“On Easter Sunday someone usually says, ‘Christ is risen!’ and everyone else says, ‘Christ is risen indeed!’ But some people have a hard time with the Resurrection: they have a hard time believing it actually happened. I can’t say that I blame them,” begins Jim Somerville, pastor of Richmond’s First Baptist Church and co-founder of A Sermon for Every Sunday. He continues, “Whatever actually happened on Easter Sunday morning, the result of it was that the disciples, who might have simply scattered and gone back to their old lives, came together and formed a community of believers.” In today’s passage from Acts 5:27-32, Peter, the one who had denied Jesus three times, becomes a fearless disciple. He refuses to stop preaching in Jesus’s name and even accuses the authorities of killing Jesus, a threat that could have resulted in his death right then and there. Somerville says, “Whatever happened in those days after Jesus’ death and burial changed them, drastically, and that may be all the proof of resurrection we need.”
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