Peter Stood Up

by    31st March 2008    0 responses

This was originally a sermon, preached by Matthew Dawkins at St Margaret’s Berechurch on 30th March 2008.

Peter. Wasn’t he such a great guy? Peter was one of the Twelve, one of Jesus’ closest friends for three years, someone who saw the miracles and heard the amazing teaching. It was also through Simon Peter, whom Jesus called “The Rock”, that the church was built; after Jesus’ death and resurrection Peter was a pioneer in spreading the gospel and building Christian communities across the known world. And in Acts 2:14-32 we read about Peter’s first sermon, preached to a large crowd gathered in Jerusalem. This wasn’t a sermon Peter would have had time to prepare for, he had no notes to refer to, no stack of commentaries to back him up, he just stood up and preached to the masses, off the cuff. What a fantastic man he was.

Well, not quite. In fact, on closer inspection, the gospels tell a very different story. Peter isn’t documented as someone who lived up to his name. On the contrary, the person we hear far more about is Peter the Blunderer. Peter barged in without thinking, acted with little restraint, and regularly got completely the wrong end of the stick. On many occasions in his ministry Jesus talked about his imminent death, and on one occasion Peter drew him to one side and told him to stop talking such nonsense. Jesus gave him such a strong rebuke: “Get behind me Satan… you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”. When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet in the upper room it was Peter who objected, saying “No… you shall never wash my feet!” And when Jesus explained what he was doing, Peter replied “then Lord… not just my feet but my hands and my head too”. Peter clearly didn’t understand what Jesus was doing. And then, just a few hours later, as Jesus was being taken before the authorities, Peter denied even knowing Jesus – not just once, but three times.

Peter’s problem was that he rarely thought before he opened his mouth. Essentially, Peter was an ordinary bloke. An ordinary person, just like you and me. I’m sure we can all think of times when we’ve blundered into situations in just the same way, making the same sort of mistakes as Peter did. Peter was, after all, a fisherman, and that wasn’t exactly the sort of job that required a degree-level education!

So how is it, then, that Peter could give such a clear, powerful sermon? How is it that Peter could go on and perform miracles and heal people? How could Peter have argued so strongly against the authorities, upholding the message of the gospel? Had Peter suddenly changed overnight, and become super-intelligent? No. The difference was that now he was empowered by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit came upon the believers at Pentecost, Peter was given understanding, he was given the right words to say. Peter was inspired by the Holy Spirit. That’s the same Holy Spirit, incidentally, who empowered Jesus to do miracles, the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus back to life. Peter wasn’t special or gifted in the worldly sense, he was just a man; what made the difference was the Holy Spirit, working through him. The Holy Spirit enabled Peter to be more than he could be on his own.

Now, some of you may be thinking “well that’s all very well, but that was almost two thousand years ago, we don’t see miracles these days, we have science and technology and live in a multicultural society where miracles wouldn’t work”. Let me tell you, if the miracles aren’t happening, if we are not seeing signs and wonders happening around us it is because of us, not God! God is no less willing to act, the Holy Spirit is no less powerful now than he was two thousand years ago! If there is a difference, it is surely that we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to empower us fully.

In my first year at university I lived on campus, where everything was more or less central (apart from the supermarket, which was about 15 minutes walk). On one occasion I was in the launderette, doing a load of washing, and had taken my Bible to read while I waited. I think at the time I was reading about King David; I forget whether that had any relevance or not. Anyway, while sat in that hot, steamy, noisy room, reading my Bible, I distinctly felt God saying “why don’t you offer your Bible to someone else to read?” I sat there, stunned, petrified, as the minutes rolled by and I did nothing. The concept of standing up and asking if anyone would like to read my Bible was just too much for me, I wasn’t brave enough, I wasn’t confident enough. Eventually the moment passed, but with the relief came a sense of failure – God had asked me to do something and I had not been willing.

The lesson I learnt that day was that if I rely on my own ability and my own strength, I will ultimately fail. No matter how much I’ve read my Bible that day, if I depend solely on me I am doomed. It wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about how clever I was or how confident I was. It was about whether I was prepared to step out in faith and let God take the lead.

If we rely on God’s strength and allow the Holy Spirit to work through us, we can do far more than we could ever imagine. I know this from experience too, thankfully. Whether we are talking to friends, leading worship at church, looking after our family, doing the cooking, fetching the kids from school, going to work – all of these are good and worthy things to be doing, but if we rely on our own ability we will all be blunderers, just like Peter. But if we let the Holy Spirit empower us we too can build God’s church. Just like Peter.

We all stumble and fall. But with God – and only with God – all things are possible.

Leave a Reply

Allowed tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> <span style="">

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Matthew has long had a strong involvement with Christian websites. He was a keen contributor to the original Crossring site, and subsequently launched his own website, Focus On Faith. Focus On Faith was incorporated into Crossring in September 2009, and Matthew took on the role of lead writer for the site. Matthew works as a web designer, and lives in the West Country with his wife, Ellie.

What's On Crossring

Crossring is a community of Christians who meet together online in fellowship around the Christian faith and the Bible.

As part of our active lifestyle of prayer and Bible reading, we are currently reading a small section of the Bible together each day and sharing our responses to it with each other. We also publish a short devotional thought on a key verse or two from each day's passage to prompt prayer or reflection.

Introducing Daily Readings

Introducing Crossring Forums