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by Charlie Wolcott

After Jesus rose from the dead, there were two tasks He needed to do prior to ascending, besides just appearing and encouraging the believers: Peter, and then final instructions. Why Peter? Peter disowned even knowing Jesus three times. The night Jesus was betrayed, the very night Peter said he would go to prison and die for Jesus, Peter denied even knowing Jesus or being associated with Him. And Jesus was not going to sweep that under the rug.

So, during one of His appearances, Jesus gives Peter another miraculous catch of fish, mirroring the moment the two met, and then gets some one-on-one time with Peter. Three times, Jesus asks: “Do you love me?” And Peter says yes each time. Then Jesus tells Peter to take care of His sheep. Peter didn’t realize what was happening until the third time and renewed his vow to go wherever Jesus went. And Jesus then told him how he would die: by execution, and Peter would be crucified. Yet to show his love for his Savior, he asked to be crucified upside down, a more painful death, lest he not die the same way Jesus did. Then Peter looked at John and asked about him. Jesus basically said it was none of Peter’s business, and John never died a martyr’s death. But not because the Romans didn’t try. He was thrown into a pot of boiling oil and came out unscathed. That is why he was exiled to Patmos.

Then Jesus gathered His disciples to the Mount of Olives for one final set of instructions, and they were simple. First, they were to wait in Jerusalem until they were imbued with power, and then to go make disciples starting in Jerusalem and to Judea, to Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Remember, they were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit yet. Yet when this happened and the disciples were empowered to carry on Jesus’ mission by the Holy Spirit, the religious centers and forces of darkness, who were reeling from Jesus alone, now had a much bigger problem. The very power and authority Jesus had was now with the disciples.

Jesus is in the business of restoration. Peter and Judas are often compared because both betrayed Jesus. The difference is that Peter was grieved that he had betrayed his master, but Judas just felt guilty that he had done a bad thing. Judas would attempt to make semi-amends by returning the blood money he got for giving Jesus to the Pharisees, but they just laughed it off. Judas not only betrayed Jesus, but he got played in doing so. And so Judas went and hung himself, but the tree couldn’t hold his weight, and when his body fell, it burst open. Peter, however, had a spirit like David, who sinned against God, but the weight of it grieved him because he lost his relationship with his God. Peter was similar. He sinned against Jesus, not defiantly, but due to his fear of man. And keep in mind that Peter was a BIG man. He was burly and very strong, not just because of his fisherman trade. And yet he became the biggest baby, cowering before a weak slave girl.

This is what happens when men rely on their own strength. Physical prowess means nothing to the weak spirit. But despite all this, Jesus restored Peter. Now, would Jesus have restored Judas? As Jesus only did what the Father said to do and had marked Judas as a devil from the start, I wonder if Jesus would have forgiven Judas. He forgave all those who crucified Him, knowing they knew not what they did. But would He have forgiven Judas? The empathy part of me says, yes, but the analytical part of me says no. Why? If God rejected King Saul for something far less, why would He spare Judas, when Jesus even said it would be better for him not even to be born? In all cases, Judas never gave it a chance and killed himself before it could have been done.

Then, after Jesus ascended, the disciples went to Jerusalem and met in the upper room, possibly the same upper room where they had the Last Supper. They prayed for ten days, chose Matthias to replace Judas, and then Pentecost happened. Peter the coward suddenly turned into Peter the bold preacher and proclaimed the name of Jesus, showcasing how the languages being heard were the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. When Peter told the crowd that they had crucified the very Savior they had been waiting for, the crowd spoke up and asked, “What must we do?” And Peter said, “Repent and be baptized,” and 3000 were added to their number that day.

From that time forward, the disciples became the Apostles, and the church spread like wildfire. The world was never the same again. The Sanhedrin tried to stop them, but imprisonment and the Jewish beatings only encouraged them further. The Romans really didn’t care, but then it got worse when Paul was converted, and the entire Roman Empire and the known world were completely turned upside down. The world would never be the same again. God had come to the world, and as the Church obeyed its command to make disciples, everything as previously known would cease to exist. Bars would shut down, the occult businesses would be shut down, and instead in places where there we no schools or hospitals, now these would be built. Take notice that no group in the world has ever built schools or hospitals for the general population, when Christians did not do it first. And any school and hospital that is not run with the Christian mindset or at least a Judeo-Christian ethic tends not to be the best places to be. And this was all able to happen because Jesus left us. Next week, we’ll look at the last thing Jesus did on earth: His ascension.

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