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The Book of Acts
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BIBLE STUDY ACTS 2:1-47 REVIEW: Luke began by again addressing “Theophilus” (“lover of God”) and reminding him of what he wrote about Jesus in his first book (the Gospel of Luke). Acts begins with a re-telling of Jesus’ commission to his disciples and ascension at the end of Luke’s gospel. Jesus promised his disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit. In regards to their question about when the kingdom would be restored to Israel, Jesus shifts their thinking from “knowing when” to focusing upon their mission. Being Jesus’ witnesses does not mean understanding all things, but simply telling about and doing what we do know – and that is enough. The account of Jesus’ ascension is quite different from the one told at the end of Luke. Specifically, Acts has two men (angels) in white robes explaining its significance. Perhaps this is a literary motif to remind us of what happened to Elisha when Elijah ascended into heaven (2 Kgs. 2:10) – that he then received “a double portion of the Spirit.” In the same way, the apostles were to receive the Spirit in a way far greater than they had before at Pentecost. The other major section was about replacing Judas with Matthias so that “The Twelve” could once again be complete. As Pastor Josh noted, the real significance of the story was not to introduce Matthias, but to reaffirm the connection between the early Church and the hope of Israel. Twelve apostles will rule over the twelve tribes of Israel (Lk. 22:29-30). INTRODUCTION: “The Importance of the Holy Spirit in Acts” Acts has been called “The Gospel of the Holy Spirit” – and so before we consider what happened at Pentecost in chapter 2, let us take a general view of the Spirit’s activity in Acts. First of all, we should not think that the Holy Spirit was not present before the events of Pentecost. Indeed, Luke makes that quite clear. In chapter 1, Peter mentions that the Holy Spirit spoke through David (Acts 1:16); in chapter 28 Paul states that the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah (Acts 28:25); and in chapter 7 Stephen accuses his accusers of opposing the Holy Spirit, just as (their) ancestors used to do (Acts 7:51). The Holy Spirit has been present in every age revealing God’s truth to people. But according to Acts, Pentecost marked a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On that day and from then on, the Holy Spirit also became the source of POWER, COURAGE, and GUIDANCE within the Church in ways that had not been manifested before! The Spirit’s presence in these ways is what enabled the Church as a whole and its members individually to experience and be witnesses of the kingdom of God. The same is true for us today. In the first thirteen chapters of Acts there are more than forty references to the Holy Spirit – the early Church was a Spirit-filled Church – and that was the source of its power. CHAPTER 2:1-13 “Pentecost – The Gift of the Holy Spirit” “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” There were three great Jewish festivals to which every male Jew living within twenty miles of Jerusalem was legally bound to come – the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost means “The Fiftieth” and another name for it was “The Feast of Weeks”– so called because it fell on the fiftieth day, a week of weeks, after the Passover. Pentecost was originally an agricultural festival – and its observance was commanded in Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15-21; and Deuteronomy 16:9-12. Later, Pentecost also became understood by Jews to be the celebration of the giving of the Torah. Perhaps Luke especially had this later understanding in mind – that just as God’s giving of the Torah to Moses established his covenant with the Israelite people, so God’s giving of the Spirit to Christ’s disciples established the Church. Luke notes two phenomena to denote the coming of the Holy Spirit: a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and tongues like those of fire. Why these two phenomena? “Wind and fire” recall the theophany that Elijah experienced on Mount Sinai (Mt. Horeb) in 1 Kings 19:11-12, as well as his ascension into heaven in 2 Kings 2:11 The loud noise – like the rush of a violent wind – also reminds readers of the loud noise that accompanied God’s giving of the Torah to Moses in Exodus 19:16-19. Also, John the Baptist in Luke 3:16 had prophesied that the coming Messiah would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Finally, perhaps Luke uses the imagery of “tongues” of fire to illustrate what happened next – that the believers then began to speak in “tongues”. Regarding Luke’s statement that they began to speak in other languages, this was probably not strictly accurate. The spiritual gift of tongues (glossolalia) was a common feature in the early Church, and it is still emphasized in some Pentecostal/Charismatic churches today. Glossolalia is an ecstatic babbling that can accompany one’s being “filled with the Spirit.” Luke describes this elsewhere in Acts 10:46 when the Spirit came upon the Centurion Cornelius and his household, and also in Acts 19:6 when Paul baptized some disciples of John the Baptist. Paul also describes this gift in 1 Corinthians 14. Luke of course was not an eyewitness to what happened, so it is possible that in this one instance have been mistaken about the believers speaking in “other languages.” There certainly would not have been a need for that, since almost all Jews dwelling in Jerusalem spoke Aramaic and, even if they were Jews of the Dispersion from a foreign country, they would speak the language which almost everyone in the world spoke at that time – Greek. More likely, however, Luke deliberately used the imagery of them speaking in “other languages” in order to illustrate the theological point that this experience represented a reversal of the Tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9. In that story, the LORD had confused the language of those who were building the tower so that they were scattered over the face of the earth. The Church, however, represents a gathering together of all the peoples in Christ. Indeed, Luke seems to emphasize this with his extensive list of “every nation under heaven”. As Luke notes, all who heard the believers speaking were “amazed and perplexed” about what this meant – but some sneered that they were “filled with new wine.” “New wine” is also “sweet wine”, and was therefore a quick stimulus to drunkenness and, perhaps, babbling speech. CHAPTER 2:14-21 “Peter’s Pentecost Sermon: The Day of the Lord Has Come” “But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” This passage brings us face to face with one of the basic concepts of both the Old and the New Testaments: The Day of the Lord. In this understanding, time was divided into two ages – The Present Age (which was utterly evil and doomed to destruction) and The Age to Come (in which God’s kingdom would be fully established). The Day of the Lord is when God will directly intervene in history to end this Present Age and usher in The Age to Come. The Day of the Lord will be a time of terror and judgment as this present world is shaken to its very foundations, and even nature and the cosmos will be affected. As William Barclay notes in his Daily Study Bible commentary, typical passages describing The Day of the Lord are Isaiah 2:12; 13:6ff; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:7; Joel 2; 1 Thessalonians 5:2ff; and 2 Peter 3:10. Most of the book of Revelation is also a detailed description of The Day of the Lord. Peter specifically refers to Joel because it also refers to the outpouring of the Spirit to all flesh as part of this Day of the Lord. (Joel 2:28-32). CHAPTER 2:22-36 “Peter’s Pentecost Sermon: Jesus is Lord and Messiah” “You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know – this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him, ‘I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will live in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life, you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, ‘He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.’ This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. 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 both see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.” In this sermon, Peter outlines the basic points of the Christian faith as follows:
CHAPTER 2:37-41 “The Response to Peter’s Message” “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all whom are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added..” According to Luke, the response to Peter’s sermon was immediate and heartfelt. But the focus of this section is a summarization of the requirements for membership in the new community. They are:
SOME REFLECTIONS… 1. Peter’s message here is reminiscent of John the Baptist had proclaimed during his ministry in Luke 3 – “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” (Lk. 3:3) 2. It certainly seems that in this case at least, baptism is a “decision-based action” rather than a sacrament that even infants can receive. That being said, however, it is also apparent that within a short time infants and children were being baptized into the church. For example, the “entire family” of the Philippian jailer were baptized in Acts 16:33 – and infant baptism is mentioned in the Didache – early Church teachings – by 100 A.D. 3. Baptism here is connected not only with receiving forgiveness of sins but also with receiving “the gift of the Holy Spirit.” In Acts, baptism is always connected with the Holy Spirit! Sometimes baptism precedes receiving the Spirit (for example: Acts 8:16-17; Acts 19:1-7); and at other times it is administered after receiving the Spirit (for example: Acts 10:44-48). Be that as it may, according to Peter in this passage baptism “in the name of Jesus Christ” is more than just a ritual but also the means through which we can receive real blessings and gifts – forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit – so that we can live a new life. CHAPTER 2:42-47 “The Fellowship of Believers” “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.” As William Barclay writes in his Daily Study Bible commentary, in this passage we have a kind of lightning summary of the characteristics of the early Church.
-------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
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