Peter's preaching on the...
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Peter's preaching on the first Pentecost was a testimony to the fact that though Jesus has returned to heaven we on earth are not alone. God always goes with us wherever we go. John Calvin made that point clearly: "If we will have God present with us, we must set him before our eyes; and that before he does appear; for the prospect of faith pierceth far further than unto the present experience. Therefore faith hath this property, to set God always before it as a guide in all dangers and confused matters" (Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. XVIII/2, p. 104).
With the resurrection of Jesus, he is everywhere. For those of us who did not actually observe his resurrection, it is no longer that we just know about him. We actually come to know him. It is like the great existentialist Soren Kierkegaard once noted: The only way one can be a follower of Jesus is to become contemporaneous with him, for there can be no disciples at second hand (Philosophical Fragments, pp. 125-126).
The awareness of being in Jesus' presence like this makes life a joy. Martin Luther nicely conveys these feelings and their consequences for launching us on a life of love: "The knowledge of and confidence in God's grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith... It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly" (Luther's Works, Vol. 35, pp. 371, 370).
The Reformer makes a similar point elsewhere about Christ's presence in our lives: "[Christ] does not come with a great voice, with storm and commotion, but very orderly; not changing nor breaking anything in the outward affairs of human life... Thus he does not derange and displace anything in man, neither his sense nor his reason; but he illuminates and changes for the better his heart and reason" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 1/2, p. 384).
With the resurrection of Jesus, he is everywhere. For those of us who did not actually observe his resurrection, it is no longer that we just know about him. We actually come to know him. It is like the great existentialist Soren Kierkegaard once noted: The only way one can be a follower of Jesus is to become contemporaneous with him, for there can be no disciples at second hand (Philosophical Fragments, pp. 125-126).
The awareness of being in Jesus' presence like this makes life a joy. Martin Luther nicely conveys these feelings and their consequences for launching us on a life of love: "The knowledge of and confidence in God's grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and with all creatures. And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith... It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly" (Luther's Works, Vol. 35, pp. 371, 370).
The Reformer makes a similar point elsewhere about Christ's presence in our lives: "[Christ] does not come with a great voice, with storm and commotion, but very orderly; not changing nor breaking anything in the outward affairs of human life... Thus he does not derange and displace anything in man, neither his sense nor his reason; but he illuminates and changes for the better his heart and reason" (Complete Sermons, Vol. 1/2, p. 384).
