BiblicalMastery Buddy's bible blog

Lesson 4

The Urgency of the Gospel

Acts 2:1-36

Me

For years I have had a real interest in Biblical prophecy. During the 70’s and 80’s there were a number of books out predicting the end of the age. Two of those which that fueled my desire to know more what going to happen in the future were written by Hal Lindsey. They were “The Late Great Planet Earth” and “There is a new world coming”.   Both of these, along with other writers, said that the world going to end in the 80’s then almost for sure by the year two thousand. Well here we are in 2010 and we are still here. What finally made me take a step back and evaluate the predictions was a radio program that was telling how a particular pope was going to impact the world and play a part in prophecy. The only problem was that the pope had died six weeks prior to the broadcast.

How did all of this impact me? When I was caught up in reading about the 2^nd coming of Christ and all that meant, I was passionate about sharing what I had learned. There was a great urgency in telling people because I did not want them to be lost and face the tribulation and judgment. Sadly, I do not talk about this subject much anymore although I see as rapidly moving to a time when all of the events in Revelation could occur.

We

I don’t know how you feel about our present condition, but I sense that we in the church have lost our passion for telling others about Jesus. If this is true what accounts for this condition in most congregations? What has caused us to lose the passion that it takes to win others to Christ? When was the last time that any of us shared our faith with anyone? There was a statistic out sometime ago that said that it took about one hundred people to bring one person to Christ? How can this be true of us? Could it be that we have become dull in our belief that every human being who is without Christ will face judgment or that we have plenty of time because He is not going to return for a long time? The Verse in 2 Peter seems to reflect these attitudes. Of course Peter is speaking of mockers of every age. What is said could just as easily include some of us. It says, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep all continues just as it has from the beginning of creation.” (2 Peter 3:4) What can we learn from the events that took place on Pentecost about two thousand years ago?

God

In chapter 2 we are going to be looking at the events that occurred on the Day of Pentecost and how it impacted the people there in Jerusalem.

Before getting in the text let us look at some of the background of Pentecost and its significance to the Jewish people.

1. It occurs 50 days after Passover
2. It is also called the Feast of the Harvest of the Fresh Fruits.
3. It was one of the three times a year that all Jewish males were required to come to Jerusalem and make offerings from the harvest. The other two are the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, beginning right after Passover, and the Feast of the Ingathering at the end of the final harvest season. (Exodus 23:16-17; Deuteronomy 16:16)

That brings us to the actual passage.

This whole chapter gives a picture and understanding why Jesus came. (Gal. 4:4) It was to provide salvation for every person willing to accept who Christ was and what He had done for them. (2 Cor. 6:2) The question is how do we get there? The truths of God work towards that moment. The Bible is the tool.

Acts 2:1 begins very simply. It says, “When the day of Pentecost had come they were all together in one place.” Nothing in this verse would indicate the extraordinary events that were about to occur. As we have seen before once again the disciples were gathered together.

1. What does this say about what has already taken place in their lives?
2. How easy would you find it to spend 47 days together as they had done?
3. What do you think would have happened by the end of that time?
4. What made the difference in their lives?
5. Who would have thought that their world was about to be totally changed forever?

By the end of verse four we see the reason for all that they had experienced.

Suddenly, it happened, the promised Holy Spirit had come, tongues of fire resting on each of them. The place was shaken by a strong wind, a description of the Spirit. (Acts 2:2-4)

1. Why was it necessary for the Spirit to manifest Himself in such a way?
2. What was the result of these extraordinary events?
3. What was the significance of all the different nationalities coming together when they heard the commotion?
4. In what way do you see that it was important these events took place on this particular day?

There are two references in this chapter of the speaking in tongues, those which were not their native language of Aramaic. These first in verse four occurs immediately upon receiving the Holy Spirit. The second takes place in verse 6 as all the people coming running to see what is going on. (Acts 2:4,6)

Does it not seem reasonable that the same Holy Spirit who was going to give the Apostles the word to speak when they were brought before governors and kings would have the power to give them the ability to speak in other languages they had not learned? (Matthew 10:18-20; Acts 2:4, 6-12)

God made it simple for the Apostles. They may not have been ready to take on Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the rest of the world. God took care of the problem. He brought Jews from many nations to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of the Harvest. (Acts 2:5-11: Ex 23:14-17, 34:22-23)

On the day of Pentecost we find men, who fifty days earlier were huddled together fearing the authorities speaking of the “mighty deeds of God.” What a transformation the Holy Spirit brought about in the lives of people who allow Him to empower them. (Acts 2:11)

The people were there. The Holy Spirit had empowered the apostles. Now what was the message going to be that God wanted the people to hear? Under these circumstances what would you say?

The message Peter shared was taken from Joel 2:28-32 which spoke of two aspects of what would happen to the Jews at some point in history. Both of these related to the Jewish idea of the Day of the Lord. That day would be a time of

1. God’s judgment
2. God’s restoration of the Jewish people as a sovereign nation.

If this was true then what kind of judgment and restoration was he talking about? Even though the apostles believed in the imminent return of Christ, which makes the preaching of the gospel an urgent matter we know that it did not occur as they expected. From our perspective we know that the last days to which Peter referred certainly could not have been physical. The Jews and most of the rest of the world were under Roman domination which would not end for about 300 years. So what were the day of restoration and the last days to which he refers? The passage in Joel ends with a perfect lead in to what Peter wanted the people to understand. It says, “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21; Joel 2:32) From the words that follow we can see that Peter and the other apostles wanted to leave no doubt in the minds of the people the source of this salvation.

Immediately Peter moves from Joel’s statement into the affirmation of Jesus as the Savior. It does it by once again telling the narrative of Jesus’ ministry, His miracles, His death at the hands of the Jews and His resurrection. (Acts 2:22-24)

Secondly he looks to the writings of David as he acknowledged the One to come as his Lord. (Acts 2:25-28). Peter then uses David’s own words found in Ps. 16:10 to talk about the eternal nature of the One to come. His argument was if Jesus did not see decay as David did then the one who would sit on David’s throne forever could not be David but someone else. That person in the words of Peter was Jesus. (Acts 2:29-36)

What was the response to this powerful sermon? After hearing Peter speak, there was no question in the minds of those present on the day of Pentecost that Jesus was raised from the dead. We are told that “they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37) Just by reading these words we can see the profound impact that what the apostles had had on the people.

We may miss the urgency which brought them to this point, but the understood their part in the death of the Messiah and that brought about an eternal separation from God and they could not live one moment longer with that knowledge. Thus we hear once again with all the desperation that must have been in those words, “Brethren, what shall we do?” If we had been there, and in a way we can, what would have been our response?

Peter had the solution to their problem. It was the simple message. He said, “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38) He follows up that statement with, “Be saved from this perverse generation.” (Acts 2:40)

The harvest on this day of Pentecost was 3000 souls. They received the word they had heard and were baptized.

You

In the discussion above we saw how important it was in the minds and hearts of the apostles to share the good news that God had brought to them.

1. If we compare Bethany Place with what took place on the day of Pentecost how would you rate the fervor they possessed to evangelize the lost?
2. What do you consider is the most urgent thing upon which we must focus at a church?
3. In what areas of our church do you believe that there is enough of a spark that can be fanned into a flame?
4. How committed do you think we are to accomplish the task of reaching the lost?
5. What evidences is there that this is true?

It is important that you answer these questions not just for yourself but for the whole church body. Your commitment and attitude towards the task set before you will determine if God will bring a harvest beyond your wildest dreams.

We

How do we get there? One suggestion would be to look at what has already been studied in chapters 1 and 2 and take the time over the next week to look at some areas of a few areas of your life(as expressed in the questions below) then sit down and write about them.

1. In what ways may my actions, agendas, attitudes or words possibly be a hindrance to the advancement of God’s kingdom?
2. In what ways has my vision been too limited in allowing God to use me?
3. In what ways do I want to either become or regain an urgency to proclaim God’s good news to those with I come in contact?

To Come

Next week we are going to look at the church that heard, was pierced to the heart and saved. The exciting things done in response to the gospel will be our focus. The question that will be answered is what did this new church look like?