4-12-2026

“SUCH A FAITH AS THIS!”

Text: Acts 5:29-42

Sunday April 12, 2026 – Easter 2

Trinity – Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this Second Sunday of Easter is from Acts 5:29-42.

Let Us Pray: Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that trails, tribulation, and even martyrdom can prompt one of the Christian life’s greatest blessings: joy from standing up for the Gospel.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

   Our text tells the story of some of the earliest Christians after Christ’s resurrection and his numerous post-resurrection appearances. Their first instinct had been to hide behind locked doors in that Upper Room, but it didn’t take them and their followers long to leave their hiding places behind.

    For after a cloud took Jesus out of their sight at his ascension, they themselves were given the ability to do many wonders and signs, increasing their self-confidence in telling others what had taken place. As Peter said in the final summary sentence of his Pentecost sermon: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36).

Very soon, in our text today, such bold words would bring Peter and the other apostles arrest and beating. And, eventually, death. But knowing that Jesus had risen, they couldn’t let little things like that silence them. In fact,

Such Is the Power of Christ’s Resurrection
That Not Shrinking from Speaking His Name
Brings a Surprising Outcome.

Peter’s words, along with the disciples’ miraculous activity, not only caught the positive attention of many who were present that day but also caught the negative attention of the Jewish Council. Their response was to arrest Peter and John and hold them in custody until their appearance before the rulers and elders and scribes the next day.

Peter and John must have done some soul searching while being held in prison that night, somewhat along the lines of the first stanza of William Bathwurst’s longtime favorite hymn, “Oh, for a Faith that Will Not Shrink” (TLH 396):

Oh, for a faith that will not shrink

Tho’ pressed by many a foe;

That will not tremble on the brink

Of poverty or woe.

Peter’s response to the Jewish leaders the following day made clear that he and the other disciples were not intimidated. The leaders gathered the disciples together and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. When the disciples’ followers heard of this, they prayed for boldness for the disciples, for a faith much like that described in stanza 2 of the hymn:

   The enemies of Jesus, having heard enough, arrested the apostles and put them in a public prison. When the apostles were freed from prison by an angel of the Lord, they did not flee but continued to teach in the temple, resulting in another arrest and appearance before the council, which is where today’s sermon text begins, with their courageous response: “We must obey God rather than men.

The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him” (vv 29–32). Theirs was the faith described in the hymn’s third stanza:

A faith that shines more bright and clear

When tempests rage without;

That, when in danger, knows no fear,

In darkness feels no doubt.

Now, despite a speech by the well-respected Jewish teacher Gamaliel—and his advice that they cool down—the Jewish leaders could only turn down the heat a few degrees. They didn’t kill the disciples, but they gave them a public beating and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus before letting them go.

No good; in the temple and from house to house, the disciples did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. These are the same apostles St. Paul wrote of in his letter to the Christians at Corinth: “For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men” (1 Cor 4:9). As described in the hymn’s fourth stanza, these men had a faith

   It didn’t take long before the earthly lives of all but one of those early apostles ended in martyrdom. And during the two thousand years since, millions of Christians have joined them also in suffering and dying for the Gospel. And it continues today.

Some years ago, our Synod sponsored what was called the “Barnabas Program,” which had the Synod’s district presidents spending a month with LCMS missionaries and their families in Nigeria, West Africa, where the Synod had the largest number of missionary families.

The district presidents delivered encouragement and counsel to the missionary families. The missionaries, in turn, shared stories of Lutheran Christian children being kidnapped or run over by trucks at a picnic; of congregations’ lay leaders regularly disappearing, never to be heard from again; of Christian villages living in constant fear but also amazing courage as Islamic terrorists raided many of them.

Most striking were the burial services, which ended with the deceased’s congregation—led by its pastors, choirs, and ever-present drums—marching from village to village, singing favorite Christian hymns, fearlessly calling attention to and witnessing to their Christian faith.

Today, the martyrdom of Christians goes largely unreported. Some years ago, however, a video did surface that received widespread public attention. It featured a large group of shirtless dark-skinned men lined up in front of a large body of water.

They stood absolutely still, spaced a few feet apart, their hands tied behind their backs, their at-peace-but-determined faces looking forward and upward, and their skin glistening with sweat under the hot African sun.

Behind each man stood another man, head covered, fully clothed, a hint of scorn on his face, and each with a large machete in his hand. It was clear what was about to happen to these soon-to-be martyrs standing before them. The fifth stanza of the hymn speaks of their Christian faith:

   We rarely, if ever, think of suffering or even dying for our faith, although we, too, are regularly being tempted and challenged by the devil and his minions, who would gladly take our life, goods, fame, child, and wife and, most of all, our Christian faith.

Evil activity is always going on around us. Sometimes we even see and feel evidence of it in our own lives. But for us, at least for now, it’s rare that we or our loved ones find ourselves in serious physical danger—quite different from the early disciples or the Christians in Nigerian villages or those men lined up on the seashore.

We are tempted to remain quiet and mind our own business, even shying away from voicing our Christian convictions to others, often even within our own families, lest we give offense.

And when we do, not only are we missing opportunities to share the Gospel. The final two verses of our text remind us that we are missing out on something else that should be important to us personally.

After their beatings, the apostles’ behavior surprises us and possibly even surprised them—the last thing that they and also we might have expected.

They left the council not moaning and groaning because of physical pain they suffered; not angry, declaring that the forty lashes less one were the last straw; and not panicking, quietly taking their families and leaving Jerusalem.

Instead, quoting our text, “they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” of Jesus (v 41, emphasis added). And behind their rejoicing was the sense of accomplishment that belongs to everyone who gives witness to Jesus Christ, God’s Son and Savior.

A half-century or so ago, there was quite a lot of excitement in our Synod about a new evangelism program that involved congregations sending out teams to knock on people’s doors to ask them two blunt questions about their going to heaven. This went on for a while before it was decided that the method had its shortcomings.

But one thing was noticed. Many members of those teams who witnessed rejoiced, not necessarily because so many people’s hearts were changed but because they were counted worthy not only to share God’s Law and Gospel but also on some occasions even to receive rebuke or suffer dishonor for sharing the name of Jesus.

According to them, it just plain felt good to be speaking up and sharing the Gospel, often being able to remind people of their baptism, knowing that they were also sharing the power of the Holy Spirit to change their hearts and lives.

It may be that some of us, perhaps many of us, don’t think we have what it takes to step up and speak up for the Gospel. To be sure, not everyone can speak like an angel or preach like Paul. But everyone can tell of the love of Jesus and that he died for all, and can lead the little children to their Savior’s waiting arms (see LSB 826:2).

If and when you do, you will be surprised by how good it feels. That was how the disciples felt in our text. They rejoiced even in their suffering and thereafter couldn’t be shut up. We read that “every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching that the Christ is Jesus” (v 42).

Interestingly, the final verses of today’s Epistle add three important considerations to those final two verses of our text. First, the importance of enduring trials to test the genuineness of our faith (1 Pet 1:6–7).

Second, the satisfaction and joy that is experienced when one’s faith has been successfully “tested by fire” (1 Pet 1:7).

And, third, the “joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Pet 1:9) experienced by those who “love him” and “believe in him” (1 Pet 1:8) and witness to him. What remains is for us to pray the words of the final stanza of the hymn “Oh, for a Faith that Will Not Shrink”:

Lord, give us such a faith as this;

And then, whate’er may come,

We’ll taste e’en now the hallowed bliss

Of an eternal home. Amen.

Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.