The Holy Spirit Saves You-Acts 2

Acts of the Apostles, Sermons

Peter replied, “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” (Ac 2:38).

The power of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is indispensable. Acts 2 describes the birth of the church (2:1-47) on the day of Pentecost [50th day {after Passover}] with the coming of the Spirit—clearly a watershed moment and a critical event which sets in motion all that follows, for the Spirit is behind everything God’s people do in Acts and in the church to this day. The acts of the apostles are the acts of the Spirit in reality, and the acts of the Son from heaven. Today too everything we do that’s worthwhile is a result of the Spirit in us.

Acts 2 can be divided into 3 main parts [expanded outline below]:

  1. Power at Pentecost (2:1-13): the medium. The empowering event and the 1st witnessing.
  2. Preaching at Pentecost (2:14-41): the message. Peter’s 1st Christian sermon and the response to it. The Power of Preaching.
  3. People of Pentecost (2:42-47): the manifestation. The early community of Christians. The Power of Praying People.

The central importance of the Holy Spirit for Christian life and ministry (Rom 5:5; 7:6; 8:1-16; 1 Cor 2:10-16; 12:1-13; 14:1-40; Gal 5:16-26; Tit 3:5-6). Only Jn 20:22 is an independent witness to the Pentecost event apart from Ac 2:1-41; 10:47; 11:15-17. Without the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, Christian life and discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible.

  • There can be no life without the life-giver, the Holy Spirit,
  • no understanding without the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit,
  • no fellowship without the unity of the Holy Spirit,
  • no Christ-like character apart from the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), and
  • no effective witness without the Holy Spirit’s power (Ac 1:8; 2 Tim 1:7).
  • As a body without breadth is a corpse, so the church without the Holy Spirit is dead. [Tozer’s quote.]

The twin events of the Ascension and Pentecost are distinctly trinitarian: the Son returning to the Father, and the Son sending the Holy Spirit. Both the ending of Lk 24:49 and the beginning of Ac 1:4, 8, Jesus tells his followers to remain in Jerusalem to receive power from heaven when the Spirit arrives, as prophesied in the OT (Num 11:29; Isa 32:15; 44:3; Eze 36:27; Joel 2:28-32).

Pentecost was a multifaceted event. [The time and place: “day of Pentecost…they were all together in one place” (Ac 2:1); the upper room (Ac 1:13; 2:46b) or one of the many rooms or halls of the temple (Lk 24:53; Ac 2:46a).]

  1. It was the final act of the saving ministry of Jesus before the Parousia that is unrepeatable.
  2. It was the inauguration of the new era of the Spirit.
  3. It equipped the apostles for their unique teaching role.
  4. It was the 1st revival, in which God visited his people in mighty power. 

Pentecost symbolizes harvesting and law giving. The day of Pentecost was originally the middle of 3 annual Jewish harvest festivals (Dt 16:16). It was called the Feast of Harvest  (Exo 23:16) for it celebrated the completion of the grain harvest, or the Feast of Weeks because it took place 7 weeks or 50 days after the Passover when the grain harvesting began (Exo 34:22; Lv 23:15; Nu 28:26). At the end of the inter-testamental period, it began to be observed as the anniversary of the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai, as it was reckoned to have happened 50 days after the Exodus.

Wind, fire and voices (Ac 2:2-4)–3 phenomena associated with Mt. Sinai. The Spirit of God coming upon them was accompanied by what seemed like natural phenomena [wind, fire, speech], yet were 3 supernatural signs both in origin and character:

  1. “A sound like the blowing of a violent wind” (Ac 2:2; Jn 3:8; Exo 14:21). Audible.
  2. A sight: “what seems to be tongues of fire” (Ac 2:3; Ex 3:2, 4-5; 13:21-22; 19:18). Visual. The sight was not fire but resembled it.
  3. A strange speech: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues” (Ac 2:4, 6, 8, 11). Oral. The speech was in languages which were not ordinary but in some way “other” (Ac 1:5-8).

The people heard the wind-like sound (Ac 2:2), saw the fire-like apparition (Ac 2:3) and spoke the “other” languages (Ac 2:4).

The international cosmopolitan nature of the crowd (Ac 2:5, 9-11) that had come from the Greco-Roman world situated around the Mediterranean basin. Luke includes in his list descendants of Shem, Ham and Japheth, like a “table of nations” comparable to Genesis 10.

Peter‘s preaching (2:22-41). This is the 1st ever Christian sermon. All the speeches share certain aspects:

  1. The age of fulfilment has come (Ac 2:16-21).
  2. The age of salvation is here due to the life, death and resurrection of Christ (Ac 2:22-24, 25-31).
  3. The Spirit is God’s gift to inaugurate this age.
  4. Christ will return and bring this age to a close (Ac 2:17, 20).
  5. The people must repent and turn to God (Ac 2:21, 37-40).

The gift of the Spirit is a sign that the day of the Lord is at hand (2:14-21). Peter quotes 3 seperate OT verses in his sermon (Joel 2; Ps 16, Ps 110). Peter’s Pentacost sermon starts with explaining what happened in Ac 2:1-13. The extraordinary phenomenon of Spirit-filled believers declaring God’s wonders in foreign languages is the fulfillment of Joel’s prediction that God would pour out his Spirit on all humankind (Joel 2:28-32). Peter’s exposition is called a pesher, i.e. an interpretation of an OT passage in light of its fulfillment. He starts his sermon with the words, “this is that” (Ac 4:16). He deliberately changes Joel’s “afterward” (Joel 2:28) to “in the last days” (Ac 2:17) to emphasize that with the Spirit’s coming the last days have come. He also reapplies the passage to Jesus, so that “the Lord” who brings salvation is no longer Yahweh but Jesus who saves from sin and judgment “everyone who calls” on his name (Ac 2:21). The whole messianic era that stretches between the 2 comings of Christ is the age of the Spirit in which his ministry is one of abundance. “…pour out” (Ac 2:17) illustrates

  • the generosity of God’s gift of the Spirit [not a drizzle nor even a shower but a downpour],
  • its finality [for what has been poured out cannot be gathered again], and
  • its univesality [widely distributed among the different groupings of humankind, irrespective of gender, age or rank].

The “last days” (Ac 2:17) began with Jesus’ incarnation and life, but it is the Spirit who launches the new era.

  1. The 1st and main theme of the prophecy is that God is pouring out his Spirit upon all people (Ac 2:17).
  2. The occurance of cosmic apocalyptic signs associated with the end of the world (Ac 2:17-18; Rev 6:12). Dreams are linked with Joseph (Gen 40:5-15; 41:1-32) and Daniel (Dan 1:17; 2:1-16, 24-45; 4:1-27). “Visions” (Ac 2:17) are a long-running thread throughout Acts and guide the apostles frequently: twice to Paul on the Damascus road (Ac 9:4-6, 10-12), to Peter and Cornelius (Ac 10:3-6, 10-16), and to Paul in Troas (Ac 16:9-10).
  3. The day of the Lord (Ac 2:20), the day of judgment, what will take place at the eschaton [end], the end of history at the parousia [2nd coming of Christ, “the great and glorious day of the Lord (Ac 2:20)]. The Pentecost phenomena (wind, fire, tongues) are pictured as apocalyptic events. The last days have begun. We are living in that time of tension between the already (with the death of Christ and the coming of the Spirit) and the not–yet. The final day of human history is guaranteed, and getting ready for it is far and away the most important decision anyone will ever make, for it has eternal consequences.
  4. A promise of salvation (Ac 2:21; Joel 2:32; Rom 10:13; 1 Cor 1:2). Peter presents the key to everything. To call “on the name of the Lord” means to repent and “believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead” (Rom 10:9-10).

References:

  1. Witherington III, Ben. The Acts of the Apostles. A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. 1998.
  2. Stott, John. The Message of Acts. 1990.
  3. Peterson, David G. The Acts of the Apostles. The Pillar NT commentary. 2009.
  4. Osborne, Grant. Acts. Verse by Verse. 2019.
  5. Marshall, I. Howard. Acts. Tyndale NT commentaries (TNTC). 1980.
  6. Barclay, William. The Acts of the Apostles. The Daily Study Bible Series. 1976. 
  7. Fernando, Ajith. The Message of Jesus in Action. 2010. 

The founding/birth of the church (2:1-47). Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit. 3 fathers were expectantly waiting for the good news outside the maternity ward with their wives in labor. The 1st nurse came out and told the father that he had twins. He was elated and said, “What a coincidence. I’m a big fan of the Minnesota twins.” The 2nd nurse then came and told the next father that he had triplets. Overjoyed he said, “Wow. I work for 3M company.” The 3rd father began to look really scared and anxious. When asked why, he said, “I work for 7 eleven.”

Parallelism. Did Luke intentionally structure Acts to parallel the inaugural events in his gospel?

  • John the Baptist says, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Lk 3:16), followed by the baptism and reception of the Spirit by Jesus (Lk 3:21-22).
  • Sermon in Nazareth indicating that the time of the fulfilment of God’s promises and prophecy had come (Lk 4:16-30).
  • Jesus’ witness to Jews and occasionally others in Galilee, Samaria and Judea (Lk 4:31ff).

Outline:

  1. POWER at Pentecost (2:1-13). The breadth of God. The pouring out of the Spirit. The coming of the Spirit. The empowering event and the 1st witnessing.
    • The setting: Pentecost in Jerusalem (2:1).
    • The descent of the Spirit (2:2-4).
    • The reaction of the crowds (2:5-13).
  2. PREACHING at Pentecost (2:14-40). Peter preaches the gospel. Peter’s interpretation of the event. The first Christian preaching, and the response to it.
    • Introduction (2:14-15).
    • The fulfillment of Joel (2:16-21; Joel 2:28-32). God’s day has come. The gift of the Spirit is a sign that the Day of the Lord is at hand.
    • The basis: the death and resurrection of Jesus (2:22-36).
      • Introduction: Jesus of Nazareth (2:22).
      • The death and resurrection and Jewish guilt (2:23-24).
      • OT prophecies fulfilled (2:25-35).
      • Conclusion: Lord and Messiah (2:36). Jesus is the Lord on whom to call for salvation.
    • Call to repentance (2:37-41). Calling upon Jesus involves repentance and baptism in his name.
  3. PEOPLE of Pentecost (2:41-47): the community created by the Spirit. A summary of the life in the early [Jewish Christian] church. The 1st summary passage in Acts characterizing the early community of Christ.
    • 4 pillars of the church (2:42).
    • Results in the life of the church (2:43-47).

5 things the Holy Spirit does for you.

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