Today, I am reading and commenting on  Acts 1-3.

I want to start with something from the account of what happened at Pentecost, or perhaps a couple of somethings.  The first part was the sound which was the first thing that happened which made that day unique from other times when Jesus’ followers had gathered since His ascension.  The sound of a violent wind is what drew the crowd to which Peter preached.  The second thing is that Luke writes that “each one heard their own language being spoken.”  He does not write that Jesus’ followers spoke in those languages.  Rather, the people heard their own language.  Each of the people heard what they were saying in their own language.  When the Holy Spirit came upon this gathering of Believers, He did not cause them to speak in various languages.  He caused the people listening to hear them in their own language.  It seems likely that the disciples would not have realized that anything unusual was going on in their speech if the crowd had not brought it to their attention.

Which brings me to the two sermons Peter preached in today’s passage.  One on the day of Pentecost, to the crowd which gathered to see what had caused the sound of a violent wind (when, apparently there was no wind).  The other at the temple after he and John had healed a man who had been lame since birth.  In the first, after using Scripture to explain what was going on, Peter told the crowd that it was all about Jesus, whom they had crucified.  He very explicitly held them responsible for Jesus being crucified.  Then at the temple, Peter once again told the crowd that they were responsible for Jesus’ death.  That they had killed Him.  He did not candy coat it, or try to avoid offending them.  Now, we can easily take the wrong point from this.  The point is not that we need to be brutally honest with people, or that we must speak with a total disregard for whether we offend our listeners, although there are times when that is indeed the case.  No, the point here is that we need to acknowledge that we are responsible for Christ’s death.  Our actions led to His crucifixion.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.