The first sermon of the New Testament Church was given on Pentecost Sunday. The Apostle Peter gave a message to God’s people that cut them to the heart. Let’s break down a few points that we can take away.
First, do intoxicated people normally speak in different languages? I suppose the answer is, they might if they actually spoke different languages. The problem with this answer is that it didn’t explain how people from all over the known world who had gathered for the Feast of Weeks, aka Pentecost, were able to hear the Judean locals speak in different languages. We know this was because the Spirit enabled them to do so. This first sermon of the New Testament Church is often thought of the undoing of the Tower of Babel when God confused the languages of the world.
There is more to be said about Peter’s introduction of the Last Days by quoting the prophet Joel, but I wanted to jump to the end of the account of the first sermon of the New Testament Church and look at the results. So often we don’t know what the results will be when we share God’s word. This is a matter of the heart. It’s a matter between the sinner and God. We see that three thousand people came to believe in Jesus as their Savior on that day after hearing that sermon, but there were many more people in Jerusalem than just three thousand. Some historians think that there were as many as one million people in the city due to the festival. More conservative estimates place the numbers at one hundred thousand. Either way, not everyone believed Peter’s message that day. That’s ok! As we share the gospel with the people around us we have God’s promise that his word will not return to him empty. Our job is to share that message of love and forgiveness with a reckless abandon.
Want to hear more – including how Peter didn’t hold back on calling God’s people out on their sin? Watch this week’s lesson – The First Sermon from our study, The Acts of the Apostles.
Please click HERE for the Bible class slides.
Please click HERE for the other lessons from our series Acts of the Apostles.