Partakers Christian Podcasts

Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 03

The Spirit Explodes
Part 3 of 22 - Peter explains and challenges

by Roger Kirby

TThen Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
‘“In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

‘‘Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him:

‘“I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
you will not let your holy one see decay.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.”

‘Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,

‘“The Lord said to my Lord:
‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’”
‘Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.’
When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’
Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off – for all whom the Lord our God will call.’ With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.’ Those who accepted his message were baptised, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:14 – 2:31)


This is a great speech by Peter, or rather two speeches. The first argues convincingly about the meaning of what has happened. The second details the best response to the first one. Luke is only giving us an outline of them, as he says ‘with many other words he warned them’; as we have them they only take about 3 minutes to read right through. The first sets the scene for the whole book and is very cleverly constructed. It starts off defensively, explaining what has happened and what the crowd are seeing by using a quotation from the book of Joel in the OT. Then it switches to the attack explaining why these things have happened with 4 quotations from the book of Psalms.

We read the first speech verses 14 – 37. We shall read Messiah, as in the NIV footnote, at verses 31 and 36. We tend to hear “Christ” as a name but here it is a title or a status and Messiah gives that impression better. The argument of that speech goes like this:
The apparent drunkenness of the disciples is the result of the gift of the Spirit given by the Lord that is by the LORD God of the OT that Joel prophesied about. The crucifixion clearly points to Jesus being the one talked about in Psalm 18 ‘the cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me’ and Psalm 16 refers to the resurrection ‘you will not abandon me to the grave’. Psalm 132 identifies this one as being a descendant of David saying to David ‘one of your own descendants I will place on your throne’. Then Psalm 110 speaks of this descendant as being the Lord. Thus from ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’ we have linked through to ‘this Jesus, whom you crucified, is both Lord and Messiah’, from the Lord of the Old Testament to Jesus as Lord. However difficult it may be to have a human being equated with the LORD God that is what has been done and it did not cause any problem amongst those strongly monotheistic people.

Question 1: What explanation is there for how Peter was able to give such a coherent and compelling response to a difficult situation without prior notice when he had so often got it wrong while Jesus was on earth. How far is this an example for us?

This can only have been a product of the 40 days of intensive instruction the disciples received from Jesus between his resurrection and his ascension. We are told not to worry in times of stress because the Holy Spirit will speak for us but it is doubtful whether that will always apply and it is much better to follow the example here with much study of the story and the teachings of the Bible. We should note that Peter talked about Jesus being raised to life only 7 weeks after the resurrection.

Question 2: What was the obvious thing for the Roman and Jewish leaders to have done if they wanted to stop this new movement before it had even started? Why didn’t they? So what?

Producing the body of Jesus would have stopped the new movement. But they didn’t, obviously because they couldn’t! They could have produced a well decayed body and claimed it was Jesus but they didn’t, so the fact of the resurrection must have been well accepted on the streets of Jerusalem. Thus immediately we see that the resurrection of Jesus is the fundamental foundation of all the Christian faith.

Peter made two additions to his quotation from Joel. Joel said ‘I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth’, but Peter said ‘I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below’.

Question 3: Why did he do that?

He wanted to emphasise that his hearers had just seen some of the wonders. Perhaps, too, he wanted to suggest that Jesus was in heaven and that was a wonder.

Peter changed one phrase too. Joel spoke of ‘the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord’ but Peter changed that to the ‘glorious day of the Lord’.

Question 4: Why did he do that?

Joel had thought that the day of the Lord would be the great final day of this earth as was common Jewish thinking, but Peter realised that that day was happening ahead of the time that everyone had expected.

Question 5: What are the 3 main points that Peter made in this first speech? To give you some clues: a gift, a recent event and a range. What do they mean for us?

Of course you may argue with me saying there are exactly 3 main points! I see them as:

• That the Spirit was a gift. Promised long before but now given to every follower of Jesus – including you and me!
• That the central fact on which all else depends is the Resurrection of Jesus. As Paul said later ‘if Christ has not been raised your faith is futile ... we are to be pitied more than all men’. This is the solid ground of our faith.
• That the gift of salvation and the Spirit was to ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord’. The promise is to ‘all who are far off’. The range is the whole wide world. That includes you and me! Hooray!

Question 6: Why were Peter’s hearers so upset – ‘cut to the heart’?

Very probably many of those who heard Peter were in the crowd which had cried ‘crucify him!’ not so long before. They would be feeling very guilty.

Now we read the second speech verses 38 – 41.

Question 7: What two things did Peter want his hearers to do? How do we do these two things?

He wanted them to repent and to be baptized. To repent is to change the whole direction and purpose of one’s life. That is not an easy thing to do, but it is within the power of every one of us, particularly with the help of the Holy Spirit. To be baptized may be difficult, particularly if you have already been baptized as a child. Baptism is the sign and seal of the new life beginning. As we shall see as we read on through Acts this usually, but not always, followed repentance and was closely associated with the gift of the Spirit.

Question 8: What two things, one visible and one invisible, will always happen as a consequence of our repentance and beginning of the new life?

We shall receive the gift of the Spirit, which should be clearly evident to those around us, and we shall receive forgiveness of sins, which cannot be seen but will also always happen.

The 3000 people who responded positively to what Peter said that day each began a personal and communal journey. The rest of the book of Acts tells us about that journey, telling us mainly about that of the whole community but hinting at the personal journeys too: the exciting bits, the difficult bits, the nearly impossible bits, the fun bits. That is the way journeys are if they are worth making. If they are just boring they are not worth making. Also – they need a goal. This journey has the greatest of all goals – the immediate presence of our Lord and Saviour.

I hope you are on this best of all journeys – following Jesus.

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Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 02

The Spirit Explodes
Part 2 of 22 - The Gift of the Holy Spirit

by Roger Kirby

Acts 1:14 – 2:13

They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) and said, ‘Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.’ (With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

‘For,’ said Peter, ‘it is written in the Book of Psalms: ‘“May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,” and, ‘“May another take his place of leadership.” Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.’ So they nominated two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. Then they prayed, ‘Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.’ Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Acts 2 - The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’ Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’


Almost exactly 50 days after their great redemption from Egypt the ancient people of God met him at Sinai. In New Testament times the people of Israel celebrated that day in the feast of Weeks, which brought a great crowd to Jerusalem. We call that day ‘Pentecost’ which means the 50th day.

Before we proceed perhaps we should say something about the Trinity. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had the personal name of YAHWEH, as Moses was told in Exodus 3. In most English Bibles this name is indicated by the word LORD, in capital letters, reflecting the fact that in Biblical times they did not say the name YAHWEH, but substituted their word for Lord. We will say ‘LORD God‘.

The LORD God is referred to in many ways in the OT:

• as Spirit (Is 63: 7, 10 where we read ‘I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord,
the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all the Lord has done for us –
yes, the many good things he has done for Israel’ And then ‘Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit.),
  
• as Wisdom (Prov 1: 20, 29 where we have ‘Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,’ and then ‘they hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the Lord.), • as Word (Is 55: 11 ‘my word goes out from my mouth: it will achieve the purpose for which I sent it),
  
• as Law (Ps 19: 7 ‘The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul.). To a greater or lesser extent these were spoken of, or related to, almost as if they were the LORD himself.
  

This prepares us for the NT where first Jesus, then the Holy Spirit, are referred to in ways that indicate they are the LORD: the same LORD God but a different person. There is one God but three persons. God the Father is in heaven. Jesus God is with him after effecting our salvation through his death on the Cross, Spirit God is with us in the everyday, mediating the things of God and Jesus to us. The passage we are about to look at today tells us how the presence of the Holy Spirit was signalled to the early disciples. It sets the tone for how we are to understand his presence.

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Partakers Bible Thought – The Spirit Explodes 01

The Spirit Explodes
Part 1 of 22 - Preparation for Mission

by Roger Kirby

In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’
Then they gathered round him and asked him, ‘Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’
He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’

Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk[c] from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. (Acts 1:1–14)

The person who wrote Luke’s Gospel also wrote this book with his account of the early apostolic church. Nearly everybody thinks the author of these scrolls was Luke, a doctor and a companion of Paul on his journeys (Colossians 4: 14), for two reasons. Firstly, early tradition all points to Luke as the author and there is no reason to doubt that. Secondly, Luke fits, as the Gospel writer shows good knowledge of medical conditions and he was with Paul in Acts at the right times. Without doubt he selected his material carefully. He did not record everything he could have done but selected his material to convey a message. In these studies we aim to work out what that message is and how it applies to us today. Download or listen to this study and learn more about how the Holy Spirit exploded onto the scene and empowered the church!!

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Bible Thought - Remember Who You Are

Colossians 3v1-4

“Remember Who You Are!”

During last week, I attended the funeral of a friend, mentor and editor. This friend is now more alive than ever before! Why? That is explained here from Colossians 3:1-4. 

If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4)

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Partakers Bible Thought - God of Love

A God Of Love

 

We live in a world that is in love with love.  Love, according to some people, is what makes the world go around.  In the Bible, God’s love is revealed. The Apostle John in 1 John 4 does not simply say that God loves, but rather that God is love.  Remember that God is the Holy Trinity, three persons in one. The Trinity is a living, vibrant community of love, and every activity of the Trinity, is an expression of love.  God loves because that is His very nature. Throughout the Bible, God’s love is described as an unfailing, everlasting, intimate, sacrificial, unbreakable, conquering, immeasurable and all-knowing.  How is God’s love seen?  It is seen in two ways.

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Firstly, it is shown supremely in that He has given His Son to be the Saviour of the world, so that if a person takes up that opportunity, they can know and enjoy God in a personal relationship.  God had only one Son, Jesus Christ, and He sent Him on a rescue mission to seek the lost and to reconcile people to God.  This is love in action.  The lover dying for the ones He loves.

Secondly, God’s love is shown when Christians love. As a Christian, you are a child of God, so you should want to be like your Heavenly Father, by showing the world your love for others and your transformed character.  The Christian Church should be a community of love, for this is how the world sees God

If people see Christians that are not loving and kind, rightly or wrongly, the whole Church is branded as a bunch of fakes and hypocrites.  Worse still, God is seen at best as nothing more than a distant uncaring irrelevant figure.  The love between Christians is seen as a visible showing of the invisible God.  The very character of the church should always be to reflect God in all aspects.  The ultimate example of showing people God, is for you as a Christian, to love and be love.  People should be seeing God’s love, through your love.  For as Jesus said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another” (John 13:35).

His love releases us from the things that so easilyentangle our daily walk with Him.  The more you hold onto His love, the more you will desire it and the more it will be revealed in your daily life.  Your love in action today, reflects God’s love in action on the cross.  Go and love - to the glory of God!  Maranatha!

 

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