Peter was a blustering, full-throated man. He was the
quickest to speak and swiftest to act. He was also one to fall extraordinarily
hard—the other being Judas, who fell so hard from his suicidal perch that his
guts spilled out onto the ground (a graphically truthful account in the Scriptures).
Although Peter’s disgraceful denial of Jesus (see John 18) was equal—in my opinion—to
that of Judas, his choices after his denial were far different. Peter, and the other
followers of Jesus, did not despair and turn completely inward. They were open
to hope, even if after the crucifixion they might have been tempted to despair
completely. He, and all the other disciples and the women who traveled with
them, followed through on the directions to continue. They continued with the tiny
seed of hope that had been planted in them by the Savior’s words of his return.
Despite having never experienced a return quite like a resurrection, they
longed to hear his voice and feel his presence. After the resurrection they
were given the great gifts of that voice and that presence. Peter and the
others were transformed when Christ breathed on them and invited them to
receive the Holy Spirit. (John 20:19-22) And that was just the beginning of their
restoration. There was more coming!
The Holy Spirit is a gift of God himself. The Spirit comes from the Father and is given
to his disciples. So, the Spirit, plain
and simple, is a gift from God. No one
can buy the Spirit, no one can create the Spirit and no one can steal the
Spirit. Some people may try to tell you that if you send a certain amount of
money to them, or attend this special meeting, or receive their handkerchief,
that you will have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But no amount of money, no amount of effort, and no amount of handkerchiefs
can get you what is freely given by God to all believers.
The Holy Spirit reveals himself in several ways. We learn that the Holy Spirit comes from the
Father and through Jesus Christ and after his glorification (that is, his
bodily ascension into heaven) in a specific and new way. The Holy Spirit comes
to us as a gift through baptism of fire. This is a powerful and almost
overwhelming image—through fire. What an
unusual gift! Fire does several things: it burns away unnecessary or wasteful
materials; it intensifies the heat by which pure gold is separated from the
less lovely elements; it cleanses and breaks things down to the essentials. Fire
does so many things. And so does the Gift of Holy Spirit fire.
When that fire of the Holy Spirit comes upon a believer, old
ways, new and old regrets, sorrows and shame are burned away. It doesn’t mean
that those things cannot be remembered (oh, that that was true!) or that our
enemy won’t try to remind us of them. It means that whatever was lead weight and
stone mills around out necks or chains we could not break free of ourselves are
gone. Gone! And when those things are gone, the Spirit rushes into those empty
places filling the believer with hope, joy, power, truth, purpose and strength.
Any fallen believer, anywhere and at any time, can be completely restored!
And that is precisely what happened to Peter. And the evidence
of that is found in Acts 2. Now, not everyone will be filled by the Holy Spirit
to preach, but Peter was. The Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts to all believers
everywhere for the purpose of building up the Church so that the world can be
evangelized and believers continue to grow in the grace of God through Jesus
Christ. But there are some who are given the gift of preaching. And Peter was
the first of many at Pentecost.
Read Acts 2
I marvel at how different and unafraid they all were after
that Pentecostal experience. They were living in a cruel environment that had
allowed the crucifixion of innocents and in a culture embedded in idolatry and
terrifying military powers. And yet when they received the Holy Spirit’s presence
into their lives, none of that seemed to matter. Just a short time earlier
Peter had cowered from the words of a servant accusing him of being one of
Jesus’ followers. Now he and the others were out declaring the Gospel truth
with joy and power!
This was no power of their own. In fact, the words and the
languages they were speaking were gifts of the Holy Spirit. Peter’s sermon
itself is a marvel of integrated Scripture, courageous rebuke and calls to repentance
with infused hope. Hope for his fellow-Jews, hope for those listening in their
own languages, hope for the world!
When the work of salvation and the filling of the Holy Spirit
come there is restoration!
Have you fallen like Peter or failed like the disciples when
they ran away from the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane? Do you carry a weight
of shame and despair? Oh, my friend, you have a great gift waiting for you. It
is the Holy Spirit. As the Father longs for his children to return and as the
Friend longs to reconnect with his friends, so the Holy Spirit is waiting to
restore you. Repent, pray and wait on the coming of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
M.R. Hyde
Copyright
2019
