Acts 2:1-36 – You’ve Got to Get Up
One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey So he invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer’s neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!
Now, the moral of the story is this: Life is going to shovel all kinds of dirt on you. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. God designed each of our troubles to be a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, not giving up! Shake it off and take a step up! To pick us up again is one of the reasons why the Holy Spirit was sent to be with us – to bring us victory. Turn with me to Acts 2.
Today is Pentecost Sunday. There is so much that can be said about this day, a memorial to the day the Holy Spirit was first poured out on all believers. I want to avoid having too many points to remember, and avoid being pointless. So, I’ll narrow my thoughts today to what Jesus had to do with Pentecost. After all, we are going through a series looking at what kind of a King our Jesus is. Today, we will see He is our Triumphant King!
First, the background. Pentecost is a Greek word meaning “fifty”. It was also a Jewish holiday, celebrated 7 weeks plus 1 day after Passover – 7 7’s plus 1 is 50. It was a celebration of the harvest, and faithful Jews from all over the known world gathered to Jerusalem to rejoice. It was also 7 weeks to the day after Jesus’ resurrection, and the disciples had been praying together in a room for the last 10 days. This was the setting of Acts 2. Earlier in the service we read v1-4, and Peter’s commentary on the scene in v16-21, quoting the OT prophet Joel. Now we pick up the scene in v22-36.
Now, as I studied this passage this week, I asked myself, what’s the connection? I mean, I always thought Pentecost was about the Holy Spirit – when the Spirit was poured out into all believers, not just onto the occasional believer. But after commenting on what the mass of Jewish pilgrims were seeing and hearing, Peter spends most of his time preaching about Jesus. What’s the connection?
Well first, let’s see what Peter says about Jesus. He’s fairly point blank, to the point of running the risk of offending his listeners. Oh if only today’s preachers were as bold as Peter was, and if only today’s laypeople could handle hearing the truth as those early listeners. Anyway, Peter starts off in v22 by saying that Jesus was a man approved by God, that God publicly endorsed him. Jesus was a man sent by God. His miracles were God-approved.
Peter goes in v23 to say that Jesus was handed over to sinful to be put to death. Well, not just to sinful men, but to the listeners as well. It was after all Jews and Romans who approved of Jesus’ death. But it goes beyond that as well. Jesus’ death was God’s plan. He thought of it long before any human eye had ever seen Jesus.
Then, Peter continues with what would prove to be the bulk of his sermon: Jesus’ resurrection. He takes 9 verses to describe Jesus’ rising from the dead. I love v24 – “It was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him.” Someone once called Him our Great Getting-up-Again God! The NLT says “death could not keep Him in its grip.” The Good News says “it was impossible that death should hold him prisoner.” And The Message Bible reads this way: “God untied the death ropes and raised Him up. Death was no match for Him.” You see? Jesus met death, our greatest enemy, head on. And He won. So, for the Christian, death is not a thing to be feared, but a gate to lead us face to face with Jesus. A believer does not need to be afraid of death, because its sting is gone. Thanks be to Jesus.
And finally, Peter says in v33-36 that Jesus is Lord. God not only raised Him from the grave but also exalted Him – lifted Him up – to be the Savior of the world, the Anointed One, the One before whom every knee will bow.
It is this Jesus, the One approved by God, crucified but raised again, and exalted to the highest place – it is this Jesus who poured out the Holy Spirit that day – v33. The Holy Spirit was a promise Jesus had made. John 14:16-17 says: “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” That is, the Spirit is God’s presence here on the earth right now, and, the Spirit leads us to the Truth. John 16:13 says: “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
The Spirit’s role is also to point us to Jesus, who actually called Himself the Truth in the flesh. John 15:26 says: “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me.”
So this Spirit, poured out into the hearts of all believers at Pentecost, is here to point us to Jesus the Savior. Well, if that’s true, then why does He live inside us, as Romans 8 says He does? I mean, why would the Old Testament need to have changed? The Holy Spirit would on occasion empower a believer to do God’s work, like Joseph or Samson or Daniel. Why would that need to be improved upon?
Many reasons could be listed, I suppose, but not the least of them is the internal motivation. Instead of an outside force, the Holy Spirit acts as an inner drive, changing not just the actions but the motives and the determination. And since His purpose is to lead people to the truth and point them to Jesus, we become His willing instruments in the task. We become His vessels, His jars of clay, His hands and feet. We become, in the words of Acts 1, His witnesses to Jesus our Lord.
And the best way to be His witnesses is to be His reflections. To act like Jesus, to sound like Jesus, to walk like Jesus. Now, we never will be Jesus. But we are called to go through what He went through. Jesus endured the cross as part of God’s plans. The torture He went through was part of God’s plans. The submission to God’s designs and the death to self are God’s blueprint for each of us. To want only what God wants is a high calling, but it’s the calling for every believer. Jesus patiently endured every trial He went through. And that’s our calling as well. That’s the connection between who Jesus was, and the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. That’s why we have the Holy Spirit – to give us endurance to follow through with God’s agenda for our lives. To keep us plodding away. To keep us pressing on.
Someone once asked Paul Harvey, the journalist and radio commentator, to reveal the secret of his success. He said, "I get up when I fall down.” And that’s what Peter, the preacher of the first Christian sermon did. After he fell, he got back up. In fact, throughout the years, it seems that God more often used flawed people instead of perfect ones. It seems that God mostly used people who knew what it was to be forgiven, the ones who stumbled and fell but got back up, the ones who persevered despite failures.
And maybe that’s what triumph really is. I mean, Jesus is certainly our Triumphant King, but is triumph never having made a mistake? It had better not be. If triumph was only for perfect people, none of us could claim it. We’ve all failed, maybe even today! But we have the promises of scripture that say: “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And: “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” And: “thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ.” Victory is not for the perfect, but for the ones who get back up in the power of the Holy Spirit, brush the dirt off, and press on. Perseverance is simply getting back up. Triumph is simply outlasting the obstacles.
That’s the message of Pentecost. You can get back up! You’re not alone! Even if you’ve failed, God can still use you! He can fill you and send you out and the past doesn’t have to hold you back! You are more a product of God than a product of your past!
