Acts 2:12-37. Peter’s First Sermon
Spurgeon’s College has been a centre for training future Baptist ministers. It has had a tradition since Spurgeon’s day that every Friday afternoon one of the students is given a verse to preach on and after a short while is asked to preach to the faculty and the other students. One student was asked to preach on the story of Zacchaeus. He was flummoxed as to what to say, but knew he should have three points. He stood up and delivered a very short talk, his three points being,
“Zacchaeus was of small stature – and sop am I.
Zacchaeus was up a tree – and so am I.
Zacchaeus came down – and so will I.”
Peter’s first sermon was on a different plane – it was brilliant, to the point and had the effect of changing the way many people thought. Three thousand people made commitments to Christ that day.
Only 50 days before Peter had infamously denied that he even knew Jesus. Now he was aligning himself with him at great personal risk to himself. When such a large crowd gathered their would undoubtedly been some of the Sanhedrin and their agents taking notes of what was going on. It was the Sanhedrin that had arranged fort Jesus to be crucified.
Peter was the sort of person who was always at the front of things. He was one of the first people to become a disciple of Jesus, he was the first to walk on water, he was the first to pull out a sword when Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. And he was the first disciple to arrive at Jesus’ tomb. It was his self confidence that enabled him to be such an effective leader in the early church but the downside was a temptation to arrogance. He was the one who, comparing himself to other disciples said,
“Even if all fall away from on account of you, I never will.” Matthew 26:33
But now since Pentecost that natural leadership skill was channelled into his Lord’s service. He took on himself the role of being the spokesman for the young Christian church. This cannot have been easy as it was in Jerusalem that Jesus had been condemned and crucified. However although peter was the spokesman, it is significant that all the disciples stood up together as he spoke. This was a unified church speaking.
A superb sermon
For a first sermon this one was remarkable for several reasons
1. It was simple.
Peter reacted to what was happening as the young Christians were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began explaining the good news about Jesus to those in Jerusalem but they did so in their own languages. Even though most of them, being Jews, would have spoken Hebrew and possibly Greek and Latin as well, God chose to give this extraordinary gift of languages to his church, for that is all the Greek word translated ‘tongues’ meant. Surely it is to indicate that God’s churches are to be local churches and not centralised. The unifying factor is the common foundational teaching given in the Scriptures. This is why teaching the Scriptures is the main purpose of all churches. Whenever men take charge of Churches they are prone to deviate and make worldly concerns and politics the priority. The Bible insists that pleasing God is the priority for all people.
Peter sim[ply explained the situation and why people were all hearing about Jesus in their own languages. He then moved on to tell them about Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, God’s chosen king of his people. Finally he called for his listeners to make a decision about whether they were willing for God’s King to be theirs.
Some preachers appear so erudite – it is abundantly clear who they are glorifying. A very learned church leader was giving a series of sermons in Oxford. A less educated man who had attended the sermons was asked whether he had understood the great preacher. He replied,
“God forbid that I should understand such a great man as that.”
A preachers job should be to help people understand the simple message about who Jesus is and what he wants from all people.
2. It was Scriptural
Peter bases his explanation of what everyone was witnessing on a passage from the Old Testament prophet, Joel. He must had learned this by heart. We can speculate that this was one of the passges that Jesus had explained in his teaching sessions with his disciples. He then quotes another long passage from Psalm 16 and then another quote from Psalm 110. His assumption is that the Scriptures are the very words of God (Romans 3:2) and this must always be the basis for a good sermon. A preacher is simply passing on and explaining what has has already said to us in his word.
3. It was Christ-centred
After his Biblical introduction Peter moves straight on to tell people about Jesus, relating him to their experiences. He starts with the person of Jesus and his miracles,
“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.” Acts 2:22
He reminds them of his crucifixion,
“This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.” Acts 2:23
Peter then reminds them of his resurrection,
“But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death.” Acts 2:242.
A little later he stresses that the Old Testament prophecies looked forwards to the resurrection of God’s Christ and that they, the apostles were all witnesses to this resurrection of Jesus,
“He (David) spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses to this fact.” Ac ts 2:31-32
Next he tells the crowds about the astounding ascension of Jesus that the apostles had also witnessed,
“Exalted to the right hand of God . . .” Acts 2:33
Peter concludes this part of the talk by emphasising the evidence that what he had just said was true. He was able to pass on to his people the promised Holy Spirit of God because he is equal to God and therefore is God.
“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.” Acts 2:33
This section he rounds off by again returning to compare Jesus with the very great King David,
“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.” Acts 2:34-35
David always recognised that he was just a pawn in the Lord’s kingdom, but who is this other Lord that David acknowledges who is equal to God? Peter confirms that this is Jesus.
Peter concludes this section about Jesus with a summary,
“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Acts 2:36
Nothing could be clearer, either in those days or for us today. God’s message to the world is the message about Jesus.
4. It challenged to his listeners
The fact that the consciences of those listening were touched must mean that Peter’s delivery was passionate. It wasn’t just the words he used, it was the urgent meaning that he gave to them that impinged on his hearers.
“When the people heard this they were cut to the heart ansd said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37
Whenever people have heard God speak to them there must be a reaction. Some, unfortunately, ‘harden their hearts, they don’t want to hear more because they know that there will have to be consequences if this story is true. Some come up with excuses and arguments for not investigating these claims of Christ. They would no want to listen to the evidence of the first hand witnesses to Jesus because they know this could mean major changes to their life that they don’t want to make.
Jesus described such people in his parable of the Sower. The seed, the Word of God, is sown in people’s minds but it is not allowed to have any influence or only has a passing effect-
“As he was scattering the see, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.” Mark 4:3-6
As we will see later, three thousand Jews committed themselves to Jesus on that day. It says much about the soil of their hearts.
This was a great sermon because it was full of Christ, it was full of Scripture and it was full of the Holy Spirit.
Structure
A good sermon must have a structure with headings and it must grip the hearers from the outset. This is what Peter does. He begins by answering the questions people had about what they were witnessing, giving evidence that what he is saying is true.
People were puzzled because they had seen the disciples of Jesus boldly telling people, in their own local languages, about Jesus and the news he brought. Galileans were considered to be the least educated group of Jews.
“Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are no all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us hears them speaking in his own language?” Acts 2:7-8
“Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?” Acts 2:12
As happens today, others mocked. They suggested the disciples had been drinking!
Peter responds quickly. He shows that what the crowd has just experienced, could not be due to alcohol as it was only 9 o’clock in the morning. On a festival day, such as Pentecost, a Jew would not break his fast till after 10am.
The Spirit in the Old Testamnet
Peter tells the crowd about the prophecy in the book of Joel in the Old Testament and shows that what the crowd had witnessed had been foretold by God himself. How did Peter know this? It seems most likely that, as Jesus loved to tell his followers how the Old Testament spoke about him he also told them what it says about the work of the Spirit of God. So much of what happened to Jesus was foretold in the Jewish Scriptures which is itself good evidence that he really is of God.
The Spirit of God was not a new one. He had been involved in the creation of the world (Genesis 1:1-4, Psalm 104:30). Throughout the Old Testament, the Spirit of God is connected to God’s words. The Lord said He would put His words in His people’s mouths (Isaiah 59:21). David said the Spirit of the Lord spoke through him,
“The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.” 2 Samuel 23:2
The Spirit of God in the Old Testament promoted holiness and opposed evil.
“They rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy . . .” Isaiah 63:10
The Spirit also empowered people to praise God and to achieve goals for him. Othniel was one of the early Judges:
“The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel” Judges 3:10
Even the disreputable King Saul has his moments in his early life,
“When they came to there to the hill, there was a group of prophets to meet him; then the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. 1 Samuel 10:10
However this effect was only temporary,
“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, a distressing Spirit from the Lord troubled him.” 1 Samuel 16:14
This prophecy in Joel refers to the two comings of God’s Messiah, verses 17-18 being about his first coming and v. 19-21 about his return, which will be cataclysmic.
The astounding feature of this prophecy is that God is going to pour out his Holy Spirit on all his people.
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy, 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 prophecy.” Acts 2:17-18
This was not a completely new idea. When the Children of Israel were wandering through the wilderness, after fleeing from Egypt, God promised to provide them with food but the people were, to say the least, sceptical about what God had said. Moses told the seventy elders to come together around the tabernacle. They were going to experience the presence of God in a new way:
“Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him (Moses), and he took the Spirit that was on him and put the Spirt on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again.” Numbers 11:25
Two elders, Eldad and Medad, who had not joined the group also started to prophesy in the camp and one young man complained. Moses replied,
“Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”
Exactly what prophecy was is open to question but it always involved extolling God’s virtue and proclaiming God’s word to people. Years later, when David was delegating tasks to people in preparation for the building of the temple, we read that Asaph, to whom twelve of the Psalms are attributed was a prophet. Prophecy was controlled and could be given through music:
“The sons of Asaph were under the supervision of Asaph, who prophesied under the king’s supervision.” 1 Chronicles 25:2
The next verse in chronicles talks about Jeduthun who:
“. . . who prophesied using the harp in thanking and praising the LORD.” 1 Chronicles 25:3
The important point is that now all God’s people will become prophets and be responsible for passing on the word of God to others enthusiastically. Neither age, sex or rank mattered in God’s purposes. Anyone could have fresh ideas on how to promote God’s message:
“Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.” Acts 2:17
These dreams and visions are not usually ecstatic but they are universal. Everyone is now responsible for thinking of ways to promote God’s kingdom.
Jesus
Peter then moves on to teach people about Jesus, which is the main object of the sermon. Clearly Luke has only given us a synopsis or summary of the sermon – it would have laster more than three minutes. He describes the life, crucifixion, resuurection and ascension of Jesus in such a way that his listeners feel guilty for the way they have treated God. He then reassures them that there is forgiveness for those who turn back to God and three thousand respond. We will look at this in more detail later.
BVP
