Acts 2:22-24 (NIV)
“Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.”
The gospel message that Peter preached begins very simply. In fact, the central facts are so simple and basic that any normal person, even a child, can understand them.
Fact 1: Jesus came from God, and He proved that He came from God by the miracles, wonders and signs that were done through Him by God, miracles of a kind and quantity that had never been done by anyone before. These miracles were witnessed by people all over the country. (In fact, many of those listening to Peter had seen them with their own eyes.)
Fact 2: Jesus was handed over by His own people to “those without the law,” that is the gentiles, specifically the Roman governor. This was part of God’s plan, and was foretold over centuries through the prophets, although the vast majority of the people didn’t understand the prophesies, even the religious leaders.
Fact 3: Jesus was put to death by being nailed to a cross, a uniquely gentile, specifically Roman, method of execution. But again, this had all been foretold in amazing, and sometimes gruesome, detail in the Scriptures.
Fact 4: God raised Jesus from the dead, giving Him complete victory over death. Again, as we will see, this was clearly foretold in words of Scripture written nearly a thousand years before Jesus’ birth.
All these facts were incontrovertible, resting solidly on the testimony of many, many reliable eyewitnesses. And Peter is using these facts, one by one, to build a bullet-proof case that Jesus was and is the promised and long-awaited Messiah.
Father, we often believe that the gospel is complicated, so much so that we need theologians to adequately discuss it, understand it, and explain it to us. But, as was shown here, the gospel is very simple, built on eyewitness-supported historical facts that aren’t over anyone’s head. Help me to internalize these simple facts into my own heart, so that I can easily explain the wonders of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to everyone around me. Amen.
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