Acts 2:1-40
And when the day of Pentecost had finally arrived they were all with one mind in the same place. And suddenly out of heaven there came a sound like a violent rushing of breath, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as if of fire and sat on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them to speak out.
And there were staying in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and the news of this having got around, the whole lot of them came together and were astounded because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And everyone was amazed, and wondered, saying to each other, “Look! Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? And how do we hear each in our own dialect where we were born? - Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and those who live in Mesopotamia and Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, both Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and the ones visiting: Romans, Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, - we hear them speaking in our own languages the great things of God!”
And everyone was amazed and they were perplexed, saying to one another,
“What can this be?”
But others, mocking, said,
“They’re full of new wine !”
But Peter, standing up with the eleven raised his voice and spoke out to them,
“Men, Jews, and all you living in Jerusalem: let this be known to you - and mark my words, for these aren’t drunk as you suppose, for it’s the third hour of the day, but this is what’s been spoken by the prophet Joel, ‘And it will be in the last days, God says, I’ll pour out from my Spirit onto all flesh! And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions and your elders will dream dreams. And even on my men-servants and on my maid-servants in those days I’ll pour out of my Spirit and they’ll prophesy. And I’ll give wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, - blood and fire and vapour of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and celebrated day of the Lord comes. And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved!’
“Men, Israelites, hear these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man proved by God to you by works of power and wonders and signs which God did by him right among you, as you yourselves know, him, given up by the predetermined counsel and foreknowledge of God, having taken by criminal hands, having crucified, you put to death, whom God has raised up, having loosed the anguish of death in so far as it wasn’t possible for him to be held by it!
“For David says about him, ‘I foresaw the Lord before me always because he’s at my right hand, so that I may not be shaken. Because of this my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad, and moreover my flesh will rest in hope, for you won’t leave my soul in Hades, nor will you give your Holy One to see corruption. You made paths of life known to me, you’ll fill me with joy with your face.’
“Men, brethren, allow me to speak freely to you about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us up to this day. So, being a prophet and knowing that with an oath God had sworn to him, out of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, to raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, foreseeing, he spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul wasn’t left in hell nor did his flesh see corruption.
“This Jesus, God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. So having been lifted up to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which now you see and hear. For David didn’t ascend into the heavens, but he says himself “The Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I place my enemies a footstool for your feet’” Surely therefore let all the house of Israel know that God made him both Lord and Christ - this Jesus whom you have crucified!”
And having heard, they were pricked in their heart and said to Peter and the other apostles,
“What shall we do men, brethren?”
And Peter said to them,
“Repent and be baptised each of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children and to all those far off, as many as the Lord our God may call.”
And with many other words he earnestly testified and exhorted saying,
“Be saved from this crooked generation!”
