23 April 2023 - Third Sunday of Easter, Year A

Theme

This week’s readings explain how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah and how followers of Jesus should respond to the Good News of salvation that God offers through Christ. In Acts, Peter explains how Christ-followers should repent, turn to God and be baptised in order to receive the Holy Spirit. The Psalmist offers their lives back to God for all that God has done for them. 1 Peter declares that Christ’s followers should love each other deeply because God has cleansed them of their sins. In Luke, Jesus explains how the Messiah had to suffer and die.

Scripture Readings

  • Acts 2:14a, 36-41 - Peter preaches that Jesus is the prophesied Lord and Messiah that the Jewish people had been expecting. Peter instructs the crowd to repent, turn to God and be baptised. Then they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 3000 people were baptised and added to the church that day.
  • Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19 - The Psalmist declares praise and thanks for all that God has done for them. They offer up their lives as an offering for God’s salvation and protection.
  • 1 Peter 1:17-23 - God has no favourites and will judge everyone according to what they have done. God paid a ransom of Jesus’ blood to save them from the empty life of their ancestors. Because God has cleansed you of your sins, you must now love each other deeply with all your heart. You have been born again into a new life that will last forever because of the Word of God.
  • Luke 24:13-35 - The resurrected Jesus appears to two of his followers walking to Emmaus, but they do not recognize him. They told him about the prophet of Nazareth who performed powerful miracles and who they had hoped was the Messiah, but who had been crucified three days earlier. They told him that a group of women had visited the tomb and claimed that he had risen. Jesus rebuked them by stating that the prophets said that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering into his glory. Jesus explained all the things in scripture concerning himself. They asked Jesus to stay the night with them. They ate together and when Jesus blessed the bread and broke it, their eyes were opened and they knew it was Jesus. As soon as they recognized him, he disappeared. They wondered about how their hearts burned as Jesus had talked to them and explained the scriptures to them on their way to Emmaus. They immediately returned to Jerusalem where the other disciples told them that the risen Jesus had met with Peter as well.

Personal Application

Do we believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah that was prophesied about and that the world was awaiting? If our answer to this question is yes, then what difference has this belief made in our daily lives?

If we believe that Jesus lived, died and rose again so that we too may experience new life and salvation, then our lives should look completely different than it did before we came to that belief.

If you compare your current life to your life before you came to know Christ, how has it changed? What does it mean to you personally to call Jesus Lord and Saviour of your life? How can you, like the Psalmist, offer your life back to God in thanks and praise for all God has done for you?

Communal Application

In his sermon in Acts, Peter offers three core principles of what disciples should do in order to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit: repent, turn to God and be baptised. All three of these things go hand in hand. Baptism is a sign of being cleansed from our past sins and being made new. This happens when we repent and turn to God. Although baptism is a once-off event of a believer, being born again is an ongoing process. Do we still value these three things in our churches today?

I sometimes think that our understanding of repentance today is too shallow. We seem to think of repentance as saying sorry for a particular wrongdoing and then promising to never do it again. But the Greek word for repentance, metanoia, actually means a complete change of direction from something. So not only does it mean not doing something, it means doing the complete opposite! Instead of promising to not hate our enemies, repentance means committing to love our enemies. Instead of promising not to ignore the poor, repentance means committing to care for the poor in whatever way we can.

Are our churches providing spaces for people to practice true repentance? Are we offering people a way to not only turn from their lives of sin but to reorient their lives towards God?

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