Seven Weeks

...Weeks before (Pentecost), Peter and the Disciples were holed up together in a room, scared for their lives, full of doubts. Luke tells us their initial response to the women who had returned from the tomb to tell of His resurrection was disbelief – in fact, the women’s words "seemed like nonsense". When Jesus appears to them in that room later the same day, they were startled and frightened, prompting Jesus to ask them “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?”

Yet in seven weeks time, they chose to forfeit their former lives entirely, and to risk their lives for the sake of proclaiming Christ! Their choice is where our faith comes to rest. Because they could have chosen to go home and we would not be here today. They could have returned to their homes, their carpentry shops, their fishing boats, their families – the lives they had before they encountered Jesus. They could have - but they did not.

Seven weeks. From scared for their very lives, hiding in a room, to raising their voices to proclaim the gospel to everyone who had ears to hear it in the middle of Jerusalem.

We’ve had quite a lot going on in our lives the last seven weeks, too. These events going on around us since Holy Week must cause us to take notice, to question, to decide as Christians how we are to respond...

Read the rest of the sermon here or listen to it online here.