Holy Joys Podcast
A discussion of theology and ministry practice, all for a holy, happy church. A ministry of holyjoys.org.
Holy Joys Podcast
Sermon Talk: The Peace of Easter and Four Marks of the Church at Pentecost
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Quotes from David Fry:
- If I am not in a series and I do not have a particular sermon that I want to preach, I always default to one of the lectionary readings for my Sunday preaching. I follow the Revised Common Lectionary.
- We live at peace because on the third day He rose from the dead and with the same body in which He suffered, He arose, and He ascended.
- Saints of God, we have peace because Jesus has overcome the world.
- What truth am I avoiding in order to give myself a false sense of peace? Isolating myself, stonewalling, avoiding someone—that's not peacemaking. That may just be flight.
- What am I willing to suffer for the sake of peace? We need a more robust theology of Christian suffering.
Quotes from Johnathan Arnold:
- The Spirit comes as the one who represents the risen Christ and fulfills Christ's promises to build the church and to be our comforter.
- The Spirit of the risen Christ creates the Church.
- The four marks of the church (one, holy, catholic, apostolic) are present at Pentecost.
- The Sunday sermon is not just a time to give people a nugget to get through to the next week. It is an opportunity to develop the church's theological thinking.
How can I connect this passage to major Christian doctrines? How can I connect this to the Old Testament as you did with Shalom?
SPEAKER_00We live at peace because on the third day he rose from the dead, and with the same body in which he suffered, he arose and he ascended.
SPEAKER_01You're listening to the Holy Joys Podcast, co-hosted by Jonathan Arnold and Dr. David Fry. Visit us at holyjoys.org and stay tuned for weekly discussions of theology and ministry practice, all for a holy, happy church.
SPEAKER_02All right, so we thought it would be uh fun to take a little time here to just talk about what we're preaching. We are already putting so much time into our sermons each week that uh hopefully we're more prepared for this than other conversations we might have. And so uh we'll take advantage of that and uh talk a little bit about uh our preaching. And we are still in the Easter season, so why don't you just start and tell us what are what did you preach either the Sunday or maybe you're planning to preach here? Um, and uh you know what would be some key points that you could share.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm continuing to focus on uh resurrection. And I actually prepared three sermons last week and I decided to hold off on the first two and I went with the third one. Um and uh so I preached from John 20, uh 19 through 31, uh, which is one of the readings from the lectionary uh for for that second Sunday of Easter, uh, which by the way is my default. So if I don't, if I'm not in a series, if I do not have a particular sermon that I'm wanting to preach coming up, I always default to the lectionary, uh one of the lectionary readings uh for that uh Sunday. And that's actually why I end up doing. Uh the main reason is because uh the other two sermons that I have been working on fit with some upcoming events, and so I wanted to hold off on those and preach something uh else uh this past Sunday. But I still wanted it to be you know Easter season. I still want it to be there. So John 20, 19 through 31, it is uh the appearance of Christ to the disciples. It's the story of Thomas. Um, I emphasized the the phrase, repeated phrase, peace be with you. Uh that's what I uh my theme was. There's so much in that passage. Um I I did highlight toward the end. I said, you know, here are some other items that would be different sermons from this passage. I don't have time to uh go into these, but just acknowledge I'm not skipping over them and I acknowledge that they're there. Um so peace be with you was the theme. Um I I could re-preach the whole thing to you right now, but I'm not going to because I do manuscript my I do manuscript my sermons. Uh, but you tell me what did you preach?
SPEAKER_02Well, let me just uh quick a couple quick questions. So, first of all, which lectionaries do you use primarily? Um, I'm sure there's a lot of preachers who hear that and are not even sure what you're talking about. So maybe explain that a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the one that I use is the one it's online through Vanderbilt. Uh it's the revised common lectionary. And uh, if you just Google lectionary Vanderbilt, it will come up. Um, but they yeah, that's the one I follow. I do have uh, you know, the Book of Common Prayer that I utilize as well. Uh but um that yeah, that's why I follow so you have an Old Testament reading, a New Testament reading, and a psalm uh for or something from the wisdom literature for each each day, actually.
SPEAKER_02And then um, so as far as peace be with you, okay. So we could preach a sermon on peace any time of the year, right? The peace of God in the Old Testament. What is it about the resurrection of Jesus that brings us peace in a new way?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I went back and talked about shalom, the the concept of shalom, both as a noun and as a verb, and uh brought it up to Christ, who promised peace before his death, and now is saying, peace be with you. So there's a present tense. Uh actually it's interesting, a couple of times uh prior to his death, he talked about you know peace that's coming, and now it's very much present tense, peace be with you, which is a sort of of greeting, but is also, I mean, is he repeats it three times, and so there's something uh really special about it in this passage that that John feels like you know, this is really important, get this, he is bringing peace, he has one peace. So the idea of shalom is to is completeness, wholeness, health. Uh to shalom something as a verb uh means to bring it to health, to bring it to completion. And that's the that's the sense in which now the resurrected Christ is saying, I have uh so I like how D.A. Carson puts it. He said, uh this passage, peace be with you, is the compliment to it is finished, spoken on the cross. It's the compliment to that. It is Christ coming and saying, uh uh salvation has has been fulfilled for you. You be at peace. You it is uh everything that has needed to come together has come together. And um and for a few days then for for 40 days he prepared his disciples and for his departure. So peace, peace be with you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So I I did something unusual. I started a series in Acts 2. And so what I'm doing is uh leading up to and through Pentecost Sunday, trying to bridge the resurrection of Jesus with the ministry of the Holy Spirit and show how the Spirit comes as the one who represents the risen Christ and fulfills his promises to build the church and to be the comforter and the helper. Um, so uh, you know, normally I would preach on Acts 2 or something related to it, you know, in conjunction with Pentecost Sunday. I'm just deciding to extend that this year. And um I'm especially emphasizing the corporate uh implications of Acts 2. So often we preach that in a very individualistic way. Um, you need to be baptized individually by the Holy Spirit, or you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Um, but even the famous passage, you know, where Paul says, uh be filled with the Holy Spirit, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. He goes on to say that he is this is plural here, and he's going on to say, you know, singing hymns and psalms to one another. Um and you see at Pentecost there that same dichotomy. Are they drunk? Well, no, they're filled with the Holy Spirit. Don't be under the control of alcohol or you know, another controlling influence, be under the control of the Holy Spirit. But my, yeah, so my sermon was that the spirit of the risen Christ, um in the sense of the spirit who proceeds from the risen Christ and is his representative, creates the church. And I talked about how the four marks of the church are seen in Acts 2. So one holy Catholic apostolic, and I just use that as my uh outline, so to speak. And um, the church is one as the new humanity. So we see that the Tower of Babel is being reversed here. At the Tower of Babel, they were as they were in shock because their languages were confused. At uh Pentecost, they're in shock because those who had confused languages can all hear in their own tongue. So God is remaking humanity, reversing the effects of the fall. God is interested in creating this church that is one. There's a lot of emphasis on the oneness. In fact, uh uh Yaroslav Pelican, is that how you pronounce his name? Uh yeah, Yaroslav. Yaroslav Pelican says that that even more than Catholicity, the oneness of the church is is emphasized here because we see that they're all in one accord, they're all in one place, and then um they're the Holy Spirit fills all of them, which I you know cited where Paul says you have all been baptized into one body because you've all been made to drink of the same spirit. So the flame over each head indicates that they're all drinking of the same spirit, which is making them one body. So as the first, the church is one as the new humanity, the Tower of Babel is reversed. Secondly, the church is holy as the new temple, the Shekinah glory descends. So at the first temple, God's glory descended in a visible way. When the temple was destroyed and rebuilt, the glory didn't descend visibly. But that's because a greater glory was coming. Christ, the new temple, who now builds up in him the church as the body of Christ, the new temple, the people filled with the Spirit. You know, do not know that you are the temple of God. We are the living stones, build on Christ the cornerstone, a dwelling place for God. So we are a holy place. And one of the things that I drew out here, and this is this is um somewhat of an NT right um uh insight, how this new temple that's created, we read then at the end of Acts chapter two, how they're sharing all things in common. They have all their possessions in common. Well, a few chapters later, we read a story of Ananias and Sapphira, who they sell their possessions, but instead of having all things in common, they withhold some of the proceeds and they're struck dead. Why are they struck dead? Well, because they're behaving in an unholy way in the new temple, just as the priests in the Old Testament were struck dead if they waltzed into the presence of God, you know, inappropriately. So in the new temple, there's still consequences for unholy living. So God takes holiness seriously in his church. Um the church is holy as the new temple, the Shekinah glory descends. The whole church is Catholic as God's new multi-ethnic family, which this is somewhat anticipatory. But this is, I think, and I think Pelican is right, oneness maybe gets priority. But I think Catholicity is also really strong here. Acts is strong to mention every nation under heaven is represented. And it has that whole like long list uh of Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontius, and Aegis, Fergie, and Pamphylia. It goes on and on and on. It's like, what's the deal? Like, why do you need to tell us all this? Well, the idea is that even though it's Jews gathered here, these Jews who are becoming Christians are gonna go out into all the world, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth, because God is bringing the Gentiles in. This the wall is being broken down, and now the gospel's gonna go out. So this is God creating a new multi-ethnic family. So the church is Catholic as the God's new multi-ethnic family. Uh, you know, the wall of partition is broken down, the nations are represented, and then finally it's apostolic. And again, I think this is very obvious. You know, chapter one, Peter has to replace, you know, Judas Iscariot so that the number of the twelve can be filled up. Peter steps out as the representative of the apostles. He preaches the apostolic gospel. The apostolic gospel is delivered to the saints. And we see here that that Jesus is fulfilling his promise on this rock I will build my church, both Peter and his profession as the church is formed. Um, and uh and and and clearly here we have apostolicity. So that was longer than your summary, sorry, but anyway, that was my outline.
SPEAKER_00I had yeah, I had actually several thoughts. Um well, one is you mentioned uh one holy Catholic Apostolic Church, which is the line from the Nicene Creed, that third stanza. And uh, you know, I have a daughter, we we recite the Nicene Creed uh not every day, but but almost. And um, so she has made it a habit that when people ask her, you know, what church you go to, she just she responds, the one holy Catholic in Apostolic Church, or what her is her association, not to mean that our church is the one holy Catholic, but uh so so that's just a bit of humor. But the other thing is that uh you know, there's still people who just really struggle over that word Catholic, and we just want to make sure that uh people understand that um we don't we don't mean Roman Catholic, but the word Catholic means universal, the the worldwide Church of God, uh Christians wherever they are. Uh so that's Catholicism.
SPEAKER_02And that's something that we Catalicos is like like the Greek word through the whole, like through the whole earth. So I I I talked to I talked to our church again about how this isn't Roman Catholic. In fact, they stole that word from us. That's our word. Anyway, sorry, good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's so important to understand. You know, we we are the Catholic Church. So it's funny uh because because people use that word uh shorthand, you know, the Catholic Church to mean the Roman Catholic Church. And no, no, we're we're the Catholic Church. Uh we're the we're the real Catholic Church here. Um, you know, by putting Roman on it, you automatically reduce it. You know, you don't expand it, you reduce it. So that's uh that's just an important point. But I'm sure you made all those points uh in your sermon. So I actually I ended my sermon. Let me go back to mine for a second as we wrap up the segment. Um I ended mine with three questions, and um concerning concerning uh peace. So so Christ says, you know, peace I I um peace be with you, as I was sent, so I send you, uh Jesus said. And so as in response, which I always like to have a planned you know response in um my preaching, uh so uh the response is an invitation to join Christ in his peacemaking mission, and but but really by asking ourselves three questions. One is uh what truth am I avoiding uh to in order to give myself a false sense of peace? So isolating myself, stonewalling, avoiding someone, that's not that's not peacemaking. That may be just flight. Uh so that's that was number one. What truth am I avoiding to give myself a false sense of peace? Second, who is it in my life that needs grace and truth from me for the sake of peace? And then third, this one's been on my mind. I hope we can do uh some uh more discussion, have another discussion on this. What am I willing to suffer for the sake of peace? And I I asked that question because I think we need to have a more robust theology of Christian suffering, and I hope to do some writing and preaching on that soon.
SPEAKER_02You know, one of the reasons I wanted to have this segment is and and maybe start doing this on a more regular basis, um is that uh I I hope that we can grow together, but also model and help others think, at least in this way, uh, about think approaching your your Sunday sermon not just as a time to either make immediate practical application um to give somebody a nugget to get through to the next week, or merely even, because I see this other, I think, error among some who are really strong in exegesis, really strong in what some call expositional preaching. Not just an opportunity to expound this individual text in its like narrow historical grammatical context, you know, and make some applications from that, but also as a time to develop our people's theological thinking. So, one of the things that I wanted to do in this sermon, like one of my goals that's in the back of my mind, you know, is to bridge that systematic, you know, category of like one holy apostolic Catholic Apostolic Church, a creedal, you know, uh affirmation, doctrinal creedal, you know, we'd address that in a class on systematics with these biblical theological themes, so that every time they recite that creed and they hear one holy Catholic Apostolic, they've got swirling around in their heads these biblical theology themes as well, new humanity, which I preach through Colossians, so they've heard that tons of times, you know, new humanity, new temple, you know, God's multi-ethnic family, and you know, Galatians and you know, other book and canonical uh connections and things. So trying to approach the text theologically, how can I connect this passage to major Christian doctrines? How can I connect this to the Old Testament, as you did with Shalom? It's a beautiful illustration of that. How can I expand people's categories? Um, you know, having I think having goals and those those those theological instincts when you come to the text, as you try to develop those and become intentional, they become more natural. But I think um some of those those instincts are I think unfortunately um maybe maybe not given enough value.
SPEAKER_00One of the things I really enjoyed about this sermon, and I try to do this uh whenever it fits, is to draw from confessions of faith. And I have a lot of scripture through my through my sermon notes here, but uh so for instance, here's here's a little section. Uh Saints of God, we have peace because Jesus has overcome the world. We have peace because, as our confession of faith says, on the third day he rose again from the dead. We have peace because the third day he rose again from the dead according to the scriptures, that is, as the prophets foretold. Christ did truly rise again from the dead. He took up again his body with flesh and bones and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature. That's why we can live at peace. We live at peace because on the third day he rose from the dead, and with the same body in which he suffered, he arose and he ascended. I mean, those are those are from various you know confessions and creeds that we um you know. I included the 39 articles, uh, Westminster, and of course, Nicene and uh Apostles Creed. I'd love to draw from that and bring it into how the creeds uh reflect on the text of scripture as well.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for listening to the Holy Joys Podcast. Email your questions to podcast at holyjoys.org, and they may be featured on a future episode. Our labors for a holy happy church are supported by generous listeners like you. Please pray about partnering with us at holyjoys.org forward slash donate.
