Introduction
If you get your ten year pin and your boss gives you a resume writing kit, you know somebody’s trying to tell you something.
If the love of your life gives you a ticket to Paris for your birthday, and it’s one way, you know somebody’s trying to tell you something.
If you ask your mechanic how much you owe him for repairs and he hands you a brochure on home equity loans, you know somebody’s trying to tell you something.
If the somebody who’s trying to tell you something is somebody important to you, then you know you’d better listen. You know you’d better figure out the message and act on it, or risk the consequences.
In our passage today, somebody was trying to tell the Jews in Jerusalem something. Something really important.
And that same somebody is trying to tell us that same something, too.
Many of us are familiar with the first part of the chapter. We love to read about the rushing wind, the fire, the speaking in tongues. But these amazing events were intended to make a point. In verse 12, the people want to know "what does this mean?" So Peter says, I’ll tell you what it means. It means somebody is trying to tell you something." And that something was so powerful that 3,000 people came to faith and were baptized after they heard the what it was. Why did this sermon have such a tremendous impact? Let’s keep looking, and try to figure out why.
The Event
Pentecost was a special holiday for the Jews. It was a religious harvest festival, something like Thanksgiving without the football games. Thousands of Jewish pilgrims crowded into Jerusalem.
We find 120 of Jesus’ disciples together on the feast of Pentecost in a house near the Temple. Suddenly, without warning, there is a loud sound like rushing wind, something that looked like fire breaking into tongues over people’s heads; And this bunch of Galileans spilled outside into the Temple courts and started praising God in languages they’d never spoken before. Immediately, they are surrounded by a crowd of pilgrims who are trying to figure out what is going on..
The crowds are stunned. But they don’t just want to know what is happening. They want to know why it’s happening. They want to know "What does this mean?"
Peter’s Explanation
Peter says, "What you see is God pouring out His Spirit, just as he promised in the Old Testament prophet Joel." The miraculous gifts were signs that these believers were filled with the Holy Spirit. But this prophecy was loaded. It didn’t just refer to Pentecost, but to the day when time would end and God would judge the whole earth.
For the Jews, this was great news! After all, they were God’s people, his favorites! When he returned, he would conquer the Romans, who ruled over them and whom they despised. All their enemies would get theirs, and they would sit at God’s feasting table forever. They assumed the "great and glorious day of the Lord" would be a great and glorious day for them, too!
The outpouring of the Spirit meant they had entered into "the last days," the time period immediately preceding that final judgment. It was the beginning of the end. The first page in the last chapter of human history.
Notice that in this prophecy from the book of Joel the first few verses sound very much like what was happening that day, and the last few refer to that day of judgment. Peter was implying that God would be coming any minute for this "great and glorious day" of judgment.
Jesus the Messiah
This was great news to these Jewish pilgrims. They were thrilled. But, the "last days were supposed to be ushered in by the Messiah. They wondered, "if the ’last days’ have come, where is the Messiah?"
Peter tells them the Messiah had come.
"Do you remember Jesus?" Peter asks. "Do you remember all the miracles that he did? They were signs. Signs to prove that God sent him. To prove he was the Messiah. He was God’s own Son."
Many of them were in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. Many more, perhaps had heard the story. But there may have been others who had not heard it. For them, this was heart-stopping news: "The Messiah has come?! Well, where is he now?"
So Peter told them the story of Jesus’ crucifixion and death. But, he points out, this, too, was a part of God’s sovereign plan. Because the story of Jesus did not stop with his death. For not even death had the power to hold captive the Son of God.
And Jesus has not only been raised from the dead, Peter says, but now he is ruling with God in heaven; He is God’s "right hand man."
Cut to the heart
How could they take it all in? First, Peter tells them that God is about to return and judge the earth. That was good news. And then, he tells them that the Messiah, the deliverer that generations of their people had longed to see had come, in their lifetime. They had prayed for the day. They had imagined what it would be like to be alive when Messiah came. How they would welcome him! They would crown him their king! They would gladly bow to him. But, Peter says, he has come. But the crown on his head was a crown of thorns. They did not honor him. In fact, they conspired with the hated Roman government to arrest him, to mock him, to spit on him, to torture him, and to kill him in the most despicable manner imaginable, crucifixion. The great hope of Israel had come, and they had killed him.
And now, the one they had judged, was coming back to judge them.
A few months ago, I had a job interview in a church in Reading. I was really excited about the job and nervous about the interview. Shortly before the interview, I was on 114. I was in a left turn lane, when suddenly, I realized there was a woman in a big van to my right who was pushing her way in front of me. And I was ticked. So I let her in with an angry wave. I didn’t say anything bad, but I let her know by the look on my face that I wasn’t very happy with her driving. But after she pulled in front of my car, I noticed that on the frame around her license plate, was the name of the dealer where she had gotten her van – in Reading. And my first, shocked thought was, "What if she was on the committee! What if I walked into that interview, and she was sitting in the room and recognized me as the rude driver?! What if this person, whom I judged, was now in a position to judge me?"
What if the judge I had judged was about to judge me?
This is exactly the reaction that the crowd had when they heard what Peter told them. The one they had judged, and condemned to death, was now in a position to judge them. Their joy turned to terror. The Bible says they were "cut to the heart,"
I wonder if you know at all how they felt. I wonder if at some point in your life you have found yourself standing in judgment of Jesus.
I had a conversation with a woman, who calls herself a Christian, but she thinks Jesus was just a fairly wise teacher. He got some things right, got some things wrong. But what would you expect from a man who lived 2000 years ago? She thinks she can pick and choose from his teaching. She thinks she can stand in judgment on him.
But C.S. Lewis, who wrote a popular book about Christianity called Mere Christianity, says that we really don’t have that choice. Given the claims that Jesus made, the statements about himself, and especially his claim that he had the power to forgive sins, he must either be a crazy person, "on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg," or he is truly evil, because he is purposely deceiving people, or he is really the only Son of God, who must be heeded.
The Jews had decided that Jesus was a liar. They judged him as evil, so they killed him.
So when Peter concludes "Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ," that the people are "cut to the heart." They were terrified. They had murdered God’s Son, and now He was coming back for them.
The judge they had judged was now going to judge them.
There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. They were doomed.
Repent
So they beg Peter to tell them if there is any hope for them. Could they sacrifice a bull or a ram? A thousand bulls and a thousand lambs? How could they atone for this terrible sin against God? The answer is one they never could have predicted.
Forgiveness
What do guilt-ridden people expect to hear when they ask, as these people asked Peter, "What can I do?" They expect to hear, "There’s nothing you can do. It’s your fault and you’ll have to bear the guilt of what you’ve done for the rest of your life." But that’s not what Peter says to these folk. He tells them,
"The judge you judged doesn’t want to judge you, he wants to forgive you.
"The Jesus you judged doesn’t want to judge you, he wants to forgive you.
Just turn around. Turn to God. Jesus stands waiting not to condemn you, but to forgive you. Repent and be baptized. Turn your back on your old life and your old ways and enter into a new life with God, and all of your sins will be forgiven, wiped away. You’ll have a clean slate. The guilt that gnaws at your heart will be removed. You will begin a journey with God where He will utterly transform you. And he will give His Spirit to you, too."
The jesus you judged doesn’t want to judge you, he wants to forgive you.
We talk about forgiveness a lot. But we know very little of it. We have heard the offer so often that we have lost the wonder of it. German scholar Helmut Thielicke said, "It can be the death of our faith if we forget that [forgiveness] is literally a miracle."
Some of you may have never asked to receive this gift, which God is so desiring to give you. Some of you have never entered into a fresh, new life with God. If you haven’t, why not do it today? Why wait?
Some of you have put your faith and trust in Christ, but there may still be areas in your lives that you have not fully turned your back on. Do it today.
The coming of the Holy Spirit was a sign of the beginning of the end. The world hasn’t ended yet, but all of those people we read about in Acts have come face to face with God. Some day, maybe sooner and maybe later, you will too. Face Him with a clean slate. Accept His offer of forgiveness. That’s the meaning of Pentecost. That’s what someone was trying to tell those Jewish pilgrims 2000 years ago. That’s what someone is trying to tell you today.
Do you hear him?
The Jesus you judged doesn’t want to judge you, he wants to forgive you.
Let today be the day when your sins are forgiven through Christ and your life is transformed by His Spirit.
