Community (Acts 2:42-47)

Read it here.

Jesus’ death brings life. Because of His death, which gives us second birth, there are communities, friendships, and relationships started that never would’ve existed otherwise.

What is described in this little paragraph of scripture are the fruits of the gospel: fear, awe, prayer, equality, sharing, charity, thankfulness, love, praise, and even favor with non-believers. The new Christians are delighting in their new life, they have been born again as Jesus promised (John 3:3) and non-believers notice. They don’t see people acting very pious and religious, they see people burning with love and compassion, sharing all that they own, going to the Temple to worship joyfully, not out of tradition, duty, or cultural obligation. Who wouldn’t want to worship the God these people worship? Who wouldn’t want a taste of their joy? If this God they worship is anything like them, He must be good.

This text doesn’t describe everyone going home to pick fights or picket or complain or tell people they’re wrong. The opposite happens, because these people have been changed at the center of their being to see their sin, in all its dirtiness, and Jesus, in all His worthiness. Their changed lives speak and profess the gospel in a way that matches whatever spoken words they could offer to non-believers.

In a country and time when Christians are on every street corner telling everyone they’re going to hell, we should take note of this text. We need to be loving, giving, and radiant with joy. If people hate us, they should hate us because of Jesus, not because of ourselves. In other words, they should hate us for loving them and forgiving them (because of Christ) not because we are shoving tracts down their throat.

This text is also a message about the importance of community. I'm in college right now, and I have several Christian friends who don't want to get involved in a church because they have one back home. I can't see how this is a benefit to anyone - they are missing out on the richness of a church community and the church community is missing out on the richness of knowing them.

God made us to live together (Genesis 2:18) and share life together. We're not supposed to be "Lone Ranger" Christians, we're supposed to be Christians together. I know because I've had to learn this for myself. My greatest times of growth and joy are when I'm spending time with other Christians, and I know it will be so my whole life.

If you look at Paul, who seems like the most independent guy in the New Testament - traveling from place to place, leaving behind his home - you find he wasn't alone! He was always with people and talking about people, his ministry was a community effort. Imagine if he hadn't seen the need for community, for spiritual support - how far would he have been able to carry the gospel before collapsing in exhaustion? Would we know the gospel today?

God has richly blessed us with community, and friendships, and other people.

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

Peter's Speech: Jesus (Acts 2:14-41)

Read it here.

This is the first time the completed gospel (except for Christ’s return) is preached. Peter draws from Scripture to explain Jesus as Christ. The effect of the gospel was the same then as it is now: “they were cut to the heart” (verse 37).

The men listening to Peter’s speech had heard of Jesus, His deeds were pretty well known. He was a rock star of the Mediterranean world. Possibly many of the people at this event had looked forward to Pentecost and the possibility of hearing Jesus preach, but then they found out that He had been crucified. (The way Peter describes Jesus’ murder is interesting, saying He was “killed by lawless men” (verse 23). These “lawless men” were the Pharisees, who were supposed to be the teachers of the Law).

Peter puts the guilt on everyone listening:

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. (Acts 2:36)

Jesus’ blood is on the hands of all sinners, and if you study His life, if you see how He lived and loved and never refused to help somebody, it leads to guilt. Can you honestly say you’ve lived and acted like Jesus? That you’ve lived as selflessly and as righteously? No, we have all “fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). But Jesus died for those sins and shortcomings.

What a dramatic, overwhelming action to react to. When we make a mistake and find out it causes someone pain we feel horrible. I can remember times where I was late to pick up my brother or sister from something and they were left waiting and waiting – in fact, there was one time where I was supposed to be home and my sister ended up waiting outside of a locked house for an hour.

Because of our sinfulness and our wickedness, Jesus died! Painfully! His death was terrible and agonizing, and on top of that, shameful. Crucifixion was not only painful but demoralizing, especially to the Jews. In fact, it was looked down upon so much that Roman citizens were not allowed to be crucified – they were “above” such things. So the King of Kings – whose “nationality” is greater than that of the Roman Empire – was hung on a tree on the side of a busy road like a common criminal.

The very nature of Christ’s death demands a response. Do you feel bad, but walk away? Do you spit on Him and say, “Serves him right”? The crowd needs to respond, and they do, asking: “Brothers, what shall we do?” (verse 37). If you like Jesus at all His death leaves you asking such a question. If you love Him you feel horrible, and you can’t walk away. Guilt weighs down on you as you realize a perfect man stuck Himself between heaven and earth (literally and figuratively, and, on top of that, literally in the figurative sense too – think about that one…) suspended by wood between God and man.

God, perfect and good, demands good. He demands justice, and as He looks down at us, as He looks beyond what any human eye can see and into our hearts we are judged rightly. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Psalms 119:126 says:

It is time for the LORD to act, for your law has been broken.

And again:

Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true. (Psalm 119:142)

Jesus was righteous and able to see our full brokenness and sin. And instead of walking away from our eventual death and destruction, He embraced it for us, interceding between God and man, taking the sins of all on Himself, a just man being condemned by a just God for an unjust, unholy, undeserving, and thoroughly wicked people (you and me and everyone we know).

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquites;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush

him;

he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt,

he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. (Isaiah 53:10)

Jesus stuck himself in front of God’s wrath, embracing our death – and in order to truly live our response must be to embrace His.

Peter calls us to throw off sin and that which is an affront to God.

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ…”

Embrace His death! Do not walk away.

“…for the forgiveness of your sins…”

He has removed them “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12).

“…and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 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.” (Acts 2:38-39)

This is the gospel: that Christ died, rose again, and promises eternal life and eternal fellowship with Himself, with God. It is called the “gospel” because it is good news, in fact, the best news we ever can (or ever will) hear.

And Now...The Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-13)

Read it here.

Jesus told the Apostles to wait, and they obeyed His commands.

How awesome that the Apostles, by faith, waited on the Lord. Jesus could have made them wait for a long time, like He did with Abraham and Sarah, or He could’ve been a short time. The point is sometimes we're made to wait, and whether it’s a long or short wait for us, God is never late – His timing is always perfect.

Pentecost! What a perfect day for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the trinity. Jews from everywhere (Acts 2:5-11) had come to Jerusalem for the holiday/festival/thing. They all spoke different languages and had different cultures – this is something we’re used to.

It’s hard to imagine the whole world speaking the same language, but at one point that was true. In the book of Genesis (chapter 11) Moses records a time when everyone on earth spoke the same language. Only man used this unity to defy God and build monuments to themselves. God saw this and decided to stop us in our foolishness by creating many different languages so nobody could understand each other. The great monument they were working on (the Tower of Babel) never got finished.

I bring this up because this event – the day of Pentecost – is a mirror event to the one in Genesis. At the Tower of Babel men attempted to glorify themselves so God confused their languages, but at Pentecost God brought together people in understanding so that Jesus might be glorified.

The Holy Spirit’s entrance is certainly glorious. Unlike and yet like the birth of Jesus the Spirit comes to humble people, not the proud. He does not come to Caesar, or Pilate, or Herod, or any other person in authority, He comes to the Apostles. Nowadays we have pictures of the Apostles every where, they have their own statues and stained glass windows, but remember – these guys were nobodies. They were fishermen, tax collectors, etc. They were blue-collar workers, they didn’t have a Ph.D. in Biblical Hermeneutics or New Testament Greek, they were lower class, poor, nobodies.

In the same way, Jesus came to earth among shepherds and the humble – Mary and Joseph. Jesus’ birth is humble, yet it is also glorious and a cause for celebration (Luke 2:13-14). The Spirit enters with a similar bang:

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. (Acts 2:2-3)

This is supernatural, it is amazing, it is beautiful. God is glorious and powerful and capable of anything. Here He enters the Apostles with glory, majesty, and beauty – what a beautiful sight this must’ve been. It is almost hard for Luke to describe because we don’t have anything similar to it in the natural world. This kind of thing doesn’t just happen

And so we meet the wonderful, glorious, all-satisfying third member of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. He comes down to reveal wisdom, to help, and He does it in a majestic and powerful way. Praise be to Him, the Counselor, the Helper! He is still moving and active today, calling us, beckoning us closer to Christ, inviting us to drink of His Word, filling us with the joy of God, and giving us the strength and ability to face the world in faith. Without the Spirit we would be empty – for it is He who calls us to Christ in the first place.

I think this is the member of the Trinity surrounded by the most confusion. Either we don’t really understand who He is or we have been given a distorted and crazy view of Him. But He is God. He is not less than God, a part of God, or anything else – the Holy Spirit is God. If you continue reading Acts, pay attention to His works. Ask Him to teach you more about Himself.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:26)