TEXT: ACTS 5:27-32 #2776 4 THEME: "HEROES AND HEROINES OF FAITH: SIMON PETER, THE COWARD TURNED CRUSDADER." I. HIS COURAGEOUS STAND. n. HIS COMPELLING DESIRE. Phoenix - 7/6/14 My dear fellow redeemed, Does the name Burt Lahr ring a bell? There are probably some of you here this morning who would say that you'd have to be older than dirt to remember Burt Lahr.... or at least as old as the pastor is, which with every passing year I guess is rapidly approaching the age of dirt. At any rate, for all of you youngsters, Burt Lahr is remembered by some as the man who had a prominent role in that old classic film "The Wizard of Oz," along with Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Wicked Witch from the West, and that adorable little mutt called Toto. Burt, of course, played the Cowardly Lion, who after his trip to the magical land of Oz underwent a metamorphosis - a tremendous change. He went from being cowardly, afraid of almost everything, to being courageous, no longer afraid to confront anything. In like manner, we can see a similar metamorphosis in one of the Heroes and Heroines of Faith that we are focusing on in this Summer Sermon Series. He too was rather cowardly at times, but after his trip to the empty tomb in Joseph's Garden, he became a courageous Christian crusader. His name was Simon son of John, who is better known to us by the name our Lord gave him, and that is, Cephas or Peter, which means ''the Rock." We have part of his life's story in these verses which are now before us, and this morning we're going to direct our attention to "SIMON PETER, THE COWARD TURNED CRUSADER." First, we're going to recall I. HIS COURAGEOUS STAND. And then also n. HIS COMPELLING DESIRE. I. In this account from the life of our hero of faith, we are reminded of THE COURAGEOUS STAND that Peter took. But as you may remember, he wasn't always that way. He wasn't always courageous. In fact, there were a number of times when he was downright cowardly. In the Garden of Gethsemane, for example, Peter had kept pace with all the others disciples as they beat a hasty retreat and deserted the Lord and Savior, despite having strongly maintained that he would never do such a thing. Cowardly. Furthermore, in the courtyard of the high priest that same night, the cowardly nature of Peter surfaced again as he cursed and swore and vehemently denied any association with Jesus. A cowardly thing to do. Then too, in the aftermath of the events which happened on Good Friday, Peter was found huddling together with the rest of the disciples, cowering behind locked doors in fear of the Jews. That was Peter the Coward, if you will. But now things had dramatically changed. You see, in the meantime Peter had peered into the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, had conversed with his risen Savior a number of times, and had stood at the foot of the Mount of Ascension, and that had brought about a tremendous metamorphosis in Peter. Actually, it was the Holy Spirit who had brought about this metamorphosis in Peter. It was the Holy Spirit who had transformed him from a craven coward into a courageous crusader for the cause of Christ by convincing him that everything he had learned about Jesus was true - that Jesus is the true and eternal Son of God.... that with His holy life, innocent death, and triumphant resurrection from the dead Jesus had indeed redeemed the entire human race of all times from the curse of sin, the power of the devil, and eternal damnation in the fires of hell. Now Peter wasn't intimidated by his enemies anymore. He didn't back down when he was challenged, threatened, or confronted. He wasn't the least bit ashamed of his connection with Christ. Now he was willing to sacrifice for Jesus, to suffer for the Savior, and even to die for His sake, if necessary. This was Peter the Courageous - Peter the Crusader for Christ! In these verses which are now before us, we have an excellent example of this. Peter and the other apostles had been thrown into prison for carrying on their crusade for Christ, but during the night an angel of the Lord had delivered them. So bright and early the next I , . morning, they went right back to their teaching and preaching and witnessing for Jesus, and consequently they were arrested again. "Having brought the apostles," we are told, "they made them appear before the to be questioned by the high priest. 'We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,' he said. 'Yet you have filled with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood.' Peter and the other apostles replied: 'We must obey God rather than men!'" v.27-29. This was the courageous stand Peter took. He had refused to do what the high priest ordered because it contradicted the command which Jesus Himself had given. Peter knew that his refusal to go along with the Sanhedrin would ruffle a lot of feathers and wouldn't make him very popular, to say the least. He knew that he definitely would be hated and despised, and would probably even have to suffer for the stand he had taken. But nevertheless that was the stand he took. As far as he was concerned, there was no other alternative. "We must obey God," he said. "We must obey God rather than men!" In like manner, my friends, this is the kind of stand our Lord Jesus wants us to take too as we go about our own living. "We must obey God rather than men!" As , we must always strive to do what pleases Him, even though we know that much of the time this isn't going to meet with the world's approval. For us too there is no other alternative. We must obey God rather than men. And we need this reminder too, don't we? We need this reminder because our sinful nature is very much inclined to be like an old circus headliner named "Cannonball" Johnson. During his career, he was blasted out of a cannon at the circus some 1,200 times. When somebody asked him why he had been willing to risk his life in doing that, he simply replied, "Do you know what it's like to hear the applause of 60,000 people?! That's why I did it!" In reality, there are also Christians who risk their spiritual and eternal life because they too seem to be more interested in "winning the applause of the crowd" than in gaining the approval of God. There are Christians who bend to worldly pressures and compromise what they know to be right to keep from "sticking out like a sore thumb" and in order to "fit right in with the world." This is something that can happen to all of us Christians, no matter what our age or vocation or social status. But that's not the way it ought to be. No, we "must obey God rather than men!" Old "Cannonball" Johnson was fortunate - he didn't lose his life in seeking the win the applause of the crowd. When it comes to us Christians, on the other hand, we need to remember the words of an anonymous poet who said: "If we, to gain the world's applause, / Refuse to own our Savior's cause, / What shame will fill us on that Day / When God His glory shall display." This is indeed the way it will be. Our Lord Jesus has said very plainly, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father's glory with the holy angels. "So let's strive to follow the example of this hero offaith named Simon Peter as we go about our daily living and always stand up courageously for Jesus and His will, regardless of the price we may have to pay for doing that. "We must obey God rather than men!" II. Now secondly, in this account of Simon Peter, the coward turned crusader, there's something else that also stands out, and that is, HIS COMPELLING DESIRE. To put it very simply, his compelling desire was to obey God and carry out the command his Savior had given him, which was to spread and share the saving gospel of Jesus. This is what Peter did even while standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin. He testified boldly to them, "The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead - whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him to His own right hand as Prince and Savior that He might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things," Peter said, "and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him," v.30-32. This was the testimony of Peter to the Jewish high court, and he shared this message with them not because he wanted to further irritate and anger them, but because this was something they really needed to hear. In this respect too there had been a tremendous metamorphosis in Peter. You see, just a few weeks earlier, Peter had lashed out in anger with a sword at one of his enemies to hurt and harm him. Now he was reaching out to his enemies in love with the good news of Jesus to help them and to heal them. Where before he saw them only as enemies, he now recognized that they were - as we heard in our Gospel Lesson this morning - "helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" - precious, blood-bought souls headed for eternal death and damnation in hell because they didn't know Jesus as their Savior from sin. Peter confronted them very frankly with their sins - he didn't soft-peddle in any way the damnableness of what they had done in crucifying the very Son of God Himself. But at the same time, he gave them hope and comfort too by assuring them that Jesus was also their "Prince and Savior," that He had also paid for their sins by suffering and dying on that accursed tree of the cross, and that for Jesus' sake, God in His grace had forgiven them as well. It was in this message that Peter himself had found such great joy and comfort. It was Jesus and His forgiveness that brought Peter peace of mind and gave him courage for his life in the present and hope for his life in the eternal future. Now his one compelling desire was to share the blessedness he had found in Jesus with those who didn't have that yet. In one of his books author Tony Campolo tells of walking down a street in Philadelphia when a homeless man came toward him. He describes this man as "a dirty, filthy bum who was covered with grime from head to toe. You wouldn't believe how messed up he was," Campolo says. "He had rotting teeth and a huge beard, and there was food stuck in his beard." As he approached Tony, this man held out a cup of McDonald's coffee and said, "Hey mister, would you like a drink of my coffee?" Campolo says that he looked at this filthy, grungy person and said, "Thanks, but that's okay," and walked on by him. Immediately, Tony was smitten with qualms of conscience. He aspires to live like Jesus, he says, and the minute he passed by this down-trodden man, he knew he was doing the wrong thing. So he turned around and said, "Excuse me, sir, but I would like a drink of your coffee after all." He took the homeless man's cup, sipped some of the coffee, and gave the cup back to him. "You're very generous," Campolo said to the man. "How come you're so generous today?" "Well," the homeless man said, ''the coffee was especially delicious today, and I think that when God gives you something good, you ought to share it with others." Simon Peter, the coward turned crusader, felt that way too, my friends, and so should we. Can you think of anything better that God could ever give to us than His own Son Jesus to be our Savior? Anything better than the forgiveness of sins Jesus earned for us? Anything better than complete salvation from death and hell? Anything better than everlasting life in the kingdom of heaven, which God graciously gives us as a free gift with no strings attached tbru faith in Jesus? I can't. Ijust can't think of anything better than what God has given us in His Son Jesus. In connection with this, however, one theologian says that he thinks many Christians suffer from spiritual aphasia. "Have you ever heard of the medical condition called 'aphasia'?" he asks. "To put it very simply," he says, "aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak, and this unfortunate condition results when a message from the brain can't get thru to the tongue because of an injury or illness. Aphasia," he says. "It would seem that a similar spiritual malady also afflicts many Christians. There are many Christians who know the Lord Jesus Christ - who He is.... what He has done for them and the whole human world, but they never speak of Him. They are completely familiar with God's plan of salvation in Jesus, but they never communicate that to others. For one reason or another," he says, "maybe either because of fear or shyness or a feeling of inadequacy, the knowledge of Jesus and His salvation which they have in their heads and in their hearts never makes it to their tongue." Spiritual aphasia. How is it with you, my friends? Like the grimy, grungy, homeless man said, "When God gives you something good, you ought to share it with others." Our hero of faith for today sure did that, dido't he! Simon Peter, the coward turned crusader, shared Jesus and His love, Jesus and His forgiveness, Jesus and His salvation boldly and courageously. May God grant each of you the grace to do the same.

AMEN