The First Christian Sermon

After the excitement of speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost it is easy to skip the deep meaning of this section and simply focus on the 3000 men who come to Christ and are then added to the church. But if we do that we will miss out on rich truths that are given to us by the writer of Acts, Dr Luke.

What should the title of this section be called?

The sudden growth of the church

The greatest sermon ever preached

The man who once denied Christ now proclaims Christ

The first Christian sermon

William Barclay

is one of the most interesting passages in the New Testament, because it is an account of the ﬁrst Christian sermon ever preached. In the early Church, there were four different kinds of preaching.

(1) There was ... a herald’s announcement and is the plain statement of the facts of the Christian message, about which, as the early preachers saw it, there can be no argument or doubt.

(2) There was ... teaching, and explained the meaning of the facts which had been proclaimed.

(3) There was … exhortation. This kind of preaching urged upon people the duty of ﬁtting their lives to match the “facts and the teaching” which had been given.

(4) There was homilia, which means the treatment of any subject or sphere of life in light of the Christian message. “In other words, this is how you should live in light of the Christian message”

Fully rounded preaching has something of all four elements. There is the plain proclamation of the facts of the Christian gospel; the explanation of the meaning and the relevance of these facts; the exhortation to ﬁt life to them; and the treatment of all the activities of life in the light of the Christian message.

In Acts, we shall meet mainly with kerugma, because Acts tells of the proclamation of the facts of the gospel to those who had never heard them before. This kerugma follows a pattern which repeats itself over and over again all through the New Testament.

(1) There is the proof that Jesus and all that happened to him is the fulﬁlment of Old Testament prophecy. In recent years, less and less stress has been laid on the fulﬁlment of prophecy. We have come to see that the prophets were not nearly so much foretellers of events to come as forthtellers of God’s truth. But this stress of early preaching on prophecy conserved the great truth that history is not haphazard and that there is meaning to it. To believe in the possibility of prophecy is to believe that God is in control and that he is working out his purposes.

(2) In Jesus the Messiah has come, the messianic prophecies are fulﬁlled and the new age has dawned. The early Church had a tremendous sense that Jesus was the hinge of all history; that, with his coming, eternity had invaded time; and that, therefore, life and the world could never be the same again.

(3) The kerugma went on to state that Jesus had been born of the line of David, that he had taught, that he had worked miracles, that he had been cruciﬁed, that he had been raised from the dead and that he was now at the right hand of God. The early Church was sure that the Christian religion was based on the earthly life of Christ. But it was also certain that that earthly life and death were not the end and that after them came the resurrection. Jesus was not merely someone about whom they read or heard; he was someone whom they met and knew, a living presence.

(4) The early preachers went on to insist that Jesus would return in glory to establish his kingdom upon earth. In other words, the early Church believed intensely in the second coming. This doctrine has to some extent passed out of modern preaching; but it does conserve the truth that history is going somewhere and that some day there will be a completion and fulﬁlment and that people are therefore in the way or on the way.

(5) The preaching ﬁnished with the statement that only in Jesus was salvation possible, that those who believed on him would receive the Holy Spirit and that those who would not believe were destined for terrible things. That is to say, it ﬁnished with both a promise and a threat. It is exactly like that voice which John Bunyan heard, as if coming from right behind him, demanding: ‘Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or wilt thou have thy sins and go to hell?’

If we read through Peter’s sermon as a whole, we will see how these ﬁve strands are woven into it.

Barclay, W. (2003). The Acts of the Apostles (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated., pp. 24–26). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

Acts 2:14–41 ESV

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.’ 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— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 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.” ’ 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?” 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. 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.

Acts 2:14–21 ESV

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.’

1) The explanation (14-21)

Acts 2:14-21

Acts 2:14–21 ESV

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.’

These men are not drunk - speaking another language on the Temple mount at 9am in the morning -

Joel 2:28–32 ESV

28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. 30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

Joel 2:28-32

Last days, God declares

The last days - began with Christ coming to earth

The book ends of the church age, the times of the Gentiles, the fullness of the Gentiles - ;

Revelation 6:11–13 ESV

11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. 12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

Revelation 6:12–13 ESV

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

The Book of Revelation describes

The need to come to Christ given the fulfillment of prophecy. God is at work. He has begun. His return could be at any moment.

(2) The proclamation (22-36)

Acts 2:22–36 ESV

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— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 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.” ’ 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.”

The humanity of Jesus - of Nazareth

That God did through him - and the emptying of his deity so that he was dependent on the power of the Spirit and the will of the Father.

The death of Jesus

The definite plan and foreknowledge of God - the sovereign and purposeful plan of God. The crucifixion was no accident.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 9: John and Acts b. Kerygma Section (2:22–36)

The death of Jesus is presented as resulting from the interplay of divine necessity and human freedom. Nowhere in the NT is the paradox of a Christian understanding of history put more sharply than in this earliest proclamation of the death of Jesus the Messiah: God’s purpose and foreknowledge stand as the necessary factors behind whatever happens; yet whatever happens occurs through the instrumentality of wicked men expressing their own human freedom. It is a paradox without ready solution. To deny it, however, is to go counter to the plain teaching of Scripture in both the OT and NT and to ignore the testimony of personal experience. “With the help of wicked men” points to the Roman authorities in Palestine, who carried out what had been instigated by the Jewish authorities

verse 24 - the resurrection of Jesus - foretold by scripture

David the Lord’s anointed, the greatest king is surpassed by the King of Kings

verse 33 - what you see is the work of Jesus

The Deity of Jesus - God has made him both Lord and Christ

And you crucified him

William Barclay

The Acts of the Apostles Lord and Christ (Acts 2:22–36)

HERE is a passage full of the essence of the thought of the early preachers.

(1) It insists that the cross was no accident. It belonged to the eternal plan of God (verse 23). Over and over again, Acts states this same thing (cf. 3:18, 4:28, 13:29). The thinking found in Acts safeguards us from two serious errors in our understanding of the death of Jesus. (a) The cross is not a kind of emergency measure ﬂung out by God when everything else had failed. It is part of God’s very life. (b) We must never think that anything Jesus did changed the attitude of God to men and women. It was by God that Jesus was sent. We may put it in this way: the cross was a window in time allowing us to see the suffering love which is eternally in the heart of God.

(2) Acts insists that this in no way lessens the enormity of what those who cruciﬁed Jesus actually did. Every mention of the cruciﬁxion in Acts is loaded with a feeling of shuddering horror (cf. Acts 2:23, 3:13, 4:10, 5:30). Apart from anything else, the cruciﬁxion shows supremely how horrifyingly sin can behave.

(3) Acts is out to prove that the sufferings and death of Christ were the fulﬁlment of prophecy. The earliest preachers had to do that. To the Jews, the idea of a cruciﬁed Messiah was incredible. Their law said: ‘anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse’ (Deuteronomy 21:23). To orthodox Jews, the cross made it completely impossible that Jesus could be the Messiah. The early preachers answered: ‘If you would only read your Scriptures in the right way, you would see that all was foretold.’

(4) Acts stresses the resurrection as the ﬁnal proof that Jesus was indeed God’s chosen one. Acts has been called the Gospel of the Resurrection. To the early Church, the resurrection was all-important. We must remember this: without the resurrection, there would have been no Christian Church at all. When the disciples preached the centrality of the resurrection, they were arguing from experience. After the cross, they were bewildered and broken; their dream had gone and their lives had been shattered. It was the resurrection which changed all that and turned them from cowards into heroes. It is one of the tragedies of the Church that so often the preaching of the resurrection is conﬁned to Easter time. Every Sunday is the Lord’s Day, and every Lord’s Day should be kept as resurrection day. In the eastern Church on Easter Day, when two people meet, one says: ‘The Lord is risen’ and the other answers: ‘He is risen indeed!’ Christians should never forget that they live and walk with a risen Lord.

Acts 2:37–41 ESV

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?” 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. 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.

The response of the people to what they did to Jesus must become the expected response of people today when they realize the greatness of their sin

In Jesus said that when he was lifted up that he would draw all people to himself.

The Acts of the Apostles Save Yourselves (Acts 2:37–41)

Once, a missionary told the story of Jesus in an Indian village. Afterwards, he showed the life of Christ in slides projected against the whitewashed wall of a house. When the cross appeared on the wall, one man rose from the audience and ran forward, crying: ‘Come down from that cross, Son of God. I, not you, should be hanging there.’ The cross, when we understand what happened there, must pierce our hearts.

Great words of hope are now given

Repent - an afterthought, a change of mind. It came to mean a change of mind and a change of action, a change of heart and a confession of sin

Be baptized - for forgiveness - Baptism was only for proselytes, Gentiles who became Jews. This was spoken to Jews. Just as John referred to a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins () Peter is saying to the Jews that true repentance needs to be evidence by the action of baptism in the name of Jesus Christ as a sign of true conversion which would result in the forgiveness of sin. And it would result in the gift of the Holy Spirit. This is called the coming of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the Holy Spirit by Jesus in .

The promise is for everyone for all time - for you and for your children

Whom the Lord calls to himself - the irresistible call of the Lord. we preach the gospel to everyone, everywhere so that those who the Lord is calling might here the call and respond. As Charles Spurgeon said, Until the Lord gives me the names of those who are His I will continue to say whosoever will may come.

Save yourselves from this crooked generation - we are to escape this culture and not imitate it or seek to find our purpose in life from it. We belong to Jesus and his kingdom. This verse is like:

Philippians 2:14–16 ESV

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Philippians 2:14-

Notice the key statement - those who received his word were baptized and then added to the church.

The First Christian Sermon

(1) The explanation (14-21)

(2) The proclamation (22-36)

(3) The invitation (37-41)