Put yourself in Peter’s shoes.  

I tell you, he should have been shaking in his weathered Galilean sandals.  He was back in the same place (Jerusalem), facing the same religious leaders that masterminded the death of Jesus (Annas, Caiphas and squad), and metres away from where he could not forget yelling,swearing and kicking up a petrified stink, “Bl*#!y he%l!  I tell you!  I don’t know the Man!”  

 Peter had watched how they had subsequently treated Jesus, and he should have been scared stiff.  But he wasn’t.  Why?  Because he had personally seen how God had subsequently treated Jesus!  He had experienced the incredible, undeserved forgiveness and grace of the Saviour beside a lakeside breakfast BBQ.  He had been set on fire by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  He just wasn’t scared anymore!

 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

 Didn’t Peter know that it sounded arrogant and exclusive to say that Jesus has become the cornerstone and that salvation is in no one else?  Didn’t he know that it would have been more diplomatic to tell the evangelical Pharisees and ecumenical Sadducees that he and the other disciples were just one messianic tribe amongst many within the broader Jewish faith?  Hadn’t Jesus Himself said, with an undisguised hint of exclusivity, that salvation is from the Jews and not from the Samaritans, Ethiopians, Romans or the Sātavāhanas?  

 The reality was, though, that Peter knew that God had undertaken something new, that He had taken another divine step forward in the plan of salvation, and because it was His salvation plan, and not Peter’s or the Pharisees’ or humanity’s, Peter had to be honest to what Jesus had shown him.  It was true that some doubted, there were stories being posted on Facebook that the disciples had plagiarised the body from the tomb, while others said that they had just been hallucinating.  But for Peter, it was clear: “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

 You would think after being imprisoned and threatened by the nation’s most powerful leaders, that Peter and John would have quietly walked away, thoughtfully considering how they could live as good Jewish citizens in Jerusalem rather than preaching a troublesome message of a singular Saviour.  But they didn’t.  They prayed to the Creator of the universe, the same Person who had also created the Jews, the Samaritans, the Ethiopians, the Romans, and the Sātavāhanas.  They prayed to be empowered to speak God’s unique message about Jesus with boldness, while God stretched out His hand to heal individuals, communities, nations and humanity.

 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

 What about you?  With regards to the unique message that God has given the Seventh-day Adventist discipleship movement for this time, what are you praying for?

 The book of Acts is drenched with the Holy Spirit.  Reading it is like taking time to play out in the tropical rain!  Read the full stories for today in:

Acts 4 CEV
Acts of the Apostles “At the Temple Gate”

 Invite your friends to join this journey with you!  You can follow this journey Facebook too.