Acts 2:36-39: Acts of Forgiveness

Acts 2 is quite a dramatic chapter in the Bible and parts of it read like a suspense-filled thriller movie. Acts 2 speaks about an appearance of the Holy Spirit after Jesus has returned from the dead. It shows the power and authority of God to all who are present. The signs in this chapter show that Jesus is King; Jesus is God and as Peter speaks to them, the people realize that Jesus is the Christ and they understand, Verse 36, that they have killed the Christ, the one they have been waiting for to save them. They have killed him.

These people now standing in front of Peter are like repentant children in front of the school principal, realizing that they’ve done something terribly wrong. They realize that Jesus is the Christ and they realize that they’ve killed him. We’ve killed him and now Jesus is back from the dead. If we didn’t know the ending and for those present who don’t, it could be like a 1970s horror movie. You wrongfully kill someone and they come back from the dead to set things right! That is what Jesus did. The people in our text today are hoping against hope to somehow make it right with this Jesus whom they have killed and who has now returned from the dead. Verse 37, “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Peter says, Verse 38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Now this is significant. Jesus is ushering in the Kingdom of God. And what does this Kingdom look like? It is a Kingdom of forgiveness. It is a Kingdom –like the Lord’s Prayer says - where we forgive those who do things against us and God forgives us what we have done – even our sending God’s own son to die on the cross. This is what it looks like when we are a part of God’s Kingdom; this is what it looks like when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Christ has already forgiven us everything. As we accept the forgiveness, as we repent and as we forgive others, we will be forgiven and we will be a part of his Kingdom of Forgiveness.

Questions for today: Is it evident in our lives that we are a part of God’s eternal Kingdom of Forgiveness? Do we forgive others as Christ has forgiven us?

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