2. Last week, we:
surmised that we often find it easy to express thanks to God the Father and to Jesus Christ, whereas our thanksgiving to the Holy Spirit remains less substantial.
learned that the Holy Spirit exists as a guarantee of all of the promises of God, as One who gifts the church with incredible spiritual gifts, and as the power by which we face the enemy of our souls in a world at war.
learned that the strength of the church is not comprised of the wisdom, wealth, power or influence of her people, but the presence and empowering of the Holy Spirit within us.

3. Acts 2:14-36 “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

4. “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

5. “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:

6. “‘I saw the Lord always before me
“‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.

7. “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 

8. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

9. Peter begins by gathering the attention of the milling crowds - commentators suggest that Peter begins speaking in the outer court of the Temple.
It is unclear whether Peter continues to speak in tongues or whether he switches to the common Aramaic.
Peter’s comment on the apostles’ supposed drunkenness might have been said in jest as a gentle, jovial way of identifying with the crowds.

10. Examining the Audience
Acts 2:5, 9-11 describes the crowd as “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven … Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs”.

11. In the book of Jeremiah, God spoke to the people of Israel and encouraged them to build houses, settle down and influence their captors in the name of God, all the while maintaining that one day a return to Israel would usher in the Messianic age – the reign and rule of the Messiah.
The Messiah would be one who would come to set the world to rights, to deal with the problem of human sin and re-establish the people of God in their proper place as witnesses to the nations of God’s power and might.

12. “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean. He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth.” (Isaiah 11:11-12)

13. When the armies of Babylon swept in and overran Israel in 587 B. C
When the armies of Babylon swept in and overran Israel in 587 B.C., the people of Israel were scattered all throughout the lands controlled by Babylon.
Many of these little collections of Jews scattered throughout foreign lands remained faithful to the commandments of God.
These expatriated Jews would return to Jerusalem throughout the year for important holy days to offer sacrifices at the Temple.
It’s almost certain that many within the crowds that day were witness to Jesus in one way or another.

14. As God pours out His Spirit upon His people, on the streets below were thousands of religiously pious Jews gathered from the four corners of the globe for the celebration of the Feast of Weeks.
This early audience was fully and thoroughly Jewish in nature.
The expectation was that at the advent of the Messianic kingdom, God would assemble His people and perform some feat that would attract the attention of the nations to a pertinent message of God.
The pattern: an international assembly forms, and attention is attracted so that a message can be dispensed.
Understanding the scene before us, what ought we expect next according to this pattern?

15. Peter’s message bridges the gap between experience and application of Scripture.
Because the crowd was composed of “God-fearing Jews”, we can be assured that they knew the Torah very well.
Drawing from Joel 2:28-32, Peter indicates that they now find themselves in “the last days”.
To the Jew, the “last days” would shortly usher in the eternal kingdom of God, where a descendant of David would sit on the throne of Israel, establishing a universal kingdom of peace for all people. God’s Spirit would be poured out upon all humanity and incredible prophetic dreams and visions would occur
Nature would also join in the act.

16. Peter’s message
He begins with the miraculous life of Jesus.
He continues to relate that though they had seen the miraculous acts of Jesus, they had also been complicit in putting Him to death on a cross.
He orients his audience to prophetic utterances from King David regarding the resurrection of the Holy One.
The verifiable facts: Christ’s life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
All of this culminates in an incredibly succinct reality – “let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah”.

17. Notice verse 36: to whom is this of assurance?
The first sermon of the church was preached by a Jew among eleven other Jews imbued with the Holy Spirit, to a thoroughly Jewish audience – one already primed for the promise of the Messiah – affirming the hopes of Israel, revealing Christ as the one who fulfilled the entirety of Judaism.
As uneasy as this might make you feel, the earliest depiction of Christianity is nearly fully Jewish in nature.

18. Even though Jesus is portrayed as assurance for the people of Israel, there are inklings of something far greater at work:
Isaiah indicates that the Holy Spirit will be a banner to “all nations”.
Joel mentions that God’s Spirit will be poured out upon “all people” and that “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved”.
This sermon is spoken by Peter to people of many nations.
These facts ought to prime us for something that is coming over the next few chapters of the book of Acts.

19. Have you called upon the name of Jesus and been saved?
Have you recognized the undeniable life of Jesus, His irrefutable death on the cross, His indisputable resurrection and ascension and the unquestionable gift of the Holy Spirit to His people?