“‘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. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.’” (Acts 2:29-33)

Peter’s case for Christ.

Let’s try to bring some modern day realism to this account from the book of Acts. Assume its current day 3/16/2024 and imagine you are at a professional sporting event where an argument breaks out in the stands. The apparent topic of the conflict seems to revolve around which NFL football team is the best. In an attempt to simmer down the commotion, you decide to stand up and proclaim, “The San Francisco 49’ers are the best football team because they won the super bowl this year.” (For those who didn’t see the game the 49’ers lost in overtime) Now, how would the crowd react? Obviously your statement would not hold much weight because it is plainly false. So now let’s contrast this with Peter’s statement. Christ Jesus was put to death and rose from the grave, “and we are all witnesses of it.” Now this was an angry mob forming around the apostles. Peter’s only defense is that Christ died and rose from death, noting that they all have seen this too. Now, how would this defense hush an angry crowd if it were not true? How would Christianity take off from this moment if Peter was beaten by the crowd because of a false claim? Simple answer, it wouldn’t. Christ died, was resurrected and this crowd knew it. And so do we!