First Call to Repentance
Acts 2:22-41–August 28, 2022
Peter began his speech, his sermon in verses 14 and 15 by raising his voice and declaring none of the disciples were drunk, after all it was only about 9:00 a.m. Then he began quoting in verses 16-21, the prophet Joel 2:28-32, that concluded with, And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Today we continue with Peter’s sermon to its conclusion. We begin with verses 22-24 where Peter, still with a raised voice says
Acts 2:22-24. Peter was not going to stop with quoting Joel and everything within Joel’s prophecy. This was because he still had to address the saving work of Jesus on their behalf.
Look how Peter began, Fellow Israelites, listen to this. in other words, LISTEN UP, this is important!
Our next verses 25-33 begin with Peter now quoting from Psalm 16:8-11 followed by an explanation of them. 5-33.
Acts 2:25-33. Peter spoke with complete assurance about David’s death and burial and then of Jesus being raised to life along with the promised Holy Spirit among them all.
In verses 34-36 Peter begins again by quoting the Hebrew Bible, in this instance Psalm 110:11
Acts 2:34-36. It does not matter what you have done in crucifying Jesus, what matters is what God has done in resurrecting Him, making Him both Lord and Messiah. And if we go back to verse 21 which concluded with Joel’s prophecy, And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, it becomes obvious that the name of the Lord who Joel spoke of is unmistakably Jesus.
This might have been the end of Peter’s sermon, but the people raised a question that we read in verse 37.
Acts 2:37. When the people heard this – When they heard what Peter had proven, proof that Jesus was the Messiah, they heard no extremism in his speech, in his sermon. He proved the truth of what he was saying, thus preparing the way for this effect. The effect where they were cut to their hearts or where their hearts were nicked or pierced.
Peter answers their question in the next two verses.
Acts 2:38-39. Peter begins with repentance for without repentance, the baptism means nothing. Guzik notes that repent has been called the first word of the gospel. And further, Repentance describes what coming to God is. You can’t turn towards God without turning from the things He is against. And In this sense, repent is a word of great hope. It says, “You don’t have to continue the way you’ve been going, you can turn to God.”
And yet Peter was not done, he did not end his sermon there instead now we have verse 40
Acts 2:40. Or in the Berean Literal Bible in verse 40, 40 And he earnestly testified many other words and was exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”
Exhort – 3870 parakaleo, (from 3844 /pará, “from close-beside” and 2564 /kaléō, “to call”) – properly, “make a call” from being “close-up and personal.” 3870 /parakaléō (“personally make a call”), can be to exhort, to plead, to urge, ti strongly urge, admonish, encourage, implore, appeal, and even begging.
Luke here only writes With many other words, so what we have here is only a summary and an outline of what Peter said.
Acts 2:41. And the number of believers grew from 120 to 3,120. All of this happened on the day of Pentecost or 50 days after Passover. The Pentecost, aka Shavuot, was a celebration of the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Harvest, and is traditionally a joyous time of giving thanks and presenting offerings for the new grain of the summer wheat harvest in Israel.
Bottom Line: Will we repent and be baptized. Have we really repented, if not we should be about the business of repenting. Salvation begins with repentance and turning from sin.