Acts 2:21

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

In my effort to stop sucking at reading my the Bible, I was reading the Bible, and these are some thoughts. In the second chapter of Acts you find everyone sitting around praying. I find it interesting that the first thing they do once Jesus has gone is pray. In the lineup they list Mary the mother of Jesus, which is just a strange thing - Honestly, you just watched your son DIE a little over a month ago, then he comes back, hangs out for 40 days, and ascends into heaven. And now she is praying...to...him...

I mean, my mom cried when I went to college...yea...

Anyways, Acts 2 has the famous passage about the Holy Spirit (kind of like the inner monologue voice of God {1 Corth. 2:11), that accomplishes in many ways what He wills by strengthening and empowering people {Acts 4:31}) coming and displaying the gift of tongues. At least 12 but up to 120 people then begin to start talking. In fact they make so much noise that people from the city start to come see whats going on. They get there, and all the different ethnicities all hear their own language.

This kind of makes me think of Annandale High School. I used to love walking down the hall, because there were literally dozens and dozens of different languages and dialects. As of 2006, there were 87 nationalities and 46 languages spoken. So I know the feeling of saying, "Hey! I know that language!"

The interesting thing is that it came to this- Peter preaches a sermon. The context in which he preaches is revolutionary to my understanding of preaching to say the least. In a room FULL of people that are talking about the "mighty works of God," and in front of these Jews that were coming to see, who themselves were "devout men," Peter preaches. What he says, the audience, and the time at which he preaches is (to quote a good friend) "great, thats just great."

He starts off as all good sermons should, "Whooooa whoa whoa, everyone listen up. My friends aren't drunk.Its only 9 in the morning.Here is the Gospel..."

He then off hand starts to quote Joel. Explaining that the Holy Spirit is not a hoax, but has been promised before hand, he then talks about Jesus. He says that David had spoken as to what would happen with him, and that now Jesus (who he makes clear that they knew, and that they watched to miracles, and then that they killed) is now with God.

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

This sermon does what sermons are meant to, the audience is, "cut to the heart" and leaves them asking what they must do. It is worth noting that when the Gospel is preached, people ask questions. If the only way for people to respond is an invitation to come to the front of the church to be prayed for, or to change their lives, or to become a better person, then perhaps the gravity of the situation has been lost. "You are a sinner, and you killed God."

That kind of thing leads to questions.

"Brothers, what shall we do?"

Repent. Be forgiven. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The room is full of people speaking about the works of God (my guess would be that their were personal stories as well as a lot from the Hebrew Scriptures), and to an audience of devout and listening people. Some would say that the work was done. Peter settles for nothing less than the Gospel. That speaks volumes as to what preaching is to be. There is a supremacy to the Gospel. God died. God rose. God lives. We too must look at doing nothing less than these three things through Christ.


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