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“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13

The book of Acts in the Bible depicts the extraordinary transitional era bridging the Incarnation of Jesus to the Church Age—it’s the very birth of the Church through the labor of a handful of men and women. And on the day of Pentecost, when the promised Holy Spirit fell to empower this Jesus movement, it was Peter who “took his stand” to preach the very first church service (Acts 2:14-41).

There’s so much to be said about Peter—about his incredible leadership attributes and about his overly enthusiastic responses (aka, foot-in-mouth tendencies). But through the gospels, we see how Jesus gently refines him through their time together to be transformed from “Simon” to “Peter”—the rock. One event that underscores this immense change is the first time Peter is arrested (with John) after a lame man was healed, and Peter burst out with another fiery gospel message (Acts 3:1-4:4). And when Peter was placed in front of the rulers, elders, scribes, and high priest to be questioned, Peter—filled with the Holy Spirit—threw down the Truth to them as well, not only outright blaming them for the death of Jesus, but also extending to them salvation through the grace of that same Name.

But it’s verse 13 of chapter 4 that always strikes me to the core: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus“ (emphasis mine). Upon reading this line, my mind immediately goes back to another time when Peter was recognized as having been with Jesus…but his response was quite different. “And seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, ‘You also were with the Nazarene, Jesus.’ But he denied it, saying, ‘I neither know nor understand what you mean’” (vs 67-68a of Mark 14: 66-72). In fact, this incident is described by all four gospel writers Matthew 26:69-75; Luke 22:54-62; John 18:15-27).

So, there are two key questions that arise here for us to ask ourselves as believers:

(1) When people interact with me, do they recognize that I’ve been with Jesus? In other words, regardless of what they might think of my intellect, personality, etc., can they clearly acknowledge that I know and follow Jesus as Lord and Savior—whether they agree or not? Friend, once saved, we are new creations in Christ, citizens and ambassadors of heaven, light to shine in this dark world. Are we strangers (strange!) in the world, or are we so like the world that we’re “unrecognizable” believers?

(2) When I’m recognized as being a Jesus follower (“Christian”), what is my response? Am I like the “old” Peter, denying Jesus out of fear—or embarrassment or not wanting to be thought of as weird? Or, like post-Pentecost Peter, do I stand firm in the boldness of who I am in Christ, with the very Spirit of God living in me, unashamed of my relationship with Jesus? I wish I could say that I am this bold every day, in every circumstance.

My prayer for us all is that we’re inspired by Peter—and Paul and Barnabas and James and John and the other amazing examples of gospel boldness we see in the Bible. That we don’t care what man thinks of our weirdness/oddity/other-ness, because all that really matters is what’s pleasing to God (Proverbs 29:25; Galatians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4). And that we, like our early Church examples, live to turn the world upside down (Acts 17:1-9) with the God-glorifying, life-changing, heaven-bringing Truth of salvation in Jesus Christ.

“Heavenly Father, empower me to stand boldly for Christ, recognized as being with Jesus—always unashamed of the gospel.”

For His Glory

Julianne Winkler Smith (encouragedbygrace.org)
TRBC Women’s Life