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THE FIRST CENTURY GREAT AWAKENING - I
Acts 2:14-21
Bob Bonner
April 18, 2010
Recently I listened to the biography of Jonathan Edwards. Edwards lived from 1703 to 1758, dying at the age of 55 from a smallpox inoculation. During his relatively short life, Jonathan Edwards was known as one of America’s greatest preachers, theologians, and philosophers. Some have called him one of America's greatest intellectuals. He was a friend and peer of Benjamin Franklin. He was the third President of Princeton University until his death.
That which probably marked Edwards more than anything else was his role in overseeing some of the first fires of spiritual revival in the New England colonies, called the Great Awakening, which lasted about 10 years, from 1730 to 1740. Much of those early revival meetings took place at Edwards’ church in Northampton, Massachusetts during 1733-1735.
To illustrate what is meant by a great revival, in towns of 30,000 (which is about the size of Grants Pass today) 17,000 would turn out every night for a week to hear great preachers like the close friend of Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield. During this time of religious fervor, many people put their faith in Christ, and those who had already claimed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior but had wandered away from His leading returned to making Him Master over all areas of their lives.
This period of spiritual awakening shook people to the core of their beings. And as one would expect, when people come to the realization that they are not the center of the universe but a holy and sovereign God is, their response to coming face to face with this truth is highly emotional. When they were convicted of their active rebellion against God, their passive indifference toward the morals God places in every person’s conscience, and that those who reject God were doomed to eternal damnation, these people wept, physically shook, fell to the floor, and rightfully cried out to God for His mercy and forgiveness. Added to this were some other odd goings-on, such as people claiming to go into trances and receiving special revelations that were supposedly from God. One famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards which had just such an emotionally stunning affect on his hearers was his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
During these years of revival, it was not the objective of these preachers to scare people out of hell or to try to pump up emotional antics as much as it was to faithfully tell them the truth about God and His righteousness and mercy and their need for Jesus to take over their lives. Moved by the Spirit of God and the clear teaching of the Word of God, people saw the truth and committed their lives to Christ by the thousands throughout the thirteen colonies. It was a spiritual, emotional, and thought-stimulating time for Christians.
When we come to our study of Acts 2, following the filling of the 120 disciples with the Holy Spirit, a very similar revival took place among the Jews during the first century. It could be said that this was their Great Awakening. Through the faithful preaching of the Word of God by the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost thousands of Jews, struck to the emotional core of their beings, put their trust in Christ.
However, unfortunately, many have used this event and this chapter to support and encourage some rather bizarre emotional behavior as the norm for all who are truly saved and filled with the Spirit. In other words, when people really get saved, it is presumed that they must display certain emotions to validate their religious experience of repentance. They are encouraged to weep and wail, fall down, and cry out to God for mercy. They are challenged to look for visions and to be open to prophetic words from God.
It is true that when some of us hear the truth about our sin and the marvelous mercy of God and how Jesus took care of our sin, many of us do grieve so deeply that we are emotionally touched. But not all Christians respond in the ways I just mentioned, and for sure this chapter does not support such behavior. A lack of clear understanding of this chapter and in particular Peter’s sermon and his listeners’ response has led to much confusion in the church today as to what can be expected as the normal emotional Christian life.
Hence this morning, we are going to begin looking at what took place on the Temple Mount during Pentecost, what specifically Peter declared to these Jews, and, most importantly, why he said what he did.
When you study the book of Acts you will notice that it is filled with various speeches and sermons. These take a prominent position in Acts. There are no fewer than nineteen significant Christian speeches or sermons: eight by Peter, nine by Paul, one by James, and one by Stephen. That’s 25% of Luke’s text.
This morning we come to the first sermon by Peter. It follows immediately after the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:1-13. The coming of the Holy Spirit was authenticated by three signs: a loud sound like a mighty wind but with no wind, a visual sign of tongues as of fire landing on each of the 120 disciples (who were both men and women), and the ability of all 120 disciples to speak and completely understand a foreign dialect or language that they had never before learned. This ability was supernaturally given to them as a fulfillment of a sign of judgment prophesied in Isaiah 28:11. This sign of God’s judgment signaled God’s temporarily turning away from the nation of Israel to work with gentiles through the birthing of the church, which is made up of both gentile and Jew.
Upon hearing the Spirit-filled disciples praising God in foreign dialects, some on the scene, according to verse 13, falsely accused them of being drunk. In response to their accusation, Peter immediately stood up, and beginning with verse 14, declared that they were not drunk and proceeded to tell them what was happening and why.
Peter’s speech came as a defense of the 120. It covers verses 14-41 and falls into three parts. Verses 14-21 give an explanation of the phenomenon which has just taken place. They point to a great change that has come about as a result of God’s judgment against the Jews, a judgment prophesied by the Old Testament prophet Joel. What was the reason for God’s judgment against the Jews? It was the rejection and execution of their Messiah, Jesus Christ. Hence in verses 22-36, Peter explains to his Jewish audience Who Jesus is and lets them know what a horrible thing they did by having him crucified six weeks earlier. When these Jews realize what they have done, they ask Peter, “What should we do?” Peter responds in verses 37-41.
Although we are going to limit our study this morning to just verses 14-21, let’s read the entire sermon, keeping the overall outline in mind.
14But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and
declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let
this be known to you and give heed to my words. 15For these men are
not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; 16but
this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 17‘And it shall be
in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all
mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your
young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18even on My bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days
pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy. 19And I will grant
wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire,
and vapor of smoke. 20The sun will be turned into darkness and the
moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall
come. 21And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.’ 22Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the
Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and
signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you
yourselves know— 23this Man, delivered over by the predetermined
plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of
godless men and put Him to death. 24But God raised Him up again,
putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to
be held in its power. 25For David says of Him, ‘I saw the Lord always in
my presence; for He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken.
26Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; moreover my
flesh also will live in hope; 27because You will not abandon my soul to
Hades, nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. 28You have made
known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with
Your presence.’ 29Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the
patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with
us to this day. 30And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God
had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his
throne, 31he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay.
32This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.
33Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured
forth this which you both see and hear. 34For it was not David who
ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at My right hand, 35until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your
feet.”’ 36Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God
has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
38Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name
of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit. 39For the promise is for you and your children
and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to
Himself.” 40And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept
on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”
41So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day
there were added about three thousand souls.
One has to love the Apostle Peter. He was always a man of action, never one to let an opportunity pass by without doing something. Sometimes his timing was not so good. At others, when he spoke up, he was right on! And this is one of the latter cases. Peter rightly takes a stand to correct the absurdity of the accusation that these 120 disciples were drunk.
As you consider Peter’s words, keep in mind where he and the other 119 disciples are at this moment. They are on the temple mount outside the temple, preaching to the very same people who had just a few weeks before yelled of Christ, “Crucify Him!” No doubt some of the religious leaders, the Pharisees and their understudies, the scribes, were there. Possibly even one Pharisee who was a rising star was there, a man named Saul. In spite of who was present, Peter’s preaching was fearless. Why? Because Christ’s tomb was empty, and by this time more than 500 people, all at once, had seen the risen Savior. Peter knew the truth about his resurrected Savior and he wasn’t about to back down to anyone at this point. They were not drunk, but they were there to tell their fellow Jews the truth.
In verse 15 Peter reminds his audience that it is only the third hour, 9:00 AM. Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us that the first meal of the day was not typically eaten until the fourth hour, 10 AM, but some might begin to eat a little earlier. However on the Sabbath, which many believe this day to be, a larger meal, the main meal of the day, was served at the sixth hour, or noon. Up until that main meal, the Jews would make morning sacrifices, but never would they drink wine until the main meal of the day. So universal was this custom that the apostle could appeal to it with confidence, as a full refutation of the charge of drunkenness at 9:00 AM. Even the intemperate were not accustomed to drink before that hour. Hence Peter’s words take the effect of saying, “Are you kidding? Drunk? At this hour? We haven’t even had breakfast yet, and lunch won’t be for another three hours!”
Having defused the false accusation, now Peter tells them what really has happened and why. He says, “But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel.” “This” what? “This” in the present context can only refer to one thing--the 120 men and women praising God and speaking about Christ in foreign dialects. “This” prophesying, Peter says, is what the prophet Joel wrote about in Joel 2:28.
For us to correctly understand Peter, we must take a look at Joel and understand the context from which this quote comes. The small book of Joel is only three chapters long. His message is basically one of God’s judgment against Israel for having rejected Him as their King and for having turned to other kings and methods for protection and provision. Further, God is judging Israel for having ignored His moral, civil, and ceremonial laws and for having turned to worshiping idols.
The first half of Joel is about God’s present (660 BC) and future (the Great Tribulation) judgments on the nation of Israel. The second half of Joel, beginning with 2:19 speaks of God’s future deliverance and blessing of the nation of Israel, which presumes Israel’s repentance following God’s judgment. In the second half, God promises Israel that far off in the future, God would restore material, spiritual, and national blessing to Israel, in what we now know to be the future 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ on earth.
Allow me to give you a taste of the first half of Joel. God’s judgment against Israel is severe. Joel is writing in the midst of a crisis, a plague that has hit their land. A devastating locust plague has attacked Israel and left virtually no vines or crops of grain. Look at Joel 1:4. "What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten." Skip down to 2:3. "The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but after them it is a desolate wilderness and nothing escapes them." In 1:5 Joel tells the drunkards to weep because all wine is now cut off since the vines are eaten and gone. Joel is telling the people that this plague was no accident. It was a judgment from God on the Jews who had turned their backs on the Lord. Hence the locusts are to be seen as God's army marching on Israel. 2:11 reads, "The Lord utters his voice before his army, and his host is exceedingly great; he that executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; who can endure it?"
In a rural, agricultural economy this destruction by locusts was an extremely serious thing. It was a matter of life and death for most people. So Joel talks about it. But instead of saying, as some of us might say under those circumstances, “Well, every cloud has a silver lining. Things will get better. Don’t worry about it.” Not Joel. He actually says, “As a matter of fact, things are going to get worse; judgment by locust is only a foretaste of a greater final judgment to come.”
So Joel calls for repentance in Joel 2:12-14.
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, and
with fasting, weeping and mourning; 13And rend your heart and not your
garments.” [I’d say that is a tad emotional, wouldn’t you?] Now return to the
Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger,
abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil. 14Who knows whether
He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain
offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?
When the Jews repent as a nation, (which will not take place until the middle of the Great Tribulation) then Joel speaks of a blessing that will come far off in the future as the Millennial Kingdom of Christ (1,000 year reign on earth) begins. Read with me God’s words of blessing and goodness to come in Joel 2:19. "The Lord answered and said to his people, 'Behold I am sending you grain and wine and oil, and you will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations."' When we get down to verse 28, Joel speaks more specifically of the signs that will mark that this period leading up to God’s blessing, following Israel’s repentance during the Great Tribulation. Keep in mind that Joel is not prophesying about the birth of the church or about what is to take place during the church age, as some would have you believe today. Instead, Joel is pointing to a time still future during the Great Tribulation to come and afterwards. I’ll show you three other passages of Scripture that support this view in a moment. But for now, in the book of Joel, this leads us to the section that Peter quotes in Acts 2, Joel 2:28-32.
It’s very important that you understand my next statement. Peter’s point in quoting Joel is that his listeners should have recognized that what they were seeing was a work of the Spirit, not a result of drunkenness. Peter was not quoting Joel to say that everything that Joel said was going to happen, had just happened in Acts 2:1-13 with the 120 disciples, because it obviously did not. When you look at all of the wonders and signs in Joel’s prophecy, none except one had just taken place in Acts 2:1-13. In fact, none of the other signs that Joel states would be the norm of God’s blessing for all of His people can be demonstrated to have happened in the book of Acts or subsequently.
In addition, it is important to notice that Joel’s prophecy does not mention tongues; instead, Joel refers to another gift of the Spirit, the gift of prophecy. What’s that? Prophecy is the ability to declare the Word of God in power or to praise Him or speak forth for Him in public. Prophecy was not simply having the ability to foretell the future. That is an aspect, but the most common use of prophecy meant to forth-tell or speak forth the truth of God about God. Today prophecy takes place in witnessing, teaching, or simply praising God for his mighty works, as was done by these 120 disciples at Pentecost according to Acts 2:11. They were “speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” They were prophesying, as Peter refers to it, twice, in verse 17 and verse 19.
Look again closely with me at verse 17. Peter said:
And it shall be in the last days that I will pour forth of My Spirit on all
mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your
young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18even on My bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days
pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy. 19And I will grant
wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire,
and vapor of smoke. 20The sun will be turned into darkness and the
moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall
come. 21and it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved.
The uniqueness of what happened at Pentecost was twofold, according to these verses: prophesy was taking place in foreign languages rather than in Aramaic or Hebrew which was what would have been expected, and women were also part of this action. Up to this point in Israel’s history, women did not prophesy as a matter of practice on the Temple Mount. This was a huge deal for women to boldly lead in praising God out loud in that location.
Let’s make a couple more observations from our passage. Let’s consider Peter’s use of the expression “last days.” This is a common Old Testament expression. It denotes the time when the Messiah would come to set up His kingdom. That there would be two comings of the Messiah, separated by a long intervening period known as the church age, was not clearly understood by Jewish students of the Old Testament prior to the first century. In Isaiah 53 the Messiah was coming as the suffering servant; in Isaiah 9:6 the Messiah was to come in the glory of a King to set up His kingdom. For almost seven hundred years, the Jews looked forward to their coming King, but either ignored or simply just didn’t see or consider the possibility that their Messiah would have to suffer first.
Hence, these “last days” have lasted nearly two thousand years. During that time, God has graciously called Gentiles to salvation and chastened Israel for her unbelief. The complete fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy of the “last days” awaits the coming of the millennial kingdom. Peter’s point in quoting Joel was to say that what they had witnessed was but a sample of the power the Spirit will release just before and during the kingdom.
There are some today who teach that this passage and all of the prophecies in it somehow began with Pentecost and are in effect right now. In particular, that there are many bona fide, Spirit-directed visions, dreams, and other miraculous events never before seen. I simply do not believe that to be the case, for two reasons. First is that we have no Biblical record that any of these events mentioned by Joel actually happened at Pentecost or even a few days or years later. At Pentecost, in verses 1-13, the celestial signs of “blood, fire, smoke, and vapor” just did not happen, nor did they ever happen in Acts. None of these signs of Joel had occurred but the sign of prophesy, which is why Peter brought up the text.
Secondly, when one studies Christ’s Olivet discourse, found in Matthew 24, we see that these events that Peter refers to from Joel not only parallel Christ’s words, but also the Apostle John’s in Revelation chapters, 6, 8, 9, 14, 16, 18 and 19. All of these texts point to the same events that are still future and will take place during the Great Tribulation, not our present age, known Biblically as the church age.
Please note: I’m not saying that I don’t believe God can do miracles today and I am not denying that He does do miracles today. He does. However, they are more of the exception than the rule. They are not the everyday happenstance involving all people that Joel, Jesus, Peter, and John speak of, and that will one day be the rule in the future.
Hence, in the sense that Peter is using the term “last days” here, he is not saying we are in them now. He means that the very power of the Holy Spirit began at Pentecost in a way different than it had ever been experienced in the past. The Holy Spirit now will permanently indwell, empower, gift, and use all followers of Christ who chose to serve Jesus as their Lord. This is merely a taste of what is to come.
Another expression of note is seen in verse 20, “The day of the Lord.” This expression may refer to any time God acts in judgment. In one sense, these Jews are about to experience God’s judgment because they rejected their Messiah. In effect, God will delay his coming Kingdom and put Israel on the back burner for two thousand years. During the interim, God has been at work through His church.
In this passage, however, the ultimate Day of the Lord is what is in view here. It is that period known as the Great Tribulation, which precedes the second coming of Christ and His Millennial Kingdom here on earth. As mentioned before, these details of Joel’s prophecy clearly align with Christ’s in Matthew 24 and John’s prophesies in Revelation. No other place in the New Testament will you find the mentioning of blood, smoke, and fire.
If you were a Jew on the Temple Mount listening to Peter, wouldn’t you want to know how it is that you could miss the judgment he was talking about? Wouldn’t you want to know how to avoid the Great Tribulation? Sure you would, and so did the Jews listening to Peter. That’s why he adds in verse 21, “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Not only will they be forgiven for their rebellion and ignoring of God, but they will experience the blessings that Peter, Joel, Jesus, and John speak of that are in the future for those who trust Christ.
The Jews in Peter’s day understood this. They understood that the most important being, next to Yahweh, was their coming Messiah. And as we will see in the rest of Peter’s sermon, these Jews were emotionally blown away when they understood that they had just put to death their Messiah.
We will pick up our study of Acts 2 right here next time. But before we conclude, allow me to bring up one last important point that more often than not, many Christians in the past have either overlooked or did not know, and that has to do with the role of the Holy Spirit in the world. For that I would have you look with me at John’s gospel, chapter 14.
In John 14:16-17 we find Jesus’ explanation of the role that the Holy Spirit will play in our lives. There we read this: 16“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
Several weeks ago we spoke about the baptism of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit. We pointed out the difference between how the Holy Spirit operated in the Old Testament and in the New, and we mentioned that, different than Old Testament saints in whom the Spirit could come and go, the Holy Spirit permanently resides in Christians today. You are never without Him or His power.
In John 14:26 Jesus continues to tell us, “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 said to you.” Note that “in My name” is the Biblical manner of expressing for the purposes of Christ, with Christ’s authority, and for Christ’s glory. The Holy Spirit does not have any purpose but to fulfill Christ’s purposes. This is more clearly shown in Jesus’ words in John 16:12-15. There we read:
12I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the
truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He
hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. 14He
will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. 15All
things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of
Mine and will disclose it to you.
Why is this so significant? Because anytime you hear people so raise up or glorify the work of the Holy Spirit of God, to the overshadowing of Jesus Christ, you should be aware that something is very out of balance with their teaching. The Holy Spirit never glorifies Himself. His whole purpose for being sent to us is to glorify Jesus Christ. Hence, those Christian ministries or Christians who emphasize the role of the Holy Spirit over the role of Jesus in one’s life are out of balance.
Coming to Christ requires intellect (your mind) but does not exclude the emotions of the heart.
How do you respond when you read about the prophecies concerning God’s judgments during the Great Tribulations? Why?
What are your responses to the “blessings” promised to be yours in the Millennial Kingdom?
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