The Third Sunday of Easter – First Reading – 04/19/2026

This reading catches Peter just minutes after his receiving the Holy Spirit.  His inspired proclamation to the assembled multitude resulted in 3,000 baptisms!

Transcript

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Howdy, and welcome to Bob the Lecture. I'm Bob. The purpose of this podcast is to inspire Catholic lectures to bring their proclamation of God's Word to life. This episode is for the April 19th, Sunday Mass's first reading. It's the third Sunday of Easter, year A, a reading from the Acts of the Apostles. Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed, You who are Jews, indeed, all you staying in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. You who are Israelites, hear these words. Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God, with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him, but God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it. For David says of him, I saw the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. Therefore my heart has been glad, and my tongue has exalted. My flesh too will dwell in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence. My brothers and sisters, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David, that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day. But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld, nor did his flesh see corruption. God raised this Jesus, of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, and poured him forth as you see and hear. This is a powerful, powerful reading that takes place in the early, early days of the Christian Church. It's also a bit long, so let's get to it, shall we? I always start my own lecture practice with preparation, which is not the external proclamation, but the internal discernment of the message. What is God saying to us? What is his purpose? What is the meaning of this reading? Because if it doesn't mean anything to us, how can we as lectures make it mean anything to the congregation before us? This reading aims straight for the heart, but it's not written for the hearts of the people before you. It's spoken to the hearts of the Jewish population in Jerusalem during their feast of Shavoat. Curiously, this reading actually precedes last Sunday's first reading from the same chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. That reading started in verse 42, while this one ends at verse 33. Peter's proclamation takes place possibly only minutes after the apostles receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Christian Pentecost, which occurs at the beginning of this same chapter. In almost an instant, Peter and the Apostles go from hiding behind closed doors to this scene, boldly facing those they are, um, I mean, were afraid of. The difference? The Holy Spirit. The crowd assembled to hear Peter's proclamation after hearing the sound of a strong wind, which we know was the coming of the Holy Spirit. Proclaim this entire reading as a powerful proclamation, spoken as if the people in the pews before you are the assembled pilgrim multitude in Jerusalem for the Shavuat. Speak with maximum voice projection to mirror Peter's situation, but remember that Peter had no microphone, and you do. So proclaim it loudly to mirror that scene, but for the sake of your congregation's eardrums, give yourself some extra space between you and your microphone. This pronouncement is the first of six parygmas that appear in the Acts of the Apostles. Charygma from the Greek kerosene, to proclaim, and keryx, herald, refers to the initial and essential proclamation of the gospel message, that is, the proclamation of Jesus' death and resurrection, the very foundation of our faith. Your mission, dear lector, should you choose to accept it, is to channel Saint Peter only minutes after he received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and to proclaim it with the same enthusiasm of one who just had a tongue of fire appear above him. Oh, and by the way, when Peter was done, three thousand people got baptized, so no pressure. What do you learn from this reading? It begins Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed, You who are Jews, indeed, all you staying in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. You who are Israelites, hear these words. Shavuat is one of the three pilgrimage feasts celebrated by the Israelites. It required all males able to travel to go to Jerusalem to commemorate the giving of the Torah, the Jewish law, on Mount Sinai. This is why there were so many people from all over the known world at the time, and why there were so many different languages represented in the audience. But as we know, they all heard Peter's proclamation in their own native tongue. Emphasize raised, proclaimed, Jews, all, this, listen, Israelites, and hear. Note the parallelism between you who are Jews and you who are Israelites. Use a similar intonation to draw attention to them. Also note the parallelism for listen to my words and hear these words. If you can do so authentically, use an informal tone that mirrors a real-life colloquial style of talking rather than the formal reading of Scripture, replacing all of you with Alia, and known to you as known to you. Next we have Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. Continue the bold tone, speaking directly to the people before you, in the same way Peter spoke to the Jerusalem crowd. Stress commended, mighty deeds, wonders, signs, worked, and yourselves. Insert a small pause after Nazarene. Here's the next segment. This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him. Emphasize man, set, foreknowledge, killed, lawless, and crucify. Insert small pauses before and after you killed for added emphasis. Say it with an accusatory passion the same way Peter would have two thousand years ago. Go for the jugular. Insert another small pause after men. Next up. But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it. Put a big smile on your face and exude joy for this segment. This is the culmination of the charygma, which punctuates Jesus' death with his resurrection. Highlight raised, releasing, throes, and impossible. If you can do so authentically, use a tremble in the back of your throat when you say raised and impossible, for added joy and emotion. This is good news. The next segment is Peter quoting Psalm 16, verses 8 to 1. For David says of him, I saw the Lord ever before me, with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. Therefore, my heart has been glad, and my tongue has exalted. My flesh too will dwell in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world, nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence. Smile broadly and have a countenance of joy for the entire reading of this segment from Psalm sixteen. Insert a full pause after him and after presence, to put a break before and after Peter's quotation of Psalm sixteen. Recall you can see the Psalm in Italics, but the congregation can't, so your tone and demeanor needs to differentiate it from the rest of the reading. Put emphasis on ever, the first knot, therefore, heart, glad, tongue, exalted, flesh too, dwell, the second knot, holy, corruption, known, fill, and joy. If you can do so authentically, at a throat tremble for the words, Heart has been glad and fill me with joy. The next segment says, My brothers and sisters, one can confidently say to you about the Patriarch David, that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day. This sentence sounds odd from today's perspective, but recognize that Peter's audience, while familiar with Psalm 16, would not have understood who it was describing. Peter clarifies to his Jewish listeners that this Psalm is not about David. He makes this clear by letting his hearers know the obvious, that since David is dead, it can't be about him, emphasize the words confidently, died, buried, tomb, midst, and this day. In sort of small pause after David. Next we have, but since he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld, nor did his flesh seek corruption. This is the next step in Peter's progression of his explanation of Psalm sixteen to his present audience. If Psalm sixteen is not about David, as discussed previously, who's it about? Well, Peter explains here, David is prophesying about Jesus. Emphasize knew, foresaw, spoke, abandoned flesh and corruption. Insert a small pause after flesh. Finally, God raised this Jesus. Of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, and poured him forth as you see and hear. This section is the Charygma's postscript, the Christian Pentecost, our church's birthday. This takes us back to Acts 1, 4 to 5, where Jesus tells the apostles, He enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, about which you have heard me speak. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. And guess what? It's a few days later, and today is that day. Use a facial expression and commensurate tone of voice, exuding joy for this final segment. Stress the words raised, this, all, exalted, promise, poured, see, and hear. Insert small pauses after Father and See. Well, that's all for now. Thanks for listening. My hope is these ideas will help you find your authentic voice, so your proclamation of God's word will transform your listeners, whether they're in pain and broken, or just going through the motions, because the good news deserves great delivery. Visit us on the web at bobtelecture.org and we'll see you at the Amber. By the way, if you like what you hear and are so inclined, please give us five stars on Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much!