"Easter Sunday Sermon Manuscript – April 20"

April 20: Acts 10:34-43

New Thing: Resurrection

1. Jesus is risen! I hope we can greet one another with this good news.

2. If Jesus had not risen, the cross would have simply been understood as a symbol of death. In that case, no one would proudly display that symbol, make it into jewelry to wear around their neck, or stick it on their car.

3. The reason we understand the cross as a symbol of salvation and God’s love is because Jesus Christ, who hung on the cross, rose again.

4. I believe that those who doubt the historicity of the resurrection find it to be the greatest stumbling block in understanding Christianity. Some even argue that Christianity might be a more convincing religion to more people if there were no resurrection. This is because they believe it is foolish to confess faith in “Jesus Christ who rose from the dead” within the framework of human reason and modern scientific civilization.

5. Today, rather than talking about evidence of the resurrection, I want to talk about how the disciples who witnessed and experienced the resurrection—and the church that confessed this resurrection faith—were established in this world. People are often interested in the fact itself, but not in how those who experienced that fact were changed. What I want to talk about is the story of those who experienced this event. In the end, this story will become the very power that proves the truth of the resurrection.

6. Personally, I believe the resurrection of Jesus is an event through which God humiliated those who proudly thought they held all the power and control, by displaying a plan that far surpasses human logic and imagination.

7. During the early morning worship services of Holy Week, we had a time of deeply reading through the Gospel of John. Written around 100 A.D. for the early church community, this Gospel records well the persistent desire of the Jewish religious leaders, the high priests, and ordinary Jewish crowds to have Jesus crucified and sentenced to death.

8. Their reasoning may have been that if they could just eliminate Jesus, the rest of the disciples and followers would disappear on their own.

9. However, as you well know, the crucifixion of Jesus did not stop the movement of the Kingdom of God that He proclaimed. In fact, after the crucifixion, the disciples who met the risen Jesus were transformed into completely different beings when they received the Holy Spirit while gathered in fear in the upper room.

10. Especially Peter, who appears in today’s passage, shows a complete transformation from his previous anxious demeanor to a bold disciple of Jesus, proclaiming the gospel and courageously continuing the Kingdom movement that Jesus had started.

11. From then on, the disciples of Jesus spread the gospel and continued the Kingdom movement without fear, like an unstoppable force.

12. To briefly speak of another story, when Paul was still Saul, there was a major persecution in Jerusalem. One of the martyrs during that time was Stephen. The persecution was so severe that Stephen was stoned to death, and Saul, who led the persecution, confidently set out for Damascus to arrest other disciples of Jesus. As you know, on the road to Damascus, Saul met Jesus, became Paul, and became a disciple of Christ. Undoubtedly, this must have been a huge scandal within the Jewish community at the time. It’s like if, in today’s terms, former President Trump suddenly left the Republican Party and declared he would work with Bernie Sanders to turn the U.S. into a social democracy—just imagine the impact.

13. The persecution in Jerusalem scattered the disciples. Wherever the disciples fled, they preached the gospel, and the gospel continued to spread.

14. This is strange. The death on the cross, the death of Stephen, actually led to the expansion of the gospel—the very Kingdom movement that Jesus proclaimed. These logically incomprehensible events began to occur after the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

15. The Book of Acts naturally records that Peter, after raising Tabitha from the dead, stayed in the house of Simon the tanner in Joppa. There, Peter had a vision in which unclean animals, forbidden by the law to eat, came down in a sheet from heaven, and he heard a voice telling him to eat them.

16. Bound by the law that prohibited eating such animals, Peter said, “Surely not.” But he then heard the voice say, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Then he awoke.

17. The Bible records that Peter was confused at this time. Immediately after, a servant of Cornelius arrives and invites Peter to Cornelius’s house.

18. The Book of Acts records these detailed experiences as part of Peter’s ministry planned by God. The disciples who met the risen Jesus and received the Holy Spirit were completely changed. In the Gospels, the disciples often appear as those who do not understand what Jesus is teaching. At times, the Gentiles display greater faith, revealing that Jewish superiority was merely a self-consolation and had no real meaning when it came to being children of God.

19. But the attitudes of the disciples changed after experiencing Jesus’ resurrection. After having this vision in Joppa, Peter immediately responds to Cornelius’s invitation and visits his house. The words he shared there are today’s passage.

20. Cornelius, too, received a vision telling him to invite Peter, and he sent his servant to bring him.

21. Here, we must consider Cornelius’s status. The Bible introduces him as a centurion in the Italian Regiment of the Roman army. This regiment was considered one of the most elite units in Rome. The mere fact that a centurion in such a regiment, though a Gentile, devoutly practiced the Jewish faith is astounding.

22. When Peter first meets Cornelius, he says in verses 34–35: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”

23. Peter’s confession is both an expression of his awe in meeting Cornelius and a realization of God’s guidance, understood through the vision he had in Joppa. Personally, I find Peter’s confession in verse 36 to be most striking:

24. “You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

25. Though God chose Israel, Jesus came to proclaim God’s plan to save all people through peace. This is the core of the gospel—of the Kingdom movement that Jesus proclaimed.

26. In the following verses, Peter gives a concise summary of Jesus’ ministry.

27. First, Jesus worked by the power of the Holy Spirit; second, He did good and healed all those oppressed by the devil.

28. Third, though He was crucified and died, God raised Him on the third day and allowed Him to be seen. Fourth, the risen Jesus did not appear to everyone, but only to those chosen by God, with whom He ate and drank.

29. Fifth, the risen Jesus commanded those chosen to testify and preach that God appointed Him as judge of the living and the dead. And lastly, Peter ends his short sermon by saying that anyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins through His name.

30. In Peter’s sermon at Cornelius’s house, we see a reinterpretation of Jesus Christ not previously revealed in the Gospels. First: Jesus proclaimed God’s plan to save all people through peace. Second: He was appointed judge of the living and the dead. Third: Anyone who believes in Jesus receives forgiveness of sins.

31. These new confessions of Peter are rooted in one truth: The gospel Jesus proclaimed—the Kingdom movement—was universal and expansive in God’s love. Peter’s confession rests on this: that God desires to save all people.

32. We often focus on the redemptive aspect—that Jesus is the judge of life and death and that belief in Him brings forgiveness. But even more important than that is this: that anyone, regardless of being Jewish or not, can become a child of God through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. The greater weight must be placed on God’s immense love that declares this new reality.

33. This is the power of the resurrection. Even if we don’t directly witness the resurrection, we see the risen Jesus through Peter’s transformation, his spiritual journey, and the sermon he gave to Cornelius. Peter proclaims the boundless grace of God that crosses all boundaries.

34. Here, we find the meaning of the resurrection and why we celebrate Easter. The resurrection of Jesus, who overcame death, shattered the exclusive faith of those who thought they alone were chosen, and declared a new realm of grace prepared by God. Through the risen Jesus, the cross—a tool of execution—was transformed into a symbol of grace, atonement, and great love. Through the risen Jesus, the disciples boldly participated in the expanded Kingdom movement. They continued to cross boundaries, preach to Samaritans and Gentiles, and proclaim God’s new plan: that all who believe in Jesus may be saved.

35. We, who celebrate Easter today, must stand in the same direction. We must not conform to the prideful notion that we control everything, but live as believers who confess the resurrection. God still desires to love beyond our thoughts and frameworks—to cross boundaries. He desires that we live in the firm belief that anyone who believes in Jesus can be saved. This is the resurrection faith we confess.

36. No longer do we fear the cross, but see it as a symbol of God’s immense grace and love. No longer do we see suffering as a barrier to life, but as the path through which God leads us to maturity and growth. No longer do wounds bind us or cause us to fall as Satan desires. Just as Jesus broke the chains of death and rose again, we can overcome and live new lives. We must believe that our lives have been invited out of prejudice and discrimination into the broader love and grace God leads us into, and we must dedicate our lives to realizing God’s kingdom on earth where anyone is loved.

37. Jesus is risen. He overcame the power of death and rose again. I believe that those who confess the resurrection will live this new life prepared by God. And I believe that Yeolin Church will be firmly established as a church that testifies to the power of the resurrection. I sincerely hope that you and I will strive together for this purpose.