Acts 10:36-43 :

The word which he sent to the children of Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all— you yourselves know what happened, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses of everything he did both in the country of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they also killed, hanging him on a tree. God raised him up the third day, and gave him to be revealed, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.”

Here, the Apostle Peter, explains the message of Jesus to these Gentiles. Notice how He abbreviates the story for them because they were already well aware of it. The message had already been going out and as we read here, they had already heard the whole story. Notice, however that Peter was obedient to give the message anyway. After all, it was his duty before God. An important thing to keep in mind when sharing your faith is that different people have different amounts of knowledge about what Jesus did. It is good for us to do our research about the people we talk to about the Lord, even if we have to do that research at the same time we are in a conversation. As excited as we may be about sharing, we need to get to know the person we are talking to so that we can really communicate according to the knowledge that God has given them. We should not worry about this, but trust that God by His Holy Spirit will help us to really love the person we are talking with.

There is a very important thing I would like to point out about this passage today. There are those who go around saying that they are apostles in the same or similar order of Peter and John. Here we see that the Bible tells us that Peter and John and the others with them were unique. Notice that it says that God “gave him to be revealed, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” Notice, that there can only be so many of those kind of Apostles. Now, there was to be one more very special Apostle that did not eat and drink with Jesus but was chosen by Jesus later. That was Saul. There was one who ate and drank with Jesus who was rejected. That was Judas. We will learn much more about this as we read on.

Notice that these Apostles who were commanded “to preach to the people and testify that this is he who is appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.” The announcement of a Judge over all humanity may not sound like good news, but when someone learns what this Judge has done for them, it changes the whole picture. A judge who no longer holds our sin against us is the kind of judge we desperately needed.