The Lutheran Hour
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"More Than He Bargained For"
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Text: Acts 3:6
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I’ve known Bill for almost half my life now, and still he keeps surprising me. At first, he was just the older guy in our class, the one with nice stuff. For the rest of us, dress clothes were bargains we picked up from the campus resale shop: oversized sports coats, secondhand shoes, neck ties from the late seventies.
But Bill, he’d come to class sporting a fedora and a tailored herringbone tweed jacket with leather elbow patches sewn on. Truth was, we were all poor graduate students, but Bill, he dressed like a stockbroker and turns out, he was one. But he left the financial industry to go back to school in his late forties, to seminary to be a pastor. I met Bill in a theology class in the fall of 2006. He was the one guy in class who was older than the professor and dressed nicer, too.
And the questions he’d ask, the observations he’d make, he knew stuff you couldn’t learn from books, stuff that takes a lifetime to learn. When Bill invited us over to his apartment and we met his wife, Mary, we couldn’t help but notice that none of their furniture had come from the resale shop…the oak dining table, mahogany desk, leather chairs, real art on the walls. Just being around Bill made you feel fancy. And if you invited him out for lunch, you’d probably get more than you bargained for because, besides peppering the conversation with salty, worldly wisdom, Bill would also pay the tab.
But in the years I’ve known Bill, he’s proved to be good for more than just a free lunch. He’s become a friend, a counselor, a godfather, baptismal sponsor for our youngest son. He’s more than just the surrogate rich uncle I took him for initially. You probably have people like that in your life, someone who met some initial need for you, but then, knowing them, you got more than you expected.
When you saw beyond their clothing, beyond your first impression of them, you saw a person with a one-of-a-kind perspective with a story to tell like no other. Bill’s story included leaving that lucrative career in the financial industry, cashing in on some stocks, selling their house in California, moving their oak and mahogany furniture into a cramped St. Louis apartment to start a demanding four-year graduate school program with guys 25 years younger than him who picked up New Testament Greek quicker than him and frequently made him feel like a fish out of water.
And if you listen to Bill’s story, he’d tell you that some days he feared that he made an awful mistake and that he was just trying to follow Jesus. And so far, Jesus had proved to be more than he bargained for. Forty some years ago, Bill had come to Jesus looking for something like a handout, not in a crass way, not like those prosperity preachers would have you come to Jesus for health and wealth. No, Bill was more sophisticated than that. He wasn’t looking for an outright handout, but more of a hand up.
He was looking for connections, contacts to build up his business network. He and Mary were in their late twenties living in a suburb of San Francisco. They’d both been raised in the Christian faith but weren’t practicing. Bill says, “I drove by a church once.” But at the time they weren’t really practicing anything beyond common paganism.
Then one day out of the blue, Bill says to Mary, “I think we should start going to church.” Mary said, “There’s a Catholic church down the road.” Bill said, “We are not going to the Catholics. I want to go where the movers and shakers are.” So they went Presbyterian. Through the Rotary Club, Bill had heard that the real magnet for movers and shakers in town was the local Presbyterian church. So they started going, to mingle and meet people.
After a few months of dutiful attendance, the associate pastor of the church approached Bill and Mary and said, “You two ought to lead our junior high youth.” Bill thought, “Look buddy, I’m just here for the business.” But something got ahold of them. They became youth directors. They had youth over to their home for games and Bible study and prayer. They became like surrogate parents for the group, someone the kids could talk to when they were mad at their parents.
And it turned out that all this was also really good for Bill’s business. He earned a lot of clout at the church. People trusted him. He had this growing list of influential people to build a portfolio. It wasn’t so much like taking handouts from Jesus, but like being taken under the wing of a wise, well-connected, well-funded mentor who discloses opportunities you never could have gotten on your own and stretches you beyond what you thought you could do on your own.
There’s a man mentioned in the Bible’s book of Acts that reminded me of Bill. Like Bill, this man got more than he expected, more than he bargained for. The book of Acts is an account of the things Jesus continues to do through His followers. Jesus had mentored these disciples, these proteges for three years, stretched them, led them, fed them, gave them opportunities they never could have found on their own. He showed them and told them that He was the Messiah the Jewish people had been waiting for, the King chosen by God to carry forward that ancient rescue mission, more than just a political campaign for an independent nation of Israel. It was a mission to bless all the nations as God had promised to do to their forefather Abraham, a mission to restore the universe as God had spoken by the prophets, a mission to rescue the whole creation, a mission that would require Jesus to suffer, to be rejected and crucified and then raised to new life, to share God’s forgiving, healing power with the world.
And it all happened just as Jesus said it would. And now two of these young Jesus proteges are walking up to that ancient temple to God in Jerusalem and they see this guy and all he wants is a handout. He was disabled, crippled from birth, but he wasn’t trying to be an inconvenience. He wasn’t even asking to be healed or to be saved. He wasn’t expecting to be enlisted in a movement to bring about a new creation. He just wanted some spare change. Maybe get a free lunch out of the deal.
But he got more than he bargained for. The story’s there in the New Testament book of Acts, chapter 3. This man asks Peter and John, these two Jesus proteges for some spare change. Peter turns, looks right at him, as does John. Peter says, “Look at us.” So the man fixed his attention on them, expecting to get something from them. Peter said to him, “Silver and gold, I do not have. But what I have, I give you. In the Name of Jesus, Messiah, from Nazareth, rise and walk.”
And Peter takes him by the right hand and helps him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles were made strong, and he jumped to his feet and began walking and went into the temple clinging to Peter and John, walking and leaping and praising God. And when the people in the temple recognized him as the guy who was crippled and used to sit and beg, it gives Peter and John the opportunity to tell everyone there about Jesus, about His mission. And before the end of the day, another 2,000 people come to faith in Jesus, adding to the 3,000 who came in chapter 2. But notice how it started with one man asking for just a little help. Nothing too big, nothing fancy, just some spare change was all he wanted. But he’s swept up in a miracle, in a movement, in a dangerous, high-stakes, exhilarating mission that will stretch them all past their breaking point, demanding of them beyond what they could have managed on their own, ultimately unleashing God’s healing for the whole creation, blessing and joy, and praise beyond knowing.
But it started with just a request for a little help. And maybe that’s all you need from Jesus today. Just a little help, a little extra money, an answered prayer that you’ll get better or feel better, some wisdom for a difficult situation, some prospects for your business. Whatever it is that you are asking of Jesus and His people, it’s probably too small. And mixed in, you’re probably asking for some of the wrong things or the right things in the wrong proportion at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons. But that’s okay, it’s just a starting point. So whatever it is that you’re asking of Jesus and His people, go ahead, ask it. You can trust Jesus to take care of it in His time, in His way, because He cares for you. He loves you. He created you. He died and rose for you. And He has all the resources, all the connections, all the power to help and heal and save and make new, materially, spiritually, relationally, and He promises to do just that in God’s time. To free you from sin and evil, to align you fully with God’s will and make you like Him in His death, so that you will one day share in His resurrection, in His life, in His perfect wholeness. So ask Him, ask Him whatever you think might help and realize that what you are getting in Him, in Him as a Person, a Friend, a Mentor, a King, and a Brother with a story like no other, Jesus will be more than what you bargained for.
When my friend Bill first turned to Jesus and His people, he wanted just a little help for his business. And on the way Jesus blessed Bill’s business and expanded his horizons. Bill remembers 20 years ago walking into his five-story tempered-glass office building, gleaming with corporate success and praying. “Lord, I’m glad to be here, but if You ever want to call me out of this place, I will obey.” People had been encouraging Bill to become a pastor. “You have all these skills. That would be a real blessing for the church,” they told him. And Bill thought, “Of course I do.” His wife Mary told him, “Bill, if you want to do something different, you should become a teacher. You’d be a great teacher.” Bill said, “I don’t want to be a teacher. They don’t get paid anything. There’s no money in teaching, no respect. Plus I have all these gifts and talents and experience. I need to be a pastor so I can really help the church.”
So Bill came to seminary. He’d gotten to know a Lutheran pastor, and this pastor recommended Bill to a Lutheran seminary in St. Louis. And that’s where I met him-the former stockbroker who had nice things and would gladly buy you lunch. Now, Bill’s a brilliant guy, but he struggled at seminary. He failed the final exam for New Testament Greek, his very first seminary class. He eventually passed the retake, but that was the first time he’d failed at anything. And the humiliation of it was sobering. It struck to the core of his identity, left him clinging to Jesus in the promise of his Baptism like never before.
Bill eventually graduated seminary and because of his wealth of life experience, he was a much sought after candidate as a new pastor. Leaders in the church hierarchy were practically fighting over who’d get him in their district. Over the next decade, Bill served three different churches. Like many pastors, he was blessed with some tremendous successes, fruitful gains in mission and ministry, dear, dear friendships, but also hardships, tragedies, bouts of exhaustion and depression, frequent disillusionment. And a few years ago, burned out, Bill opted for an early retirement to focus on being a husband and a father and a grandfather. When he and Mary moved to their new home, he noticed there was this Christian, Lutheran school down the road. Something prompted him to go there and ask for a tour. The principal made a great impression on him. And then about a year into his retirement, he started to get bored. So he started volunteering at a different school where Mary, his wife, was working, doing some tutoring and teaching. Bill found himself preparing for hours and hours, sculpting his lesson plans, stressing over how best to engage the students and getting paid absolutely nothing for it.
Then he saw a job posting at that Lutheran school down the road from his house. He applied, and last fall, he left retirement to start his first year as a full-time teacher, teaching history to 42 middle school students. Bill tells me “It’s the most exhilarating, most challenging thing I’ve ever done. I’m getting paid what I was 40 years ago, but I don’t care. God has called me to this. I have to do it.”
Many of the students from Mr. Bill’s school have zero connection to the church. They are pagans who have come to the Lord’s church for completely worldly reasons. Bill can relate. Take Blake for example. Blake is an eighth-grader. Blake and his family have no connection to Jesus and His church except for the school. And Blake asks lots of questions: questions about history, about the world, about God. Blake asks questions about Christianity, questions like, “Why would someone become a Christian? What’s so different about Jesus? How does becoming one of His followers make things different?” And one day out of the blue, Blake asks Mr. Bill if he’d have lunch with him. And Mr. Bill, the former stockbroker, pastor, and pagan, makes space for Blake’s questions. A few weeks later, Bill hears Blake referring to the church as “our church” and when referring to Christians now, Blake says, “When we Christians do this” Or “When we Christians do that.”
And now Bill is praying for the moment to talk with Blake and his parents about Christian Baptism. He should probably explain that whatever they think about being baptized now or being a follower of Jesus, it’s probably too small. And whatever they think they’re getting out of the deal will be more than what they bargain for. More demanding, more challenging, vexing and exhilarating, but also somehow better. But who can really explain such things? Who can understand them? It takes a lifetime of living them, maybe longer.
Reflections for April 21, 2024
Title: More Than He Bargained ForMark Eischer: You’re listening to The Lutheran Hour. For FREE online resources and audio on demand, go to lutheranhour.org. Once again, here’s our Speaker Dr. Michael Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. We’re visiting today with Dr. Jeff Gibbs, an emeritus professor of New Testament Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and still teaching Bible class for his local church. Welcome back, Jeff.
Jeff Gibbs: Thank you, Mike. It’s good to be back.
Mike Zeigler: We’re continuing in our series on the book of Acts. We’re now in chapter 3. Today, let’s talk about Peter’s speech in chapter 3, verses 12-16. It starts with this miracle and then an explanation of the miracle and then continues in a flashback through large swaths of the Old Testament. So, Dr. Gibbs, why do you think Peter says what he says here at this moment in the story?
Jeff Gibbs: Well, it’s a good question, and I should probably start by saying, well, I don’t know. But as I was looking at the speech here after the healing of the beggar, it occurred to me that this is a good example of how a preacher needs to know his audience. And so, to whom is Peter speaking? We could even say he’s speaking to a pretty highly churched audience. These are Jews, it’s Jerusalem. We don’t know the level of awareness or learning of any individual person in the crowd, but they’re there are at the temple, so these are worshipers. These are men and women who have learned about what God has done long ago for His people, of course, going all the way back to the creation. But for Jews in the first century, Abraham was a key figure, and rightly so. Genesis chapter 12, God says to Abraham, “I will bless all nations through you.”
And so, that promise to Abraham had resounded and echoed, this is a technical term, a gazillion times over the years, and when will God keep the promise to Abraham? How is He keeping the promise, and not just to Abraham, but other people? So, he’s speaking to a highly churched audience and he’s making an audacious claim that is, “You know those promises you’ve believed all your life and you’ve wondered how they were going to come true and when they were going to come true? Guess what? They just came true in this Man, Jesus.” And he references Moses and the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18, and so forth. So it’s a good example, and if you contrast this sermon with the one sermon to non-believers that we have in the book of Acts, that is Acts chapter 17, it’s radically different. In Acts chapter 17, St. Paul does not quote the Old Testament-at least I don’t think he does at all-but he knows it wouldn’t make any sense.Mike Zeigler: He quotes a pagan poet and philosopher.
Jeff Gibbs: Exactly, so A, he knows his audience, but B, and this is really important in all of the Gospels, but also in volume one in Luke, that Gospel, and also here in Acts, is that the God who made the promises to save, and redeem, to rescue is keeping those promises right now. This is the moment, and so I think that’s one of the reasons why Peter does what he does here early in the book of Acts. He did it already on Pentecost in chapter 2, and now he’s doing that same thing here. The promises are being kept.
Mike Zeigler: So, he’s reading the crowd well, he knows that they’re there for a religious festival.
Jeff Gibbs: Of course they are.
Mike Zeigler: And this is all on their mind. They’ve just seen this guy healed, and he starts into this speech. He mentions Abraham at the beginning, at the end, and you talked a little bit about that, but let’s say more about, why is Abraham so important in those promises to Abraham?
Jeff Gibbs: Well, he was the primary promise receiver, if I could say it that way. And what did the Jews call themselves? They didn’t typically call themselves Jews. That’s a word that in the first century meant Judean, and it was probably a word that was used initially by foreigners to talk about those people. What did they call themselves? The “sons of Abraham.” That’s what they called themselves.
And you hear this in John the Baptist preaching where they think that somehow their physical descent is worth something. And John the Baptist says, “God can raise up for Abraham children from these stones.” See, God never makes a promise that’s a bad idea, and He never makes a promise that He doesn’t keep. And so, because of the prominence of the promise to Abraham, and you hear this over and over, “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” and so I just think it’s a way for St. Peter to just keep them focused on what’s going on now, and whether or not they believed it, well, that’s up to the Holy Spirit. But he wants them to know that the first and greatest promise receiver from beginning to end of this history, so to speak, that promise is now coming true.
Mike Zeigler: And as we talked about last week, Abraham becomes a model of that breathing in the promise and breathing out in faith.
Jeff Gibbs: Correct.
Mike Zeigler: And faith is also very important in this speech. He mentions it’s by this name, Jesus, by faith in this Name.
Jeff Gibbs: Faith in this Name, yes.
Mike Zeigler: And then he even has this interesting, the faith by which Jesus comes or through which Jesus comes.
Jeff Gibbs: Right.
Mike Zeigler: And so, Abraham is the father of faith, too.
Jeff Gibbs: Which is something that St. Paul picks up. In Galatians, not to leak over there, but one of the key questions is, who are the real sons and daughters of Abraham? That’s the question. Can these Gentiles who are uncircumcised can they be the children of Abraham? And the answer is yeah, everyone who is of faith like Abraham had faith, everyone who trusts God’s promise is a child, a son, a daughter of Abraham.
Mike Zeigler: So, there’s the trusting in the promise and also that blessing to Abraham, so that the content of the promise always had a global, all-the-families reach to it.
Jeff Gibbs: When we were talking last week about breathing in and breathing out, if we are caught up into His story and He’s breathing His life into us, well then what will we do? We’ll live, and that involves that outward movement.
Mike Zeigler: Well, thank you again for joining us and helping us understand this sermon from Peter. And we look forward to talking more as we’re going to keep reading, keep listening to the book of Acts.
Jeff Gibbs: Sounds great.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by Chris Bergmann. Used by permission.
“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.