Read the extract from Martin Luther King’s speech below
& Acts 2:14-21
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “In the last days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Particularly in times of great hardship, certain speeches or texts stand out as exemplars of hope. Martin Luther King’s speech, at a time of great racial oppression, is one of the finest examples of this. Similarly, within the Jewish tradition, there were certain texts that embodied Jewish hopes for the future: hope that God’s people would be set free from oppression, hope that God’s kingdom would come more fully on the earth, hope that there would be renewed intimacy with God and empowerment to live in ways that please him, hope that God’s power would be experienced more completely, hope that the nations would finally be blessed through Israel and so on. Joel 3:1-5 – which Peter quotes here, albeit with some interesting changes – was one of these texts. By starting with it, Peter is making one thing very clear: this time you’ve all been waiting for is now here! There are, however, now and not-yet elements to this[1] and so, for Luke, the giving of the Holy Spirit is not only a blessing for now but also a guarantee that “the great and glorious day of the Lord” – when everything will be as God always wanted it to be – will indeed come![2]
➡ Are there times in your life when you’ve struggled to have hope? How has this felt?
➡ Hope isn’t just something for the future rather, as we see in Acts – and actually with Martin Luther King as well – hope has a powerful impact on the present. What in your life might be different if you had more hope?
➡ How can we encourage one another to be people of hope? How can we best spread hope amongst are neighbours, work colleagues, family, friends…?
If you have a bit longer :-)
On verses 17 & 18, Tom Wright writes:
This work of God is wonderfully inclusive, because there is no category of people which is left out: both genders, all ages, all social classes. But it is wonderfully focused, because it happens to all “who call on the name of the Lord” (verse 21). Here, once more, “the Lord,” which in Joel meant Israel’s God, YHWH, now seems to mean Jesus himself. And with this Luke introduces a vital and complex theme in his work: “salvation.” All who call on the Lord’s name will be saved.” “Being saved” doesn’t just mean, as it does for many today, “going to heaven when they die.” It means “knowing God’s rescuing power, the power revealed in Jesus, which anticipates, in the present, God’s final act of deliverance.” Peter will now go on to encourage his hearers to “call on the Lord’s name,” and so to know that “salvation,” that rescue, as a present reality as well as a future hope.[3]
➡ What could you do today to outwork your “salvation” in the present and bring God’s kingdom closer to earth?
It is pertinent that Peter starts his speech (well Luke’s summary of it anyway!) with a quotation from Scripture and we may want to conclude that all evangelistic talks should begin in this way. It is important, however, to remember that Peter was speaking to those within the Jewish faith who would have been familiar with these texts. Interestingly, later on in Acts (17:16-33) when Paul is chatting to non-Jews in Athens, he starts by reading an inscription from one of their idols (albeit to prove to them their own ignorance!) and then quotes one of their own poets.
➡ Within our evangelism, how can we, like the Christians in Acts, maintain faithfulness to the truth of Scripture whilst communicating these truths in culturally appropriate and penetrating ways?
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