The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord

Acts of the Apostles (5)

Introduction

We saw last week that the gift of tongues was a marvelous blessing for those who had ears to hear. For believers, the point was all about the grace of God, and the wonderful works of God. But we also saw that for unbelievers, the reality of gibberish in the streets of Jerusalem should have been beyond creepy. If they had known the meaning of Scripture, they would have heard the ominous music of the soundtrack. They were on the threshold of their doom.

We have seen how Luke set the stage for recording Peter’s sermon. In English, the sermon takes about two and a half minutes to speak, but it says later (v. 40) that Peter spoke “many other words” in the follow up. Given the nature of the case, it is important to take in all of Peter’s sermon at one go. 

The Text

“But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh . . . And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come . . . Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:14–36).

Summary of the Text

Peter stood up, and with a loud voice got the attention of these men of Judea and residents of Jerusalem (v. 14). He responds to the charge of drunkenness first. That could not be it because, he argued, it was only around 9 a.m. (v. 15). These events were actually a fulfillment of a prophecy from Joel (v. 16; Joel 2: 28-32), which he then quotes (vv. 17-21). Please note the entirety of what he quotes. First, God is going to pour out His Spirit on all flesh—sons, daughters, young men, old men (v. 17), not to mention male and female slaves prophesying (v. 18). That is the first portent. The second portent is the disintegration of heaven, earth, sun and moon, leading up to the day of the Lord (vv. 19-20)—thunder, lightning, and blue ruin. In this context, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (v. 21). What Peter was describing was all the same event. The tongues-speaking was the overture, and the fall of Jerusalem was the crescendo—but it was all one symphonic composition.

Those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Who will the Savior be? These men of Israel already knew that Jesus of Nazareth was certainly attested by God through many miracles and signs (v. 22). The death of this Jesus, also not a secret, was not a divine misfire. Christ was crucified by wicked hands, but it was also in accordance with the settled plan of God (v. 23). God raised Him from the dead because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on Him (v. 24). This too was prophesied beforehand (Ps. 16:8-11). David saw the Lord, who was on his right hand, such that he would not be moved (v. 25). This was the source of David’s gladness and hope (v. 26). His soul would not be left in Sheol/Hades, and the Holy One would not see corruption (v. 27). The way of life is revealed, and it is joy in the presence of God (v. 28). Peter comments on this passage, saying that David could not have been talking about himself, because his grave was still right there in Jerusalem (v. 29). As a prophet, he was actually saying that a descendant of his would be raised from the dead in order to sit on the throne of David (v. 30), and that this had in fact been sealed with an oath from God. The Christ would be killed, but would not decompose, and would rather be raised (v. 31). Jesus was raised, and all these men speaking in tongues were eyewitnesses of it (v. 32). This risen Christ, now ascended to the right hand of the Father, received the Holy Spirit from the Father, and then poured Him out (v. 33). Again, this is not referring to David—for how did David speak of his descendant? He called Him “my Lord,” the one seated at the right hand of God (vv. 34-35; Ps. 110:1). And this is why the entire house of Israel needs to be assured of the fact that God has made this very Jesus, the one crucified a couple months before in that same city, both Lord and Christ (v. 36). 

Decreation Language

One common form of prophetic declaration is something I call “collapsing solar system” language. The sun goes dark, the moon turns blood red, and all the stars fall like ripe figs in a windstorm. This kind of language occurs frequently in the Old Testament, and there are a number of striking places in the New Testament where these places are cited and repeated. Bible scholars call this kind of language decreation language. In Scripture, it has a specific kind of meaning.

Many ordinary Christians, taking the Bible at face value, go out and look at the night sky, and because everything is still up there, simply assume that these prophecies are yet to be fulfilled in our future. But this ignores what the language meant in the Old Testament.

The places are Joel 2:28-32 (cited here); Amos 8:9; Ezek. 32:7; Is. 13:10; and Is. 34:4. What do these expressions refer to? Throughout the Old Testament, they always refer to the destruction of a city or nation. “The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw” (Isaiah 13:1). And the meaning of such expressions does not change in the New. Remember, the disciples had asked Jesus when the promised destruction of Jerusalem would occur, and part of His reply was to quote Is. 13 and Is. 34. It all means the same thing. What happened to Babylon was going to happen to Jerusalem. He was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem, and not the dissolution of the space/time continuum.

Now we saw last week from Is. 28 that the gift of tongues was a portent of destruction for Jerusalem. And Peter’s sermon immediately following makes this explicit. Trouble was certainly brewing. He quotes a passage from Joel, and that passage had two elements. One was the Spirit being poured out voluminously on God’s people, and the other was the great cataclysm. But in Peter’s message, these two elements were all of a piece. Pentecost in 30 A.D. and the Destruction in 70 A.D. were all the same event—the great and terrible Day of the Lord. We have no business dividing this into two events—the happy event in the tongues and the tragic event in the destruction of Jerusalem.

What was happening is that God’s armies laid siege to Jerusalem in 30 A.D. with the city completely surrounded. Those armies were speaking a different language. The residents of Jerusalem were given an opportunity to surrender—they were offered terms. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But when the city finally falls, it all began with laying the siege.   

Preaching the Resurrection

We do not just preach that Jesus was raised from the dead. We also declare what it means that He was raised from the dead. The risen Christ pours out His Spirit promiscuously—He was not dispensed with a teaspoon. The risen Christ will visit terrible desolations on the city that murdered Him. The risen Christ offers terms to anyone who willing to call on the name of the Lord. Mercy is extended in the midst of the day of wrath. The risen Christ had been identified beforehand by God with miracles, but then betrayed to murderers by the glorious foreordination of God. The risen Christ was raised in accordance with what Scripture had said a millennium before. The risen Christ is on the throne of David, which is the throne of the world.

And so it is that the risen Christ cannot be received as anything other than Lord and Christ. There is no other option. Christ is risen. Christ is Lord.