The Preaching of Peter
On Saturday evening
, we attended a birthday celebration for our friend Annette Brauchler. George and Annette were a part of our church in Lakewood and I married them about seventeen years ago. They have continued to be good friends. They had the party at the Fox Hollow Club house in the room where my reception was for my last election in 2012. George threw a great party for is wife.
This morning at my Monday meeting we had another candidate for the US Senate. Darryl Glenn is retired Air Force Lt.. Colonel and an El Paso County Commissioner. After a workout at the fitness center, I had a doctor’s appointment. We had an insurance change, but I am reconnecting with the doctor who admitted me to the hospital when I was first diagnosed with West Nile Virus.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord…” Acts 3:19 HCSB
Peter is the disciple that is “fun” to talk about. He seems brash and one who speaks before he thinks. He makes promises that he can’t keep and makes statements that he doesn’t really understand. However, on the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fills the upper room and empowers the apostles to spread the gospel, it is Peter who becomes the spokesman. This happens on the Day of Pentecost and a little later when the man is healed at the Gate Beautiful.
In both of these events Peter ties what has happened back to the life of Jesus. On the Day of Pentecost he said, “This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did among you through Him, just as you yourselves know. Though He was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail Him to a cross and kill Him.” (Acts 2:22,23 HCSB)
When he addressed the crowd when the lame man was healed he said, “But you denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you. You killed the source of life, whom God raised from the dead; we are witnesses of this. By faith in His name, His name has made this man strong…” (Acts 3:14-16 HCSB)
Peter also ties events back to the prophets and the Old Testament. Speaking to a Jewish audience he quotes from Joel and then the Psalms on the Day of Pentecost. He then quotes from Moses in response to the healing of the lame man to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament declared.
Peter then challenges his listeners to forget and be forgiven for their deeds done in ignorance. I like the idea that he communicates to them, that they can change. This is from one who denied Jesus and was restored. This is one who knew what it was to be proven wrong, yet provided grace and mercy. He extends the same to others through faith in Christ.
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:36 HCSB) “I know that you did it in ignorance, just as your leaders also did. But what God predicted through the mouth of all the prophets—that His Messiah would suffer—He has fulfilled in this way.” (Acts 3:17,18 HCSB)
Peter calls his listeners to faith and a changed life.  “Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…. And with many other words he testified and strongly urged them, saying, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” (Acts 2:38,40 HCSB)
I like the call that says, “there is a better life for you, than the one you are experiencing.” If the world of Peter’s day was corrupt how much more is our world today. The answer is not found in the ideas and philosophy of people, it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. That was Peter’s message 2,000 years ago and it is still true today.
The message was the same to the crowd on Solomon’s porch. “Repent…so your sins will be wiped out…” (Acts 3:19 HCSB)
What happens when people respond? They receive the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit and “times of refreshing” come into their life. Peter lets them know that life as they have experienced it is about to change. We are not forgiven to be the same, we are forgiven to be new. Paul declared it when he said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17 HCSB)
What Peter declared in the first century is good for the 22 century. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the was promised. You may not have understood that, but you can put aside past actions and attitudes and receive by faith forgiveness and life in Christ. The result is a new life through God’s Holy Spirit and a spiritual refreshing in a drought-filled world.