Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Conscientiousness
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Easter 2
April 23, 2006
Text: Acts 3:13–15, 17–26
*Strike 3! You’re Safe!*
After D. Neuendorf
Introduction: There aren’t very many experiences that are truly universal, but I’ll bet I can think of one.
I’ll bet that almost everyone here has played baseball at least once, if not they have watched the game played.
For those that have played, I’ll bet that everyone here has struck out.
What do you remember?
I mean what do you remember about how that experience felt—striking out?
You’ve waited in the lineup for a long time to get a turn at bat.
Now that it’s finally your turn, you have to walk out there all by yourself.
Standing there at the plate, swinging your bat around, you might feel kind of tough.
You’re the one with the big wooden stick, and you can just imagine yourself plastering that ball and blasting it over the fence.
So you step into the batter’s box in front of all those people; you get yourself set.
You look toward the pitcher and . . .
bam!
The ball snaps into the catcher’s mitt and the umpire calls, “Strike 1!”
Oh, that feels so stupid!
How could you have let that go by?
You got distracted.
You weren’t paying enough attention.
You straighten up and wiggle the bat.
You swing it over the plate once, right where the ball should be, and you get set again.
This time you’re ready as the pitcher winds up and throws and you /swing/ the bat with all your strength!
You swing so hard it makes you step forward out of the box, but you realize that you didn’t hit a thing.
The crowd feels the breeze.
You tried so hard you closed your eyes and the ball went right past you.
Now it’s trouble time.
You’ve got two strikes.
Your teammates are rolling their eyes.
Your coach is yelling at you.
The other team is shouting, “Eh batter batter.”
Your parents are sitting in the stands looking concerned and a little sheepish.
You know you’ve got only one more chance.
You can’t afford to mess this one up in front of everybody.
This time you’re going to do everything right!
The right stance.
The right grip.
The right concentration on the ball.
You don’t even take your eyes off of it as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, but you’re not sure.
Is it too high?
Is it a little outside?
Is it going to be a ball?
And you hesitate for just that split second, and then it’s too late.
The ball goes by you and snaps into the catcher’s mitt, and you’re standing there with the bat still on your shoulder.
It’s the worst feeling in the world.
Your heart turns to wax as the umpire yells, “Strike 3!” He doesn’t have to yell, you know.
You’re standing right next to him.
They only do that to rub it in.
And you have to drag yourself back to the silent dugout.
It’s not like you went down fighting.
It’s not like they had to throw you out.
There was no burst of running and blaze of glory.
You simply watched the ball go by.
All that is left is long walk back to the condemning glances of your teammates.
You take your seat on the bench, with your eyes looking at the dirt beneath your feet.
Boy, does that bring back memories.
Do you know what it means to fail?
Do you know how it feels in that moment when you realize what you’ve done?
Do you remember the lecture—maybe it was only a few sentences, but it felt like it lasted for hours, as if they were just laying on the guilt.
“Didn’t I tell you about this?” your father asks.
“Don’t you know better than to do that?”
your mother lectures.
“Honey, didn’t you promise me?
Haven’t we been over this before?”
your spouse says to you for the hundredth time.
“I thought I told you,” your boss says.
“Weren’t you at the meeting?
Weren’t you paying attention?
Do you have any idea how much this is going to cost the company?
And do you realize what that might mean?”
I’m sure it only lasts a minute—maybe even less—but it feels like a hundred years.
It feels as if every word is dropping another load of bricks onto your back.
It feels as if you’ll never recover from your failure.
If you know that feeling, then listen again to our Scripture lesson where Peter is addressing the crowd.
Peter and John have healed a man who was born with crippled legs, and it was such a remarkable miracle, such a startling miracle, that everyone is running around talking about it.
The man himself is walking and leaping and praising God.
And now, in this happy crowd, Peter gives them “the business”:
When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?
Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.
/You handed him over to be killed/, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go.
/You disowned the Holy and Righteous One/ and asked that a murderer be released to you.
/You killed the author of life/, but God raised him from the dead.
We are witnesses of this.
By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong.
It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.” (vv 12–16, emphasis added)
We saw what you did, Peter says.
God finally sent the answer to all of our prayers, and you killed him!
“You handed him over to be killed”: strike 1! “You disowned the Holy and Righteous One”: strike 2! “You killed the author of life”: strike 3!
Imagine the crushing impact of Peter’s words.
They were caught in their rejoicing and excitement, and their happiness was turned into shame.
The Jesus who had made this man walk was the very same Jesus whom they had killed.
The One whom God had appointed was the very One whom they had betrayed.
The One whom all the prophets had announced and for whom they had all been waiting expectantly was the very same Messiah whom they had disowned, denied, beaten, and killed.
“You killed the author of life.”
“/But/ God raised him from the dead.”
Peter laid the burden of the Law on the shoulders of his now silent listeners.
He crushed them with the truth of their sin.
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