The Apostle Peter’s Puzzle

Prayer

Unbelievable Truth

The “Unbelievable Truth” is a radio quiz show where each contestant must talk for a few minutes on a subject, but only speak 5 truths. It’s a fascinating for me to see if I can identify the truths before the contestants. I’m not very good at it. Here’s an example: During a talk on the Middle Ages, Marcus Brigstock said that squirrels feasted on Pineapples. Would you have spotted that truth?

I didn’t, but it’s quite often the most outlandish things that are true on this quiz show.

The reason it is true, is that in Middle Ages Britain the fruit was unknown, a pineapple was what we now call a pine cone.

I don’t suppose that that revelation is going to change your life!

Truth

In today’s world, we might think that finding the truth is more difficult than it has ever been. Now we have lots more information and miss-information to sort through than we used to. Sometimes the truth needs to be worked out from the little information that we do have.

Sermon aims

As we look at these passages, I’m going to look at Peter, as he is portrayed in Luke’s gospel and Acts, to see the puzzle that he had to solve and the conclusions that he came to. On the way, I’ll look a bit at Luke’s writing too.

Luke

Luke’s history of the establishment of the Christian Church – which is in two volumes, the gospel and the Acts of the Apostles, is masterfully written. It takes us from Jesus’s birth to the establishment of the early church.

Luke knows that the core of his message is going to be unbelievable to many people, so he has presented the evidence he has very carefully, so that his document will be able to withstand the scrutiny it will undoubtedly get.

Burial

The last two verses of chapter 23 tell us:

⁵⁵ The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. ⁵⁶ Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

The story tells us clearly that the women knew where the tomb was, and exactly how Jesus’s body was laid in it. So, some that would later try to say that the women went to the wrong tomb would struggle to make their argument convincing.

Daybreak

The women have waited a full day, as is required by the Sabbath laws. Now, as soon as there is enough light to see, they collect the spices they had prepared and make their way to the tomb. They know exactly where they’re going and what they have to do when they get there. The first challenge will be moving the stone.

Angels

When they arrive, the stone, placed in front of the tomb, has already been moved. Worse, the body is gone. What are they to do? While they’re thinking about that, two men appear. The description of them is enough for us to judge them to be Angels. As with every appearance of Angels, the women are frightened. The Angels ask them why they are looking for the living among the dead. That must have been puzzling, what do they mean?

Then they are told that He has risen. The two men remind them of what Jesus said:

⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.’ ⁸ Then they remembered his words.

Unbelievable women

Back with the eleven, they tell what they have seen and heard. I’d love to know whether they were excited, or fearful, or anything about their demeanour, but nothing is reported. In first century Palestine, women are not considered to be valid witnesses and could not give evidence in a trial. So, it’s easy to see why these young men don’t believe a word they said. Their truth is unbelievable, it seems like nonsense. For those who believed in the resurrection, it would be something that happened in the far future, at the end of time. Dead men tell no tales was as true in their minds as it is in ours.

Peter’s Response

Peter is normally impulsive, here, his attitude maybe that he will sort it out, he will go and find the tomb and the body and explain what has happened. How the others responded, beyond thinking that the women were talking nonsense, is not recorded, perhaps they just left it at that. That’s at least one of the reasons that Peter was chosen as the leader.

So, he runs off to the tomb. When he gets there, the stone is indeed rolled aside. He takes a look inside, he sees the grave cloths, the strips of linen that the body had been wrapped in. So, body snatchers are not responsible, no one has stolen the body. A wrapped body is easier to manoeuvre.

What has happened

But. What has happened? There are no easy answers, no jumping to obvious conclusions. This has made Peter think.

Peter in a quandary is further evidence that this is a real eyewitness account. It is clear that Peter and the others are not expecting a resurrection, despite what they have been told by Jesus many times. That was just another unbelievable truth that passed them by.

If the story was made up, you might expect a sudden realisation at this point, or at least very soon. In reality, there is much more evidence required before Peter will accept the resurrection.

Evidence

We (us human beings) are not easily swayed by evidence for things that we don’t believe. For me, Global warming being caused by human activity seemed ridiculous when I first hear of it in the 1980s. After all, the sun has cycles, the earth’s rotation around it has other cycles, and I was taught at school that we were due an ice age. How could we have stopped all that? Little by little I began to understand that the rate of change is unprecedented, and the scale of human activity is so much greater than I could have imagined. That even the Romans, who lived without mechanisation, affected the climate. Now, I understand and accept that humans are the primary cause. Then I gradually started to live slightly differently.

Acceptance

Peter’s change of belief was quicker, but still required that additional evidence and some time to put the puzzle together.

Our chapter ends with Jesus making an appearance, and holding a conversation with the apostles. Jesus also eats with them – proving he is not a ghost, or a vision. Now, they believe. They have found the truth. But that doesn’t change them very much, all they manage to do is hide in their rooms, pray and select a replacement for Judas.

Worked it out

By the time we get to the Acts reading, a lot more has happened to Peter, but he has one last thing to learn, one last piece of the puzzle before the picture is complete. It is there at the start of his sermon in Cornelius's house. He says:

³⁴ … I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.

And, at the end

⁴³ All the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.

Peter Stopped

Peter has given a beautifully concise summary of the Christian faith, getting to forgiveness. We see how much of the puzzle Peter has solved, and he has just put the final piece in place, when the Holy Spirit interrupts him and proves what he has said is from God.

Changed

Peter was not greatly changed by his belief in the resurrection of Jesus. He, like the other disciples, was changed when the Holy Spirit arrived at Pentecost. Without the understanding that Jesus had died on the cross for their sins, and been raised from the dead as proof of His willing sacrifice, Peter would have nothing to preach about.

That truth, and the truth that Jesus’ death was for everyone, not just the Jews, is crucial to our faith. Without it, as Paul reminds us, we are still in our sins, still irrevocably separated from God and life, as Paul tells us.

1 Corinthians 15¹³ If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵ More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him, if in fact the dead are not raised.

Knowing and accepting that apparently unbelievable truth means that we are put right with God, our sins are forgiven, and we have eternal life with him.

It also means that we are open to the Holy Spirit, who can change our lives as dramatically as He changed the lives of the apostles and the lives of Cornelius and his household.

Conclusion

Sometimes, the world can seem like an episode of the unbelievable truth, everything we are told seems to be lies and none of it is funny. It can take a long time to see the hidden truths.

Jesus’ death and especially His resurrection, are truths that the world would like to hide, but we have found them. So we can say:

Alleluia, Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed, Alleluia!

Jesus's last days

Preached at St Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead, 13 April 2025 at 10:30 (Palm Sunday)

 

Reading Luke 22:14-23:56

Prayer

Father, We pray that through these words this morning we make know Jesus better and be able to follow him more closely.

Introduction

Normally, on Palm Sunday, we would hear about Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. There would be palm branches, or something similar, and, if you were at Christ Church, there would be a procession around the church.

There are other ways of approaching Palm Sunday. Today, we have the alternate readings from the lectionary. Our very long reading takes us from the passover meal, through the betrayal, Peter’s denial, to the crucifixion and burial. As we go through these verses, I will try to concentrate mainly on the words and actions of Jesus.

Jesus’s Final Teachings

It’s an opportunity for us to take a wider look at Jesus’s final teachings.

Jesus’s Mission

An important part of the background to what Jesus is saying, is His 3 years training the disciples. If we read through a whole gospel, we will quickly see that Jesus is on a mission. He knows, very early on, that He will face opposition from Satan and the religious authorities. He knows that He has come to die. So, He must leave the rest of the work in establishing God’s kingdom on earth to the disciples.

Luke 22:14-23 The Last Supper

He starts by celebrating the passover with them. The passover feast reminds them that they were rescued from slavery in Egypt, and freed from the evil that occurred there by a very powerful God. In the Exodus, the Israelites escape punishment by marking their doors with the blood of a sacrifice. Then the angel of death passes over them. Jesus is going to repeat that rescue, make it for everyone, and He will do it by being the sacrifice himself. So that God’s judgement will pass over each of us. He changes the passover celebration to bring in the full meaning of what He is doing. Now, when we celebrate Holy Communion, we are remembering Jesus’s sacrifice for us, so that we should not suffer the punishment that we are due.

Luke 22:24-38 Prediction of Peter’s Denial

The discussion of who the betrayer would be quickly turns into a fight about who is greatest. For Jesus, it must be like dealing with young children. They just haven’t got the significance of what’s happening. Or, perhaps they have, but it’s too big a change for them to be able to take in now. Jesus carefully explains how God’s kingdom works – to be the greatest, you must be one who serves. He reminds them that He has been their example of that.

More difficult times are coming, especially for Simon, who is Satan’s main target in the lead up to Jesus’s death. If Simon can be destroyed, there will be no church, no Christianity. But, Jesus has already prayed about this, and God will answer His prayer. Jesus says to him at the end of verse 32:

And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.

Notice that after that, Jesus calls Him Peter – because the prayer is answered. It is Peter who will deny Jesus.

Luke 22:39-53 Jesus is Arrested

Jesus takes them to the Mount of Olives, a place they were used to meeting. He asks them to pray for themselves, and goes to pray alone. Jesus needs to know that He really has to go through with this – that it is really His Father’s will. The cup he is asking His Father to take, is God’s wrath, that He knows He will have to face soon. Now, fully certain that he is doing the Father’s will, He returns to the disciples and finds them asleep.

Then Judas arrives and the arrest begins. A disciple gets trigger-happy and attacks one of the soldiers. That’s too much for Jesus – the soldier is healed. He is not leading a rebellion, He doesn’t want or need a fight. Instead, He tells them, “this is your hour —when darkness reigns.”.

Luke 22:54-62 Peter Denies Jesus

Jesus is led away, Peter follows, but keeps his distance. In the courtyard, he is accused of being with Jesus three times. Each time he makes a clear denial. It’s all too much for Peter. Right now he can’t live up to his boasts of friendship, but he is at least there. Watching, and perhaps praying. It’s not enough, but it is better than the others are doing.

Catching Jesus’s gaze, he remembers Jesus’s words. He is broken and weeps bitterly. That’s the first step back, but there’s a long way to go for Peter.

Luke 22:63-23:12 Jesus before Pilate & Herod

Jesus is roughed up a bit by the soldiers, they’re just ignorant bullies, but it all counts to the humiliation that Satan is casting on Jesus.

The chief priests and teachers of the Law aren’t violent, but they use any means they can find to work out a charge that will result in Jesus’s death. Jesus, himself, is very non-committal, not exactly refusing to answer, but saying as little as possible. It really doesn’t matter what He says at this point, they will twist it until they have enough. When they do, they go to Pilot, and he goes to Herod.

Luke 23:13-26 Pilate Pressured by the Crowds

The two Romans are not convinced, so it is the crowd that has the final say. The Roman Governor only has so much power, his role is to keep the province under control. He doesn’t care about one man.

In these passages in particular, Luke is showing us that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone in this part of the story have gone against God in some way. The priests and teachers of the law have ignored every thing about truth they every knew. The soldiers are simply acting like thugs, the governors have given in to political expediency, because the crowd are shouting for crucifixion and in support of a murderer. His disciples have fled, or denied being his friend. Jesus alone stands before God, ready to take the punishment for all this, and so much more.

Luke 23:27-43 The Crucifixion

Women

As Jesus is led to the crucifixion site, a large crowd follow Him. Some are women are weeping for Him. Jesus is more concerned for what is coming in the future for them, than He is for Himself. Maybe He is alluding to the coming destruction of Jerusalem that He has already spoken about. Now, they are killing an innocent man, he says, but in the coming days the barbarity of the destruction will be on an altogether more horrific scale.

His murderers

As he is being crucified, Jesus says “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”, Maybe it’s that they don’t understand that they are killing the son of God, or they don’t care that they’re killing an innocent man. Even in this extreme situation, Jesus is focused on the people around Him, and is praying that they will not suffer the consequences of their actions.

The Criminal

One of the two being crucified with him at least realises that he is guilty and is getting the punishment that he deserves. He knows he is going to face judgement, and asks Jesus to remember him. That’s quite an insight for a criminal – to see a resurrected Jesus ruling the kingdom of God. Jesus’s reply, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” is one of the most discussed sentences in the entire bible. Paradise, in Jewish though, is not heaven, it originally meant a walled garden, but in Jesus’s time had come to mean a place where souls go immediately after death.

Luke 23:44-56 Death & Burial

Now Jesus is dead. There has never been a death like it. The way Jesus has behaved during the crucifixion has had an effect on many people, we have heard of the criminal who responded to Him, now we hear of the Roman Centurion. “Surely this was a righteous man”. This is a pagan, Roman judgement on the son of God, and Luke has included it so that his gospel can speak to everyone, not just the Jews.

Luke goes on to carefully tell us exactly where Jesus body was put, because he knows that Sunday is coming, and those events will rightly get an incredible level of scrutiny.

Luke 23⁵⁵ The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.

The women cannot be mistaken – they have been to the tomb already.

Conclusion

As you’ve listened to my comments on the passion in the Gospel of Luke, I hope you have seen one or two things that you haven’t seen before. Mostly, though, I hope you have gained a greater appreciation for Jesus and His mastery of the incredibly difficult situation He found Himself in. Let’s close with a prayer.

Prayer

Father, when we find ourselves in difficult times, help us to remember how Jesus dealt with His death, give us the same courage and strength.

Amen

Do you not percieve it?

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay @ 08:00 6 April 2025

Purpose: A look at what God is doing

Reading Isaiah 43:16-21, John 12:1-8

Prayer

Father God, we pray that we will be allowed a glimpse of what you are doing in our world, as we seek to follow you more closely each day.

Introduction

When I read through this morning’s passages about 10 days ago, there was one phrase that stood out to me – the question that God asks of the Israelites, in verse 19, when He says “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”.

My first response was, “No, Lord, I don’t.”. I felt rather guilty about that, and then wondered if perhaps it was supposed to be a rhetorical question. There was one sermon I read, where the author also said that he doesn’t perceive it, after that I felt a little happier. I also remembered a former vicar of Christ Church saying that you can only see what God has done in hindsight.

Lent 5 – Backwards & Forwards

The fifth Sunday of Lent is supposed to be a time when we look backwards at what God has done and forwards to see what He is doing and will eventually do. We see what God has done for us in the past, and maybe, we can see a little of what God will be doing for us, or better, with us, in the future. Both our readings have that element in them. In the Old Testament, God is telling the Israelites that He is going to rescue them from exile. In the New Testament, the dinner is to celebrate Lazarus’s rising from the dead, but it also looks forwards to Jesus’s crucifixion.

I wonder, in each of those passages, what do you think the people they are speaking about thought that God might be doing.

History (of the Exile)

Let's start with the Isaiah passage.

597bc Nebuchadnezzar

In 597bc Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon defeated Jehoiakim, king of Judah and the leaders of Judah were taken into exile in Babylon. For Babylon, the exiling of the elite was a way of managing those they had conquered, and preventing rebellions. For the Israelites, it was an experience that left them questioning everything they thought they knew about God. Even if, looking back, the prophecies seem quite clear. If they do not follow God and live the way He asks them to, they will suffer the consequences – and now they have.

539bc Cyrus

In 539bc Cyrus, king of Persia, conquers the Babylonian Empire, and, the policies for managing conquered people change, so eventually the exiles are allowed to return. They will have been away from their home for about 70 years.

The Israelites, God is speaking to

The passage in Isaiah, is speaking to the exiles at a time when the initial shock of what’s happened has worn off, and they have started to make a life for themselves in their new situation. The vast majority of those who were exiled would die in exile, only their descendants would return. Sometimes God has to wait for a whole generation to pass, before He can do the next thing.

A new thing

Now, perhaps when they’ve really settled in to a life in a foreign country, when they’ve begun again to know who their God is, or think they know, He’s telling them to get ready for the next thing.

God says:

Forget the former things. The rescue from slavery in Egypt, when I got you across the sea – an impenetrable barrier that stopped you in your tracks, and then utterly annihilated your pursuers. Their chariots and horses, and all the Egyptian troops are still there, buried in the mud, never to rise again.

God doesn’t really want them to completely forget, or he wouldn’t have just reminded them! He wants them to look forward rather than backwards, because now He is doing a new thing. He is preparing a way across another impenetrable barrier, this time a desert. It must have seemed like an impossible dream that they could return home. That they could once again live in the promised land, the place they all look to as home, even if many of them have never been.

God can, and will, deliver on the dream, He’s making it a promise, because when God says something, it WILL happen. And if you still doubt that, well He’s done similar things before.

I wonder what they really thought when they heard those words? After all they only have to walk 500 miles across an inhospitable desert.

John Reading

The New Testament reading that we heard is more nuanced. There is no clear prophecy. Mary’s extravagant and outrageous act of worship could be just that – an instant expression of her love for Jesus, but Jesus give it a greater meaning. According to Judas, she wasted a years wages in that act, and all who witnessed it would see her actions as those of a prostitute, because no self-respecting Jewish woman at that time would let her hair down like that.

Jesus’s response to the accusation is:

⁷ “Leave her alone, it was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. ⁸ You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”

I wonder, do you think that Mary, Martha, Lazarus and the other guests realised that Jesus’s death was only days away? Do you think they had any idea what that meant for the wider world? If you read the gospels now, it is clear to us, with hindsight, that Jesus knew exactly where he was going, why he was going there and what would happen when He arrived – and afterwards. He knew that his crucifixion, and then His resurrection, would save use from a situation that we couldn’t escape from.

Saving Ourselves

It is not a river, or a desert that stops us saving ourselves. It is each of us that stops us saving ourselves. We are the insurmountable barrier to our salvation. There is a chasm to cross, a pit to fall in, and the cross of Christ is the bridge. God makes a way for us to places where we cannot go on our own.

God is always active.

Even when the way is made, we cannot follow it, if we cannot see it. God is always there ready to show us the next steps.

I wondered what we can see God doing, and how much we can understand what He is pointing us towards.

Looking back – the world

As we look backward on the history of our world, we see that those who followed Jesus spread across the entire world. Some of that was caused by people fleeing persecution, and sharing their faith with their new neighbours. Some was very carefully planned, people were trained as missionaries and sent to places where it was known that the word of God had not been heard. All of those things were prompted by the Holy Spirit. Almost none of it was easy for the people involved.

Looking forward – the world

As we see the world order changing and hear of deportations from America, can we see God at work. What is He doing? Do you perceive it? It is estimated that over 1 million Christians will be deported from the USA as ‘illegal migrants’, most will go back to South American countries, principally Venezuela. What is God doing there?

Father Dan, was saying at Forging Men that the young people of today are looking to practice a different type of faith – they will worship God, follow Jesus, but not in the way that we do. What is God preparing for that generation? Is He perhaps just waiting for us to pass before he does something amazing?

Looking back – the church

We can also look back at our church, I’m talking about Christ Church and the things we were involved in, rather than the Church of England. We can remember times when God was blessing us in different ways. Maybe you remember the time when we had about 100 people in our main service, and all the gifts they offered to our church. Or you look back to events like Mission ‘89, or perhaps to our weekends away. All of those things seem unlikely to ever happen again.

Looking forward – the church

How will God build us up in the future, what blessings will he bestow? What will we have to do to be a part of that. We have a new Rector, so things will undoubtedly change. Can you see what is coming, do you perceive it? Or, do we just see the impossible barriers that God can so easily break down. It’s not the sea, or the sand, now it’s the age gap.

We will just have to continue to follow Jesus as closely as possible, and see where the Holy Spirit is leading us, step by step. In a few years maybe we will look back and see what God did in this time, until then, there is some hard work to get on with building the kingdom of God. Meanwhile, we continue to look for God’s leading in all sorts of new directions.

He says: “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”

Amen.