“People who say “Yes” to God – the Apostles Acts2:1-21
Introduction
Last week we were looking at how we handle transition. As a church we are in a time of transition with our Sunday worship and in a very real way today marks a new beginning. The disciples were also in a time of transition, Jesus had left them and told them to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them. Today is that day. As well as the new pattern of worship we are starting a new sermon series today looking at “People who said “yes” to God”. It is very fitting that the first in this series should be looking at a whole group of people who said yes to God.
I want to look at this in terms of four people or groups of people: Peter, the 11, other disciples, 3,000 who believed.
The first example of someone who said yes to God is Peter. I find this most encouraging as of course Peter is quite renowned as someone who had said “No” to God when he denied Jesus. He was of course wonderfully restored by Jesus as we can read in John21:15ff. when he said “Yes” three times over as Jesus asks do you love me? In Acts 2 we see Peter taking the lead among those who say yes to God. Having been filled with the Spirit he explains what is going on to the crowd and exhorts them in turn to say Yes to God
Alongside Peter were the eleven – with Matthias substituting for Judas – as we read in v.14 “Peter stood up with the eleven”. We know that they two had been filled with the Spirit as people were accusing them of being drunk and Peter says “These men are not drunk…” v.15 Saying Yes to God for these disciples meant obeying the instructions of Jesus to wait until they had received power from on high and this is the result of their obedience. They didn’t have to – they could have said No at any point along the way. They could have dispersed to their own homes. They could have resisted the outpouring of the Spirit but they didn’t, they said yes to God.
It is not clear how many of the group who had been meeting together were assembled on the day of Pentecost but it is probably fair to say it was more than just Peter and the eleven. Acts 2:1 says “They were all together in one place” Who? Certainly the 12 plus the women mentioned in 1:14 and the brothers of Jesus plus probably quite a few more as 1:15 mentions a group of 120. These were all believers who had been waiting and praying, people who had said yes to God and I suspect these were also filled with the Holy Spirit.
If we fast forward to the end of chapter 2 we read “Thos who accepted his message were baptised and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. Three thousand people from all over the world who were gathered in Jerusalem said Yes to God. Allelujah!
Saying yes to god therefore involves initially turning to Him in repentance and accepting him as Lord of our lives.
Are we among those who are saying yes to God today