Devotionary

The death of Jesus was not a setback or an unexpected glitch in God’s eternal plan, but the main point and the essential outcome that God had preordained.

God was doing something new and it would all culminate one day with His Son’s second coming and the final judgment of the world and all who live in it.

God’s presence is powerful and palpable. It’s impossible to ignore. So, when the Spirit of God showed up at Pentecost, it was spectacular and memorable. There were flames of fire. There were Galilean disciples speaking in foreign tongues. There was the ear-splitting sound of rushing wind. And those in attendance were left bewildered, amazed and perplexed.

The events described by Luke in Acts 2:1-4, are extraordinary and certainly not what the disciples had been anticipating. What was going to happen remained a mystery to them.

In Acts 1:12-14, we will find the disciples faithfully watching and praying, not knowing what was going to happen, but willing to wait nonetheless.

While Jesus returned to heaven, the disciples were going to remain behind and continue His ministry of calling others into His heavenly kingdom through acceptance of God’s gracious gift of salvation made possible through Jesus' death and resurrection..

We are about to discover our rich heritage as followers of Christ and get a much-needed reminder of who we are and the nature of the promise we have received from Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit.

What we find recorded in the pages of the book of Acts is nothing less than miraculous, a series of events that turned the world upside down as the gospel turned sinners into saints and the Holy Spirit empowered ordinary men and women to do extraordinary things for God.

The greater question for Peter was whether or not the people of God would be ready when Jesus DID return. Would they be growing in Christ-likeness? Would they be fulfilling the great commission and sharing the gospel with anyone and everyone they met?

Rather than worrying about when Jesus was going to return, Peter wanted his readers to concern themselves with what they would look like when He did.

Peter goes out of his way to remind his readers that God’s Word can be trusted. We don’t judge the veracity of God’s word based on what we see, but on what He has said.

More than anything else, Peter wants us to recognize them as what they are and to recognize the danger inherent in their teaching, so that we might avoid them at all costs.

These men are nothing more than liars, with an agenda that is selfish, not selfless. They could care less for the church or those who belong to it. Their focus was on their own well-being and their false messages were designed to pad their own wallets and reputations.

The lies of the enemy make all the sense in the world. But that’s the point, they only make sense IN this world. They can’t hold up to the future judgement of God and the world to come. But God’s Word is everlasting. The righteous hold on to it, and place their faith in it.

Peter is going to begin a diatribe against any and all who attempt to deceive the people of God with clever-sounding, ear-tickling truth claims that are nothing more than the lies of the enemy disguised with piety and religious rhetoric.