PBPC - Sunday Sermon Available
Sermon – "RSVP" – Acts 2:37-47
September 20, 2020
Chris Coon, PBPC
RSVP is an initialism derived from the French phrase Répondez s'il vous plaît, meaning "Please respond" to require confirmation of an invitation. We all see it on invitations, even if we don't necessarily remember exactly what it stands for. I watched an old episode of the tv show the Office recently; it was the one where two of the main characters, Jim and Pam, are getting married and the entire office staff head up to Niagara Falls for the wedding. Upon arrival at the swanky resort hotel where everyone is staying, the boss, Michael Scott comes to the hotel desk to check in and is told that his name is not on the list and the hotel is all booked up. He answers that he must be on the list, because a block of rooms has been reserved for the wedding party and guests. Asked if he "RSVP'ed," he admits that he did not and didn't realize that he needed to. The concept was lost on him, and he was out of luck. He spends much of the remainder of the episode trying to find someone who will let him stay in their room, to no avail; he ends up spending the night in the room with the vending machines and ice dispenser.
While I've never had to sleep next to the ice dispenser, I admit that I have blown off my share of RSVPs, sometimes with the result that I've missed out on special opportunities. This is because I didn't take the RSVP seriously, I didn't think that I really needed to respond. But sometimes our response is not just polite – it is essential. Our scripture passage today is all about the need for our response to the invitation of God.
Acts 2:37-47
37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" 38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." 40 And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation." 41 So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. 44 All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Continuing from last week, we remember that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the gathered group of disciples, about 120 of them, and they began to speak in different languages. There were multitudes of Jews in Jerusalem at that time who had come from all over the Mediterranean world to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, and a huge crowd gathered because people were hearing their native languages spoken by this group of disciples. Once a curious crowd had gathered, Peter stands up and preaches the gospel to them, telling them the story of Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and exaltation.
Now the crowd is convicted by Peter's words – they are "cut to the heart," the words have penetrated, struck a nerve, and they want to know, "what should we do?" This is a very important question, because it recognizes that the gospel requires a response. They can't just walk away saying "that's nice." Gospel means good news, and the message of good news is that the kingdom of God has come near and is now accessible to all people through Jesus Christ. God has made Jesus both Savior and King; through Jesus, God has done everything that needed to be done so that we could be saved – everything, that is, except force us to receive Jesus.
And that is what is needed, that we respond to God by receiving Jesus. This is what we might normally describe as "becoming a Christian." Unfortunately, becoming a Christian has become associated with a belief system, where if someone believes the right things, they are "in." This is because our approach to faith in the West is very knowledge-based – what you believe is the most important thing about you. But it is also because of a well-meaning emphasis that many Christians have on God's grace, which means there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation because it is the free gift of God. The result has been that many of us operate with the understanding that what we believe is what really matters, and what we do is secondary or even unnecessary.
But the New Testament actually gives us a very different picture of what it means to be saved, and the essence of it is all right here in this first Christian sermon. An active response to the invitation is required, and it has three parts.
1) Repent
The first thing that Peter tells the people to do is repent. Now we might associate repentance with judgmental preachers or wild-eyed, sign-carrying prophets outside the BART station. Or we might confuse repentance with penance, which means self-punishment to atone for sin. But while repentance does require an acknowledgment and even remorse for sin, it also includes the honest intent to change one's way. We can think of it as a 180-degree turn, where we recognize we are going in the wrong direction, we stop, and we turn and go in the right direction.
Now repentance might very well involve tears and pain; that is implied in the description of being cut to the heart. There is conviction of wrong, of the mess we have made of our lives, of the evil we have done and the pain that we have caused to other people and to God. Sin is very real, and the Bible is very clear that every one of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory. We cannot receive God's forgiveness, which God is eager to give to us, if we don't believe that we need it. In repentance we are admitting to ourselves and to God that we can't save ourselves, that we can never be good enough or worthy enough for God, and that apart from God we are lost. Left to our own efforts, the wages of sin is death.
It is important for us remember here that God's grace and forgiveness do not come to us based upon the quality of our repentance; in fact, they don't come to us because of our repentance at all. This is good, because we could never be truly sorry enough to be worthy of God's grace. Instead, it is much more appropriate to say that we can only be in a position to receive God's grace and forgiveness when we repent.
2) Be Baptized
Baptism (from the Greek baptisma) means immersion, and to baptize is to dip or plunge, usually into water. Baptism was in use before Jesus as one expression of Jewish ritual purification. John the Baptist and Jesus' disciples baptized people as an expression of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Baptism became the ritual of entrance into the Church.
Baptism is rich with symbolism. In addition to the washing away of sins, there is also the imagery of dying with Christ as one goes under the water and then rising with Christ as one emerges from the water. Baptism is not magic; we don't believe in holy water that has power inherently or from being blessed. But it's also not entirely accurate to say that baptism is merely symbolic. The Presbyterian Church considers baptism to be a sacrament (or sacred act, along with the Lord's Supper) because it was something that Jesus instructed his followers to do. In baptism, we understand that we are actively participating in what God is already doing for us.
Baptism is powerful because it is the response of the person to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. It involves a verbal and physical statement of belief, repentance, and commitment to Jesus Christ. It therefore becomes a statement of faith in Jesus Christ to God, to those gathered, and to oneself. It is the demarcation line between who we were and who we have become. The questions asked are typically three-fold: 1) Do you renounce the power of sin in your life? 2) Do you trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord? 3) Will you be his faithful disciple? In baptism we not only claim a new status in Jesus (we're now saved), but also a new way of life in this world (Jesus is our Lord or King.)
3) Enter the Church
Now it doesn't technically say this, but I think this expresses the gist of the text. And it doesn't mean the church building, or the official membership roll. The Greek word for church is ekklesia, and it literally means gathering. The church is the gathering of God's people, those who belong to Jesus Christ. In the words of the New Testament, we are baptized into Christ, which means we are also baptized into his body, which is composed of all the people who belong to him. We don't really have much choice in this – it's part of the deal of belonging to Christ: belonging to his people, belonging to one another.
The book of Acts goes on to paint a compelling picture of the shared life of the believers. Briefly, our text says that they devoted themselves (together) to four things: 1) to the Apostle's teachings – they had the blessing of the apostles in their midst, Jesus' original group of disciples; we have their written teachings, which we can learn together. 2) the fellowship – we can think of this as the sharing of life's journey together (think Fellowship of the Ring, by Tolkien); the passage goes on to describe how the believers shared their possessions with each, giving to one another as there was need. 3) breaking of the bread – this refers to sharing meals together, which had great significance in Jewish life as a way of demonstrating acceptance and solidarity; but it also certainly refers to the continuing observance of the Lord's supper and remembering our salvation in Christ together. And 4) prayer – prayer is the nervous system of the body of Christ, the continuing connection and communication with God that is vital to the life of every believer and their lives together.
The New Testament doesn't really have anything to say about church buildings, worship services, church staff, budgets, or the other things that tend to take up so much of our energy. The church is the gathering together of God's people in Jesus Christ, and an indispensable part of our response to the gospel is our participation in the life of the Body of Christ, his church.
Conclusion
The gospel message is that God has overcome the power of sin and death through Jesus Christ. The good news is that there is a new and eternal life available to us in Christ. But this message of good news requires more from us than our intellectual assent or interest. The gospel is an invitation that requires a response on our part. Like the father waiting for the prodigal son to return home, God is waiting for us with open arms, eagerly desiring to welcome us. But you and I must respond to the invitation.
Our response to the invitation of God in Jesus Christ is three-fold: we enter into new life in Christ through repentance, through baptism, and through actively following Jesus in the body of Christ, the church. Of course, the life of a Christ-follower is one of continuous response to God's grace and the movement of the Holy Spirit. But here today, we focus on the initial invitation to respond to God's call. Have you responded to the invitation?