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Summary: AI-assisted (Claude) from transcripts

Summary

A Disciple Tells

A disciple of Jesus Christ does not keep silent. Continuing the theme of discipleship as the art of following, the call here is summarized in a single word: Tell. The disciple has been made and molded by God's Word, knows forgiveness when he stumbles, imitates those who pursue Christ, and now is sent out to speak the name of Jesus.

The pattern is set in Acts 4:1-12. After Peter and John healed the man born lame at the temple gate Acts 3:6-8, Peter preached Jesus and the resurrection. The priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees—who denied any resurrection of the dead—were so annoyed that they arrested the apostles. Yet by the next morning, about five thousand who heard the word had believed. Hauled before the Sanhedrin, the same court that had condemned Christ, Peter was asked, "By what power or by what name did you do this?" Filled with the Holy Spirit, he doubled down: "by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead." He said the name again, because it was true.

The name of Jesus was scandalous then, and it remains scandalous today. To say that Jesus is the only way to the Father is to say that other ways are not. That offense is so great that even within the church the offending words are sometimes quietly edited away—as when a public reading of John 14:1-6 stops just before "no one comes to the Father except through me." But Christ does not give His disciples permission to soften His own words. In Matthew 28:19-20 He commands them to make disciples by baptizing and teaching—telling—exactly what He has said.

The apostolic preaching is plain and consistent. "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" Acts 16:31. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" Romans 10:9. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:12; see also 1 John 2:23). "Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" John 3:16. Either Jesus is Lord over all, or He is not Lord at all.

How then do Christians know they are right in a culture that, like Paul's Athens Acts 17:22-23, prefers a shrine to an unknown god and an endless menu of "spiritual but not religious" options? The answer is not the cleverness of the Christian but the work of Christ. Every other religion is finally a ladder of works, a program for climbing high enough, doing enough, being good enough. Christianity alone confesses a Mediator who has already done what we cannot do. "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8. "In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself" 2 Corinthians 5:19. "There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" 1 Timothy 2:5-6. The founders of every other religion are dead; Jesus is risen. That is why Peter could stand before the court and say of Christ, "This is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" Acts 4:11-12.

That same name has been placed on you. Through the waters of Baptism you were sealed by the Spirit, claimed as God's own, and made a disciple. His Word has entered your ears, settled in your heart, and been placed on your lips so you can go and tell. Tell the law: that we are sinners. Tell the gospel: that we are saved by Christ alone. Tell of the Holy Spirit's work in and through ordinary disciples. And ask the neighbor, the friend, the family member: Does this make sense? Would you like to be cleansed through the waters of Baptism? The commission of Christ is not given to a few specialists; it is given to His disciples. So go forth this week and tell.

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