Well, we continue tonight our study in the book of Acts. Tonight we come to chapter 2 of Acts and we are considering the first 13 verses of the day of Pentecost, Acts 2. And if you're visiting and looking for that, you can find that on page 1157. This is the word of the Lord. We begin at verse 1 of Acts chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others, mocking said, they are filled with new wine. And there ends the reading of God's Word. We have always struggled in the Christian ministry looking for power. We've always wanted to see power and struggled to not see as much power as we want to see, haven't we? We've wrestled with this question of how in the world are we going to survive in a culture that does so many things that seem so much more effective to win the loss. Isn't that okay? Corinth struggled with this problem. This is what the whole book of Corinthians was all about. They had, in the culture, mastered oratory skills. And they were doing powerful things with oratory skills. And Paul would come along and say, listen, I choose purposely not to do what the culture is doing with oratory, because then it confuses where the power is. In fact, Corinth began to look at the ministry of the church in every aspect, thinking, how can we make ministry more attractive to people? The problem was that it messed up their view of everything. They started worshiping pastors more than Jesus. They started looking at those who could speak better. They divided the church all based on gifts, looking for the most esteemed gifts, and it all came down to one great gift that they all had abused, the one great gift that they held out even over love, and that was tongue speaking. Gibberish. Everyone was asking the question, how can we be effective and how can we do church? Well, that's not anything new, is it? We're still dealing with that today. we're still struggling with all those same questions nothing is new under the sun everyone seems to simply be asking the question what do the people want that's consumerism 101 especially in our time and in our place who is left out of all of this the lord of course and that is particularly true when we have forgotten where the power comes in the life of the church where does true power come from and what is it intended to do and where should we look for it and and what should we see since i mentioned howell jones this morning i'm going to mention him one more time i remember uh him always saying to us uh before we go into a pulpit as pastors he said i want you all before you preach to get in the habit of having a prayer before that sermon and asking specifically that the spirit would work and fill people's hearts and illumine minds so that they would understand he goes we're not doing that today specifically asking specifically asking that that we used to call that that that prayer before the sermon the prayer of illumination when we specifically ask the spirit that in such a way his power would be shown through the speaking about jesus that that's what we're asking and that it would have an effect in people's hearts and it would have the effect of creating faith the holy spirit would through the proclamation of the gospel and the lord would be glorified through that do you think we've forgotten the spirit maybe it is uh after all of these years we're still somewhat confused by just what the holy spirit came to do i can say that pretty confidently because the church has by and large been very confused about exactly where his primary work is and what he's come to do and that's why tonight so important that's why acts 2 is so important it's making one thing very clear for us in acts chapter 2 that the christian ministry is done in his power we come to study in our study of acts the day of pentecost and remember the lord had told them all to wait for the coming of the spirit and that's what i want to look at tonight with you i want you to see here in these first 13 verses we can break this down very simply and looking at his arrival the purpose of his arrival and the response to his arrival and we will look at those three things here briefly tonight let's let's um look here in verse one considering the importance of it being his ministry and his power notice here in verse one that this day had finally come when the day of pentecost arrived they were all together in one place i i can't imagine what that must have been like can you i can't imagine we have some language here to help us everyone knew something big was happening of the peoples all around for they gathered around pentecost uh meaning 50th of course and it came these 50 days you'll notice here after um the passover it was celebrated in israel as the feast of harvest or the feast of weeks it had a history in israel it celebrated the first fruits of the the weed harvest and so as the time of year came when the grain harvest uh harvesting would would begin they would celebrate they would have a great celebration and and the celebration was in anticipation of something it was in anticipation of a much fuller harvest well look at the remarkable providence of this look at it jesus was with them last chapter remember it said that um uh in in these in these 40 days uh verse 3 of chapter 1 he presented himself alive to them after suffering by many proofs appearing to them 40 days and speaking to them about the kingdom of god he he's ascended he has told them to wait 10 days they're waiting and here we are 50th day called the day of pentecost on the 50th day as the spirit inspired it here for us he comes excuse me he comes now now what that meant then is that we should expect a much fuller harvest well that's no coincidence that the first sermon that's preached here come three thousand people it's remarkable isn't it now for as much confusion as there's been about the holy spirit i i believe this passage has to be looked at carefully especially because there have been so many different views and widespread views, especially based on Acts, that Pentecost was to be experienced and repeated, as some people have taught, by every true believer, and it would come about in people's lives by the ability to speak in tongues. They would even speak Pentecostals of a baptism of the Holy Spirit as separate, and that unless you've had that you're really not you'll notice the language here spirit filled we've heard all of this stuff and it's led to mass confusion uh about acts chapter 2 and exactly what is happening here and that's why we have to pay careful attention to what is being said to us with certain symbols that are being used to describe the coming of the spirit in the history of salvation uh pentecost is most certainly an unrepeatable event in the line of christ's whole story remember this is christ's continuing ministry so as the story of his life his death in this event his death his resurrection his ascension and pentecost is the event here where the holy spirit is sent it all follows in that line of an historical event doesn't it we have to look closely then here of what is being said about that event and that will help us to get off to a good starting of considering what's normative for the first century Christians and then what's normative for us today. We'll have a good understanding of what His coming means today if we look at this with some detail. Look at verse two. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole place where they were sitting. And then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested upon each of them. Did you notice there that there are a few symbols given of the Holy Spirit to describe Him? There's really two. You'll notice there that these symbols are given to help us understand the significance and the meaning of the event. I can't imagine. They're waiting there in the room, and all of a sudden, this sound from heaven comes. the way the Bible captures it as a great wind. There's the first symbol, great wind. And then we read they were filled with the Spirit in a specific kind of way, as tongues of, second symbol, fire fell on them. Now that's important to explore for a minute, for wind and fire have a long history behind them. Wind and fire has a lot of the Old Testament behind it to help us understand what's being said of the coming of the spirit let's start with wind such an important history uh the word for spirit you know is um i'm sure you've heard explained to you wind or breath uh the spirit here comes as a wind or breath i i'm i'm going to know and i was wrestling thinking about what does it all symbolize well this is not new is it you'll remember at the very creation of the world we read in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth and the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of god was hovering over the waters i remember as a kid i didn't understand that i just envisioned a kind of spaceship over the water i don't know what that meant what did it mean that he hovered i was what is a hovering that just sounds so unique doesn't it um we're going to consider this here for a minute and the next phrase god would say as he's hovering he would go on to start there would be creative acts wouldn't there the creative 10 words let there be light and there was light um wind in in the whole creation event the spirit coming and hovering over the waters was a signal that life was coming life was coming he's the life-giving spirit he's called in the scriptures. Jesus said it. Jesus said it in the Gospel of John. Jesus said, it is the Holy Spirit who gives life. You had the same description of him as the Spirit led out Israel out of Egypt. You had a whole signal that life had come. Life. This is exactly what Jesus was saying when he talk to Nicodemus, isn't it? Nicodemus, you need to be born again. And Nicodemus stands back and says, well, I don't know what you mean by that. I don't know how I go get back in a womb big enough for me to fit. And Nicodemus didn't understand this whole principle of life. And the whole gospel of John can be summarized with that word life. It's a book of life. And no wonder that first discourse in that book is about the Spirit. Jesus turns it to the work of the Spirit to give life. Jesus would say, you don't understand my speech. He was speaking spiritually. The Spirit had to give life. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit do not marvel that i said you must be born again the wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes so is it with everyone who's born of the spirit the spirit gives life spirit implants life in the heart the spirit takes a dead heart and plants life there that's the newberg romans 8 says the same thing the spirit is life spiritual life created in the heart and soul of man. So at creation, you had this signal that life was coming in the creative act that was about to happen. And we have language that describes the work of the Spirit. The first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. So just at creation, as life came, now we have a great moment in history again. a great moment. This is signaling the same kind of thing that we have at creation where the Spirit has come now to bring new life. Life in the hearts of people who are dead. So there's the first symbol. Life. The wind. The Spirit. He's the wind. He's signaling life has come. Then you have the Second, fire. Notice that Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit is described as fire. John the Baptist said this, whose sandal straps I'm not worthy to carry, when he comes, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Long history with fire, hasn't there been? You remember when God passed through the pieces and Abraham was sleeping, the whole event was a fire event. When Moses walked up to the burning bush, the thing was on fire, wasn't it? But it was there that God spoke. The Lord spoke from the bush on fire. We think of the fire leading Israel out of the wilderness. It was there. The fire led them in a pillar of fire. There He was. What did the fire symbolize? The presence of God. The presence of God. So what do you have here? You have two symbols. Wind and fire, life and the presence of God in the coming of the Spirit. Well, what's the meaning? What's the purpose? I hope, here, I have to confess, I was overjoyed working on this sermon. I have to say, I don't recall spending much time in my ministry on Acts 2. And Acts 2 really affected me this week as i was working on it maybe i've heard these things before and it just went one ear and out the other but i never thought about the terms of the uniqueness of what pentecost is revealing to us and showing to us of what these symbols are saying what they mean maybe i can capture it this way for you tonight and i can help you um maybe see this is with the same way that i had a great moment in my study this week typically we ask the question that and i'm sure you've asked it pentecost must mean that the spirit has finally come and therefore the old testament saints did not have the spirit like the new testament saints have and we look at pentecost as proof of that right you ever had that question i've had that question i've struggled with that i struggle with that a lot a lot of people struggled with that but but there was something here that i i saw that i hadn't appreciated before if the coming of the spirit means new creation and life in a powerful way and the fire means god's presence has come where does that life and where does that presence show itself where is that presence found that pentecost is showing us where does life come from so so the presence of the spirit the power of the fire of the spirit is specifically found on this day of pentecost where is it found well i think you see it right there don't you notice where the fire rested it rested on them and they were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak in other tongues there's a specific fire that seems to be falling on the tongue that's very unique here that's very unique here it's it's it's it's wonderful to think about it this way because then we understand why gospel ministry is so important from the tongue the spirit would show his power to the ends of the earth and bring life from the tongue this is what makes pentecost unique i'm going to get there and hopefully expand this a little bit look at the verse there there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire his presence fell then you'll notice on that tongue the old testament showed us this in small glimpses you think of isaiah who wanted to go out and speak and the first thing that had to happen was he had to drop down and fall down something was wrong with the mouth wasn't it and i am undone i'm a man of unclean lips i can't go out and start speaking i've got a real problem in the mouth and then the the angel comes in from the grabs the tongs from the altar and he comes and he touches his mouth and then he's able to go out and speak it's graphically depicted in the old testament anticipating this day in the book of ezekiel ezekiel chapter 37 the hand of the lord was upon me you know this well and he brought me out in the spirit of the lord and set me down in the middle of the valley and it was full of bones And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, you know, Lord God. Then he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you. There's the life. so from the tongue he's going to speak and life's going to be given i will cause breath to enter you and you will live and i will lay sinews upon you and i will cause flesh to come upon you and i'll cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that i am the lord so i prophesied as i was commanded and as i prophesied there's this sound that begins to happen behold a rattling and the bones come together bone to bone and i looked and behold there were sinews on them and the flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them but there was no breath in them then he said prophesy to the breath prophesy son of man and say to the breath says the lord god come from the four winds oh breath and breathe on these slain that they may live so i prophesied as he commanded and the breath came into them and they lived and they stood on their feet a great army then he said to me son of man these are the bones these bones are the whole house of israel so so from the proclamation life would come life would come how did god restore life to israel how did he fulfill the psalms give us life again give us life again psalm 80 restore to us life through the presence of the spirit by the tongue what made this so unique is what happened notice in verse 4 and they were filled with the holy spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And what happens? All these nations are then mentioned as they heard the apostles speaking to them in what? Their own language. We hear in our own languages the wonderful works of God. What happened? The presence of the Spirit filled them as He touched their tongues and fell upon their tongues and gave to the apostles right then and there known languages. In other words, it would be like me speaking Dutch right now. That would be a marvel, let me tell you. That's what happened at Pentecost. It would be me speaking Swahili. It'd be me speaking those kind of things. That's what the Holy Spirit in fire fell upon. The tongue. This is what in Corinth was something. They messed the entire thing up and fell into the gibberish and ecstatic speech of the culture. That was not what tongues was. Tongues were known languages. That's why everyone marveled. Whoa, we're hearing these guys, these Galileans speak to us in German. You see? That's what was going on. Filled them, the Spirit filled them as He touched their tongues and gave to the apostles the apostles. That's why this is the unique event. no languages to speak and it was no gibberish and the immediate effect of the holy spirit through them was arresting on the tongue in fire that his he was present in their tongue giving them utterance as these nations were coming into the kingdom see now though it's different now it's different because now he's giving utterance in fulfillment everything that all the old testament prophets wanted to see completed now the holy spirit's giving them utterance to talk about to speak about the wonderful works of god to speak of jesus in fulfillment that's what pentecost was all about this is how life came this is how the israel of god came in fullness this is how to every nation now um the babel problem that we discussed this morning of one spirit trying to conquer themselves no this is done by the work of the holy spirit tearing down the barriers and making one people in the earth of every tribe tongue people and nation that's pentecost the filling of the spirit as we hear i want to be filled with the spirit the filling of the spirit is this it was to speak the gospel in the known languages of the peoples clearly That was to be filled with the Spirit. When the Spirit would make that so clear so that everyone understood it. And it's as if the floodgates were opened right then and there. The Spirit worked in that small nation of the earth. So it wasn't that the Spirit hadn't come before. He worked in that small nation of the earth to proclaim the Word and the Gospel. And now resting on the apostles in fulfillment in such power, in a new creative act, the gospel was being made known to everyone. That's the beauty of this. And from there, life came. The two symbols. Fire on the tongue, life in the heart. Life in the heart. New birth by the Spirit. You know, that's how what Peter said happened in 1 Peter 1. You have been born again, Nicodemus. You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through what? The living and abiding Word of God. Again, it gets back to the image thing. Why would you need that? You got this. Why aren't we satisfied with this? All flesh is like grass, and its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. And this Word is the good news that was preached to you. So by this good news preached to you, fire in the tongue, You were born again by the Spirit. Fire, life. Fire, life. I think that's just overwhelming because it confirms everything we're doing. Doesn't it? So much to learn here. And now so much to apply. Let me give some applications of this tonight and we'll come back to it next time. I want to say this first, that this is a ministry of the Spirit, what we're doing. Holy Spirit. He's not repeating this unique historical event in the way it happened then in that kind of dramatic manner, but he is telling the church that the ministry is a ministry of speaking to one another the wonderful works of God. God sends pastors. We have the Word and the Spirit. That's how the kingdom of god is built his presence when the word is spoken is a fire see this is it and it's been translated into how many languages that's what we're doing and and this is when this is spoken the spirit brings a fire as it's spoken as the paul said that's when i preach i'm doing it in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power that way. We are to preach the Word as the Spirit has given utterance. Where has He given utterance? Right here. That's why the command of God is preach the Word in season, out of season. That's the utterance of the Spirit. It's His ministry, first thing. Second, you need to have confidence in that ministry. You need to have real confidence in that ministry. Think of all these people there for the first time who heard about Jesus. What was Pentecost meant to celebrate? The anticipation of a fuller harvest, right? Well, next week we're going to come back and I just thought up my sermon title right now. The Sermon That Shook the World. How about that? 3,000. First sermon to make this point for you. This is how the ministry is going. This is how he's going to do it. You know what's amazing about that sermon? It's nothing like what we're hearing today. That sermon is not how to have a better marriage, how to be a good dad, how to be a better father, all this stuff, seven steps to this. It's nothing like it. He has one aim in that sermon. To take the Old Testament to say, now's the day of fulfillment, and I'm going to prove to you from the Old Testament Scriptures Jesus is the Christ you should repent and believe in him and they were cut to the heart by that sermon cut to the heart what do we do believe and be baptized we'll get to that great conclusion right this is how verse 14 begins they said you're all drunk Peter says but Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice here comes the spirit's fire here it comes and address them this is what was uttered by the prophet joel and in the last days it shall be god declares i'll pour out my spirit on all flesh and he starts preaching jesus that's what he does jesus told us this is what the holy spirit would do didn't he but when the helper comes whom i send to you from the father the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father he will bear witness about me so this is what the spirit primary focus in ministry is doing to have voices lifted up to proclaim jesus and fire will be there and life will come in your hearts through it so being filled by the spirit you'll notice here is when the word is spoken faithfully through his servants and life comes that's what we're asking in the prayer of illumination aren't that's what i'm asking from god that's what we're telling that's what we're telling you love the ministry it's like pulling teeth today to get people to see this this is what he chose to do love what's being spoken to you consider who's speaking to you the bible keeps telling you that i was just listening to joel osteen today you know what he said all of you who sit under my voice said it about three or four times red flag it is not my voice you should be hearing the holy spirit is bearing witness to the son so that you hear his voice it's jesus's voice who calls you love what's being spoken to you as the word is preached that's why paul said will not the ministry of the spirit even have more glory you know just as a side note pentecost used to celebrate the giving of the law on sinai think of what we're celebrating now in contrast the ministry of the spirit that's what paul contrasts in in second corinthians for there was glory in the ministry of condemnation the ministry of righteousness must exceed it in glory that's what's being said here now the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there's freedom therefore having this ministry the ministry of the spirit by the mercy of god we don't lose heart for what we proclaim is not us ourselves but jesus christ there it is again as lord with ourselves as your servants for jesus's sake for god who said let light shine out of darkness as shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of god in the face of jesus so you have to have it's the spirit's ministry you got to have confidence in this ministry third the filling of the spirit also applies to you we have a very special view of the ordained ministry there's no doubt but i don't want to undermine also in this your responsibility to speak because paul said to all people who are christians so that we don't have a pentecostal some kind of elitist view this be filled with the spirit all of you how so speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the lord in your heart always giving thanks for everything to god the father in the name of our lord jesus christ to be filled with the spirit is to speak the things of the spirit the talk of the lord to talk of what Christ has done for you, you know? That is to be filled with the Spirit, to encourage one another, to edify one another. It's not some super baptism of gibberish, trust me. That is so contrary to everything the Lord is after. You all have the same Spirit, so speak the things of the Spirit who bears witness to the Son. Let me give you a fourth application. It was and is the Spirit's intention to gather every race of people as one. Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Galatia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya, adointing Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. Arabs. All of them. All the peoples of the earth. The coming of the Spirit. Make sure I give a good testimony and clarity of this kills racism in the Christian community. Kills it. That's what he's doing. It sees us all as one in Jesus. As the fullness of his power goes to the ends of the earth, he saves a multitude no man can number of, what do we see in Revelation 7? All around the throne of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. That's beautiful, isn't it? It's beautiful. I'm going to give you a final one. full of applications tonight one more verse 13 others mocked saying they're full of new wine they're drunk i am pretty sure paul was inspired to say don't be drunk with wine but filled with the spirit so nobody would actually use this to justify being drunk in the spirit you see but its inclusion is to say some people even when they hear the word of god spoken clearly that's what happened that day in their own languages some people even in the church when they hear the word of god spoken clearly will do anything they can to push it away anything they can to write it off as madness it's unbelievable to deny the ministry of the word hear this clearly to deny the ministry of the word is to deny the ministry of the spirit because that's how He works. And that if someone wants to write it off and associate it, you could associate it with drunkenness, the work of the Spirit. Does anyone want to do that? Of course not. Next time, we're going to see power as 3,000 people are brought in from darkness into light. What a glorious day Pentecost was and I hope that gives you some appreciation for the uniqueness of the event and what is still being continued today by His power. Let's thank Him together. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise You for the day of Pentecost, fulfilling Your promise that the Spirit would come and bring forth a ministry of power to the ends of the earth. As the tongue is given utterance by the Spirit, as fire rests there, life would be given by the Spirit in the heart. And this is the very ministry we get to enjoy. We just need you to clear away all the things that pull us away from this and have confidence in it. Thank you for instructing us today in righteousness and in truth and showing us a wonderful gospel and now salvation completed by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. Fill us that we would speak to one another in such a way the wonderful works of what you have done in Christ for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.