"All of us can tell you that God has raised Jesus to life! Jesus was taken up to sit at the right side of God, and he was given the Holy Spirit, just as the Father had promised. Jesus is also the one who has given the Spirit to us, and that is what you are now seeing and hearing" (Acts 2:32–33 CEV).

Sounds like the title is backwards. But that’s okay. Some New Testament teaching sounded backwards too. Today’s post-Pentecost pericope (say that fast 10 times!) is one example.

Peter is the speaker; the listeners are the dumbfounded who witnessed the holy commotion of Pentecost. They found it difficult to connect former prophecy with current events, namely Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension with the Pentecost flames. So Peter retold the story, now accomplished, by going back to what the listeners had learned from prophets like David. Today’s text is a summary. Let’s examine how it relates to you and me.

You have the Spirit. You are the one that students see and hear now. Some students will neither see nor hear you for several weeks to come; other students will never hear you again (until you meet in heaven). That’s why it’s important for you to have the Spirit—to be delivered, sealed, and signed. You cannot teach in the name of Jesus unless this has happened.

First, you were delivered. We’re not talking about hospitals and doctors here. Long before your mother delivered you, Jesus Christ delivered you. The event is so familiar that it’s easy to allow personalization of it slip away. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, in all its drama, with all its dramatic victory may be much more alive in the heads of believers than it is in their hearts. But the story so familiar to you may not be nearly as familiar to those you teach. Like Peter’s audience, they may be dumbfounded by the incredibly good news. You and all believers can tell that God raised Jesus to life.

Second, you were sealed. Water sealed, so to speak. But instead of keeping the water out, the power of the Word working in the water caused your soul to soak up the Spirit’s power. You were sealed as an eternal child of God. That gave you special powers, namely the power to proclaim the Gospel and the power to teach Scripture in all its truth and purity. Some students who absorb your teaching have not yet absorbed the water of Holy Baptism. Know who those students are. They already may profess faith in Jesus as their Savior, and something stands in the way of their actual baptism. But deadly worse off are those who resist God’s call or who don’t even know that He wants them to be saved.

Third, God signed the authorization for you to serve Him. Through the first two actions, He cleansed and justified you to serve in the name of His risen Son. His signature is written all over you.

And so it is that you’re at the end of one period of ministry and already contemplating the next, when you will continue to teach in the name of Jesus. In the meantime, you are ready to tell anyone who asks the most important thing you know about Jesus. Then you can work your way backwards to all the other good stuff that makes up the history of salvation.

Get some rest too. You’re going to need it! You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

Note: This concludes the 2008–2009 "red-letter series" of devotions for LEA members. A summer series is scheduled for June 16 to early August. The devotions will be posted on each Tuesday under the theme of Summer Oldies, which will be devotions selected and slightly revised from the summer series in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.