What gave Peter the power at Pentecost? The Holy Spirit and...

Acts 2 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 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.

⁵ Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” ¹² And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”

¹⁴ But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. ¹⁵ For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; ¹⁶ but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ¹⁷ ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; ¹⁸ Even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy. ¹⁹ ‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above And signs on the earth below, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. ²⁰ ‘The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. ²¹ ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 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. ²⁵ For David says of Him,

‘I saw the Lord always in my presence; For He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. ²⁶ ‘Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; Moreover my flesh also will live in hope; ²⁷ Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, Nor allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. ²⁸ ‘You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’

²⁹ “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. ³⁰ And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, ³¹ he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. ³² This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. ³³ Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. ³⁴ For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:

‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, ³⁵ Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

³⁶ Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

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. ³⁹ For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” ⁴⁰ And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” ⁴¹ So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. ⁴² They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…

In Luke 22:55-62 we read the account of Peter’s denial of Jesus, on the night He was betrayed and arrested.        Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.         Today’s text takes place about six weeks later, obviously much has changed in Peter. There is no fear or denying Jesus. There is no bitter weeping. Peter, on the day of Pentecost began his own powerful ministry for the Lord. He testified to the crowds, proving by scripture and what had been witnessed that Jesus was / is the Christ.  The text tells us:   and that day there were added about three thousand souls. That’s a pretty impressive first sermon and to think that there was no power point, just the powerful point that they should:  “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…”

So what was it that so changed Peter from one who denied the statement of a servant girl, to one who powerfully testified of Christ, his Lord. Peter would also go on to minister powerfully in signs and wonders. Miracles of healing were common in his ministry. We know of course, from today’s text, that one of the most significant things to happen to Peter was the filling of the Holy Spirit. Today’s text says:   And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.     Jesus had said:  “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)  Jesus said: “ When they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not worry about how or what you are to speak in your defense, or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (Luke 12:11-12)  Jesus says:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father…I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:12;16-17)    So surely the Holy Spirit was responsible for much of the change in Peter. It is the Holy Spirit who gives power to be a witness. It is the Holy Spirit who will teach us what to say as we testify for Christ and it is the Holy Spirit who will enable and empower us, like Peter to do miracles, signs and wonders to confirm the testimony of Christ.

Still there is something else that happened, something else changed Peter and it didn’t happen that day, at Pentecost. The thing we cannot overlook. The most significant thing to happen in Peter’s life and in our lives, didn’t happen that day. It happened the very day after Peter denied the Lord. John 19:17-18; 28-30 says: They took Jesus, therefore, and He went out, bearing His own cross, to the place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified Him… After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had already been accomplished, to fulfill the Scripture, said, “I am thirsty.”  A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop and brought it up to His mouth. Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.   Without the cross there could be no Pentecost. Before Peter could be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, he needed to be saved by the power of the cross.  It was and is the finished work of the cross, Jesus victory over sin and death, which “accomplished all things.” If we would walk in the power of the Holy Spirit, if we would be witnesses, testifying for Christ, if we would do the works that Jesus did and the greater works He says we will do through the power of the Holy Spirit, we must first behold Jesus on the cross. We must see and believe that He died for our sins. Like Peter, we may weep bitterly over our sin and failure when we see Jesus our Lord, causing us to repent. But because of the finished work of the cross, because we are no longer bound by sin, but are victorious in Christ, we can see the risen Savior. Because of the finished work of the cross we can receive the Holy Spirit and walk in His power, doing all that Peter did, all that Jesus said we would.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, thank You that all things are accomplished in the finished work of the cross and that because it is finished I can walk with You, with the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. I am changed, like Peter, to be Your witness and Your minister to the world.   Amen.