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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:
“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
“I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.”
Acts 2:3-23
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The Jewish religious leaders always sought to discredit anything that Jesus did. They always plotted and schemed to try and trap in His words and undermine the credibility of His ministry work. In the end, they were the ones who walked Him down the path to crucifixion, applying just the right pressure on the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to get him to do their dirty work for them. As Jesus took His final breath on Calvary’s cross and said, “It is finished”, I’m sure more than a few of the Jewish religious authorities and those who joined in company with them thought that this was true, that they would never have to deal with Jesus again. It had to give them a feeling of twisted pride, how they unjustly accused and then executed a man who was perfectly right and righteous, a man who had never sinned ever, a man who was the person they should have used as a role model. These supposed men of God put to death the very Son of the God they claimed to be devoted to. But here’s the thing.
It was God’s will for all of it to happen just the way it did. We know because the scriptures say so as we look at the event that happened as soon as the Holy Spirit had descended on the disciples like tongues of fire from the heavens. The receipt of the gift Jesus promised caused the disciples to all speak in ways that were understandable, even by those who spoke a different language. Unable to explain the miraculous experience they witnessed, some present tried to brush off the Holy Spirit-by-fire baptism as nothing miraculous, just the actions of a bunch of drunk people. But as we see, Simon Peter, one of those set on fire by the Holy Spirit, attacked that assertion as he stood with his eleven colleagues. Raising his voice he said:
“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!”
Peter boldly rebuked those who dismissed the amazing work of God that had just occurred. He got the people’s attention and then began addressing them in a way that resulted in a great harvest of believers. That’s why this series of devotions is titled, “The Road to 3,000” because this would be the outcome of Peter’s Holy Spirit-driven message which started by reminding his fellow Jews about the words of the prophet Joel, a prophecy that they had just seen come true. Joel predicted:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.”
“I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”Joel 2:28-32
God, through His messenger Joel, said He would pour out His Spirit on all people and indeed, He kept His promise as He always does and does so perfectly. From the day of Pentecost on, those who placed their belief in Jesus as Savior would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We know through these words of Paul as he writes to the Christians in Ephesus:
“You also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14
Note here that everything hinges on Jesus. One doesn’t receive the Holy Spirit until they place their belief in Him as Savior. This is why we find Peter shifting the focus on His address to Jesus as he places his listeners on the road to their own salvation. As we return to the scriptures for today, we find him continue to address His fellow Jews in Jerusalem:
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.”
Jesus was accredited by His Father God, conceived by the Holy Spirit into a young virgin girl named Mary and born to not only bring miracles, wonders, and signs during His three short years of ministry service but also to die to pay the cost for the sins of all mankind. He was nailed to a cross and put to death by wicked men, their actions endorsed by many of the Israelites listening to Peter’s oration, but none of it was by chance. No, Jesus was handed over to be crucified by His Father in the greatest act of love in human history.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17
God’s plan to freely give salvation to His people did not come without a cost. That was the first takeaway Peter wanted his listeners to know, the 3,000 who had stepped onto the road to their own sin pardon. For the Jesus they rejected, willingly died to save them, a part of the message we’ll continue to look at tomorrow.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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