Sermon– Acts 9:32-43 – Tabitha, get up

 Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon– Acts 9:32-43 – Tabitha, get up
Presbyterian Church of Easton
May 8, 2022

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Good morning and welcome to the Presbyterian Church of Easton.  I am continuing today with my series of sermons on the reaction to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  We are looking at what happened in the days, months and years following the event to see if there is evidence that the resurrection truly happened or if it was some type of conspiracy hoax.  

Over the last two weeks we looked at what happened to the lives of two people, Peter and Paul.  We applied a test from the first century rabbi, Gamaliel, that if the resurrection was true then we should expect to see transformation in the lives of Jesus’ followers, but if it was a hoax then we should see the followers of Jesus scatter return to their old lives and become irrelevant to history.  We saw that the lives of both Peter and Paul were transformed in such an extraordinary way that the only explanation was that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the cause of their transformations.

Today we will continue to look at the reactions to the resurrection, but our test of the validity of our belief in the resurrection will be different.  Instead of using the Gamaliel test that we used the last two weeks we will be using a test that Jesus proposed early in his ministry.   

Luke 7:20-23

20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”

21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Some messengers came to Jesus from John the Baptist asking if Jesus was truly the messiah they had all been waiting for.  Jesus’ reply was that the truth of his identity could be found in what he was doing.  The test that Jesus was suggesting was that if he was the messiah we should see him perform miracles such as healing the lame and bringing the dead back to life.  If we see these things happening, according to Jesus, then we know to believe that he is truly the messiah.  

Today we will be using this same test and applying it to the followers of Jesus Christ after the resurrection.  If the resurrection is true then we should see the apostles healing the sick and raising the dead to new life.  We will apply this test to another one of Jesus’ followers.  This one is a woman, a disciple of Jesus Christ, named Tabitha.  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)

Acts 9:32-43   32 As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the saints in Lydda.  33 There he found a man named Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years.  34 "Aeneas," Peter said to him, "Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and take care of your mat." Immediately Aeneas got up.  35 All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.  

So let’s apply Jesus’ test.   What did Peter do and what does this say about Jesus’ resurrection?   Peter simply announced that the risen Christ had healed a man who had been bedridden for eight year.   Amazingly, he was healed.   And we hear that everyone in that town saw the miracle and believed that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead.  This gives us great assurance that the resurrection really took place.   Let’s turn to the next story.   

Acts 9:36  In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor.  37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.  38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, "Please come at once!"  

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.  40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.  41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive.  42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.  43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

 

Tabitha had died and the widows were crying.  This was a horrible tragedy for the widows.  Not only had they lost their husbands, but no one in their families would take care of them.  There were no sons, or brother-in-laws, or aging fathers who would take care of them.  In an age before women were accepted in the workplace and before they became eligible for Social Security benefits widows who had no family to care for them became destitute.  They were homeless begging for food.  Widows were the poorest of the poor.

Tabitha was a disciple of Jesus Christ who had followed Jesus’ example of caring for the poor.  Her ministry was to the widows.  She made clothes for them.  So when she died the widows had nothing but their grief and their tears.

But the widows remembered something that Tabitha had told them when she was alive.  They remembered the stories she had told them about Jesus, and how he had brought sight to the blind, healed the sick, and even brought the dead back to life.  Maybe, just maybe, they thought if they contacted some of Jesus’ followers, they could bring Tabitha back to life.  At least it was worth a try so they decided to send a letter to Peter asking him to please come at once.  And since no Hebrew man was likely to pay any attention to widows they sent the letter by a couple of Christian men hoping that Peter would be persuaded to come.

When Peter arrived he was taken upstairs to the room where Tabitha’s dead body had been placed.  The widows were in the room, crying.  Each one came over to Peter and through their tears they showed him the garments that Tabitha had sown out of her great love for them.  Surely, they thought, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ and promise of eternal life are true then Peter should be able to raise their beloved Tabitha from the dead and restore her to life.

At this point Peter must have remembered that day when Jesus sent him out as an apostle.  Let me read to you what happened that day.

Matthew 10:  5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.  6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.  7 As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'  8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.

Remembering that Jesus had given him the power to raise the dead Peter cleared the room, bowed his head and prayed.  He asked the risen Jesus to restore Tabitha to life.  And after his prayer he looked over at the dead woman and said, “Tabitha, get up.”   And so it happened.  She rose from the dead.  Proving that the resurrection of Jesus Christ did happen and assuring us of the promise of eternal life because the risen Jesus Christ raised Tabitha from death to life.

I’ll leave it to your imagination to see the scene when the widows returned to the upper room and saw that Tabitha was alive.  What I can tell you is that belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead spread throughout Joppa that day.

So Jesus raised Tabitha from the dead.  This is the proof that we need to believe that Jesus, himself, rose from the dead to new life.  And if we believe this the promise is that we will live beyond death as well.    

What about today, is Jesus still living and at work in our world?  I think the answer is “yes”. But, shouldn’t we expect some signs of this.  If Jesus is alive today shouldn’t we see the lame walking and the dead returning to life?   I don’t know about you but I have attended many funerals and I have yet to see a Pastor, after prayer, tell a dead person to get up and have that person rise up from the casket.  If something like that ever happened here in Easton, we would have to find a way to accommodate the tens of thousands of people who would come to the Eastern Shore to worship with us.   Consider these words also from the Apostle Paul.

 1 Corinthians 12:7-11  7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.  8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,  9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,  10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.  11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

So it seems to me that if the Holy Spirit is with us, and I believe that it is, we should be receiving spiritual gifts of healing and miraculous power.  And we exercise these gifts, as Peter did, through prayer.  Scripture tells us that Jesus healed the sick and gave this power to us to heal in his name.  Jesus simply spoke a command and people were healed.  For us we heal by praying in Jesus’ name.  And when we pray in confidence for Jesus to heal us or a loved one we are filled with hope. 

When we pray for healing we must first understand that God desires healing for all who experience illness.  This understanding allows us to anticipate that our prayers will be heard and acted upon.  We must also have compassion for those for whom we pray.  Our prayers for healing will only be effective if we truly desire for someone to be healed.  When we pray for someone who is ill we become vulnerable, but we take the risk because the reward is so great.  And finally we must always remember that when we pray for healing we are not doing magic.  There is no direct cause and effect relationship between prayers and healing.  Many times our prayers do not have the desired result.  But we should not be discouraged because God heals in many different ways; our job is just to pray for healing and to trust God to act.

Miracles in the early church confirmed the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.   It confirmed that the Holy Spirit was present with the church.   And the Holy Spirit is here with us today.   So boldly pray for healing and praise God for his response to your prayer.  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, just as Peter bowed his head to you in prayer we bow our heads in prayer.  We asked that you heal us and our loved ones of our illnesses and diseases.  We trust that your presence and love will be with us no matter what happens.  And we believe that even though our loved ones may die in this life, you will one day raise them to new life in the presence of you, God the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Sermon - Acts 9:7-21 - “My Chosen Instrument”

 Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Presbyterian Church of Easton
Sermon - Acts 9:7-21 - “My Chosen Instrument”
May 1, 2022

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Good morning and welcome to Presbyterian Church of Easton on this glorious Spring Day, our Lord’s Day and this third Sunday of Easter.  I am continuing my series of sermons on the reactions to the resurrection.  

Our method of study comes from the first century Jewish scholar, Gamaliel, who suggested that if the resurrection was true we would see God’s transformative effects on the followers of Jesus and they would be successful in bringing people to faith in Jesus Christ.  But if the resurrection was a hoax then we would expect the followers of Jesus to scatter and go back to their old lives and live in obscurity.  So by looking at what happened to the followers of Jesus we can determine whether or not the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is true.  And we know that belief in the resurrection is crucial for our eternal lives.  So let’s get to this important work, but first 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)

Many years ago I attended two weddings just a couple of weeks apart.  Old friends were getting married.  There was great joy and celebration those days.  Each couple loved each other very much and there was great hope for both of these marriages.  But after a few years,  I learned that both of these couples had separated.  The passion that once brought them together has turned into anger which has pushed them apart.  This has caused me to reflect this week on the relationship between passion and anger.

I have seen new Christians come to faith in Jesus Christ with great passion.  This passion is shown in their strong desire to worship, pray and study scripture.  But sometimes, after a while, when their expectations of the faith are not met their passion turns to anger and they leave the church.  Sometimes this happens when they pray for healing for a loved one, healing that never comes.  Sometimes they pray for a job that they never get.  Sometimes they expect to always experience joy as a Christian and are shocked when they still experience pain, grief and guilt. 

So it occurs to me that both marriages and faith start with great passion and expectations, but these passions can turn to anger if our expectations are not met.

We can see all of this in the Apostle Paul.  Paul was a Jew growing up in Turkey in a small city called Tarsus.  He was named after the first king of Israel, Saul, his Hebrew name.  He was passionate about his faith.  As a young man he was sent to Jerusalem to study with the great rabbi, Gamaliel.  He was so passionate about studying and obeying scripture he became a Pharisee.  He was passionate about keeping his faith pure and this required that everyone obey God’s commands.

But his passion turned to anger whenever he thought that his faith was being corrupted.  He was angered by Greek and Roman influences on Judaism.  And when a Jewish sect, called the Way, began proclaiming their crucified leader as God, his anger turned violent.  Paul formed a group of thugs to harass these heretics.  And one incident led to the death of one of the leaders of church, a deacon, Stephen.   As a result of Paul’s gang-like activity, the followers of Jesus Christ went underground.  Many Christians fled Jerusalem while the leaders went into hiding.  It appeared that Paul’s violent efforts were successful.

When Paul heard that a group of Christians had fled to Syria he received diplomatic permission to go to Damascus to arrest the so called heretics and bring them back to Jerusalem to be thrown in jail.  And it was while Paul and his thugs were on their way to Damascus that Paul was stopped by a bright light which blinded him.

Just as God had appeared to Moses in a burning bush, the risen Jesus Christ appeared to Paul in that bright light.  And Paul began to realize that he was not persecuting heretics; rather he was persecuting his own God.  And this brings us to today’s scripture lesson.

 Acts 9:7-21  7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.  8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.  9 For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.  

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!" "Yes, Lord," he answered.  11 The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.  12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."  

13 "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.  14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."  

15 But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.  16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."  

17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord-- Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here-- has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."  18 

Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,  19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.  

20 At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.  21 All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?"

These are legitimate questions being asked.  What happened to Paul to transform him from being a violent thug into being a great evangelist?  Let’s take a look.

As a result of the experience of blindness, Paul was given an opportunity to rest from his anger and think deeply about his faith.  We are told that he spent three days praying. We know that Paul then went back to Jerusalem where he continued with daily prayers in the temple.  

And so it was prayer that caused his anger to dissipate so that he could accept the reality that Jesus had been raised from the dead.  It was through prayer that Paul experienced the reality of the Holy Spirit to help him pray as he should and reveal to him the wisdom of God.  He found out that through prayer his faith would be perfected.  Paul offered prayers every morning and evening.  And it was through prayer that Paul found the ability to boldly proclaim the good news that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead.  

Through prayer the great persecutor of the church became its greatest evangelist.  Paul set for himself the goal of bringing faith in Jesus Christ to everyone living around the Mediterranean.  Paul taught in synagogues and set up churches in people’s homes.  The letters he wrote to these churches are the earliest writings in our New Testament.  It is through the Apostle Paul that we understand what faith in Jesus Christ means.

So let’s apply our test from Gamaliel.  Do we see the kind of transformation in Paul that would lead us to believe that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead was an historical fact?  There is no doubt to the answer to this question.  By his encounter with the risen Jesus, Paul was transformed from a persecutor of Christians into a passionate evangelist bringing many people to the faith.  It was through Paul’s efforts that gentiles, non-Jews, began coming to faith in Jesus Christ in large numbers.  This transformation in Paul’s life indicates that something extraordinary had happened.  And we know that what did happen was nothing less than the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

So what do we do if, like Paul, our passion has turned to anger?  What should we do if we begin to hate the ones we once loved?  What should we do if our passion for the faith turns to anger?  The promise of scripture is that if you pray your anger will be transformed into passion and love.  

And this is why we worship the way we do.  Worship gives us time for prayer.  Just as Paul needed three days of blindness to have time for prayer we need time set aside each day for prayer.  And that is why we have our Wednesday Prayer Services and our worship on Sundays.  It carves out time in our busy days for prayer.  And this prayer will transform our lives.

If our lives are transformed the people of Easton will notice that something has happened to this church, just as the people of the first century noticed that something had happened to Paul.  If others see that we are transformed they will want to join with us in that transformation.  So pray that passion for the faith will return to our hearts and that this passion will attract others into our fellowship.

So we have seen in the transformation of Peter and Paul that the resurrection of Jesus Christ must be true and that through the work of the Holy Spirit and through the practice of daily prayer we too will be transformed as proof of the resurrection.   This transformation will remove our anger and restore to us our passion for the faith.  And all of this is a gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Let’s pray.

Lord Jesus, we pray today asking that you remove our anger and restore to us our passion.  Bless us with this transformation as proof of your resurrection from the dead.  And use it to bring new people to our church.  This we pray in your glorious name. Amen.

Sermon Acts 5:27-32 “Resurrection”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon Acts 5:27-32 “Resurrection”
Presbyterian Church of Easton
April 24, 2022

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Good morning and welcome to this service of worship on the second Sunday of Easter.  Before we begin this morning I would like to tell you about something Grace and I are involved with.   We serve on the board of a brand new mission organization called Change Destiny, Life Africa.   

Change Destiny, Life Africa, was established by Samson Karens, an international student at Washington Theological Seminary.   Samson is from a small agricultural village called Naivasha in Kenya, Africa.   As a child Samson grew up on the streets and was getting into trouble.   A Christian missionary found him and got him involved with a church established by the African Inland Mission.   Samson received faith in Jesus Christ, and became a pastor.   Now he is studying in America and has set up Change Destiny, Life Africa as a mission organization to help the children in Naivasha, Kenya.

In June, Grace and I will be traveling to Naivasha with Samson and the Board of Directors of Change Destiny, Life Africa.   Please pray for us as we prepare for our journey.  If you would like more information about Change Destiny, Life Africa please visit the website:  www.changedestinylifeafrica.org.

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)

Over 20 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 City.  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 my house 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, the risen 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 Jesus’ 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 returned.  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 happened to Peter to make this sort of transformation in his behavior?  Clearly Peter’s fear is gone and he has become 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 feared.  On the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter was afraid that he might die.  He hid behind a sword.   He hid behind a denial.  Then after Mary’s  announcement that the Lord had risen, Peter hid in the upper room where he 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 must be 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 he would fail.  Here is what happened next.

Acts 5:41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

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.  After the experience of the risen Jesus Peter has been transformed.

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?  Yes! The transformation of Peter could have occurred no other way.   By his encounter with the risen Jesus, his fear is gone and he is boldly going forward proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

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 people will disbelieve the resurrection.  But if we live as disciples of Jesus Christ by boldly proclaiming the Gospel, they will know that the risen Jesus lives in our lives and that his resurrection must be true.

Let’s pray.   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 news which we have heard with boldness.  Glory to you Christ, our risen Lord.  Amen.