These are the readings and sermons of St. John's Lutheran Church of Park Rapids, Minnesota.
They are offered so that the Word of God would shape and strengthen you to be what He calls you to be, salt and light.
You can find us at stjohnspr.org.
Now, on to the Word.
Scripture readings for 2nd Sunday of Easter. The first reading is from the 5th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, verses 29-42.
But Peter and the Apostles answered,
We must obey God rather than men.
The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.
When they heard this, they were enraged and wanted to kill them.
But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.
And he said to them,
Men of Israel, take care of what you are about to do with these men.
For before these days, Thutus rose up, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about 400, joined him.
He was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing.
After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census, and drew away some of the people after him.
He too perished, and all who followed him were scattered.
So, in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men, and let them alone.
For if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail.
But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.
You might even be found opposing God.
So they took his advice, and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.
Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.
And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Our epistle is from the first letter of St. Peter, beginning in verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
In this, you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,
so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him, though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
This is the word of God.
Thanks be to God.
The Holy Gospel is recorded in the 20th chapter of St. John beginning at verse 19.
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood among them and said to them,
Peace be with you.
When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side.
Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them,
Receive the Holy Spirit.
if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven.
if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.
Now, Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin who was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
But he said to them, Unless I see in His hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails
and place my hand into His side, I will never believe.
Eight days later, His disciples were inside again.
And Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
Peace be with you.
Then He said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands.
And put out your hand and place it in my side.
Do not disbelieve but believe.
Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.
Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing, you may have life in His name.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Praise is risen.
Praise is risen.
Hallelujah.
What a magnificent words of praise that flow off of Apostle Peter's pen and out of our mouths and into our hearts.
It's almost like a fourth of July firework display in which the mercy of God and the work of God
is rocketed into the skies and explodes in a cascade of wonder and awe.
Listen to these words again.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable,
undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith
for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time.
In this you rejoice, though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials
so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.
Though you do not see Him, now you believe in Him and rejoice with a joy that is inexpressible
and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
We're all Christian hope and faith and joy and praise in you come.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the grand finale of His life in suffering.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basis of our continued life with the triumph of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And it is from this resurrection that all sorts of blessings and promises from God overflow.
In here there are at least eight, and then I recount that there is at least nine blessings of God
that are wrapped up in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it's when we're in a sense of time unravelling and raising God to continue all blessings.
A new birth. New birth into a living hope. That's the first and foremost of these words of praise.
We have been given a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
New birth should immediately spark some things in your mind.
Most recently, Pastor Harvilla preached about the gospel in the seashell, that time when Nicodemus came to Jesus.
And Jesus told him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
And a little bit later, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water into the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
We have been given a new birth for many of us. It came to us from a time before we could remember
when we were brought by our parents to the baptismal font to have the word of God placed on us, to have His name placed on us,
and that we would be united to Jesus' death and to His resurrection.
So that we might not just have a new birth, but that we might have a new life altogether.
This new birth brings into us a living hope.
Often times when we use the word hope, as I mentioned many other times before,
we sort of use it as this desired outcome without any certainty.
So, okay, it's my fault because this is a great example of hope.
Most of us who saw the forecast yesterday really hoped we wouldn't have the snow that the forecasters said we would have.
We would have no control over it. And so our hope is just that vague wish for some sort of outcome.
And you know, even in the Bible, the word hope is used like that once in a while.
So for example, one of the best examples of this is when Paul is writing to the Romans,
and at the end he says, I hope to see you as I travel to Spain that I might be encouraged by you.
He did not know if he would be able to see those Christians in Rome when he made his trip to Spain,
which he may or may not have done.
He only had this desire to see them and wasn't sure it would happen.
It did come about by the way, not in the way Paul envisioned, because he was taken to Rome under trial.
But most of the time in the Bible, hope is something stronger than just a desired outcome.
And this is a huge thing for us to try to make real for people in our society.
Our hope of the resurrection, our hope of the future doesn't depend just on this desired outcome.
Well, all the major religions of the world hope for some sort of paradise.
But that's not the type of hope we're talking about.
The hope we're talking about is much more certain.
its basic meaning would be more of expectation.
t's still hope. It's still in the future.
And we can't prove the things we're talking about.
But our hope is not just based on fond wishing. It's based on the word and on the promise of God.
The word and promise that came to the disciples before Jesus' death and resurrection and has made certain in his resurrection.
For example, again, during the Lenten season, we heard of the story of Lazarus.
And we heard the wonderful words of Jesus to Martha,
am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
A short time later in the upper room, Jesus would explicitly tell his disciples,
because I live, you also will live.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the promises of God become our expectations.
So that it's a living hope and not just a fond desire.
And there's the inheritance.
An inheritance is not something you earn.
An inheritance is purely a gift given to you,
treasures that someone else has earned and given to you.
Among those treasures promised, Jesus again in the upper room, told his disciples,
don't be troubled.
Believe in God, believe also in me.
For in my father's house are many rooms.
If that were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you?
Jesus is the one who has prepared our inheritance.
And in fact, one our inheritance and willingly shares the inheritance with us,
which has three “un” in front of it.
This inheritance is uncorruptible, it is undefiled, and it is unfading.
You see, the inheritance we are looking forward to is the exact opposite of everything that we experience in our life.
Our bodies are corruptible.
They fall apart now, and they totally fall apart in death.
But part of our inheritance, Paul writes to the Corinthians, is that these bodies will be raised incorruptible.
Everything we know, everything we experience in this life is defiled.
It is defiled by sin in some way.
But as Peter will talk about just a little bit later, we'll hear it in the next week or two.
The inheritance that we are receiving, the new heavens and the new earth,
It's the home of righteousness where there is no more sin.
And everything we know is fading away.
From the comings and goings of flowers to the rise and falls of nation,
everything is fading away in time.
And sometimes we experience that extremely personally, as even our own brains give way.
And treasured memories begin to fade.
But our inheritance is eternal.
The inheritance we're looking forward to is untouched by death, it is unstained by evil, and it's unimpaired by time.
That's just the opening.
This inheritance also, it's promised that we are being guarded until it's received.
Who by God's power are being guarded?
That's a military term.
It is a military term talking about a guarding that is done by soldiers.
God is actively protecting not only the inheritance to be delivered,
but protecting those of us who are going to receive it.
Again, sometimes it really doesn't seem like it as bad things happen to us,
just the way it happens to other people.
And yet we have something more.
We have what Paul says is the peace of God.
You know that peace that surpasses all understanding?
The peace that, and it's the exact same word,
guards your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
And we have the blessing of Christ's return.
Jesus Christ is revealed.
The resurrection leads to the sure hope of the second coming.
In a couple of weeks we will have ascension services,
and we will hear the story of Acts 1.
When the angels comfort the disciples who are gawking and trying to figure out what in the world
this Jesus, whom you have seen taken into heaven,
will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.
And again, what did Jesus promise his disciples?
go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come back again
to take you to myself that you may be where I am.
This is that opening barrage of beauty and of hope and of certainty.
But Peter doesn't allow for just all roses, does he?
In this world we will still have troubles.
And Peter says that very clearly.
We will have trials in this world.
We actually heard Peter's and the apostles' first trials.
They're commanded not to speak about Jesus the Christ.
Why? Because that's a threat to everybody.
We'll have trials.
But this is the thing.
Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, even the sufferings of this life
can be turned into something good.
And that's something good is the purifying of our faith.
As saints and sinners, we have a faith that is genuine mixed with a whole bunch of rubbish
from our sinful nature.
mentioned, I think it was just Easter sermon that we can take, maybe it was Good Friday,
we can take all sorts of good gifts that God gives to us, and we can turn them into little idols.
Must have been Good Friday.
For example, we can take a spouse, a great and wonderful gift from God,
and turn them into little idols.
Thinking things like, I can't live without them.
We can take the daily blessings and make them into idols saying,
well God obviously, God loves me because, wow, look at all the things I have,
or look at the good health I have.
But then comes the suffering and the trials.
And we lose those things that have become these little idols for us.
And we're pushed.
Pushed to see what we are genuinely holding onto where our faith is.
Pushed.
So that we look beyond the gift and make sure we're holding onto the giver.
And our faith is purified.
t's refined like gold.
And we also have this, an inexpressible joy, even in times of suffering.
Paul would write the Corinthians about this little while that Peter says.
So we do not lose heart.
Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us on eternal weight of glory.
Beyond all comparison.
As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.
For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
No matter what, it's a little while until the eternal goodness of God and our inheritance is revealed.
And we receive the goal of our faith, the salvation of our souls.
We will be rescued.
We will be delivered.
And not just our souls, but our bodies as well.
And so we have this, all of this is wrapped up, contained, fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Because Jesus is alive, we have a living hope and we have an inexpressible joy and we have this glorious certainty of when it's to come.
And so what is left to say?
Besides Christ is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Hallelujah.
Thanks for listening to Lightly Salted.
We'd love to hear from you.
You can contact us at StJohn's PR.org or look for us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Our thanks to Eric Medias at soundimage.org for morning due.
God's blessings.