Go ahead and take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Acts. We are going to study Acts 2:14–41 today. This is the day of Pentecost, Part 2.

We saw in the previous passage, Acts 2:1–13, that the church was launched with an event that can be described as utter pandemonium. The Holy Spirit is poured out on the disciples as visible tongues of fire. The disciples start speaking in foreign languages, and a large crowd starts to gather to figure out what’s going on. They marvel at what’s happening here. The crowd is amazed and astonished and bewildered. Some of the crowd thinks the disciples are drunk and they dismiss them, but others are asking sincerely, “What is this?” “Why is this happening?” They know that this is something supernatural and spectacular and they want to know what to make of it. 

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Well in that moment of confusion and astonishment, Peter steps forward with an explanation in verse 14.

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven,

Notice here that the twelve are taking center stage before everyone. I believe that all 120 disciples, men and women, were present at Pentecost speaking in multiple tongues. But when it’s time to preach, the twelve apostles step to the fore. And Peter is the primary spokesman.  

14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them:

I’m glad to see that Peter “lifted” his voice. That encourages me. He didn’t preach with a whisper. He didn’t preach with apprehension or with fear. And he didn’t deliver a “smiley-faced preacher pep talk” either. We’re going to see in a few moments that Peter, in his sermon, accuses his audience of murder and treachery. This is not exactly a seeker-sensitive sermon! 

 No, Peter stood up in front of 3,000+ people, with his eleven brothers at his side lending support and solidarity, and he lifted his voice to preach. 

Like I said last week, I always envision Peter with this deep, authoritative, masculine preacher’s voice. The voice of a big, burly fisherman! So imagine that as I read his words, even if my voice isn’t quite like that. 

“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. 

Like all good sermons, this sermon begins with a joke. Peter says to the people, “They’re not drunk as you suppose. It’s 9am in the morning. Who gets drunk at 9am?” 

Peter’s responding, of course, to the accusations of some people in the crowd. After hearing the 120 men and women speaking in foreign tongues, some of the people in the audience dismiss what’s happening as intoxication. And Peter meets them where they are. “They’re not drunk” he says. That idea would be preposterous in this society. Jews didn’t even eat breakfast till four hours after sunrise. If they did get drunk sinfully (drunkenness was a sin in this culture), it would happen at night not in the morning.

“So if it’s not intoxication, Peter, what is it?” Well he tells us. Look at verse 16.

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.’

In other words, “This is that.” “That passage from Joel, that you’ve read since you were little Jewish boys in synagogue… this is that!”

Remember now, Peter was only addressing Jews at this point. They were multicultural Jews, to be sure. They came from all over the world to gather for Pentecost. But still they were Jews. And more than that, Luke tells us that they were “devout” Jews in verse 5. So they would have been familiar with this OT passage. 

So Peter’s saying, “That passage that you’ve been reading your whole life from the OT, from the prophet Joel… well, this is that. The fulfillment of that prophecy is happening now.”

I don’t know if we can really grasp just how significant this would have been for a group of devout Jews. They had been waiting for the Messiah for centuries. They had read those prophecies their entire lives and had eagerly anticipated a fulfillment of Joel 2 and a myriad of other OT prophecies that God had revealed to his people. They longed for a “this is that” moment. And now right before their eyes, it was happening. 

Here’s the first point from our text today. I’ve entitled this message “First Sermon and Firstfruits.” This is the first sermon ever preached in the church. And it results in the firstfruits of the church’s ministry. And there are four things that are emphasized in Peter’s sermon. Here’s the first. 

1) Peter preaches the fulfillment of OT Scripture (2:14–21)

Now this is just one of many prophecies that are fulfilled in the NT. Throughout the gospels and throughout the book of Acts we hear repeatedly, “this is that.” “This fulfills that.” “This fulfills what the prophet Joel or Micah or Isaiah or Jeremiah said in the OT.” 

In fact, there are hundreds of prophecies that appear in the OT. Many, if not most of those, are fulfilled in Christ’s first coming. Some still remain to be fulfilled at Jesus’s second coming. And the probabilities of one person, Jesus Christ, fulfilling all of the prophecies about the Messiah in the OT are astronomical. Some have tried to calculate those probabilities, and the numbers boggle the mind.  

Imagine if you would when George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States more than two centuries ago… imagine if he had made hundreds of prophecies concerning the future of America. Imagine if he has said, “We will have fifty states with fifty governors.” Imagine if he had predicted that we would go to Europe and help fight and win two world wars. Imagine if he had prophesied that we would have a black president someday. Imagine if he had prophesied that America would be the foremost economic power in the world that would dwarf all the rest of the European nations including England. If George Washington had made hundreds of prophecies like that, and most of them had already come true, we would all be truly shocked and amazed at his prescience. 

Yet that’s what we have in the NT. We have hundreds of specific prophecies about Jesus fulfilled in the NT. Some are fulfilled in his first coming, we can look back and see them. Some await his second coming, so we anticipate their fulfillment in the future. 

Now here’s the thing about Joel 2, and we need to reckon with this. Not everything written in Joel 2 is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Obviously the Spirit is poured out and the people prophesy, that’s a summary statement of the speaking in tongues about the works of God and Peter’s preaching afterwards. There are also other things that are fulfilled later in Acts. For example, we see later the dreaming of dreams and the seeing of visions. 

But towards the end of that prophecy, there’s a description of things that happen at the end of the church age, not the beginning. The prophet Joel saw the beginning and the end. It’s like a person who looks at a mountain range and sees the peaks of those mountains. But he doesn’t know that there is a chasm between those mountains. That’s how prophecy often works in the OT. They see Jesus’s first coming and Jesus’s second coming, but they don’t see the 2,000+ year period between them called “the church age.” 

And so in Acts 2:17–21, there are things being fulfilled in that moment, and there are things that won’t be fulfilled until later in the church age, and even into the tribulation period that precedes Christ’s return.

So, for example, verse 17 says, 

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. 

All or most of that is fulfilled in the days of the early church with a heavy emphasis on the outpouring of the Spirit. In the OT, the Holy Spirit came upon some people for some purposes. In the NT, after Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes upon all people who put their faith in Christ: young and old, male and female, Jews and Gentiles, slave and free. All of us have the indwelling Spirit, if we have faith in Christ.  

But some of this passage awaits fulfillment until future events. So, for example, in verse 19, 

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.’ 

Verses 19 and 20 describe the eschatological “Day of the Lord.” This climactic day still awaits a future fulfillment at Jesus’s second coming. But there are enough correspondences between what’s happening at Pentecost, and what Joel prophesied in Joel 2, for Peter to say, “This is that.” “This, at least in part, is that.” 

And verse 21 is true of all in the church age. This is happening now. This was happening at Pentecost. This has been true since the beginning of the church age and will be true till the end.

everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

So be aware of this whenever you tackle OT prophecy in the NT. Some OT prophecy is fulfilled in the days of Jesus, or shortly thereafter. Some still awaits fulfillment at Jesus’s second coming. And sometimes (like Joel 2:28–32) those prophecies are combined in OT Scripture. 

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Now after Peter quotes the OT, Peter’s sermon continues. And remember, the OT was Peter’s Bible. So what we have here is an example of exposition in the Bible. Peter is explaining an OT text and relating it to Christ. So his preaching is expositional, and it’s Christological, just like our preaching should be! So we are doing something now, here at church, which Peter did 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem. It’s something that the church has been doing for twenty centuries: 1) Preach the Bible and 2) Preach Christ. 

And here’s what Peter says. Look at verse 22.

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— 

Question: Did Jesus do mighty works during his earthly ministry? Answer: Absolutely, he did. People marveled at his works. Other people wanted to kill him because of those mighty works. That always boggles my mind. Jesus does miracles that are unexplainable, and people want to kill him for it. 

Look at verse 23.

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Yikes! Peter moves from a joke to OT exposition to verbal accusation. This is not seeker-sensitive preaching. “You killed the Messiah,” Peter says. “He did incredible signs and wonders among you, and you killed him!”

Now this is pretty bold of Peter. There’s a good chance that some of the 3,000+ people in the crowd right now were part of the crowd that yelled “crucify him” in Jerusalem just a few weeks before this. Maybe there are some priests in this crowd as well who sought Jesus’s death. That’s very possible. 

And that just goes to show how bold Peter is in this moment. Talk about moxie. Talk about sanctified bravado. It’s possible that the crowd might just yell back at Peter, “O yeah. We killed Jesus and you’re next, buddy! Let’s crucify this guy too!”

Notice also that Peter said this was all part of God’s divine plan and foreknowledge. God is sovereign! Man is responsible!  

23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God planned it. God knew about it. But that doesn’t absolve people of their guilt. God is sovereign. Man is responsible. Put both of those in your theological pipe and smoke it. 

Now look at verse 24. 

24 God raised him [Jesus] up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 

So Peter’s preaching here. And now his sermon is reaching fever pitch. It was not possible for Jesus to be held by death. Jesus is too powerful to be held by death. And God raised him up!

By the way, the word “pangs” here is typically used of a woman during childbirth. And Peter’s use of this word here is fascinating. He’s using it as an illustration. All good preachers know how to illustrate, right? And Peter is no exception to that. 

Here’s how Peter’s illustration works. Death can no more hold Christ in the grave than a pregnant woman can hold the child in her body during the pangs of childbirth! The baby’s got to come out when the pangs start. And Jesus had to come out of the grave! Is that a good illustration? Probably that illustration is more powerful for mothers in the room than non-mothers. 

24 God raised [Jesus] up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for [Jesus] to be held by [death]. 25 For David says concerning him 

Here’s some more fulfillment of OT prophecy. Peter quotes David in Psalm 16, which was a very well-known Messianic psalm in Peter’s day. 

“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 

This word “corruption” refers to decay or decomposition. When the disciples came to the empty tomb, there was no smell of putrefying human flesh. There was probably the smell of myrrh and spices used to mask the smell of decomposing flesh. But there was no smell of decomposing flesh. And that’s because there was no decomposing flesh. Jesus rose from the dead. 

Look at verse 28. Peter’s still quoting Psalm 16.

28 You have made known to me the paths of life [that’s a metaphor for eternal life]; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’ 

David in this passage was anticipating a resurrection. His soul would not be abandoned to Hades, the grave. Hades (Greek: ᾅδης) is the Greek translation of the OT sheol (שְׁאוֹל). And sheol could be a reference to hell, or it could be a reference to “the abode of the dead.” More generally it could simply refer to the grave. I think the idea here is the grave not hell. 

Now here’s where Peter’s going with this. This is important. David did go to the grave. And his body never rose from the dead. Not yet, anyway. So here’s the question. How could this passage be applied to King David? How could David say in Psalm 16, “You will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption?” David’s body did go to the grave! David’s body did experience decomposition! So what is David talking about?

Here’s the answer. This passage doesn’t apply to David. It was intended to be messianic, and it should be interpreted messianically. It wasn’t about David. It was about “the Son of David,” the Messiah who would come from David’s line, Jesus Christ. 

That’s why Jesus’s genealogy is the first thing Matthew records in his gospel (1:1–17). Matthew wants to make the Davidic link to Jesus clear at the very beginning of his gospel. So that we understand this is a true and better Son of David. Luke does the same thing in his genealogy in Luke 3:23–38.

By the way, all of this was common knowledge in Peter’s day. People knew David was dead. They knew where his grave was. They could go visit David’s grave if they wanted to. Almost everyone was anticipating a “Son of David Messiah” who would be greater than David. Everyone interpreted Psalm 16 messianically just like Peter does here. So where we have to stop and explain things a bit from Psalm 16, Peter doesn’t have to do that. His audience already knows this.

Peter continues in verse 29, 

29 “Brothers [Jewish brothers not Christian brothers… not yet], 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. 

In other words, “David’s dead. We all know he’s dead. His body has decomposed and you can go dig up his bones right now… what’s left of them anyway.” So what was Psalm 16 talking about? What was all that talk about not being abandoned to Hades and a body not seeing corruption? 

Peter explains. Look at verse 30.

30 Being therefore a prophet [that’s David], and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne 

Psalm 132:11 says this about David. It says, “The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: ‘One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.’” Peter is saying, “This is That.” 

By the way, Nathan prophesied about David as well. Everybody remembers that Nathan said to David, “You are that man,” when he was confronted about his adultery with Bathsheba (2 Sam 12:7). But Nathan also prophesied concerning David in 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel 7:12–13 says, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Peter is saying, “This is that.” “Jesus is that offspring that will rule the kingdom forever!”

 So with that in mind, let me reread verse 30. Follow with me here.

30 Being therefore a prophet [David], and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne 31 he [that’s David in Psalm 16] 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.

Peter is saying here, “We saw his resurrection body. Thomas here saw the nail-scars in his hands. James his half-brother is here. He didn’t even believe in Jesus until he was raised from the dead! Mary, as well, is here. She saw Jesus die. She helped bury his body in a tomb. And three days later she had a conversation with him.” 

Part of what Peter is saying is this, “Jesus obviously didn’t get your attention when he did miracles and wonders before you. Maybe some of you were ignorant of who exactly he was. And that’s why you helped crucify him. But God in his mercy is giving you a second chance right now to embrace the truth of the gospel, a gospel that was even foretold hundreds of years ago in the OT Scriptures. Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried, but the grave couldn’t hold him. And now he’s alive. Hallelujah.” That’s what Peter is preaching boldly here at Pentecost. 

Here’s the second point from our text today. 

2) Peter preaches the resurrection of Christ (2:22–32)

Look I can’t emphasize this enough. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, then we can all go home right now. There’s no reason to stay here. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17). Paul said, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). 

If Christ wasn’t raised from the dead, then let’s call it quits. There’s no hope. There’s nothing worth living for. As I’ve said before, Jesus’s resurrection assures our own resurrection. If Jesus wasn’t raised from the dead, we aren’t going to be either!And if there’s no resurrection, what do we have to live for? A house? A few kids? A few cars? A picket fence? Grandkids later, then we die? That’s it! Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die! Is that all we have to look forward to? Is that our hope?

No. Peter makes it crystal clear in this sermon, the first sermon ever preached, that Christ was indeed raised from the dead. If you want to see David’s body, buried in a tomb, you can go see it. If you want to see Mohammed’s body, buried in a tomb in Medina, you can go find it. If you want to see Confucius’s body buried in a tomb, you can go find it in China. If you want to go see Abraham’s body, buried in a tomb, you can go see it in Hebron, in Israel’s West Bank. But there’s no body buried in a tomb for Jesus. There’s a tomb. But there’s no body! 

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You might say, “This is amazing. Peter’s sermon couldn’t get any better than this.” Well, it gets better. Write this down as #3. Here’s the third thing that Peter preaches in his sermon.

3) Peter preaches the deity of Christ (2:33–36)

Have you ever heard somebody introduced in a public setting and the person introducing them rattles off a catalogue of accolades? “This person is the president of such and such organization… They’ve written all these books… they’ve got these credentials… they’ve got all these degrees, etc.” And afterwards you just think to yourself, “Whose got time to do all that stuff?” 

I remember hearing D.A. Carson introduced once and his list of credentials was like the list of ten men! And I guess that means I should listen to what he says, because he’s accomplished a lot, right? 

But get this! Here are Jesus’s credentials. Jesus is the fulfillment of a myriad of OT prophecies. [I don’t hear that a lot when people get introduced.] Also Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life. [I don’t hear that a lot when people get introduced, “This person is sinless.”] Also Jesus died as a substitutionary atonement for our sins and then he was resurrected from the dead [I don’t hear that when people get introduced. And I don’t hear that at funerals either. “So and so’s casket is empty today, because he’s already been raised from the dead.” I’ve never heard that before!]

So Jesus is pretty awesome. But there’s more. He’s more than just Messiah. He’s more than just Savior. He’s more than just Redeemer. Jesus, as we’ll find out in the verses that follow, is the Eternal Son of God. He is the divine second person of the Trinity. 

Let me say it more succinctly—Jesus is God. God the Son came down and took on human flesh and died on the cross for our sins. Wrap your minds around that. 

So here’s Peter preaching the deity of Christ. Look at verse 33.

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. 

Peter’s saying here, “All this that you are seeing and hearing now… all these people speaking in miraculous tongues… God did that! That’s the Holy Spirit. God the Father promised the Holy Spirit to the Son, and the Son poured out the Spirit on us here.”

Peter continues in verse 34.

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.’

Peter quotes another OT passage here. He does more exposition with his Bible, the OT. I can’t tell you how important it is to be familiar with the OT Scriptures. It’s so valuable. Peter quotes here from Psalm 110 which is quoted more times in the NT than any other OT Scripture. 

In fact Jesus quoted this passage (Psalm 110) to the Pharisees in the last week of his life. Here’s what happened in Matthew 22:41-46. “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, “‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.”

Jesus quotes Psalm 110 just like Peter does in Acts 2. And if you’re confused about Jesus’s question and what he means by it, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The Pharisees were too. Like we saw with Psalm 16 before, Psalm 110 was broadly recognized by the Jewish community as messianic. 

In Psalm 110, the author, King David, says, “The Lord [Yahweh] says to my Lord [Adonai], ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” So Jesus is asking how David could be calling the “Son of David,” the Messiah, “my Lord.” What father calls his son, or grandson, “Lord?” Does any father ever call his son “Lord” or “Master?” Would you be disturbed if I referred to my son as my “Lord and Master”? I hope you would. So how does this work with David and his son? 

Well the way it works is supernaturally through the mystery of the incarnation. Jesus was God in eternity past, the second member of the Trinity. Jesus came to earth and took on human flesh. He was the adopted son of Joseph, and he was the flesh-and-blood son of Mary. And the lineages of both of Jesus’s parents are linked biologically to King David. So Jesus was the “son of David” but he’s also the “son of God.” Therefore he’s David’s “Lord” and “Master.” 

When Jesus alluded to this mystery with the Pharisees, they wouldn’t respond. And Peter was there at that time. He was probably just as confused as they were. How does the Lord speak to the Lord? How is David’s son, David’s Lord? How does Yahweh speak to Adonai and say, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool?” 

Well now, after Jesus’s resurrection, Eureka! Peter gets it. He gets it now! Maybe it’s because of the Holy Spirit empowerment… maybe it’s because Jesus explained it to him after his resurrection... Whatever the case, Peter gets it now. And not only does he get it, he preaches it. Jesus is the Lord. Psalm 110 isn’t about David. The Lord (God the Father) said to the Lord (God the Son) “Sit at my right hand.” Jesus, the Son of David, is Lord. 

Here’s the interpretation from Peter. Watch this in verse 36.

 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God [that’s God the Father] has made him [that’s Jesus, God the Son] both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” 

 So not only is Jesus the fulfillment of OT prophecy... not only was his death a payment for sin... not only was he resurrected from the dead... but also, he’s deity. He’s God. And he has ascended to the right hand of God the Father, this Lord and Christ.

And notice how Peter ends his sermon at the end of verse 36. How’s this for seeker-sensitive! You killed him. You crucified him. You crucified the Son of God on a cross. And now he’s back from the dead. Do you think that statement was a little bit disconcerting for these 3,000+ Jews gathering and listening to Peter preach? “You crucified the Son of God. And now he’s back from the dead! How’s that going to work out for you when you meet your maker?”

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Notice the response of the crowd. Look at verse 37. [May God give us more responses like this at VBVF… please, Lord, do that]! 

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?”

Notice they weren’t defensive. They believe Peter. “We just killed the Son of God. What are we going to do about that? How on earth are we going to get out of this mess?” 

Now imagine if Peter just said at this point, “Beats me! You guys got yourselves into this mess. You’ve got to get yourself out of it. See you later, we’re going back to the upper room.” 

Imagine if Peter, after preaching sin and condemnation and hellfire and brimstone, just said, “O well, goodnight everybody. Have a safe journey back home to Rome or Pontus or Crete or Arabia or wherever you’re from.” What if Peter just left them hanging after they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

I read once about D.L. Moody, the famous evangelist from the nineteenth century, that one of the crucial turning points in his life involved the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. He was preaching in Chicago the night of that great conflagration… you know when Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over the lantern. Hundreds of people died in that blaze. The entire city was levelled. 

But before the fire spread, Moody was preaching. He was actually preaching to one of the largest crowds that had ever gathered to hear him. And that night, he failed to press his congregation for a decision. In fact, he had told them to take a week and think it over before they committed to Christ. And he regretted that sermon the rest of his life. And from that point forward he never closed his service without an urgent call to repentance.    

Well Peter didn’t tell this crowd to go home and think about it and then come back next week. Peter felt the urgency of the moment here, and he capitalized on it with his audience. Look at verse 38.

 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. 

Notice he didn’t tell them, “It’s not your fault.” He didn’t tell them, “It’ll all work out in the end.” He didn’t tell them, “You’re so special, I’m so special, just give yourself a big hug.” He didn’t blame shift to the Romans. He didn’t absolve their guilt with some lame, sappy sentimentality. He told them flat-out, “Repent.” He said ostensibly, “You’re a sinner. Repent!” 

Before he gave them the good news, they needed to hear the bad news. And that makes the good news exceedingly good. 

Here’s the fourth point for the message today. 

4) Peter preaches repentance and the forgiveness of sins (2:37–41)

And wouldn’t you know it, we still preach that in the church today. Notice what else Peter preaches. He preaches the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

“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.

Notice if you would, the paradox in verses 39–40. Here’s the juxtaposition again of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility.

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.”

“Which is it, Peter? Man’s responsibility or God’s sovereignty?” It’s both! Peter says, “Save yourselves,” in verse 40. Peter commands, “Repent and be baptized,” in verse 38. But he also notes that the promise is for everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself in verse 39. This is God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility juxtaposed and working together in perfect harmony according to Peter. 

I heard a person say once that some preachers water down the gospel so much that the non-elect don’t even get a chance to reject it. That’s not true of Peter. There’s no watering down of the gospel here! And may that never be true of VBVF! 

And here’s what happens after Peter’s sermon. This is so good. Look at verse 41.

41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

The church goes from 120 to 3,000 in one day. Talk about explosive growth in the church. Craig Keener says in his commentary, “Considering Josephus’s estimate of six thousand Pharisees in all Palestine, three thousand conversions to the new Jesus movement in Jerusalem is no small start!”As far as firstfruits go, that’s pretty good. That’s a pretty good first harvest. 

If the population of Jerusalem was about 100,000 people, 3,000 people would be 3% of the city. Craig Keener also says this in his commentary “Because baptism was a sign of conversion to Judaism normally reserved for pagans, Peter’s demand would offend his Jewish hearers and cost them respectability. He calls for a public, radical testimony of conversion, not a private, noncommittal request for salvation with no conditions.”

Let me just address one more issue in this passage now. The baptism here has tripped a lot of people up, who have thought erroneously that baptism is necessary for salvation. Spirit baptism is necessary for salvation, but water baptism is not. 

But that doesn’t mean that water baptism is unimportant. In Peter’s mind it was such an essential part of the display of repentance that it was commanded in this passage. But also grammatically the idea being conveyed here is this, “Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus ‘on the basis of’ the forgiveness of your sins.” This translation is confirmed as a possibility by John Polhill in his commentary on the book of Acts. 

And that’s confirmed by other passages of Scripture. Water baptism is the outward sign of an inward work. Water baptism is not necessary for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is the basis for baptism. Don’t forget that. 

When Peter gives the gospel in Acts 3, he says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out” without making a reference to baptism (3:19). Also when Paul gives the gospel later in Acts to the Philippian jailer, he doesn’t talk about baptism. The jailer asks, “What must I do to be saved?” And Paul, with barebones gives the response, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

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Now quickly before we close, let’s talk application. I’m going to deliver these applications so fast you’re going to freak. But don’t freak. Just write them down. 

Three applications, church. Do these three things in light of Acts 2:14–41. 

1) Incorporate the entirety of God’s Word into your heart

Peter knew the OT so well that he could immediately reference it and connect it to Christ in his sermon. How well do you know the OT? Read it. Study it. Memorize it. And incorporate it into your heart. 

 The Psalmist wrote, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (119:105). And he also wrote, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11).

2) Deify all three persons of the Trinity

 All three persons are God, and all three are the objects of our worship. Our faith is a Trinitarian faith. Don’t ever forget that. 

3) Share the good news of Jesus with boldness

May the Spirit of God who emboldened Peter on the Day of Pentecost to preach the gospel with clarity and courage, embolden us to share Christ with lost people in our day.