Today’s Scripture

Psalm 116:1-14           Acts 2:14a, 36-41        1 Peter 1:17-25           Luke 24:13-35

 

            We are a people of tools.  There are few things that we cannot do without tools.  Hammers, screwdrivers, saws and wrenches are familiar tools.  We cannot get from here to there without a transportation tool, like your automobile or cab or bus or train or plane.  Cooking needs tools such as stoves and pots and pans and the like.  When doing something, one needs the right tool for the job.  Hardware store, here we come again!

 

            That is what “church” is all about.  There are some pretty tough jobs here at Immanuel that need to get done.  Later this month will be a “clean-up” day.  You are all invited to bring your cleaning and lawn tools to spruce this place up a bit.  Money in the offering plate is a tool that pays the utility bill, wages, bulletins, upkeep, in-reach and outreach.  Each person in this congregation is a tool.  And God has given you the tools to be his tool.

 

            Jesus is walking and talking with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  The Psalmist loves the Lord because he has been delivered.  Peter tells us of God’s tool that saved us, Jesus’ blood that is more precious than gold and silver that are perishable.  Peter is God’s tool both in the Pentecost account in Acts and in his letter as he is the one communicating the power of the Law and God’s mercy and grace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

 

            In all of these things is the tool that God has placed in you, a part of himself.  This tool is the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is an interesting tool in that you and I do not manipulate this tool as you would a normal tool.  This tool is God.  In these accounts we see how the Holy Spirit works.  It works through God’s word which is the tool God gives to you and me to use.

 

            On the road to Emmaus, the disciples reflect back and say, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  When they heard God’s word, the Holy Spirit worked inside of each of these disciples.  Each one felt a change happening on the inside.  That is how this tool, the Holy Spirit works. 

 

            That is what is happening during Peter’s sermon on Pentecost.  When the people heard the words that convicted them and the words that saved them, they were “cut to the heart.”  Through their hearing God’s word, God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, was the tool that worked repentance and faith in their hearts.  The Holy Spirit worked through the disciples as they proclaimed Christ crucified and risen.  The Holy Spirit worked in the hearts of hearers.  The Holy Spirit is the tool that caused change then and it causes change today.

 

            Repentance is change.  Repentance is acknowledgement and sorrow for sin.  Repentance is a pledge to turn away from sin and follow God’s word and commands.  Repentance is a change from our former lives in sin to our lives in God’s word.  Repentance is more than a one-time event.  Luther wrote in his first of the 95 Theses, “When our lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’ [Matthew 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance” (LW 31:25).  Repentance is an ongoing thing is our lives.  It is the tool God uses to turn us back to him.  He does it through his word and the Holy Spirit working in the heart.

 

            The Holy Spirit works at Immanuel today.  He works in baptism as the baptized person receives renewal.  Without those waters with God’s word, there is no miracle.  We hear God’s word.  We are asked, “Do you renounce the devil and all of his ways?”  The repentant soul replies, “I do renounce them.”  The Holy Spirit is changing a poor miserable sinner into a child of God;, one redeemed by Christ.  It is a powerful tool.

 

            God’s word, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the tools, the “means of grace” that God’s love is communicated to you through the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit today places these into our hands as the means by which we as God’s tools communicate to those near us.  Peter later writes that baptism now saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ [1 Peter 3:21].  Through Peter God makes a great promise to you in regards to this great tool, the Holy Spirit, “Repent and be baptized…And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

 

            God has made you to be his instrument.  God has given you his word to tell others.  God has given you the greatest tool as he has given you himself in the Holy Spirit, that works in you and through you to bring someone else to saving faith in Jesus Christ.  Don’t leave that tool behind on your workbench.

 

            In Jesus’ undying love.           Amen.