Pentecost! Acts 2:1-13

Pentecostal Christianity: The Only Kind there is!

Acts 2:1-13

Introduction: The title of this message might raise some eyebrows considering that we are a “Conservative Baptist” church!  “Pentecostal Christianity: The Only Kind there is!”  A couple of folks might be ready to call for a special business meeting, others, coming from a different church background, might think, “Finally, the pastor seems to be coming around!” I am being deliberately provocative. Understood correctly this title is historically accurate.  Though the “Pentecostal movement” as we know it today is a relatively recent phenomena (the beginning of the 20^th century) “Pentecost” describes a key, foundational moment linked to the events of the cross, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.  The only true Christianity is the continuation of the new phase of redemptive history that was initiated on the day of the first Christian Pentecost. It is the birth of the New Testament church.  

The church is not a building. It is a gathering of people, a called out assembly, a supernatural entity defined and empowered by the presence of the Spirit.  You might think, “I don’t feel very empowered this morning, supernaturally or otherwise, I didn’t get my second cup of coffee!” We are not talking about feelings, we are talking about reality. The just shall live be faith. That means believing what God said, taking Him at His word, trusting Him implicitly. The Spirit has been sent among us, according to promise, as the very presence of God. Through Him we are able to carry out the mission we have been given.

The Big Idea: The church is not a building. It is a gathering of people, a supernatural entity called out by God and defined and empowered by the presence of the Spirit.

I. The Context of the Spirit’s Coming—The Right Attitude to meet with God: Obedient, Believing, Available, and United (v.1). “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” 

             God’s timing is always right. Jesus had told the disciples to wait. When the day came, when the time was right, because they believed Him and obeyed Him, they were together and available to be blessed by Him and to be used by Him. Jesus had told them about the coming Spirit, and to wait for Him in Jerusalem, and they took Him at His word. That is faith. Remember “the just shall live by faith.” Has God ever asked you to wait?  That seems to be one means that He uses to test our faith and to build our faith.

            It’s hard to over-estimate the importance of this event in the unfolding story of Luke/Acts. There are also some parallels between the two books: Luke 2 presents the incarnation of Christ, Acts 2 presents the incarnation of the church, the Body of Christ.  The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in Luke 3:22 at the beginning of His public ministry, and here the Holy Spirit descends on the church as they are to carry out His mission in the world.  Later, in Acts 11, we’ll see Peter returning to Jerusalem, to report to the leadership what had happened in the house of Cornelius in Acts 10. There he makes a statement that refers back to Pentecost (Acts 2) and emphasizes the significance of this day: “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning” (Acts 11:15). The beginning? What beginning? Usually this phrase has an expressed predicate of some kind. In Philippians 4:15 Paul uses it to refer to the “beginning of the Gospel” going out into Europe on the 2^nd missionary journey. It occurs also in John 1:1,2, there also without a predicate, referring to the beginning of Creation, alluding to Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word…” i.e., “In the beginning God…”  Here in Acts 11 Peter referred to a “beginning” that was so significant, that was so recognized and understood that it did not have to be explained. What Peter had experienced in the house of Cornelius was parallel to what the church in Jerusalem had experienced “in the beginning,” i.e., on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out for the first time on the assembled followers of Jesus. In the context of Acts it seems to clearly refer to the beginning of the New Testament Church.  You see, the church is not a building. It is a gathering of people, a supernatural entity defined and empowered by the presence of the Spirit.

II. God is faithful: He kept His Word in sending The Spirit as promised (vv.2-4).  “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 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.”

            Jesus had told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father.  Earlier, He had spoken to his disciples in the Upper Room about the Comforter who He would send in His name (John 13-17).  For example we read in John 16:7,  “…I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” Three years before John the Baptist had announced that the Baptism in the Spirit would accompany the New Age of the Messiah that was at hand.  Messiah, the One whose sandals John was unworthy to untie, would baptize “…in the Holy Spirit and in fire…” (Luke 3:16).  This was that. God is faithful, He keeps His promises.  We’ll see next week, when we look at Peter’s speech that follows, the prophets had spoken of the pouring out of the Spirit in the last days (see Acts 2, Joel 2). God has demonstrated His faithfulness, He has given us reason to believe Him.

            The Day of Pentecost was the day that God had chosen for this new work to begin. He took an Old Testament pilgrim feast, a day in which Jews would gather in Jerusalem from all over the known world, and invested it with new significance.

        In the Old Testament and in Jewish tradition, Pentecost was one of the Pilgrim feasts of Israel. It occurred 50 days after the Passover. The people were to gather in Jerusalem and celebrate the blessing and provision of God, it was a day to celebrate the “first fruits” of the harvest. Based on Exodus 19:1, by the second century BC it had also come to be celebrated as the anniversary of the giving of the Law at Sinai.  Both of these ideas found their full expression in the first Christian Pentecost.

         Pentecost found its full expression, and was thus transformed in its post-Resurrection manifestation as the exalted Son poured out the Spirit.  Now God was ever present and in a new way permanently indwelling his people. The time of harvest had come.  Though several hundred believed and followed Jesus during his earthly ministry, three thousand believe on this, the first day of the New Testament church.  As God had descended on Sinai in thunder and lightning, once again with visible and audible manifestation God had confirmed His presence in the constitution of a new covenant community, the church. The church is not a building. It is a gathering of people, a called out assembly, a supernatural entity defined and empowered by the presence of the Spirit.

III. The Spirit and the Power and Proliferation of the Gospel (5-11). “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." 

             First, we are struck by the diverse people who were present for the feast: clearly a prelude to the worldwide spread of the Gospel that was to come. In God’s providence, this was one of the factors that explain the “wait” of ten days after the ascension.  The crowds gathered for the feast, Jews, dispersed over the known world, as well as proselytes, people from the nations who had converted to faith in the God of Israel. The scene was set! NB. It is not the main point, but we need to understand these were known human languages, not ecstatic speech, or mysterious “tongues.” From the initial group of disciples, now filled with the Spirit and dispersed in the crowd, individuals were supernaturally enabled to speak the wondrous works of God in the various languages of the people present. There was clearly a miraculous communication of God’s story to those who would listen.  The fact that they could hear the truth in their own language, the language of their heart, and not merely Greek or Aramaic was significant.

             It’s not difficult to see here a reversal of a story from the Old Testament.  Genesis 11:1-9 described a scene in the post-flood world, humans trying proudly to ascend to Heaven, building a tower united in their human effort, and God intervened and their languages are confounded.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.  ² And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.  ³ And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar.  ⁴ Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."  ⁵ And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.  ⁶ And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.  ⁷ Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech."  ⁸ So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.  ⁹ Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

One commentator noted that in this passage humans tried to ascend toward heaven; in Acts 2 “…Heaven humbly and graciously descends to earth.” In Genesis the nations that were scattered at Babel when their languages were confused, Pentecost assures us that a remnant from every nation will ultimately be gathered together in Jesus. We see Him building His church.  Not a building, but a gathering of people, a “called out assembly,” a supernatural entity defined and empowered by the presence of the Spirit.

IV. The Response to the outpouring of the Spirit (12-13). ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?"  ¹³ But others mocking said, "They are filled with new wine."

            The supernatural manifestations certainly got people’s attention. Some were amazed, intrigued by what was happening, inquiring as to its significance.  What was happening? What could this mean?  It seems the “sound like a mighty, rushing wind…” and the “tongues, as of fire” were manifest in the upper room gathering, but as the newly baptized believers go out into the streets it is the proclamation of the mighty works of God is diverse languages that is so stunning, and intrigues many of the hearers. Their inquiring minds were no doubt primed to receive the explanation that Peter would offer in the sermon that follows.

            Sadly, others mocked in unbelief.  “These guys are drunk!” They weren’t making sense, what else could it be?  There was no openness, no curiosity, no seeking. Just mockery from these sceptics.  As we seek to share Christ, don’t we see these same responses today?  As the parable of the soils that the Master had told predicted, some are fertile soil, prepared by the Spirit, open and seeking. Others are hardened and determined not to believe.  Paul explains it this way: 1 Corinthians 2:12-16 says:

 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  ¹³ And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.  ¹⁴ The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  ¹⁵ The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.  ¹⁶ "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.”

What is God saying to me in this passage? The church is not a building. It is a gathering of people, a called out assembly, a supernatural entity defined and empowered by the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit has been sent among us, according to promise, as the very presence of God. Through Him we are able to carry out the mission we have been given.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? Should it matter to you that the Holy Spirit is with you and in you? For one thing, it’s a motivation to be holy! He is right behind you, more than that, He is inside you. One of the Word of Life Olympians was at the “store” on Wednesday night, it’s a chance for them to use the points they earned (“BOBs,” Boothbay Olympian Bucks!) to buy some little things the coaches put out for them.  This young man looked through a bunch of fabric “bracelets”, many of them with Bible verses on them. One just had only the initials “WWJD?” on it.  “What does that mean?” he asked me.  It’s a question that we as Christ followers should ask frequently as we are confronted with choices in life: “What would Jesus do?”  If we are following Him, that means we are on a path that should make us more and more like Him.  We have the Spirit living in us, to convict, guide, and enable. It should also give us boldness in the mission that has been entrusted to us. Ask Him for eyes to see the lost around you as He sees them, for openness to recognize that the fields are white for the harvest. Be courageous, He goes before you! Be faithful, He really is right beside you!