The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.
Acts 3:13-15 (If you have a moment, read the rest of this short sermon through verse 26.)
This is the second sermon Peter preached (the first being on Pentecost in chapter 2). Notice the following essential ingredients of the message:
Peter referred to scripture, mentioning the patriarchs, Moses, and Samuel. The faith didn’t begin when we were saved. God has always had His people. Anchoring what we say in scripture is essential.
Peter spoke about Christ. Numerous times, in fact. I particularly love how Peter quoted God’s promise through Moses about a greater Deliverer than Moses, who was to come—and He (Jesus) has come! All our preaching (and witnessing) must be about Christ. It is not about us, our experience, or our favorite preacher, much less politics! Our message is the Man, Christ Jesus.
Peter spoke about sin. He told the people that they were responsible for Christ’s death. Many of those people in Jerusalem at that time may have been directly responsible if they were in the crowd that cried out “Crucify Him!” The reality is, however, all people are responsible for Christ’s death because of our sin. (“All people” includes us! We don’t want to say “you are a sinner,” but rather “we are all sinners!” lest we come across as self-righteous.) Unless people know of their sin, they will never cry out to God for forgiveness. And forgiveness is what people need—more than anything else in the world! And praise God, that is what Jesus came to purchase with His blood to save those He came to save.
Let us never preach a Christless Christianity, disconnected from scripture, that avoids the awful reality of our sin. These are essential ingredients of the message of the good news of forgiveness.