Peter Has Standing at Pentecost Part 2 of 2
Peter’s otherwise commendable but misguided intentions of preventing any physical harm coming to Jesus…leading up to the quickly unfolding events of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and His nighttime trial…spinning instantly beyond Peter’s control (Jn. 18:10-11)…surgically divides out for us the enormous gulf between the limited impact of the conventional thinking of the “natural man”…contrasted starkly with the higher ways and thoughts of God (Isa. 55:8-9)…in which all things are possible (Mt. 19:26)…that produces the truly historical event at Pentecost recorded in Acts 2…in which Peter was a central participant.
Only God would know that the impulsive, self-reliant nature of Peter needed some radical humility…and only God is capable of integrating into Peter’s life the optimum experiences at Gethsemane and the courtyard of Caiaphas…to beneficially modify Peter’s character for the difficult and challenging days ahead.
In a God-composed journey of faith life-script…God combines benefits for ourselves individually and for others…sometimes in large numbers…in a way that transcends above time…that utilizes the divine attribute of timeless foresight to enlist us into a calling that is larger than ourselves…to do something greater than ourselves.
God is the only person who can define an eternally valid ethical framework…and He demonstrates this brilliantly at this pivotal moment in the life-script for Peter.
Standing courageously alongside Jesus at His night trial…and occupying the fourth cross on Calvary Hill the next day…was not the highest and best use of the talents of Peter. Only God could know this in advance…and orchestrate events along many parallel and intersecting paths to produce for Peter the internal change of humility needed before entering into the full-scale ministry of leading the early Christian church in Jerusalem.
By contrast…when we insist upon doing things our way…we are basically flying blind…we are living in the reactive mode…bouncing around in response to the seeming randomness of life’s events with no real idea for what we are doing…other than the worldly conventional wisdom and thinking we observe…which we attempt to import into our self-composed life-plans…”making it up as we go.”
The post-modern paradigm of relativism creates a number of options based on the self-obsession of living for ourselves…of the personal pursuit of self-gratification.
Here I am borrowing from a 1991 podcast of a lecture given at Harvard University by Chuck Colson entitled: Why Harvard Can’t Teach Ethics…produced by Break Point.
We can deceive ourselves through self-delusion and self-rationalization into thinking that we know the difference between right and wrong…but even if we know what is right we may not have the will to do the right thing.
Quoting Chuck Colson from this lecture: “Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there is not the will to do what’s right.”
Colson goes on to cite the classic biblical truth stated by Paul: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom. 7:19).
The worldly conventional narrative of going our own way in autonomous individualism apart from God…produces winners and losers according to the standard measurement of worldly achievement…that guarantees the creation of divisions between competing groups of people…all utilizing their differing gifts and abilities…generating separation, exclusion, bias, and prejudice.
The unimaginably delineated contrast between Peter’s failing performance in the courtyard of Caiaphas…and his incredible turn-about success at Pentecost…amplifies and highlights the unique feature of the biblical narrative of God option for human lives…that every person has the capacity to freely choose to follow God into a journey of faith…and can experience the power of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in their ministries and in sharing their testimony…as part of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20…without having to be a member of any exclusive club of socially and culturally esteemed elites.
This is not a criticism of modern Christian higher education in theology. Advanced studies in biblical theology, history, and philosophy are needed to safeguard the received truths of orthodox biblical doctrines and teaching…against destructive heresies (2 Tim. 2:15).
But not being welcome into the tight circle of religious elites…before and after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ…did not prevent Peter from entering into his God-composed journey of faith life-script…speaking boldly at Pentecost and later in front of the Sanhedrin Council (Acts 4:8-13).
The higher ways and thoughts of God…make an adventure of faith like that of Peter…supernaturally guided by God…open and accessible to everyone.
At Pentecost and before the Sanhedrin Council…the Holy Spirit gave standing to Peter.
In the current sea of multiple competing options for human life…this is the difference between the worldly narrative…of going our own way in self-autonomy…contrasted sharply by the alternative Godly way of walking in the Spirit in a journey of faith…that actualizes our intrinsic worth and value into unique destinies that only God can bring into being.
This depth of intellectual and moral insight…cannot plausibly be the product of human invented, literary mythology…cannot have its origin coming from worldly conventional normalcy and thinking.
Peter…at Pentecost…walking within the validation of the right standing with God…enjoying the status of value, worth, and dignity…being created in the image of God…and being spiritually reborn through faith in Jesus Christ…is light-years ahead of any naturalistic worldview that produces the upside-down condition that someone with the innate potential of Peter…would have zero standing in terms of worldly status…as he mills around a fire warming himself in the courtyard of the home of Caiaphas…at the night trial of Jesus…during the most monumental four days in history.
God skillfully crafts and channels events in such a fine-tuned way…that Peter unknowingly ends-up doing the right thing…which in this case meant doing nothing…God arranging circumstances to discourage Peter from finding an opportunity to jump impulsively into the night trial of Jesus.
This shows the guiding hand of the supernatural, timeless foresight of God…that lies at the center of the biblical narrative accessible and applicable to every person today…willing to give God the benefit-of-the-doubt and place our faith and trust in Him…to take us up into higher life-scripts of truth and purpose…beyond what we can imagine, orchestrate, or contrive (Lk. 22:31-34).
Only God would know that the impulsive, self-reliant nature of Peter needed some radical humility…and only God is capable of integrating into Peter’s life the optimum experiences at Gethsemane and the courtyard of Caiaphas…to beneficially modify Peter’s character for the difficult and challenging days ahead.
In a God-composed journey of faith life-script…God combines benefits for ourselves individually and for others…sometimes in large numbers…in a way that transcends above time…that utilizes the divine attribute of timeless foresight to enlist us into a calling that is larger than ourselves…to do something greater than ourselves.
God is the only person who can define an eternally valid ethical framework…and He demonstrates this brilliantly at this pivotal moment in the life-script for Peter.
Standing courageously alongside Jesus at His night trial…and occupying the fourth cross on Calvary Hill the next day…was not the highest and best use of the talents of Peter. Only God could know this in advance…and orchestrate events along many parallel and intersecting paths to produce for Peter the internal change of humility needed before entering into the full-scale ministry of leading the early Christian church in Jerusalem.
By contrast…when we insist upon doing things our way…we are basically flying blind…we are living in the reactive mode…bouncing around in response to the seeming randomness of life’s events with no real idea for what we are doing…other than the worldly conventional wisdom and thinking we observe…which we attempt to import into our self-composed life-plans…”making it up as we go.”
The post-modern paradigm of relativism creates a number of options based on the self-obsession of living for ourselves…of the personal pursuit of self-gratification.
Here I am borrowing from a 1991 podcast of a lecture given at Harvard University by Chuck Colson entitled: Why Harvard Can’t Teach Ethics…produced by Break Point.
We can deceive ourselves through self-delusion and self-rationalization into thinking that we know the difference between right and wrong…but even if we know what is right we may not have the will to do the right thing.
Quoting Chuck Colson from this lecture: “Even the most rational approach to ethics is defenseless if there is not the will to do what’s right.”
Colson goes on to cite the classic biblical truth stated by Paul: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom. 7:19).
The worldly conventional narrative of going our own way in autonomous individualism apart from God…produces winners and losers according to the standard measurement of worldly achievement…that guarantees the creation of divisions between competing groups of people…all utilizing their differing gifts and abilities…generating separation, exclusion, bias, and prejudice.
The unimaginably delineated contrast between Peter’s failing performance in the courtyard of Caiaphas…and his incredible turn-about success at Pentecost…amplifies and highlights the unique feature of the biblical narrative of God option for human lives…that every person has the capacity to freely choose to follow God into a journey of faith…and can experience the power of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in their ministries and in sharing their testimony…as part of the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20…without having to be a member of any exclusive club of socially and culturally esteemed elites.
This is not a criticism of modern Christian higher education in theology. Advanced studies in biblical theology, history, and philosophy are needed to safeguard the received truths of orthodox biblical doctrines and teaching…against destructive heresies (2 Tim. 2:15).
But not being welcome into the tight circle of religious elites…before and after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ…did not prevent Peter from entering into his God-composed journey of faith life-script…speaking boldly at Pentecost and later in front of the Sanhedrin Council (Acts 4:8-13).
The higher ways and thoughts of God…make an adventure of faith like that of Peter…supernaturally guided by God…open and accessible to everyone.
At Pentecost and before the Sanhedrin Council…the Holy Spirit gave standing to Peter.
In the current sea of multiple competing options for human life…this is the difference between the worldly narrative…of going our own way in self-autonomy…contrasted sharply by the alternative Godly way of walking in the Spirit in a journey of faith…that actualizes our intrinsic worth and value into unique destinies that only God can bring into being.
This depth of intellectual and moral insight…cannot plausibly be the product of human invented, literary mythology…cannot have its origin coming from worldly conventional normalcy and thinking.
Peter…at Pentecost…walking within the validation of the right standing with God…enjoying the status of value, worth, and dignity…being created in the image of God…and being spiritually reborn through faith in Jesus Christ…is light-years ahead of any naturalistic worldview that produces the upside-down condition that someone with the innate potential of Peter…would have zero standing in terms of worldly status…as he mills around a fire warming himself in the courtyard of the home of Caiaphas…at the night trial of Jesus…during the most monumental four days in history.
God skillfully crafts and channels events in such a fine-tuned way…that Peter unknowingly ends-up doing the right thing…which in this case meant doing nothing…God arranging circumstances to discourage Peter from finding an opportunity to jump impulsively into the night trial of Jesus.
This shows the guiding hand of the supernatural, timeless foresight of God…that lies at the center of the biblical narrative accessible and applicable to every person today…willing to give God the benefit-of-the-doubt and place our faith and trust in Him…to take us up into higher life-scripts of truth and purpose…beyond what we can imagine, orchestrate, or contrive (Lk. 22:31-34).
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