Explaining Pentecost

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2015 · 13 December 2015

Acts 2:14-42 is the sermon of Peter on the day of Pentecost. It is important because it is the first Christian sermon ever preached. And thus it sets for us a pattern of apostolic preaching and a pattern that carries down for our own preaching today. And this is very important because here we can find principles of teaching men how to preach the word of God with power.

In many churches, the pattern of the Holy Spirit moving in the church is bogged down because men are lost in all kinds of worldly psychology that is nothing compared to the power of the word of God. When Paul told Timothy what to do about his ministry he said it as simply as you can say it, "Timothy, preach the Word." And the book of Acts is a record of apostolic preaching.

Acts 4:2, “The Jews were greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.” Acts 8:5, “Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ.” Acts 8:25, “Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.” Acts 8:35, “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus.” Acts 8:40, “But Philip found himself at Azotus, and he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea.”

Search Acts 13, 14, 17, 20, and right to the end of the book of Acts and you will find that the priority in the church was the preaching of the Word. Now it is important to have Bible studies and Sunday school but nothing supplants the preaching of the Word. Religious instruction and exhortation is an integral part of Christian worship. It is so designed by the Holy Spirit. In the ministry of Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus Christ repeated three times that He came to preach. John writing many years after that looked back and said in John 7:28, "Jesus proclaimed as He taught in the temple." His preaching was powerful but His preaching was at the same time compassionate. Preaching involves the gospel proclamation and theological instruction. And you all should know the definition of preaching.

Often we hear, that pastor is a good preacher, but not a teacher. That is not possible. He is not a good preacher if he is not a teacher. The theological view of preaching right out of the Word of God is that it contains the proclamation of the doctrine with instruction. That is how our Lord preached. He told His apostles to go into all the world and to preach and to teach, and there is no difference. In fact, those two words are used in the gospels interchangeably when referring to Jesus Christ.

The history of the church records the preaching of the Word of God. Nowadays people have used a lot of things that try to replace preaching. And the sad part of it is that most people let it happen. Open U Tube and the internet and instead of seeing men preaching the word of God, you see musicals and movies and the other things going on and they all have their place. But never do they supplant the powerful Holy Spirit which energizes the preaching of the Word of God.

Peter is the preacher and he is Spirit filled and Peter has been restored and it all begins with a sermon. It says that when the Spirit of God had filled them, they stood up and they spoke. And later in Acts it says when they were filled with the Spirit, they spoke the Word with boldness. We saw a few weeks ago how the Spirit of God prepared the scene for the sermon.

By the sound that they all heard of the wind, the crowd gathered. And when the disciples began to speak in all of these languages, they were amazed and shocked and astonished. They could not figure what happened. Some of them said they are drunk. How can these uneducated Galileans speak all these different languages? They couldn't figure what was going on. It was time for somebody to come in and eliminate the confusion, perfectly setting the stage.

In Acts 2:14-42 the whole sermon appears and we will study it. It is the foundation of all our apostolic proclamation. The preaching of the cross all through Acts, through the Epistles and even today should follow this pattern. But the Holy Spirit tied the whole thing to the true God of the Old Testament by making these languages speak about the wonderful works of God. So that the people were seeing this miracle and they had to conclude that it came from God. The Spirit of God has done all the preparation.

Now let us look at the content of Peter’s preaching. And the content or ‘kerugma’ in the New Testament is made up always of the same things. First, it is centered on Jesus Christ. And throughout Acts it involves the fact that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Secondly, it indicated that Jesus was God in human flesh. Thirdly, it centered on His life and work, particularly death and resurrection. Fourthly, it talked about His second coming and fifthly, it always ended with the fact that salvation was in Him alone.

But it was not just proclamation, it was also ‘didache’, the Greek word for teaching. There is no such thing as preaching without content and doctrine, they always went together. In the book of Acts we read that after one of the apostles had preached, it says that people were persuaded. This indicates that they were going through a logical process. That there was doctrine involved and that there was truth.

So we need to understand the importance of preaching and its priority and secondly we understand the character of preaching. Now as we come to this sermon, it has four parts and really all sermons do. It begins with an introduction, and then it has a body or proclamation, then thirdly it has an appeal and then finally a result. The introduction explains Pentecost, the proclamation exalts Christ, the appeal exhorts people, and the results examines the effects.

Tonight let us study the introduction and see how far we can get. Acts 2:14, “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.” Notice that he is standing here with the eleven and that indicates that Matthias is now part of the twelve disciples, selected in Acts 1. So Peter stands up and this is a great moment.

The Holy Spirit has set the stage. The people are confused. From Peter's standpoint everything is ready. He has been filled with the Spirit of God. He is about to open his mouth and God is going to speak through him. And it says "he lifted up his voice." Listen to what he said, "Men of Judaea and all who dwell in Jerusalem," all of you who have travelled here for the feast of Pentecost, "let this be known to you and listen to my words." In other words, listen well because God is speaking through me.

Now Peter begins with an illustration. The Spirit has confused these people so that they are curious to find out what is going on. Look at Acts 2:15, “For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.” No Jew would drink or eat prior to the third hour of the day which was nine o'clock in the morning. That was time for morning devotions. Especially not on a Sabbath, or a festival day, since this was the feast of harvest, Pentecost. And preaching out of the Old Testament is God’s chosen approach in the book of Acts, because they needed the right frame of reference.

Verse 16-21, "But this is that what was uttered through the prophet Joel." And then he quotes Joel 2:28-32, "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; 18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. 19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; 20 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. 21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Now in this passage, Joel prophesied about the kingdom and the coming of the Messiah. For example verse 18, "in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophecy." And verse 20, "the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood," and these things are happening in connection with the kingdom and the tribulation and then at the end, the day of the Lord. When is that? That is the time when Jesus comes in judgment to set up His kingdom.

Now the Jews knew when Messiah came He would come first to judge the ungodly and then to set up His glorious kingdom. And so Joel is talking about the kingdom of Israel to be established when Israel is in their land, the one that was promised in the Old Testament. Notice this phrase, verse 17, "In the last days it shall be." Throughout the Old Testament the prophets would speak of the last days, and it always referred to the time the Messiah sets up His kingdom in one big happening.

They didn't expect a 2,000 year addition to intervene. There is no reason for a Jew reading the instruction of Daniel to think that there is going to be at least 2,000 years between the 69th and the 70th week of Daniel. In other words, they only saw the Messiah coming in the last days. Now remember, everybody has been living in the last days since Jesus arrived to minister.

And when God has called the fullness of the Gentiles (Romans 11:25) and gets through regathering Israel to their land, then the last days will be consummated. Now Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1 and 2 Timothy 3:1, talks about the last days there, but he is talking about the last days of the church. We are living in the last days of that interval of 2,000 years. Do you believe Jesus is coming soon? We are also in the last days of the church.

But not all of the things of this prophecy have been fulfilled, right? No, just the very beginnings. Prophecy will be completely fulfilled at the beginning of the millennium as Christ comes and the great judgment at the end of the tribulation. Then He sets up His kingdom and the visions, dreams and prophesying and all of that is going to take place, and all of the wonders in heaven and earth and the day of the Lord as well.

So Peter says what you see is the beginning of the end. In other words, a preliminary fulfillment. Look at verse 17, “in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.” Has that happened yet? God has poured out His Spirit, right? But not on all flesh! All flesh happens in the millennial kingdom. Because when the kingdom happens the only people who will be in the kingdom in the beginning will be believers. And so all of them will receive the Holy Spirit.

But at this time, He has poured out His Spirit on believers only. Everything that is going to happen in the kingdom has already begun to happen in a kind of a pre-fulfillment sense in our lives. We live in a kind of a mystery form of that kingdom but the full millennial earthly kingdom is yet to come. In the kingdom there will be perfect peace. Is there peace in the world now? No, but there in my heart there is peace and prosperity.

In the kingdom, Jesus Christ reigns. Does He reign in the world now? No, but He reigns in my life. In the kingdom, Christ is the judge of all things. He is the one that brings all things to light. In my life He is just the same by His Spirit convicting me and revealing things to me. Everything that is going to take place in the kingdom in a pre-sense is now living within me in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 17 continues, “and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.” God is going to communi-cate whether you are awake or asleep, and men are going to prophesy. And verse 18, "even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” Everyone will be touched. Verse 19, “And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.”

Peter didn't know when Jesus was coming back, but it fired him up. But Peter says it is going to be like this, quoting from Joel, "blood, fire, vapor of smoke." John reveals more in Revelation 8:7, “The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.”

And then we read in Revelation 9 about the smoke as the demons ascend out of the pit. All of these things are pictures of the coming judgment of Christ when He returns. Then in verse 20 it tells us something more, "It says the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood. And before that great notable day of the Lord come."

You see there Jesus' coming is again tied with the wonders in heaven. As we saw in Revelation the wonders in earth as well. And so before that great and terrible day of the Lord, these wonders shall occur. Now the term the day of the Lord has to do with the coming of Christ in judgment. It is a term that refers to the coming of Christ during the tribulation and at His second coming when He judges.

It's a terrifying term. It's an Old Testament term for judgment. So you see what Peter does? He ties this whole thing together as the fulfillment of prophecy with a powerful urgency that messianic times have already begun. It is the last days and he wraps it up with Joel's great climax in verse 21, "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

A natural question would be at this point coming to the end of verse 20, how do you get out of it, right? So Peter says it shall be those that call upon the name of the Lord. Do you see what he's doing? He's driving into their hearts the need for salvation. And then as we'll see next week, he begins in verse 22 to show them who it is and it is alone that can save them, you see?

The power of this sermon, the way it has been carried, led of the Spirit of God brings Peter right up to the fact that we need to be saved and you need to be saved now and here's how. Through Jesus Christ and Him alone. Are you saved? Do you know others that are not? Are you willing to tell them about Jesus? Ask for the filling of the Holy Spirit so you too can have that power. Let's pray.