Pentecost and the Jerusalem Church

In the opening chapters of Acts, Peter is the foremost figure of the infant Church: he proposes the filling of Judas’s place, stands up on the day of Pentecost to preach the first apostolic sermon — at which three thousand are baptized — heals the lame man at the Beautiful Gate, and answers the Sanhedrin with the words “we must obey God rather than men.” This file follows Peter as spokesman and leader of the Jerusalem community through Acts 1–5.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle)

The Choosing of Matthias

The restored Peter takes the lead at once. In the days between the Ascension and Pentecost, “Peter stood up among the brothers” — the assembled company of about a hundred and twenty — and proposed that the place left vacant by Judas’s apostasy and death be filled, citing the Psalms as Scripture’s warrant (Acts 1:15–22, quoting Ps 69:25 and 109:8). The criteria he sets — one who had accompanied the Lord “beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up” and could be “a witness to his resurrection” (Acts 1:21–22) — define the apostolic office as eyewitness testimony to the risen Christ. Two are put forward, and after prayer the lot falls on Matthias, who is “numbered with the eleven apostles” (Acts 1:26). Peter’s leadership here is the leadership of the spokesman who articulates the mind of the community and acts within it, not over it: the choice is made by the whole assembly and by the casting of lots before God.

The Sermon at Pentecost

When the Holy Spirit descends at Pentecost in wind and fire and the apostles speak in other tongues, it is Peter who interprets the event to the astonished crowd. “Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them” (Acts 2:14) — the picture is exact: Peter speaks, but “with the eleven,” as the mouth of the apostolic college. The sermon (Acts 2:14–40) is the first proclamation of the Christian gospel: the outpouring of the Spirit fulfills the prophecy of Joel (Acts 2:16–21, quoting Joel 2:28–32); Jesus of Nazareth, “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” was crucified and “God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death” (Acts 2:23–24); David himself foretold the resurrection (Acts 2:25–31, citing Ps 16); and “this Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:32). The sermon ends with the great declaration — “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36) — and the crowd, “cut to the heart,” asks what they must do. Peter answers with the Church’s first call to baptism: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). That day “about three thousand souls” were baptized and added to the Church (Acts 2:41). The man who had denied Christ before a servant girl now confesses him before thousands; the restoration of Luke 22:32 — “when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” — is fulfilled before the reader’s eyes.

The Beautiful Gate and Solomon’s Portico

Peter’s preaching is sealed by signs. At the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, he and John meet a man lame from birth begging alms; Peter says, “I have no silver and gold, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” — and the man leaps up, “walking and leaping and praising God” (Acts 3:6–8). The crowd that gathers in Solomon’s Portico hears Peter’s second sermon, in which he again preaches the crucified and risen Christ, calling Jesus “the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 3:15), and summoning Israel to repentance “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20). Peter is careful to deflect the wonder from himself: “Why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk?” (Acts 3:12). The miracle is the act of the risen Christ through his apostle, reported by Luke as such (METHODOLOGY §3.5).

“We Must Obey God Rather Than Men”

The preaching provokes the first persecution. Peter and John are arrested by the Temple authorities and brought before the Sanhedrin — the very council before whose servants Peter had once denied his Lord. Now, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” he answers boldly that the lame man was healed “by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead,” and proclaims that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:8–12). The council, marveling at the boldness of “uneducated, common men” and recognizing “that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13), can only forbid them to speak in the name of Jesus — to which Peter and John reply, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). When arrested a second time and again charged, the apostles answer through Peter with the great word of Christian conscience: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). The contrast with the courtyard could not be sharper: the man broken by a servant girl’s question now defies the supreme council of his nation.

Ananias and the Order of the Community

Peter’s leadership has its severe side. When Ananias and Sapphira sell a property and lay only part of the price at the apostles’ feet while pretending to give all, it is Peter who exposes the lie — “you have not lied to men but to God” — and both fall dead (Acts 5:1–11). Luke reports the episode as a manifestation of the holiness and danger of the Spirit-filled community in its first days, and “great fear came upon the whole church” (Acts 5:11). Peter is shown throughout these chapters as the one who speaks for the apostles, judges within the community, works signs, and bears the brunt of the persecution — the foremost, but always one among and with the Twelve (Acts 2:14, 37; 5:29, “Peter and the apostles”).

Peter the Leader Among the Apostles

The Acts portrait confirms and develops the Gospel portrait: Peter is the spokesman and the foremost actor of the apostolic mission in its first decade, the one through whom the gospel is first preached, the Church first opened by baptism, and the faith first defended before the authorities. Yet Luke is equally careful to show that Peter acts within the apostolic body and under the whole Church: the lot, not Peter, chooses Matthias; Peter preaches “with the eleven”; decisions are taken in common (the seven are chosen by “the full number of the disciples,” Acts 6:2–5). When the gospel goes to Samaria it is “the apostles at Jerusalem” who send Peter and John (Acts 8:14) — Peter is sent by the college. This is the leadership the Orthodox tradition recognizes in Peter: a primacy of initiative and witness exercised within the conciliar life of the Church, not a sole monarchy over it (on which see Primacy and the Orthodox Reading).

References

The Holy Bible — Acts 1:15–26; 2:1–47; 3:1–26; 4:1–22; 5:1–42; 6:2–5; 8:14. Cited by book chapter:verse.
John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 4–15. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 11. (Peter’s sermons and leadership.)
Bockmuehl, Markus. Simon Peter in Scripture and Memory. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.
Brown, Raymond E., et al., eds. Peter in the New Testament. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1973. (Peter in Acts.)