The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the central foundation of the New Testament Good News.Untrained and unqualified men and women went into the hostile world alive with the life of Jesus,and changed the world. Who did? Was it those clever liars,those mistaken misfits, or was it the very Jesus, alive in them? Peter was no hero. He is on record that when a servant girl accused him of being a follower of Jesus he denied it,cursing and spluttering, three times in one encounter. No, Peter was not the stuff of which great heroes and heroines are made.Yet hear him, publicly and openly, declaring to a huge crowd, mystified by a miracle which they thought he, Peter, had performed. He said:
“Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? Acts 3:12
He went on to preach in Acts 4 v. 2
“It is Jesus who has done this, Jesus whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead, and we are witnesses of this.”
All this attracted the hostile attention of the Ruling Council:
They were greatly disturbed because the apostles were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead.” Acts 4 v. 2
When put on trial before the very men who had condemned Jesus to that excruciating death, the once cowardly man is reported:
“Then Peter,filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them:”Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead,that this man stands before you healed.” Acts 4:8-10
A Prayer:
Blessed be God, who turns rabbits into lions.
Now read Acts 7: 39 to 8:1.
