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THE COURAGE OF PETER!

      In Acts 15:1 - 2 we read:
      Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved."  2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
      To settle this question the congregation in Antioch sent Paul, Barnabas, and some  other believers to Jerusalem.  When they arrived in Jerusalem they told the apostles and elders of First Church all that God had done through them among the Gentiles.  Immediately some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees reacted to Paul's report by saying,
"The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."
      What followed was one of those elder meetings that was far more heated and lasted far longer than anyone anticipated.  In the end it was the words of Peter and James that led to a solution.
      That was two-thousand years ago and yet the attitude of believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees still plagues the church.  If we were to update and  paraphrase the wrong-headed notion found in Acts 15:1 it would read something like this:
People need to become like us in order to hear the gospel.
      In Acts those who thought this way, those who had a bent toward being a Pharisee, those who had grown up in the Synagogue, were convinced that in order for someone to be saved they had to become like the Israelites - they had to be Jewish.  We know that's silly, but today we sometimes have the same attitude. 
      Unconsciously, some in the church of today have adopted the attitude that in order for people to come to know Jesus they must first make room for the church in their life.  Once they adjust to life within the church they can be saved!  Based on this mentality we do everything we can to make our church more attractive than the church down the street.
      Reggie McNeal puts it like this:
      The disciples had grown up under the influence of Pharisaic Judaism.  The Pharisee's evangelism strategy sounds eerily familiar.  Their approach to sharing God was, "Come and get it!"  In addition, they had contorted God's message to moralism: "You people 'out there' need to straighten up!"  The Pharisees had developed a very insular culture.  They did business as much as possible only with other Pharisees (lest they be contaminated by the unclean).  When they traveled they stayed with other Pharisees.  They lived inside the Pharisee bubble (they had little Pharisee insignias on their burro bumper and listened only to Pharisee radio stations).  Their message to people outside the bubble was: "Become like us (translated: believe like us, dress like us, vote like us, like what we like, don't like what we don't like).   If you become like us (jump through cultural hoops and adopt ours), we will consider you for club membership."  Does any of this sound familiar yet?"1
      In this context what happens in Acts 2 is incredible.  After all, the ten days in which the small band of believers spent huddling together prior to being baptized with the Holy Spirit must have been a precious time.  In a sense, it would have made sense for them to continue huddling together around God's Word and prayer.  But they didn't do that, instead in Acts 2:5 - 21 we read,
      Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.  6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.  7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?  8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?  9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,  10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs-we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!"  12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
      Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
      Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.  15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It's only nine in the morning!  16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:  17 "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
      A crowd gathered not because they were attracted to the holy huddle but because they had heard the sound of a violent wind and had somehow pinpointed the general location.  As they came together in the general vicinity of the sound they heard an even stranger sound.  They heard some of the believers, evidently Galileans, speaking in their native tongue.  Amazed and perplexed, they turned to one another and realized they had no answer for what they were experiencing.  Some, however, ridiculed the believers and declared in a rather obnoxious tone, "These people are drunk on cheap wine."
      The last crowd that had gathered together in Jerusalem demanded that Barabbas be released and that Jesus, the Christ, be crucified.  The last crowd had sent the disciples scurrying for cover.  So it's easy to imagine the believers hesitating to venture beyond the walls of the upper room.  But as they exalted in being filled with the Holy Spirit they poured out of the room and continued to speak in tongues; that is they continued to speak in a language they had never mastered themselves.
      Then, in response to the confusion of the crowd and the comment made by those who mocked the disciples, Peter stood up and began to explain what was happening.  In short, he was out on the street where anything could happen.
      In regards to going out onto the street where the unexpected could happen Reggie McNeal has this to say,
      "The Pharisees were afraid of becoming contaminated, or unclean, and losing their righteousness.  I think we have some different fears.  I think we are afraid of not knowing how to engage people in genuine conversation.  I think we fear rejection.  I think we don't know what to say.  I think we are unsure of what we have to offer to people.  I think we are not that enthusiastic about being evangelistic because we feel we don't have a compelling story."2
      Peter, with a bad habit of getting into trouble with his impulsive words and actions, undoubtedly had his own set of fears.  Nevertheless, he stepped out onto the street and spoke up.  Why?  What gave him the grace and the courage to do so?
      I believe the text in Acts 2 suggest a number of reasons.  First, you will note from v. 14 that Peter stood up with the Eleven.  That is, Peter didn't stand up by himself.  He had the support of the other eleven apostles and, undoubtedly, of the small band of believers in Jerusalem on that day.  They stood shoulder to shoulder with him and were undoubtedly praying for him as he spoke to the crowd.
      Second, we know he was filled with the Holy Spirit.  That is, his heart and mind were such that he willingly and gladly allowed the Holy Spirit to steer him through this opportunity.  In this regards, the initial obstacle was the fact that the crowd contained  some individuals who ridiculed the disciples by saying they were drunk on cheap wine.
      The old Peter would've taken this as the time to defend his friends by directly attacking those who made such a stupid remark.  He would've verbally assaulted them.  But on this day, he used some finesse.  He quickly dismissed the notion, with a touch of humor, by pointing out to the crowd that such an idea was unreasonable as it was only nine in the morning.  Then, without waiting for a counter-reply, he immediately went on with his explanation.  Such an artful reply could only have come about by Peter being sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
      Third, he had nothing on his mind that was troubling him.  In other words, he spoke with a clear conscience.  Quite frankly, I think we fail to appreciate what Jesus did for Peter when he asked him whether or not he truly loved him - three times.  We get caught up in a linguistic lesson and fail to see that on that morning Peter was set free from the past.  He was set free to serve with a clear conscience.  He was set free to serve without past misdeeds nagging him.  And most of all, he was set free to serve without Satan pointing the finger at him and accusing him of being a hypocrite.
      Fourth, he had a good handle on the Word.  Having spent three years under the eye of the Master Teacher and having spent forty days between the resurrection of Jesus and his ascension where our Lord spoke about the kingdom of God, Peter had a firm grasp on what the Old Testament said about Christ.  He saw the words of the various prophets in the clear light of good teaching and, more to the point, in the light of current events .  He knew which psalms applied themselves to Jesus and which ones did not.  Hence, he could back up what he said by referring to God's Word.       
      Fifth, he didn't stand up on that day to prove that he had been right about Jesus all along and those in the crowd had been mistaken.  That is, he didn't enter the public square on that day as a lawyer.  He stepped into the public square simply as a witness to what he had seen during the last three years.
      Plus, he spoke from his heart with a sincere love for those in the crowd.  He spoke to them respectfully and graciously.  He told them the truth in a gracious manner.  How about us?  Do we speak the truth with courage and love?  

1     Reggie McNeal, The PRESENT FUTURE - Six Tough Questions for the Church, Jossey -Bass A Wiley Imprint, 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741, 2003, p. 28.
2     Ibid., p. 36.

PETER: THE MAN AND HIS LETTERS                                  10/21/07    1

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