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THE ORIGINAL PETER PRINCIPLES - "The Pentecost Principle" - July 10, 2016 - Pastor Loren Kramer, Former PSW District President

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St. Paul's Lutheran Church Orange, CA

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would you please pray with me Rachel Scott our loving Heavenly Father we give you thanks for the multitude of mercies that you shower upon us should every day we thank you for this holy house and for the opportunity to gather here in the freedom to worship in our land bless your people today Lord with open Hearts open ears and already hard to respond to the message of your holy spirit guide and direct them refresh and renew them and send them for to go into the world to be about the business of Disciples of Jesus Christ we ask all of this in the confidence that you hear and answer our prayers for your mercy amen  Sons and Daughters of Our Father in Heaven brothers and sisters in the family of our Lord Jesus Christ members and Friends of st. Paul's Lutheran Church here in Orange grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ amen stepping into the middle of another person sermon series is a little bit like being asked to write a middle chapter in a novel that I is a person has been writing you don't know exactly what went before you're not sure what he wants to have come after and that's kind of my challenge today your pastor is off to Milwaukee at tending our national Convention and I guess he's made plans for somebody to step in and be his representative but something happened call Concordia University where I work part-time and he asked whether somebody could feel in and preach today and I volunteer should I could find an old sermon somewhere and simply kind of renew it and share it today but he had other plans so he gave me the text on which I'm supposed preach that even was so kind as to give the title of the sermon and he said the rest of it is up to you and to the Holy Spirit and and so I prayed and I pray that what comes next will be blessed by the holy spirit so that you will be renewed and refreshed and sent back into the world to live out what it means to be a disciple of is Christ one of the things you want to do is talk about the purpose of Pentecost and the get out that I'd like to use a very simple analogy what does it take to produce an automobile in all of its beauty coming off the assembly line ready to go but it takes a lot of people planning there are the designers the concept kind of people who come up with the idea there then there are the engineers who try to make it all make some sense then there are The Machinist and the Craftsman who put together the parts and pieces and finally a goes to the assembly line and one day at rolls off ready the showroom beautiful to behold and yet one thing is missing it needs to be fueled up so that ignition can't place where are like all analogies that falls a little short of the purpose of Pentecost but I think we can make it work because somewhere in councils of Heaven father and son said the world needs God's help and my son I'm going to send you down into that broken world you're going to be conceived by the Holy Spirit born of the Virgin Mary and then when you grow up you're going to begin a Ministry Gathering disciples and they're going to live do for three years they're going to watch as you do marvelous things turning water into wine feeding multitude out in the wilderness giving sight to the blind play Then hearing to the deaf and raising the dead and then you're going to go into that tumultuous week we call Holy you're going to be in that upper room as he institutes the Lord's Supper you're going to watch as he's betrayed tried arrested crucified and then you're going to wait until momentous Sunday when he comes forth alive triumphantly from the tomb and spends 40 days with you once again recounting all of the things that he had taught you through those three years and then he says as he ascends go to the city and wait wait will the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon you and so we come to Pentecost and it with Sound and Fury and light and there's a sound of a great rushing wind and people from all over the world are rushing to find out what's the cause of that wind and when they get are there amazed to hear the disciple speaking to them in their own native language  and now the stage is set in the man called Peter steps to the front and he preaches a sermon so powerful that 3000 people were added the church on that one day wouldn't any preacher like to have that kind of sermon what do we know about man called Peter the things we know is that was not his given name his given name was Simon turn the world did the name Peter come from wealth answer to that we have to go to that moment when Jesus decides to give his disciples a test say it was a pop quiz and he said who do the people say that I am what's the scuttlebutt out there about me and they had heard what people were sing some say your Elijah some say your Jeremiah one of the prophets and then Jesus gets very personal and he says but who do you say that I am impetuous Peter like a little kid in class raising his head always wanting to hand always wanting to be the first want to answer a question Peter says you are the Christ the son of the Living God  good answer Peter play dancer and on that confession that rock that's what Peter means I am going to build my church and the Gates of Hell shall not Prevail against it what a man and yet there's another side to Peter that we have to look at sometimes he was hot and sometimes he was not sometimes he was bowled and other times he was cold he could be a man of great faith and yet succumb to his great Fears let me give you just a couple of examples there was that time when Jesus came walking on the water disciple sitting in the boat and Peter looks at that and said hey that's cool Lord can I come walking to you on the water in the Lord says Come Peter steps out of looks at the waves and it gets wet feet and begins to sink and he cries out Lord save me and of course the Lord does what's the most glaring example of his humanness takes place on that Thursday night Jesus had instituted the Lord's supper and then he warned his disciples what they were going to face and how all of them would forsake Him when the chips were down peterbald as usual said oh no Lord I would rather die then deny you  and we know how  that turned out Peter folded when the chips were down he proved himself to be all too human just like the rest of us main thing that Peter did was to make that bold profession you are the Christ the son of the Living God  which brings us basically  to what Pentecost is all about and it's not about Peter  it's about Jesus the Christ Peter is a messenger the message is about Jesus Peter makes that bowl confession you are the Christ the son of the living all of the scriptures and that's what Peter used on that first Pentecost day point to Jesus Luther once called the will the Cradle of Christ  I remember teaching an adult inquiry class long ago  there was a certain man who had taken the class for the third time it was already a devout Christian but he was inquisitive and  we were talking about the Bible and how it came and what purpose was and he held up his hand and said  pastor I'm surprised that you've gotten this far and you haven't said what you have you said at this point I looked at him I said what's that Gary he said you've always said in the Bible the main things are the things and the plane things are the main things and that is so true the Bible contains so much but the main message is the profession of Peter you are the Christ the son of the Living God dr. Karl Marx was a known Swiss Theologian of a generation or so ago and he was well known for writing waiting tunes on theology tomes on theology like Christian doctrine he was making a tour of the United States and visiting college and university campuses and and making his lecture and it was on one such a Asian after he had spoken that there was a time for questions and answers the student held up his hand and said dr. Barth of all of the things that learned in your study of the scriptures and theology what do you think  is the most important of them all doctor bar thought for a moment and then he's Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so that is the meanest plainest thing in all the Bible tuck that into the nooks and crannies of your heart and soul and mind and it's going to change your your life In Time and Forever  well now it's time to take all that lofty stuff and bring back down to Earth where we live in the church  it sometimes been said that the church is not a museum for Saints it is a hospital for Sinners we could certainly see that with Simon Peter and we can see it also about cells if you want to see proof of the fact that the human side of the church is made up of sinful human beings well then you could join your pass Milwaukee this weekend in the first couple of days of next week because you're going to see the church at the human level and there will be debates there will discussions are will be decisions there will be tension  I was asked whether I wanted to go to the convention this year and I demurred I said I going to 13 of those national conventions and I'm just glad to sit this one out some decisions will be play that we pray that they will be Godly decisions that will bless the church whether it be at the national level or the level of your congregation you have to realize that we are simultaneously saints and sinners sinners by our nature Saints made so by the grace of God and the Forgiveness of our sins how in the world does God get his work done with people like Peter and US Cut From the Same Cloth and the answer is that's what Pentecost is really all about  how does God take ordinary human beings like us and Empower us to do extra ordinary things  the answer is God uses tools to do that Martin Luther nailed pull a problem in his explanation to The Third Article of the Creed these marvelous words I believe that I cannot buy my own reason or strength believe Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him but the Holy Spirit has called me by the gospel he has enlighten me with his gifts he has Sanctified me Eve he calls gathers and lightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on Earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith uses tools and vessels we call them the means of Grace starts at that baptismal font when God puts his name and claim upon us and says the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit you are mine then he nurtures and feeds us through his word Jesus as if you continue in my word you will know the truth and the truth will you free that's why it's so important that you gather here on a regular basis to hear the word of God to put yourself at the feet of the Lord Jesus price to let him touch you and teach you and Empower you to be his child to be his disciple and then there's that marvelous call the sacrament of the altar Holy Communion  I don't know about you but sometimes  we take that too much for granted how special it really is  do you think that Jesus knew on that night when he was betrayed when he gave the supper to his disciples do you think he knew what they were going to do a few hours later  of course he did  aminos the same thing you and me he knows what we have done and what we have neglected to do  and yep to this table he says come I want you to take this personally this is for you  my child I love you give you you are mine and as you come today hear him saying to you  you are loved you are forgiven you are my child just as you are Without One Plea but that my blood was shed for you and the Lord wants us to come to him so that we can go  for you think for a moment about the world out there today every day we get some sad and Magic news of what people do to each other whether it be Dallas Orlando or London or Brussels Baghdad people do hurtful and hateful things to each other and God calls us not to feel but stand out to be by his grace made into a new kind of people in fact this is what Peter says about Christians about the church you're a royal priesthood a holy nation of peculiar people peculiar well yeah Peter was and I suspect all of us are in our own way but peculiar also means unique he has called you out of Darkness that you might show forth His Marvelous Light how does God get his work run in the Brokenness of that world he sent his son and today he uses his body the church to do the kind of things that he did when he was physically visibly present on Earth to reach out to help out question and concern  Peter says we ought always to be ready to give a reason for the hope that Dennis to anyone who asks we are called to have faith and hope and love not sinister not despair not hatred we are called to be a different kind of people and be ready to give reason for the hope that is in us to anyone who asks and my question is why would anyone ask  list C&S something unique and different God at work through his means equipping us empowering to be his people back to that analogy about the automobile  no the church has been compared filling station and I guess it is that but it's far more than that it's a full service garage this is where God wants to repair you renew you refresh you refuel you and then to send you out to be about his business peculiar people people God help us each and all  to do it in Jesus name amen

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THE ORIGINAL PETER PRINCIPLES - "The Pentecost Principle" - July 10, 2016 - Pastor Loren Kramer, Former PSW District President

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