Explain it

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

EXPLAIN IT

Acts 2:29-33

29 "Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

NIV

Now Peter explains the words of David and puts Christ right at the center of everything. It seems rather sad that today we are not able to make sure a concise case for Jesus. Peter did not invite these people to his church. Peter did not hope they would notice his lifestyle and ask why he is the way he is. Peter did not show them a bunch of good deeds and hope they would notice and ask what church does he is he a member of. Peter did not do anything, but stand up and explain the gospel to them. He told them to listen carefully to what he was going to say, the he would explain it all to them. Of course they did notice the power of the Holy Spirit being poured out on all the disciples, and they noticed them speaking in languages unknown to the disciples, but known to people all over. Perhaps if we had the power of the Holy spirit pouring all over us, people would notice us too and wonder what was going on. But then we would have to then tell them to listen carefully to us and we could explain it as concise as Peter did. Sure it is a good thing to do good deeds in our community, and yes it is great to invite people to visit our church, but unless they hear that Jesus was killed for them, that he was crucified for their sin, was buried and then rose from that grave to ascend to the right hand of God and that he sent the Holy Spirit to be poured out on them, what good are our deeds, and our invites? Peter explained to them that it was because of them, but also that it was God’s plan all along for Jesus to be their Savior. Yet on the other hand it may not do us any good to try to explain to people about what is happening, unless something is happening. If we are living pretty much the same as they are, what is there to explain? If the only difference between us and them is we attend church on Sunday morning, we have nothing to explain to them, other than we go to church. There are a whole lot of unsaved people who go to church on Sunday morning. Unless something is happening, unless we have the power of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us and we are exhibiting his power in our lives, we may not have anything to explain. Surely there are unsaved people who are watching us simple because we may have told them we are Christians. But if they do not see any power of God in our lives, then they may simply not listen to anything we have to say about Jesus. The point of all this is to see how much we need that power, how much we need the infilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so much that people take notice, and wonder what is happening in those people. Then we can explain it.