Turn with me, if you would, to Acts chapter 2, Acts chapter 2, I'm going to read the first verses of this chapter, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Acts chapter 2. We'll read the first 13 verses. Acts chapter 2. I have page 1157. I think it's the same as the few Bibles. Is that correct? 1157. 1157 in your few Bibles. Acts chapter 2. Hear the word of the Lord. 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? How is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes, 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. What does this all mean? That's a good question, and we hope to speak a little bit about that. What does this all mean? In August of this year, I was invited to Ecuador to give a series of classes, and one of the students in Ecuador was a chaplain to the Quito Federal Prison. He invited me to also preach in the prison and to speak to some of the Christian brethren there, and I accepted. In fact, I went on two different occasions. My first trip to the prison was startling. striking. It was general visitation so there were many wives and family members in line who stood in line, were reviewed, you know checked out, had to give our passport up stamped on, an ink stamp series of stamps on your arm. I came to the steps of this building at least 300 years old, a stone building immense, with five pavillones going out from a central hub. And notice the stone stairs were worn of the thousands of people who had trod those stairs going in and out. We went into the corridors, narrow corridors. The gates clanged shut behind us. I was impressed by the noise, the noise of the inmates, everywhere noise. men hanging on the bars looking out, and it was a sad place. Older men, younger men, put away for years. The Quito prison was just another raw reminder that we have fallen from the first state in which God created us. We live in a world of decay, both spiritual and physical. See, as Lewis quotes G.K. Chesterton, who says, if you have a white post and don't care for it, it will soon be a black post. Symbolic of what happens in this world. Evolution has it all backwards. Species are going out of existence. We don't have any missing links to new species. Boys and girls, our toys break, don't they? They never repair themselves. My motorcycle breaks down. It doesn't become new. We catch colds and viruses from one another, but we never catch wellness. Have you ever gone up to someone when you have a cold and someone else is well and you say, could you please sneeze on me so I can catch wellness? Of course not. Everything tends toward decay. It tends toward the worst. And it bothers us, doesn't it? Why does it bother us? Why don't we accept it? Because we know something's wrong. It bothers us when these things go wrong. I just fixed up my wife's 1965 Volkswagen. New bumpers, the original bumpers and everything, and must have forgot to put the parking brake on or it let loose and it coasted down and crashed into a wall. Grat it. But why does it bother us? Well, it bothers us because that's not how things were originally created. Think of relationships in this world. Think of how easy it is to damage relationships versus put them back together. Misunderstandings, deceit, unfaithfulness, brokenness afflict us all. And even though by God's grace, relationships can be restored, they often leave scars. The Quito prison in the last instance is just simply one more common example that something has gone very wrong with all humanity. It wasn't always like this. We read at the end of Genesis chapter 1 that God saw his world and he saw the human beings that he had created and he saw that it was all very good and he pronounced it all very good. Then we come to Genesis chapter 3. We see man's rebellion and God's curse because of their rebellion. And we see that creation is subjected to vanity. But then we read, as Paul says in chapter 8 of Romans, it was subjected to vanity, it was subjected to a curse, but it was subjected to vanity in hope. In hope! God's plans wouldn't be thwarted by man's rebellion. God's plans would not be halted by man's sin. And even though the world is full of brokenness and decay, God planned salvation, he planned restoration, and he planned glory for his people. Pentecost, Pentecost, the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of God's promises from long before. And it was also a first fruit of future glory that he has for his people. The people in the Pentecost, day of Pentecost said, what does this mean? That is a good question because it meant a lot and we're going to talk about that this morning. The Feast of Pentecost, now all the feasts that God had made for his people, for Israel, were related to Israel's salvation. Gerhardus Vos, great Dutch theologian, says that God planned all Israel's society and her calendar and everything as doctrinal teaching. Israel was literally surrounded by doctrine. Their worship, their society, and the feasts of Israel were doctrine. They were teaching events. The Passover was the beginning at the beginning of their calendar year. Just as the Passover was the beginning event of God's recreation of His people Israel, taking them as slaves in Egypt, taking them out of Egypt, and reforming them into the people of Israel. Now, the Passover then led to the harvest. In those months following, the harvest was coming up, first fruits was celebrated, and Passover and Pentecost was the celebration of the harvest 50 days after the Passover. You see, God wanted his people to understand and to celebrate that his purpose was not just to free them from Pharaoh and then go off and figure out how to make a living. No, God frees them, the Passover, the angel of death, cursing the Egyptians, freeing his people, but with a purpose. And the purpose was God taking His people to the promised land that He had promised their forefathers and to give them life in communion with Him, happiness and peace. And that's what Passover and Pentecost celebrates. Freedom from, freedom for. Salvation from, salvation for. Communion with God and a life of abundance and happiness. God's activities, both in creation and redemption, always have a purpose. Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, reminds his people, God created this world not to be empty, but to be inhabited. God's creation had a purpose of an inhabited world. And God's salvation has a purpose. Communion with God. That's the sad thing about evolution. Purposeless, and Richard Dawkins and some of the other atheists simply say, you know, we've got to bite the bullet and just recognize there's no purpose to life. The sad thing about that is that many young people who really believe that, they are not, the statistics show us, they're not reducing suicide. It's increasing. Mankind was created with a purpose. There's something in us that knows that. And when we try to convince ourselves we're here for no reason at all, there's no purpose, we came from nothing, we're going towards nothing, we can't handle that. It's not true. Creation was for a purpose and salvation is for a purpose. And Pentecost celebrated the finalization of the harvest and in Leviticus 23 where God is giving the directions for the different feasts as he talks about the harvest, the first fruit harvest and later Pentecost, God reminds his people when you harvest, when the harvest comes in, in the land the Lord your God promised you. You see, God wanted them to celebrate the purpose that he had given to them. He saved them from Pharaoh to lead them to a land he had promised. And so Passover led to Pentecost. They were not freed to wander in the desert forever. They were freed to enjoy God's presence and the bounty of God's, the evidence of God's presence. Also, let's please notice that worship is the first and the end activity for God's people. Passover was an act of faith, of worship. They put the blood on their doorposts and they waited in faith that the angel of death would not touch them and would free them from their oppressors. Their salvation began in an act of worship and it was to lead to an act of worship because Pentecost and all the feasts were activities of worship. Israel's whole existence as a people was born out of the act of worship and would lead to the act of worship. Pentecost finally celebrated God's healing in a broken, sin-stricken world. The Israelites, under the heavy service to their captors, would be free and they would be brought into communion with God and that it was symbolic, of course. It was types. It was shadows in the Old Testament, but God was teaching his people that he would give a reversal to the heavy service to sin and he would bring his people into glorious fellowship with him in which there would be peace, there would be happiness, there would be fellowship one with another and with their God. Now, the feasts, Pentecost and the other feasts, of course, celebrated past salvation. When they were in the land, they were to remember the past salvation of their God, that God had brought them into the promised land. But there are also hints in the Pentateuch of a future and greater glory. They were not to think only of the past. Remember Genesis 3. God promised Adam and Eve. that the seed of the woman would one day crush the head of the serpent. Now that had not yet happened in Canaan. Satan had not yet been crushed. And so even as they celebrated fulfillment in Canaan, there were outstanding promises. God had promised Abraham in Genesis 15 that he would be the father and that he would be a blessing, his descendants would be a blessing to all the nations, all the families of the earth. Well, that certainly hadn't happened. So there are hints in the Pentateuch itself. Balaam, under the payment of Balak trying to curse Israel, Balaam just blesses Israel over and over again and says, From Judah there will be a scepter, a star will come out, who will rule the nation. And, of course, Moses had said, God will raise up for you a prophet like unto me. Hear him. Now, none of these things had been fulfilled yet. And so, even though Israel was celebrating a fulfillment in their Pentecost feast, yet they were looking forward. And when Israel fell into greater and greater disobedience, the prophets, of course, make clear that God's purposes would be fulfilled in the future. I just want to note Ezekiel 36. In Ezekiel 36, verse 24, God says, I will take you from the nations and gather you from the countries and bring you into your own land, exiled once again because of their disobedience. And I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness. And from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and obey my rules. And so the prophets begin to make clear that God's purposes, his full purposes will be fulfilled in the future. In Joel, which Peter quotes for his Pentecost sermon, Joel actually makes reference to grain offerings, to harvests, in speaking of the future day when God will bring His people back to Him and seal them. God makes a call in Joel 2, verse 12, Yet even now declares the Lord, Return to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts and not your garments. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering and drink offering for the Lord your God. In verse 19, Joel says, The Lord answered and said to his people, Behold, I am sending to you grain, wine, oil. You will be satisfied, and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. You see, God used the idea of abundance of harvest to symbolize and to show what was really at stake, God's not material but spiritual blessing upon his people. And so even as Joel says, God will multiply grain, wine, and oil for you, he is saying, rend your hearts and not your garments. And so we see that the Old Testament feasts and physical blessings of God were meant to show Israel that God wanted communion with his people on a spiritual level. And they pointed forward. They pointed forward to a day when God would pour out his spirit. And that's what Joel says later. It shall come to pass afterward. I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. Male and female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit. In other words, everybody would become a prophet. Spirit-filled prophet. These are the things that only prophets in the Old Testament had visions and prophesied. God said, I will so fill all my people. They will all be prophets. They will all have my spirit. And Peter quotes that passage in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost to say, what does it all mean? He says, this is what it means. God has fulfilled his promise. Because all God's promises are yes and amen. All God's promises are yes and amen. And of course, the first phase in the final fulfillment of God's promises was the coming of Christ, the incarnation of Christ. Christ comes to this earth. the second person of the Godhead incarnate. He obeys the Father's will and fulfills the Father's will. And He gives His life on the cross. He is raised from the dead, breaking the bonds of death and sin and Satan. And He ascends into heaven. And He earns the right, Peter said, He earns the right to pour out God's Spirit and to seal his spirit once and for all. The first phase was necessary because of God's righteousness and our sin. Jesus needed to come to reconcile us, to pay the penalty before God's righteousness. And Jesus did that. Then he ascended to heaven and then he pours out the blessing, the promise of the Father. He pours out the spirit on the whole church. And so Pentecost, the day of Pentecost, people of God, is the climactic sign, the climactic sign that God will finally and fully restore his people, restore his creation. In verse 1 in chapter 2 of Acts, the verb that Luke uses when most of the versions simply say when the day of Pentecost arrived or when the day of Pentecost had come, and that is one of the senses of this verb, but it also has a sense of fulfillment. In fact, part of the root of the verb is fulfillment. What happens if we translate verse 1, when the day of Pentecost was fulfilled? When all the other Pentecosts, previous Pentecosts, were fulfilled in this day? I think we get a better idea, don't we? All the other Pentecosts pointed to this Pentecost. And there are three signs that God gives. And two of the three signs are simply typical manifestations of God's presence and God's spirit. The sign of wind and the sign of fire. The wind, we know that God uses that term, ruach, spirit, breath, wind, to characterize the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. And there is that going back and forth between wind, breath, and spirit. Ezekiel 37, the vision of dry bones. Ezekiel was to preach to them and the breath of life came to them as the Spirit of God blew over them. And as, it's a gorgeous symbol of the integration of God's Spirit and God's Word and the preaching of the Word. Here's Ezekiel preaching to dry bones and calls upon the Spirit of God to come from the four corners of the earth and to blow upon them and sinew and skin and come upon them. and he preaches again and the breath of life is put in them and they're raised up on their feet a great, exceedingly great army. God's Spirit would come in wind. Jesus said, you hear the wind and you don't know where it comes from or where it's going, but that is how the Spirit of God works. And so the day of Pentecost, there was a great sign of a rushing wind symbolizing the presence of God's Spirit coming upon them. Apparently, it was so loud that those living in Jerusalem came to see what in the world was going on inside that house. They came and they asked, what does this mean? There were also tongues of fire that came and sat upon each one of them that were present. Tongues of fire. Once again, a, if you will, typical manifestation of God's presence. We remember, of course, for Israel, there was a huge tongue of fire above the tabernacle, the pillar of fire, God's glory, presence over his people. And it led them through the desert. It protected them from their enemies. It lighted their way at night. Now, it's almost as if mini pillars of fire come into the room and come upon each person. Over each head is a mini pillar of fire. God's glory presence comes upon his entire people. And God's presence fills his temple, his people. You know, there's a reference, Peter, of course, who was present there. Peter says in chapter 4, verse 14 of 1 Peter, he said, if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. Well, why is that? Because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. Peter's saying, you know, don't worry about anything that's going to happen in this world. Peter was in that room. Peter remembers that the spirit of God and of glory had descended upon his church. And even though the tongues of fire faded, Peter knew that the reality had not faded. God's spirit of power and glory, the glory of God had descended upon his people. He said, don't worry. God's pillar of fire is over us. God's spirit and glory is on us. Fire also purifies. Hebrews 12 reminds us that our God is a consuming fire. reminded God's people that God is a refining fire. Ananias and Sapphira attempted to lie to the Holy Spirit and they were slain right in church. God's Spirit would purify His church also. Wind and fire, signs of God's powerful Spirit coming upon His people for the mission that He would give them. The third sign was speaking in the tongues of the nations that had gathered in Jerusalem. The Gentile nations around Israel, there were proselytes and others that day from, I didn't count how many countries were there, but there were apparently very many. And they heard the wonders of God, verse 11. we hear them telling in our own tongue the mighty works of God. At Babel, God had cursed men because they didn't want to spread out to obey God and to give God the glory. They wanted to build a tower for their own name. Pride. Human pride and arrogance. And God cursed them by multiplying languages. But on the day of Pentecost, in all the languages around Israel, they now proclaim the mighty works of God. It's a reversal of the curse of Babel, of course. Now all the cursed languages can be sanctified and glorified praising the name of their Creator and their redeemer. God's wonders will be proclaimed now in every tongue. Not the wonders of man, but the wonders of God. The Dutch often say. You know, in Dutch, we have a saying. And it doesn't come across in English as good. That's true. I say the same thing in Costa Rica about English. I say, you know, in English, we have a saying like this and it doesn't really translate. Well, that's true. But you know what? We need to be careful and not get carried away with our own language and our own culture. I have a friend who's a pastor in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He's pastored there for 30 years. His single congregation has planted and organized, complete with consistories and buildings, 160 churches in the past 30 years. Besides founding a seminary, a Christian school, working in a hospital, and other ministries. All the confessional reformed churches of North America, put them all together, all the confessionally reformed churches of North America don't come to even half of one Reformed denomination in Mexico, the National Presbyterian Church of Mexico, because they have over 1.2 million. Many of them don't speak Spanish. They're in the South. The Choles and the Tzeltales who have even their own hymnals and their Bible in their own languages. People of God, God's wonders are being proclaimed in all the languages of the world. These three signs, the wind on the day of Pentecost, tongues of fire over God's people, the languages of the world being sanctified to praise God, these three signs are proof that we are heading, certainly for the final day of consummation when God's promises will be fulfilled in his people. Now, unfortunately, some in the church have gotten sidetracked seeking the experiences of Pentecost, at least one of the experiences. With our Pentecostal brethren, I always ask them, you know, why is it that you only seek one of the signs on Pentecost when you folks can have wind like a rushing wind on the day of Pentecost and fire come down from heaven and speak in the language of the nations, then I'll become a Pentecostal. But as long as you're just doing one of the three signs, you're not legit. Because there were three signs that God gave on the coming of Pentecost. Well, of course, that wasn't the point. God wasn't giving these signs to be eternal experiences that are sought. I don't know when the last time you've had a wedding here in the church. We just attended a wedding last week in Costa Rica. But when the couple goes to get married, they buy wedding rings as a symbol of the marriage relationship. You don't marry a ring. You marry a person. The ring is a symbol. God gave three signs. They were not the essence. The wind and the fire and the tongues were signs. That God was fulfilling his promise and giving a down payment for a future fulfillment in glory. You know, I remember, almost as if it was yesterday, I don't remember everything as if it were yesterday, but I remember this. When I was a young fellow going to be ordained, I was in Ripon, California, where my parents lived, and an old retired pastor, Reverend Tannis, whom I didn't know, called the house and asked if he could meet with me. I went over to Reverend Tannis's. He was a widower at that time. He said, Mr. Green, come in. Please sit down. And asked me why I wanted to be ordained. I said to him I felt God's call to the ministry, and I believed that the Lord was calling me to that vocation, and I sought ordination for that reason. He said, you have answered very well, because there are many blessings in the ministry, but there are many hardships. And there are days, Mr. Green, when only your conviction of a call will carry you through. You may go. My whole time with him was five minutes. I've never forgot his words. You know, my wife and I were raised not to be complainers, just like all of us here. But my wife and I have faced a lot of hardships in our ministry. And there's been times when there's been difficult days. But you know what? Even in the midst of those days, we know that God has been there. He's been sustaining us. He will be glorified. And when we falter, we can look back to the signs of Pentecost. Because God gave the signs. And God's promises are yes and amen. The signs of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was a down payment. And the Spirit is, in our life, a down payment of the final and full glorification. Now, we need to know this. We all need to know this. Everyone listening to this message needs to know this. Because our hope is based on this promise. We must not judge by human standards. We must not judge by human standards. What happens in this world and what happens in our life? If you read the following chapters, these guys were criticized, they were hauled before the Sanhedrin, they were thrown in prison, they were going to be decapitated. And Peter simply had to say, look, you guys, you'll have to judge whether we should obey man or God, but we have to say what we've seen and heard. We may not judge by human standards, people of God. We must judge by what God has said and done. God has poured out His Spirit. He has sealed our lives. He's given the sign. It's not bad to be surprised by what God does. We like to be in control. We like to make the plans. We like to have everything. We should plan. We should be orderly about our things. But it's not bad to be surprised by what God does. The Spirit's coming on Pentecost emphasizes God's work. And because it was Pentecost celebrating the harvest, Pentecost, God chose that feast, he invented the feast, and then he fulfilled the Spirit's coming on that day to tell us there's going to be a harvest. There's going to be a tremendous harvest of souls. I want to share with you some, how do you say it in English? Some relatos. passages, stories, that are only found in the Gospel of Luke. We know it was Luke that wrote Acts, and Luke writes after Pentecost, and Luke writes his Gospel in the perspective of Pentecost, and only Luke relates the following stories. Remember when James and John wanted to bring down fire from heaven on the Samaritan village because they wouldn't hear their preaching? They told them to get out, and they came to Jesus, and they said, Jesus, do you want us to bring fire down like Elijah? Jesus said to them, I don't know what spirit you are of, or you don't know what spirit you are of, because the Son of Man came to save and not to destroy. You know that's only found in Luke? Luke, who penned the harvest of Pentecost? You know that the Good Samaritan is only found in Luke? That parable that Jesus told that shows how we should live in this sinful world, not only doing good to those whom all others passed by, but even to an enemy. The parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son are only found in Luke. The lost son showing the father's love for that despicable son that squandered the father's inheritance. he's received back. And it ends by saying, this your brother was lost and he's found. We must rejoice. It's only in Luke. What about the story of Zacchaeus? Also only in Luke, where a publican, a wretched thief of his own people, comes to faith in Christ. He stands up and he says, if I've taken anything, I'm going to pay it back fourfold. The law required twofold. He says, I'm going to pay it back double what the law requires. And Jesus says, that's appropriate because the Son of Man has come to seek and to save. That's what was lost. And it's only in Luke that in his dying hour, Jesus turns to the thief on the cross and says, today, you will be with me in paradise. Luke's gospel is a prologue to Pentecost. Luke is aware of that. He knows that Jesus came for a harvest. People of God, there is a harvest. Just on the day of Pentecost, 3,000 came to saving faith in our Lord. This was such a wonderful thrill to the apostles. They didn't care if they killed them over it. And it is still a blessing to be part of God's harvest. Is there a lot of work? Of course there's a lot of work. It works good. You know, when I travel, I see Brazilian brethren, Mexican brethren, Equatorian brethren with a rhythm of work in the kingdom that shames me. There are our brethren who are working their tails off for the cause of the gospel, and God is blessing their efforts. I received a call from the Gulf, the Tabasco Gulf Presbytery. We've done several conferences up there, and I received a call a while back from one of the fellows and he said when you get back from the United States we'd like you to begin taping messages because we're going to start a radio ministry I sort of hesitated on top of everything else I have and then I recovered I couldn't miss this for the world this is a class that has grown to 50 organized churches in the past few decades with hundreds, not 100 or 200, hundreds of daughter churches being planted. These brethren are busy planting. How could I not help out in some small way? I was too ashamed to say no. I told them yes. There's even a harvest in a Quito prison. You know, I'll confess that when I first went into that prison, I was, it was a disconcerting place. I was scared. I left my watch at home. I left my wallet at home. I left all my money at home. And when I was in the little patio there, the big three-story things next door was razor wire and bars and noise around. And I was going to preach right there in a little corner. And one of the brethren there saw that I didn't have a watch. And I was about to preach, and I should mind the time a little bit. He took his watch off and he handed it to me. I admit I had to suppress tears that I was going to get called in just a few seconds. I didn't want to get up in front of everybody crying. But I realized I was the needy one. The free, relatively wealthy compared to them, North American missionary, was afraid of everyone around him. And the Equatorian prisoner had been freed by God's grace. He took his watch off and shared it with me. sometimes our fears intimidate our service. Happens with me. Our fears get in the way. Are we missing out of being part of the greatest thing that is happening in the universe? Maybe because of fears or because of distractions, because of our individual interests, because of selfishness. God doesn't call everyone to go talk going to keep them in prison he doesn't call everyone to be foreign missionaries but god has sent his spirit upon his entire church the wind is blown of god's spirit tons of fire by god's glory has come upon all those who believe in jesus christ he's filled us he's given the signs He's equipped us, and everyone has a part to play. People of God, there will be a harvest. There will be complete restoration one day of the brokenness and decay of this world. Tears will be wiped away, and a multitude without number will gather before the Lamb in worship. The signs have been given. Do you believe it? Will you be part of it? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you. You gave the signs of the day of Pentecost that your final harvest will be brought in. O Lord, you have considered us to be part, worthy to be part of your great harvest, Lord. Forgive our apathy, if that is the case. And forgive our fears, O Lord. And forgive us when we are distracted by so many other things. O Father, we've heard your word. We've seen your commitment. We've seen your signs. And we pray, Father, that you will allow us, and in even greater measure to be co-laborers with Jesus Christ in your harvest. And we await the day when Jesus Christ will return and your people, nations without number and every tribe and language will praise the name of God and the land forever. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.