Acts 3,1-10. 12. Trinity

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever 

se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ

Acts 3,1-10        4719

12. Sn. n. Trinitatis 057 

Nativity of Mary

Corbinian, Bishop of Freising, Bavaria, Apostle to Bavaria, ✠ 730 

8. September 2019 

1. O Christ Jesus, the Great Physician; open our ears to understand Your Word and open our lips to sing Your praises, so that in hearing Your Word we are blessed and in worshiping You we acknowledge You to be our Savior.  Amen. (Mark7,37)  

2. »Peter said to the lame man: „Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I will give you. In the Name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!“ Peter took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. Jumping up, he stood and began to walk. He entered the temple courtyard with them, walking, jumping and praising God.«

3. Today’s Gospel pericope concludes with the perception of the crowd in regards to Jesus is healing the sick and cripple: »And the crowd was astonished beyond measure, saying: „He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.“« (Mark 7,37). Jesus had just a chapter earlier sent out the apostles with this same power and authority: »And He called the 12 and began to send them out 2 x 2, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them« (Mark 6,7.12-13). Acts 3 tells us that the apostle still healed with Jesus is authority: this time it was a man who had been born lame. 

4. The Apostle Peter used this opportunity to preach to the crowds at the temple. »Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk? The God of our fathers glorified His servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate. And Jesus’ name – by faith in His name – has made this man strong, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of y’all. Repent, therefore, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away, so that times of refreshing may arrive from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the  Christ appointed for you, Jesus. He is the prophet Moses said the Lord God will raise up for you after him. God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first, to bless you by turning everyone of you from your wickedness“« (Acts 3,12-13.16.19-20.22.26). 

5. Jesus is in the business of forgiving sins. The apostles speak about Jesus wiping away sins (Acts 3,19). Luther’s Baptismal prayer uses similar imagery. He mentions the Flood and pharaoh at the Reed Sea where water wiped away the wicked. Likewise, Holy Baptism wipes away all sin, yes, sin drowns and dies at a Baptism. Today, Katherine has received God’s favor; she is baptized and has had her sins wiped away. The Triune God has made a public and formal declaration today: Katherine is My child, a daughter of God. Jesus has placed her in the ark of the Church where she is preserved, kept safe and unto eternal life. The Apostle Paul describes Holy Baptism this way in his Epistle to Titus: »God our Savior saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal by the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we may become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life« (Titus 3,4-7). And the Apostle Peter describes Holy Baptism this way in his first epistle: »In Noah’s ark 8 lives were saved through water, and corresponding to that, Baptism now saves you, not as the removal of dirt from the body but the guarantee/assurance/appeal of a good conscience before God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ« (1. Peter 3,20-21). 

6. God richly blesses us in our Baptism and we have these blessings throughout our lives. Let us remember that we are a child of God. He has wiped away all our sins. We have the inheritance of eternal life. We have been buried with Christ through our Baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, so too will we be raised up to new life (Romans 6,4). Our Baptism unites us to Christ; what is His is ours. As Christ’s, we are His disciples who through daily contrition and repentance strive to follow His will and Commandments, living before Him helping our neighbors with service and charity. 

7. Holy Baptism proclaims God’s favor upon all people. The Apostle Paul tells us: »You are all sons and daughters of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Indeed, as many of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one and the same in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants and heirs according to the promise« (Galatians 3,26-29). The Apostles Peter and John gave the lame man Christ, and he was healed. Holy Baptism gives us Christ, and we are saved. The apostolic healing in Acts 3 leads to faith in Christ; our Holy Baptism leads to faith in Christ. Katherine has been baptized into the Church and her faith; she believes in Christ and thus refreshing times arrive to her from the presence of the Lord. In this we rejoice with her and for her, likewise remembering that we also receive the refreshing times of the Lord in our Baptism, today and always.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O God, Thou our Strength; may Your praise continually be on our lips, so that we give thanks to You for Your many rich blessings.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

Giertz, Bo. Preaching from the Whole Bible. Copyright © 1967 Lutheran Legacy Publishing. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.