Fifth Sunday of Easter
Easter • Sermon • Submitted
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Initial Notes: we are going to try to look at the seven week structure of the readings, and we can’t do it all in one week, it would be confusing, and it would overload the listeners. So last week we looked at the Gospel selections, now let’s look at the OT selections which are really selections from Acts.
Here in Year B, we have
Sermon to Cornelius (be saved)
Disciples have everything in common
God (name of Jesus) healed the paralytic
Peter’s defense before the Jewish Council
Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch
The Holy Spirit comes upon Cornelius’ household
Peter declares the need to replace Judas
Act 8.26-40
But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this: “As a sheep led to the slaughter or a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.” And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?”And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesarea.
This shows me at least the limits of interpreting the OT on its own terms. I think we should try and I think there is an easy not believism but easy turning the whole of the OT into pointing to Christ. While Christ is the central figure in the story and while generally speaking the OT points forward and from the perspective of now things point backward to the Cross, I don't know how you read this passage on the Ethiopian Eunuch and not see that the OT for the early apostles was not a new book to them, where the text comes alive and shows clearly the the promised deliverer had come and he was Jesus of Nazareth. Philip did what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus, he used OT scripture to tell the Good News.
Psa 22.25-31
From thee comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live for ever! All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. Yea, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and he who cannot keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, that he has wrought it.
There is so much in this psalm and so much of it connects to Jesus' passion, that I forget this last stanza or more, is thematically different from the first two thirds, which is Messianic. This is eschatological so it is not wrong but very right for us to read just this part, from 25-31. It has the "whole earth" flavor of Psa 67, the liturgical paying vows publicly of Psa 118 ("bind the cords to the altar") and the generational flavor of Psa 90.
1Jo 4.7-21
Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we know and believe the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and he who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also.
NET gives a different reading "everyone who loves has been fathered by God and knows God." We may have confidence on the day of judgment (17) and then in the next verse (18) we have perfect love driving out fear. So I take it that fear and day of judgment are connected. (LCMS is verses 1-21, with 1-11 another shorter option).
Joh 15.1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
Jesus is the true vine. Not that much new is here, when you put together Isa 5 and Psa 80, that's not to complain against Jesus. He is reteaching the concept or symbol of the vine. What he does say that is new is we are the branches, life comes from the main stem, which he is. Having good fruit comes from allowing ourselves to be pruned, let the Father come and do his work. That is the new angle here.