Acts 2 - Peter's Sermon
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Handout
Intro.
Intro.
Dead car battery story or dead phone story/icon
Without a power source, the car is dead. It won’t operate.
God empowers his church for ministry through the coming of the Holy Spirit.
God empowers his church for ministry through the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Immediately, we see in the text that one of the keys to understanding the work of the early church is unity or togetherness. And this theme is seem throughout all of Acts 2. Unity and togetherness marked the early church and it should also mark the church today. Specifically, it’s about unity in the Spirit.
When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.
There are a few things to unpack right away.
First, the day of Pentecost had arrived.
Why Pentecost?
Short -
God unveils His plans in chronological order through the Jewish feasts.
Jesus was crucified on Passover. The day to sacrifice lambs. Jesus dies and three days later, He rises on the day that happens to be the feast of firstfruits. Jews would present their first fruits at the temple as a thanksgiving to God for His blessings. In effect saying, I am the first fruits and those who put their faith in me will receive what I have experienced.
next - Shavout (feast of weeks). We say Pentecost because it comes from the Greek word for 50th.
This is the day that God determined to pour out His Holy Spirit, which is what we see in Acts 2.
We are 7 weeks + 1 day after the resurrection.
Two reasons:
Pentecost celebrates the Giving of the Law that Moses received from God on Mt. Sinai.
To celebrate the end of the wheat harvest by offering two loaves of wheat bread made with yeast.
We’re going to see these two things tie in to the end of this message. We’ve seen why Pentecost - now what on Pentecost.
Acts 2:2-4 is a vivid description of the manner in which God chose to pour out His Holy Spirit.
He uses something like wind and something like fire to do this. I highlight like wind and life fire, not actual wind and fire. But, these are critical elements:
Wind points to the power of the Spirit and the fullness of His coming and fire points to the presence of God.
Three phenomena are experienced by ALL the believers
Audible - Sound like a rushing wind
Visible - Like tongues of fire
Verbal - People speaking in other languages.
Holy Spirit is mentioned 56 times in the book of Acts - more than any other book of the Bible
In verses 5-13, we see the result of the out pouring. One result was people from around the world were experiencing language they understood, which is a reversal of the Tower of Babel in Genesis.
In verses 12-13, some sneered and said,”they’re full of new wine.”
This is what occasionally happens when people are confronted with the supernatural. Let’s explain it away in some naturalistic or humanistic way.
But Peter steps in - remember Peter
The foot in the mouth, Jesus denying, stumbling speaker is transformed into a lean mean preaching machine and he delivers the first expository sermon.
The coming of the Holy Spirit testifies to God’s promises found in Scripture.
The coming of the Holy Spirit testifies to God’s promises found in Scripture.
Peter stands up and explains what just happened. The gathered ones are not drunk, it’s far too early for that. Instead, everyone gathered is experiencing exactly what God had promised and Peter uses Joel the prophet to explain what had just happened.
Peter ties the amazing wonders of the day to the gift of the Spirit, but he goes a step further: He speaks about the gift givers - God the Father and Jesus the Son. The point of Peter’s sermon was to identify Jesus as Lord and that the Spirit would inspire the hearers to make that proclamation themselves.
God had promised to pour out His Spirit Joel 2:28 notice on who
After this I will pour out My Spirit on all humanity; then your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions.
Second, this pouring out is on all people. The day had come where all could experience God’s presence and
Third, this presence that filled them would minister - prophesy - on His behalf.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
But there is another layer of explanation to how and why Peter delivers His sermon the way He does. He hadn’t spent weeks in preparation for this message. Peter’s sermon seems to be the result of the Spirit’s filling. But if you read on from Acts 2:22 through Acts 2:36, you will find that Peter’s insights are Scriptural - they are embedded in his heart through the supernatural. How should we respond to claims of transformation? With Scripture. Like Peter. How do we respond to any event in the world around us? With Scripture. Friends -
We should use Scripture as the most satisfactory answer for explaining our decisions and actions.
Holy Spirit was leading Peter. His recitation of Scripture in this one sermon is powerful. Peter uses Scripture to explain that Jesus’ crucifixion was a divine necessity. Holy Spirit testifies to the reality of the Psalm 16:8-11 being Jesus as the one who would survive death, not David. And, Peter connects the arrival of the Holy Spirit with Jesus. He now lives in Heaven but he caused this whole sermon!
The gift of the Holy Spirit is transformation.
The gift of the Holy Spirit is transformation.
Acts 2:36 - trouble in the camp
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah!”
Peter closes his sermon with this statement. But he is confronted with a question in verse 37
When they heard this, they came under deep conviction and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Brothers, what must we do?”
Something powerful happened to these hearers. They were convicted - cut to the heart.
I said earlier that Pentecost was the day that celebrated the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. In Exodus 32, Moses comes down the mountain to find the people worshiping the golden calf. There’s this interchange for most of the chapter and this in Exodus 32:26
And Moses stood at the camp’s entrance and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered around him.
instruction in Exodus 32:27
He told them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man fasten his sword to his side; go back and forth through the camp from entrance to entrance, and each of you kill his brother, his friend, and his neighbor.’ ”
But, when you read on in verse 28
The Levites did as Moses commanded, and about 3,000 men fell dead that day among the people.
What the law could never deliver was life.
The law didn’t save - it exposed.
The law can’t save a person. We read this in 2 Corinthians 3:6
He has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit produces life.
Second reason - to celebrate the end of the wheat harvest by offering at the Temple two loaves of wheat bread made with yeast.
Significance - yeast always is pictured negatively - as evil. At Passover, everything with yeast had to be removed from the house. Get rid of it. It’ll get in to everything else. The sacrifice is made on behalf of the people. It is a picture of sin. But it is also a picture of how we are powerless over sin. We can try all we want to get it out, we can’t. They’d wave the loaves around thanking God as the Lord of the harvest. On that occasion, the celebration of the wheat harvest, God accepted the offering.
“Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus, the spotless lamb dies on the cross. The one who had no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God.
Something powerful happened to these hearers. They were convicted - cut to the heart. This word is used to describe the attitude of our hearts. And Peter shares exactly how those people could experience what the law could never give - life.
Why? Because in Acts chapter 2, there’s also a great harvest presented to the Lord.
3,000 people, full of yeast are presented before the Lord and declared righteous. These lives have been marked by yeast, the leaven of their lives, yet they’re accepted.
How many will continue to present themselves?
As many as the Lord our God will call?
Is your life full of the Holy Spirit?
Is your life full of the Holy Spirit?
The gift of the Holy Spirit is God’s promise to those who turn to the Lord.
even with no sound, no flame and no foreign language -people were saved.
Are you one who needs to receive the gift of the Spirit?
Repent, turn from your life of sin. Receive God’s gift of salvation through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. And be renewed by the cleansing of the holy Spirit.
Song.