Sermon Notes
May 27th 2007, Acts 2: 21 “Call
on the name of the Lord!”
There are two sentences in the bible which are very
important concerning Pentecost which is the birthday of the church and
concerning that it is Confirmation Sunday.
One is in the book of Isaiah where God says: “I
have called you by name, you are mine!” – It’s Pentecost and Confirmation
Sunday.
The other one is in the book of Acts where Peter says:
“Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall
be saved.” – It’s Pentecost and Confirmation
Sunday.
Names
are important. They tell us who somebody is. They tell us which family a person
belongs to and they help us to address somebody personally. If someone tells me
his or her name this person allows me to get into personal contact. The name is
like a key to a person.
But
names do not only have a function; they also have a meaning. Some parents are
not aware of the meaning of a name they picked for their children. They just
think that it sounds nice. But others pick a certain name because of its
meaning.
As
curious as I am I did some research and tried to find out what the names of our
confirmands mean: Elizabeth, Matthew, Matthew and Christopher.
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ELIZABETH
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From Ελισαβετ
(Elisabet), the Greek form of the Hebrew name אֱלִישֶׁבַע ('Elisheva') meaning "my God
is an oath" or perhaps "my God is abundance".
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MATTHEW
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English form of Ματθαιος
(Matthaios), which was a Greek form of the Hebrew name מַתִּתְיָהוּ (Mattityahu) which meant "gift
of God".
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CHRISTOPHER
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Means "(bearing or) carrying Christ", derived from
Late Greek Χριστος
combined with φερω
(phero) "to bear, to carry".
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So we have a young lady who has an oath
of God, we have two gifts of God, and we have a young man who is carrying
Christ.
I have called you by name, you are
mine!
Those are the first names. But people
usually have a last name, too. Last names tell us about the families we belong
to. But there is also an aditional last name we all have, a special one. Our
last name is Christian. We are all Christians, which means we belong to
the family of Christ.
Today is Pentecost and it’s
Confirmation Sunday. We celebrate the
birthday of the family of Christ and it is also being confirmed that Christopher, Matthew, Elizabeth and Matthew belong
to this family of Christ.
“I have called you by name, you are mine!”
God has called Elizabeth, Matthew, Matthew and Christopher and he has called
us. God has called us all to be his children. God has called us by name because
he wants to get into personal contact with us. Because he really means us. God
has called us as Elizabeths, Matthews, and Christophers. And God has also
called us as Christians.
But the call is not only a one way
call. Peter reminds us in the book of
acts that this is a mutual relationship: “Whoever calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.”
Peter reminds us that not only our
own names are important. There is a name which is a lot more important than our
names. This name is most important. It is a name we
are meant to call.
A Story:
Two men were traveling by AMTRACK,
lets say from Ann Arbor to Chicago. They were sitting next to each other
but they did not know each other. The younger man was reading a book from
William Shakespeare. But he got bored and wanted to start a conversation with
the older man. He asked the older man: Do you know this book?
The older man shook his head.
But you certainly know the author?
Again the older man shook his head.
The younger man thought: There must
be a way to have a conversation with this guy. So he said: “But you certainly
go to a cinema once in a while to watch a movie? Do you know Tom Cruise or
Meryl Streep?”
„I don’t know them“ said the old man.
“Oh, I see. You probably prefer
watching TV. Do you know Bill Cosby?”
“I don’t know him”.
The young man got angry and said: Old
man, you don’t seem to know anybody!”
“Oh I do”, said the older man. “ I
got to know someone who completely changed my life. I know Jesus. He is my Lord
and my savior.” The young man laughed. “
That’s not up to date anymore. That’s old stuff.”
The old man replied: “There may be
dark times in your life. Are you going to call Tom Cruise then? And when you
are going to die, will Meryl Streep be there for you? And when you stand before
God some time with all your sins – is Bill Cosby going to help you? It would be
really helpful if you knew Jesus.”
Then the young man was silent.
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“Whoever calls on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.”
There are three important aspects
about this message we need to be aware of:
WHO? WHY?
and HOW?
Who is the Lord, why shall we call on
His name and how can we do it?
WHO:
The name of the Lord is Jesus!
This name also has a meaning like
Christopher, Elisabeth or Matthew. The meaning of the name Jesus, which goes
back to an old Hebrew name, is “ God is salvation” or “God saves”.
A Lord is someone who has power and authority.
A Lord is a leader of a tribe who is providing food for his followers. A Lord claims
dominion over a portion of land and over a group of people.
So, we are meant to call on Jesus who
is the son of God, who has power over us and who leads and nourishes us.
WHY:
The meaning of the name Jesus tell us
why: To be saved!
And if we call on the name of the
Lord, it also means that we have the key to get into personal contact to Him.
We need personal contact to the Lord
…
… to
be saved from everything that separates us from God!
… to
participate in the God’s mercy!
… to
participate in God’s unconditional love!
… to
be strengthened to do God’s work!
HOW:
The definition of “to call” is: To speak in loud voice; to cry out; to address by name.
So we call on
the name of the Lord every time we pray for people in need in Jesus’ name,
every time we thank God in Jesus’ name, every time we confess in our creeds
that we believe in God, the Holy Spirit and in Jesus Christ;
Calling on the name of the Lord is
always meant to be loud, and it’s always meant to address by the Lord’s name.
But it’s not meant to be only speaking. To call also means to communicate. We
can communicate by speaking and by doing
something. To call on the name of the Lord also means, to be a disciple
of Jesus Christ. It means to stand up for our Christian family and for our
faith. It means to do something against war, hatred, social injustice, poverty,
racism, and discrimination. To call on the name of the Lord means to express
our love for God and it means to express our love for one another.
God has called
Elizabeth, Matthew, Christopher, and Matthew – and all of us by name, we
are His! That is God’s promise! That is God’s gift to us!
So let’s call on the name of
the Lord and be saved!
In Jesus’ name! Amen!
Children’s
sermon:
- Ask the
children about their names
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Why
is it so important to call someone by name?
§
To
address somebody personally, not just anybody
§
We
mean a certain person
-
what
is the name of the Lord?
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Jesus
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God,
Father …
-
why
is it so important to call on the name of the Lord?
§
To
show that we really mean Him
§
To
show that we believe in him and not anything else
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To
be aware that it is the Lord who loves us most
§
To
be aware that it is the Lord who can heal us
§
To
be aware that it is the Lord who forgives us
§
To
be aware that it is the Lord who is always with us
Examples: Jesus
help me!
Jesus, heal me!
Jesus, I believe in you!
Jesus, you are my savior!
Jesus, thank you for loving me so much!
