Tag Archives: jesus

Nov 02 2024
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Ephesus to India: Power, Opposition, and the Unstoppable Gospel

The Book of Acts, written almost 2,000 years ago, serves as a template for God’s workings at any time in the history of Christ’s followers, including our own. It reveals human nature in its response to God. This includes Acts 19 which records Paul’s mission to Ephesus.

In Paul’s day, Ephesus was a vital port city, its impressive buildings constructed of fine marble. The city was dominated by the overpowering presence of the white marble temple to the goddess, Artemis (or Diana), widely worshipped throughout the Mediterranean region. Millions of pilgrims flocked to Ephesus to worship at this temple, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

This worship of Artemis went back more than 1,000 years. It was a highly entrenched religion that dominated the region, like Hinduism in Varanasi or Islam in Mecca. A myth grew up among Artemis followers that in ancient days, her statue descended from heaven.

Paul came to Ephesus to introduce Jesus Christ and challenge this deeply rooted religious culture. Fearlessly, he proclaimed Jesus as Lord, and he depended upon the Holy Spirit to do what rational argument alone could never do.

Dr. Luke tells us that notable miracles took place. Handkerchiefs and aprons, touched by Paul, become instruments of healing and deliverance from demons. This demonstration of the gospel by power as well as word won people to Christ in droves as they saw Jesus do what Artemis had never done.

Not everyone was happy about this. The silversmiths, who got rich selling silver idols of Artemis to devotees, saw their profits dwindle as Jesus gained influence. They reacted with venom against Paul’s “attack on society”. Others envied what they wrongly perceived was Paul’s magical powers and coveted this power for their own selfish ends.

What took place in Ephesus during Paul’s ministry was truly a power encounter with Satan, who long blinded the people, and the power of Jesus Christ who opens blind eyes. The clash between God and Satan broke out into the visible human realm at Ephesus.

Paul did not flee but stood firm and discipled the new believers. The Ephesian church grew fast. The Ephesians became a bright light for the gospel. Later, Paul wrote his epistle to these former worshippers of Artemis and praised their mature faith in Jesus Christ.

The happenings at Ephesus take place in India today as we see God answer your prayers and the prayers of His people in India. The Word of God is both preached and demonstrated in power with healings, deliverance from demons and other signs and wonders. An entrenched religious system is being challenged by the living and powerful Jesus Christ who is opening eyes once blinded by the devil.

At the same time, opposition has come thick and fierce from those who enrich themselves through the status quo and accuse Christians of “destroying society.” The enemy comes armed with entrenched traditions backed by overwhelming political and financial power.

Despite the opposition, the Holy Spirit enables us to train new disciples and send more harvest workers. Quietly, former believers of old religions enter their workplaces and schools to counteract this influence at the grass roots with the power of Christ in word and deed.

May what happened in Ephesus take place all over India in coming days — and in the place where you live and work!

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May 03 2024
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Resistance Against Truth

“These men have upset the world!”

These charges were leveled at Paul and Silas after they preached the Good News in Thessalonica. They must have done a great job in making the gospel clear to all who heard them. Acts 17 tells us that many people came to Christ, both Jews and Gentiles. For these people, the gospel was a welcome fragrance.

To others, it was the stench of death. Some Jews hated the message, and wanted to make Paul and Silas pay for ruining their day. They accused Paul and Silas of promoting another ruler besides Caesar. These Jews hated the rule of Caesar, but they hated Jesus even more.

This episode illustrates a truth about the Good News. Even when clearly presented, it will win some and infuriate others, even to the point of violence. In one person, the Holy Spirit brings new life; in another, the gospel reveals spiritual death.

Why do people reject the gospel? Such people love their sin above all else and resent having it exposed by the light of Christ and told that it is evil. They want to call evil good, to run their own lives without accountability to anyone, including God who made them.

No doubt some people who opposed Paul and Silas were religious, but they were dead to the true God. They wanted to turn the truth of God into something that sounded moral and sounded comfortable. As such, it was something less than truth. They preferred a god that helped them feel good about themselves, not repent. When Paul and Silas reminded them of their sin and God’s holiness, they recoiled.

Paul and Silas did not follow the seeker-friendly approach popular in many churches today. The seeker-friendly approach may lead people to adopt certain ideas from the Bible that appeal to them, but fail to reveal sin leading to repentance. They become devoted to their own ideas of God more than to God Himself.

A spiritually dead person can have spiritual longings, but they are always less than God. They still hate the true God even when they speak in moral and spiritual ways. In real life, they operate according to natural thinking.

The seeker-friendly approach operates on the false premise that one can share the gospel and lead a person to God without upsetting anyone. The seeker-friendly approach is a sign of how much the culture has impacted the church more than the church has impacted the culture.

George Barna reports that in his research, he has found that only 6% of today’s adults have a biblical worldview. The average American church person’s dominant worldview, he says, is syncretism, a collection of contradictory beliefs pasted together to suit themselves. A growing number of people in churches believe in reincarnation and that people are basically good. Fewer pastors preach the gospel with the clarity of Paul and Silas.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He has already defeated Satan at the cross and invites us to join Him in enforcing His victory. He also warns us that Satan will go down swinging hard.

Let us move forward like Paul and Silas, assured of victory but also steeled for resistance from those who refuse to bow the knee to the King of kings. Let us remember that Jesus has already won.

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Mar 01 2024
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Resolving Differences: Acts 15’s Guidance

Acts 15 demonstrates what we must do when disagreements and differences arise in the body of Christ. Disagreements will arise. We are all imperfect followers of Christ with limited and slanted views due to heredity and environment, subject to influence by a common enemy, the devil. That devil seeks to sow discord and division among us. He wants us to major in minors, to blind our eyes to the main focus, to foil God’s redemptive purpose.

In Acts 15, growing numbers of Gentiles were becoming Christ-followers. For a while, the Christ-followers were mostly Jews. Should these former pagans be compelled to obey the Jewish law? Those believers who were once Pharisees thought they should. Others said, “Not so fast!” The apostles called a special council at Jerusalem to discuss the growing controversy where Paul and Barnabas related the Spirit-filled signs and wonders that came upon the Gentiles.

At last, Peter concluded, “We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they [the Gentiles] also are” (Acts 15:11). On this point, everyone could agree, and that settled the matter. The grace of God through Jesus and the cross was the common foundation for cooperation between Jewish believers and Gentile believers, not the Jewish law.

Later in Acts 15, a second source of division arose involving a personal dispute between Barnabas and Paul over a relative of Barnabas, a younger man named John Mark. This young man joined with Barnabas and Paul on their first missionary journey but deserted them in Pamphylia after they experienced rough going in Cyprus.

Later, when Paul and Barnabas went back to visit some of these places, Barnabas suggested that John Mark join them, but Paul objected. When they could not agree, they went their separate ways. Barnabas is never mentioned again in Acts.

But this did not end their basic respect for one another. In 1 Corinthians 9:6. Paul praises Barnabas, and in Galatians 2:11-13, Paul describes another event in Antioch that includes Barnabas. Whatever their disagreement over John Mark, they did not let it replace their common goal: to preach and demonstrate the love, grace and power of God through Jesus Christ.

Human passions initially got in the way, and they did gospel work separately for a time, but they did not allow their differences drive them apart. In time, Paul came to see the value of John Mark to the common purpose. Barnabas and Paul refused to speak ill of the other.

They worked within their human limitations as fallible humans, but they never forgot their common purpose: the grace of God through Jesus Christ. The Great Commission continued to advance.

Let these two examples from the past teach us all today. More often than not, our churches and fellowships are motley collections of people from vastly different backgrounds and perspectives who should come together because of a common fellowship in Jesus Christ.

Too often, churches, groups, families and friendships split over personal and extra-biblical matters that have nothing to do with God’s priorities. In doing so, we mock and belittle Christ and His sacrifice.

Let the love and grace of God through Jesus Christ always remain as the cornerstone of all we say and do so that we become salt and light in this world.

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Sep 08 2023
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What Made This Church So Great?

If the conversion and Holy Spirit filling of the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch and the Roman centurion Cornelius seemed radical to Jewish believers, what happened at Antioch must have gone off the charts.

The three people mentioned above were considered Gentiles, but they had at least some connection to the Jewish traditions. The people of Antioch were total pagans in just about every way imaginable, and then some. Yet in Acts 11, Luke portrays a fellowship of Jesus followers that has become a model for us in our own day.

Antioch became the gospel gateway to the rest of the Gentile world, the missionary headquarters leading to Europe, the rest of the Roman Empire, and ultimately, to us today. In Antioch, Jesus followers first became known as “Christians,” a term that once had a meaning far beyond the established religious groups we know today. What makes the Antioch church so great?

No one knows who founded the Antioch church—probably an unknown lay person. Whoever it was, the church also had supernatural roots. “The hand of the Lord was upon them,” Luke records. What a remarkable description! They depended upon the power of God, not their own knowledge and ingenuity. They heard the voice of God and saw Him work miracles in their midst. Programs were less important than people and the pleasure of God’s company.

As a result, record numbers of people from pagan backgrounds were turning to Christ from every background. They hungered for fellowship with God and with one another. They became involved in serious and effective prayer. They heard God speak to them through the Word. They had a Great Commission vision for the world. Deep understanding and application of the Word was vital to them.

From the Antioch church Paul launched his great missionary journeys that ultimately spread the gospel throughout the Roman Empire. Many other lesser known but powerful missions to the world had their beginnings at Antioch because the people there believed in self-multiplication.

Personal and corporate discipleship was the rule. Continuous spiritual growth and maturity was the goal. These people in the Antioch church were not rural hillbillies but sophisticated and cosmopolitan men, women and children from the third largest urban center in the Roman Empire.

Another unprecedented feature: Jewish and Gentile believers fellowshipped with one another. In today’s culture, that would be like Brahmans eating with Dalits, or whites hanging out with Black Lives Matter folks, or hippie-types enjoying fellowship with corporate executives. Such phenomena are “God things,” impossible to reproduce apart from a move of the Holy Spirit.

How many of our own churches today resemble the church in Antioch? As Henry Blackaby has said, “We have become satisfied today to live without the manifest presence of God.”

In spite of Bible resources unavailable to any previous generation, few church members today open their Bibles or pray. Few church members demonstrate any power of the Holy Spirit. Few church members have any vision for the world. Few churches are little more than religious social clubs. It is no wonder that the world as a whole considers the church powerless, useless and irrelevant.

Pray for revival and renaissance in the church. Pray that every fellowship returns to the Antioch model. Only then will we see our world change.

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Aug 10 2023
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Breaking Tradition

Jesus tells us to pray “thy kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.” John, His disciple, tells us, “The Son of God [Jesus] appeared…to destroy the works of the devil”
(1 John 3:8).

In other words, we as Jesus’ followers have marching orders. We are engaged in a spiritual war to regain territory from an illegal occupier, Satan, who stole it from us through deceit. Through the cross, he has no further authority to keep it. The mission involves both angelic and human forces obedient to Jesus, our Commander-in-Chief.

Military operations require an overall plan and objective that unfolds in different phases. The operation depends upon troop flexibility to shift direction and action at a moment’s notice.

Acts 10 exemplifies one of those momentous shifts.

Phase one began with the Abrahamic Covenant. Most Jews came to see this as a covenant exclusive to themselves. Everyone else was regarded as “gentile,” or pagan, though God told Abraham, “Through you all the nations will be blessed.” For most Jews, this part was forgotten.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told His disciples they, the Jewish believers, would take the gospel to the “uttermost parts of the earth,” that is, to the outside Gentile world.

Peter, Jesus’ disciple and apostle of the early church, was a traditional and patriotic Jew. But Jesus wanted him to preach the gospel, not only to a man and his household regarded as outside the Covenant, but who came from among hated Roman conquerors. This Roman officer, Cornelius, had learned to worship the true God, but because he was “gentile,” his faith was regarded as inferior. For Peter to willingly obey this order required a massive paradigm shift.

God required him to abandon 2,000 years of traditional thinking at a moment’s notice. In Acts 10, Peter’s housetop vision (repeated three times) prepared him for his mission, with God commanding him to kill and eat animals regarded as unclean by Jewish law. In the vision, Peter at first refuses this order, saying, “By no means, Lord!”

In the end, Peter gets the message. He obeys God and preaches the gospel to Cornelius and his household. They all commit their lives to Christ and experience the filling of the Holy Spirit, identical to what happened to the blood children of Abraham at Pentecost.

This event is so momentous to Peter and to the Jewish believers that they marvel over it in the next chapter. They are advancing in their faith, but they are still learning about God’s overall plan to destroy the works of the devil and to bring the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. They didn’t have the whole picture, and neither do we. We receive it just one order at a time.

Are we ready to abandon at a moment’s notice beloved and familiar traditions to destroy Satan’s work and reassert Christ’s authority? Are we willing to accept people as fellow believers whose looks and ways differ from our cherished expectations?

As we learn in Acts 10, God still brings blessings to and through the very people we least expect and whom we even despise. God’s love and mercy is greater than our own. His sovereignty is more sovereign than we know. His grace is more gracious, His love more loving.

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Jun 03 2023
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The People You Detest

Philip’s story in Acts 8 has profound lessons for us today. Though his divine appointment with the Ethiopian eunuch is perhaps better known, his ministry in Samaria is equally profound.

Philip’s adventure in Samaria teaches us that we should never put God in a box, but do whatever He asks of us even when it appears detestable and absurd.

It takes place at a time of persecution. Stephen’s martyrdom set off the persecution directed by the fanatical Saul of Tarsus, forcing Jerusalem believers to flee for their lives. One of those exiles was the Spirit-filled Philip who felt nudged by the Holy Spirit to proclaim Christ to the Samaritans in their capital, Samaria. We first read of him in Acts 6, one of seven men selected to meet the needs of Hellenistic Jews.

This venture of Philip into Samaria is most unusual. Philip was a Jew, and the average Jew detested Samaritans as half-breeds whose religion was an odd mixture of Jewish and pagan beliefs. They hated the Samaritans so much, they took the longer and harder route around their territory just to avoid contact with them. This deep-seated and irrational hatred had persisted for centuries.

If Philip had any of these natural tendencies, he pushed them aside and obeyed the Holy Spirit. When he did, he discovered sincere spiritual hunger among these hated and rejected people. They saw signs and wonders, heard of Jesus’ love for them, and experienced multiple deliverance from demonic spirits. They welcomed Jesus as their Messiah and received the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us in Acts 8:8, “There was much rejoicing in that city.”

Not many years earlier, Jesus Himself had visited the Samaritans and changed the life of the woman who met Him at Jacob’s Well, near the town of Sychar. That transformed woman opened her people’s eyes to the true Messiah and made it possible for Jesus to do a great work among them (John 4). These people had already demonstrated their spiritual hunger.

But Jesus did not complete the ministry to the Samaritans. He paved the way for Philip to do even more. He wanted to share His own joy with others like Philip who would obey His invitation to join Him in His work.

Did He not specifically tell His disciples before His ascension, “You shall be My witnesses . . . in Samaria” (Acts 1:8)?

What an important lesson (and invitation) this is for all of us! We all have people in our lives whom we regard as “impossible” when it comes to openness to the Good News. Like the Samaritans, they could be members of a particular ethnic or cultural group. They could be family members whose rebellious or obnoxious ways have repulsed us for years, even decades.

When Jesus included Samaria in His Great Commission, He was essentially telling His disciples (and us), “You shall not only be My witnesses to the people you know, but also to the people you most detest. You and they will rejoice when you do this unlikely and impossible thing.”

Let us allow the Lord to identify any “impossible” people in our hearts so He can transform us to accept His possibilities and obey Him. In this way, we all, like Philip and the Samaritans, will also rejoice when we see God bring the impossible to pass.

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Nov 29 2022
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The Early Christians Recognized this Threat

Sometimes it really strikes me—the irrationality of unbelief. The refusal to bow to fact, to rational argument, even the clear hand of God. What is most striking is how the most unbelieving can also be the most religious.

In Acts 4, Peter and John, by the power of Christ, have just healed a man lame from birth, convincing 5,000 people to follow Christ, demonstrating the power of God. But the ruling religious Sanhedrin of Jerusalem arrest both Peter and John and throw them into jail. The religious leaders could not deny the healing. They could not deny the power and boldness of Jesus’ uneducated disciples, but they want to stop them.

They knew about Jesus’ miracles. When Jesus died, they saw the massive temple veil rip from top to bottom. They could not deny Jesus’ resurrection. In Acts 5, Gamaliel, a wise elder member of the Sanhedrin even warned them that if what Peter and John did “is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be found fighting against God.” They could have reconsidered their position, but they refused.

Unbelief shows little compassion for those freed by Christ from bondage. The religious establishment did not share the healed man’s joy. They did not empathize with his years of infirmity, his inability to care for himself, his wasted talents, his decades of destroyed dreams, the lectures from others about his imagined “sins” that brought his condition, the taunts of thoughtless children. They were lifeless and loveless.

Stone-cold unbelief can strike fear in those who speak truth, especially if the unbelievers have more power, money and political authority.

Don’t we find stone-cold unbelief in our own world today, even in our churches, whether in India or the USA? In both nations, men and women with power and authority care nothing about the God of the Bible and want to hurl Him from His throne (see Psalm 2). At times, they appear to be invulnerable, subject to no other law but their own whims and agendas that drip with unbelief and contempt for God and others they regard as lesser than they.

The early Christians recognized this threat. They saw the odds against them, but they did not flinch before the stronger foe. Peter said, “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

They went to prayer, remembering the God who called them is the same God who created the heavens and the earth. They remembered Jesus’ wondrous acts. They remembered how God uses even His enemies to accomplish His purposes. They knew that the stronger power of God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead would sustain them. The scriptures tell us they prayed for boldness to preach, for signs and wonders.

God answered their prayers. He filled them anew with His Holy Spirit. In time, in 70 AD, after much patience and giving the religious authorities forty years to repent of their unbelief, He destroyed their decadent and unbelieving religious structures. In the meantime, the gospel continued to spread to “the uttermost parts of the world” as it does today.

May God help us to continue steadfast in their footsteps before our present opposition. The gospel of Jesus Christ always has the last word.

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Oct 21 2022
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How to Convince Many

Often, Christian witness today is based upon apologetics—rational arguments. While apologetics has importance and may win a few people to Christ here and there, too often we are satisfied with a few. The problem with apologetics is the likelihood for someone to make counter-arguments and excuses. The arguments may go on forever.

Acts 3 demonstrates that in the power of the Holy Spirit, our witness can become an irresistible force with which no one can argue.

Acts 3 begins on an average day with Peter and John just before afternoon prayer at the temple. They confront a lame man. For years, the man was a fixture at the temple gate, eking out a living in the only way he knew—begging. Most likely, Peter and John had noted the man before, but on this day, the Holy Spirit enabled them to really see him.

They did not just stop to toss him a coin or two, or ask God to bless his day with successful begging. Instead, they invoked the authority of God to heal the man. That day, the man, lame from birth, stood and walked.

A great crowd saw the miracle and gathered around, amazed. They were not hostile. They gazed in wonder. They all had seen this man for years, carried in and carried out, unable to move on his own. Now, he was running and leaping in joy. The healing of the lame man got their attention.

Peter and John quickly told them it was not their own power, but the power of Jesus that healed the man. A few weeks earlier, some of the people who heard this had called for Jesus’ crucifixion, but they did it in ignorance, not knowing who Jesus really was. Peter told them how the prophets prepared the way for Jesus and for this day. This healing was a sign that a time of great restoration had begun that will eventually rid the world of Satan, evil and death.

The amazed people hung on to Peter’s words. In Acts 4, we read that at least 5,000 men believed the message because of what they saw that day.

A display of God’s power prepared the way. The people could not deny what happened. Arguments alone would not have won so many people.

This same power of God is available in our own day. Our evangelists in India, many from non-Christian backgrounds, experienced healing and deliverance which brought them to Christ. Now, they go into unreached areas doing the same works in the power of the Holy Spirit that changed their own lives. Acts 3 is taking place all over India today—power encounters that convince many that Jesus’ power exceeds the power of their old deities.

Acts 3 is our model as well. Let us not be cowed by the anti-supernatural element in many of our churches that tries to preserve an orderly status quo but paralyzes our influence. Let us not say we aren’t good or pious enough for this. Like Peter and John, we have been made clean by the blood of Christ.

Around the world, people are convinced more by God’s power, less by arguments. In today’s evil world, why would Jesus abandon his most powerful weapons against Satan? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

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Aug 04 2022
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God’s New Thing

In our troubled days, it is good for us to remember and practice what Jesus’ disciples learned and did as they faced their own days of uncertainty when Jesus left them and ascended into heaven.

The memory of Judas’ betrayal of Jesus was fresh. Yes, Jesus rose from the dead, just as He said He would. But now, He did something totally unexpected. He was not about to restore the kingdom of Israel as they hoped. Instead, Jesus was about to leave them.

This caught them unawares. Now, the future became a question mark to them. Their expectations became irrelevant. Instead, Jesus promised them the coming of the Holy Spirit about whom they knew nothing. In effect, Jesus told them, “You are at the beginning of a New Thing.” But they still didn’t understand the implications of that “New Thing.”

In His departing conversation with His disciples, He gives them at least five instructions as they wait for this “New Thing.” His instructions carry down to us as we wait for God’s “New Thing” in our own time of uncertainty and change:

  • Give up your own expectations.
  • Trust Christ Himself alone—He has the bigger picture.
  • Don’t try to figure out the future. Live in the present and leave the future to God.
  • Trust the power of the Holy Spirit to take you to the promised “New Thing” about to happen.
  • Continue in prayer and supplication before God, and expect God to answer with great and mighty things.

This was a huge and painful paradigm shift for the disciples, but they still trusted Jesus to do what He promised.

Acts 1 tells us that 120 followers of Jesus gathered together and prayed “steadfastly,” that is, without distraction. They prayed “continually,” that is, with perseverance. They prayed “with one accord,” that is, with united focus on Jesus’ instructions. They prayed “with the women,” that is, with those they normally didn’t pray with but who shared the same Lord and destiny.

The Greek word for “to pray” (see also 1 Timothy 2:1) indicates they prayed prayers from the heart directly to God, not as a rote religious ritual. They did not just voice wishes but direct and specific requests of God. They kept a spirit of thanksgiving, remembering Jesus’ miracles, His resurrection, and everything else He did in love for multitudes of people. They knew they were not abandoned, though they still didn’t understand the profound changes about to happen.

They did not focus upon their weaknesses and failures. Their small number did not trouble them, nor the formidable power of the Romans or the impressive religious establishment. The size of the unbelieving community did not sway them, nor did their lack of social or religious influence.

They kept focused on the promise—the good future to which Jesus pointed them and the power He had already displayed in their own lives and those of others.

In our troubled days, let us remember that Jesus has not changed. The promise of the Holy Spirit He gave to His followers comes down to us today. Let us continue to follow the instructions Jesus gave His uncertain followers that we might live out the “New Thing” God has for us in our own day and for a world that still does not know Him.

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Jul 10 2022
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What To Do When You Fail

Do you ever feel you have failed your Lord? Have you felt you have denied Him by your words, deeds, inactions—even your cowardice? Let Jesus’ redemption of Peter in John 21 encourage you.

Like Peter, we set high standards for ourselves in our discipleship. We have the best of intentions. We will succeed where others have failed. Yet not only do we fail, but our failure is miserable, humiliating, wretched.

Look at Peter, boasting of his loyalty and bravery. But when the test came, he crumbled. He denied Jesus Christ three times, with curses, cowering even before an unnamed, powerless slave-girl.

Now, even after he witnessed the resurrected Christ, he felt like a failure, unworthy of his calling as a disciple of the Lord of Glory. In consternation and confusion, he went off to fish, joined by several of his fellow failed disciples. They caught nothing. Another failure.

Enter Jesus, who first reminds Peter of His original calling by giving Peter another miraculous catch of fish (see Luke 5). Then comes a remarkable confrontation. “Do you love [agape] me?” Twice, Jesus asks Peter, using the word for perfect love. Peter can only say, “I love [phileo] you,” a lesser form of love. Can any of us honestly do any better than Peter? Then Jesus comes down on Peter’s level and asks a third time, “Do you love [phileo] me?”

Remarkably, Jesus accepts Peter’s imperfect love. It is not perfect, but real. Peter reveals himself as a “flickering flame.” His love flickers, but it still burns, and Jesus is a master at fanning flickering flames (Matthew 12:20).

Jesus responds to Peter in three ways. His responses in the Greek reveal that His call on Peter’s life has not changed.

“Tend my lambs” suggests his future care of immature and vulnerable people in need of special attention. “Tend my sheep” indicates Peter’s role as an overseer, a shepherd. The third response should read, “Pasture the sheep,” indicating Peter’s role in preaching and teaching from the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Peter’s failures have broken him and given him humility, the very quality he needs (and we need) to perform his (and our) calling. We know from history that Jesus fanned Peter’s “flickering flame” into a refiner’s fire through the coming of the Holy Spirit. Days later, filled with the Holy Spirit, he stood before thousands, boldly preached his first sermon, and saw 3,000 people follow Christ.

Later, he stood before the same religious authorities who crucified Jesus, now threatening him with prison or worse if he continued to preach Jesus. Peter fearlessly responded, “It is better to obey God rather than man.” Jesus indicated that Peter would give his life for Him with a rare courage.

It is good for us to confess and grieve the times we deny Christ by our words, deeds and inactions, but it is better for us to remember how He has also filled us with the same Holy Spirit that filled Peter. He still says to us, as He said to Peter, “Feed my sheep.”

In our families, communities, workplaces, schools, creative activities, governments, and around the world, we have opportunities to do just that. Jesus has even told us as He told Peter, “Greater works than I have done, you will do.”

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