Monday
Monday
Peter’s Second Sermon
Peter … said to them: “… The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.”
Acts 3:12–13
Astonished by the healing of the cripple, which they had witnessed, a crowd assembled in one of the temple cloisters. Peter seized the opportunity to preach. Just as the Pentecost event had been the text for his first sermon, so the healing of the cripple became the text for his second. Both were mighty acts of the exalted Christ. Both were signs that proclaimed him Lord and Savior. Both aroused the crowd’s amazement.
Peter began by ascribing all the credit to Jesus. He went on to declare with outspoken courage that they had disowned him (by killing him) but God had vindicated him (by raising him).
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Peter’s sermon is its Christ-centeredness. He directed the crowd’s attention away from both the healed cripple and the apostles themselves to the resurrected and exalted Christ. In his testimony to Jesus, he attributed to him a cluster of significant titles, beginning with “Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (v. 6) and continuing with “[God’s] servant” (v. 13), “the Holy and Righteous One” (v. 14), “the author of life” (v. 15), and “the prophet like [Moses]” (v. 22). Next, Peter calls on the crowd to repent so that they may inherit the blessings of repentance—especially forgiveness and refreshment until Christ comes to consummate all things. These Christ-centered promises were already foreshadowed in the Old Testament, and Peter mentioned some of them. It is impressive that he regards the many and varied strands of Old Testament prophecy as a united testimony.
This comprehensive witness to Jesus as rejected by men but vindicated by God, as the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy, as demanding repentance and promising blessing, and as the author and giver of life, physically to the healed cripple and spiritually to all those who believe, aroused the indignation and antagonism of the authorities. The devil cannot endure the exaltation of Jesus Christ. So he stirred up the Sanhedrin to persecute the apostles.
For further reading: Acts 3:11–26