High Calling Magazine
The official publication of The Francis Asbury Society

How Is Your Pentecostal Posture?

BY DR. HAROLD BURGESS

From the days when my grandmother read Bible stories to me in the light of a coal oil lamp, the Apostle Peter has been a favorite Bible character. I liked him because he was always ready to try something new for Jesus, like the time he stepped out of a boat to try walking on the water. I also liked Peter because he was an avid fisherman He was ready to try a new spot on the lake if it held the possibility of his catching more fish. I think I was also impressed that Peter must have truly loved Jesus to be willing to give up his fishing to become one of Jesus’ disciples.

One day as I was reading the second chapter of Acts, I  noticed Peter’s posture on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit had fallen upon the group of Jesus’ followers. Apparently, the group had left the upper room, but they were still together at some public place in Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem were mocking the disciples, charging them with being drunk. These were the same disciples who had faded into the shadows of Jerusalem when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. But on Pentecost, after the Spirit had fallen upon them, they clearly displayed a new kind of courage and strength. This new way of being seemed especially evident in Peter’s posture: he was standing (v. 14).

To see what a radical change in Peter was displayed in this verbal picture, one needs only to remember other verbal pictures of Peter that are given by the Gospel writers. Consider, for example, the posture portrayed in Matthew 14:30. Here Peter, at Jesus’ invitation, had begun his well-known walk toward Jesus on the stormy waters of the Sea of Galilee. As he walked, Peter noticed the wind and the waves. Becoming fearful, he lost his grip on the faith that had enabled him to walk on the water. At that point, Peter began to sink. Now sinking is not a good posture for a follower of Jesus.

Then there is Peter’s poor posture in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Gospel writers describe. In this brief, but important story, Jesus asked Peter, together with his two friends James and John to stay awake in watchful prayer as He prepared Himself for the trial and the cross that He knew would soon occur. Three times Jesus returned to the little prayer circle. Each time He found His three closest friends asleep. On one of these visits, Jesus asked the sleeping Peter if he could not stay awake and watch in prayer for even one hour. Surely, sleeping at such a time is an inappropriate posture for followers of Jesus.

Finally, I think the saddest of Peter’s postures is the one described in Mark 14:54 when Peter is depicted as following Jesus at a distance “right into the courtyard of the high priest.” I have tried to think what word would describe Peter’s posture as he followed Jesus through the darkened streets of Jerusalem. Certainly, Peter was not walking tall and erect as he followed far behind Jesus, afraid of being identified with Him. The descriptive word that comes to my mind is “slinking.” Slinking seems an apt description of the unfortunate physical and spiritual posture of Peter at that crisis moment in history. Surely, slinking is never an appropriate posture for a follower of Jesus at any point in history.

But on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection, following the descent of the Spirit upon Peter and the others, Peter is standing with the eleven. There is no hint of the fear that led to his sinking; no indication of the unconcern that allowed him to sleep; and not a shred of evidence for the terror that precipitated his slinking posture as he followed Jesus afar off.

Every now and then, I find it good to ask myself: “Harold, how is your Pentecostal posture?” Perhaps it is a good question for all of us to ask from time to time.

top