He Commanded Us To Preach
Sermon
Deformed, Disfigured, And Despised
First Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter Cycle C
Opposition to preaching the risen Christ and reaching the Gentiles emerged early in the ministry of the apostles. Peter and the others quickly found themselves on the front lines of defense against attacks regarding the cogency and credibility of the message they were preaching. Emboldened by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, many of the apostles gained renewed fortitude in proclaiming the message of Christ to Jewish and Gentile communities in the early days of the church.
Anytime the gospel is preached with authority and power invariably there will be those who line up in opposition to the message. These forces of blistering belligerence often question the authenticity of the message, if not the credentials and authority of the messengers. Peter reminded his audience that Christ "commanded us to preach!" In other words, there is no shirking and compromise with those powers and principalities that seek to neutralize the impetus of the message and efficacy of the messenger. Christ issued the command that the word should go forth with power and authority so as to make new disciples of all nations.
The problem in Peter's time were those enemies outside of the early faith community who aligned themselves in opposition to the message of the followers of the way. Today, much opposition comes from those within the faith community who have so distanced themselves from the word of God that it appears as foreign dogma when preached to sore and itching ears. They do not want to hear the truth. They simply want to be placated, appeased, and soothed. They never want their sin called out nor do they want to be afflicted out of their spiritual safe houses.
The problem today is both preachers who have compromised, sanitized, and dethorned the gospel in order to appease certain people within the church, as well as people in the church who don't want to hear the word of God preached with power and authority because of sin and self-complacency.
The truth of the matter is God help the preacher who does not preach and God help the church who does not want the pure, unadulterated gospel to be preached to the living and the dead!
There is a story of a young preacher who was asked to leave his pastorate by parishioners because his preaching was too "Bible oriented." His predecessor had preached out of newspapers, sailing manuals, and other instruction booklets, but seldom used the Bible as a text for preaching. When he began his ministry by teaching and preaching from the Bible, the people were appalled and outraged because he used texts that both comforted and afflicted them. They were not accustomed to sound biblical preaching and many of them rose up in protest. Can you imagine this sad picture of a church rebuking a young pastor because they do not want to hear preaching that is biblically based? The problem of such contempt for preaching is not uncommon in some churches and denominations.
There are numerous stories in Christendom of men and women called by God to use their gifts to preach God's word, who have been intimidated by parishioners to tone down the power and authority of their preaching. In the case of Peter, he is exhorting the truth about Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. His commission to his disciples is to preach and teach under the anointing of the Holy Ghost! But Peter reminds his hearers that God commanded us to preach!
Paul exhorts Timothy in his second letter, "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2-3a).
Paul also says in Romans 10:14-15, "How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"
Peter affirms a central task of the Christian church and its leaders to preserve and preach the gospel for all generations and times. In his time the challenge was to preach the Good News to the Jews and Gentiles. In our time we must preach the Good News to the Jews, the Gentiles, and those who are in the church. For being in the church, many have grown weary of hearing and are in need of a conversion or reconversion experience to Christ.
He commanded us to the gospel of peace. The Good News of peace is still needed in our time. In a world that is still torn by war, bloodshed, and strife, the message of peace and goodwill should go forth for all time. Nations are not only at war with each other, but children and youth are at war with their parents, the young are at war with the old, good is at war with evil. Poor and rich, black and white are engaged in an endless struggle for freedom, power, and autonomy. The world is one large P.O.W. camp.
There is a physical war being waged for people's lives. There is a spiritual war being waged for people's souls. Everywhere we look in society we see the awful specter of warfare. Young people carry guns to schools and murder their classmates in cold blood and then kill themselves. People have no shame today. Grown men go into churches and synagogues to kill the innocent children and youth. There is the war on poverty and the war on drugs. There is a cultural war being waged for the hearts and souls of the young people of this nation, where the music they listen to and the movies they watch desensitize them to the need for self-respect and respect for others. Everywhere we look we see the devastation and fallout of spiritual and physical warfare.
The resurgence of hate groups and the erosion of certain individual rights creates a seething cauldron of violence, trepidation, and hatred in our society. The gospel of peace needs to be preached more than ever today.
It is a gospel that respects all people and affirms all people regardless of sex, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, or race. It is a gospel that seeks to understand personal pain and the pain of others and accordingly seeks to reconcile differences. It is a gospel that seeks forgiveness and redemption for our brothers and sisters. We need the gospel of peace preached more than ever today in a world that is living by the sword and dying by the sword.
He commanded us to preach the gospel of truth. Why are people afraid of the truth? Is it because we punish and kill our truth tellers and reward our liars with accolades and praise? Why are people afraid to love one another as Christ has loved them? Why have so many of us been cast under the spell of untruthfulness and disdain or dislike for another because he or she is different?
One of the great tragedies of the modern church is the manner in which the gospel of truth has been compromised and neutralized by the messengers of Christ. People are afraid of the truth. They are afraid to look at themselves and see themselves truthfully. But Jesus says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."
Preachers are afraid to speak the truth to their own churches and society at large for fear of losing their jobs or status in their communities. Have we become so establishment-oriented that we cannot speak the truth and love in ways that will set the church free from its present sins? Truth tellers are called whistle blowers. Many of them have been ostracized and stigmatized by their own families and communities.
Some churches have become bastions and citadels of untruth. The power of the gospel has been liquidated by a prevailing atmosphere of lies and untruths that have become a part of church life and culture. Preachers are afraid to confront people creatively and lovingly for wrongdoing and are afraid to put themselves on trial for their own sins. Parishioners are afraid to confront preachers and other parishioners for fear of rejection and rebuke. What emerges, then, is a culture of lies, untruths, and deception that is promulgated under the guise of not wanting to hurt the other guy's feelings. But if we approach people in love and with the awareness that we are all sinners in need of God's amazing grace, why can't we speak the truth in and outside of the church in love? Ephesians 4:15 promotes "speaking the truth in love."
Do we fear to speak the truth because we are afraid of the wrath and pain that will fall on our heads for truth telling? Is it because we fear crucifixion and repudiation by our fellows and thus we avoid being messengers of truth altogether? In what ways do we compromise the mission and ministry of the church by not being truthful with ourselves and the people we are called to love and serve? Are we hiding in our churches from truth? Are we afraid to preach the gospel on Sundays because we fear the "ouch" more than we want the "amen"? The church could not be the church without those who were willing to tell the truth that we might be free from the bondage of sin and death. Christ has commanded us to preach gospel truth to set ourselves and the people free from the constraints that prevent them from having life fully.
He commanded us to preach the gospel of love. What the world needs today is unselfish, agape love. What the world needs today is caring and redemptive love. We hear the gospel of hate touted by hate groups. We hear the language of contempt and strife hurled at our fellows -- menacing words, excoriating words, words that maul and hurt, afflict and convict.
Love is still the most powerful force in the world. Love is a spiritual elixir; a divine diuretic that rids us of the excesses that prevent us from complete fellowship with our neighbors.
The gospel is a message of love for all people and not just some people. That gospel of love should be preached and taught with unwavering fire and unwaning enthusiasm. Christ commanded us to preach his gospel of love!
He commanded us to preach the gospel of repentance and forgiveness. We all need to repent of something and be forgiven of something. We all need to learn to forgive ourselves and forgive others of wrongdoing. Christ forgives us of our sins and we are to forgive others. But there should also be repentance, a turning away from sin and a turning towards remorse and conviction to make ourselves and others better.
We cannot therefore compromise the gospel of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, for he commanded us to preach. Our great commission may be found in Luke 4:18-19 as well as Matthew 28:19-20:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
We must preach that Christ died and that Christ was resurrected, which means that the old man in us must die so that the new man can be born again. We must therefore preach repentance and forgiveness. For it is a gospel of reconciliation. This reconciliation is extended to the poor and the oppressed, which proclaims and affirms the year of the Lord's favor.
We must preach repentance and forgiveness, a gospel of love and reconciliation. How much more worse off would the world be without a message of repentance, reconciliation, and redemption? How much more sorrow would we endure? How much more trouble could we take without hope of ever being reconciled to our enemies and detractors and those we have hurt through our sins of omission and commission? The gospel provides a way to harmonize and neutralize the chaos of our lives. It gives us a way of saying, "I am sorry," to our brothers and sisters. It helps us to start all over. We must never cease preaching the gospel of repentance and forgiveness, for we are all in great need of this great mercy of God.
Finally, we must preach a gospel of liberation and freedom. People should be set free from sin, the burdens of past wrongs and mistakes and the things other people have done to them, and the baggage of anger, remorse, betrayal, frustration, and confusion. People need to be set free from hopelessness, unrighteousness, non-forgiveness, and vengeance.
Christ came to set people free from all forms of bondage that keep them from actualizing potential and receiving salvation in order to live wholesome, productive, and spirit-filled lives. We have too much baggage, too much anger, too many painful memories of the past that dash our hope for the future. Too many things bind us and choke off the life of the spirit in us. We need to be set free from our sins of me-ism, racism, sexism, ageism, and other isms that bind and destroy our sense of community. Parents carry emotional, spiritual, and psychological baggage and pass that baggage on to their children who pass it on to their children. The spiral of iniquity spins out of control from generation to generation. People need to be set free from the various forms of psychological, emotional, spiritual, and social bondage that kill the spirit of God in them and cause them to turn against their brothers and sisters.
The addictions, afflictions, and pestilence that cause us to be in bondage need to be challenged. Preaching a gospel of liberation and freedom will set people free from the various hindrances and encumbrances that cause them to be spiritual exiles from God.
He commanded us to preach the word in season and out of season. Come hell or high water we must preach. The desire is like fire shut up in my bones. We must preach the word with power, authority, joy, and goodness as Peter and the apostles preached in the days of old. God give us the strength to preach the gospel unfettered and unfazed by the constraints and impediments that hinder the word from reaching present and future generations! God give us strength to preach the word with fire, compassion, joy, and praise. That God commanded us to preach a gospel of truth, love, reconciliation and forgiveness, and freedom and liberation is a task that we should forever cherish. God commanded us to preach! Let us do it in ways that will bring honor to the saints and glory to God always!
Anytime the gospel is preached with authority and power invariably there will be those who line up in opposition to the message. These forces of blistering belligerence often question the authenticity of the message, if not the credentials and authority of the messengers. Peter reminded his audience that Christ "commanded us to preach!" In other words, there is no shirking and compromise with those powers and principalities that seek to neutralize the impetus of the message and efficacy of the messenger. Christ issued the command that the word should go forth with power and authority so as to make new disciples of all nations.
The problem in Peter's time were those enemies outside of the early faith community who aligned themselves in opposition to the message of the followers of the way. Today, much opposition comes from those within the faith community who have so distanced themselves from the word of God that it appears as foreign dogma when preached to sore and itching ears. They do not want to hear the truth. They simply want to be placated, appeased, and soothed. They never want their sin called out nor do they want to be afflicted out of their spiritual safe houses.
The problem today is both preachers who have compromised, sanitized, and dethorned the gospel in order to appease certain people within the church, as well as people in the church who don't want to hear the word of God preached with power and authority because of sin and self-complacency.
The truth of the matter is God help the preacher who does not preach and God help the church who does not want the pure, unadulterated gospel to be preached to the living and the dead!
There is a story of a young preacher who was asked to leave his pastorate by parishioners because his preaching was too "Bible oriented." His predecessor had preached out of newspapers, sailing manuals, and other instruction booklets, but seldom used the Bible as a text for preaching. When he began his ministry by teaching and preaching from the Bible, the people were appalled and outraged because he used texts that both comforted and afflicted them. They were not accustomed to sound biblical preaching and many of them rose up in protest. Can you imagine this sad picture of a church rebuking a young pastor because they do not want to hear preaching that is biblically based? The problem of such contempt for preaching is not uncommon in some churches and denominations.
There are numerous stories in Christendom of men and women called by God to use their gifts to preach God's word, who have been intimidated by parishioners to tone down the power and authority of their preaching. In the case of Peter, he is exhorting the truth about Christ crucified and Christ resurrected. His commission to his disciples is to preach and teach under the anointing of the Holy Ghost! But Peter reminds his hearers that God commanded us to preach!
Paul exhorts Timothy in his second letter, "Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2-3a).
Paul also says in Romans 10:14-15, "How, then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"
Peter affirms a central task of the Christian church and its leaders to preserve and preach the gospel for all generations and times. In his time the challenge was to preach the Good News to the Jews and Gentiles. In our time we must preach the Good News to the Jews, the Gentiles, and those who are in the church. For being in the church, many have grown weary of hearing and are in need of a conversion or reconversion experience to Christ.
He commanded us to the gospel of peace. The Good News of peace is still needed in our time. In a world that is still torn by war, bloodshed, and strife, the message of peace and goodwill should go forth for all time. Nations are not only at war with each other, but children and youth are at war with their parents, the young are at war with the old, good is at war with evil. Poor and rich, black and white are engaged in an endless struggle for freedom, power, and autonomy. The world is one large P.O.W. camp.
There is a physical war being waged for people's lives. There is a spiritual war being waged for people's souls. Everywhere we look in society we see the awful specter of warfare. Young people carry guns to schools and murder their classmates in cold blood and then kill themselves. People have no shame today. Grown men go into churches and synagogues to kill the innocent children and youth. There is the war on poverty and the war on drugs. There is a cultural war being waged for the hearts and souls of the young people of this nation, where the music they listen to and the movies they watch desensitize them to the need for self-respect and respect for others. Everywhere we look we see the devastation and fallout of spiritual and physical warfare.
The resurgence of hate groups and the erosion of certain individual rights creates a seething cauldron of violence, trepidation, and hatred in our society. The gospel of peace needs to be preached more than ever today.
It is a gospel that respects all people and affirms all people regardless of sex, sexual orientation, age, ethnicity, or race. It is a gospel that seeks to understand personal pain and the pain of others and accordingly seeks to reconcile differences. It is a gospel that seeks forgiveness and redemption for our brothers and sisters. We need the gospel of peace preached more than ever today in a world that is living by the sword and dying by the sword.
He commanded us to preach the gospel of truth. Why are people afraid of the truth? Is it because we punish and kill our truth tellers and reward our liars with accolades and praise? Why are people afraid to love one another as Christ has loved them? Why have so many of us been cast under the spell of untruthfulness and disdain or dislike for another because he or she is different?
One of the great tragedies of the modern church is the manner in which the gospel of truth has been compromised and neutralized by the messengers of Christ. People are afraid of the truth. They are afraid to look at themselves and see themselves truthfully. But Jesus says, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."
Preachers are afraid to speak the truth to their own churches and society at large for fear of losing their jobs or status in their communities. Have we become so establishment-oriented that we cannot speak the truth and love in ways that will set the church free from its present sins? Truth tellers are called whistle blowers. Many of them have been ostracized and stigmatized by their own families and communities.
Some churches have become bastions and citadels of untruth. The power of the gospel has been liquidated by a prevailing atmosphere of lies and untruths that have become a part of church life and culture. Preachers are afraid to confront people creatively and lovingly for wrongdoing and are afraid to put themselves on trial for their own sins. Parishioners are afraid to confront preachers and other parishioners for fear of rejection and rebuke. What emerges, then, is a culture of lies, untruths, and deception that is promulgated under the guise of not wanting to hurt the other guy's feelings. But if we approach people in love and with the awareness that we are all sinners in need of God's amazing grace, why can't we speak the truth in and outside of the church in love? Ephesians 4:15 promotes "speaking the truth in love."
Do we fear to speak the truth because we are afraid of the wrath and pain that will fall on our heads for truth telling? Is it because we fear crucifixion and repudiation by our fellows and thus we avoid being messengers of truth altogether? In what ways do we compromise the mission and ministry of the church by not being truthful with ourselves and the people we are called to love and serve? Are we hiding in our churches from truth? Are we afraid to preach the gospel on Sundays because we fear the "ouch" more than we want the "amen"? The church could not be the church without those who were willing to tell the truth that we might be free from the bondage of sin and death. Christ has commanded us to preach gospel truth to set ourselves and the people free from the constraints that prevent them from having life fully.
He commanded us to preach the gospel of love. What the world needs today is unselfish, agape love. What the world needs today is caring and redemptive love. We hear the gospel of hate touted by hate groups. We hear the language of contempt and strife hurled at our fellows -- menacing words, excoriating words, words that maul and hurt, afflict and convict.
Love is still the most powerful force in the world. Love is a spiritual elixir; a divine diuretic that rids us of the excesses that prevent us from complete fellowship with our neighbors.
The gospel is a message of love for all people and not just some people. That gospel of love should be preached and taught with unwavering fire and unwaning enthusiasm. Christ commanded us to preach his gospel of love!
He commanded us to preach the gospel of repentance and forgiveness. We all need to repent of something and be forgiven of something. We all need to learn to forgive ourselves and forgive others of wrongdoing. Christ forgives us of our sins and we are to forgive others. But there should also be repentance, a turning away from sin and a turning towards remorse and conviction to make ourselves and others better.
We cannot therefore compromise the gospel of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, for he commanded us to preach. Our great commission may be found in Luke 4:18-19 as well as Matthew 28:19-20:
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
We must preach that Christ died and that Christ was resurrected, which means that the old man in us must die so that the new man can be born again. We must therefore preach repentance and forgiveness. For it is a gospel of reconciliation. This reconciliation is extended to the poor and the oppressed, which proclaims and affirms the year of the Lord's favor.
We must preach repentance and forgiveness, a gospel of love and reconciliation. How much more worse off would the world be without a message of repentance, reconciliation, and redemption? How much more sorrow would we endure? How much more trouble could we take without hope of ever being reconciled to our enemies and detractors and those we have hurt through our sins of omission and commission? The gospel provides a way to harmonize and neutralize the chaos of our lives. It gives us a way of saying, "I am sorry," to our brothers and sisters. It helps us to start all over. We must never cease preaching the gospel of repentance and forgiveness, for we are all in great need of this great mercy of God.
Finally, we must preach a gospel of liberation and freedom. People should be set free from sin, the burdens of past wrongs and mistakes and the things other people have done to them, and the baggage of anger, remorse, betrayal, frustration, and confusion. People need to be set free from hopelessness, unrighteousness, non-forgiveness, and vengeance.
Christ came to set people free from all forms of bondage that keep them from actualizing potential and receiving salvation in order to live wholesome, productive, and spirit-filled lives. We have too much baggage, too much anger, too many painful memories of the past that dash our hope for the future. Too many things bind us and choke off the life of the spirit in us. We need to be set free from our sins of me-ism, racism, sexism, ageism, and other isms that bind and destroy our sense of community. Parents carry emotional, spiritual, and psychological baggage and pass that baggage on to their children who pass it on to their children. The spiral of iniquity spins out of control from generation to generation. People need to be set free from the various forms of psychological, emotional, spiritual, and social bondage that kill the spirit of God in them and cause them to turn against their brothers and sisters.
The addictions, afflictions, and pestilence that cause us to be in bondage need to be challenged. Preaching a gospel of liberation and freedom will set people free from the various hindrances and encumbrances that cause them to be spiritual exiles from God.
He commanded us to preach the word in season and out of season. Come hell or high water we must preach. The desire is like fire shut up in my bones. We must preach the word with power, authority, joy, and goodness as Peter and the apostles preached in the days of old. God give us the strength to preach the gospel unfettered and unfazed by the constraints and impediments that hinder the word from reaching present and future generations! God give us strength to preach the word with fire, compassion, joy, and praise. That God commanded us to preach a gospel of truth, love, reconciliation and forgiveness, and freedom and liberation is a task that we should forever cherish. God commanded us to preach! Let us do it in ways that will bring honor to the saints and glory to God always!
