Context No. 2497 of 4322 · Acts
Context · Reflection
Acts 2:14-21: in context
14But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke out to them, “You men of Judea and all you who dwell at Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to my words. 15For these aren’t drunken, as you suppose, seeing it is only the third hour of the day. 16But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel: 17‘It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. 18Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy. 19I will show wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath: blood, and fire, and billows of smoke. 20The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. 21It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
On the day of Pentecost, with the crowd bewildered by the sound and the tongues, Peter stands and explains: this is what the prophet Joel foretold. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young will see visions, your old will dream dreams. And on servants, men and women alike, I will pour out my Spirit. And it ends with an open door: whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Look at how wide the outpouring is. Not on a priestly few, but on all flesh, sons and daughters, young and old, servants and free, the Spirit crosses every line that used to divide who could draw near. And the promise rests on the widest word of all: whoever. Not the qualified, not the impressive, not one nation only, but anyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Pentecost throws the doors open. The Spirit is poured out broadly, and the invitation to be saved is left deliberately without a limit on who may come.
Am I living in the reality that the Spirit is poured out and the door stands open to whoever calls, myself included?
Sources
- Acts 2:17: It will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy.
- Acts 2:21: It will be that whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
- Acts 2:18: Yes, and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they will prophesy.