But the Bible Says - Pastor Johnnie Simpson Jr.

 

This powerful message takes us to the birth of the church in Acts 2, where we witness Peter's first sermon after Pentecost. What makes this sermon remarkable is not just its content, but who delivered it. Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus three times, who fell asleep in Gethsemane, who sank while walking on water, now stands boldly before thousands. His transformation reveals a profound truth: our past failures do not disqualify us from God's purposes. Peter's authority came not from his credentials or clean record, but from two sources: the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. He reached back to Joel, to the Psalms, to David's prophecies, showing that what seemed new was actually an ancient promise fulfilled. The resurrection becomes the centerpiece, the ground beneath our feet. David's tomb remains occupied, but Jesus's tomb stands empty. This distinction changes everything. When life sends unexpected challenges, when culture dismisses our faith, when we face our own inadequacies, we have something unshakeable to stand on. The phrase 'but the Bible says' is not a retreat into cliche, but a declaration of confidence. Peter's pattern throughout Acts remains consistent: filled with the Holy Spirit, grounded in Scripture, always pointing to 'Jesus Christ, whom you crucified, but God raised from the dead.' This message invites us to let the Word take root so deeply that when pressure comes, the Word comes out.

When Past Failures Don't Disqualify Your Future

There's something deeply unsettling about watching someone with a questionable track record step up to speak on behalf of God. We live in an age of background checks, credential verification, and public vetting. We've been burned too many times by leaders who promised much and delivered disappointment. So when someone stands up and says, "Let me tell you about God," our first instinct isn't to lean in—it's to evaluate.

Who are you? And why should we believe you?

This was the atmosphere in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. A crowd had gathered, drawn by the sound of something extraordinary—120 people speaking in languages they'd never learned, tongues of fire resting on their heads, a violent rushing wind filling the house where they sat. Some were amazed. Some were confused. And some did what skeptics always do when confronted with the unexplainable: they mocked. "They've had too much wine," they said.

Into that noise, that division, that skepticism, Peter stood up.

The Unlikely Spokesman

If you were assembling a list of candidates to deliver the first sermon in Christian history, Peter's name would give you pause. His track record wasn't exactly confidence-building.

He correctly identified Jesus as the Messiah, then immediately rebuked the Son of God for planning to go to the cross. When he witnessed the glory of the transfiguration, his first response wasn't worship—it was to form a building committee. He had the chance to walk on water but sank the moment he took his eyes off Jesus. He fell asleep while Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. And when soldiers came to arrest Jesus, Peter pulled out a sword and cut off someone's ear.

But none of that compared to his greatest failure.

Peter had boldly declared—it's documented in all four Gospels—that even if everyone else abandoned Jesus, he would remain loyal. "I'm a day one," he essentially said. "I've got your back, Jesus."

Hours later, a servant girl pointed at him by a fire. "Didn't I see you with Jesus?"

Peter denied it. Three times. He even cursed to convince them he didn't know the man.

Then the rooster crowed, and Peter remembered Jesus's prediction. He wept.

Later, after the resurrection, Peter went back to fishing—back to what was familiar, back to what felt safe.

This was the man raising his voice to address pilgrims, scholars, and skeptics from across the world.

The Power of "But the Bible Says"

So how does a man like Peter stand up and deliver a message that brings 3,000 people to faith?

He doesn't rely on his own authority. He doesn't try to out-argue the mockers or charm the skeptics with personality. He doesn't explain away his past or build credibility from scratch.

Peter opens his mouth and preaches the Word.

When they accuse the disciples of being drunk, Peter reaches back to the prophet Joel: "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people." He's telling the crowd that if they want to understand what they're seeing, the Bible already told them it was coming. This isn't a surprise. This is fulfillment.

Then Peter turns to Jesus and makes three clear claims:

First, that Jesus was authenticated by God through miracles and signs witnessed publicly.

Second, that the cross wasn't a defeat—it happened by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. What the enemy thought was the end of the story was actually setting the stage for the greatest reversal in history.

Third, Peter reaches back to Psalm 16 to declare that the resurrection was always the promise. David wrote, "You will not abandon me to the realm of the dead. You will not let your holy one see decay."

Then Peter does the work of interpretation: "David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. So David couldn't have only been speaking about himself. He was writing prophecy."

The Occupied Tomb Versus the Empty One

Here's where the good news breaks wide open.

David was extraordinary. He was a shepherd who became king, a poet who gave us the Psalms, a warrior and statesman whom the Bible calls a man after God's own heart. He was given a covenant unlike almost any other and promised that the Savior would come through his bloodline.

David had every title you could give a human being.

But David's tomb is still occupied. You can visit it in Jerusalem right now.

Jesus, on the other hand—called the Son of David, the Son of God, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, bread when you're hungry, water when you're thirsty, a friend to the friendless and hope for the hopeless—was crucified under Pontius Pilate and laid in a borrowed tomb.

But Jesus didn't stay there.

"God raised this Jesus to life," Peter declares, "and we are all witnesses of it."

David wrote the promise. Jesus fulfilled it.

The resurrection isn't just a doctrine we affirm on Sunday morning. It's the ground under our feet. It's what we hold onto when the diagnosis comes back wrong, when a relationship falls apart, when injustice seems to be winning, when the system says we don't matter.

We don't have to accept that death has the final word—because the tomb is empty.

When the Word Gets Inside You

Peter, who ran from the cross, who denied Jesus three times, who went back to fishing when he didn't know what else to do, is now standing before thousands, filled with the Holy Spirit, preaching with a clarity no credential could have given him.

The Spirit didn't just forgive him. The Spirit redeemed him. It turned his failure into testimony, his weakness into a platform, his running away into standing up.

That's what happens when the Word gets inside of you.

We live in a time of unparalleled access to Scripture. We have Bibles on every device, dozens of translations, study tools that previous generations could only dream about. Yet for many of us, the Bible remains something we own but don't use—a fixture on a shelf rather than a foundation for our lives.

We carry it to church. We may even post a verse when something moves us. But when the culture challenges what we believe, when someone dismisses our faith, when life sends something we didn't see coming, we reach for the shelf, and the book is dusty.

Peter didn't have that problem anymore. The same man who had nothing to say when a servant girl pointed at him by a fire now had something to say—not because his personality had changed or his past was erased, but because the Word of God had taken root in him deeply enough that when the pressure came, the Word came out.

You May Not Be Much, But What You're Standing On Is Everything

You may not feel qualified. You may look at your past and wonder how God could use someone who has made the mistakes you've made.

But God isn't limited by your resume. God isn't intimidated by your history.

Because David's tomb is occupied. Jesus's tomb is not.

And if God could raise Jesus from the dead, God can raise you from whatever is trying to bury you.

Peter stood up. And 3,000 people were added to the church that day.

The question is: Are you willing to stand up?

Let "But the Bible says" be your foundation, your defense, your declaration. Because when everything else shifts, the Bible still says what it says.

And what it says is true.