Emboldened

“Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd…”  Acts 2:14

As soon as the Holy Spirit came to believers at Pentecost, there was a marked change in the eleven apostles. It began as Peter stood and preached the gospel to those in Jerusalem. He ended his sermon with an astounding statement: “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah”(Acts 2:36). Hey everyone, that teacher that you just had killed? Yes, He is the Lord and the Messiah. The result of that message was the birth of the early Church—3,000 were saved that day.

The power that Peter spoke with was not his own, but rather given to him through the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit, he became emboldened to preach the truth. Read his sermon in Acts 2 and you’ll see the first post-resurrection account of the gospel. Peter brilliantly ties in the Old Testament prophecies of the messiah and plainly states that Jesus Christ fulfilled them. With just a few words of difference it is exactly the same message that we preach today.

That same Holy Spirit lives in each believer today. And what shall we preach to our generation? In Acts 2:40, we read, “With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’”How amazing that 2,000 years ago Peter himself preached a message that is perfectly at home in our lives today. Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.

Do we as believers today have the courage to preach it? Often we see the Church weaving herself in and out of the culture, trying to be cool, looking for the magnet of attraction that will draw the eye of our media-savvy friends and families. Perhaps we should instead be emboldened, reminded by the Holy Spirit inside us to preach the gospel, and to warn our neighbors that our generation is corrupt, unjust, godless, and we are in need of a Savior. As you flavor your conversations with your faith this week, let your sentences be bold with the mention of the Jesus Who saved you from your sins.

God, thank You for saving me. Give me opportunities this week to share my faith with others. Let conversations naturally lead to the ideas and actions of faith in Jesus. May the Holy Spirit make me bold in my speech, and give me confidence in the gospel as Peter had in Acts 2. Help me to keep my mind on the gospel, and to share it at every opportunity. In Jesus’ name, amen.