In Acts 2, God gives the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, and they start shouting out the good news of Jesus in a bunch of random languages that they don’t actually even know. Part of the surrounding crowd was impressed with these dumb, country bumpkins from Galilee, but a lot of the crowd thought they were just drunk.
So Peter spoke up to set the record straight. They weren’t drunk, they were just receiving the beginnings of a gift God had been planning for a long time. The gift was God’s Spirit/breath, God’s life inside them, and the call to the adventure of sharing that Spirit life all over the world. But this was only possible because of another great thing that God did, that he’d also been planning for a long time.
In Acts we’re focusing on the idea that Jesus’ disciples, as they go out into the world as his messengers, as his Spirit-bearers, are accused of “turning the world upside down.” Peter’s speech to this skeptical crowd in Acts 2 focuses on the fact that God has already turned the world upside down by raising Jesus from the dead.
A lot of Christians don’t seem like they’re living with the bold, adventurous Spirit that the disciples carry through the book of Acts. A lot of people these days are just plodding along, trying to live as safely and securely as possible. But if we really believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then that’s way more interesting than living only for safety and security. That’s so interesting in fact, that if you really believed it you just might turn the world upside down.
John Mark McMillan, “Death In His Grave”
Though the Earth Cried out for blood
Satisfied her hunger was
Her billows calmed on raging seas
for the souls on men she craved
Sun and moon from balcony
Turned their head in disbelief
Their precious Love would taste the sting
disfigured and disdained
On Friday a thief
On Sunday a King
Laid down in grief
But awoke with keys
Of Hell on that day
The first born of the slain
The Man Jesus Christ
Laid death in his grave
So three days in darkness slept
The Morning Sun of righteousness
But rose to shame the throes of death
And over turn his rule
Now daughters and the sons of men
Would pay not their dues again
The debt of blood they owed was rent
When the day rolled a new
He has cheated
Hell and seated
Us above the fall
In desperate places
He paid our wages
One time once and for all
