Pastor T.C. Arnold
Pentecost (Confirmation) Sunday
Acts 2:42
May 31^st, 2009

They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.           

What I just read appears in Acts chapter 2:42.  The reason why we gather here today as God’s people, on the Lord’s Day, on Pentecost, or any other day is because we celebrate with purpose and devotion.  There is a purpose for being here today.  We didn’t just arrive and happen to run into a Church Service going on at the corner of 9 Highway and 72^nd street.  And besides celebrating with purpose, we celebrate with devotion, not unlike the first Christians.  It says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”  As a result of the first Pentecost – the Book of Acts tells us that three thousand were added through Baptism to the number of believers.  These believers devoted themselves to a particular teaching, to a fellowship, to the Lord’s Supper and to prayer. 

            But I think one of the things we have to note right here is what this word “devotion” really means in the New Testament.  You see, it’s more than just the kind of “devotion” that we think about today – staying with it, keeping at it, staying committed.  Class, that’s what you have heard from me and your parents these past 35 weeks.  That’s important.  And the New Testament understanding of devotion does include those things.  However, there is more.  New Testament devotion is even stronger in language and activity.  This word here in Acts chapter two means specifically, “to adhere with strength.”  With strength we are devoted.  With strength given by our Lord through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives keeping us steadfast, “adhered with strength” to the apostolic, true teaching of the Church.

            The strength that we are talking about is the strength granted by our Lord – to adhere to the teaching of the apostles and to adhere to the fellowship we have in our Lord and with each other as people with a common faith.  To adhere as people who break bread in the Lord’s Supper together and people who also pray together to the very same Lord who comforts us with His saving message and power.  We are people who are “adhered” together by God to these truths and we rely on these truths because they come from God.

            “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teachings.”  Whose teaching?  The teaching of the apostles.  It’s not my teaching that comes from what I believe and wish to get you to believe because I personally just happen to have a belief system that is much superior to anyone else’s belief system.  It’s not your teaching either.  Just like my teaching, if it does not “adhere” us to the Word given by God in the Holy Scriptures, then it is false.  It’s not our teaching it’s the teaching of the apostles which is the teaching of Christ – the teaching of the Bible.

            You see, this is a problem in our world today.  For our world, it’s not the teaching of the Bible.  It’s the teaching of “whatever feels right.”  It’s the teaching of whatever it is we personally think should be true – for us – not for anyone else – which makes it right.  You see, we live in a world today that says truth really doesn’t exist.  There is no one particular teaching.  Truth for the world is relative to whatever you think it should be for you.  It doesn’t matter that the Bible condemns it.  If it feels right then it can’t be wrong – we think.  We think it doesn’t matter what the Bible says about it.  If it at all compromises my thinking then I’m not following it.

            We are the same way when we approach the Law of the Lord.  There are times we fall short of keeping what our Lord commands us to keep.  And when we break the Law and selfishly put ourselves first then often times we run through our minds how we can justify what it is we did.  And then all of a sudden, we have talked ourselves into the belief that it’s not wrong.  And for some reason, we deserve it for ourselves.  And for some reason it doesn’t matter.

            But this was never the case for the early believers in the Church.  They didn’t have in mind, or a personal charge of changing things around for their own sake.  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread and to prayer.”  It wasn’t a part time thing for them.  It wasn’t an “every-once-in-a-while” participation for them.  They lived in it every day.  It wasn’t something they agreed on once and then went their separate ways afterwards.  No, they continued in strength and even as they were together it said, “They had everything in common.”  It was a commonalty of faith and life that they lived out every day.  It says in the text, “every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts.”  This was something that consumed their entire lives and they did everything by and through their faith according to the “teaching of the apostles.”

            So do we.  We teach today what the Church of that day teaches.  And we don’t waver from that.  We gather together as God’s people today to receive the bread and wine and body and blood for the life He promises.  We gather in fellowship and we gather in prayer.  We gather today like they did back then.  And that hasn’t changed.

            We gather to worship and we gather to have fun.  (I hope it wasn’t all pain and suffering for you confirmands at weekday school this year).  We have our fellowship activities that enable us to enjoy ourselves as Christians beyond the walls of this building.  We gather today in a contemporary setting and look forward to the times we can share together and help one another when we need help.  We gather, under the umbrella of the truth set forth by God’s Word, never compromising that, but taking it for ourselves in the year 2009.  It’s for us and has not changed.  It’s for us in our Sunday school and Bible classes.  It’s for us in the liturgy today.  It’s for us as we take that Word out there.  It’s for us and we do things together with it.  “It adheres in strength” as it strengthens us to survive this world that attempts to break us down every day.

            This is a special day for the Church.  Pentecost – a day we change the color on the altar to red as it marks our transition into another season of the Church Year.  This is the birthday of the Christian Church, a time when we rejoice that our Lord remains with us by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And also it’s confirmation.  He remains with us because His Word and Sacraments remain.  We live by them, and we live for them.  And most importantly, we live with them together.  That’s Pentecost.  Confirmed, guided, united, “adhered to”, it all belongs to what we have today.

            This is Pentecost.  It’s about God’s people gathered under the preaching and doctrine of the apostles in unity as God has sent His Son to die for us so that we might be reconciled to Him on the cross.  The sending of the Holy Spirit is God’s gift to show us that He remains connected to us and He promises to bring us back to Him in faith and forgiveness.  That’s more than a day we get confirmed or a day in the Church-year. That’s life.

            Life has purpose and life has devotion.  “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of the bread and to prayer.”  Devotion in life means having a special purpose.  The purpose includes your Jesus.  And that’s Jesus – right up there – right there on that altar for you.  That’s Him and this gathering together is for you.  That’s true purpose and devotion.  The purpose is to forgive you of all your sins.  The devotion is Jesus saying, “I am with you always to the very end of the age.”  That’s what our Jesus does for us – to gather us together today. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen.