Acts 2:38 Question
The Acts 2:38 Question
After hearing the Apostle Peter
preach a scathing and condemning murder
indictment against them, the people who had heard Peter asked a
question. Peter’s answer to that question is in Acts 2:38. A huge
segment of the religious system today hangs a major part of their
doctrine on Acts chapter two. Dispensationalists around the world point
to Acts chapter two as the “birthday of the church.” (The church being
a reference to the church, the body of Christ.) Charismatics, or
Pentecostals, as they are sometimes called, point to Acts chapter two
as establishing a pattern of something. By and large, they believe that
when a group of Pentecostals get together and “seek the will of the
Lord,” that there is a fresh anointing of the Holy Ghost poured out.
This “anointing,” as they say, is usually accompanied with all sorts of
bizarre behavior. Sobbing, laughing, running and jumping, falling in
the floor, and muttering gibberish which they refer to as an “unknown
tongue” or their “prayer language.”
The statement made by the Apostle
Peter in the book of Acts is a very
well-known passage of scripture. Acts 2:38 can be found on buildings,
billboards and bumper stickers across the country. Entire religious
systems have been built, basically, on this one verse. That verse,
coupled with the truth of Acts 2:4, is the source of huge blunders on
the part of religious men (and women) around the world today.
Acts 2:4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
What we would like to do right now,
is to take a close look at who are
the ALL in Acts 2:4 and WHAT was the question that Peter answered in
Acts 2:38. In order to do that it might be necessary for us, just for
right now, to put aside our religious training or our denominational
thinking and just simply read all of the verses in their context,
believing that the bible means just what it says, as it says it, where
it says it. Acts 2:37 contains the question which was asked. In the
light of what Peter had said, the people had asked, “Men and brethren,
what must we do?” This is what the verse says:
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
It says that Peter said “unto them.”
We want to find out who the “them”
is and what “their” question was about that prompted Peter to say what
he said in Acts 2:38. In order to do that, let’s first consider a
little background information. Acts chapter two is describing events
which occurred on the Day of Pentecost, which is a Jewish Holy Day. The
Day of Pentecost is not a “church festival” and it has nothing to do
with the body of Christ, but rather, it has everything to do with the
Law of Moses.
Some claim that the Law of Moses was
abolished at the cross, but the
very fact that the Jews were in Jerusalem on that particular day, the
Day of Pentecost, shows that they were very much keeping the Law of
Moses and were zealous of the Law of Moses. The Jewish feast day, the
Day of Pentecost, is very much a part of the Law of Moses. The fact
that they received the Holy Ghost on that day also shows that they were
not out of the will of God by the fact that they were keeping the feast
of Pentecost. The Law of Moses was given to the nation of Israel in the
book of Exodus. Moses had led the children of Israel out of bondage in
Egypt and he had led them to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. That’s why
the bible refers to the Israelites as being the “church in the
wilderness:”
Acts 7:37 This is that Moses, which
said unto the children of Israel, A
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,
like unto me; him shall ye hear.
Acts 7:38 This is he, that was in the
church in the wilderness with the
angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who
received the lively oracles to give unto us:
So Moses was the leader of a church.
Stephen, in Acts chapter seven,
calls it “the church in the wilderness.” Let’s just state, at the
outset, that you can find more than one church in your bible. Now in
Matthew chapter sixteen, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “I WILL BUILD my
church.” The Lord had asked “who do men say that I am.” They had
answered, in effect, that “some say one thing and some say another.”
Then he asked the disciples, “who do YOU say that I am?” And Peter had
replied, “thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.” Now, in
response to Peter’s confession, here is what the Lord said to Peter:
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto
thee, That thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
The rock, in the passage, has to do
with Peter’s confession that “thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God.” But the point I wanted you
to see is that the Lord said, I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH. So I know that
that church which was led by Moses, called the “church in the
wilderness” can’t be the same church as the church the Lord referred to
in Matthew chapter sixteen when he said I WILL BUILD my church. If the
Lord says that he WILL BUILD a church, then I know that it had not
already been built and therefore it can’t be the church referred to by
Stephen in Acts chapter seven as the “church in the wilderness.” So, as
it turns out, the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ was for the
purpose of building a church. He called it MY CHURCH and he said he
WILL BUILD IT. The 12 apostles who are named in Matthew chapter 10 are
the “founding fathers,” so to speak, of that church. As a matter of
fact, you can see them in prophecy. Isaiah, who was a prophet of the
nation of Israel said:
Isaiah 8:13 Sanctify the LORD of
hosts himself; and let him be your
fear, and let him be your dread.
Isaiah 8:14 And he shall be for a
sanctuary; but for a stone of
stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a
gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 8:15 And many among them shall
stumble, and fall, and be broken,
and be snared, and be taken.
Isaiah 8:16 Bind up the testimony,
seal the law among my disciples.
Isaiah 8:17 And I will wait upon the
LORD, that hideth his face from
the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Isaiah 8:18 Behold, I and the
children whom the LORD hath given me are
for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which
dwelleth in mount Zion.
Notice what Isaiah is talking about.
He says that the Lord of hosts
himself shall be for a sanctuary, but that he will also be a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offense, for who? For BOTH the houses of Israel
and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. So we should see by this that
what is going on in Peter’s ministry on the Day of Pentecost has to do
with Israel, not with the church, the body of Christ.
The nation of Israel, in the old
testament, became split into two
kingdoms, the northern and the southern kingdoms. The southern Kingdom
was called Judah and the northern kingdom was referred to as Israel.
Israel and Judah, and they are referred to as “the house of Jacob.”
Jacob had 12 sons and they became the 12 tribes of Israel. Those 12
tribes of Israel had gone down into Egypt and were in bondage to
Pharaoh until the time Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt
into the promised land, the land which had been promised to Abraham in
the book of Genesis.
So in the book of Isaiah we see a
prophecy of the disciples. We see the
prophecy of the “children whom the LORD hath given me,” a reference to
Jesus Christ, and a reference to the 12 apostles to Israel. In John,
chapter seventeen, the Lord is speaking, he is praying to God the
Father, and he says:
John 17:6 I have manifested thy name
unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they
have kept thy word.
John 17:7 Now they have known that
all things whatsoever thou hast
given me are of thee.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them
the words which thou gavest me;
and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from
thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
John 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not
for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me; for they are thine.
So just before his death on the
cross, Jesus Christ is praying for
these men, the 12 apostles. Now the passage in Isaiah says that they
were for “signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts.” Now
let’s go to Acts chapter two and read, in the context:
Acts 2:1 And when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place.
Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as of fire,
and it sat upon each of them.
Acts 2:4 And they were all filled
with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:5 And there were dwelling at
Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of
every nation under heaven.
Notice that it says there was a
SOUND. The sound was AS OF a rushing
mighty wind. It doesn’t say that a “rushing mighty wind filled the
house.” It says that the SOUND filled the house. It also says that they
saw cloven tongues LIKE AS OF FIRE. It doesn’t say that there was fire
in the room, it says LIKE AS OF FIRE. So we have SOUND filling the room
and they saw something that resembled fire, something LIKE AS OF FIRE,
and it, those cloven tongues, sat on each one of them. In other words
on each of THE 12 MEN. Many in religion want to take what happened in
Acts chapter two and apply it to Acts chapter one, so that what has
happened in Acts chapter two is that there were 120 men, women, and
evidently children too, running around in a confused babble, speaking
in tongues. But that is just not the case. What had happened in Acts
chapter one are things that occurred over AT LEAST a seven day period
of time. During THOSE DAYS, Peter had stood up among the 120 disciples,
and told them that someone needed to be chosen to replace Judas, who
had betrayed the Lord.
Acts 1:15 And in those days Peter
stood up in the midst of the
disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an
hundred and twenty,)
Acts 1:16 Men and brethren, this
scripture must needs have been
fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before
concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
So he goes on to tell them that
according to prophecy in the
scriptures, that a replacement must be named for Judas, who had
betrayed the Lord. That was done, and a man named Matthias was NUMBERED
WITH the eleven. Eleven plus one makes twelve, the number of the 12
tribes of Israel. Israel has 12 tribes, and twelve apostles. The Lord
had said that those 12 men would sit on twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel, “in the regeneration,” in other words, at the
second coming of Christ.
Now the reason we know that at least
seven days had gone by is the fact
that the Lord was crucified on the Passover. The Day of Pentecost,
according to the Law of Moses, comes FIFTY DAYS after the Passover.
Remember that the Lord was crucified on the Passover and for three days
and three nights he was in the heart of the earth, while his body was
in Joseph’s tomb. Then after his resurrection he appeared to the
disciples for a period of forty days. Forty days plus three days leaves
seven days. Notice above in Acts 1:15 it says “in those days.” The days
are the remainder of the seven day period of time between the Passover
and the Day of Pentecost.
According to the Law of Moses, the
Passover, which is the day in which
Christ was crucified, is the 14th day of the first month. That day is a
SABBATH day according to the law. On the morrow after the Sabbath, the
Jewish High Priest would take a sheaf of grain and wave it before the
veil in the temple:
Leviticus 23:11 And he shall wave the
sheaf before the LORD, to be
accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave
it.
Now here are the instructions for
what is known as the “feast of
weeks,” the end of which would be the Day of Pentecost:
Leviticus 23:15 And ye shall count
unto you from the morrow after the
sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering;
seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Leviticus 23:16 Even unto the morrow
after the seventh sabbath shall ye
number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
Acts 2:5 had said there were dwelling
at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men
out of every nation under heaven. They had come for the Day of
Pentecost which was according to the Law of Moses. According to the
Law, those men were required to be there and a devout Jew most
certainly would have:
Deuteronomy 16:16 Three times in a
year shall all thy males appear
before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the
feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast
of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:
Deuteronomy 16:17 Every man shall
give as he is able, according to the
blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee.
The feast of weeks is the feast we
are talking about here. Seven
Sabbaths and then the morrow after the Sabbath would be the fiftieth
day, the Day of Pentecost. Now Christ was crucified, and was buried,
and was dead for three days and three nights and then rose from the
dead. After he arose, he appeared to the disciples for a period of
FORTY DAYS, and then, in Acts chapter one he ascended into Heaven. His
ascension was 43 days after the Passover, but before the Day of
Pentecost. As they watched him go, two men in white stood by and
told them:
Acts 1:11 Which also said, Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up
into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Notice that the two angels address
MEN OF GALILEE. They don’t say
“ladies and gentlemen,” or men, women, boys and girls. They are talking
to 12 Jewish men, Matthias being among them.
Now in Acts chapter one, during the
period of time of “those days,” two
men are picked who meet the qualifications to be a witness. Here are
the qualifications, as Peter gave them to the group:
Acts 1:21 Wherefore of these men
which have companied with us all the
time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
Acts 1:22 Beginning from the baptism
of John, unto that same day that
he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us
of his resurrection.
So two men are selected who meet the
qualifications, and those
qualifications had to do with being a witness to the entire earthly
ministry of Jesus and also of his resurrection. In other words the
ministry of these men was to establish the fact that this man, Jesus,
is the promised Messiah to Israel. That is the very reason for the
writing of the book of John. To establish the NAME of Jesus:
John 20:30 And many other signs truly
did Jesus in the presence of his
disciples, which are not written in this book:
John 20:31 But these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life
through his name.
So two men were selected as
candidates to replace Judas, who, by
transgression, had fell. They cast their lots and the lot fell to
Matthias:
Acts 1:24 And they prayed, and said,
Thou, Lord, which knowest the
hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,
Acts 1:25 That he may take part of
this ministry and apostleship, from
which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.
Acts 1:26 And they gave forth their
lots; and the lot fell upon
Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
So in the last verse of Acts chapter
one, verse 26 above, we see twelve
Jewish men and the context continues into Acts chapter two:
Acts 2:1 And when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place.
The THEY in verse one is a continuing
reference to the 12 MEN in the
preceding verse. THEY, the 12 men, were all with one accord in one
place. The same was true a week earlier. The COINCIDENCE is that there
were also 120 others who were there. In Acts chapter one, they, THE 12
MEN, had returned to Jerusalem:
Acts 1:12 Then returned they unto
Jerusalem from the mount called
Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
Acts 1:13 And when they were come in,
they went up into an upper room,
where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and
Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon
Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
So we see eleven names of eleven men.
What happens during the next
seven days happens in association with 120 disciples but what happens
is that Matthias is NUMBERED WITH the eleven.
Acts 1:14 These all continued with
one accord in prayer and
supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with
his brethren.
Acts 1:15 And in those days Peter
stood up in the midst of the
disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an
hundred and twenty,)
Now evidently, these 120 people who
were there were not all of the
Lord’s disciples, because in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul refers to the Lord
appearing to “over five hundred people at once.” When the Lord appeared
to someone then they would have been a “witness” to the resurrection of
Christ, and these 120 people certainly would have been, but the focus
is on 12 MEN, not on a large group of men, women and children. The
point here is that the initial baptism WITH the Holy Ghost included
those 12 men, not 120 men, women and children. The twelve were anointed
for their ministry and you see them beginning that in Acts 2:4.
Afterwards, after Peter had delivered his message others received the
baptism. However, please note HOW they received it. The only way a
person received the baptism WITH the Holy Ghost was by the laying on of
hands of one of those Apostles. ONLY THEY had the power to lay hands on
someone. An example of that would be the conversion of the Samaritans
in Acts chapter eight. Philip had gone down and preached in Samaria and
the bible says that they were baptized, both men and women, when they
believed Philip;s preaching. Obviously they were baptized with water.
Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles which
were at Jerusalem heard that
Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and
John:
Acts 8:15 Who, when they were come
down, prayed for them, that they
might receive the Holy Ghost:
Acts 8:16 (For as yet he was fallen
upon none of them: only they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
Acts 8:17 Then laid they their hands
on them, and they received the
Holy Ghost.
By the way, there is no such term in
your bible as “the baptism OF the
Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues.” There is NO such
thing as the “baptism OF the Holy Ghost.” What you see in Acts chapter
two is the “baptism WITH the Holy Ghost,” and it is called “the promise
of the Father.”
The term, “baptism OF the Holy
Ghost,” is the invention of a man. The
most likely candidate for the honor is a man named Charles Parham of
Topeka, Kansas. In the year 1900, Charles F. Parham established the
Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas. He taught his students that
speaking in tongues was the evidence of “the baptism OF the Holy
Ghost.” On January 1, 1901, Agnes Ozman, a student at Parham’s
“College,” claimed that she could speak in tongues.
The thing spread into a few
assemblies, and in 1906, W. J. Seymour, who
had been one of Parham’s students, began to hold meetings at 312 Azusa
Street in Los Angeles, California. Bizarre meetings went on for about
three years and it was from there that the so-called
“Pentecostal-Charismatic” movement had it’s beginning. So from that
time forth, Pentecostal groups have taught that speaking in tongues is
the “evidence of the Baptism OF the Holy Ghost.” Once again, there is
no such term in the bible as the “baptism OF the Holy Ghost,” and there
was no such thing as “Pentecostalism” prior to the early nineteen
hundreds.
On the Day of Pentecost in Acts
chapter two, twelve Jewish men were
baptized WITH the Holy Ghost. They were not baptized BY the Holy Ghost,
but they were baptized WITH the Holy Ghost. There were NOT 120 men,
women and children speaking in tongues on the Day of Pentecost in Acts
chapter two. 12 Jewish men spoke in tongues and they were not muttering
and chirping or speaking jibberish. They were speaking languages that
were known and understood by those who heard them speak. That is clear
from the bible:
Acts 2:6 Now when this was noised
abroad, the multitude came together,
and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own
language.
Acts 2:7 And they were all amazed and
marvelled, saying one to another,
Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Acts 2:8 And how hear we every man in
our own tongue, wherein we were
born?
Now I don’t know if all of the 120
people who had been in that upper
room in Acts chapter one were Galileans or not. They very well could
have been. But whether they were or not, I know that all of the
Apostles were Galileans because that’s where the Lord had found them
and chose them:
Matthew 4:23 And Jesus went about all
Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
In Matthew chapter 10, the Lord
called his disciples together and he
chose 12 men which he named Apostles. He had sent them forth with
a message, the gospel of the kingdom, to preach to the “lost sheep of
the house of Israel.” There is a great deal of confusion in religion
today. There is a great deal of emphasis today on the “red
letters” of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In other words, on the spoken
words of the Lord Jesus Christ during his earthly ministry among the
people of Israel. People claim that they are “following Jesus,” but
sadly what you find them doing is picking and choosing verses to
“follow,” and ignoring the obvious. But to a bible believer, it is
unmistakable. The instructions of the Lord to his disciples are so
specific that you couldn’t miss the fact that in the Lord’s earthly
ministry of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the message was simply not to
Gentiles.
Matthew 10:1 And when he had called
unto him his twelve disciples, he
gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal
all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent
forth, and commanded them, saying,
Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the
Samaritans enter ye not:
He specifically tells them, “do not
go to the Gentiles.” He also says,
“do not go to the Samaritans. So I know that the ministry of these
twelve men was not to, nor about, people like you and me. As a matter
of fact, the bible says in John:
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and
his own received him not.
People try to read themselves into
the passage, but it simply won’t
work. Look at what the Lord, himself, said later on:
Matthew 15:24 But he answered and
said, I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.
So the Lord says that he is SENT to
Israel, not to Gentiles. And he
told the twelve do not go to the Gentiles. Instead he told them exactly
where to go, and even told them what to say when they got there:
Matthew 10:6 But go rather to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Matthew 10:7 And as ye go, preach,
saying, The kingdom of heaven is at
hand.
Now whatever the “kingdom of heaven”
is, I know that AT THAT TIME
Gentiles simply had no part in the message. The message in Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John is simply not about the body of Christ. It is about
Israel. It is unto Israel, not the Church, the body of Christ. Much
later, Paul the Apostle, who was NOT a member of the 12, wrote this in
the book of Romans:
Romans 15:8 Now I say that Jesus
Christ was a minister of the
circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto
the fathers:
So I know that the “gospel of the
kingdom,” being preached in Matthew,
Mark, Luke and John had to do with “the promises made unto the
fathers,” as in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob being the “father’s” of the
nation of Israel. That’s what John meant when he wrote:
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and
his own received him not.
God, in the Hebrew scriptures of the
“old testament” had promised
Israel a Messiah. The prophets had said that he would be of the “seed
of David,” and that he would inherit the throne of “his father David.”
But instead of Israel receiving their King, and the Kingdom being
established, the people had said away with this man, we will not have
this man to rule over us, we have no king but Caesar. Crucify
him. So the Lord had died on the cross, was buried, and three
days and three nights later he rose from the dead. And as it turns out,
there is a “little flock” amongst the “lost sheep of the house of
Israel,” who DID believe, as Peter did, that “thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God.” To those people, the Lord had said:
Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock;
for it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom.
Luke 12:33 Sell that ye have, and
give alms; provide yourselves bags
which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no
thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
Luke 12:34 For where your treasure
is, there will your heart be also.
Luke 12:35 Let your loins be girded
about, and your lights burning;
Luke 12:36 And ye yourselves like
unto men that wait for their lord,
when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh,
they may open unto him immediately.
Now THAT is exactly what Peter and
the others had in mind on the Mount
of Olives in Acts chapter one, on the day the Lord ascended into
Heaven, FORTY DAYS after he had been raised from the dead:
Acts 1:6 When they therefore were
come together, they asked of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?
Now the Lord didn’t say WHEN the
Kingdom would come. He didn’t say that
he was RESTORING the Kingdom “at this time.” Instead here is what he
did say:
Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is
not for you to know the times or
the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power,
after that the Holy Ghost is come
upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
But what were they to witness? Were
they to witness the fact that
Christ had died for the sins of all men and that now God was forming a
joint body of believers, Jew and Gentile, into one body? Were they to
witness to people that they should believe that Christ died for their
sins, was raised for their justification and that all believers would
go to heaven someday? Absolutely not. They knew nothing at all about
something called the church, the body of Christ. They knew what they
had been taught by the Lord for three years in Matthew, Mark, Luke and
John. They knew what the Lord had taught them, and had given them
instructions about, during the forty days after he rose from the dead.
In other words, the preaching and teaching of Peter and the twelve in
the book of Acts, is the RESULT OF the preaching and teaching in
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and it is the gospel of the KINGDOM….it is
not the “gospel of your salvation” you later read about in Paul’s
ministry. Peter preached a murder indictment against Israel. He charged
them with the murder of their Messiah and he preached repentance. In
other words he said to the men of Israel, change your minds, think
differently about this man you have crucified. God has raised him from
the dead. He is your King. Peter’s whole message is in Acts chapter
three:
Acts 3:17 And now, brethren, I wot
that through ignorance ye did it, as
did also your rulers.
Acts 3:18 But those things, which God
before had shewed by the mouth of
all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled.
The entire account in Acts chapter
three takes place at the Jewish
temple in Jerusalem. Peter and John had gone up to the temple to pray,
they had encountered a crippled man, and had healed him. Peter’s
preaching is the result of the people seeing the lame man healed and
running together to “Solomon’s Porch” in the temple and hearing Peter’s
words:
Acts 3:11 And as the lame man which
was healed held Peter and John, all
the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called
Solomon's, greatly wondering.
Acts 3:12 And when Peter saw it, he
answered unto the people, Ye men of
Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as
though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, and of
Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of
our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and
denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him
go.
Acts 3:14 But ye denied the Holy One
and the Just, and desired a
murderer to be granted unto you;
Acts 3:15 And killed the Prince of
life, whom God hath raised from the
dead; whereof we are witnesses.
So Peter’s message is to the men of
Israel. It’s the same in Acts
chapter three as in Acts chapter two. Peter preaches the cross of
Christ, but Peter is NOT glorying in the cross of Christ. He preaches
it as a shame and as a murder indictment against Israel. He says you
killed the Prince of life BUT GOD has raised him from the dead. Now
what reason has Peter given FOR the resurrection of Jesus Christ? He
says “the restitution of all things.”
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be
converted, that your sins may be
blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord.
Acts 3:20 And he shall send Jesus
Christ, which before was preached
unto you:
Acts 3:21 Whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution
of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy
prophets since the world began.
That is in ONE ACCORD with the
question they had asked on the Mount of
Olives, the day the Lord ascended into heaven:
Acts 1:6 When they therefore were
come together, they asked of him,
saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Israel?
The restoring of the kingdom to
Israel is the VERY BASIS of Peter’s
message. Look at Acts chapter two:
Acts 2:25 For David speaketh
concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always
before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
Acts 2:26 Therefore did my heart
rejoice, and my tongue was glad;
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
Acts 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave
my soul in hell, neither wilt
thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Acts 2:28 Thou hast made known to me
the ways of life; thou shalt make
me full of joy with thy countenance.
Acts 2:29 Men and brethren, let me
freely speak unto you of the
patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is
with us unto this day.
Acts 2:30 Therefore being a prophet,
and knowing that God had sworn
with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the
flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
The THRONE OF DAVID is what is in
view in Peter’s preaching on the Day
of Pentecost and in all his preaching in the book of Acts. It is about
the restoring of the kingdom to Israel and the second coming of Christ
to rule and reign on the throne of his father David in a literal and
visible earthly Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven upon the earth. Peter
preaches a murder indictment and the message is directed to the MEN OF
ISRAEL:
Acts 2:5 And there were dwelling at
Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of
every nation under heaven.
Acts 2:6 Now when this was noised
abroad, the multitude came together,
and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own
language.
Acts 2:7 And they were all amazed and
marvelled, saying one to another,
Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?
Notice that those doing the speaking
are all Galileans. Now there is no
indication in the bible that all of the disciples of the Lord were all
Galileans, but even if they were, it is certainly no indication that
120 men, women and children were speaking in tongues on the Day of
Pentecost, which you will clearly see in the context:
Acts 2:8 And how hear we every man in
our own tongue, wherein we were
born?
Acts 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and
Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Acts 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in
Egypt, and in the parts of Libya
about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Acts 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do
hear them speak in our tongues the
wonderful works of God.
Acts 2:12 And they were all amazed,
and were in doubt, saying one to
another, What meaneth this?
Acts 2:13 Others mocking said, These
men are full of new wine.
Notice the verse says THESE MEN, not
these people, and not all these
men and women, not this crowd of 120 men, women and children. It says
THESE MEN. Then you know, from your bible, that it was 12 men speaking
and not 120 men, women and children. No woman spoke in tongues on the
Day of Pentecost. Look again:
Acts 2:12 And they were all amazed,
and were in doubt, saying one to
another, What meaneth this?
Acts 2:13 Others mocking said, These
men are full of new wine.
It doesn’t say these KIDS have been
drinking their parent’s wine. It
doesn’t say these ladies and these men must be drunk. It says THESE MEN
are full of new wine.
Now our study is about the question
which was asked in Acts chapter
two. What I want to show here is, 1. Who Peter is addressing; 2. What
Peter has said; 3. The response, or the question, as a result of what
Peter said. First of all, who is Peter talking to:
Acts 2:14 But Peter, standing up with
the eleven, lifted up his voice,
and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at
Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:
Acts 2:15 For these are not drunken,
as ye suppose, seeing it is but
the third hour of the day.
Acts 2:16 But this is that which was
spoken by the prophet Joel;
So THIS which is happening on the Day
of Pentecost is not something new
and unheard of. Peter says it was spoken by the prophet Joel. Now come
on down:
Acts 2:22 Ye men of Israel, hear
these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God
did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know:
Acts 2:23 Him, being delivered by the
determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified
and slain:
So Peter has charged the men of
Israel with murder, the murder of their
Messiah. He says they have taken him, they have crucified him and slain
him. But, he says, God has raised him from the dead. Now come on down:
Acts 2:33 Therefore being by the
right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Who has shed forth this which you now
see and hear? HE HAS. Jesus
Christ has. Jesus Christ, then, is the baptizer in Acts chapter two and
the baptism is WITH the Holy Ghost. You can see that it is not the
“baptism OF the Holy Ghost,” but WITH the Holy Ghost, and that Jesus
Christ is the one doing the baptizing. This is in one accord with what
the Lord had said:
Acts 1:4 And, being assembled
together with them, commanded them that
they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the
Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
He refers to “the promise of the
Father.” The promise is what the Lord
had taught them about in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John when he said “The
Comforter” will come, and he reminds them of it here.
Acts 1:5 For John truly baptized with
water; but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Notice that in the baptism of John,
that John was the baptizer, and
that he baptized WITH something. He baptized WITH water. Notice that
the Lord had told these 12 men that they would be baptized WITH
something. They were baptized WITH the Holy Ghost. As John was the
baptizer who performed the “baptism of repentance for the remission of
sins,” so Jesus Christ is the baptizer in Acts chapter two, and has
baptized these 12 men WITH the Holy Ghost, just as he had said that he
would do. So Peter, and the others, FULL of the Holy Ghost, the words
being spoken being the words of the Holy Ghost, have testified the
wonderful works of God. That God has raised his Son, Jesus Christ, from
the dead, and Peter says it was to “sit on David’s throne.” But he is
charging the men of Israel with murder:
Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly, that
God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ.
Once again, there is no such term in
the bible as “the baptism OF the
Holy Ghost.” These 12 men are baptized WITH the Holy Ghost and the
baptizer is the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter has charged his listeners
with murder:
Acts 2:37 Now when they heard this,
they were pricked in their heart,
and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do?
So there is the question they asked.
“What shall we do?” They were
pricked in their hearts, and you and I would have been to. Especially
if we had killed a man and then forty or so days later 12 upright,
devout men, full of the Holy Ghost, are testifying that the man who was
killed is alive and that they are witnesses to the fact. So the
question is, what must we do? They don’t say “what must we do to be
saved?” The question they asked is quite different than the question
asked of Paul by the Phillipian jailor in Acts 16:30-31. The idea is
that they realize their guilt in demanding the death of Christ. Is
there anything we can do to clear ourselves of this? Or to save
ourselves from what is obviously going to be the wrath of God because
of this. As a matter of fact, that is what Peter says, he tells them to
“save themselves:”
Acts 2:40 And with many other words
did he testify and exhort, saying,
Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
So both the question and the answer
Peter gave to their question, is
about the wrath of God that obviously is going to come on “this
untoward generation.” How could they avoid that?”
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto
them, Repent, and be baptized
every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
In other words, Peter says, repent.
That is, to turn around, to think
differently about this man that you insisted that he be crucified. Turn
around, think differently. Turn back to the covenant. Turn back to the
“promises made to the fathers.” Be identified with your Messiah by
water baptism, the Jewish water ritual that began in the book of Exodus
for the CLEANSING of the priesthood. If they would do that they would
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, the power to endure to the end that
Peter goes on to talk about in Chapter three. It was the power to
endure the tribulation that was coming in order that they could become
the SONS OF GOD in the coming Kingdom when Christ comes again. That is
the meaning of what John said:
John 1:11 He came unto his own, and
his own received him not.
John 1:12 But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
So if they would repent, change their
minds, turn around, and be
identified with their Messiah through Jewish water baptism, they would
receive the gift. That gift, the gift of the Holy Ghost was an unction,
an anointing. It gave them power. They had the power to suffer, to
endure unto the end, of their lives or of the tribulation, whichever
was coming first. The baptism is NOT salvation. Neither is it the
EVIDENCE of salvation for a believer. The fact is, NONE of those people
were saved yet, and would not be saved until the second coming of
Christ. That’s what the endure to the end was all about. Today, when
people emphasize their “ability” to speak in an unknown tongue they
claim it is the evidence of their salvation. NONE of the people in
Peter’s ministry were saved but were enduring to be saved, at the end.
Acts 2:39 For the promise is unto
you, and to your children, and to all
that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
Remember that Peter is talking to a
town full of Jews. They are in
Jerusalem for the Day of Pentecost, “out of every nation under Heaven,”
as we saw in verse five. Now the ones that are “afar off” would be
other Jews, scattered among the nations. It has nothing to do with
Gentiles. Everything in Acts chapter two is in a tribulation context
and has to do with the Seventieth Week of Daniel. In Daniel’s prayer in
Daniel chapter nine he saw the vision of the seventy weeks/ The
“seventy weeks of Daniel” have to do with the whole of God’s prophetic
plans for planet earth which are to be accomplished through the nation
of Israel. Look at his prayer:
Daniel 9:7 O LORD, righteousness
belongeth unto thee, but unto us
confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that
are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them,
because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee.
Now Peter preaches the death, burial
and resurrection of Christ. But he
is not glorying in the cross. Instead he is preaching a murder charge
against Israel. He tells them to “save your selves from this untoward
generation.” He says, “repent and be baptized every one of you…” But
Israel did not repent, instead Israel fell. The blood, fire and vapor
of smoke, the wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath,
the sun in darkness and the moon turned into blood, did not happen.
Instead, Israel fell from it’s exalted position above all nations, and
through the FALL of Israel, something else happened, as Paul writes:
Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they
stumbled that they should fall? God
forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the
Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Romans 11:12 Now if the fall of them
be the riches of the world, and
the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their
fulness?
Romans 11:13 For I speak to you
Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle
of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
So the ascended and glorified Lord
Jesus Christ gave to Paul a totally
different message than the one preached to the Jews by Peter:
Galatians 1:11 But I certify you,
brethren, that the gospel which was
preached of me is not after man.
Galatians 1:12 For I neither received
it of man, neither was I taught
it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Rather than turning to the red
letters of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
or to Peter’s preaching to the Jews to find the GOSPEL OF YOUR
SALVATION, we find the GOSPEL committed to Paul here:
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel
which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye
stand;
1 Corinthians 15:2 By which also ye
are saved, if ye keep in memory
what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I
also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was
buried, and that he rose again the
third day according to the scriptures:
Peter never said that Christ had died
for their sins. He preached the
cross as a shame. He called for the repentance of the men of Israel,
looking forward to a future day of atonement at Christ’s second coming.
That is not the case in the doctrine committed to Paul for the church
today. To Paul was revealed the WHY of the cross, the fact that Christ
had died for our sins, all of our sins. Nowhere in your bible does Paul
ever tell anyone to “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins.”
In Ephesians chapter four he says there is ONE baptism for today. Not
water, but the baptism BY the Spirit. Not WITH but BY the Spirit, into
the body of Christ. So the message for today is not a message of
repentance and water baptism for the remission of sins. It is simply,
“believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
