Transformation: Growing In Knowledge
Acts 3 v12, 19
When Peter saw he had a congregation, he addressed the people, ‘Oh Israelites, why does this take you by such complete surprise and why start at us as if our power or piety made him walk? The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, has glorified his son Jesus… Now it’s time to change your ways! Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you and send you the Messiah he prepared for you, namely Jesus’
In Peter’s preaching here in Acts, we get to see the great extent of his knowledge: a head and heart knowledge of the scriptures and of Jesus. One of my guilty pleasures during lockdown has been to work my way through Grey’s Anatomy. Seventeen seasons about a fictional and immensely glamorous team of surgeons in a Seattle hospital. Through my endless watching I can now repeat a scarily large amount of medical jargon, such has been my addiction! But my knowledge is head knowledge; I have no idea what it means as was evident when I tried it out on a medical friend of mine! Through Peter’s preaching we see not just a head knowledge but a heart knowledge; he speaks with authority but also with personal experience and heart understanding. How did a fisherman whose education was more practical than cerebral come to have this type of authority and knowledge? It was through the time he spent with Jesus and his experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Time spent listening to Him, following Him and trying out what he did.
I love John Mark Comer’s three step guide to transformation, or as he calls it, apprenticeship to Jesus; spend time with Jesus; become like Jesus; and do what He did. This is what Peter had done, this is how he had been transformed and could speak with such heart and head knowledge. We don’t live as physical First Century disciples of Jesus, we don’t have that physical presence that Peter had, so what does that first step mean for us? Dallas Willard wrote, “the first and most basic thing we can and must do is to keep God before our minds”; that is how we grow in knowledge and be transformed. Following Jesus and being filled with the Spirit is how I will become the person my Heavenly Father made me to be.
Prayer — Lord, Thank you for your transforming power in our lives. Today I pray for an awareness of you in whatever I do, so that your presence and power is a constant in my life.
Libby Hubbard