Author: Frank G. Tunstall, D. Min.
The Gospel in the Old Testament
Peter went straight to his Bible, the Old Testament, that historic morning in the Upper Room: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” We are not told if Peter had already learned Joel’s prophecy from Jesus, or whether the Holy Spirit gave it to him in the moment in the Upper Room. For sure, no record exists of a Hebrew scholar who had predicted Joel’s prophecy meant Messiah would give the Holy Spirit and launch the church. And certainly not even the most learned Jewish scholars connected the dots and recognized the prophecies that predicted there would be a new kind of temple, and the Most Holy Place of the new temple would be the hearts of Messiah’s followers (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26; Hebrews 8:10).
If a Jewish spiritual leader had taught such interpretations and been serious in advocating them – a new temple and a new Most Holy Place – he probably would have been excommunicated, or worse.
Joel’s prophecy sat on the shelf of history for about 800 years, awaiting this specific first century Day of Pentecost for its fulfillment. Joel could not have comprehended how or when his prophecy would come to pass. No prophet, other than Jesus the Prophet, can look some 800 years into the future. Joel could only know what the Holy Spirit gave him, but that was enough to assure him God was up to something big.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it" (Luke 10:24). Peter wrote in his first letter that “the prophets searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).
What the prophets longed to see, Peter and the 120 believers experienced on the Day of Pentecost. Peter bravely became the Holy Spirit’s mouthpiece to a Jewish crowd that exceeded 3,000 people.
Looking back, we can say, how appropriate! But it was a long wait, those eight long centuries. The New Testament had been embedded in the Old Testament all of that time and was waiting for Messiah to come and open its treasures. No one picked up its ultimate meaning; it took the cross of Jesus to unveil it. Indeed, to this day, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the greatest interpreter of the Scriptures.
The crowd consisted of mostly devout Jews. Yet, we are left to wonder why no one threw a rock at Peter for saying the gift of the Holy Spirit is meant for all people, worldwide. In any case, Peter had it right, no one is left out: sons, daughters, young men, old men, servants, handmaidens. Joel concluded his prophecy by offering this great assurance with a heartwarming appeal. Anyone who “calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” – whosoever will, anywhere, worldwide (Joel 2:32, KJV).
It quickly became evident that historic morning, the mission of the Holy Spirit was not to advance Himself, but to exalt Jesus. Peter clearly showed just that – he moved in his sermon from Joel to Jesus, and again demonstrated great boldness. Peter declared the miracles of Jesus were God-revealing and should have affirmed to His enemies God was working among His people. But instead of accepting Jesus, the Jews turned Him over to the authorities for crucifixion. Their brutal choice, however, made it possible for Jesus to turn their curse into a great blessing by completing the atonement, according to the foreknowledge of God.
Peter announced his accusation: “and you, with the help of wicked men put [Jesus] to death by nailing Him to the cross” (Acts 2:32). It was a strong indictment of murder made against the highest leaders in the land. Most of Peter’s listeners were devout Jews; but, again, no one picked up a stone to throw at him for saying it.
This day was also the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Church for which He died exists as multiplied assemblies of believers. Their first responsibility is to worship Jesus with heartfelt gratitude for His sacrificial death on Calvary, including His glorious resurrection. Growing out of that adoration, they follow their pastor in study of the Scriptures. They also grow as individuals in their commitment to Jesus’ Great Commission that embraces ministry simultaneously in the homeland and worldwide. Jesus is an international thinker who motivates His followers to send and take His liberating message of atoning grace to the ends of the earth. These families of faith also care for each other, and serve their communities.
The Holy Spirit surely placed a canopy of protection over the disciples that day. The conviction of the Holy Spirit began to settle over the crowd. Peter went on to declare that “God raised [Jesus] from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24).
Jesus is the ultimate example of knowing how to bring good out of the worst situations. Jesus used the very hatred that killed Him, making it the cause that sent Him to Calvary to atone for our sins and show us His “great love wherewith He loved us” (Ephesians 2:4).
Peter continued to make his case by appealing to King David, quoting from Psalm 16:
“I saw the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (Acts 2:25-28; Psalm 16:8-11).
This is a powerful testimony showing how David achieved so much in His 40-year reign, becoming known as the king after God’s on heart. His secret? He always saw the Lord before His face and at His right hand. “Always” suggests it was a daily norm for the king; what was invisible became visible to him through the eyes of his heart. The anointing on King’s David’s life had to have been, in New Testament terms, akin to walking daily in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25).
The Spirit that worked in David’s greater Son, the Messiah, was far greater than King David’s anointing. Psalm 16 goes deeper and shows it. King David died, and his body had been committed to the earth for a millennium. Messiah gave His life as the perfect sacrifice for sin at the hands of wicked men, but He was resurrected on the third day. His body showed no decay. And Peter added, “We are witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32).
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise God made to David a thousand years before the event. Yes, the resurrection of Jesus was a fact to Peter and the other apostles, as well as to a large company of other witnesses who saw the Lord.
“God had promised David on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32).
David also foretold in his prophecy that the resurrected Messiah would ascend into heaven, to His Father’s right hand, and Peter preached it. “Exalted to the right hand of God,” Peter proclaimed, Jesus has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out “what you now see and hear” (Psalm 110:1; Acts 2:33).
To seal the case, Peter added that King David did not ascend into heaven; hence, he could not have been speaking about himself. Yet, David wrote, "The Lord said to my Lord.” The statement in the Hebrew reads “Yahweh said to Adonai,” or “God said to God.” The Heavenly Father is speaking to His only begotten Son: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Psalm 110:1; Mark 12:36; Acts 2:34-35).
This language is very clear that God the Father was talking to God-His-Son-Jesus. Psalm 110 is timeless Trinitarian language.
Peter wrapped-up His indictment by saying, "Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, Whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36; see also Acts 4:10) At the same time Peter offered hope, because Jesus is both the Lord and the Messiah (Christ).
The crowd was “cut to the heart.” They started asking, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter responded:
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation" (Acts 2:38-40).
This passage is an early New Testament formula for being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit. But how does a person repent for murdering His Messiah?
It certainly will not be flippant and casual. Instead, such a grievous crime calls for being filled with Godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
To see clearly the convicting work of the Holy Spirit that produces Spirit-anointed preaching, one needs only consider the reception Peter received on the Day of Pentecost. The doctrine of repentance taught in so much of the Lord’s church today is far too trite and commonplace. Oh! for Gospel preaching to be so full of the Holy Spirit that God’s heavy hand of conviction for sin burns peoples’ hearts (Psalm 32:4-5).
“With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation’" (Acts 2:40-41). Peter’s earnest warning was merited. He knew for a fact corruption was in the temple religious system; his boldness to say it came from the Holy Spirit. We should be reminded Jesus Himself referred to the temple as “a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).
What could be more corrupt? Abraham, Moses and David would have been horrified and shamed beyond belief for their descendants to do such a wicked deed as crucifying their own Messiah. They would surely have thought, What in the world have our descendants come to? Have they gone crazy?
The spiritual tragedy of the decision to kill Jesus meant they were rejecting their Savior and doing it in the most callous way possible. They would lose their souls if they did not repent; Jesus had made that clear. Repentance here means a complete change of heart; turning around in a total new beginning. “I am the way and the truth and the life,” the Lord said. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
“Those who accepted [Peter’s] message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:37-41). The implication is that not all who heard the Word Peter preached received it, but 3,000 did.
Peter did not have a single New Testament book that first Pentecost morning; not one had been written. But the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah were embedded in the Old Testament. In the bright sunlight of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, that was enough. As Peter looked through the lens of the cross, the light turned on that made the launch of the Lord’s Church a huge success.
The Holy Spirit was now at the helm as the Gospel ship began to move out to the nations.
The Gospel in the Old Testament
Peter went straight to his Bible, the Old Testament, that historic morning in the Upper Room: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” We are not told if Peter had already learned Joel’s prophecy from Jesus, or whether the Holy Spirit gave it to him in the moment in the Upper Room. For sure, no record exists of a Hebrew scholar who had predicted Joel’s prophecy meant Messiah would give the Holy Spirit and launch the church. And certainly not even the most learned Jewish scholars connected the dots and recognized the prophecies that predicted there would be a new kind of temple, and the Most Holy Place of the new temple would be the hearts of Messiah’s followers (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26; Hebrews 8:10).
If a Jewish spiritual leader had taught such interpretations and been serious in advocating them – a new temple and a new Most Holy Place – he probably would have been excommunicated, or worse.
Joel’s prophecy sat on the shelf of history for about 800 years, awaiting this specific first century Day of Pentecost for its fulfillment. Joel could not have comprehended how or when his prophecy would come to pass. No prophet, other than Jesus the Prophet, can look some 800 years into the future. Joel could only know what the Holy Spirit gave him, but that was enough to assure him God was up to something big.
Jesus said to His disciples, “Many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it" (Luke 10:24). Peter wrote in his first letter that “the prophets searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow” (1 Peter 1:10-11).
What the prophets longed to see, Peter and the 120 believers experienced on the Day of Pentecost. Peter bravely became the Holy Spirit’s mouthpiece to a Jewish crowd that exceeded 3,000 people.
Looking back, we can say, how appropriate! But it was a long wait, those eight long centuries. The New Testament had been embedded in the Old Testament all of that time and was waiting for Messiah to come and open its treasures. No one picked up its ultimate meaning; it took the cross of Jesus to unveil it. Indeed, to this day, the death and resurrection of Jesus is the greatest interpreter of the Scriptures.
The crowd consisted of mostly devout Jews. Yet, we are left to wonder why no one threw a rock at Peter for saying the gift of the Holy Spirit is meant for all people, worldwide. In any case, Peter had it right, no one is left out: sons, daughters, young men, old men, servants, handmaidens. Joel concluded his prophecy by offering this great assurance with a heartwarming appeal. Anyone who “calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” – whosoever will, anywhere, worldwide (Joel 2:32, KJV).
It quickly became evident that historic morning, the mission of the Holy Spirit was not to advance Himself, but to exalt Jesus. Peter clearly showed just that – he moved in his sermon from Joel to Jesus, and again demonstrated great boldness. Peter declared the miracles of Jesus were God-revealing and should have affirmed to His enemies God was working among His people. But instead of accepting Jesus, the Jews turned Him over to the authorities for crucifixion. Their brutal choice, however, made it possible for Jesus to turn their curse into a great blessing by completing the atonement, according to the foreknowledge of God.
Peter announced his accusation: “and you, with the help of wicked men put [Jesus] to death by nailing Him to the cross” (Acts 2:32). It was a strong indictment of murder made against the highest leaders in the land. Most of Peter’s listeners were devout Jews; but, again, no one picked up a stone to throw at him for saying it.
This day was also the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Lord’s Church for which He died exists as multiplied assemblies of believers. Their first responsibility is to worship Jesus with heartfelt gratitude for His sacrificial death on Calvary, including His glorious resurrection. Growing out of that adoration, they follow their pastor in study of the Scriptures. They also grow as individuals in their commitment to Jesus’ Great Commission that embraces ministry simultaneously in the homeland and worldwide. Jesus is an international thinker who motivates His followers to send and take His liberating message of atoning grace to the ends of the earth. These families of faith also care for each other, and serve their communities.
The Holy Spirit surely placed a canopy of protection over the disciples that day. The conviction of the Holy Spirit began to settle over the crowd. Peter went on to declare that “God raised [Jesus] from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24).
Jesus is the ultimate example of knowing how to bring good out of the worst situations. Jesus used the very hatred that killed Him, making it the cause that sent Him to Calvary to atone for our sins and show us His “great love wherewith He loved us” (Ephesians 2:4).
Peter continued to make his case by appealing to King David, quoting from Psalm 16:
“I saw the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay” (Acts 2:25-28; Psalm 16:8-11).
This is a powerful testimony showing how David achieved so much in His 40-year reign, becoming known as the king after God’s on heart. His secret? He always saw the Lord before His face and at His right hand. “Always” suggests it was a daily norm for the king; what was invisible became visible to him through the eyes of his heart. The anointing on King’s David’s life had to have been, in New Testament terms, akin to walking daily in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16, 25).
The Spirit that worked in David’s greater Son, the Messiah, was far greater than King David’s anointing. Psalm 16 goes deeper and shows it. King David died, and his body had been committed to the earth for a millennium. Messiah gave His life as the perfect sacrifice for sin at the hands of wicked men, but He was resurrected on the third day. His body showed no decay. And Peter added, “We are witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32).
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise God made to David a thousand years before the event. Yes, the resurrection of Jesus was a fact to Peter and the other apostles, as well as to a large company of other witnesses who saw the Lord.
“God had promised David on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact” (Acts 2:32).
David also foretold in his prophecy that the resurrected Messiah would ascend into heaven, to His Father’s right hand, and Peter preached it. “Exalted to the right hand of God,” Peter proclaimed, Jesus has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out “what you now see and hear” (Psalm 110:1; Acts 2:33).
To seal the case, Peter added that King David did not ascend into heaven; hence, he could not have been speaking about himself. Yet, David wrote, "The Lord said to my Lord.” The statement in the Hebrew reads “Yahweh said to Adonai,” or “God said to God.” The Heavenly Father is speaking to His only begotten Son: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Psalm 110:1; Mark 12:36; Acts 2:34-35).
This language is very clear that God the Father was talking to God-His-Son-Jesus. Psalm 110 is timeless Trinitarian language.
Peter wrapped-up His indictment by saying, "Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, Whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" (Acts 2:36; see also Acts 4:10) At the same time Peter offered hope, because Jesus is both the Lord and the Messiah (Christ).
The crowd was “cut to the heart.” They started asking, “Brothers, what shall we do?”
Peter responded:
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off — for all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation" (Acts 2:38-40).
This passage is an early New Testament formula for being born again and receiving the Holy Spirit. But how does a person repent for murdering His Messiah?
It certainly will not be flippant and casual. Instead, such a grievous crime calls for being filled with Godly sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10-11).
To see clearly the convicting work of the Holy Spirit that produces Spirit-anointed preaching, one needs only consider the reception Peter received on the Day of Pentecost. The doctrine of repentance taught in so much of the Lord’s church today is far too trite and commonplace. Oh! for Gospel preaching to be so full of the Holy Spirit that God’s heavy hand of conviction for sin burns peoples’ hearts (Psalm 32:4-5).
“With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation’" (Acts 2:40-41). Peter’s earnest warning was merited. He knew for a fact corruption was in the temple religious system; his boldness to say it came from the Holy Spirit. We should be reminded Jesus Himself referred to the temple as “a den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).
What could be more corrupt? Abraham, Moses and David would have been horrified and shamed beyond belief for their descendants to do such a wicked deed as crucifying their own Messiah. They would surely have thought, What in the world have our descendants come to? Have they gone crazy?
The spiritual tragedy of the decision to kill Jesus meant they were rejecting their Savior and doing it in the most callous way possible. They would lose their souls if they did not repent; Jesus had made that clear. Repentance here means a complete change of heart; turning around in a total new beginning. “I am the way and the truth and the life,” the Lord said. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
“Those who accepted [Peter’s] message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:37-41). The implication is that not all who heard the Word Peter preached received it, but 3,000 did.
Peter did not have a single New Testament book that first Pentecost morning; not one had been written. But the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah were embedded in the Old Testament. In the bright sunlight of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, that was enough. As Peter looked through the lens of the cross, the light turned on that made the launch of the Lord’s Church a huge success.
The Holy Spirit was now at the helm as the Gospel ship began to move out to the nations.