Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you notice that when people get together
people tend to have different ideas on how things should be done?
Many times it’s difficult for just one person to take in all the details for solving community issues.
Abraham Lincoln knew this very well,
and he seemed to know how to work with people
and set a vision or a hope for the people to follow.
This President from the 1860’s had to deal with a divided nation.
Yes, the nation dealing with the issue of slavery
but the nation was also just struggling to get along.
The people would have different ideas in how tariffs, infrastructure development, and immigration structure should be handled.
Political parties would just disagree with whatever vision or idea their opposing party would suggest.
And people were having a difficult time figuring out whether some responsibilities should be handled by the state or the federal government.
After Abraham Lincoln became president
a civil war broke out.
…By the time it was finished,
about 700,000 US citizens had died.
When the war was finally over
he gave a public speech on April 11th, 1865.
He said that the nation
ought to be thankful that the war is now over,
and that each state will be gradually rebuilt
to follow the laws of the union.
I didn’t find this speech to be necessarily a memorable speech
but rather a quick response
for giving the next steps in rebuilding the nation.
Abraham didn’t have time to put together a more polished speech about the future
as just three days later
he was shot in Ford’s Theatre.
But I’d imagine his speech wouldn’t be much different from the Gettysburg address.
--the speech he gave on November 19th, 1863.
Being that this speech is just over 250 words
it wouldn’t be too much to share with you now
on this Memorial Day weekend.
The speech President Abraham Lincoln gave, said,
Four score and seven years ago
our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation,
conceived in Liberty,
and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war,
testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,
can long endure.
We are met on a great battle-field of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field,
as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives
that the nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense,
we can not dedicate
-- we can not consecrate
-- we can not hallow
-- this ground.
The brave men,
living and dead,
who struggled here,
have consecrated it,
far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note,
nor long remember what we say here,
but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather,
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have
thus far so nobly advanced.
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us
-- that from these honored dead
we take increased devotion to that cause
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --
that we here highly resolve
that these dead shall not have died in vain
-- that this nation,
under God,
shall have a new birth of freedom
-- and that government of the people,
by the people,
for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
Well,
eight score, or 160 years later since the Gettysburg Address,
the United States of America is still here.
But our nation is divided in a different sense.
Race still seems to still be a dividing issue.
And I’d argue people today have different ideas of what individual freedoms look like.
And people have different ideas in how those freedoms ought to be enforced.
But this Memorial Day weekend
we get to remember the people
who have died
to keep this experiment of a nation going
-- an experiment focused on the will of the people
over the will of the government.
In our lesson from the Book of Acts today,
there was a new order of leadership going on.
The 12 disciples of Jesus
were taking leadership
over the 12 tribes of Israel.
But this wasn’t the will of anyone in Jerusalem on this Pentecost morning
2000 years ago.
It was God’s will.
And God’s power and Word had just been poured into the city
for the people.
The disciples were just filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gave the disciples words to speak to the large crowd.
People from near and far and near places
who are now in Jerusalem
had just heard what Jesus had done
for each and every one of them
in their own native language.
While this Good News, the Gospel, is exciting for us
it was still a mystery to many in Jerusalem
if not frowned upon by some.
For there were some who had organized and demanded Jesus to be crucified
as they claimed him to be a false king of the Jews.
Though Jesus had only brought good and amazing things to the people
it didn’t fit the will of some in Jerusalem.
Many of them wanted a king who would overthrow the Roman Empire
not some miracle worker with noble teachings
making friends with the broken.
Now, this execution of Jesus
just happened just 52 days earlier from this Day of Pentecost.
But yet his resurrection happened just 50 days earlier.
And his ascension into Heaven
to sit at the right hand of the father
just happened 10 days ago.
A lot has happened over two months,
and now Peter is giving a sermon to the crowd.
What is he going to say to them?
Is he and the other disciples going to be persecuted next?
Peter gives them a sermon
to help the people make sense of everything going on
and more importantly
to put into their hearts
saving faith in Jesus Christ.
The part of the Peter’s message we hear today
talks about the triune God
who has revealed his three persons to the people
and the people ought not to miss the facts
that God has done all these amazing things for them.
Jesus had revealed himself to the public
with many miracles that left the people in awe.
But this Jesus who was just doing God’s plan
was crucified by the Jews--the crowd.
Now,
I wonder what the Jews were thinking when Peter gave this message.
Maybe there were some there that were shouting at Jesus, “Crucify Him”
early one Friday morning.
Maybe there were some who were still sleeping.
But in one way or another,
all Jews have rejected Jesus.
And even all people have rejected Jesus.
For we all have sinned
and fall short of God’s expectations.
We are like Isaiah who says that we are unclean in the midst of an unclean people.
But as our hearts have been led to repentance
God forgives us our sins
and makes us clean. (Isaiah 6)
Peter hopes that the crowd he is speaking to
will have a repentant heart from his sermon.
Now, even though
this innocent Jesus was crucified on the cross
and was placed in the tomb
one Passover Friday,
Death could not keep him in the grave.
Jesus was too good for death.
Peter quotes Psalm 16
to say that Jesus had fulfilled prophecy
--the prophecy given by King David
--a man the Jews had cherished since he took the throne.
But in Jesus’s death and resurrection
Jesus has brought life.
Jesus has brought life
for he has defeated sin, death and the devil
thus bringing peace to the people.
No other person could do that.
Not even King David, nor the Jews in the time of Jesus.
Not even Abraham Lincoln or any leader of our time.
It’s Jesus
who brings life
to those who believe in him
who allows God to put faith into their hearts.
And in doing so
they will receive full gladness
as our good and loving and gracious God
will be with them forever.
When God brings faith to the people
a rebirth happens
where the person is spiritually reborn,
where sin is forgiven
where the old corrupted sinful nature
is replaced with a new nature
--a transformed nature that lives for the Lord
that lives for God’s good and eternal kingdom (John 3)
a rebirth that is better for all people.
It’s not a forced action by God
but a gift
for all people.
Jesus,
a descendant of David,
has been revealed to the disciples of Jesus
to those who spoke in tongues
on one Pentecost Sunday
2000 years ago.
And as the Gospel was proclaimed in many languages
the crowd has been given a sample
of how the Triune God works.
God the Father
has sent his Son,
Jesus Christ,
to die on the cross
for the sins of the people.
And Jesus defeated death
by resurrecting from the grave
in full human flesh
and perfect mind.
And God has sent the Holy Spirit
to inform the people of who Jesus is
and put saving faith into their hearts.
Now Jesus
has ascended into heaven
and is sitting at the right hand of God
--the very same God who King David worshiped.
And God will come back
on Judgment Day
to take his believers with him,
and those who want nothing to do with him
God will punish them forever.
All of this information can be frightening and overwhelming,
and some people just dislike how God works
and wish there was another way he would operate.
But I hope that in the midst of God’s complexity and judgment
you’ll see his loving and merciful and dependable heart.
For millennia after millennia,
God is faithful to his promises.
He uses his complex and mysterious triune nature
to bring saving faith into our hearts.
Our human nature wants to reject and simplify God.
But how many people do you know
will love you
after you have rejected them
time and time again?
How many would help you live forever
and show you a good way of living
after you have misjudged and executed them?
But our God did this for us.
And I’d imagine many leaders in our own nation
have at one time or another
modeled this sacrificial love
in their own work
for the people.
But despite what nation a person is from
the Good News of Jesus Christ
is for all people
in all nations.
So as our loving Lord has revealed the good and saving news to us
and for us
let us find contentment
in knowing that this good and gracious triune God
has sent us a savior
Jesus Christ
to die for us
while we were sinners.
To the name of our triune God
we give all the glory
for our salvation.
Amen.
