by Captain Michael Ramsay (This is the 2022 version presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries)
Click here to read the original version presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 August 2007 and Swift Current Corps 23 May 2010 and 17 May 2015: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/acts-2-act-ii-scene-1.html Click here to read an abridged version presented for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service on 16 January 2011 held at St. Stephen the Martyr Anglican Church in Swift Current: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/01/acts-2-and-week-of-prayer-for-christian.html For the 2015 edition, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/05/acts-2-scene-1.html
As last Sunday was
Pentecost, We are going to look at Acts 2 today. Acts is a neat book. Did you
know that it is the only history (book) in the NT? Did you know that the books
Acts and Luke were written by the same author and these books actually comprise
more than 30% of the NT.
Acts always reminds
me of a play. Maybe it’s the name (Act 2, scene 1). But particularly in the
first part, Acts reminds me of a Shakespearian play. Anyone remember studying
Shakespeare in school?
Here’s quiz for you.
Who can name the play these quotes are from:
1.
‘Friends, Romans, countrymen lend me your ears;’
2.
“To be or not to be, that is the question”
3.
“Romeo, Romeo, where art thou Romeo”?
Shakespeare wrote
very dramatic plays and some of the tragedies are pretty tragic like Hamlet.
Remember, his ‘to be or not to be’ speech where, of course, he is either
pretending to be insane or actually goes insane while trying catch his father’s
killer who happens to be his uncle and is also married to his mother. (Sounds
like a soap opera actually) And in the end - everybody dies…
Or on a happier
note, there is Romeo and Juliet. Young love. But their parents object so they
sneak around for a while and then eventually (pause) kill themselves…okay so
not a lot of happy endings…but they are very dramatic and neat stories
nonetheless.
Shakespeare was a
master playwright and Acts reminds me of Shakespeare’s work. (Only its better)
God uses the author, Luke, to communicate VERY dramatic REAL events and he attributes
to Peter some amazing speeches that could cause the post-modern reader to
recall Mark Anthony, Lady MacBeth, or Hamlet.
Luke paints the
scenes and recalls speeches that we will look at today beautifully. Pentecost
has been called the ‘birth of the church’ which may or may not be all that
accurate. I guess whether or not Pentecost is the birth of the church depends
on what you mean by the church. If the church is people who worship God, people
were doing that prior to Pentecost; if the birth of the church relates to the
rite of baptism as some claim, that was clearly instituted in the Gospels
already; dido if it relates to evangelism or the appearance and indwelling of
the Holy Spirt – See John Chapter 20. I think Pentecost is a very significant
event that symbolizes or illustrates the birth of the church. Just like we have
just celebrated the Queens’s platinum jubilee. The day we celebrated it was not
the date that her father died – February 6th. In the US too they observe
their Presidents’ birthdays on different days than they were actually born. So
too possibly Pentecost. Now whether Pentecost is the Church’s actual birthday
or not, it certainly has become the Day of Observing the Church’s birthday.
That was all a bit of a tangent. Nonetheless, God’s Spirit really does appear
at Pentecost and creates unity out of diversity, releasing the disciples to
proclaim the gospel of Jesus’ death resurrection and the forgiveness of sins.
Acts really does
remind me of a play and just before we open the curtain on Acts II, we should
know a bit about the way the stage is set. When the curtain comes up not only
will all the disciples still be together but also in the scene will be ‘Jews
from every nation under heaven (2:5)’ and they have come together to celebrate
Pentecost. Picture this with me as I read from the first verses:
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing (sound effects) of a violent wind came from
heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed
to be (pillars) tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of
them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other
languages as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation
under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in
bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly
amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how
is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
And this is the
dramatic scene in the opening of Acts 2. And if this were a Shakespearean play,
now, hundreds of years later, there would be - Cole’s Notes! – Do you remember Coles Notes? The notes so that we
can all understand the nuances of what is happening before us and there are
many nuances…
If we had our Cole’s
Notes with us today there would probably be an asterisk beside the word
‘Pentecost’ (vs. 1) because when we think of Pentecost we usually think of this
very moment: the advent of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts – but it is more
than that.
Your Cole’s Notes
would probably say that Pentecost is also known by various other names: the
feast of weeks (Ex 34:22; Dt 15:10, 16:9-12; Nu 28:26-31), feast of harvest (Ex
23:16), the day of first fruits (Ex 34:22; Nu 28:26; Lv 23:9-14) and this is
neat: Pentecost occurs on the 50th day after the Sabbath Passover (Ex 19:1) and
in Acts II it is about 50 days after Jesus was crucified and the disciples were
scattered and now 50 days later they are gathering together in prayer and
Christian unity.
There would also be
a note on the name ‘Moses’. The Judean festival of Pentecost is a time to
celebrate God giving the Law to Moses: Remember the Ten Commandments and how
Moses climbs the Mountain (Ex. 19-20, 31, 34; Dt. 4-5, 10) and God writes the
10 Commandments on the stone tablets with his own finger (Ex 31:18; Dt. 4:13,
10:1) and when Moses returns from the mountain his face is literally radiant
(Ex 34:29-35): it’s shining and in Jewish tradition, everyone heard the Law
read out in their own tongue. And also remember when Moses led the Israelites
out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, how did God lead them? Remember the fiery
a cloud: it looked like tongue of cloud by day; pillar of fire by night. All
the events recorded in Acts 2 I think are meant to link Jesus to Moses as a
deliver – and those present in this scene are probably beginning to understand
that.
And even more – you
see the Bible is REAL. These things really did happen but it is also a literary
masterpiece with symbolism everywhere – really would we expect anything less
from God’s own Word?
There would also be
a note beside Acts 2:6: “each one heard them speaking in his own language;”
some have compared this passage to an un-doing, as it were, of the tower of
Babel (Gen 11:1-9). Do you remember that story? The people provoke God by
disobeying His command to scatter and fill the earth by the building of this
tower and as a result, the people are made to babble in different languages.
God confuses their speech. But now what happens in Acts II? The opposite.
Christians become unified. Instead of language being confused, people can actually
now hear the Gospel proclaimed in their OWN language.
There is so much
more relating the Spirit of God in Acts 2 like comparing the creation of the
church to the creation of the world – the word for Spirit and wind are exactly
the same - that we just don’t have time to get into today, but this is all part
of the world and understanding of those present. They understand as the scene
unfolds and as Peter continues to speak that Jesus is the Christ, and that we
together have killed our Christ.
These people now
standing in front of Peter as he delivers something akin to a masterful
Shakespearian soliloquy – they are like repentant children in front of the
principal, realising that they’ve done something terribly wrong. They realise
that Jesus is the Christ and they realize (PAUSE) that they’ve killed him;
we’ve killed him. And now Jesus is back from the dead. If we didn’t know the
ending, it could be like a 1970s horror movie. You wrongfully kill someone and
they come back from the dead to set things right! The people in our text today
are hoping against hope to somehow make it right (cf. John 21:15-17 re: Peter’s
own restoration) when in a spirit of good repentant Christian unity: Verse 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?”
Peter says, verse
38, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins.” Now this is significant. Jesus is ushering in
this Kingdom of God. And what does this
Kingdom look like? It is a Kingdom of Christian unity and of forgiveness. It is
a Kingdom –like the Lord’s Prayer says - where we, in perfect unity, forgive
those who do things against us and God forgives us what we have done – even our
sending [as was his purpose and with God’s perfect foreknowledge (vss. 22-23)]
God’s own son to die on the cross.
What is it that one
does as one is united in Christ with fellow Christians as a part of God’s
Kingdom? We repent (This doesn’t just mean change our way of acting – it means
change our whole way of thinking). We repent – we believe that Jesus died for
our sins, rose from the dead and Jesus is Lord. We believe and are baptised (which
in the text here is an initiation ceremony through which the early Christians
are united); we must be initiated and united in the Kingdom of Forgiveness of
Sins and the Kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus – and this is everything.
Peter says in the
text “you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This is the same Holy
Spirit who is at creation and this is the same Holy Spirit who is at Pentecost
and it is the same Holy Spirit who is with us today. The Bible promises us,
Acts 2:39 that, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are
far off —for all whom the Lord our God will call.” Everyone who calls on the
name of the Lord will be saved. Isn’t that glorious? Isn’t this wonderful?
Isn’t this amazing?
And look what it
says, just before the curtain closes on our scene here in Acts II: Our words
that we are supposed to hold as our own today. It says that as they are
gathered together in Christian unity that - Verse 47- “day by day the Lord
added to their number those being saved.” How wonderful? How marvellous?
And may it be
continue to be so. Come; let us pray for a unity of the Spirit in our lives.
Come let us pray that Christ will be our light. Amen.
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