It was 50 days after the resurrection. They could still almost hear the shouts of the crowd at the crucifixion, feel the imprints of the nail scars in his hands, smell the fresh fish roasted over a fire as Jesus playfully had breakfast with them on the shoreline. It was just ten days ago that a cloud hid Him from their sight, and they were chided by angels for standing there staring into the sky.
Now a whole new set of sights, sounds, feelings, and realities confronted them. Ten days of vibrant life together, fervent prayer, expectation and waiting. The smell of the festival sacrifices below. The sound of a violent wind, the kind that would carry their fishing boats over open waters or dash them against the rocks. The sight? What “seemed to be” tongues of fire resting on each of them. Then an explosion of prophetic praise that Jews from every nation under heaven could understand.
What weight did Peter carry as he stood up along with the eleven to deliver what would be recorded as the first sermon about Easter? This is not yet a long-celebrated tradition carried down over the millennia. Did he have any concept that the words that he chose would be recorded, condensed, copied, studied, rehearsed, and put into practice by billions of people, for generations to come?
We get 3-5 minutes reading of unfiltered witness from a freshly Spirit-baptized apostle (to be sure, expertly collated by Luke) of the greatest event in history, just weeks following. What Peter passes on to us in the power of the Holy Spirit, without overstatement, is a message that changes the world. And it will continue to change situations, lives, communities, and nations until we no longer need to ask, “are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
It is a timeless, perpetual witness. Every life lived, word written or spoken by every follower of Jesus since has added depth and richness to the initial testimony. And if we want to get technical, the truly foundational gospel witness that is being built upon here is from Mary Magdalene: “I have seen the Lord!” (John 20:18). Still, Peter’s sermon lays a foundation upon which all other sermons about Easter sit. It would be wise to pay attention. Here are some sermon notes that I think are especially relevant for Pentecostals in Newfoundland in the year of our Lord 2026:
1) The message is communal. When Jesus gave the Great Commission, it was to the whole Christian community, not just to individuals. Far from absolving the individual from our part to play, it reminds us that we join God in His mission together. Similarly here, the Holy Spirit is poured out on all (Acts 2:39). In the family that lives in the kingdom of God, there is no hierarchy. Peter makes this connection explicitly in his exposition of Joel’s text. It is for sons, daughters, old men, young men, servants, Jews, Gentiles…everyone (Acts 2:17-21). We ignore this dimension of the first Easter message to our peril. It has profound implications for how we live, love, lead, gather, worship, give, pray, and go.
2) The message is simple, yet profound. The gospel is not complicated, but you will never exhaust its depths. Peter’s sermon reminds us of the deep cohesiveness of the message of the scriptures between the testaments. The visual depiction of the 63 779 cross references found in the Bible is worth contemplating as a catalyst to wonder and worship.[1] And yet, all of the Bible is clearly and specifically about the very thing Jesus spoke to the disciples about over the period of 40 days after his resurrection: the kingdom of God. Dallas Willard helpfully defines the kingdom of God as the place “where what God wants done is done.”[2] Peter articulates that Jesus, in his life (v.22), death (v.23), resurrection (v.24), and in the outpouring of the Spirit (v.33), has ushered in the already-but-not-yet kingdom tangibly (v.36). This message gets to the core need of every human heart (v.37). We need to stay on message, without being distracted by the temptation for spiritual fast food, and invite people to believe the good news both daily and every time we gather.
3) The response shapes everything. It happens in a moment on a Jerusalem street, continues in a gigantic baptism service, resonates in another outpouring of the Spirit, and culminates in a mission-shaped, kingdom comeunity bearing 2000+ years of witness to the world. Still, we are invited to believe, repent, be baptized, be filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:37-41), to devote ourselves to the community of faith (Acts 2:42-47), then to continue doing what Jesus did until he comes (Acts 3 – Present).
What will we do? What is our invitation? To bear witness as a Spirit-filled family in Newfoundland and Labrador who exists for the world.
[1] https://markmeynell.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/a-stunning-visualization-of-the-bibles-63779-cross-references/ thanks to Pastor Isaiah Simms for making me aware of this graphic!
[2] [2] Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy. New York: Harper Collins, 1998. P.25. https://hiskingdom.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/The-Divine-Conspiracy-Willard.pdf. Web.
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