Bill wrote:... read Peter's sermon in Acts 2, asking yourself
what prompted his hearers' question: "What shall we do?" (v37)
DM > It appears to me that they were convicted
of their sin of having crucified Jesus.
BT > The call to repentance, then, was a call for them to
change their minds about the person of Jesus. In other words, it was a call to
belief in him as their LORD and
Christ.
DM > Peter got a little personal.
He said, "God hath made that same Jesus, whom YE have crucified, both Lord
and Christ."
BT > Exactly, prior to that point they did not
believe Jesus was who he claimed to be. They would not have crucified him if
they had believed he were those things. IF they were now to realign
themselves with truth, they would have to change their beliefs concerning who he
was. . .
. . . which brings us to the main point of Peter's
sermon. Please consider this with me: the Hebrew
speaking Jews present that day would have heard Peter saying to them that
"Elohim hath made that same Yeshua . . . both Yahweh and Messiah." Does this
mean that God made Jesus divine? No, it means that Elohim -- a plural noun;
hence it being a triune decision -- made Yeshua the one whom the
Jews had been worshiping throughout their history as a people.
Peter is saying to them that the one whom they had nailed to the cross was the
very covenant-keeping YHWH of their fathers. Hence they were cut to the heart
and feared greatly. What must they do? they asked. They must change their minds
about this Jesus and be baptized (in his name no less!) into
the forgiveness of sins, whereupon they would receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit.
To shift the emphasis from this to a general call to turn from sin, which
is what most preaching on repentance entails, is to miss the thrust of Peter's
sermon: that this Jesus whom they had crucified was in fact their LORD and Christ; it is therefore to miss the
primary aspect of repentance -- that they believe in this Yahweh who saves
-- and to make that which is now but a subsidiary, although an important
one, the main point, thus changing the thrust of the
Gospel.
Bill
