Gabe Fluhrer

And then we come to that scene, that fateful scene in the Gospels where Peter is warming himself by the fire.

And here is this big, burly fisherman who is undone by a servant girl, probably a teenager, probably a young woman.

Now why again do we say all that?

It's a prelude to understand our first letter of our acronym, the transformation of the disciples.

It's popular to argue that somehow the disciples were, of course, looking for the resurrection.

Back to what we said before about John, Shelby, Spong.

Well, of course, they expected something like that maybe.

But when you actually read the scriptures, what do we find?

No, they weren't expecting anything like that.

They were dejected, disbanded, and disheartened by the crucifixion of their master.

And that began with Peter's unconscionable denial of his master, calling down curses on himself.

Don't sanitize that, my friends.

Imagine Peter saying filthy language against his Savior.

And yet when we meet him, 40 or so days later, he's standing before people who have the power of life and death over him, who are going to beat him.

And he is saying to them things like, we must believe God rather than men.

He is saying things like this.

He is the Christ.

Go ahead and beat us.

Go ahead and flog us.

It doesn't matter.