Sunday, April 12, 2026 — Acts 2:14a, 22-32
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:
22 “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. 23 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. 24 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. 25 David said about him:
“‘I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 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. 31 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. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
As we live and breathe, at this very moment the space shuttle Artemis 2 has landed from circling the moon. The four astronauts on board the shuttle have sent their thoughts and photographs of their historic journey. Their remarks about their journey have at times bordered on speechlessness, but each of them has been in awe of what they have seen and experienced. They are witnesses to something no one on earth has ever witnessed before — seeing the dark side of the moon. While on their journey, they’ve witnessed an up close and personal eclipse of the sun, remarking that the bright side of the moon — the side we see from earth —is so bright that it’s impossible to look at it directly. And this blue marble (the earth) we live on daily defies definition because of its remarkable beauty. We will forever live with the witness of those four astronauts and their story of their journey. And the story will be told and believed by some who will never experience what they’ve experienced.
This is nothing at all different from those who — like Peter, the other disciples, and the thousands of others — witnessed the resurrected person of Jesus Christ. And without, newspapers, internet, social media, world-wide news outlets, they told the story of the resurrected Christ, voicing their confidence of faith that what they saw and experienced was nothing less than the truth of God being revealed right before their very eyes. They even had the prophetic, historical, story of David to verify and affirm that what they saw and experienced had been predicted years before it actually happened. And so, it is through the witness of the faithful that saw it then and God’s confirmation in the hearts of us who now believe — faithful witnesses — that the story and the message of Jesus Christ and his resurrection continues to be told, believed, and verified through the witness of the faithful in our day.
- How has your faithful witness been valuable in continuing the truth of the resurrection of Christ in your faith and life?
- Who was one of the faithful witnesses that helped you to believe in Christ and his resurrection?
Todays Prayer
Today’s Prayer —
Gracious God, encourage and empower me to be one of the faithful witnesses that testifies to the truth of God’s faithful witness and the power of Your resurrection to us throughout the ages.
