Acts 2:14,22-32: As Your Yourselves Know, But Don't Care

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. - Acts 2:14,22-32

 When will we accept that we were on the wrong side? Part of repentance is accepting that so much of my life consisted in patterns that were diametrically opposed to the God-centered life that God wants us to live. Repentance isn't about trying to explain the multitude of reasons why we ended up in a bad place vis-a-vis our relationship with God, but to admit that the final position, against God is a place we should never end up.

There were lots of reasons people were opposed to Jesus. Jesus was kryptonite; associate with him and you are pariah from the community of upstanding people. Jesus was full of himself, claiming status and authority that belonged to God alone. Jesus put himself above the words of God in the Torah. Jesus was a convicted criminal. Jesus brought the wrath of Rome down on good citizens. Jesus was radical but the type of radical that didn't really do anything. 

But it was exactly in the blast radius of Jesus' culture bomb that you need to stand to chemo-therapy the self that is the cancer of our souls. Trying to identify those portions of the cancer-filled life that we want to hold on to is some ill-informed nostalgia. 

And we know it. As Peter said to his audience: Jesus was "accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs...as you yourselves know." God gave them enough to know that Jesus was the real deal, but they crucified him rather than changing their lives. We know the truth but we don't want it. We prefer the lie. And this pattern, fills so many cracks and crevices of our characters that we aren't even sure what the whole version of us what looks life, more holes than substance. 

This is why Isaiah said, "Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5)

Yet Peter proclaimed that the weakness of our inconstant love is not enough to prevent God. Jesus still rose. God still saves. We are still renewed. Praised God

Isaiah 6:1-8: How Far Beyond Us Is God

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” - Isaiah 6:1-8

The realization of the gap between God and us, not just in power, but in character is one of the big drivers for me in my spiritual life. Not just to acknowledge it. That it is true, but to comprehend it. To marvel at how good God is. To think what it must be like to be that good. To recognize how I'm not all that. And to long for it.

Then to realize that it lies within his power. Not just to change what comes out but to cleanse that which lies within. And not just for me, but for all his people. 

Isaiah 6: Believing The Lies You Told

Isaiah 6 contains a powerful call to God's service as Isaiah views the throne of God and the angel's purify him for service. But he is given one of the most depressing ministries of all time:

He [God] said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”


Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”


And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” - Isaiah 6

Tell a preacher you must speak, but there will be no hearts and lives changed, and I think you would see a mass exodus from the public ministry! Why would there be no seeing? Why no hearing? The clues lie embedded in God's previous message to Isaiah in chapter 5:

Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes...Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. - Isaiah 5:18,20

The twisting of the truth to serve self-indulgent convenience was repulsive to the God of justice. So, in chapter 6, Isaiah is given a message that says: you will no longer recognize the truth. You have told lies to long that you can no longer discern the truth, even when it is the truth that would save you. (cf. Romans 1)

In my life, I realize I have an infinite capacity to deceive myself. God may be trying to tell me something--through the Bible, through my wife, through circumstances--but I first choose not to understand and then I cannot understand. Pray God grant me eyes to see (Eph. 1:18) "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened."

The good news is that God has declared his favor towards me, through Jesus. In spite of my own willful ignorance, God will bring me through pain and even judgment to plenty, just as he promised his people through Isaiah:
Todd Agnews captures the scene of Isaiah 6 in his song:

And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”