Acts 2:14-21\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: \u201cFellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.\u00a015\u00a0These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It\u2019s only nine in the morning!\u00a016\u00a0No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17\u00a0\u201c\u2018In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.\u00a0 Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.\u00a0 18\u00a0Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.\u00a0 19\u00a0I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20\u00a0The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>21\u00a0And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord\u00a0will be saved.\u2019<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201c<\/span>Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0Isn\u2019t it grand that the Holy Spirit chose Peter to give the sermon?\u00a0 It warms my heart that He was one who was chosen.\u00a0 Peter, with his big heart and \u201cdo-er\u201d attitude was called out front and center.\u00a0 Peter was the one who when in a crowd would speak up and say what the rest of the crowd wanted to say, but were timid about doing.\u00a0 Before the arrest, torture and death of his beloved Jesus, Peter was bold and was filled with at least as much faith as the rest of them.\u00a0 James and John may have been the \u201cSons of Thunder,\u201d but it was most often Peter who stepped out of the crowd to take the risks.\u00a0 We read in\u00a0Matthew 14:22-33<\/b>\u00a0the account of Jesus walking on the raucous waters of the lake that were worrying the apostles within the boat.\u00a0 All the apostles in the boat were terrified when they saw an unrecognizable image of a man walking on the top of the disturbed waters.\u00a0 They all were terrified until Jesus called out to them identifying Himself.\u00a0 They were all in the boat when Peter said \u201cLord, if it\u2019s you, tell me to come to you on the water.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 Any one of them could have called out to Jesus as Peter did, but they did not, he did.\u00a0 Likely, at least some of his fellow apostles were thinking \u201cPeter, be quiet and sit down before something happens to you!\u201d\u00a0 Others may have just been watching the show.\u00a0 One can just imagine a couple of them looking at each other and thinking the unsaid thought of \u201cThat\u2019s it!\u00a0 Peter has finally gone off the deep end!\u00a0 He\u2019s going to drown!\u201d\u00a0 Jesus told Peter to come to Him.\u00a0 And then, crazy Peter got out of the boat and began walking on water.\u00a0 Those in the crowd missed the grand experience of the miracle of walking on water.\u00a0 That experience was for alone for bold Peter.\u00a0 Just as those of us who never step out to be used, in small and in bold ways, won\u2019t experience the supernatural power of God flowing through them to others.\u00a0 Most will stay with the crowd, won\u2019t rock or step from the boat, and as a result most of us will never \u201cwalk on water.\u201d<\/p>\n Peter also was the one who responded that when everyone else are scattered in fear, Jesus could count on him to not flee but to stay by his side.\u00a0 Peter\u2019s heart was willing to stand strong with the Lord, but he didn\u2019t understand the power of evil that was ahead.\u00a0 Jesus told Peter that on that very night of His arrest Peter would become afraid and disown Jesus three times.\u00a0 In response Peter contradicted Jesus and said that he would never disown Jesus.\u00a0 Yet we know that he did (Matthew 26:31-35<\/b>).<\/p>\n Peter remembered that Jesus had told him that he would deny Him three times and Peter\u2019s heart broke and he ran away broken and crying (Matthew 26:75<\/b>).<\/p>\n After the crucifixion and burial of Jesus, Peter surely punished himself for what he considered a cowardly betrayal of Jesus.\u00a0 All of his hopes he feared were gone.\u00a0 Jesus was dead and Peter had not stood brave with Him. The hopes of Peter were dashed.\u00a0 Then, when Jesus was resurrected and appeared to the disciples He made it a point to restore Peter and let Peter know that Peter was still up front as one whom Jesus would use to continue His ministry on earth (John 21:15-19<\/b>). \u00a0Hope again filled Peter and joy again was his.<\/p>\n So Peter was the one to speak out.\u00a0 The one who declared that though all may fail Jesus, he would not.\u00a0 He was the one who fled in fear and who subsequently cried the horrible, bitter tears of regret.\u00a0 But Jesus had come to Peter and let him know that He still had big plans to use him.\u00a0 Oh the love and grace of God!\u00a0 Peter\u2019s spirit rose from the dungeon of regret to the freedom of again \u201cwalking on water.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus was alive and He still loved Peter and was going to use him.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 So the first evangelistic sermon delivered by the power of the Holy Spirit was through rambunctious Peter and the result of the Holy Spirit working through him was that three thousand souls were snatched off the road to hell and put on the road to heaven.\u00a0 We all have stumbled and fallen.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t all so glad that Jesus always intends to restore us.\u00a0 He is faithful to us.\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 Let us be humble and live in the grace and strength of God.\u00a0 Who knows, perhaps some brisk morning the Holy Spirit will choose us to lead three thousand to Jesus.\u00a0 God is good to us all and He loves us all!\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 He is so wonderful!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 2:14-21\u00a0\u2013\u00a0Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: \u201cFellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.\u00a015\u00a0These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It\u2019s only nine in the morning!\u00a016\u00a0No, this is what was spoken…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,100,2510,94,17],"class_list":["post-1263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-john","tag-mathew","tag-micah","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1264,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1263\/revisions\/1264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}