This evening it is a blessing for us to continue in our study of the Book of Acts as I have an opportunity to preach during the evening worship service. I would remind you from last week we left off in the Book of Acts, we were in that in between period between when Christ ascended into glory and before the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost. We saw that there is a unique situation in which the Church began to major on what the Church had major on. Yet here we are going to see in our text this evening that this is what we have been waiting for.
This is what the Church has been waiting for. This is what has been promised, not only the Old Testament, but that Jesus himself promised we call him to take place. So, what happens here in Acts chapter 2? We are going to read this evening of pouring out the Spirit.
What I want to do tonight is almost really highlight what this means in the context of the early Church and by the way what this means in our context as well. The Spirit has in fact this has been poured out that we do live on this side of Pentecost. So, I would advise you to turn with me to Acts chapter 2. You will be in Acts chapter 2 verses 1-13 before I read God's Word of the Spirit.
You ask that you would make yourself known that you would indeed enliven our hearts and show forth Christ. God that you would arrest upon us. Or we know that all of your Word has been breathed out. We know that it is profitable for reproof and for correction, for training us up in righteousness that it is indeed valuable.
Whether it is precious to us, even more precious than fine gold, is sweeter even than honey. And so, God, would that be made known to us tonight? Would you bless us? And ask these things in Jesus' name.
Amen. Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. This is God's Word, holy and air at this game. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly there came from having 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 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. Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at the 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, or not all these who are speaking Galileas.
And how is it that we hear each of us his own native language? Parthians and Medes and elements and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Lydia 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? Here's mocking, said, they are filled with new wine. Grandswithers, flowerfalls, the word, for God stands forever. Thanks be to God.
You may know that the First World War was unlike any other war that had come before it. There were technological advances that had made its way into warfare and things had changed, repeating rifles. Artillery shot farther. There was use of gas and chemicals that would devastate fields and horses would be made way for vehicles and biplanes would fly over for reconnaissance, dropping small explosives.
So men dug trenches instead of lining up in traditional formations. And so what we find here is things were changing. What's interesting is Ken Burns and his documentary on the World War I would recount that as the United States was drawn into this conflict, the US soldiers would land in Europe. They would land without helmets.
Here we have bullets flying, artillery bursting in here. We have warfare changing. Either US were stuck in their old ways. And they were not yet prepared for what we need to be done.
In fact, what we find in our text this evening is that there's some and some lay of preparation that needs to take place for the church to go forward and keep the mission that God would grant them. They would make Christ known in Judea, to the ends of the earth. They would go baptizing and the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit making disciples of all nations. They would need to be prepared.
And God does not leave his church unprepared. He does not send us to the foreign field without helmets. But he grants us everything we need. He grants us all that we need to go without this mission.
And you know how they feel like those Galileans sometimes who have then granted this divine mission to proclaim the glory of Christ and we may feel unprepared. It may strike fear within us. It may lead us to make excuses or to justify our inaction for the state of Christ. The church I want you to know that the Lord has granted himself in the person and work of the Spirit to prepare you and to equip you to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
And so really I have my point this evening, my three points make up a statement. Make up a proposition if you will. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been saved to proclaim Christ to a lost and dying world. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we have been saved to proclaim Christ to a lost and dying world.
I want to see from our text this evening first that we have in fact saved. What's interesting about this even is that it would have played upon the senses, this pouring out of the Spirit. You'll notice what is described here on the day of Pentecost. We read of a sound like a mighty rushing wind from heaven.
It was audible. They saw these divided tongues of fire as they would appear and they descended as looked as tribes. They would have been seen. And again they still heard others speaking in tongues as leek rites.
As the Spirit gave them utterances and they heard. What I want you to see is that this was a very real event. Pentecost was a very real event that involved the very real outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We sometimes can cast off the spiritual as something we cannot comprehend with our senses or sense experience.
Or we use the word spiritual to describe that which we cannot see here, taste, touch or smell. There is a sense in which that is true but we need to see that this was a real event and we might be tended to pass off what is seen here as a play on the spiritual. The Lord has given us great confidence through the witnesses of the scriptures that this event really took place. And as we understand this to be a fulfillment of a great promise that God himself has made, we can rest assured that the Lord delivered upon his own promise.
This isn't some internal or subjective sense of the Spirit moving. This isn't butterflies in your stomach or a sense of peace or some overwhelming emotion but an objective event to which there are witnesses to the glory of God make visible and audible. I want you to draw your attention to what this event is. And I want to draw your attention to what this event is not.
First, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a testimony and seal to the powerful saving work of Christ. And it's no wonder that the events at Pentecost come on the heels of the death and resurrection of the ascension of Jesus. The sound of something like rushing wind is a very specific point of identifying what is taking place. Both the Greek and the Hebrew word for Spirit is also associated with the word for wind or breath.
And we know from Genesis 1 and 2 that the Spirit was involved in creation. Not only hovered over the face of the earth but was also with the Lord's read and to Adam's nostril that he might live and know life. This breath or wind is seen again in Ezekiel 37 where it comes upon the dry bones in the field and brings them to life. And so we see that where the Spirit is in God's people, there is life.
Where the Spirit is in God's people there is life. Now I don't think this means that the apostles or those 120 or so at Tenant's didn't already have the Spirit in a saving manner. I read to the Old Testament and can infer the Spirit has always accomplished salvation. However, we see that the Spirit here is in part given as a sign and seal of life.
Signifying that the Lord has indeed saved. A fulfillment of his promise but it's also a means to equip God's people towards Kingdom work. But as a sign we've been saved, consider this fire poured out into sinning upon those of the Lord's choosing. This passage is sneaked in Old Testament anticipation and isn't it fire that is associated with the presence of God.
Do you remember what it was that led the Israelites and the wilderness in the Book of Exodus? It's the column of smoke, the column of fire. It was a blazing and powerful display of the glory of God in that burning bush which was a flame and yet was not consumed through which God would even call and send Moses. I think even here there would be a relation to the glory of God that we might see in the Chicina glory which would descend upon the tabernacles.
It was finished and consecrated. The fire is a symbol of the presence of God even as it would fill the temple. And so here as fire descends upon those set apart by the Lord, we see that his presence is with them. His presence is with them and even it's in them and among them.
We also see too that fire would have been a sign of judgment. Right? This is the angel that was placed with a flaming sword who guarded Eden. It was what rained down in some measure upon Sodom and Gomorrah and Elijah called down in a mighty display to the prophets of Baal.
It was the symbol of consuming fire that displayed judgment and wrath and the temple as sacrifices replaced by Nadaev and Abihu who were consumed by strange fire. Yet their garments untouched. Yet we see the very opposite here. Fire descended upon the apostolic church at Pentecost and they were not consumed.
They were not harmed. They weren't even sinned. They were not swallowed up by God's judgment. And I think we need to see again that this is a confirming fact that these believers were not consumed because Christ was consumed on their behalf.
These believers were not consumed because Christ was consumed on their behalf. He bore their very judgment. The very judgment of God. We might live in him.
So we have some proof related to the early church that they hadn't even saved. For the presence of the Lord had descended upon them. They were not consumed. They were rather living in the spirit.
So that Old Testament prophecy given by Joel finds this fulfillment here and it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions and next time I have opportunity to preach we'll see the servant that follows the pouring out of the spirit. But we need to see the love of that Pentecost wasn't just a singular event for those 120 at a particular time in place. This work of the spirits for you as this for me.
This is like the staging ground where line men after a natural disaster or hurricane that's where they gather and they organize to get out to work repairing and restoring those power lines. This down payment of what the Lord will do among his church as the Lord fulfills his mission empowering them to live and labor in the spirit. And so we not only look back to that moment but you now we benefit from ourselves. We benefit from ourselves empowered and equipped by the spirit towards a faithfulness to live in righteousness and to proclaim Christ and that's the purpose for which we've been saved.
If we have the spirit we have received God himself and we have not been consumed. And we look at the spirit who labors to magnify the glory of Jesus and so do we. You and I we do this. And so we learn from the master of what it means to make Christ greater.
We have been saved for a purpose in this living this laboring and the spirit leads us to our second part of this phrase that we have been saved. We have been saved to proclaim Christ. It's our second point. We have been saved to proclaim Christ.
Earlier I mentioned that I wanted to help you see what is not happening here at Pentecost. And I think it's worth noting that this isn't intended to be normative for the church or for the Christian experience. And what I mean by this is that we should expect Christians to experience this pouring out of the spirit in the same way that we see it at Pentecost. It will unpack that more as I have opportunity to preach the book of Acts.
But there are traditions and Protestant world and maybe even traditions that you grew up in or you know someone who did who look at the events here in Acts chapter 2 and teach that Christians not only to be born again or converted but they need a baptism in the spirit or a second pouring out of the spirit. In these traditions there's usually distinction between Christians who have been saved but who are without the spirit and those who have been saved and have also received the spirit. And so evidence what they understand about it gets to something like speaking in tongues. They might say look at these Christians who are deceived of pouring out of the spirit and they spoke in tongues therefore you should do so too.
That's not their mind of reasoning. And while we don't have time to consider the spiritual gifts that Paul references in for example 1 Corinthians as it relates to here. I just want to simply say it's not what we understand as passage to teach here and specially in our form context. All Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 verses 12 through 13 for just as the body is one has many members and all members of the body though many are one body so it is a Christ.
For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks slaves or free and all were made to drink of one spirit. Simply and quickly put as we are born again we receive the spirit as we receive the spirit we are born again. In fact Paul even makes clear in this passage that we are united in our receiving the spirit is something we share together as Christians. There are the haves and the have nots among the children of God.
But God has blessed all of his children with himself the spirit. Now this leads us to ask two questions what is happening here and what does it mean for the church today for you and for me. Well we understand this event as a fulfillment of that which had been promised. Just that was prophesied that Christ would be born and that he would live and that he would die and that he would be raised again and that he would be exalted in the glory so Pentecost had been an event in the life of the church that had been promised.
And we read a promise kept here in chapter 2. But this outpouring of the spirit led to what Luke says, right they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. And so we get the idea that these who were given utterance were speaking of the mighty works of God. You see there's the content that Luke mentions here.
They were speaking the mighty works of God in foreign languages so others would hear and we'll see, believe upon the name of the Lord. Three thousand of them. Luke records when it's all sent down. You see Pentecost isn't something directly or distinctly New Testament.
The Pentecost isn't something distinctly New Testament but it's really just it's including of the old. It's actually the Feast of Abservance commanded by God which would follow 50 days after Passover. And so it was also known as the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. The Pentecost would be the Greek name.
50th. In the Old Testament it would have fallen at the beginning of wheat harvest. And so it was a time of reflection of the Lord's promises and a time of anticipation on what the Lord would do in and for his people. And many scholars remarked that by this time the focus of his Old Testament Theis had shifted towards a celebration of the law being given at Sinai.
And something like husbands and wives who renewed their vows throughout their marriage. So faithful Jews from throughout the lands where they had gone out had been dispersed. They would return and in a sense renew their covenantal obligations before Yahweh. And so this is the scene that's in Jerusalem right now.
Here we have faithful Jews from all over coming to Jerusalem expecting to celebrate the giving of the law with likely a reading of the law which had been central to their identity as God's covenant people. And yet what do they hear in their own languages? A product of a miracle itself. They hear the mighty works of the Lord.
The giving of the word of God may flesh. And we can imagine this mighty work is the summation of the gospel message. Not taking on flesh and humbling himself to the point of even death, taking upon himself the sins of those that God would call his own children, his conquering death and vanquishing sin and his being raised again and ascending to heaven to the place of glory and power that he was made to be sinned who knew no sin. That we might become the righteousness of God.
Coming to be confronted with the law. They were confronted with the one who kept the law on their behalf. The covenant keeper himself. Coming to be confronted with the law.
Here they are confronted by the overwhelming, glorious grace of God. And in their own languages. This pouring out the spirit is just an event to which we remember and say, wow, right? Look, the spirit surely was within the first century.
The spirit was surely with them on the day of Pentecost. But we say, wow, look how the spirit is with us, with you, and with me, that we might proclaim Christ. And it's at this point that we see to whom we are to proclaim Christ. There's an audience that we have, this to a lost and dying world, a lost and dying world.
It's no coincidence that the spirit was poured out in such a way that God chose to keep his promise on a day like Pentecost. It's a wondrous thing that the feast of harvest would mark not the cutting of heads of grain but the saving of souls. Or the harvest is plentiful, indeed the laborers are few, which we should understand Jesus's words there to mean not to be purely a mission slogan, like something like a few, the proud, the marines, to pump up folks to answer the call. But I think Jesus's words there are at least in part a real inventory or account of those that the Lord would use in the spiritual pattern of God using that which seems small and weak to bring about that which is grand and glorious.
We are using 120 to bring about the saving of thousands. The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. And just as the Feast of Weeks would mark the first fruits of the harvest, the harvest of souls, here we see the first fruits of the church. We also need to see the other side of the calling, or what this event implies.
And I believe this city confirmed by this passage as well that just as these devout Jewish men and women gathered as God's covenant people to renew their vows to the Lord and obedience, it seems to be very clear that this pouring out of the spirit is anointing and setting apart not Israel, but the church has God's new covenant people, new Israel. This is signified by the miraculous occurrence of speaking in foreign languages. And I like what John Calvin says here about this passage. He says that the preachers had spoken in only one tongue.
Everyone would have that Christ was confined to a small corner of Judea. But Jesus said that his church would be his witnesses to Judea, to some area, into the earth. No longer would ethnic or geographical Israel be tied to God's people. It wouldn't be located in Jerusalem.
In fact, by expanding globally across time and space, the Lord is condemning Israel who rejected the Lord, who rejected God's covenant promises and covenant love in the Son of God. Here he anoints his church, not Israel, to be his ambassadors. And this is what Jesus promised. If you go back and read the parable of the Tenants in Matthew 21 to which Jesus tells the chief priests and the Pharisees, have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected as become the cornerstone?
This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore I tell you the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on the stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush them. Pentecost is a proclamation that the kingdom of God belongs to the church.
And yet we read that there are those who hear and they see what's taking place. They are experiencing and seeing these things. And how do they respond? Well, Luke tells us, and all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean?
But others mocking said they are filled with new wine. You see the nature of Pentecost means that there were those the Lord has anointed and granted power to be his witnesses, and there are those that are lost and died. There are those whom the Lord knows and has saved, and there are those who are condemned in their sins and trespasses. There is no between.
There is no great area. You either know Christ or you don't, and say it away. And what's interesting here is that these various responses, they seem rational. Right?
We expect these responses. Right? First, they were amazed. Understandably, they were astounded at this strange display of hearing of all kinds of languages.
Right? This isn't Rome, but Jerusalem. But amazement doesn't mean belief. You understand that?
Amasement doesn't mean belief. I've known many of the years to be amazed at the church. Right? When there's a death in the church, and they rally to care for grieving, folks, they are amazed.
When there's someone who's downcast and suffering, and there's a rallying call or cry, people are amazed. When there's an outpouring of support in the face of natural disaster, and there's a strong witness to the world around us, people can be amazed. But amazement doesn't equal faith. Those were wowed by the miracles of Jesus and sought him out for healing or to see it for themselves.
But he says, truly, truly, I tell you, you seek me not because you, or excuse me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of loaves. amazement does not equal faith. Notice we see another response here. They were also perplexed.
Some didn't understand what was taking place. And surely it could most definitely be confusing. Right? But Jesus says, he quotes the prophet Isaiah, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, for those outside everything is in heralds.
So that they may indeed see but not perceive, and they may hear but not understand lest they should turn and be forgiven. You understand church, it's not wrong for us to be confused or have a difficult time understanding of things of God. There are many things that are difficult to understand. There are many things I don't understand.
And there are many things that I'm sure many of us here would say that we don't understand. But when we approach Christ not with confusion, but faith, having turned from our sins and having been forgiven, the Lord blesses us with his spirit to discern, and even sanctifies our minds. We spend the rest of our lives not mastering the scriptures but being mastered by the scriptures. And so we see that they are perplexed.
And while it's not wrong to be perplexed, we see that in that perplexing we still must be Christ. But lastly we see what's the response they mocked. Saying, look, they must be drunk online. Why else would they be doing this?
And this is the doubt and disdain of the carnal heart against the church in the world. And we are called to make Christ known to those scoffers whom the Lord promised we would face who hold Christ in his church with contempt and with marked hatred. This I'm going to leave you with this evening. In the words of Paul.
In the words of Paul, he says this, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Not of the sexually immoral nor idolators nor adulterers nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor slindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. But he goes on.
Paul doesn't stop there. But he goes on. And yet he says, in such were some of you. But you were watched.
You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And if this evening you're here in Christ, having stayed in faith, then at one point in time you were lost in dying. She'd been made alive, justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, by the power of the Spirit of God within you.
Counted among this very number, you were a mocker. You were a scoffer. Yet isn't it, for mockers and scoffers that Christ has died? You understand that we have been saved through faith in Christ, restored.
And so what do we find here in Acts chapter 2, the great day of Pentecost? We find that we have been saved to proclaim Christ to a lost and dying world. And the Spirit, God himself, will be with us and will go before us and will grant us power and provision to do all that God has come in. So let's get praise to that God.
Let's pray. Oh God, we thank you that you have not left us alone. Oh, that Lord, when you departed, that you did not leave us by ourselves, but that you indeed kept your promise that you must go, that you might send the helper, that you might send your Spirit. And so God, we ask that you would fill us with all desire, that you would fill us with all zeal, that you would fill us with all love for you and for those that you have called us to share.
The great love that Christ has shown us. And so Lord, we do pray that you would receive these things and that you...