The many meanings of Pentecost
As we come up to Pentecost, our main text (in the lectionary and for preaching) is Acts 2. At ane level the text is straightforward: the Twelve are completed by the improver of Matthias; they wait with other disciples as Jesus had commanded; the Spirit comes; Peter preaches; and the 'church' is born. But it is non quite as uncomplicated as that. For one thing, this is not quite the 'church' equally we known it, since the significance of the completion of the Twelve is that they should be witnessesto Israel of the Jewish messiah Jesus and although at that place are hints (as nosotros shall see) of the wider gentile mission, that does not happen at Pentecost. In fact, Ben Witherington (in his social scientific commentary on Acts) comments:
No text in Acts has received more than scrutiny than Acts 2. Whole theologies and denominations take been built up around the Acts 2 accounts. We must therefore analyse the text carefully. (p 128)
I offer here some (not-exhaustive) observations on some of the implications of the narrative.
Luke'southward writing
Luke'due south writing style is quite distinctive amidst the four gospels, with more than complex sentences (using subordinate clauses rather so east.thousand. Marking's parataxis 'and…and…and…') and more extensive vocabulary. He summarises Peter'south speech at Pentecost in a way that other ancient authors would recognise (comparing favourably with Plutarch'sParallel Lives) and we run into this in both the introduction ('Peter stood up…and raised his voice…' Acts 2.14; note the contrast with Jesus habitually sitting to teach) and the conclusion ('With many other words he warned them and pleaded with them…' Acts 2.40) where Luke uses standard terminology in summarising Peter's spoken communication. We also see in Peter's speech communication some quite careful rhetorical developments. He begins past addressing the crowd rather factually as 'Jews men and residents of Jerusalem' in Acts 2.14, moves to recognising them as 'men of Israel' in Acts 2.22, and by Acts 2.29 is addressing them as 'brothers', indicating the growing warmth that leads to the positive response of the oversupply at the end.
But Luke is also looking backwards and looking forwards. The blueprint of this early on section of Acts—the promise of the Spirit, the reception of the Spirit, preaching in the power of the Spirit—matches the early ministry building narrative in Luke, where John the Baptist'south promise of the Spirit is following by Jesus' reception of the Spirit and his preaching at Nazareth. And Luke'due south recording of Peter's oral communication is followed afterwards in Acts by his summarising of speeches of Paul, part of his careful balancing of the mirrored ministries of Peter and Paul throughout the text. The interest in the connection betwixt the Spirit and power the we find in the gospel continues through into Acts in numerous ways.
Together, these mean that we are not just reading Peter'southward own voice communication and theology—we are conspicuously reading Luke'south interpretation of Peter'southward speech, merely every bit in the gospels nosotros are reading each gospel writer'southward interpretation of Jesus ministry and didactics. That is no reason to doubt the reliability of the accounts, but just to notation that we are reading what Luke has understood, and nosotros shouldn't be surprised to find Lukan themes and concerns showing through.
It is also worth noting that Luke show fiddling interest in questions that developed later on. Although he conspicuously sees Pentecost equally foundational, and the Spirit equally cardinal to Christian experience, he is non offer us a programmatic account of Christian experience. Later in his narrative, the Spirit sometimes comes prior to water baptism (Acts 8) and at other times comes following h2o baptism (Acts x). There is no show of the concerns we discover quite early on in the second century about church lodge, leadership, or the emergence of monarchical episcopacy (having a single bishop), nor questions of the baptism of infant (the mention of households is rather ambiguous) nor the issue of the forgiveness of serious sin post-obit baptism. All this points to Acts beingness a 'archaic', first-century text.
Fulfilment of OT hope
These early on capacity of Acts are striking in their dependence on OT texts. Then the motive for the replacement of Judas as one of the Twelve is based on the reading of a passage from the Psalms (though not read in quite the way we might…!), and Peter's speech explaining what is happening is rooted in diverse passages from the OT. This is the consistent theme of the churchly preaching in Acts and elsewhere, and we notice exactly this accent in Paul'southward theology besides. In 1 Cor 15.3, Paul reminds his readers of what was passed to him and he passed on 'equally of first importance' that Jesus died for our sins and was raised 'according to the Scriptures'; in our creeds, 'Scriptures' is probably taken to mean the NT, but of course for Paul this is a reference to the OT. The consequent distinctive of the gospel accounts of Jesus is that his ministry was the fulfilment of OT hope, something completely absent from the so-called 'apocryphal gospels' (which are non gospels at all in terms of their genre).
In fact, information technology is not merely Peter's quotations that come from the OT; so do other parts of his speech. The phrases 'let it exist put in your ears' (most ETs 'listen carefully' Acts two.14 b) and 'birth pangs of death' (ETs 'agony of death' Acts 2.24) occur only here in the NT and are phrases from the Greek OT (the Septuagint, 'LXX').
Moreover, what has happened here fulfils the last hopes of the OT. Peter is clear that 'this is that' (Acts two.sixteen), that 'this' experience of the Spirit poured out is 'that' about which Joel prophesied would happen 'in the last days'. There is no dubiousness that Peter and Luke both understood the events of Jesus' expiry and resurrection, and the outpouring of the Spirit, equally theologically indicating that the Terminate has come, that this historic period is now passing away and the promised new age of the kingdom of God has broken in. So nosotros see in the gospels 'darkness at apex' at Jesus' crucifixion fulfilling the predicted darkness of the sun, and we besides find in Paul'south theology that the resurrection life of the believer ways that the 'old has gone and the new has come up—new cosmos' (2 Cor five.17). Luke doesn't appear to think that this means the end of history, but the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem was certainly seen as the turning of the ages.
Part of that cease-times hope in the prophets (especially the later parts of Isaiah) was that all nations would exist drawn to Zion, and somehow the whole world would be included in the blessings God has for his people. We practice not see that immediately in the Pentecost narrative—but nosotros do run across hints of what is to come subsequently in Acts. The list of Jews from the Diaspora who here the disciples speaking in tongues is (as Witherington notes) difficult to make any systematic sense of equally a list, and seems rather artificially to have distinguished Jews and proselytes from Rome (or perhaps, who are Roman citizens, in keeping with Luke'south interest in people of influence). Just possibly the most of import thing in the list is that there are 17 peoples listed, and 153 is the triangle of 17, both numbers signifying the fulfilment of the hope of the Spirit bringing life to the whole world in Ezekiel 47.
Peter as well provides a inkling to this in his employ of the phrase 'for all who are far off' in Acts 2.39; in context, this presumably refers to Jews in the Diaspora (who are physically far away) or perchance the 'lost sheep of the Firm of Israel', those lost 'sinners' whom Jesus called to repentance in his ministry. But very shortly this phrase comes to be a mode of referring to Gentiles, in contrast to the Jews who are 'those who are most' (Eph 2.17). Thus Luke and Paul share this bipartite understanding of humanity in the gospel; the two (Jews and Gentiles) are now made i in Christ, returning us to the unity of humanity in the pristine creation as God originally fabricated information technology. Thus Acts 15 is non an example of the inclusivity of the gospel, which can be reapplied to any contemporary group; it is about the decisive fulfilment of OT hope by means of the outpouring of the Spirit.
Christology
There is an extraordinary, powerful and multi-dimensional Christological focus to Peter'south preaching. At a trivial level, Peter'southward speech communication talks about Jesus a lot—only information technology is worth pausing to meet exactly how he understands him. Commencement, it is Jesus, in his decease and resurrection, who has brought about the fulfilment of God'south purposes equally set out in Scripture. 2nd, the climax of all that has happened is the ascension—Jesus is now seated at the correct mitt of the Begetter, and it is to this reality that we must respond. Thirdly, this means that Jesus is at present Messiah (the fulfilment of the hope of Israel) and Lord. Merely earlier, the 'Lord' is Yahweh, the God of Israel—now Jesus shares in this title, and he is the Lord whom the people call on to be saved. Once again, we find this incorporation of Jesus into the person of the God of Israel, creating a kind of Christological monotheism, all through Paul's theology, from his adaptation of the Shema in 1 Cor 8.half-dozen, through his identical use of Joel 2 in Romans 10.13, to his application of the monotheism of Isaiah to Jesus in his 'Christ-hymn' in Phil 2.9–11.
Luke reinforces this Christological focus in the very style he structures his summary of Peter's speech. The tardily Martyn Menken observed:
At that place are too several instances of isopsephia in Acts, where the number of syllables of an episode or speech is equal to the numerical value of an important name or word occurring in or related to the passage in question (such every bit we found concerning John 1.i-18, where both the number of syllables and the numerical value of monogenes are 496). Peter'southward spoken communication in Acts 2.14-b-36 is made upwards of two equal halves: 444 syllables in 2.14b-24, and once again 444 syllables in 2.25-36. Their sum, 888, is the numerical value of the name Iesous, a number which was famous in this quality in the second century, witness Irenaeus' Aversus Haereses ane.15.2.
We also demand to notation that, in a Christian theological context, we consider the Holy Spirit the third 'person' of the Trinity. Only in Peter's context, and the agreement of those he is listening to, the Spirit is just the presence and power of God himself at piece of work amid his people. If Jesus is the one who is able to dispense the Spirit (equally Peter claims), and so Jesus is the one who mediates God's own presence and power, again assuming Jesus is incorporated into the person of God himself.
Information technology is also worth noting in passing that Luke avoids any language of God 'punishing' Jesus on the cross; although God immune information technology, it is clear that responsibility for Jesus decease sits squarely with those who executed him.
We might also want to note the implicit significance of the timing of the gift of the Spirit. Pentecost was the festival of FirstFruits, when the very offset of the harvest had come up ripe and was offered to God (the weather condition is meliorate in State of israel than it is here!), and this shapes our agreement of both the Spirit as the first fruits of what is to come in the new creation (Rom 8.23) but also therefore those who have the Spirit as the first fruits of the new creation itself (James 1.18, Rev 14.4). In rabbinical Judaism, Pentecost was also celebrated equally the time of the giving of the law on Sinai (every bit we heard this morning on Idea for the Day), and that offers a context for the give-and-take of the human relationship betwixt the law and the Spirit in Paul. If Jesus was born in September, around the Festival of Tabernacles, this makes the language of 'tabernacling' in John 1.xiv a kind of Jewish festival pun. And given that Jesus died at Passover, and then that he is our Passover sacrifice (i Cor five.vii), then you have the gospel as thoroughly Jewish in shape, rooted in the three major Jewish pilgrim festivals.
Discipleship
Lastly, this oral communication of Peter's offers his (or Luke's) most comprehensive understanding of discipleship, in the sense that it sets out nearly fully the key bug in Christian faith. There is a central focus on the person of Jesus; he is understood to exist the fulfilment of God's promises; the crucial affirmation is that 'Jesus is Lord', which quickly becomes the summary of what it ways to be a fellow member of this new move (compare Rom 10.9 and one Cor 12.three); and Peter sets out the three chief markers of Christian initiation in repentance, h2o baptism, and receiving of the Spirit. Although all these elements are included in diverse ways later on in the narrative, there is nowhere else where they are included so clearly together.
Information technology is no wonder this passage has been so thoroughly explored, and (along with Luke'due south summary statement of the nature of the early Christian customs in Acts 2.42) no wonder that this passage has been so influential.
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