because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay. Acts2:27
We are still looking at Peter's first sermon on the day of Pentecost... Here Peter is quoting from Psalm 16 which is a Messianic Psalm - a psalm which anticipated the coming of the Messiah and predicted what He would be like.
David was bumping his head against the Grave and against Decay and so do we. Decay is all around us. Decay in the environment, in morals, in hope, in health. Death is also about Decay. Death is where Decay becomes irreversible and final. And even after we have died our bodies decay.
Paul talks about Decay in Romans 8. He describes it like this:
"20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."
Are you frustrated by the chaos you see on the news and in the world around you? The "bondage to decay" is a despair-creating reality all around us that sucks us dry and threatens to extinguish hope.
In this Resurrection Sermon Peter is quoting a 1000 year old prophecy that makes it clear - It has ALWAYS been the plan that Jesus would rise from the dead. It has ALWAYS been the plan that He would break the power of the cycle of decay. He died but He did not decay. He died and now decay will never have a hold on Him.
And if we put our trust in Him, we too can break the shackles of decay!
HALLELUJAH!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
