Acts 2
The Spirit and Witness of the Word
The event of the coming of the Holy Spirit & the message in all languages 1-13
The explanation of the Event of His coming & the message preached 14-40
The effects of His coming & the message received and new life given 41-47
1. Pentecost was for the Jews a great celebration of God’s blessing of the harvest. Later it also came to be associated with the giving of the Law of Moses, which tradition says happened 50 days after the Passover.
Here we see the Holy Spirit coming to harvest souls who enter the new covenant through the name of Jesus Christ by repentance and baptism into His name.
Also, we see the Holy Spirit writing the new law of Christ on the hearts of the new Christians that are brought into this new covenant of grace.
When the Holy Spirit comes Luke records three supernatural signs: the sound, the sight, and the strange speaking.
A. Rushing Mighty Wind fills the house where they are sitting.
B. What seem like Tongues of Fire resting on each of their heads.
C. They are all filled with the Holy Spirit and begin speaking with new languages or tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
This was all clearly under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God. Everything happening here was done by God, supernaturally and symbolically.
Jesus had told the disciples to expect this. He had described power from on high that they would receive in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy and John the Baptists words. Now it was here and happening! Strange to all who were gathered in Jerusalem, these signs made the crowds who came there ask: What do these things mean? How is it that each of us hears them in our own language declaring the praises of God?
Notice the international nature of the crowd that gathered. They are from all over the Roman empire. These are Jews who have come to Jerusalem for this feast. As the apostles speak they still seem to have the Galilean accent! Most of the crowd is captivated and beside themselves with amazement! But, of course, in every crowd there are the hecklers. Some took the seat of the mocker, and mocking things they were totally ignorant about, said, “These guys are drunk!” Ignorant and stubborn unbelief is a deeply blinding problem. Perhaps they were only making fun and not actually believing that themselves. Peter’s retort that it is still early in the morning seems to suffice.
This was not a case of incoherent utterance. They were not out of control, or ecstatic beyond rational behavior. Luke describes their behavior through Peter’s speech as fulfilling the prophetic promises of God to pour the Holy Spirit upon all flesh. Many commentators have seen this as a reversal of the curse of Babel where human languages were confused to scatter humanity. Now the Holy Spirit has begun calling all humanity into unity again through the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
By the way, speeches are a very important element in the book of Acts. There are over 19 speeches recorded in Acts, making up about 25% of the volume of the book! Obviously, most of them are abbreviated, giving us the content of each. Peter’s speech here in chapter 2 has less than 500 words. I read this speech out loud in my office with a stop watch and the total time was 3 minutes, 16.53 seconds. What is packed into these 480 or so words is an explanation of what is happening and a gospel proclamation that God uses to call 3000 people into the Christ.
So we have wind, fire, new speech… the event of the Holy Spirit’s coming.
2. Thus we move to the second section of this chapter, in verses 14-40 where these events are explained and the first sermon of the new covenant church is proclaimed.
As an explanation to what is happening Peter points to scripture. Joel’s prophecy finds fulfillment in these events. First, Peter tells them what this in not. This is not drunkenness. Then he tells them what it is. This is what Joel said would happen!
Look at verses 17-21.
This is the “last days.” In other words, we are on the home stretch headed toward the end of time. This is marked by the pouring forth of God’s Spirit upon all mankind, or all flesh. There is not sexual distinction: sons and daughters, men and women are included. There is no age distinction: young and old will experience revelation from God. There is no ranking distinction: all are servants. This is a cosmic event reaching all of heaven and earth. The ultimate goal is that all will call on the name of the Lord for salvation.
That is Peter’s explanation of the events of this amazing day. But the focus quickly turns to the ultimate goal. Little is said about the other matters in Joel’s prophecy, but Peter preaches his sermon with a focus on bringing the listeners to call on the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ for salvation.
There are four foundations in the framework of Peter’s gospel message:
The gospel events
The gospel witnesses
The gospel promises
The gospel conditions
The Gospel events - in Peter’s message center around the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Look at the clear outline of the message of Peter as recorded by Luke:
Point 1: verse 22
Point 2: verse 23
Point 3: verse 24
Evidence from the Old Testament: verses 25-31
Point 4: verses 32-33
More evidence from the Old Testament: verses 34-35
Conclusion: verse 36
In his death, Jesus was delivered up by God’s plan to be executed by the Jews and Gentiles in punishment for the penalty of our sins. In his resurrection, Jesus was raised up by God’s plan as a reversal of the human verdict against Jesus. Payment for sin was completed by a sinless Savior so that death could not keep its hold on him. So God freed Jesus from the birth-pains of death by the resurrection. Jesus is now exalted to the throne of God in heaven, from here he reigns as Lord, putting all enemies under his feet.
There is little focus on the life and teachings of Jesus in Peter’s message. The first evangelistic work is to make disciples, then comes the teaching to obey all. The events most central to making a disciple are presented here. First, Who is Jesus? Old Testament and New alike spend a vast volume of verses bringing us to accept Jesus as God’s Son, sent by God to save us from our sins. That he died on the cross and that he rose again and that he is Lord of all. Second, where do I fit into this? Because of my sins, I am guilty of his death. He is now raised from the dead and ruling as Lord and putting all his enemies under his feet. What does that say about you and me… about our condition? How do we stand before God? But that leads us to another question: How do I know this is true?
The Gospel witnesses – this was not proclaimed in a vacuum. Peter preached in the same town among the same people that killed Jesus in real time and history, just as Jesus death and resurrection were real historical events with eyewitnesses giving testimony to them. This is all backed by Old Testament prophecy that is fulfilled in real time and space in Jesus Christ. Peter quotes from the Bible that they all know and points to Jesus as the fulfillment of those scriptures. He then claims to be an eyewitness to the events he preaches about. And as we see here, the convincing message hit home hardest right here among those that knew about Jesus and had seen him. Many of these no doubt saw and heard Jesus while he was in Jerusalem, before he was crucified. Some may have been in the crowd that cried out to crucify him just 53 days prior to Peter’s sermon. The witness of the Old Testament and the Apostles is critical to the evangelism work of the church. It still is today! Thank-God, by his Holy Spirit, we have their witness preserved for us in the New Testament scriptures. They lived and died claiming this same message to be true. Jesus had said, “You will be my witnesses.”
There is great power in the human witness. Human testimony has been used to convict people to death. In the gospel, God uses it to convince us of Christ and bring us to eternal life. We have no liberty to preach a Jesus of our own making. Our witness to God’s work must always be measured by the witness of God’s word as recorded by the witness of God’s apostles and prophets. One of the early problems in the church had to do with false witnesses preaching a different Jesus. The New Testament confronts this several times as the church grew and faced trials and difficulties. We must remember that the Word of God provides us with the authentic, inspired witness to the truth of the gospel. We want to always hear from those that were there and authorized by the Lord himself to be his witnesses.
The Old Testament witness: It is going to happen.
The Apostles witness: It did happen and we saw it!
Where do you fit in?
The Gospel promises. The gospel is not just what Jesus has done, but how what Jesus did offers us heavenly blessings. Just think of it! Jesus death and resurrection are history that becomes our story. Jesus promises freedom to all who come to him in faith. Freedom from sin in the form of forgiveness, wiping away our guilt and removing the spiritual pollution of our past. Then he promises the gift of the Spirit for our present and future! A promise that brings fruit of holy character and heavenly help for our weaknesses. He promises this for us and our children in a call from God for all to come to him through Jesus Christ.
Now if a person does not see the seriousness of his or her own sin, they will not appreciate the honor of this offer. Christ’s promises are offered by a gift of God’s grace that is no where else to be found. That is why we have to see the seriousness of our sins, that we are guilty of the death of Jesus before we can begin to appreciate the forgiveness that his death provides for us. The cross either convicts us toward heaven or it condemns us to hell. Our response to it and God’s promises provided through it makes all the difference.
The Gospel conditions. Jesus invites everyone but forces no one to come. The gospel demands us to make a choice. At the foot of the cross we come to the valley of decision. As Peter preached to this crowd about Jesus death and resurrection and pronounced his Lordship, the crowd interrupted his sermon. When he laid verse 36 on them they were cut deep. They were convinced that Jesus was the Christ and convicted that his blood was on their hands. They were compelled by their guilt to cry out for help. They said, “Men and brothers, what shall we do?”
They were ready to hear the conditions of the gospel. Readiness to hear the conditions of the gospel involve being convinced of the truth of who Jesus is and what he has done, and being convicted of our guilt in sin that he died for. But also, being ready to submit to whatever he commands us to do.
If you have to be begged to respond to Jesus, I doubt seriously that you are really ready to follow him as your Lord and Master. Are you convinced about Jesus? Do you believe he died for you and because of you? Are you convicted of sin knowing that through them you are an accomplice to the crime of killing the Christ? Does the love of Christ compel you to cry out to God? The conditions of the gospel are stated by Peter as clearly as scripture can say it: Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now those words have been cluttered up with all kinds of clever thinking that denies the condition of baptism for remission of sins, but it is there. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…
Notice how all of these elements of the gospel have come in pairs:
The events of the gospel are Jesus death and resurrection
The witnesses of the gospel are the Old Testament and the Apostles
The promises of the gospel are forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Spirit
The conditions of the gospel are repentance and baptism in Jesus Name
Jesus is a historical figure – he really lived, died on the cross and rose again – seen by eyewitnesses
Jesus is a theological figure – his life, death, resurrection and ascension - fulfilling Old Testament prophesy and having saving significance.
Jesus is a contemporary figure – the promise is for you and your children – confronting people of all times, calling us to the decision of faith for the blessings of eternal life.
3. Finally, in Acts 2 we see the result of the coming of the Holy Spirit and what happened to those who received the message. It is the birth of the church. Verses 41-47 shows us a snapshot of the earliest church experience.
All who received his word were baptized and about 3000 were added that day! Wow.
From here we see their devotion as a learning and loving church. We see their generosity as they share their possessions. We see their worship and fellowship as they continue to meet together in the temple courts and from house to house. We see their growth as they evangelize others and increase in number. More next week.
