Sunday, May 17, 2026
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Text: Acts 1:12-26
Sermon Audio
As we gather… In this text in Acts 1, we have what many consider to be the first call meeting where the Church gathers to call a pastor. In this case, it is selecting an apostle to succeed Judas who betrayed Jesus. The lot is cast and Matthias replaces Judas. Peter stands up and tells the group, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen” (Acts 1:24). When the Lord calls pastors to serve in His Church, congregations act as instruments of the Lord’s will, but ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who works through the call process to call pastors to serve in His Church. We can be thankful for the many men who have left their family and home to serve where the Lord calls him in the Church to shepherd the flock the Lord Jesus has given him.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
In this season of late spring, our minds are set to the work of the Holy Spirit. Next week we will observe Pentecost which celebrates the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in a special way, allowing them to speak in other languages so more people could understand God’s Word. Last month, we celebrated that many seminary students received their first calls to serve at churches across the country. Today, we celebrate the confirmation of Michaella Fresia who will be confirming the gifts the Holy Spirit gave her in her baptism.
Today we learn: THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT, HIS CHURCH PRAYERFULLY CALLS THE NEXT GENERATION OF CHRIST FOLLOWERS.
We will be using our first reading as the basis for our sermon today. In this text we see that the church gathers to call a pastor, namely, to appoint a successor to Judas to be the twelfth apostle. What are some things we can learn from today’s text?
First, I. The Holy Spirit gathers the Church. We read in our text, “And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”
The scene is set, Jesus had just ascended into heaven, and they wonder what will happen next. They gather together and devote themselves to prayer. The text later goes on to say that there are one hundred and twenty gathered together. Who is all there? Everyone! That’s the eleven apostles, the women—likely Mary Magdalene and the other women mentioned in the Gospels—even Mary, Jesus’ mom and His family.
What do they gather to do? They gather to find a successor to Judas who betrayed Jesus and took his own life. In other words, they are gathering together to call a new apostle.
To this day, when a congregation is looking for a new pastor, they gather together to call a new one. When the Church gathers to call a new pastor, who is there? Everyone! Most members want to be there to have a say in who gets to be their next pastor. The scene in the book of Acts is not unlike a modern call meeting.
On this occasion, we gather, not to look for a new pastor, but we gather for a confirmation. Who is here? Everyone! Well, maybe not everyone, but we see the Holy Spirit has gathered family and friends who are here for this special occasion, as well as the many faithful people who show up to Faith week in, week out. The Holy Spirit gathers the Church.
Second, II. The Holy Spirit promises the next generation of Christians. At Christ’s Ascension to heaven, He promised, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”” Christ sends His disciples to be witnesses to that which they saw. Moreover, Christ promised Peter that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church. The Church will remain until Christ descends from heaven just as He ascended into heaven.
But Peter, and the other eleven disciples no longer walk this earth. They have died and gone to be with Jesus. Luther explains in this quote from his Sermons on John, volume 22, page 482: “This ministry [of Word and Sacrament] will endure and is not to be replaced by any other. But the incumbents of this ministry do not remain; they die. This necessitates an ever-new supply of preachers, which calls for the employment of certain means. The ministry, that is, the Word of God, Baptism, and Holy Communion, came directly from Christ; but later Christ departed from this earth. Now a new way of sending was instituted, which works through man but is not of man. We were sent according to this method; according to it, we elect and send others, and we install them in their ministry to preach and to administer the Sacraments. This type of sending is also of God and commanded by God. Even though God resorts to our aid and to human agency, it is He Himself who sends laborers into His vineyard.” The Lord continues to send pastors to serve in His church just as He provided Matthias to succeed Judas.
As we celebrate a confirmation today, we are not ordaining a pastor, but we are celebrating the next generation of Christians who come forth to make a difference in the world. The next generation is here now.
Michaella, we talked about this in confirmation, that the purpose of life is not to get rich or famous—although those things themselves are not bad things—the purpose of life is to tell others about Jesus. As you continue to grow in your faith, you can tell others about Jesus in the workplace, among your friends in school, or even among your family. I know this seems like something in the far distant future, but one day the Lord may bless you with children, and you will have the gift of raising these children in the faith and teaching them the faith, also.
Third, III. The Holy Spirit qualifies these Christians. As Peter gathered the Church to call an apostle to succeed Judas, he laid down some ground rules. “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.””
Peter said that to be an apostle, you had to be an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus. Not anybody could be one of the twelve apostles. And that’s the key to it. Our faith is based not on a make-believe story or a fairytale. It is based on the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of a real man who really lived to give us real forgiveness, life, and salvation. Peter would say elsewhere, “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”
Our faith is founded on the Lord Jesus Christ who is true God who died on the cross to forgive our sins and rose again proving death has no power over us. He lived the perfect life for us when we couldn’t, so that we have hope for when we fail.
The Holy Spirit still qualifies pastors. Sometimes I will visit the seminary with some of my pastor friends and I will see the awkward young students there studying to be pastors, and sometimes we joke, “They must let anybody into this school.” Seminary must be the place where engineers, lawyers, and doctors who couldn’t cut it in the real world.
You find the opposite is true. I know many former engineers, doctors, and lawyers who made it through the rigorous demands of engineering, law, or medical school to only then study to be a pastor. Rather than being the oddballs of society, the Holy Spirit qualifies pastors to serve faithfully wherever they are called from among the best of us.
This day, Michaella, you are about to make some big promises. You will promise to faithfully hear God’s Word and receive the Lord’s Supper. You promise to forsake all even death, rather than fall away from this Church and confession. Who is sufficient for such a promise?! Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit is strengthening you even today as you by the grace of God can live out these promises first made in your baptism.
Finally, IV. The Holy Spirit prays with the Church for these Christians. Peter brings forth the names of two disciples, Joseph and Matthias. Before they cast lots to choose which one, they prayed, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”” The lot fell on Matthias and he succeeded Judas as the twelfth apostle.
The Holy Spirit gathers the Church to pray for her pastors. This summer, seventy-nine pastors in the LCMS will be ordained into the ministry across the United States. With these ordinations come the prayers of the Church that the pastors lead fruitful and faithful ministries. We pastors still need your prayers.
Michaella, today, the Church prays for you. We celebrate this milestone in your life, but we understand it to be one steppingstone in a lifetime walk with Jesus. We will continue to pray for you that you may remain faithful, even unto death, and we thank the Holy Spirit who has brought you up to this point in your life.
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard and keep you in the true faith unto life everlasting. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen!