Today’s reading is Acts 1:1-2:47.

I love to read Peter’s words in Acts 2:39: “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

I don’t think Peter fully understood what the Spirit was saying through him here. It would be 10 to 15 years before Peter would actually get who the “far off” really were. Even on this first day, the Spirit was revealing that Christianity was not just for Jews. I’m sure that initial audience heard this statement as saying the promise was for the Jews who had traveled to Jerusalem for Pentecost and for those who had stayed in their far off homes.

However, in Ephesians 2:11-13 explains that those who are “far off” actually refers to the Gentiles. They were “far off” not because they were geographically separated but because they were spiritually separated from God.

Peter was saying the promises were for the Jews who were listening to him then, for the descendants of the Jews listening to him then, and for the Gentiles. 

The reason I love this so much is because I am a Gentile. The promise of salvation through the Holy Spirit is for me. I can be saved even though I wasn’t raised under Moses’ law. I can be saved even though I don’t live by that law. I can be saved because Jesus died for me just as He did for everyone else.

Therefore, just like the Jews who heard the message Peter preached on that day, I can be baptized for the remission of my sins and be added to Christ’s body. So can you.

***Question: What provides comfort to you about your relationship with God through Jesus?

Keep the faith and keep reading?

ELC