Peter The Bold

The Bible tells us in John chapter 20 that when Mary Magdalene saw that the tomb was opened, she immediately went to tell Peter and John. So running to the tomb, for whatever reason, John outran Peter, but stopped at the entrance of the tomb to look inside. Then Peter ran by John straight into the tomb. Peter was a bold disciple. I don’t usually make it a habit to run into a graveyard, let alone a tomb, not knowing who or what would be on the inside. Looking in the Gospels we see that Peter was always a bold person. He jumped out of a boat to walk on water when he saw Jesus. He did sink, but he was the only one that got out of the boat and into the sea. He was also the first disciple to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. Immediately after Peter’s confession of Christ, Jesus told the disciples that He must be handed over to chief priests and scribes to be killed, and be raised from the dead on the third day. Peter quickly and boldly said, NEVER, this cannot be!! Even though Jesus told them that He would be raised from the dead on the third day, Peter still rebuked Christ. His ears must have stopped listening after the word killed. The last bold claim that Peter made to Christ before His crucifixion is found in Matthew 26:35: Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you! We all know how that bold promise turned out to be. Three times before Christ’s death Peter denied Him.

So what can we learn from the boldness of Peter? Well, we know that Peter was bold and we know that he had faith, to an extent. We also know that he was willing. So, what was he missing? What did he need? He needed the cross. We can be bold in our efforts to promote Jesus to the world, but without the cross, we can do nothing. The cross transforms us into the person of God we are intended to be. Now, the only thing that can hinder that is ourselves. When we put ourselves before Christ, we become how Peter was, sinking and looking out for ourselves only. We need to remember that saying yes to self is also denying Christ.

Peter was not only bold, he was also very impulsive. Peter did not see the whole picture of the purpose of Christ here on this earth. We have the whole picture. We know the purpose of Christ. We know why He had to go to the cross. After Peter realized what the purpose of Christ and the cross was, he changed from an impulsive bold disciple into a bold evangelical follower of the King. He became a master preacher. The Bible plainly tells us that he was uneducated, so his greatness as a preacher came from the Spirit of God. It isn’t every day that an uneducated man can preach a sermon and have 3,000 people saved. Christ bridges the gap between us and God, and the Cross makes it possible for us to come to God unblemished. Through the knowledge we have in the Bible and the Spirit guiding us, we can be as bold as Peter was at the day of Pentecost.

Before the resurrection, before Christ’s death, Peter had faith, but no theology, and that was dangerous. After the resurrection and his reinstatement by Christ, Peter realized the power of the cross and what it meant for him and what he had to do. He lived a bold and selfless life, clear up to his death.

This is the power of the cross. The Son of God slain for us. What a love! What a cost! We stand forgiven at the cross.

I want to leave you with a simple question as we stand before these three crosses. What are you doing with the Power of the Cross? What task has God given you to do with that power?