Acts 2:1 The festival of Shavu‘ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. 4 They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 Now there were staying in Yerushalayim religious Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered; they were confused, because each one heard the believers speaking in his own language. 7 Totally amazed, they asked, “How is this possible? Aren’t all these people who are speaking from the Galil? 8 How is it that we hear them speaking in our native languages? 9 We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Y’hudah, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; 11 Jews by birth and proselytes; Jews from Crete and from Arabia. . . ! How is it that we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things God has done?” 12 Amazed and confused, they all went on asking each other, “What can this mean?” 13 But others made fun of them and said, “They’ve just had too much wine!”
14 Then Kefa stood up with the Eleven and raised his voice to address them: “You Judeans, and all of you staying here in Yerushalayim! Let me tell you what this means! Listen carefully to me!
15 “These people aren't drunk, as you suppose — it’s only nine in the morning. 16 No, this is what was spoken about through the prophet Yo’el:
17 ‘YHVH says:
“In the Last Days,
I will pour out from my Spirit upon everyone.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my slaves, both men and women,
will I pour out from my Spirit in those days;
and they will prophesy.
19 I will perform miracles in the sky above
and signs on the earth below —
blood, fire and thick smoke.
20 The sun will become dark
and the moon blood
before the great and fearful Day of YHVH comes.
21 And then, whoever calls on the name of YHVH will be saved.”’
22 “Men of Isra’el! Listen to this! Yeshua from Natzeret was a man demonstrated to you to have been from God by the powerful works, miracles and signs that God performed through him in your presence. You yourselves know this. 23 This man was arrested in accordance with God’s predetermined plan and foreknowledge; and, through the agency of persons not bound by the Torah, you nailed him up on a stake and killed him!
24 “But God has raised him up and freed him from the suffering of death; it was impossible that death could keep its hold on him.”
Miracles were the calling card of Yeshua as He walked the earth. Of course, He’s not walking it anymore. But He is 100% walking it. The Spirit that was upon Him has been transferred to all of those that receive. Thousands, right? Well…
How many followers were there when Yeshua went back to the Father just before Shavuot?
I don’t know about you, but I have always been under the impression that 3000 people had the Spirit fall upon them and foreign tongues were flying all around. I pictured a large crowd of people standing around in Jerusalem with languages of all nations being thrown about. How big of a crowd is that?
Not a bad following at all really. After all, this is the size of your average megachurch. Biblical precedence, right? The only trouble though is that this is not accurate.
Sure, 3000 people were added to the believer-base that day but according to Acts 1, there were only 120 believers gathered together when the Spirit fell.
Acts 1:9 After saying this, he was taken up before their eyes; and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 As they were staring into the sky after him, suddenly they saw two men dressed in white standing next to them. 11 The men said, “You Galileans! Why are you standing, staring into space? This Yeshua, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will come back to you in just the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
12 Then they returned the Shabbat-walk distance from the Mount of Olives to Yerushalayim. 13 After entering the city, they went to the upstairs room where they were staying. The names of the emissaries were Kefa, Ya‘akov, Yochanan, Andrew, Philip, T’oma, Bar-Talmai, Mattityahu, Ya‘akov Ben-Halfai, Shim‘on “the Zealot,” and Y’hudah Ben-Ya‘akov. 14 These all devoted themselves single-mindedly to prayer, along with some women, including Miryam (Yeshua’s mother), and his brothers.
15 During this period, when the group of believers numbered about 120, Kefa stood up and addressed his fellow-believers…
Continuing on in chapter 2:
Acts 2:1 The festival of Shavu‘ot arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. 2 Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Ok, so not 3000 just yet. What we have here is more like this:
Not a small crowd necessarily but a group this size right here went on to revolutionize the entire earth. An impact that lasted for two thousand years. Impressive.
12 emissaries, 120 believers in total. Within minutes, ~3000 more. That’s a 25-fold increase. For every believer, 25 more came to faith in Yeshua.
This is true prosperity. People in the Kingdom, not money in your pocket.
But only 120?
Quick question: where are all of those other people that followed Him while He walked the earth?
He fed 5000, then 4000 more -- all of them eager to sit and listen to this Man explain the Kingdom of God. All eager to be healed from nearly every ailment under the sun. All excited to follow Him around the countryside.
Where did they go?
Maybe they were just fair-weather Christians. You know, as long as things are easy they’ll follow. Or maybe they got what they needed from Him to live a better life on this side of death and that was enough.
Or…maybe the fear of man gripped them so tightly they had no choice but to retreat. I mean, Peter did it. Three times.
I know what you’re thinking:
“How could they possibly do that? How could they forget what all He did for them? How could they possibly turn their back on Someone that so greatly improved their lives? Why wouldn't they just give their lives over in complete abandon?”
Easy, their lives were threatened. More specifically, their livelihoods were threatened. (see: the Children of Israel in the desert)
They saw with their own eyes what Yeshua had the power to do, but for some reason He didn’t have the power to save Himself. It seemed there was a power in the earth greater than Him and if they could kill Yeshua, they could kill us too.
Sometimes it’s easier to just stay alive.
The powers in the earth dictate happiness in the earth but they do not dictate joy in the earth. And we all prefer happiness to joy. I came across a quote from James Clear recently that helps explain this a little better:
"There are at least 4 types of wealth:
Be wary of jobs that lure you in with 1 and 2, but rob you of 3 and 4."
1 and 2 usually dictate happiness, 3 and 4 usually dictate joy. What’s the difference? Happiness is situation dependent, whereas joy is not.
To a pretty high degree, the world controls your situation. New policies and laws can come forth that cause you to flip and flutter in your emotions. Don’t believe me? Go read headlines for an hour and tell me how your happiness fluctuates (well, it likely trends down mostly). You can be having the greatest day in the world, whistling, skipping, praying for others, then the boss calls you in for a good ol’ fashioned butt chewing. Where’s your happiness now?
Ok, a little bit of a rabbit trail, but I think it’s important to see how easy it is to walk away from the greatest thing in your life because someone else has the power to threaten it.
Now that we have some context, we can see how much of a big deal this is that Peter stands up.
He was there for the miracles, crowds, and all of the excitement. There was no place they could go without being recognized. Fame had set the stage of expectation and Peter was neck-deep in all of it.
In the course of a few short hours, everything changed. The miracles ceased, the crowds hid, and excitement was replaced with fear. Peter’s life was completely flipped upside down. All of those fair-weather followers vaporized before his very eyes and their entire entourage was reduced back to a handful of defeated disciples -- literally overnight.
But a remnant remained. Either there were 120 believers all along or 120 became committed during this 50 day period. It’s probably a combination of the two. Doesn’t matter how, it just matters they are here now.
For Peter, though, the rollercoaster of emotions had to more than any one person can tolerate. Yeshua dies, He comes back, stays a while, then gone again.
These highs and subsequent lows have put Peter in a position where his old life is 100% useless. Not knowing what could possibly come next, he had to live his life by faith. It’s this new Peter that would be a launching point for a new set of miracles.
It’s amazing what counting the omer can do for someone.
50 days ago, Peter was struggling with every detail of his life. And here? He’s speaking the truth loudly and boldly to the ones that wanted Yeshua killed! How is it possible for one person to have this kind of turnaround in less than 2 months. I mean, we go 2 years with little to no change at all so what happened to this man for him to transition the way he did?
He lived the Spring Feasts. Not really by choice, but through necessity.
Here’s Peter’s journey:
THE Passover Lamb was killed and his field was completely uprooted during Unleavened Bread. On First Fruits, he walked and talked with the resurrected Messiah. Then his whole world was turned upside down as Yeshua had him confront the shame he was carrying. Once that hurdle was jumped, Peter then needed to have his field filled with life producing plants. And Yeshua did exactly that:
Acts 1:3 After his death he showed himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. During a period of forty days they saw him, and he spoke with them about the Kingdom of God.
What better omer counting could there be? Tearing down the old ways so the new ways can enter in. Peter just needed to go through the crucible to get there. One that we choose to avoid for ourselves.
The torch needed to be passed, and with his Spirit-filled speech to all those gathered in Jerusalem, Peter grabbed a hold of it. A former fisherman with trust issues is now about to lead others -- to where, he had no idea. But he’s ready to go wherever Abba leads him because what other choice does he have?
The infilling of the Holy Spirit, Abba’s Spirit, would be their guide and all they had to do was abandon the ways of the world. Simple.
Acts 2:42 They continued faithfully in the teaching of the emissaries, in fellowship, in breaking bread and in the prayers. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many miracles and signs took place through the emissaries.
The miracles of old didn’t stop. In fact, they are just now picking up speed.
There are a myriad of programs, acronyms, pamphlets and more that try to communicate the coming Kingdom to those that are lost in the world. While these are ok and do in fact serve a purpose, there is a much greater witness available to us.
Acts 2:42 They continued faithfully in the teaching of the emissaries, in fellowship, in breaking bread and in the prayers. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many miracles and signs took place through the emissaries. 44 All those trusting in Yeshua stayed together and had everything in common; 45 in fact, they sold their property and possessions and distributed the proceeds to all who were in need. 46 Continuing faithfully and with singleness of purpose to meet in the Temple courts daily, and breaking bread in their several homes, they shared their food in joy and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having the respect of all the people. And day after day the Lord kept adding to them those who were being saved.
Teaching, fellowship, food, prayer. Doesn’t this describe Yeshua’s ministry in full? Shouldn’t this describe our ministry in full? And not the once per week variety but the daily kind. Staying connected on a regular basis and sharing life as it comes. Not saving up the tragedies and victories as though they are collector’s items that are shared on occasion.
This passage describes the kind of life we all want. Living it is what makes all the difference for others. We assume it is our job to go out hunting people down and bringing them into the Kingdom. Not wrong, obviously, but what exactly are we bringing them into?
He’s seeking a community of believers that He can deposit people into in order to grow His Kingdom, not your fellowship.
And day after day the Lord kept adding to them those who were being saved.
But we have to do our part. We have to live in a manner worthy of His coming. Practicing now so we won’t be lost and confused when He returns.
Want to evangelize? Then live like it.