Missional Life - Acts 2

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Mark 11:1-11 Colossians 1:1-8 Acts 2 Maturing in faith, love, and hope Sent Ones of the Filling Spirit Introduction We continue in our four-week series entitled “Missional Life”, asking how we are to live as a missional community following a missional God. Last week we began with the preaching of Ross Hastings, who led us into John 20:1923 to examine what it means to live as ones sent by the sending God. There we saw that being missional is in our very DNA as Christians because our sentness into our neighbourhoods, in participation with the Spirit, is a continuation of Christ’s sentness in the world. This week, with the preaching of Larry Schram, we look deeper into what it means to live missional by the life of the Spirit, as we turn to Acts 2 and the passage of pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost—finding there God's power, purpose, and promise.

Connection Group Study COMMENTARY STUDY

vv. 1-4. Luke speaks of the coming of the Spirit in terms of the supernatural events of that day, including a sound like a mighty rushing wind and tongues as of fire. Throughout Scripture, wind is understood as symbol of the Spirit, presence, and breath of God, as in

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

vv. 1-4. Meditate: How has the Spirit filled your Christian life? To what experiences of your journey of Christian discipleship can you point to in identifying the Spirit’s clear presence?

Ezekiel 37:9-10. Fire, similarly, symbolizes the presence of God, particularly in his speaking to his people, as in Exodus. Such then is Luke’s clear expression of the presence of God as the Spirit fills the disciples and as enables them to speak in tongues.

vv. 5-13. The effect of the disciples speaking in tongues by the Spirit is another supernatural event—the speaking of the nations of the whole world. And the emotional response to this miraculous gathering of tongues is amazement, astonishment, and bewilderment. Note that, in communicating the worldwide implications of the tonguespeaking, Luke chooses to list nations that represented the width and breadth of the Jewish people at the time, the people who were gathered in Jerusalem to give testimony to this miraculous event.

vv. 14-21. Luke recounts Peter’s interpretation of the miraculous events that have transpired, in terms of the prophecy of Joel from Joel 2:28-32. Peter connects the amazing work of the filling of the Spirit in the speaking of tongues (so astonishing as to be falsely attributed to drunkenness), with Joel’s depiction of the pouring out of the Spirit unto

vv. 5-13. Study: One cannot read of the miracle of the speaking of tongues in Acts 2 and not think of the narrative of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. Read that passage now. In what way do you understand our passage in Acts 2 as a response to those Genesis truths?

Reflect: The content of this miraculous speech is the telling of the “mighty works of God.” What is the story of the mighty works of God in your Connection Group?

Discuss: In addition to the sense of bewilderment and amazement, what other emotions do you think the Jerusalem Jews were feeling as they each heard the “mighty works of God” uttered in their own languages? What is the universal emotional effect of hearing your mother tongue spoken?

vv. 14-21. Study: Read Joel 2:18-32 to get a sense of the context of Peter’s Old Testament quotation. What is the tone of that passage? Does that tone inform Peter’s speech in Acts 2?

Discern: How is your Connection Group filled by the Spirit in order to prophetically explain-- both in word and in deed—the salvation of God in the language of your neighbourhood?

prophecy on “the great and magnificent day”—the day of God’s judgment of the nations and of his salvation to those who call upon him.

Discern: How would you personally like to grow in your knowledge and understanding of Christianity, in order to —as a kind of biblical prophet—better explain to family, friends, and neighbours, the works of God and the realities of life?

vv. 22-36. Peter proclaims

vv. 22-36. Confess: Having been shown “the paths of

the lordship and divinity of Christ in terms of the works and wonders of God, in terms of the Passion events that Luke has just recounted in his gospel, and in terms of the witness of the patriarch David, particularly in Psalm 16:8-11. Throughout this speech, Peter emphasizes God’s sovereignty in all that has transpired

life” by God, in what ways have you failed to walk according to these paths in the past weeks? Confess silently before God. As comfortable, confess before one another.

Discuss: How does Peter connect the speaking of tongues with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus?

Pray: Pray for the kind of clarity and insight, in explaining the work and wonders of God, that marks Peter’s speech here to be increasingly present in your missional life and witness—in both word and deed.

Reflect: How is God speaking to you a word of “gladness” and “hope’ today, in light of his resurrection power and in light of his life-giving presence?

vv. 37-41. Peter’s Pentecost proclamation provokes a particularly powerful reaction from the Jews gathered in Jerusalem who, having heard the Spirit-filled speaking in tongues, are “cut to the heart” by Peter’s testimony of Jesus and are moved to take action in response. As such, Peter makes clear the path of life:

vv. 37-41. Reflect: How do you remember the experience of living in the Spirit around the time of your baptism? Hopefully that was a time of great encouragement for you as you reflect. Pray for a fresh experience of the Spirit, in line with and even surpassing that time.

Discern: While the “far off” here most likely has a geographical sense, as in “those Jews in distant lands,” there is certainly also a sense of those who are far from God. Discern: To whom is the Holy Spirit calling you

repent, be baptized, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “The promise” here (ἡ ἐπαγγελία, he epangelia) contextually refers to the promise of the Spirit which Jesus spoke during his earthly ministry (as in Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4), and by extension, the Old Testament covenant promises of God to which the Spirit was the new covenant fulfillment.

vv. 42-47. One of Acts’ most wellknown passages, Acts 2:41-47 paints a vivid portrait of the first Christian church, pointing to the unmistakable marks of Christian community—teaching, fellowship, generosity, unity, peace, joy, praise, and growth. The church father Augustine writes of these verses that we see harmony of Christ: “one soul and one heart toward God.”

missionally in your neighbourhood, particularly among those who may be “far from God”?

Discuss: 20th-century English Anglican priest John Stott declared that the church without the Spirit is dead. Does your theology, and the way that you live out your theology, agree with this statement?

vv. 42-47. Pray: Ask the Spirit how the harmony of the first Christian church might mark your collective missional life as a Connection Group.

Discern: Where do you see most clearly the Holy Spirit enabling FBC to be missional, as on the day of Pentecost?

Pray: Ask the Spirit for the power and favour to live missionally in your neighbourhood—that wonders might be done through FBC in our local communities.

Abstract painting by the artist Anthony Falbo, portraying Acts 2 (pixels.com)