Richard Davenport
April 27, 2025 – Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 5:12-20
The life of the apostles is one with a lot of ups and downs. Certainly by the end, things looked pretty grim for almost all of them. John seems to be the only one to get the benefit of dying from old age. At this point in our first reading for the day, that’s not where we find them. True, they still deal with a lot of grief from the Jewish authorities. They get beaten up and thrown in prison from time to time, but they do so with the fresh confidence of the resurrection. They’ve seen the risen Lord. They know he has already triumphed. They have seen him ascend into heaven in preparation for the Last Day.
On Good Friday and Holy Saturday, they were all hiding in fear. It looked like they were on the losing team. Now, they realize, this was all part of the plan. There’s nothing to fear, and there never was. They aren’t really showing off, strutting around like they own the place, but they aren’t afraid either.
The rest of the world, however, seems to respond to them in different ways. By and large, things haven’t really changed since Jesus was around. Those who hate God and want to get rid of his messengers still do. Those who just want free goodies still do. Those who want to hear the Gospel and receive God’s grace still do.
Here we have an interesting scene where the church is growing by leaps and bounds. Pentecost kicked things off and the news has been really spreading ever since. People continue to be worried about their friends and family who are sick or infirm and in need of healing. Jesus dealt with this a lot during his time on earth and the apostle have carried on this work as well. It has earned them a lot of respect among the people. But the apostles are few and the needs of the people are many, so people have taken to bringing their sick to where the apostles tend to travel and they are healed by even this tenuous connection.
The priests, Sadducees, and I’m sure the Pharisees are all jealous of this. Again it’s no different than what Jesus dealt with. The apostles are getting all of the attention, all of the accolades. The people hold the apostles in high esteem. With the apostles running around doing all of this great stuff, who needs the rest of the religious establishment? We do have to remember that is isn’t that the apostles are trying to get rid of the priests and the rest, but what the apostles are teaching, which is nothing other than what Jesus had been teaching, goes against what the priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees have been saying and doing. They don’t want people to think righteousness can’t be earned, because that would mean none of them had earned it either. It would mean they were frauds, they were false prophets, and that there was no reason to listen to them anymore.
The priests and all of the rest don’t like that idea at all, so they also continue to do to the apostles what they did to Jesus. They try and get rid of them and, like Jesus, they are unsuccessful.
But let’s turn our attention to the modern day, to the church, to us. What is it you’re looking for out of your time here today? What are you looking for in your relationship with God? What do you want from him? Why spend all of this time here seeking him out?
Jesus was known for being quite the problem solver during his ministry. He dealt with a lot of issues and took care of a lot of people. He solved problems no one else could solve. Demon possessions, illnesses, permanent impairments, and even death were all things Jesus took care of. He even solved more mundane problems like the need for food or a little extra wine at a wedding. People flocked to him when he did, and it’s no wonder. Who wouldn’t want to stick around someone who could take care of all of those kinds of problems for you. Now, Jesus doesn’t spend a whole lot of time dealing with those really mundane issues. After all, anyone can help with food, but not everyone can restore sight to a blind man.
Still, since the apostles are carrying on with the same message Jesus proclaimed, it stood to reason that they would have the same priorities, and they do. The apostles go out and preach the Gospel. They tell the world that Christ has risen. They share the love of Christ by dealing with both physical and spiritual needs. They’re good guys to know. So people go to see them. People go to seek them out and get what they need from them. Even if all I get is their shadow, that still gets me what I need.
The text here doesn’t tell us a lot about the people coming out to the apostles here. We have no reason to believe they were anything but faithful Christians. But, we’ve also seen, not just in the Gospels, but throughout the Old Testament too, especially as we walk through the history of Israel, how God’s people can get caught up in searching for the wrong things. Does God provide me the physical things I need to live? Absolutely. As Luther explains the Apostles’ Creed, he says, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all I have. He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life.”
Of course God takes care of those things. If he didn’t, no one would. Of course God wants us to seek him out if we have those kinds of needs. He encourages us to bring our worldly concerns to him and to trust that he will take care of our physical needs. He wants us to trust him over our own strength or anything this world promises. Looking to God to provide is what we should do.
Like all good sinners, we are quite adept at taking something that is good and godly and twisting it into something that serves our more unsavory tendencies. Looking to God for our physical, earthly needs is a good thing. Thinking that all we need is to have our physical, earthly needs met, is quite different. This is the issue Jesus deals with directly when the crowds chase him down after he feeds them all free bread and fish. He doesn’t mind giving them food, but if that’s all they’re after, they’ve missed the entire point.
Our innate laziness drives to complain about all of the problems we face. We hear God deals with those kinds of things. We come to him to deal with them. When he does, we go back to business as usual, thinking everything’s fine now because we have no immediate crisis to face.
It’s a pretty common phenomenon. There’s some kind of disaster in a community, maybe a tornado tears everything up. Maybe someone went on a murder spree. Maybe some big business shuts down or moves. Suddenly there are people in church who haven’t been there in years. They might consider themselves Christian, but they’ve never made worship a fixture in their lives. But, this disaster makes them start to wonder about bigger things. Suddenly there’s a problem that they don’t know how to handle and they remember that God promises to help with these kinds of things. So they come to church for a week, maybe two, maybe a month. When they start to feel better, or when things settle down, they realize they got what they were after and don’t need the whole “church” thing anymore after all, and are never seen again, at least until the next disaster.
Now, you’re here in church. Maybe you think church is a little more important than that. If so, that’s a good thing too. But, that doesn’t stop any of us from thinking about God the same way. How often do you pray to God? What kinds of things do you pray for? Is he just someone you come to when there some earthly problem you can’t sort out on your own, or is he a God who takes care of every part of who you are, physical and spiritual?
We get mad when our lives are full of chaos and it feels like there’s no peace. We are wearied when life keeps beating us down day after day after day and there’s no joy to be found. We get despondent when it looks like there’s no hope, no future. But it shouldn’t surprise us that we have none of those things, because we don’t look for them. We don’t go to the source. We don’t go to our loving Father to promises not only to provide for us, but to care for us and love us, to keep the darkness at bay.
It’s one of those responsibilities of parenthood. It’s 2:30 in the morning and suddenly your kid is pounding on the door. Maybe it was monsters. Maybe it was someone getting hurt. Maybe it was a scary story. Whatever it was, now we have nightmares. As a parent, you see the distress. Your kids probably know, deep down, that the monsters aren’t really, that no one actually got hurt, and the story is just a story. But right now they aren’t thinking clearly. It’s your job to remind them. It’s a parents’ job to remind them that as long as mommy and daddy are here, they’re going to protect you and that whatever you were dreaming about is just a dream and can’t hurt you. All dreams can do is be scary. They have no power.
God promises to forgive. God promises to save. God promises to end the power of death and Satan. God promises to undo every evil that afflicts you. God’s promise extends beyond this life because his power extends beyond this life. An earthly father still has limits. Your Heavenly Father has none.
Come to him for food, clothing, and shelter, for he is happy to share these with you and give his children what they need. But, come to him also for all of the rest as well. You are not simply a body, but a body and soul, and your Father cares about both. Do not lose sight of the greater gifts he offers just because you believe your immediate needs are met. If you are weighed down by your sins, come to him and let him take the burden from you. If you are looking into the future and see only blackness, come to him and let him show you what awaits you. If you are confronted with the reality of death, come to him and let him show you how death isn’t any more dangerous than a scary dream. Come to him and find peace. Come to him and find joy. Come to him and find hope and every other good gift your Father is pleased to give you.