And as these early followers of Jesus experienced God’s indwelling presence in a new way that had never been experienced before, they responded by pouring out into the streets of Jerusalem and toward the temple, praising God in a language that was totally unfamiliar to them. We see the response of those in to Jerusalem to the extraordinary activity of God recorded for us in verse 5:
Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, "Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? "And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs-- we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God." And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others were mocking and saying, "They are full of sweet wine."As those in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost saw and heard these early followers of Jesus praising God for who He is and what He was doing, they gathered together around these disciples in a state of confused amazement and astonishment. The crowds, from all over the world, wondered and marveled at how these Jews, who had an unmistakable Galilean accent that gave them away, were speaking in their language. These were simple Galileans; yet these simple Galileans were speaking in the languages of the nations that surrounded the Mediterranean Sea. Two times, Luke explains that the crowds were amazed. Now this word amazed, literally means to feel astonishment mingled with fear. What these crowds were experiencing was extraordinary and difficult to understand. The crowd was at a loss to explain what was happening.
While some in the crowd were impressed with a sense of wonder and fear at what they were witnessing from these early followers of Jesus, others in the crowd had a different perspective. “Oh look at these drunken Galileans”, they laughed at jeered. God’s activity, as is so often the case, created a division among the crowd. And in the midst of this division of opinion, Peter stands in the midst of the crowd and begins to speak. The very Peter who denied Jesus three times in a similar situation, the very Peter who was an uneducated fisherman, begins to give a sermon in the midst of devoutly religious Jewish people. And it is in this sermon that we see revealed for us a timeless truth when it comes to the co-mission we have been given. Let’s look at this sermon together, beginning in Acts 2:14:
But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: "Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. "For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 'AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND; 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 BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy. 'AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF SMOKE. 'THE SUN WILL BE TURNED INTO DARKNESS AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, BEFORE THE GREAT AND GLORIOUS DAY OF THE LORD SHALL COME. 'AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.'Peter, standing in the midst of what we will later discover is a crowd of thousands of people, proclaims “Listen up. Pay attention to what I am about to say, because these people aren’t drunk. And you should know that they are not drunk, because it is only 9 a.m. Since this is a feast day, as Jews, we abstain from food or drink in the morning, so they are not drunk. No, this is not 120 drunk Galileans on a bender; this is God doing something new. This is God doing something that He had predicted and proclaimed that He would do. Don’t you remember what God said through the prophet Joel? Don’t you remember that God promised that He would give His followers His Spirit so that they would prophesy? Don’t you remember that God promised His Spirit so that in the last days that God would do something new by proclaiming God’s message of rescue and forgiveness through the claims of Jesus Christ and the message of the gospel? Don’t you remember last time you were here for the Passover and how the sun was darkened on that Friday when Jesus was crucified?"
"The last days and the great and glorious day of the Lord have come. The last days began with Jesus appearance and God is doing something new in the world. And what you are witnessing today is the start of God doing something new. Just as God did something entirely new by sending His Son Jesus into the world in order to reveal Himself and to provide the opportunity to rescue the world from selfishness and rebellion, God is once again doing something new, something extraordinary.
God is now sending His Spirit in order that followers of Jesus would be united together by His Spirit as a part of a new community and with a new mission be the vehicle that He uses to reveal Himself and His message of rescue through the gospel to the world. And everyone who responds to the message of the gospel would be rescued from selfishness and rebellion and experience the relationship with God that they were created for”.
Tomorrow, we will look at the message of the gospel that Peter proclaimed that day...
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