to my Adonai (Lord)”.  Peter clearly sees this as God speaking to Jesus Messiah who is David’s Lord…even if He is David’s son.

Why would Peter have seen it this way?  Well, he probably remembered Jesus teaching about it that we have recorded in 3 of the 4 Gospels, one of which is

Matthew 22:41 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42 “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”‘ 45 If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46 No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

The Jews’ Messianic expectation was that a son of David—an earthly military and nationalistic ruler—would rise up and deliver them from oppressors.  But Jesus taught Peter that the Christ, the Messiah, THE Son of David, is also THE Son of God, The Holy One, and He would deliver them from the ultimate oppressor: sin, the wages of which Scripture tells us is death.  If sin and death are the ultimate oppressors, then Resurrection Life is the Key to understanding this Messiah (who He is and the work He did)!

Why?  Because King David was still in his tomb—in Jerusalem—for all to see where it was.  Any biological sons of David will all go to a tomb too.  There’s a 100% chance of death unless Christ returns.

Christ Jesus returned once as resurrected–a Risen Lord–and showed Himself to people for a period of 40 days.  We saw that in the earliest chapter of Acts.

And Jesus will return in the final Advent, the Return of Christ.  How?  Because He broke the chains of death and He is not only the Son of David, but the Son of God.  He’s at God’s right hand.  He’s the One whose throne lasts forever.  He’s the One who vindicates at the end of the last days.  He’s the One who delivers.  He’s the One who saves…who TRULY saves.

When He returns—because He alone has been resurrected—He won’t just be a king.  He will be The King. The King of Kings…and Lord of Lords…the Lamb of God who is both the Savior and the Perfect Sacrifice.

As a teaser to next week’s passage of Scripture, Peter concludes this great sermon with the following statement which we’ll look at next week:  Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Boom!  A crucified Christ is possible because Jesus is the Son of David and importantly, also the Son of God.  Peter connects the two by saying this Jesus who was crucified….He is the Lord and He is the Christ and even King David, the favored son with the dynasty that never ends, said so.

So what does this mean for us?

1. Well, first it means that what we do with Jesus has eternal consequences.  Will we consider it impossible to have a crucified Christ or will we think that all things are possible with God?  Will we accept that Jesus is the Messiah and He came to save you and me…while we were yet sinners?  Or will we die in our sins thinking He was just a failed son of David and it’s the tomb for all of us?
2. Second, it means that we need to look at the ways Jesus is not meeting with our expectations and place the blame where it squarely lies: with our ruts, old tapes, and preconceived ideas, especially about the end times!  Jesus is not just an earthly son of David with a physical lineage back to King David.  He is God’s Son and His perfection ought to cause us to re-evaluate whether we are right to pin Him to our small expectations.  We think too little of God…in way too many ways.
3. Third, as it relates to Jewish evangelism, we need to have deep empathy for those who are still looking for this son of David who will overthrow the oppressors.  Their view that a crucified Christ is impossible needs to be treated gently (because this is the KEY) and we can do as Peter did by pointing them to their favored son, King David, and saying that David foretold all this–including a Resurrected Messiah.  It’s been my experience that in certain segments of Judaism, they don’t know their Tanakhs just as many Christians have no clue what’s in their Bible.  We need to show them grace and keep pointing them to King David’s own words in the Psalms and do as Peter did: show them why Jesus had to die and explain that it’s not confusing at all if Jesus is also the Son of God, the Lord, as well as the Christ.
4. Fourth, we can keep in mind that the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ form not only the turning point of all history, but is the Key to understanding the Divine Messiah and His role in the last days and the vindication to come!  He will be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
5. And finally, for today at least, is Jesus your King of Kings?  Is He your Lord of Lords?  Or is He just fire insurance or a “Get out of Hell Free” card?  If He is your King and He is your Lord, how ought that to change your decisions and how you live your life and how you spend your time and money?  If He’s Lord and not just Savior?

Because He’s not just an earthly son of David.  He’s the Lord.  And even David said so.  Let’s pray