Acts 2:14-41

What stirs you up?

A long time ago, there was a king, known for his wealth and grandeur. He himself was born into this power. But as a prudent and humble young man, with good intentions, he sought wisdom above all, and this in order to serve his people and give justice to the land. Because of this noble desire, he was blessed and favored by all people. One day, a matter quite difficult, in fact too challenging for lower judges was brought before him. Oddly enough, two women were claiming that a single child was theirs and not the other’s. Now this was long before DNA testing, so how could a judge know which woman was lying? With razor-sharp wit, the king knew exactly how to find the answer. “Cut the child in half!” said the king. What? How brutal, though technically a fair remedy I suppose. Immediately one of the women cried out “No, please, give the child to the other woman, whatever you do, don’t kill him.” With crystal clear vision, the wise king knew the identity of the true mother. You see, the woman who was lying also responded, but in agreement with the king’s “fair” but heartless command, to divide the child. But the king knew the true mother would respond in a particular way. And so, he was able to clearly differentiate the two seemingly indistinguishable women. It was their response that gave them away, which illuminated something hidden in their hearts.

You see, how we respond, exposes the reality in our hearts, true for almost every situation in life. I’ve heard it said, look for those things that evoke the quickest and strongest reactions and you’ll find that which really drives your life.

Can you think of one? Could your spouse, or kids, or friends, or coworkers think of a few? So, how do we respond? What drives our responses?

This truth becomes particularly important as it relates to the man, Jesus. Are we like those with a blind and mocking heart who revile the mysterious and strange events of the Bible? Or perhaps we’re just spiritually numb and unable to see or feel or even care, passing by the power of God in his gracious and merciful gift through Christ. By God’s grace may we be humble and soft of heart to receive the good news with a response that parallels both its weightiness and its joyful hope. 

An Ancient Thread at Pentecost

If you’ve been around church for some time, you’re probably familiar with the story of Pentecost and Peter’s sermon in Acts 2. Often the focus is on the wild experience of flames from heaven and the many languages spontaneously spoken. And that miracle certainly is a wonderful scene to ponder and discuss. But, I think there are some other perhaps even weightier aspects to the story that we should pay attention to, spiritual threads for us to consider, an ancient hidden narrative coming to life, through the voice of Peter, the rock of the church, and by the pen of Luke, that great biblical historian.

So, I’d like to begin at the end. In our passage, Luke describes a powerful Pentecost sermon by Peter and then wraps up the scene with an interesting and illuminating detail.

Acts 2:41 says, “So, those who received his word were baptized and there were added that day about 3000 souls.”

Now the phrase “3,000 souls were added” may seem like a random detail but it’s actually a thread leading back to Exod 32:28, kind of like the cord cave explorers use to find their way back, “The Levites did just as Moses commanded. So, about 3,000 men of the people fell that day.” – in other words, they died, or were removed from the people, we might say!

Although we may not spend much time reading the OT, hopefully, we’re familiar with the 10 commandments, perhaps you could recite them like your ABCs. Well, at Mt Sinai, Moses received God’s covenant, they would be his people and he their God, and to make it official, he established his Law or Torah, summarized with the 10 commandments, which reflected aspects of his own character and his desire for them to be set apart.

Now, this took place only a short time after Israel was miraculously and graciously delivered from Egypt. But sadly, almost immediately after covenanting with God, they defied him and worshiped a golden calf. So, in response to their heartless betrayal, God instructed the Levites (the priests) to run through the camp and kill random idolatrous men from every tribe, serving as both a punishment and a sign. In fact, Moses famously declared to the Levites just before, “Who belongs to the LORD or is on the side of the LORD?” (Exod 32:26) which was similar to Joshua’s cry later on, “Choose this day. Who will you serve?” (Josh 24:15).

Alright, so here’s where it all comes together. Did you know, the Jewish festival for Pentecost during the time of Jesus actually celebrated the historic giving of the Law and Mt. Sinai experience with God? So, you see, the Pentecost that birthed the church in Acts 2 was meant to parallel, or we might say contrast, the first Pentecost. The old covenant was marked by the Law and was accompanied by death, 3,000 dead. Yet, the New Covenant through the death and resurrection of Jesus was marked by the Spirit which produced Life, where 3,000 were given new life! 

That one little detail helps set the whole frame of this amazing story. In fact, to be honest, we might even say the New Testament actually begins here in Acts with the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church. The gospels in many ways are really still the Old Testament. But, here, God’s little mustard seed sprouts and begins to grow his mighty kingdom, one that will continue forevermore. It all starts right here.

Those who Crucified Jesus

Now that we have a sense of the historic weight of this story, let's walk through what God was teaching those first believers long ago and us today. First of all, Peter’s sermon is one of the most densely packed sections in the NT with OT quotes and allusions, perhaps a great model for us to imitate in our declaration of the gospel! In fact, I highly recommend walking through all the OT quotes and their contexts Peter uses – Joel 2, Isa 53, 54, Ps 16, 22, 110, 132, 2 Sam 7, Zech 10, Jer 31, Ezek 36, Deut 32, and as I mentioned Exod 32. Now, you may be thinking, alright, Peter quotes the OT, so what? Well, you see, the basis of Peter’s use of the OT is to clarify, for both those Jews and us, that the strange things happening were all known and foretold by God long before. In other words, it was all exactly according to plan.

Look at what Peter says in Acts 2:22-23, “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 [they were witnesses to the events but did not understand, which even this was according to plan as Jesus spoke from Isa 6 ‘seeing they do not see, hearing they do not understand’] — 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”

Now Peter’s audience weren’t wild pagans or something but actually quite religious people, as Luke calls them in Acts 2:5, “devout men.” Think about this, these Jews had pilgrimaged great distances – long before planes, trains, and automobiles mind you – in order to give ritual offerings. Although technically the Romans (or men without the law) killed Jesus, these devout men of Israel were ultimately to blame for crucifying him. In fact, it was precisely those who were most religious that were ironically working against God! What a frightening thought.

Do you think of yourself as a religious person? Do you travel and give offerings as part of your religious devotion? Does that make you right before God? The simple answer according to the Bible is No. Apart from being united with Christ, all our good deeds are worthless. And really, that’s not how good deeds work. If you’re pulled over for speeding, does the cop ask how long you drove under the speed limit or how much you’ve donated to charity this year? No, of course not. 

Now although we live some 2,000 years after the crucifixion of Jesus, in reality, it was just as much you and I who crucified Christ as it was those Romans. As the modern hymn goes, “Behold the man upon a cross, My sin upon His shoulders, Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice, Call out among the scoffers, It was my sin that held Him there, Until it was accomplished, His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.”

If you have ever sinned, and I don’t just mean you murdered someone or robbed a bank, that is a foolish view of sin. Sin is any impure and unholy deed, thought, or motive, which is why Paul confidently says, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), that’s because God is our standard, the holy and perfect one, not ourselves or any other mere human.

So, every sin we have ever done is like we have taken the hammer out of the Roman guard’s hand and pounded that nail just a little deeper into the hands and feet of Christ, it was I who slashed his back and gouged his brow with thorns and spit on him. It was my pride, my selfishness, my jealousy, my lust, my anger, my unbelief that crucified Christ.

Do you know what the greatest problem in the world is?

It’s not governments, or criminals, or secular ideology, or even cable news. No, it’s my sin and its deathly, corruptive effects that plague our world. When we point out to someone or something else, we put ourselves in grave danger of missing the depth and severity of our own culpability and depravity.

The Frailty of Death and Power of God

But praise be to God. It was all according to plan. Death could not hold him. My sin could not prevail! Have you heard of King David? The great poet, warrior, and king. By all human standards, he was a mighty man, akin in many ways to the great monarchs of world history like Alexander and Caesar and Napoleon. But as Peter says, he was just a man, no different than us. A sinner in need of a savior. But God through David about 1,000 years before Jesus, foretold that one of his descendants would be unique, a Son of God both in nature and deed, as Ps 16 says, the Holy One, a uniquely divine term.

So, in great irony, because of his unjust death, the Father raised Jesus and seated him in glory, declaring him Lord over all, declaring victory over sin and death, as Paul famously expounds in 1 Cor 15:55, “Oh death, where is your sting; Hell, where is your victory!” (cf. Hos 13:14).

What a picture to behold. Can you imagine standing there in this Pentecost scene – thousands of people around, festivities and music and dancing, animals and dust, fire coming from heaven and a dozen men speaking in all kinds of languages all at once? It would have been bewildering, to say the least.

But the most bewildering part was the revelation, the message coming from these men. An obscure, Nazarene rabbi who was just snuffed out by Rome, was in fact the long-awaited Messiah, the promised seed of Abraham, the one who would crush the serpent’s head.

Do you mean to say that this apparent nobody was God’s answer to every question, the very light of God shining among mere humans? Do you not find this bewildering? Does your pulse quicken when thinking upon this man, Jesus? Or are you tempted to mock this word from Peter? Are you numb to the wildness of his claim?

A Heart of Response

In response to Peter, what happens next is both a bit mystifying itself but also a wonderful example to consider. Those hearing Peter’s message, it says, were “cut to the heart” or literally “pierced of heart” (Acts 2:37). I love Luke’s language, it’s so real and raw. If you’ve ever received heart-stopping news or had a realization that literally froze you in your tracks, perhaps you know this feeling.

I’ve had a number of these in my life, I imagine most of us have, but one for me that is perhaps both relevant and appropriate had to do with a lack of faith on my part. Back in my mid-20s, when I was young in my faith, each week before church I’d sit down and pray and ask what I should give that week. If I felt any particular leading, I’d write the number on a check. Usually around $50, maybe $100. But one day, I had this overwhelming prompting from God to write down a huge number, in fact enough to completely wipe out my bank account and savings, something like $5,000. I was a college student working part-time, mind you. So, I thought, this is foolish. I won’t have money for rent or food. So, instead, I wrote down an amount bigger than usual $500, thinking it was a reasonable compromise. Well, about two or three weeks later, lo and behold, I received an unexpected check in the mail for the amount I had felt led to give. The moment I saw the check I was “struck to the heart” by my lack of faith and didn’t even want to hold it, let alone cash it. I realized God had already planned to provide all that I needed but I had denied him and instead walked by my own sight and reason. Sadly, I can’t say the experience fully cured me of unbelief. But it certainly shocked me to my core and changed my view of this life and God’s leading.

In a similar way, I think, these devout Jews at Pentecost had their eyes opened, their unbelief exposed, and it crushed them. Their reaction was actually an irony spoken of long before by the prophet Zech in 12:10, “The Lord said, ‘I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourn for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.’” Though they had pierced Jesus, in this moment as they looked upon him with a new vision, they themselves were being pierced, in their conscience and by the Spirit.

You see, at the realization of what they had done, what their hardened hearts had desired, by God’s grace they were softened, which was just as the prophet Ezekiel had foretold long before as well, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules … and you will loathe your sin and your abomination” (36:26-27, 31).

When we truly see and feel the gravity, the severity of our situation, everything changes. We are willing to cry out with these men of Israel, “What must we do!?” Like a man on a sinking ship crying out, “Save me, O God!” And the good news is, by God’s grace, there is a way, even for those who crucified the very Lord of life. Peter echoes Jesus’s own command, “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38; Mark 1:15). This repentance means turning from our own ways, our own wisdom, the hardness of our heart, and humbly receiving the free gift of God in Christ, who bore all our evil and sin upon his shoulders if we will only turn and trust in him.

A Glorious Blessing

And as if that were not a grand enough blessing, a too-good-to-be-true situation, he gives even more than just freedom from sin and death. As Peter declares in 2:38-39, everyone who repents, who turns to Christ, and is saved from their sins, will also receive the promised Holy Spirit! Now Peter and the apostles were experiencing a wonderful miracle through the Holy Spirit at that inaugural moment in history.

Yet, I would pose to you an even greater miracle. Do you recall the fruits of the Spirit, described by Paul in Gal 5:22-23? He says, “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Although we may think the greatest miracle would be to see a cripple healed or demons cast out or a foreign language spontaneously spoken, but consider this.

Would you think it miraculous if someone, perhaps you, were able to live the entirety of their adult life with perfect patience? Or perfect Love? I mean in every moment you never once had an impetuous or selfish thought or did anything without perfect love and consideration for others, without a hint of desire for yourself? Do you think that would be miraculous? Can you even imagine having perfect self-control and kindness?

Honestly, it’s so absurd and so in opposition to our humanly experience that I really can’t even conceive of it. It’s like trying to grasp infinity! But, that is the gift and the source of God’s grace in Christ, that he pours out on us, if we will only turn to him and be saved from this crooked generation, Peter’s timely warning to both them and us.

What to do?

Perhaps by pondering the gospel story in Acts 2 you’ve never been “pierced of heart.” If this is you, I hope and pray you’ll respond and allow God to transform your heart of stone into a heart of flesh, one able to receive his good news with fear and trembling. Simply follow the model we see in Acts, cry out to God, repent, and believe. Then gratefully and humbly follow Jesus.

Perhaps instead, you trusted in Christ many years ago but maybe you’ve grown cold to the beauty, the profundity, the bewildering reality of God’s messiah, crucified by and for your sin. Let us not be like those Israelites who saw the Red Sea split and the rock burst forth with water in the desert and tasted the heavenly manna yet fell in the wilderness because of their apathy and callousness.

God has called us into so much more, a glorious reality walking by his Spirit, in his ways, like a child imitating our Father, joyfully declaring his goodness and eternal hope to our neighbors, family, coworkers, to everyone! No matter where we are, today we can respond to the good news of God in Christ. So, I hope that we will live in the joy and power of our new covenant of life through Christ.