Easter 4, 2011, Immanuel Chapel John 10:9-10 & Acts 2:42-47
Did you ever go through the wrong door? Several years ago, after visiting a patient on one of the upper floors at St. John’s Mercy I decided to take the stairway down to the lobby. I went through a door and started my descent. A sign on door of the floor below read, “No Access.” I descended another set of steps, “No Access.” I walked flight after flight of stairs only to find, “No access” signs at every floor. I started to get a little anxious. What if there is no way out? Floor after floor; “No Access;” “No access.” Finally, I came to a door with access. Prepared to enter the lobby bustling with people; I opened the door and stepped on to the loading dock where two guys were chatting. With my dignity a bit frayed, I descended the steps and walked across the wide expanse of green pasture, actually lawn, to the other side of the complex where my car was parked.
No matter what society or we would like to believe, there are not multiple doors leading to God. Jesus says, “I am the door.” He continues, “If anyone enters by me, he will be saved.” Out of His great Love for the world, God sent his only Son not to destroy us, but to save us. Going in and out, that is, living our life in the power of Jesus life, death and resurrection we do not have to depend on ourselves to create and sustain a spiritual life. He is the Water, which quenches our thirst for more life. He is the bread of life. Whoever eats of him will be sustained not for one day, but for every day.
Jesus describes the life he gives as abundant. Remember those two brothers who offered extended auto contracts? Their over the top mansions were filled with incomprehensible excess. Excess is one of meanings of the Greek word for abundant. Isaiah sixty five describes the abundant life as a time when a person hundred years old is regarded as young. Psalm 23 gives us pictures of an over flowing cup. St. Paul writes that where sin increased,” grace abounded all the more, leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” On Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was so superabundant that 3,000 people repented and were baptized. Jesus gives us such an excessive wealth of life that we simply cannot outlive it.
We have that life in Jesus with its overflowing forgiveness for all our faults, foibles and failures of faith even today. Today, when you entered the church you probably noticed a sign reading, “I am the door.” Our first lesson from the book of Acts gives us a view of what goes among Jesus’ people when we enter the door that has been opened for us.
In that lesson we have a model for every congregation. We are looking at the newly minted church in the days following the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. First, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.” The Holy Spirit opened a school in Jerusalem with 3,000 people in kindergarten. The newly baptized were children in the faith. So the apostles did what Jesus did, they taught that old time religion. Beginning with Genesis and proceeding through all the prophets and writings they showed how all of it led to Jesus of Nazareth. They showed how the offspring of Eve who would bruise the head of the serpent was Jesus They pointed out that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised prophet like Moses. Though he was killed on the tree of the cross and buried, death and the grave could not hold him, but he burst forth to life once again. They taught the good news from the prophet Isaiah that their warfare with God was over. In place of being judged for their iniquity they received a double portion of grace for all their sins. Even for killing God’s Messiah. In Jesus, God is reconciled to us.
But we also know how hard it was for Jesus’ disciples to grasp the Gospel. How firm is our grasp of the One who is the door to abundant life? Rather than suffer from spiritual malnourishment or anorexia the example of those first Christians would lead us to feast on the banquet of God’s word and learn how to show the work of the Holy Spirit by striving to excel in building up the church. But That can only be done by devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching with Christ at the center.
The church also devoted themselves to fellowship. They were sociable with one another. Sociability builds up human relationships. Coffee hour is important. But fellowship goes beyond that. That first church was a fellowship of multiple cultures. Present in Jerusalem on Pentecost were visitors from the east, North Africa, Rome, Arabians, present day Turkey, and along the Black Sea. People from all of those cultures had been among the 3,000 who received forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit had “Called, gathered and enlightened’ them.
On Monday evening Randy and Tim and I visited the Peace Center of Christian Friends of New Americans. They were having a tutoring session, which began with a chapel service. Present were children from Nepal, Thailand, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mexico, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, etc. One of the tutors was from Hillsboro. That is the kind of fellowship in Christ that has been developing for years here at Immanuel Chapel. The fellowship we have with one another is patterned after that which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit demonstrate. Three in one and one in three.
A third mark of the church is that it is making things happen. Our text is from the Acts of the Apostles, not the talks of the apostles. Things were happening through the church in Jerusalem. They pooled the fruits of their labor and parceled out the proceeds. We are developing plans to follow Jesus command and the practice of the church in our text under the theme “Providing God’s House as a Home.” We have received love and grace from God through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us power to put our faith into practice. Jesus said that the kingdom of God was about being a servant. Therefore we too strive to be of service to our community, not to expect the community to serve and sustain us. Wouldn’t it be something that when we met as a church council or voters assembly we would have so many reports of acts of service to the community around d us that the treasurers report would come as an afterthought at the end of the meeting? Someone would move to adjourn, another second the motion, everyone would say “aye” and hurry out to discover who needed help in the community.
We have yet to talk about the most important thing that church in Jerusalem did. They worshiped. They worshiped together in the temple. They worshiped in their homes. Part of their worship was the breaking of bread and prayer. Holy Communion was part of their eating together, just as Jesus had done on the night he was betrayed and again with the Emmaus disciples. They praised God and prayed both in the temple and in their homes. Being the church was a way of life. They received their gifts of food and drink with glad and generous hearts.
Do you know what happened when they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship in Christ, and sharing with glad and generous hearts, gathering to worship in praise and praise of God? The Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. The abundant life of Jesus was being brought to more and more people increasing thanksgiving to the glory of God. “I am the door,” said Jesus. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
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