“But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.”
~Acts 3:14-15~

Peter’s one of these guys where sometimes I really like him and other times I’m like, “Can you dial it back please?” You’re going to offend people. The sermons he gives in the opening few chapters of Acts are awfully accusatory. You this, you that.

But no one stones him. Instead, people were baptized and the number of believers and Christ followers grew. Peter calls out the insanity and crooked thinking. They deny the Holy and Righteous One and ask for a murderer. They kill the Author of life which no power of man can undo. It is God who will have to raise him up and he does.

Then there is more talking about Moses and the prophets. Jesus made such a big deal out of this, and I love now to see these preachers repeating back what they’ve learned. It had to be so overwhelming to the hearers, Jesus had to explain this to them time and time again. It’s too much information to try and cram it all into one sermon.

He talks about a covenant, and again repeats a promise first repeated to Abraham, “And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” But blessed how? I don’t know what I imagined, when you read those Advent Abraham sections. Blessed by being made part of God’s family. Blessed because from him would come a Savior.

But it’s something different here. They’re blessed by being rewarded for their great patience and faithfulness. Actually, no. Jesus comes to these people, to us, to me (dear God…), “to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” Incredible.