If the Holy Spirit is to teach and train us we need to learn to be still



before God. When we hear, we need to be able to accept what he tells us.

It may not always be as difficult for us as for Peter as a lifelong Jew,

but there will be difficulties. This will not be attained without:

4. TOTAL COMMITMENT

"Commitment" does not sound too bad, but "total"?

Peter was shown that he must be totally committed, not just to Jesus

as the Christ, but also to his fellow Christians. We have few details

of how that very first Christian community came into being in Jerusalem,

but Luke was "gob smacked" by it (for the uninitiated, a memorable Yorkshire

phrase). So much so that he tells us about it twice (Acts 2. 44 - 47

and 4. 32 - 35). Peter must have been important in its development

(although its leader was James, known as "the brother of the Lord").

They worshipped together (making full use of the Temple), they shared

all their goods and the better off supplied the needs of the poorer

members. Through his commitment to it, Peter came to know the

importance of what he later referred to as "living stones"

(1 Peter 2. 4, 5). We know we have to be that if we are to live and

work together for the kingdom.

Peter was to be a rock in its foundation. He really was already a

rock -- but a rock in his own nature, and that was an obstacle to God's

work. He had to be, as it were, melted down and then reformed. Yes, a

very painful process.

But it was mitigated for Peter, as it will be for us, through the growing

realisation of how beautiful Jesus really is. He experience something of

that at the Transfiguration (Mark 9. 2 - 13 but also ask yourself about

verse 15). It was what allowed him to take the rebuke from Jesus that he

was an ally of Satan (Matthew 16. 23). Yet, once we realise something of

that beauty, we cannot wait for God to change us into something nearer

himself.

5. DISCIPLINE OF THE TONGUE

In the earlier days God was always having to interrupt Peter. As example:

a. On the Mount of Transfiguration after Moses and Elijah had

appeared with Jesus (Luke 9. 33, 34). Note that it says " While he (Peter)

was still speaking). When we do not know what we are saying, the best

thing is to shut up. But Peter was overawed.

b. In Capernaum over the payment of the temple tax (Matthew 17. 24f).

(This tax derived from Exodus 30. 11 - 16 and was a special voluntary tax

but, before the time of Jesus, it had obeyed the first law of taxes and had

become compulsory!). Peter committed Jesus to paying it, but Jesus would have

claimed exemption because of who he really was.

c. At Cornelius' house in Caesarea, while Peter was still speaking

the Spirit descended on the whole family and household. Peter and his

companions were amazed.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit all intervened at various times to interrupt

Peter in full flow. We must be ready to accept God's interruption to our

words or actions. This is part of our being pure in heart.

6. THE PURE IN HEART

The sixth beatitude at Matthew 5. 8 promises the vision of God to the

pure in heart, and Peter was brought to this state. It is a heart

condition which God requires for the fulfillment of his purposes of

grace. Purity of heart simply means a state where there is no hindrance

to seeing and accepting God and his plan for all and for each of us.

It is a requirement for living in the kingdom while we are here on earth.

It is a present reality for those who can believe that Jesus brought the

kingdom and established it here. It exists wherever the pure in heart

exist, and there is no reason for our not seeing it -- except the barriers

we erect ourselves, in our own thinking and attitudes.

For example, how often do we hear and read other Christians denigrating

their brethren who belong to churches other than their own? Often this is

expressed contemptuously and with less than a modicum of insight but

with pretension. Watchman Nee once said that, to stop us seeing an object,

it is not necessary to put a dirty cloth over it; a clean one will do

just as well. Our attitudes can appear sanitised but if they denigrate

other Christians there is something there which is unclean.

In his first letter (1 Peter 1.13, 14) Peter warns us against conforming to

evil desires and bringing into our present lives the kind of ignorance

we once exhibited. He was moulded by experience and God's grace to truly

be the first among Jesus' disciples. He still made mistakes -- anyone who

is human will. But he could stand to be corrected for that and to accept

the correction. (e.g. Acts 10. 9 - 16 and 17 - 48; 15. 5 - 11; Galatians

2. 11 - 21). It was part of his training, a training that continued all

way the Rome and an inverted cross.