Monday, December 4, 2017
Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words."
BOLD PROCLAMATIONS
The second chapter of Acts reveals the account of the coming of the "Helper" (the Holy Spirit) Jesus had promised before He ascended to the Father's right hand. We also have revealed to us, the first sermon preached in the New Testament era. This sermon was preached by Peter. Remember Peter, the cowardly denier of Jesus becomes the bold proclaimer of Jesus!
When the disciples received the Holy Spirit that day they were given the special gift of speaking in the languages of the many people who were gathered in Jerusalem from all over the known world. Some of those gathered at the sight accused the disciples of being drunk. It was at that point that Peter stood to speak. He goes on to preach a bold Law and Gospel sermon. A sermon that we're later told cut the listeners to the heart as they were convicted of their sins and a need for a Savior. They asked what they needed to do. Peter didn't give them a long list of things that they needed to do in order to get on God’s good side. Instead, he told them simply to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and then they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!
Several mission minded devotions could come from this second chapter of Acts as we see the very beginning of the spread of the Gospel in the New Testament era. But the one take away for today is to see the manner in which Peter approaches this opportunity to proclaim God's saving word. He doesn't pull punches in an attempt to make the message palatable to the masses. Instead he proclaims the Law boldly to show the sins of the hearers, and he proclaims the Gospel with love and compassion to show these sinners that they do indeed have a Savior.
In this day and age of political correctness, we can learn a lesson from Peter about boldness in proclaiming God's saving word. On that day, we're told about three thousand souls were added to the Church! And they continued in the apostles' doctrine!
