Sermon – “The Transformation of Peter” – Acts 5:27-32

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – “The Transformation of Peter” – Acts 5:27-32
Beaver Dam and Pitts Creek Churches
April 11, 2010

Listen to this sermon.

Good morning and welcome to this service of worship on the second Sunday of Easter. Last week we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we will begin a look at reactions to the resurrection. Taking a lesson from the first century rabbi named Gamaliel we will be testing whether the resurrection was a miracle from God or a hoax perpetrated by a group of people who had followed Jesus. Gamaliel suggested that we test this in the following way: Acts 5:38-39 if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God." So if the resurrection is false we would expect the disciples of Jesus to scatter and return to their old lives. But if the resurrection is true then it is from God and we would expect transformation and new life. Our study today is on the disciple Peter and his reaction to the resurrection. What happens to Peter will show us if the resurrection is true or if he was a part of a conspiracy to plan a hoax.

But before we get to all of this please pray with me. “Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

Ten years ago I was staying with a Christian family living in a Palestinian village. They had several large locks on their front door. I asked the owner of the house why there were so many locks. He responded with a story I will never forget. One day, he was walking home from work as a librarian as a major Palestinian university. A group of Israeli soldiers picked him up and drove him home. They forced their way into his house and pointed automatic weapons at his young children. The soldiers then searched the house for the nonexistent terrorists they thought might be inside. The owner of the house put locks on the door to keep the soldiers out because he was afraid. And fear makes you live inside locked doors.

A year later I was back home in Northern Virginia driving around the Beltway to a sales call in Laurel Md. I was listening to the radio when I heard a report that an airplane had crashed into a building in New York. I was listening to a report from the Pentagon which was interrupted by an explosion. When I arrived in Laurel I saw the collapse of a skyscraper on a small grainy black and white television. Then I got back in the car, saw smoke rising from the Pentagon and drove home. I went inside and locked the door.

In the scripture that you heard earlier from the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John, Peter and the other disciples were hiding in an upper room. The doors were locked because Peter and the others were afraid. Peter became afraid that awful night when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. He thought that he could hide behind a sword, but found that there was no place to hide. Later that night Peter thought that he could hide behind a lie and denied that he was a follower of Jesus. And now Peter thinks he can hide behind locked doors.

But there is one thing that locked doors cannot keep out, Jesus. Jesus, somehow, came through the locked doors with a gift, the gift of peace that shattered their fears. Jesus knew that the fear that Peter and the others were experiencing was preventing them from leaving the locked room and boldly proclaiming his resurrection from the dead to the world. So Jesus gave them the gift of peace that removed their fear by breathing on them the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us to respond to God’s call by calming our fears and sending us outside our locked doors. So if the resurrection is true we would expect Peter and the other disciples to leave the locked room behind and boldly go into Jerusalem to declare resurrection to the world. If it was not true then we would expect Peter to remain in fear and eventually to return to obscurity as a fisherman. What happened to Peter?

The Book of Acts tells us that Peter and the others boldly left that room; went straight to the temple and proclaimed for all to hear that Jesus, whom the religious and political leaders had arrested and crucified, had defeated death by rising from the grave. The religious leaders, who had had Jesus executed, saw what Peter and the others were doing and arrested them to make them stop. But that night God sent an angel to the jail, which freed Peter and the others, and commanded them to return to the temple and continue preaching as they had been doing. The religious leaders were surprised when they heard that Peter and the others had return. So they had Peter and the disciples arrested and brought in for questioning. And that brings us to today’s scripture.

Acts 5:27-32 27 Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than men! 30 The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead-- whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."

Could this be the same Peter we were talking about earlier? That Peter was hiding under the table in a locked room afraid to admit to being a follower of Jesus Christ. But this Peter boldly proclaims his faith directly to the High Priest who has ordered him to shut up. What has happed to Peter to make this sort of transformation in his behavior in the span of couple of months? Clearly Peter’s fear is gone and he has become most courageous. What has caused this transformation? How do we explain all of this?

The Bible is clear. The transformation in Peter’s behavior, and the loss of his fear came about because of his encounter with the risen Jesus Christ. Peter knew that since the followers of Jesus were promised resurrection, death was no longer something to be fear. On the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter was afraid that he might die. There in the upper room Peter was afraid that he would be arrested and executed. But after his encounter with the risen Jesus he knew that death was no longer something to fear. And this emboldened him to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ to everyone in Jerusalem including the people who had put Jesus to death. His encounter with the risen Jesus Christ transformed his life and this transformation is the evidence we need to know that the resurrection is true.

So how was it that Jesus transformed Peter from being a scared fisherman into a courageous evangelist for the faith? Jesus did this by breathing on him. Just as God had breathed life into Adam so too did Jesus breathe courage and new life into Peter. And this breath or spirit of Jesus is still with us. We know it as the Holy Spirit. So it is the Holy Spirit who calms our fears so that we might exit our locked rooms and boldly proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead.

So what happened to Peter after he defied the High Priest and the religious leaders in Jerusalem? Was he arrested again and crucified like Christ? No, because the Holy Spirit blew across the Sanhedrin that day. The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Gamaliel to the religious leaders and told them to let Peter go with a test. If Peter was doing God’s work he would be successful, but if the work Peter was doing was not from God then if would fail. Peter passed this test. The church grew adding thousands of people. Peter became an evangelist to the gentiles bringing non-Jews to the faith. And tradition tells us that Peter later became the first Bishop of Rome.

Next week we will look at the amazing transformation of one of Gamaliel’s prized students. His name was Saul of Tarsus. Saul’s fear was so great he hid behind violence. But as we will see the transformative power of an encounter with the risen Jesus is even greater than we thought.

So is the resurrection of Jesus Christ true? Have we experienced the risen Christ? The world is watching as we take the test. Will the Holy Spirit calm our fears and make us courageous proclaimers of our faith in Jesus Christ? Or will we hide in fear behind locked doors? The world will know whether the resurrection is true or not by the transformation of our lives. If we live in fear the world will know that God is not with us and they will disbelieve the resurrection. But if we live as disciples of Jesus Christ they will know that the risen Jesus lives in our lives and that his resurrection must be true.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Calm our fears. Lead us out of our locked doors. And help us to proclaim the good new which we have heard with boldness. Glory to you Christ, our risen Lord. Amen.