If I called this blog post “Acts Sermons” we’d all run to our just-remembered root canal appointment. Sermons don’t get the juices flowing. I preached for 44 years; I recognize that eyes-glazed-over look. Hence the title, “The Acts Eight” (eight “sermons”).
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines “sermon” as “a religious discourse delivered in public usually by a clergyman as part of a worship service.” Not one of “The Acts Eight” fits that definition. A “clergyman” didn’t deliver them. (No such critters existed then.) Nor were they delivered in a worship service. Two were preached to a crowd thinking the believers were drunk, one ended when the crowd stoned the preacher, one was a prisoner’s defense before a king, and so on.
Why ponder Acts’ preaching? The sermons reveal what the early church considered central to the Gospel, often in times of conflict. Hopefully they will speak to us as they did then.
To reap benefits from these sermons we have to set them in context. That means following the Acts narrative (because it’s long, we’ll have to read with Bible in hand).
I’m calling the first sermon of The Acts Eight “Not Drunk Like You Think” (Acts 2:14-36). Here’s the narrative that precedes it . . .
In the Last Episode (1:1-5).
Some suggest “Theophilus” may have supported Luke so he could write Luke and Acts. Can’t be sure. In any case, here Luke summarizes what he wrote at the end of the Gospel of Luke–namely, Jesus’ activity in the 40 days between his resurrection and ascension.
In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
” . . . many convincing proofs” certify Jesus’ resurrection. The command and promise regarding the Holy Spirit introduce the central role of the Holy Spirit among those early believers and prepare us for what’s coming.
Holy Spirit Will Come Down, Jesus Ascends (1:6-11)
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Here Jesus explains the purpose of the Spirit’s coming: power to be Jesus’ witnesses until he returns.
Matthias Off the Bench (1:12-26). (Due to its length, please read this text in your Bible.)
The apostles, and other Jesus followers (120 in all) obeyed Jesus. Back they went to the city, to an upper room (where they’d celebrated Passover and the Lord’s Supper), where they “were devoting themselves to prayer” as they waited for the promise of the Spirit to be fulfilled.
The rest of this chapter is church-business-meeting minutes. Maybe to fulfill Psalm 109:6-8; 69:24,25, they called Matthias “off the bench” to sub for Judas who’d hanged himself.
Powered (2:1-4)
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be 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 tongues as the Spirit enabled them (2:1-4).
Originally the Jewish Feast of Weeks, Pentecost celebrated the harvest (Exodus 23:16) fifty days after Passover. On this Pentecost “all” 120 were gathered. Suddenly the sound of violent wind filled the house and tongues of fire rested on each one. The Holy Spirit filled them and they spoke in other languages. As Jesus had promised they were “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (1:5) and empowered to be his witnesses (1:8).
My Language or Wine-Talking (2:5-13)? (Again, please read this text in your Bible.)
No wonder these devout Jews “from every nation under heaven” were astounded and perplexed! More than a hundred Jerusalem Jews were praising God at the same time in languages that the “foreign” Jews recognized! “What does this mean?” they wondered. Others, though, dismissed them as drunks.
Overwhelmed by Our Lord’s Presence.
Next time we’ll ponder Peter’s “sermon” to the crowd. For now, let’s consider one personally dynamic meaning of today’s text for us. In his book, Joy Unspeakable, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a 20th century influential Welsh preacher, compares our day-to-day Christian life with what happens when the Holy Spirit “comes upon” us . . .
It is like a child walking along holding his father’s hand. All is well. The child is happy. He feels secure. His father loves him. He believes that his father loves him but there is no unusual urge to talk about this or sing about it. It is true and it is pleasant.
Then suddenly the father startles the child by reaching down and sweeping him up into his arms and hugging him tightly and kissing him on the neck and whispering, “I love you so much!” And then holding the stunned child back so that he can look into his face and say with all his heart, “I am so glad you are mine.” Then hugging him once more with unspeakable warmth and affection. Then he puts the child down and they continue their walk.
This is what happens when a person is baptized with the Holy Spirit. A pleasant and happy walk with God is swept up into an unspeakable new level of joy and love and assurance and reality that leaves the Christian so utterly certain of the immediate reality of Jesus that he is overflowing in praise and more free and bold in witness than he ever imagined he could be.
The child is simply stunned. He doesn’t know whether to cry or shout or fall down or run, he is so happy. The fuses of love are so overloaded they almost blow out. The subconscious doubts—that he wasn’t thinking about at the time, but that pop up every now and then—are gone! And in their place is utter and indestructible assurance, so that you know that you know that you know that God is real and that Jesus lives and that you are loved, and that to be saved is the greatest thing in the world. And as you walk on down the street you can scarcely contain yourself, and you want to cry out, “My father loves me! My father loves me! O, what a great father I have! What a father! What a father!”
Father, I pray for my readers and for myself.
I ask that in our routine daily lives
you might sweep us up and overwhelm us
with your empowering presence.
God the Holy Spirit, we need you
to renew us and refresh us and immerse us with yourself,
so we are assured Jesus lives and loves us,
so joy overflows our heart,
and words about you
and love from you
stream uncontainably
to the people our lives touch.
For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
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