Psalm 16, Psalm 23, Acts 2

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The first two verses of Psalm 16, a Psalm of David preserve me, David prays. In other words, keep me safe. I take refuge in thee. I hope in you. I trust in you. Jump down to verse three, it mentioned saints. It mentions holy ones. It uses the word excellent ones as another translation, royal ones, and in other words, God’s people.

But wait a minute. Aren’t God’s people sinful? We are. So how can we be called saints? Well, we’re called saints because we’re made holy. We’re made saints because our sins are paid for. We know that. We believe that. That’s what Jesus has done for us, which means that we are the excellent ones. We are royalty, children of the Heavenly Father, princes and princesses of Heaven itself.

Drop down to verses five and six. Did you ever eat in a school cafeteria or in a military chow line? Maybe you learned to be extra nice to make friends with the lunch ladies, might not have been ladies serving, because they give you a little bit extra food. Well, verses five and six talk about the portion that the Lord has given us. The portion that God serves up is God Himself, the Lord himself. In Psalm 23, David speaks about that, saying that his cup is overflowing. And verse six says that the lines, thats boundary lines, property lines, the place, the home that God has prepared for you is fallen in pleasant places. It even talks about an inheritance. You’re in God’s will so that when God died, you inherit what he has: his righteousness, his holiness, the forgiveness of your sins.

Verse eight says that I have set the Lord, always set the Lord before me. He’s my foundation. What that means is my life is now built on this. It’s built on him. There is no other foundation that anyone can lay, a permanent foundation, than that which has been laid, laid down: Jesus Christ. And this is a foundation so firm that the Psalm tells us it can’t be shaken. It doesn’t budge. It doesn’t sag or slip with age. Soul, my heart, my being, my frail mortal flesh, which grows older and weaker every day, it rests secure. Because even though I do grow weaker every day, even though my grave is somewhere out there in the future, God promises not to desert us. He won’t leave us in death and in hell, in Sheol.

And in verse ten, Psalm 16:10, we’re told how all this is possible. It says, you will not let your Holy One see corruption or see decay. What is that? Who is that? The Holy one. It’s singular. Well, if we jump into the New Testament Acts chapter two, we’ll find Peter preaching on Pentecost Sunday, and Peter quotes from Psalm 16, verses eight, nine, 10, 11. Peter says, first and foremost, this is about Jesus. God didn’t abandon him when he gave his life for us. God didn’t even let his flesh see decay or corruption. And like Peter, we’ve all sinned. In our thoughts, words, deeds. We’ve all denied being his, his saints, his royal ones. But because of Christ, God didn’t abandon us to the grave or doesn’t abandon us to Sheol, to hell. Now all who trust in him will be with him.

Verse 11 captures that. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there’s fullness of joy, and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So because of Christ and all that he has done, every single word of Psalm 16 also applies to you as much as it does to him. I hope you’ll open your Bible, maybe even today, and read Psalm 16 for yourself, and be assured that in Christ, because of him your sins, like Peter’s, they’re all forgiven. They will not be your undoing. You will rest secure, established on the rock that is Jesus Christ. So. May he bless and keep you. And I look forward to seeing you again.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Romans 4:25, Romans 4:3, Hebrews 9:27, Acts 16:25-24

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I believe from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. This statement in the Creed confesses that Jesus Christ Himself will return on the last day. He will be publicly seen by all the world, and after he has raised all flesh, they’ll stand before him, divided as sheep and the goats, the living and the dead, the believers and the unbelievers. And he will pronounce judgment, or as we say, final judgment.

For me, growing up as a Christian, I think this was a moment that always kind of scared me a little bit. God would stand up in front of the whole world and then read your life story in front of the whole world. And then I would be standing there in front of so many people and, and what if God says something different? What if I’m not worthy? What if I don’t measure up? Well, today I want to tell you to not be afraid, because that is the final judgment. And there’s actually three other judgments that happened before that we’re going to look at that grant you a wonderful comfort.

So first of all, the very first Judgment Day over the whole world that happened on Easter when God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul says in Romans four,

He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4:25)

So Jesus resurrection on Easter morning is God’s proclamation over the entire world, all sinners everywhere, that your sins are already forgiven through Jesus. That’s the first comforting Judgment day.

The second Judgment Day you’ve experienced is the day you first came to faith in Jesus as your Savior. Just as the Bible says,

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:3)

Through faith in Jesus, the righteousness, the perfect life that Jesus won for you through his perfect life on earth, his death and resurrection. They were credited to you. You’re covered with Jesus’ innocence the moment you came to faith. In that moment, God declared you personally forgiven. Justified. Not guilty.

The third Judgment Day we’ll face is the day we enter eternal life in heaven, when our mortal life comes to a close, instantly, that soul faces judgment. We’re told that in Hebrews nine

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, (Hebrews 9:27)

Here we think of Paul’s words to the jailer of Philippi, a man who, in fear and uncertainty, believing he was about to die, said, “sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And Paul comforted him and said, believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved. (Acts 16:25-24) And for every Christian in their hour of death that believes in the Lord Jesus, who looks on Jesus like the thief on the cross, looked in faith on Jesus will be saved.

Because of those three judgment days that the Christian will already have experienced before the final Judgment Day, that means that you and I, we approach that final judgment with confidence. You already know what the verdict will be. You’ve already been judged three times, not guilty, innocent, forgiven through faith in Jesus. And notice how on the last day, God has already divided the living and the dead, the believers and the unbelievers.

This final judgment is for your benefit. It gives God that opportunity to publicly lift you up and exonerate you before all flesh. If you think of all the people in this world that have looked down on you for your faith in Jesus, who have mocked you because you have spent so much of your life worshiping in an invisible God, going to church, dedicating your life and your faith to someone you’ve never seen and never met. And they might have laughed secretly, but on the last day, the Lord Jesus will lift you up and in front of all flesh, say, well done, my good and faithful servant. Amen.

[This devotion is part of our series on The Apostles’ Creed, you can find all the videos in there series on our Apostles’ Creed Page. The devotions will be added as they are posted.]

Mark 12:13-17, Romans 13:1, Acts 5:29

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Last week we started the phrase in the creed, I believe he suffered, but now we need to finish a statement he suffered under Pontius Pilate. And right here is another beautiful mystery of the Christian faith that even though Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords, he submitted himself underneath the rule of flawed human authority.

In fact, we see this throughout Jesus entire life. From the moment he is born, Mary and Joseph submit to a decree from Caesar Augustus to follow some order for a census. Who was Caesar Augustus? He was a tyrant who killed off the other competitors so that he could be the absolute ruler over Rome. He was a tyrant who forced the Roman Senate into passing a law that gave him supreme executive power for life. He was even looked on as a god. And yet Mary and Joseph submitted to his decree and moved.

Later in Jesus’ life, when he was asked, should we pay taxes to Caesar? Jesus asked for a coin and said, whose image is on the surface of that coin? The answer was Caesar. Not just any Caesar. Tiberius Caesar. A man whose appetite for pleasure would make most people’s skin crawl. And yet Jesus said, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and give to God that which is God’s. (Mark 12:13-17)

And of course, for his trial, his sham trial, Jesus had to put up with Pontius Pilate, himself, a spineless governor who could not recognize truth when it was staring him in the face. A man who represented a systemically corrupt Roman system that was absolutely racist, that was corrupt all the way back to the emperor in Rome. And yet Jesus humbly submitted to that rule and that authority.

Why? Because he needed to keep the fourth commandment. He needed to honor and obey the authorities, because the authorities that have been established have been established by God. (Romans 13:1) This is important for us as Christians today because so often, especially in our country, we recognize that there’s a separation between church and state, and that’s how our government is arranged. But the problem is, as Christians, when we think of these as two separate categories in our own heart, I can have my political views over here and my religious views over here. And the two boxes never touch. That isn’t how it’s supposed to work.

As a Christian, a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, my religion must rule over my politics. So some examples of this. A Christian might say to themselves, I have freedom of speech so I can say whatever I want. I can post whatever I want or repost whatever I want about government and government officials, and I don’t have to worry about the consequences. As a Christian, your freedom of speech is underneath the fourth commandment, commanding us to honor authority, and the eighth commandment telling us to defend our neighbors reputation.

Other times people tell themselves, well, because this person is corrupt, I don’t have to respect them. Or because this officer, this man or woman in a law office position because they represent a corrupt system, I don’t have to show them respect. But Jesus’ humble suffering under Pontius Pilate teaches us that this is not the case. As a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom, you are forgiven. You belong to his kingdom. As such, we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. The government gets my honor. My respect, my obedience, as far as it doesn’t break God’s Word. And unfortunately, they also get my taxes.

But I give to God what is God’s. God alone commands my unquestioning loyalty. God alone has my body, my soul, my heart, and my absolute obedience. And for you as Christians living in this world, the day may come, like with the apostles, where we are asked by our government to disobey God and always remember their answer. We must obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29) And then they joyfully accepted the consequences for that confession of Jesus. They willingly suffered under their government, all for the name of Jesus. And that’s what it means when we confess in our faith that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. Amen.

Acts 2:3-11

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Do you remember the account of the Tower of Babel? These people shortly after the flood, they all had one common language, one common people, and they were determined to make a great name for themselves. They were going to build especially this tower, this great tower that would reach to the heavens. In a very real way these people were becoming arrogant and they were thinking, why do we need God? We can make ourselves God. We can reach ourselves into the heavens, and God comes and realizes this is not good. The people are not trusting in me. They’re not caring about having a relationship with me. They’re trying to supplant me and do without me. And so, God, it’s actually a merciful, loving thing, what he does, he causes them to depart from one another by confusing their language. And so at this point in time, as Scripture teaches, many different languages were created by God. And so the people had to depart and go their separate way by language.

What do we see happening though at Pentecost? Do you remember Pentecost? Let me share these verses with you about Pentecost from Acts chapter two. You remember this blowing of the wind. Tongues of fire. And then the disciples, they went out and they preached. It’s very interesting, this detail.

They saw divided tongues that were like fire resting on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, since the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak fluently. Now there were godly Jewish men from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. When this sound was heard, a crowd came together and was confused, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were completely baffled and said to each other, “Look, are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them speaking in his own native language?Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, and of Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya around Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring in our own languages the wonderful works of God.”

What’s going on here? Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit comes, he reverses what took place at Babel. At Babel, there were all these languages that divided people. But now at Pentecost, God brings them back, not for their own glory, not because they can supplant God, but because God knows that they need him and he desires us to gather together as his people. And so he shares with all these different, diverse groups of people a common thing, a common thing, and in their own languages. He shares with us something that we continue today with the saints throughout history to rejoice in together as one people. And that’s the Gospel message of Christ. The Holy Spirit comes and he joins us back together, not in a spirit of arrogance, where we try and supplant God, but we rally around and we rejoice in the God who has won our salvation. The God who was proclaimed on Pentecost by Peter as the one who has now forgiven us our sins, who has opened heaven to us. And that’s the message that the apostles were sharing.

And so we are invited too to rejoice in that common language of the gospel with all of our brothers and sisters, even though they might have different backgrounds, even though they might speak different languages, we rejoice in the fact that they are fellow Christians who are forgiven, redeemed citizens of heaven with us in Christ. So as we celebrate Pentecost, consider how God has undone that division that we caused and that man caused, and especially then that those people, in their arrogance, trying to kick God out of their lives, caused. And he now unites us around the gospel of our Savior Jesus. What a blessing that is. God’s peace be with you.

In part one, I dealt with the reliability of the transmission of the New Testament and the 5500 plus copies we have, have led scholars to conclude, quote,

That we can reconstruct the original words of the New Testament within 99% accuracy.

So, you know, what we have is what was originally written, but that doesn’t mean it was necessarily reliable historically.

For example, if I were to give you, my journal from yesterday and tell you to copy it word for word, and you did that, we’d have a a reliable transmission. But that doesn’t mean that my journal was accurate historically, or the copy was accurate historically. Maybe I exaggerated, or maybe I created a legend. Or maybe I just simply told some lies.

Are the New Testament writings accurate historically or are they myth, or are they legend, or are they fiction? Or are they purposeful lies? Many believe that the Gospels and the book of Acts are not reliable historically, and you might be one of them. Even Christians have doubts about the historical reliability of what’s recorded there, and you might be be one of them.

There are a number of things that we could point to that helps support the historical reliability of the Gospels and the book of aActs, but I’m just going to mention a few. This is not by any means exhaustive.

First of all, the Gospels and the book of Acts have details of various kinds that you normally never find in myths or legends or even fictions from that that time period.

For example, you have many people listed by name and described. A lot of these names are also confirmed by non-biblical sources, or they’re confirmed by archeology. You also have places and cities and mountains and roads mentioned by name, sometimes with the mileage listed in between. You have buildings and structures described in some detail. We have details about traveling by sea. The cargo, the rigging, the names of the seas. You have descriptions of currents, of weather, patterns, of storm patterns. In other words, what we have here in the Gospels and the book of Acts, they’re written not as if they’re myth or legend. They’re written as if they’re real historical events. And so the question is not whether or not they’re myth or legend versus history, but the question is, are they reliable history versus unreliable or inaccurate history?

Second, the author of Luke and the book of Acts, makes a very important statement concerning how he went about his research and his investigations. Here’s what he said.

Many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4)

And so you know these words, they have the ring of integrity and truthfulness. Let me just give you one example from the book of Acts real quickly here.

You know, Luke was a companion of Saint Paul and some of its missionary trips. And Luke again admits that he he talked with the eyewitnesses many times. And one of the things that Luke records when he’s with Paul is what Paul does in making the case, making the defense for the truth of Christianity before a governor Festus and King Agrippa. And here are the words that that the Luke records of Paul. He says,

“I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. (Acts 25:25-26)

Again, Luke claims to have talked to the eyewitnesses, and sometimes he was there, as with the case of Paul here. And so if what he recorded was not true, somebody could have easily challenged him, because these were obviously public events that many people took notice on.

Third, we have at least three writers of the New Testament claiming to be eyewitnesses. Peter, for example, says,

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. (2 Peter 1:16-18)

Again, integrity. Truthfulness. That’s what we’re confronted with here. Now, just because someone says he is a eyewitness, that doesn’t mean he was. So here’s a fourth and final point I’d like to share with you today that help you know, you might say verify, the truthfulness or the reliability of the history that we find in the New Testament.

We have records of the lives and the deaths of the apostles recorded by early church fathers. They testify that the apostles went out right away for the rest of their earthly lives, preaching and evangelizing in order to convert people to Christianity. Have them come to the Christian faith. And when they’re out there evangelizing, they’re preaching, and they’re teaching as if everything recorded in the Gospels and the book of Acts is absolutely true. And they did this despite the dangers they would be facing, persecution, imprisonment, torture. And even death.

And what’s recorded for us is that all of the apostles, with the exception of John the Apostle, who died a natural death, all of them were said to have been martyred. If the events recorded about Jesus of Nazareth, his life, his suffering, his death, and his resurrection, if these events were not true, it is hard to explain their willingness to suffer and especially to die if these events were not true, because if anyone would have known these events were not true, it would have been the apostles.

Here’s the point. And here’s a good way to put it. People do not willingly submit themselves to persecution and to suffering and to death for something they know to be a lie. You know, a lot of people will die for something, but they’re dying for something they think is the truth. But if they know it’s a lie, then that’s a different story.

You don’t die for something that you know to be a lie. On the other hand, people might be willing to suffer and die for something they are convinced is not a lie, for something they know is is true. Especially if that something determines where they will spend eternity, heaven or hell. And that’s exactly what that something, the recorded events in the life of Christ, that’s exactly what those events determine. The difference between heaven and hell.

So these several things taken together, the many kinds of details that you don’t find in myth or fiction or legend, and the fact that we have people who are saying, I did the careful investigation or who were eyewitnesses, and the willingness of the apostles to suffer and die for something that they knew was not a lie. All this helps confirm the historical reliability of the Gospels and the book of Acts.

In other words, they confirm the virgin birth of Christ. They confirm the deity and the humanity of Christ. They confirm his miracles. They confirm his suffering and death and his resurrection, his ascension to the right hand of his father. And not only do they confirm these events, but they also confirm that these events are the factors that determine where one spends eternity.

So if you are a Christian, be assured that these these records are not only reliable, but they’re true. And therefore because of Christ, you are a forgiven child of God. Your eternal destiny is heaven, all because of Christ alone. And if you are not a Christian, you are invited to become one. Your eternal destiny depends on it.

My name is David Thompson. I’m the director for the center for Apologetics and Worldviews. Thank you for joining us.

Matthew 10:32-33, Acts 4:12

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Our devotion for today comes from Matthew chapter ten. Jesus says,

Everyone who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32-33)

Back in 1989, there was a large uprising of college students in China, and one of the most famous incidents from that uprising was known as Tiananmen Square. In a particular square one individual went and stood out in front of a row of tanks that were coming in from the government to put down this uprising, and managed to stop all of these tanks by just being this one man standing in front of all these tanks. It was probably the most iconic image from that uprising.

Sometimes that happens in history, where one individual has to take a stand. Martin Luther in 1521, there was a defining moment for the reformation of the church, and he kind of stood before the whole world in front of the emperor, confessing his faith, knowing that he could be put to death for doing so. And in the Bible, we often see examples of this of one individual alone, standing and confessing their faith in front of the world. The prophet Elijah in front of the prophets of Baal. Daniel before King Nebuchadnezzar. John the Baptist standing before King Herod.

So the true faith in Jesus as our Savior requires confession. And it also creates that confession, that willingness to state our faith inside of our hearts. And to believe something means that you also will confess it, that you will state it as your truth. There are no neutral grounds. Jesus is showing that here. It’s either confession or denial and confessing Jesus as our Savior is a natural byproduct of having faith in him and all he’s done for us. So when we believe something that means that we can make assertions about it, something that we know then to be true.

Christians delight in God’s truth. We love to hear it. We love to see it preached. We love to see others come to that truth. We love to see it taught and defended. And Christianity is really not a religion for cowards, because confessing Jesus as our Savior and standing up for his Word, standing under Christ’s cross can often be very difficult because there’s no neutral ground. It means admitting about yourself that you have no way of getting to heaven by how good you are, and that God had to do it entirely for you through Christ, and only in him do you have peace with God.

That’s why Peter boldly confessed this

“There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Jesus disciples before his resurrection were kind of cowering in fear, but once he was raised from the dead, they went out all over the world boldly confessing him, sometimes facing difficulties and even death in order to let people know of this wonderful truth.

True Christian confession always has Judgment Day in mind, and Jesus is here reminding us of the blessings of that confession. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, do not let fear overpower you, since those who might oppose you are only human beings, and the most they can do is kill you when you stand and confess me in my word, but you know that you stand with one who holds the keys to death and hell, and the keys to the entrance of everlasting life. May God keep us firm in that confession. Amen.

Ezekiel 47, Acts 2:1-4

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Stop going to church. Stop going to church. I mean it. I know that’s a weird sounding thing for a pastor to say. And you might wonder, wait, am I actually watching this morning’s Peace Devotion? Because he just told me to stop going to church. But, but hear me out.

Stop going to church. Instead, gather as the church. Come together with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Come and worship. Come and hear the word. Come and celebrate baptisms, and take the Lord’s Supper as the church.

There’s this incredible privilege we have as Christians, as New Testament believers in the Messiah that sometimes I think we overlook. In the Old Testament, the place where God’s holiness was, really seen, was really location focused. You think about amongst God’s people in the nation of Israel, there was the Tabernacle first and then the temple. And within those holy places was the most holy place, and only a few people, and only in certain ways, and at certain times of the year, could even really come very close to God’s presence there.

But there were limitations to that temple. The temple was a great blessing because it assured the people that God was with them, and the sacrifices took place there that pointed ahead to the Savior. But there were limitations because it showed them that God was with them, but they were still limited access to God. And the people of Israel often they might have people going through the practices of the temple or of the tabernacle, but they were living in a way that was very different. It wasn’t fulfilling really what it was meant to do. And ultimately, all the sacrifices and things that happened there couldn’t really set people right with God.

But then Jesus comes on the scene in the New Testament and Jesus reshapes the temple not around a building, but he says that his body is the temple. And then when he dies on the cross, there on that cross, he pays for your sin and mine absorbs it. When he dies, the temple curtain is torn in two from top to bottom. Which assures us we have access to God, but it also does something else. There are these pictures in the Old Testament about God’s holiness coming out of the temple.

For instance, in Ezekiel 47, the prophet Ezekiel has this vision of water flowing out of the temple and bringing that which was dead, bringing it alive. Or you have Zechariah 12 that talks about all these normal things in our lives becoming holy now. There’s this idea that God’s presence now can break out into God’s creation and bring holiness out. And that’s what we see in the New Testament. You get to Pentecost. You have this moment where these people have these tongues of fire come above their heads, and fire signifies the presence of God. Now, instead of God’s holiness being a place or something we want to go to, God’s holiness comes to us and fills us. We become the church. The New Testament describes us as God’s temple.

So when you come to church, go to church, you’re not so much going to church, but gathering as the church, you’re coming together as people who are the temple of God hearing God’s Word and being built up in him. You come together as people who are baptized into Christ. So when God sees you and everyone around you, he sees people who look like Jesus, who are connected to his death and his resurrection. When you take the bread and the wine, the body and blood, you are connecting not just with God, but your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. You gather as the church and then you can go as the church.

Stop going to church, gather as the church, go as the church.

Acts 1:3

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Prove to me that Jesus rose from the dead. Can you? As we continue to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus during this Easter season, you’ve maybe wrestled with that kind of question. How do we know that Jesus rose from the dead? How do we prove to someone else that he rose? That’s a difficult question, but it’s a natural question for us to have. We want to know evidence for the things that we put our faith in. We want to see all the facts. We want to be absolutely sure that the things we believe are true.

And while I can’t prove to you that Jesus rose from the dead, Jesus can. In Acts chapter one, Luke tells us that after he had suffered, he referring to Jesus,

After he had suffered, he presented himself alive to the apostles with many convincing proofs. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and told them things about the kingdom of God.

(Acts 1:3)

Jesus wanted to make sure that his followers really knew that he was alive. He didn’t want to leave any doubts in their minds about his resurrection, so he took every measure to prove it to them. For example, Jesus didn’t want people thinking that he was just some ghost, so he took food and ate it to prove that he was alive in the flesh. One of his followers, Thomas, was a bit of a skeptic, like many of us can be, and he had a harder time believing. So Jesus took Thomas’ finger and shoved it into the nail holes on his hands, and then took Thomas’s hand and thrust it into the spear wound on his side, so that Thomas would know that he really was the man who died on a cross. But it wasn’t just his closest followers that Jesus revealed himself to. Paul tells us that on one occasion, Jesus even appeared to over 500 people who saw him alive.

But maybe that’s not enough for you. Maybe you’re thinking, well, some food, a few wounds. That’s not a whole lot to put my faith in. But remember that Jesus was with his followers for 40 days after his resurrection, and during that time he would have done many other things to convince and prove to them that he really was the one who came back from the dead. And although we don’t know all the things that these eyewitnesses saw, we do know what the eyewitnesses believed. They saw a man who was dead one day and alive three days later, and they were radically changed. They went from being these frightened cowards after Jesus crucifixion to bold preachers who were willing to die for what they believed after Jesus resurrection.

These men knew the truth, and they recorded it in a book so that you and I could believe. Look, I can’t prove to you all the things that Jesus did. But Jesus has given you his word so that you can know that he loves you and forgives you. And his resurrection is proof that he died for your sins and that he really is your Savior. Jesus is risen. Amen.

Acts 11:21, 26

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Our name is such an important part of our identity, but it’s interesting to think about the fact that we have no say in what our name is going to be. Our parents don’t ask for our input when they’re deciding what they’re going to call us, whether we like our name or hate it. It’s part of our identity for our entire life. Another name that we wear, that we didn’t choose for ourselves as God’s people is that of Christian.

Have you’ve ever stopped and thought about what that name means, about what it’s communicating, what it tells people about our identity? After Jesus ascended into heaven, the impact of his ministry of his victory over over sin and death, that momentum just continued to build. More and more people were being added to the number of believers every day. Jesus’ enemies obviously hated this, and so they tried to push down this, this momentum by persecution. But this only served to grow the church even more because as people were persecuted in one city, they fled to other cities, carrying with them the good news of the gospel, the good news of salvation by faith in Jesus.

Now one city that they fled to was the city of Antioch, which is about 300 miles away from Jerusalem. And Acts chapter 11, verse 21 tells us what happened there.

The Lord’s hand was with them, and a large number of people believed in turn to the Lord. It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. (Acts 11:21, 26)

Now the term Christian, it’s such an important name because it doesn’t just communicate what we are or communicates who we are and who’s we are. We belong to Christ. Now that word Christ, it’s not a name, it’s a title. And the word Christ is the same as the Old Testament word Messiah. They both mean anointed one. So when we call ourselves Christians, we are saying that we know and believe that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Anointed One. He is the son of the living God and our Savior from sin.

By saying that we are Christians, we’re saying that we are building our life and our faith on this foundation, this confession that Jesus is the Christ. We find our identity in this name. We were lost in our sin. We were blind in our sin. We were dead in our trespasses. (Ephesians 2:1) We were enemies of God. But we have been claimed by Christ and have been made his people. Through Christ, the Anointed One, through Jesus, who lived perfectly, who died innocently in our place we have been forgiven. Everything that made us an enemy of God has been removed from our slate forever. We are his holy people. We have been claimed by him. We are his possession.

Nothing matters more than this. Nothing in our life, not our status in this world, not our income, not our nationality. This is the most important thing. We belong to God because of what Jesus has done for us. We have new life in him and in everything about our life now reflects this new identity. The actions that we carry out, the decisions that we make, the words that we speak reflect this new life that is ours through faith in Christ. Our foundation is Jesus the Living Stone, the Christ. We are Christians. It’s not just what we are. It’s who we are, and it’s who’s we are. We belong to Christ. Amen.

Genesis 1-3, Philippians 3:20-21, Acts 17:31, Romans 8:19, Revelation 21:1-3

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Something’s off about the world today. Whether you’re a Christian or not, you probably agree with that. At least most people I talk to do. But what I hear from people about what to do about it varies. Some people are really passionate about how we need to figure out a way to kind of fix the world, or other people have kind of just given up on it. But thankfully the good news of Jesus gives us a better solution. It helps us understand what’s wrong with the world, but then also it helps us see, it points us to the solution for the world.

First of all, think about what’s wrong with the world. If you go back to Genesis 1 to 3, it helps lay out for us what’s really going on in the world today. It lays out for us the fact that God created this world to be this place where he and humanity would live together and partner together. He created humanity to be in his image and his likeness. Not that we would physically look like him, but that we could live in a way that looked like him.

It’s this really amazing thing, if you think about it. How does an invisible God visibly show what he looks like? Well, he creates people to live in a way that reflects who he is, to live in a way that reflects his character. Then he also gave us the opportunity to rule over the world in his likeness. So then to partner with him and ruling his world.

Well, people turn away from God. We now no longer live in a way that always looks like God or reflects God. And so since we, the rulers of his world, live in a way that doesn’t look like him, what happens? We have a world that is now broken. We have a world that doesn’t function right, because we don’t live in a way that looks like its creator. We don’t trust our creator. Instead, we try to do things our own way.

But now Jesus is the hope for humanity. We know that Jesus came into this world and he looked perfectly like God, partly because he is fully God, but also because he is the human who lived the way that we were meant to live. And then he went to the cross and died for our sins, to pay for those things we’ve done wrong, to take the justice on himself. And then he rose again to give us a new life. And our hope is ultimately of resurrection, where we can have restored to us the life we were meant to have in the beginning.

Think about Philippians 3:21. It says,

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him to even subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)

So we’re looking forward to a resurrection or restoration of what was lost. But it’s not just about us as individuals. In Acts 17:31, it talks about how God has fixed a day where he will judge the world in righteousness. So all the injustice we see in the world today, God will set it all right. And when Jesus returns, it also means liberation for the whole creation itself. In Romans 8:19, it talks about how the creation is longing for the sons of God to be revealed. That it has been subjected to frustration and to all the issues we see in the world today, so that at some point it can be liberated from it.

There will be a day that Jesus returns. This broken world as we know it comes to an end. And there is, as Revelation 21:1-3 describes, the new heavens and the new earth, there will be the new creation. Where finally everything will be set right. There is something wrong with the world today, but Jesus is the one who sets it all right.

Acts 16:32-34

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Our devotion today is based on a wonderful story in the Book of Acts, Chapter 16, and I’ll set the story a little bit. St Paul had been thrown in prison, along with Silas, for preaching the Gospel about Jesus. And one night there was a violent earthquake and the jailer who took care of that prison was afraid that all the prisoners had escaped. And so he had taken a sword and was putting it right up next to his chest and was going to run himself through and kill himself because he knew he’d be responsible for all the prisoners who escaped. Suddenly Paul calls out, “Stop, We’re all here. Don’t harm yourself.” And the jailer comes rushing in and drops to the feet of Paul and Silas, and he says to them, the greatest question in the world, “what must I do to be saved?”

How do I get to heaven? Is really what he’s asking. And it’s interesting that Saint Paul doesn’t say to him, well, you got to do this and do this. He doesn’t give him a list of things. All he tells him is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And that beautiful message of the gospel tells us that God has taken care of everything. What it takes for us to get to heaven is nothing from us. But it’s entirely God’s doing. And what He has done for us through the work of Christ. So Paul simply puts the gospel in front of this man and invites him to believe.

We’re told that he was so excited that he took Paul and Silas back to his house, and he had them teach the gospel to the members of his house. And then we’re told that immediately he and his entire family were baptized. I love this passage, though, from Act 16.

Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his household were baptized.

And then listen to this.

The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God. (Acts 16:32-34)

Now, this brings up a point about our families and our family life. The gospel is, of course, primarily about getting us to heaven some day, and we have that through faith in Christ. But it also has a transformational quality for our own personal lives and our marriages and our relationships to our children. When the Gospel is brought into the home, it also brings joy and gladness into the home as well. And so even though the most important thing about learning about our Savior is getting to heaven, when we know we have that, and when we make that the most important thing in our lives, it also has this wonderful earthly impact back into our marriages and our relationships with our children and our parents. And we see that reflected in this story.

So it’s a wonderful thing that the heavenly home we have waiting for us also has such a tremendous impact on our earthly homes here in this life. God be praised. Amen.

Acts 2:42,46-47, 1 John 3:14

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Our devotion today comes from Acts chapter two. I’ll read various verses from verses 42 to 47.

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42,46-47)

It’s interesting that becoming part of a Christian congregation is really a wonderful blessing from God. Once we learn to know Jesus Christ as our Savior and what it means for us that he paid for all of our sins so we can go to heaven. There’s a bond that starts to establish between us and fellow Christians. We are now citizens of heaven. Years ago, I was talking to a friend who became a Christian as an adult, and she said to me when I joined the congregation, I had no idea that I was really joining a family.

And that’s an interesting way to think of it, isn’t it, that there’s a bond there that is established by the Holy Spirit because of our common love for Christ. And all of a sudden, all the other things that might separate us, whether it’s our nationality or our language, whether it’s where we work, our economic status, all of that becomes irrelevant when we sit together and worship our Savior and listen to His Word.

The Holy Spirit is the one that creates this love for fellow Christians inside of our hearts. And it’s interesting just to note a few things here from this text. First of all, notice that our membership in God’s Church of Believers is because of his work. We’re told the Lord added daily to the church those who are being saved. Notice they didn’t decide to do it. God is the one who adds Christians through the work of the Gospel in people’s hearts. Secondly, he draws believers together, despite all the differences they might have in the world. And if you go to a congregation, you can find people from different walks of life and different backgrounds, sometimes with different accents, a lot of differences that we have, earthly differences, but that all becomes irrelevant when we love Christ. And it suddenly bonds us all together. That common love for Christ and for each other then as Christians is actually a sign of faith.

Listen to what Saint John says.

We know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. (1 John 3:14)

And that’s one of the indications that we’re truly believers in Christ, that we love to be with fellow Christians. The Holy Spirit unites people together around God’s Word and sacraments. It’s those places where God comes to us and brings us His grace. And so He gathers people around these means of grace. We sometimes call them the marks of the church, because where those are found and being used properly the way Jesus wants, there will be true believers there. And we notice that there’s an immediate love for one another. The disciples here that gather together doesn’t take months and months and years. There’s an immediate bond that begins to take place.

And finally notice also the great joy that is present. We’re told that they did all of this with gladness and simplicity of hearts. Being a member of a Christian congregation is is not drudgery. It’s not difficult. There can be some work at times, but it’s really a joyful thing. It’s something that uplifts us and edified us and builds us up because that’s really what the work of the gospel is all about. As we look forward to the day in heaven when all of us will worship around Christ and His throne, and think of all the people from all around the world that will be joined together with us. What a glorious day that will be. Amen.