[Machine transcription]
Mercy and peace to you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at the second reading from Acts today for the text, please be seated.
Yeah, I know it’s Trinity Sunday, but actually I’ve chosen not to preach on that.
Just avoid it altogether. I can’t understand it anyway. No.
I really like this reading from the book of Acts, and there’s so many really great events in the
book of Acts but especially this one today that that happens on on Pentecost
that first bit last Sunday was Pentecost and there was the tongues of fire and
the sound of a mighty wind and the Apostles speaking in tongues and all that
happened when they were filled with the Spirit and and then this happens Peter
gets up and preaches a actually pretty scathing sermon accusing the audience of
killing Jesus, of crucifying Him. And really, Peter’s sermon is just good old
law and gospel preaching. He’s proclaiming that all people break God’s
law, that all people sin, causing our world to be a broken and often hurting
place. And we didn’t even have the whole sermon in the reading today, but
Peter preaches even more law than what we heard today
and caps it off with accusing the crowd,
you crucified Jesus.
Ouch.
But Peter’s preaching to us today, too.
His sermon applies to us.
It can even convict us.
Peter is saying to us, too, you crucified Jesus.
See, when Peter preached that Pentecost day, it’s unlikely that there were any Roman soldiers
in the crowd listening to him.
Pontius Pilate certainly wasn’t there, or probably any of the Jewish religious leaders.
Out of all the 3,000 plus people who heard Peter, few, if any of them, were actually
involved in crucifying Jesus.
So Peter says this, meaning that all people are responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion.
We’re all responsible for His death, because we are all sinners.
That’s why the world is a broken, sinful, and hurting place.
But it’s their response that is so wonderful.
their response to Peter was they were cut to the heart now you probably
probably knows probably know what that idiom means that it’s the guilt and
strong conviction of something you did wrong that hurts so much it seems like a
knife is stuck inside of your heart deep inside of you like literally being cut
to the heart. That’s how they felt. Because that’s what preaching the law
can do. It can convict. It can be like a mirror showing your sins and saying, see
this is what you’re really like. This sinfulness. Showing you your sins.
Sometimes terrible sins. Things that you’d rather not think about, much less
talk about. Things that don’t just cut to your heart, but they tear it, rip it, and
shred it. Things you’ve done that killed Jesus. The law can do that to you. I like
to say that the law is a heart-seeking missile that will blow it up. There’s
probably things that you’ve done or are doing that cut to your heart, okay? And
maybe you’re looking for healing from that. Like people in the reading, you’re
cut to the heart because of your sin and you’re asking, what do I do? Now when your
heart hurts from situations in life, there’s some healing, okay? You can do
things to make up for what you did, you can get counseling or therapy, all
kinds of things to help with your heart in life situations. Tragically some
people turn to drugs or alcohol to deal with that, but when your heart
hurts from sin, from doing something terrible, something against God’s law,
something that crucified Jesus, what do you do? What heals that? What do you do
when your heart is cut from guilt and shame and conviction? What do you do when
when you just can’t shake the past? When you’ve been cut to the heart for a
long time? When the knife keeps getting deeper, what do you do? Well, we look at
Peter’s sermon again, because there’s some good news in it, too, okay? There’s
law, but there’s also gospel. Peter preached both. Peter was, he was a
good Lutheran, and what Peter preaches applies to us today.
Peter’s reply to them, they ask, they’re cut to the heart and they ask, what do we
do? And Peter says to them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. So what do you do when you’re cut
to the heart by your sins? First of all, repent. Repent means to turn from that
sin, from what you’re doing or from what you’ve done. If you’re being cut to the
heart, by sins that you know you’re doing, stop it. Stop it now. Turn from that sin.
Turn from it and turn to the forgiveness of Jesus. Forgiveness that comes from Jesus
being crucified for you. That’s why He was crucified. Not by the Romans, not by Pontius
Pilate or by any of the people who heard Peter’s sermon that day Jesus was
crucified because of your sin so it would be forgiven to pay the penalty for
it to forgive it to take away the shame and the guilt and the conviction for all
of your sins and for mine even even terrible things that you’ve done even
ones that are cutting so deep into your heart and for a long time that’s why
Jesus was crucified that’s why he was cut to the heart for you so if you’re cut to
the heart by your sins and you want to know what to do well first of all repent
turn from it stop it and turn to the crucified Christ Peter says he was
crucified and he also proclaims he was risen again we are witnesses of we’ve
seen this this Jesus was cut to the heart for you and he’s back up on his
feet loving you giving you eternal life Jesus has complete healing for your
heart that’s got this knife of sin stuck in it look to Peter’s sermon look for
that good news of Christ crucified and risen for you this is what forgives your
sin this is what heals that heart that’s been stabbed by the conviction of your
sins and heals it completely look for it there don’t look for healing for your
heart for your hurting heart in preachers who say that the healing comes
from living a so-called victorious life
where you simply make some adjustments in your life
and try harder to be in God’s will.
No.
Look for it in preachers like Peter who says,
repent, turn from that sin, stop it,
and be baptized and forgiven in Christ’s crucifixion for you.
That’s where you find healing,
not in what you can do for yourself,
but in what Christ has done for you and like Peter said be baptized for the
forgiveness of your sins if you’ve already been baptized great so that when
you’re cut to the heart recall the promises that God made for you in your
baptism now maybe you were an infant like me and you don’t remember it you
don’t recall it but it happened recall those promises that he gave to you in
baptism, and turn to the altar for the Lord’s Supper, because here there’s
forgiveness offered, where Christ takes your broken, cut, ripped, blown up heart
and heals it with his body and blood that was crucified for you. That’s what
you get here is healing for that cut up heart. Now, I know it can be hard to receive that,
to accept that, to have a cut heart healed, because the law can convict so strongly, and
our hearts can be cut so deeply, but the gospel is so strong. The death and resurrection of
Jesus is so strong. The good news of Jesus crucified and risen for you is
stronger than the law because it’s strong to forgive and heal. Consider the
words from from C.F.W. Walther, a Lutheran pastor many many years ago, the first
president of our of our Synod and all this. He said this, no matter how sick a
may be in his heart, the gospel can heal him. No matter how deeply a person has
fallen into sin, the gospel can pull him out. No matter how troubled, frightened, or
afflicted a person may be, the gospel can comfort them. Or consider these words
also from a song called God is Greater by a group called First Call. If you’ve
ever heard of them, extra points for you today. But this song talking about the
pain in our heart it says your desperate heart is telling you lies whispering
you can never change the broken part of you where hope has died leaves no escape
years of failure are mocking you but still you believe that it’s true that
God is greater. He comes to you as your Savior. And even though your heart
condemns you, God is greater than your heart. Of course that last line comes
from 1st John 20 that says that when your heart condemns you, remember God is
greater than your heart. It’s greater than your sin that cuts to your heart.
greater than your guilt, your shame, your conviction of your sins. God heals your
heart through that death and resurrection of Jesus. I know, I know it
can be hard to let that healing happen. You may be hanging on to years of
something that cuts your heart and it’s almost like you just gotten used to it
and accept the pain and just live with it. You don’t have to. There’s so much
better. God has complete healing for that. Even for the most cut up, torn, ripped,
shredded, or blown up heart, there is healing. Healing by the crucified Jesus
who was cut to the heart so that you could be comforted in your heart.
Comforted with forgiveness that’s even deeper than any knife can go in cutting
your heart in condemning you and this is for any day for Pentecost for Trinity
Sunday for all any day for all of your life may you always know that healing for
a hurting heart amen now may the peace of God which passes all
understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord amen
