As a professional speaker I have had much training and much experience delivering a speech or talk to a large crowd. This training has taught me to do the three things every good speaker is told to do: 1) Tell the audience what you are going to tell them (the Big Idea); 2) Then, tell them what you told them you were going to tell them; 3) And then, in conclusion, tell them what you have told them. Peter, the first preacher of Christ's church, a simply fishermen, is used by the Spirit to deliver the first "talk" or "speech" or "sermon" to a large crowd (Since 3,000 will get saved when he is done and some didn't receive the message we have to believe it was a very, very large crowd). Perhaps this message is where we developed the three keys to a good speech mentioned above. Peter, like any good speaker, begins with the Big Idea and then develops it and concludes with it. But, it is not only his Big Idea, it is the Big Idea of the entire gospel and the Church of Christ. Note how simply he outlines his message and our mission:
Acts 2:24
But God raised Him (Christ) up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
The resurrection of Christ and thus the defeat of death is the gospel message. Christ came to save us from death. That is the Big Idea of the gospel and should be the Big Idea of every sermon we preach. God has, through His son, defeated sin and death. We can rejoice in that message and can proclaim that message as our mission. It was "impossible" for Him to held in death's power. That makes us free from death's grip since we were "in" Christ.
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