Acts 2:14-21. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 12, 2022.
Today, we pick up at the Day of Pentecost and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus. As the Law was given at Mt. Sinai, so the Spirit of God was given in Jerusalem, or Mt. Zion.
A crowd had gathered due to the commotion caused by about 120 people speaking in foreign languages about the wonders of God.
Luke doesn’t clearly describe exactly what the scene looks like. Are they still in the room with Peter speaking through a window? Have they come out onto an open balcony? Have they walked out into the outer courtyard around the Temple? In the end, we have a large crowd that has gathered and Peter is given an opportunity to speak to the crowd, but now he is filled with the Holy Spirit.
We should be careful to recognize that the Holy Spirit does not take over people and control their body or speech. There is a cooperation between the Spirit and the person He fills.
Let’s look into the passage.
Peter starts out by telling the crowd to “heed my words” (vs. 14). The Holy Spirit had been giving the people languages to speak that many in the crowd had overheard and understood. We can think of this as a particular way that the Holy Spirit can speak to people through believers. Even more important, the activity itself is symbolic of things that would have meaning to those with eyes to see and minds to understand.
However, the event of mass speaking in tongues appears to be more about getting the attention of people in Jerusalem so that the Holy Spirit could speak to them in the regular language that would have been spoken in Jerusalem. Peter is speaking by the Holy Spirit, but this time he is not speaking in a language unknown to him. He is speaking with understanding of what he is saying.
How important it is for us to pay attention, to understand, and to properly respond when the Holy Spirit is speaking. That may be in the occurrence of things that we do not understand, or when another person who isn’t perfect speaks to us. In fact, sometimes the Spirit of God may speak to us through the unwitting words of sinners. We must always be open and listening for what the Spirit is saying in the midst of what others say.
In John 16:14-15, Jesus said, “He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine.” (NKJV). When the Holy Spirit is speaking, He is giving to us what Jesus is saying, and Jesus is giving Him what the Father is saying. These are not merely words to hear and use for our own inspiration. God has a purpose in those words and we should not co-opt His words for our purposes.
Thus, it is not enough to merely hear the words of God. We should so thirst for the word of the Lord that we treat it all as precious. I must understand these things! Even then, it is not enough to merely understand the words. I must live wisely in the counsel of those words. In this life, we should put our faith completely in those words through willing obedience to the Spirit of God.
Now, we can get to Peter’s message. He first counters the mockers who are saying that they are drunk. Wherever God is moving, there will be mockers to ridicule it and put it down. Don’t doubt that the devil and his spirits weren’t recognizing that this event of the Holy Spirit could really wreck their control on Jerusalem. In this crowd, they find willing accomplices and assets that they can stir up and depend upon to do their will. In fact, it is the opposite of what Peter is doing. He is surrendering to the Holy Spirit, but the mockers are surrendering to the work of an evil spirit that seeks to thwart the good work of God. We see this same spirit at work today, whether through false-believers, or non-Christians, whenever God is speaking.
Peter rejects the accusation that they are drunk. He points out that it is the third hour. In Hebrew reckoning, 6:00 AM would begin the morning hours, thus it was about 9:00 AM (+3 hours). People who get drunk generally do so at night. Of course, there are some who do get drunk in the day, but usually they are not up at 9:00 AM.
Those who give themselves to alcohol to the point of drunkenness are not following the Spirit of God. Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:18, “do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit.” (NKJV). Drunkenness, or better intoxication, leads to the oppose of a life that is being saved, fixed, and healed. The phrase in Ephesians, “in which is dissipation,” actually uses the word for saving something and then fixes a “not” in front of it. Instead of leading to a life that is filled with healing and life, it is a life that is falling apart and leading others around them to do the same.
Let me just speak to a fad in some parts of the Church that act like and teach that being filled with the Holy Spirit is just like being drunk. This passage is saying the exact opposite. It is not a God thing for Christians to appear to be completely out of control and stumbling over themselves. There is a contrast between being filled with alcohol and what it leads to, and being filled with the Holy Spirit and what it leads to. When a person is truly filled with the Holy Spirit, they will be a spring of life, a spring of salvation, healing and restoration, and they will be all those things the people around them. The mockers are the wicked ones in this setting, but they are trying to slander this righteous remnant of Israel that was following God.
Peter then points us to Joel 2:28-32. This is the first of three Old Testament Scriptures (the only ones at that time) that illuminate what God has been doing in Jerusalem for the last 2 months. This is a small part of a larger prophecy about God’s dealings with Israel and the nations.
Joel opens up in chapter 1 talking about a locust army that seems to have literally destroyed the crops of Israel in his day. This then turns into a prophecy about the Day of the Lord. It is called the Great and Awesome Day of the Lord in Joel 2:31. The literal locusts of Joel’s day were a portend of a spiritual locust army that will come in the last days. We don’t have time to deal with it today, but suffice it to say that the wording and imagery of Joel 2 is all throughout Revelation 9 and the locust army that comes out of the Bottomless Pit. Remember that the Bottomless Pit is a prison for rebellious spirit-beings who were so bad that God had them locked up until the Day of the Lord’s judgment on heaven and earth would come. There is a recurring theme of a supernatural army of evil beings coming on the earth out of the north, really a spiritual or cosmic north. They come to torment mankind, and they come to destroy God’s people, even Israel. Only God can rebuke this supernatural army and save His people.
In the middle of this terrible vision and prophecy of the Day of the Lord, God calls Israel to repentance. Yes, the Day of the Lord is coming, but what you are doing today sets the table for what you will be eating then. Israel is called to repentance and is told of the good that God has for them when they do. So, Joel 2:28-32 is God’s promise that He will pour His Spirit out upon all those who repent and turn towards Him. This contrast of God pouring His wrath out upon some and pouring His Spirit out upon others is an important understanding of all prophecy.
Notice in Acts 2:17 that this pouring out of the Holy Spirit takes place in the last days. We have technically been in the last days since that day 1,990 years ago (give or take a few years). We are in the last age of God’s work before He brings in His kingdom under the Lord Jesus Christ. The Day of the Lord is the conclusion to this age and the transition into the Kingdom Age.
Some may ridicule (mock) that if the last days last for almost 2,000 years then the phrase is meaningless. That is not true. It is a harbinger to every generation that we must make our decision because God is getting ready to wrap things up. The Day of the Lord is a day of judgment upon all nations, and upon the spiritual powers that deceive the nations. In fact, when Jesus the Messiah was rejected, God has him sit at His right hand until the day that He makes the enemies of Jesus his footstool (i.e., Revelation 19 and the Second Coming). Meanwhile, we are in a time of harvest (the feast of Pentecost was a feast of harvest).
Yes, Jerusalem would be destroyed and Israel taken into exile completely, but God’s judgment was not complete then. God put pause on continuing to pour out his judgment on the nations, and instead sent His terms of peace to anyone on the side of His enemies who wish to switch sides. Can you imagine playing a game where it is almost over and a Champion walks on the court or field for the other team that spells your doom? Then, imagine that time-out is called and it is announced over the loud speaker that any team member that wants to switch sides can do so and they will be considered a true member of the other team? This is the grace of God.
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon whosoever would choose the side of Jesus, the side of God the Father, is pictured as having no barriers. Both men and women, old and young, free and slave would be full recipients of God’s Holy Spirit. This Spirit would cause them to prophesy, and to have dreams and visions from God. Everyone of God’s people would become prophets. If all of God’s people would be prophets than who would they prophesy to? They would be God’s voice to the nations of the earth.
O Christian, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit in these last days so that our mouths, hands, and lives will be full of the eternal life of God, so that it will flow out upon a dry and thirsty world that is lost under the power of the darkness of the devil and those humans who are in league with him. We are closer to the Day of the Lord than they were in the first century. Instead of asking how much longer is God going to offer terms of peace, we must be faithful to be His voice, His emissaries, holding out life to the lost saying, “Don’t die; choose life!”
Verses 19 and 20 of Acts chapter 2 speak of signs and wonders that will come before the Day of the Lord. Some of these will be in the heavens and some will be on the earth. Let’s be clear that the Day of the Lord culminates with the Second Coming of Jesus to literally reign on this earth as God’s King.
Now, there were signs and wonders that occurred at the birth of Jesus. The magi came out of the East having seen a star that portended a special king in Israel. Also, a glorious band of angels appeared to shepherd in the fields of Bethlehem. The life of Jesus was full of signs and wonders as he did the miraculous over and over again. At his death, a darkness filled the land that cannot be explained by a solar eclipse due to it lasting too long. All of these are signs pointing us to the reality that the Day of the Lord is near, but so too that the promise of pouring out the Spirit is even now here.
There are still signs to occur. Zechariah 14 is a prophesy about the Second Coming of Jesus. Jerusalem will be nearly destroyed and Jesus will break the clouds and deliver them. In verses 6-7 of that chapter, he speaks of a unique day. During the day it will be dark and at evening time it will be light. It is also described as “neither day nor night.” It appears that the light of the sun will be diminished to the point that throughout the day there is darkness, but at evening time it will be light. This light presumably coincides with the return of Christ to deliver Israel. I would assume that all of this is in relation to Jerusalem time. It is worth noting that Revelation 16 also speaks of the 5th bowl being a darkness on the kingdom of the beast that causes pain.
Thus, the tribulation period will see these signs of blood, fire, vapors of smoke, the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Those will be signs to those who are alive at that time just as the signs surrounding the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were signs to those alive back then. The strange events of darkness and an earthquake that ripped the temple curtain had no doubt circulated among the visitors of Jerusalem. They had been prepared to hear what the Spirit of God had to say, what Jesus had to say, through Peter on that day.
The key point of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in Joel 2 and quoted here in Acts 2 is that it will introduce a time where everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. The Hebrew word for “saved” can be translated as delivered, or even escaped. Remember the context is about this looming judgment of the Day of the Lord. Those who call upon the Lord will be delivered from that judgment and escape it. This is what Jesus was saying in Luke 21:36, “Watch, therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.” (NKJV).
Listen, friend. God doesn’t just want to give you a golden ticket into heaven, or a badge of honor saying, “I’m saved!” He wants you to escape that horrible day of judgment that is coming upon this world. His promise is that all who put their faith in Jesus will prove worthy to escape that awful day. No, we won’t escape persecutions and suffering in this life. But we will escape the destruction that the powers of this age are orchestrating for humanity. And, we will escape the destruction that God has determined upon them and those who stand with them as His wrath is poured out.
It is important to remain humble and understand the tension between being the survivors of this age and also being the overcomers. Both concepts are critical for us as believers. We are not victims. We are those who will survive the most devastating things that will ever come upon the earth, and even more, we will be those who overcame the powers of the devil and his angels, and the kings and powers of this earth. Amen!