“Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36)

This week’s Old Testament reading from Proverbs extols wisdom as one of the essential traits manifested by the Lord God Almighty. And the Lord imparts wisdom to His children by means of the infilling of His Holy Spirit as we see on Pentecost. On that day the wisdom of God gave the Apostle Peter the ability to preach a sermon, to proclaim the gospel. This was a miracle as much as the speaking in tongues, for Peter was not a man used to speaking in public. As a fisherman, he probably could speak about his trade as most people can but apparently had no experience with speaking in front of thousands. And yet the Holy Spirit gave him the strength to speak boldly and the wisdom to proclaim the truth.

The sermon contains the basic facts of Jesus ministry, death and resurrection. These were enhanced by an appeal to the witness of the Old Testament, the Scriptures, in this case King David, and the eyewitness testimony of the apostles as well as those people who were there listening to him. The important idea that Peter wanted to convey to those listeners was that now is the day of salvation made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus, the very man that the Jews condemned and rejected several weeks earlier. Peter let them know that Jesus has risen from the dead and that He was no ordinary man, but He is Lord, that is Yahweh, as well as the promised Messiah.

Peter called his audience to acknowledge their sins, to repent and be baptized, to openly declare their faith in Jesus. Faith imparts forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit guarantees entrance into the Kingdom of God in the fellowship of the new community of God, the church. All who are granted such faith are rooted in this fellowship with all other believers. Love and faith need the fellowship of the church in order to develop and function as God intends. If indeed we are wise we will not neglect church fellowship it to follow the desires of the world and the flesh.