The Harvest Has Begun!
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The Harvest Has Begun! Acts 2:1-23, 32-33, 36-41 Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2016 Sermon Transcript Justin Langley
Well, this morning, if you didn’t notice on your calendar, is Pentecost Sunday, a day that we typically don’t really pay much attention to—most Christians, at least, don’t—and so you might be wondering, “Why are we giving any attention to this this morning? We’ve never done it before here? And so, what is the big deal?” Well, we’re going to explore that very idea this morning. I’d like to suggest to you from the beginning this morning that Pentecost Sunday ought to be ranked up there with Christmas and Easter as a day that we reflect on more regularly than we have typically. We understand the significance of Christmas; we think about and remember the birth of our Savior, the moment in time that the eternal Son of God took on human flesh in the form of a baby, came to live a human life, and then to give his life for our sins. We remember that every year, and one of the ways that we celebrate that is by giving each other gifts. And the point of that, at least hypothetically, is that we would remember the great gift that God has given to us in giving us himself, in the form of his Son. And then the other big holiday that we tend to celebrate is Easter Sunday, of course: the day where we remember and reflect on Jesus’ resurrection from the dead in particular. And Good Friday is usually tacked on there for the weekend, where we spend some concentrated time reflecting on Jesus’ death on the cross.
But Pentecost Sunday—what about that? What is it? And why should we consider it as really, really important? That’s what I’d like to consider this morning. So, I’d like you to open your Bible to Acts chapter 2. Now, most of you, I think, have probably been around here for a while; you’ll probably remember that we trekked our way through the Book of Acts relatively recently, about a year ago, and so we talked about Acts 2; we walked through it; we preached it; we opened it up. So, is it too soon to revisit it? And, what are we going to see different today that we might not have learned a year or so ago? Well, one of the—I don’t want to call it a downside or a weakness, because it’s not—but one of the issues that we have to wrestle with when we preach expository sermons, consecutively walking through a book, when we come to a chapter like Acts 2 that’s so packed full of important things, when we walk through that text, we have a desire to emphasize, well, everything, and de-emphasize some things as much as we have to. There are some things in Acts 2 that are really important that we want to give attention to, and so when we went through Acts 2 before, we touched on everything, but in doing that we had to minimize some other pieces. And one of the things that I think got lost in the shuffle a little bit was the real significance of the Day of Pentecost itself. After all, there are some juicy points in here from Peter’s sermon about the resurrection of Jesus, where he draws on a couple of important Psalms from the Old Testament. Well, this morning we’re going to completely skip over those passages. I hope that doesn’t hurt your feelings or offend your biblical sensibilities. But we want to give full attention to the significance of the Day of Pentecost and what happened that day, that day 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus. We want to see: what was that really all about? And I think we’ll see some things that we didn’t get to see before, and we’ll explore the really foundational significance of this day.
1 Now, I want to tell you also up front that, when I was originally walking through this passage in preparing to preach this, I drew out eight significant outcomes of the Day of Pentecost that we would want to look at. But, for the sake of time and your attention spans, we’re only going to look at four. So, you can thank me for that later. But, perhaps we’ll come back to it again next year, and we’ll pick up the other four. So, don’t feel short-shrifted; that is by attention here; we’re only going to look at four, but they’re really important. So, we’ll build up to that and try to unpack this chapter, focusing in on the significance of this event for us as Christians 2,000 years later.
So, let’s begin walking through Acts chapter 2. We’ll look at verses 1-4; we’ll see the dramatic arrival of the Holy Spirit here. So, follow with me as we read verses 1-4 of Acts chapter 2: When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit give them utterance. So, in verse 1, we get the setting and the participants. The setting is the Day of Pentecost. What is the Day of Pentecost? Well, the Greek word for Pentecost just means “the fiftieth,” and so we’re just talking about a 50-day issue here, a time frame of 50 days, but 50 days after what? What was the Day of Pentecost really about? Well, it’s a Jewish festival, and in the Old Testament we read of it by the name “the Feast of Weeks.” I’d like to remind you of the significance of the Feast of Weeks. If you’ll look up on the screen, you can see Leviticus 23, verses 15-16. Leviticus 23:15-16 tells us what the Jews were supposed to do on the Feast of Weeks: You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath....Now, what’s the day after the Sabbath? Sunday, right? It’s a Sunday. But, when you’re reading that, you’re going to wonder, “Okay, which Sabbath?” There’s a Sabbath every week, so which Sabbath are we talking about? If you go to the paragraph preceding in Leviticus 23, you would read about what the Jews were supposed to do every year during the festival of the Passover. And so we’re talking about the Sabbath day, the Saturday, of Passover weekend. Okay, so that’s the starting point of our counting here, and that’s what’s being described.1 So: You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the [Passover] Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to Yahweh. So, it’s that last sentence that tells us what is the significance of the Feast of Weeks. It’s a harvest festival. It’s the day that they would celebrate the gift of the harvest. So, it falls after the barley harvest is completed and the grain harvest is completed, and they come together in Jerusalem— this is one of those big pilgrimage festivals where all the Jews, wherever they lived, were supposed to flock to Jerusalem to come and bring sacrifices to the temple—and they were celebrating and giving thanks to God for his gift of the harvest that he’s just completed.2 Okay, so that’s what the Feast of Weeks is primarily about: it’s a harvest festival.
1 There is a greater significance in connecting these two festivals together, as articulated beautifully by Duane A. Garrett, “Feasts and Festivals of Israel,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology (edited by Walter A. Elwell; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1996), n.p., who writes, “The sequence from Passover to Pentecost is meaningful from the New Testament perspective. The slaughter of the Passover lamb recalled the great deliverance of the exodus and marked the beginning of the harvest with the gift of firstfruits, and the Feast of Weeks was the great celebration in thanksgiving for the grain harvest. Jesus’ crucifixion at Passover, similarly, was the sacrifice for the deliverance of his people, and the subsequent pouring out of the Spirit on Pentecost was the fulfillment of what his sacrifice had promised (John 14:16–20; 16:7).”
2 So, we go back to Acts 2; that’s the setting in mind: when the day of Pentecost arrived. Now, there’s something hidden there behind the English that I want to bring out for you. The English, in most of our Bibles, says something like “when the day of Pentecost arrived.” But the Greek word that Luke used there is a very pregnant term. It’s a word that we could translate—the whole phrase—“when the day of Pentecost was to be fulfilled.”3 And when you see fulfillment language in the New Testament, you know that the writers are trying to point you back to something in the Old Testament. They’re telling you about something in Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, ascension is bringing to completion or fulfilling something in the Old Testament. Now, when we normally talk about fulfillment, the first thing that comes to mind is prophecy specifically. We think about the fulfillment of prophecy, those kind-of future oriented statements where prophets in the Old Testament would say, “God’s going to do this later on.” But, when we come to the New Testament, what we see Jesus and the apostles—all of them, really—affirming is that, yes, there’s that kind of fulfillment, but there’s even more. Jesus fulfills not just those future tense statements in the Old Testament; he also fulfills everything else…including the festivals. And so, each of the festivals that the Jews celebrated year after year after year have their own significance, usually looking back to celebrate something God had done for them, but each of those festivals had something pointing forward as well that was going to be completed—fulfilled —in Jesus himself. And so, I think that Luke is cluing us in: what we’re about watch and read about is the fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks, the Day of Pentecost.4 And so the event that’s about to unfold is fulfilling that festival, and very often we kind of overlook that and we don’t see the full significance of what’s going on here. So, keep that in the back of your mind; I’ll draw your attention to it multiple times this morning. But the Feast of Weeks, this harvest festival, was pointing forward to something that’s about to unfold right here. So, we’ll talk about how that works in just a bit.
So, that’s the setting. But we also see a mention of the participants in verse 1: they were all together in one place. And that leads us to ask: “Well, who are they?” If you go to the immediately preceding paragraph at the end of chapter 1, you will think that we’re talking about just the 12 apostles. The paragraph at the end of chapter 1 narrates the replacement of Judas. Remember, Judas betrayed Jesus and then went and hanged himself. And the apostles felt that it was necessary for them to complete their number—12 apostles—and so they cast lots and chose a man named Matthias as the 12th apostle here. But when you pick up the larger context, you can
2 See the helpful and thorough summary of Carl E. Armerding, “Festivals and Feasts,” in Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (edited by T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), pgs. 310-311. 3 Cf. Eckhard J. Schnabel, Acts (Expanded Digital Edition; Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), s.v. Acts 2:1, who writes, “Since Luke usually does not provide firm datings, the sonorous term συμπληροῦσθαι may imply the “complete filling” or fulfillment of God’s promises concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit given to the prophets, reaffirmed and announced by Jesus in terms of being fulfilled in the near future in 1:5.” 4 Cf. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, The Messianic Bible Study Collection (Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries, 1983), v. 160, pg. 3, who writes, “When it states: the day, with a definite article, it shows that the Feast of Pentecost was now to be fulfilled by the events occurring in this particular chapter. The Greek word translated was now come means ‘in the being fulfilled completely.’ The point Luke is trying to make in using this particular term is to show that the Feast of Pentecost is about to be fulfilled by these events. If this was observed on a Sunday in keeping with the Mosaic Law, then this day was also a Sunday and the Church was born on a Sunday.” While he affirms the fulfillment of the festival in this event, annoyingly, he goes on to reject the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2.
3 actually see that there are more people involved. After all, Matthias was chosen out of a number of folks, and when you go back to chapter 1 verse 15, you can see what’s really going on, I think, here. 1:15 says, In those days Peter stood up among the brothers, and then Luke adds in parentheses: (the company of persons was in all about 120). And so it seems that what we have here on the Day of Pentecost is 120 followers of Jesus gathered together in a house in Jerusalem, 120 followers of Jesus, male and female together, okay? There are men and women here, gathered together, joining mostly to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, but there’s more to come for them.
So that’s the setting and the participants. Let’s look at verses 2-3 and see the main event. We get an audio display and a visual display. They heard—the text says, suddenly there came from heaven….Now, don’t skip over that phrase too quickly; that’s an important notice. They recognize that the sound came from heaven; they’re not saying that they heard it coming down from above, I don’t think. The last time heaven was mentioned back in Acts chapter 1 was when Jesus ascended into heaven,5 and so Luke is already cluing us in that this event that goes on here, it comes from heaven where Jesus is. And Peter’s going to make a big point about that, that Jesus is ultimately the source of what is happening here in front of them.6 So, this sound came from heaven; it was a sound like a mighty rushing wind. So, it sounded like a tornado had broken out in the house. Now, they felt no wind;7 there was no wind blowing; their hair wasn’t blowing back, or anything like that. They heard this sound, and the best way to describe it is that it’s like a tornado breaking in.
And there was a visual display as well. He describes it in verse 3: divided tongues as of fire. So, he sees something glowing, like a tongue, shaped like a tongue, a flame. And it seems what’s being described as he says “divided tongues” is that you get a picture of maybe a glowing mass, that looks like a fireball of some kind in the room, and then he sees that fireball dividing out. They watch as it divides out and one tongue rests on each of the 120 followers of Jesus in the room.8 And so, this is a very arresting and bizarre visual event that they see here, and they’re trying to describe it as best they can. So, it looked like tongues of fire resting on each of them.
And verse 4 tells us the result. What was the result? Essentially, 120 followers of Jesus, filled with the Spirit, enabled by the Spirit to speak languages they had never learned. That’s the outcome described in verse 4. These 120 followers of Jesus begin speaking languages that they had never studied or learned, a remarkable phenomenon, very much unexpected.
5 See Acts 1:10-11. 6 Cf. Alan J. Thompson, The Acts of the Risen Lord Jesus: Luke’s Account of God’s Unfolding Plan (New Studies in Biblical Theology 27; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2011), pg. 50, who writes, “Furthermore, following the emphasis on the ascension of the Lord Jesus ‘into heaven’ (1:10–11), the mention in 2:2 of a sound coming ‘from heaven’ alerts us to the possibility that the Lord Jesus is continuing to act and that he is behind the events of Pentecost too.” 7 Point made by David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles (The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2009), pg. 132. 8 Cf. the description of Fruchtenbaum, Messianic, v. 160, pg. 4, who writes, “Each separate tongue looked like a fire; they were flame like in appearance and brightness. What they saw was a cluster of flames, initially all united together, and then became separated as they distributed themselves into individual flame like tongues on each one in the room.”
4 Let’s move into the next section and see how the bystanders and other people outside perceived what was going on. Let’s look at verses 5-8 to begin this section: Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound…(and I don’t think he means the tornado-like sound, by the way; I think he means the sound of the speaking that is going on; at that sound, hearing them speak)…the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “[Behold!] (And if you’re following along in the ESV, you don’t see the word “behold” there; it’s there in the Greek, and it’s important! So, with the word “behold,” the narrator is trying to grab your attention, saying, “Look right here!” And so, in conversation, these Jews are talking to each other, saying, “Look over there! Behold!”) Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” Now, I’ll try to paint the picture for you a little bit. You’ve got to think about: What was it like for a Jewish household in Jerusalem in the first century? So, their houses often had these courtyards, a big courtyard. That’s the place where you might find 120 people standing together doing stuff. Now, when you and I talk about our back yard, we think about it as outside the house, right? That’s not the way they thought about this courtyard area; that was in the house. But it’s a wide open space; there aren’t windows that they can shut or anything like that. So, what goes on inside the house can be heard outside usually, and especially if you’re not too quiet. And so, what we see being described here is that you’ve got Jews traveling up and down the road. I mean, Jerusalem is full—over-full—of people for the festival for the weekend, and they’re milling about around town. Or, perhaps they’re on their way to the temple to offer sacrifices. Well, as they’re walking by this house, something catches their ear. They start hearing their own native languages. This is odd because, as the text notes, there are Galileans in the room. These are Galileans. So, they’re able to see, perhaps, into the courtyard, but more than likely they’re actually hearing their own native language being spoken, but with a bit of a twang, a little bit of an accent perhaps. Galileans are known to have a bit of a backwater reputation in the first century. So, perhaps what they hear—the oddity of it all—is not only that “we’re not expecting our own native languages from the different parts of the world that we live in, we’re not expecting to hear that in a house in Jerusalem, but we’re really not expecting to hear it in that accent.” And so their senses might’ve been offended a little bit.
But it calls them together. People start hearing not only “my language,” but this guy hears his language, and they start then saying, “Are you hearing what I’m hearing? This is very strange!” And so the crowd kind of moves in on the house to get a closer look, and then this conversation that’s recorded for us here, in verse 9 goes on to list all of the different regions, or at least a representative list of all of the regions that were in town for the festival. Now, I’m not going to take the time to read through those, but I do want you to see what’s being demonstrated here. If you’ll put the next slide up on the screen, you’ll see a map up here,9 and I think—you may not be able to read all the names, but that’s okay—what I think you can see pretty clearly from this particular map is that the way they are labeled, the ones that are mentioned here are mentioned in a particular way, so that what you see is Jerusalem at the center of all of these other regions.
9 Map taken from Thompson, Acts, pg. 111, who borrowed it from The NIV Study Bible (edited by K. Barker; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1985), pg. 1646.
5 You can see by those regions, all of these regions are flocking in, and they create a circle from every direction. He said that it was “every nation under heaven.” That’s surely a bit of hyperbole or exaggeration, but the point is: they’re coming from everywhere, and they’re flocking to Jerusalem! You see, that’s got Old Testament prophetic significance as well because Jerusalem is kind of viewed as the heart of the world, the center of the world for God’s people when the restoration comes. And so Luke is already showing us that that’s what’s going on here; the whole world is flocking to Jerusalem for this momentous event to take place. Now, surely they were there just to celebrate the feast, like they did every other year, but they’re about to get much more than they bargained for, much more than they were expecting.
Now, at the end of verse 11 I want to draw your attention to what the crowd—whoever’s speaking here representatively—says is going on. So, this is his perception of what’s happening. He says at the end of verse 11, We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. So, as these folks are walking by this house, they hear people essentially praising God, describing and talking about his mighty works, but this crowd of 120 people, they’re all speaking in different languages. This would’ve been a bit bizarre, and that’s what we see in verses 12-13 as well. More confusion is described, and some people are interested in knowing—“okay, this has got to be a significant moment; what does this mean?” Other people are saying, “No, I know what’s going on; I have a certain conclusion about the matter. Verse 12 says, And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” So, there’s one group of people who, at least, are saying, “No, I know what’s going on here: they’ve had too much to drink!” That’s the conclusion of the matter.
Now, I want to try to give you a little bit of a taste of what this might have felt like. And so I’m going to invite some speakers to come up with me, and what I want to tell you ahead of time is that they are speaking languages that they have learned. So, that’s a difference between what we see in this text. There are only eight10 of us rather than 120, so it will be a little bit different, but I want you to feel some of the significance, some of the impact of what this event would have been like. So, if you guys want to come join me up here. We’ll be reading from Psalm 111. Why Psalm 111? Well, it’s a Psalm that tells of the mighty works of God! And so, we’re going to be reading it in different languages; you can see in your bulletin which languages are being represented, and I just want you to feel the impact of this and the strangeness of it all.
EXCURSUS: What would this have sounded like? SPEAKERS/LANGUAGES 1. Mitchell Hancock/English 2. Joey deGraffenried/German 3. Audrey Hale/Latin 4. Elise Silvey/Spanish 5. Debbie VanDoren/Tok Pisin 6. Terri Colvin/Navajo 7. Justin Langley/Hebrew
10 Actually, I misspoke; there were only 7 of us.
6 So, I hope you understood the English. I think that’s something of what it would’ve been like to some degree: all speaking together in different languages, sounds like a cacophony of insanity… or drunkenness as the conclusion went. But it’s not; it’s something else entirely, and that’s where we move to next. Peter’s going to stand up and give the inspired, authoritative interpretation of what just happened. What was that all about?
Let’s look and see what Peter has to say. He’s starting in verses 14-15: But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.” So, he immediately dispels the misinterpretation that was floating around: “These guys are not drunk; it’s 9 o’clock in the morning; chill out! So, it’s too early for all of that.”
But then in verses 16 and following he moves into what is the significance of this event, and he’s going to suggest authoritatively that this is an actual fulfillment of prophecy. And he focuses in on Joel chapter 2, verses 28-32. We’re going to take this in strides, and we’re going to walk through this a bit slowly and deliberately. And I wish I could tell you everything, but I’m going to restrain myself and focus in on some particular highlights here. This is a big event; this is a big prophecy; this is a big moment. And so Peter delves into Joel 2, verses 28-32. He introduces in verse 16: But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And then I’m going to focus in on the first two verses for the moment. He quotes Joel 2:28-29, and that’s where we’ll sit for a few minutes. “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on 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 on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”
So, what is going on here? Well, first he points out that there’s a period of time that has begun here. He focuses in and highlights “in the last days.” Now, before we come to that, let me remind you of the context of Joel. Perhaps you haven’t read it recently or don’t remember it, but Joel’s a short book, a fantastic book in a lot of ways, but I want to raise the question: Why does he go to Joel? Because there are several places in the Old Testament where God promises to pour out his Spirit on people. Why did Peter choose Joel? And I think there’s a specific reason. Joel chapter 1 begins with Joel teaching the people, preaching to the people, explaining to them why they just experienced a locust plague. A real locust plague had just happened in Israel, and so Joel is explaining to them that God sent these bugs in judging your sin. So, they had just experienced a wave of locusts that have destroyed their crops, destroyed their harvests. And so Joel is explaining to them that “This is because of your sin. God has sent these locusts to destroy your crops because of your sin.” And that has produced a famine in the land. When you don’t have crops, you don’t eat. And so, Joel the prophet stands up to explain that to the people. And so, the first part of chapter 1 is just explaining the significance of these bugs that have come in to take their crops out.
But then, toward the end of chapter 1,11 Joel turns and begins to call them to repent. So he says, “In light of this event of judgment, God is calling you to turn away from your sin and repent!” So, he calls them to repentance. And then, in the beginning of Joel 2, he begins to warn them
11 See Joel 1:8-20.
7 again. So, he explains to them: “This judgment has happened to you, so repent.” And then it’s like he’s saying, “If you don’t repent, here’s what’s going to happen.” And at the beginning of Joel 2,12 he announces a big judgment to come. And it looks like he’s describing an invasion of an army to come, but he describes it in a lot of metaphorical language, including some that sounds like the locust plague from chapter 1. And I think they’re supposed to get the connection: “You think these bugs were bad? Wait ‘til God brings in an army to wipe you out!” And Joel is doing this to get the people to turn away from their sin and to turn back to God, to repent.
Well, after Joel does that,13 he suddenly changes direction, or it seems very sudden when you’re reading through Joel 2. God suddenly says, “I’m going to have mercy on you.”14 It doesn’t seem like the people repented. God just says, “I am going to have mercy on you.” And what he says in particular is, “I am going to restore what the locusts destroyed. I am going to give you your crops back. I am going to pour out rain water from heaven”—(he’s talking in very literal terms)—“I am going to restore your harvest. I am going to pour out rain from heaven in a literal way that restores what the judgment of God had already taken away.” And so God turns to show them mercy, turns to restore them, and that is immediately preceding this passage that Peter chooses to quote in Acts 2. And so, I think what we’re supposed to see here is that, just like God poured out rain to restore their harvest, so also when God then moved to promise later on—“I’m going to pour out my Spirit on all flesh”—it is going to be a restoration and a salvation that goes beyond God’s judgment.
And so Joel then fits into this harvest theme that the Feast of Weeks, the Day of Pentecost, is really all about: celebrating the harvest of God. Well, in Joel 2 in the early part, it’s about the literal, physical harvest of grain and barley, but when you move to the end of Joel 2, it’s not about the harvest of grain and wheat anymore; it’s now about the harvest of sinners, the harvest of God’s people!15 That’s what the pouring out of the Spirit is really about: the harvest of God’s people! And Joel helps us see that uniquely, and so I think that’s why Peter latched onto Joel’s prophecy specifically, rather than Isaiah16 or Jeremiah17 or Ezekiel,18 who all talk about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in different ways.
Joel had said—if you were to turn back and look at it—Joel had only said, “And afterward….” So, God has said, “I’m going to pour out rain so that your harvest is restored,” and then verse 28, Joel 2:28 begins, “And after that….Sometime in the future, sometime after that, I’m going to
12 See Joel 2:1-11. 13 Actually, there’s another section where Joel again calls for the people’s repentance, Joel 2:12-17. 14 See Joel 2:18-27. 15 See the stimulating discussion of this point by Garrett, “Feasts,” who writes, “Why was the Spirit given to the church on an agricultural thanksgiving holiday? The solution is to be found in Joel 2:28–32 (Heb. 3:1–5), the text that Peter proclaimed to have been fulfilled by the events witnessed by the Jerusalem crowd that dramatic Sunday (Acts 2:16–21)…. Then, having promised an agricultural healing, Joel abruptly proclaims that the Spirit will be poured out on all people regardless of gender, age, or social status (2:28–32). Joel links the concept of agricultural and economic abundance to spiritual restoration. His choice of the verb ‘pour out’ (sûāpak) in reference to the Spirit (2:28 [Heb. 3:1]) alludes to the healing rains God would send upon the land (2:23).” 16 Isa. 32:15; 44:3. 17 I was thinking of Zech. 12:10. Interestingly, Jeremiah does not mention the Holy Spirit specifically at all. 18 Ezek. 39:29.
8 pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” Well, Peter adds a phrase; Peter adds the phrase “in the last days.” He doesn’t do that haphazardly; he’s doing that very intentionally, and he’s probably doing it by drawing on other Scripture. And we’re not going to go there today, but you could look at Isaiah 2:2; it’s the only place that this exact phrase for “in the last days” is used.19 But Peter’s probably borrowing from Isa. 2:2 and putting it here as well. But we won’t explore that any further.20 Nevertheless, Peter’s point is: This event, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a public indicator that the last days have begun. “The last days” is a reference to the final season of human history. The final season of human history has begun. It’s a harvest season, and it’s still going on. But Peter is showing us that this was the big breakout of the harvest. I don’t think the Day of Pentecost began the last days; I think it probably began earlier during Jesus’ ministry.21 But that is for another time perhaps.
So, what does he say? What’s going to happen when this unfolds? Joel said and Peter says, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Now, what does “all flesh” mean? If we’re reading it, we might think it means “all human beings” or “all kinds of human beings” or something like that.22 Joel surely was thinking about “all flesh within Israel” when he was writing this, and Peter’s probably thinking that as well, but I think specifically what he’s doing is he’s introducing the next phrases. And he means “all kinds of flesh,” specifically young and old, male and female, even slaves, all those kinds of flesh. Now, you’ve got to remember that so much of prophecy, and specifically Joel 2, is written in poetic form. It is poetry. It’s that way in your Bible I hope; in most English Bibles, you can see the poetry by indention, but remembering it’s poetry helps you see some of this figurative language that’s coming out. And so when he says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,” he means “all kinds of flesh,” male and female, young and old, even slaves, and that’s a significant reality because in the Old Testament period, the Spirit of God did not, in fact, work on all kinds of people or all people within the nation of Israel. He certainly did not live inside even believers amongst the people of Israel throughout their lives. I’ll come back to that point at the end of our time, but that’s a significant new thing that comes with the New Covenant that has been started up in Jesus himself. The Spirit of God—God’s own presence—comes to live
19 That is, the Greek Old Testament only uses this exact Greek phrase that appears in Acts 2:17 in Acts 2:2. 20 For a hint toward what the significance might be, see Thompson, Acts, pg. 128, who writes, “Thus what Jesus referred to as the ‘promise of the Father’, in language that alluded to the promises found in Isaiah, is now specified in terms of the promise found in Joel. Specifically, the promise is stated as, ‘God says “I will pour out my Spirit.” ’ That Peter understands this promise as related to the wider eschatological hope of the OT is indicated by his change of wording from ‘afterwards’ (as found in Joel 2:28) to ‘in the last days’ (Acts 2:17) at the beginning of his quotation of Joel. This additional phrase seems to come from Isaiah 2:2, a passage that looks forward to the day when the nations will come to the Lord’s house and ‘the word of the Lord’ will go out from Jerusalem.” 21 Perhaps when he was baptized by John, when the Holy Spirit visibly descended on him. Others suggest that the last days began with his birth, and this may be implied by Luke. See Peterson, Acts, pg. 141, who writes, “However, it is overstating the case to say that ‘the “last days” did not begin for the disciples till Pentecost’, since in Luke’s perspective the time of fulfillment began with Jesus’ miraculous birth (Luke 1-2).” 22 See the helpful and precise discussion of this question by Paul D. Feinberg, “Hermeneutics of Discontinuity,” in Continuity and Discontinuity: Perspectives on the Relationship between the Old and New Testaments: Essays in Honor of S. Lewis Johnson, Jr. (Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1988), pg. 127, who writes, “There are those who hold that this expression refers exclusively to the nation of Israel. However, I think that the .occurs thirty-two times outside of Joel in the OT כ שרל בשרשררר .best evidence supports usage broader than ethnic Israel In twenty-three of these occasions the reference is to Gentiles alone (e.g., Deut 5:26; Isa 49:26; 66:16; Zech 2:13). In the majority of its uses it serves as a reference to everyone regardless of race, sex or age. This outpouring, then, even in its promise, is to be upon some who are not Jews.”
9 personally in every single believer. That’s a new thing that started right here! This was the beginning point for that kind of relationship with God, where his presence is immediate and permanent. It wasn’t like that in the Old Testament. The Spirit would “rush upon” individuals, and almost always it was leaders; it was older men even, typically, but also younger men, but it was not distributed evenly throughout all of the people of God. That’s actually a significant moment here, a significant point of this reality. It’s now coming on everybody.23 The 120 followers of Jesus in that room were men and women, presumably of all kinds of different social status. Even if you think of the 12 disciples as a core, some of them were rich, some of them were not; most of them were just day-laborers, right? They were not wealthy people; they were not of high status. And certainly that would’ve been true of most of the 120 folks that were in that room.
Now, Joel prophesies, announces, tells that the result of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is that all of these people are going to prophesy. That’s how you know that the Spirit is living within them; they’re going to prophesy. Now, at this point I’ve got to mention that there are some folks who would say, “What Joel describes didn’t happen on the Day of Pentecost.” So, some folks look at this passage and they say, “You know, Peter is quoting Joel, but he’s not trying to say that what just happened is fulfilling Joel 2. He’s just making certain connection points with Joel 2, but he’s not saying that it fulfills Joel 2.”24 I have to disagree with that very strongly.25 Peter’s purpose is to show that exactly what just unfolded is the fulfillment of this prophecy.26 Now, what does he say? Joel prophesied that all these people would prophesy, and so many folks say, “Well, these people didn’t prophesy; they spoke in other languages.” But you’ve got to see that the author has already hinted to us what it means for them to be speaking in other languages like this. They were discussing, telling the mighty works of God. Folks, that is the core definition of prophecy in all of its forms: telling the mighty works of God.27 That’s what prophecy is! They 23 Cf. Raymond B. Dillard, “Joel” in The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary (edited by Thomas Edward McComiskey; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2009), pg. 295, who observes, “In the world of ancient Israel, the free, older Jewish male stood at the top of the social structure; most of Israel’s prophets had belonged to this group. Joel envisages a sociological overhaul: the distinctions between old and young (‘your old men … your young men’), slave and free (‘slaves and slave girls’), and male and female (‘your sons and daughters,’ ‘slaves [masc.] and slave girls’) are swept aside.” 24 See, for example, Fruchtenbaum, Messianic, v. 160, pg. 9, who writes, “When Peter states: this is that, he did not use the normal formula for fulfillment. He did not say, ‘that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by.’ He simply said: this is that. Nothing that Joel prophesied actually happened in Acts 2 and nothing that happened in Acts 2, such as speaking in tongues, was even mentioned by Joel. This is literal plus application.” 25 Again, see the helpful discussion of Feinberg, “Hermeneutics,” who observes on pg. 126, “Dispensationalists have typically tried to avoid Joel’s fulfillment in Acts 2:16-21, most likely because they see the OT prophecy addressed to Israel and because a NT fulfillment to the church threatens the distinction between the two. Methods used to avoid such a fulfillment have varied widely. Joel 2:28-32 has been called an ‘illustration’ of Pentecost or ‘closely similar’ to Pentecost; others think Peter cited it for ‘homiletical’ reasons.” He goes on to demonstrate how these are unfounded assumptions that (classic) dispensationalists bring to the text of Scripture, and then he offers his own understanding that Acts 2 represents a “partial” fulfillment of Joel 2. 26 Cf. I. Howard Marshall, “Acts,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (edited by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), pg. 533, who writes, “When a passage of Scripture is explicitly in the future tense, announcing what God will do in the future, it is hard to understand the explanation of a contemporary event in terms of the passage as not conveying the implication that in this way a prophecy that was waiting to be fulfilled has now found its fulfillment.” 27 Cf. Schnabel, Acts, s.v. Acts 2:17, who writes, “In the context of Peter’s speech in Acts 2, the term ‘prophesy’ refers to the proclamation of the mighty acts of God by the 120 disciples in foreign, unlearned languages, spoken under the revelatory inspiration of God and perhaps under some constraint to do so, languages which people
10 just happened to be doing it in other languages, something Joel didn’t specifically anticipate.28 But they were prophesying; they were telling the mighty works of God. Now, prophecy is often characterized by kind-of future ideas, in an Old Testament sense especially, but they’re telling the mighty works that God is going to do in the future! It’s still fundamentally telling the mighty works of God! That’s what prophecy is! So, I think, yes, these 120 people are doing exactly what Joel said they would do.
Now, you see a reference to young men seeing visions and old men dreaming dreams. In the Old Testament especially, these are forms of prophecy. Right? God delivered messages to his prophets very often by means of dreams and visions,29 and so what we’re getting here is a poetic subset, a poetic expression of prophecy.30 There are going to be different forms of prophecy given. The point of the matter is simply that God is going to fill people with his Spirit so that they speak his Word, and it’s going to be universal. It’s going to be all of God’s people who are enabled to speak God’s Word. This is not what happened in the Old Testament, but it is something that Moses himself wished for. Let me remind you of Numbers 11:29; remember how Moses had begged for this idea: Would that all Yahweh’s people were prophets, that Yahweh would put his Spirit on them! Now, as it turns out, on the Day of Pentecost, God does more than just put his Spirit on people; that’s what he did in the Old Testament for temporary moments. But God does more than that; he puts his Spirit permanently inside all of God’s people. It started on this day, and it still happens to this day. And so what we see is the fulfillment of Moses’ wish. Moses had just spent Numbers 11 asking God for help because the burden of the people of Israel was too much for him, and so the remedy is that God took the Spirit that he had placed on Moses and distributed that Spirit among 70 elders only, 70 older men only. Now, on the Day of Pentecost, it becomes the reality that the Spirit not only comes upon, but also lives inside young and old, male and female, even slaves—all of God’s people receive the Spirit as a permanent endowment. And so that is the primary point of those two verses, and the emphasis is given to this reality of prophesying; Peter says it twice—“they shall prophesy”— Joel actually only said it once. And so Peter’s wanting to draw our attention to this aspect of God’s people speaking God’s Word to each other.
Now, when we move to the next verse, we encounter a conundrum. It’s a conundrum for me; it should be a conundrum for you. So, if you’ve never thought about it, I’m about to cause some discomfort to you. Why doesn’t Peter stop quoting Joel 2? Why? This is a question that bothers everybody, so I want you to be bothered by it! He could’ve; he could’ve stopped his quotation at Joel 2:29, verse 18, but he doesn’t. This is significant to me, and I don’t think I can tell you what it means. But it is significant. Peter doesn’t stop, and I know he could have because lots of times in the crowd can understand (v. 11).” 28 However, cf. Schnabel, Acts, s.v. Acts 2:1-13 Theology in Application, who writes, “While speaking in unlearned languages (glossolalia, xenolalia) was unknown in Judaism, it would have been readily recognized as a special, dramatic form of doxological prophetic speech akin to the “dreams” and “visions” which Joel linked with the promise of the Spirit (Joel 2:28–29; cf. Acts 2:17–18; 10:46; 19:6).” 29 Cf. Dillard, “Joel,” pg. 295, who writes, “Two of the means of prophetic revelation specified in so too in 3:1, dream and vision are the means of prophetic ;(חללוםם) and dream (מרראארה) Numbers 12:6 are vision revelation.” 30 Cf. Peterson, Acts, pg. 141, who writes, “Seeing ‘ “visions” ’ (horaseis) and dreaming ‘ “dreams” ’ (enypnia) were prophetic activities in the OT. In the parallelism of Joel’s oracle, with the words will prophesy before and after, they are presented as a subset of prophesying.”
11 in the New Testament a writer will quote an Old Testament passage that is being fulfilled in this event, and then they’ll stop in the middle of a verse because the rest of the verse doesn’t apply.31 And, in fact, Peter does that very thing in the next couple of verses; he only quotes the first sentence of Joel 2:32, and he leaves off two sentences. He actually comes back to the last one at the end, and we’ll talk about that in just a bit. But he could’ve stopped. Why doesn’t he?
My instinct, my basic instinct is that we’ve got to understand that Peter sees Joel 2:30-31—the verses he’s going to quote in Acts 2:19-20—he sees those verses as having some significance for the event that he just experienced and witnessed.32 That’s the best I can do for you. Let me read them, and you’ll see why, if you haven’t already jumped ahead, which I’m sure you have. Verse 19, he goes on quoting Joel 2:30: And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. Peter doesn’t pause and say, “Now, we’ve just talked about what happened on the Day of Pentecost, and now I’m going to tell you about something that’s going to happen later on.” He doesn’t say that; a lot of commentators do say that. And I’m flabbergasted as to why. I’ve got to follow the text, and the text tells me that Peter quoted the whole passage.33 I’m not going to tell you why, because I don’t really have a good answer.34 I don’t understand why.35 I can tell you that what everybody observes is true: as far as Luke tells us, there were no eclipses that day, as far as we know—the sun being turned to darkness, the moon being turned to blood in a reddish tint. That didn’t happen as far as we know and as far as Luke tells us. So, what is that all about? And again, I’m not going to tell you because I don’t really know, but I do think it had some significance. I have theories, and you can talk to me about those sometime, but I’m not going to
31 Perhaps the most famous occasion of this is Jesus’ quotation of Isa. 61:1-2a in Luke 4:18-19. 32 Though I don’t follow his precise conclusions with regard to this question, see the helpful comments of G. K. Beale, “The Descent of the Eschatological Temple in the Form of the Spirit at Pentecost, Part 2: Corroborating Evidence,” Tyndale Bulletin 56:2 (2005): pg. 75, who writes, “The long quotation in Acts 2:17–21 concludes by omitting the very end of the wording of Joel 2:32. The fact that the wording which is unique to, and identical in, various respects to the omitted part is picked up again in verse 39 indicates the validity of the allusion here. Since this very last part of the Joel quotation is viewed as beginning fulfilment [sic], it thus suggests further that even the citation of the cosmic conflagration references in Joel 2:30–31 (in Acts 2:19–21) had in some way commenced fulfilment [sic].” 33 To clarify, I would say: “The text tells me that Peter quoted the whole passage to explain what was happening on the Day of Pentecost.” 34 Schnabel summarizes five different approaches taken to address this question. 35 One suggestion that appeals to me, but finally remains unpersuasive because it doesn’t seem to account for the specific references to the sun and moon, is offered by Roger Stronstad, The Charismatic Theology of St. Luke: Trajectories from the Old Testament to Luke-Acts (Second ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), pg. 63, who writes, “Fourth, the gift of the Spirit is attested by wonders and signs (Acts 2:19). On the day of Pentecost these include wonders in the sky above—that is, the sudden sound like that of a violent wind ‘from heaven’ (2:2). They also include signs on the earth beneath—namely, ‘the tongues as of fire’ and disciples speaking the mother tongues of the Pentecost pilgrims (2:3, 4).”
12 spend time now telling you about my guesses and theories.36 I want to be firm in the text, and I don’t have a good answer for this.
But what I do see very clearly is that Peter is introducing us to a time period. He’s begun by saying that the last days have started, and we see this unfolding because of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit here, and then he mentions another moment in time: the Day of the Lord. “Before the day of the Lord comes,” he mentions in verse 20. And so it seems to me that what Peter has helped us see is the publication, the making public of the last days has begun. That’s the significance of this event, and this period of time, this final season of human history, will conclude on the Day of the Lord. And when he says “the day of the Lord,” when Joel said “the day of the Lord” and when Peter talks about “the day of the Lord,” I think he means specifically the day when Christ returns and judges all the wicked. So, he’s talking about “the last day,” the judgment to come, the final last judgment. So, there’s a period of time now that he’s highlighting. And it’s during that period of time that verse 21 unfolds, or Joel 2:32: And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. From the Day of Pentecost to the Day of the Lord, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. That’s the normative reality of what happens during this final season of human history: everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, Jew and Gentile alike.37
Now, what does it mean to “call on the name of the Lord”? I don’t know that I’ve ever stopped to ask that question. I started reading a book last week that’s entitled Calling on the Name of the Lord; the subtitle is A Biblical Theology of Prayer, and it’s exploring prayer from Genesis to Revelation, something that’s never really been done before in a book. That’s interesting; you’d think somebody would’ve thought of that by now. Well, this guy has, and he argues that “calling on the name of the Lord” has a very specific meaning, and I think he’s right. To call on the name of the Lord is not a reference to generic prayer. It is a reference specifically to asking the Lord to accomplish his promises, to fulfill his promises. “To call on the name of the Lord” means to ask him to uphold his name, uphold his reputation, which is bound up in his promises. Every time this specific phrase appears, it seems like there’s a question about the fulfillment of God’s promises, and the goal is to get God’s people to ask him to fulfill his promises. We’ve observed that many different times, in many different places here in this setting, but a good way to pray is to ask God to do what he’s already promised he’s going to do. It’s a biblical way to pray; you see
36 Essentially, my theory is that Joel and Peter intend for these references to the sun being turned to darkness and the moon to blood are intended as figurative expressions, attempting to convey the life-changing, epoch-making, significance of this event. There is evidence from the ancient world that folks utilized expressions about the sun, moon, and stars falling from the sky or ceasing to function properly when they were trying to communicate the significance of some event. In fact, in English, we use similar phrases, though they are not quite as specific. For example, if someone was severely injured in a car accident, they might say, “The accident turned my world upside down.” Or, we might speak of the loss of a spouse as an “earth-shattering” event. For a full and really clear discussion of this language in Scripture, see D. Brent Sandy, Plowshares & Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2002). 37 We actually see this already hinted at by the mention of proselytes being present in Jerusalem back in verse 11. Proselytes were ethnically Gentile, but they abandoned their gods, abandoned their native cultures, and turned the lives over to Yahweh, the God of Israel, with men accepting circumcision, and submitting completely to the Mosaic Law. There was provision made within the Law of Moses for Gentiles to be grafted into the nation of Israel from the very beginning. Nevertheless, they remain ethnically Gentile and they point forward to the ultimate reality that God always intended to save people from all nations through Israel.
13 characters in the Bible doing it all the time, and we should, too. That’s what it means to call on the name of the Lord.
So, what does it mean that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”? Saved from what? Saved from the Day of the Lord; saved from Judgment Day; saved from God’s wrath. So, a person has to ask the Lord to fulfill his promise to me, that is, to save me from my sin and to perhaps fill me with his Spirit in the way that was unfolded here in the Book of Acts. It shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. One more point about that: in Joel 2:32, you’ve got to know that in Hebrew it’s, “Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved,” but you’ve got to know that in Peter’s mouth he’s saying, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved,” specifically equating and elevating Jesus to show that he truly is God himself, and he’s going to do that multiple times in this sermon.
And that’s where he turns next in verse 22; he turns to Jesus and talking about Jesus. We’re going to skip some sections in this part, but we’ll walk through pretty quickly these sections. Look at verses 22-23: Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs….I want to highlight that phrase for you just for a moment because it popped up in the Joel passage: “wonders in the heavens…signs on the earth.” I’m raising the question, and I don’t have an answer: is it significant that Peter chose to draw attention to Jesus’ miracles during his ministry in this way? Is there some connection to Joel 2’s prophecy? Maybe.38 I’m asking the question. Nevertheless, Jesus was a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Peter’s very direct with his audience here.
Skip down to verse 32: This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all 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 yourselves are seeing and hearing. So, what Peter does here is make it clear that it’s Jesus himself that actually poured out the Holy Spirit on the people. He makes this clear by connecting it back to a promise that Jesus had made to his disciples back in Luke 24:49. In Luke 24:49, Jesus had told the disciples after he had been raised from the dead and was talking with them, and he told them, And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. That’s what happened to them. They were “clothed with power from on high.” Jesus had promised it, and now he is doing it. He has sent the Spirit upon them and into
38 Some have further suggested from this that the fulfillment of this aspect of the prophecy would unfold as we see God performing similar “wonders and signs” through the hands of the apostles. See, e.g., Andrew T. Lincoln, “Pentecost,” in Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments (edited by Ralph P. Martin and Peter H. Davids; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1997), pg. 906, who writes, “The account indicates that not only preaching but also signs and wonders will be part of the witness as a consequence of the Spirit’s empowerment. The citation from Joel is revised to read of ‘portents in the heavens above and signs on the earth below” that will accompany the outpouring of the Spirit (Acts 2:19); Peter’s speech emphasizes that Jesus himself was ‘a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders and signs’ (Acts 2:22); and as a result of their Pentecost experience such deeds are replicated in the mission of his followers, as ‘many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles’ (Acts 2:43).” As with another suggestion noted earlier, Lincoln doesn’t mention how he understands the specific references to the sun being darkened and the moon being turned to blood.
14 them, and Peter makes it clear here that’s what has happened. Now, notice the promise language here; it is important. The Spirit was promised; we see that in Joel; we see that in lots of passages in the Old Testament. But the significant thing that is somewhat difficult to understand initially is that Peter says Jesus had to receive this promise. Jesus is the one who receives the promise of the Holy Spirit. He ascends into heaven; he sits on his throne at the right hand of God; and the Father gives to him the Holy Spirit to then pass on to us. Why do I belabor that point? Well, because Peter does, but the promise was given to the house of Israel; the promise was made to the people of God. Jesus must receive that promise himself because he represents the house of Israel; he represents the people of God in himself. And so before the Spirit can be distributed to all people, it must come to him as the true representative of Israel. He must have it before it can go to anybody else. Now, he was fully empowered by the Holy Spirit throughout his ministry, but this special endowment for him to then pass on is only given once he’s glorified and ascended to the Father. And so Peter specifies that it’s Jesus himself who poured out “this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” And so, Jesus then stands in the place of Yahweh. In all of those places in the Old Testament, it’s Yahweh saying, “I will pour out my Spirit,” and so it’s specifically the hands of Jesus—fully God and fully man—who does this for us. And so Peter emphasizes that point.
Drop down to verse 36: Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. So, here again, Peter highlights Jesus being fully God and fully man. “God has made him”—that is, appointed and demonstrated—that he is “both Lord”—Yahweh himself, the God of Israel—and Christ, that is, Messiah—the human Servant of the Lord, the human descendent of David, who was to come. And so Jesus is highlighted here by Peter as the one sent to the house of Israel, to pour out his Spirit on them, borrowing more language from Ezekiel 39:29. That’s who the promise was given to, the promise of, “I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel,” and so Jesus has done it.
Now, the last section, verses 37-41, that I want to look at, gives us the Jewish crowd’s correct response. So, they respond to Peter’s preaching this way: Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “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. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” That last phrase is the last sentence of Joel 2:32. You see, Peter’s come right back around to his primary text in Joel. He’s come right back around to bring the conclusion home, and we’ll talk about that in just one second. So, what is the only appropriate response? They’re “cut to the heart”; what Peter has said to them has impacted them at the core of who they are. They’ve come to the place where they see their sinful involvement in the murder of the Messiah. And they are wanting to know, “What do we do now? Can God forgive us for killing the Savior of the world? Can God do anything to help us? We have murdered the Messiah,” as Peter pointed out twice in this sermon very directly. “What do we do now?”
15 The answer is simple: repent; turn; turn away from your sinfulness; turn away from, particularly, your sinful involvement in the death of the Savior,39 but turn away from your sinfulness and turn to God. Repentance is a turning, and it’s got a dual side; you’re always turning away from one thing and turning toward something else. And so repentance is the flip-side of faith; faith is turning to Christ; repentance is turning away from sin. It’s a singular turn, and that’s the only appropriate response at this moment: turn; repent. And you express that repentance, Peter goes on by saying, “Be baptized.” That is, “Let one of us dunk you in water.” Why? To illustrate what’s happened in your heart; to illustrate the turn that’s been made; to illustrate the cleansing that has occurred, that cleansing that is made by the Spirit, that’s connected to the Spirit even in the Old Testament prophecies.40 It’s the Spirit who brings about this cleansing of the heart; it’s taken place, so demonstrate it! Illustrate it by letting us dunk you in water and also to show that you’ve been connected to this Savior that you killed. You’ve been connected to this Savior that you’ve offended by your sinfulness, and you’ve been raised from the dead with him. He’s given you new life. That’s the significance of all of this.
So, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. So, publicly, in front of everybody, demonstrate your radical transformation, and Peter promises that when they do this they will receive the same gift; they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then he refers to the gift as a promise, just like he had earlier. This promise is “for you”; it’s for you, as you repent. It’s for your children; it’s for those who aren’t alive yet; it’s for those who will repent later on. It’s for those “who are far off.” Now, it could just mean: “it’s for all those Jews who aren’t here; they weren’t here to hear the sermon.” But the phrase that he uses might go back—and I’m sure that Luke intends us to see the broader significance of “those who are far off” being Gentiles, those who are far off from Israel, because that’s the story of the Book of Acts—how the gospel itself goes out from the Jews, to the Samaritans, and all the way to the Gentiles. And so this phrase, “those who are far off,” probably draws on more Old Testament prophecy, Isaiah 57:1941—look it up later—but the consistent picture of Old Testament prophecy is that the restoration of Israel brings the Gentiles into the house of Israel! That’s the anticipated outcome of God’s plan and purposes, and it’s happening right here! It’s beginning right here on this day, 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead.
The promise is to be given for “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And so we’re reminded of this dialectic, this constant tension, that runs through the whole Bible, of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, specifically in salvation. Because earlier the focus was, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” but now he comes around at the end of Joel 2 to say it’s “everyone whom the Lord calls to himself.” So, the truth of the matter is everyone who does call upon the name of the Lord, everybody who asks the Lord to
39 Cf. Darrell L. Bock, Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007), pg. 142, who writes, “Peter is telling his audience to change direction from the attitudes that led them to crucify Jesus, and look to God through Jesus for forgiveness.” 40 I’m thinking primarily of Ezek. 36:25-27. 41 Cf. David W. Pao, “Acts,” in The Baker Illustrated Bible Commentary (edited by Gary M. Burge and Andrew E. Hill; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2012), pg. 1174, who writes, “The phrase ‘who are far off’ reminds one of Isaiah’s promises concerning the salvation of the Gentiles: ‘Peace, peace, to those far and near’ (Isa. 57:19); the use of a similar phrase later in Acts also confirms this reference to the Gentiles (22:21). Jesus is not only the Lord of the Jews; he is also the Lord of the Gentiles. In Acts, this Christological affirmation provides the firm basis for missions.”
16 fulfill his promises to them—they’re doing it because the Lord has called them to himself! That dialectic is consistent throughout the Scriptures. That tension needs to be held in place and not flattened or removed. Just to remind you of Joel 2:32, if you’ll put that on the screen; the tension’s there in a single verse here in Joel 2:32! He said, And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved….(We saw that quoted back in verse 21. But then he stopped, and he’s got two more sentences in Joel 2: For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Yahweh has said….(Escape from what? Escape from the Day of the Lord; escape from the coming judgment.) And among the survivors shall be those whom Yahweh calls. And so Peter hones in on that last phrase to highlight God’s initiative in all of this. And that’s where he concludes his sermon.
Verse 40 goes on to summarize the impact of the moment: And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” No, he didn’t say that; that’s what the ESV has, but you can’t save yourself! You can’t! The wording here is a passive in Greek. It’s, “Be saved from this crooked generation! Be saved by the Lord!” Now, you have to repent to do that! You have to repent to experience that! You have to turn away from this crooked generation! You have to reject your association with the sinfulness of your past, and, in their context, the sinfulness of these people. You’ve got to separate from that. You’ve got to! But when you do, it’s because the Lord is saving you out of it! He’s drawing you out of it! And so he commands something that you can’t do. Be saved…by God! Be saved by the Lord from this crooked generation.
Verse 41: So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Three thousand lives. You know, when we think about salvation, we think in spiritual terms only too much. The Bible does not separate the spiritual from the physical the way that we like to do.42 The lives that were added that day were whole lives, body and soul! When Jesus purchased you—if you’re a Christian—he purchased you body and soul! And Paul makes a big deal out of this point. First Corinthians 6: “You were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” You see, he owns our body and our soul. So, to be saved is something that’s not only a spiritual reality. We’ve got to stop thinking about the promises of God as separated into physical and spiritual categories; it’s all a packaged deal! God owns us, body and soul; the material is good and holy! And he owns it all.
Three thousand lives! So, they grew from 120 to 3,000 like that. That’s the significance of this moment; that’s the harvest. The beginning of the harvest comes with this multiplication of the church of believers from 120 to 3,000 in a single moment of time. That’s the beginning of the harvest; that’s the fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks! This harvest festival that they were there to celebrate, all about grain and barley, is really about the harvesting of God’s people, the harvest of the lives of God’s people.
Let me close quickly, running through four significances of the Day of Pentecost. There are four others that you’ll have to wait…maybe forever…to see. I don’t know. Maybe you’ll find them yourself; that would be awesome as well! The first significance—and we’ll point to a couple of
42 Cf. Garrett, “Feasts,” who comments on Joel and Amos: “For these prophets, therefore, a theological link existed between the material blessing of God seen in a rich harvest and the spiritual benefits obtained when God gives his Word and Spirit.”
17 texts in John’s Gospel to kind of give a backdrop here: The divine Father and the divine Son have given the divine Spirit to indwell permanently all believers so that the age of the Spirit has begun. This is fulfilling all kinds of Old Testament expectation, but we get a clear clue in John’s Gospel that this is the truth of the matter: Old Testament Israelites, the faithful ones—Moses, David, Daniel, Isaiah, Joel—all of those guys were not indwelt by the Holy Spirit permanently throughout their lives. Yes, the Spirit was active in their lives; he worked on them from the outside, it seems, but he was not indwelling them permanently. And here’s the clue from John’s Gospel that we get, two texts: John 7:39. Jesus had just talked about how rivers of living water are going to flow out of your heart, and then John explains that cryptic comment by saying, Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. So, even while the disciples were walking around following Jesus for three and a half years, they did not have the Spirit living within them. The Spirit was not given to them as a permanent possession; that was something that could only happen after Jesus ascended to the throne of God. He clarifies that even further in John 14:16-17; he says, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and [he] will be in you. That is to say, the Spirit of God was not in them, even as they walked around following Jesus, believing him in some ways, and disobeying him in others, the Spirit was not inside of them, but he was going to be. And we see that happening here on the Day of Pentecost. This was the first day, the first moment, the first time where God pours out his Spirit to live permanently within all believers. This was it.
The second significance, as we’ve already talked about, is that the last days have begun. I don’t need to say more about that. The third point: the mission of the church has also begun with full empowerment to harvest all of God’s people, fulfilling the Feast of Weeks. So, it’s not just that moment on the Day of Pentecost that fulfills the Feast of Weeks; it’s the continuation throughout this age, as we harvest God’s people. You see, God harvests people by preaching the Word; he draws people to himself through the preaching of the Word, empowered by the Holy Spirit. That’s the key. That’s the ultimate element. Why did he do this on a Sunday—I don’t know if it was in the morning or not—but why did he do this on a Sunday fifty days after the resurrection on the day of the Feast of Weeks? He did it that day because of this! The harvest of God’s people has begun! That’s why it was that day and not a Tuesday! It was a Sunday on the Day of Pentecost. Finally, the fourth significance: the “prophethood” of all believers has begun.43 Perhaps you’ve heard of the priesthood of all believers; that’s more commonly talked about. But this text teaches, I think very clearly, the “prophethood” of all believers. You see the Spirit of prophecy lives in every single Christian. The moment that you began to trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit came into your life to live inside of you permanently. He never leaves, not for a second of your life. And what does he do while he’s sitting there in you? He’s not kickin’ back in a La-Z- Boy, just chillin’ and just watching your life unfold! He’s acting inside of you to change your heart, but the other thing he’s doing is enabling you to speak God’s Word truly! To speak it to your neighbor, to speak it to your spouse, to speak it to your children faithfully! We all have the ability to preach the gospel to each other. You don’t have to be ordained to an office to do that.44
43 I’m borrowing this phrase from Dillard, “Joel,” pg. 295. 44 Cf. Dillard, “Joel,” pg. 295, who writes, “[T]he privilege of proclaiming God’s truth to a waiting world is not the province of the special office alone.”
18 We are all responsible, as Christians, to take this book in our hands, to own it for ourselves, to read it for ourselves, and to check everything that we hear by it. Everything’s that coming out of my mouth this morning and every other time I stand up here—you’ve got a responsibility and the a-bility to perceive the truth of it. The Spirit lives within you just as much as he lives in me!
And so we have this great calling; we are all—as Moses hoped for—we are all the prophets of God. And that doesn’t eliminate the place for a professional preacher of God’s Word—at least, I hope it doesn’t because I’m up here! But it does give all of us the freedom, the ability, and the empowerment to speak God’s Word to other people in a way that he’s going to use to actually change people’s lives!45 I can’t count the number of times that you have said something to me from God’s Word that God used to change me! I hope he does that in your households, in your families, with your children; I hope he does it with your neighbors. More and more, let us exercise our “prophethood.” As much as we like to talk about the priesthood of all believers— that we can freely and joyfully access God ourselves because of the intercession of our High Priest, Jesus himself (and we should exercise that as well all the time)—there is this other aspect that’s so true, that’s so neglected. We have the right, we have the ability, and the Spirit of God living within us to teach us this Book. He’s going to use mouthpieces like me sometimes perhaps, but he’s working in your heart individually when you sit in your room and read the Book! Take advantage of it! Use it! Exercise it! Speak the Word of God to each other and to those you don’t know, and be confident that the Spirit will use you in that way. Let’s pray toward that end.
45 Cf. John D. Harvey, Anointed with the Spirit and Power: The Holy Spirit’s Empowering Presence (Explorations in Biblical Theology; Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 2008), pg. 116, who writes, “A new pattern of ‘each man’ saying ‘Know the LORD’ (Jer. 31:33-34) replaces the Old Testament pattern of the Spirit’s empowering selected prophets to communicate God’s word.”
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