The Dawning of Hope

I want to begin this week with the best hymn around. ..by Stuart Townend, and it’s all about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

It really captures the joy and the enthusiasm of those who witnessed Christ coming back from the dead.

To do it justice I’m singing along with his recording of it; join in if you’d like to, you have the words!

See What a Morning© Stuart Townend

Track 2 CD 1 on the album The Best of Stuart Townend Live

The reason I chose that song was that there were two reasons why all of a sudden the disciples became empowered, confident, and enthusiastic in telling the good news about Jesus.

The first is this.

They knew without any shadow of doubt ~ they had seen Jesus alive after his death!

He’d been seen by the disciples on many occasions after his resurrection!

Some say Jesus didn’t actually die…he just revived!

HOW THEN IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOOK THAT WELL

AFTER THIRTY NINE LASHES HAD ABSOLUTELY SLASHED AND RIPPED OFF MOST OF HIS SKIN?

AFTER SO MUCH BLOOOD LOSS,

AFTER LARGE NAILS HAD BEEN DRIVEN THROUGHTHE MOST SENSITIVE PARTS OF HIS BODY;

AND AFTER BEING SEALED UP IN A CAVE TOMB WITH NO MEDICAL HELP OR ATTENTION?

No he was alive and well and breathing when they had touched his wounds and heard him speak to them.

They had listened to him explain to them from teachings and prophecies in the bible, how what had happened to him had to be; they had been there when he broke bread with them, they had eaten fish with him.

and on one occasion he appeared to not just one or two or twelve of them, but more than 500 disciples at once!

This was no hallucination; no ghost; no magic trick.

The second reason that the disciples were bold and fearless is this:-

Pentecost: a Greek word for the special festival which happened 50 days after the Passover (when Jesus had his last meal..)

Before Jesus had eventually departed from them and gone back to heaven, he had commanded them to do wait in Jerusalem, and wait for a special gift; the Holy Spirit.

They had done exactly that. They waited and prayed, with perseverance and all of one mind, and after forty days they got the shock of their lives!

The Holy Spirit zapped them.

All of a sudden they heard what sounded like a terrible gale, flames had appeared on each of their heads, and they had each begun to speak in the languages of people from the many different countries of the people in the street outside. Rough fishermen, who’d never ever attended a university to study languages, began speaking in these tongues!

The Holy Spirit had come upon them and given them God’s power to preach and teach and heal and witness, with real authority and boldness, just as Jesus had done.

That’s why I chose the next song, because it’s a prayer we can pray too, for that same sense of God’s power and presence…for that same Holy Spirit, to enter into this place; into this upstairs room, and into our lives.

Haven Song © Northumbria Community

Track 9 on their album ‘Waymarks’

And so we come to today’s reading, and we can hear just how bold the disciples had become.

Peter and John have been hauled before the same leaders that had sentenced Jesus to death, simply because, they had just healed a crippled man at the Gate called Beautiful,

They had healed him simply using the precious name of Jesus, and the authorities were not pleased.

But here we see that they were not afraid of them anymore.

On the contrary, they’re forthright, they’re speaking their minds, and they are calling them counsel to account for Jesus’ death. It’s unbelievable!

The council is not sure what to do with them, as it was common knowledge in Jerusalem, that a great miracle had taken place. And they feared the people’s reaction, so they have them a caution.

“You will not speak and teach in this name anymore!” they are told.

Peter more or less says, “On yer bike!” to them.

Well not in so many words.

He says politely to them, but with no fear….”

“Is it right in the eyes of God for us to obey you, rather than Him? Judge for yourselves. We cannot possibly give up speaking about what we have seen and heard!”

These same two disciples were among those who had run away in panic in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested.

Peter, if you remember when Jesus was arrested, had been so terrified of facing these people he has told those around him, he didn’t even know who this man Jesus was….THREE TIMES...

No it was a NEW DAWN, A NEW DAY, A NEW LIFE and they felt good!

Their old world had become a BOLD world!...so the song goes by Michael Buble.

From that moment they were going to live for Jesus.

Respectability, reputation, self-preservation weren’t important anymore.

Jesus had made them many promises…and now they were coming true…

and many more were on their way.

Track 7 on the album There is a Hope