He Looks Like Peter - Peter

Peter’s words pierced their hearts, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 2:37-38

Remember the old sci-fi movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers? It’s about a small Northern California town whose population is replaced by alien look-alikes. Sure, they looked like the same people they had always been, but somehow they were different.

Some of the people who knew the apostle Peter and heard him preach following Jesus’ return to heaven had to wonder if he was the same person they had seen flat on his face so many times.

Peter lost his nerve and sank like a rock in the Sea of Galilee after asking Jesus to let him walk on the water (see Matthew 14:22-33). Three times, he denied even knowing Jesus (see Luke 22:54-62), and he was nowhere to be found as his Master was nailed by his hands and feet to a wooden cross.

Humanly speaking, it didn’t look as if Peter had the right stuff to be the kind of ambassador that Jesus had called him to be.

Peter was also the man who later preached with power and courage without regard to what could be some very painful consequences for speaking the name of Jesus Christ in the city of Jerusalem. He knew that his preaching would get him in deep trouble with the Jewish religious authorities in Jerusalem, but he preached anyway, so powerfully that thousands of people turned to Jesus in one day (see Acts 2:41).

Talk about a turnaround of biblical proportions!

Peter was a living example of what can happen in the life of a man who knows Jesus Christ and learns to live by the Holy Spirit’s empowerment.

When you combine your commitment to serving Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit’s empowerment, you receive the kind of faith, courage, and power it takes to do things you would never have thought possible.