Preached at Clyro, 1853.
“The God of our Fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged upon a tree; Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” —Acts v. 30, 31.
These are the words of St. Peter. Do you remember some other words of his, when he was sitting with our Lord the night before His crucifixion? He said then, “Lord, I will go with Thee to prison and to death.” And Jesus answered, “Verily, I say unto you, the cock shall not crow twice till thou hast denied me thrice.” As He spoke, so it came to pass. Jesus was standing before the judgment-seat. One and another person said to Peter, “Thou wast one of His disciples.” “Did I not see thee in the garden with Him?” “Thou art a Galilean; thy speech betrayeth thee.” But he said to each, “I know not what thou sayest,” or, “I know not the man.”
Some three or four months had passed away since that time, and here is the same Peter. Those people before whom he was afraid to confess that he knew Christ were men-servants and maid-servants. Now he was before the rulers and elders of the Jews, the men whom he had been taught to fear as the greatest in his country, ever since he was a child. He had not often seen them, for they lived in the chief city of Judea, and he had been brought up in the upper part of the land. Those who came from his country were despised by the South people, and he had passed his life as a fisherman on the lakes; yet hear how he answers a council of the most learned and powerful men in Jerusalem: “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted at His own right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of these things. So also is the Holy Ghost, which God hath given to them that obey Him.”
You see the coward has become the bravest of men: he who could not acknowledge his dearest friend, when he had just been sitting and eating with Him, is ready indeed to go to prison and death for Him, now that he sees Him no more. How has this happened? What is the cause of this mighty change which has since come over him?
I believe it concerns us much to know, brethren; for we may find out secrets which have as much to do with us as with Simon Peter.
While St. Peter and the Apostles were walking day by day with Christ, seeing the wonders that He did, hearing Him utter parables to the people, asking Him in private to explain them, receiving power from Him to go and heal the sick themselves—while all this was going on, they felt as if they were His especial favourites, those whom He had chosen to receive blessings which other people had not. And He did not tell them they were wrong. On the contrary, He said He had chosen them to be His ministers, to sit and rule and judge with Him in His kingdom: and that kingdom, He said, was the kingdom of heaven, the one to which all others must bow. But He explained to them also, that He who was the chief in this kingdom had come to be the servant of all; and that if they reigned with Him, they must be servants too. They could not understand this. If they were the chosen companions of a king, must not they some day or other be admitted into a palace, and have servants to wait on them? Must they not look down upon those, who had looked down upon them? They thought it must be so; they often questioned among themselves which of them should have the choicest place—which of them should be the greatest, and sit nearest to the king. That dispute they were busy with even at the Last Supper, when He was saying, “One of you shall betray me”; and when His soul was troubled “even unto death.” You will think, then, how they must have been upset and bewildered when they saw Him who was to be a king Himself, and who was to make them kings, led out to be tried, and mocked, and crucified. You will think how their hopes must have withered up; they must have felt like men who had tumbled from a great height, and had not yet reached the bottom. It seemed as if they had been in a sleep ever since they left their father’s ship, and had been dreaming a long dream, which had passed away when the morning came. No doubt Christ had told them often that He should be rejected by the chief priests and elders, and given up to the Romans, and put to death. But they could not believe Him; they thought it was impossible, and they felt as little prepared for these events as if the words had never been spoken. They were not the least false men when they said they were sure they loved Him, and would cling to Him in life and death. They thought so in their very hearts; but they became utterly helpless and stupefied. Their strength was gone from them, so they all forsook Him; and he that was boldest, denied Him.
What could raise him out of this depth? First, we are told, “Peter went out and wept bitterly” for what he had done. Then he began to know more of Christ and of His power than he had ever known all the three years he had been with Him before. His heart had been fast bound; now it was loosened, and all the streams poured forth from it. Who had caused them to flow? When the cock crew “the Lord turned and looked upon him;” Peter felt how mighty He was then when they were binding and scourging Him. Yes, he felt Him to be more mighty than when He was feeding five thousand, and saying to the winds, “Peace, be still!”
This, then, was the first step in Peter’s change. He had had many good gifts before, but this one thing he had not had—a broken and contrite heart. He had thought highly of his Master, but he had thought more highly still of himself; that is to say, he thought of his Master chiefly for himself. He thought of what He would give him and do for him. How great a thing it was to be called by Him, and to be set above others, and to have such blessings in store for him afterwards. Now, he knew that he was good for nothing; all his proud fancies of what he was, and of what he might be, melted away together. He saw that as the earth is very warm and bright, because the sun shines upon it, so his goodness had all come from Christ, and not from himself, and that if he was separated from Him he was the poorest wretch alive.
If this time of sorrow and darkness had not come first, the news which he heard afterwards from the women who went to the sepulchre on the third day—“Jesus Christ is risen”—would not have been the wonderful news it was. And, even when he heard it, and when he went himself to the tomb and saw the linen clothes and the napkin, he could not believe it. That Christ should die was amazing and terrible; but that he should rise—how could that be? Who could think that something had taken place in their day which had never taken place since the creation of the world? The women must be mistaken. But Jesus himself stood among them, and said “Peace be unto you.” And it was not merely that he wished them peace; the peace really came to them. They felt that He was the giver of it. And when He showed them His hands and His side, they were sure that these were the signs and pledges of peace with God, and peace with each other. They were sure that He was the same now as He had been before His crucifixion, the same as He had been before He took flesh and dwelt amongst men.
They saw Him only now and then during the forty days after He rose from the dead. And when He had appeared to them for a little time, He again vanished away. It was a strange intercourse. Did not they sometimes long for the time to come back again when He was with them, journeying with them whole days and weeks? No; they were beginning to have such high thoughts of Him, that it was impossible for them to wish to recover that time.
He had known death; He had been in the dark world. They wondered that He could converse with them at all; that they could touch Him and eat with Him. They looked at Him, and touched Him, and yet doubted. He ascended on high out of their sight. How was it then? Was He not gone quite away from them? They did as He commanded. They waited in an upper room near the Temple at Jerusalem. There they found He was nearer than He had ever been; and they were sure that He had some great work for them to do, and that in due time they should have power to do it.
The power came. The Spirit of God descended upon them as they were gathered together at a great feast of the Jews. They felt that this Spirit was master of their words and their thoughts. They spake with other tongues, as He gave them utterance. St. Peter stood forth before the multitude, and said that this Spirit was given as a sign and proof that Jesus whom they crucified was raised up to be a Prince and Saviour, and that by His strength they were to tell those who had rejected Him that He was their King. Those who heard were pricked in their hearts, and said, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” And three thousand were baptized into the name of Christ, as the Son of the Living God, and the Spirit of the Father and the Son came upon them.
Here, then, was the cause of the mighty change which came on Peter in those two or three months. He had thought of Jesus of Nazareth as his mighty friend and teacher; now he knew him to be a prince, in the full meaning of the word. Not a person seated on a high throne, or in a great palace, that people could gaze at; but One who could rule and govern the thoughts of men’s hearts; whose throne was over them; whose palace was in them. He knew that this was the way in which Christ had proved Himself a king over him, when he had feared to confess Him, and when his heart had been tied and chained by his pride. He had laid him low; He had given him repentance; and now that He had left the world, and was exalted to His Father’s right hand, it was that He might do for others what He had done for him. For now, instead of dreaming of Christ as one who favoured Him more than others, he delighted to think that He was the Friend and Saviour of men; that He had taken their flesh and died their death. He entered into the mind of Christ. He began to see that it was His joy to do His Father’s will, by breaking the bonds which held His creatures in slavery; that it was His joy not to exalt Himself, but to be abased; not to be the chief of all, but the servant of all. St. Peter understood that he was sitting and reigning with Christ when he was witnessing to men of His love for them and His dominion over them—when he was showing them by his own example what forgiveness there was in Him, and how He could turn those who had erred most, and grieved Him most, to Himself.
Why, then, should he fear chief priests and rulers? He was sent to tell them of One who was their king as well as his. He was sent to tell them of One who was their Saviour as well as his. He could not fear them, for he knew how much stronger Christ was than they were. He could not hate them, for he knew that Christ had died, and risen, and ascended on high, because He cared for His enemies. St. Peter had learnt that he was the most contemptible of all in himself; he had learnt that he had the same evil nature with those chief priests and rulers who had put Christ to death; he had learnt that there was One who could subdue that evil nature in them and in him, who could rescue both from the evil spirit who had held them captive.
And now you see why I said the secret which concerned Peter, and which was made known to him, concerns us, and is declared to us in his words. He was a fisherman, as poor a man as any of you; he was a sinner, like each of us; he was an apostle—a herald of Christ’s kingdom to all men. He speaks of Christ being raised up to give repentance to Israel, because he was addressing Israelites, rulers of Israel, those who had committed the heaviest of all crimes; and, therefore, there is not one syllable or letter of that message of his which is not intended for any man, everywhere. It was for the Publicans, and harlots, and outcasts of the Jews; it was for the rich men, and scholars, and doctors. All wanted repentance; all wanted to have a right and true heart given to them, to have their proud and selfish heart broken down in them. St. Peter says, Christ is raised up on high that He may do this for them all; that He may give them repentance; and that He may send away their sins; may relieve them from that heavy burden. He does not say ‘If you will repent,’ ‘If you will put away your sins,’ then such and such good things will come to you. But he says, the Son of God and Son of Man has died and risen and ascended, that you may be able to repent; that your sins and you may be put asunder; that you may know they are your enemies, and that they have been vanquished.
And that is the good news which St. Peter preached, and which we are to preach to you. Repentance is far too hard a thing for man to accomplish; any man who has tried to repent knows that. But Christ is revealed as a prince over our hearts, to turn them according to God’s good and gracious will. Our sins cling too close to us for you and me to tear them off. But Christ has claimed us for members of His body, that He may do that for us which we cannot do. Christ gives us His spirit that He may make us free, in spite of all our inclination to continue slaves of a cruel tyrant. Let us believe this, brethren. And then you will desire that same Holy Spirit, who, when He had converted Simon Peter, made him a witness to his brethren, and a strengthener of them, to give you power by your lips to declare to all you meet, that Christ is their prince and Saviour; that He has been raised from the dead to give them repentance and remission of sins.