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Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. (Acts 2:43)

Many of us wonder what it would be like to experience some of the great events of history. We think of momentous battles, breakthroughs, inventions, triumphs, and tragedies and imagine what it was all like first-hand.

The life of the earliest church is one of those times that I wish I could go back and experience in real life. There is a rush of excitement in just reading what happened in Acts 2 and following – it would be amazing to experience this in daily life, even if just for an extended season.

Here in Acts 2:43 we have mention of two significant features of this exciting time. First, we read that fear came upon every soul. I like the New Living Translation of this phrase: A deep sense of awe came over them all. This in itself was evidence of the power of God. These people who once rejected Jesus had completely changed their mind about Him. Now they embraced Jesus as Messiah, Savior, and Lord. Therefore, they honored Jesus and His followers.

One of the greatest, most powerful works God can do is to change the human heart towards a reverent honor of God. This fear that came upon every soul (or sense of awe) means that this was not a light, superficial work. There was joy, but it wasn’t all laughing and silliness. People understood that an awesome God was doing a mighty work.

We also read that many signs and wonders were done through the apostles. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He wasn’t finished doing miraculous things on the earth. I believe that even today God isn’t finished doing miraculous things. We don’t have any indication that this meant that even the apostles could “perform” a miracle any time they pleased to – as if the power of the miracle rested in them. Instead, we see that God appointed that such miracles should happen, and the apostles were the willing servants to do such miracles.

These two things – the changed lives (fear came upon every soul) and the miraculous works (many signs and wonders) were evidence of the power of God. Where God is at work, lives will be touched in miraculous ways. We can never tell God what miracles to perform and how to do them, but we will see changed lives and examples of God’s power.

As I look at the Christian world today, I see many people excited about signs and wonders and such obviously amazing things. I understand why; when it comes to genuine miracles that truly give glory to God, I want to see more of them and not less!

I simply wish that more Christians wanted to see fear come upon every soul – including their own soul! Let’s believe God for great things and let Him take care of the miracle department. Yet each of us can humbly come before Him in awe and reverent fear. Let’s do that today.

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Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38-39)

Preaching Jesus to a massive crowd of people, Peter told them all what they needed to do: Repent and be baptized. After telling them to repent and be baptized, Peter then told them what they could expect: you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

In other words, the same wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit seen among the 120 disciples of Jesus could also be theirs. They saw the glorious work of the Holy Spirit among the disciples, and Peter told them that it was something that these people could take part in; they didn’t only have to be observers. This was part of the new covenant, promised in passages like Ezekiel 36:27: I will put My Spirit within you. This was truly the gift of the Holy Spirit.

It’s a remarkable promise – but was it only for those who heard Peter preach on that day? Not every promise in the Bible is for us. We have to be careful that we don’t become arrogant or presumptuous, thinking that promises are for us when they are not.

The good news is that Peter, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, specifically told us that this promise is for us today. The promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off. When Peter made that promise you were afar off. You were far off in geography, far off in culture, and far off in time. Since the promise is for all who are afar off, it can include people up to the present time.

It can be true for you. If you will come to God through Jesus Christ, coming in repentance and faith (true faith that will be expressed in actions such as baptism), you become part of God’s new covenant.

Peter did not say that the unbelieving, unaware children of his listeners should be baptized. He simply said that the promise of the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit were for all who would repent and believe with active faith, even to coming generations and all who are afar off.

How many are there afar off who will receive this promise of salvation and the Holy Spirit? As many as the Lord God will call. This doesn’t give a specific number, but John saw an uncountable multitude around God’s throne (Revelation 7:9). Anyone who will answer God’s call can receive this promise – and no longer be afar off, but now be brought near (Ephesians 2:13).

Today, thank God that though you were once afar off, you have been brought near!

Click here for David’s commentary on Acts 2

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38)

When a crowd asks an evangelist “What shall we do,” a good evangelist will never miss the opportunity to tell them to respond to Jesus Christ. That’s exactly what happened in Acts 2 when Peter preached to the multitude at the Feast of Pentecost.

Peter must have been pleasantly amazed to see what God had done in this situation. Instead of people wanting to crucify him because of Jesus, thousands of people wanted to trust in Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

Here is what Peter told them: Repent, and let every one of you be baptized. Responding to the question, what shall we do? (Acts 2:37) Peter gave them something to do. This means that we must do something to receive salvation, we must do something to follow Jesus; it doesn’t just “happen.”

Peter did not say to the crowd, “There’s nothing you can do. If God saves you, you’re saved. If God doesn’t save you, you’ll never be saved.” Though it is true that only God could do the saving, the people had to receive through repentance and faith, faith leading to action such as baptism.

The first thing Peter told them to do is repent. To repent does not mean to feel sorry, but it means to change one’s mind or direction. They had thought a certain way about Jesus before, considering Him worthy of death on a cross. Now they must turn their thinking around, embracing Jesus as Lord and Messiah.

Repent sounds like such a harsh word in the mouths of many preachers and in the ears of many listeners, but it is an essential aspect of the gospel. Repent has been rightly called “the preacher’s first word.”

When John the Baptist preached he said, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand! (Matthew 3:2). When Jesus began to preach He said, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 4:17). Now when Peter began to preach, he started with repent.

Repentance must never be thought of as something we must do before we can come back to God. Repentance describes what coming to God is. You can’t turn towards God without turning from the things He is against.

We can’t repent unless God works in us (2 Timothy 2:25), but God won’t repent for us. God works in and through the human will, and a person must respond to God’s invitation (often through a preacher) and say, “I will now repent.”

Repentance must be present at the beginning of our walk with God, but it doesn’t end there. We are to keep on repenting, as God shows us more and more to get right with Him. Today, think of how repentance can be an ongoing work in your life.

Click here for David’s commentary on Acts 2

Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. (Acts 2:24)

When Peter preached his fantastic sermon on Pentecost, Peter boldly confronted his hearers with their sin. Peter did not flinch at telling them, “you crucified this Man who was sent by God” (the idea of Acts 2:23). Peter could do this because his first concern was not to please his audience, but to tell them the truth. But Peter couldn’t stop there, as if his only point was to make them feel bad about their sin. Peter had to show them that there was a fact that was even greater than man’s guilt in executing the Son of God.

The greater fact was the power of God and the greatness of Jesus, both demonstrated by the resurrection. It was not possible for Jesus to remain bound by the power of death, as explained by Peter’s following quotation from Psalm 16. It was not possible for Jesus to remain a victim of the sin and hatred of man. Jesus simply had to come out ahead, glorious in triumph over sin, death, and hatred. To demonstrate this, notice that Peter used the phrase pains of death. The word pains is actually the word for “birth pains.” The idea is that the tomb was like a womb for Jesus! As one commentator wrote, “It was not possible that the chosen one of God should remain in the grip of death; the abyss can no more hold the Redeemer than a pregnant woman can hold the child in her body.”

Just as a baby must come out of the womb, the resurrection of Jesus simply had to happen. There was no way the Holy One – the sinless Son of God – could remain bound by the chains of death.

When Jesus died on the cross, He bore the full wrath of God as if He were a guilty sinner, guilty of all our sin, even being made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Yet even that was an act of holy, giving love for us. Therefore, Jesus Himself did not become a sinner, even though He bore the full guilt of our sin. This is the good news – that Jesus took our punishment for sin on the cross and remained a perfect Savior through the whole ordeal – all proved by His resurrection.

For this reason, He remained the Holy One, even in His death; and it was not possible that God’s Holy One could remain bound by death – the resurrection was absolutely inevitable. We don’t see many things in life that simply must happen. In almost all things we can think of another way things could turn out. But it was not this way with the resurrection of Jesus – it had to happen. It was not possible for it to be any other way. And it proves that God’s love and power are greater than the worst of man’s sin and rebellion.

Click here for David’s commentary on Acts 2

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.” (Acts 2:14)

Acts 2 describes a series of remarkable events. As the 120 disciples of Jesus gathered in an upper room, first there was an unusual sound. Then there were one-of-a-kind little flames of fire that strangely appeared above the heads of everyone in the upper room. Then, they spontaneously began to praise God and declare His marvelous works in languages they had never spoken before. This is called the gift of tongues, and it is spoken about in several other Bible passages.

On a day of strange things, the best thing was yet to happen. We come to that starting at verse 14: Peter, standing up with the eleven. What a sight! Peter standing together with the other apostles, ready to speak to the amazed multitude.

When Peter raised his voice, it was the start of an amazing sermon. Standing with the eleven, Peter stood and preached to the crowd as a representative of the whole group of apostles.

We should notice that the speaking in tongues stopped when Peter began to preach. The Holy Spirit now worked through Peter’s preaching and would not work against Himself through the speaking of tongues at the same time.

When Peter raised his voice, it was also evidence of a remarkable change in Peter. Now he displayed a courage and boldness that was a complete contrast to the way that he denied even knowing Jesus when his Savior was arrested. All that was before being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, Peter was a different man.

On the Day of Pentecost Peter didn’t teach as the rabbis in his day usually did, who gathered disciples around them, sat down, and instructed them and any others who might listen. Instead, Peter proclaimed the truth like a herald.

This remarkable sermon had no preparation behind it – it was spontaneously given. Peter didn’t wake up that morning knowing he would preach to thousands, and that thousands would embrace Jesus in response. At the same time, we could say that this was a well-prepared sermon; it was prepared by Peter’s prior life with God and relationship with Jesus. It flowed spontaneously out of that life, and out of a mind that thought and believed deeply.

It is good to remember that what we have in Acts 2 is a small portion of what Peter actually said. Acts 2:40 tells us this: and with many other words he testified and exhorted them. Like almost all the sermons recorded in the Bible, what we have is a Holy Spirit inspired summary of a longer message.

That message came through a man changed by the power of the Holy Spirit, and it’s not too much to say that what began with Peter’s sermon changed the world. Let the life-changing power of the Spirit have free reign in your life today.

Click here for David’s commentary on Acts 2