Tone of Voice in Acts 3

April 14, 2024 Acts 3:11-21 Series B Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who loves you with his very life. Amen. 

I was recently reading an article that talks about interpretation. And there are a great number of challenges that accompany interpretation. Like, I heard it was said once that a large part of our communication comes from body language, and there are non-verbal cues that affect how you interpret something. Like, the way someone is standing, their tone of voice, how aggressively they look at you, nudges and winks. All that kind of stuff. 

For example, there is the classic college English phrase that changes meanings a bunch depending on how you emphasize different words. Here’s the sentence, “He isn't flying to Hawaii tomorrow.” The meaning of the sentence changes depending on which word you emphasize. For example, “HE isn't flying to Hawaii tomorrow,”  isn’t the same as,  “He isn't FLYING to Hawaii tomorrow,”  which isn’t the same as, “He isn't flying to Hawaii TOMORROW.” You can emphasize every word differently and change the meaning.

And this can be a challenge for us when we read the Bible because we don’t have those non-verbal cues. We don’t always know what was emphasized or not, in what order or all that other good stuff. Now I know this sounds all like semantics and all academic-y, but it has real implications in a couple places. For example, our passage today from the book of Acts

Most often, the passage from acts comes across as one of rebuke and anger, accusation. So when Peter says in our text, “14But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.” You can like, picture the finger pointing at you. You denied God. You asked for a murderer, and you can just picture St. Peter standing there in his righteous fury accusing. Bringing down the hammer of the law. 

But there is another way to read this passage. One that speaks the truth of the law, but not in the wagging your finger I’m angry at you kind of way. But in a way that’s like, “Yup. I know you did wrong, because I did it too.” And this is also Peter. You see Peter, he,  he knows forgiveness. On the very night Jesus was betrayed into the hands of sinners, Peter boldly confesses, “I would rather die than fall away from you.” And Jesus tells him, before the rooster crows you will deny me, 3 times. 3 times Peter. And Peter does. The same Peter who boldly confessed with Thomas, if Jesus goes to die, than I go to die with him, can’t even hold to his courage when asked by a lowly servant girl if he knows Jesus.

Peter gets it. He gets it. (hold up three fingers, one at a time.) “you denied the holy one, the righteous one, the author of life. I did too.  so this could be a speech spoken in compassion. Or as he says starting in verse 17, “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”

I get it my brothers, my kinsman, I’ve been there. I sinned too. I denied Jesus.  I didn’t understand. But now I do. I have been forgiven, I denied Jesus, and I repented of it, and Christ forgave me, three times and he restored me.  you too can be forgiven for denying Jesus, repent and be restored, be refreshed and cleansed from your sins.

There is a time and a place for both ways of speaking. And they are both true, no matter how Peter actually said it. The fact remains that your sins crucified Jesus. That you deny Jesus in the way that you live your life. You choose to do the things that you want to do in spite of knowing how they affect others, and how that sin nailed Jesus to the cross. You need to repent of your sins and receive from the Risen Christ, forgiveness and life, salvation. Your actions only condemn you. You need Christ crucified and risen again!

While at the same time, I get it. I sin too. There have been times where I have done dumb things, where I have betrayed Jesus in my thoughts, my words and my actions. I have hurt others, I nailed Jesus to the cross by my fault, by my own fault. There is no need to blame anyone else, or even the devil, I sinned on my own. Jesus death is because of my inability to do anything to save myself. And you know what? Jesus forgave me! He shed his blood, for me! And my sins are washed away. My sins are covered. And more than that, God made me one of his children, adopted me into his family. And God can and has done the same things for you. 

You can be a child of God. You are a child of God, baptized into Christ. Forgiven by our risen Lord and you have a future with Christ in the new creation, the perfect place of rest. Where you are restored, refreshed and your sins are blotted out. 

I have denied Jesus, I need forgiveness. You have denied Jesus, you need forgiveness. St. Peter denied Jesus, he needed forgiveness. St. Paul denied Jesus, he needed forgiveness. And Christ came to forgive. And you are forgiven. Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Not too long ago We did the everyone his witness bible study thing. If you are unaware of what it is, it’s a evangelism course, teaching you how to share your faith about Jesus with people that you already know, people God has placed into your life. It’s a fantastic program and one we will offer again. The emphasis of the program is the same as the emphasis here of St. Peter in Acts 3. We recognize that the world is a hard place to live in, and honestly it can be really really bad. But there is one source of lasting hope. One way that can bring meaning and vibrancy to your life. And we, as Christians, are blessed to know the cure, to know the answer.

We get it, We’re sinners too. We know what it’s like to have bad days, to lose those we love, to experience sin, to commit sin. But we also know what it’s like to experience relief and a true lasting hope. We have found forgiveness in Christ. You can too. I found hope in Christ, you can too. If God is willing to forgive someone as bad as me, he certainly can forgive you too. I mean, he forgave epic deniers and epic unbelief and changed them to leaders as we see in St. Peter and St. Paul, why wouldn’t God forgive you? God loves you and values you more than his own life simply because he chose to make you to be you, not someone else. But you, as our text says, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 hat times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”

Tone of voice matters. And God speaks to you in judgment yes, but also in mercy and forgiveness, in a love of action, as your Savior. Amen.