Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Acts 2:14a, 36-41 (NRSV)

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, 

³⁶ Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” ³⁸ Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” ⁴⁰ And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹ So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.

Acts 2:14a, 36-41 (Year A Third Sunday of Easter) present the conclusion to the sermon of Peter at Pentecost. This study focuses on:

·      Peter’s proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Messiah, crucified and raised by God.

·      The response of the crowd, Peter’s call to repentance, baptism, and the promise of the Holy Spirit.

·      The theological significance of forgiveness, the link between baptism and the Spirit, and the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.

 

Peter concludes his message in verse 36: Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah (κύριον καὶ χριστὸν), this Jesus whom you crucified. This witness relates to all the work of God in relation to the Christ, his resurrection and exaltation manifesting his ordination as Lord and Christ, this taking place by way of his rejection by Israel.[1] The resurrection of Jesus and his exaltation to the Father results in the fulfillment of the prophecy from Joel concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The new age of the work and power of the Spirit has begun. The Crucified One is the one who God raised. Jesus of Nazareth, whose life resulted in crucifixion by Jewish and Romans leaders, is the same person the Father, through the life-giving power of the Spirit, raised from the dead. The Father has made this crucified one Lord and Messiah. He relies upon the witness of Scripture to interpret this event. Scripture reveals who Jesus was in the eyes of the Father.

Verses 37-40 is the response to the sermon. In verse 37, the response of those who heard the message was a troubled heart that led them to ask what they must do, the same question the crowd asked John the Baptist (Luke 3:10). Peter will answer briefly and in imperatives in verses 38-39. Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As a rule, baptism in the name of Jesus confers the Spirit. Baptism is a natural part of conversion.[2] 39 For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him. First, they must repent and thereby attain forgiveness. Second, they must receive baptism in the name of Jesus, baptism becoming the standard ritual of initiation in the Christian community. While the conviction in the heart or soul of a person and the decision to repent are within the sphere of what the person does, baptism is an act of submission to what others do for the person. Baptism in the name of Jesus may well have been the early practice of the church, but out of it grew the Trinitarian form of baptism we find at the conclusion of Matthew. Such repentance and submission to baptism will bring with them forgiveness of sins. If one has ever gotten into a situation in which the load of debt became unbearable, one knows what debt forgiveness could mean, one knows how thankful one would be if someone paid the debt. Sin represents a debt we owe to others, but we especially owe the debt to God, for God has given us the gift of life to fulfill a purpose. We all fall short of that purpose, especially in the love we owe to God and to others. We cannot go through life without forgiveness, both in receiving it and in extending it. Forgiveness has strong links with the ministries of John the Baptist (Luke 3:3) and of Jesus himself (Luke 5:20-24; 7:47-49; 11:4; 17:3-4; 23:34; 24:47) and is one of the hallmarks of the Christian community (Acts 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 22:16; 26:18). The baptism of the believer links the believer to Jesus Christ. ^[3] The third imperative is that they will receive the gift, which is the Holy Spirit. The link between baptism and reception of the Spirit was part of primitive Christianity.^[4] The fruit of repentance and baptism will be the reception of the Holy Spirit, just as Peter and the others had just experienced (2:1-4).^[5] The promise of the outpouring of the Spirit is to them as Jewish people, but also to the nations (Joel 2:28-32). In another imperative, Peter will urge them in verse 40: Save yourselves from this corrupt (crooked, as in Mk 9:19, Mt 17:17, Lk 9:41, the judgment of this crookedness or corruption castigating the inner contradiction of Jewish conduct)[6] generation. It will take discernment to see where in the culture in which one lives the corruption manifests itself. People lose their way. A generation can lose its way. The church can lose its way.

In verse 41, Luke notes that the 3000 persons who repented, received baptism for the forgiveness of their sins, and received the Holy Spirit, now persisted in exhibiting certain qualities that we could suggest ought to mark the church of every culture and generation.

Practical application

I will focus upon:

·      how different Christian traditions answer, “What shall we do?”, the challenge of living faithfully in a “corrupt generation,” and the communal/individual dimensions of faith.

·      Illustrative metaphors (Ulee’s Gold, redwood trees) and reflections on the church’s struggles and the need for grace.

 

Belief in the resurrection has been challenged by some biblical scholars and theologians (what else is new?). This text is an opportunity to counter those challenges with a strong, informed affirmation of the resurrection. We have the stories of resurrection, but now we must step back and reflect upon the meaning of those narratives. We must take some time to do some theology. In so doing, our reflections will be both pedagogical and pastoral. Doubts about something as surprising as the resurrection of Jesus is quite normal. Responding to such a witness with faith is unnatural and even miraculous. 

Consider the question of what we shall do in the context of the Christian community today. Someone devoted to orthodoxy will quickly hear the answer: “Make sure the preaching of the church is pure.” To the segment of the church that especially values orthodoxy, by far the most important thing about being a Christian is to believe the right thing. The next category is moralism. Moralists want to see, more than anything else, that people in the church behave. Christianity, to them, is a matter of discovering the ethical precepts of the faith and following them. The third answer to the question is the social-activist answer. To the activist, the purpose of the church is to change the world: to root out and destroy injustice, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to make this planet a better place for everyone to live. Finally, there are the pietists. The pietists say that nothing else in this life matters if one has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Becoming a Christian is a matter of getting to know Christ — no more, no less. And living the Christian life is primarily a matter of trying to bring others into the fold. In truth, Christianity is all these things. Jesus is all these things, throughout the course of his earthly ministry. His deepest desire for us is that we might believe the right thing ... do the right thing ... advocate the right thing ... pray the right thing.^[7]

In this episode, the author of Acts attempts to demonstrate that the Old Testament promises of the restoration of the people of God are being realized in the messianic community that looks to the resurrected Jesus as its Lord. Joel 2 predicted the reception of the Holy Spirit by the believers and represents the blessing promised long before Abraham.

I direct your attention to the notion of a corrupt generation. Would it be fair to say that our own generation, or perhaps “culture,” is a corrupt one? Not everyone would agree. Much that is emerging in our culture these days is positively amazing and beneficial. Who would want to throw away those marvelous devices we can slip into our hip pockets or purse — devices that take photos and movies, that calculate numbers and create spreadsheets, that provide answers on any topic and much more? Who does not appreciate medical science and the imaging machines now available, or advanced cancer treatments that we have now? Who would want to be without GPS technology that provides a voice (with a timbre and accent of our own choosing) that guides us directly to our destination in a strange locality?

But many of us feel that there is indeed a spirit of the age — something — from which we must protect ourselves.

I suspect every generation has its unique form of corruption. The question this raises for the people of God in every generation is how they recognize their need for saving from their generation and how they can still witness to it. 

Ulee’s Gold is a 1997 movie, one easily overlooked. Peter Fonda portrays Ulee. The movie is deceptively old-fashioned. The film is about family. In a time when many people forsake the family so easily, this film stands up and declares that salvation of the family lies in our ability to support and love each other, through the good times and the bad. The film does not pretend that the bad times do not wear you down. Nevertheless, it shows that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, and if there is even one spark of hope in the darkness, not all is lost. This is a realistic look at a family in need of a second chance on life. 

Since Ulee is a beekeeper, we find out something about bees and beekeepers. Ulee’s gold is, after all, the honey from the bees. The relationship between bee and beekeeper is simple: You take care of them, and they will take care of you. In one scene (1:06:48 to 1:07:52), Penny, his granddaughter, has drawn a picture of Ulee going to the swamp to get the bees. With Ulee listening in, she tells her mother, who has had problems with addiction to drugs, 

“See, sometimes the bees get confused, and run away — that’s them there on the tree. But they don’t really want to be gone, and they’re happy when someone helps them back into their home. But you got to keep calm and don’t panic when they sting, ’cause they don’t mean nothing by it.”

 

I have a question for you. Have some people in your family lost their way? Have some people in your neighborhood or at work lost their way? They might even lash out at you. The corruption of this generation has grabbed them. I confess I have not always responded well in that situation. I keep trying to respond as a disciple, by which I mean, with forgiveness and love. 

The church in America struggles. The American landscape has changed. Many people have lost their way. Some people have developed intellectual struggles. They find they can no longer believe what the church believes and often have no place to go within the church to raise their questions. Some people develop spiritual problems with the church, for it seems as if many churches have lost their way. They care more about buildings and the way they have always done things, rather than reaching people with the good news. Some have moral questions but are not sure they can raise them within the church. Some people notice that the church has too often supported injustice. Of course, still others see the imperfection of the church and its members. That ought to sadden us. If we have failed to reflect the love of Christ to others, it ought to call us within the church to repentance. Yet, in another sense, people within the church are imperfect, and in fact, the church is for imperfect people. If you are perfect, you have no need of what the church offers. If you need grace, we want you to find it within the community of faith. 

Here is the point: Being a follower of Jesus is both a group trip and an individual experience. The writer of Hebrews told the Christians of his day to not neglect to meet, but to assemble as believers to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:25). He was right. Church is not like school where you attend for a while until you receive your degree and then you graduate. The church has no alumni association. 

The huge redwood trees of California amaze people who see them. They are the largest living things on earth and the tallest trees in the world. Some of them are 300 feet high and over 2,500 years old. One would think that trees so large must have a tremendous root system that reaches down hundreds of feet into the earth. But not so! The redwoods have a very shallow root system. If one were to get down on one’s knees and examine the redwoods’ root system, one would find that all the roots intertwine. They join their roots to each other. When the storms come, the winds blow, and the lightning flashes, the redwoods still stand. They are not alone, for all the trees support and protect each other. Each tree is important to all the other trees in the grove.^[8] The same needs to be true of us. Our spiritual roots interlock with others who share the journey.

At the same time, however, we need to take individual responsibility for the health of our faith. We do that through such private activities as prayer and Bible reading and giving to the work of the church and the like, but we also do it by making sure we connect regularly with a body of believers. While the church has a prime responsibility to help us in our life of faith, we as individual Christians always have a prime responsibility to our church to help it be a place where the things Peter outlined — the preaching of repentance, baptism, seeking the Holy Spirit — happen. The church, with our help, should also ensure that the practices of the early converts — worship, fellowship, caring for one another, common goals in mission and ministry, an active prayer life among the membership, a thorough Christian education for children and newcomers to the faith and so on — are carried out.

In one of the memorable quotes from Ulee’s Gold, Ulee says, “There's all kinds of weakness in the world, not all of it is evil. I forget that from time to time.” The corruption of this generation can get inside of people. We may spot weakness of faith, hope and love in a fellow church member; we may spot such weakness in a family member, neighbor, coworker, or friend. Weakness is not time to play “gotcha.” Weakness is time for grace. Weakness is a time to listen for something like, “Friend, I have lost my way. What must I do?” Oh, they may not use those words, but with their lives and other words, they just might be saying it. We need to listen. Seeing weakness is a time to invite people to find their way out of the corruption and find their way home.

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[1] Grundmann, TDNT, IX, 535.

[2] Schweizer, TDNT, VI, 413.

^[3] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)Volume 3, 240.

^[4] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)Volume 3, 279.

^[5] (Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, 1998, 1991)Volume 3, 260.

[6] Bertram, TDNT, VII, 407.

^[7] Inspired by Shirley Guthrie.

^[8] —Source unknown.