But others mocking said, They are full of new wine.
The day of Pentecost drew a crowd, and the crowd split in two. Some asked what Galileans speaking foreign languages could mean, while others sneered and blamed the wine.
Luke describes a mixed audience. One group missed the miracle for a reason the others did not share.
Confounded, amazed, and in doubt (or, perplexed) — that is how Luke describes the crowd. Confounded, when they heard each man his own language. Amazed, as they remembered that those who addressed them were Galileans. Perplexed, since they could not understand what it meant. Something new, something strange, had undoubtedly happened. What did it mean? That was the impression made on many who were present. But others mocked, saying, "They are filled with new wine." These were very probably native-born Jews, who did not understand the different languages. No one disputed that something unusual had happened. Yet no one could give a satisfying explanation.
The word for new wine can mean fresh grape juice. Peter's reply settles how the mockers meant it.
In classic Greek this word normally means the sweet unfermented juice of the grape. Even so, it is certain, from Acts 2:13 compared with verse 16, that this is not its New Testament sense... The context shows that the wine meant here was well known to make people drunk. Mere irony! some object. But if the sneer of the Jewish scoffers had been ironical, would an apostle have replied so seriously, "These people are not drunk, AS YOU SUPPOSE" — not merely as you say?
The mockers thought they had an easy explanation. One plain fact undid it.
"Full of new wine," the mockers had said — an easy solution, as they thought, of that strange and startling sight which they witnessed. But the charge was easy to refute, and its folly was plain. The time of day should have made the accusers keep silent — it was only the third hour. Men were not in the habit of getting drunk by nine o'clock in the morning. The disciples were not drunk with wine. They were filled with the Spirit.
The real cause of what they saw was not in Jerusalem at all.
Peter declared that the exaltation of Christ explained everything: "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God... He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." The Lord Jesus was above; that is why there was power below. But it never entered their minds that the marvels of the tongues came from the One who had been crucified so recently. He was now in supreme power at the right hand of God.
The charge was false. But one writer asks why such a mistake could be made at all.
On the day of Pentecost the crowd mistook the Spirit's action in the apostles for the effects of wine. This shows that the action of wine on the natural man imitates or counterfeits the action of the Spirit of God in the believer. In fact, when any of the early Christians were filled with the Spirit, they were lifted out of themselves. They became vessels for the expression of the Spirit's power, whether in testimony or in praise.
Since the two can look alike, another writer draws a warning for us.
If we are set on being Spirit-filled, we should guard against anything that would imitate it without being it. We should never mistake excitement for the Spirit's anointing... Do not confuse the natural excitement of wine with the Spirit's power, which takes a man outside of himself.
In one sense the mockers stumbled onto the truth without knowing it.
The disciples were so full of joy and power that some mocked and said, "They are filled with new wine." They were indeed full of new wine, but it did not come from this earth. It was the new wine of heaven.
The two responses in the crowd are still the two responses today. One of them carries a cost.
Some ask honestly, "What does this mean?" It is a most blessed thing to ask honestly what God means. But others mocked. How sad, my friend, to be counted among the mockers, either then or now. Do not forget that if you mock in the day of His grace, God can do the same in the day of your calamity.
- The cause — Christ exalted at God's right hand explains the whole scene. It never crossed the mockers' minds, so the power below made no sense to them.
- The charge — "new wine" here means wine that makes people drunk. Peter's reply, "as you suppose," shows he took the insult as a real charge, not a joke.
- The reply — nine in the morning was answer enough; they were not drunk with wine, they were filled with the Spirit.
- The counterfeit — wine's excitement imitates the Spirit's power. The two can look alike, so never mistake excitement for the Spirit's work.
- The choice — one crowd, two responses: honest inquiry or mockery. Honest inquiry asks what God means; mockery in the day of grace risks God doing the same in the day of your calamity.
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke forth to them, Men of Judaea, and all ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words
At Pentecost the crowd was split: some puzzled, others sneering that the disciples were drunk. Peter stands up to answer them, and the first public preaching of the Christian message begins.
Peter first calls a divided crowd to listen. Two very different reactions were already in the room.
As always, people fall into more than one group: some amazed, others hostile and scornful. Peter takes the lead and explains, with weight and clarity. He denies the shameful idea that they were drunk. The early hour alone should have silenced that charge against God-fearing people.
The change of posture matters. These men had been sitting; now they stand, and one of them speaks.
God, however, would not leave them in doubt. So the apostles stood up (we last read of them sitting), and Peter lifted up his voice. He spoke aloud, to an audience he surely never expected. The first Christian sermon was about to begin.
One man speaks, but twelve are standing together. Weeks earlier these same men had been far from united.
This is all the more striking in the twelve apostles. We heard of their sharp differences and their jealousy of one another. How like other believers and other servants of the Lord in every age! The presence of the Lord only held it in check; it never removed it, as the Gospels honestly tell us. Now see the same men after the Holy Spirit was given. By His power their words and ways showed only the activities and affections of the life they had in Christ. "Peter, standing with the eleven" — they were now truly one.
The choice of preacher is the surprise. The man who had denied Jesus gets the first word.
Then Peter stood up with the eleven. What grace, that Peter of all the apostles should be so used! What overflowing grace that he should be the first to preach in the name of the risen Jesus! This was the preaching of a restored backslider. Grace had worked so deeply that he could calmly accuse the Jewish nation of denying and crucifying their Messiah. They might have replied that he had denied Him too. But Peter had confessed his sin and been forgiven; and his conscience was clear and happy before God.
Guilt makes us evasive. Settled forgiveness makes us honest.
We see the same cleansed conscience in Peter. He charges the Jews with what he had done in a worse way himself. The soul cannot bear to rest on what it knows will condemn it. So where there is no certainty about forgiveness, there is always some deceit in the heart. Once we see our sins as completely "blotted out," we have no interest in making our sinfulness look smaller.
Was this simply a man getting his confidence back? The answer lies deeper.
But look at this same man fifty days later. Now he faces no servant girl, but the whole crowd who had rejected Christ. Without a tremor he stands up as spokesman for them all, and lays the awful crime of Christ's death at their door. What made the difference? Was it only that Peter's soul was restored? Ah — he was filled with the Spirit, and knew no fear.
Peter is also the man Christ trusted with keys. Writers are careful to say what those keys are not.
Peter has nothing to do with letting people into heaven. Christ has the keys of heaven, be sure of that. He keeps those keys, but in His service down here He may and did use Peter, and put into his hands two keys with which to administer the kingdom of heaven. Why not one key? He had to open two doors. In Acts 2, where he preached his first sermon on the day of Pentecost, he put one key into the Jewish door, and opened the way for them to get blessing. The name of that key was "Repentance," I think. In Acts 10 he went down to Caesarea and opened the door to the Gentiles, and the name of that key was "Believe."
- Spirit — Peter's courage is not recovered nerve. He was filled with the Spirit: the man who trembled before a servant girl now faces a hostile crowd without fear.
- Unity — The same Spirit gave the twelve one mind. Men once marked by jealousy now stand together as one.
- Grace — A restored backslider preaches the first Christian sermon. That is the loudest thing this verse says about God.
- Clear conscience — Forgiveness freed Peter to name sin openly. A soul unsure of pardon always shades the truth about itself.
- Open door — Peter turns the first key at Pentecost: repentance for the Jews. Later he turns a second key: belief for the Gentiles.
for these are not full of wine, as *ye* suppose, for it is the third hour of the day;
Peter's first sermon opens with a denial. The crowd had sneered that the disciples were drunk, and the hour of the morning is his whole reply — a small detail carrying a much larger claim.
One writer sets the mockers' easy explanation against the true one:
"Full of new wine," the mockers had said — an easy solution, as they thought, of that strange and startling spectacle they were watching. But the charge was easy to refute, and its folly plain. The time of day should have made the accusers keep silent — it was only the third hour. Men were not usually overcome with wine by nine o'clock in the morning. The disciples were not drunk with wine. They were filled with the Spirit.
Nine in the morning was not just early. A fixed religious habit went with that hour:
The third hour of the day was the hour of the daily sacrifice. The custom was to go without food and drink until it was offered, especially on feast days.
Another writer names where such a sneer comes from, and pushes the custom to its conclusion:
The devil will invent any reason to get rid of the testimony of God, but usually shows his folly in doing so, and especially so here. The custom among the Jews was not to break their fast before the morning sacrifice. So they had not eaten, much less drunk.
One writer marks two responses to divine power — honest bewilderment and cheap ridicule — and follows what Peter did with the second:
No natural man can understand where such divine power comes from or how it works. If he is honest, he can only say he is puzzled. If he is mocking, he can only make some absurd suggestion such as "they are full of new wine." Peter does not ignore the suggestion, thoughtless and irresponsible as it is. He stands up together with the eleven apostles and dismisses the mockers' remark with a blunt reminder: it was only the third hour of the day, about nine in the morning. Then he goes on to give the real explanation of the divine power that had been shown among them.
With the false explanation gone, Peter traces this power to a Person out of sight. What the crowd thought of Jesus is why they could not see it:
Peter declared that the exaltation of Christ explained everything. His words were: "Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God … He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." The Lord Jesus was above; that is why there was power below. It never entered the people's minds where the marvel of the tongues came from. It came from the One who had recently been crucified and who was now in supreme power at the right hand of God. Because they were astray about the truth of Christ, the Jews could not understand what was taking place.
Having said what it was not, Peter says what it was, and points to the prophet Joel:
He plainly denies the unworthy idea of drunkenness. The early hour alone should have silenced that charge against God-fearing souls. It was really what Joel spoke of. It was not the fulfilment as it will be in the last days, but an outpouring of that kind.
Elsewhere Scripture puts the two fillings side by side, with a practical warning:
Alongside the call in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit there is the other one: "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery." If we are set on being filled with the Spirit, we should guard against anything that imitates it without being it. We should never mistake excitement for the Spirit's anointing… Do not confuse the natural excitement of wine with the power of the Spirit, which takes a man outside himself (see Acts 2:13-17). They are as different in origin as flesh and spirit.
- Charge — The crowd said the disciples were drunk. The hour of the morning made that absurd.
- Custom — The third hour was the hour of the daily sacrifice. Until it was offered, people ate and drank nothing. The men had not even eaten.
- Correction — Peter does not ignore the mockery. He clears away the false cause first, then gives the true one.
- Cause — The power on earth came from Christ, exalted at God's right hand. The crowd missed that, so they could not read what they saw.
- Contrast — Not drunk with wine, but filled with the Spirit. Believers still guard that difference, and never mistake excitement for the Spirit's power.