Everlasting November 24, 2025 Devotional

ACTS 2:37 | ³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

Yesterday’s contrast between the reactions to Jesus’ first preaching and Peter’s Pentecost sermon strikes me as unexpected. Jesus preached to His friends and neighbors and though He challenged their ethnocentrism, might have expected a warm reception. Peter talked to a crowd that we presume was hostile, since they had yelled “crucify” to Pilate’s offer to release Jesus, yet His speech generated a dramatic and positive response. There is a real mystery to proclamation, and it is not a matter simply of formulas or techniques.

I think the difference in these two instances relates to the way listeners understand their own spiritual needs. Jesus’ Nazareth crowd saw separation from and eventually dominance over their Gentile oppressors as necessary and good. Ideas running counter to this seemed heretical and they felt no need to revise their cherished perspectives. Peter’s listeners were “cut to the heart” as they realized they had condemned the genuine Messiah and missed the long-awaited arrival of God’s Holy One. Their openness appears in their question, “what should we do?”

Have you ever missed God’s initiatives because of spiritual rigidity?

Gracious God,

Save us from fixed views that preclude Your surprising action. Open us up to the fresh movements of Your Spirit. Help us own our errors.

Amen.