First Presbyterian Church
Marianna, Florida
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Sermon by Huw Christopher, Pastor

Scripture Readings:  John 20:24-31
                                  Acts 5:27-32
Sermon Title: “Sharing the Victory of Jesus Through God Centered Lives”
Sermon Text: Acts 5:29: But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must 
obey God rather than any human authority.”

	At a time when Germany was divided and East Germany was under an 
oppressive Communist regime, a young man well known as a hardened leader in the 
Communist-organized youth movement began attending youth meetings and worship 
services at a local church.  The congregation's suspicions were aroused, and after a 
few weeks the pastor took the young man aside and asked why he was coming. The 
young man replied by asking, "You know the young man from your church who was 
seized and taken away?" 
"Of course," responded the pastor. "I knew him well, but we have not heard 
from him since."
           "Well," said the visitor, "I saw him when he was being harassed and tortured. 
Not only did he refuse to betray his friends, but through it all
he never showed any bitterness toward his tormentors. Even in the hour of death, 
there was no anger towards those who were about to kill him. Instead, he spoke of 
Jesus Christ, of forgiveness, and of God's love." The young man concluded, "And 
when I saw him die, I knew I must come, in spite of what it will cost me, to learn of 
his Christ and the love for our enemies that strengthened him in his last hours." (based 
on Donald Shelby, Bold Expectations of the Gospel, quoted by Joel D. Kline, Who's Holding on to 
Whom, quoted on http://www.eSermons.com for Sunday, April 15)
	As I read that story recently I was also reflecting on the words that we heard 
this morning which told of the appearance of Peter and some of the other disciples of 
Jesus before the Council or the Sanhedrin, which was the Supreme Court of the 
Jewish people in Jerusalem.  This was the court that had been responsible for 
condemning Jesus to death and then making arrangements with Pontius Pilate, the 
Roman governor, to make sure that his crucifixion took place.  This was the second 
time in just a few days that Peter and some of the other disciples had been arrested for 
preaching in the Temple the good news of Easter, that Jesus was risen from the dead.  
At their first appearance it was said that the leaders of the Council were impressed 
with their boldness especially as they recognized that they were uneducated and 
ordinary men.  The boldness that is evident in the words of Peter on both occasions 
stands in tremendous contrast to the Peter who just a few weeks earlier when Jesus 
had been arrested in fear for his own life had denied that he even knew Jesus of 
Nazareth.  
At their first trial the court had released them after they had threatened them 
with further punishment if they continued to preach the good news of the victory of 
Jesus through his resurrection.  After they have ignored such a warning and have 
been arrested again for preaching about Jesus they are again brought before the 
Sanhedrin.  Now we see again that Peter is bold enough to stand before the very court 
that had condemned Jesus to death and to proclaim that death for Jesus was not the 
end but that God had raised him from the dead.  Now before this same court that still 
had the power to work for his death as it had for the death of Jesus Peter is bold to say 
that the most important thing that he could do was to obey the God who had shown 
such power rather than any human authority, even this the highest court of the land of 
his day.
What caused the Christian Church to grow despite the opposition of the 
Sanhedrin and so many others who wanted to deny that Jesus?  Surely it was as 
people saw the boldness of Peter and the other disciples?  The greatest testimony to 
the resurrection of Jesus is not the empty tomb.  The greatest testimony to the 
resurrection of Jesus is the changes that occurred in the lives of those who saw him 
risen from the dead.  We may not know all of what happened to Thomas and many of 
the other disciples. Clearly, though, the change that had occurred in the life of Peter 
and those who were with him and the boldness they reflected when they proclaimed 
that the Jesus who had been crucified had been raised from the dead and had 
appeared to them affirms that this was no joke, and no story they had made up just to 
help ease their sorrow.  Peter and many of the disciples were later to face the reality 
of death rather than give up proclaiming the good news that God had raised Jesus 
from the dead.  How many people are ready to die for that which they know is a hoax, 
and a story that is a complete fabrication?
   A few weeks ago I happened to see part of a television program that had been 
recorded from the garden tomb in Jerusalem.  This is one of the places in the area that 
is claimed to have been the burial place for Jesus.  The commentator concluded by 
saying that the greatest testimony to the resurrection of Jesus was still not to be seen 
in that garden, but in the lives of those who throughout the world have testified that 
they know a relationship not with a dead martyr but with a risen Jesus, who is their 
living Lord.  These are the people who know the blessing that Jesus proclaimed to 
Thomas when he said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? 
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe”  These are the 
people of whom John speaks when he says that through believing in Jesus as the 
Messiah, the Son of God, they have come to know life in his name.  Like Peter to be 
ordered to deny what they had known and experienced would be to give up that 
which was essential to their whole way of living and their whole way of looking at 
life.  This was the experience of that young man in East Germany.  This has been the 
experience of so many down through the centuries.  Indeed the reason that the 
Christian Church has grown and spread to all parts of the world, and continues to 
exist is because of the testimony of those who despite those who might want to 
silence them have said with Peter, “we must obey God rather than human authority.”  
What they have experienced is too vital to who they are that they cannot deny it nor 
can they be silent about it.
We join with them in lifting high the cross because we know that that cross 
stands empty to the sky and that we do not come here to worship a dead hero and 
simply to remember the good things he said and did.  After all, what interest would 
we really have in the death of Jesus if that had been the end of him, and of all that he 
had said and done?  We have an interest in the Savior’s blood because we know that 
for him death was not the end.  God raised him from the dead thereby affirming that 
all that he had said and all that he had done was indeed according to the will of God.  
We come not to worship the memory of a dead hero, but to worship a risen 
Jesus and to claim him as the living Lord of our lives.  As we think about what it 
means for us to worship the Risen Jesus the words of Presbyterian minister, Alfred H. 
Ackley are ones that have spoken to so many people over the years as they too have 
said, “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.”  I cannot say 
how deliberate was Dr. Ackley’s choice of the word heart to speak of the place within 
him where Jesus lives.  But certainly the way in which we remember that the heart is 
that essential organ for our physical being we remember that it also has symbolically 
been seen as the source of our lives.  It is as we speak symbolically that the Risen 
Jesus lives in our hearts that we are reminded that in him we find that true meaning 
for our lives. We also remember that what is in our hearts, at the very core of our 
being, if it has any meaning for us at all, will become evident in what we say and in 
what we do and in the way in which we live. This was Peter’s experience.  What he 
had experienced of the Risen Jesus was something he could not keep to himself, and 
the very experience of living in the presence of the Risen Jesus gave him boldness to 
proclaim the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, even before 
those who had the power to condemn him to death.  It was the same experience of the 
Risen Jesus that gave that young man in East Germany the courage to face even death 
rather than to deny all of the meaning that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus had 
brought to his life. Over the years the greatest testimony to the resurrection of Jesus 
has come from people who have lived God centered lives who by their words and by 
their actions and by their whole way of living have shown to others that what gives 
meaning to their lives is the fact that they share the victory of the Jesus who was 
crucified, but who has been raised from the dead.  Paul, out of his own experience, 
says this is indeed the good news that has given meaning and purpose to his life.  He 
also says that it is the good news that gives meaning and purpose to the lives of all 
who will accept it and hold it fast.  Let us remember what it means to us to claim that 
good news for our own lives as we affirm our faith together using words based on the 
testimony of Paul.  The affirmation of faith is printed in the bulletin.  Let us stand and 
affirm our faith together…

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH                                  based on I Corinthians 15:1-6
         This is the good news which we have received, in which we stand, and by 
which we find life, if we hold it fast: that Christ died for our sins according to 
the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day; and that 
he appeared to the women, then to Peter, and to the other disciples, and to many 
faithful witnesses.
        We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  Jesus Christ 
is the first and the last, the beginning and the end; he is our Lord and our God.  
 
 
 
 


1