Declaring the Wonders of God

Read Acts 2:14-36

The Purpose of Pentecost

Pentecost (in Greek) or Shavuot (in Hebrew) was an annual harvest festival, the Feast of Weeks: it was the fourth of Israel’s annual feasts, marking the start of the Summer wheat harvest. The Greek name, Pentecost (meaning fifty), derived from the fact that it occurred 50 days after the Feast of Firstfuits, which celebrated the barley harvest. But, at some point during the intertestamental period (those 400 years of silence between the writing of Malachi and the revelation to Zechariah about the birth of John the Baptist), the Jewish people had begun to observe Pentecost as a commemoration of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai.

They had calculated that it was 50 days from the very first Passover and their deliverance from captivity in Egypt to the day when God gave Moses the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai. So, Pentecost, whilst retaining its connection to the harvest, had become a covenant renewal festival - a celebration of that momentous occasion in Israel’s history when they heard the voice of God, when he gave them his law and when he constituted them a people for his own possession.

In Acts 2, Luke first describes the events of the first Pentecost following the Lord’s death and resurrection - 50 days from the killing of our Passover Lamb and his victory over death. We haven’t read that description; you know it well.

Our focus is on the explanation Luke then gives us of the meaning and purpose of those Pentecost events. And he gives that explanation through a summary record of the first gospel message of this day of grace. What does Luke wants us to understand about the purpose of Pentecost? And what can we learn from Peter’s sermon? That’s our focus this afternoon.

Let me explain this to you, says Peter (Ac 2:14) as he proceeds to reel off verse after verse of Joel’s prophecy. The central theme of that prophecy is, of course, the pouring out of the Spirit of God and Peter employs the phrase “pour out” three times in his message (Ac 2:17, 18, 33). The figurative language is probably intended to convey the idea of a heavy tropical rainstorm, and so illustrates the generosity of God’s gift: this isn’t a drizzle, it’s not even a shower, it’s a downpour of the Spirit of God on the people of God such that they all know him and speak of him. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to see the connection to the great OT promises of the new covenant: “they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Je 31:34). Peter’s explanation for the disciples’ behaviour is this: God has put his Spirit in these men and women, so that they know him and speak of him. This is the New Covenant!

Whether or not Luke intends it, I think we’re entitled to make the connection to Sinai and the inauguration of the Old Covenant. Just as God’s approaching presence at Sinai had been heralded by a tremendous audio visual experience - thunder and lightning, the loud trumpet blast, and the Lord God descending in fire to the top of the mountain - so Luke describes a similarly gripping AV experience - the sound of a violent wind and what seemed like tongues fire that separated and came to rest on the disciples.

At the very time the Jews are flocking to Jerusalem to celebrate the constitution of the Old Covenant, God is replacing it with his new and more glorious one - a covenant written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor 3:3).

Now, two things I want us to pick up from this explanation of Pentecost. Pentecost, the dawn of the new covenant, means (i) all will declare and (ii) they will declare to all.

1. The wonders of God declared by all

Perhaps the most striking feature of the experience at Sinai is the voice of God. At the dawn of the Old Covenant, God descended to a mountain and spoke to his people ‘face to face out of the fire’ (Dt 5:4). At the sound of that voice the mountain shook. And it was the voice of God which most terrified the people too. But what did that voice say? It said:

Exodus 19:4 NIV

4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

The voice declared the wonder of redemption! And:

Exodus 34:10 NIV

10 Then the Lord said: “I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the Lord, will do for you.

The voice declared the wonders God had done and the wonders he would yet do!

At Pentecost, the crowd came together in bewilderment because they heard an extraordinary sound. What was that sound? It was the voice of God declaring the wonders of God through the voices of the disciples on whom God’s Spirit had descended to indwell. That was the testimony of the crowd in Ac 2:11:

The New International Version Chapter 2

we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!

This is what the prophet Joel was looking foward to - a day in which men and women, young and old, slave and free would declare the wonders of God, they would prophesy (Ac 2:17-18). That’s what “prophesy” means in verses 17 and 18. It’s telling forth rather than foretelling; it’s verbalising the great things you have seen of God. This isn’t about seeing the future, it’s about knowing God. Joel is getting excited about a day when men and women will be so filled with God that they catch visions of him in the daytime, they dream about him at night, and they speak of him continually with their mouths. And Peter says ‘this is that day!’ And his explanation is backed up by the crowd: we hear them declaring the wonders of God!

There’s an interesting story about Moses in Numbers 11:24–30. Moses had the Spirit of the Lord on him in such a way that he could see God and speak his word powerfully. It says that one day “the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied” (Nu 11:25). And word got back to them that there were two elders in the camp, Eldad and Medad, who had not come out to the tent but who were also prophesying by the Spirit. Joshua said to Moses “My lord, stop them.” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” (Nu 11:29). The day Moses wished for is the day Joel is predicted and Peter says ‘it’s come!’

I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them.

The striking feature of Pentecost was that all spoke (Ac 2:4); I believe it was the whole group of 120 or so believers; all of them. They all declared the wonders of God. They all prophesied.

Now, I know you know there’s more to come from Joel’s prophecy. We can’t get into that today. Also, to clarify, I’m not talking now about the gift of prophecy, but thinking about prophesying in the broad sense of delcaring the wonders of God.

Pausing for a moment for some application, then, I say don’t you wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets today. Well here’s the thing, God has put his Spirit not only on us but in us. The Spirit of God has been poured out. The age that Peter heralded hasn’t changed - these are still the last days; and we are still God’s new covenant people. Won’t we, his people, declare his wonders? Don’t we wish that all his people would speak of him?

2. The wonders of God declared to all

The second point I want us to observe from the explanation of Pentecost is that the wonders of God must be declared to all. What we have in Acts 2 is plainly a very Jewish sermon, addressed to Jews in the most Jewish of settings, Jerusalem at Pentecost!

But even here, Luke gives us pointers as to his broader themes and purpose in writing Acts. The listening crowd comprised Jews from every nation under heaven. The Spirit is poured out on all people (lit. all flesh). And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Ac 2:21).

Acts is the record of the uncoupling of God’s redemptive purposes from Israel and its explosion to encompass the whole world - an uncoupling which was not easy, even for the apostles at times. But the power received from the Holy Spirit would compel them to be the Lord’s witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Ac 1:8).

Just as there is liberality in the pouring out of the Spirit, so too there is universality: the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call (Ac 2:39).

And so there are to be no barriers when we declare the wonders of God.

It’s believed that of the 7.47 billion people alive in the world today, 3.15 billion of them live in unreached people groups with little or no access to the gospel of Jesus Christ. But you know as well as I do that the nations are on the move; God is bringing the nations to us. In big cities, like this one, the unreached are on our doorstep. Nowadays, we perhaps don’t have to go too far geographically to fulfil the Lord’s commission to disciple all nations.

Are we narrow-minded in our witness and evangelism? The apostles were and they had to be broken out of their narrow-mindedness. Acts is the story of that. Maybe we too need to be broken out of our prejudices or just our comfort zones, so that we stretch out across ethnic and linguistic barriers to the oppressed, the marginalised, the unreached in our communities with our declaration of the wonders of God.

What are the wonders of God?

What are they then? What are the wonders of God that must be declared? Well, we’re only at verse 21 and Peter’s just getting going. He’s given his explanation for what the crowd are witnessing; now he’s going to unfold the wonders of God to them!

Have you ever wondered why Luke records so many speeches in the Acts. There are 19 or more of them. This book might better be known as Acts and Speeches! But why?

In Acts 1:1, Luke says that in his previous (i.e. his gospel account) he wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach. The inference, I think we can properly take from that, is that, in Acts, Luke is writing about what Jesus continued to do and teach - and that teaching came through the mouths of his apostles as they were inspired by the Spirit which the Lord had poured out. So their words were important; there’s teaching in these speeches. And Luke was as much a theologian as he was a historian - he wants us to learn from what was said.

So, what are the lessons from this first gospel message. Was it Luke’s intention to give us a template for gospel preaching? Surely not! Luke records a variety of different preaching styles and methods, which evolve as the story of Acts unfolds. Paul’s preaching in Athens differs significantly in style from Peter’s preaching in Jerusalem, for instance.

Luke’s wants us to hear what was said rather than how it was presented. Peter was declaring the wonders of God! And Luke wants us to hear them and to delight in them because, having the same Spirit within us, they are the self same things we’ll want to declare too.

Sure, we might want to use our own words and methods that are appropriate to our day, but I believe it’s the same wonders that we must declare to our own generation.

So Peter begins (in Ac 2:22), “Listen to this: Jesus”. I feel compelled to stop there because I’m ashamed at how little I proclaim the name of Jesus. When was the last time I started a sentence with his name? He has to be front and centre whenever the Spirit empowers us to speak.

We can’t stop there though! There are many different Jesuses being presented today. But as Peter declares the wonder of God, we see that this Jesus is central to all of them.

Peter makes three appeals to the crowd: (Ac 2:22) Fellow Israelites; (Ac 2:29) Fellow Israelites (or brothers); (Ac 2:36) all Israel. And in those three appeals, I want us to see three wonders: Jesus of Nazareth put to death; raised to life, Messiah; exalted to the right hand of God, Lord. Let’s listen in...

1. Jesus of Nazareth, put to death (Ac 2:22-23)

Wonder of God - Jesus of Nazareth, put to death!!

Peter starts with the historical Jesus - the man who worked wonders, who lived a real life and who died a real death.

I’m drawn to the word in Ac 2:23 - “handed over”. It’s a word that means “delivered up”, “surrendered”, “handed over”. It’s the word used of delivery to an enemy - betrayal.

Another Greek word [παραδίδωμι] which shares the same root as the word in Ac 2:23 and carries the same sense of “handing over” or “betrayal” is used repeatedly of Jesus by each of the gospel writers:

First, he was handed over by Judas to the Chief Priests, as Matthew records:

Matthew 26:14–16 NIV

14 Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Then, he was handed over by the Chief Priests to Pilate, who discerned their motivation:

Matthew 27:18 NIV

18 For he knew it was out of self-interest that they had handed Jesus over to him.

Finally, he was handed over by Pilate to be crucified. As Mark writes:

Mark 15:15 NIV

15 Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

John Stott puts it like this in his well know book, The Cross of Christ:

The Cross of Christ Their Sins and Ours

First, Judas “handed him over” to the priests (out of greed). Next, the priests “handed him over” to Pilate (out of envy). Then Pilate “handed him over” to the soldiers (out of cowardice), and they crucified him.

But we know that’s not the whole story. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, could write of “the Son of God, who loved me and gave [paradontos] himself for me” (Gal 2:20). This is the Jesus who voluntarily gave himself, that is he handed himself over to death for us.

And Paul uses the same Greek verb again, this time in reference to the Father, in Romans 8:32.

Romans 8:32 NIV

32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

And that brings us full circle to where we started, with Peter’s profound statement in Ac 2:23 - “this man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

Even as he presents the historical Jesus - his life and death - Peter gets theological, declaring in a sentence those baffling parallel truths of divine election and human freewill.

The Jews were accountable for their actions and it’s the cross that exposes the extent of human wickedness and sin; and yet it’s the cross that also reveals the lengths which God has gone to in order to overcome that sin. Even as men handed Jesus over to be crucified, they were simply fulfilling what God had already determined must take place.

Men’s motives were evil when they handed over Jesus of Nazareth; but God intended that very evil for good, to the saving of many lives! God handed him over out of love!

2. The resurrection of the Messiah (Ac 2:24-32)

Peter moves on to declare a second wonder of God - God has raised this Jesus to life (Ac 2:32)!

Peter’s now firmly on the theological level but also still on the historical level. The resurrection really happened. He says, ‘God raised him; we saw it’ (Ac 2:32). This is history. But it’s so much more. Because the wonder of the resurrection emphasizes something about the death which it cancels and conquers. It’s a death which had to be reversed because it was a death that was not deserved. And this, says Peter, proved that this Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ.

Peter declares (in Ac 2:24) that it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him! Peter’s point is that the resurrection was absolutely inevitable since this Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah and the Scriptures taught them that the Messiah would not be abandoned to the realm of the dead.

Peter’s argument is based on Psalm 16, a miktam of David and one of my favourite Psalms. It’s a song that expresses profound confidence in God. David takes refuge in God; he aligns himself with God’s covenant people; God is his inheritance; God is his comfort; God is his joy. And such is his confidence in his relationship with God, he trusts God to deliver him from the present threat to his life (whatever that might have been) and to renew the joy of fellowship in life.

Peter’s point is that, notwithstanding the closeness of David’s relationship with God, notwithstanding his confidence in God, the words of Psalm 16:10 which Peter quotes in Ac 2:27 were not true of David. David died and was buried and his body decayed. He was a man after God’s own heart but even the great King David died; and he deserved the punishment of death, namely decay!

So Peter says, “seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of Messiah.” In short, he says, David’s words in Psalm 16 are prophetic (in the foretelling sense here!). How much David saw of the future we can’t really say. But, because of his confidence in the covenant promise God had sworn on oath regarding David’s descendants and his throne, the words David penned transcended his own experience and became historically true of the Christ.

In his manhood, the Lord Jesus Christ also expressed profound confidence in God. He too knew the promise of God and, more than that, he knew that he was the one who had come to fulfil it. And his confidence in his God enabled him to speak of the inevitability of his own resurrection. Remember how he told the disciples: “The Son of Man… must be killed and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31).

Isn’t it lovely to think of the Lord embracing the confidence expressed in Psalm 16 as he looked ahead to the vindication of his God and Father:

Psalm 16:9–11 NIV

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. 11 You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Now, in declaring the wonder of his resurrection, Peter’s message is that Christ’s confidence was not misplaced. Death could not hold him because he was the one who answered to the oath of God, the Messiah.

“You killed him, God raised him, we are witnesses.” The resurrection was the divine reversal of the human verdict on this Jesus. God had vindicated his Messiah, his Christ.

3. Exalted to the right hand, both Lord and Messiah (Ac 2:33-36)

In Ac 2:33-36, Peter concludes with another wonder - the ascension. Wonder of God - this Jesus didn’t just rise from the dead, proving himself to be Messiah; he went back into heaven and poured out the Spirit, proving himself to be Lord. Once again, he turns to Scripture to support his argument.

Psalm 110:1, quoted by Peter in Ac 2:34-35, is the most used OT verse in the NT. It’s profoundly important.

The startling fact that David spoke of a king as my Lord (i.e. ‘the Master I serve’) was pointed out by Jesus himself. He left his hearers to think out the implications of Ps 110, but Peter now spells out those implications.

David had to be writing prophetically of one before whom he must fall down and worship. David writes as though he is listening in on a heavenly conversation between the LORD Jehovah and the one who shares Jehovah’s royal throne, who sits at his right hand.

Did David ever ascend into heaven? Of course not! So David is writing about one far greater than himself, one on whom God had bestowed the highest honour of all - to sit at his right hand. And not only was he greater than David but, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, he is one far greater than the angels too.

Peter is still speaking on a theological level here, but he’s also declaring the contemporary Christ. Peter requires a decision, because the man they crucified is now the Lord who reigns on the throne of God!

In quoting Joel’s prophecy, Peter had said “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Now, the wonder of God that Peter declares in the ascension is that Jesus Christ is that Lord. He is the one whose power men and women should call upon to be saved.

He is the one with power above to save, and the proof of that is that he is the one who given power within to speak - pouring out the Spirit of God - and that is what you see and hear.

Conclusion

So we’ve heard Peter declare the wonders of God: the death, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke has enabled us to listen to Peter tell the story of Jesus as history, with theological significance, requiring a contemporary decision. The Jews were cut to the heart by what they heard.

We finish, then, with the challenge we started with. The Lord has poured out the Spirit with great liberality. As those who have received that gift, won’t he also stir our own hearts to declare these same wonders, to the glory of God in our day.

In Ac 4:20, Peter and John said, “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

May it be so among the Lord’s people today, for the glory of his great name.