Hello my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Who in your family gets most excited when gifts appear? Isn’t it true that especially for young children, the price of the gift, the complexity of the gift, the resale value of the gift, the size of the gift are all not very important. They love the surprise of the gift! Have you found that sometimes the anticipation of a gift is almost more exciting than actually receiving, finally, the long awaited gift?
For the past week or more we’ve been together back in Jerusalem, placing ourselves in the story of Pentecost found in Acts 2. We’ve been looking closely at the unexpected, shocking, sudden evidence of the arrival of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus.
What evidence? Wind like a tornado; tongues of fire which lighted on these friends of Jesus but did not burn them; and the sudden ability for them to speak in languages they did not know, but languages spoken by God fearing Jews who had come from far away places for the “Shavuot” festival we know as Pentecost.
Peter took the occasion to use Old Testament Scriptures found in Joel to explain this outpouring of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:14-21) The closing phrase of Joel’s prophecy, quoted by Peter, is: “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” That is a shocking statement and it was happening in Jerusalem!
Peter had then gone on to explain the Gospel of Jesus Christ which clarified WHO Jesus of Nazareth is, God the Son, and WHY His death was foretold by God and is the atonement sacrifice which provides to God the opportunity to forgive the sin of repentant people who confess their rebellion against God, and turn to God for His Justice mercy, and receive God’s deliverance from their sin bondage and sin condemnation.
Peter’s Holy Spirit led message resonated powerfully in the hearts of these Jews and the Holy Spirit led them to ask “What shall we do?” (Acts 2:37) Yesterday we looked closely at Peter’s response.
May I give you this paraphrase of Acts 2:38 for clarity? ‘Repent of your sinful rebellion against God and receive God’s deliverance from and forgiveness for your sin. Then in obedience to Jesus, be baptized in water thus declaring your death to your sinful rebellion against God and your allegiance to Jesus as your Savior and your Master.’
And then Peter gave them this very exciting news: “And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!” My friends, a few days ago we looked at the words of Jesus which Luke records for us are among the last things Jesus said before He ascended back to heaven. Jesus had told His disciples “Do not leave Jerusalem but WAIT for the GIFT My Father promised which you have heard Me speak about… in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4,5)
Now for those Jews present, listening to Peter, they knew some of the Old Testament stories of the Spirit of God being sent by God to anoint and help people like Moses or Gideon or Samson or Saul or King David. And now they had the contemporary experience of what they had just witnessed with the wind, tongues of fire and languages. So I wonder what they expected might happen to them if they received this Holy Spirit gift from God?
And then Peter said: “This promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the LORD our God will call.” (Acts 2:38,39) One of the wonderful realities the Jewish people held tightly to was that being ‘the chosen people of God’, (Ex. 19:4-6) the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob’s 12 sons was a privilege passed biologically from generation to generation. That’s why little Jewish boys were given God’s covenant mark of circumcision and their name on the 8th day after their birth, celebrating their inclusion in the people of God! (Gen. 17:5-13)
With this great promise Peter was declaring that God was ready for any Jewish person, anywhere, to be included in God’s gracious offer to accept the repentance of anyone, of any age, and in response God would forgive their sin and invite them to be baptized as a sign of their allegiance to Jesus the Messiah.
And also that God would send them this same great gift of His Holy Spirit, to any person who trusted Jesus to be their Savior and Lord, and would thereby become a follower of Jesus! It was a stunning moment as the crowd of Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the Pentecost festival contemplated what the disciple Peter was promising them!
I think Peter paused, letting them process the power and potential of this moment. But Peter didn’t wait long, for he had one more very powerful thing to say. Luke records it this way: “With many other words Peter warned them and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ Those who accepted Peter’s message were baptized, and about 3000 were added to their number that day!” (Acts 2:40,41)
We’ve all been in great crowds, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for us to imagine this remarkable response to Peter’s challenging words. I’d like us to pause right here and ponder this scene and try to wrap your mind around what was taking place in Jerusalem that Pentecost day! 3000 people is a huge number of people responding to the work of God in their lives! Tomorrow we’ll look closely at what happened and what it meant for them.
For today, here’s a song to help us consider this miracle and reflect on the powerful truth of Peter’s challenge for you and me and every person, in every city of the world, in this ‘corrupt generation’!
Today’s Scripture: Acts 2:36-41.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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