Sermon 4/25/2021 “Becoming fearless”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection, 2800 Hope Way, Alexandria, VA
Text: Acts 4:5-12
Day: 4Easter, Year B
(photo credit: Peggy Coyle)
Luke, who wrote the “Acts of the Apostles,” tells how, after Jesus’ Resurrection, the Holy Spirit formed the Christian Church. The events of our first lesson today occurred very soon—within weeks—after the first Christian Pentecost.
At that first Pentecost, you will recall, the Holy Spirit visibly hovered over the heads of everyone present. Peter preached Jesus the Christ and 3,000 people became Christ-followers. And somehow in that time as today’s lesson from Acts will show, Peter became fearless.
Our lesson last week from Acts was about Peter and John going to the Temple to worship. The service was at three in the afternoon, the service only the most devout Jews attended—prime circumstances for a beggar to receive financial assistance from the faithful.
And sure enough, a man lame from birth had asked Peter and John for money. Instead, he received physical healing “in the name of Christ Jesus.” When the people gathered in awe of this miracle, Peter preached a variant of his Pentecost sermon, and another 5,000 men believed that Jesus was the Christ and repented of their unbelief.
Let’s do a little math. Peter had preached two sermons and 8,000 men came to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. What percentage of Jerusalem’s population was 8,000 men?
The answer is, “We don’t know.” The best guess of archaeologists is that there were 60,000 to 70,000 people living in Jerusalem then. Presumably, this would be about 24,000 men, as a rough estimate. If 8,000 of them began to believe that Jesus was the Messiah soon after his resurrection, that’s a third of all the men in the City. Four more sermons from Peter with his track record of results would have left the Temple empty, would have left the Temple COFFERS empty. Is it any wonder at all that the High Priest himself and all the members of his family employed by the Temple were concerned?
Scripture tells that Caiaphas and his circle of enforcers and advisors had been responsible for engineering Jesus’ Crucifixion. This extreme move, they must have thought, would have ended all belief in Jesus as the Messiah. And now, suddenly, a huge number of people believed in Christ Jesus. This Jesus was STILL usurping Caiaphas’ authority, still posing a problem to his power.
So, maybe we can understand, at least intellectually, why Caiaphas had Peter and John arrested for healing a lame man outside the Temple in the name of Jesus the Christ. Peter should have been very afraid. And yet, Peter seemed fearless.
The first thing to notice about the trial itself is Peter’s confidence. Just weeks ago, in a courtyard over an open charcoal fire, Peter had denied to a lowly servant girl that he even KNEW Jesus. Now, just a few weeks later, Peter stood before Caiaphas and his family members and the Temple police and boldly confronted them about Jesus’ death and resurrection.
I love this story. Peter stood there, stood up unafraid to a power complicit in wrongful death, and told the absolute truth. “I didn’t heal this lame man,” Peter said. “The person you crucified healed this man. The person you crucified rose from the dead and freed me from fear and makes me unafraid of you and unafraid even of death.”
Our scripture lesson explains Peter’s new confidence this way, “Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Apparently, when filled with the Holy Spirit, there is no room for fear. The Holy Spirit fills us with truth, with confidence, not in our own strength, but in the strength of the living Christ. Our belief erases our fear.
All too often, though, in our own time, we Christ-followers forget about or even deny the existence of the Holy Spirit. We give credit to other factors for the joys of life.
For example, I heard this week a doosie of a denial. This person—not from anyone at Church of the Resurrection, credited the CORONAVIRUS for passing them by. Never mind that the virus is a mindless, a voracious scourge that would eat whoever and whatever it encounters. The coronavirus is a lifeform that epitomizes our age well by sharing the greed that has consumed our culture, our values, and our public decency. The virus will always and only point to itself, point to “ME, FEED ME,” and will always and only declare, “You must die so that I can live.”
Be careful who YOU thank for all that you have, who you thank for all that you are. Thank Christ Jesus for HIS enduring message, “I must die so that you can live; feed on me and share what you are given.”
The lesson today is clear: Invite the Holy Spirit to fill US with truth, casting out whatever fears WE might harbor, casting out:
- Fears of failure and fears of success;
- Fears of rejection and fears of oppression;
- Fears of policing and fears of lawlessness;
- Fears of power and fears of loss of power;
- Fears of death and fears of life.
Release your fears and let the Holy Spirit fill you with love and purpose and move you into action in the name of the risen Christ. This is what Peter did when confronted by Caiaphas and his power. “Kill me if you will,” Peter seems to say, “and I’ll be resurrected like Christ Jesus. But while I am still here, let me tell you about the one who has healed me of my fear.”
We at Resurrection have much to be thankful for:
- We have each other as well as our families and we will stand together against all the fears of this life;
- We have faith that in both death and life there is life abundant; and
- We have this beautiful new building to share with our West End neighbors.
We are filled with the Holy Spirit, empowered to stand with truth and to proclaim Christ Jesus—what more do we need?
