Act 2:37-41 “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.”
Devout Jews from every nation were present to hear Peter’s sermon that day. They heard him declare the truth of Jesus by the words of David. Every man heard this truth declared in his own language. The power of the Holy Ghost was made apparent to them as the sound of a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire.
Peter had just told them that this Jesus that they had crucified was made both Lord and Christ by the power and purpose of God. When they heard this truth declared with power, these same Jews were pricked in their heart. Strong’s gives the definition of the word translated as “pricked” to mean “pierced thoroughly.” This message they heard Peter preach affected them on a deep level.
There is a difference between being pricked IN the heart and cut TO the heart. In Acts 5:29-33, we find some who were cut to the heart by the same truth that Peter had preached here in the second chapter of Acts. Instead of being humbled by the words that Peter was preaching to them, they became angered and tried to figure out a way to kill Peter and the other disciples. In the seventh chapter of Acts, we see Stephen preaching this same precious truth to men who were also cut to the heart, and they stoned Stephen to death.
Being pricked in the heart causes us to recognize our sin and the part we played in Jesus’ crucifixion. It humbles us to the point that we begin to look to people who we once ridiculed for help. Some of these Jews at Pentecost started out by making fun of Peter and the other disciples, even accusing them of being drunk. By the time Peter was through preaching to them about this Jesus, they were looking at him and the other disciples as brothers and inquiring of them what they should do.
The words of Peter still resonate in the child of God today when we come face to face with the truth of what we are by nature, and whose we are by the deep love of God. By God’s grace, we desire to repent from the vanity of our way of living. We receive a heart whose chief desire is to follow Jesus in all that He said we should do.
We do these things in the name (by the authority) of Jesus Christ. We understand that Jesus was anointed by God to remit (pardon) our sins. The gift of the Holy Ghost is ours when we are blessed to humble ourselves and follow the example of the Christ. There is salvation from the warped (untoward) generation that exists in the ways of carnality.
Note that this passage ends with giving God glory for all that had transpired. The scripture does not say that Peter or the disciples added three thousand souls to their number. It does say that there were “added unto them” three thousand souls. The language here clearly indicates that this addition came from the Holy Ghost and not from any power or righteousness that Peter or any of the others could claim.
May God bless us to see men pricked in their heart to the glory of His son Jesus Christ by the working of the Holy Ghost!
