Ripple Effect part dos

Acts 3:11-26

It started with one act. What if the beggar hadn't chosen to go to the Temple Gate? What if Peter and John hadn't gone to the Temple to pray? Or what if they had simply gone alone? Maybe the wouldn't of had the same confidence on a solo trip. The domino had lined themselves up, and now Peter is about to knock them over to start quite the ripple effect!

In the translation I am reading (New Living Translation), it says Peter saw an opportunity and took it. How awesome it that! He's healed this guy and now the people are all around him staring at what just happened. He's got himself a crowd. He could've bolted out of there. He could've just kept going in hoping his acts had done enough. But to Peter, he saw an opportunity. How I wish I would respond like Peter when I saw opportunities like he did.

Then he tips over the first domino...

He lays into this crowd. You might say he give them the "business" or maybe even a spiritual kick in the pants. I think it's important to note here what Peter says and why. He's calling them out for not seeing exactly who Christ was. He is using quotes from the OT and he refers to characters from Jewish history. Peter is a Jew that know Christ is the messiah. He is speaking to a group of Jews trying to convince them of that same fact. His words and speech reflect that.

In the same way, I know it's important to know the audience your are speaking to. This same speech would mean almost nothing to a group of Gentiles. What would they care about Isaac or Jacob? What would they care about prophets telling of a Messiah? This was a catered speech to a specific audience. I'm sure given the opportunity, Peter would've said a different speech to a group of non-Jews.

In the end though, this is all about Christ. Sure Peter healed a man to the naked eye, but really wasn't this all God doing the work? In his speech, Peter make special attention to the fact that specifically this is the work of Jesus Christ. God healed the crippled. God spoke to the Jews. God awakened their hearts. God convicted the priests.

I love this part of the story because I love Peter's boldness. He was ready to unload this speech. He saw the opportunity and took it. My hope is to have this same boldness. This same spirit to jump at opportunities and make the most of them bodly. This was just the beginning of the dominos that were about to fall...

Wayne Gretsky once said, "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take". I don't want to miss.