Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 4.1MB)
Do you really need self-confidence? Most everyone would tell you that it is absolutely essential to success, but I have discovered that my self-confidence usually lets me down when I need it the most. The same was true of the Apostle Peter. He was extremely self-confident, but over and over again that self-confidence fell apart.
However, there was a great change in Peter which we can see beginning in the book of Acts. You remember the story of Peter and John encountering a lame beggar at the temple. Peter looked at that lame man and said in his most confident manner, ” In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk” (Acts 3:6). And guess what—the man went into the temple walking and leaping and praising God.
When questioned by the religious leaders as to how he had done this, Peter gave a most confident response: “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see” (Acts 3:16).
This man Peter, who had failed miserably at every turn when he relied on self-confidence and who had cowardly denied Jesus three times, now stood tall among people who were seeking to harm him and proclaimed to them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Verses 13 and 14 of Acts 4 are very revealing: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say.”
Peter’s confidence amazed them but notice that it was not self-confidence. These people knew that Peter was not able to heal this man or speak as he did because of his own education or training. Peter was no longer operating on self-confidence. That had been totally shattered. But his confidence and trust in Jesus Christ the Nazarene gave him a boldness he had never known before, and power. The lame man was healed, he was able to persuade thousands of converts, and he led the early church as they changed the course of history.