He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Yes, we are still in the Easter Season and although the secular world may have moved on to the next saleable holiday, we continue to bask in the glow of our Easter celebration, our celebration of the defeat of sin, death and the power of the devil, our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection and the knowledge, hope and certainty of our own resurrection to eternal life.
All our readings for this morning remind us of the resurrection. John reminds us of Jesus’ appearing alive to His disciples on that first Easter evening and on the next Sunday evening. In the Epistle John also reminds us of the forgiveness of sins, earn and paid for by Jesus and how when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and does forgive us all our sins. And in our text Luke recounts for us the effects of the resurrection on the lives of God’s people, that is they are moved, by the Holy Spirit, through the means of the Word of God, to live lives of faith.
Luke outlines for us the unity of the Church and the fact that this is a unity based on a common faith which is an agreement on the articles of faith, that is that we believe the same doctrines, or teachings of the Bible, and this faith and unity is given by the Holy Spirit. We read beginning at verse thirty-two, “32Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common” (v. 32).
Luke says that those who believed were of “One heart and soul.” These word speak well of the fact that the unity of the church does not mean a church with a mixed bag of beliefs, rather it means a church with one belief, one faith, one doctrine or teaching. This does not mean we all have our own opinion about what God means in His Word, but this reminds us that God has given His Word which has only one meaning and if we have a problem understanding His Word and what it means, if we believe it to be contradictory of itself, the problem is not with God’s Word, but with us and our sin tainted logic and understanding. And that is what explains all the various denominations we have in our world today, not God and His Word, but our sinful nature!
Getting back to this unity as Luke describes it. This is a unity of faith and included in this unity of faith was a unity of possessions, that is that they had all things in common. This unity of possessions flowed out of an understanding that God owns all things and we are merely stewards or caretakers of all that God owns and gives to us to use while we are on this earth. Now, please do not misunderstand this unity. As Dr. Kretzman says in his commentary, “This was not the expression of fantastic and illusory socialistic theories or of an absolute communism, but a spontaneous manifestation of Christian love.” Indeed, the Bible does not speak in favor of any particular form of government or politics rather it speaks of Jesus and the Gospel.
Thus, this unity of possessions was a unity of Christians of common faith caring for each other, not a demand by any secular socialist government nor any other form of government forced unity. Rather, this unity was a unity that has at its foundation, God’s first love for us. We love because He first loved us. We love because we reflect His love for others. We share and give to others because God first gives us all things. It all starts with God.
As always, Luke points to God who gives. God gives faith through means, in particular the means of the Word of the resurrection of Jesus. We pick up at verse thirty-three “33And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (v. 33).
Faith is not something we get for ourselves. Faith is not something we earn or choose. Faith is that instrument which is given by the Holy Spirit and which we use to take hold of all the other gifts and blessings our Lord has to give. And faith is a gift.
Faith is given through the means of grace and in particular through the means of the Word of God. In our text, Luke tells us that this grace, that this gift of faith was given especially through the word of the resurrection of Jesus.
And faith brought great grace to all. I like the acronym of GRACE as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. God gives us all the good gifts and blessings He has to give because these gifts and blessings were purchased for us by Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. Through the means of God’s Word He pours out on us and lavishes us with faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
Luke also does well to remind us that our response of faith, our living lives of faith, our sanctification, as we call it, does not come from inside, but this too is stirred in and through us by God. God gives a response of faith, especially according to one’s vocation in the priesthood of believers. We read the last two verses of our text, “34There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (v. 34-35).
God is the prime mover. God gives and we are given to. And God moves and stirs in us so that we love and care for others. Our response of faith, moved in us by God is to love and care for others. Although God has not called us all to be ministers, but some men to be ministers, He has called us all to serve Him by serving others in the various vocations in which we live. So, although we are not all ministers, we are all priests, in the priesthood of believers. The job of the priest was to offer sacrifices. The pastor, our minster does not offer sacrifices. We, as members of the body of Christ, as priests in the priesthood of all believers, we offer sacrifices, not bloody sacrifices, rather we offer our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord. We do this, offer our lives as living sacrifices, not in and of ourselves, but as God moves in us. So, Luke tells us that everyone worked according to their own vocation and then gave of their resources to help one another, especially those in need.
Notice that the order of this giving is important. First, each person gave of themself. God does not need anything from us. What would God, who created all things out of nothing, who gives everything to us, need from us? God does not need anything from us, but He does want us. He wants our hearts. Interestingly enough, what we are seeing Luke describe is what happens when God does have us. When God has us He has all of us, including all that we have and all that we own, all our worldly possessions, which are His anyway.
As God gives faith, as God gives a response of faith, then goods were distributed according to need. But again, this was not the expression of socialistic theories nor communism, but a response of faith and Christian love.
What Does this Mean? God’s desire is faith not works, God wants us, not what we do or what we think we are doing for Him. God’s desire is what He tells us, especially in His encounter with Mary and Martha. Remember that account? Martha was concerned about all the preparations. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened. When confronted, Jesus told Martha that what Mary was doing was the most important thing. How often do we believe that what we are doing for the Lord is so important that the church would not be the same unless we were doing it? I remember the first call I had while serving as a teacher. I remember telling one of the other teachers that I could not take the call because what would they do without me at this school. His response was to tell me that I was replaceable. Now, I know that might sound mean, but that we the greatest thing he or anyone could have told me. I am replaceable. In every congregation I serve I always remind myself, I am replaceable. Those words are quite liberating. It does not depend on me. God does not “need” me and what I think I am doing for Him. What if something happened to me? What if I became incapacitated, what if I died, what if I moved, God would replace me and His word would continue. God’s desire is not for what we think He needs us to do for Him. His desire is to have us. For us today we would realize that God’s greatest desire is for us to be in Divine Service and Bible class. Remember, God works through means and in particular He works through the means of grace. Through the means of grace, that is through the Word and Sacraments God gives the good gifts and blessings He has to give, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. When we absent ourselves from the means, we absent ourselves from the gifts and blessings He has to give and this is gift refusal. Indeed, this refusal is the sin against the Holy Spirit.
God want us, all of us. Interestingly enough, when God has us, He has all of us, including our possessions. I believe the reciprocal is also true, when God does not have our possessions, then He does not have all of us. When we resist and refuse the gifts He has to give, He does not have all of us. And of course, that is the problem and that is our nature after all, as sinful human beings we constantly refuse and reject, we constantly fail to give God ourselves and instead we act like Thomas in our Gospel reading and we act like those who walk in darkness in our Epistle lesson. This is why we need the constant reminder that we are not the one’s who are running the show. If we were running the show and when we do run the show we run from God instead of running to Him.
Thanks be to God that He is running the show. Thanks be to God that He is the prime mover. He is the one who is coming to us, who is giving us life, new life, faith, forgiveness and life. Even when we sin, even when we refuse and reject the gifts He gives, He continually is seeking us and working to give us the gifts He has to give.
God is the prime mover. We love because He first loved us. God is the prime mover, He gives to us. He gives us life at conception. He gives us new life and even eternal life through the waters of Holy Baptism. He gives us forgiveness of sins through confession and absolution. He gives us faith, strengthening of faith, forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through His Word and through His body and blood in His Holy Supper. But even more, He is the one who is moving in us to recognize that all that we have is His.
God is the prime mover moving in us to give ourselves and all that we have for service to Him in His kingdom. Our only option is to refuse and reject, and yet, with God working in and through us, He moves us to be done to and to be given to, thus He gets the credit for our salvation and for our works of faith.
As a word of summary, our readings for this Second Sunday of Easter remind us that the Holy Christian Church, which is the Communion of Saints, is the Invisible Church made up of believers, those who are united in faith, faith given by the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, especially through the means of the Gospel, that Word of Jesus resurrection and which faith shows forth through the response of faith worked in the believer’s heart by the Holy Spirit so that the believer lives a life of faith especially in their vocation, living as members of the priesthood of believers giving of themselves and all they have for the Lord. To God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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