LESSONS: Acts 5.27-32; John 20.19-31, (NRSVA)

SERMON TITLE: Corroboratively True!

INTRODUCTION:

1. A man and a women who had been friends for many years, died and went to heaven.
1. They told Saint Peter they wanted to be married.
1. "Take you time and think about it," Saint Peter said.
2. You have eternity to think about it here.
3. Come back and talk to me in about 50 years.
2. Fifty years later, the couple returned and again told Saint Peter they wanted to be married.
1. "Take your time and think about it some more about it," Saint Peter said.
2. "Come back and see me in another 50 years.
3. And if we don't have a preacher up here by then, I'll marry you myself."
2. I realize that this bit of humor raises a number of questions that will not be answered by this sermon.
1. Marriage in heaven
2. No preachers in heaven
1. Ministers are no different than any one else.
2. We also have our trials and concerns.
3. We also have our doubts and moments of confusion.
4. We also have to learn the lessons taught by Jesus and the disciples.
5. We also have our questions.
3. There is a question that needs to be answered and is answered loud and clear by Jesus as revealed by his disciples.
1. It has to do with life and how we may learn to live.
2. How may we learn to live confidently and expectantly regardless of the situations and circumstances in which we may find ourselves.
1. The situations can be so frustrating.
2. The situations can be almost overwhelming.

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ILLUSTRATION:

In one of Charlie Chaplin's great silent films, he plays a prisoner being transported to jail, but his boat has been shipwrecked.

At the film's beginning, Chaplin is sitting on a beach looking at the clasp around his leg attaching him to a ball and chain.

The whole film shows him relating to this ball and chain and attempting to escape its weight.

First, he thinks to humor it. "When its guard is down, I will dash away." So he makes little jokes to accomplish this purpose. He walks the length of the chain and falls into the sand.

Scratching his head, wondering what to do next, he decides that he can outsmart it. He gets up and tries to walk away - and again falls into the sand.

Now, he becomes more thoughtful. His next strategy is one of reason. "I know. I will talk to it! I will reason with it!" But down he goes again into the sand.

Now at the end of his patience, he pretends the ball and chain are not there. He kicks sand over it, and for a while it looks as if his problem has vanished. Thinking he has solved his dilemma, he strides to the end of the chain. Down he goes.

At this point, the insight finally dawns. Like a light turning on in Chaplin's head, he realizes that he cannot solve the problem alone. If he is going to be helped, it has to come from the outside. In the last scene, he is seen looking upward in hope of a rescue.

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3. That ball and chain is typical of life and the restrictions with which we must cope.
4. We are often tied to the ball and chain which limits and imprisons us.
5. Rescue, isn't that what we are all, in one way or another, looking for?
6. Who or what has the power to rescue us.
7. As Chaplin realized we do not have the power to rescue ourselves.

MAIN BODY:

1. When you jump into the middle of Acts 5 you have to wonder why they brought them and had them stand before the council.
1. Turn to Acts 5:12-26, (NRSVA)


¹²Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. ¹³None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. ¹⁴Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, ¹⁵so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. ¹⁶A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

¹⁷Then the high priest took action; he and all who were with him (that is, the sect of the Sadducees), being filled with jealousy, ¹⁸arrested the apostles and put them in the public prison. ¹⁹But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors, brought them out, and said, ²⁰"Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life." ²¹When they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.

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When the high priest and those with him arrived, they called together the council and the whole body of the elders of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. ²²But when the temple police went there, they did not find them in the prison; so they returned and reported, ²³"We found the prison securely locked and the guards standing at the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside." ²⁴Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were perplexed about them, wondering what might be going on. ²⁵Then someone arrived and announced, "Look, the men whom you put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people!" ²⁶Then the captain went with the temple police and brought them, but without violence, for they were afraid of being stoned by the people.
 

2. Now go to Acts 5:27-32, (NRSVA), for a better understanding of whatis taking place.


²⁷When they had brought them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, ²⁸saying, "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and you are determined to bring this man's blood on us." ²⁹But Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than any human authority. ³⁰The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. ³¹God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. ³²And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him."

1. They are the chief priests.
2. Them are the disciples.
3. The giving of strict orders not to teach in this name is not only a command, but a serious threat to life and liberty.
4. It is the disciples ball and chain.
3. It is important for us to understand what they thought about it.
4. It is important for us to see how they responded to it.
5. It is Peter's answer that proves to be the most significant.
1. We must obey God rather than any human authority.

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2. The rest of the disciples are there.
3. He is speaking for them.
4. They are corroborating his answer.
6. In the midst of their challenge and trial they are learning
1. It is not the intention of Jesus to make the disciples happy.
2. It is not the intention of the Jesus to make their community happy.
3. It is not the intention of the Jesus to make Peter happy.
4. It is not the intention of the Jesus to make the young happy.
5. It is not the intention of the Jesus to make followers happy.
6. It is the intention of the Jesus to make God happy.
7. The correlation is also true for the church.
1. It is not the intention of the church to make its membership happy.
2. It is not the intention of the church to make its home community happy.
3. It is not the intention of the church to make its pastor happy.
4. It is not the intention of the church to make its youth happy.
5. It is not the intention of the church to make its choir happy.
6. It is the intention of the church to make God happy.
2. Whatever its "good intentions," the true intent of the church is not to bring happiness.
1. The intent of the church is to "be obedient" to God.
2. Sustained obedience to God, to God's commands and concerns, is what enables the church to be the church.
3. No matter what other intentions any particular congregation may seek to embody they must first remain committed
1. Committed to God's authority
2. Committed to the mission God has called the church to serve.
4. The whole of the biblical witness is this:
1. God is God, and we are not.
2. God is the Absolute of all absolutes.
3. The Absolute that makes immaterial all other absolutes.
5. A three-fold mandate to those who recognize God's authority over human life, who refuse to worship at this shrine of the first-person perpendicular, is repeated throughout the Scriptures.
1. Obey God Above All.
1. To obey God means to surrender the moment and to put one's past at risk.

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2. Please God Above All.
1. To please God means to seize the moment and to put one's present at risk.
3. Serve God Above All.
1. To serve God means to sacrifice the moment and to put one's future at risk.
6. When we are pleasing God, serving God and obeying God, we suddenly discover a tremendous freedom.
7. The accompaniment the opposition plays along with a siren song of "I," but tries to keep so soft in the background that we don't really notice it, is one of fear.
1. With no one other than yourself as a reference point, there is also no one other than yourself to rely upon.
2. Fear that somehow "I" won't be able to "do it all," "have it all" or "be it all," makes the me-only solo a frighteningly lonely tune.
8. When we accept the authority of God, when we finally admit that God is God, and we are not.
9. We, then, open ourselves up to a tidal wave of divine compassion and love.
10. Pleasing God, serving God and obeying God become an expression of God's strength, Christ's love and the witness of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
3. We must obey God rather than humanity.

CONCLUSION:

1. All this is done in faith.
1. John 20:-31, (NRSVA)
2. This is the lesson we also learn from Easter and Jesus appearances to the disciples.


¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." ²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

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27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe."

2828Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

²⁹Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."

1. You have come to faith because you have seen me.
2. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to have faith.


³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

1. FAITH is the trusting commitment of one person to another, particularly of a person to God.
1. We have the evidence on which to base a faith that corroborates Jesus resurrection.
2. Faith is the central concept of Christianity.
3. One may be called a Christian only if one has faith. ⁽¹⁾
2. Let us like Thomas come to believe and come to faith in Christ and in his power to sustain and save us.


1. Holman Bible Dictionary, Copyright © 1991 Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved. International copyright secured. Used with permission

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