Commitment: Easter

Devotion by: Pastor Paul Gysan

Acts 20:28-36

Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified.

Easter is the greatest festival day of the church year! Christ is risen, He is risen indeed !!!!!!! Let the seven exclamation points after that last statement represent the feast of weeks – seven weeks of celebration. During this celebration we are having our own “Silver” anniversary, with a high point being next Sunday when we gather at 10:00 am for a special 25^th anniversary worship celebration. Wouldn’t be wonderful to fill the sanctuary, narthex, and other areas of the building with worshippers excited about the news of Jesus’ resurrection? We will celebrate our vision of “Connecting the World with God’s Grace” and we will claim our place as Easter people who enable this to happen.

Thanks to our crucified and risen Lord Jesus, nothing need ever be the same again. Nothing! We see that in the life of St. Paul. Before departing for Jerusalem by boat he invited the elders of Ephesus, a few miles from the port of Miletus, to come to him. Upon their arrival he spoke to them from the heart, and showed he cared nothing about his own life, only about the mission on which God sent him. Paul through his travels was “connecting the world with God’s grace.”

Paul in verse 33 says, “I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing.” Beginning in vs. 35 we read, “In all of this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Following this he knelt down and prayed with them, they brought him to the ship, and he set sail for Jerusalem. This scene is captured in a stained-glass window in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Cleveland, Ohio in memory of Rector Frederick Brooks. Underneath the window are the words, “Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spoke, that they should see his face no more.”

Our risen Lord Jesus conquered death! Someday we shall be reunited with our loved ones, along with St. Paul and the whole company of saints. Thankfully we remember words of our loved ones, but most all let us remember the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

St. Paul lived those words, and he challenged the elders from Ephesus and each of us to do the same as we “shepherd the church of God.” In verse 32 Paul wrote “and now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified.” With lives filled with Easter grace and thanksgiving, I challenge you to commit yourself to capture the vision of Christ, and claim its mission. See you next Sunday at 10 am. It’s a great Easter day in the life of Christ the King Lutheran Church.

PRAYER: Spirit of the Risen Lord, descend upon us we pray! Bless this day as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, and bless this week as this celebration and joy continues via many opportunities to gather. Bring us back next Sunday as we worship you and celebrate the 25^th Anniversary of our congregation. Prayerfully lead each one of us to ask the question, “what can I sacrificially do to further the ministry of Christ the King Lutheran Church through my gift to this campaign.” In the name of our risen Lord. Amen.