How Could Peter Say That?

Acts 2: 14a, 22-36

June 2 & 3, 2007

What a change in Peter, how did this happen?

The Holy Spirit came as Christ promised, giving strength, giving courage and reminding what Jesus had taught him. Filled with the Spirit, Peter preaches that the Messiah has come, that you killed Him, and that God raised Him from the dead.

The Messiah’s work is complete. He gives forgiveness of sins, and salvation to you.

This is true for us today as well.

The Lord has come. He is Jesus of Nazareth.

We killed him, yes, us, you and me. It was our sin, that did it. God calls us to repentance and forgiveness. All this offered through the work of Jesus. We are very much like Peter shearers.

We are similar in another way, as well. His hearers had a scriptural world view for them God set the rules absolutely. God’s law was absolute. God set truth and error, right and wrong, and His Word is truth.

This all set the stage for Peter’s words. His hearers, knew about the Christ, and were familiar with God’s Word and His prophets. So when Peter spoke these words the same spirit who empowered him gave power to his words and connected them to the words God gave the prophets. This was key to the effect of Peter’s preaching, the conversion of thousands.

And here again it connects to us in very important ways. In one way this text applies to us in the same way as to Peter and his hearers and in one way things are very different today.

The same Holy Spirit has been sent to us. He came in Holy Baptism. He comes when we read and study the Bible. He is in us creating, sustaining and feeding faith. He promises to remind us all that we have learned from His Word.

Trusting the spirit we can speak up as Peter did. So our source of strength, of faith and of words is the same as Peter’s, but the world to which we speak is very different than the people there in Jerusalem.

Today we cannot count on it that people recognize the Bible or the Bible’s God is having any authority. They have their own forms of spirituality. They judge the reliability of the Bible rather than being judged by its laws. They choose what to believe, or they tell the Bible, what it must mean or really says.

All this combines to give us a task much more like Paul preaching to the Gentiles than Peter speaking to the Jews. The church today must work to reestablish the foundations of truth, to reestablish the triune God as the creator and ruler of the universe, to reestablish His word, the Bible, as absolute and authoritative from the very first verse. Then the law and the Gospel will have their God-given authority and power.

Then the seeds sown by words the Spirit called to our remembrance will fall on ground He prepared with the power of His Word.

What is at stake here is the delivery of the promise God made to you and to your children, to your hearers and to their children; the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now may the Holy Spirit strengthen you and your faith through the Word of God, may He give you courage to speak up for the truth and authority of that Word, may He give you the peace that passes all understanding and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus on to life everlasting.

Amen.

SDG