Chapter 2. Peter the Witness

Jesus had appeared to the disciples after his resurrection a number of times and had expanded their horizons immeasurably. What they lacked was the power to achieve. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem and power would be given them. How that promise was to be fulfilled would amaze them all.

A number of groups of Jews believed in the future outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The community at Qumran believed they already had received the Spirit of God, and they were waiting for a fuller outpouring of the Holy Spirit as had been prophesied. This would then usher in the Messianic era.

At the ascension of Jesus, Jesus had told his followers that, until his promised return, they were to wait in Jerusalem until the outpouring of the Holy Spirit would come upon them. In obedience to this, the eleven disciples, a group of women including the mother of Jesus, his brothers, and a group of believers, met with one accord in prayer and waiting in the same upper room where Jesus held the Last Supper.

His open proclamation

Peter was willing to witness to his faith in Jesus in obedience to the last words that Jesus spoke to him and the other disciples: ‘Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.’ 1

For the next ten days these words, and how they would be carried out, were uppermost in their discussions and prayers. We read that during this time they were of one mind and heart and purpose ─ what they lacked was the power to achieve. That was to be remedied in a remarkable way.

Ten days after the ascension, there occurred one of Israel’s great festivals ─ the Feast of Weeks. This was so named because it was held on the day after seven weeks of seven days since the Passover festival. This fiftieth day celebration, expressed by the word Pentecost, was a joyful festival marking the end of harvest. Everyone within twenty miles of the Temple was required by law to attend, and strangers from many other lands would come to join in the one-day celebration. A sin offering, a peace offering, and two loaves of unleavened bread were offered by the people. During the celebration the people were reminded that God had given them a covenant at Sinai and had promised to redeem them.

While this festival was being celebrated, the disciples went back and forth from the upper room into the nearby Temple court where huge crowds were gathered. On this Pentecost, the crowds heard the sound of a mighty, rushing wind. Moving towards the source, they were met by a group of men and women who came rushing down from a nearby house, talking excitedly with everyone in such a way that no matter which country they had come from, they could understand them.

Those believers in Jesus were repeating what God had done in them, and in Jesus Christ. They were proclaiming that Jesus was the great sin offering for the world, that he was their true peace offering, that his body was the bread given for the life of the world, and that the whole world of people was the true harvest for God. They claimed that the long-promised Spirit of God mentioned by prophets like Joel, and even John the Baptist, had now come upon them.

Their leader, Peter, began proclaiming in the plaza with great boldness. They recognized that he was only a fisherman, but his knowledge of the scriptures, of their fulfillment and of the significance of Jesus of Nazareth amazed everyone.

One thing was certain: whatever had happened in that upper room had completely transformed these formerly fearful followers of Jesus into enthusiastic preachers of a new Lord and of their Messiah. What had happened, in fact, was that a new body of people was born, a new nation came into being, and a new relationship between different peoples of the world was established. Pentecost was the birth of the church.

Three symbols were associated with that birth in the same way as the symbols of the star, the shepherds and wise men were associated with the birth of Jesus. These symbols were the sound of a mighty rushing wind, dancing tongues similar to fire, and the ability of the believers to speak foreign languages.

The mighty rushing wind that attracted the attention of the crowds was the symbol of invisible power. Jesus had told Nicodemus that the wind was the symbol of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a person. It was invisible, irresistible, unpredictable, untraceable and powerful. The Holy Spirit comes upon believers as a source of God’s inner power.

The dancing flames which appeared as tongues as of fire in the air above the heads of the early believers were a symbol of God’s purification. Fire was used to purify, to remove dross, to cleanse a person from all that was unworthy. When God had spoken to Moses, his voice came from the flames of the burning bush. Now the flames would symbolise that God would speak through them with authority.

The speaking in other languages that the listeners could understand was not the phenomenon known later as ‘speaking in tongues’ – ecstatic utterances in unknown syllables – but the ability to communicate the essence of the gospel to people of other lands in a way that they understood from their own cultural context.

According to a rabbinic tradition, when the Law was given at Mt Sinai, the Ten Commandments were promulgated with a single sound, yet all the people heard ‘a voice form the darkness’. They believed the voice went forth in seven voices which divided into seventy tongues, and all people heard the Law in their own language. 2

Now, on the anniversary day of that lawgiving, ’each one of them heard the believers speaking in his own language.’ They were amazed as they had come from round the Mediterranean, ‘yet all of them heard them speaking in their own languages about the things that God had done! Amazed and confused, they kept asking each other “What does this mean?” ’ 3

Hearing the message in their own language was the symbol of the future proclamation of the gospel among people of many lands. The Holy Spirit has been the source of the church’s proclamation of the gospel.

Jesus had told them to disciple people from all nations and, on this day of Pentecost, he was giving them a head start by commencing the work on the one day when thousands of people from a score of nations would be present, and by enabling them all to hear the message in their own language.

Those first Christians now realized an important truth: God had equipped them to disciple the world. The two loaves of bread would represent the two communities of believers, the new Israel, the church of Jesus Christ. A new kind of harvest began to be reaped that day, a harvest of believing people which has continued through the centuries until today.

From that day of Pentecost, the believers went out to turn the world upside down.

Peter repeated the facts about the death of Jesus and showed how it was the fulfillment of the scriptures. His death was well known to all and, difficult as it may be to accept, was necessary for the redemption of sin. God raised him from the dead and the disciples were witnesses of that fact. The Holy Spirit had been sent by the Son as he had promised. They were ’ to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah.’

The people reacted with despair and stricken conscience. But Peter told them good news: they could repent of their sin, be baptized as a sign of being incorporated into the new community, and they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 4

Today, each Pentecost in Jerusalem, there is a marvelous scene at the western wall of the Temple. This is Israel’s most sacred site. In a great area of open plaza at the Temple wall preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ from many lands proclaim the truth in many languages. They are hoping to see a repeat of that first Pentecost in the history of the church when Peter preached the gospel and thousands responded. On that day, of those that responded to Peter’s preaching, 3,000 were baptized. With boldness he proclaimed that Jesus Christ was Lord. Peter became the first great preacher of the Christian church.

His healing ministry

In the last decade, a tremendous amount of archeological work has been done round the Temple mount in Jerusalem under the leadership of Meir Ben-Dov. This work has recorded that at the eastern side of the Temple mount was a triple gate which was the main entrance. This is the gate called in Act 3:2 the ’Beautiful Gate’. Today, after centuries of being buried, we can see the magnificent wide steps made of dressed stone leading up to the gate, and still in place are the gatepost and threshold of what was the original gate. It consisted of three arches fifteen metres in width and height. Beautifully carved stones from the gateposts have been found nearby. The doors were originally of bronze and famous for their workmanship.

As you stand by these arches, where the steps led up into the Temple, it is easy to imagine that day when Peter and John were going up into the Temple at 3.00 pm to worship when they were asked for money by a crippled beggar. Peter said, ‘ “I have no money at all, but I give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I order you to get up and walk !” Then he took him by his right hand and helped him up. At once the man’s feet and ankles became strong; he jumped up, stood on his feet and started walking around.’ 5

He had been crippled for over forty years since birth, and was well-known in the community as he had a regular place at the Beautiful Gate. People were amazed and crowded round them all, and Peter immediately preached how the power of Jesus enabled the man to walk.

But the authorities who had crucified Jesus were alarmed that this man was publicly preaching about the crucified Jesus who had been raised from the dead by God’s power. So they had Peter and John arrested and imprisoned for healing in the name of the Lord Jesus and for doing it on the Sabbath day.

The following day they were brought from their prison and brought before the Council of the Sanhedrin. They spoke boldly to the Council. There was little the Council could say, because the man who was healed was standing with Peter and John. They decided to instruct them not to speak in Jesus’ name any more. Peter and John answered, ‘You yourselves judge which is right in God’s sight — to obey you or to obey God. For we cannot stop speaking of what we ourselves have seen and heard.’ They could do little about this because the people supported them. 6

They believed, they boldly witnessed to their faith and, as a consequence, a man was healed. Now Peter had a reputation for healing. The response to Peter was the same as to Jesus when people brought the sick, the possessed and paralysed for him to touch. They even sought to touch the hem of his garment. Peter was instrumental in healing Aeneas, a cripple who had been confined to bed for eight years. He achieved widespread fame when he raised Dorcas of Joppa, a woman of great faith and good deeds who had recently died.

He was to use his gift of healing rarely, but it was evidently a power given by God to help establish the young church.

His reluctant change

A radical wants to make things change and Peter certainly made things change, but he did it reluctantly. Peter was naturally conservative. Most fishermen, farmers and people who live close to nature are conservative by nature. But he became a radical, a reluctant radical.

The apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people in Samaria had received the word of God so they sent Peter to them. I am quite sure Peter did not go willingly. Why should he go and talk to the despised Samaritans? He was a Jew, one of the exclusive people of God. But his Master had told them to make disciples in Samaria.

So Peter travelled to Samaria. To go among the Samaritans and go among people who were not Jews was not easy for Peter, but what he did not realize was that once he started to mix with people of other races, and started to eat with them and have fellowship with them, God was going to do a wonderful thing in their hearts.

Peter went to visit a Christian in Joppa, the modern Jaffa. He was known as Simon the Tanner. A tanner worked with leather and handled dead bodies. In the Jewish law no Jew of faith who handled dead bodies could go to a synagogue or pray at the Temple. So Simon was outcast. He lived by the seaside, as salt water was good for tanning skins, and because his business smelt so much it was not wanted in town. At noon, Peter climbed the stairs outside Simon’s house onto the flat roof to pray. He became hungry and, in a vision, he saw a canvas being let down and in it he discovered all sorts of animals and beasts recorded in the book of Leviticus as unclean animals – toads and snails and rats and cloven-footed beasts and pigs. And a voice said to him: ‘Get up Peter; kill and eat!’

Peter replied, ’Certainly not Lord! I have never eaten anything ritually unclean or defiled.’ Imagine speaking back at God like that! But Peter was a conservative and careful Jew. Then the voice said again to him, ‘Do not consider anything unclean that God has declared clean.’ 7 How we need to remember those words when we meet people of other races, traditions and backgrounds. Three times that dream occurred.

Peter was disturbed by the noise of someone knocking downstairs. A Roman soldier and two servants from nearby Caesarea were asking for Peter. Caesarea was just down the coast. It was a beautiful Roman resort with a magnificent theatre, great public buildings, a hippodrome race track, lavishly adorned temples and everything needful for Roman R & R – military rest and recreation.

Peter went downstairs and, when he asked them why they had come, they replied, ‘Captain Cornelius sent us…He is a good man who worships God and is highly respected by all the Jewish people. An angel of God told him to invite you to his house, so that he could hear what you have to say.’ 8

First Samaritans, then a leather worker, then eating unclean animals, and now a Roman in Caesarea! But God was opening up Peter’s life. He was learning to witness multiculturally.

So Peter went to Caesarea and found the centurion who was in charge of the Second Italian Cohort of Roman citizens. He believed in God. Peter shared the gospel with him, baptized him and many other people, and the Spirit of God came upon them all.

The six Jewish believers accompanying Peter were amazed at what God had done. This was a Gentile Pentecost following the preaching of the same message as Peter had preached to the Jews in Jerusalem. Peter had suddenly taken the church out of the confines of Judaism from being a sect of the Jewish faith and taken it to the Samaritans, to the leather workers and now to the Roman soldiers in Caesarea. Peter reluctantly had become a radical!

The news travelled fast to Jerusalem. The other leaders of the church were astounded. James was taking over as the leader of the apostles, for Jesus had also appeared to him, and his training as a priest as well as his standing as younger brother of Jesus gave him pre-eminence. James was a conservative and strict Jew and, when he heard that Peter was eating with a leather worker and then staying with a Roman soldier, he became upset, as did the others.

To them Peter was breaking the Jewish law by going to these people. This problem of uncircumcised believers was to be the first big problem the young church had to face. Peter brought six witnesses with him, recounted all the events and compared the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Gentiles to that upon the Jews. Peter’s words caused them to stop their criticism and praise God for giving the non-Jews this opportunity to come to him. 9

Yet that problem would grow in significance as God brought more and more people to the faith outside of Judaism. Nearly twenty years later a council was called in Jerusalem to decide once and for all what should happen between the Christian Jews and the Christians who were not Jews. At that time it was to take the wisdom of Barnabas, the logic of a Pharisee not yet converted named Saul of Tarsus, and the personal stature of Peter to win the day. It took nearly twenty years, but Peter changed the course of the Christian church.

Peter was the primary witness to the Jews on the days of Pentecost, and to the Gentiles at Joppa and Caesarea. It was Peter who was instrumental in seeing the faith break out of the Jewish womb which had given the church its birth.

Endnotes:

1. Matthew 28:19-20
2. Deuteronomy 5:23; Midrash Tanchuma 26C
3. Acts 2:1-12
4. Acts 2:14-42
5. Acts 3:6-8
6. Acts 4:13-21
7. Acts 10:12-15
8. Acts 10:22
9. Acts 11:1-18

For personal reading

Theme: The Spirit of power

Monday : The promise of power (Luke 24:44-53)
Tuesday : The coming of power (Acts 2:1-41)
Wednesday : The healing power (Acts 3:1-26)
Thursday : Power to all (Acts 9:36-10:16)
Friday : The changing power (Acts 10:23b-48)
Saturday : One in the power (Galatians 3:27-28)
Sunday : A powerful life (1 Peter 1:13-21)

For group reading

Topic: Bold witness

1. What brought about the change in the boldness of the disciples at Pentecost?

2. What was the reaction of the Pharisees to the healing of the lame man by Peter and John? Why?

3. Peter visited Simon the tanner in Joppa. What does Peter’s willingness to stay with Simon, an outcast, say to you?

4. Peter discovered that the good news wad for everyone. What implications do that have for the Christian life?

5. What does 1 Peter 1:13-15 suggest should be the attitude of the Christian to life? Discuss some examples of this from your own experience.

Monday, 6th July, 2009, 4:56 pm | Bible Studies