Paul Burkhart

The First Sermon

TEXT: Acts 2.22-39

22
You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by
God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves
know 23 this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24 But God raised him up, having freed him from
death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 25 For David says concerning him,

I saw the Lord always before me,

for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;
26
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover my flesh will live in hope.
27
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One experience corruption.
28
You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.
29
Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was
buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with
an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Foreseeing this, David spoke of
the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,

He was not abandoned to Hades,

nor did his flesh experience corruption.
32
This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand
of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that
you both see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

The Lord said to my Lord,

Sit at my right hand,
35
until I make your enemies your footstool.
36
Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and
Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.
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.

Leader: This is the Word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God
SERMON OUTLINE
HILLBILLY ELEGY
(a) American Preaching
(b) Intuitions: Anxiety & Affirmation

PLAN OF THE FATHER

(a) Context: Pentecost & Spirit
(b) Point 1: The Plan is not thwarted
(c) Greatest Sin Ever: Raw Materials
(d) Guilt Invitation

PERSON OF THE SON

(a) Point 2: This Jesus is the One youve been waiting for all along
(b) Joy Ladin, Identity, & Story
(c) David & Trinity: Lord and Lord & OT Refs

PROMISE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

(a) The Promise: Gods Presence with us always
(b) Point 3: Though you have crucified him, the promise is for you
(c) Crazy thing? Not them, not us. But yes.

WHAT SHALL WE DO?: Repent & Be Baptized

(a) Baptism: A Political Act
(b) Infant Baptism
(c) Repent: Declare Allegiance & Act Accordingly
(d) Communion

CONCLUSION: The Merchant of Venice

So Liberti Church, though you have crucified Jesus, the promise is for you. Therefore, Repent,
and come to the table. AMEN.
SERMON
Intro: Hillbilly Elegy & Preaching
(a) Hillbilly Elegy
(b) Intuitions: Anxiety & Affirmation

In light of the rise and election of Donald Trump, there was one book written shortly before his
candidacy that people turned to explain the American the cultural moment in which we find
ourselves: J.D. Vances Hillbilly Elegy, his labor of love and lament towards the Blue Collar
Appalachian upbringing of his youth. In it, he speaks of the cultural and historical roots of much
of the dominant, white experience of America today. Its a work of great beauty and care, even
if it does have a few blind spots, especially when it comes to economics and race.

But, when talking about religion, I think he captures a lot of what we think of when we think of
typical American sermons. He says this:

In sermons, I heard more about] the war on Christmas than about any
particular character trait that a Christian should aspire to have... Morality
was defined by not participating in this or that particular social malady: the
"gay agenda", evolutionary theory, Clintonian liberalism, or extramarital
sex. Dads church required so little of me. It was easy to be a Christian. The
only affirmative teachings I remember drawing from church were that I
shouldnt cheat on my wife and that I shouldnt be afraid to preach the
gospel to others. So I planned a life of monogamy and tried to convert other
people, even my seventh-grade science teacher, who was Muslim.

J. D. Vance, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

I think a lot of us, especially here in America, have much this same impression of Christian
preaching today. For some of you, that ethos in preaching may be what pushed you away from
Christian Churches in the first place, or it explains why when this time in our service comes, you
experience a slight tension in your chests, worried about what we might say, affirm, or
condemn.

I myself grew up in the Bible Belt, in Dallas, Texas, as a Southern Baptist Evangelical. I grew up
experiencing hundredsif not thousandsof the best and worst of Christian preaching, in both
aesthetics and theology. And this was certainly my experience of sermons growing up.
However, there are still others in here who may want to affirm this image of preaching. They
expect Christian sermons to have this sort of content, edge, and fervor. Perhaps you sit in this
church, and get frustrated when we dont speak to the issues that seem most prescient in your
own minds and lives.

Today, were looking at the very first Christian sermon, delivered by Peter, one of Jesus
disciples. And, no matter where you are on that spectrum when approaching this idea of
sermons, I think Peter here shows us how many of our intuitions can be both unhelpful and also
speak to something true.

You know, its hard to preach a sermon on a sermon. And so, were going to go through three
points I see in Peters message, but were going to do it from a different angle. Today in the
Christian Church Calendar is Trinity Sunday, so were going to look at: The Plan of the Father,
The Person of the Son, and the Promise of the Holy Spirit.

The Plan of the Father

(a) Context: Pentecost & Spirit
(b) Point 1: The Plan is not thwarted
(c) Greatest Sin Ever: Raw Materials
(d) Guilt Invitation

God sees a world he wants to bring to completion, maturity, fullness, and wholeness. The Spirit
falls and Peter begins preaching to these people, on Pentecost, a holiday that drew Jews from
all over the known world. The Spirit falls, people act weird, people ask for explanation. He then
launches into this sermon.

Peters first point in this message: though they have crucified Jesus, Gods plan and work in
the world has not been thwarted. In fact, it had been furthered! Think about it: whats the
worst sin in history? Killing Jesus. Yet this does not thwart Gods intention to make all things
new.

The Bible gives us no easy answers between pre-destination and free will. On one hand, we
bear responsibility. On the other, nothing happens outside of Gods hand and foreknowledge.

In fact, this worst sin is the raw material out of which God is fashioning a new world.
God is not scared of sin. But rather he dives in.

Do you need to hear this? Your sin and the way youve been sinned against does not mess up
Gods plan for you but embraces it and refashions it into his Good plan.

And this is what a good sermon does. It reveals where people are broken, guilty, and falling
short, but at the same time, creates a space of invitation, namely because of the work of Jesus.
The Person of the Son
(a) Point 2: This Jesus is the One youve been waiting for all along
(b) Joy Ladin, Identity, & Story
(c) David & Trinity: Lord and Lord & OT Refs

The Messiah: the one Jews were waiting for to establish Gods rule and reign. And he would
look a lot like David. But Peter says, Davids dead! And he was talking about someone who
would taste death but not be abandoned to it. He must have been talking about one his
descendants.

And so, Peters second point: Jesus was the Messiah you were waiting for! And the way he
shows this is not simply asserting it, but by pressing into their own story.

To me the Torah wasn't just the tree of life, it was the tree of my life, rooting
my struggles in the 3,000 year old struggle of the Jewish people, leading me
along its terrifying branches towards the God who inexplicably had created me.
Joy Ladin, Yeshiva University professor and activist

This is the Jewish identity, and I would say, its ours. And this is what we try to do in our
sermons at Liberti. We preach and proclaim not be sheer assertion of divine authority and
power, but by trying to reach into our own stories to find our identity at the end of those
sprawling branches, and to see Jesus as the ultimate source of it.

And so if your skeptical, not a Christian, or a struggling Christina, we know youre all here! And
so we want to show how God meets us into those things in Jesus. Its pressing more deeply into
what we value that shows us that the only story that makes sense is the one in which God loves
us and comes among us in Jesus Christ. Jesus himself doesnt stay far off, but enters into the
human drama to change this.

Trinity Evidence

Skeptical that the early church believed Jesus was divine? Here and elsewhere in Acts, they
point to OT verses clearly talking about the Jewish God, and apply those same things to Jesus.
Further, you see the entire Trinity at work here, and Peter still seems to be talking about one
God.

Further, Jesus was raised not just from the dead, but in his Ascension, he returned to the Father
and they conspired and breathed out their Spirit to his believers to equip them for his work in
the world. And they do this by the promise of the Holy Spirit.
The Promise of the Spirit: Repentance & Allegiance
a. The Promise: Gods Presence with us always
b. Point 3: Though you have crucified him, the promise is for you
c. Crazy thing? Not them, not us. But yes.

The promise of the Spirit is that God is with us and in us. The Gods own life and breath is
woven in our hearts and is ours, even in the midst of the pain and struggle.

And so, Peters third point, and the main point if his and my sermonif you get nothing else
today, listen!is this: though you have crucified Jesus, this promise is still for you! Though
you have robbed the divine Son of his life, the divine life of God is still yours. Thats crazy.

This tension is at the heart of the Christian faith. The other crazy thing about this? These people
werent even likely there at Jesus death. The guilt he is talking about here goes way deeper
than one mere historical act. It is the sin, injustice, and brokenness that rules in all our hearts.
That darkness is why Jesus was crucified. And so, in a very real sense, Liberti Church, we can
also hear in this sermon: we have crucified and killed Jesus. You. Me.

And yet the promise is still ours.

What Do We DO? Repent & Be Baptized

(e) Baptism: A Political Act
(f) Infant Baptism
(g) Repent: Declare Allegiance & Act Accordingly
(h) Communion

Baptism was (and is) a political act. Declaring your allegiance not to a flag, an empire, or a
country, but to King Jesus. This citizenship knows no geographic or generational boundaries.

Infant baptism parallel: birth citizenship. If youre born on Christian soil, you belong to this
family. It is yours. Repentance is just acting in accordance to your knew allegiance.

If youre already a Christian? Your declaration of allegiance is Communion. Though we have

crucified him, God literally holds out his very life to us.

Conclusion: The Merchant of Venice

(a) Merchant of Venice
(b) Good news
Yes, its anti-semitic. But some beautiful moments. Shylock has a legal claim on someones life.
The resolution comes not from taking the law less seriously, but more so.

Mercy is an attribute to God himself;

And earthly power looks like God
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer teaches us all to render the deeds of mercy.
Portia, The Merchant of Venice, IV.1

Same with us. God has a claim on us. And he has not lessened his law or responsibility, but
taken Jesus more profoundly seriously than we could have ever imagined in Jesus. Even when
we have crucified and killed him, he is merciful.

So Liberti Church, though you have crucified this Jesus, the promise is for you. So repent,
and come to the table. AMEN.