Third Sunday of Easter
READINGS FOR THE COMING WEEK
- First reading
- Acts 3:12-19
- Psalm
- Psalm 4
- Second reading
- 1 John 3:1-7
- Gospel
- Luke 24:36b-48
Gospel reading from Luke
While the disciples were talking, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you. “They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
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He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you–that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”
Sermon
Pastor Stevenson once taught a course on the speeches to be found in the Bible. He himself is now taking a course on Greek language grammar. In Greek, he tells us, there is no concept of quotation marks in text, making the study of speeches a bit difficult. The book of Acts is a good source of speeches. Martin Luther referred to them in his writings. There have not been been many speech writers since Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg address. This speech contains much in not many words. The disciple Peter wrote that God gave his Son, but Jesus gave his life. His people acted in ignorance. His killing was the worst crime in history. So then God raised Jesus from the dead, so that those who repent may have eternal life.