Title Unshakable Ground (Acts 02:37-42)
Contents The result of the descent of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and Peter's powerful sermons did not call for 3,000 new believers. It is the core gist of the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit that a new era has been opened in which God's sermons of Peter, that is, the stories of the gospel of salvation entrusted through Peter, can be understood by others.
This becomes more evident when compared with Stephen's sermons. In terms of the sermon itself, Stephen's sermon is more detailed and more beautiful. In Peter's sermons there is no description of how wonderful or powerful his description of his teaching was. There are many such elements in Stephen's sermons.
“Steven was full of grace and power, and he performed great wonders and signs among the people. In each of the synagogues called the synagogues of the Alexandrians, Galatia of Alexandria, Libertino, Cyrene, and of Asia, some arose and argued with Stephen, and Stephen became wise. And they were not able to speak in the Spirit” (Acts 6:8-10).
The description of Stephen says that he is full of grace and power, and full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit. And from chapter 7, Stephen's sermon begins. What was the reaction at the end of his long sermon?
“When they heard this, they were pierced in their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him” (Acts 7:54).
Stephen's sermon was more eloquent and glamorous than Peter's. Then, through Stephen's sermon, more people should have returned to the Lord. But it doesn't turn out as we think. That is why the Bible is saying that it is not the result of Peter's sermon and not the result of Stephen's sermon.
If 3,000 people could be converted because Peter had strength and the Holy Spirit was with him, how many people must repent in Stephen's sermon filled with grace, power, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit? Not one person is converted and only stones are thrown away and die.
Those who are converted are the result of God's love for them and intervening in their hearts and transforming them. This part is very important.
“He who has ears, let him hear, what can we compare this generation to? The children sat in the marketplace and called their companions, saying, “We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we wept, but you did not beat our hearts John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He has a demon. But the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and said, Behold, a glutton and a lover of wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. You are justified by your deeds” (Matthew 11:15-19).
If Peter's sermon is a matter of persuasion and the reason for the fruit of persuasion is because of the filling of the Holy Spirit, then the Bible itself is contradictory. If that is the case, all humans should have been converted by the Gospel itself alone. Because the words of Jesus are more direct and more primary than what the Holy Spirit did and intervened in Peter.
But, as Jesus says here, when we played the flute, you did not dance, and when we wept, you did not mourn. And against this truth and life, humans only have an antipathy. So when John the Baptist came and spoke the same truth, he said he was crazy. They are trying to avoid hearing the Gospel by giving any excuses.
But both Peter and Stephen's sermons point out that you are sinners. They were furious and had no choice but to kill Stephen by grinding their teeth.
However, what made Peter's sermon appear in the same event is that many people's hearts were pierced by that sermon and they repented. What I would like to suggest to us where that repentance came from is the important content of Peter's sermon and his response in the book of Acts. Finally, people have been able to properly respond to the Lord's words about eternal life. This is the story of the whole Bible.
In the Old Testament, God intervenes in Israel in every way. Still, there was no response. That is why the Old Testament ends with a wish that someone could close the door of the temple.
The problem isn't about the ability of the speaker, but the problem with those who hear it. It's like showing a color TV to the blind and good audio music to the deaf.
But now we are saved from our sins through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a matter before we believe. Just as the story of liberation was proclaimed regardless of whether the other party acknowledged it or not, the proclamation that God took care of us and delivered us from sin was the most important theme of Peter's sermon.
The most important record that those who heard the word now understand it are the responses in the text. Biblically speaking, Peter's sermon stands as the beginning of the granting of salvation.
In that sense, the coming of the Holy Spirit is not a matter of the power and ability of the preacher, but that the Holy Spirit comes as an intervention that will make sure that the listeners do not fail. The Pentecost of the Holy Spirit stands not by the ability of the speaker, but by interfering with the heart of the person so that the listener can understand and reject them. To make this clear, we link one time after Acts 2, which is the crippled event in chapter 3.
“At the ninth hour of prayer, Peter and John were going up to the temple, and people carrying a man who was born lame was placed daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate to beg from those who entered the temple, who Peter and John were going to enter. and begging for it, Peter looked at him with John and said, "Look at us." And he looked to see what they might get from them. And Peter said, "Silver and gold I have none, but what I have I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And he took his right hand and got him up, and immediately his feet and ankles gained strength, and they jumped and walked and went into the temple with them, walking and jumping, praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they saw him walking and praising God. When I found out that it was the man who was sitting at the beautiful gate of the temple begging, I was very amazed and amazed at what had happened to him (Acts 3:1-10).
The crippled man did not ask for or expect that he would get up. It is an event that does not require the other person's faith for a miracle to occur. Regardless of the subject, it was made purely by Peter and John. Let's read after that.
“When the healer seized Peter and John, all the people were astonished and ran and gathered in the porch called Solomon’s Port. When Peter saw this, he said to the people, “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Why do you look at us as if you made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus. You deny before him that you delivered him and Pilate decided to release him. Because you denied the holy and righteous one, but asked for a murderer to be released, and you killed the Lord of life, but God raised him from the dead, and we are our witnesses of these things. Because we believe in his name, his name is called the one you see and know. It has made a man whole, and the faith that is through Jesus has thus completely healed you in the sight of all of you” (Acts 3:11-16).
In verse 16, it is written that faith was born through Jesus through faith in the name Jesus. But this text says not because of the cripple's faith, nor because of Peter and John's faith. Verse 12 is proof of that.
“When Peter saw this, he said to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you marveling at this?
It was not in our own strength or in our faith. As in verse 16, the name, faith born through Jesus, is a biblical expression that he does it himself, not as a reward that comes because of believing in the name. He did this not because I believed, not because the person believed, but because the Lord loves and has compassion on us. The word faith through Jesus Christ as used here is used as a term that is opposed to the action the Bible speaks of.
When I say action in the Bible, I don't mean do or don't do it, I'm talking about a law that gives a cause to an effect. I create the cause and get the effect. This cripple himself has no conditions for it to happen. But the Lord raised him up. Therefore, the sermon before it is the same.
Because Peter's preaching was superior to others, it was not persuasive that it made them believe. Salvation is basically just the work of letting us know that God has compassion and love for us and sent Jesus Christ to save us from our sins. It is to believe in us and be saved. To believe there doesn't mean we put conditions on it.
God is still providing salvation. love us When our ancestor Adam drove them out of the Garden of Eden on the day they fell, he promised, “But I will bruise the serpent’s head as a descendant of women, and all nations will be saved.” And as he had called Abraham and prophesied and promised to the people of Israel, he finally fulfilled the work and began.
Then I saw that the evil things that had held the sinners took away the souls that held the power of death. The Lord opened the eyes of the souls who heard him, and roused their souls to repentance, brethren, what we should do. This is the record of the book of Acts.
In Isaiah 53, each of us went our own way. I did what I thought was right. When the light came into the world, he turned away and loved the darkness more than the light. We turned away from the truth and were those who did not receive the Lord.
The coming of the Holy Spirit means that before we became people of power, God did not leave us after our lost heart and sinful lusts, but began to intervene with us through His Spirit and with the truth and eternal life. So, the most important content of Peter's sermon is that we, who had listened to Stephen's sermon, did not know how to throw stones if we had left it as it was, but we surrendered before Peter's sermon due to the intervention of the Spirit of the Lord.
So we are proud of it even today. God loves me. you don't leave me alone This is our greatest gratitude and joy. I was able to come to this place because I did not leave myself as I thought. That is our gratitude. That is why, on the day of Pentecost, there is a blessed content that God wants us to know about the coming of the Holy Spirit, Peter's sermon, and his response. This thanksgiving, joy, and boasting should be placed as the unshakable foundation and the deepest boast on every heart that hears these words today.