Sep 05, 2025 The Apostle Peter: Before and After – Words of Grace Blog – September 5, 2025
The main message in Acts 2 is that Jesus of Nazareth is both Lord and Christ, and that the Holy Spirit fills Jesus’ disciples in their witness of him. This Sunday at Grace Community we will focus our attention on this message from the sermon preached by the Apostle Peter.
There is one fascinating element of this sermon that we will only touch on, on Sunday, but that you can think on this weekend. The sermon was preached by Peter.
Peter is like a “before and after” endorsement for the gospel. Rather than showing the effects of a diet plan or a teeth-whitening method, Peter shows the impact of the cross of Christ to forgive his sins and the filling of the Holy Spirit to shape his character and empower him for ministry.
Before the cross and resurrection of Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter was…Peter. This Galilean fisherman and natural leader who was full of energy and quick to respond and react in situations, also showed qualities of impulsiveness, anger, and fear. The religious establishment considered him uneducated and common (Acts 4:13). But the most notable thing about Peter is that though he loved Jesus, in a bewildered state of mind and in the face of danger, he denied knowing him. This is the before picture of Peter.
Then came the two promises of the gospel in Acts 2, which are the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter is the one who preached these promises because he had received them.
After Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, he sought out the convicted and contrite Peter and restored him to fellowship and friendship through the forgiveness of sin. After Jesus ascended into heaven, he poured out his Spirit on Peter and the other disciples.
Now we see Peter, a washed and made-new man taking his stand to clearly and boldly preach about Jesus in a biblically faithful and reasoned way to the crowd in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. This is the after picture of Peter. He was a changed man.
To be honest and realistic, we must remember that Peter was still…Peter, meaning he was not perfect. We find him again struggling with indwelling sin when he showed a less than gracious theology, spirit, and practice toward Gentile believers (see Galatians 2). But from a heart cleansed by grace and filled with the Spirit he received correction and pressed on in labor for the gospel.
Reading about Peter denying that he knew Jesus (Luke 22) and then seeing him take a stand and preach Jesus as the Lord and Christ (Acts 2) gives us a before and after picture of the impact of God’s grace toward us in Christ and through the Spirit.
Have you turned to Christ for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit? Are you now yielding to the Holy Spirit as a forgiven and cleansed person to become like Christ and serve him? Take some time this weekend to read Acts 2 and pray over these things.
I look forward to worshipping Christ with you Sunday.
-Scott
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