“The Renewed Hope of Pentecost, Part II”

Scripture: Acts 2:22-40

After Jesus ascended from earth and arrived at heaven’s gate, the angel Gabriel met him, eager to hear how His mission to the people of earth went. He worked his way through the welcoming crowd, and asked the Lord, “So how did the Divine Plan work out – has everyone heard and rejoiced over your message?”
“No”, Jesus replied, “Some have heard, but very few have claimed the hope that I offered.”
Gabriel’s face dropped and turned ashen. “Oh – I’m so sorry to hear that. How are the rest of the people ever going to know and believe?”

The Lord hesitated for a moment, then said, “Well, I’ve told my apostles all about the salvation that they and others can find through faith in me, and I told them to go and tell others, and then these are to go and continue to spread the word, and so on through the centuries until the time comes for me to return. That will give them plenty of time to spread my message throughout the world.”
Gabriel thought about this, and his face began to pale even more. “But Jesus, what if they don’t tell! What if the chain is broken? What if they forget the message? What if they don’t understand it, and change it? The world has to know the truth if they are to have any hope for eternity! If the humans fail, what will you do next? What is Plan ‘B’?”

A tear ran down the Lord’s face, and the holy voice trembled as he said “There is no Plan ‘B’!”
(From Bishop Mark Webb’s message at the Ordination Service, 2015 Upper New York Annual Conference, Syracuse, NY)

At the first Christian Pentecost, the only Plan to spread the word of salvation in Jesus Christ was put into motion.

Read Acts 2:22-28

Peter begins with words that should have caused the people to gasp! “God has used you to put the Messiah, the One whom you have waited for, to death.” Messiah was to be the One who would free the people from slavery and oppression and brutality, and death, and instead, they killed their only hope. That, in and of itself, should have been a very sobering thought.
But Peter doesn’t let them dwell too long on this fact, as he continues to tell them that the death that they had imposed on God had been overturned by God Himself. This would create an even greater angst in their lives, for now the living Messiah could bring terrible judgment on them all for their duplicity in his suffering and death! Peter had ended the Joel passage from last week with the words “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”, and he had just told them how they had denied and condemned the name of the Lord, and they knew for certain that “calling on the Name of Jesus” had never happened for them.

The truth can, at times, come to us in ways that are not very pleasant, and we have to choose to either accept its pain for our lives, or to reject the message as being irrelevant. And for the last 2,000 years, the people of earth have done both. But Peter doesn’t want the folks to leave fearing the worse and lamenting over having lost the hope of Messiah. So he then offers a word from Psalm 16. The Psalm is a celebration of the joy that comes by trust, or faith, in the Lord God Jehovah. The people are reminded that David put his all into his faith – his “heart of gladness”, his “tongue that rejoices”, his “body that will live in hope”! His soul had received a divine promise from God, that, by faith, he will not be abandoned to eternal death, and David knew that when God makes a promise, he never takes it back. Never!

Peter is telling them that the condemnation that is rightly theirs can be overturned, but only by trusting in the goodness of the God of eternity. And the apostle wants these people to know that the promise of Goodness is not completely lost, that it can still be theirs.

Read Acts 2:29-41

Peter conveys several titles on King David – patriarch, or the head of the family, and prophet, or one who has insight into God’s plan, and who, and in spite of all his Godly wisdom, has still died. But with his understanding of Messiah’s pending life and death and resurrection, as well as that of Jehovah’s great promise, he did not fear physical death, for he knew that it would not be the final pronouncement on him. And now, Jesus Messiah has overcome his own death, and by faith in him, our death can also be overturned.

But how do we know, for certain, that this promise is true? Peter tells us that when Jesus returned to the Father, he received the Holy Spirit. In other words, the Trinity, which had been divided when Jesus accepted his humanity, had now been restored. The Son, once again, had direct connection and constant access to both the Father and the Spirit, and the Spirit would be sent to all whose heart was glad, whose tongue rejoiced, and who lived in the hope of Jesus Christ. The proof is in the giving.

But Peter turns the tables on them once again. He quotes Psalm 110, in that God will make all the enemies of Jesus a “footstool”, they will be placed under his heel, which is a symbol of conquest and subjugation. The Psalm goes on to state that the Lord Messiah will have an all-encompassing rule – even over his enemies, that God will never change his mind, and that Jesus will rule as a priest in the line of Melchizedek – the one who brought God’s blessing to Abraham. (Genesis 14:17-20)
And the people, once again, felt the burden of God’s condemnation.

And Peter then moves to remove this new anguish of finality, by telling them that their only hope is repentance for the wrong they have done in God’s eyes, and to enter into an eternal relationship with the Lord through baptism. And when they do, they will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.

Have you ever wondered why it was Peter who was chosen to offer this word of hope? The truth is that he was the most experienced in this matter, wasn’t he! He knew all too well the feeling that comes from betrayal and denial of his relationship with Jesus. He had known a closeness when he followed the Lord’s words and ways, and he knew the misery that comes with rejection of that same Divine Word. But Peter also knew the forgiveness of Christ that came when he expressed his undying love for his Lord. Peter could speak from first-hand experience, and he knew exactly how the people felt that Pentecostal Day.

We read that the message that day included many other words of hope and promise, and that when the sermon was complete, 3,000 people took those words to heart and accepted the apostle’s call to restoration and renewal by faith in Jesus Christ.

The word about Jesus had, most likely, been circulating extensively among the holiday revelers, but it would have been the Pharisee’s version of Jesus’ life and death that they had heard, and not God’s - until this day, that is. Peter had now offered them a very different view of Jesus - the true version - and it didn’t paint a very pretty picture for them. And yet, they not only heard of their complicity in Jesus’ death, but they also heard the truth of the love that God in Christ has for them.

The truth can be a hard nut to swallow, and the people of today can be hard nuts to crack! “Truth” has become a relative term, and somehow, the truth of God must be presented to them in a way that they will receive it.

Rob Renfroe, the president of Good News, recently wrote a book entitled “The Trouble with the Truth” (Renfroe, Rob, Abington Press:Nashville, TN, 2014). Now before the title of the book begins to trouble you, let me explain that the premise of his work is that God’s truth alone is not a complete or proper truth. John 1:14 tells us that “We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only … who [was] full of grace and truth.” Jesus is full of grace and truth! Grace is the display of the Lord’s love for us, and Jesus told us to ”Love one another as I have first loved you.” (John 15:12-17) Renfroe writes that Truth without love is a lie (pg. 32)!

Remember Jesus’ encounter with the woman caught in adultery? He knew the sorrow she felt over her thoughtless act, and he forgave her with the words “Go and sin no more.” (John 8:3-11)
Remember Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well? Because of the life she had been subjected to, she was despised and oppressed and rejected by the people of her own village. But Jesus offered her, an outcast and hated woman, a new life through faith in him. (John 4:7-26)
Remember Jesus’ experience with the man filled with a Legion of demons? By the compassion of Christ, he was not only freed from the power of Satan, but he was freed to tell others of the love of Christ. And he did. (Luke 8:26-39)
Every one of these folks, as well as all who have ever experienced the compassionate touch of Jesus, have come to know not only the truth of God in Christ, but the love of God that is shown to all who will accept it.

When we share the truth of God with the people of today, they will never hear the truth, let alone accept it, unless it is offered in the fullness of Christ’s love for them. The truth can have a devastating effect on those who have never known the love of Christ, but the brutal truth is no truth at all – it will fall on deaf ears.

The renewed hope of Pentecost is not only “truth” – it is grace filled truth. That is the only way that most will ever know how much the Lord has done for them, and how much it is based in his love for them. The message of Pentecost must be filled with the entirety of Jesus.
There is no other way that the world will ever come to know.