Acts 2:12-15 - Amazed and perplexed

2:12,13

There were two main sets of reactions to this. One group were amazed and wondered what the meaning of it all was. They were hearing the glory of God proclaimed in their own language by people who could not possibly have known their language by any natural means. So something strange and wonderful was happening. The other group just scoffed, making fun of the disciples and saying they had had too much to drink. Now this attitude to miracles is very common. Some will accept that something unusual has happened, others will do anything to avoid attributing the event to God. Note also how illogical the reasoning of the scoffers was. The people were actually hearing perfectly intelligible words in their own language, and the people who were speaking these languages could not have known them by any natural means. This is not to say that we should accept all claims of miracles without question. There are plenty of charlatans about, and then there are well meaning people who simply overclaim or get a little carried away. However, a miracle does not guarantee faith. Today I suppose some sceptic would have tried to argue that the disciples had spent the past month on crash language courses, and everything was planned.

2:14,15

Peter stands up and addresses the crowd. Any reports of sermons in Acts are inevitably summaries of what was said. We need to remember that they had to write everything down on scrolls, and space was at a premium. We should also remember that some seven weeks earlier Peter had been denying Christ before servant girls. Now he is boldly addressing large crowds in Jerusalem. The event of the resurrection and the power of the Holy Spirit had transformed the man. Of course, there was still much transforming work to go on! It is perhaps interesting that it says “with the eleven” rather than “with the twelve”, unless this means “the other eleven”. Peter calls on the crowds to listen carefully to what he has to say. The spectacle is not something to be merely treated as entertainment, or just an unusual event. They needed to understand what was happening and its spiritual and theological significance. Actions, miracles and preaching/teaching go together, as they did in Jesus’ ministry. Then Peter counters the charge that they were drunk, pointing out that it was only 9 o’clock in the morning. Sometimes we need to remove obstacles before getting on to the guts of the teaching.