Stand Up!
Acts 2
Then Peter stood up…
Before I BELIEVED in Jesus, I believed in Jesus…because I believed in Jesus. I didn’t live as I believed, but if you asked me and it was safe by golly, I would shout it from behind my closed bedroom door.
I kept Jesus in my pocket for emergencies or special occasions. I was not for sure he was real. Sometimes I wondered if I was crazy or believing in someone who wasn’t who they said they were, but a great story to relieve the fear of death.
It wasn’t until I met the new Peter. I knew the old Peter, the coward: He denied Christ three times, made a verbal fool of himself at the last supper, he even named Jesus being the Son of God in one breath then shortly after was rebuked by Jesus for being used by Satan. He believed with all his heart but didn’t know why.
I believed with all my heart too, when it was spelled out for me. Belief got complicated when I didn’t know or understand the answers. Then I would cower. My faith would crumble, and there I would stand in a puddle of confusion.
Things changed for me when I saw the change in the disciples. No longer did they run or deny. They stood firm. To death, they stood firm. They had seen the risen Christ. He was dead, but now he ate with them, talked with them, showed himself to hundreds of people. For forty days, Jesus walked here on earth after he had conquered death by his death on the cross.
What was there to fear? Death? No, Jesus had willingly fought that battle and won. He now offered the reward of that battle, life, life to its fullest, everlasting to everlasting life to the disciples, to me, and you.
The disciples made a choice those days after the Resurrection to not only believe but to commit to Jesus their life and loyalty. They chose to live for Christ and not deny him or run away. Onto death, they lived for Him. Who in their right mind would do that unless it was true?
It started with eleven, then grew to hundreds to thousands of people who chose the death of their body over the denial of Christ.
Peter’s life, Peter the person, was changed that Easter and the days following because Christ Jesus lives.
I may not understand everything. I have questions and sometimes still get nervous when my beliefs get confronted. But then I remember the changed Peter and The One who changed him, who changed everything. I then remember I, too, am changed, and in recognizing this, I can stand. And you can too!
