The Book of Acts

Peter Preaches

Acts 2:14-41 _NLT

 “Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, ‘Listen carefully...’”. - Acts 2:14a

            This is Peter, the brash, unstable leader whose boastful swagger was many times his downfall. This is Peter, who denied ever knowing Christ when push came to shove. This is Peter, a forgiven and restored man, a man who had been humbled by God’s Spirit and infilled with boldness on the day of Pentecost. By all appearances he had learned what Jesus had been trying to teach each one of the disciples. Be humble, be submissive to the Spirit, but be bold in their presentation of the gospel.         

                  Peter told the people to believe the Old Testament prophecies regarding the coming Messiah, stating that Jesus Christ fulfilled each and every prophecy foretold in scripture in their entirety. He emphasized that Jesus was indeed both Lord and Messiah and because he rose from the dead he could change their lives.

                  Peter was straight forward in saying “Brothers, what should we do?” “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God...”. He urged them all to “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

That is the wonderful thing about the gospel message. What was true back then is still true today. There is much evil in this world, spawned by the devil as he manipulates unsuspecting individuals as pawns in his satanic game as a means of countering God’s mercy. The enemy may make small inroads into humanity, but he will lose in the end. As a matter of fact he has already lost. He is just flailing about trying to be a disruptive force for evil in this corrupt and bankrupt world.

                  This was the first time, to the best of our knowledge, that Peter preached publicly regarding Jesus while under the power of the newly indwelt Holy Spirit. There was a very large crowd present to hear what Peter had to say. The Bible states that “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day - about 3,000 in all.”(Acts 2:41 NLT) This was the start of Peter’s ministry. He would have a great impact for the Lord in helping to build up God’s kingdom.

                  Until next time, walk with the King and be a blessing.

In His Name & for His Glory,

Richard Keller

Bread of Life Ministries

Resource: The Life Application Study Bible, footnotes; http://bibleview.org/en/bible/actspartone/peter1stsermon/.