Monday 13 June, 2106

29 “Fellow Israelites, you can be sure that King David died. He was buried. His tomb is still here today. 30 But David was a prophet. He knew that God had made a promise to him. God had promised that he would make someone in David’s family line king after him. 31 David saw what was coming. So he spoke about the Messiah rising from the dead. He said that the Messiah would not be left in the place of the dead. His body wouldn’t rot in the ground. 32 God has raised this same Jesus back to life. We are all witnesses of this. 33 Jesus has been given a place of honor at the right hand of God. He has received the Holy Spirit from the Father. This is what God had promised. It is Jesus who has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 David did not go up to heaven. But he said, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand. 35 I will put your enemies under your control.” ’ (Psalm 110:1) 36 “So be sure of this, all you people of Israel. You nailed Jesus to the cross. But God has made him both Lord and Messiah.”

This passage of scripture is the second part of the message that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. It was the sermon that inaugurated the church.

Peter’s words here are powerfully inspired by the Holy Spirit. He chooses to link a selection of old testament scriptures to Jesus that the audience would have been familiar with. He also boldly convicts them of their role in the crucifixion of Jesus.

I find it helpful to put myself in the place of the hearers of that first message. They probably weren’t the ones who physically nailed Jesus to the cross, but they understood that they had a role in his death.

So do I.

Even though I was born nearly 2000 years after his death, it is my sin, our sin, that held him there on the cross in suffering, anguish and torment.

But, even though I’m responsible for this atrociously unjust act, it is by His sacrifice that I can be made right with God.

Lord, thankyou again for the atrocity and the beauty of The Cross.

Written by Ps. Justin Ware