Joel 2:19-22 - Fear not

2:19

While turning to the Lord is the right thing to do, it will also bring practical benefits as well. The Lord will bring fruitfulness to the land, and never again will they be an object of scorn among the nations. Note that it is the Lord who made Israel an object of scorn. This was not an arbitrary action, but one that was righteous judgement upon their sin. But because it was the Lord who did this, it is also the Lord who can change things.

2:20

The “northern horde” could refer to Assyria, but this is far from certain. For Assyria did get close to defeating Jerusalem, but was then miraculously defeated, as noted in Isaiah 36-39. Alternatively, it could just be a general reference to Israel’s enemies. It could also be a reference to locust hordes, though they tended to come from other directions. However, references to attacks from the north are common in the prophets. Whatever the case, the key thing is that the enemy is completely defeated, and the defeat is God’s doing. When faced with trouble we tend to turn anywhere, except the Lord, in looking for help, only turning to Him when we have exhausted every other option. We need to turn to Him more quickly, for salvation comes from the Lord.

2:21,22

Joel then addresses the land, the animals and the people in v21,22 and 23, respectively. The salvation of the Lord affects all aspects of creation. An implication of this is that the best thing we can do for the well being of the environment is to turn to the Lord. The locusts had devastated the land itself, and the animals would be suffering as much as the people. They would both benefit from God’s salvation. The crops would yield their harvest.

Acts 3:19-21 - Repent and have times of refreshing

3:19

“Repent then”. The modern approach (though it probably wasn’t that much different in society in the past) is to ignore our sinfulness. The worst thing is that there are many in the church who advocate such a line. This was not the approach of the early church. The gospel is very clear about our sinfulness, it is very clear about what we should do, and it is equally clear about the response that God will make, as we see here. “Repent” means a complete change of mind, of the whole direction of our approach to life. So instead of living out of their own will, they are to turn to God, as must we all. Then our sins will be wiped out. But this isn’t just a clearing of the slate, for this is followed by “times of refreshing”, and these come from the Lord!

3:20,21

“And that he may send the Messiah”. This is in some ways a strange phrase. The clue to its meaning is in the next verse. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah, they expected him to “restore all things”. Note that there is no denying that the Messiah will actually come and restore all things, including restoring the kingdom to Israel. But before Israel could enjoy these benefits something else had to happen. They needed to repent, they needed to see their own need of salvation from sin, and that Christ is God’s chosen solution to the problem. We can see this pattern repeating many times in the lives of individuals, even our own lives. We think that God has forgotten us, that He isn’t answering, when what is actually happening is that He is waiting for us to turn to Him, for us to repent.

Joel 2:16-18 - Then the Lord became jealous for the land

2:16,17

Everyone was called to partake in this fast, in this turning to the Lord. The young and old. Even a bridegroom was to take part, the fact of the wedding was no excuse for failing to attend this fast. Later we will read of the Holy Spirit being poured out on all flesh, but of equal importance is that all flesh repent and humble themselves before the Lord. The priests, instead of being servants of the state, are to be servants of God, then they will truly serve the people. They are to lead the people in humbling themselves before God. Note also that this is not just a matter of the people suffering less if they turn back to the Lord, it is also a matter of the Lord’s Name being honoured instead of mocked. In the West the name of the Lord is generally mocked. I don’t just mean when Christ is used as a swear word, but the general attitude towards the church and to God. Part of the reason for this is that the church as a whole has turned away from God.

2:18

“The the Lord was jealous for the land”. The Lord had tied His name to Israel (and still has!). Yet they had scorned Him and were worshipping other things. But the land belonged to the Lord, and the people’s rightful place was with the Lord, trusting in Him, following His ways. Similarly, our rightful place is that we trust the Lord. Whatever your circumstances, or my circumstances right now, the thing we should be doing is trusting the Lord. So often when we say things like that our emphasis or motivation is on us getting an “answer” if we do that. But there is a deeper, and greater reason, for doing that. It is the right thing to do, it is what we are meant to do.

In seeking to bring the people back the Lord is having pity, showing mercy. People sometimes object to God seeking to bring them back to His ways, but the worst thing that can happen to a man or woman is that God just lets us go our own way. That way lies disaster.

Acts 3:17,18 - Acting in ignorance

3:17

Referring back to the discussion on verse 15, we now see that what Peter is saying is not anti-semitic at all. He is not saying they killed the Lord in order to consider them less worthy than himself, or to condemn them, but to point out the truth of the matter, and to call them to repentance and faith. They acted in ignorance. There are several instances in the New Testament of it speaking of people acting in ignorance. In Acts 17:30 Paul tells the Athenians that they acted in ignorance in making images of gold or stone. In Eph 4:18 Paul speaks of people generally acting in dark ways because of their ignorance, and in 1 Tim 1:13 he speaks of himself acting in ignorance when he persecuted the church. And in 1 Peter 1:14 Peter speaks of the believers past lifestyles being a result of their ignorance. We need to appreciate that the Bible does not use ignorance as an excuse, they are still guilty. Rather, they have now been made aware of the truth, and they need to respond to the truth. What we see is a “model” where people are told that their behaviour is wrong, evil; part of the reason is that they were ignorant of the truth, now the truth has been made known to them, and they need to repent and believe. This Biblical model is very different from the model so often adopted by the “church” today, which more often than not seems to say sin does not matter .

3:18

Man sinned, but God used this to fulfil His plans, His plans told through the prophets long ago. The suffering of the Messiah was necessary for the justification of sinners. The sovereignty of God and human responsibility are in no way contradictory. We may at times trouble ourselves, wondering how the two can work together, but the Bible has no such problems, We make decisions, we are responsible for our decisions and actions, and they matter, but God’s will is always fulfilled.

Joel 2:14,15 - Blow the trumpet

2:14

“Who knows whether he will not turn and relent..” This should not be read as implying doubt, but rather an attitude of humility. We do not deserve mercy and grace. This is true by definition, but so often today people seem to assume that God has a duty to show mercy. We come in humility, then we will find forgiveness and will find a blessing.

The reference to grain and drink offerings is pointing back to the effect of the locust swarm. These things had been taken away by the locust, but mercy would include restoration. One again there would be fruitfulness. God’s grace is not a grudging avoidance of punishment, but a lavish outpouring of His love. This is something we find again and again in the Bible, with the parable of the prodigal son perhaps being the best example.

and mercy.

2:15

Earlier God had called on them to rend their hearts not their garments. Now the nation is called to a holy fast. There is nothing inherently wrong with religious festivals, the problem arises when the festival or religious ritual becomes the focus, rather than God Himself. And it is equally possible for non-liturgical forms of service to become idols, to have their attention shift from the Lord to something else.

Curried leftovers

Bishop Curry’s sermon at the Royal Wedding caused much interest at the time, though I suspect most people are now quickly forgetting it. So, I don’t intend to say anything about it, but instead to look at what Paul said in Acts 17:29-31. Paul was speaking in Athens, and was addressing the elite, much like Bishop Curry one might say. So let’s see what Paul said:

“We ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising”. Their “gods” were made in their image, and so often we think of God as if He is made in our image. We look at Him from a purely human perspective. God is not like man. We are made in His image, but we are creatures, He is the Creator. We are time bound, He is eternal. We are sinful, He is holy. The idols of the day were made of silver and gold, they were made by man’s artistic abilities, but ultimately they were not gods, just lumps of metal. Today our idols tend to be in the mind, but they share the same faults. They are based on a human perspective. This applies to the atheist and humanist when he discusses God, but they also apply to many Christians when we discuss God. It also often applies in our personal lives. A lot of our anxiety and fears are a results of looking at things from a human perspective, forgetting who God really is. We ought not to think this way, we need to learn to think in a Biblical way, in a Christlike way.

Then in verse 30 Paul tells them that God overlooked their ignorance. Do you know that much of our thinking is based on ignorance? Then comes the command to repent. So often we treat the gospel as if it was a nice message just telling people that God loves them. That is not what we find in the Bible, that is an idol of our minds, a man-made gospel. The gospel is a message commanding all men everywhere to repent. It demands a response from us.

Then in verses 31 Paul’s point is sharpened further. “Because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He ordained” (ie Jesus). There is a day of judgement, and on that Day the judge will be Jesus Christ. Do you see how different this message is from what is often presented as “the gospel”? The gospel of the Bible is not “nice”, rather it tells us that we are ignorant, that we are sinners, that we need to repent. And if we do not repent then there lies ahead the prospect of judgement, and judgement by Jesus Christ.

The good news is that if we do repent and believe in Christ then we receive the gift of eternal life and the final judgement need hold no fear for us, but the good news is a far more serious and hard-hitting message than it is often (mis) represented as.

Acts 3:13-16 - You killed the author of life

3:13,14

Peter reaffirms the message he preached on Pentecost. He reminds them again that they had handed Jesus over to Pilate, even after Pilate had offered to release Jesus, saying he could find no grounds for accusing Him. Peter is not afraid to remind people of their guilt. Indeed, the whole Bible is not afraid to remind us of our guilt! Today we often shy away from that, or even teach that we should not remind people of their guilt. This is a deeply unbiblical approach. Peter gives God His “full title”, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus is the culmination of the Old Testament. He is the fulfillment of God’s plans, He is not a departure from the Old Testament. God glorified Jesus. The miracles were an outward sign and demonstration of the fact that God has glorified the Son.

3:15

Peter does not mince his words, “you killed the author of life ... we are witnesses of this”. Today to use such a phrase would be considered anti-semitic, and indeed the church over the centuries has much to be ashamed of in its treatment of the Jews. So was Peter wrong to use such a phrase? Absolutely not. He was speaking the truth. So is he being anti-semitic? Again, absolutely not. So let’s see where the problem lies, and it is here. We interpret statements like this as “you killed Jesus, and so are much worse than us”. This then leads to unspeakable behaviour towards, in this case the Jews. So our solution is to not say “you killed the Jews”, but this no solution at all. For today in society we find that it is impossible to say any action is sinful without being branded a “hater” or “x-phobic” (replace x with whichever group you are saying is wrong). The truth is that we are all guilty. As Paul says in Romans 3:23, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, what modern man is saying is “no one has sinned”, and this is a complete lie.

3:16

Peter then makes it absolutely clear that it is Jesus who has healed the man. The people need to face up to their guilt, to repent and to believe, to put their faith in Jesus. The man put his faith in Jesus and the results were obvious for all to see. What people were seeing was not a man being healed by Peter and John, but a man being healed by Jesus because he put his faith in Jesus. 

Joel 2:10-13 - Even now, return to Me

2:10,11

Cosmic language is now used. Remember that this was being used to describe a locust swarm, and a military invasion. The vast numbers of locusts did indeed block out the sun and moon. So when we read similar imagery in apocalyptic passages (eg Matthew 24, Revelation) we need to be careful in over literal interpretations. At the same time we need to beware of under literal interpretations. The locust swarm was very real, and utterly devastating. The military invasion would be even more terrible. And it was all talking about God’s judgement. So when we encounter this sort of imagery we need to take it very realistically.

Then this section closes with a clear statement that it is the Lord that is leading this judgement, it s the day of the Lord, not some random or unfortunate event.

2:12,13

We now get one of the most dramatic changes of tone in the Bible, yet one that sums up the gospel. We have had a chapter and a half of vivid descriptions of judgment. One slightly unusual feature, when compared with other prophets such as Amos, is that there is no catalogue of sins given. It is just assumed that they are sinners, and the it is the consequences that are focused on, the fact that God will judge. This is a message that our world needs to hear. God will judge. But the purpose is not to relish the judgement, but to bring the people to their senses. “Yet even now ...” The people are called upon to repent and return to the Lord. And they are to do so with intent of purpose, with fasting, weeping and mourning. “Rend your hearts ...” The repentance is to be genuine. Both the cultural norms and religious practice had lots of outward actions, outward religious rituals, but God wanted a change of heart. And heart in the Bible encompasses the mind, emotions and the will, not just the emotions. If they did this then they would find a merciful God, a gracious God, and disaster would not occur.

The gospel, as in the gospel found in the Bible, not the make believe nonsense that often passes for the gospel, is the same. There is a clear delineation of our sin and sinfulness, followed by the unlimited offer of forgiveness and eternal life.

Acts 3:9-12 - Walking and praising God

3:9,10

The people around were amazed at this. They would have seen him there begging day after day, and now he was completely changed. Not surprisingly, they were full of wonder and amazement. We need to recognise that Jesus did many miracles and these attracted attention, similar things happened in Acts. The miracles were not “it”, though many people would focus purely on the miracles themselves, but Jesus, and the apostles, used them as a launch pad for teaching about the kingdom of God.

3:11,12

The miracles were not just for the show, they were not there to draw attention to the apostles, but to draw attention to Jesus. We should also note two other things. Part of the purpose of miracles is to help the person for his own sake, in this case the lame beggar. Jesus talked about setting people free (Lk 13:16). Secondly, while the purpose is to draw attention to Jesus, people will tend to focus on the human instrument, or on the miracle itself. This happened to Jesus, it happened to the apostles, so there is nothing unusual in this, nor does it mean a preacher or ministry is getting it wrong. The key is in one Peter does now. He puts the attention firmly on Jesus. Peter knew full well that the healing of the man was in no way down to his own power or righteousness.

Acts 3:6-8 - Silver and gold have I none

3:6

Peter continues to take a very direct approach, commanding him in Jesus name to get up and walk. We do not appreciate the force or meaning of “in the name of Jesus”. To us it is often more of a mantra, a religious thing you add on to prayers. Peter was moving in the authority of Jesus, and the command was given in the authority of Jesus. The man had gone looking for money. However, his need for money, genuine as it was, was a symptom or a consequence of his condition. Peter (and, of course, Jesus) saw the real problem, his inability to walk. Moreover, he could do something about the real problem. There are at least two things we can learn from this. One is our need to better appreciate the power and meaning of “in the name of Jesus”. The second is to ask ourselves: how often do we seek to deal with the secondary problem, the symptom, because we do not believe that Jesus, or Jesus working through us, can address the root problem?

3:7,8

Peter then took the man by the hand and raised him up. The man was healed immediately. Perhaps he needed Peter to lift him up to demonstrate the truth of what was happening because having been crippled for so long (from birth, in fact) he could not  conceive of being able to walk normally. A feature of this whole incident is that it could very well have fitted in one of the gospels. The man was overjoyed and leapt up. He then began to walk with the disciples and entered the temple. In Leviticus 21:17-23 there were restrictions put on people who had physical defects. We naturally recoil at this, thinking it cruel. However, we need to consider the purpose of the Law (which is very complicated and multifaceted, and what I say here looks only at one aspect). Part of the purpose is painting a picture of perfection. In heaven there will be no lame, for we will all be whole. So, in one sense the Law is saying this is how things should be (or even will be), but gives no means of actually achieving that goal. When Jesus came He was full of grace and truth (John 1:17). The truth remained the same, but Jesus came with grace to enable us to be righteous. This man could now approach God, which is part of the reason that he was praising God.

Acts 3:1-5 - A man lame from birth

3:1

Remember that chapter divisions were not there in the original text. In the previous section Luke has talked about the apostles doing signs and wonders, and we now get an example of one of those miracles. Peter and John were going to the temple at the time of prayer. The early church was not rebelling against the Jewish religion in any way.

3:2

There was a man lame from birth who was taken to the temple gate each day to beg for money. This was the only way that he could get any money, and hopefully those going into the temple would feel some duty to support the man.

3:3-5

The purpose of the beggar being there was to ask for money, so he asked Peter and John. The giving of money to the poor (alms giving) was a virtuous action, so people going to the temple would be more inclined to give in order to “keep on the right side of God”. Peter looked the man right in the eye. The man expected Peter to give him money, was in fact going to receive something much greater. Peter’s bold and affirmative action is interesting. I guess that most of us, most of the time, tend to avoid looking at beggars straight in the face.

Joel 2:4-9 - Like warriors they charge

2:4,5

There are a number of ancient texts where a similarity is drawn between locusts and war horses. The sound of a locust swarm can apparently be quite a terrifying sound. So Joel here is giving a clear warning that following the locust swarm, and the harsh reality of what came with it is a warning of an even worse calamity that is to follow.

2:6-9

The people would be filled with fear, and the invading army would be resolute about its task, not swerving at all from its chosen path. Today we are sometimes told that we should not use the fear of hell in seeking to persuade others. Why not? No doubt there can be too much emphasis on hell, and a wrong emphasis at times. Even worse, it can lead to us considering everyone else worthy of hell but we are not. Yet consider this. Virtually every book in the Bible talks about the judgement of God. Jesus talks about the judgement of God. So if God speaks about the judgement of God, should we not speak about it from time to time? Indeed, if we warn of judgement in the right way then it is the word of God that we are proclaiming, so the words will be powerful.

The invading army would conquer the nation, nothing would stop them. Likewise, the judgement of God is irresistable.

Acts 2:43-47 - Filled with awe

2:43

There were also signs and wonders carried out by the apostles. We are not given any details here, though we do get mention of various examples in later chapters. There are two things we should note about “signs and wonders”.  One is that the bulk of them were performed by the apostles, though not exclusively so.  The second is that there is no scriptural warrant for saying these things will not happen beyond the early church. The argument for this latter claim seems to be that the signs and wonders were to vindicate the apostles, and so are no longer needed. Well, they did validate the apostles, but that was not the only reason for their presence. Elsewhere in Scripture, especially in 1 Corinthians, we are told about gifts of healing and miraculous powers (1 Cor 12:9,10). We need a balanced view. It is clear from the New Testament that the church is not built on the basis of their being a miracle every two minutes, but on what we might call the bread and butter issues of Christianity (see 2:42). However, God has not stopped doing miracles.

2:44,45

This is not an argument for communism! Indeed verse 45 makes the meaning clearer. They sold possessions as someone else had a need, so we see here the difference between what was happening and communism. In a human system, such as communism, the state forces everyone to comply. It does nothing to change the human heart, and we saw the terrible results in the Soviet Union and China, with millions of deaths. Here, the individuals still owned their stuff, but when a need arose they freely chose to give. Why? Because their hearts were changed.

2:46.47

The early disciples met both in the temple and in each others homes. In the temple they would take part in the normal Jewish worship. In each others homes they shared the Lord’s supper. They did this with glad and generous hearts. This is a sign of true religion, having a glad and generous heart. False religion never engenders this effect.  They also praised God and had favour with all the people. This latter aspect is worth noting. Later we will see many instances of the church being persecuted. Again, we need balance here. Sometimes the church will have favour, at other times it will be the victim of persecution. There is a time for this, and a time for that. “And the Lord added to their number”. Note the continual emphasis that evangelism is the work of the Lord. This is something that we tend to forget, putting all the focus on what we do. We do have to act, but the growth of the church is primarily the work of God.

Joel 2:1-3 - A day of darkness and gloom

2:1,2

We now get another set of verses describing an onslaught against the land and the people. The description this time is even more militaristic. This part can be looked at in two ways. One is take is as describing an actual military invasion, of which the previous locust invasion was a precursor. The other is to take it as referring to an actual locust invasion again, but being more explicit in its use of the locust swarm as prefiguring a military invasion that was yet to come. Given that there is no direct reference to an actual invading nation, and that the book is prophetic I have a slight preference for the latter. However, one cannot be dogmatic about this, and the prophetic can interpret events that have already happened. Whatever the case, the description is vivid, and would be even more vivid to Joel’s hearers than ours, and is a warning of what is to come. Locust swarms were massive, hence the description of the darkness. Something terrible is going to happen. The reaction of the people may have been to say “such a thing can never happen”, but they knew that the locust swarm had happened. In the same way the even worse invasion would happen.

To put this is in a modern context, people readily dismiss the idea of hell, saying “a God of love would never do that”. Yet, we see disasters in the world almost daily, and from time to time major disasters. We would be very foolish to dismiss the idea of God’s judgement, and would be far wiser to repent.

2:3

When a locust swarm came the land before them would be green with fruitfulness, but they would devour the land like a fire. After the swarm there would be no vegetation left. So it would be with the invading army. They would sweep all before them.

Acts 2:41,42 - Three thousand added

2:41

Peter’s no nonsense preaching was rather successful! Some three thousand were added to the church that day. Some may wonder how that could happen. The answer is quite easily. The society had a keen interest in religion, they were aware of God and sin. They also knew what had been happening in recent months. Moreover, the Holy Spirit was convicting people in their hearts. So the number of three thousand is entirely plausible, Those who accepted the message were baptised.

2:42

We now get a picture of what was involved in the life of the very early church. The key ingredients were:

• The apostles’ teaching
• Fellowship
• Breaking of bread
• Prayer

These are things that continue to need to be part of church life. Obviously we do not have the apostles as they had in the early church, but we should devote ourselves to Bible teaching, and any church that neglects this will be impoverished. Note also that they “devoted” themselves to the teaching, they were not passive consumers.

We are part of the body, not just people who happen to be in the same building once or twice a week. There needs to be a closer relationship.

Jesus commanded us to break bread in remembrance of Him. His death and resurrection is the foundation of it all.

Prayer is essential. “Apart from me you can do nothing”, as Jesus said (John 15:5). We are meant to work in partnership and dependency upon the Lord.

Joel 1:15-20 - Alas for that day

1:15-18

Amos is another prophet with an emphasis on the day of the Lord, and, at least in the first instance, the day of the Lord is not good news for Israel. For a people in rebellion against God the day of the Lord is nothing but bad news, unless there is repentance. In Israel’s case the day of the Lord was coming, and it would come as destruction from the Lord. The locust plague had led to food, and therefore joy and gladness, being cut off from the land. Worse was to come. The livestock were all suffering as well. Nature is dependent upon us. When we live in obedience to the Lord nature prospers, when we live in rebellion nature suffers (rom 8:22).

1:19,20

Joel cries out to the Lord. Even if the Lord gives us a message of judgement we are not to accept it passively. Instead we are to cry out to the Lord. This is what Abraham and Moses did, as did some of the other prophets. Nature also cried out to the Lord. Everything was affected by the judgement of God.

Acts 2:39,40 - Save yourselves from this corrupt generation

2:39

The universal nature (not universalism!) of the gospel is emphasised here. The gospel is for all. “All who are far off”. Jesus had told His disciples that they would preach the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matt 28:19; Acts 1:8). At this stage they did not realise the full significance of that, and Peter would have a lot of learning to do. Sometimes we preach beyond our understanding. The promise of the Holy Spirit is for all “whom the Lord our God calls to Himself”. This again would be especially relevant when Cornelius and his household get saved. Notice also the centrality of the work of God. It is God who calls people to Himself.

2:40

“With many words he warned them...” It is all too common today for preaching to focus just on being “nice”, telling people that Jesus loves them and how wonderful they are. Well this is a rather unbiblical approach to things. It is also a rather unsuccessful approach in terms of producing disciples. Of course, it is equally wrong to go to the other extreme and preach nothing but hell and damnation, but warnings are a key part of the gospel. They were also a key part of Jesus’ teaching. Indeed, we can only appreciate the extent and the nature of God’s love when we appreciate the seriousness of sin and our sinfulness. Moreover, Peter did not warn them in order to condemn them, but he was pleading with them to “save yourselves from this corrupt generation”. The people of Jerusalem were in a terrible mess. The Son of God had come to them and they had crucified him! Forty years later Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed and much suffering would be involved. The generation was working against God and was heading for deep trouble. The people needed to turn to God. Things are not that much different in our day. Each day there seems to be more and more evidence of our Western societies being an evermore corrupt generation. Those parts of the church which advocate condoning what society is doing are utter fools and demonstrating no love at all. In so many ways society is going against God’s ways and people need to “save themselves from this corrupt generation”, and the only way to do that is to repent and turn to Jesus Christ.

Joel 1:13,14 - Consecrate a fast

1:13

The priests had been ministering quite happily before the altar, secure in the relative prosperity that the nation was enjoying, but the Lord had other plans. The Lord was not happy because of the unrighteousness in the land. So the instead of being complacent, the priests should lament and wail. They should be repenting before the Lord for their own sin, and for the sin of the nation. The Lord had intervened to force the people to pay attention to what really mattered. We have an important lesson here. The Lord does use “natural disasters” to speak to a people. The problem is usually look at these things in terms of what God is doing to other people, about why they deserve what is coming to them. The right response is to ask what can I or we learn. And when we see others suffering the right response is what can we do to help them.

1:14

The priests are ordered to call a fast, to consecrate themselves to the Lord. All are to be called to humble themselves before the Lord. Contrast this with the reaction that the church so often has, which is to seek to explain why God’s word does not mean what it says it means. We are all priests now, but especially those of us who are in any position of leadership we need to remind ourselves that we are there to serve God’s purposes, and to lead the people in the ways of God. It is a tragedy when leaders or even churches lead people in the way of the world.

Acts 2:37,38 - Repent and be baptised

2:37

“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart”. We see here an example of the word of God being sharper than any two edged sword (Heb 4:12). We should note that although there had been “signs and wonders” in the disciples speaking all sorts of languages, it is the clear exposition of the truth that cut to the hearts of the people. Yet it was the sign and wonders that drew the people’s attention. The signs and wonders and the exposition of God’s word need to go together, they work in harmony. We should also note the work of the Holy Spirit. It is He who speaks to men’s hearts. We are to speak the truth, but it is the Holy Spirit’s job to cut to the heart of a man. We work together with the Holy Spirit. And how do we know that the Spirit was speaking to people? They asked what they had to do. There was a sign that they were convicted in their hearts, there was a deep response.

2:38

“Repent and be baptised”. Repentance is a key part of the gospel message, sadly this is something that often seems to be forgotten these days. John the Baptist preached repentance (Matt 3:2), Jesus preached repentance (Matt 4:17). The gospel is not just about poor little you or poor little me getting rescued. It is about that, but it is also about sinful, evil little me and evil sinful little you turning from our sins and turning towards Christ. Now there are arguments over the order of things, in particular the order of faith, the work of the Holy Spirit, and our turning in faith and repentance. There is some value in considering these matters, but we can also get obsessed with them. The clear facts are that we need to preach a gospel of repentance and faith in Christ, and every single human being needs to repent and believe. In fact, no one will repent without faith, for faith is a much more solid and effective thing than we often seem to think. Repentance involves recognising the futility of living my life without God, and the utter wrongness of doing so. I will only do that by the Spirit taking the veil off my mind, and seeing the goodness and trustworthiness, and mercy of Christ. Baptism here is not focusing on the act of baptism itself, but on what it signifies. We are baptised in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and here in this verse receiving the Holy Spirit is central, as is forgiveness. Forgiveness would be especially relevant to the earlier charge that they had crucified the Lord.

Joel 1:8-12 - Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth

1:8,9

To modern ears verse 8 may seem somewhat contradictory. How can a virgin lament for her husband? However, the answer is quite simple. A virgin could have a “husband” if the marriage had already been arranged, but not yet consummated. So the woman, a very young woman, had been betrothed (which was a far more binding state that our engagement is) but her betrothed has been killed before they were actually married. This was a tragic situation, and Israel is called upon to mourn as if she was in that situation. The locust plague had led to the temple having no grain or drink offerings. So instead of ministering to the Lord, the priests could only mourn.

1:10-12

These verses again puts things in terms of what had happened to the harvest. All the crops had failed because of the onslaught. The devastation was complete. The people would appreciate this, so God has used the disaster to bring them to their senses, to wake them up. When we are comfortable it is very easy for us to take a light attitude towards sin. By nature, we are very governed by the comfortableness of our lives. If everything is going well materially then we tend not to worry overmuch about other matters. So God had sent disaster to give the people a wake-up call.

Acts 2:34-36 - Let all Israel be assured

2:34,35

Psalm 110 is a favorite messianic psalm, and one quoted by Jesus Himself (Matt 22:44). Note the implications here when Peter says “David did not ascend to heaven”. It is assumed that Jesus did ascend to heaven and is in direct contact with the Father. It is also implied that this took place after the ascension. Again we have David seeing things that were beyond his own experience. This Psalm also tells us something about what is happening in the present age. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and all His enemies will be made a footstool. We should also note that sitting here implies a place of authority, it is not implying a place of sitting down and putting one's feet up!

2:36

This is one of the most important verses in this chapter, “Let all the house of Israel ...”. Jesus is the Messiah and He is Lord. Israel had crucified Christ, but God has made Him “Lord and Christ”. The people made their choice, but their choice counts for nothing, for it is God’s choice that determines the outcome. Israel needs to come to recognise Christ as Lord. It is also significant that He is “Lord and Christ”. Jesus is not just the Messiah, He is Lord, He is God. It isn’t just God acting through Him, but He is God. Now what Israel needs to know is also what all of mankind needs to know. Man has many opinions, and these do not include Jesus being Christ and Lord, but all of them are wrong.

We should also note the responsibility assigned to the Jews “Jesus whom you crucified”, and this rightly sounds warning bells. For there have been many times in history when the “church” has used this as an excuse for persecution of the Jews. Even Luther in his later years said some terrible, and terribly wrong, things about the Jews. In response to our revulsion at these things is to airbrush these sorts of comments out of the Bible, to pretend they aren’t there, or at least should not have been said, and we should not pay any attention to them. This is an unhelpful response. Where does the error lie? It is not in saying that the Jews held responsibility for crucifying Jesus, they do have responsibility. But they are not the only ones. At the time the Romans, representing the non-Jewish world, also shared in that responsibility, as the Bible makes clear. The whole of humanity has rejected Christ, as John 1:10 makes clear, and as a look at the world today confirms. We are all guilty, Jews and Gentiles alike, and we all need to recognise who Jesus is. The danger with our modern approach to this matter is that we do away with the whole concept of guilt.

Acts 2:31-33 - Seeing what was to come

2:31

Peter now declares that David was looking forward to the resurrection of the Messiah. The mistake of some of the Jews was to think that the Old Testament events were it, they were the full and final fulfillment of the promises. However, there were Jews who recognised that what they had could not be “it”, but they were still looking for the “old wineskins” to hold the new wine. So when something radically different came along, ie Jesus, they failed to recognise it. We need to beware of thinking that what we have experienced so far is all we can experience. Nothing that God does will be in contradiction to what He has said or done in the past, but we must never imagine that we have seen it all. This is a criticism I would make of the preterist (and partial preterist) school of interpretation of Revelation. There is much to be gained by understanding Revelation in the context of the first century, and in the context of Old Testament prophecy, but there seems to be a tendency to get stuck there.

However, David was declaring that Messiah would not be abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor would His body see decay. The resurrection was not a mere resuscitation.

2:32

God reveals Himself and His purposes by His actions, and He did this supremely by raising Christ from the dead. Moreover, the disciples were all witnesses to the fact. This was not an idea, or a way of thinking, but a hard fact. Jesus was raised from the dead, and it was provable.

2:33

The “promised  Holy Spirit” is  reference back to the quote from Joel 2:28-32, where God promises to pour on His Spirit on all people. In John’s gospel Jesus told His disciples that He had to return to the Father in order for Him to be able to send the Holy Spirit to us (John 16:7). After His ascension Jesus was exalted to the right hand of the Father. He was then given authority to pour out the Holy Spirit on us. We see that what takes place in heaven has a real effect here on earth.

Acts 2:29,30 - Fellow Israelites

2:29

We now see an example of how what happened in the Old Testament is only a shadow of the fulfilment that came in Christ. We also see the hard nosed realism. “David died and was buried”. They knew full well that when people died that was the end of them as far as the earth was concerned. Indeed, David’s tomb was there for all to see. This shows the importance of the empty tomb. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead they Roman authorities or the Jewish authorities could easily have pointed to it. But the only tomb they could point to was an empty one.

2:30

Peter was not belittling David in anyway. David was a prophet. This shows that the term prophet went beyond the most obvious examples (ie Elijah, Isaiah etc), but includes people like David and Moses. In David’s life there was a significant amount of frustration and disappointment, much of it of his own making. David wanted to build a temple (1 Chron 17:1), but God said it was not for David to build the temple because there was too much blood on his hands (1 Chron 22:8). Yet David looked ahead, and knew that there was something far greater that lay ahead. In many of the psalms as well as describing what was going on in his own life, David got glimpses of the wonderful things that would happen in the future. We can experience disappointments in our own lives for all sort of reasons. We have a choice. We can dwell on the disappointments, or we can look ahead with faith.