How does the LORD use the Bible? How do we use the Bible to show others the Lord Jesus?
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
– 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NIV
Peter’s powerful sermon of Pentecost is perhaps among the best preaching in the Bible after Jesus is raised from the grave. Yet if you or I had been in Peter’s sandals and new position of leadership, what would we have to say?
Let’s take a look at the context and application of events confronting this ‘preacher’ and ask of our situation, ‘What do I do with this?’
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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Let’s be clear of the place and condition of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the LORD GOD, promised by Christ Jesus, Son of the Living God: “they were all together in one place.” Peter and the Apostles were worshiping.
Peter and the Apostles were worshiping in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus had been crucified on the Cross outside the gates for our sins; in Jerusalem where Christ Jesus our Lord had risen from the grave to appear to Peter, the Twelve and many (and in many places for fifty days) Pentecost is a celebration of worship, like the Passover, which brought many of the faithful to the city of Jerusalem to worship the LORD.
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together…
The sound of Almighty God draws worshipers to the place where worshipers dwell. Inexplicable, all-powerful Spirit of the Living God, here-present; NOT in the Temple of God (re-built by Herod), nor before only a High Priest behind a veil which separates the Holiness of the LORD from the sinners of God’s choosing. NO! The Holy Spirit of the Living God fell on the Apostles of Jesus and the Twelve began to preach with the Power of the Living GOD.
“Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?
Some things only God can do. Perhaps a High Priest might witness the Holy Presence of the LORD.
Centuries before the great silence of God in defeated Israel and defeated Judah, on occasion the Voice of God would be heard out of the mouth of the LORD’s Prophet. It is one of these great Prophets this uneducated Galilean fisherman taught from and rebuked the unbelieving people who had witnessed the Crucifixion less than two months ago. It is a fisherman speaking in languages of gentiles and of Jews who all amazingly understand the Apostles. It is the Spirit of the LORD instructing Jews and gentiles through faithful worshipers, rather than by educated Pharisees like a Saul of Tarsus, who would later witness the risen Christ.
What was it the Apostle Peter reiterates in Jerusalem of Judea from the Prophet Joel of 800 years before Christ?
[Joel (meaning “one to whom Jehovah is God,” that is, worshiper of Jehovah) seems to have belonged to Judah. – Commentary by A. R. Faussett ]
What had worshipers in Jerusalem forgotten in the short weeks since a dramatic blood moon at the Crucifixion of Jesus and the tearing of the veil of the Temple?
What have some of us forgotten since the worshipful festival of Easter just a few Sundays ago?
Joel 1:
1 The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel: 2 Hear this, O elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days Or in your fathers’ days?…
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth.
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Was Israel not the Chosen Bride of the Living God?
Was the Bridegroom not crucified by those rejecting God’s promised grace of Perfect forgiveness?
The Spirit of the LORD poured forth from Peter and the Apostles. Worshipers of GOD were drawn to the Invisible Word spoken through these servants of Christ Jesus.
Acts 2:
17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
20 the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
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Peter is not reading from a scroll in the Temple. This uneducated fisherman is reminding Jerusalem of not only infrequently heard words of the Prophet Joel, but of the dramatic events of just two months earlier when the sun turned to darkness and the Bridegroom of Righteousness cried out from a cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Peter now preaches by the Spirit of what Joel had foretold of these very last days, begun on a Cross just weeks before.
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
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The bold fisherman of Galilee again quotes scripture from the hymnal of the Jews, the words of Psalm 16 :
25 For David says concerning him,
“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
my flesh also will dwell in hope.
27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’
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The Spirit then gives Peter not only more scripture to speak to the souls before him, but application to their salvation. Speaking of King David, a man after God’s own heart, Peters says:
31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.
Speaking of what some in the crowd surely had witnessed in Jerusalem at the previous feast of Pentecost, Peter proclaims:
32 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
33 Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.
God’s chosen worshipers are once again witnessing the invisible and inexplicable signs and wonders in the Apostles, signs and wonders not unlike those many had also witnessed personally in Christ Jesus of Nazareth.
The Spirit and Peter confront their souls with the evidence of the Messiah, sacrificed and risen. Jesus is not a King like David; Jesus is more than a King of the Jews and of Jerusalem.
34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
35 until I make your enemies your footstool.”’
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Peter, by the power of the Spirit and the convicting words of scripture has applied the Word of God to the very moment of salvation for those with ears to hear.
The Bridegroom of the church speaks by the Spirit to those with ears to hear:
- Will you hear the conviction of the Savior you crucified in the words of Peter?
- Will you turn from your sinful ways to take up your cross and follow Christ Jesus?
- Has Jesus’s love drawn your soul to the wedding feast which will come on the clouds of these last days?
- Will this Spirit-filled sermon make any difference in your days?
- Will the Lord Jesus be your Lord?
God IS in Person, Christ Jesus!
The Spirit of the I AM, the LORD, calls out to you.
Acts 2:37-47
The book of Kings records the history of a United Israel and division into the kings of Judah and kings of Israel. Kings reveals which kings ‘did evil in the sight of the Lord’ or what good they accomplished. It continues with defeats, captivity and restoration in an account nearly parallel to Chronicles.
