"Men of Israel, hear these words! Jesus the Nazarene was a man recommended to you by God with miracles, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know. This man, who was handed over by God's set plan and foreknowledge, you killed by having lawless men nail him to a cross. He is the one God raised up by freeing him from the agony of death, because death was not able to hold him in its grip.
"Indeed, David says concerning him:
I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart was glad,
and my tongue rejoiced.
My flesh also will rest in hope,
because you will not abandon my life to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life.
You will fill me with joy in your presence.
"Gentlemen, brothers, I can speak confidently to you about the partriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath that he would seat one of his descendants on his throne, he saw what was coming and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, saying that he was neither abandoned ot the grave nor did his flesh see decay.
"This Jesus is the one God has raised up. We are all witnesses of that. So, after he was exalted ot the right hand of God and after he received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father, he poured out what you are now seeing and hearing.
"For David did not ascend into heaven, and yet he says:
The Lord said to my Lord,
'Sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies
a footstool under your feet."
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Now when the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Gentlemen, brothers, what should we do?"
Peter answered them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call."
He testified solemnly with many other words and was appealing to them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added.
Acts 2:22-41
Peter's sermon on Pentecost may be the most succint explanation of who Jesus is.
He makes it clear that Jesus is the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world.
He shows how Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. He makes it clear that he, and all the apostles, were eye witnesses to Jesus' resurrection.
No one in that crowd doubted that Jesus had been crucified and died. Most would have doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead, and he was who he claimed to be- the Son of God.
Peter makes it clear to the crowd that they delivered the Messiah over to the Romans and demanded that he be killed. He also assured them that this was part of God's plan and he had forgiven them.
Many people today are like those Jews at Pentecost. They don't know Jesus. Too many who claim to know Jesus have just made up their own version of who they want Jesus to be, but they don't know the real Jesus. They don't know the Jesus that Peter revealed in Acts 2 to that crowd in Jerusalem at Pentecost. They don't know the Savior of the world as revealed to all humanity in the pages of Holy Scripture. It is only in the pages of the Bible that we can truly come to know Jesus.
Who is Jesus?
He is the Savior of the world.
The Passover Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.
The scapegoat who carries our sins far away never to be seen by God again.
Jesus is the One who loves you so much that he left his heavenly throne to take on human flesh so he could live the perfect life you are incapable of living. Die the death that you deserve. And raise to life to conquer sin and death for you. For all people of all time.
Becaue Jesus lives your sins have been forgiven, washed away. You now have perfect reconciliation with our almighty and loving heavenly Father. When God looks at you he no longer sees the stain and filth of sin. He only sees one of his perfect redeemed children. Washed clean by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. This is the beautiful and loving message Peter delivered to that crowd on Pentecost. It is the beautiful and loving message he continues to deliver every time we read this account in Acts 2.
Jesus died for YOU! YOUR sins are forgiven for Jesus' sake. YOU are a redeemed child of God.
As a result, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we knew Christ according to the flesh, we no longer know him that way. So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. The new has come! And all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, inasmuch as God is making an appeal through us. We urge you, on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him, who did not know sin, to become sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
1 Corinthians 5:16-21
God bless you and keep you.
Jason Fredrick
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