Acts 2 13-41
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There are several sermons in the book of Acts this is the first one and its preached by Peter, and Peter is responding to verse 13 which says.
13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”
When you look at this sermon in Acts chapter 2, scholars are in agreement that the sermon is very biblical, he is preaching from the texts of scripture. It focuses on Jesus.. It was preached without fear. I like what one man said, “It is easy to be bold when preaching to the choir. It is easy for a preacher to be bold when he is in his own pulpit, among friends. But when there are manifestly hostile people breathing out fire, as Stephen was soon to find out, a bold preacher takes a great risk. That is why Martin Luther said that in every generation there will be the threat of the gospel going into eclipse. Every time the gospel is proclaimed, clearly and boldly, opposition arises and conflict comes. A minister has never mounted a pulpit anywhere in the world who has not been absolutely aware of how dangerous it is to be bold. So when preachers are fearful, they have to come back to this text and look at the way the Apostles, without respect for their lives or their worldly goods, would say, like Luther, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,” and then preach with boldness.”
Forth it was preached between the ears.. Peter’s words are not empty.. But filled with truth.
Lets start it..
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
He is setting the stage what you are about to hear. Its not just rambling like some thought this is what God had predicted all throughout time. So Peter goes and tells them this is what is suppose to happen.
16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 “ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
Every member of the body of Christ was enjoying the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
He continues by quoting Joel again and it says…
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
This verse has a-lot of different interpretations. Some commentators say that the last days began with the advent of Christ into the world and that these kinds of spectacular signs did occur, literally, on Good Friday, when apparently a solar eclipse turned all Jerusalem into darkness in the middle of the afternoon. Others look to a.d. 70, when astronomical disturbances were reported, both by Josephus and Tacitus, at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the climactic judgment that fell upon Old Testament Israel. Another interpretation is based on prophetic words used during times of judgment in the Old Testament. The language of doom was used concerning Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a poetic form of expressing the radical judgment of God.
Peter is saying, however, that we are in the last days. We are in the day of the Lord that every Jew in the Old Testament looked forward to, the day on which they saw all hope of messianic fulfillment and about which Amos warned, “Is not the day of the Lord darkness?… But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream” (Amos 5:20–24). The crisis moment in world history was the coming of Christ into the world. For those who were being redeemed, the day of the Lord was a day of light and brightness and joy, but for those who were perishing, it was a day of unspeakable darkness, as predicted by Joel.
Notice what Peter does after these things…
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
He says hey listen if you call upon the name of the Lord you will be saved, and you should because all these things things will happened and the Lord will judge all things and those who don’t believe will go to hell...
And then he shifts he focus to Jesus.
This is some my favorite parts of this sermon. Its impactful for us to think about.
Verse 22. Acts 2:22
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
Many of the people that Peter is preaching to seen Jesus, they seen his works, they saw what he did. If you remember in John the Signs, and Miracles he did attested to the very fact that he was the very Son of God. John 3:2
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
He goes on to say..
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
This verse is a powerful reminder that God’s plan can never and I mean never be thwarted by man, and it was their sin, and our sin that hung Jesus on the cross.
Listen to this…
Acts Word to the Jews
Westminster Confession, “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass.” If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be God. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be sovereign. However, His sovereign foreordination of all things, says the Confession, is not carried out in such a way as to eliminate secondary causes or do violence to the will of the creature. That is, when God brings His will to pass, He works in, through, and by the real decisions of real people. The classic example is Joseph before his brothers at the time of their reunion. They were terrified that Joseph would wreak revenge against them, but Joseph put them at ease. He said of their atrocious act of betrayal against him, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). Joseph’s brothers acted treacherously and delivered Joseph into slavery, but God was working through it for His own good purposes. It is difficult to conceive of the greatness and majesty of His sovereignty, that God can bring His goodness to pass even through wretched sin.
Such a powerful reminder to us..
But Peter continues and says the most important thing in the sermon yet.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Jesus is alive, that is why we are here, but the language here is interesting isn’t it.
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
Its vital to our faith that Jesus Christ is actually raised from the dead.
But during my study this week I found this.. We are dealing here with One who is sinless, and the Scriptures tell us that it is through sin that death came into the world. The really astonishing statistic is not that one should rise from the dead but that one should remain sinless throughout his life. If that is true, then it would be morally unjust for God to allow a sinless man to suffer the curse that He assigned to sin.
Maybe that is what Peter had in mind when he said that not only was it possible for Jesus to be raised from the dead, but it was impossible for Him not to be raised from the dead.
See Jesus is that lamb without blemish, but he is also a person without it as well, and the punishment for him did not fit the crime, so its only fitting and just that he not only pay for sins, but show that he reigns over them.
Death cannot hold him.
And to explain this he goes back to the scriptures and David, and explains how Davids prophecies fit into Jesus. …
Acts 2:25–36 (ESV)
25 For David says concerning him,
“ ‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.” ’
Peter is quoting part of Psalm 110, telling about the Messiah to come, but he also makes the point that David is dead, and his tomb shows it, but Jesus is alive, and has poured out his spirit, to all the body of believers, that are prophesying in this moment.
and he is sitting in heaven, ruling now…
We might look over what Peter said lightly here, but the audience would not, he is speaking there language, so he says..
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
SO Luke who wrote this is like this people are pierced cut to the very heart. They are so convicted, because they know he is right..
There is a quote I heard in a sermon one time that said… Before we can begin to see the cross as something done FOR us, leading us to faith and worship, we have to see it as something done BY us, leading us to repentance. Only the man or woman who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross may claim his share in its grace.”
So after all of this they are like what do we do? Peter tells them..
38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This verse by many different groups of believers gets misinterpreted in light of all of Scripture.
Some have this idea that water baptism gives you the Holy Spirit, or baptism is to be done in Jesus name.
But one must repent and believe before they are baptized and baptism is a representation of that genuine response to the gospel. And all those who truly respond to the gospel have the Holy Spirit living in them.
If you need more evidence of repentance in faith…
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
And the best news is this sermon by the Power of the Holy Spirit changed lives, and it leaves us with the promise that even us today, and our kids, and those far from him can be saved with powerful message of the gospel.
This passage gives me encouragement because we can depend on the power of the Holy Spirit to change hearts, all we have to do is be bold and faithful with the message.