Radical Response

Last week we spoke about the powerful manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of the new believers. The Spirit came down like a mighty rushing wind, filling the room, and filling them personally. That powerful filling overflowed into the streets below as people from every nation heard the words of the wonderful works of God in their own languages. The people wanted to know what this meant and Peter in his very first sermon let them know that these signs and wonders were all part of God's prophetic plan for the last days.

What was shocking is when Peter said, “Jesus, the one you had rejected and crucified, is the very one God raised from the dead and confirmed is both Lord and Messiah.” This was an incredibly bold statement by Peter. How did the crowd react to this statement? How would you have reacted? Let’s look at how they responded.

Acts 2:37-41

37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” 38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.

What happened here? Peter spoke with such urgency, such conviction that when they heard his words something unexpected happened. They were:

1. Pierced to the heart

The eyes of their hearts were opened to what they had done, and Peter’s words deeply convicted them. The word pierced means: to pierce all the way down, i.e. deeply (thoroughly) pained; "emotionally pierced through"; psychologically pricked, they were emotionally stunned.

The idea of this word in the Greek is that those who were listening were at first in a spiritual stupor, their hearts were numb to the reality of what they had done but Peter’s Spirit-filled words pierced through their calloused hearts and exposed their actions. They were pierced through when they realized that they were complicit in the greatest of crimes against God and there was no way to reverse it. They were guilty of murdering the Messiah, the Son of God and when they realized it, they were emotionally stunned - convicted, broken, crushed, and undone. When they realized what they had done the first question they asked Peter was, “what shall we do?” Normally when a preacher finishes the message, he finishes with a challenge of what the Scriptures are calling us to do. How interesting it is that when Peter finishes his first sermon the people are so convicted, so cut to the heart they ask him, “what should we do?”

Peter replies again with such urgency and with hope for anyone who would listen: “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.” Peter didn’t pile a list of ethical demands that they had to fulfill before they could be saved and baptized.” The message was simply, “Repent and be baptized.” Repent in the OT talks about genuine sorrow for the wrong that you have done and involves an alteration of attitude towards God. In the NT, repentance means a radical reorientation of life with respect to Jesus. What was the radical reorientation?

The Jews had seen Jesus as someone claiming deity and deserving of death, so they crucified Him. But once the Spirit opened their eyes, they saw Him for Who He is, the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. When they heard the powerful words of Peter and the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ, they understood that the One they had rejected is the only One who could save them from judgment. They repented and were baptized (an outward testimony of an inward reality) identifying with Jesus death burial and resurrection. They turned from their old belief system and way of thinking in a...

2. Radical response

The people had a complete paradigm shift in the way they thought about Jesus, made a decision to believe in Him as their Savior, and to change the source and direction of their lives. As practicing Jews for generations and generations, this was radical. We do not know how many were there but we know that 3,000 responded, believed in Christ as the Messiah, and were baptized. 3,000 were added to the Kingdom that day but many more heard the gospel.