Bible Study Acts 2: 1-28

 

Commentary of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles

By Dr. Barry L. Jenkins

Text Used: Legacy Standard Bible

Bible Study Acts 2: 1-28

Text: 

The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

2 And when the day of Pentecost [a]had fully 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 like fire [b]distributing themselves, and [c]they [d]rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other [e]tongues, as the Spirit was giving them [f]utterance.

5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own [g]language. 7 So they were astounded and marveling, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own [h]language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and [i]Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene, and [j]visitors from Rome, both Jews and [k]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 astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others, mocking, were saying, “They are full of new wine.”

Peter’s Sermon at Pentecost

14 But Peter, [l]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 the [m]third hour of the day; 16 but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

17 

‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says,
‘That I will pour out My Spirit on all [n]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 male slaves and female slaves,
I will in those days pour out My Spirit
And they shall prophesy.

19 

And I will put 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 awesome day of the [o]Lord comes.

21 

And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of the [p]Lord will be saved.’

22 “Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man [q]attested to you by God with [r]miracles and wonders and [s]signs which God did 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 lawless men and put Him to death. 24 [t]But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the [u]agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held [v]in its power. 25 For David says of Him,

‘I saw the [w]Lord continually before me;
Because 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 forsake my soul to Hades,
Nor give Your [x]Holy One over to see corruption.

28 

You have made known to me the ways of life;
You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’

Verse by verse commentary:

Verse 1: “And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place.”

“Pentecost” is literally the “Fiftieth Day” and was measured from after the Sabbath of the Passover week. Pentecost was celebrated on the first day of the week and was one of the three great annual feasts of Israel, preceded by Passover and followed four months later by the Feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost is also called the “Feast of Weeks,” because it was celebrated seven weeks after Passover; the “Feast of Harvest,” because the first fruits of the harvest were gathered then; and the “day of the firstfruits.” 

Verse 2: “And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.:”

Three physical signs (wind, fire, and inspired language) of God’s presence were witnessed. Wind was a symbol of the Holy Spirit’s presence, while fire was a symbol of His cleansing and judging power. The tongues were various languages spoken in all parts of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Rome to Persia. It should be noted that these three signs have never been repeated together since the first Pentecost after the resurrection. This is more proof of the uniqueness of the event described in Acts 2.

Verse 3: “And there appeared to them tongues like fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.”

Those assembled together could not comprehend the significance of the Spirit’s coming without the Lord Sovereignly illustrating what was occurring with a physical phenomenon. Just as the sound, like wind, the “tongues like fire” was symbolic. These were not literal flames of fire but supernatural evidence, like fire, that God had sent the Holy Spirit upon each believer. In Scripture, fire often denoted the Divine Presence. God’s use of a fire-like appearance here parallels what He did with the dove when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

Verse 4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”

In contrast to Baptism with the Holy Spirit, which is the one-time act by which God places believers into His body, the filling is a repeated reality of Spirit-filled life that God commands believers to maintain. Peter and many others in Acts 2 were filled with the Spirit again (e.g., 4:8, 31; 6:5; 7:55) and so spoke boldly the Word of God. The fullness of the Spirit affects every part of the believers’ lives with no exceptions, not just speaking the Word with boldness. It is essentially living a lifestyle of “holiness unto the Lord.” The “other tongues” were known languages and not some incoherent ecstatic speech. The language had the purpose of preaching the Gospel and warning Israel of coming judgment.

NOTE: The question is often asked were the ones in attendance "Christians." If they were, then this "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" is a second act of grace. In essence, salvation becomes a two-step process. You are saved, then baptized with the Holy Spirit to receive power. I believe this to be an incorrect statement. Those in attendance were Christ disciples but they had not received the Holy Spirit because He had not yet been given. For those believers at Pentecost, salvation was complete when they received the Holy Spirit. For believers today and for all those after the first Pentecost for the church, we receive the Holy Spirit when we are born again. Then, we seek to make our sanctification entire by surrendering our hearts and life completely and daily to the blessed Trinity. We are entirely sanctified when we hold nothing back from our Lord. We exercise faith believing He will cleanse our hearts from all indwelling sin. The work is by faith not works. You fall into the love of God and it in filtrates every aspect of your life.

Verse 5: “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.”

Most likely, these Jews were visiting Jerusalem for Pentecost.

Verse 6: “And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.”

The crowd assembled was amazed that the rural Galileans with their peculiar accents could have learned all these foreign languages.  The “sound” referred to the violent rushing wind, not the sound of the various languages. As the believers were speaking, each person present from outside Jerusalem recognized the language or dialect from each person’s country.

Verse 7: “So they were astounded and marveling, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?”

Galilean Jews spoke with a distinct regional accent and were considered to be unsophisticated and uneducated by the southern Judean Jews. The Judean Jews were amazed when they heard the Galileans speaking their languages unlearned by them. 

Verse 8: “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born?”

The people were from three continents. Certainly they were of diverse languages and dialects. They each heard these Galileans speak in an understandable dialect. These were not unknown tongues. They were languages that were understood. This is proof that there was no unknown babbling incoherently like you hear today: “Retie my bow tie" and “get a honda get a honda.” 

Verse 9: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,”

The list of people from fifteen nations starts with the east (“Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia,” where Jews had been taken captive to Assyria and Babylon). The list proceeds west to Judea, and then north to Asia Minor (Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia). 

Verse 10: “Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,”

The list of people goes from Asia Minor to North Africa (Egypt, parts of Libya near Cyrene), then to Rome. Finally the list includes two widely separated places, Crete and Arabia. 

Verse 11: “Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

“Cretans” were residents of the island of Crete, off the southern coast of Greece. “Arabs” were Jews who lived South of Damascus, among the Nabatean Arabs. Here we see one purpose of speaking in tongues, i.e. to speak the mighty works of God to people in their language previously unknown to the speaker.

Verse 12: “And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”

The people assembled for the festival were amazed, i.e., perplexed might be a better word. They didn’t understand what was taking place as they had never seen such an event as this. People were speaking in languages they had not learned and they were praising the God of Israel.

Verse 13: “But others, mocking, were saying, ‘They are full of new wine.’”

The literal translation is “sweet wine,” and I understand that it is a little more intoxicating. They thought these men were drunk. In the midst of God moving, you can always expect there to be criticism from the “religious” people. Non believers like to mock and make fun of Christians. 

Verse 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.’”

The number “eleven” included the newly appointed Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot as an Apostle.Peter was the acknowledged leader of the Apostles. Peter spoke with Spirit-empowered authority and not as a religious hypocrite.

Verse 15: “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is the third hour of the day;”

The “third hour of the day” was 9am.  It was the practice to fast on feast days until at least the fourth hour. Thus, the alleged drunkenness was most unlikely. Peter is setting the stage for the message to follow and he wants the people to know that the believers were not drunk, Something else was happening and Peter is about to explain it to them.

Verse 16: “but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:”

Peter uses the prophecy from Joel as an answer to the cynical, the unbeliever, the mocker. He says, “This is what,” which is, this is similar to or this is like that. He does not say that this is the fulfillment of that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. He is saying, “Why do you think this is something odd or something strange? We have a prophecy that says these things are going to come to pass.” Peter goes on to quote the prophecy from Joel. Peter wants everyone to know that what is occurring is a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy from Joel. 

Verse 17: “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says,

‘That I will pour out 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;”

The phrase “in the last days,” refers to the present era of redemptive history from the first coming of Christ to His return in the rapture of the church and the second coming when He comes in judgment. “Mankind” indicates that all people will receive the Holy Spirit, because everyone who enters the millennial kingdom will be redeemed. There is no redemption without the Holy Spirit. The time will come, however, when God will use visions and dreams during the Tribulation period as predicted by Joel 2:28–32. Notwithstanding dreams and visions, the written Word of God is the rule for our Christian lives and how we should live.

Verse 18: “Even on My male slaves and female slaves,

I will in those days pour out My Spirit

And they shall prophesy.”

The proclamation of God’s truth, i.e. prophecy, will be pervasive in God’s Kingdom. God will not discriminate in Whom the Spirit is poured upon. Both slaves and free will receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. It is not for the elite. It is for all who will believe in the sin substitute of the Lord Jesus Christ and have faith. 

Verse 19: “And I will put wonders in the sky above

And signs on the earth below,

Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. 

“Wonders” is the amazement people experience when witnessing supernatural works (i.e. miracles). “Signs” point to the power of God behind miracles, i.e. marvels have no value unless they point to God and His truth. Such works were often done by the Holy Spirit through the apostles and their associates to validate them as the messengers of God’s Word. “Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke,” refer to signs that will occur at the second coming of Christ. He will be coming in judgment when He returns.

Verse 20: “The sun will be turned into darkness

And the moon into blood,

Before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”

If we look to the Book of Joel, we will see that he had a great deal to say about the Day of the Lord. The Day of the Lord will begin with the Great Tribulation Period. It will go on through the Millennium. In three chapters of the Book of Joel the Day of the Lord is mentioned five times. Joel talks about the fact that it is a time of war, a time of judgment upon the earth. That has not yet been fulfilled. It was not fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. It will be fulfilled after the rapture of the church, the Tribulation Period, and the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 21: “‘And it will be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”

Up to that moment of judgment and wrath, any who turn to Christ as Lord and Savior will be saved. Think about the thief on the cross. If there is a heartbeat, if there is breath in the body, there is an opportunity to “call on the name of the LORD to be saved.”

Verse 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 did through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—”

In his sermon,  Peter stressed these important facts about the Lord Jesus Christ: His death, His bodily resurrection, His exaltation, His coronation, and the conquest at the Second Coming. Someone may have had an issue with our Lord coming from Nazareth, but God overcame those concerns by performing signs and wonders through Christ establishing His Divinity. The people saw the miracles firsthand so they knew the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 23: “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death.”

Although wicked and evil men, both Jews and Gentiles, had their own plan to put the Lord Jesus Christ to death, their actions were within the sovereign determination of God. In eternity past, the Father covenanted with the Son and Holy Spirit to elect those He chose to salvation by grace, the Son agreed to suffer and die for the elect, and the Holy Spirit agreed to take this truth to the hearts of the elect to bring about their salvation. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of those crucified during the first century establishing the fact of crucifixion during this time as form of capital punishment. 

Verse 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.”

Because of His divine power and God’s promise and purpose, death could not keep Jesus the Christ in the grave. God’s Divine plan of salvation and the method to obtain it would not be thwarted by forces of darkness. What God had decreed in the eternity past would come to fruition because of His Absolute Sovereignty (i.e. power and control) and Providence (means to accomplish His Sovereignty. 

Verse 25: “For David says of Him,

‘I saw the Lord continually before me;
Because He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken.

In Psalm 16, David is primarily speaking about his own human experience and suffering, but in the verses quoted here he speaks prophetically about the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Holy One whose body did not see decay. Many times Old Testament Scriptures have both a present and a future meaning. We have the benefit of almost 2000 years to help us properly interpret the passages that look to Christ as Savior.

Verse 26: “Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted;

Moreover my flesh also will live in hope;”

David had hope because he could see that the Messiah would be resurrected and conqueror death. No matter what we are going through, no matter the attacks on our faith, we have continual hope because our Lord rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father. 

Verse 27: “Because You will not forsake my soul to Hades,

Nor give Your Holy One over to see corruption.”

David now explains the basis of his hope. David’s body has decayed since his death so he is not talking about himself. He is speaking prophetically at the time of his writing the Psalms. He is stating that God will not abandon the Messiah in death, but will raise Him to glory and conquer death. The body of Christ was not corrupted by His death. He was preserved and is today in glory.

Verse 28: “‘You have made known to me the ways of life;

You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’”   

The Lord was speaking of His resurrection prophetically through David. It is because of the victory won by the Lord Jesus Christ that we can know how to live our lives for His glory, have gladness in our present circumstances, and be able to be in His Presence. But for Christ, we would have no model to follow, no gladness in our hearts, and be precluded from His Holy Presence. Since He is our sin substitute, we have been made ready for heaven. That is a cause of great rejoicing.