It was by the power of God's work in Peter, and by the intercession of Christ, that Peter believed, and not because of Peter's own so-called bravery and boldness! There are many instances of how God's power worked mightily in Peter, through the prayers of Jesus, to strengthen Christ's church. At his powerful sermon preached at Pentecost, Peter was bold in the Holy Ghost, and confronted the enemies of Christ, called them out for their sin in murdering Jesus, and commanded them to repent of their sin and have them washed away by the blood of Christ's sacrifice for sinners. After healing the lame man at the temple, and preaching the Gospel to the amazed crowd that gathered, the wicked rulers tried to shut Peter and the others up. Peter confronted them by the Spirit with great boldness, but they rejected the Gospel, and showed no conviction or conversion at all. In the Gospels, those same rulers were described as exceedingly wicked, accusing the Lord Jesus of evil crimes, and falsely condemning Him to death. Then they betrayed Him into the hands of their pagan tyrant Pilate, and gloated at the foot of Calvary as Jesus died there to save His people. Those very same rulers brought Peter and the others before them, and demanded to know by whose authority, and by whose name, they had healed this man. Such is always the way with sacralist, state-church religions, that they seek to control the Gospel, and to shut down "unauthorized" Gospel preachers. This is the challenge of the established religion, and explains the murder of Tyndale by popery, the imprisonment of John Bunyan by the Anglicans, and the persecution of Isaac Watts by the same crowd.