Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Acts 16,23-34. Cantate Sunday

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

Acts 16,23-34 2912

Kantate (4. Sonntag nach Ostern) 039 weiß

John miraculously survives boiling oil before the Latin Gate at Rome, 95

6. May 2012

1. O Almighty God, who does make the minds of all faithful people to be of one will; grant unto Your people that they may love that which You command, and desire that which You promise; so that among the various and manifold changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed upon Your promise, whereas true joys are to be found. Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer). Amen.

2. And when they had inflicted many blows upon Paul and Silas, the magistrates threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safe. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. And immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone’s bonds were unfastened. When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice: „Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.“ And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said: „Sirs, what must I do to be saved?“ And they said: „Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.“ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.

3. The jailer asks: „What must I do to be saved?“ Paul’s answer is: „Believe in Jesus.“ The apostle expands on this in his Epistle to the Romans: »If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved. So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ« (Romans 10,9.17). Confessing Jesus as your crucified and risen Savior who is your redeemer from sin, death and hell leads to faith. Those who believe in Christ will be saved. Notice, however, that the Apostle Paul does not say a generic belief in Christ, such as Christ existed or Christ was a prophet and good, moral teacher or some other confession that the world would have no discomfort believing. Rather, Paul says those who believe in the crucified and resurrected Christ will be saved. The resurrection of Christ makes all the difference. The risen Christ is the victor over sin, death and hell. Your sin is forgiven. Your destiny is no longer the perdition of hell. Your death will lead you to eternal life with the Triune God, His angels and all the company of heaven. The risen Christ does this, and none other.

4. It was this very crucified and risen Christ that the Apostle Paul proclaimed to the jailer in Acts 16. In that very instance, a dying jailer, for he was about to end his life, is snatched from death into life. The power of the spoken Word, the preached Word, the Word that gives you Christ and Him crucified and risen, is the word that saves distraught sinners. The apostle preached this gospel; a man and his family heard it, believed it and they were saved.

5. Paul said that: »Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom« (1. Corinthians 1,22). Paul gave this jailer both a sign and wisdom. Paul gave this man and his family true Wisdom, that wisdom that is Jesus the crucified and risen Christ. The Holy Spirit used this proclaimed Word to create faith. Paul then gave this man and his family a sign, yes the sign, which is Holy Baptism. Luke tells us: »that same hour of the night the jailer and all his family were baptized at once.« Why the haste? Why not wait until the next morning? Because Holy Baptism saves a person. The Apostle Peter said it this way: »Baptism now saves you as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ« (1. Peter 3,21).

6. »Jews require signs and Greeks seek wisdom« (1. Corinthians 1,22). Twenty-first century men and women are no different from first century man, for we still require signs and seek wisdom. Jesus does not hold back either. Jesus gives us signs. We call them Sacraments. Here are your signs: Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and they save you, give you forgiveness and promise everlasting life. Here is your wisdom, the Word, and it proclaims Christ crucified and risen, and it saves you, gives you forgiveness and promises eternal life.

7. What Paul and Silas give this jailer and his family is Gewißheit (certainty). You see, that is what God’s salvation through Jesus is all about. People need certainty. Honestly, we are pretty good at obtaining certainty, and we do so through the law. Often these come in the form of contracts. When you buy a new car, you want assurance that the credit agency will give you the loan needed to purchase the car and the credit agency wants assurances that you will pay them back the loan. So the credit agency and you sign a document that stipulates the terms of the loan so both are satisfied and certain that the agreed upon terms will be carried out.

8. In our earthly affairs, certainty based on the law is enough. When matters turn, however, to spiritual affairs, the law is insufficient to guarantee certainty. We need and desire die Heilsgewißheit (the certainty of salvation), and the law just cannot give us this certainty. Only the gospel gives die Heilsgewißheit to sinners. Jesus is a gracious God who wants you to be certain of your forgiveness and salvation, and this is why He sends the Holy Spirit with the Word and the Sacraments, so that you have die gesegnet Gewißheit (the blessed assurance) of His rich grace and complete redemption. Paul and Silas gave the jailer Jesus. They preached to his family and baptized them. The jailer was given the gospel; he received it, believed it and reveled in it.

9. We have the same Word and Holy Baptism that was given to the jailer and his family. We have the same certainty and assurance of salvation. The jailer and his family rejoiced that they had believed in God. Do you rejoice and revel in the gospel and your faith? If you do not rejoice in your salvation, then you need to stop doubting Jesus’ grace in your life. You need to stop trying to do things that you think will obtain certainty in your salvation.

10. Listen and take comfort in how Martin Luther wrote about die Heilsgewißheit in hymn „Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice“:

Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice,

With exultation springing,

And with united heart and voice

And holy rapture singing,

Proclaim the wonders God has done,

How His right arm the victory won.

What price our ransom cost Him!

To me He said: „Stay close to Me,

I am your rock and castle.

Your ransom I Myself will be;

For you I strive and wrestle.

For I am yours, and you are Mine,

And where I am you may remain;

The foe shall not divide us.“ (LSB 556,1.7)

11. Jesus died and rose again for you, to save you. He gives you the signs and wisdom that gives doubting consciences the assurance of salvation. You have heard His gospel. You are baptized. Receive it, believe it and rejoice in it, for you are saved and forgiven on account of Jesus. Only Jesus. Amen.

12. Let us pray. O risen Christ, all the earth sings the glory of Your Name, we also give You glorious praise and we ask that You take from us our heavy burdens, shoulder them for us, and give us in return Your light burden which is manifested in the reality of Your resurrection, so that we are comforted and rest in the peace of Christian discipleship that teaches us to trust You in all things. Amen.

To God alone be the Glory

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4^th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27^th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Acts 16,23-34. Cantate Sunday

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