Acts 2

They were told to wait. Jesus told them to wait, and they did wait. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the New Testament church was a massively important event for the church’s fuller understanding of the Scriptures, and for their proclamation of the basic facts of the atonement, and of the kingdom that Jesus had begun. Prior to this great gift, even the apostles were still asking Jesus about the establishment of the kingdom in Israel. After this gift there was a clarity of the gospel message in the mouths of men that had simply been absent before. The facts of the plan of God were certainly taught by the Old Testament prophets, but they were recorded in a hidden way, waiting for the incarnation of the Messiah and for this day of the Holy Spirit.

It was fitting that this all happened on the day of Pentecost, the Old Testament feast of harvesting. From this moment forward the church would be gathering the people of God by the power of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, the wind and fire of God. Through this power, the voice of God’s message via the apostolic witnesses would go forth boldly, eventually touching every tribe, and tongue, and nation. It was perfectly appropriate for the apostles to be given the special gift of speaking languages unknown to them, as a sign of this revelatory event, the communal baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the new church.

There were many Jews from all over who stayed in Jerusalem between the Passover and Pentecost so that they could participate in both of these festivals. The miracle that day was not only a miracle of speaking, but perhaps also a miracle of hearing, as some within the group gathered there heard and understood in their own languages this spontaneous eruption of a message concerning the great theme of the mighty works of God. There were some that did not hear this. They only heard the babbling voices of men who seemed to them to be drunk.

Peter then explained to the assembled crowd what was happening before their eyes. He said that it was a fulfillment of the verses in Joel concerning coming days. Those last days of which Joel spoke were finally here. He spoke of great spiritual blessing, but he also spoke of frightening manifestations of the wrath of God. The way to gain the former and to avoid the latter would be to call upon the name of the Lord.

The Lord they were to call upon, the Lord that Joel pointed to, was the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who so recently was put to death as a capital criminal on a Roman cross. This was the One whom God provided, the promised Son of David. Jesus had proven Himself before many reliable witnesses as a worker of resurrection signs and wonders. This Jesus was killed by evil men, and a crowd had yelled for His crucifixion. But this all had happened according to the eternal purposes of the Almighty that our sins might be forgiven. God had raised Him up from the dead, a fact to which the apostles could attest. David spoke of this Jesus in Psalm 16 as the unshaken One who would not be abandoned to the world of the dead, but would rejoice forever in the presence of God.

David could not have only been speaking of himself in that psalm, since David’s body had been buried for centuries. David had been enabled by God to see forward to this day of the resurrection of the promised Son who would sit on his throne forever. It is this Jesus, now at the right hand of the Father, who had poured out the promised gift of the Holy Spirit upon His children. This was the phenomenon to which they were witnesses that day. It is this Jesus who is the one Lord Christ, upon whose Name we must call in order to be saved, and it was this Lord Jesus who they had crucified. He is David’s Son and David’s Lord in accord with Psalm 110. This Lord would have enemies, and those who had yelled for His crucifixion must have seemed like perfect candidates for that position.

Now what? The Lord had come, the Lord upon whose Name they were to call to be delivered from wrath, and what had they done to Him? They had crucified Him. Could there be any hope for them? Amazingly the sign of hope begins even before Peter spoke great words of hope. The sign was in their hearts, because they believed what Peter had preached, and were cut to the heart. In accord with the instruction of Joel, they then called upon the Name of the Lord for salvation. The content of that calling upon Him was given by Peter in His direction that they repent and receive baptism for the forgiveness of their sins. This gift of forgiveness and blessing through the blood of the Lamb was the long-expected promise to Abraham and to all who rejoiced in the coming day of the Messiah. The promise was not only to them, but to their children, and to all who were far off from the covenant practices of Israel. This is Peter’s inspired New Testament understanding of the closing words of Joel 2. Three thousand people heard it and believed it, and they were baptized that day.

These people were gathered into kingdom life. They devoted themselves to the activities of daily worship in many homes throughout Jerusalem. They heard the Word, gave of their possessions, celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and prayed together. There was an unusual taste of true spiritual blessing built on the foundation of the death of Christ for His people. This was the Word that was proclaimed to them, and this was the truth that they ate and drank in the meal instituted by their Lord. They were full of the Spirit of God, and it showed forth in worship, thankfulness, and mutual submission, and the Lord was pleased to keep on adding people to their number. There is no better plan for church health and life than this one, available for us in every generation. Nonetheless, it is a plan that requires the gracious work of the Holy Spirit for it to be real. By this power from on high may the grace of God be known and received. May the Name of Jesus be exalted throughout the earth, and may many people see in His life and death for us the greatest message of the works of our great saving God for all who are in Christ.