St Peter – the final three rounds in the ring with Jesus, before the knockout punch
Probably the title should be And Then? But I wanted the title to give some clues.
The essence of this post is to say that what happened to Peter will, in some very different shape or form, happen to us…if we’re even half-serious about following Christ.
We like Peter because of his spontaneity, bravery, commitment, and his faith, but why do we also warm to him through his failures? He is the flawed hero. Even after Pentecost, he strayed and had to be called back into line by the Apostle Paul.
Round 1. The denial of Christ
Round 2. His view of the women
Round 3. The beach…and knockout
Round 1.
Peter, from love and devotion, said ‘Even if everyone is made to stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you’ Mt26v33,35. Jesus replied, I suggest, calmly and without rancour, ‘Truly, I say to you that this night before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times’ v34
Jesus had exposed to Peter his fear, self-deception, and self-delusion.
Round 2.
Mary Magdalene and the other women with her returned to the disciples to report that they had seen the resurrected Jesus.
‘Their words seemed to the disciples as old wives’ tales, and they did not believe them’ Luke 24v11
Of course, Peter, despite his initial lack of belief, ran to the tomb to find it empty.
In Mark’s gospel, we read about the repercussions of this lack of respect from the men towards the women: ‘Later Jesus appeared to the eleven…and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe the women who had seen him after He had risen’ Mark 16v14
In Round 2, Jesus had exposed Peter’s (and the other male disciples’) lack of respect towards the women who had sacrificed a great deal, including their collective act of devotion to Christ, by talking spices to anoint the body of Christ, before dawn…whilst the men, no doubt, slept.
No wonder, Jesus’ opening word into the room after His appearance was, ‘Peace’
No wonder, Jesus’ opening word into the room after His appearance was, ‘Peace.’ The tension between the men and the women had just been disclosed and was out in the open. It would not be unreasonable, I suggest, to assume that after Jesus’s rebuke, Peter, and the other male disciples went over to the women and apologised. Sheepishly. (In another post, we might look at this same humbling process happening amongst the women followers of Jesus).
Round 3.
Peter, recognising Jesus, leaps out of the boat shouting, ‘It is the Lord!’ and they enjoy the breakfast that Jesus had prepared.
‘When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?’ John 20v15
As many have noted before me, Jesus asks him the same question three times to counter the three times Peter denied knowing Him. The final time that Jesus asked Peter was the knockout punch. ‘Do you love Me?’ Peter answers, if I may be permitted to use the old English, as it is so succinct, ‘Thou knowest’.
As I see it, Peter knew that his whole life and the future would now be wrapped up, not relying upon his own ability to love, or any deluded sense of his superiority to over women, or the other disciples, but on these two words ‘Thou knowest’.
The other apostle, Apostle Paul, would write a few decades later to the Galatians ‘…but now, after you have known God, or rather are known by God…’ Gal 4v9
Jesus had exposed the ultimate truth, that Peter could not rely on himself; in fact, he had not been created to rely on himself, or his faith, love, or knowledge of God as an autonomous individual, but flooded and sustained by Christ Himself ‘Thou knowest’ is all he was left with.
Barriers had come down. There was a sweetness amongst them.
The knockout blow was delivered with love, in a conversation about love for Christ, not a fierce rebuke or an emotional meltdown. Knowing everything that had happened since meeting Peter, Jesus’s final words are as it was at the beginning: ‘Follow Me’ John 20v19
I wrote at the beginning, the title for this perhaps should have been ‘And Then?’
My hunch.
After the ascension, the disciples were instructed by Jesus to return to Jerusalem and to wait for the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
We know that this period of waiting in Jerusalem lasted 10 days. There were 40 days after the resurrection before the ascension, and 50 days between the crucifixion at Passover and Pentecost.
My contention is this. Peter was unusually quiet. At peace with himself and with his fellow disciples and the women. In the opening verses of chapter two of Acts, we read: ‘When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one place in one accord’
Barriers had come down. There was a sweetness amongst them. And amazement looking back over the recent events since Passover, the resurrection appearances, but also the previous three years. Many recollections. All this was circulating among them, but their love for Christ, and obedience to His word is writ large in the following words: ‘The (eleven) all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women’ Acts 1v14
Peter is recorded as functioning in his calling to ‘feed My sheep’, but it was a very different Peter that stood up and initiated the election of Matthias to take Judas’s place.
We read that the number of the disciples, the women, and other followers was about 120 (Acts 1v15.
What happened next, happened amongst a group of disciples, men and women, numbering about 120, sitting and waiting in prayer:
‘And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then, there appeared to them different divided tongues as of fire, sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance’ Acts 2 v 2-4
What can we learn from this?
Just as Jesus exposed the truth about Peter, to Peter, He will do the same for each of us until any thought of reliance on our own powers or abilities, even our ability to love, as if we are an autonomous soul, is extinguished. We will lose every argument with Jesus…I hope. God is about maturing in each of us another Jesus, a photocopy. The New Testament put it like this, God is ‘bringing many sons to glory’ Heb 1v10 and, later in the same book, it says ‘let us go on to maturity’ 6v1. CT Studd, the missionary to Africa, put it this way: ‘I want to see Jesus running around in many black bodies.’
Also, that every generation, every believer, needs to receive what Jesus promised, ‘the baptism in the Holy Spirit’. True Christianity is not a man-made religion, propped up by good organisation and planning, but a spirit-Spirit operation, a true communion between God and man.
The two are linked, and the timetable for how these lessons dovetail is in God’s hands. Many years ago, I sought the baptism in the Holy Spirit. I had believed but seemed to lack the power that Jesus promised, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you’ Acts 1v8. I asked a trusted friend to pray with me. As he prayed, I heard the Lord in an inaudible voice tell me ‘Until you hand over these two areas in your life, I cannot use you in power’. It took months, maybe two years, to obey and go on to experience greater power.