What God Does with an Unlikely Disciple

Have you ever met someone whose growth and change as a person astonished you? Maybe it was someone whose physical appearance changed: they were scrawny, but they gained weight and muscle and now look really fit. Or maybe someone wasn’t very good in school, and you meet them years later, and now they are called “doctor.” We love stories where people change for the better.

A few weeks ago we were sitting around in the morning and one channel or another was playing a Star Wars marathon. In the movie Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi, Han Solo has one of those moments where he realizes the immature Luke Skywalker he had left in Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back (1980) has become a Jedi master who saves him from Jabba the Hutt. When his sidekick Chewie tells Han that Luke is here to rescue him, Han says, “Luke? Luke's crazy! He can't even take care of himself, much less rescue anybody.” But Han was proven wrong.

Sometimes we have moments like that where we think of ourselves or others as we knew them instead of realizing how much the Power of God can change people.

The book of Acts opens with the last days of Jesus before his ascension to heaven. The disciples are instructed to wait on the Holy Spirit to come upon them. Acts 2 describes the disciples being filled with Spirit and speaking in tongues. These speeches were not done in private but in the public square for all to hear. We see Peter step forward to explain what is going on.

Acts 2:14 ESV

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.

Acts 2:22–23 ESV

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Acts 2:29–33 ESV

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

Acts 2:36–41 ESV

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Discipleship is Not Self-Help

Peter’s reversal from a disciple who failed to an apostle of Jesus who spoke before thousands of people didn’t come through positive thinking, or being focused, or disciplined, or meditation and positive self image…… but through the reality of forgiveness in Jesus and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

The outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost brought about a new reality for humanity and those who follow Jesus. “Once the Spirit comes, a typical reaction occurs. The Holy Spirit emboldens the apostles to proclaim the message of Jesus’ resurrection. … On the day of Pentecost, He miraculously enables the disciples to speak in languages they have never learned so that the crowds can understand the good news (2:4). The Spirit also brings the power to perform miracles. One example of this takes place when Peter and John heal a crippled man (Acts 3)” (Kenneth Schenck, God’s Plan Fulfilled: A Guide for Understanding the New Testament [Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2009], 166).

Zechariah 4:6 ESV

Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

Body of Christ we have to understand a few things. Peter underwent a transformation from who he was, from the fisherman that we saw 6 weeks ago to the man that we now see preaching to the masses. We see a transformation from the Peter who sank in the waves to the one that we see confronting the crowd. We see a transformation from the Peter that denied Christ for fear of reprisal to the man that we see here in Acts 2 boldly speaking the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Peter has grown, peter has developed. But what I think is important is what we don’t see in scripture. We don’t see one place where scripture talks about Peter taking a self help course. We don’t see in here that Peter decides that it is time for him to change.

What we do see from Peter is discipleship, we see Peter growing through his involvement with Christ And learning through his successes and failures.

Being a Disciple is Dangerous!

What Peter did was bold and dangerous!

But in the power of the Spirit he fulfilled what Jesus had told the disciples:

John 20:21 ESV

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

N. T. Wright describes the importance of the empowerment of the Spirit at Pentecost, “The Spirit is given to us so that God’s work may be done through us. God intends that the Spirit will declare that the world is in the wrong—but it is we who, tremblingly but in the power of the Spirit, will make that declaration. We are to be the people through whom it is made known that the world’s failure to believe in Jesus is the dark symptom of its failure to grasp the vocation to be genuinely human—in other words, of its sin”

Peter isn’t unique in being used and empowered by the Spirit. God has called every believer to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the gospel and live a life that reflects the kingdom of God.