An encouraging word from Acts 2
Biblical Israel Ministries & Tours (BIMT) is all about teaching the Bible in the context of the land of Israel and other biblical countries (Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and Italy). We teach the historical geography of the Bible as well as archaeology, customs and culture of the land. We aim to make connections between the Bible and the land in all that we do.
This is another session in the new series of teaching videos called “Devotions from Israel.” This brief five-minute devotional comes from Acts 2. The setting for this narrative is somewhere in the vicinity of the Temple in Jerusalem.
About the Devotional
I think Peter gets a bum rap in the Bible. Perhaps some of it is warranted since he was the one who denied Jesus three times. Yet Acts 2 is a marvelous passage where Peter’s boldness and resolve can be seen in living color. God used Peter mightily for the kingdom of God.
Following Jesus’ ascension to heaven (Acts 1, Luke 24), the disciples were left with the task of advancing the kingdom. Jesus had trained them to do just this. With the Jewish feast of
Shavuot (Pentecost) upon them, many Jews from other parts of the ancient world were in Jerusalem. This is the context for Peter’s bold proclamation. While tradition places this event at the same place as where the Last Supper took place (i.e., the Upper Room), it seems as though this mentioning of the “house” was rather a reference to the Temple. After all, the Jews commonly used “House” to mean the Temple! Additionally, this was where the masses of Jewish people met, with the majority of them using the
southern steps and
Huldah Gates to enter into the Temple.
I applaud Peter for the courage to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah to such a large number. In part, he shared this, “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 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. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 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. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,“‘The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:29-36).
