Acts 2:14a, 22-32 Peace

Acts 2:14a, 22-32 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

14Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and spoke loudly and clearly to them:

22“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man recommended to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know. 23This man, who was handed over by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, you killed by having lawless men nail him to a cross. 24He is the one God raised up by freeing him from the agony of death, because death was not able to hold him in its grip.

25“Indeed, David says concerning him:

I saw the Lord always before me.

Because he is at my right hand,

I will not be shaken.

26Therefore my heart was glad,

and my tongue rejoiced.

My flesh also will rest in hope,

27because you will not abandon my life to the grave,

nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

28You have made known to me the paths of life.

You will fill me with joy in your presence.

29“Gentlemen, brothers, I can speak confidently to you about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath that he would seat one of his descendants on his throne, 31he saw what was coming and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, saying that he was neither abandoned to the grave nor did his flesh see decay.

32“This Jesus is the one God has raised up. We are all witnesses of that.

Peace

I.

There they were. It was Easter Sunday. Ten of Jesus’ disciples had gathered together.

By the time they were fearfully huddling in that room, the resurrected Jesus had already appeared 4 times. Mary Magdalene had seen him. Some other women got to see him, too. The two disciples on their way to Emmaus saw him and talked with him for some time before they finally realized who he was. When those two ran back to Jerusalem to report the happy news they learned: “The Lord really has been raised! He has appeared to Simon” (Luke 24:34, EHV). So, Peter saw him, too.

Reports from credible followers of Jesus had already circulated widely among the group, yet ten of Jesus’ disciples huddled in fear, behind locked doors. John reports in today’s Gospel that they locked the doors: “Because of their fear of the Jews” (John 20:19, EHV).

The locked doors indicate that the ten huddled there wanted proof. They had all heard the reports of a risen Jesus. Peter had personally seen him, yet he wasn’t encouraging the boldness he had displayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before Jesus’ arrest; he was showing the cowardice he displayed in the courtyard of the High Priest.

Are those early disciples so different from Jesus’ followers today? You heard the Easter message, but anxiety and grief keeps the door of your heart locked in fear. Skepticism makes you wonder. You heard the Easter Sunday sermon; maybe the sermons of many Easter Sundays. But you still whisper: “I want proof; I need peace.”

II.

“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and spoke loudly and clearly to them” (Acts 2:14, EHV). It was that same Peter huddled with the others on Easter Sunday who stepped out in front of the group of Disciples gathered before the Pentecost crowd and began to speak. It wasn’t the brash Peter of Good Friday who tried to be brave, but later turned cowardly. It was a Peter who finally had seen and understood. That Peter was the one who began to speak to the crowd gathered before the Disciples.

“Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man recommended to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know” (Acts 2:22, EHV). The Easter Sunday disciples had heard all the reports, yet refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. Even Peter, who saw Jesus personally, had been reluctant to believe that it was really his Jesus.

The Pentecost crowd had plenty of opportunities to believe that Jesus was the long-promised Messiah, too. Some of them had undoubtedly seen the miracles firsthand. Those who hadn’t had heard the reports of others. There were all kinds of signs and wonders to go along with the miracles; Jesus had explained the Scriptures in a way no other teacher had ever done. All they had to do was listen to the abundant evidence.

“This man, who was handed over by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, you killed by having lawless men nail him to a cross” (Acts 2:23, EHV). The evidence had all been there. Crowds of people had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with cries of “Hosanna!” But then they turned on him days later and demanded his execution.

“You killed him.” So Peter accused the crowd. But did he only accuse them? Don’t you stand accused, too? Don’t I? It wasn’t just the shouts of a raucous crowd that caused Jesus’ crucifixion. It was God’s set plan and foreknowledge. It was essential for Jesus to die. Not just because of the sins of the crowd, but because of the sins of Adam and Eve; the sins of Cain and Able; the sins of all the people in the days of Noah; the sins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the sins of King David; the sins of you and me.

After all those realities set in, we still demand proof so that we can have peace. What did it take for the ten on Easter Sunday? Into the locked room where they all huddled in fear, “Jesus came, stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace be with you!’” (John 20:19, EHV). Thomas was missing that evening, so they told him later. That wasn’t enough for him. Thomas said: “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe” (John 20:25, EHV).

Thomas gets a bad rap because of his demands, but hadn’t it been all the disciples? Isn’t it us, too? We have the completed history of God’s saving activity easily available to us. We have the prophecies about the Savior God promised. We have all the reports about the fulfillment of those prophecies. We have the eyewitness accounts of disciples like Peter and Thomas. We have the miraculous conversion of St. Paul to corroborate it all.

Yet doubt and fear persist in us. Sin still accuses us. Death still feels final. The world looks unchanged.

“This man, who was handed over by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, you killed by having lawless men nail him to a cross” (Acts 2:23, EHV). The same guy who once denied Jesus in a cowardly panic now stands boldly to accuse the crowd. Why the difference?

III.

Because God’s set plan and foreknowledge didn’t end in death. It wasn’t just about all the prophecies given in the past, in the Old Testament. God sent Jesus for a purpose. “He is the one God raised up by freeing him from the agony of death, because death was not able to hold him in its grip” (Acts 2:24, EHV).

The miracles, signs, and wonders Peter spoke of hadn’t stopped only with what the crowd knew of Jesus before his crucifixion. There had been all kinds of evidence swirling around concerning Jesus’ resurrection. They had heard the gossip.

Peter quoted today’s Psalm of the Day: “Indeed, David says concerning him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will rest in hope, 27because you will not abandon my life to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 28You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence’” (Acts 2:25-28, EHV).

David, says Peter, was speaking about Jesus, rising from the dead. The miracles, signs, and wonders had been foretold. Peter continued. David stayed dead. The Jews could visit his grave. But David: “Saw what was coming and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, saying that he was neither abandoned to the grave nor did his flesh see decay” (Acts 2:31, EHV).

No, Jesus’ resurrection wasn’t just gossip. You can see Peter wave his hands at the other Disciples around as he says: “This Jesus is the one God has raised up. We are all witnesses of that” (Acts 2:32, EHV). I’m telling you, people, we saw it!

Peter’s sermon and Jesus’ appearance tell us the same thing: Jesus lives! That isn’t some hopeful theory; it is God’s prophesied, finished, and witnessed fact. “Peace be with you!” (John 20:21, EHV). So said Jesus to all Eleven remaining disciples a week after Easter. So says Jesus to you, too. “Peace be with you!”

IV.

Today’s Gospel closes: “Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, did many other miraculous signs that are not written in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31, EHV). We have been given God’s Word so that we may believe in Jesus—that he is the Christ, the One who brought us the salvation we so desperately needed.

The same Peter who delivered the sermon said in today’s Second Reading that because he lives: “He gave us a new birth into a living hope” (1 Peter 1:3, EHV). And “By believing in him, you are filled with a joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory” (1 Peter 1:8, EHV). Not only that, but you have “An inheritance that is undying, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4, EHV).

It’s all yours. “This Jesus is the one God has raised up. We are all witnesses of that” (Acts 2:32, EHV). You and I are the witnesses of this generation. We aren’t locked in doubt, but freed to live with confident hope. We can face grief, skepticism, or even personal failure with the same peace Jesus announced to the disciples who once huddled in fear, but later gathered to speak boldly.

He lives. Jesus lives to give you peace, today and always. Amen.