LifeLink Devotions for Thursday, March 21, 2024

When Peter stood up to preach the first sermon ever delivered under the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, he became the first Gospel evangelist, and his sermon was very simple. It presented to the people the truth that Jesus is both Lord and Messiah based on His death and resurrection.

In these days leading up to Easter and beyond, we are going to look at some of the various New Testament passages on the cross and resurrection, and discover some wonderful truths about God’s indescribable gift of salvation to us. For today, let’s look at one thing from Peter’s sermon in Acts chapter two.

Acts 2:22-24 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”

Peter tells the people that they know who Jesus is because God accredited Him to them by the miracles, wonders, and signs God performed through Him. Jesus was affirmed as the Son of God by the supernatural work of God in His life, and these unsaved people to whom Peter was preaching knew it. They had not yet placed their faith in Him, but in their heads they knew who Jesus was. I find that to be all too true in our world today – people who have head knowledge of the truth, but it has not yet penetrated their heart. They will admit that they know the truth about Jesus, and have seen His work in the lives of His followers, but they deny any need to surrender their own life to Him.

There is one part of a sentence in the last paragraph that should jump out at us with conviction. It is this – “and have seen His work in the lives of His followers.” They may have heard about Jesus, but have they really seen the resurrection power of Jesus at work in the lives of His followers? What a challenge this is to us. Is God continuing to accredit the reality of Jesus to a lost world through His powerful work in us as believers? Oh, we may not all be gifted to do miracles and signs and wonders, but we are all gifted with the Holy Spirit who produces the character of Christ in our lives so that the fruit of the Spirit is visible. When love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control rule our lives, God is affirming the reality of Jesus Christ to a world that does not know Him.

In Ephesians 1, 18-20, Paul the Apostle says, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.” The same power that God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead is the power that He exerts in us when He raises us from spiritual death to new life in Christ. You see, God is still accrediting Christ to the world through the miracle of a transformed life. How are we doing at showing it and living it? 

Pastor John