Deut 16:9-12 Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain (i.e., the barley). 10 Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you. 11 And rejoice before the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. 12 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.
The festival we call Pentecost was originally an agricultural festival to be celebrated in the land of Israel on the 50th day after the first sabbath following Passover. As you know, Passover celebrated the deliverance of God’s people from Egyptian bondage. But it also had an agricultural significance as the beginning of the barley harvest. The first sheaf of harvested barley was made into two sacrificial loaves offered in the temple on the day after the end of the Passover (Unleavend Bread) festival. 50 days afterwards the barley harvest ended and the wheat harvest began (Ex 34:22), marked by Pentecost. Both were joyous days of celebration, which was most likely why the mockers of the miracle in Acts 2 thought the Christians were “full of new wine”. The Greek and Hebrew names for the festival used by Jews in Jesus’ day (“Pentecost” and hag shavuot which means “festival of weeks” or “heptads”) both allude to the interval of time between Passover and Pentecost/Weeks.
The agricultural significance of Pentecost has NT import in that the Pentecost of Acts 2 marked the beginning of the worldwide “harvest” of converts to Christianity. At the beginning of harvest the Jews always consecrated the first part of the harvest to the Lord in a special way: it was considered especially holy. So Acts 2 shows how the first group of “harvested believers” on which the Holy Spirit fell were accepted by God as the “firstfruits” of the great harvest that was to come.
A theme that originated later in Judaism was the celebration of the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai. Scholars are divided as to whether this secondary theme already existed at the time of Jesus or only after the destruction of the temple by the Romans in AD 70. If the theme of the giving of the law at Sinai was indeed a part of Pentecost in Luke’s day, then perhaps the Christian significance can be found in the outpouring of the Spirit, who among other things fulfills the law perfectly in those who allow Him to fill and guide them.
The Promise of Pentecost
The date of the beginning of the Festival of Weeks (Pentecost) is given in Lev. 23:15-16:
“From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD.”
The giving of the Spirit was the fulfillment of Jesus’ promises in the gospels, and fulfilled a prediction by John the Baptizer (also found in Luke-Acts) which specifically mentions “fire”:
John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Luke 3:16 NIV, cf. also Matt 3:11).
But what is the purpose of a baptism? If we may for the moment forget about Christian baptism and think about the baptism that Jesus himself underwent at the hands of John, we see clearly the intimate connection between baptism and ministry. In fact Luke Timothy Johnson (Writings of the New Testament 224) nicely observes that the effect of this experience on the disciples was to transform them from “eyewitnesses” into “ministers of the Word” (Luke 1:2). The giving of the Spirit at Pentecost then enabled Jesus’ followers to begin carrying out the commission of Acts 1:8. In a sense adult Christian baptism also serves this purpose, since a person’s baptism is his or her first act of public confession of Christ.
The Miracles Attending the Giving of the Spirit at Pentecost (1-4)
Acts 2:1-4 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
We don’t know exactly where the disciples were when this miracle occurred. The text simply says “in one place” (v. 1). But since non-members of the community were able to hear and see it, they cannot have been in the Upper Room, but in some public place, perhaps the temple courts.
Luke carefully distinguishes what was heard from what was seen: the sound of a rushing wind was heard, but not felt; and what appeared to be fiery tongues were seen to settle upon each of the believers. Then each person present heard someone of the believers speaking clearly the praises of God in the hearer’s native tongue.
This is something different from the glossolalia “speaking in tongues” practiced in some of Paul’s churches (1Cor 12), since there no one understood what was spoken unless someone present was given the supernatural gift of interpreting the unknown language. We won’t get into the involved question of whether the second type of gift of tongues is present in the church today or or its value.
In Hebrew and Aramaic the same word means “wind” and “Spirit” (Hebr ruach), as does NT Greek pneuma. Winnowing requires the wind as its separating force. The presences of the indwelling Spirit, the “wind” of God, also distinguishes the “wheat” of true believers from the “chaff” of unbelievers (cf. Psa 1:3-4).
The Crowd’s Reaction to the Miracle (5-13)
Acts 2:5-13 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? — 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.’”
The disciples with fiery tongues on top of their heads were like little “burning bushes” from the midst of which God spoke, as he did of old to Moses (Exod 3:2-4). Only now he spoke to his people Israel about a new Moses on this day that commemorated the first giving of the law.
The astonishing miracle caught the people’s attention, like the burning bush first caught Moses’. But it was the voice from the bush that was the important matter.
So many details of this momentous event recorded in Acts 2 were specifically prophesied in the Hebrew scriptures, that one is struck with the total lack of any prediction of the miraculous speaking in foreign languages, the reversal—so to speak—of the “confusion of tongues” at Babel (Gen 11:1-9).
Although the miracuous speaking in foreign languages enabled everyone present to hear the praise (and great redemptive acts) of God in their own languages, it was not necessary in order to communicate, since all these Jews would have known either Aramaic, Hebrew or Greek. The miracle, rather, was intended to be a sign, and Peter served to explain it.
12-13 The sign without an interpretation was ambiguous. God always adds an inspired word to his miracles, so that they not be misunderstood.
Peter’s Speech to the Onlookers (14-40)
Joel’s prophecy (14-21)
Acts 2:14-24 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel [Joel 2:28-32]:
17 “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
You fulfilled God’s plan in murdering the Messiah who was accredited by God’s 22 Men of Israel, listen to this: 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. 23 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. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
15 First Peter corrects the misinterpretation: they are not drunk, in spite of the festive occasion. It was far too early in the day. Their joy and ecstasy had another, higher Source.
16-21 To explain what is happening as the pouring out of God’s Spirit upon his faithful believers, Peter quotes from Joel 2:28-32. As is the custom in the NT, passages from the OT can be cited for only a part of what they contain. To claim that OT passages quoted in the NT mean only what the NT author uses them for is to do a serious injustice to the fullness of god’s revelation. The phenomena to be compared were: the pouring out of the spirit, the “visions” of the fiery tongues, and the miraculous speaking in foreign languages (which Peter compares to Joel’s mention of “prophesying”).
But some things spoken of by Joel did not happen: the Spirit was poured out, but not “on all people”, only on the small group of believers in Jerusalem; no dreams were had, and Joel immediately follows this without break (Joel 2:30-31) with “there shall be wonders … the sun turned to darkness” and other portents not occurring in Acts 2.
We may conclude then that this is not strictly speaking a fulfillment of Joel, but something similar, that shows the presence of God’s Spirit poured out on his faithful remnant and manifesting itself in dramatic fashion. And surely the main point for Peter in the Joel passage from Joel 2:32 (quoted in Acts 2:21), which connects the display of God’s Spirit to the need for Peter’s hearers to “call upon the name of the LORD” (which in this case means Jesus) and “be saved” (see also vv. 40 and 47). For a good treatment of what Luke means by "salvation" and "being saved" see With.
in WG 160.
22 Although these onlookers were natives of other lands, they were permanent residents of Jerusalem (katoikountes Acts 2:5), and therefore Peter could properly claim that Jesus ministered among them, that they knew about these things, and could be held accountable for putting Jesus to death “with the help of people without [God’s] law” (i.e., Pilate and the Roman garrison) (v. 23).
Jesus’ resurrection was predicted in David’s psalm (25-35)
But Peter was not finished: after explaining that the tongues phenomenon was not drunkenness, but a miraculous sign of the pouring out of God’s Spirit, he moved from the Joel 2 passage to another prophetic passage to show what had brought on this outpouring, or put differently what this outpouring marked, which was the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah, the Son of David. For this Peter quotes from Psalm 16, a psalm attributed to David.
25 David said about him: “‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. 26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, 27 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. 28 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’
29 “Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne [cf. 2 Sam 7]. 31 Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. 33 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. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’
Peter reasons that, although David speaking as a prophet (v. 30) was not merely indulging in wishful thinking, the future events he speaks of—not being abandoned to the grave or experiencing the decay of his body—could not have been intended for himself, since he did in fact die and his tomb was in Jerusalem today. Therefore he must have been speaking of his great descendant, the Messiah (v. 31). And this means that the Messiah, the Son of David, would have to die and be raised from the dead (v. 31-32). And since Jesus was in fact raised from the dead, of which Peter and his friends were eyewitnesses (v. 32), and had subsequently ascended to heaven, it was the exalted Jesus who received from the Father the Holy Spirit and poured it out on us, as you yourselves have now seen (v. 33).
Now Peter turns to another Davidic psalm (Ps 2) to verify the fact that the Messiah was to ascend to heaven and be seated at the right hand of God (v. 34-35).
Peter has seized upon the opportunity God gave him with the amazement of the onlookers at the tongues phenomenon and combined it with the explanation of OT prophecy to form the basis of an extremely powerful Gospel message to the Jews in Jerusalem. Now he must deliver his indictment and hold out the promise of forgiveness.
Israel must repent, believe in Jesus as the Messiah and be baptized in his name (36-41)
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38 Peter replied, “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 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.
36-37 This is a searing indictment made by Peter: God has made both Lord and Messiah the man whom you had crucified! The Romans were mere instruments; the verdict was the crowd’s. So terrifying is this fact that it leads to the hearers to a desperate cry (v. 37): “Brothers, what shall we do?”
38-41 Peter gave them a succinct answer: (1) “repent” means change your entire way of thinking about God and Jesus—instead of seeing Jesus as a simple pious man from Galilee who let himself be drawn into blasphemy, claiming to be God’s Son, they must realize that he was what he said he was! (2) (Peter said:) you must seek forgiveness of sins by believing in Jesus as the Savior. (3) Show this radical turnabout in your lives by the public act of baptism in the name of Jesus. If you do these things, you will not only be forgiven your sins, but you will receive the same Holy Spirit as these men whom you have been watching. God’s promise of forgiveness and the Spirit is open (v. 39) to you and your posterity, and to Gentiles who live far away.
41 3,000 converts (v. 41) is not an improbable number, considering how many Jews gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost from all over the Roman world, but it nevertheless shows the power of the Holy Spirit on that occasion.
The Community of believers (41-47)
Acts 2:41-47 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
In verses 41-47 Luke stresses the Jewish character of this first community of believers (Johnson, Writings 225). They met in the temple and observed the prescribed times of Jewish prayer.
But there were some significant differences. Note that immediately it is understood that the new community is entered by the rite of baptism (Ac 2:41), a rite that in Judaism was required only for pagan converts, or as in the case of John the Baptist, for a radical repentence or turnabout in life! We learn from Paul’s encounter with believers in Jesus who had only experienced the baptism of John, that Christian baptism was different and was the essential rite of entrance into the community. It signalled a radical break from the former life.
The teaching, to which all new members submitted, was done not by priests or rabbis, but by the “apostles” (2:42).
NIV’s wording (“and to the fellowship”) is to be preferred to the ESV’s “the apostles’ teaching and fellowship”. This is clear from the Greek repetition of the definite article “the” before “fellowship”. The “fellowship” is not that of the apostles, as the teaching was. It is a separate item in the list of activities. The “fellowship” (koinonia 2:42) involved communal sharing of life’s necessities (food and clothing), to each according to need (see Acts 2:44-45 and ch. 5 [Barnabas, Annanias and Sapphira]). This was also a feature of some Jewish sects of the day, such as the Dead Sea Qumran community.
The plural “prayers” (Greek proseukhais) [here the plural in KJV, ASV, RSV, NRSV and ESV is to be preferred to the NIV’s singular “prayer”] refers to the daily four fixed times for prayer in the daily Jerusalem temple liturgy: dawn, morning, afternoon, and dusk. The middle two coincided with the morning and evening sacrifices in the Temple. Although Acts clearly portrays the early Jesus disciples as praying together in homes, they continued to pray in the temple (Lk 24:52-53; Acts 22:17).
That the Jesus community in Jerusalem continued resolutely to gather and pray publicly in the temple (Acts 5:12) was not only because they still believed that God wished them to honor it as God’s “house of prayer” (so Matt 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46), but because they did not wish to concede to his opponents Jesus’ lordship over the temple as Messiah, a lordship which he asserted when he “cleansed” the temple on two occasions during his public ministry (Matt 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46 and John 14:2). Note also in Luke 2:49 that already as a child Jesus called the Jerusalem temple “my Father’s house” (not “our Father’s house”).
The place where most of these regular activities took place can be determined with some probability: the sharing of goods and the breaking of bread in the homes, and the daily public prayers in the temple. But the “apostles’ teaching” could have taken place either in the privacy of homes or in the public areas (Solomon’s Portico) of the temple, where we know the earliest Christians met. The temple location would have provided opportunities for winning new believers from those praying in the temple courts.
Since daily meeting in the temple for prayers together with daily meeting in homes for sharing food and instruction consumed a great deal of the disciples’ time, one can ask how they made their living. The answer is that what Luke describes here was a temporary arrangement which lasted only for the first months of the early church. And it shows a final striking characteristic of this earliest church: they lived in the expectation of the sudden return to earth of Jesus. Their constant prayer was the short Aramaic plea marana tha “Come, Lord!” These earliest believers expected Jesus’ return within the first year or two after his ascension. When it eventually became clear to them that this wouldn’t happen, and when the pressure of persecutions from non-believing Jews forced them, they discontinued this daily regimen. Thereafter, any believer who out of expectation of the Lord’s immediate return refused to work, was not to be supported by the community. So Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:
2Th. 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
This community, doubtless presented here in its most favorable light, has become the new Temple of God, as Paul put it in 2Cor 6:14-16.
“For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
It was the obvious, tangible presence of God among this little community which allowed it to exercise such tight control and moral discipline. And when violations of Christian love and truthfulness occurred, the reaction was swift and decisive, as in the case of Ananias in ch. 5.
SUMMARY AND CLOSING APPLICATION.
The Holy Spirit has glorified Jesus, as Jesus had promised in John’s gospel that the spirit would do. And he has done so in several ways: (1) by the miraculous display of tongues and fire, (2) by Peter’s incisive and accurate explanation of OT prophecy and of the salient facts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, and (3) by the incontrovertible and impressive behavior of the members of the new community.
It was this same combination of factors which continued to work in Paul’s missionary activity and his new-founded churches, and it is this combination that will work in our witness today.
The miracles may not be tongues and healing, but miracles there will be. And the clear explanation of Scripture combined with lives of purity, honesty, generosity and love for our friends and acquaintances, together with harnessing the power of prayer, these are the factors that will prevail against the World and Satan. Islam considers us “the great Satan” and hopes to prevail by the sword -- or in today’s terms by hidden bombs and nuclear intimidation. But the real power is not in these things, but in the gospel wedded to Spirit-filled and prayerful living.
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