But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Comment: The before seen, cringing away and ashamed, Peter steps up to boldly speak into the confusion of the crowd. He denies the drunkenness charge by pointing to the town hall clock. It was only nine o’clock in the morning! Then he quotes a reasonably long passage from the OT prophet Joel. A passage which many, if not most of the crowd would have known by heart, as it foretold of God acting on behalf of the Jews in restoration. We can ask to what was Peter drawing attention. There seem to be at least three things. i) in the group of speakers there were people from every age group and strata of society (that is, the mixed group of believers) now talking of God’s actions; ii) the Spirit had been noisily and obviously poured out on the Jesus people. iii) At the time of the crucifixion of Jesus there had been startling events in the natural events of the day – the sun failing to be seen, earthquakes and shattered tombs. The end of the prophecy concluded with challenge to call on the Name of the Lord if they desired to be saved! Here we see a transformed Peter!
Prayer: Thank you, Father, that Your Spirit still comes in power into believers’ lives.
As I read it! 