Easter 2

Easter 4 “WE MUST BE SAVED” 5/4 & 7/06

Do any of you remember “Four Incredible Words” I preached about on Easter?

(But God raised him). Four more incredible words leap from the verses of our First lesson this week, constituting my sermon title for this morning: “We Must Be Saved”.

These words say so much about our God, ourselves, and our human condition. We do not like to acknowledge that we are “by nature sinful and unclean, ” sinners at birth, what doctrinally we call Original Sin…that, by nature, without any coaxing, coaching, encouragement, or instruction, we want what we want when we want it! We do not like to be held accountable for our actions and we often consider the consequences of our actions “unfair”. Children of “all ages” throw a tantrum or two or three or four when we don’t get our way. Our scripture lessons describe our human condition in but four words: “We Must Be Saved”!

Our biblical writers make the assertion that we must be saved and quite plainly indicate through Whom we must be saved. In our reading from Acts, Peter is speaking before a jury of the wealthiest, most intellectual, most powerful people in the land. In fact, this court to which Peter is speaking is the same court that condemned Jesus to death only weeks earlier. Peter knew this, and yet, Peter, the Galilean fisherman, stands before them as their judge, rather than the accused.

Peter preaches that “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Peter not only preaches boldly about his resurrection-reinforced faith in Jesus Christ, he just as boldly announces to the Jewish leaders that there is no salvation to be gained through Judaism. Can you imagine the reaction within that court and courtroom?! Peter could not have been any clearer, to them or to us, than to say that “salvation is found in no one else” than Jesus Christ of Nazareth “whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.” (Acts 4: 10) This courage and conviction, this certainty and security, seems to have sadly waned over these subsequent centuries. Many Christians today appear apologetic about this clear and entirely inclusive statement of faith! In the religions of the world, I do not believe---as some attempt to convince---that “We are all worshiping the same God”! If the God a person worships is not the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ, then we are not worshiping the same God. And, if we are not worshiping the One who has given His only begotten Son to die for us, then we are not worshiping the One and only source of salvation! Even now, some of you may find this preaching uncomfortable. So be it! That is of secondary importance, at best. More importantly, ask yourself, “Is this message unbiblical? Is the sermon contrary to Holy Scripture?”

A WW II pilot, shot down over Germany, spent 9-months in a German prison camp. Returning to the States, he told a friend he had been instructed to use his parachute, but had never actually used one. When his plane was struck & burst into flames, he knew he had to jump. Waiting until his descending plane cleared the clouds, this pilot pulled the cord. His friend said to him, “How you could do it, never having done it before!” The pilot responded, “I could do it because I knew it was my only chance to be saved!”

This story suggests Peter’s conviction as he was surrounded and “being shot down” by his opposition and boldly preached of the resurrected Christ as the “only chance” by which to be saved! This is not a popular message and, by nature, we all want to be popular. Many are willing to compromise whatever it takes in order to gain this fleeting experience of popularity. Again, the question is not whether accepting the risen Christ as the only source of salvation is popular…Is it biblical? Is it expressed and consistently supported by Scripture? One, who reads and understands God’s inspired Word must answer: “YES!” Jesus and Satan had an ongoing argument about who was better on the computer. God finally creates a 2-hour test, including e-mails, spreadsheets, downloading, charts, graphs, internet, and much more. 50 minutes into the test, a huge lightning storm occurred, shutting off the electricity and Satan’s computer screen went blank. He screamed every obscenity, but Jesus only calmly sighed, waiting for the power to come back on. Satan screamed, “That’s not fair. I lost everything and Jesus didn’t!” God replied, “That’s because Jesus saves!”

This fact of our faith is the very core of our missionary message as the Church. It is what we are to express, not apologize for, to others. It is the only true message of hope. Denying it does not eliminate its authenticity! As we read in our Second Lesson: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16) And why did Jesus does this? Back to those four words: WE MUST BE SAVED!

Amen.