Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

Jesus Christ was a murder victim, killed by the ungodly men who ran the ecclesiastical machinery of ancient Jerusalem. They thought that they had dispensed with the Christ threat, but He exploded their plans by coming back from the dead. Now this risen one had predicted that He would come back from the dead, as His enemies well knew (Matt. 27:63). This prediction had been fulfilled, as they also knew (Matt. 28:11-15). But in addition to this, He had also predicted that Jerusalem would be flattened within one generation (Matt. 24:34). The city was now on death row, and the clock running down. The resurrection was therefore the guarantee that the destruction to follow was certain. In this context, the great apostle Peter was offering the miscreants terms. He was giving them a chance to repent. Many did, but—in the teeth of the evidence—many others did not. It was not a matter of evidence.   

Faith in the power of Christ is not the same thing as faith in the power of faith. In this passage, Peter says explicitly that it was not through their own power or holiness that this remarkable healing was accomplished. Rather it was the power of the risen Christ who did it, using Peter and John as His instrument. 

The evildoers running the Sanhedrin were now confronted with a real problem. The man they had unjustly murdered had come back from the dead—His greatest miracle. He ascended into Heaven and poured out the Holy Spirit on His twelve disciples, who began preaching the resurrection powerfully and performing many wonders and miracles (v. 43). By killing Jesus Christ, the unbelieving Jews only succeeded in giving Him a throne of everlasting dominion in Heaven. And down below in Jerusalem the headache that Jesus had been for them was now multiplied by twelve. In addition to this, because baptism was being administered in the name of this Jesus, the Church now had a definite set of boundaries. These were the people who were bound to Christ.

We saw last week that the gift of tongues was a marvelous blessing for those who had ears to hear. For believers, the point was all about the grace of God, and the wonderful works of God. But we also saw that for unbelievers, the reality of gibberish in the streets of Jerusalem was beyond creepy. If they had known the meaning of Scripture, they would have heard ominous music in the soundtrack. They were on the threshold of their doom.We have seen how Luke set the stage for recording Peter’s sermon. In English, the sermon takes about two and a half minutes to speak, but it says later (v. 40) that Peter spoke “many other words” in the follow up. Given the nature of the case, it is important to take in all of Peter’s sermon at one go.

In the second chapter of Acts, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, resulting in the gift of tongues, a powerful sermon, and a massive in gathering of new believers. As we read about this stupendous gift of tongues, we might have the same reaction that the initial hearers did. What on earth does this mean (v. 12)?

The main action in the second half of this first chapter has to do with the replacement of Judas Iscariot. But along the way, we learn quite a few things about the early days of the apostolic company.

The first verse of Acts contained the formal introduction to the book, but the following verses fill it out a bit more. These verses refer to the Lord’s resurrection appearances, and the proofs He gave His disciples that He was in fact alive. Second, He taught them about the kingdom, and told them to wait in Jerusalem until they had been given kingdom power. When that power had descended upon them, they would be ambassadors of that kingdom out to the ends of the earth. And then last, the angels promised that Christ would at some point return in the same way that He left, meaning that He would descend from the sky.