# Bishop Barron – This Sermon Will Speak Straight to Your Heart

An episode of [Daily Sermons With Bishop Robert Barron](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6783446284), 8 Sep 2026, 14 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74918834/this_sermon_will_cut_straight_to_your_heart_bishop_barron_s_sermon.mp3



## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Peace be with you, friends, all during the Easter season.
[0:02] Speaker 1: Of course, we read from the Acts of the Apostles,
[0:04] Speaker 1: one of the really great texts. I often tell people,
[0:07] Speaker 1: just starting out with the Bible, maybe read through the
[0:09] Speaker 1: Acts of the Apostles first. You know, it's adventurous, it's fascinating,
[0:13] Speaker 1: and also it's about us because we're all meant to
[0:17] Speaker 1: be apostles sent by the Lord Jesus. So the stories
[0:21] Speaker 1: we read there are meant to be about the church. Anyway,
[0:24] Speaker 1: during Easter, we really get into the Acts of the Apostles.
[0:26] Speaker 1: And I love our first reading, for this fourth Sunday
[0:29] Speaker 1: of Easter, because it's part of Peter's oration on Pentecost morning.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Keep in mind, Peter, who was so frightened that at
[0:39] Speaker 1: the moment of truth, he denied he even knew the
[0:42] Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, that timid, frightened man. Now, filled with the
[0:47] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, becomes this bold preacher. He stands up in
[0:52] Speaker 1: the temple area, which is a way of saying in
[0:54] Speaker 1: that ancient Greek, time and place, something like Times Square.
[0:59] Speaker 1: He's standing up in the middle of the most crowded
[1:04] Speaker 1: and prominent place in the city, and then he boldly proclaims,
[1:09] Speaker 1: he raised his voice and proclaims, listen, let the whole
[1:15] Speaker 1: house of Israel know for certain that God has made
[1:18] Speaker 1: both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify. Well,
[1:24] Speaker 1: in a way, this is the mother of all sermons.
[1:28] Speaker 1: That if my sermon today doesn't reflect this, I'm not
[1:31] Speaker 1: really preaching the gospel. You know that story I love?
[1:34] Speaker 1: It's from the time of the Reformation. I think it
[1:36] Speaker 1: was in Scotland. There was a church where they said
[1:38] Speaker 1: the sexton had the job of locking the preacher into
[1:42] Speaker 1: the pulpit, and he wouldn't let him out until he
[1:44] Speaker 1: had preached the gospel. Well, there's something here that unless
[1:48] Speaker 1: you're saying some version of this in your homily, you're
[1:51] Speaker 1: not really preaching. Now look what Peter says. This Jesus,
[1:56] Speaker 1: whom you crucified. Here's the first thing. No hiding. There
[2:02] Speaker 1: are no excuses possible. No one can say, I'm okay
[2:06] Speaker 1: and you're okay. Deep down, we're all good. You know,
[2:08] Speaker 1: we don't really need a savior. No, no, no, no.
[2:11] Speaker 1: Authentic Christian preaching always boldly names the problem of sin. See,
[2:19] Speaker 1: if we don't need a Savior, we're not going to
[2:21] Speaker 1: appreciate Jesus. That's who he is. If we start, you know,
[2:26] Speaker 1: soft-headling our sin, then we will not understand him at all.
[2:30] Speaker 1: And he will devolve into this kind of, you know,
[2:33] Speaker 1: pop culture version of the teacher, the guru, and so on. No, no.
[2:39] Speaker 1: This Jesus whom you crucified, the author of life came,
[2:43] Speaker 1: Peter says in other plays, the author of life came
[2:46] Speaker 1: and you killed him. If Jesus came back now, think
[2:52] Speaker 1: of Dostoevsky here in the Grand Inquisitor scene. Jesus came
[2:57] Speaker 1: back now. What will we do? We'd kill him. Trust me. Now, why?
[3:01] Speaker 1: Because he's the embodiment of God's order, of God's mind,
[3:05] Speaker 1: God's heart, God's way of being. And we sinners are
[3:08] Speaker 1: opposed to it. That's why Jesus draws us out as sinners.
[3:14] Speaker 1: He shines a light so there's no place to hide. Well, see,
[3:18] Speaker 1: good preaching will always have this quality. It doesn't make excuses.
[3:22] Speaker 1: It doesn't pretend we're okay. No, no, it names sin. Okay,
[3:27] Speaker 1: but there is, of course, more. That's all there is. Well,
[3:29] Speaker 1: then we just stay in a state of depression. Let
[3:33] Speaker 1: the whole house of Israel know for certain what? God
[3:38] Speaker 1: has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified. Lord. Lord.
[3:47] Speaker 1: That word packs a punch. Kyrios in the Greek of
[3:51] Speaker 1: the New Testament. Had a double sense, of course, a
[3:54] Speaker 1: kind of political sense, because I've told you before, Kaiser
[3:58] Speaker 1: was Kyrios. Caesar was the Lord. The emperor, the top guy,
[4:04] Speaker 1: the one that we're listening to. No, no, this fisherman
[4:09] Speaker 1: from Galilee, this is kind of nobody. but now standing
[4:12] Speaker 1: up in Times Square, standing up in the great public
[4:15] Speaker 1: place of the temple and saying, no, God has made
[4:18] Speaker 1: this Jesus, whom you crucified, he's made him the Lord. Huh,
[4:23] Speaker 1: not Caiaphas, not Pilate, not Caesar Augustus, not Tiberius Caesar,
[4:29] Speaker 1: not any of these people. Huh, Jesus, whom you crucified, crucified, carpenter,
[4:38] Speaker 1: is now the Lord. He's the one you follow. He's
[4:44] Speaker 1: the one you follow. You know, good Christian preaching will
[4:48] Speaker 1: always have that quality of calling you to submit to
[4:53] Speaker 1: the lordship of Jesus. But there's a double sense now.
[4:55] Speaker 1: So yes, the political idea. But kurios, well, that's the
[5:01] Speaker 1: Greek translation for a Hebrew person of Adonai. You wouldn't
[5:06] Speaker 1: say the sacred name of God. We say Yahweh, but
[5:09] Speaker 1: you wouldn't pronounce that. You call him Lord, Adonai. Huh.
[5:16] Speaker 1: God has made Lord this Jesus whom you crucify. Peter
[5:21] Speaker 1: is affirming also the divinity of Jesus. He's not just, oh,
[5:25] Speaker 1: a greater political leader than Caesar, a greater cultural figure
[5:29] Speaker 1: than Caesar. No, no. He's, as we say in the Creed,
[5:33] Speaker 1: God from God, light from light, true God from true God.
[5:36] Speaker 1: Listen now, intensifying his primacy. He's the one. He's the one.
[5:46] Speaker 1: Let me glance. I'm going to focus on this first reading,
[5:48] Speaker 1: but let me glance at the Gospel from John. It
[5:55] Speaker 1: talks about Jesus now as the shepherd, right? He walks
[6:02] Speaker 1: ahead of them, and the sheep follow him. Why? Because
[6:06] Speaker 1: they recognize his voice, and they will not follow a stranger.
[6:12] Speaker 1: It's the same idea. Who's the kurios? Well, there are
[6:15] Speaker 1: a lot of candidates for kurios, politically, culturally, every other way.
[6:21] Speaker 1: There's one. There's one Lord. One Lord. Jesus Christ. Greater
[6:31] Speaker 1: than Caesar, yes, because he's Adonai. He's also the incarnation
[6:37] Speaker 1: of the God of Israel. That's bold stuff, everybody. And
[6:42] Speaker 1: that's at the heart of Christian preaching. God's made both
[6:46] Speaker 1: Lord and Christ. So Christos in the Greek here, we
[6:51] Speaker 1: get Christ from that. But Christos would translate Mashiach. That's
[6:56] Speaker 1: what Peter would have had in his mind, Mashiach, the
[6:59] Speaker 1: anointed one. Who's the anointed one? In the Old Testament,
[7:03] Speaker 1: it was David. Remember when the prophet Samuel anoints David
[7:07] Speaker 1: as king, it says the spirit rushed upon David. He's
[7:12] Speaker 1: the anointed king who unites the tribes of Israel into
[7:16] Speaker 1: a great nation and then begins the building of an empire.
[7:21] Speaker 1: David becomes thereby the greatest king in the Old Testament.
[7:26] Speaker 1: And following him, since David failed, David was a sinner,
[7:32] Speaker 1: David died, but there was the hope that there'd be
[7:35] Speaker 1: a Mashiach after him, greater than David, the definitive David,
[7:42] Speaker 1: who would gather the tribes of Israel and now become
[7:46] Speaker 1: shepherd for the whole world. That's what Peter means. That's
[7:51] Speaker 1: what he means. Here's something else. Listen as this thing begins.
[7:55] Speaker 1: Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and
[7:57] Speaker 1: proclaimed the excitement of being a Christian. That's what you
[8:03] Speaker 1: sense on Pentecost morning. You know, we can become so
[8:08] Speaker 1: blandly acquiescent, like, yeah, I've been a Christian forever. Oh, yeah, Christianity,
[8:13] Speaker 1: old Christianity. No, no, it's a permanent revolution. It's a
[8:19] Speaker 1: permanent point of excitement. Why? Because Christianity represents the fulfillment
[8:25] Speaker 1: of the great story of Israel, the fulfillment of the
[8:29] Speaker 1: hopes of Israel. As Paul says, the yes to all
[8:34] Speaker 1: the promises made to Israel. to catch that excitement about
[8:38] Speaker 1: Jesus the Christos, the Mashiach. That's what it's all about. Okay,
[8:43] Speaker 1: so there's the essential preaching. There it is. All sermons
[8:48] Speaker 1: should have that basic form. But now listen. When they
[8:51] Speaker 1: heard this, they were cut to the heart. Love that.
[8:54] Speaker 1: Love that. I'll tell you, the sign of bland preaching
[8:59] Speaker 1: The sign of ineffective preaching is it cuts no one
[9:02] Speaker 1: to the heart. Oh, it might, you know, tickle the ears.
[9:06] Speaker 1: It might beguile the mind a little bit. It might
[9:09] Speaker 1: make you smile. It might be a little bit entertaining.
[9:12] Speaker 1: So what? That's bad preaching. But when you preach Christ
[9:18] Speaker 1: and him crucified, Christ, Lord, and Mashiach, trust me, people
[9:24] Speaker 1: will be cut to the heart. Think of... the two
[9:28] Speaker 1: disciples on the road to Emmaus, were not our hearts
[9:32] Speaker 1: burning within us when he opened for us the scriptures.
[9:36] Speaker 1: That's the way it works. If you preach and everyone yawns,
[9:42] Speaker 1: you preach and everybody says, yeah, yeah, I heard that
[9:43] Speaker 1: a hundred times. You preach and, oh yeah, I heard
[9:46] Speaker 1: that on TV. Then you're not preaching. You're cutting no
[9:51] Speaker 1: one to the heart. It has to be about Jesus
[9:57] Speaker 1: him crucified, Jesus risen from the dead, Jesus who alone
[10:02] Speaker 1: is the Lord and Messiah. Okay, so they're cut to
[10:07] Speaker 1: the heart, and then there comes naturally a question, and
[10:11] Speaker 1: here it is. What are we to do? So the
[10:16] Speaker 1: people respond. That's great. And again, it's a sign that
[10:20] Speaker 1: you're preaching well if the people that are listening to
[10:23] Speaker 1: you say, well, all right, what do I do in
[10:26] Speaker 1: response to this extraordinary message? Great. If you preach and
[10:30] Speaker 1: no one's tempted to say, what do I do? You
[10:34] Speaker 1: haven't cut them to the heart. All right. And what
[10:37] Speaker 1: does Peter say to them? And how important this is, everybody. Listen. Repent.
[10:42] Speaker 1: Be baptized, every one of you, in the name of
[10:44] Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. for the forgiveness of your sins, and you
[10:48] Speaker 1: will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The whole
[10:51] Speaker 1: church is in those lines. The whole of the church. Repent.
[10:59] Speaker 1: Metanoia in Greek. Go beyond the mind you have. It
[11:03] Speaker 1: means turn around. Turn around. It's the life you've been leading.
[11:06] Speaker 1: That ain't it. If Jesus Christ is Lord, he's the
[11:09] Speaker 1: voice you listen to. He's the keeper of the gate.
[11:12] Speaker 1: You're the sheep. He's the shepherd. Well, then you think
[11:15] Speaker 1: like him, talk like him, act like him, react as
[11:19] Speaker 1: he would. That seeing the world through the lens of
[11:22] Speaker 1: Jesus becomes your whole life. That's what repentance means. If
[11:26] Speaker 1: you hear the gospel, you're cut to the heart, but
[11:28] Speaker 1: then you say, well, I go back to the old
[11:29] Speaker 1: way I lived. And then you haven't done it. It
[11:32] Speaker 1: hasn't worked for you, you know? Repent, but then be baptized,
[11:37] Speaker 1: every one of you, in the name of Jesus. Why
[11:39] Speaker 1: is baptism so important? Because it's an incorporation into the church.
[11:45] Speaker 1: I'll speak in boldly out of the Catholic tradition. This
[11:48] Speaker 1: is never just an individual thing. Our relationship to Jesus,
[11:53] Speaker 1: we become members of his mystical body, which means we're
[11:56] Speaker 1: connected to everybody else who's a member of the mystical body.
[12:00] Speaker 1: Baptism means we We follow the Lord with others. We
[12:04] Speaker 1: follow the Lord in community. And then what's going to happen?
[12:08] Speaker 1: You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In
[12:12] Speaker 1: a way, everybody, that's what the Acts of the Apostles
[12:15] Speaker 1: is about. Jesus, having ascended to heaven to a place
[12:19] Speaker 1: of lordship, now governs his church. How? By sending his
[12:26] Speaker 1: Holy Spirit into the world to equip us for his work.
[12:32] Speaker 1: So you hear the word about Jesus. You're cut to
[12:34] Speaker 1: the heart. You say, I'm going to repent. I'm going
[12:36] Speaker 1: to join the church. And what does that do? It
[12:40] Speaker 1: opens me now to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
[12:44] Speaker 1: As I preach these words here, I'm just entering into
[12:47] Speaker 1: confirmation season. I'll be confirming, I don't know, thousands of
[12:49] Speaker 1: kids in my diocese. What does confirmation do? It stirs
[12:53] Speaker 1: up in them the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding, counsel, piety, fortitude,
[12:59] Speaker 1: fear of the Lord. What are those meant to do?
[13:02] Speaker 1: They're meant to equip you now to be Christ in
[13:04] Speaker 1: the world. There's the whole program. Look at it now.
[13:09] Speaker 1: Acts of the Apostles, second chapter, Peter speaking on the
[13:12] Speaker 1: day of Pentecost. It doesn't get any better. It doesn't
[13:15] Speaker 1: get any clearer. It's the same dynamics that obtain in
[13:19] Speaker 1: the life of the church. Read this text, everybody, and
[13:23] Speaker 1: let it cut you to the heart Let it lead
[13:28] Speaker 1: you to Christ as the Mashiach and the Lord of
[13:32] Speaker 1: your life. And then open yourself to the gift of
[13:37] Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit that will equip you now to become
[13:40] Speaker 1: Christ to the world. It's all here. And God bless you.

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