[Wed, 22 May] Acts 2:14-41 (842 words; 1/3)

In yesterday's reading, the Holy Spirit fell on the gathered believers and they began praising God in various languages. Luke records that all who saw and heard this were "amazed and perplexed" (2:12), but, whereas some wondered at its significance, others simply dismissed it as drunkness. Peter responds to both reactions and explains what is really happening, what it means, and how to respond.

Peter turns to Joel 2: "In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh..." (Acts 2:17). What you are seeing and hearing is not drunken raving but the pouring out of the Spirit, and not some occasion like when the Spirit fell on Saul and he started prophesying (1 Sam 10:10-12), but a new thing altogether. The Spirit is poured out on all people, male and female, young and old, slave and free. At this point, Peter does not know about God's plan to include the Gentiles, so that 'all people' really will mean 'all people', as in, both kinds of people -- Jews and Gentiles! That revelation will require a special process which Peter and then the Jerusalem church will undergo chapters 10 and 11. For now, 'all people' means any Israelite, and not just a prophet or judge. But there are two very special, specific things which Peter must make clear. 

The first is that these are the last days. This is a point in history where something has irrevocably changed and God has acted. This is the moment, therefore, where God has returned to his people and repentance is required. In verses 17 and 18 there are references to "the last days" and "in those days". Then, when Peter expounds Ps 16, he emphasises David's role as a prophet who "foresaw" (vv. 30-31) what God was going to do. And, like Jesus in 1:4, the Holy Spirit is referred to as the "promise" (vv. 33, 39). All this language points to a future which has now come. What Peter is saying, based on Joel and the Psalms, is that this moment is a time-shift. 

But what has caused this time-shift? Why are things now different? What has happened or what conditions have been met that God has now returned to his people? This is the central part of the sermon. What has happened is everything they already know about Jesus of Nazareth. Peter highlights their knowledge in vv. 22-23: they all know that Jesus was a man attested by God by all the incredible things he did. They all know that they had him killed, crucified even, and not under the Jewish Law as though it was righteousness, but by using those outside of the Law, the Romans. 

But, despite the emphasis that Peter puts on their complicity and guilt, which he will continue to do in later sermons, Peter also emphasises that this was all part of God's plan. In a mysterious way, God has led them deeper into their own sin and guilt by involving them in the rejection and destruction of the Messiah, but all this in order that he might save them. This is a judgement on them, but it is a judgement which leads them to ask, "Brothers, what should we do?" (v. 37). If they repent and be baptised, as Peter exhorts, their sins will be forgiven, and they will receive this gift of the Spirit which they see and hear. The gift of the Spirit is not only some comforting, wonderful experience: it is the inclusion in this new age, the age of the Spirit, the age and kingdom of Christ. This is the new age which is characterised by Jesus' resurrection: therefore, this is the age which will endure forever. The old age will pass away. Those who belong to it and refuse to leave it will likewise fade away with it. But those who step into the new, who are cleansed by the Holy Spirit poured out by Jesus (v. 33), will belong to the eternal age, the age of resurrection-life. 

And this is the central point of the central point: that this Jesus, whom you crucified, has been made both Lord and Messiah by God (v. 36) when God raised him from the dead as foretold by the scriptures. The basis and proof of everything that Peter has been saying, that the last days are here, that God has judged the world through Jesus but is now offering repentance, and that the Holy Spirit is available to all, is focused entirely in the resurrection of Jesus. This is why the preaching in Acts will concentrate so heavily on the resurrection, and, why Peter will emphasise that salvation is found only in Jesus, because only Jesus has been resurrected, and it is only through this resurrected one that all things are now possible. He is the living one, who pours out the Spirit, who is both Lord and Christ, and the king of the kingdom. There are no alternatives. Repent, be baptised, and receive the Holy Spirit!