I want to point something different out here in Acts 2, but first I want to break it down so you can see how precise God was with this act of breath taking goodness. In Acts 2: 1-4 God pours out His Spirit to fill believers from the inside out. Acts 2: 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. (NASB) God makes sure that He gets everyone’s attention. He sets the stage for His emphatic statement of love, and what a glorious showing it was.
So now that God has His beloved children hammered drunk in His love, and ‘And there appeared to them tongues as of fire’, it attracts the religious experts of the day who God had already gathered beforehand in one place. God planned this massive love encounter so well its mind boggling. Pentecost in the Greek is – pentékosté- a one day festival celebrated at the end of the barley harvest. This was a joyous time of giving great thanks to God, Strong’s Concordance. So during a great harvest in the natural, God brings in one of the greatest harvests for the Kingdom. Only He could plan something so beautiful.
So as the ‘religious experts’ were gathering around, because of the Holy order that heaven was unleashing, God has His kids drunk in His love and speaking the languages of the religious experts that are looking on with confusion. Not only are His fully redeemed children speaking in languages they themselves don’t know, but they were ‘speaking of the mighty deeds of God’ in the languages of the Pharisees from all over the world. It says the Pharisees were ‘bewildered, amazed, astonished, with amazement and great perplexity’. People can critic, judge, try and explain, and etc etc all day long, those responses won't stop the love and power of God. God is going to find people that live with the lens of love and will not be affected by critics and skeptics, and He will use these people to bring heaven to earth. And heaven coming to earth has a tendency to look quite different then what we would expect.
God is so precise here. He has His sons and daughters speaking the languages of the skeptics, ‘devout men from every nation under heaven’. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, and Cretans and Arabs. The religious mindset has to be able to rationally explain everything that happens. That strong hold over peoples thinking can be debunked over and over and over again in the Word. God doesn’t need our OK to do something that we have never seen or heard of before, and just because it didn’t originate with us or our church doesn’t mean it’s not God.
In Romans 12:2 it says, ‘…be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’ Your mind is to be renewed so that when something comes up you can discern if it is God. Implying, let your mind be like His so you can tell when something happens if its Him or not. Your mind is to prove (the word for ‘prove’ in the Greek is – dokimazo- and it really means, approve or examine). God is saying that there is going to be plenty of things that come up that you have never seen before and your mind needs renewing so you will be able to approve it as the will and doings of God.
In Acts 2 God set the stage for a monumental act of His kindness and grace. Peter stands and addresses the crowd. Peter’s mind was renewed, through intimate relationship with Jesus. He had obviously never seen this before, no one had, but He knew God and was able to discern His mighty hand of love and power. Peter knew the Word made flesh, and they were waiting for God’s promise, Luke 24:49 "And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven." (NLT)
So Holy Spirit takes the microphone and through Peter He explains what this is in a way that they can understand. Acts 2:14 That’s when Peter stood up and, backed by the other eleven, spoke out with bold urgency… (Message) He explained what was happening with the written word, because the people he was addressing would have completely understood what he was saying. After Peter expounds on the fulfillment of prophecy in verses 17-21 he drives a sword of Truth into their hearts. Acts 2: 22 “Men 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— 23 this 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. 24 But 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. (NASB)
Ouch! Understand what God is saying here through Peter, God just called the religious experts of the day godless murders. All their bible memorizing, all their hours of prayer, all their performance, etc… amounted to being godless murders. They couldn’t see love when it was standing in front of them in the flesh. Acts 2: 36 “All Israel, then, know this: There’s no longer room for doubt—God made him Master and Messiah, this Jesus whom you killed on a cross.” (Message) Now that’s the facts, but Truth always overrides the facts, and Truth cleanses anyone and everyone that will receive Him. Christ is Truth and He washes us completely spotless and empowers us to walk as a brand new creation (2 Cor. 5:17-21, Col. 3: 9-10, and more... ).
Here is the amazing statement God was setting the stage to make. Acts 2: 37 Now 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?” 38 Peter 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.” (NASB)
The first harvest that our Father of Love brought into the Kingdom was the very ones that murdered the Messiah Himself. The first people that tasted of redemption were the ones that killed our Redeemer. The ones that premeditated the torture and death of the Savior of the world, was the first harvest God reeled in. Don’t just read through this. Stop and let this loving Truth drill your heart! God didn’t take them through long ‘sozo’ sessions. God didn’t explain a never-ending ‘repentance’ process. God washed those that wanted Him spotless and made them a re-presentation of Christ, the very One they tortured and murdered. The process of knowing who He has made us is real, but it is not required up front. They have a revelation of the some degree of the Truth and He gives them everything. It's the Good News. The blood of Jesus speaks louder than anything! The facts are that they did brutally murder the Son of God, the Truth is that God paid for ALL sin through His Son on the cross (no matter the brutality and severity of it).
God made such an outrageous statement of love and redemption here. He washed the ones that we would think were the filthiest of all, spotless and filled them with the very One they murdered. The scandal of grace, yes that is our God. It’s as if He wanted to make sure we understood what He was really like, and what the cross had really done. So the first ones God made just as spotless as the King Himself, were the ones that murdered the King Himself.
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