July 15 –  Pentecost! So What Shall We Do? — Acts #5
Acts 2:37-41

Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit comes in wind and fire.  There is a miracle of understanding languages that is a reversal of God’s intervention at the Tower of Babel.  Last week, we examined the response of those who asked the question, “What does this mean?”  Peter answers with a sermon that reveals God’s plan for redemption and the gift of the Holy Spirit through Jesus.  He tells them that prophecy has been fulfilled in the past year and even that very morning.  Today, we examine the response of the people to Peter’s message as they pose another critical question.

A huge crowd from all over the world has gathered for Shavuot, one of the three festivals in Jerusalem that everyone must attend.  So, most of these people are the same ones who attended the required Passover feast 50 days ago.  It was the same crowd in the city almost two months ago, during Jesus’ final week.  Many of them were there when Jesus rode into the city on a donkey, when he overturned the tables of the money changers, when he challenged the religious leaders, and when he was crucified.  

Peter summarizes the story of Jesus, then tells those assembled at the Temple for Shavuot that this Jesus, whom you crucified, has been raised to life by God and is your Messiah.  And they were there for this.  These were the very same people who had either shouted “Crucify Him!” to Pilate or had kept silent as the disciples did. So, how did they respond to Peter’s sermon?

Acts 2:37-41   Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

These 3000 people were “cut to the heart,” which means they were deeply emotionally moved.  The Greek phrase here, “katanyssomai kardia,” literally means “stabbed in the heart.”  That is a picturesque way of stating an intense emotional response.  Obviously, the Holy Spirit did not stop moving after the miracle of the languages.  He is moving in the hearts of these people, giving them the gift of remorse that leads to repentance.  

There are two other instances where the phrase “cut to the heart” appears in some English translations.  One example is found in Acts 5. This is a great story that we will explore in a few months.  The apostles are preaching in the outer courts of the Temple, and the High Priest has them put into prison.  An angel of the Lord comes at night and opens the prison door for them, telling them to return to the Temple in the morning and continue preaching.  Unaware of the escape, the next morning, the High Priest gathers a council of judgment and sends someone to bring the apostles from prison.  It is then discovered that they escaped during the night. Then someone comes and tells the High Priest, “Hey! You know those men you put in prison yesterday for preaching in the Temple?  Guess where they are?  They’re back in the temple, preaching again this morning.”

The High Priest is not amused.  So they bring the apostles to the council, and Peter says, Thanks for the hospitality yesterday, but ‘We should obey God and not men.”  (Acts 5:29).  Peter presents the gospel to these religious leaders and says, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.”  This is the same message that drove 3000 to repentance on Pentecost: ‘You killed Jesus, but God raised him from the dead, and he is on a throne by the Father now.’  And how do you think these religious leaders responded?

Acts 5:33  (KJV)  “When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.”

There is our phrase again, “cut to the heart.”  They were deeply emotionally moved, but the emotion is different here.  It is not remorse but anger and rage.  We see this same reaction again in Acts 7 after Stephen delivers a sermon to this same council.

Acts 7:54  (KJV)  “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart.”

They are enraged to the point that they want to kill Stephen.  And this time they do.  They take Stephen outside the city and stone him to death.  

In these two verses, “cut to the heart” is translated from a different Greek phrase, “diapriō kardia autos”, which means literally ‘to saw your own heart in two pieces.’  (Greek is indeed a very picturesque language.)  Metaphorically, it means being filled with murderous rage.  Our English biblical phrase, ‘Cut to the heart,’ can be derived from one of two Greek phrases that express two different extreme emotional responses.:
Stabbed in the heart – which is a response of remorse, I’m sorry, what can I do?
Saw your own heart in two, which is an intense negative emotion — rage –  I will kill you.¹

Last week, we explored how we perceive events in the world and the importance of asking, “What does this mean?” to ensure we understand how God is at work in the world around us.  So Peter preached a gospel sermon, and 3000 were cut to the heart and believed and were baptized.  And then they ask an even more critical question:  “What shall we do?” It is not enough to understand what God is doing in the world.  Our reaction to God must include action.  We must do something. As James said:

James 1:22“  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Remember that the Hebrew word to hear, “shema,” includes the idea of obedience. (James is Jewish.)  It means hear and obey.  There is no such thing as hearing that is not followed by action.  We must always ask both questions: “What does this mean?” and “What should we do?”  We must not only understand, but also react.  Jesus did not call anyone to be a passive follower.  It is inherent in the word ‘follow’ that there is action.  If I teach you about scripture, if I share what God has taught and is teaching me, and if I somehow, through the grace of God, do a good job of teaching, but you are not encouraged and incited to do something for the Kingdom of God, then I am a complete failure.  To be confronted with the gospel, there are only three ways to react:
1.  Cut to the heart and spurred to action for Jesus.
2.  Cut to the heart and be enraged at Jesus.
3.  Be indifferent about Jesus.

Now let me ask you….Which of the last two bothers Jesus the most?  To answer that, we need to take a detour into the book of Revelation.  (If you have a red-letter Bible, you will note that this letter to the assembly in Laodicea is the words of Jesus.)

Revelation 3:14-22   And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

“Because you are lukewarm…I will spit you out of my mouth.”  The ESV, like most other versions, has toned this down somewhat to avoid offending anyone, but here, Jesus means to offend.  The word for ‘spit’ is ‘emeō,’ from which we get our medical word ‘emesis’, which means vomit.  What is going on in Laodicea makes Jesus sick and want to throw up.  Of the seven churches listed here, this is the only one for which Jesus has nothing good to say.  To understand this reference to hot, cold, or lukewarm, you need to know a little about this area of Asia Minor.  

Laodicea is situated in the fertile Lycus River valley, in our modern-day Turkey.  Six miles to the north lies the city of Hieropolis, renowned for its medicinal hot springs, which feature a spa dating back to around 200 BC.  Eight miles to the east lies Colossae, famous for its refreshing, pure, and cold natural spring water.  In contrast, Laodicea had no water source in the city.  An aqueduct, cut from stone, transported water from Denizli, 5 miles south. 

Here is a section of that 5-mile-long aqueduct. Each stone is hollowed out, cut, and fitted together to pipe the water to the city.  

By the time the water arrived at Laodicea, it had become lukewarm and had also absorbed a high mineral content from the stone, making it unappealing.  It did not have the refreshing quality of the waters of Colossae nor the healing properties of the waters of Hieropolis.   It was neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm.  Robert Mounce, in the NICNT, “Thus the church in Laodicea was providing neither refreshment for the spiritually weary, nor healing for the spiritually sick. It was totally ineffective, and thus distasteful to its Lord.”²  This group heard the gospel, but they did not do the gospel.

Revelation 3:17  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

Laodicea was a very wealthy city.  They were known for their medical school, prosperous banking establishments, the production of an eye salve that was exported worldwide, and a thriving textile industry.  Knowing this, now look at what else Jesus says….not realizing that instead of healthy, you are wretched & pitiable, you think you are rich but you are poor, you are known for healing eyes, but you are blind, and you say you produce finest clothes, but you are naked.

They think they have it all.  They think they don’t need any help from anyone.  A massive earthquake devastated Laodicea in 60 AD. The government of Rome offered to help them rebuild, but they refused the help.  They are proud, self-sufficient people.  They didn’t need Nero’s help then, and this “church” apparently didn’t need Jesus’ help either. They think they have it all, but they have abandoned Jesus to get it.  So they have nothing.

They are a church that neither provided healing nor spiritual refreshment.  They had heard the gospel, but how did they react?  They were not cut to the heart in a good way or a bad way.  They were able to hear a story that should cut you to the heart, and remain unaffected.

Revelation 3:18-19   I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

Then we have that verse you have heard so many times before:

Revelation 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

You probably have a picture in your mind of that verse that may look something like this: Jesus is knocking on the door and asking to come into the ‘door of your heart.’  Salvation awaits the one who opens the door to Jesus.  Did you realize this verse was explicitly written to these self-sufficient, wretched, pitiful, naked, poor, blind people in Laodicea?  But wait a minute?  Are the people in this church in Laodicea unsaved?  They can’t all be lost, can they? Didn’t Jesus call them a church?

Well, not exactly…… We have a translation problem.  The term Jesus uses for the “church at Laodicea” is the Greek word ‘ekklesia.’  It comes from the Greek root verb ‘kaléō’, which means “to call.”   So ‘ekklesia’ means “those called out”.   As followers of Jesus, we believe he has called us out. (See Paul’s explanation in 2 Corinthians 6:17-7:1).  So an ekklesia can be a church.  But it is not always a church.  

In Acts 19, Paul got into trouble with the local silversmiths in Ephesus.  Paul was preaching that idols made of metal were not gods, and this hurt the silversmiths’ business.  So they want to throw Paul and his bunch out of town.  There is a great disturbance in the city.  Now look for the word we translate as ‘church’ as seen in Acts 19.

Acts 19:32-35  Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the ekklesia was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together. Some of the crowd prompted Alexander, whom the Jews had put forward. And Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to make a defense to the crowd. But when they recognized that he was a Jew, for about two hours they all cried out with one voice, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”
And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?”

The Bible refers to this gathering as an ekklesia.  But this is not a church.  This is a town hall meeting. (It is a very rowdy one, as when a Jewish man tried to speak, he was shouted down for two hours, the crowd chanting “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”.  But this assembly is run by the local town clerk, who concludes the meeting this way:

Acts 19:38-39   If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a complaint against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them bring charges against one another. But if you seek anything further, it shall be settled in the regular ekklesia.

If the silversmiths have a legal complaint against Paul, then they can use the courts.  If there is anything else, we will address it at the next regular town meeting.   

So in the Bible, ekklesia doesn’t have to mean church.  It is any gathering of people.  When Jesus dictates a letter to the ekklesia at Laodicea, he is writing to a gathering of people.  He is not necessarily saying they are a church.  I think that Jesus says they are pretending to be a church but are lost and in need of repentance. This is one of 7 letters Jesus dictates to gatherings in this section of Revelation.   This one to Laodicea is the only one where he has nothing good to say.  They are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”  Jesus wants them to be clothed in the white garments of his righteousness.  So he stands at the door and knocks.

We took this detour into Revelation because we are looking at the ways people respond to the gospel.

Peter preaches, and some are “cut to the heart”.  Others respond to preaching and are “cut to the heart”. Then you have this group in Laodicea.  They call themselves a ‘church’ and claim to be following Jesus, but they have heard the gospel message and were not ‘cut to the heart’.  They were unaffected.  They are apathetic.  They are going about their lives, enjoying their health and wealth, unaware that they are bound for destruction.  They are living in a prosperous city.  They have it all. They are so satisfied that they have no real need for Jesus.  But Jesus tells them they are poor.  That is the Greek ‘ptochos.’  They are wretched beggars with no resources.

We see these same three reactions today.  Some hear the gospel and are convicted.  They realize they are spiritually and morally bankrupt without Jesus.  They need Jesus, and they respond with remorse that leads to repentance and salvation.  Some hear and have other emotions.  They may mock and poke fun like the people at Pentecost who said the disciples were just drunk.  They may relentlessly poke fun at Christians and the gospel in public on TV or social media.  In some countries today,  People get angry and kill those spreading the gospel message.  It is hard to know the exact numbers, but even the most conservative sources say that at least 10,000 Christians are killed every year for their faith – over 25 martyred a day.

And then some respond with apathy.    They react to the gospel with no intense emotion at all.  They are unaffected.  And this is becoming the largest group of people.  God is meaningless to them.  They don’t care.  They are doing just fine without God, thank you.  Oh, they may want the name of God.  They may even call themselves a Christian and their gathering a church.  But they are so unaffected by the gospel that they meet and never do the gospel.

Our country just celebrated its 249th birthday this month.  We are blessed to live in this land.  2/3 of the people living in the US claim to be Christians.  However, I am concerned that many who make that claim do so in the same manner as the Laodiceans.  They want the title of Christian, but not the job.  They want to be in God’s kingdom, but they don’t want to live by the King’s rules. They mistreat people whom the King loves. They disregard his precepts.  They say they can make their own decisions about right and wrong.  And they make Jesus want to throw up.  They are resistant to the truth of the gospel and resistant to the influence of the Holy Spirit.  They think they have it all, but they don’t realize that they are spiritually and morally bankrupt.   

Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:3). He uses the same word for poor as he did for the Laodiceans.  He said that the fortunate ones are those who realize their own spiritual poverty.  To humble yourself before God and ask for forgiveness, you first have to admit your problem, that you are a sinner, and you can not atone for your sins yourself.  You have to realize that you are bankrupt, that you have zero resources to alleviate your spiritual need before you can acknowledge your desperate need for Jesus.  Only those who recognize this can enter the kingdom of heaven.

This is why it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Like the rich Laodiceans, they don’t see the need.  They are comfortable as they are.  If they need anything, they will buy it themselves.  And many today, like the Laodiceans, claim to be part of the church, but have never opened the door to Jesus.  They hear the Word, but they do not do the Word.

We all live in Laodicea.  Compared to the rest of the world, the people in the US are wealthy.  Over half of the people in the world live on less per day than each of us spends on gas to drive to our church this week.  We live in the land of the self-sufficient.  There is a mission field in our backyard.  And while you are very unlikely to experience a violent response to the gospel, you are likely to get what Jesus said was a worse response – apathy. This is the reaction of the comfortable.  And the Gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

From Pentecost, we learn that it is essential to examine the world around us and ask, “What does this mean?”  And then we look at ourselves and ask, “What should we do?”  We should ask ourselves these two questions every day.  Now that we have examined the possible responses to Pentecost, next time we will explore the details of what they did and how they lived.

1.   Interestingly, we still use a similar metaphor today.  Some of you may have heard it in a hit song from 1986 by Jon Bon Jovi, which begins with the lyrics: “Shot through the heart and you’re to blame.  Darling, you give love a bad name.”   Shot through the heart = Deeply hurt in a relationship.
2.   Mounce, Robert.  New International Commentary of the New Testament. “Revelations”.