What have we observed most in Luke’s early accounts of Acts?
Clearly, the further power of the Holy Spirit, which Luke also notes in his Gospel as having descended on Jesus.
And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased… And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, Being forty days tempted of the devil.
"Holy" AND "Spirit"
occurs 111 times in 53 verses in your custom selection ' in 'Luke-Acts'' in the NASB20.
Source: BlueLetterBible.orgREAD ALL fifty-three verses recorded by Luke and you will be convinced not only of the Trinity, but also of the POWER of the HOLY SPIRIT of the Lord God.
https://talkofjesus.com/acts-of-the-holy-spirit/
ACTS 1 opens with Jesus’ Promise of the Holy Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost the crowds in Jerusalem witness with wonder the AWESOME power of the Holy Spirit!
Although the HEADING for ACTS 2 in one of my Bibles refers to The Coming of the Holy Spirit, from the next HEADING, Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost, we learn of the convicting POWER of the Holy Spirit in Peter’s words.
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Acts 2:36 NKJV
A pall of silence most likely falls upon many in the massive crowd listening to Peter as he stands with all the Apostles and preaches Christ crucified and risen from the power of death.
Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart,
and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,
“Brothers, what are we to do?”
Acts 2:37 NASB
J.B. Phillips paraphrases this passage following Luke’s account of Peter’s sermon:
When they heard this they were cut to the quick, and they cried to Peter and the other apostles, “Men and fellow-Jews, what shall we do now?”
Sounds painful, reminding us of reference to Jesus’ gruesome crucifixion on a Cross preceding the previous Passover ‘festival’ of the Jews.
Yet one of the soldiers pierced His [Jesus‘] side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
Gospel of John 19:34
Perhaps some of these Jews hearing Peter’s sermon were sadly present during the storm of Jesus’ death and the piercing of His side with a Roman spear.
The Prophet Isaiah had said (as the Jews well knew):
But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; The punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, And by His wounds we are healed.
Luke uses a word for ‘pierced‘ which implies ‘wounded in conscience,’ a conviction of the power of the Holy Spirit in Peter’s preaching from the word of God which the crowds in Jerusalem knew well. Later, the letter written to the Hebrews reminds the faithful:
For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
YES, Peter’s sermon pierces their hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.
HOLY SPIRIT POWER
Because the HOLY SPIRIT is so important to Luke’s continuing account in Acts of the Apostles, before we proceed with Peter’s brief answer I would like to quote the powerful nineteenth century English preacher, Charles Spurgeon.
Please note Spurgeon’s brief outline about the Third Person of the Trinity.
One. Comforter
When Christ was on earth, He must have been the consolation of all those who were privileged to be His companions.
Spurgeon – Holy Spirit Power opening paragraph
This certainly would include Peter and the eleven now at his side on Pentecost – RH
In speaking of the Resurrection, from John 16 & 14, Spurgeon relates:
He would not leave those few poor sheep alone in the wilderness. He would not desert His children and leave them fatherless. Before He left, He gave soothing words of comfort.
Spurgeon then goes on to introduce the paraclete or comforter
Jesus had told them that the Father would give them ‘another comforter‘ [helper or advocate] to be with them forever.
Peter, our Pentecost preacher today, certainly felt this comfort once Jesus asked him if he loved Him AFTER the Lord once again appeared to them. Jesus commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, with His Power to convict.
First, God the Holy Spirit is our very loving Comforter.
He delegates a portion of His power to His creatures, yet it is still His.(Quoting Psalm 19:4-5)
C.S. Spurgeon – Holy Spirit Power
Just take this in for a moment .. before we return to the crowds converted by Peter's Pentecost Sermon. - RH
Spurgeon goes on to explain three ways he will look at the Power of the Holy Spirit.
The outward and visible displays of it,
the inward and spiritual manifestations of it,
and the future and expected works of it.
Three: THE HOLY SPIRIT – THE GREAT TEACHER
We will not get there today as we observe the crowds of Pentecost, but the teaching of the Apostles will become immediately evident as the church grows throughout Acts.To READ HOLY SPIRIT POWER click here to order.
Repent!
“Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Acts 2:37b NKJV
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is for you and for your children,
and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
How does the anointed follower of Jesus Christ answer the unanswerable questions from the multitudes? Luke records not only the truly awesome events of Pentecost and bewilderment by the crowds, but also the Apostle Simon Peter’s amazing answer to thousands gathered in Jerusalem.
Previously: We witnessed the Holy Ghost in a crowded upper room.
(I spoke last time how we might more appropriately [from the KJV] view the Holy Ghost and cloven tongues like as of fire lighting on each one.)
One hundred together as one in prayer in the upper room in Jerusalem receive the Holy Spirit!
We now join the Twelve as they move on into the crowds on the busy streets of Jerusalem and multitudes in the Temple.
Acts of Perplexed Jerusalem Crowds on Pentecost
Now there were Jews residing in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.
Acts of the Apostles 2:5 NASB
(Not so different from the crowds of a single Sunday of a 21st century Christmas or Easter festival, is it?)
NOTE on Population of Jerusalem [~80,000, possibly swelling above 100,000 during the three festival weeks]
- Jewish historian Josephus, who would know because he had lived there during the 60s AD, estimated the number of Pharisees alone to be 6,000 (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 17.42) -* recommended source
Amazed and Astonished
Image an extended and formal debate between two devout religious officials (perhaps a Pharisee and and Sadducee) wondering how Simon Peter and these other lowly uneducated followers of Jesus from ‘up north’ could possibly speak to others in another language.
And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another,
Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Acts 2:7 KJV
Of course earlier Luke showed us debate with Jesus by perhaps some of the same ‘devout men’ who some attend these very public festivals just for the wine, prestige or public parties.
They were amazed (beside ones self to explain it, as I pointed out last time) and astonished G2296)].
This is the same reaction of Peter and others to the risen Christ, which Luke records in his first account.
And when He [Jesus] had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet. While they [the Apostles] still could not believe it because of their joy and astonishment G2296, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
Gospel of Luke 24:40-41 NASB20 – Strong’s G2296 – thaumazō
Luke describes the reaction of these men on Pentecost with this same adjective which John employs for an earlier debate of Jesus’ with Nicodemus about the same Holy Spirit which had anointed the Apostles this day.
“Do not be G2296 amazed G2296 that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit G4151, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit G4151 is spirit G4151.
Gospel of John 3:5-6 – Jesus teaches Nicodemus on the Holy Spirit [G4151]
Debate about Peter & the Apostles
“Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
—we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.”
“What does this mean?”
But others were jeering and saying, “They are full of sweet wine!”
Acts of the Apostles 2:13 NASB
14 But Peter, taking his stand with the other eleven [now including Mathias], raised his voice and declared to them:
“Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, know this, and pay attention to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you assume, since it is only the third hour of the day [that is, 9 o’clock in the morning]..
As Luke has already told us, the crowds include hundreds of ‘devout men from every nation under heaven.’
Certainly these religious leaders had been led to the Apostles by the sound of the Spirit. Although you may not recall the words of ‘this Galilean,’ these devout Jews will know the Scriptures Peter is about to preach.
..On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the Lord is coming; Indeed, it is near, 2 A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness..
21 Do not fear, land; shout for joy and rejoice, For the Lord has done great things..
The fig tree and the vine have yielded in full. 23 So shout for joy, you sons of Zion, And rejoice in the Lord your God; For He has given you the early rain for your vindication..
28 It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all [flesh] mankind; And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men will have dreams, Your young men will see visions. 29 And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days..
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem There will be those who escape, Just as the Lord has said, Even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.
The Prophesy of Joel 2:28-29, 32b *2:28 begins as v.3:1 in Hebrew
Acts 2:
17 ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, And your young men will see visions, And your old men will have dreams; 18 And even on My male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days, And they will prophesy. 19 And I will display wonders in the sky above And signs on the earth below, Blood, fire, and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. 21 And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Peter’s Amazing Answer from Scripture
Jesus’ Apostle Simon Peter speaks to his fellow faithful Jews, many men gathered to hear from the place of this loud noise some explanation for this amazing sign.
Do you recall the interchange between Judeans near Jesus’ trial and Peter? The Apostle knows first hand how they associate Galileans (and Samaritans) as lesser Israelites of David’s line.
“Men of Israel, listen to these words:
Jesus the Nazarene, a Man attested[proven] to you by God[theos] with miracles [dynamis, power], and wonders[a prodigy, portent or omen] and signswhich God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over [to enemies, or to the power, the will, of some one] by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
The astounded men in the crowd must have wondered:
Do these men have this same Power [dynamis] which they have just heard?
Will this Disciple of Jesus now addressing so many continue with his opening indictment?
Yes, and Peter continues with yet another amazing witness of these historic events:
But God raised Him [the man attested, Jesus of Nazareth] from the dead, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.
Acts of the Apostles 2:24 NASB
THIS SPEAKER [PETER] HAS JUST TOLD MEN WHO NAILED JESUS TO A CROSS JUST FIFTY DAYS AGO THAT THIS MAN [JESUS] COULD NOT BE HELD BY THE POWER OF DEATH!
Peter then returns to Scripture in order to present the Jews an understanding of the Lord and their Messiah, Jesus.
Son of David
Luke has already told those who have read in his Gospel account:
He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Gospel of Luke 1:32-33 KJV
The Apostle Simon Peter begins here by addressing the house of Jacob by saying, “men of Israel.”
“For David says concerning Him:
‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Protect me, God, for you are my refuge. I said to Adonai, “You are my Lord; I have nothing good outside of you.”
7 I bless Adonai, my counselor; at night my inmost being instructs me. 8 I always set Adonai before me; with him at my right hand, I can never be moved;
Certainly, the Apostle must have paused here..
Peter no doubt would have surveyed the eyes of those men in the crowd revealing the impact of the Spirit through these Scriptures upon their hearts.
Brothers
Peter, this lowly Galilean addressing multitudes of devout men (with their wives and families gathered beside them for this Jewish festival celebrated fifty days after Passover), now addresses these Judeans, Israelites and faithful pilgrims in Jerusalem endearingly as ‘brothers.’
ἀδελφός - Strong's G80 - adelphos
- From ἄλφα (G1) (as a connective particle) and delphus (the womb) - a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote i.e. a fellow believer,united to another by the bond of affection
Don’t miss the personalness of the Apostle’s appeal to those convicted by the Spirit.
Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.
Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants on his throne.
Seeing what was to come, he [David] spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah:
He [the Christ] was not abandoned in Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.
Acts 2:30-31 CSB [also linked above with KJV & NASB]
Luke’s account here in the King James Version brings to mind the familiar genealogy from the opening of his Gospel.
“..that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh [that is: from David’s descendants], he [Yᵊhōvâ] would raise up Christ to sit on his [David’s] throne..”
The Apostle Peter reveals to the multitudes through Scripture they know well:
DAVID, King over a United Kingdom of Israel a thousand years ago — David who was also a PROPHET — predicted the resurrection of Israel’s Messiah.
Then Peter, with the eleven other Apostles who have also shown the crowds signs of speaking in their own native languages standing at his side, confirms their own personal witness to ALL:
We witnessed Jesus’ resurrection!
[Brethren, Peter has already addressed them]:
“It is this Jesus [iēsous] whom God [theos] raised up, a fact to which we are all witnesses.
Just picture what some men and women among the multitudes must have thought hearing this!
Peter has already restated David’s prophesy, in addition to quoting the prophet Joel. Now the Apostle proceeds to the logical conclusion:
Therefore, since He [Jesus] has been exalted at the right hand of God, and has received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He has poured out this which you both see and hear.
Acts of the Apostles 2:33 NASB
34 For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says:
Peter quotes David to affirm his conclusion from PSALM 110:1
The Lord declared to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.‘
Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Acts of the Apostles 2:36 NASB – Conclusion of Peter’s sermon
THIS IS THE END OF PETER’S SERMON.
“No it’s not,” you say.
"This can't be the end of Peter's sermon, because the Apostle has more to add."
While it is true that Luke adds an important interaction between Peter and someone from the crowd, allow me to ask you this:
Doesn’t your pastor END the words of his sermon without interchange or response from his church audience?
(We don’t hear Peter say, “Let us pray,” or “Amen.”
The crowds did not see Peter walk away from the pulpit as his praise band begins a song.)
NEXT:
Like some moments following contemporary sermons in the Spirit, worship continues in the hearts of some. The Apostle’s speech certainly is guided by Scripture, but primarily Peter preaches by the HOLY SPIRIT. So the question which follows from the crowd, also the work of the Spirit in the hearts of men, will bring Peter to continue with a powerful answer.
Next, we will hear Peter’s answer to pierced hearts.
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
Luke tells us that his first book, the Gospel, was about Jesus Christ and that this second account, Acts, will be about what Jesus accomplished through the Apostles AFTER His ascension into heaven.
We look for the actors (so to speak) who Luke records doing the crucial early works of the Church. Peter immediately comes to mind as well as Paul.
What most Christians may have missed in Luke’s chronicles of the first three decades of Church history is that mysterious Person we first met in the Gospels, the ungraspable Image of God in the Holy Spirit.
Luke tells us that during forty days after His resurrection Jesus appeared to many (in addition to the Apostles).
4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, …
Here, mentioning the Father and the Person of the Son, Luke records the words of Jesus to the Apostles as they must have testified to our author of Acts:
“Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water,
but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” – Gospel of John 4:24 ESV
Baptism
And I remind us that baptism [baptizō] ‘produces a permanent change.‘
The Apostles and others are about to be overwhelmed by a permanent change of the Spirit, a baptism receiving the third Person of God, the Holy Spirit. Luke records this cleansing baptism like no other, more that a baptism of water for repentance only.
Ascension of the Lord Jesus
The palpable tension of the Apostle’s encounters with the risen Christ, their beloved friend and Master which concluded Luke’s Gospel now builds once again. Luke records what happens next with this risen Jesus (who they could touch, who shared bread and wine with the Eleven), even the same Jesus who now continued to teach them more for the past forty days.
Christ Jesus again establishes the providence and authority of the Person of God the Father.
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.
Acts 1:7 CSB
but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnessesG3144 ..
Acts of the Apostles 1:8a NASB20
μάρτυς – Witness – (to the ACTS which Luke is about to unfold)
one who is a spectator of anything, e.g. of a contest
in an ethical sense
those who after his example have proved the strength and genuineness of their faith in Christ by undergoing a violent death
Luke is witness through the Apostles not only of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, but a convincing witness to the Holy Spirit as Luke records God’s great acts of power only possible by the Holy Spirit of Almighty God.
Luke records that this Son of Man, risen in flesh and blood from the grave, had been with them — forty days — and then powerfully and mysteriously Jesus rises into the clouds as they look on (actually, up) in awe!
The Holy Ghost – In AWE of the Spirit!
How would your have reacted to this powerful, yet unexplainable rising of the Lord Jesus into the clouds?
You may find Luke’s account from the King James Version of the Bible helpful in describing your FEAR and AWE of this historical event which also includes angels of God.
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
Luke records what fear and expectation Jesus planted in their hearts prior to the Lord’s ascension. Jesus compares this power with what they had received from John the Baptist.
For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 1:5 KJV – Jesus promising the Apostles a baptism of the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost)
ἁγίου πνεύματος – hagiospneuma – the Holy Ghost
Unless you have a question for me by way of comment, we cannot get into some of the more mysterious depths of discussion about that which we cannot see and understand even less, the Person of the Holy Ghost. For to speak of the Spirit yields little fruit in the hearts of those ‘christians’ who have not yet received the Holy Spirit.
So allow me to define BOTH GREEK WORDS and you can take it from there.
(May I just add that our imagery of the Holy Spirit descending sometimes obscures the awesome power of the third Person of the Trinity, that is, the Holy Ghost.)
READ just some of these definitions from Strong's G4151 for Pneuma below:
Outline of Biblical Usage
the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son
sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his personality and character (the “Holy” Spirit)
sometimes referred to in a way which emphasises his work and power (the Spirit of “Truth”)
never referred to as a depersonalised force
the spirit, i.e. the vital principal by which the body is animated
the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, decides
the soul
a spirit, i.e. a simple essence, devoid of all or at least all grosser matter, and possessed of the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting
a life giving spirit
a human soul that has left the body
a spirit higher than man but lower than God, i.e. an angel
used of demons, or evil spirits, who were conceived as inhabiting the bodies of men
the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ
the disposition or influence which fills and governs the soul of any one
the efficient source of any power, affection, emotion, desire, etc.
a movement of air (a gentle blast)
of the wind, hence the wind itself
breath of nostrils or mouth
ACTS in the Spirit
Luke will have much more to say about this mysterious Person of the Trinity and crucial character in his historical account of Acts.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:31
And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
Acts 5:32
And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us
Acts 15:8
And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
Acts 19:6
Although contemporary ‘christianity‘ characterizes the Holy Ghost less fearfully, in order to see his emphasis on the Person of the Holy Spirit let’s close Luke’s AWE–filled [awesome] introduction to ACTS from the KJV:
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. – Acts 2:38
to be continued..
Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
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