Peter & The Spirit
Last week, we continued in our “Jesus Breathed” series about the role of the Holy Spirit in the mission of the church. If you missed last week, here’s the logic of the sermon in a quick Q&A:
Q: Jesus calls us to be his witnesses, but how can we be witnesses if we cannot see or hear Jesus ourselves?
A: The Holy Spirit.
Essentially, the Holy Spirit is who opens our eyes to see the risen Jesus who is unseeable (because he’s ascended to heaven), empowers our ears to hear the risen Jesus whose voice is otherwise un-hearable, and creates a personal encounter with the risen and living Jesus. That’s how
the Holy Spirit makes us his witnesses.
In our 2026 bible reading plan, we’re reading Peter’s first letter this week. Peter knew a thing or two about the Holy Spirit and his powerful role because, if you remember Acts 2, he was there on Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out. In fact, he was the first one to preach a sermon explaining the Spirit – which caused thousands to see and hear and be encountered by Jesus!
In his first letter, he doesn’t talk much about the role of the Holy Spirit, so what he does say is worth paying special attention to. It is significant in helping us understand this eye-opening, encounter-making role.
In 1 Peter 1 (Monday’s reading), Peter is talking about how the Old Testament prophets (guys like Jeremiah and Isaiah) looked forward to a day when someone like Jesus would come, and how the Spirit was working even in them hundreds of years earlier to lead to their present moment. In fact, he writes in verse 12 that they wrote about things to come (i.e., Jesus, his sufferings, his glory, ‘this salvation’),
“…things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look!”
What he’s saying here is that the good news of Jesus – his sufferings, glory, salvation – comes through ordinary men and women “by the Holy Spirit”. It is the Spirit that makes us his witnesses – both to be encountered by him (as we talked about on Sunday), but also to be the instrument through which news of Jesus will go out to more and more people.
Peter doesn’t talk in ‘witness’ language, but the idea is exactly the same. Instead of ‘witness’ language, he tells us what the Spirit makes us in 1 Peter 2:9,
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
We are a people set aside a) to know God, b) in order that we may proclaim this good news to others. All of it is the work of Jesus through his Holy Spirit.
Sounds an awful lot like being his witnesses, doesn’t it?
So as I asked on Sunday, are you allowing God’s Spirit to press in on you – to open your eyes and ears, and to draw you into encounter with Jesus in a way that truly changes you?
This Sunday, we’re going to talk about the ‘how’ of it all.