Fourth Sunday of Easter [c] 05/08/22
Acts 20:17-35
17 Now from Miletus [Paul] sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. 18 And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. 32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33 I coveted no one’s silver or gold or apparel. 34 You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. 35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'”
In the Name of Jesus.
Paul is speaking to pastors he has set up as shepherds to take care of the Church:
Now from Miletus [Paul] sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him. And when they came to him, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Acts 20:17]
Ephesus happens to be the city where he set Timothy as pastor. So when we read Paul’s letters of 1st and 2nd Timothy, we are reading more of Paul’s instructions and encouragement and comfort to a young pastor.
Elders is the word Paul often uses for the pastors he has set to serve the Lord’s Church.
So we see the Apostle giving a seminar, what we might call a C.E.U. seminar to keep the pastors up on how to preach the Gospel.
“I am teaching you from house to house, in public,”
says Paul.
“I am testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s Paul sermon—“repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s not just Paul’s sermon. It’s every truly Christian sermon.
“This is the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,”
says Paul,
“to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.”
[Acts 20:24]
That’s every truly Christian sermon—a sermon of gifts from God, of grace for the sinner.
Repentance toward God. Paul is declaring pure gift. We don’t hear it that way, at least at first. We hear it as Law. We hear it as what we need to do, how we need to change. And the Law does say that.
But when the Lord speaks repentance to the sinner, he is bestowing gift. Because, repentance is God’s work. It is God taking the sinner and turning him around—turning him from death, to life; from the accusation of the Law, to the grace of the Gospel; from despair, to hope; from fear, to trust.
So listen to a few times the Lord speaking of repentance given to the sinner.
Acts 5:31:
God exalted [Jesus] at his right hand as Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
Acts 11:18:
When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Romans 2:4:
Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness leads you into repentance?
God gives it to you. God grants it to you. God in his kindness leads you into it. Repentance: God’s gift to you.
God does demand the sinner to repent. But when God makes demands, that is God speaking his Law. And his Law doesn’t give gifts, it accuses.
The sinner cannot do his Law. If the sinner could do God’s Law, he would not be a sinner. If the sinner could do God’s Law, then the crucifixion of Christ Jesus is not needed. The cross is emptied of its meaning, of its gift.
The sinner cannot do God’s Law.
Yet, God continues speaking his Law to the sinner. Why? To accuse. To bind the sinner under the Law so that he will finally know that of himself, he will find no hope, no relief. So that he will finally know he cannot justify self.
When God’s demand to you that you repent finally has its way of proving that you cannot repent, then God turns you back to himself by speaking to you the opposite word, the Gospel.
This is God kindly leading you into his gift of repentance. Repentance given, granted by God. Repentance as kindness and mercy. Repentance as something you can never do, but which God grants to the Jew and the Gentile. To the sinner near and far. To you and me and our children.
So we hear the Word of Christ Jesus, we hear the preaching of his cross, we hear his Name, and we rejoice. He is our repenter, our Savior, our Prince of kindness who gives eternal life so that no one can snatch us out of his hand.
We hear this gift. We are repented.
And then our sinful flesh rears its ugly head.
Our sinful flesh, which is still with us, until we die in this body of death. Our sinful flesh which desires nothing so much as to justify itself, as to use God’s Law not as God intends it, to accuse us and drive us to his Gospel, but to use God’s Law as a way of earning worthiness.
Our sinful flesh which hears a gift from God and says, “You see that gift from God, I did that.”
Our sinful flesh which wants to say to God, “Look at my faith? Look at my fruits, God. My fruits show my faith. Your Law, O God, has been my friend, it has shown me how to produce the fruits to prove my faith, to display my repentance.”
And God looks down from Heaven, and laughs. No laugh of joy. A laugh of derision.
“I have set my Son on Mt. Calvary for you,”
says God.
“I have given my Son to you as your Christ, your Messiah, as the atoning sacrifice to shed his blood for your sin. I have called you with my Gospel, I have spoken to you my promise, I have bestowed upon you every good gift, and you tell me, ‘Look at my repentance, look at my fruits, look at my keeping of the Law.’”
The Lord sits in the heavens and laughs in derision. [Psalm 2]
“This is the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,”
says Paul,
“to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.”
[Acts 20:24]
That’s how Paul teaches the young pastors to preach.
Don’t put sinners under the Law. They are already under the Law.
Preach the Law, yes. But don’t preach it to show the sinner how to repent, how to produce fruit proving repentance, how to change his life.
Preach the Law to accuse. To accuse of not repenting, to accuse of sinful flesh, to accuse of false repentance.
Preach the Law not to improve the sinful flesh, not to take the Old Adam of sinful flesh and clean him up a little bit to make him presentable, but preach the Law to put the Old Adam of sinful flesh to death. Daily. Daily kill that old Adam of sinful flesh in repentance. Daily drown that sinful flesh in the water and promise of Baptism. Daily shut the mouth of that Old Adam, so you shut-up his arrogant display of his fruits, which will never be good fruit to God, because it comes from sinful flesh, and, as Jesus says, a bad tree does not produce good fruit.
Daily put the old man of sinful flesh to death in repentance, so that daily the new man of faith, the new Adam of the promise, hears the Gospel and stands up before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Put sinners under the Law for the Law to accuse, Paul would say.
But that is not the purpose of your preaching, not the full, final purpose. To the young pastors, Paul says,
“This is the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God.”
[Acts 20:24]
That’s the preaching: the grace of God in Christ Jesus his Son. It is the preaching of the cross, the preaching of Christ crucified, the preaching of the sinner justified not by works of the Law, but by faith in Christ Jesus.
This is repentance as gift from God. This is the repentance of God seeing you in your sin, and saying to you, “I am your Christ, your Savior. Your sin is forgiven. Your guilt is taken away. You are mine and no one will snatch you out of my hand. I have repented you back to myself.”
This is repentance as gift. And it is every truly Christian sermon.
In the Name of Jesus.