Pastor's Ponderings: Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 2:37-41 (August 11, 2025)

August 11, 2025:  Monday Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles 2:37-41

Dear friends, may the Peace which passes all understanding fill your life every day with the joy and love of our Savior Jesus Christ.

When I went out this morning to take the boys to school, there was once again evidence of an extremely light rain during the night on the car's windshield. There were just a few spots on the windshield that were not there yesterday when I drove the car. Please pray for Tricia who will begin her radiation treatments now that she has finished the chemo treatments. She hopes to be done in time to travel later in September. Please pray for our James too. He is home today with acid reflux and throwing up. Also please remember one of James' teachers, Bengie, who had emergency gall bladder surgery last week, and has had to return to the hospital soon after her discharge because she developed complications after the surgery. She hopes to be back in school by this coming Thursday. I want to offer a word of thanks for the thoughtfulness of our Church Council at our meeting yesterday. In all our variety on the council, the unity that we share in Christ is wonderful. It was a great meeting.

There was another place several thousand years ago on the streets of Jerusalem when Jews from greatly diverse places, who spoke a language that was not necessarily of Jewish origin who heard the Good News of Jesus Christ's Resurrection in their homeland's native language. This was the time of the Pentecost event, when the Holy Spirit brought this gift of speaking and hearing with a clarity not heard of in any place before this day. But in the midst of the telling of the Truth of Christ's Gospel, and His suffering and death at the hands of the Jews who were gathered in the city for Passover, a number, quite large for that day actually, through Peter's preaching, came to understand the horror of that mob mentality on the day of the Savior's death on the cross.  However, it was even more powerful when the eyewitnesses, who were filled with the greatest joy imaginable, shared their witness to Christ's Resurrection! This is where we start today's reading from Acts 2:37-41.

In their realization of what has happened, with the witness of the Apostles, many who are hearing Peter are caught up in shame for what they have done. This is the group who comes to be Baptized, to know with confidence, the forgiveness of the Savior, and now commits to their Messiah, to become His followers and faithful ones. We do have to know though, that Jerusalem was filled with doubters, the ones who would do it all again, even with all of the eye witness claims, and later, as least, this would make the work of the Jerusalem mission come to be filled with problems, and worse than that, it would not be very long after the Pentecost before those unbelievers would make the Apostle's mission there fall flat, and in need of the infusion of resources to continue!  (Hence the offerings of the churches in Asia Minor for which Paul would eventually call.)

In today's passage there are some things which we all need to know:

1. Coming to faith during the excited atmosphere of Pentecost would probably mean that many would quickly slip away from that new faith.

2. In this passage we come to understand the power of the Cross. It can and does transform hearts and minds due to the Spirit's in-breaking gift of faith, which is combined with the witness of those who already know the fullness of Christ's Grace and Love for everyone. That metanoia (change) happens when we come to realize our own participation in sin which created, and creates, the need for the Lord to die on that Cross. It is why we need to be together in confession and prayer every week, and I suppose that every day might be better in some ways, so that we can stay in touch with our Savior and His incredible willingness to die for OUR SINS!

3. When sins are confessed before the Savior, the earthly consequences of that sin are rarely undone. We really need to know that for our lives and choices. There is a price to pay which we must always be aware. That consequence is death, and there is only one escape from the judgement of condemnation and separation from God. That escape comes when the Perfect One of God, His Only Son, came to pay the blood price for all sin, and it is only through faith, receiving forgiveness from God through the merit of His Son, that we are set free from the burden and death consequence of our sin. 

4. When sinners repent, the freedom of being saved is strengthened through the Spirit's gift of Faith, and we all come to realize that without this saving Grace of Christ, we are all bound to be separated from God's Grace and Love. This happens because everyone falls short of the Glory of God, and to be right with God our sin must be erased through Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is only through Jesus that the consequences of our past sins, become Christ's burden, and we then are given the burden of Christ's Love and forgiveness, to move into the Freedom of the Spirit's gift of faith which carries us to greater maturity and Love in our relationships in the world, and better yet, in our relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

I will be back with you tomorrow. Tomorrow’s study might be a bit delayed. Melody has jury duty in the morning, so in addition to transporting the boys to school, I will be taking Melody down to Superior Court early in the morning. I still hope to have the study out to you by noon tomorrow.

With Love in Christ, Pastor Kim