Pierced: I didn’t mean to

Pierced (vs. 37) “Really, I didn’t mean to do that.” Doing or saying something that comes across differently than we meant it pierces us. It could have been an accident or maybe, like me, you didn’t think things through before doing it and the results were not what you expected. Ouch. I really didn’t mean it. We are pierced, cut to the core.

When those gathered in Jerusalem heard the wonders of God explained and their wrongs pointed out to them from Peter’s previous sermon. They were pierced to the heart—a cutting pain to the center of their being. They had screwed up. They begged, “What must we do?” They wanted to correct it, to somehow make it right.

Penance (vs. 38) How do you desire people to respond when they hurt you? A wordy apology isn’t enough without a sincere seeking to change a behavior. An “I’m sorry I got caught” doesn’t cut it. But a true turning around, repentant sorrow is desirable. Peter calls for this kind of repentance, a change of behavior, a seeking forgiveness of sins.

Purify (vs. 38) Miriam Webster defines baptize as “to purify or cleanse spiritually esp. by a purging experience or ordeal.” Relationally, we are to seek spiritual cleansing in Jesus’ name, becoming a Christ Follower, a believer. The water baptism is only a picture of what has taken place on the inside relationally with Jesus.

Promise (vs. 38-39) God gives us a promise when we respond to our piercing with penance and purification—believing him for salvation. The promise is the Holy Spirit (Ep. 1:13) We are marked by God with the Holy Spirit, and it is a down payment of the future eternal life in the presence of God. The promise is for any who will believe.

Picked (vs. 39) This promise is for “as many as the Lord our God will call.”

If one has a personal relationship with Jesus, it is because God chose them. He first showed his love toward them, drew them unto himself using any number of means—his word lived out, spoken out by his people. Believers are picked.

Picking (vs. 40) This promise is for those that chose to believe. If one has a relationship with Jesus it is because they chose to believe. Like a coin with two sides, on one side we are picked and on the other we pick. Peter understood this duality. In the same breath that he said “God will call” he begged “strongly urged them, saying, ‘Be saved from this corrupt generation!’”

A two-fold question applies. Have we been pierced, picked the promise through penance and purification? If so, are we sharing God’s wonders with the same fervency as Peter, being used by God to pierce and bring promise to others? It’s as simple as telling about the last God moment you had.

Blessings,