{"id":1309,"date":"2018-11-20T06:34:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2018-11-20T06:34:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T14:34:31","slug":"devotion-acts-236-41-the-truth-saves-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1309","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Acts 2:36-41 The Truth Saves Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Acts 2:36-41\u00a0<\/b>\u2013\u00a0\u201cTherefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord\u00a0and Messiah.\u201d 37\u00a0When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, \u201cBrothers, what shall we do?\u201d 38\u00a0Peter replied, \u201cRepent and be baptized,\u00a0every 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.<\/i><\/span>\u00a039\u00a0The promise is for you and your children\u00a0and for all who are far off\u2014for all whom the Lord our God will call.\u201d 40\u00a0With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, \u201cSave yourselves from this corrupt generation.\u201d41\u00a0Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number\u00a0that day.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord\u00a0and Messiah.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 Peter had preached from scripture.\u00a0\u00a0 He did not speak to the people solely from his own experience, but from the Word of God, their Word of God.\u00a0 He had shown them, through their own scriptures, how Jesus was indeed the Messiah whom the scriptures had prophesied was coming.\u00a0 He had tied the scriptures to Jesus.\u00a0 He had shown and led them to the inescapable truth that the Messiah they had been waiting for was Jesus the Messiah.\u00a0 Some, if not many of those present, were likely present when the crucifixion of Jesus was demanded.\u00a0 Certainly, all those present were aware of who Jesus was and that He was crucified because of His claim to be the Son of God (Luke 22:67-71<\/b>).\u00a0 They had judged that He was lying and blaspheming because He said He was the Son of God, which meant that He was saying He was God (John 10:33<\/b>).\u00a0 Some of the crowd at Pentecost may have been those who made the decision to crucify Jesus and others may been guilty of being complicit in the death of Jesus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Peter had preached the Word to them, as he was led by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 How and why Peter had preached should always be the \u201chow\u201d and the \u201cwhy\u201d when preachers of today preach.\u00a0 Peter used the Word of God and his own personal testimony.\u00a0 He said that the things he was saying are verified by the Word of God and that he has been a witness to the truth and power of God.\u00a0 It is what all legitimate preachers and teachers attempt to do.\u00a0 Preachers release the living Word of God and it will pierce to the core of a person dividing even to the soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12<\/b>).\u00a0 When the soul and spirit have been pierced by the Word, and the one who is preaching bears witness to the Word by one\u2019s own belief and testimony, people are enabled by God to be able to repent so that their hearts are humbled and they come to Jesus for salvation (Romans 10:14<\/b>). The principle of leading with the Word and witnessing one\u2019s personal belief as Peter did is still foundational. \u00a0Of course the \u201cwhy\u201d is because all who love the Lord will obey the Lord (John 14:15<\/b>) and He has called us to share the Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20<\/b>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, \u201cBrothers, what shall we do?\u2019\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 God gave His Word to reveal Himself to us, to reveal to us who we are, and to guide us on the pathway He has for people as a whole and also for people as individuals.\u00a0 We see Peter used the scripture to reveal God the Son as the Messiah.\u00a0 He also showed the Jews that although they were physical sons of Abraham, they were in need of their Messiah and that the One they had been waiting for they (collectively) had crucified.\u00a0 Now He is about to tell them how to get back on the right path that God has for them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Family and Friends, should we condemn the Jews.\u00a0 No!\u00a0 By no means!\u00a0 For our sins are what Jesus came to pay the price for as much as for the Jews.\u00a0 We are as guilty as any other.\u00a0 We cannot read the Bible in full without knowing God\u2019s great love for the Jewish people.\u00a0 God\u2019s promise to Abraham is not gone because of their sin, for even the sin of killing Jesus is forgivable through the blood of Jesus.\u00a0 Such is the love of God.\u00a0 God remains faithful to the descendants of Abraham because God is faithful even when humankind is not (2 Timothy 2:13<\/b>).\u00a0 If that were not so, if the grace of God through Jesus does not also cover the sins of the Jews, then it also does not cover any of the rest of us.\u00a0 Praise God that He brings salvation to everyone, including, as His Word states,\u00a0\u201cfirst to the Jew, then to the Gentile.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0(Romans 1:16<\/b>) People read the Word, God still has great plans for the Jews!\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 The loyalty of God to the Jew is encouragement to all of us!<\/span><\/p>\n

The Jews present heard the truth that Peter preached.\u00a0 Three thousand were saved that day (Acts 2:41<\/b>).\u00a0 These three thousand heard the truth and God saved them.\u00a0 It happened to them as it does for all.\u00a0 We hear the Word of God and the Holy Spirit brings us alive through it.\u00a0 God uses still uses men to continue the work of Jesus just as He used Peter.\u00a0 So let us, like Peter, share the life that God has place in us and the Holy Spirit will call all that belong to God.\u00a0\u00a0 Praise God for all of us whom the Spirit has called.\u00a0 Let us continue to do what Jesus has called us to do that all the Brothers and Sisters who are called by God may come.\u00a0 Let us be faithful as the reborn Peter was faithful.\u00a0 Praise our God who allows us to work for Him.\u00a0 Praise God!<\/span><\/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 2:36-41\u00a0\u2013\u00a0\u201cTherefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord\u00a0and Messiah.\u201d 37\u00a0When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, \u201cBrothers, what shall we do?\u201d 38\u00a0Peter replied, \u201cRepent and be baptized,\u00a0every one of you, in the…<\/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":[82,104,100,106,101,94,17,10,2036],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-hebrews","tag-john","tag-luke","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans","tag-timothy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309","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=1309"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1310,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1309\/revisions\/1310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}