Peter Stands Up
- Linda Rock
- Jun 16
- 4 min read

As we continue this week, in the sure knowledge that our Triune God is with us, we make confession and profession in these most timely words of Charles Wesley.
Father, Son and Holy Ghost, One in Three and Three in One,
As by Thy celestial host, let Thy will on earth be done;
Praise by all to thee be given,
Glorious Lord of earth and heaven. Amen.
By our Triune God’s inspiration and faith’s anticipation, we return to Peter, as we are made to note the Power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. We are at the place where Peter is addressing folk who, in their base ignorance, are publicly making fun of the fuelling works of the New Born Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ disciples.
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said to them, Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. Acts 2: 14 – 15.
Let’s keep our eyes fixed and ears fixed on Peter for a moment, as our representative disciple. What I mean is this. He is representing all the other disciples, so that what we are saying about Peter at this time, is also absolutely true for all the present disciples. He, a disciple of Jesus, has received the First of the Firstfruits of Father God, in this time of the Feast of Harvest. God has given His people New Wine, the New Wine of the Holy Spirit enabling them to do what they have never done before. Remember, only the disciples have been filled with the New Wine – the Holy Ghost – no one else present, but those who are in the upper Room.
We move from here for a moment, to listen to a parable which Jesus told about New Wine.
Jesus has just called Levi, a publican, to follow Him. Levi is so happy, so honoured, so as a man who has found real life, that he immediately leaves everything and follows the Nazarene. Levi is so filled with the joy of Jesus, he makes an elaborate feast in honour of Jesus. And Levi made him a great feast in his house: and there was a great company of publicans and others that sat down with them. Luke 5: 29.
However, some scribes and Pharisees, began to murmur, asking why it was that Jesus and His disciples were feasting with publicans and sinners. Jesus simply responds by saying that well people do not need a doctor. Then He made this public statement about His work, His mission. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Luke 5: 32. Does that shut these accusing people up? They are stumped for a while, as they go at Jesus again, from another angle, this time. They want to know why the disciples of John the Baptist and disciples of the Pharisees fast often and pray, but His disciples don’t. Jesus spoke some words to them then told them this parable.
No one puts new wine in old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskin will be ruined. But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved. And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, The old is better. Luke 5: 37 – 39.
Jesus’ wisdom about new wine and its distribution, is most clear and absolute. Here are some wise facts to which Jesus holds firm at this Harvest Feast.
New wine must go into new wineskins.
New wine and old wineskins do not mix.
New wine and old wineskins spell pure disaster.
New wine and new wineskins spell pure delight.
When Jesus spoke to those Scribes and Pharisees who were totally unprepared and unwilling to receive Him and His new understanding and interpreting of the old law, what was He saying to them and showing them? At the feast in Levi’s house, He was the Wine whose visible Presence, Person and Power, made believers and followers of not just Levi, but Levi’s publican friends, family and acquaintances, as He filled them with truth. Could Jesus fill the Scribes and Pharisees with truth? No! They were too full, too steeped in the old wineskins of law, refusing to be changed. Jesus, the Wine, could not be poured into them, for it would spell pure disaster.
Jesus, crucified, dead and buried, and who rose victorious on the third day, is now seated on the Right Hand of the Father in heaven. He came as New Wine on Pentecost, to fill new wineskins. The disciples, all one hundred and twenty of them, were prepared by Jesus Himself, before His ascension and having been made different, having been made into new vessels, new wineskins, were able to be filled with His Baptism. Like the Scribes and Pharisees, who did not know Jesus, the Wine, and could not be filled with His Truth, so too with those mockers. They could not be filled with Jesus, the New Wine, because they were ignorant of truth.
Here is where Peter comes in, fuelled by the fire of the first New Wine, the Holy Spirit.
We'll return tomorrow, as the Heat of Pentecostal Fire, still burns and touches each of us, emptied and ready to be everlastingly filled and fuelled.
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