Acts 2:14-21
Verse 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.”
Having seen the gathering in the streets Peter knows what he must do. This hadn’t been a fluke, this was part of God’s plan to spread the word about His Son. The praise the upper room believers had been partaking in now needed explaining to those in the street. The people in the street were willing to believe they were hearing the results of a morning drinking party. Of course this wasn’t the truth and if the message of Christ was going to go out to the world, this needed to be corrected for the people witnessing the work of the promised Helper.
The Festival of Weeks, which these Jews were in town for, was a true festival of joy. It was a celebration of the first wheat harvest. It would have been a reminder of God’s goodness, His provision and even times in history when God had done something special in the lives of His people. Some believed this celebration was to remember God’s giving the law to Moses in the wilderness. It may also have reminded them of the story of Ruth and the kinsmen redeemer Boaz.
When Peter went out to meet the people he was joined by the other 11 disciples. Mathias was the newest member as Judas Iscariot’s replacement. This was likely his first public appearance in the new role. In typical Peter style, he gets right to the point. “We’re not drunk as you think!” After pointing out the time of day he takes the opportunity to show them the real time, the time the prophet Joel had prophesied about so many generations before.
The truth was for those Jews who didn’t understand Jesus being the Messiah, they thought God was still silent and that made it easy to find themselves living out life without much thought of what it meant to be God’s people. They had lost how their lives were to be reflecting Him, not just His laws. They had stopped believing the Messiah would be who God wanted and were waiting for someone they believed to be the Messiah.
The message Peter knew he needed to help them receive was how we can’t tell His story if we are making the faith about what we want. The Jews had missed out on the greatest opportunity of knowing their Messiah in the flesh but there was no reason they had to miss out knowing Him in the Spirit and being part of the history God was setting up as an example to the nations for generations to come. This understanding is what brings about revival for His kingdom.
Making It Personal
Is your faith life about your story or His? How do you live out His story? What needs to change in your life to show He is the one you live for?
Making It Personal Kids
What do you think it means to live so Jesus’ story is told? Do you live so people know who you are or so they know who Jesus is? How can you make Jesus known to others?
Closing Prayer
Father, we repent of being so concerned with making our own history that we don’t live to be part of Your story. Give us hearts which want to make You known to all we meet. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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