Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me

Good morning. Peter explains what really happened: this is what was spoken of by the prophet Joel – and it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This quotation is really remarkable given that Peter was not considered to be a learned man. The average man would not have been able to make the connection between the scripture and what happened; so it had to be the Holy Spirit. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourself know – this man, delivered over by the pre-determined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. Peter was talking to Jews. It was the Romans, not them personally, that nailed Jesus to the cross; however, it was through their insistence that Jesus be put to death by crucifixion that precipitated this action. It’s kind of like when it says that Judas acquired the field with the blood money – he did not personally do it, but it was through the money he received that it was purchased. Peter’s words proclaim that everything went according to God‘s plan. God knew what was necessary to bring salvation to all men – and He made it happen. Father thank You that You have a plan for our lives; and if we let You have Your way, it will come about just as You desire.