November 11, 2010 (Acts 1-10)

I love the book of Acts. It talks of how the early church was formed, as well as describes the boldness of the disciples. Chapter 2 is Peter and the apostles addressing the crowd after the Holy Spirit came and allowed all the different nationalities of people to hear the apostles speak in their native languages. The scoffers said they were drunk, so Peter addressed the crowd. The first 'funny' thing to me was that he said, "It's much too early for that. People don't get drunk by nine o'clock in the morning." So I'm glad that happened in the morning - otherwise, if it would have happened in the evening, there would have not been such a convincing rebuttal for being drunk. But the main thing I got out of this section was that during his explanation of what happened, he referenced scripture and prophecy three times. He also minced no words as shown below in his closing statement. Nothing like pointing the finger at them!

³⁶ “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!”

Peter's words convicted them, and they asked, "What should we do?" - And Peter's answer would have been the same today:

³⁸ Peter replied, “Each of you must turn from your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is to you, and to your children, and even to the Gentiles—all who have been called by the Lord our God.” ⁴⁰ Then Peter continued preaching for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners, “Save yourselves from this generation that has gone astray!”

And what was the result? An astounding amount of new believers who were devoted.

⁴¹ Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.

⁴² All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer.

Then Peter healed a man who was lame from birth. And as the people stood there in awe of what had just happened, I loved Peter's response:

¹² Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “People of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why stare at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or godliness? ¹³ For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the God of all our ancestors—who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s decision to release him. ¹⁴ You rejected this holy, righteous one and instead demanded the release of a murderer. ¹⁵ You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. And we are witnesses of this fact!

¹⁶ “Through faith in the name of Jesus, this man was healed—and you know how crippled he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name has healed him before your very eyes.

I'll end with one of my favorite passages in the Bible:

^4:13 The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

I'd love to be recognized as a woman who has been with Jesus.