An Extraordinary Turning Point in History

12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” 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. 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. 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. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Big Idea

The Spirit leads Christ’s followers toward others to proclaim that Jesus is the Lord and that salvation comes in his name. The message demands a response.

Key Themes

■ God’s purposes, which may seem to be hidden, are revealed in Scripture.

■ The crucified Messiah is also the exalted Lord. His death and resurrection belong to God’s plan for human salvation.

■ The outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a sign that the final epoch of salvation has dawned, and the gospel message requires the response of repentance and baptism.

Understanding the Text

After witnessing the Spirit’s sound-and-light show and the multilingual miracle, the crowd asks, “What does this mean?” (2:12).

Peter, who once had cowered on the fringe of the crowd to see what would happen to Jesus

and then denied knowing him three times before a small group (Luke 22:54–62), now boldly takes center stage to give the answer.

The phrase “with many other words” (2:40) shows that Luke presents only the highlights of Peter’s sermon.

It is a typical example of what was preached frequently by him and others in the days to come. It is based on the interpretation of Scripture learned from the risen Lord during his sojourn with them before his ascension (Luke 24:44–48).[1]

Introduction

The Son of God and King of Glory has humbled himself and come to earth as a servant.

He has died on the cross to destroy the works of the devil and to bear the sins of all who believe in him.

He has risen from the dead to vindicate all his claims and to give indestructible hope to all who follow him.

He told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they are clothed with power from on high.

He told them in that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and they would be his witnesses to the end of the world.

He had told them earlier in John 14:16 that he would send the Spirit of truth to be their Counselor when he was gone.

He had promised in John 16:8 that when the Spirit comes, he will convince the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.[2]

There is an extraordinary turn in world history. The Son of God, the king of Glory, has appeared on the earth.

He has ransomed a great multitude of people by his blood.

Now, he is saying that one more chapter in world history must be written before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.

It will be the chapter of the Spirit.

The Spirit empowering his people for witness (Acts 1:8) and the Spirit convincing the world of sin (John 16:8).

And this last chapter will continue until the ends of the earth are reached (Acts 1:8), until the gospel of the kingdom is preached in all the world as a testimony to all peoples (Matthew 24:14). Then the end will come—when the Spirit has gathered the ransomed of God from every people and tribe and tongue and nation (John 11:52; Revelation 5:9).[3]

The 12 disciples waited in Jerusalem as Jesus told them to. They worship at the temple (Luke 24:53) and pray continually in the upper room. Until the feast of Pentecost.

And on that, when they were all together, the Spirit came, just as Jesus promised he would. Acts 2:4 says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

According to verse 11 their mouths were filled with the mighty works of God, and they spoke them in languages that all different nations could understand.

A False Assumption

When we hear stories like this or read of them in the text of Scripture, it is our tendency as Christians to identify with the good guys, to see ourselves as among those who received this outpouring of the grace of God and welcomed it,

rather than among those who remained skeptics and cynics.

Unbelievers who were there that day did not hear the message of God in their own language but instead heard a cacophony. They heard gibberish and could make no sense of it whatsoever.

Their first assumption was that the Jewish men assembled in that place were completely drunk, intoxicated beyond all measure, and were babbling in their drunken incoherence.

When that charge was made, Peter stepped up and defended the truth of the gospel and what had happened.

Peter began his sermon by answering the charge, “They are full of new wine” (v. 13)

The wine used by Jews in the Old and New Testaments was real wine and had the power to intoxicate.

That is why the unbelievers assumed that this was an occasion at which wine had been overindulged,

and not only that, but with new wine, which was not even the most powerful wine of the day.

Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice, and said,

“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose since it is only the third hour of the day” (vv. 14–15).

He did not go into an elaborate defense against the charge of drunkenness;

he simply mentioned in passing how ridiculous it would have been to see 120 pious Jewish men assembled at nine o’clock in the morning, all of them drunk.

In a sense, Peter said in his opening salvo, “You must be drunk to assume that so many people here are drunk out of their minds.

That’s not what’s happening.” He did not spend much time on what was not the cause of the phenomenon; rather,

he took them immediately to a biblical explanation of the phenomenon that had just occurred.[5]

Peter gives a very different understanding of what is happening. He says it is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy about the last chapter of history. [6]

The Last Days are Mixed Days

Joel's prophecy, which Peter quotes in Acts 2:17–21, makes clear that

the last days will be mixed days—days of powerful witness (vv. 17–18) and days of terrible calamity (vv. 19–20).

When Joel looked into the future, God didn't tell him how many years would separate the different parts of the last days that he was describing.

He saw the last days as all one piece.

Some of what he saw was nearer to the beginning of the last days, and some was nearer to the end of the last days.

The Bright Part of Joel's Prophecy

So, when you read his prophecy, it has two parts—a bright part and a dark part. The bright part is verses 17–18,

Acts 2:17–18 (ESV)

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.

Joel says that one feature of the last days will be the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on people of every kind—men and women, young and old, high and low.

God's people will be clothed with power; they will receive power. And the main effect of this power seems to be bold, prophetic speech.

Believers of all kinds will be so gripped by the Spirit of God that they see the greatness and purpose of Jesus with extraordinary clarity and speak it with extraordinary boldness.

That's the bright part of Joel's prophecy.

Joel foretold the day in which every believer, from every tribe and tongue, would be a prophet.

On the Day of Pentecost, and indeed throughout the church age, God has given both a preview and a sample of the power the Spirit will release in the kingdom.

Believers in the present age have a foretaste of kingdom life.

Peter quotes Joel as saying that all of God’s servants will prophesy. While God appoints some servants to the office of a pastor, every believer is called to teach in some capacity.

In pointing this out, Peter is not saying every believer has the gift of prophecy (1 Cor 12:10).

During the church age, God pours His Spirit into believers.

Titus 3:5–6 “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”

In the kingdom there will be perfect peace (Isa. 9:7); peace rules now in the hearts of believers.

In the kingdom, Christ will reign (Luke 1:33); He reigns now in the hearts of His people. In the kingdom, Christ will judge all men (Acts 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1); now He judges His people through the Spirit’s convicting ministry in their lives.

What will ultimately come to full fruition in the kingdom began to be seen at Pentecost. [7]

Rather, he means that every believer shares the general privilege and responsibility of Old Testament prophets.

Old Testament prophets were able to know God intimately and were commissioned to speak God’s Word faithfully. They came to know him mainly through “dreams and visions.”

Now we know him through Jesus Christ, and we can grow in our knowledge through the revealed Word of God.

But still like the prophets, we must declare God’s Word to the world. It’s our mission.[8]

Jesus Speaking Scripture

A friend of mine tells of a Persian migrant who arrived at a refugee center at 6 a.m., visibly upset. He told his story to a Persian pastor: During the night he saw someone dressed in white raise his hand and say, “Stand up and follow me.” The Persian man said, “Who are you?” The man in white replied, “I am the Alpha and the Omega. I’m the way to heaven. No one can go to the Father, except through me.”

He began to ask the Persian pastor: “Who is he? What am I going to do? Why did he ask me to follow him? How shall I go? Tell me.”

In response, the pastor held out his Bible and asked, “Have you seen this before?”

“No,” he replied.

“Do you know what it is?”

“No.”

The pastor then opened to the Book of Revelation: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” The man started crying and said, “How can I accept him? How can I follow him?” So the pastor led him in prayer and peace came over him. The pastor then gave the man a Bible and told him to hide it, since the Muslims in the camps could cause him trouble.

But the man replied, “The Jesus that I met today, he’s more powerful than the Muslims in the camp.” He left and an hour later returned with 10 more Persians and told the pastor, “These people want a Bible.” No one had to teach him an evangelistic strategy.

Everyone is included in God’s worldwide, unstoppable mission—young and old, rich and poor get to participate. No one is stuck being an observer. If you are a believer in Christ, you are a participant in the King’s mission.

His Spirit empowered you to tell of his glory for the world’s benefit. [9]

The Holy Spirit had been poured out, not on seventy, not on 140, not just on men, but on women, servants, and everybody in the flock of God. God has poured out His Spirit upon all of us.

There is no such thing as a Christian who has not been anointed by the Holy Spirit for ministry. Paul will say later, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,” (1 Cor. 12:13).

We do not all have the same gifts, but we have the same Spirit, and we are all called to be deeply involved in the ministry of the kingdom of God.

Consider the church today as a set of Concentric Circles

The center circle comprises the church's core, the people who attend every Sunday morning and are involved in every aspect of church life.

The next circle represents those who are somewhat regular in church attendance. We might see them once a year at some other function besides a Sunday morning service.

The third level represents those who come on Christmas, Easter, and maybe Thanksgiving.

Those in the two outer circles are denying Pentecost because the whole life of the church involves the whole people of the church.

Every Christian has received the same power that the people assembled on the day of Pentecost received.

The Dark Part of Joel's Prophecy

Acts 2:19–20 (ESV)

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.

Natural catastrophes, war and bloodshed, and fire and devastation will occur. This great age will end with the “day of the Lord”—a special manifestation of the Lord’s power, glory, and justice.[10]

God announces that there is a final judgment because he loves us.

He warns us about the cataclysm that is coming so that we will turn to him and live. Satan wants to cast a spell over us so that we believe that there will not be a judgment. The Lord urgently warns us: the final judgment is real. It is not a myth. Warning about an impending disaster is the voice of love.

In this passage, the ultimate day of the Lord associated with the second coming of Christ is in view (cf. 1 Thess. 5:2; 2 Thess. 2:2). That is clear from the details of Joel’s prophecy. The signs in the earth and heavens Joel mentions are connected elsewhere in Scripture with the events surrounding Christ’s second coming. [11]

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 will be 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.

After hearing Peter quote Joel’s terrifying description of the day of the Lord, the crowd would naturally want to know how to avoid being caught in that time of terror and devastation. Peter then delivers the climax of his quote from Joel.

And it shall be, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

There is salvation for those who turn to the Savior. In the main body of his sermon, Peter describes to his hearers exactly who that Savior is and what He requires for salvation.[ 12]

Ministry of the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:21 (ESV)

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Peter ends the quote from Joel with this: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (v. 21).

Peter was not concerned about the meaning of the tongue-speaking, the glossolalia;

Peter was concerned about the significance in redemptive history of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to the whole community.

He went on to proclaim the life and ministry of Christ, as we will see in our next study. There were three thousand on that day whose hearts were moved by the Word of God, who put their trust in Christ.

Many churches today are excited about the Holy Spirit, which is fine, but the danger of that is to misunderstand the mission of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit always points beyond Himself to Christ. If you are in a Spirit-filled church that does not focus on the ministry of Christ, you are not in a Spirit-filled church. It is that simple.

The Holy Spirit is sent to empower the church to bear witness to Christ and to apply the work of Christ on the cross in terms of its redemptive significance to all who believe.

The Father sends, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies the work of Christ. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit was poured out without measure, and the focus was on Christ. [13]

Conclusion

We are to have an impact on others through our Christian message and lifestyle.

The crowd at Pentecost reacted with amazement and perplexity, which can be positive or negative reactions.

How should the church amaze others and do so in ways that have positive results?

What noises emanate from the church that make people want to come to see what is happening?

What is so earth-shattering about what the church does?

It should be noted that these first disciples did not focus on producing a spiritual extravaganza to attract and entertain onlookers.

Instead, they offered biblical exposition that called for the response of repentance.

They also witnessed with more than just words; they presented a distinctively alternative lifestyle.

Let us to be a part of that bright, bold, prophetic, Christ-exalting, risk-taking, last days, band of disciples—taking the clear and glorious message of verse 21 everywhere, no matter what: "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

2. True repentance requires a change of mind and actions, and it is evoked by a plain-spoken message. Peter does not try to soft-sell the gospel. Rather, he confronts his audience head-on with the message of the cross: “You crucified him!” This first proclamation of the gospel and call to repent cut the hearers to the heart. Today, the razor-sharp edge of the message is sometimes blunted to make it more palatable and less critical of cultural values and behaviors. Many may resist being included in this accusation that they crucified Jesus. Few like being told that they are doing wrong and deserve God’s punishment. Any note of judgment is objectionable to those who are convinced that “I’m OK, you’re OK,” or maintain that “I am simply expressing who I am.”[14]

[1]Garland, D. E. (2017). Acts (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; p. 30). Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group. [2]Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1980–1989). Desiring God. [3]Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1980–1989). Desiring God. [4]Sproul, R. C. (2010). Acts(p. 46). Crossway. [5]Sproul, R. C. (2010). Acts(pp. 46–47). Crossway. [6]Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1980–1989). Desiring God. cf. confer (Lat.), compare [7]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1994). Acts 1–12 (p. 52). Moody Press. [8]Merida, T. (2017). Exalting jesus in acts (p. 27). Holman Reference. [9]Merida, T. (2017). Exalting jesus in acts (p. 28). Holman Reference. [10]Hughes, R. K. (1996). Acts: the church afire (p. 40). Crossway Books. cf. confer(Lat.), compare [11]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1994). Acts 1–12 (p. 53). Moody Press. [12]MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1994). Acts 1–12(p. 55). Moody Press. [13]Sproul, R. C. (2010). Acts(pp. 50–51). Crossway. [14]Garland, D. E. (2017). Acts (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; p. 34). Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group.

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