< Acts 2 >

Jesus had commanded his apostles to remain in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high (Luke 24:49),Waiting for response for Luke 24:49 and fifty days after Jesus’ crucifixion, on the day of Pentecost, this power descended upon them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ commission to them was to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God to all peoples and therefore they were given, by the power of God, the ability to speak languages they had never learned. They were immediately able to speak in foreign tongues to Jews attending the feast from many parts of the Roman Empire who heard the disciples speak in their own mother tongues. Fifteen different languages are identified here in which the disciples spoke “the wonderful works of God”. It is important to note that the apostles, inspired by God, spoke existing foreign languages and expressed intelligible ideas, because many people today claim to have the same gift but merely utter unintelligible gibberish.

The explanation of the phenomenon of the gift of being able to speak in foreign languages that were never learned was given by Peter - they had received God’s power, fulfilling a prophecy through the prophet Joel that God would pour out his Spirit upon men and women to enable them to prophesy and do wonders and that this would happen “in the last days” before the Jewish political heavens were destroyed. Joel prophesied in the same place that “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. This therefore was the apostles’ work: to use the power of God to prove their message came from him and to encourage men and women to save their lives by responding positively to that message. It is interesting that, in the prophecy of Joel, God likens the pouring out of his Holy Spirit to the early and latter rains which fall in Israel. The early rain enables the seed to be sown while the latter rain enables the crops to be reaped, and this metaphor identifies the two distinct eras in which God’s power would be given to men: firstly, in the days of the apostles when the seed of the word was scattered in the earth; and secondly, when the harvest of the earth takes place at the return of the Lord Jesus. Joel 2:23,28Waiting for response for Joel 2:23,28

Peter told these Jews about Jesus: that he was a man approved of God among them by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of them; that his crucifixion was “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God”; and that he was raised from the dead by God as prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures. As an example of these prophecies he cited Psalm 16 which expressed the mind of Christ a thousand years before the event: “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (the grave), neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life (by resurrection)”. Psalm 16:10-11Waiting for response for Psalm 16:10-11

After his resurrection Jesus was exalted to God’s right hand in heaven, which again Peter proved from the Psalms (Psalm 110:1).Waiting for response for Psalm 110:1 Peter therefore forcefully declared that “the same Jesus whom they had crucified, God had made both Lord and Christ”.

These Jews became greatly distressed at the realisation that they had rejected the Messiah and had been responsible for the crucifixion of the LORD’s anointed, and therefore they demanded of the apostles: “What shall we do?” It was Peter who answered this question because it was to him that Jesus had given the keys of the kingdom (Matthew 16:19).Waiting for response for Matthew 16:19 Peter could unlock the way of salvation for them, and he did so in accordance with Jesus’ instruction that “whosoever believes the gospel and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).Waiting for response for Mark 16:16 He therefore answered: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ”.

About three thousand souls “that gladly received his word were baptized” and ever since then all true disciples of Jesus have gladly received the apostles’ teaching, been baptized, and thereafter “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers”.