“YOU HAVE THE POWER.” ACTS 2: 1-41.
ACTS 2: 1-4, 22-24, 32-33, 36, 37-38, 39-41
In last’s Sunday’s lesson Jesus made His mission the mission of the people. He is at work in today’s world. Each and every believer has a part to play. This includes those who are called to be career missionaries, pastors, and evangelists. It includes those who go on short-term mission trips, those who witness to family and friends, and those who pray and give. As followers of Jesus we are all His witnesses.
Many people find it difficult to share the gospel with lost people. They may realize the importance of doing it, but they are not confident they can do it. They are failing to recognize that the most effective witnesses are not acting in their own strength but they are motivated and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
The early believers experience on the Day of Pentecost shows us how the Spirit empowers believers to fulfill their mission for Christ-—and this is how we can be effective witnesses for Christ.
Ken Easley wrote in the Teacher’s Quarterly, “My friends Maria and Rick may be like people you know. They are Christians, but they find it difficult to share the gospel with lost people. Maria recently said to me, “I know it’s important to tell people about Jesus, but I just freeze up when I think about this.”
Rick chimed in, “Even though I’m in sales, I lose my confidence when it comes to telling others about the Lord. I feel like a flashlight without a battery.”
This week’s study is for the “Marias”, and “Ricks” who recognize they need to be effective as witnesses for Christ but wonder how they can. Perhaps you are like them too. An in-depth look at Acts 2 provides principles about the role of the Holy Spirit in witnessing.
We will see that the early believers’ experience on the Day of Pentecost indicates that the Holy Spirit empowers believers to fulfill their mission for Christ, and this is how today’s followers of Jesus can be effective witnesses.
The Life Impact and Learning Goals of today’s lesson are designed to help us grow in our effectiveness as a witness for Christ by realizing that the Spirit can and will empower us as we witness to others and resolve to be used by the Spirit as a witness.
Witnesses are those who can speak about an event because of what they have personally seen, heard, or experienced. The Greek word martus is the word from which we get our English word martyr, a person who dies for his or her beliefs.
The word can be used for the witness of God, (Rom. 1: 9) and the witness of Christ (Rev. 1:5). In the historical usage, the noun refers to those who can speak from experience. This is the word used Acts 2:32. Over time, the word gained the element of death as many of the early disciples spoke of what they had seen and heard and were put to death for giving their testimony.
Their death---their martyrdom---became a witness in and of itself of the work of Christ in the believer’s life. You have probably heard it said, that, “the blood of the martyrs was the seed of evangelism.
I have always found it interesting how reticent the most vocal Christian can become when an opportunity to share Christ presents itself. Christians will readily speak at church fellowships. They will try to persuade at a church business meeting. They will even talk freely about the doctrine of salvation in a Bible study group. But to take that discussion about salvation outside the Sunday School classroom is a whole different matter. How do I get started? What if I say the wrong thing? What if I upset them?
Today’s lesson reminds us that we are not alone. God fills us with His Holy Spirit, and He empowers us to be effective witnesses for Him. It’s good to prepare for witnessing, but then we should trust God’s Spirit to work through us. Use this lesson to think about the gift God has given you that makes you an effective witness for Him.
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 1-4.
Everything that Luke described in Ch. 1 could be viewed as preparatory for the events that unfold in Ch. 2. We are to consider now the next great event following the marvelous things recorded for us in the Gospels. First, there was the incarnation of our Lord Jesus. God became Man for our redemption; the coming to this earth of God the Son to unite man with Deity.
Then Calvary, the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He gave Himself a ransom for all, to put away our sins.
Next, the physical resurrection of the Savior. Now we have Pentecost, the coming of another Person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, to dwell in the Church on the earth and to empower believers to carry the message of grace everywhere.
Three large harvest festivals were outlined in the O.T. The greatest feast was the Passover. The second in importance was the Feast of Weeks or Feast of First-fruits, followed by the Feast of Tabernacles.
The second festival, the Feast of Weeks, was a “week of weeks” after Passover. Because it came exactly 50 days after Passover, it was also called Pentecost, which means 50 in the Greek language.
The persons assembled, described as “they” were those named in Acts 1: The eleven apostles, also Matthias, the replacement elected to replace Judas, certain women, the virgin mother Mary, and the four half-brothers of Jesus. The actual place of their assembly is not named.
At the end of last week’s lesson, we left the disciples in a room praying. This week we find them still together, presumably still praying. We know from Acts 2:2 that they were gathered in a house, but where was the house? Some think it was a room in the temple. That would explain how a large crowd could gather quickly to heart the disciple’s testifying and Peter’s preaching. However, there was not a room at the temple where a group of laypeople could sit.
The most likely place where the disciples were gathered was the same upper room mentioned in Acts 1: 13. Perhaps it was in close proximity to the temple, where large crowds would have been assembled for the feast of Pentecost.
The believers were doing what they had done for 10 days. They were all with one accord in one place. Now the time of waiting for the gathered believers was over. I believe the setting for this passage was a house, probably the same upper room where the believers had been praying since the Lord’s ascension.
The risen Lord had appeared to His followers and given them instructions about what to do. He told them to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, who would empower them as His witnesses to all people. Jesus ascended after 40 days, and 10 more days passed before Pentecost. Jews from all over the world were in Jerusalem for the celebration. The believers were waiting as instructed.
It had been settled from all past ages just when the Holy Spirit was to descend and take up His abode with the people of God on earth. The Lord Jesus had said in John 16:15 that the Father would send the Comforter and “He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” He also said in Luke 24: 49, “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”
The Holy Spirit was to introduce a new dispensation and God had definitely settled the time when the dispensation would begin---the day of Pentecost.
The Lord Jesus had used wind as a type of the Holy Spirit in John 3: 8 speaking of the new birth: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” So to these believers came the sound as of a rushing mighty wind. The Holy Spirit could not be seen, but His presence could be felt and heard.
The people looked on in amazement. What looked like fire, however, it was not fire: it was the visible manifestation of the descent of the Holy Spirit. Throughout the O.T. the phenomenon of fire often occupied the presence of God.
We are certainly with Moses’ encounter with the burning bush in Exodus 43:2 and the fire that accompanied God at the giving of the Ten Commandments in Ex. 19: 18
Just as when the Lord Jesus Christ came up from His baptism in the Jordan the Holy Spirit was sent descending like a dove and lighting upon Him, so now tongues like as fire were seen resting upon the heads of the disciples.
A manifestation of the Holy Spirit was heard, then seen, and now was manifested in the believers as each one was filled with the Holy Spirit. This Pentecost has often been described as the birth of the church, for at this moment each and every believer was immersed in the presence and power of God’s Spirit. From this point on, the Spirit’s presence in each believer’s life became the norm.
This initial filling was unique. It was an outward and obvious miracle, signifying that God’s Spirit was with the believers. His presence gave both power and credibility to their witness. God did this by empowering them to speak in different languages.
Paul’s description of the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues in 1 Cor. 14 can be debated as to whether or not he was referring to know languages or unknown languages. The context in Acts 2, however, makes it clear that known languages were being spoken by the spirit-filled disciples. The nations listed in vs. 9-11 attest to that, for they said, “We hear them speaking in our own languages.”
Speaking in unknown languages was a common occurrence in the mithra---the mystery religions of that time. Such utterances could be imitated, but speaking a known language fluently without any previous exposure or experience would truly be a miracle.
The disciples were not just speaking random thought. They were proclaiming a specific message from God. Each disciple was able to speak to a particular individual or group and to proclaim the testimony of Christ.
Doubtless, these tongues had special meaning. The hour had come when God was to lift from men the curse of Babel. At Babel God so confounded and divided the one language that men spoke that they found themselves speaking in many languages. Now the Holy Ghost had come with power to enable His messengers to witness in many tongues to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Immediately were they all filled. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost for two purposes. He came to usher in the new dispensation, to baptize into one Body all believers. Were they not the children of God? Yes, but they were just so many units; but now when the Spirit of God came they were all baptized into one Spirit, one Body. More than that, they were empowered for testimony. The Spirit had come to take of the things of Christ and reveal to believers the things of God and to unctionize them as they went forth to proclaim the gospel to others. This is for all nations.
There is not a hint here that this is to be confined just to Israel. God gave these Jewish disciples power to present the Word in the languages of all the people who had come to Jerusalem to keep the feast of the Lord.
The question has been raised whether the miracle was in the disciples’ speaking different languages, or in the ears of the hearers, so that the apostles all spoke in their native Galilean tongue but the people heard in their own languages. Vs. 4 makes this very plain, “They….began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
These Galileans who may never have learned any other language than their own now suddenly found themselves so laid hold of by the Holy Spirit that their tongues were loosed and they began to speak and preach intelligently in the language of the people gathered there to listen.
These people, amazed, murmured to one another saying, “Behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”
Then we have a long list of the different people represented there; most of them were Jews, many were proselytes, and there were others not listed among them. The last to be mentioned are Cretes and Arabians. These were probably Gentiles and yet as they listened they said, “We hear them speak in our own tongue the wonder words of God.” No wonder they marveled.
But still others there listening to the apostles couldn’t understand; they heard what seemed gibberish to them. They said, “These men are full of new wine: they are drunk, uttering non-sensical sounds that mean nothing.”
Peter and his companions were not acting strangely---that wasn’t the point; but as they spoke in different languages, those who couldn’t comprehend came at once to the conclusion that they were drunk.
“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judea, and all yet that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day? (that is, just nine o’clock in the morning, and ordinarily folks did not get drunk so early). But this which is taking place today, this power, this manifestation, this Spirit that is working, “this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel,” and he quotes most accurately from the O.T. prophecy which, you will see, if you will turn over to the book of Joel and read carefully, refers to the beginning of the millennium.
It has reference to the time when God will pour out His judgment on the nations and when the Lord Jesus will come the second time and establish his kingdom here on earth and the Holy Spirit is to be poured out on all flesh. This is the same thing that will take place then. This is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Joel says, “It shall come to pass in the last days I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh.” Again we read, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 22-24.
The fact that Peter preached with clarity and boldness was itself a miracle. Les than two months earlier he had denied the Lord three times. What had changed Peter? He had seen the risen Lord, been forgiven, and commissioned anew. Now buoyed up by the Spirit, Peter rose to the occasion. The final verse quoted in vs. 21 from Joel declared, “Whosoever shall all on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Peter’s sermon was the first sermon preached in the new age of the Spirit. His message was completely about Jesus Christ. He began with Jesus’ ministry. Referring to Him as Jesus of Nazareth.
Peter reminded the men of Israel that they knew of Jesus’ miracles and wonders and signs. In this way they saw that Jesus was at the very least a man approved of God by miracles, wonders and signs. Peter depicted Jesus in His earthly ministry as being designated by God as Messiah but as only entering into the active function of that role upon His death and resurrection.
Acts 2: 23 is a key verse concerning the death of Jesus. On the one hand, the cross was no accident: it was central to God’s eternal plan.
When Jesus was turned over to the Romans, He was delivered by the determinate counsel or God’s set purpose and foreknowledge of God. Peter later wrote in 1 Peter 1: 18-20 that Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb for human sin before the foundation of the world.
On the other hand, the crucifixion of Jesus was freely done: and those who did it were guilty of the worst kind of sin. Peter said, “You used lawless people to nail Him to the cross and kill Him.”
This verse brings together two biblical truths that on the surface appear to contradict each other, but each is true. The crucifixion fulfilled God’s divine plan for salvation of sinners, but this does not relieve those who did it of their guilt in doing so. The cross was the point where human sin at its worst collided with the love of God at is best. And before we fix all the blame on the people of the first century remember that our sins also nailed Jesus to the cross.
But the resurrection shows that God’s love won out over the forces of darkness—Satan, sin, and death. The resurrection turned the cross into good news. In Acts 2: 24 Peter focused on the resurrection, God…raised up Jesus. God loosed the pains of death, “because it was not possible for Him to be held by it.”
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 32-33, 36.
In vs. 32 Peter affirmed that he and others were witnesses to the fact that God raised up Jesus from the dead. Some of them had also seen Him ascend to heaven, being by the right hand of God exalted.
Peter then moved from the resurrection of Christ to His ascension. Another proof of God’s approval of Jesus is Christ’s exaltation into glory. Peter already had implied this exaltation in reference to David’s descendent in Acts 2: 30, but now he stated it explicitly in vs. 33. Jesus is God’s Son---His Anointed One…and sits at God’s right hand.
Only the One seated in majesty could send God’s Spirit. God’s Spirit was definitely upon them as seen by the miracle of languages. Peter had now come full circle from where he had started. He started out to answer the question of how the disciples could be speaking in all these languages. He answered that question by showing how Christ came to be seated in glory and was able to impart the gift of the Spirit.
Peter didn’t stop with the answer. He stated again---wanting to underscore—the core truth behind all He said: Jesus is both Lord and Messiah! This was a truth the house of Israel---all Jews---could know with certainty. This was one truth upon which they could stand with firmness and steadfastness. You crucified Him, but rest assured He is Lord.
What Peter’s hearers were seeing and hearing was the fulfillment of God’s promise of the Holy Spirit. It was through the Sprit that Peter Spoke. Jesus was the message Peter preached. As Jesus had told them on His last night before the crucifixion, the Sprit came, not to call attention to Himself but to exalt Jesus.
Peter’s sermon was the first public proclamation that Christ was no longer dead. Surely the Jews had heard stories or rumors about the resurrection. But this was the first time someone made a public pronouncement that Jesus was resurrected and was alive. It was a bold statement, but it could have been easily verified or exposed as a fraud. It had only been about seven weeks, and witnesses could still be interviewed and facts investigated.
In vs. 25-31 Peter backed up what he said by a reference to Scripture and to a prophecy from King David. For any Jews struggling with Peter’s words, they could see the same principle in their Scriptures. Peter concluded this point with a summation in vs. 32. God was the One who resurrected Jesus, and we can attest to it. Peter claimed all 120 believers standing with Him could back up what he was saying by their own experience and testimony. The O.T. in Deut 19: 15 only required the testimony of two or three witnesses and here stood 120 witnesses.
What had changed Peter from denier to bold witness was his being assured that Jesus was alive and being filled with His Spirit.
The Holy Spirit first comes into people’s lives when they repent of sin and trust in Jesus. But then we must be filled with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time experience. Some days later Peter and the church prayed for the Sprit to give them courage to speak boldly for Christ. Acts 4: 23-31 tells about that occasion and how God answered their prayer. The point for this lesson is that bold witnessing is the N.T. evidence fore being filled with the Spirit.
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 37-38.
In vs. 37 the Spirit used the witness of believers and the preaching of Peter to convict the people of their sin. When they heard these words they were pricked in their heart. Jesus had told the disciples in John 16: 8-11 that the Spirit would convict sinners of guilt. Anyone who has faithfully witnessed for Christ knows that only the Spirit can cause the kind of conviction that leads to conversion.
Some people are skilled at making others feel guilty, but that is not the role of the witness for Christ. Only the Spirit can produce the consciousness of genuine guilt in the heart of the sinner.
We do not know if this was the place Peter intended to end his sermon of if the people just broke in and interrupted. What we do know is that they were so overwhelmed with conviction that they cried out for the solution. Pierced to the heart was not a common idiom. The verb means “to sting sharply” or “to strike.”
The crowd was stunned, convicted of their own guilt in these acts against the Messiah. They needed relief from their guilt, and they asked the apostles, Brothers, what must we do?
Peter was quick to answer in vs. 38. We often miss the power of this verse by getting into debates about the relationship between baptism and the forgiveness of sins.
Some people make this the key text in their view of baptism being necessary for forgiveness of sins. Some groups make this the key text in their view of baptism being necessary for forgiveness of sins. Those of us who believe in salvation by grace through faith spend our tie refuting the idea that baptism is necessary for salvation. In doing so we fail to see the importance of all four elements of vs. 38—repentance, baptism, remission of sins and receiving the Holy Spirit.
But the first element is the need to repent. This was a familiar call of the prophets, John the Baptist, and Jesus. Repent means not only to be sorry for sin but also to turn from sin. Repentance and faith go together Sinners turn from sin and turn to God.
The majority of passages about how to be saved refer to repentance, to faith, or to both. In Peter’s second sermon, in Acts 3: 19 he connected repentance and forgiveness, the blotting out of sins. When Paul was asked the specific question, “What must I do to be saved?” he answered in Acts 16: 30-31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
Those who repented and were baptized, but it was not in order to be saved but because they had been saved.
Vs. 38 is the only place where Luke included baptism in the context of talking about repentance. Typically Luke connected the forgiveness of sins with repentance, as in the passage we studied two weeks ago in Luke 24: 47.
The conclusion is that no other passage makes the forgiveness of sins dependent on baptism; instead, forgiveness is tied closely to faith and repentance. Therefore, we can give this literal reading of Acts 2: 38, “Let each of you be baptized on the basis of the forgiveness of your sins.”
The word for in vs. 38 can at times be translated “on the basis of.” For example Matt. 12: 41 says the people of Nineveh “repented at the preaching of Jonas.” This does not mean they repented to receive the preaching of Jonah; it means they repented “on the basis of the preaching of Jonah.”
“On the basis of” means that people are baptized on the basis of the forgiveness of their sins. They were baptized not in order to be forgiven but because they had been forgiven.
If I were witnessing to someone who asked, “What must I do to be saved?” I would tell that person to repent of sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If the person asked the broader question, “What should I do?” I would tell him or her first to be saved by repenting and believing and then to be baptized in a fellowship of believers.
We must not overlook the second promise in vs. 38. Those who repent receive the remission or forgiveness of sins and they also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. In other words, when people repent and believe, the Holy Spirit comes into their hearts.
PLEASE READ ACTS 2: 39-41.
Peter said that the promise of forgiveness and of the Spirit was to his hearers and their children. He added that it is also to all that are afar off. Peter may have been thinking of Jews in other lands, but his later experience reinforced the task to witness to all people. Still today the task of believers is to tell the message to all people. Then the Spirit can issue God’s inward call to all who heard the good news.
Peter’s sermon and invitation included many other words. He exhorted his hearers, “Be saved from this corrupt generation!” The testimony of Peter and of the other Spirit-filled witnesses had a powerful impact: “The same day there were added unto them about three thousand people.” The had found faith in God and forgiveness of their sins.”
Those who gladly received Peter’s word were baptized. This is one of many examples of believers’ baptism. The doctrine is that baptism is meaningful and biblical only after people have repented and believed. New believers are baptized in order to declare their faith in Christ, to obey the Lord, and to identify with others who are part of the church, the body of Christ.
This doctrine of believers’ baptism excludes infants and includes only those who can make a personal commitment to Christ. Baptism takes place only once in the life of a believer. It has been called the “gospel for the eye” because it pictures death and resurrection---the resurrection of our Lord (which is the basis for our faith), the believer’s death to sin and resurrection to a new life, and the believer’s death to sin and resurrection to a new life, and the believer’s future resurrection from physical death.
When Spirit-filled believers bear testimony to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will use this to convict sinners and to call them to salvation in Christ. Because God gives humans the freedom to choose or to reject His love, not everyone who hears will become a Christian.
Neither Peter nor Paul won to Christ everyone who heard them preach and witness. We speak as human witnesses for the Lord, but the Spirit of the Lord works through us. Some of those who hear His call resist, but some receive the message.
The main point of this lesson is that we are not able in our own strength to convict or convert anyone, but we are accountable for letting the Lord’s Spirit speak through us for Him. Christ is continuing His work in the world through His Spirit, and His Spirit leads us to speak for the Lord. We are not accountable for the responses people make: we are accountable for speaking the message to them. <altav@swbell.net>
IN MAY WE WILL LOOK AT FOUR GODLY WOMEN OF DEVOTION. WE BEGIN MAY 7 WITH RUTH, A KINSWOMAN OF JESUS CHRIST. A.V. DAUGHERTY