"God the Father and the Cross"

 

"Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you, even Jesus."

 

            Peter and John encounter a beggar who is paralyzed, and in the name of Jesus he is healed so that he goes off walking and leaping and praising God. The response of the people who are there is one of wonder and amazement. But there are a number of things that these people misunderstand. They misunderstand Peter and John; they misunderstand Jesus; and they misunderstand God the Father. This gives Peter an opportunity to explain to them the way of repentance and faith. He calls them to look up and see what God has done.

            First, the people misunderstand the role of Peter and John. They give them too much credit for what has happened. So Peter says, "Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man whole?" So often, when we see the work of God, we give credit to the efforts of leaders or to people who in fact are just servants of God. We set our sights too low. We need to "look up" and give glory to God.

            Eugene Peterson has written a book titled "Pastor," which is a reflection on his life in ministry. He talks about the pastors who served the congregation where he grew up in a small Montana town.

            "One of the memorable sermon texts on church, preached by every pastor I can remember, was from the Song of Songs: 'You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.' The church was the beautiful Tirzah and the fierce army with banners. Those metaphors were filled with glorious imagery by my pastors. For at least thirty to forty minutes, our shabby fixer-upper church with its rotting front porch was transformed into something almost as good as the Second Coming." But then he says that the pastors never stayed long enough to see such a transformation. At some point they gave up on the people or on themselves and the little church struggled on.

            Years later Peterson had the experience of planting a new church. He writes, "Most of us read the Bible as the story of God doing for us what he wills for us: the story of God among us, revealing himself to us, calling us, saving us. But the moment Jesus ascends into heaven as told in Acts, the story shifts to church. It is common at this point to let Jesus slip into the background and proceed to understand the story of church as what we are doing for God. Doing for Jesus to be sure, doing in the name of Jesus certainly. But we are in charge. We are now making the decisions. We have Jesus' commands; we have Jesus' example. But now it is up to us: we take responsibility for the church. Or we don't.

            "The American stereotype of church. Salvation is God's business. It is what God does. And then he turns it over to us. Church is our business. It is what  we do. God, having given himself to us in Jesus, now retires to the sidelines and we take over. Occasionally we call a time-out to consult with God. But basically, we are the action.

            "But that is not the way Acts tells the story."

            Acts says we set our sights too low. It says, "look up" to God the Father. The highest point in our sanctuary is the clerestory windows in the top of the tower. This speaks to us of the invisible God, the father of whom we sang today, "In light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes." In the unseen God we find life and power. We lift our eyes from ourselves to the cross to the Holy Spirit and to God the Father. 

            In his explanation of the healing of the lame beggar, Peter lifts his eyes and begins by talking about God who has glorified his servant Jesus. But just as the people misunderstood Peter and John, so they also misunderstood Jesus. They did not see him as "the Servant of God." So, Peter says, "You killed the author of life." There is, in his explanation, a strong insistence on the responsibility of those who crucified Jesus. He does talk about God's foreknowledge of the cross, but he puts his emphasis on human responsibility, a sin which must be acknowledged and confessed. God did not put his son to death. God did not call upon priests to sacrifice Jesus in a ritual action and as an act of obedience or faith. It was specific people acting in ignorance who killed Jesus, and Peter is clear that they are responsible for their deed. And many of them are standing before him.

            What, then, was God's part in the cross? First, Peter says, God raised Jesus from the dead. The response of the Father to the cross was not wrath or punishment, but it was to raise Jesus from the dead. Then he says that the resurrection and ascension of Jesus bestows authority upon Jesus. Jesus' name, or authority, gives power to heal a lame man.  

            At this point the focus in the text moves from the healed man to the audience, to those who had put Jesus to death. These are the ones who are truly paralyzed and helpless. The healing of the beggar in Jesus' name brings to awareness what it is that they have done. Their hidden sin is brought to light, the very sin they are avoiding. The response of God to the cross was to raise Jesus from the dead. So now Peter, because of the resurrection, is able to direct the people in what to do with the weight of their sin. He says they acted in ignorance, they did not recognize Jesus as the Christ because they did not understand the prophets.  

            The cross is God acting for our salvation; giving his Son, knowing ahead of time about his death, and actually using the cross to win victory over death, over sin and over the devil. The responsibility for the death of Jesus lies with people acting in ignorance. How does God respond to them? He responds not in judgment, but by offering a way to forgiveness and life. Peter then explains this way. It is to repent, to turn to God. Howard Marshall defines repentance as "The act of turning away from one's former way of life, especially the worship of idols, to a new way of life, based on faith and obedience to God."

            The result of repentance is that "Your sins will be wiped out." "Times of refreshing" will come, and "God will send the Messiah and restore everything." So God turns the worst that people can do into what Paul calls in Romans chapter 5, "a demonstration of his own love for us." God does not wait upon our godliness, our reformation, or our illumination. While we were still sinners, acting in ignorance, Christ died for us. The cross creates a path to relationship through repentance; by faith our sins are wiped out.

            People misunderstood God. They did not realize God's intent in creating a path of repentance and faith for those caught in sin. So they did not rely on the power of God, but tried to do God's will in their own godliness and strength.

            So often the church today tries to do too much in its own godliness and strength. Then, when we become aware of our limits, our failings, our lack of godliness, we become fearful, we pull back; we even look to the world for help.

            Peter calls us to "Look Up." We need to turn to God, and receive the forgiveness he offers, and experience times of refreshing as we witness his restoring work, and then act in His power by faith.

            Amen.