“Go Tell Peter”
An Easter Story
“But go, tell the disciples and Peter...”
This is a story about the most memorable sermon I ever heard. The only sermon I have remembered over the years.
I’ve heard great preachers in my life. TV preachers like Billy Graham, Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah. Radio Preachers like J. Vernon McGee (I love his voice), Charles Swindoll. Each being a great speaker.
I’ve heard great local preachers and teachers over the years. Josh Hughes and S. (Tom) Moore.
I have heard many good preachers and teachers in my life, but there is only one sermon that is really memorable.
There hasn’t been an Easter since that I didn’t think about that sermon.
It was over twenty years ago. I was in my early forties.
There was a community revival type venue that was hosted by my then home church with local preachers invited to come in and speak.
I remember it was right around Easter.
The guest speaker was a guy named Harry Sims. A man that I had known and worked with for many, many years. He was a training instructor at the Nuclear Plant where I worked and he was also the pastor of a local country Church of God assembly. It was the only time I ever heard him deliver a message.
Harry’s sermon was about THAT resurrection morning. Easter Sunday morning.
The women of Jesus’s following, Mary Magdalene and other had gone to Jesus’s tomb early on that Sunday morning only to discover the tomb was empty and a man (an angel) dressed in white told them, “He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him”
Then the angel said this:
“Go tell the disciples AND PETER….”
And it was this nuance in the story that Harry Sims drove home. A nuance I guess I had heard or read but never really HEARD it.
Harry recounted the story of Peter. A leader of men. The one who cut off the ear of a roman soldier in defense of Jesus. Peter the one who Jesus had proclaimed as being the Rock on which he would build his church. Peter the one who walked on water. Peter the one who vowed to die for Jesus if necessary.
Then conversely, Peter the one that Jesus predicted would deny him three times. Peter, the one who cursed and spit and said, “I don’t even know the man.” Peter the one that denied him before men.
Peter the one that failed HIM.
Harry’s message brought home the way Peter must have felt. His fall, his shame, his regret. His aloneness.
And then comes Easter Morning.
Most Easter mornings are filled with believers saying over and over; “He is Risen. He is Risen indeed”
But all I hear every Easter are the words said over and over by Harry in that sermon delivered over 20 years ago, “Go tell Peter”.
“Go tell Peter…”
“Go tell Peter…. that still love him.”
“Go tell Peter… I chose him.”
“Go tell Peter… In the future, He will do great things in my name.”
“Go tell Peter… the path to redemption is full of failure.”
“Go tell Peter… in your weakness I am made strong.”
“Go tell Peter… to meet me in Galilee. We have work to do.”
Go tell Peter…
I recently saw Harry Sims with his wife, shopping for groceries in our local Walmart.
I decided to stop and tell him this story. I told him how he had preached the best sermon I ever heard. Then I gave him a short synopsis of what he has said. I could tell that, after 20+ years, had no recollection of that sermon.
Thats the way God works. The words offered that day were for me. Harry was just the guy delivering the message.
“Go tell Peter.'“
Remember, God loves you…. and there is NOTHING you can do that is ever going to change that.
I wish you a very Blessed Easter Morning.
“Go Tell Peter”