Elder Goh Kee Tai

Peter’s Preaching to the Jews in Jerusalem

After the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord appeared to His disciples and directed them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the ‘promise of the Father’; i.e. the promised outpouring or filling of the Holy Spirit (Ac 1:4,5). This occurred suddenly on the day of the Pentecost, when the apostles and disciples were assembled together with one accord in earnest prayer and supplication (Ac 2:1,2). They were empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the wonderful redemptive work of God in ‘other tongues’(Ac 2:4,11). These were languages or dialects of the natives of foreign lands of the Roman Empire where the Jews had been dispersed and settled down. A great multitude of devout Jews and proselytes from at least 15 countries had gathered in Jerusalem to worship in the Temple on the Feast of Harvest (Ac 2:9-11). The crowd was amazed that these Galilean disciples could speak in other tongues (Ac 2:7,8). While many were puzzled at this supernatural phenomenon and gathered before the Apostles and disciples to seek an explanation, others mockingly replied that these disciples were drunk with wine (Ac 2:12,13).

First preaching at Pentecost
Peter who had reaffirmation his love and allegiance to the resurrected Christ (Jn 21:15-17), was the leader of the new-born local church. Filled with the Holy Spirit, he confidently, boldy and loudly addressed the crowd comprising men of Judeae and all that dwelt in Jerusalem. He refuted that the disciples were drunk as no Jew would eat or drink before 9.00 am on the Holy Sabbath or a Feast Day. What the crowd had witnessed was in fulfilment of God’s prophecy recorded by Joel (Joel 2:28-32): ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: ....And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Ac 2:17,18,21).

Christ’s first coming ushered in the ‘last time’ or ‘last days’ (1 Jn 2:18; Heb 1:2).The ‘last days’ refers to the period between the first and second coming of Christ. In His first coming, all who have repented of their sins and believe on Him as the Messiah by grace through faith shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit (Eph 2:8; Rm 8:9). These include sons and daughters, young men and old men, servants and handmaidens who shall be able to ‘prophesy’; i.e. to know God’s will and witness to others the gospel of eternal life in Christ. The last day will end on ‘that great and notable day of the Lord’, with cosmic disturbance and heavenly and earthly signs and wonders (Ac 2:19,20). This shall take place just prior to Christ’s second coming on earth with His redeemed in power and great glory (Is 34:4; Lk 21:25-27; Mt 24:29,30).

Peter then appealed to the men of Israel to pay careful attention as he reviewed the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He proved to them that Jesus of Nazareth is their promised Messiah, ‘a man approved of God’ (Ac 2:22). His claim as the Son of God was authenticated by miracles, wonders and signs in their midst.

Jesus was delivered, crucified and slain by wicked men in accordance to with the ‘determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God’ (Ac 2:23). In fulfilment of the Divine plan of redemption and reconciliation for sinful men revealed in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:15), God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, from heaven’s glory to this depraved earth as a Suffering Servant and Saviour of the world (Jn 3:16; 10:17,18; Lk 19:10). The heavenly Father was pleased with Christ’s obedience by offering Himself as a sacrificial Lamb and highly exalted Him by raising Him from the dead (Ac 2:24). The disciples were all witnesses of His resurrection (Ac 2:32). The resurrected Christ appeared to them for 40 days before His ascension to heaven (Ac 1:3).

The prophecy of Christ’s resurrection was revealed to David who earnestly looked forward to the coming Messiah: ‘Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption’ (Ac 2:27). Peter pointed out that in Psalm 16:8-11, David was not speaking of himself, but of the Messiah. As Jesus was the ‘Holy One’ raised from the dead, He must be the promised Messiah (Ac 2:36).

Peter reminded the Jewish hearers of God’s covenant with David and explained that Christ is the Son of David, ‘the fruit of his loins’, that shall sit on his throne (Ac 2:30; Lk 1:32).He quoted another Messianic psalm, 110:1, and again stressed that David was not referring to himself, but to Jesus Christ: ‘The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, Until I make thy foes thy footstool’(Ac 2:34,35). This prophecy shall be fulfilled when Christ returns to sit on the throne of David in Jerusalem to rule over His millennial kingdom on earth (Rev 20:4). He shall make His enemies His footstool (Ps 110:1).

Peter returned to the original fact on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. He declared that it was the exalted Christ who had received the promise of the Father and filled His disciples with the Holy Spirit (Ac 2:33).

Peter proved beyond doubt from Old Testament prophecies and from what the crowd had seen and heard of the wonderful gospel of salvation proclaimed in known foreign languages, that Jesus is the promised Messiah (Ac 2:36) authenticated by His miracles, resurrection from the dead and ascendedsion to heaven. He was highly exalted by God and now seated on His right hand (Ac 2:33,34) until He returns to establish His millennial kingdom on earth.

Peter concluded his sermon by charging the Jewish audience for crucifying and killing the promised Messiah: ‘ Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ’ (Ac 2:36). He had earlier challenged them from Joel’s prophecy that ‘whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved’ (Ac 2:21).

When the people heard the powerful sermon, they were convicted,‘pricked in their heart’ and cried out to Peter and the Apostles ‘what shall we do?’ (Ac 2:37). Peter replied ‘Repent, and be baptised 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’(Ac 2:38).

This offer of salvation in Christ is to all of them, and to ‘their children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call’(Ac 2:39).

Peter continued with his exhortations, warned and pleaded with them to ‘Save yourselves from this untoward generation’ (Ac 2:40).

By the grace and mercy of God, about 3000 who had sincerely acknowleged Jesus Christ as the Son of God, His atoning death and resurrection, and genuinely confessed and repented of their sins and embraced Him as their personal Lord and Saviour, were baptised (Ac 2:41). They were saved, their sins remitted and they had the gift of the Holy Spirit. This was a major step which these believers had boldly taken in publicly breaking away from Judaism and pledging their life-long allegiance to Christ with consequent persecution.

Second preaching at Solomon’s porch
Peter seized the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the ‘men of Israel’, gathered at Solomon’s porch of the Temple after he and John had healed a man crippled from birth (Ac 3:6-8). The large crowd of Jews were amazed by this miracle.

He immediately gave God the glory by declaring that it was in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, through faith in His name and His miraculous power that the man was able to stand, walk and leap (Ac 3:16). He elaborated on his previous sermon by pointing out that they were guilty of causing the death of Jesus Christ, by delivering Him to Pilate, the Roman governor, who found Him innocent and was determined to release Him. But they vehemently opposed it and demanded that a notorious murderer, Barabbas, be released instead (Mt 27:11-26). They were guilty of killing ‘the Holy One and the Just’(Ac 3:14),‘the Prince of life’(Ac 3:15). He stated that it was the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that had glorified His ‘Son Jesus’ by raising him from the dead (Ac 2:13). The disciples were witnesses of the resurrection.

The Jewish hearers could not deny that they were guilty of rejecting the promised Messiah and responsible for His crucifixion and death. Peter assured them that just like their religious leaders, they took part in the crucifixion ‘through ignorance’(Ac 3:17), echoing what the Lord had said on the Cross that they knew not what they did and forgave them (Lk 23:34). Peter again pointed out that in accordance withto the sovereign decretive will of God since the world began, He sent His Son to die on the Cross to redeem sinful men and to reconcile them to Him (Ac 2:23). All the events that occurred in His life, suffering, death, resurrection and ascension, were in fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies (Ac 3:18)

Peter graciously pleaded with them to ‘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’ (Ac 3:19). In other words, when they repented of their sins, and accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, they shall be baptised with the Holy Spirit and experience God’s grace and spiritual joy and blessings. He again spoke on the second coming of Christ described as the ‘times of restitution of all things’(Ac 3:21) as revealed by God to the Old Testament prophets. This would be the time when Christ shall restore all things and rule with justice and peace from the throne of David in His millennial kingdom.

Peter further warned the Jewish hearers of God’s judgment if they continued to reject Jesus Christ as the Messiah, by referring to the prophecy of Moses: ‘ A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatosever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people’(Ac 3 :22,23; Deu 18:15-19). The Jews had rejected Samuel and all other prophets whom God had sent to their forefathers, the last Prophet being Jesus Christ.

Peter reminded them that as God’s chosen people, they were heirs of His covenant which He made with Abraham: ‘And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed’(Ac 3:25).That promised Seed is none other than His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, whom God sent to the Jews first in redeeming them from their sins and bondage of Satan, and blessing them with everlasting life in Him. Through the Jews, the Gentiles shall also be blessed.

About 5,000 men who were convicted of their sins, repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, were added to the church (Ac 4:4).

Conclusion
Peter’s two sermons complemented each other. He convincingly proved to the Jewish audience that Jesus of Nazareth whom they crucified and killed is the Son of David, the promised Messiah, confirmed by fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies and authenticated by signs and wonders (Ac 2:22). In the first coming of the Messiah as a ‘Suffering Servant’, His mission was to restore Israel to God and to bring light to the Gentiles. He was despised and rejected, but God exalted Him by raising Him from the dead. In His second coming in great power and glory, He will sit on the throne of David and worshipped as the King of kings and Lord of lords (Is 52:13-53;49:7;Rev 19:16).

The central theme of the sermons is the irrefutable resurrection of Jesus Christ, while the very heart of the gospel of salvation is the need for repentencerepentance, for without it, there will be no remission of sins. In concluding both sermons, Peter warned the hearers to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour otherwise, they would face divine judgment.

The gift of the Holy Spirit who indwells a believer (1 Cor 3:16), attested by tongue speaking in intelligible language or dialect in an orderly manner, in the birth and growth of the apostolic church was a transitory sign. With the completion of the New Testament (1 Cor 13:9,10), this phenomenon had ceased: ‘Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away’ (1 Cor 13:8 ).

We have this gift of the Holy Spirit the moment we repent of our sins and believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour. At the time of salvation, Jesus baptises a believer with the Holy Spirit. It is an invisible act of God by which the Holy Spirit indwells every believer (1 Cor 12:13). Our eternal salvation is sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13) who fills us and empowers us to underestandunderstand spiritual things (1 Cor 2 :11-14), and to do God’s will in witnessing for Christ and in living each day for Him. If we do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit and under His control in our life, we are not saved: ‘Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his’ (Rm 8:9).

To obtain an inheritance in God’s everlasting kingdom, we must be sure that we have been born again and have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Amen.