"And they were all amazed and amazed, saying among themselves, 'Are not all these who speak Galileans?....?' And others, mocking, said: they were drunk with sweet wine," — from this it is clear that not everyone equally accepted this miraculous event. Well-meaning people rightly saw in this an extraordinary sign, trying to guess what it portends. But unbelievers, spiteful and frivolous, who may have come from among the Pharisaic and Sadducean parties hostile to Christ the Saviour, began to mockingly explain what had happened in the crudest way – by the action of wine, thus offending the Holy Spirit. This is how unbelief, frivolity and malice always try to explain the highest things in the spiritual life by reasons that are low to the point of vulgarity, being unable to understand this lofty (1 Corinthians 2:14-15) [8].

Speech of the Apostle Peter

(2:14–42)

The amazement of some and the rude ridicule of others prompted the Apostles to turn to the people with an explanation of the miracle that had taken place. The gift of tongues was sent down to all the disciples of Christ who were in the house; now only 12 of Christ's closest disciples stand out from all of them, and in the name of all of them the holy Apostle Peter addresses the people with the first apostolic sermon.

He "lifted up his voice" — his speech is full of great boldness, it is solemn, clear and intelligible. In the person of those gathered, St. Peter addresses all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Gently and meekly, he removes the suspicion that the Lord's disciples were "drunk with sweet wine," "for it is now the third hour of the day." It was the hour of morning prayer, before which none of the Jews ate food, especially on such a great feast as Pentecost. Further, in explanation of what happened, St. Peter cites the Old Testament prophecy of Joel (2:28-32) [9], spoken 800 years earlier. In this prophecy, the Lord, through the mouth of the prophet, gives a promise to people about the abundant communication of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to all believers, with which is combined the threat of judgment on the wicked and the promise of salvation to the righteous. The opening words of the prophecy: "And it shall come to pass after this" are replaced by St. Peter with the expression: "And it shall be in the last days" – an expression referred to by the prophets to the end of the Old Testament time and the beginning of the New Testament. By substituting this expression for the vague expression "after this," the Apostle thus obviously excludes the relation of this prophecy to any Old Testament time, and relates its fulfillment only to the time of the New Testament.

"I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh," instead of the authentic words of the prophecy, "I will pour out My Spirit," the meaning is the same, but the Apostle only points to the division of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to each believer individually. "Outpouring" is an image of the communication of these gifts of the Holy Spirit in a special abundance, as if in the form of pouring out water or rain. The outpouring "upon all flesh" indicates the communication of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to all people. This means, of course, all those who enter the revealed Kingdom of the Messiah (cf. Isaiah 40:5); only members of the Kingdom of Christ will receive this grace of the Holy Spirit.

Before Christ, a huge part of mankind – the pagans – were completely deprived of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, while in Judaism the gifts of the Holy Spirit were communicated only to some who were chosen for special service, while in Christianity – every believer is vouchsafed these grace-filled gifts through the sacraments. This began to be fulfilled from the day of Pentecost. For example, some manifestations of these gifts of the Holy Spirit are indicated here, as the most famous in the Old Testament: prophecies, visions, dreams, as a means of communicating Divine Revelation to people.

"Your sons and your daughters; and your young men... your elders" — this indicates that the Holy Spirit will pour out His gifts on everyone without distinction of sex and age. The expression "on My servants and on My handmaids" is significant in the original. In the Old Testament there was no case when slaves received the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit and prophesied – in the New Testament the shackles of slavery will be broken, and the Holy Spirit will pour out His gifts on all, regardless of status, for in the Kingdom of Christ all are equal before the Lord – all are servants of the Lord.

With this prophecy of the abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit is combined the prophecy of the judgment of the wicked world that will take place after this, and of the salvation of the true worshipers of the true God. The signs of the approach of this last Last Judgment of God over mankind are: "blood, and fire, and smoking smoke." These are symbols of bloodshed, indignation, war, and devastation. With this will be combined the signs in the heavens: the eclipse of the sun and the bloody appearance of the moon. All these horrors, in the figurative language of the sacred writers, denote in general all those great calamities in the human world, which will be the harbingers of God's judgment on the world. All this will happen "before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes." In the Old Testament, this "day" was understood as the "day of the Messiah", or in general the time of the Messiah, in the New Testament – the day of the Messiah's judgment over the world – the day of the Last Judgment.

However, he will be "saved" from judgment the one "who shall call upon the name of the Lord," of course, not only at this time and not only with his lips. "He will not simply call," explains St. John Chrysostom, "for not everyone," says Christ, "who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but will call with diligence, with a good life, with due boldness.'" This refers to the righteous who truly believe in the Lord.

What did this prophecy have to do with the event of the day of Pentecost?

When the Apostle explained to his listeners that the miraculous event they had witnessed was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy of Joel, this naturally gave rise to the thought that, consequently, the Messianic time had already come, the Messiah had already come. But where is He and Who is He? And so in his further speech the holy Apostle Peter begins his gospel about Christ. He announces to his listeners that the Messiah has appeared in the person of "Jesus of Nazareth, a man who has been testified to you by God by powers and wonders and signs..." The Apostle recalls the well-known miracles of Christ as proofs of His messianic dignity. However, for the Jews of that time, the cross suffered by Christ was a great temptation. In order to remove this temptation, St. Peter adds that the betrayal and mortification of Christ was accomplished: "according to the definite counsel and foreknowledge of God."

Removing the temptation that God could be crucified and die, the holy Apostle speaks of Christ, in relation to Jewish concepts, as a Man, the Son of David, and therefore expresses that "God raised Him," although Christ, as the Son of God, was resurrected by His own power and authority (cf. John 10:18) [10]. Speaking of the resurrection of the Lord, St. Peter cites the convincing testimony of King David from Psalm 15, verses 8-11. In this psalm, the Psalmist portrays a righteous man who speaks of his inner close communion with God and expresses joy that this communion will not be interrupted by death, that his soul will not remain in hell and his very body will not be subjected to corruption, but will enjoy the fullness of life in God and joy in communion with Him. The Apostle directly points out that David could not have said this about himself, since "he died and was buried" like an ordinary mortal man, but that it was David who spoke "about Him," i.e., about Christ. He said this, being a prophet in the narrow sense of the word, or a seer of the future, and knowing that God had promised him with an oath from the fruit of his loins to raise up Christ in the flesh and to seat him on his throne. This is indeed what we find in 2 Samuel 7:12-16 [11]. Then God gave David such a promise about the steadfastness of his house and about the eternity of his throne and kingdom, which could be fulfilled, of course, only in the Messiah, who was to descend according to the flesh from the line of David. David understood it that way at the same time, and glorified God with a song in verse 18-29. Psalm 131 speaks of the same prophecy of the Lord to David, that the Messiah will come from his lineage, and it is called an "oath": "The Lord swore to David the truth, and will not deny it" in the sense of the complete immutability of what was prophesied (Psalm 131:11).

"He first spoke of the resurrection of Christ," what David said in Psalm 15, verse 10, was fulfilled not in himself, but in his descendant in the flesh, Christ, for Christ, having died in the flesh, went down into hell with his soul, but did not remain there, but having preached to the spirits that were there about the redemption by His death of all mankind, He again gave life to His flesh, which had not seen corruption, and rose from the dead (see 1 Pet. 3:18-19) [12]. The truth of the resurrection of "this Jesus" is confirmed by St. Peter by the testimony of all believers: "of which we are all witnesses."