What shall we do?

Last Sunday (Mother's Day) was also Pentecost. In the Jewish calendar, Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Passover. It's also called the Feast of Weeks, the time when the wheat harvest is celebrated.

By the 2nd century A.D. rabbinic Judaism regarded Pentecost as the day the Law was given to Israel at Sinai. This is a logical conclusion, given the fact that ancient Israel had to travel for a time to Sinai to receive the Law.

This made Pentecost a very important Jewish festival. All Jewish men were required to make a pilgrimmage to Jerusalem to "appear before the Lord." The population of Jerusalem would have swelled with the people on pilgrimmage.

Some think that this text in Luke was actually meant to remind us of the giving of the Law at Sinai (more likely if you are a Jew). In what way?

1. At Sinai the people experienced "thunder and lightening, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking." The people also begged that God not be allowed to speak to them because of the incredible force of the event.
   
   
2. Peter said that David had prophecied about Jesus, Acts 2:33.
   
   
3. God was renewing his covenant with Israel, Acts 2:33.
   
   
4. Jesus was called the (long-expected) Messiah, Acts 2:36.
   
   

This text is about the community, and the God of the community is the chief actor. At no point in this narrative do you find an attention to indivduals, but only in their service to the whole group.

1. In our text, you have the whole group of disciples to whom Jesus gives the mandate Luke records, All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons)...
   
   
2. Luke speaks of the crowd of people that were "all together."
   
   
3. The whole crowd of Jews heard the sounds.
   
   

Bystanders did not understand what was happening. They had their own erroneous explanations.

1. They did not have a vocabulary or experience to be able to understand what they was happening.
   
   
2. They had a belief system that filtered out the ability to see this through faith.
   
   
3. They were much like the people of Flatland (Edwin Abbott) who were unable to see the sphere as anything but a two dimensional object when it came to Flatland.
   
   
4. So the bystanders used the only explanations they had. It was obvious to them that Peter and the rest were drunk. That's the only explanation they had.
   
   
5. We've all had similar experiences. Not on this scale. Someone thinks s/he has you figured out. Thinks they know what your motivations are. What you IQ is (dumb because you are a believer). Or provincial because of your ethics and values.
   
   
6. Perhaps Peter had this occasion in mind when he wrote the Exiles to Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is within you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence, 1 Peter 3:15.
   
   

This narrative is about the "cowardly" proclaiming the mighty works of God.

1. A short while earlier (50 days) the disciples were different people.
   
   
2. Words you could use to describe them include cowardly, faithless, bewildered, and afraid. See Matthew 26:69; John 20:19, and John 20:25.
   
   
3. By Acts 1 a transformation has occurred.
• The disciples are no longer scattered; they have come together.
• They are curious about the future.
• They trust Jesus and listen to his instruction and wait in Jerusalem as told.
• They boldly declare their faith to the Pentecost crowds. (Remember that they were hiding in an upper room earlier.
  
  
4. When Jesus spoke to them earlier he used plural words.
• He told them as a group to "go."
• He told them, using plural terms, that they would receive the Spirit and be witnesses.
• Even the crowds witnessed the giving of the Spirit as a group experience.
• Imagine how this would have been different if the disciples had turned this into a singular experience, thinking only about how mysterious and marvelous the Spirit was to them.
  
  
5. Even Peter's message was addressed to the house of Israel, Acts 2:29, 36. Rather than condemning a singular person, Peter's address is to the whole household.
   
   
6. Later, the apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians and talked about how God had destined US for adoption, redeemed US, made known to US the mystery of his will, etc.

Pentecost is a phenomenon of mainly evangelistic significance. The gospel is declared. The church is born, and Jerusalem becomes the epicenter of a world wide phenomenon.

1. Jesus instruction to the disciples to wait for power after which they would be witnesses to the ends of the earth, Acts 1:8. This promise gives context to what happens next.
   
   
2. Peter appealed to the crowd, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.
   
   
3. The crowd knew the implications of Peter's words. They asked, What must we do to be saved?
   
   

Conclusion: In Acts 2 God demonstrated for His church that He would empower them with the resources they needed in order to carry out His mandate to them. "You will be my witnesses.

1. An interesting question is "how do you experience God's equip-ment as you go about serving him?"
   
   
2. God has promised not to abandon us. Such a thought gives tremendous hope and assurance to us.