 In this Easter season we celebrate God's raising of Jesus from the dead as we see it explained and expounded in the New Testament Scriptures. As they were speaking to the people, along came the priests, the chief of the temple police and the Sadducees. They were thoroughly annoyed that they were teaching the people and proclaiming that the resurrection of the dead had begun to happen in Jesus. They seized them and put them under guard until the next day, since it was already evening. But a large number of the people who had heard the message believed it, and the number of men grew to 5,000. This is one little snippet from the remarkable story in Acts chapters 3 and 4 of what happened when Peter and John, going into the temple to pray, came upon a man who had been lame since birth, a man that in the Old Text is called a cripple, or somebody who's been lame since birth. And they healed him. Peter says, I don't have any silver or gold to give you, but I'll give you what I've got. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, get up and walk, and the man did. And everyone was astonished because he was a well-known character around the temple. And people recognized him, and something had happened which they couldn't explain. So Peter and John at the end of Acts chapter 3 explained that it's because God has raised Jesus from the dead, and with that has launched his project of new creation. And this really gets up the noses of the temple hierarchy, the Sadducees. Because the Sadducees were the cautious aristocrats, the cautious conservatives who didn't want any news of resurrection, because that was about God doing something radically new. And they were quite happy to keep the status quo. Thank you very much. After all, things were dangerous. The Romans were watchful for any sign of rebellion from the Judeans. There were all sorts of dangers around for the people, for the city, for the temple, and so on. If only we can keep the lid on everything, that'll be all right. The last thing we want is somebody going around talking about resurrection. And not just talking about a resurrection as something which you could expect in the future, that was bad enough. But saying that the resurrection from the dead had already begun to happen in Jesus. That's the point which Paul picks up at the beginning of Romans, when he uses a phrase about Jesus being raised from among the dead ones, that Jesus, as again Paul says in 1 Corinthians, is the first fruits. Jesus is the beginning of new creation. The resurrection body of Jesus is the small, close-up and personal bit of new creation, which has already happened, as a result of which all sorts of other things can and do happen right away, including the healing of this man. Now, it always remains ambiguous and contested. Sometimes when I talk about these things, people say, it implies as though all we've got to do is just go and get on with doing this kingdom stuff, and it'll all be easy. Well, no, what happened immediately was that the chief priests and the Sadducees grabbed the apostles and put them in prison, and then started to threaten them with persecution. And indeed, there is persecution and martyrdom to come all the way through the whole book of Acts. But at the same time, a large number of people believed. That's what happens when the signs of new life spring up before people. Some people get cross, particularly those whose power structures are threatened by this new message of resurrection. But others will say, oh my goodness, this must be the thing for which we have waited and longed. We didn't know it was going to appear in this form, but it seems to be real, and we want to go with it. So Luke, in telling this story, wants us to pan back and see the whole story of the early church like this. As doing things which say, this is what it looks like when God's new creation has been inaugurated. With Jesus, the resurrection from the dead has begun. And Luke is saying, of course this won't be popular. Of course there will be problems and setbacks and persecutions. But you will find that as you talk about Jesus and his resurrection and produce those signs of new creation, people will believe the Word will get out and when the Word gets out it will do its own work. And that work is new creation in this person, in that person, in this family, in that group. And that is all further pointers to the ultimate new creation which we still await. How is this passage speaking to you? Let us know in the comments. Like and subscribe or check out our other videos.