Delivered!

Holy Trinity Sunday – A                                                            LSB #’s 370, 438, 555:1-2, 5-6, 10
Text – Acts 2:23
 
This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan & foreknowledge of God…
 
DELIVERED!
 
 
In our world of online shopping,  we can buy things   without leaving the comfort of our home.   When the product is dropped off,  you don’t even  have to be there to receive it.   You’ll know it has arrived  when you get the message “Delivered!”   The postal service,  UPS,  FedEx  & Amazon,  they’re all in the business of doing delivery. 
According to St. Peter,  so is the Triune God: “This Jesus, delivered up  according to the definite plan & foreknowledge of God...”  (Acts 2:23 ESV)   Yahweh not only knew it would happen,  it was His plan.  Many of us like to make plans as well.  We plan for weddings,  for retirement,  for parties,  for watching the big game – whatever sport it may be. 
Our planning is endless,  & how do all of those plans turn out?   The answer is not theoretical.    Each one of us  has lived  that answer.   How do you  respond  when all your planning fails to materialize?  Certainly, that depends on how far short  of your plans  things fall.  Sometimes we get angry.   At other times we despair.   Once in a while  we are even grateful. 
Some people love pointing out plans gone wrong, complaining about every little slight & fault.  They find joy in discovering the mistakes of others,  but they aren’t around  to be part of the solution.  They seem to enjoy being part of the problem.  A lot of the news these days  is about people working to destroy things.  If problems get fixed,  their fun comes to an end. 
People who find joy in destruction  have a lot to celebrate in this broken world.  For those who follow Jesus,  it’s a real challenge to endure all the struggles & suffering of this life.   So many godly plans fail,  or at least seem to.  Jesus’ disciples no doubt had many plans for their Rabbi, & how He would make things right in their world.  Then,  He ended up dead  in a Roman crucifixion.  In their eyes,  things could not have gone more wrong.  After Jesus rose from the dead,  the disciples realized  that it was God’s plan all along  to deliver Jesus on the cross.   It often works that way in our lives too,  that we realize God’s plan  only after the suffering has ended.   Being patient until that time  is one of the challenges of faith. 
In the reading from the 2nd chapter of Acts, St. Peter is preaching after Jesus’ resurrection.  He now understands what God was doing, but the people still need help connecting the dots.  Peter begins with a simple phrase “Men of Israel…”  To you & me,  that probably sounds like the generic “Dear Sir,” kind of greeting  with which you begin an official letter. 
However, to Peter’s audience, it was a title of honor,  a title given to them by Yahweh in the OT.  It’s the name that Yahweh gave to His covenant people.  Peter is appealing to their sense of thousands of years of salvation history.   Although they had been nothing as a people,  just slaves in Egypt,  God had chosen them to be His people. 
Due to their failures as a people,  since the glory days of King Solomon,  they’d once again become nothing.  The weight of Rome  was crushing them as a people & they no longer were a nation of their own.  The recent celebration of Passover, would have had their rescue from slavery in Egypt at the forefront of their minds. 
Peter wanted to explain how Yahweh had just accomplished their new rescue,  this time from slavery to sin.  He had delivered Jesus to them as the final Passover Lamb,  & His blood would now mark them as God’s people  once again.  The earthly kingdom of David  had only been a foreshadowing of the eternal kingdom  that Yahweh was creating in Jesus. 
“Men of Israel” highlights the glory to which Yahweh was calling His people.  Peter wants them to aspire to that gift once again.   This morning, as we consider the words of Acts 2, what gifts  have you been aspiring to?  Are they the gifts of an earthly kingdom,  or the gifts of an eternal kind  & kingdom?  Are you tied  to what you have known here at St. Matthew,  or,  are you aspiring to a gift that will never die?   It is tempting to cling to what we know,  & to our plan,  but you & I can never bring our own plans into being.  As we read in Proverbs 16: “The heart of man plans his way,  but the LORD  establishes his steps.”  (16:9 ESV) 
The Holy Trinity is constantly at work establishing each of our steps.  Sometimes those steps agree with our plans,  but on many occasions they do not.  When they don’t,  it is easy for us as sinful creatures to become discouraged & to lose heart.  It’s easy to forget  what it is that Yahweh has called us to.  By virtue of Christ,  all of salvation history belongs to each of us. 
By virtue of our Baptism into Christ,  Yahweh has called us – men,  women  & children – to be the eternal “Men of Israel.”  By God’s grace, He accomplished the work of salvation through the Jewish nation,  but that gift was never meant to belong exclusively to Jewish blood.   Listen to these words of St. Paul in Galatians 3:
“…in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male & female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”  (3:26-29 ESV) 
Regarding the issue of salvation,  all of us,  & each of us,  are “Men of Israel.”   None are greater than another  & none are less than another,  because the same Jesus was delivered for each one of us.   Our Lord & Savior does call us to make plans for our days,  but our value & worth never depend upon our accomplishing them.  We are “Men of Israel” regardless. 
That title applies to each of you this morning,  & to all children of God around the world  & already in heaven.  St. Peter would like you to consider how that sense of salvation history can encourage & motivate you in the struggles of living by faith.  You may recall these words from his 1st Epistle, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,   a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His   marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”  (2:9-10 ESV) 
We have received mercy because “Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan & foreknowledge of God, [to be] crucified & killed by the hands of lawless men.”  (Acts 2:23 ESV)  Regardless of who built the cross or hammered the nails,  as sisters & brothers,  as Men of Israel, we are in this thing together.  And Jesus is with us always, to the end of the age. 
“God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.”  (Acts 2:24 ESV)   As Men of Israel, neither will it be possible for us  to be held by death.  Since our resurrection to eternal life is guaranteed, especially in our struggles, we should be focusing on our common ground. 
All of us are totally corrupt, yet,  in what God has done for us, each of us are equally Men of Israel, already now  citizens of heaven.  We just aren’t there  for the time being.  Until then, we lean upon the strength & the promises of our Lord & Savior.  Doing that,  the Holy Spirit will use me  & you  to deliver the joy of God’s love to people who will receive it.  Amen. 
 
 
 
A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth,  the guilt of sinners bearing   &, laden with the sins of earth,  none else the burden sharing;  goes patient on,  grows weak & faint,  to slaughter led without complaint,  that spotless life to offer,  He bears the stripes,  the wounds,  the lies,  the mockery,  & yet replies, “All this I gladly suffer.”       This Lamb is Christ,  the soul’s great friend,  the Lamb of God,  our Savior,  whom God the Father chose to send  to gain for us His favor.   “Go forth, my Son,” the Father said,  “And free My children from their dread  of guilt & condemnation.   The wrath & stripes are hard to bear,  but by Your passion they will share  the fruit of Your salvation.”  Amen.  LSB 438:1-2.