situation for this first sermon. Fifty days earlier the Jews had murdered Peter’s leader by slow torture and had gotten away with it. Now a huge, excited crowd that must have greatly exceeded 3,000 was in a side-show mood, having come to see the strange apostolic phenomena. Sure, some were honestly inquiring, “What does this mean?” (v. 12), but others said, “They have had too much wine” (v. 13). It was not an easy situation, and yet Peter did his greatest preaching on that occasion. A preliminary