Acts 2:14-41--Peter's Sermon at Pentecost

Acts 2:14-41
English Standard Version

Peter's Sermon at Pentecost
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

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.’

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. 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.’

29 “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, 31 he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. 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. 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.”

​37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

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This passage is a bit longer today because it contains a lot of citations from what we'd call the Old Testament, but they apostles would simply call the Scriptures (for there was no "New Testament" written at this time).

Peter is standing among the Eleven (notice again that Luke does not count Matthias and say "the Twelve"), and Peter begins to answer the objections that he has heard.  The apostles speaking in tongues was not a sign that they were crazy or that they were drunk (for Peter argued it was too early in the morning for that), but instead they were seeing the words of the prophet Joel fulfilled in their midst.

Then Peter cites a fairly lengthy passage from the book of Joel (Joel 2:28-32).  For those that aren't familiar with the book of Joel, it's one of the minor prophets, that deals with the coming judgment upon Israel because God's people needed to be called to repentance, and there is a day approaching that Joel and the other prophets called "The Day of the LORD" in which God's wrath would be poured out on the wicked, and the LORD doesn't desire any of the people of Israel to be caught up in that judgment, but they would be if they continue in rebellion against Him.  He calls them to repentance again, then tells them that He will have pity on them and then the passage that Peter quotes where the LORD promises to pour out His spirit on His people.  Only after this would it be time for the judgment to come, but all who call on the name of the LORD will be saved.

All Joel could see was the future, and there wasn't a lot of "depth" in the picture for him to see all the events of history play out in succession.  Instead, it was kind of like trying to look at a mountain range that's far away, and all the mountains seem at first to be about the same distance away, though it's clear that some are behind others.  In the same way when the Old Testament prophets looked into the future, they would see the coming of Jesus, the Church age, and the second advent (both the rescue of the redeemed and the judgment of the wicked) as nearly simultaneous events for them.  It is only as we get closer to these events and live in these times that we see the distance that may exist between each of the mountains in the mountain range (though we sometimes lose perspective being in the midst of the mountains too as we can't see anything else).  To God, these events are also happening "soon," and the time to repent and come to Jesus is now.  This message of the end of the world coming is not a message of despair unless you reject God's one and only plan of salvation.  There was only one Ark for those that God saved through the Flood, and there is only one Way that God made for us to survive the coming judgment of His wrath, and that is to be in Christ in the same way that Noah and his family had to be sealed in the Ark by God.

Peter doesn't mince his words when he preaches to the crowd (for most listening to him that day were among the crowds that shouted, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him."  Peter says they they saw the signs and wonders that were done in their midst both this day and before when Jesus was with them, and that we now understand that Jesus was offered up as part of God's plan that had been established from the very beginning, but that did not mitigate the role that each of these men played in participating in and calling for the murder of an innocent man.  They had blood on their hands and needed to repent.

Peter declares to them that David spoke of the Resurrection in Psalm 16:8-11 when he said, "For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption."  We also know from this passage that Jesus is our hope and our salvation, therefore we need not fear anyone or anything.  He is also ever-present with us especially in our times of trouble, therefore we will not be shaken or moved because He will not be shaken or moved, and we will rejoice because He has given us eternal life and promised us eternity in His presence.  We could not hope for or ask for anything greater.

Now David died, so this passage was not speaking about David.  They could have gone right then to David's tomb in Bethlehem and found his bones, but do you know whose tomb would be empty if they went to it?  Jesus!  He was not there for He had risen!  Jesus is the One who did not see corruption or decay.  Then Peter reminds them that all those who stand before them are witnesses to the Resurrection, so they have the eyewitness testimony of at least eleven men to deal with as well as the Word of God which is enough by itself, for the Word of God is always true.

Peter then cites Psalm 110 to again say that David could not be speaking about himself when the passage says "the LORD said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I make your enemies your footstool."  David is not the one who ascended to the heavens to sit at the right hand of the Father, that was Jesus, and David calls Him Lord (Adonai).  Peter says that it is through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus that we know for certain that He is both Lord and Christ (Messiah)--this same Jesus whom they crucified.

This certainly isn't the type of message you would think a "seeker friendly" church would preach, accusing the listeners of the murder of the Son of God, yet the Holy Spirit uses these words to convict and quicken the people who were listening so that many of them were grieved and knew they needed to repent (just like the prophet Joel had called them to do).  They cried out to the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?" as they were cut to the heart and knew that they needed atonement for their sin, yet there was no such atonement available in the Law.  If the Law would have given a prescription they would not have had to ask this question--they would have known the sacrifice to make, yet there was no such sacrifice to be made.  The only sacrifice that could provide atonement for them was the blood of Jesus, the one they had crucified.  They are told just this that they must “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Much is made out of Peter's statement to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins.  This probably a summary of the altar call that is being given by Peter and Peter is charging the people that their decision is not a "personal" one that they can keep secret, but instead it is something that they must publicly profess then and there where all of Israel was gathered together in that place and everyone (and I do mean everyone) that they knew would see them.  There is never a situation in Bible where everyone is to bow their head and close their eyes to make it easier for people to make a decision and you ask people to come forward but tell them it's okay if they are too embarrassed to come forward and all they need to do is raise their hand so that you can pray for them.  That is the total opposite of what Jesus said Matthew 10:32-33,


Matthew 10:32-33
English Standard Version
​32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

We also don't see any need to take a discipleship class, church membership class, catechism, or baptism class before being allowed to be baptized.  We see that pattern in the book of Acts that if the decision is for real, then baptism should be an immediate response to the change that has occurred.  Now we only see what we would call "believer's baptism" here, and we see that repentance and belief are to proceed baptism.  We shouldn't look at this verse as saying that baptism is necessary for forgiveness, otherwise we run into a theological conundrum about the thief on the cross that repented and Jesus said, "Today you will be with me in Paradise," however it should be the natural response of everyone who repents and believes to want to be baptized publicly and they should want to do so immediately like how we'll see with the Ethiopian eunuch in a few chapters where he will say, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36).  We do a disservice many times by withholding baptism until we make people jump through some hoops.  We see that the way to the Lord's Table is to be guarded in Scripture, but the waters of baptism appear to be open to all who have repented and believed and made a profession of faith.  If we were to follow this biblical example, then the waters of baptism would be available immediately each and every time there was an "altar call," and we would encourage those who had genuinely repented and believed to be baptized immediately in front of the witnesses that were present--there would be no need to schedule a special "baptism service."

Luke's summary also is not saying that baptism is necessary to receive the Holy Spirit, but instead that all these things should be happening concurrently.  God should change our hearts, then we should want to respond in faith by baptism and God will give us the gift of the Holy Spirit as surety (a down payment).  Since the Holy Spirit is only available to those who have been "born again" (to use Jesus' words from John 3) it is a sign to us that we can be sure that we are saved.

Now Peter comes back to the theme from Joel 2 to say that this new birth that we experience at regeneration is the only way to escape this wicked and crooked generation and the judgment that is coming upon it.  We are also told that this is not just something for them, but for their children and their children's children.  All who understood their need for repentance and believed were welcome as part of the Church and the waters of baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit were available to them.  It was quite the response to have 3,000 souls added to their number that day (there were 120 previously, so now there were 3,120), but this is just a small fraction of the people that would have been gathered together in the Temple that day to hear the message as estimates are around two million Jews would have been in Jerusalem for both Passover and Pentecost.  This is only 0.15%, but the Holy Spirit is not done as we'll see in our next passages that the Lord would continue to add to their number daily (v. 47) and soo we'll no longer be able to describe the growth as addition, but instead will have to talk about it as multiplication (Acts 6:7).

In summary of this message, judgment is coming for the wicked, but today is the day of salvation.  Get inside the Ark of Christ today before the door is closed shut and no one outside can get in, and no one inside can get out to rescue anyone.  Repent and believe but don't hide it, openly proclaim it to the whole world by being baptized and show the world by how you live that you have been changed by the Holy Spirit who now lives in and through you, and you too are to be His witnesses of who He is and what He has done, for Jesus did not come to make bad people good, He came to make dead people alive.  This is our one and only hope of salvation.  There is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved.  Repent, believe, and obey the command of Jesus to follow Him in believer's baptism.  Do not deny Him before men because if we deny Him before men, He will deny us before the Father in heaven (we do not belong to Him if we deny Him).  Those aren't my words, those are His words.  We need this message even more that the end times are closer than they were at that Pentecost feast.  We do not have an infinite amount of time to decide and it is appointed man once to die, and after that the judgment.  If you are reading or hearing these words today, today is the day of salvation.  Do not linger for you are not promised tomorrow or even your next breath.  The Sprit and Bride say "Come."  (See Revelation 22).  The water of life and the tree of life are available to all who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ's for salvation (the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament epistles will spell out a bit more clearly what exactly this repentance and belief/faith look like as well as how we are to live after this moment in time called justification).