Slices
Prepare
‘God, where I encounter tensions as I explore and explain my faith, please give me the grace to know when to wrestle with and when to rest in your mysteries.’
Bible passage
22 ‘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. 23 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. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:
‘“I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.”
29 ‘Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
‘“The Lord said to my Lord:
‘Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.’”
36 ‘Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.’
Explore
Peter’s sermon, the first recorded example of apostolic preaching in Acts, has one main purpose: to proclaim Jesus as ‘Lord and Messiah’ (v 36). As well as pointing to Jesus’ miraculous ministry, Peter continues to appeal to the Old Testament, a scriptural authority accepted by his Jewish audience. Referencing the writings of King David, he highlights two passages that can only be understood from a prophetic point of view. The one who would not ‘see decay’, and who would sit at God’s right hand (v 33) was not David personally, but his promised descendant, Jesus.
Far from purely academic, Peter’s preaching packs plenty of punch. He confidently asserts God’s sovereignty in Jesus’ death and resurrection, while not absolving human participants – including his hearers – of their culpability (v 23). He confronts the human implausibility of defying the grave with the impossibility of deity being held by death (v 24). There is much to grapple with here: the interplay of God’s plans, prophetic insight and human responsibility stretches our understanding significantly. Yet, weaving the strands together with eyewitness accounts, Peter explains the outpouring of the Spirit and proves the person of Christ (v 33). Calling people to an encounter with him – as challenging and exhilarating as it may be – is ours to continue in today.
Respond
Talk to Jesus about how you feel about introducing him to others. Why not ask for an opportunity to do so this week?
Deeper Bible study
Lord, open our hearts to the transforming presence of God the Holy Spirit.
In the closing chapters of John’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly promised that when he departed from this world, the Spirit would ‘take from what is mine and make it known to you’.1 This is precisely what we witness happening here: the Spirit had come with what looked like tongues of fire and enabled Peter to testify to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, whom God has made ‘both Lord and Messiah’ (v 36). This, remember, is the same Peter who had denied that he even knew Jesus but now, filled with the Spirit, he sees the cross in a completely new light and can understand and explain to the crowd how this terrible death (note the phrase ‘by nailing him to the cross’, v 23) has opened the gate of heaven to all believers!
Preaching on the subject of Pentecost, Jurgen Moltmann said that the story describes an ‘experience of the Spirit who descends upon men and women, permeates them through and through, soul and body’, so that they ‘discover that they are filled with new energies they had never imagined to exist’.2 When William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army in the nineteenth century, their flags were emblazoned with the phrase ‘Blood and Fire’, a slogan that caused some alarm since it sounded distinctly radical, even revolutionary! However, they had captured the essence of the gospel as it appears in our text: the gift of the empowering of the Holy Spirit, transforming weak and frightened disciples into bold and faithful witnesses to the saving power of their crucified and risen Lord. Pentecost is not simply a once-for-all historical event, but the inauguration of a new age in which the presence and power of the Holy Spirit is the birthright of every believer.
Help us, Lord, to claim our birthright and ‘be filled with the Spirit’.3
1 John 16:15, NIV 2005 2 Jurgen Moltmann, The Power of the Powerless, SCM Press, 1983, p129 3 Eph 5:18
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 2 Kings 6,7; 2 Corinthians 4
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for all children and young people who are struggling to understand their place in today’s world. Ask God to open up opportunities for them to hear his wonderful message of hope, love and salvation as revealed through Jesus. (This week's prayers relate to this story.)
