God’s Power for Mission in Acts 1–2

The Promise of Pentecost (1:6-8)

Acts 1:6-8 illustrates various aspects of this empowerment: empowerment as people of a new age; empowerment to speak for God like the prophets of old; empowerment to pray and trust God to confirm his witness; and empowerment to cross cultural barriers with the gospel.

The eschatological character of empowerment was already clear to Jesus’s disciples on that occasion. Jesus has been talking about the “kingdom” (1:3) and about the Spirit (1:4-5). The outpouring of the Spirit was associated with the end-time restoration of God’s people (e.g., Isa 42:1; 44:3; 59:21; 61:1; Ezek 36:26-27; 37:14; 39:29; Joel 2:28-29; ⁴ Zech 12:10). ⁵ The disciples thus ask the obvious question (Acts 1:6): Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel? It is not (1:7), yet the Spirit’s empowerment provides a foretaste of that kingdom. ⁶ The promised outpouring of the Spirit marks all followers of Jesus, including Gentiles, as God’s people (10:45-46; 15:8; Rom 2:29; Gal 3:5, 14; Phil 3:3). If the church exhibits the work of the Spirit as we should, the world should be able to recognize in us a foretaste of the coming age.

The disciples would also recognize Jesus’s promise of prophetic power (1:6-8). The Spirit was often associated with prophecy in the OT (e.g., Num 11:25-29; 1 Sam 10:6, 10; 19:20, 23; Neh 9:30; Joel 2:28-29; Zech 7:12). This focus proved even more pervasive in early Jewish discussions of God’s Spirit. ⁷ It is also evident in Luke-Acts (e.g., Acts 19:6; 28:25), right from the start (Luke 1:15, 67), and it is clearly understood by Peter (Acts 2:17-18). Jesus making this promise to his followers thus compares them to prophets of old, who spoke God’s message by God’s Spirit. Although Luke often recounts prophecy in the more specific sense (Luke 2:36; Acts 11:27; 21:9-10), the prophetic “word of the Lord” throughout Acts is most often the good news about Jesus (e.g., 8:25; 12:24; 13:44).

Jesus promises his followers that the Spirit will give them power: “you will receive power” (1:8). Not exclusively, but most frequently, he uses the language of “power” for healing (Luke 5:17; 6:19; 8:46; Acts 3:12; 4:7; 6:8) and deliverance from demons (Luke 4:36; 9:1; Acts 10:38). Such signs were associated with some earlier prophets (e.g., 1 Kgs 17:8-24; 2 Kgs 4–6; Luke 24:19). Not surprisingly, then, the most common activity that draws attention to (or provides opportunity to preach) the good news in Acts is signs, most often healing and deliverance (Acts 2:7; 3:11; 5:12-16; 6:8; 8:6-7; 9:35, 42; 13:12; 14:3; 19:11-12, 20; 28:8-9).

Jesus commissions his followers to take the message about him to the “ends of the earth,” continuing the mission of Isaiah’s “servant” (Isa 49:6; Acts 13:47). ⁸ Certainly this fits the trajectory of Luke’s narrative. Luke’s Gospel begins and ends with the temple in Jerusalem, but Acts begins from Jerusalem yet moves to Rome, the heart of the empire where Luke’s audience lives. In theological terms, this geographic shift entails movement from heritage to mission. We remain grounded in our biblical heritage, but the Spirit keeps pushing us across all cultural and ethnic barriers with his gospel (Acts 8:29; 10:19; 15:28).

In the first century, most people in the Roman world thought of the “ends of the earth” to the west as Spain and the River Ocean; to the east, they knew about Parthia, India, and China. To the north, they were familiar with Scythia, Germany, and Britain. To the south, they knew about Africa south of Egypt. The Roman empire had trade ties as far south as Tanzania, where a bust of Caesar has been found. Acts itself highlights the Nubian kingdom of Meroe (8:27) as a foreshadowing of the ends of the earth. ⁹ The earth’s “ends,” then, thus do not terminate in Rome at the conclusion of Acts. ¹⁰ Rome is naturally important for Luke’s audience living in the Roman empire, but it functions proleptically, like the African official of Acts 8:26-40. It shows the power of the good news to reach anywhere, but the mission continues for coming generations until the times set by the Father (cf. 1:6-8).

The ultimate fulfillment of the mission lies beyond the original witnesses. ¹¹ Acts is open-ended, ¹² inviting our continuing involvement in the mission today. This requires that we depend on the same Holy Spirit on whom the first witnesses depended, the Spirit available to succeeding generations wherever they are (2:39: “to you and your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call”).

Passing on God’s Power (1:9-11)

Acts 1:9-11 offers another biblical allusion. The one ascension narrative with which all Jesus’s and Luke’s biblically literate audiences would be familiar was Elijah’s ascent to heaven. When Elijah was caught up into the heavens, he left for Elisha a double portion of his spirit (2 Kgs 2:9-11). Jesus follows this same pattern, empowering his people with the prophetic Spirit just as God did for Elisha. ¹³

Preparation for Pentecost (1:13-26)

Asbury College has had a history of what modern church historians call revivals. As a professor at Asbury Seminary, I was among the many people in our community who were praying for another outpouring of the Spirit there. ¹⁴ But when it happened in February 2023 I was caught as unexpectedly as those praying for Peter’s release in Acts 12:5, 12–16.

The disciples’ prayer together (1:14) is a key element of their preparation. In Acts 1:14, the disciples are praying together as they await the outpouring of the Spirit; they remain in unity together in 2:1. ¹⁵ Prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit fits a frequent pattern in Luke-Acts. ¹⁶ Whereas in Matt 7:11 Jesus promises more generic “good gifts” to those who pray, Luke 11:13 focuses on the best gift of all, namely God’s own presence: God will grant “the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” ¹⁷ Among the Evangelists, it is only Luke who pauses to report that Jesus was “praying” when the Spirit descended on him (Luke 3:21-22).

Likewise, in Acts 4:31, Jesus’s followers pray together and are collectively filled with the Spirit to speak God’s message (Acts 4:31). In Acts 8:14-15, when the apostles in Jerusalem hear that Samaritans have received the gospel, they send Peter and John, who pray for them that they might receive the Spirit. This means that Samaritans will be not merely recipients of mission, but partners in mission, empowered by the same Spirit that empowered the apostles and their movement in Jerusalem.

While Acts highlights especially corporate outpourings of the Spirit (something like what Christians in recent centuries have called revival), the principle of the Spirit following prayer presumably also applies to individuals. Saul praying (9:11) before he is filled with the Spirit (9:17), and prayer (10:2, 9, 30) also provides a context for the experience of Cornelius and his associates (10:44). Paul continues to pray for the Spirit’s activity among believers who have already received the Spirit in some ways (Rom 15:13; Eph 1:17; 3:16).

While waiting for the outpouring of the Spirit, Jesus’s followers do whatever they can do to be ready for their mission. In addition to prayer, this preparation includes replacing Judas, reestablishing the leadership structure that Jesus had assigned (1:15-26). ¹⁸ Leadership scandals are not a new phenomenon, but the church’s mission must continue. The new leader joins the original witnesses (1:21-22), grounding the gospel from the start in secure eyewitness testimony. We continue to need the Spirit, but the message that we continue to proclaim is rooted in the testimony already available to us in the apostolic testimony preserved for us in Scripture.

The Proofs of Pentecost (2:2-4)

When the Spirit falls on the gathered disciples on the day of Pentecost God sends confirming signs. The wind (2:2) evokes earlier biblical theophanies (Job 38:1) as well as a foretaste of end-time resurrection life (Ezek 37:1-14). ¹⁹ Fire (2:3) also characterized such theophanies (Exod 3:2; Ps 97:3), as well as end-time judgment (Isa 66:15; Luke 3:9, 16–17). The sound of a rushing mighty wind recurred at the beginning of the 1965 West Timor Revival; tongues of fire were reported on the heads of the girls during the Mukti Revival of 1905; the shaking of buildings (Acts 4:31) is reported during the Hebrides Revival of 1949–53. But these signs do not recur at other outpourings in Acts or usually in subsequent history.

Of the three signs in Acts 2:2-4, however, the most significant for Luke is the speaking in unlearned tongues (Acts 2:4). Unlike the other signs, this one is repeated at some other initial outpourings, in 10:46; 19:6. Most important here, it provides a catalyst for Peter’s message to his multicultural audience (2:5-13). When inquirers question what this phenomenon means (2:12), Peter explains, “This is what Joel meant” (2:16) when he predicted the widespread availability of the Spirit of prophecy (2:17-18).

Tongues is important for Luke because it relates to Acts’s theme in 1:8: God empowers his agents to speak for him. This is thus inspired speech (prophetic speech, as Peter elaborates in 2:17-18), that is, speech moved by God’s Spirit. Yet tongues are not simply any kind of Spirit-moved speech, but Spirit-moved speech in a language not the speaker’s own. It thus exemplifies the point in 1:8, which envisions speech to the ends of the earth: it is cross-linguistic, cross-cultural speech. What greater sign could God give to his church that he was empowering them to cross cultural barriers with his message than to enable them to worship him in other people’s languages? ²⁰

That various groups of Christians today debate the meaning of tongues-speech (here and/or elsewhere in the New Testament) need not detain us from noting Luke’s emphasis. Nevertheless, fairly recent reception history may be instructive in some respects. Late nineteenth-century radical evangelicals emphasized holiness, missions, and healing, with many seeking “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” Many were also praying for “missionary tongues” so that they would not need to waste time learning languages. This way, they reasoned, they could quickly evangelize the world so that Jesus could return by 1900. ²¹

Jesus did not return by 1900, but the beginning of the twentieth century was a time of outpourings of God’s Spirit in various places. These included the Welsh Revival of 1904–1905, the 1905 Mukti Revival in India at Pandita Ramabai’s home for orphan brides, and the Azusa Street Revival of 1906–1908. Tongues-speaking occurred well before the Azusa Street Revival, but it was at Azusa Street that it went global. Many of those who began worshiping in tongues at Azusa Street left for foreign countries to try out their “missionary tongues.” With a few reported exceptions, they discovered that this method did not work. Most of these Pentecostal missionaries therefore settled in their locations and learned the local languages. While they retained tongues for prayer (1 Cor 14:14-16), most (rightly) abandoned the “missionary tongues” idea. ²²

Yet their original connection with mission was actually a sounder insight into the text of Acts than most of them recognized. Luke emphasizes the power of the Spirit to speak for God across cultural barriers. Tongues came at Pentecost thus not as an arbitrary sign, but to exemplify that God has given his Church power to speak for h im across cultural barriers. Jewish people considered Hebrew a holy language, but at Pentecost God showed that he has now consecrated the use of every language and culture for his gospel!

The Peoples of Pentecost (2:5-13)

Gathered for Pentecost were Diaspora Jews “from every nation under heaven” (2:5). Although they were Jewish, they were geographically dispersed and familiar with many languages and cultures. Peter’s message to them thus foreshadows the mission to the nations (1:8), just like the African “ends of the earth” in 8:26-40 and Rome in Luke’s conclusion (28:16-31).

Moreover, Luke’s list of nations (2:9-11) evokes Scripture’s first list of nations (Gen 10), which was closely followed by God scattering the languages at Babel (Gen 11:1-9). ²³ Here again God comes down to scatter languages, but this time he scatters languages to bring about a new cross-cultural unity in the Spirit. This has implications for ethnic and racial unity and for repentance for tolerating injustices, especially where we as Christians have been insensitive. ²⁴

To return to the previous modern historical example, the Azusa Street Revival, led by an African-American Holiness preacher, brought together African-Americans, Latin Americans, Anglo-Americans, and others. In the words of one observer, “The color line was washed away by the blood.” ²⁵ But a racially and culturally shaped conflict between the leader, William Seymour, and his white mentor, Charles Parham, introduced racial division into the movement. After experiencing this, Seymour’s emphasis regarding Acts 2 shifted: he now emphasized more fully the Spirit and ethnic reconciliation. ²⁶ A few years before the 2023 Asbury outpouring, I dreamed that such an outpouring was coming. The dream concluded with a test: how it crossed racial barriers would test the extent to which it was genuine revival. On February 8, 2023, the outpouring began with the multiracial gospel choir. Luke would be pleased: in Acts 2, the outpouring of God’s Spirit provides a foretaste of where the mission is moving: transcending cultural divisions.

The Prophecy of Pentecost (2:17-21)

Some who witnessed the disciples’ enthusiasm complained that they were intoxicated (2:13; cf. Eph 5:18), a protest that Peter rebutted concisely in Acts 2:15. Others, however, inquired, “What does this praise in many languages mean?” (2:11-12). This question provided the impetus for Peter’s message, as he explained, “This fulfills what Joel said” (2:16). Joel had prophesied an eschatological outpouring of God’s Spirit greater than any that occurred in the Old Testament. When God prophetically empowered 72 of Israel’s elders in Numbers 11, Moses wished that God would place his Spirit prophetically on all his people (Num 11:28-29). Joel announced that this would happen, “afterward” (Joel 2:28). In context, “afterward” refers to the eschatological time of restoration (Joel 3:1).

Rightly understanding Joel to be speaking eschatologically, Peter paraphrases Joel: “In the last days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh” (Acts 2:17). Luke does not want his audience to miss the point that this message is for us. ²⁷ If it was already the last days on Pentecost, then it surely remains “last days” throughout Acts and indeed until Jesus returns; this is how the rest of the NT uses the phrase (1 Tim 4:1; 2 Tim 3:1; Heb 1:2; 1 Pet 1:20; 2 Pet 3:3; 1 John 2:18). (It can hardly have been “last days” then and become earlier than “last days” afterward.) God did not pour out the Spirit only to pour the Spirit back, and disempower the church (cf. Acts 2:39). Peter cites the experience of the outpoured Spirit to verify that God had inaugurated the messianic era; the Messiah is enthroned at the Father’s right hand (2:33, 36). This is the era of the Messiah reigning until his enemies are fully subjected (2:34-35), the era of prophetic empowerment (2:17-18), the era when whoever calls on the Lord’s name will be saved (2:21).

This prophetic empowerment is for all flesh—for followers of Jesus of all ages, both genders, and all peoples. Joel mentions his hearers’ slaves as well as free persons (Joel 2:29), the only class division permitted for Israel in the Torah; Peter eradicates even this division by specifying all as God’s servants (Acts 2:18). Young and old, male and female, would prophesy and have God-sent dreams and visions, characterizing this new era of the Spirit (2:17-18). Just to make sure no one missed the point, Peter even added a line to his quotation from Joel: “and they will prophesy” (2:18c). Throughout Acts, the “word,” the “word of the Lord,” and the “word of God” refer especially to the gospel. Although individual gifts and expressions of this prophetic empowerment may differ, God has empowered all Jesus’s followers to speak for him across all barriers.

The Preaching of Pentecost (2:22-40)

In Acts 2:21, Peter quoted Joel 2:32: “whoever calls on YHWH’s name will be saved.” Joel goes on to speak of “the survivors whom YHWH has called,” a point that Peter resumed in Acts 2:39. Between 2:21 and 2:39, Peter explained in good midrashic form the last line he quoted in 2:21: whoever calls on YHWH’s name will be saved. ²⁸

What is the Lord’s name on which they are to call for salvation? In this period, Jewish people avoided pronouncing the divine name, ²⁹ even when reading Scripture in Hebrew. Peter explains that he and his colleagues are witnesses of Jesus’s resurrection. Thus the Lord at the Father’s right hand is Jesus. He then links together texts that share some ideas in a manner common among contemporary Jewish interpreters. ³⁰ One psalm recounts that the risen one is at God’s hand (Ps 16:8-11), and another declares that the one at God’s hand is “Lord” (Ps 110:1). Calling on the divine Lord’s name, then, is accomplished by repenting and being “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (2:38). This first model of Spirit-empowered evangelistic preaching in a Jewish context, then, uses Scripture to preach Jesus as the exalted Lord. It is Jesus, and not the apostles themselves (cf. 3:12) that the apostles preach.

Calling for his people to “repent” was calling them to “turn” back to God, a familiar message in the prophets (Jer 3:11-14, 22; 4:1; 25:5; 26:3; Ezek 14:6; 18:21-23, 30; Zech 1:3-4). Calling them to demonstrate this turning by baptism was particularly radical, since Jewish custom normally reserved the sort of once-for-all turning to God in immersion for the initiation of Gentiles converting to Judaism. ³¹ Peter, like John the Baptist before him (Luke 3:3, 7-8), summoned Jewish people to come to God on virtually the same terms as Gentiles.

For this baptism in Jesus’s name Peter used the passive voice, as elsewhere in Acts (8:16; 10:48; 19:5). ³² People receive baptism in Jesus’s name, calling on Jesus’s name (Acts 2:21; 22:16), so “in Jesus’s name” involves the receiver’s confession of faith in Jesus, not a formula repeated over the person during their immersion. Given the many immersion pools on and near the temple mount available for the more regular Jewish practice of ritual cleansing, ³³ accommodating 3000 immersions in a few hours would not be difficult.

The Purpose of Pentecost (2:41-47)

Mission eventuates in a community of united believers. It did not stop with conversions; conversions were followed by discipleship. Thus people participated in prayer and learning from apostolic teaching. Signs continued to augment the leaders’ witness (2:43; 3:1-2). Luke highlights in this paragraph especially what, in Paul’s language, we would call the Spirit’s fruit (especially love). Sharing meals and worshiping together (2:42, 46), people parted with possessions, valuing people more than property (2:44-45). ³⁴

chiastic structure:

A Effective evangelism (2:41)

 B Shared worship, meals, and prayer (2:42)

  C Shared possessions (2:44-45)

 B’ Shared worship, meals, and prayer (2:46)

A’ Effective evangelism (2:47)