Devoted to the Apostles' Teachings

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, April 11, 2010

[Video playing Olivia Newton-John song, Hopelessly Devoted to You].  Recognize it? Do you remember the movie, Grease? You have Danny. You have Sandy. You have Rizzo and all the rest. You might recall that Sandy was in love with Danny but they had a falling out, as they always do. She was moaning about that in this song here. She says that she’s hopelessly devoted to Danny, so much she doesn’t know what to do so she’s just going to stick it out to the end.

Devoted. What does that mean? It’s more than just a song from a popular movie or Broadway play but what does it mean to be devoted? We read in the scriptures that the earlier followers of Jesus were devoted. They were devoted to the apostles’ teachings. They were devoted to fellowship and to prayer and to the breaking of bread but what does it mean to be devoted?

If you dig into that word just a little bit more, devoted has several definitions. One says “to attend to constantly.” My favorite one is “persist obstinately.” The King James version translated it “to continue steadfastly.” The early church then persisted obstinately. They continued steadfastly. You might say they were hopelessly devoted, hopelessly devoted to Christ and His teachings.

This week, we begin a new series of messages following up on the resurrection of Jesus and His celebration that we had last week and how He redefined hope for us in this world and the next and now we, as His followers, want to be devoted to Him. But what does it mean to be a devoted follower of Jesus? We begin this week by defining what is it that we’re devoted to?

The first thing we’re devoted to is we’re devoted to Christ and His teachings. The first thing that’s recorded by the early church, it says, “They were devoted to the apostles’ teachings.” Well, what is it the apostles taught? I mean, obviously, all of scripture is open up for us and there are many, many things they taught but what is that one central message? What’s the foundation that was laid for them, that everything else was built upon? That central teaching? It was given to them by Jesus Himself. We read about it a moment ago in Luke 24. “The resurrected Jesus appears to His disciples.” and this is what He says, “Then He opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures and He told them, ‘This is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.’” So what is that central core message that we are devoted to? It is that the Son of God, Jesus, came and He lived among us. He died for us. He rose again and now repentance and forgiveness will be preached in His name.

We see the follow through with that, Acts 2, the very first Christian sermon ever given, the greatest sermon ever given as far as I’m concerned, by Peter. He concludes his message by saying these words, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.’” That central core message of the apostle, Peter, the risen Christ, repent, be baptized into His name, receive forgiveness of your sins.

We can go one step further with that and we look at the apostle, Paul. Paul was not one of the original twelve but Jesus Himself called him and appointed him to be an apostle but to an apostle to the non-Jews, to the Gentiles. This is what he said to the Church at Corinth, “For I resolve to know nothing while I was with you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” The central message that we’re devoted to. If we’re devoted to Christ, we’re devoted to the message that Jesus, the Son of God, He came, He lived, He died, He rose again and now repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name.

It’s the message that Jesus said was to be spoken of Him and He zeroed in on repentance and forgiveness of sins. He’s laying down the foundation for our faith. Repentance. That is, there is a recognition that we are sinful. It’s the recognition that we’ve gone against God. We can call it anything we want. We can call it mistakes. We can call it poor judgment. We can call it bad decisions. Scripture calls it sin. It’s disobedience to God. It’s going against His will and every one of us are in the same condition. There’s not one of us who can deny it. Who in this room hasn’t lied? Who hasn’t taken something that doesn’t belong to them? Who hasn’t cheated? Who hasn’t been angry or hated another individual? We can keep going down the list. I don’t think I need to convince you that you have sin in your life.

Repentance is a recognition of that, a calling to turn around, to have sorrow and regret from that. And it’s not so Jesus can inflict guilt on you. He does it with purpose. You can’t fully appreciate the forgiveness of Jesus unless you fully appreciate the condition you’re in.

I kind of thought of it this way: When the passengers got on the Titanic, do you think they paid much attention to the lifeboats? Probably didn’t give them any never mind because they never perceived that maybe the ship was going down. And yet, when the ship started to sink, how important did the lifeboats all of a sudden become to everyone who was on the Titanic? If they’d have known at the beginning that the ship was going down, they’d have paid attention to the lifeboats. Another interesting fact about that is in the Titanic, whether you were a first-class passenger or whether you were a cook down in the galley, it didn’t matter. If you didn’t get on the lifeboat, you weren’t going to be saved. So it is when Jesus called us to repentance. We’re all on the same boat, if you will. It doesn’t matter whether we come to church every single week, whether we say our prayers every night, whether we read the bible diligently or whether we’ve never set foot in here before, we’re all in the same condition. Scripture says that all of us have fallen short of the glory of God, that sin separates us from God. You see, God wants nothing to do with sin. He hates sin. He won’t be in the presence of sin. So if you want to be with God, you have to get rid of the sin. That’s the condition that Jesus calls us to in repentance, reminding us that we’re lost, that we’re going down with the ship unless we get on the lifeboat.

Then forgiveness is preached in His name. Scripture reveals to us that Jesus is the lifeboat. And it’s for all people, first-class passengers or cooks down in the galley. For those who believe in Jesus, there is forgiveness which is granted in His name because Jesus came and He lived and He died and He rose again. And it was through His death that He won forgiveness for us.

Scripture reveals to us an incredible fact. Jesus is the only human being who was perfect in every way. He never sinned. He never lied. He never cheated. He never hated anybody. He was never angry in an inappropriate way. Jesus was perfect in every way, sinless, and yet, this sinless Son of God takes on the punishment for all of our sin. Although He’s innocent, He’s declared guilty. Scripture puts it this way, in 2 Corinthians, it says, “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.” Think about that for a moment. Jesus who had no sin becomes sin. He doesn’t just take on sin but He becomes our sin. He takes our place and, by becoming our sin, then He takes on our punishment. That’s what Friday was about. That’s what the crucifixion is about, Jesus taking on our sin and the punishment for our sin. Why? So that His righteousness could become our righteousness. It’s the resurrection of Jesus that declares for us His victory over sin and His victory over death itself. If we are devoted followers, if we’re devoted to Christ, then we are devoted to this one central key foundational teaching: Jesus lived, He died and He rose again. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are preached in His name. We never take it for granted. We understand that we don’t deserve it, we can’t earn it. All we can do is receive it and accept the gift that God has given to us. If we’re devoted to Christ, we can never lose sight of that and everything that we do has to point back to that one central truth. It’s just that foundational. We’re devoted to Christ and His teachings.

But it also means we’re devoted to purpose. There is reason for the things we do. There is meaning behind everything we do and that meaning has to find itself in Christ and His message. Maybe the best way to explain this is to look at what the early church was not devoted to? Because there were a lot of things they were not devoted to that got them into all kinds of trouble, both with the Romans and with the Jewish community at the time, because there are many things they didn’t do that people didn’t understand and it made them look very, very strange. In the eyes of the Romans, the early church were atheists. They weren’t a religion because they didn’t have a religion. Why? They had no temple. They had no priest. They had no sacrifices. They had no rituals. How could they be a religion? They didn’t have all of the elements for them to go through. For the Jewish church, they didn’t understand them. Why? Because they didn’t have a temple, because they didn’t have a priest, because they didn’t have sacrifices, because they didn’t have rituals, because the early church had no meaningless acts. There was no going through the motions for the early church. Unfortunately, the Jewish church at that time was going through the motions on many, many things. They were just doing things out of obligations. There was no meaning. There was no significance behind what they did. And that’s what got the early church in trouble because they left it behind.

But if we’re going to be devoted, there has to be purpose and meaning in everything we do. Think of it this way: You can say you’re devoted to your children, devoted to your grandchildren but when you tuck them in at night, if you do that out of obligation, if you do that because you think you have to, so you trudge yourself upstairs and you go through the motions, that’s not being devoted to your children. That’s just going through the motions. Devoted to your children says that you tuck them in at night because you want to have that one final touch before they go to sleep, that one moment of affection, that one showing of your love and support for them as they drift off for the evening. There’s purpose behind it. There’s meaning in what you do.

That’s what it means to be devoted. You leave behind the meaningless acts, the things that happen by obligation. Listen to Paul’s advice to the Church of Colossi, “Therefore, do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day,” now listen, “These are a shadow of the things that were to come. The reality, however, is found in Christ.” He’s saying that all of the festivals of the Old Testament, all the sacrificial things of the Old Testament, it found its meaning in Christ. It pointed to Christ, that central core teaching of Jesus living, dying, rising, forgiveness in His name.

Now that Christ has come, it’s lost its meaning because He’s already here. And yet, the early church, the Jewish church at this time kept going through the motions but it didn’t mean anything for them. So Paul says to the Church at Colossi, “Don’t worry about that. Focus in on the things that have purpose, that have meaning.” We are dedicated and devoted to purpose. Certainly, since those early days, the church has developed lots of traditions. It’s developed lots of rituals but there is purpose behind it and there’s meaning behind it. And we should understand that purpose and that meaning.

If you came here this morning just so you wouldn’t feel guilty tomorrow that you missed church, it’s lost purpose. If prayers are mechanical and just recited, they’ve lost purpose. If when the sacrament is offered, you just simply mechanically go through the line because it’s that time of the service, it’s lost purpose. We’re dedicated to purpose and understanding the meaning behind what we do.

Every worship service, we have a time of confession and forgiveness. We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years, thousands of years. Why? What is the central teaching that Jesus gave to His apostles? “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in my name.” It’s not to inflict guilt upon people. It’s to remove guilt from people. It’s to remind them of that core teaching so that corporately, on a weekly basis, we’re reminded of what Jesus has done for us. There’s purpose behind it. There’s meaning behind it.

Every week, you have to listen to me. Why? Is it because I’ll get bored during the week and I need something to do? No, that’s not it. Because we want to learn from God’s word. We’re told that God’s word is a means of grace by which He feeds us, by the way He teaches us and nourishes our faith. There’s purpose behind it. There’s meaning.

Why do we bring our children to be baptized? Is it just merely a social occasion, a way of marking off a birth? No. It’s because of the promise behind it. It says when we’re baptized under Christ’s name, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of our sins. Do you see what I’m saying? We have to think about the things we do. It’s okay to have tradition. It’s great to have rituals if there is purpose and meaning behind it. There’s significance in everything we do and, as devoted followers of Jesus, we’re devoted to purpose, understanding why we do what we do.

And we’re devoted to intentionality. There’s intent with what we do. There’s effort that’s put into it. If you look at the early church, it says in the early church, every day they met in the temple courts. That didn’t happen by chance. Intentionality doesn’t mean that things happen by chance. They made a point. They made time and they set a time when they would join together. They didn’t just happen to run into each other where they joined together in the temple courts and they worshiped God. And then they made time and they set a time to come together and to share a meal. And to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It was intentional in their relationship with one another and their relationship with God.

If we’re to be devoted and devoted to intentionality, we will be intentional about fostering and developing our relationship with God, that it’s going to come up on the priority list, that we’re going to make time for God. It means that we’re going to make time and set a time to pray. It means that we’re going to make time and we’re going to set a time to study His word. We’re going to make time and we’re going to set a time to get together with fellow believers so we can grow together and we can be nourished by one another. If we’re going to be devoted, then we’re going to be intentional about it. We’re not going to just let it happen by chance. We’re going to make time and set a time because that’s what it means to be devoted.

Friends, last week, we were on a spiritual high because, once again, we highlighted the resurrection of Jesus. It changed all of history. For those of us who believe, it changes all of eternity. When Jesus rose from the grave, He redefined hope for us, hope in this world and hope in the next world. Now as followers of Jesus, we want to be devoted to Him. We want to be devoted followers. That means we’re devoted to Christ and His teaching which is foundational. But it means that there’s purpose. There’s significance in all that we do. And we’re going to be intentional in fostering and developing our relationship with Him, growing stronger and stronger through His means of grace. I suppose you might say we’re hopelessly devoted to Jesus. Amen.

Copyright 2010 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church