CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 2:14. Men of Judæa.—Natives of Jerusalem. Ye that dwell at Jerusalem.—Foreign Jews, sojourners in the city from other parts.
Acts 2:15. These.—Not the eleven with Peter merely, but all who had been heard speaking (Acts 2:7). The third hour.—Nine a.m. in our time; the hour of morning prayer (Schürer considers this doubtful), before which no respectable Jew allowed himself to become intoxicated (Isaiah 5:11).
Acts 2:16. Through the prophet.— Joel 2:28-32. διὰ since he was not the author but the medium of the message.
Acts 2:17. The last days.—The LXX. read μετὰ ταῦτα, after these things. The Hebrew “afterwards,” expounded by Peter as referring to Messianic times. Saith God indicates the source of the prophecy. Young men … old men.—The order of the clauses in Joel is transposed.
Acts 2:20. That great and notable day of the Lord.—Notable = clear, far shining. (Compare Luke 17:21.) The Hebrew prophets used “the day of the Lord” to signify any remarkable interposition of Jehovah for the punishment of His enemies (Isaiah 2:12; Jeremiah 46:10; Zephaniah 1:7). Joel used it to describe the Messianic coming, both first and second.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 2:14-21
Peter’s Sermon.
1. The First Christian Apology; or, the Pentecostal Mystery explained
I. The attention of the people summoned.—
1. By a courageous attitude. Peter’s standing up with the eleven signified that they did not intend to shirk investigation, be overborne by clamour, or hurried away with excitement. A reasonable amount of fortitude is requisite for all who would bespeak the attention of their fellows on any subject, but especially on religion. This fortitude ought never to be wanting when the interests of Christ’s kingdom are at stake, or anything about the behaviour of Christ’s ambassadors requires to be investigated.
2. By an earnest utterance. As Peter’s manner was unshrinking, so were his words fervent. Like the multitude around, he, too, was under strong excitement, only different from theirs. Besides, he perceived a crisis had arisen in the history of His Master’s cause—the time had passed for keeping silence, and the hour struck for speech (Ecclesiastes 3:7).
3. By a frank appeal. Intending to hide nothing from his auditors, he invited the attention of all who could understand him, the men of Judæa, and of those who could only reach his meaning through translation, the foreign dwellers at Jerusalem.
II. The charge of drunkenness repelled.—
1. As mistaken. Founded on a hasty generalisation, and grounded on appearance, which is seldom reliable as a basis for judgment (John 7:24), it was an altogether unwarranted inference.
2. As impossible. Not because wine was not obtainable before 9 a.m., the third hour of the Jewish day, but because during festal seasons it was unlawful to take food, and much more to drink wine earlier than the hour of morning prayer, and because the characters of the accused rendered the charge absurd. “These men,” said the Apostle, “whom ye all see and know, and who like yourselves have come up to worship at the feast, are not likely to be drunk at 9 a.m.”
3. As ridiculous. Drunken men, he might have added, have commonly a difficulty in speaking their own tongues, let alone making use of foreign languages.
III. The mystery of the tongues explained.—As a fulfilment of prophecy.
1. Of the effusion of the Holy Spirit.
(1) By God, whose the Spirit was, and who had engaged to pour it forth in the last times, or in the closing dispensation of the world.
(2) Upon all flesh, without distinction of sex—“Upon your sons and your daughters”; or age—upon “young men and old”; or condition—upon “bondmen” and “bondmaidens,” as well as upon free persons.
(3) With inward illumination, so that they who received it should “prophesy” or utter divine communications of religious truth, as the apostles and other Christians who had the gift of prophecy did (see 1 Corinthians 14:3), should “see visions,” or possess insight into spiritual and unseen realities, as Stephen did in the judgment hall (Acts 7:55), Peter on the housetop (Acts 10:10), and Paul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3), and in the Temple (Acts 22:17), and should “dream dreams,” as perhaps John did in Patmos on the Lord’s day (Revelation 1:10).
2. Of the Second Coming of Christ. Characterised as a “great and notable” day.
(1) In comparison with His first advent, which was lowly and obscure, whereas this was to be conspicuous and glorious (Matthew 25:31).
(2) Because of the portents which should attend it, “the wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth beneath,” etc.—language descriptive of the woes and horrors that should overtake such as refused to acknowledge Christ—which received its first and partial fulfilment in the Destruction of Jerusalem, and will attain its complete realisation at the Last Day, when those who decline to believe and obey Christ will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of God, and from the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:9).
3. Of the free publication of the Gospel. This also, according to the prophet, should distinguish Messianic times. Under the dispensation of the Spirit, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord, not merely evoking but accepting Him and trusting in Him for all that His name should imply, should be saved. (Compare Romans 10:13.)
Learn.—
1. It is no disparagement to a Christian to be found fault with by the world.
2. It is better to be drunk with the Spirit than to be intoxicated with wine:
3. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
4. The gospel has two outlooks—one of mercy for the believer, another of wrath for the unbeliever.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 2:15. Drunkenness and Spiritual Influence.
I. Compared.—
1. Both accompanied by bodily manifestations.
2. Both frequently attended by mental excitement.
3. Both, as a rule, followed by corresponding prostration.
II. Contrasted.—
1. The one is a carnal excitement; the other is a spiritual ravishment.
2. The one, a degrading sin; the other, an elevating grace.
2. The one leads to moral and spiritual ruin, the other terminates in salvation and eternal life.
Acts 2:17-18. The Dispensation of the Spirit.
I. The age to which it belongs.—The last days—i.e., all the days of the New Testament era.
II. The author from whom it proceeds.—Jehovah, the God of the ancient Church and the founder of the new, the God and Father of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
III. The persons on whom it descends.—“All flesh,” without distinction of sex or age, provided they be “servants and handmaidens” of the Lord.
IV. The measure in which it is given.—Not in drops but in streams. “I will pour out.”
V. The effects by which it is followed.—The highest forms of spiritual illumination—prophesying, seeing visions, and having dreams.
Acts 2:17. Visions for Young Men.
I. The vision of the Saviour Christ.—Such as Saul of Tarsus received in the hour of his conversion (Acts 22:14)—a vision of Christ as the Righteous One, “as the greatest, the wisest, the dearest, and the best—all one’s salvation and all one’s desire.”
II. The vision of a better self.—Such as every young man obtains when he gets his vision of Christ. In this vision of a better self are included two spiritual experiences:
1. An immediate and an intense self-depreciation, as if the first outcome of the vision of the divine ideal of goodness were “to send down into the dust and break all to pieces”; as with Simon Peter (Luke 5:8) and the Publican (Luke 18:13).
2. The springing up of an intense aspiration. “There is a gradual emptying of self, and a gradual abandonment to the ideal in Christ, so much so that the motto of Paul becomes that of every Christian, ‘To me to live is Christ.’ ”
III. The vision of a better society.—“A common vision with the saints of God is to see the kingdom of God established on the earth.” “A modern preacher of righteousness—the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes—specifies no less than a round dozen of devils which must be cast out of modern society—drunkenness, lust, slavery, ignorance, gambling, pauperism, disease, crime, war, the opium trade, the torture of dumb animals the sale of spirits and gunpowder to savages.”
IV. The vision of a better Church.—“Of a Church free, united, and energetic”—i.e., free to recognise the Lord Jesus Christ alone as its head, and neither pope nor prelate, Queen nor State; united, in the sense that all unnecessary separations shall have ceased; and energetic in doing its God-appointed work amongst men.
V. The vision of a heavenly inheritance.—“On the wall of the house in Hamburgh, where the poet Klopstock lived and died, was a board with this inscription—‘Immortality is a great thought’; but the thought of Eternal Life in an eternal Home is greater still.” A vision of this will defy all the negations of science, and lift the soul higher than all the guesses of philosophers and all the dreams of poets.” “Hopeful saw the gates of the city, and that was enough. He looked, and from that happy peace (the Delectable Mountains) God’s glory smote him on the face. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ ”—P. Wilson, M.A.
Acts 2:20. The Day of the Lord.—Great and notable.
I. As regards the splendour of Christ’s manifestation.—On that day the Son of man will appear in the glory of His Father and with His holy angels.
II. As regards the blessedness of Christ’s people.—Then this will reach its highest point. They will appear with Him in glory.
III. As regards the destruction of Christ’s foes.—This will then be sudden, complete, and final.
Acts 2:21. The Messianic Salvation.
I. Its import.—Deliverance from the guilt and power of sin—victory over death and the grave—Resurrection and Eternal Life.
II. Its foundation.—The Name of the Lord. The merciful and gracious character of God in Christ, the only plea of a sinner’s justification.
III. Its condition.—Calling on that Name, which implies faith and earnestness on the part of the caller, as well as an acknowledgment of his need of salvation and utter helplessness to procure it for himself.
IV. Its universality.—It is offered to every one who chooses to comply with the aforesaid condition. “Whosoever shall call shall be saved.”
V. Its certainty.—“It shall be,” of a verity, without any peradventure. The believer’s salvation is guaranteed by the oath and promise of God, both of which are Yea and Amen in Christ.