We long that people would see Jesus and come to believe in him. How does that happen? Acts shows us disciples who are constantly pointing people to Jesus. In this talk Claire Coleman shows how two disciples, Peter and Dorcas, point others to Jesus.

I’m renowned in my family for not seeing what is right in front of me. There was a particular instance in recent years where I was visiting my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin and we were in their back garden having tea. Folkestone has over the years had many air shows and it’s not uncommon to see red arrows flying over the town. As we were eating I heard the planes, but I could not see them – my family have no idea how I missed them flying over and to be honest  I’m not sure either – I couldn’t see them. I believed they had been there but hadn’t managed to see it for myself. Another time when I was trekking in New Zealand there was an open grazing pasture with a forest tree line at the back of it. Everyone I was with was exclaiming how beautiful the deer were. Like these were the best deer you could ever hope to see. I couldn’t see a single deer in this big expanse of green. I felt like I was missing out, I even thought they might be messing me around and that there wasn’t really any deer in the field at all. It took me saying to my friend that I couldn’t see the deer and for them to patiently point out the tree line with about twenty beautiful deer in front of it for me to see, believe and know for myself that the deer were really there. I needed help to see. My friend, having seen the deer himself, was able to point out the deer to me.

I don’t know what you make of this picture here on the screen – what do you see? Do you see pink shapes on a white background or do you see something else? This was made for me years and years ago from some ladies in the church where I grew up. If you ignore the pink shapes and focus on the white, then the pink becomes the background with a white border around it and the word Jesus inside it. Sometimes we need help seeing Jesus, sometimes we need to help others to see Jesus for themselves.

These might be slightly silly stories to share. But in our passage from Acts today we see two miraculous events that are seen by people and because of what they see many come to believe in Jesus. 

5 mins

As we look at the passage we’ll explore what it is that is being seen, how that leads to belief in Jesus, the Son of God, saviour of the world and What part we can play in helping others to see Jesus more clearly.

The book of Acts starts with the disciples in ch 1 v4 being told by Jesus after his resurrection to wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Holy Spirit and then in v8 that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they will be Jesus’ witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’  And the book goes on to tell how the disciples did just that. They tell what they have seen Jesus do. Peter starts off as the main one preaching and witnessing to what Jesus has done by his words, he and John healed the lame man in Jesus’ name, they are arrested, on a number of occasions in fact but that doesn’t stop Peter witnessing to his fellow Jews about Jesus.

Which is why we find him in ch 9 v32 travelling about the country, going here and there visiting with the brother and sisters wherever he went (in the NIV the Lord’s people). Peter can’t help but share the good news of Jesus with others. In this travelling about the country we have these two stories where Peter is involved in the healing of Aeneas from paralysis  and Tabitha from death.

 These miracles parallel some of Jesus’ own miracles. We can read of when  Jesus healed a paralytic man who was lowered through the roof by his friends in Luke 5  and when  Jairus daughter was raised from death in Luke 8. Peter is doing nothing that hasn’t been seen before . However when Jesus performed these miracles they were signs of God’s coming kingdom and of Jesus being the son of God, the promised king who had power over sin, illness and death.

When Peter is involved in these miracles – Luke communicates clearly to us that it is Jesus Christ who healed Aeneas. It is not Peter in his own abilities. Peter says that in v35 ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed (get up and roll up your mat). Peter is clearly saying this isn’t because of me, this is because of Jesus. Peter is relying on and trusting in Jesus’ power. When he is invited over to Joppa with Tabitha Peter dismisses everyone from the room and turns to prayer – he’s on his knees praying and only after prayer does He tell her to get up. She opens her eyes sits up and he helps her to her feet, taking her to the other believers and showing her to be alive. This became known and many believed.

 The detail of him being on his knees to pray is really interesting to me and again shows that Peter was doing all he could to let others see Jesus through him. It was not Peter’s power but Jesus’. kneeling is a sign of submission of realising it’s not in our own strength, of recognising who is really in charge and who has the power, namely Jesus. No one could see him doing this he’d sent them out but I think Peters reliance on Jesus through prayer must have shone through him. His attitude could be seen and pointed to Jesus.

How do we show our reliance on Jesus? What habits do we cultivate behind closed doors that shows an attitude of surrender to God. Is this something we need to develop . Time with God in prayer.

In Peters actions of healing of knowing it is Jesus working through him, he is being a faithful witness to Jesus. He’s pointing those who witness these miracles and who hear about them, to the truth about Jesus. That it is Jesus who truly has the power over all things. The miraculous has a way of witnessing to Jesus’ power it can bring people to see the power of Jesus and to believe.

But It is not only through the miraculous that people come to believe in Jesus in these passages.

The miraculous healing of Aeneas started with Peter being obedient to God’s call to go and make disciples – he was travelling about meeting with other believers to encourage them in their faith (I’m sure he would have been encouraged in his own faith too). And it was from this obedience to talking about Jesus that he met Aeneas and the miraculous occurred. Peter knew that Making disciples involved teaching and sharing with others to obey all that Jesus commanded. That was his starting point.

There is something we can learn here of the importance of meeting with each other, visiting each other , encouraging each other in our faith. Sharing how we’ve seen Jesus at work in our lives. Is there something this week we can give thanks to Jesus for? Do we think about sharing that with others? Part of our journey as brothers and sisters involves not only supporting each other in the tough times but encouraging each other with the good stories of God being at work in our lives. Do we take enough time to do that with each other, to tell each other about the goodness of our God.

That is one of the good things about annual church meetings – not only with the opportunity of a shared lunch – but we get an opportunity to look at all the good things God has been doing in the life of our church in the past year and get to look towards good things to come.

These passages have shown that people see and believe through the miraculous, through faithful obedience as a disciple in sharing about Jesus and In the story of Tabitha we see another aspect of living life as a disciple. Witnessing through every day life and the care of others.

This story of Tabitha is full of more detail than the healing of Aeneas. We’re given Tabithas name in both Arimean and Greek both of which mean gazelle and we’re told specifically that she’s a disciple. The word used actually specifically means female disciple. To some of our modern ears having it pointed out that she was a female disciple might sit uncomfortably female dr, female clergy. I don’t feel that way I am a female member of clergy and Luke’s intention was not to be on the negative side of a gender equality debate, he wanted to encourage it. by using this phrase Luke actually wants to show the importance of women in the church. Tabitha was a follower in her own right. Not because of any men in her household but because she knew Jesus personally and it affected her life.

How do we know that? Well as we read on we see that she cared practically for others – she was doing good and helping the poor. V36. The widows show Peter the clothing that Tabitha had provided for them v39. That she’d made for them.

Her love of God and the practical ways she lived out her faith led others to have faith in her God of miracles – when she died they washed her body but instead of anointing her body for burial they laid it in the upper room and sent for Peter. It is almost like they are anticipating the miraculous. The everyday faith of Tabitha made way for the miraculous and for many to see Jesus at work and believe.

How different might it have been if she wasn’t living out her faith. Good works don’t earn Gods love for us but it is a response to Gods love and a huge witness to those around us.

The way we take care for each other as brothers and sisters as well as the wider community is a massive witness – showing others Jesus.

Examples of seeing this in action…

How are we witnessing to Jesus. How are we letting others see him in our lives through what we say, through our attitudes and in what we do?

These miracles and the lives of both Peter and Tabitha all helped others see Jesus and believe in him. Let us too live our lives pointing others to Jesus and knowing his love more and more for ourselves.

Lord God open our eyes to see you more clearly. To see you at work in our world. Help us to see where we can join in. We pray that we would grow in our love for you and your world and we would follow you more closely in everything that we do. Help us in our love and care for others to witness to your love and truth.

In this account of the conversion of Saul a number of different labels are used for Christians. As we think of the meaning behind each label and how it relates to this conversion account we find some deep insight as to what it means to be a Christian.

Name Calling in our Contested Culture

I said last week that we live in an increasingly contested culture. People are now less willing to allow other people to hold or speak about their own views. Indeed, opposing views are often portrayed as dangerous and in need of being silenced.

One technique increasingly being used to silence the opposition is to use derogatory names for your opponents.

Snowflakes

So, for example you will sometimes see liberal young people who insist on politically correct language, being labelled as snowflakes.

It is a name, that conjours up something that is overly fragile and plays on the liberal emphasis of the importance of acknowledging everyone’s uniqueness, just as every snowflake is apparently unique.

However, this is not the name that ‘snowflakes’ would use for themselves. They might use a term like, ‘progressives’ or ‘liberals’.

Gammon

On the opposite side, those who hold on to traditional values and ways are sometimes called ‘Gammon’. This comes from the idea that people sometimes get flushed red faces as they argue for issues like Brexit or family values.

But of course, Gammons would not refer to themselves as ‘gammon’, but might call themselves ‘conservatives’ or ‘traditionalists.’

What do you call people who follow Jesus?

So, those are some of the names people use in our contested culture, but what do you call people who follow Jesus?

Well I think the answer is it depends who you are!

Some people who are anti might use a label like ‘Bible basher,’ but we ourselves are perhaps happier with the more universal name: ‘christian.’

And yet, this name for followers of Jesus was not the original name. A little later in Acts, Luke tells us:

“The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.” (Acts 11:26)

So what were Christians called before that point? Well in Acts, there are a number of labels given to Christians and it is interesting to see who Luke shows using them.

Today’s reading is probably one of the better known stories in the Bible as it tells the conversion of Saul, who later became the apostle Paul. It is an important story as it is told three times in the book of Acts, and Paul refers to the events a number of times in his letters.

But as we read this particular account, notice that there are actually 5 different labels applied to what we might simply call Christians.

Luke, the narrator calls them  disciples. (vs. 1, 10, 19).

Saul the persecutor refers to them as ‘belonging to the Way.’ (2)

Ananias arguably uses three different labels:

• Saints (13)
• those who call on your name (14)
• Brothers (17)

I think the labels are important and help us to understand what is going on with this conversion. It is also important to see who uses each of the labels for Christians. So let’s consider each of the labels and see how they help illuminate the account of Saul’s conversion.

Disciples

The first labels is ‘disciples’. This is probably the second most common name for Christians used in Acts and in this passage, Luke as he tells the story uses it as the fall back label for Christians.

It is an important word, because at the end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus tells the apostles to go and make, ‘disciples’ of all nations. A disciple is someone who is learning from and becoming like their master. This is what we are fundamentally called to be as Christians, to learn from and become more like Jesus.

I wonder, though, how many people that call themselves, ‘Christian’ truly see themselves as disciples. The word, ‘Christian’ is quite a passive label, but the word, ‘disciple’ is more active. It suggests a desire to grow and develop and to undergo activities like coming to church, reading your Bible and praying to help that happen.

• Some people even say, that the reason many people did not return to church after the pandemic, is because they did not see themselves as disciples. Church had become a habit and when the habit was broken by lockdown, there was no longer a reason to return to it.

Yet, if you see yourself as a disciple, then you will be eager to return to church, because that is one way you grow and serve as a disciple.

So, ‘disciples’ is a fundamental way of describing Christians.

But, it was these disciples, that Luke tells us, Saul was threatening to murder and was having arrested.

Belonging to the Way

The second name given to Christians comes in verse 2: ‘those belonging to the Way.’ This is the way Saul describes Christians when he asks the High Priest for permission to go and arrest the ones in Damascus. In other word it is a name used by an enemy of Christians.

The phrase, ‘The Way’ is used at other times in Acts, but each time it is used by people who are enemies of Christians, rather than by Christians themselves. So in chapter 19, the members of the Jewish Synagogue that didn’t believe Paul’s teaching are said to have ‘Maligned the Way.’ Later on when there is a big riot in Ephesus it is described as a great disturbance about the Way. In Acts 22, Paul himself says he persecuted followers of the Way.

In other words, it seems that this name’s usage is linked with persecution of Christians. Perhaps it is a bit like people using the word, ‘snowflake’ or ‘gammon’ today as name calling. It was used as a name to deride Christians.

But how might it have derided Christians? And why was it used of Christians at all?

It’s origin may have come from the fact that in John 14:6, Jesus calls himself, ‘the Way’ or from the parable in the sermon on the Mount, where Jesus calls on his disciples to follow the narrow, ‘Way,’ rather than the broad Way that leads to destruction.

So, why is it a way of deriding Christians? Christianity may have been originally seen as a distinctive way of following the Jewish religion that was despised by those holding on to the old traditions. So, perhaps the name is a kind of short-hand for ‘the so-called Way.’

Yet, it was a useful label, because it cuts out the heart of the Christian message.  To call it, ‘the Way,’ is to focus on the annoying distinctives, whilst ignoring the person at the heart of it: Jesus. This then ignored the claims about the death and resurrection of Jesus that was at the heart of the Christian gospel and was what gave it its power.

To be a disciple requires a master to follow.

To follow a Way needs no master.

The name Way neutralises Christianity of its power, whilst leaving a reason to persecute it.

So, Saul saw himself as seeking to silence a group of people following a new philosophy that seemed to challenge the traditional Jewish outlook he had grown up with and was deeply committed to.

Yet, as he travelled to Damascus to carry out this mission, something radical happened. A bright light shone around him and Jesus spoke to him from heaven. What Jesus said, deeply challenges Saul’s outlook.

Jesus says, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

In other words, although Saul thought of his work as stamping out a way of thinking and acting. Jesus says, what he is actually doing is persecuting a person, Jesus. Jesus is both at the heart of Christianity and identifies totally with his disciples who are being persecuted.

This revelation of Christ reveals to Saul that Christianity is not a strange Way of living, it is about a deep and profound relationship with the crucified, resurrected and ascended Jesus Christ.

This revelation would completely transform Saul’s life.

• It is worth again checking about our understanding of what it is to be a Christian. It is easy to see being a Christian as just following a Way: go to church, read your Bible, pray, live the kind of life the Bible teaches and so on. These are all important, but being a Christian is first and foremost about having a relationship with the crucified Christ who died for you, the resurrected Christ who brings new life and the ascended Christ who is Lord of all. Let’s be careful not to cut Jesus out of our Christian life.

But for the moment, he is left blind and waiting to be told what to do.  A physical situation that must have imitated his stunned state of mind.

Saints

So, we come to Ananias. Ananias is a disciple, who lives in Damascus. He is one of those Saul had come to Damascus to arrest.

Jesus comes to Ananias and tells him to go and meet with Saul, to place his hands on him to restore his sight.

Ananias is understandably not convinced this is a great idea. It sounds a bit too much like putting your head in the lion’s mouth!

He says to Jesus, ‘I have heard about the harm he has done to the saints in Jerusalem.’

Here, Ananias is referring to Christians as saints. Now we often think of saints as referring to particularly good Christians. Yet, in the New Testament it is a term used to describe all Christians. It literally means, ‘Holy Ones’ or those set apart as God’s special people. Holy things are God’s things. Saints are God’s people, they belong to him,

Why does Ananias use this name here? I think because he wants to show that what Saul was doing in persecuting Christians was sacrilege. It was seeking to destroy what belonged to God. It was the equivalent of vandalising a temple. Here is someone who deserves God’s judgement for a direct attack on God himself.

Later on Saul, comments on his own conversion in his first letter to Timothy:

• “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners–of whom I am the worst.” (1 Timothy 1:13-15)

Ananias is correct what Saul was doing was profoundly wicked and anti-God. Yet, Jesus confronted Saul not with judgement, but grace. Treating him far, far better than he deserved. This is amazing grace.

Yet, it is also a sign, that no matter how much you may feel you have gone against God in your life, Jesus’s grace is always big enough to offer you salvation and welcome you as one of his disciples. If he could call Saul to salvation, he can call you too!

Those who call on Jesus’ name

The second phrase Ananias uses to describe Christians is ‘those who call on Jesus’s name.’ This perhaps more powerfully than any of the labels for Christians emphasises that to be a Christian is to enter into a relationship of deep trust of Jesus. It is a label that emphasises what is wrong with the name, ‘the Way’, a label that does not even suggest the need for Jesus to be a key part of the faith.

Jesus picks up on this label, when he tells Ananias what he is calling Saul to do and become.

Rather than seeking to silence, Jesus’ followers, Saul will now carry Jesus’s name.

Rather than persecuting and hurting Jesus’s followers, Saul will suffer for Jesus’s name.

Saul is being called to switch from being zealously anti-Christian, to being zealously pro-Christian. Yet, in being called to switch sides, Saul is also being called to change his ways of campaigning.

No longer, will there be threats of violence, but a willingness to face persecution and suffering for Jesus.

Those who criticise religion today, say that religions cause wars. I think it is true that religion causes people to hold views that will profoundly conflict with the views of others. That is true of all strongly held views, whether religious or not. Yet, the question is how you carry out the conflict.

Jesus led the way for Christians not with the sword or seeking military power to force his views on people, but by going willingly to the cross, dying and rising again. Following his example, the early Christian church did not seek to impose their views by violence or threats. Rather, as Jesus called Saul to do, they carried the name of Jesus around the world, seeking to persuade people of the truth with a courage that was willing to suffer for Christ.

Such an approach does not cause wars! Yes, there have been times since then when Christians have acted more like Saul before he was converted in order to try and spread or defend the faith, but that is not the way it has to be or is even meant to be. At heart Christianity is the faith of a crucified king, not a warrior king. It does not promote violence, even though it may cause conflict.

Brothers

So, Ananias has a mission from Jesus, to go to the man who had come to Damascus to arrest people like him and pray that his blindness will be released.

Ananias as a true disciple does what Jesus commands and comes to Saul and says something deeply profound. He says, ‘Brother Saul…’

In Acts the most common word used to describe Christians is: ‘Brothers’ or perhaps better: ‘Brothers and Sisters.’ It is a name that emphasises that as we come into a relationship with Jesus as our big brother and God as our Father, so we become a family, a new community.

In calling, Saul, a brother, Ananias makes clear to him, that despite what he has done in the past to hurt Christians, now he is welcomed as part of the Christian community, to be one of them.

This one word in this context speaks of Ananias’s obedience to Jesus, his acceptance of Jesus’s grace to Saul and his willingness to welcome Saul into the community of disciples.

• Alongside seeing ourselves as disciples, it is so important that we see ourselves as brothers and sisters of each other as well. We need to work to improve our community life, so that we can find support from one another, but also welcome new people to join and find friendship, support and company.

Even as we seek to connect more powerfully with Jesus as his disciples, lets also seek to connect with one another as brothers and sisters in Jesus.

What is in a name?

Names can be used to deride others, but the labels we give and the way we identify ourselves can also be quite profound.

In particular let’s see that as Christians we are not just about following a way of living, but we are those who belong to Christ and are called to be disciples of Christ actively seeking to grow in knowledge and obedience of him, celebrating his grace towards us and others and constantly seeking to welcome new people into our communities.

We live in a world of competing ideas. If we are to fulfil Jesus’s call to make new disciples then we need to be confident in the gospel and courageous in sharing our faith. How can we manage that? The story of the early church in Acts is a great place to look.

Below is a YouTube video of the sermon recorded at St. Luke’s on the same Sunday and below that a transcript version to read.

An Increasingly Contested Culture

Have you noticed how things have been changing in our culture over recent decades.

It used to be that the dominant attitude what was what was called a pluralist or multi-cultural outlook. All beliefs are equally valid. You can believe what you like, just don’t try to make me change my belief. The aim was to create a society where everyone got on and lots of different ideas could be held together without any serious conflict.

That kind of outlook is still around, but it is being replaced by an increasingly contested culture. That is we live in a society with a number of different views where people increasingly view different ideas as dangerous or damaging and need to be shut down. We see that with  ‘cancel culture,’ where speakers are barred from being able to speak at universities, because their views are considered dangerous. It also shows itself in the term, ‘culture wars’, which describes the increasingly contentious debates between different viewpoints – mainly in the USA, but increasingly here as well.

And this more contested culture shows itself in all kinds of different ways. The strength of feeling and conflict over Brexit, the debate online about whether vaccines for Covid should be taken, the barring of people like J.K. Rowling for daring to question the idea that trans women are truly women and so on.

People with different views are no longer considered wrong, they are considered dangerous and need to be silenced. This viewpoint is also carried over into attitudes to religion. So, for example in 2007, Christopher Hitchens wrote a book: God is not Great! How religion poisons everything. 2007 book. He and many others consider people of faith not just wrong, but dangerous and in need of silencing.

And in many ways the Christian message is being subtly silenced. For example how often have you heard the good news about Jesus articulated on mainstream media recently? Decades ago, there would have been films or programmes about Jesus over the Easter weekend on TV. I did check out the TV schedules for the main 5 channels. On Good Friday, the only Christian  item was ‘Easter at Kings’ on BBC”, which I guess was some choral music for people to enjoy – but hardly mainstream. Also, Channel 4 did show a recent film, Risen about the resurrection – they put it on at 1:30am on Saturday morning – hardly prime time! BBC1 Prime Time on Easter Sunday showed the Lion King, followed by Doctor Who, whilst ITV had Britain’s Got Talent.

So, how can the Christian message be set free in a culture where so many different ideas are increasingly seeking to be dominant and silence other dissenting views and the Christian message itself seems to be cut out of the mainstream media.

The answer comes down to us.  We need to have confidence and courage.

In our passage from Acts this morning, the Jewish authorities are seeking to silence the early Christians, to cancel them from speaking about Jesus. They are in power and they use drastic measures: they arrest them and put them in jail. But God has other ideas. He sends an angel releases them from jail and sets them free to carry on speaking the word!

That’s an amazing miracle, that sets the good news free, but what is perhaps even more remarkable is that the apostles have so much confidence and courage to carry on speaking about Jesus, when there is such strong opposition.

So as we come to this passage let’s ask the question:

Why can we be confident about the good news?

How can we find courage to share the good news about Jesus?

Why can we be confident in the Good News about Jesus?

Firstly, why can we be confident in the good news. In a sense this is two questions. We need to be confident that the good news about Jesus is good news, that it actually offers people something valuable and worthwhile, that it is a message that matters. But also you need to believe that it is true.

In our passage, the angel’s speech shows us why the gospel matters, whilst Gamaliel’s speech gives us pointers to why we can be confident it is true.

So why can we be confident in its value?  – Angel’s Speech

As the apostles are released from jail, the angel tells them to go back to the temple and carry on preaching ‘the full message of this life.’ (5:20)

Last Sunday we celebrated Easter. It is the heart of our faith, the fact that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. This was part of the core message that the disciples preached in Jerusalem and continues to be proclaimed by Christians today. Earlier in Acts, the disciples said to the people of Jerusalem:

“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.” (Acts 3:15)

They saw that the resurrection showed not that Jesus was God’s anointed one, but that he was the author of life, the one who could rescue us from the power of death and sin. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:56-58:

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-58)

In Christ, we have victory over death. Only Christ can bring us eternal life. Isn’t this the most valuable truth to share with others?

We can be confident that this good news is valuable.

But is it true?

So why can we be confident in its truth? – Gamaliel’s Speech

When the apostles are re-arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that condemned Jesus to be crucified, Peter gives a bold speech, which leaves them on the point of killing them too.

But, at that point, a prominent Pharisee, called Gamaliel, stands up and makes an interesting argument that helps us see why we can be confident that the gospel about Jesus is true.

For Gamaliel, the issue at stake is whether the Christian movement is from God or not. If it is not, he argues that it will simply die out. If it is from God, he says then it is pointless trying to stop it, because you will be fighting God!

Why does he say that the movement would die out if it wasn’t from God? Because he says that is what happened to similar movements at the time. He gives two examples of two movements focussed on powerful leaders. In both cases, when the leader was killed, his followers gave up and the movement died out. They had already killed Jesus, if this movement is not from God, then it two would die out.

You might want to counter this argument and say, I can think of movements that haven’t died out when the leader died. After all what about the other major religions. Islam didn’t stop when Mohammed died, it carried on expanding. Similarly Buddhism didn’t fizzle out when Buddha died. Yet, the difference is that both Buddha and Mohammed were around and teaching for much longer than Jesus and the religions they taught were based on a way of life rather than a message about a person. Christianity stands or falls on the person of Jesus and he was killed after only three years of teaching. Surely, after his death you would expect his movement to die out! That is if the resurrection did not happen.

But it did not die out. Rather it grew and spread into a variety of cultures around the world and continues to spread around the world today. Christianity has passed Gamaliel’s test. The passion and bravery of those first disciples in convincing so many so quickly to follow Jesus points to the truth of what they claimed to have witnessed. Jesus had indeed been raised from the dead and he can bring us eternal life.

We can have confidence in the good news about Jesus.

But, how can we have courage to share the good news about Jesus?

How can we have courage to share the Good News about Jesus?

I think there are five things in this part of Acts that can help us see why the apostles were so courageous and are essential for us to have courage to. The first two come from the context, the other three from Peter’s speech at the Sanhedrin.

Context:

1. Prayer – 4:29-30

Firstly, behind their courage was prayer. In these early chapters of Acts, Luke emphasises that the disciples gathered together to pray.

While they were waiting for the Holy Spirit to come in chapter 1, what did they do? They prayed.

When the disciples were arrested and told to stop teaching about Jesus the first time, what did they do? They prayed. In particular that time they prayed for God to enable them to speak the word with great boldness. The miracle of the release from prison and the boldness in carrying on preaching when they had just been arrested showed that God answered their prayer!

Let’s take prayer seriously and let’s pray for boldness to share the good news, for God to work in hearts and minds to turn people to him.

Let’s pray as part of our Sunday services, at our daily prayer meetings, 4 times each week and in other small groups when we meet and lets pray for courage to share the gospel.

2. Community – 4:32-36

Secondly, the apostles were part of and supported by a deeply committed and generous community, where everyone was cared for and looked after.

God does not call us to be lone wolf disciples. We need the support and care of one another if we are to be able to stand up and speak courageously about Jesus.

Also, the invitation to come to find life in Christ includes an invitation to become part of his family. If the family is dysfunctional, then the message is undermined, but if our communities are a good place to be a part of, the that will add to the attractiveness of the gospel.

Let’s be concerned to build strong communities of faith.

Peter’s Speech:

That’s the context in which the apostles speak boldly about their faith, but Peter’s short speech in the Sanhedrin, also reveals what enables them to have the courage to speak about Jesus despite the threats against them.

3. The command of God – 5:29

The third point, is that what they are doing is obeying God! The Sanhedrin may have claimed to have the authority to tell them to stop talking about Jesus, but the disciples recognised that their authority came below that of God’s.

When we seek to tell people about Jesus, others may tell us we should not or look upset or annoyed that we are doing so. That may be because we are doing so in an insensitive or unhelpful way – and we need to be careful not to do that.

However, ultimately if we are serious as Christians, then we know that we have to do what God tells us to do, even if it upsets, angers or annoys those who seem to have power over us.

4. The example of Jesus Christ – 5:30-31

Fourthly, there is the example of Christ. What is remarkable is that Peter stands before the Sanhedrin the very ones who condemned Jesus to die and does not bow in fear.

Why? Well because of what he tells them: that the one they had hung on a tree to die, had now been raised by God and was seated at God’s right hand.

In other words, you can do whatever you like to me, as you did to Jesus, but I trust that like Jesus God will ultimately give me his life.

It is the very gospel message that gives Peter the courage to speak the gospel message.

And for us too, we need to see that whatever people may threaten to do to us, it is nothing compared with the glorious resurrection that we have in following Jesus.

5. The partnership of the Holy Spirit – 5:32

Finally, Peter’s courage comes from knowing that he has the Holy Spirit. We do not witness to the Christian message alone. The Holy Spirit is working with us, to witness to the great truth about Jesus. In Acts, that is the role of the Holy Spirit that is emphasised.

Jesus said to the disciples just before he ascended into heaven:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

After they prayed in chapter 4, it says:

“After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.” (Acts 4:31)

God does not leave us powerless to speak, rather he gives us the strength and the words we need when we need it through the work of the Holy Spirit

Confident and Courageous?

We live in a contested culture, where conflicting ideas and philosophies can knock our confidence in the gospel and where we can be intimidated into not wanting to speak about Jesus.

Of course there is wisdom in knowing when it is wise to speak and when best to be quiet. We need to share the good news with sensitivity and gentleness and preferably in the context of good relationships.

Yet, there are moments when we know it is right to take the opportunity to speak about Jesus and what stops us is lack of courage.

As we read through Acts and look at the example of the apostles, we can see that we have every reason to be confident that the gospel is a message of life for all that is truly from God and that as part of God’s people we can gain courage to speak this wonderful truth.

This was the talk at our Easter Sunday service 2022. The YouTube video is from an all age version of the talk at St. Luke’s on the same day.

Where can we find hope we can be confident in? Especially in times of darkness? The resurrection shows that we can have a confident hope in Jesus.

Past Hope

What does the word, ‘HOPE’ mean?

Hope is when you think things will become better in the future. We might hope in things or people that will make things better.

But can we be certain that things will become better?

25 years ago, in 1997, there was a lot of hope that the world was heading to becoming a better place. The Labour Party even used the song, Things can only get better as their campaign song for the election they won that year under Tony Blair.

And there were a lot of reasons to have hope. There seemed to be a renewed certainty that some of the things we put our hope in were becoming more certain:

Hold up A3 sheets with these pictures on.

• Peace – the threat of a major war in Europe seemed impossible now that communism had collapsed in Eastern Europe and Russia. The cold war had ended.
• Money – over the following ten years there was low inflation and steady growth.
• Health – people were living longer, drugs were improving with new break throughs over disease. We were confident in our NHS.

Present Darkness

Yet the last few years have stopped us feeling as certain about a future hope based on the things we rely on.

One by one tear these things in half.

• Health – the Pandemic has shown us that no matter how good our science and health is, we cannot prevent a new disease causing a major pandemic with radical effects on our lives.
• Money – the financial crisis in 2008 which led to years of austerity and now the rapid rise in the cost of fuel and other things, mean we cannot be certain that our money will get better.
• Peace – the war in Ukraine has left us far less certain that peace across Europe can continue and reminded us of how horrible our world can be.

The truth is that if we put our hope in health, money or peace then we cannot be certain that things will get better. We can lose hope and the world can feel very dark.

Hope in Jesus?

Before Jesus died on the cross, people had seen him as someone who would bring them great hope! If you look a bit later on in Luke’s gospel it says, 24:21:

“…we had hoped that he was the one who going to redeem Israel.”

Perhaps there were three things about Jesus that people hoped in:

Hold up sheets of paper…

His Words – Jesus was someone whose words had amazed them, he seemed to be able to teach about God in an inspiring and powerful way, that offered hope of a better future in God’s Kingdom.

His Salvation – Jesus seemed to have power to save people from their illnesses and even raise the dead. They had seen him do lots of amazing miracles.

His Kingship – Jesus seemed to be the one who would be a new and better king. Who would offer a wonderful leadership for God’s people.

His followers and many of the people of the time hoped that Jesus would be all these things. But the leaders didn’t like him. They didn’t like his words because he criticised them, they were jealous of his miracles and they thought trying to make him king would destroy their power. So they had Jesus killed on the cross.

Tear up sheets of paper…

Kingship – On the cross the Roman soldiers shouted: ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ (Luke 23:37). But Jesus did not save himself. He died.

Salvation – The Jews shouted, “He saved others let him save himself, if he is God’s Messiah.” But Jesus did not save himself. He died.

Words – When Jesus died it seemed that all his promises and his vision had come to nothing. It was as though his words had died with him.

For Jesus’s followers and friends on that first Good Friday, it must have been a moment of sheer devastation. All their hopes looked like they were destroyed.

At the Tomb

All they could do on the first Sunday afterwards was come to the grave to anoint Jesus’s body. To be sad at his death.

But when the women came to the tomb, they found that Jesus’s body was missing and two angels appeared to them and said to them:

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here! He has risen!” (Luke 24:6)

The angels then reminded them of what Jesus had said to them:

“The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” (Luke 24:7)

In other words, what had happened did not show that Jesus’s words had proved useless. What Jesus had said, proved to be exactly what had happened. He had been crucified and they were about to discover that what seemed utterly impossible had also happened he had indeed risen again on the third day!

Resurrection Hope

The resurrection shows that the cross does not tear up our hopes about Jesus, rather it shows us that nothing can take away our hopes in him. Not even death could defeat him.

From the scraps, unfold the fresh truths about Jesus.

Words – His words have proved powerfully true. Surely, we can trust his words and follow his words more than the words of anyone else. After all who else has risen from the dead.

Salvation – Also, we can trust his salvation more than anyone else. Who else has shown not just that they can heal people, but bring people through death itself. More than that his death on the cross is shown to be the ultimate act of salvation by bringing us forgiveness of our sins and helping us to be friends with God again so that we can have eternal life.

Kingship – It also shows us that Jesus is truly God’s chosen king. The one who has the right authority to lead us in our lives and show us how to live for the best.

What seemed to be destroyed by the cross, becomes even more true because of the resurrection. Out of darkness, God has brought us certain hope.

Resurrection People

So, how will you respond? Will you become one of God’s resurrection people. Finding a certain hope in Jesus that cannot be found in other things in this world?

Will you seek to live by his words, trust his salvation and follow him as your king? If we believe the resurrection to be true, then surely this is the only way to respond?