Sermon Tone Analysis
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Main Point: The New Covenant and the giving of the Holy Spirit has always been God’s eternal plan of salvation and Peter models a way for us to proclaim this good news.
What Just Happened?
Today we are going to look at the first part of Peter’s first Spirit-infused sermon.
It is THE mother of all sermons that initiated all the other sermons we see in scripture that was given on the birthday of the Church.
But before we dive in, I want to set the stage for us today.
Remember, we are in first century Jerusalem, where Rome is the global superpower and the Jews have limited authority over their own affairs.
Jews from the surrounding region have journeyed into Jerusalem for he Feast of Firstfruits
There is an eager anticipation for the Messiah promised in the Old Testament
Over 400 years have passed since the final book of the Old Testament had been given.
The event of Pentecost has just happened
There is now a captive audience of at least 3,000 people waiting to hear what Peter is about to say, many o which were among the crowd who called for Jesus’ crucifixion
The anticipation is palpable!
There are many ways we can slice this text up, but I thought it would be best to view our passage today through 2 different lenses:
1 Wide-angle lens [to see God’s eternal plan of redemption]
1 Zoomed lens [to see Peter’s method of evangelism]
For the Wide-angle lens, we will see the continuity of scripture and understand through Jesus, John the Baptist, and the Prophet Joel how the giving of the Spirit has always been in God’s eternal plan.
For the Zoomed lens, we will see Peter’s methodology in 3 sections:
This week we will see how he answered the people’s question by appealing to and applying scripture.
Next week, we will see how he focused the conversation solely on who Jesus is.
Two weeks from now, we will see the call to repentance.
So, why hone in on Peter?
Because Peter delivered the sermon?
Yes.
But also because most of us can relate to Peter.
We can relate to his ‘ready-shoot-aim’ personality.
He often put his foot in his mouth.
We can see ourselves in the way he has failed {denying the Lord three times), and we all desire to be restored the way he was (three times directly from Jesus).
We all want to have the elements of our checkered past all come together to fulfill what we will do in the near future.
This is the way fiction writers are trained to develop the plot of their stories.
If you are familiar with the 3 Act structure, then you know that the plot has multiple crisis points that bend and form the protagonist.
The first crisis point typically happens to the hero, but then the other points happen as a result of the decisions of the hero, all of which lead up to the climax of the story where it all resolves.
That is why Peter is such a good model for us.
He’s complex.
He’s passionate, loyal, but flawed.
He is the one who is on this journey to fulfilling his purpose, which for him, is to lead the disciples in the age of the New Covenant in their witness to the Jews.
Praise God we are not stuck in our failures and shortcomings.
If you have failed Him in the past, it doesn’t mean he won’t use you powerfully in the future.
How did he achieve this?
He was filled with the Spirit (as we discussed last week - the wind was in his sails)
He knew scripture.
He had no notes and was without preparation to speak, het he quoted directly from Joel and understood that Pentecost was its fulfillment.
Outline
Through the 2 lenses, we will see:
Peter Answers the crowd’s question
Joel’s Prophesy - Part 1
Joel’s Prophesy - Part 2
The Application
Sermon Text
It is interesting that the Jews accused the 120 of being hammered at 9am.
The crowd thought they were under the influence of alcohol.
The irony is that they were under the influence of two controlling agents: The person of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and scripture exhorts us to follow suit:
The same goes for you and I today.
The command of scripture is to be filled with the Spirit and the Word of God if we are to be of any use as a witness to his glory.
Now, with that foundation laid, let’s get into the text.
Peter answers their question with scripture
Some Jews asked - What does this mean?
Some Jews stated - these guys are drunk.
Peter said - Nope.
Not that.
Rather, this is actually a fulfillment of a prophecy that you know.
Wide-angle Lens: This was always God’s plan
...But other spoke into this same event before Joel:
Jesus spoke directly to this reality in John 15 & 16 when he said:
As we saw last week, John the Baptist also spoke to it when he said:
And then, we have a portion of Joel’s prophecy, found in 2:28-32
It is unclear when the book of Joel was written, but it was 100s of years BC and spoke of Israel’s judgement and restoration (as was the pattern for many prophetic books).
Zoomed Lens - without preparation, Peter points to scripture to answer the question, “What does this mean?” and to refute the claim that they were drunk.
Joel’s Prophecy - Part 1
Zoomed lens: Peter changes some verbiage to make it applicable to this audience
The Last Days
This was modified from Joel’s original “and it shall come to pass afterward.”
Why?
Because Peter was making it abundantly clear that, while this was a long way off for Joel, this was being fulfilled before their very eyes.
Now, this prophecy also has apocalyptic themes in it as well, so it isn’t just referring to what happened at Pentecost.
Rather, it is explaining the era of the New Covenant: the time between Jesus’ 1st and 2nd coming.
Otherwise known as The Age of Grace or The Age of the Church.
This will be poured out on all flesh
This doesn’t mean that the Spirit will indwell every person on planet earth.
This means that the citizenship of the Kingdom of God is open to all: the young and the old, men and women, slave and free, Jew and Gentile.
This first section is framed with this phrase- at the beginning and at the end.
Reiterating something like this is the author’s way of highlighting its significance.
They didn’t have highlighters or word processors to make text bold or italicized.
They had to do this through repetition.
Like a waterfall during the rainy season, God’s Spirit will be generously poured out onto people from every nation, tribe, and language and will never have the ability to be depleted.
Did you get that?
The full communion with the God of creation is with you and will continue to be with you… filling up your sails… and allowing us to enter into the treasure-house that is God’s continual presence and grace!
Surely Paul had this in mind when he encouraged the Colossian church when he said:
Prophecy, Visions, & Dreams
we often think of the gift of prophecy as just being a gift that allows a person to give a word about the future, but that isn’t the main thrust of the word.
the original sense in Greek is “one who proclaims,” although soon the idea of “one who predicts” also occurs.
to prophesy.
The act of revealing something that is hidden, disclosing the will of God, or foretelling the future.
So, what prophecy can mean is:
spiritual gift of proclaiming God’s word
fortell future events
to speak under divine inspiration
Function - to be God’s spokesperson
In the Old Testament, we see the prophets being God’s mouthpieces, making His will known to His people.
We see this gift repeatedly in Acts.
Before Paul decides to go to Jerusalem where he will likely be arrested and handed over to the Jewish leaders, a man named Agabus prophesies his capture by taking Paul’s belt and using it as an illustration.
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