Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you…” (Acts 2:14)
There is no indication that Peter knew he was going to preach, was prepared to preach, or even knew how to preach. Considering those less-than-illustrious talking points for his business card, can anyone imagine any preacher, anywhere, at any time in history who has had more immediate, impactful response to a sermon? Again, the supernatural evidences of the Holy Spirit’s presence are staggering. Clearly, the Spirit is at work in his preaching.
The actual act of preaching is not mentioned until the story is significantly well along in its development (verse 40). His oral communication actually doesn’t begin with these words in verse 14, “Peter stepped forward to preach, opened his notes/Bible/pocket Testament…” It begins instead with “he stepped forward and shouted to the crowd”.
Upon closer examination, though he was not seminary trained, Preacher Peter had some amazing background preparation. Think about: 1) he had spent three years with the Master, and listened to countless teachings and seen extraordinary miracles (including he himself walking on water!); 2) he had been at the empty tomb, and was with Jesus over the next 40 days, and presumably he had been present at the ascension; 3) he had been in the ten day prayer meeting, waiting in Jerusalem for “power from on high”; 4) he had experienced the wind, fire, and miracle of language (note: we aren’t told which language he spoke at that supernatural visitation, but he was part of the suddenly famous linguistic group); and importantly, 5) after denying his Master, he had experienced deep grace.
The crowd was in a frenzy, chaos was everywhere, speculation running wild (“These guys are just drunk! Ignore them!”). Into that audience environment, the preacher steps up and shouts at them. What a start! From that quite abrupt launch, he details important parts of the landscape of Jewish history, from prophet Joel to King David, to the crucifixion and resurrection of the Jew from Nazareth.
He concludes his brilliant argumentation with “Let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” We are told that this message pierced the hearts of the listeners. And today’s preachers, take note! What happened next was a reverse altar call: instead of the preacher inviting the hearers to a decision, the hearers made their decision to take action. They said to Peter the preacher and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” (v. 37). He told them to repent and be baptized and they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Verse 40 tells us that he continued preaching “for a long time.” The audience didn’t seem to weary of his words. In fact, 3,000 were baptized at the end of the message. The overall effect of the sermon is that the church is officially planted and will now start growing.
I will also call this preaching a miracle, especially when there’s no record that the preacher had ever done so before. “Father, thank you for using the preacher—may you continue to empower your preachers today with Holy Spirit power!”
Freddy Boswell 