Fully Devoted: The ChurchSample

Peter and Paul 

As we continue to follow the early Jesus movement, we watch Peter step into his calling and meet a guy named Saul. Both of them were pivotal to the spread of the gospel. 

Now, Peter we know. He was one of the fishermen Jesus called to follow Him, and Peter was with Jesus through the duration of His ministry. At one point, Jesus even told Peter that he would play a big part in the formation of the Church. 

“And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19 NIV

This is a big honor and a big assignment. But famously, when Jesus was arrested and put on trial, Peter denied even knowing Jesus three times. He probably felt how you and I would feel—ashamed, useless, and like a major failure and disappointment. He probably thought he’d lost his chance to be used by Jesus.

But in His radical love and grace, Jesus continues to do anything but what we’d expect. After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus finds Peter back in a boat, reverting back into his old way of life, probably thinking it was all he was good for. Jesus calls to him, spends time with him, shares a meal with him, and all the while guides Peter back to that place of pain and failure. Three times He asks Peter, “Do you love me?” And then He follows up with, “Feed my sheep.”

Is Jesus being mean? It seems like it on the surface. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian, once wrote, “Only love gets close enough to know.” It’s a simple sentence, but it packs a punch! It’s because of His love that Jesus approaches this place of deep shame in Peter. He gets close enough to know Peter’s fears. And He addresses them. 

Does Jesus know I care? Does He know letting Him down is my greatest regret? Does He still want to use me? Peter probably wrestled with these kinds of questions, which shows us the beauty and intentionality of what Jesus was doing. He wasn’t antagonizing Peter; He was reassuring him. Jesus was giving Peter a chance to challenge the story of his fears and step into the story of Jesus’ grace. 

This same invitation exists for us. Mistakes and doubts do not disqualify us. Jesus’ grace is on the table. And when we embrace it, it transforms us. Peter went from denying Jesus three times to preaching a single sermon that moved 3,000 people to respond and be baptized. And this was just the beginning of the explosive growth that the Church experienced as Peter helped to lead it. Because those who know grace show grace—and grace changes things! 

Saul is another example of the transformational and confrontational nature of God’s grace. He was really the opposite of Peter in a lot of respects. Saul was the best of the best in his class. He excelled at Scripture memorization, was passionate about Jewish tradition, and cared deeply about religious practices and obligations. He went through the whole process of becoming a respected member of the religious elite. And this drove him to try to destroy Jesus’ followers, whom he perceived as a threat to the Jewish way of life.

Saul condoned the murder of Stephen, oversaw the arrest and mistreatment of Christians, and sought to cut them off from support and resources. Basically he became the antithesis of what God intended for His people to be—he lost sight of the story that God was telling. Until he had a radical encounter with the risen Jesus. He met the Man he thought was destroying the Jewish way of life and found out that He was actually the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Saul had lost sight of what really mattered, but in that moment with Jesus he was blinded by the radical grace of God. And Saul’s life shifted. His passionate pursuit became the person of Jesus and proclaiming His kingdom. 

And it’s these two guys, Peter and Saul—whom we know more commonly by his Greco-Roman name, Paul—who end up spearheading the Jesus movement. Ironically, the groups it seems like they would be the most suited to reach are not the groups to whom they are sent. Paul knew the Law and Jewish culture better than just about anyone, yet his ministry ended up taking him all over the world to preach to a non-Jewish audience. 

And Peter, who had only a fraction of the training of Paul and probably related to many of the qualms that the Gentiles had with the Jewish upper class, was used to reach thousands of his own countrymen. This is just another example of the backwards nature of the Kingdom of heaven. God is still doing the unexpected and inviting us to trust Him. We’re not meant to rely on our own strength, but on His. Paul made it clear that the driving force behind the powerful spread of the gospel was nothing that he or Peter said, but the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. 

People who know grace show grace. And that grace transforms us into the kind of people who lean into the upside-down nature of God’s kingdom and trust Him to use us, even in our weakness.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 NIV

Journaling Questions

• What verse or verses stood out to you from today’s reading? Write them in your journal. 
• What do Peter and Paul’s stories show you about God’s grace?
• What is one way God is challenging you to trust His Spirit instead of your strength? What would that look like?

Memory Verse

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NIV