Can you imagine this scene?
The crowd, astonished at seeing the lame man’s full recovery, pressed Peter for some answers.
Peter obliges—with both barrels.
“Oh. My. TMI, Peter,” the crowd mutters, recoiling from the apostle’s point-blank remarks. “All we wanted to know was what had happened to him” (see Acts 3:10b).
Instead, Peter’s history lesson, peppered with one-two punches, goes back to the time of Abraham. He tells the crowd how they delivered Jesus to the authorities, how they denied the “Holy and Righteous One,” how they “killed the Author of life.”
“Sorry, we asked,” the crowd moaned, slinking back off Solomon’s Portico where they were all gathered.
The truth hurts, but Peter had no intention of leaving them there, twisting in the wind for their sins of involvement. Instead, he says that though the guilty parties acted in ignorance, God’s divine purposes were still accomplished. His ancient prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus’ suffering and dying for their sin—and ours—and it was He “whom God raised from the dead.”
And then Peter speaks of mercy, of recovery, even for those guilty of this—crucifying the Son of God. “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”
Though shell-shocked, here was relief at last for the crowd. At Peter’s words, hopefully they perked up—at least those who stayed to hear the Good News.
Of course, we are guilty, too, aren’t we—and in need of this same Good News? May God’s Spirit move us to repentance and to receiving in faith the forgiveness won for us through Jesus’ blood.
THE PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank You for Jesus and for His servants who spoke the Word boldly. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Paul Schreiber.
Reflection Questions:
1. When was the last time you were given too much information about something?
2. What guaranty did Peter have that the crowd wasn’t going to turn on him for what he said?
3. Are we complicit, two thousand years later, in the evils Peter lists the crowd as doing?