Acts 2:1-41, "Bold Trust and Bold Truth from Baptized Hicks"

When was the last time you did something so bold or unexpected that people around you demanded an explanation? Are our lives so unusual in a good way that people around us demand to know what got into us? Is it possible to experience the power of God so fully that you could change the course of history or the lives of thousands of people?

This is the message of Acts 2. The disciples of Jesus are transformed from timid, confused students of a departed rabbi into bold witnesses to the power of God, changed the lives of thousands of people and changed the course of history so that now, almost one third of the 8 billion people on earth identify as Christians. How did this happen?

The Baptism

Acts 2:1-13

The context is Pentecost: the day God’s word came down on Mount Sinai with wind and flame. The presence of God in power and glory had descended on the mountain to meet Moses and give him the Torah. Unfortunately, when Moses came down the mountain, he found Israel in the middle of a rebellion against God, worshipping an idol. So, Moses’ cousins, the tribe of Levi slaughtered 3,000 people who had committed this sin.

But God in His grace returned in power and glory to fill a tent of meeting in a tabernacle with His presence. He would be in the midst of the people, creating a meeting place between heaven and earth. People could come to sacrifice and pray in God’s presence through the priest anointed by God to intercede for them. They could also hear God’s word proclaimed in the tabernacle (later the Temple).

So, in Acts 2 on Pentecost, when we see the wind, the flame, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus, we should see this as a new outpouring of God’s word in power and a new meeting place of heaven and earth, a new tabernacle. This time that tabernacle is people.

There are three ways the text of Acts talks about what is happening that help us understand its significance for us. The first is baptism, as Jesus said in Acts 1:5.

Acts 1:5 (ESV)

for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

Baptism means immersion. The disciples are being immersed in the Holy Spirit. When you immerse yourself in water or a book or a video game, you leave the world behind and are transported to a world with different rules and possibilities. It’s a little like that. When you immerse yourself in another person, you begin to see the world through their eyes, think their thoughts, and talk the way they talk. It’s a little more like that. The Holy Spirit is coming in power on the disciples in a way that transports them into a way of living that sees this world through God’s eyes, thinks His thoughts, and speaks His words. Are you immersed in the Holy Spirit in this way?

Acts 2:4 also describes what is happening as being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible talks about being baptized and filled in slightly different ways sometimes, but here they come together. The filling of the Holy Spirit also seems to be connected here with speaking in foreign languages, or as you may have heard it, speaking in tongues. This is one of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives to some believers. But there are other gifts the Holy Spirit might give when He fills believers. Paul talks in his letters to the churches about gifts like encouragement, leadership and helping, teaching and wisdom, administration, hospitality, and serving. There is the gift of prophecy which Peter exhibits here in Acts 2. All of these gifts are given to believers in the church so that the church can build itself up to carry out the ministry of the gospel in its time and place. What are the gifts we see in our church and how does that shape the ministry of the gospel God has given us?

On this Pentecost in Acts 2, the ministry required the preaching of the gospel of God in Jesus Christ in languages that could be understood by the diverse people who had come from around the world for the Feast in Jerusalem. This was one of the three pilgrimage feasts in which Jews who had been dispersed in exile throughout the world would return as one people to give thanks to God for His provision and His Word. So, this chapter of Acts is a fulfillment of promises we saw in Isaiah of the return of exiles and the nations ascending the mountain of the LORD to learn from Him all at once. But instead of going to the Temple, where the glory of God had departed, God is now inhabiting a new Temple, the believers gathered in Jesus’ name, proclaiming the works of God in Jesus Christ.

It is also the fulfillment and redemption of Pentecost itself. If on the first Pentecost, God’s word came down on a mountain and 3,000 people were killed because of their idolatry, now His word comes down into 120 people and 3,000 others are given eternal life. And as Peter says, these 3,000 will also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Believers in Jesus are the new Tabernacle or Temple, anointed as priests to minister God’s presence to others around them.

The third way the text talks about this event is a pouring out of the Spirit, which is an anointing by the Holy Spirit of new priests. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and He has anointed you as a priest. What is the priestly role you have in someone else’s life? Are you involved in anyone’s life to hear their confession of sin, to pray for them, and to speak God’s word to them to heal and comfort them and tell them of their forgiveness in Jesus Christ?

The baptism in the Holy Spirit we see in Acts 2 is the start of something new in God’s kingdom. He is anointing a new moveable, adaptable tabernacle, a meeting place of heaven and earth, that will take His presence to all the nations of the earth with the message of the gospel of Jesus. And the first disciples of Jesus get started right away. They are so immersed in and filled with the Holy Spirit, that they begin preaching the gospel in all their new languages with a radical boldness.

The Boldness

This group of hicks from Galilee all speaking fluently in foreign languages draws a lot of attention from this diverse crowd. But more important than their new ability was the content of their message.

Acts 2:22–24 (ESV)

“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— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

“You crucified and killed” Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Messiah. Pretty hard words. What gives Peter this boldness? He is convinced that God was in full control, working out His plan of salvation. The people were guilty of sin, but Jesus was not their victim. God was at work. Are you and I so convinced that God’s will is going to be done in our lives that we can see even the things people mean as evil as something God can use for good? Peter’s boldness is based in God’s sovereignty over the plans of men.

But He is also a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. “God raised Him up…because it was not possible for him to be held by death.” Peter is a disciple of the most powerful person in the universe. Jesus has overcome death. So what can anyone else do to us? As he says in conclusion,

Acts 2:36 (ESV)

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Have you yet encountered the risen Jesus Christ in this way, that you can overcome your fear of people enough to tell them the truth they need to hear? Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit tells the truth and trust in God. Jesus was crucified by sinful people, but He is risen from the dead and is now both lord and Messiah. Is our gospel message this simple and clear?

This message, under the power of the Holy Spirit, in verse 37, cut the people to the heart.

Acts 2:37 (ESV)

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?”

The Baptisms

Acts 2:37-41

Peter’s reply is to go back to where we started. He invites them into the baptism that is happening in real time.

Acts 2:38 (ESV)

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.

Being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is a declaration of allegiance to Jesus as Messiah. Baptism, immersion in water, is a physical sign that we have died to our old life with its old allegiance and citizenship in the kingdom of this world and are raised to new life with and in Jesus.

The results, as Peter says, are forgiveness of sins and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual baptism. Peter says the promise made thousands of years before in the prophets has finally come true. Human beings can become the tabernacle or temple of God, a walking, talking house of God, filled with the Spirit of God, empowered to do the works of Christ and speak His words with power. That promise is now for everyone far and near.

Acts 2:39 (ESV)

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.”

If even those guilty of the sin of crucifying Jesus can be saved from that crooked generation, anyone can be saved. And anyone who repents and receives new life in Jesus Christ will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This process starts over in every new believer.

Some questions I’m considering in response:

Is my baptism in the Holy Spirit producing a bold witness to Jesus Christ to the degree that people around me are asking questions?

Am I filled with the Holy Spirit or filled with distractions that will diminish His power in me?

What gift(s) has the Holy Spirit given me and how am I using it together with the rest of the Church to minister the gospel to our city?

Is the message of the gospel so clear in my words that people are cut to the heart?

Communion

Questions for Discussion

How does where you are from affect the way people see you and treat you?

How does the Holy Spirit overcome the deficiencies of our upbringing and our prejudices toward others?

What stands out to you about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon believers in Jesus in Acts 2?

What do we learn about God from this passage?

What do we learn about ourselves?

What gift(s) has the Holy Spirit given you? What are the gifts you see in other people in this group? How could you use those gifts together in some way to minister the gospel?

Where did Peter get his boldness to preach the message we read in Acts 2? How can we become this bold?

How would you summarize Peter’s gospel message in a couple of sentences? How have you been able to share this message with someone lately?