GOD’S PLAN OUR RESPONSIBILITY, Acts 2:14a, 22-36

Our text in Acts takes us to Peter’s sermon on the day of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit fell on the disciples and they headed into the streets to declare the word of God with power.  Peter, who a short time before, denied knowing Jesus now stood up with boldness to declare the word of God.

He takes his listening audience back to the story of Jesus, back to the man who walked among them doing good by the power of God.  Jesus the incarnate one, God in flesh is the central figure in Peter’s message.

Jesus had walked among the people.  They knew of him and many there may have actually been in Jesus’ presence.  They at least had heard the story of Jesus, were aware of his reputation, had heard of all the good things he had done among them.  Jesus had healed the sick, delivered the oppressed, fed the multitude and was kind and loving to the outcasts.  By all accounts Jesus was a good man and they all in their heart of hearts knew that.  Peter starts with that fact.

Peter than makes a theological jump, he moves to the eternal plan of God.  Before the foundation of the world we are told Jesus died for our sins.  The death of Jesus was in the mind of God before he created the world.  The sovereignty of God is a comforting truth.  We often feel out of control.  Our world is beyond our ability to direct.  Even when we talk about our making choices and plans the fact remains that most of life is beyond our control.  This is a humbling reality for we live in a world that tells us that it is all up to us.  We are the creators of our own destiny.  If we succeed it is because we earned it and if we fail it is our fault and having fallen we are to pick ourselves up by our own boot straps.  Where is God in all of this?

We have little control.  We don’t choose our family, our talents, our looks, where we are born etc.  We inherit these things.  We are responsible for what we do with them but much depends on circumstances and our lives are intertwined with and dependent of the decisions of others.  God is in control and we should be comforted.

The other side of this is that we can err on the side of fatalism.  We have no control over anything.  We are the victims of a preordained destiny.  We are not responsible for our lives in anyway.  We are victims of our fate. God is in control and we should be comforted by that fact but we are not off the hook.  This is the mystery of God.

Peter tells us that Jesus was delivered up according to the plan of God, a plan that dates back to before the foundation of the world, back into the mind of God.  The events surrounding the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus were all part of the plan of God.  God planed for it to happen and therefore knew that it would happen and how it would happen.  God is in control of all things and we should take comfort in all of that, after all our salvation hinges on the fact of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Peter than goes on to make an important point to his listeners.  Jesus was arrested, tried and executed according to the plan of God but you the listeners did it to him.  You had him arrested, you called for his execution and you had him nailed to the cross.  Peter doesn’t focus in on the actions of the Sanhedrin.  He doesn’t single out the rulers of the Jews.  He doesn’t make mention of the actions of the Roman soldiers.  Peter tells them they are all guilty of Jesus’ death.

Peter speaks to us this morning.  All of us sitting here are guilty before God for the death of Jesus and we need to let that truth sink in.  The events are far removed from us.  We were not there the night he was arrested in the garden.  We did not stand in the crowd and yell, “Crucify him!”  Nor were we the ones who held the nails and drove them in to his hands and feet.  Yet we were.  Peter speaks to the crowd of corporate responsibility.  As Nehemiah took responsibility for the sins of his people years after the fact so too we must understand ourselves as part of the crowd guilty of the death of our savior.

It’s easy for us to play church.  We make an intellectual assent to Biblical truth and go through the motions and we feel fine.  Someone recently pointed out that formal participation in the rite of confession and absolution is meaningless.  We must engage God in true repentance and as Luther points out we are to daily return to the waters of our baptism and daily repent of our sins in faith and in truth. 

Our relationship to God and his people is contingent upon how we relate to our sins.  If we down play our part in the Easter story church becomes an after thought, something we participate in on a certain level but is not central to our lives.  If we understand as Peter’s listeners did that we are guilty of the death of Jesus than that changes everything.  When we understand our sin, we understand the price Jesus paid for our salvation and we understand that we are not our own but have been bought with a price.

Later on in this chapter the people’s hearts will be moved by the Holy Spirit toward repentance.  When we are confronted with our sins we have only one of three choices.  I used to think only two but there is a third choice.  The first is to deny our sin, to down play it, to say it doesn’t matter.  The idea that everyone is good and we will all make heaven.  The opposite is to take quite seriously our sin and turn to God in repentance.  This is the response that we should make.  This is the response of a person whose eyes have been opened by the Holy Spirit.  This is when the journey toward Christ likeness begins.  I used to think only in these two choices but there is a third.

To often those in the church, those who have been around for some time chose complacency.  They don’t deny their sin as the first group does.  They don’t down play it.  What happens is they give it a nod, they turn right to grace.  God understands and he will forgive me.  No sorrow for sins committed, and no regrets.  Bonhoeffer called it cheap grace.  It springs from a wrong foundation.  People think because they have been baptized and attend church most of the time that all is well.  Jesus has cleaned up their lives and there are no major sins so all is well, they are good and God is pleased.

We sin daily.  As one writer put it we must rejoice in the Lord each day and condemn ourselves each day as well.  The joy of the Lord comes with understand that Jesus has forgiven us of our sins.  Yet to experience that joy we must with Paul say, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?”

What drove Paul to serve Christ and what will drive us to serve him is an understanding of our sinfulness and a joyful acceptance of the grace of God found in Christ Jesus.  To understand the cross aright we must grasp hold of our sinfulness.  We must daily confess our sins to God our Father and in faith lay hold of the atonement applied to us through Jesus.  Jesus, speaking to the church of Laodicea said he “would that you where either cold or hot!  So because you are neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”  Luke warm doesn’t cut it.

So I ask where are you this morning in your relationship with Jesus.  That you have taken the time to come to service I think it save to assume you have not written off the whole idea of sin.  But are you hot for Jesus?  When the crowd heard Peter they turned to Jesus is repentance.  They made a complete 180 and started walking in a different direction.  Have you?  Is your life different than that of the world around you this morning?

When you acknowledge your sinfulness the way you view the world changes.  You no longer feel superior to those around you.  Pride grinds to a halt.  You begin to understand that all that you have you have received from the hand of the Lord.  It is a direct answer to the prayer, “Give us today our daily bread.”

Our fear is that if we acknowledge our sin others will no longer be impressed by us.  If we acknowledge our sin we will no longer be looked up to, people will shy away from us.  We even think in some twisted way that God will turn his back on us.

Christ Jesus died for sinners. It was the reason he came into this world.  He resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.  What we fail to remember is that when we cover up our sins and give out a false sense of who we are we actually push God away.  It is when we repent that we are drawing near to God.  It is in confession of our sins that we find grace and mercy and pure joy.

Luther reminds us that God can only dwell in sinners.  He comes to us when we acknowledge our sinfulness and confess our brokenness.  Than and only than can we enter into a relationship with Jesus.  When we look at ourselves aright and confess our sins God comes in and makes his home in our heart.  The way up is down.

If you have been trying to keep up the good front and walking around as if everything is under control you are missing out of the joy of the Lord.  King David committed the most vile of sins; lust, adultery, murder and then lied about it to the whole nation of Israel acting as if everything was fine, no peace.  Finally confronted by Nathan the prophet he breaks down and cries turning to God in repentance.  Then and only then does he find forgiveness and the joy of the Lord returned.  David was called a friend of God.  Not because he was good and worthy of the title.  Just the opposite is true.  David was a friend of God because as a sinner he acknowledged the fact that he was unworthy and that God was just in condemning him.

As we walk off like the prodigal son to enjoy life to the fullest on our terms God is grieved but he lets us go.  When we wake up with the pigs and return home repent God runs to us with open arms and receives us back into the family.

If you are trying to live the good life on your own terms you deceive yourself and you disrespect God.  The joy of serving God will be missing from your life.  When you repent and turn to God confessing your unworthiness God will run to you and the joy will return.  Don’t take a complacent stand think God understands and everything will be alright.  Rather fall on your knees daily in confession and rise each day in newness of life.  God dwells with sinners.  Invite him to dwell in you.