67 PETER SPEAKS OUT F O O T ================================
- H O L D
READING
67 PETER SPEAKS OUT
PRAY Lord, help me to keep your laws and walk in your ways.
READ Acts 2:22-42.
THINK What, in a nutshell was Peter’s main point?
FOCUS THE PERSON PROCLAIMED (22-28). Peter points his hearers away from the strange things that were happening, to the One who was the real reason for the events. He sums up the story of Jesus (22- 24). A PSALM EXPLAINED (29-31). Peter quoted (verses 25-28) a psalm of David written many centuries before. In it David speaks of someone who is not abandoned in Hades, the place of the departed dead, and whose body does not decay. Who was this ‘someone’? Not David, for he had died and his grave was known. It was Jesus Christ, and David’s psalm was a prophecy which came true in him. A PROOF PRESENTED (32) ‘We all are witnesses’ (see 1:8). The resurrection of Jesus did not happen in an obscure corner, hidden from view. As Peter said these words, the disciples around him would have nodded in agreement. Christ’s death had been a public event, and they had all seen him after he had risen. A PLAN COMPLETED (33-36). The resurrection was not the end. The final act in God’s plan to save people too place when Christ ascended into God’s presence, making it possible for us to enter also. It also made it possible for him to pour out the Holy Spirit, and so reach all men everywhere with the good news, God’s final Word. Notice the response of the people to Peter’s preaching. ‘We are all witnesses’ (32). For the Pentecost crowd the events of the cross were recent and reasonably local. For us and our neighbours, these events may seem remote. Yet in another sense we can still be witnesses. How? —————————————————————- PRAY Pray that the Holy Spirit will give you more courage and conviction as you tell others about Jesus Christ.