Acts 2:1-21: The Story of the Bible

Watch this lesson on YouTube, or listen to it here.    

Thank you to Ryan Giesing for making the infographic to go with this lesson. You can get that here.

Intro: This is not just a lesson about Acts. It is a lesson about the big story of the Bible, and how Acts 2 fits within that story.

Seven Acts in the Story of God’s Presence

1)     God’s intent (3 Ps)

A)   Peace / Rest (Gen. 2:1-3)

1)     Rest does not mean, “I’m tired and I need to take a nap.”

2)     It means that God is finished with his task and is ready to enjoy the fruits of his labor. It means completion, fulfillment, order, and approval.

3)     Compare this to a king who either conquers enemy territory or defeats an invader to reclaim his own territory. He fights until the enemy is defeated, and then he reigns as king on his throne. It doesn’t mean there is nothing to do, it just means the work to get to the goal has been completed.

B)    Provision (Gen. 1:29; 2:8-10, 18)

1)     God provided everything his creation would need to survive.

C)    Presence (Gen. 3:8)

1)     The most important feature of God’s original creation was that God intended to be present and enjoy fellowship with humanity in the Garden.

2)     The problem: Sin, Spiritual death = Separation from God

A)   Gen. 2:15-17 – Don’t eat from the tree.

B)    Gen. 3:4-6 – Adam and Eve did.

C)    Gen. 3:22-24 – Removed from God’s presence, which is spiritual death

D)   This is ALL of our problem.

1)     Is. 59:1-2

2)     Rom. 5:12

E)    This is the conflict within the story that needs to be resolved. It is all of our biggest and most pressing concern: How do we fix this problem? How do we get back to the place where God is?

3)     Throughout the story of the Bible, we can see that God WANTS to be with his people. He made every effort to make it work, but our sin was continually a problem.

A)   The Exodus and Tabernacle

1)     Ex. 19-24 – God saved Israel from Egyptian slavery and entered into a covenant with them.

2)     Ex. 25-31 – Part of that covenant was provisions for him to live with his people.

(a)   Ex. 25:8

(b)   Ex. 29:43-46

3)     Ex. 32-34 – The golden calf incident. Israel couldn’t maintain their end of the covenant agreement for 5 minutes!

(a)   Ex. 32 – Death

(b)   Ex. 33:3 – “I will not go up among you.” (Lack of presence)

(c)   Ex. 33:13-15 – “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

4)     Ex. 35-40 – Building the tabernacle.

(a)   Ex. 40:34-35 – God’s presence filled the tabernacle.

(b)   Lev. 26:11-12 – “I will walk among you.”

5)     The tabernacle (and God’s presence) parked at Shiloh, but the same pattern as the Garden of Eden. God was with his people, but his people chose sin, so God left.

(a)   Josh. 18:1 – The tent of meeting was set up at Shiloh.

(b)   1 Sam. 1:3

(i)    1 Sam. 3:13 – God will punish Eli’s sons.

(ii)  1 Sam. 4:10-11

(iii)          1 Sam. 4:21-22 – Phinehas’ wife had a baby whose name memorializes that God left.

(iv) Ps. 78:60 – “He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind.”

(v)   Jer. 7:12

B)    Solomon’s temple

1)     1 Kgs. 6:11-13 – “I will dwell among the children of Israel.”

2)     1 Kgs. 8:10 – God’s presence filled the temple.

3)     Ezek. 9-11 – The people sinned, and God left.

(a)   4-stage departure:

(i)    9:3

(ii)  10:4

(iii)          10:18 – Left the temple

(iv) 11:23 – Left Jerusalem

(b)   Jer. 12:7

4)     God told about a future temple where he would dwell with his people.

A)   Is. 4:2-6

B)    Ezek. 37:26-27

1)     Skim the context and see God’s promise of a new temple (Ezek. 40-48).

2)     Ezek. 43:1-5; 44:4 – God’s glory will fill the new temple.

5)     Jesus

A)   Jn. 1:1, 14

1)     This is the same story that we’ve been reading since Gen. 1 – God WANTS to be with his people.

2)     But the problem over and over again is that we are a sinful bunch, and God cannot, and refuses to live with sinful people.

B)    1 Jn. 3:5-6 – “You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sing; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”

1)     Jesus came to fix our sin problem, so that we can be in God’s presence.

C)    Jn. 2:19-21 – “Destroy this temple…” (Remember this for the next point.)

D)   Jn. 14:23 – The story of Jesus and the forgiveness of our sins is all about the presence of God.

6)     The Holy Spirit

A)   Acts 2:1-4

1)     We should not read this without thinking about how it fits into the bigger picture of the Bible.

2)     Acts 2:38 – Jesus will fix our problem (sin) AND restore what was broken (God’s presence).

B)    When Jesus said he was going to build a new temple, he wasn’t talking about a physical structure.

1)     1 Cor. 3:16-17

2)     1 Cor. 6:18-20

3)     Eph. 2:18-22

C)    The Holy Spirit that God has given us now is called a down-payment on the ultimate presence that we are waiting for.

1)     Eph. 1:13-14

2)     2 Cor. 1:21-22

D)   We have an already-but-not-yet restoration of God’s presence in our lives through Jesus, but there’s more coming.

1)     2 Cor. 5:1-5

7)     Heaven = The place where God is

A)   Rev. 22:1-5

B)    2 Thess. 1:8-9 – Hell is the place where God is not.

Conclusion

1)     We all have the same problem: sin, spiritual death, and separation from God.

2)     There is only one solution to that problem:

A)   Peace – The forgiveness of our sins that comes through Jesus Christ.

B)    Provision – The Spiritual life he provides when he gives us a new Spirit.

C)    Presence – A down payment on his presence now, but a promise of living in his presence in the next life.