Heart Meditations

Scripture- Acts 2:37-41 “Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” ³⁸ And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” ⁴⁰ And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” ⁴¹ So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.”

Observation – What jumped out at me this morning was this section.

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.³⁹ For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Application- Peter gives this reply to the people who have just realised for the first time who Jesus really is and that they have killed the Christ and the Lord.  This is perhaps the worse sin you can possible commit, murdering God!  But the crazy thing is that even though they are guilty of this terrible sin Peter assures them that if the repent and are baptised, God will forgive their sins and give them the Holy Spirit.

Now I know as Christians we all  say and believe that it was our sins that nailed just to the cross, but if we are honest most of us don’t actually feel like we would have been a part of that mob screaming for Jesus to be lynched.  Imagine yourself being a part of a protest group in your city who are angry at the fact that a man who has admitted raping and killing young children has been acquitted on a technicality.  A few off duty police have this man under Citizens arrest and are marching him towards the town hall to the mayor’s office to demand justice.  You are angry you are frustrated.  Perhaps in this situation you can imagine yourself calling the criminal a few names, perhaps spitting at him.  Maybe if someone close to you has experienced sexual violence you might even punch him a couple of times.   But how many of us can really imagine being a part of this mob and shouting for this person to be publicly executed?!  How many of us would continue to stand and jeer as this man, though guilty of terrible crimes, was whipped, stripped, nailed and hosted?  Though he was guilty, we would be shocked if a mob used such violence against this person, we would say that his human rights have been violated, that the rule of law has been overthrown etc.  If I can’t imagine doing this to a guilty person, I know I am not able to fathom doing this to an innocent person who spent his life helping the poor, the sick and the marginalised.

What would we have done if, before her death, Mother Theresa had been arrested by a mob, stripped, whipped and publicly executed?!  We would want those people arrested and given at least whole life sentences. some us may even consider bringing back the death penalty in such a case.

So it is absolutely baffling to me the Peter, inspired by the Spirit would say, that this promise of the Holy Spirit was for Christ killers and their children!  These are the very people who, when Pilate washed his hands so as not to be implicated in the death of Jesus, said ‘His blood be on us and on our children’ (Matt 27:25).  Yet rather than the guilt for killing Jesus God gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Who would have thought that 3000 of those who screamed for Jesus crucification 50 days later would be baptised into His death?

This all goes to show me that 1) The grace of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit is truly for everyone and anyone no matter what you have done.  2)  Even the most violently opposed to Jesus may only be 50 days away from believing, being baptised and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Prayer – Father there is such hope and power in the grace of Jesus.  Lord help me to have a true conception of my sin and guilt, help me not only in theory but in my heart to recognise that I am no better than those who screamed for your blood to be on them and on their children.  Lord help me also to realise that it was for people like me that your forgiveness and your Spirit is for.  Give me your Holy Spirit today, fill me with the Holy Spirit in pentecost power.  Increase my faith so that I might believe that we are only ever 50 days away from revival.  Help me to be more prayerfully optimistic about the state of your church in the UK.  Lord they may be secular but they aren’t lynching Christians!  Send your Spirit on this land and on your church.  May we again see 3000 turning to you in a day.

Amen