Fulfillment at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11) | 1/23/22
Acts 2:1-11 | 1/23/22 | Will DuVal
Children of the 90s like myself may remember the short-lived environmentalist cartoon Captain Planet, where the 5 “Planeteers” with their respective superpowers – Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, HEART! – fought against evil villains trying to pollute the earth. But when the job got too big for them, their powers would combine to summon “Captain Planet”, the titular blue superhero with his green mullet, who always managed to save the day. But at the end of each episode, just before Captain Planet returned back to… a different planet, I guess, it was never really clear; there’s a reason the show only survived for 3 seasons… – But he always left us with the same message: “The power is YOURS!” And Captain Planet would bestow his environmental superpowers back onto all of US, honorary Planeteers.
Well, as we opened our sermon series for this year together in “Acts”, the resurrected Jesus had appeared to his disciples for 40 days on earth before ascending back into Heaven, but just before He DID, he left them with these words in ch1, v8: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses.” “The power is YOURS!” And this morning, Jesus will make GOOD on that promise to fill them with the power of His Spirit, in one of the most important, pivotal moments in the history of the Church. Indeed, Acts ch.2, and the story of Pentecost marks the very BEGINNING, the BIRTH, of the Church.
And yet, as we’ll see, the story is not ONLY about the apostles being FILLED with the Spirit; it is ALSO about the Scriptures being FUL-FILLED by the Spirit’s work. To be sure, the most important headline here of Acts 2, vv1-11 is this: “God fills His Church withHis Spirit to spread His Gospel.” But as we’ll see, this story is even richer than that, its implications run far deeper.
Specifically, I want to highlight FOUR implications of this story, not just for the early church, but for those of us today in the 21st c. Church today as well. Remember, we’re not just here for historical information; we’re here for heart transformation – What did it mean FOR THEM, and why does it still matter TO US, that God fills his followers with His Spirit? – 4 implications both then AND now that STILL hold true for us today.
Would you stand with me… SCRIPTURE: Acts 2:1-11
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”.”
This is the word of the Lord… Let’s pray…
OUTLINE:
FOUR implications this story had both for them THEN, and stillhas for US today:
#1 – This filling OF Jesus’ followers BY the Spirit, it ful-filled the Meaning of PENTECOST (v1).
In v1, we read: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.”
Pentecost, also known as the “Festival of Weeks” or the “Feast of Harvest”, was an annual Jewish holiday instituted by God Himselfin the OT, in Exodus 34 (vv22-23). It was one of THREE religious holidays on which God instructed His people to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to worship Him in the Temple in person (Ex 23:14-19). The word Pentecost means “50th”, because it was celebrated 50 days after Passover. And the original, OT purpose of the festival was to offer one’s “firstfruits” of the spring harvest back to God (Lev 23:20). It reminded God’s people that the onlyreason there WAS a harvest, was because God had been faithful, and provided another year’s crop.
But it’s not until the NEW Testament, and Acts ch2, that we realize this OT celebration of Pentecost was but a shadow, a mere taste, of the true meaning and fulfillment of Pentecost that was to come, when we would celebrate a far GREATER, an ETERNALLYgreater “harvest” and the “firstfruits” at Pentecost.
The apostle Paul rejoiced in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus “Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” In other words, you and I can have a hope this morning that transcends the grave and this life, because JESUS CHRIST transcended HIS grave; He didn’t STAY dead; after dying on a Roman cross to pay the penalty for our sins, Jesus ROSEfrom the dead on the third day to defeat the POWER of sin and Hell and death. And now, all who trust in HIM, are filled with His Spirit, the SAME Spirit and power that brought JESUS back to life, now lives inside all those who trust in Him by faith. That’s the GOSPEL – the good news of Christianity.
And elsewhere, in Romans 8, Paul anticipates that, “the whole creation has been groaning… and we [also]… who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (v23) In other words, God is making all things new – all of Creation will be redeemed – through the power of God’s Spirit. But those in Christ– who have been ADOPTED to the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit – WE are the “firstfruits” of that glorious RE-creation.
So while Pentecost in the OT celebrated God’s re-creation – another year’s worth of CROPS – Pentecost here in Acts ch2 and for the rest of Church history celebrates God’s re-creation of our SPIRITS; God is now reaping a SOUL-harvest! “If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation” (2 Cor 5:17); these 120 believers in the upper room in Acts 2 are the very first “new creations in Christ”. And by the END of ch2, next week, we’re gonna see that the harvest has already grown to include another 3,000 people.
But that’s not all. (I feel like I’m on QVC: “But wait, there’s more!”) Kent Hughes explains that “By the time of Christ, Pentecost was also considered the anniversary of [God’s] giving of the Law [to Moses] on Mt Sinai [which ALSO occurred in the book of Exodus about 50 days after the very FIRST Passover, when God had led His people out of slavery in Egypt] and thus [Hughes explains] it provided a perfect opportunity to contrast the giving of the Lawwith the giving of the Spirit” (p30). Not only did Pentecost commemorate God’s provision of the wheat harvest, it alsocelebrated His provision of the LAW, the Torah. So not only does Acts 2 mark the in-gathering of a better HARVEST, a SOUL-harvest; it marks the arrival of a better GIFT, as well.
God’s LAW, in the OT, was a good gift. King David rightly rejoiced in Psalm 119 that God’s Law was “sweeter than honey… more precious than much fine gold” (vv103, 72). But as wonderful as the gift of God’s Law was – the gift of God’s own SPIRIT in the NEW Testament is on a whole other level. Romans 8: “the Spirit… has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteousrequirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk… according to the Spirit.” (vv2-4). Translation? Law – good. Spirit – BETTER. Infinitely, eternally better.
What does it mean for you and me today? Well, if God’s OT people thought it was worth throwing a big party every year to celebrate His provision of the crops and the Law, how much MORE SO ought WE to celebrate today, God’s provision of a much BETTERharvest – our SOULS – and God’s gift not just of the LAW – “Here’s how you ought to live”; that’s GOOD, God offers us guidance in His Law – but in the gift of His SPIRIT, God says, “Now I’m gonna actually make it POSSIBLE for you to experiencelife to the fullest, to the extent that you are filled with and walk by my Spirit.”
Brothers and sisters, Because the meaning of Pentecost has been fulfilled, we CELEBRATE; we have great JOY!
#2 – God’s gift of the Spirit not only filled the apostles, but it FUL-filled His promise of POWER. (vv2, 4b)
Remember what Jesus promised them in ch1, v8: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” – what kind of power? Well, TWO kinds: one visible, external, unrepeatable power; and one invisible, internal, but universal power.
First, the Spirit’s filling of the apostles was accompanied by the externally-visible, but unrepeatable power of the WORD. vv3-4: “Divided tongues… appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The Spirit gave them words.
Now, this was not the same “speaking in tongues”, glossolalia, that Paul describes for us later in 1 Corinthians 14, where he describes a believer being filled with the Holy Spirit for the purpose of worshipping God in an angelic language, which is to be accompanied by an interpreter such that the entire church might be edified. That is a repeatable, spiritual gift still experienced by the church AFTER Pentecost.
But here in Acts 2, this group of 120 are uniquely filled with the Spirit in order to speak in HUMAN tongues, human languages, with NO need for interpreters, because they are proclaiming the gospel in Parthian, and Persian, and Phrygian, and Egyptian, and ALL the various languages represented by the people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, not so much for the purpose of worship as it was for global EVANGELISM. This event is TOTALLY unique in the history of the Church. When we send out international missionaries today, we don’t tell them to pray for a filling of the Holy Spirit so they can go preach the gospel in Japanese, or Wolof, or Arabic. We send them to language training first. Because Pentecost was a one-time event, a miracle, of the Spirit, for the founding of the Church, based on the proclamation of God’s word.
We could trace this theme of the power of the WORD all throughout Scripture. In the beginning was…? The Word. Jesus Christ was and IS God’s word. God created ALL things by the power of…? His WORD. God said, “Let there be…” and there was. By His WORD, God CALLED Abram, and a people unto Himself. Then He spoke His LAW to them, the “words of life”, the Torah, that they were to follow. And even when they DIDN’T, God spoke to and through the prophets, “Thus sayeth the Lord…”, to CALL His people back to obedience. But when they refused to LISTEN, God sent Jesus, His Word made FLESH, to dwell among us. And NOW, God calls all people everywhere to follow Him through the proclamation of the GOSPEL – the “good news”; the entire Christian faith centers on a MESSAGE, an ANNOUNCEMENT, a WORD: that “Jesus Christ is Lord, Savior, and King.” That Jesus lived the life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved in our place, and rose from the dead to give us new, eternal life in His name; THAT is the “the mighty works of God” that these foreign pilgrims heard the apostles proclaiming in their own, native, mother tongues in Acts 2:11; it is the word of the GOSPEL!
Pentecost was the perfect INVERSION, then, of the story of Babel, from Genesis ch11. You remember the Tower of Babel, from our study of Genesis last year? At Babel, God confused the language of a rebellious people in order to thwart their destructive purposes and disperse humanity over the face of the globe. But at Pentecost: God empowered the language of His obedient people in order to accomplish His OWN glorious purpose of global witness by UNITING people from all over the world, around the message of the gospel. Pentecost inverts the story of Babel, by giving the apostles this miraculous, conspicuous, one-time gift of the power of WORD, speech, language.
But secondly, God ALSO filled them with the invisible, internal, and repeatable power of LIFE. What is the significance, here in v2, of the “sound like a mighty rushing wind”? Well, in both the OT Hebrew language – ruach – and in the NT Greek – pneuma – the exact same word used for “Spirit” can also mean “wind” or “breath”. Now think about that: what IS wind, or breath, or a person’s SPIRIT?
In biblical terms, ruach or pneuma referred to the “animatingpower of LIFE”. It’s the power of LIFE.
Wind proves that Creation is ALIVE. It rustles the leaves, conjures the waves.
Breath is evidence that a BODY is alive. How do you know when a person or animal is DEAD? When they stop breathing.
And the SPIRIT gives life to ALL things.
Think back again to Genesis: do you remember what the Holy Spirit was doing at Creation, in Genesis 1:2? When “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep… the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The earth was LIFELESS, until God’s SPIRIT went to work.
There’s this POWERFUL story in the OT, where God gives the prophet Ezekiel a vision of what His people, Israel, have become like, in their rejection of His word and His Spirit: they’ve become a valley of dry bones. But God takes Ezekiel to that valley, and God tells him to SPEAK, to preach the word of God, to the bones, and God says, “Behold, I will cause breath – RUACH; SPIRIT– to enter [into these bones], and [they] shall LIVE.” (37:1-14) And that’s exactly what happens, supernaturally, in Ezekiel’s vision.
But then God prophesies: “Behold, I will… raise you from your graves, O my people… And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.” And friends: Acts ch2, and the miracle of Pentecost was the FULFILLMENT of that promise! For the first time in history, God put His Spirit in His people, and RAISED them to new, eternal, resurrected life in Christ.
In John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that “unless one is born againhe cannot see the kingdom of God.” That “ unless [you’re] born [ONCE] of water [physically, when your mother’s water broke, but then a SECOND time, spiritually, born of] the Spirit [when “you confessed with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believed in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you were saved”, and you were at that very moment SEALED with the Holy Spirit as the “guarantee of your inheritance” of eternal life, Eph 1; that unless you’ve been born that all-important SECOND time…] you cannot enter the kingdom of God,” Heaven. (vv1-8)
And then Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind – the PNEUMA – blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyonewho is born of the [PNEUMA, the] Spirit.”
Well, the 120 in the Upper Room at Pentecost sure heard the sound of the PNEUMA on that day! Any of y’all ever survived a tornado? They say you know a tornado is getting close when the wind gets so loud it starts to sound like a FREIGHT TRAIN! That’swhat the apostles heard here in Acts 2! Why? Why didn’t they hear the sound of a gentle, summer breeze?
Because God was filling them with His life-giving POWER so they could SHARE it with all BOLDNESS! Look, if the Spirit had come like a gentle breeze, the apostles might have calmly stepped outside the Upper Room and stated in a very tranquil voice: “Can we have your attention please: You should know that Jesus is Risen. And you should all really repent of your sins and give your life to Him.” But when the Spirit descends like a FREIGHT TRAIN, you BUST down the door and you SHOUT: “JESUS HAS RISEN! REPENT AND BELIEVE!!”
What does this mean for us today, friends? The supernatural power of the WORD that God gave them – to speak in foreign tongues – that may have been a unique, unrepeatable gift. The moment you came to saving faith in Christ, you may not have heard a tornado, seen tongues of fire, spoken in a foreign language. But the invisible yet even greater power of LIFE that God bestows on us through His Spirit better NOT be a singular event, or else you and I and every other believer since the 1st c. is still DEAD in our sins! Friends, do we realize that we too have received God’s very own power of LIFE over death, and because we have, much like these first century apostles, we are BOLD to revel in that glorious truth; we ought to have BOLDNESS, in the way we live and love and worship and witness for Christ.
A few years ago, for my dad’s 65th birthday, and retirement party, we rented him a Ferrari for the day. I think I’ve got a couple pictures for you… Now, can you imagine if we had spent ALL that money, and my dad had spent the entire day, with his foot on the brake, just barely IDLING, just driving in nice, gentle circles around the parking lot at Schnucks? That would be ABSURD, why – because when you’ve got 500 horses under the hood, you don’t idle around the parking lot!
2 Corinthians 3, “Such is the confidence that we have throughChrist toward God… God has made us… ministers of a new covenant… of the Spirit… [for] the Spirit gives life. …Since we havesuch a hope, we are very bold” (vv4-12).
Brothers and sisters – are we BOLDLY ministering in the POWERof the Spirit, or are we just idling around the parking lot? Do we realize we’ve got 500 horses under the hood? Life-to-death kind of power! And God PUT it there, put His SPIRIT there, to fill us with BOLDNESS, and POWER, to minister to those still trapped in darkness.
#3 – By filling us with His Spirit, God FUL-filled His promise of PRESENCE with His people.
We covered the WIND of v2 – the power of LIFE – and the TONGUES of v4 – the power of WORD. But what about the FIRE in v3? Specifically, we read that “divided tongues as of FIREappeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them.” Why fire?
Hughes explains: “[T]hroughout the Bible… fire is a symbol of God’s presence, beginning with Moses and the burning bush[Remember that story? Exodus ch3, when God appears to Moses as FIRE, and calls him to go set the Israelites free, and Moses asks, “Why would they listen to me?”, and God replies, “Don’t worry, they’ll listen to ME, because I will be WITH you. MYpresence.”).” (pp31-32)
Then once they’re FREE, do you remember how God led the Israelites through the wilderness for 40 years? He appeared to them in a cloud by day, and a pillar of FIRE by night.
When God delivered the Law to Moses atop Mt. Sinai, the mountain was “wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire.” (Ex 19:18)
When Solomon built the TEMPLE to house God’s presence, anyone remember what happened at the dedication of the Temple, in 2 Chronicles 7? “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, FIRE came down from heaven… and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” (v1)
Actually, Kent Hughes is wrong; God’s presence as fire DIDN’Tbegin with Moses in Exodus 3; it actually BEGAN with Abram all the way back in Genesis 15. Think back to Genesis AGAIN: when God made His covenant with Abram, how did He visibly confirmit? God had Abram cut a bunch of animals in half, and then God Himself passed through the blood trail as a sign of how SERIOUS His commitment was – but He did it, in the form of “a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch” (v17).
Time and time again, throughout Scripture, God visibly manifesting His presence in the form of FIRE. Hebrews 12:29 goes so far as to say “our God IS a consuming fire.” But there’s something NEW happening here at Pentecost; we read that “divided tongues as of fire… rested[a] on each one of them.” Hughes explains: “The Spirit now rests upon each believer individually. The emphasis from Pentecost onward is on the personal relationship of God to the believer through the Holy Spirit.” (31-32)
Just as God’s presence had once filled the Temple in the form of fire, NOW, the NT informs us that each individual believer’s BODY is “a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you” (1 Corinthians 6:19). All the way back in Matthew ch3, John the Baptist had prophesied that the Messiah would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
What does all of this mean for you and me today? Well, it means one of TWO things. If you are NOT baptized with the Holy Spirit, if you are NOT born again, NOT “in Christ”… if you are still living in sinful rebellion against a holy, perfect, JUST God, then I have to warn you this morning friends that God’s being “a consuming fire” will NOT be good news for you.
The same gracious God who appeared as a fire pot to make a good promise to Abram is ALSO the JUST God who appeared as fire and BRIMSTONE a few chapters later in Sodom and Gomorrah.
The same gracious God who appeared as a pillar of fire to lovingly guide the Israelites through the wilderness is ALSO the JUST God who scorched Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron the priest, God consumed them with fire, for making an unauthorized offering, to God (Lev 10:1).
And God didn’t change from the OT to the NEW!
The same gracious God who bestows his presence in the Temple of our hearts when we trust in Christ is ALSO the JUST God of 2 Thessalonians 1:8, who’s sending Jesus back one day to execute JUSTICE on the unbelieving: “when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven… in flaming fire, [He will] inflict vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.””
The same gracious God who purifies His own people, with the refiner’s fire, until we are fully sanctified, made holy, LIKE Him, is ALSO the JUST God, who will one day cast every rebel who REJECTED Him here on earth into the LAKE of Fire, Hell.
In short, if you are NOT in Christ, God’s fiery presence will ONEday mean your utter destruction. But for all who ARE in Christ, baptized in the Spirit, God’s presence means your PEACE. Consider what that image of FIRE would have meant to someone in ancient, biblical times.
Without a fire, you couldn’t cook your meat from the hunt; it’d be susceptible to all kinds of diseases.
Without fire, you could FREEZE to death on a cold night.
Without fire, on a cloudy night, outside of town, you’d be left in the PITCH black. Completely vulnerable and exposed. But fire keeps the animals away. Fire lights your way. It can WARM you. FEED you. Many anthropologists consider fire to be the most important invention or discovery in our history as a human species.
A fire can bring you PEACE, peace of MIND… IF you know what to do with it. Do you know what to do with God? The consumingfire?
Jesus told his disciples in John 16, “ it is to your advantage that I go away, for… if I go, I will send [the Helper] to you… [and] in me, you may have peace.” The presence of Jesus’ indwelling Holy Spirit offers you true, abiding PEACE this morning.
Lastly, #4 – In God’s filling us with His Spirit, our PURPOSE is fulfilled.
In vv5-11, we read, “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound [either the sound of the “mighty rushing wind” from v2… OR the sound of the gospel in 120 different languages… or BOTH; v6 here isn’t clear; But in ANY case…] the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?” Remember when Philip told his buddy Nathaniel that he’d found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, and Nathaniel’s reply was: “Can anything GOOD come from Nazareth [in GALILEE]?” Galileans were HICKS, rednecks, HOOSIERS. Even their accent apparently gave them away – [*in Southern draw*] You know, they just sounded so uneducated, like you couldn’t even imagine someone from Galilee having half a brain, much less, speakin’ in perfect fluent PERSIAN, and LATIN, and CAPPADOCIAN, and ARABIC, and every other language represented by this crowd.
I’m out of time, but quickly: what’s the point? From the very beginning of humankind, God’s whole PURPOSE in creating us as His “image-bearers” was that we might reflect His glory into all the earth: “Be fruitful and multiply, and FILL the earth”, with the reflection of God’s glory. But we sinned. So God chose just ONE man, Abram, through whom God would make for Himself a people who He could send out to be a BLESSING to all nations. But they sinned. So God sent ANOTHER man, this time, His own SON, through whom He would BLESS all the nations. And that blessing, of the nations, began at Pentecost. Before this, Christianity was a tiny, fringe sect of Judaism; all 120 of them in the upper room were Jews. But at Pentecost, God made it clear that the scope of His purpose for His people within His redemptive plan, is WORLDWIDE – His Great Commission is to make disciples of ALL nations, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ENDS of the earth. Until every nation, tribe and tongue has heard the good news of Jesus.
So your final application point, for us today:
If the consummation of Pentecost ought to bring us JOY…
If the Spirit of POWER ought to fill us with BOLDNESS…
If God’s indwelling presence ought to fill us with PEACE…
Then finally, God’s PURPOSE for our lives ought to fill us with URGENCY. It truly IS a massive mission – 10,035 ethnes / nations / people groups down; 7,398 still to go. Who still haven’t heard the gospel. May we be filled with URGENCY, for the purpose to which our Lord has called us – His WORLDWIDE rescue mission, to seek and save the lost. Let’s pray.