"In the Last Days..."
Tuesday, June 1, 2004
In the Last Days Bible Study Calendar
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Thank You for the gift of life, and for the gift of salvation through Jesus! I praise You that You are a God of love, justice and mercy, and a God of truth. Thank You for Your written word, which teaches me all I need to know to live boldly and confidently for You. I pray that You will fill me with Your Holy Spirit that I may remember the truth I read from Your word, and call it to my remembrance when I am talking with others. Use me to advance the work of Your kingdom and to bring glory to Your holy name! All this I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
Acts 2:14-15
14Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15Some of you are saying these people are drunk. It isn’t true! It’s much too early for that. People don’t get drunk by nine o’clock in the morning.
Reflecting on God’s Word
Has anyone every mistaken you for being “drunk” because you were so filled with the Holy Spirit?
What do you think would be your response to Peter’s explanation for why the group could not have been drunk?
A Deeper Exploration of God’s Word
How did Peter address the crowd members who said that the group was drunk? (2:14-15)
Understanding God’s Purpose
What do we learn about God from reading today’s Scripture?
What do we find out about Peter as God’s representative from today’s reading?
Applying God’s Word to Our Lives
What does today’s Scripture call you to be or do?
Thoughts...Too Early to be Drunk...
A portion of the crowd—the skeptical portion of the crowd—had accused the believers with being drunk. That was their explanation for how a group of Galileans could speak fluently in the languages of dozens of people groups who had gathered from around the world to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Pentecost. The explanation doesn’t make much sense, but then the explanations of skeptics for why they don’t believe that God is at work in a certain situation often don’t! Peter didn’t bother to address the reality that the believers were speaking understandably in languages they had never studied nor learned. Peter didn’t bother to point out that the conduct of the believers was purposeful and that while they were passionate, they certainly weren’t exhibiting the behavior of the inebriated. Peter simply called on common sense: Look it’s only 9:00 a.m. Nobody gets drunk that early! Perhaps in our day an occasional case of pre-9:00 a.m. drunkenness might occur, but even now that is certainly not the norm! Peter’s words were intended to quiet the scoffers so that He could more forward with the explanation for what truly had taken place that morning. Peter didn’t take much time, or give it much effort. He stated the obvious and moved on to the explanation. In our efforts to serve Jesus and to share the Good News with others, we would do well to observe and follow Peter’s method in this particular case. Peter noted the objections, then as simply as possible discarded them and moved on to the real matter before him, of explaining what happened in Scriptural terms. We may often find that people will have hurt, anger, excuses for not wanting to hear us, so we must call on the Lord to give us the discernment to find the simplest means possible to disarm the objections, so that we, too, may move to the truth. At the close of Peter’s Pentecost day message 3,000 became believers—3,000! That’s an incredible response. Yet, it wouldn’t have been possible if Peter hadn’t calmly addressed the objection then moved on with the presentation of the Gospel message. May we, too, remember the importance of disarming the crowd’s objections quickly, and then getting to the point—Jesus is the Savior and Lord of ALL who will receive Him—today, tomorrow, and always!