Have you ever seen someone change radically?  Maybe you haven’t seen them in awhile and they lost a lot of weight or changed their hair color.  Perhaps you have seen someone undergo a tremendous behavior change in their life do to new life decisions.  It is always amazing to me when you notice some of these changes.  I think that perhaps there is no greater change than what happens to Peter after He receives the Holy Spirit.  He was always impulsive, at times bold in other instances timid to the point of denying Jesus.  After Pentecost, Peter turns into perhaps the greatest human force of building the church.  Let’s look at Luke 3 at Peter’s continuing new bold behavior for Jesus. 

11 While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.

Peter and John had just healed a man in the name of Jesus and through the power of Jesus.  People are astonished and so Peter uses this opportunity to immediately confront the crowd with the message of the Gospel.  He wants to take advantage of every opportunity to get the message out to the world.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit this is a new Peter.  He is taking the challenges that Jesus left Him with seriously.  I pray that God might grant us all a little bit of the boldness of Peter.  May we, like him, be a force that brings the Gospel to the world.

In His Grip,
Pastor Dave