Transformation: Growing In Boldness

Acts 4 v5-13

‘The next day a meeting was called in Jerusalem…. Everybody who was anybody was there.  They stood Peter and John in the middle and grilled them: ‘Who put you in charge here…..’With that, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, let loose: ‘Rulers and leaders of the people….. I’ll be completely frank with you – we have nothing to hide.  By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the One you killed on a cross, the One God raised from the dead, by means of his name this man stands before you healthy and whole’. 

My son is a huge movie buff.  To be honest, it’s a blessing and a curse! It means I often see or read scenarios and imagine them on the big screen.  This ‘grilling’ of Peter and John in the passage would make for a winning scene.  A room full of the great and the good with two scruffy, probably unshaven men, smelly from a night spent in jail, in the middle of them all.  Then the burliest and scruffiest of the two (my poetic licence!) speaks and the room is silenced by his authority, his confidence and his boldness to proclaim that salvation comes only from ‘the One you killed on a cross’.  The room is still, the patter of applause starts and eventually grows into a roar, the crowd are chanting ‘Peter, Peter, Peter’ and the credits roll.  

Laying aside my Spielberg potential, it’s Peter’s boldness that steals this show.  This is a man who not long ago would not admit to a young servant girl that he was with Jesus. What a story of transformation! But Peter was not bold and confident in his own strength, he was confident in his identity in Christ, rooted in love, and sure of his purpose.   We may never have to profess our faith in a room filled with hostile onlookers, but all of us are called to be bold.  Bold to offer to pray for someone, invite them to Alpha or even just admit that we are Christians.  It may be uncomfortable, I am sure Peter was shaking inside. Transformation is often awkward and sometimes painful.   But that is what we need and continue to need if we are to live a life that is committed, not compromised, where we are bold to speak of who we were and what we are becoming through the transforming power of our Heavenly Father.  

Prayer – Lord in whatever situations I find myself in this week, I pray for more boldness to speak of you and your transforming power in my life.