Acts 2:37-47: "Be saved from this perverse generation."

Since we are nearing the celebration of Pentecost forty days after Easter, I thought I would return again to Acts 2, a chapter I have read many times and preached from before.  In the story of Acts 2, the disciples are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and they begin to speak in foreign tongues.  Jerusalem, being a cosmopolitan city and a destination for religious pilgrims, was filled with people from around the world.  When the people heard the disciples speaking their native tongues, they assembled into a both a skeptical and curious crowd.  Peter, having a captive audience, takes the opportunity to preach to the crowd about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, as prophesied by Joel in the Hebrew Scriptures.  He follows this by telling the story of Jesus-- his life, death, resurrection, and ascension-- and presents the message of the Gospel.  As I read the story again for the umpteenth time, I was struck by the way Peter preaches the Gospel.  In Acts 2:40, which is the climax of his sermon, Peter says, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"

Having grown up in the Christian church and having attended a Christian high school, I have heard my fair share of Gospel presentations in my lifetime.  As I reflected on Peter's message, I noticed a subtle difference between the Gospel Peter preaches and the one I have heard many times before.  Peter is telling the people that they need to be saved from this present life.  Typically when I heard the Gospel preached, I hear that we need to be saved from something in the next life.  The typical message is, "Be saved from hell."  We are told that we have sinned against God and are doomed to eternity in hell if we do not accept Jesus as our Savior.  Once we receive this Gospel message, we spend the rest of our lives going to church, doing good things for other people, and avoiding as many temptations as we can.  This, however, is not the Gospel Peter preaches, and it is also not the Gospel Paul preaches.

In Galatians 1:3-5, Paul tells us that God has rescued "us from this present evil age."  We need saving from this world, not the next.  Paul says the same thing in Ephesians 2:1-7.  Before receiving Christ, Paul says that we all "walked according to the course of this world" and "lived in the lusts of our flesh."  However, when we received Christ, we were set free from this bondage to the world and to our fleshly desires so that we could freely love and serve God.  Once again, we need saving from this life, not the next.  Peter explains this same message in one of his letters as well.  In I Peter 1:17-19, Peter says we were "redeemed…from the futile way of life inherited from your forefathers."  Strictly speaking, our problem is not that we are going to go to hell when we die.  Our problem is the way we live this present life.  The Good News is that we can turn around and live life according to the Spirit in the here and now.  This is why Peter tells the crowd to repent, which means to turn around your life, and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  This is the Gospel.  God wants to save us from this world and our human nature, both of which are opposed to the will of God.  This Gospel has important implications for the way we live the rest of our lives.  If we need to be saved from this world, then the way we continue to live in this world matters deeply.  Our lives, then, become an opportunity to obey God and act out the will of God.

Get off the yellow bus and get on the green bus

I've tried to create a picture to illustrate the difference between being saved from hell and being saved from this world.  Imagine a bus destined to go off a cliff and into destruction.  Being saved from hell just says I am hoping to get off the bus before it goes over the cliff.  However, Peter is telling us to get off the bus right now.  Don't wait any longer.  The truth is that God has another bus destined for eternal life.  We have to get off the bus destined for destruction and get on the bus destined for life.  This happens now, not later.  In my picture, the message of the Gospel is, "Get off the yellow bus and get on the green bus."  The message is, "Repent and receive the Holy Spirit."  

When we look at Acts 2:42-47, we can see a group of people who have embraced this Gospel.  They recognize that God has given them salvation in this life.  This means that their priorities and values have totally changed.  They don't look at things the way they used to, and they no longer simply go along with the pattern of this world.  Instead, we see that they form a new community where they practice radical obedience to God, which manifests itself in sincere love for one another.  Their lives also become powerful testimonies to the people around them, and they become extremely effective as witnesses for Christ.

My hope is that we, like them, would receive this Gospel and truly become the people of God.  Amen