Three Thousand Converted
Text: Acts 2:1-47
Series: Restoration Sermons
Date:
Speaker: Ed Rangel
Location: Waupaca Church of Christ
Bible Version: NASB 1995
Sermon Type: Expository
Learning Objectives
By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:
- Explain what Pentecost was — its origin, its timing, and why it brought Jews from fifteen nations to Jerusalem.
- Identify and describe the three phenomena that accompanied the Spirit's arrival and explain what distinguished them from ordinary experience.
- State the four specific purposes of the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Section III) and explain why making the apostles Christians was not among them.
- Summarize Peter's sermon on Pentecost — what he argued, what he proved, and what conclusion he drew — in four or five sentences.
- State what the three thousand did in response to Peter's command and explain the significance of their being "added to the church at the same time."
Thesis
Acts 2 is the hinge of redemptive history. The promises Christ made before his death — "I will build My church" (Matt. 16:18), "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" (Acts 1:8) — were fulfilled on Pentecost. Peter preached the first gospel sermon to a crowd drawn by the Spirit's arrival; he convinced them that Jesus was the Son of God; they asked what to do; he told them to repent and be baptized; they did. What they did that day is what everyone must do who would enter the same relationship with Christ.
Burden
The burden is historical and theological: to establish what happened at Pentecost, why it happened, and what it requires of every person who hears the gospel. The three thousand who responded on that day responded to a specific message about a specific person with a specific obedience — and they were saved. The pattern has not changed.
Introduction
Jesus had been crucified, buried, and raised. Before his ascension he had told his apostles: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for what the Father had promised, which you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:4-5). He had told them what the Spirit's arrival would accomplish: "you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8).
They waited. Ten days after the ascension, on the feast of Pentecost, the Spirit arrived.
I. Pentecost
Pentecost was not a spontaneous gathering — it was a scheduled feast, and the schedule ensured that the crowd would be present.
Jewish feast, fifty days from the Passover. The word pentēkostē means "fiftieth" — fifty days from the feast of Firstfruits, which itself fell during Passover week. "You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath... you shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD" (Lev. 23:15-16). The feast fell on the first day of the week.
Jews scattered throughout the known world came to Jerusalem for it. Fifteen nations are represented in the crowd of Acts 2:9-11: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the districts of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome, Cretans, and Arabs. The international character of the crowd was not accidental; it was the occasion God had prepared for the announcement that would need to reach the world.
II. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit
The Spirit's arrival was not quiet.
It had been promised. The promise came from Christ directly: "you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5). John had also promised it: "I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (Mark 1:8). The apostles were waiting for something specific, something they had been told would come.
They waited as instructed. The ten days between the ascension and Pentecost are the period of waiting — of prayer, of preparation, of the selection of Matthias to replace Judas. They did not try to produce the Spirit's arrival; they waited for it.
Three strange phenomena accompanied the Spirit's arrival (Acts 2:2-4). A sound like a violent rushing wind, which filled the whole house where they were sitting. Tongues as of fire, distributed over each of them, resting on each one. Speaking in other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Each phenomenon was sensory and unmistakable: the wind was heard, the fire was seen, the tongues were heard in the languages of the crowd gathered outside.
The apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance. The filling was the fulfillment of the promise; the speaking in tongues was the specific form the fulfillment took in that moment — the international crowd heard the mighty deeds of God proclaimed in their own languages (Acts 2:11).
III. Why the Baptism of the Holy Spirit
The baptism of the Holy Spirit had specific purposes. It did not happen randomly or for a general spiritual benefit to the recipients.
Not to make Christians of the apostles. The apostles were already disciples of Christ — they had already believed, already followed, already been commissioned. The Spirit's baptism was not their conversion; it was their equipment.
To fulfill prophecy. Joel had written: "It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions" (Joel 2:28). Peter's sermon on Pentecost opens by identifying what the crowd was witnessing as the fulfillment of this prophecy: "this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16).
To fulfill the promises of Jesus (Acts 1:8). Christ had said the Spirit's arrival would give the apostles power to be his witnesses. The Pentecost event was the fulfillment of that promise: Peter stood up and preached the first gospel sermon, and three thousand responded. The power to witness was manifestly given.
To guide the apostles in speaking the truth. "He will guide you into all the truth" (John 16:13). The Spirit's baptism was specifically an equipment for speaking the truth that the apostles could not have spoken from their own resources — the truth about Christ's death, resurrection, and ascension, interpreted in the light of the full revelation that the Spirit provided. What they preached on Pentecost and afterward was not their own construction; it was what the Spirit guided them to speak.
IV. Peter Preached Jesus
Peter, who had been called a tool of Satan at Caesarea Philippi (Matt. 16:23) and who had denied Christ three times in the high priest's courtyard, stood up and preached the first gospel sermon. The Spirit's baptism had transformed him.
He had the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Christ had said to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven" (Matt. 16:19). Pentecost is the moment those keys were used: Peter opened the door of the kingdom with the first proclamation of the terms of entry.
The multitude came together. The sound had drawn the crowd (Acts 2:6); the speaking in their own languages had held them. They were there, and they were confused — some astonished, some mocking (Acts 2:12-13). Peter addressed both.
Peter preached Jesus to them — his death (which they had seen), his resurrection (which they had not, but which was proved by the present phenomena), and his exaltation to the right hand of the Father, from which he had poured out the Spirit (Acts 2:33). The argument was Scriptural (Pss. 16 and 110 cited at length), historical (the witnesses were people who knew the facts), and logical: if this is what the Spirit's arrival means, then Jesus whom they crucified is both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).
He convinced them. "Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart" (Acts 2:37). The preaching accomplished what preaching is supposed to accomplish: it produced the conviction that the audience needed in order to respond.
They asked what to do. The question — "Brethren, what shall we do?" — is the right question. The people who had heard what Peter preached and were pierced to the heart did not ask for time to think it over; they asked what to do. The question presupposes that the answer is specific and accessible.
He told them to repent and be baptized. "Peter said to them, 'Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'" (Acts 2:38). Two commands: repent, and be baptized. One promise: forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. The conditions are specific; the promise is specific; neither the conditions nor the promise is hedged.
They did it. Three thousand people that day repented and were baptized. They did not hear the sermon and go home to think about it; they did not hear the sermon and say it was not for them. They obeyed.
V. Results
Exhorted to save themselves (Acts 2:40). "And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, 'Be saved from this perverse generation!'" The exhortation was not soft: there was a generation from which saving was needed, and the means of saving was the response Peter had described.
Three thousand converted. The number is specific and significant: this was not a gradual accretion over a long period but a single day's response to a single sermon. The church went from the 120 gathered in the upper room (Acts 1:15) to more than three thousand in one day.
Added to the church at the same time (Acts 2:41, 47). "And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). The baptized were added — not invited to consider joining, not encouraged to affiliate; added. The addition was the Lord's action, and it was simultaneous with the salvation. To be saved was to be added.
What they did, everyone must do. This is the force of Acts 2 as a record, not merely as history: it establishes the first gospel sermon, the first response, and the first additions to the church. What Peter told the three thousand on that day is what he would tell anyone who asked the same question. The terms are not cultural accommodations specific to the first century; they are the terms of the gospel that the Spirit guided Peter to announce.
Application
The specific application is the question Acts 2:37 asks: "What shall we do?" Every person in the room who has not yet obeyed the gospel is in the position of the Pentecost crowd after Peter's sermon: having heard, being called to respond. The response is the same.
The application for those already in Christ: Acts 2:42 describes what the three thousand did after they were baptized — "They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The four marks of the Pentecost church are the four marks of every faithful church: the word, the fellowship, the Lord's Supper, and prayer.
Conclusion
The day of Pentecost was the day the church began — not in a committee room but in a public square, with the sound of wind and fire and the speaking of fifteen nations' languages, and with a sermon that pierced three thousand hearts and sent three thousand people to the water. What they did that day is what the gospel requires of everyone who hears it and is pierced. The door that Peter opened with the keys of the kingdom is still open.
Invitation
"Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself" (Acts 2:38-39). The promise is for you. The response is repentance and baptism. The door is open.
Word Study
| English Term | Greek Term | Basic Meaning | Usage in This Sermon | Sermon Significance | Key Texts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pentecost | pentēkostē | Fiftieth — the feast that fell on the fiftieth day after the feast of Firstfruits. | Used in Acts 2:1 for the occasion on which the Spirit arrived and Peter preached. | The name identifies the feast that ensured the crowd would be present — the international Jewish community that had gathered for the feast became the first audience of the gospel. The timing was not coincidental; it was the occasion God had prepared for an announcement that needed to reach the world. | Acts 2:1; Lev. 23:15-16 |
| Filled with the Holy Spirit | eplēsthēsan pneumatos hagiou | Filled — completely taken over by, controlled by, the Holy Spirit. | Used in Acts 2:4 for what happened to the apostles when the Spirit arrived. | The filling is the fulfillment of the promise. The apostles did not partially receive the Spirit or receive him in a general sense; they were filled — the Spirit took complete possession and produced the specific effect (speaking in tongues) that the promise described. | Acts 2:4 |
| Pierced to the heart | katenygesan tēn kardian | Cut through the heart — the verb katanyssō describes being struck with sharp pain; the noun is heart. | Used in Acts 2:37 for the response of the crowd to Peter's sermon: "they were pierced to the heart." | The image is of a wound — the sermon did not merely inform; it struck. The question that followed ("what shall we do?") is the question of people who have been wounded and know it. The preaching that accomplishes what this preaching accomplished produces not merely intellectual assent but a felt urgency that demands a response. | Acts 2:37 |
| Added | prosetethe | Added, joined to — placed into a collection, a sum, a group that already exists. | Used in Acts 2:41, 47 for what happened to those who were baptized: they were added. | The passive voice is significant: they were added — by the Lord (Acts 2:47). The baptized person did not add themselves; the Lord added them. The action is his; the condition (repentance and baptism, Acts 2:38) is the person's. Both are required; neither replaces the other. | Acts 2:41, 47 |
Scripture Interlock Table
| Theme | Boles' Outline | Supporting Scripture |
|---|---|---|
| Pentecost timing — fiftieth day, first day of week | I | Lev. 23:15-16 |
| Three phenomena: wind, fire, tongues | II | Acts 2:2-4 |
| Spirit poured out — fulfills Joel | III | Acts 2:16-17; Joel 2:28 |
| "You will receive power" — purpose of Spirit's baptism | III | Acts 1:8 |
| "He will guide you into all truth" | III | John 16:13 |
| "Keys of the kingdom of heaven" — Peter opens the door | IV | Matt. 16:19 |
| "This Jesus whom you crucified — Lord and Christ" | IV | Acts 2:36 |
| "Pierced to the heart — what shall we do?" | IV | Acts 2:37 |
| "Repent and be baptized for remission" — Peter's answer | IV/Invit. | Acts 2:38 |
| "Lord adding to their number those being saved" | V | Acts 2:47 |
| "Devoting themselves to apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, prayer" | Applic. | Acts 2:42 |
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Converted from H. Leo Boles, Outline 179. Primary text: Acts 2:1-47 (stated by Boles). OCR corrections: "·wHY" → "III. WHY"; "wh2t" → "what"; "lll." → "III." Doctrinal audit: baptism of the Holy Spirit distinguished from ordinary conversion — it was the apostles' equipment for witness, not a model for Christian initiation today; its four purposes stated from the text without extending miraculous Spirit baptism to ordinary believers; Peter's sermon summarized accurately from Acts 2 — death, resurrection, exaltation, Joel fulfillment, Ps. 16 and 110 argument; Acts 2:38 quoted in full and without softening: "for the forgiveness of your sins" is the stated purpose, not a result of pre-existing forgiveness; "added to the church" and "saved" treated as simultaneous — no gap between them; invitation retains full obedient response (Acts 2:38-39).
