Pentecost - Acts 2:1-13

[0:00] So I want to begin with a question. How many of you have ever felt overwhelmed? Every one of us, right?

[0:12] At some point in time in life, maybe it's a job, a task that you were given to do, you felt overwhelmed out of your depth. I had an occasion during my undergraduate studies, I missed the first week of statistics, and I showed up and I've never experienced feeling so lost in my entire life.

[0:34] Sitting there feeling as though I'm living out a peanuts cartoon, because I don't understand the thing the teacher is saying. It, it, it, I was, I just kind of chuckled to myself.

[0:48] And there was a quiz that day, and I made a pattern, because I just, I had no clue what was going on. It was the only class I ever dropped in college, but don't miss the first week of statistics, young people, if you are taking this semester.

[1:04] You know, as we look at Scripture this morning, Jesus has given His followers a task, and it is a massive undertaking, and I would dare say it's overwhelming.

[1:16] In fact, we have the task given, and it's really the roadmap of Acts 1-8. I think we have that verse to throw up, or perhaps not.

[1:31] All right, I'm just going to share with you. Oh, there it is. Well, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

[1:48] So, we are given really the roadmap of Acts. The first 12 chapters deal with Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and then chapters 13 through 28 deal with the outermost parts of the earth.

[2:02] And so, this roadmap, I think, certainly could have been intimidating to the apostles, to the Lord's disciples, but that's not the scary part for us this morning.

[2:16] I think the scary part for us should be, this is the same roadmap the Lord has given to us, that we are participants in the Gospel expansion project, God's Kingdom, moving forward and including more trophies of grace.

[2:35] Because this calling to be the Lord's witnesses, it's very much in the same thought stream as the Great Commission from Matthew 28, 19, where we know it says, go and make disciples of all nations, of all nations.

[2:54] Which is why we've titled this series Unfinished, because the task, we are still a part of that today. And the event that we're going to be considering this morning, it actually bears down upon us, it's super relevant to us today, because the promised resource to carry out the job in the first century of the church, it's the same resource that, if we are in Christ today, that we possess.

[3:23] And that is necessary. And so, it's a super relevant event in the history of the church.

[3:37] Yes, there's a job for us to do. And it's actually a job, because of what we're going to study today, is a job that we can accomplish. We are actually, I would say, amply equipped to participate in the Kingdom advance through the Gospel.

[3:59] So, let me set the scene here. Jesus has ascended. He is no longer with his followers, he is back in heaven, he spent about 40 days after the resurrection.

[4:13] And with his followers, and now he has left, the disciples are waiting in Jerusalem. They've been doing so now for 10 days. Jesus asked them to do this.

[4:24] We remember in Luke, at the end of Luke 24-49, Jesus tells his followers, hey, stay in the city, because I'm going to be giving you power.

[4:37] And then in Acts 1-4, they're called to wait for the promise. So, God's people are waiting, the disciples, they're waiting to be equipped for battle.

[4:51] They're waiting for this resource. And what I love about last week is that we saw that they were waiting, but they were also in the midst of decision making, so they were active.

[5:04] I think that's an important thing for us to have in our minds when we think about what does it mean to wait on the Lord. Waiting on the Lord is not passivity. They were engaged, they were still involved in ministry, they were devoted to prayer, they were acting upon what they knew of Scripture, and then replacing an apostle that was no longer with them.

[5:26] And it's a wonderful picture for us that even if we feel as though today we're in a state of waiting, it's a state of activity, of pursuing the Lord, of seeking to be useful to the Lord, of seeking to be a blessing to somebody else.

[5:41] So, waiting is not passivity. And just sort of burn that into the recesses of your mind this morning. So that's the scene.

[5:53] So let's just dive in beginning in verse 1. Luke writes, it says, Many of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

[6:06] So the disciples of Jesus gathered in one place. We assume it's the upper room, which is believed to be near the eastern wall of Jerusalem, near to the temple.

[6:19] And we know that it was a room that accommodated a large group. We saw back in chapter 1 verse 15 that there were actually 120 disciples that were present, followers of Christ.

[6:30] And so as they gathered, they were there encouraging one another, they were praying for one another, and now it is the day of Pentecost. Pentecost.

[6:43] What do we know of Pentecost? It says for Jay. Do you say for Scott?

[6:58] Oh, alright, never mind. Pentecost. What do we know about Pentecost? Up until this day, we're going to do a little mini study here on the Feasts of Israel so that we can kind of sort of put it in our mind's eye and see things from a 30,000 foot level.

[7:21] Pentecost, what we know, it's an annual Feast of Israel. It is one of seven. So if you're taking notes and you want to list these down, you can just jot on your paper one through seven, okay?

[7:35] And I'm going to give you the Feasts of Israel in chronological order. And if you miss any of them, you can just write at the top of your list of seven. You can write Leviticus 23, okay?

[7:49] Because Leviticus 23 gives us all seven of these Feasts celebrations that the Lord has asked Israel to participate in.

[8:01] The first one happens in the spring, in March or April, and the first one on the Jewish calendar is Passover. That's number one, Passover.

[8:13] And it's celebrated, the Jews would celebrate God's deliverance from Egypt that a lamb was slain and the angel of the Lord passed over homes.

[8:25] And so they celebrate the Exodus through Passover. The second is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So you got number one Passover, then the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and it's the week following Passover.

[8:39] So these things sort of happen almost simultaneously, but they're connected, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, it followed Passover. Passover was a day, Feast of Unleavened Bread was a week, and it was a week celebrating the hasten which Israel left Egypt.

[8:57] No time to use yeast to utilize it to make bread. It was just an image of also doing life then without sin.

[9:08] The third Feast is that of first fruits, which also happens on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

[9:19] So all these things, and maybe you didn't know that things were compressed because it says in the Old Testament that Israel would gather three times a year for Feast, but they would actually hit all seven of them, because some of them happened in kind of a condensed period of time.

[9:35] And so number three is the Feast of First Fruits. And this would be the day after Passover celebrating the first of the Spring Harvest.

[9:46] Fourth on the list of Feasts is now the Feast of Pentecost. It also goes by some other names, which is why folks get the Feasts all mixed up in their head. You know, it goes by the Feast, by the name Harvest, the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks.

[10:01] In the New Testament it's called Pentecost, because Pentecost just means 50th, and it occurred 50 days after Passover or the Feast of First Fruits.

[10:13] And it was the celebration of the completion of the Spring Harvest. Those are the first four Feasts that Israel is told to participate in.

[10:26] Now I want you to draw a line on your list between number four and number five. These four Feasts are Springtime Feasts. And they're condensed in a tight proximity, especially the first three, and then Pentecost 50 days later, kind of stands by itself a bit.

[10:44] But now we're going to talk about the Fall Feasts. So the first half of the year is done, and beginning in the seventh month, the first day you have now the Feast of Trumpets.

[11:00] Okay? So we have four Feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits, and Pentecost. These are our Springtime Feasts.

[11:12] The last three are Fall Feasts, and they all happen within close proximity, within a month of one another. So you have the Feast of Trumpets, and it was originally a one-day event.

[11:25] Today I believe the Jews celebrate over two days, Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, and the way that the Jews see the calendar, six months, it's like a New Year, and they've broken up the calendar in half.

[11:40] It's like a new beginning, if you will. And it was a celebration of the Fall Harvest. It was a time of rest and introspection, because what's coming after the Feast of Trumpets, ten days later, is the Day of Atonement, which is number six of the Feast.

[12:01] The Day of Atonement, where sacrifice was made for the sins of the nation. One time a year, the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies to avert God's wrath for just one more year.

[12:17] And then the final Feast, number seven, is the Feast of Tabernacles. We say, In Gathering, or the Feast of Booths. And it was a week following the Day of Atonement, where Israel would live in temporary shelters, commemorating the 40 days of wandering, preparing for when God would give them their home, the Promised Land.

[12:45] Those are the seven holidays or Feasts that God says, Israel, this is the calendar of the things that I want you to celebrate and participate in.

[12:57] And because of the way that they are connected together, you would have been in Jerusalem for all of these, because the three that you have to travel for would have been the second Feast of Unleavened Bread, but you'd already be there then for Passover and the Feast of First Fruits.

[13:12] And then the second Feast that you were supposed to travel for was Pentecost, which happened 50 days later. Some would travel and they'd just stay and then celebrate Pentecost. And they'd travel to Israel twice, save a little bit of time there, or travel time.

[13:28] And the third one that they had to travel for was the last Feast, which was the Feast of Tabernacles, and they would then be there for the others as well. And maybe this morning you're going, Jay, thank you for the history lesson. Like, that's amazing. Thank you.

[13:46] I didn't realize there's like, there's four springtime Feasts and there's three fall Feasts. And now you have it in your head, you have the list, you got the line, spring, fall, and you're like, why do we need to know this?

[13:59] Because we're talking about Pentecost this morning, but additionally, listen to what Paul says to the Colossians. Colossians chapter two, he says this. He says, therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.

[14:19] Listen, verse 17, these are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

[14:33] This is so cool. Do you see what's going on here? This book is one story.

[14:46] Everything in the old points to Christ. And here we have Paul saying, hey, these feast days from Leviticus 23, and they're all in chronological order for you there.

[14:58] You can go back and read them on your own time. And Paul saying, those point to Jesus. So what we have here in this feast calendar, we have prophetic events.

[15:16] They point to Jesus. We have been given in the Old Testament a redemptive roadmap related to the promise of God to be fulfilled in Jesus.

[15:30] Here's what's really cool. We've already seen some of these fulfilled. Because if you look at the first feast in spring Passover, what did Paul say in 1 Corinthians 5-7?

[15:43] Hey, for Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. That one's been fulfilled. Feast of unleavened bread. Jesus was able to be the sacrifice because he was sinless.

[15:58] He was without leaven. It's fulfilled. First fruits just actually rose from the grave on this feast day.

[16:09] And as we recall from what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15-20, Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

[16:22] His resurrection is the guarantee of our resurrection. And we talked about that back in 1 Corinthians 15. And then the final feast that we are going to see has been fulfilled in Christ.

[16:37] Today we're going to observe the celebration of the gospel harvest. And I don't mean to steal material from Scott, but 3,000 are going to believe sorry. I think they probably have heard that.

[16:49] So I think we'll be okay, but this is a gospel promise feast. It's a feast of the harvest. But here's what's amazing and should kind of excite you a little bit.

[17:03] Four of these feasts have been fulfilled. Let me suggest to you that three have not. And so if this is God's calendar in terms of how things are going to be fulfilled in Christ, there are three yet to be fulfilled, which means we are living life between two feasts.

[17:20] The Feasts of Pentecost and the Feasts of Trumpets. This is exciting stuff. This is God's timetable. We're actually living in the summer of preparation for the harvest.

[17:32] We are in harvest months. And there's this great imagery here for us, but know this, fall is coming. Fall is coming.

[17:45] And these three feasts are yet to be fulfilled and realized in Christ. They're future promises. Feast of Trumpets.

[17:57] Many scholars believe this is associated with the rapture of the church. You see in 1 Thessalonians 416, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of a trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

[18:13] You have the same statement essentially in 1 Corinthians 15-52. In a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ raised, the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed.

[18:29] Feast of Trumpets. See that future. The fulfillment in Christ. And I want us to note too that the feast in trumpet for Israel was a time for Israel to get ready for the day of atonement.

[18:43] And I believe what's occurring here is that as they had 10 days of preparation for the day of atonement, that this tribulation period then following the rapture is that season for Israel to prepare to meet their Messiah.

[18:57] Because presently there's a hardening. But the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled and God still has a plan for Israel and they will know Him as their atoning Messiah.

[19:09] So we see then in the 6th Feet, the day of atonement, certainly we experience it's associated with what Christ accomplished for us, but I believe that there is yet a future fulfillment in His second coming when Israel's hardening is lifted and she will experience that atonement, that sacrifice of her Messiah.

[19:29] So that's exciting. And then finally the feast of ingathering where God will tabernacle with all His people. And I believe that points to a future reign with Christ.

[19:41] I believe it's a millennial reign. If you don't like the millennium, it's just a future eternal kingdom. You know, we'll just have to see how it pans out yet future. But what I want us to hear this morning is I'm not predicting that Jesus is going to return on a future like Feast Day of Trumpets.

[19:57] Tons of people have written tons of books and then they're like at half price books after those dates pass and Jesus hasn't returned. So I'm certainly not doing that. I don't know.

[20:08] But this is what I want to encourage us with. Nothing can stop God's clock. Nothing. Fall will arrive. The seasons are a promise of God saying, I will return.

[20:21] And the fall in Scripture for Israel as it's fulfilled then here in future, it's Christ's return. You can't stop that. COVID can't stop God's clock.

[20:34] The fact that our nation is getting weird, it doesn't inhibit God. It doesn't cease for God's timetable to move forward. There should be encouragement. Nothing can thwart the Lord's redemptive story.

[20:48] He will return. Amen church. You need to be confident in that because every day you're told things that aren't true. And you're coerced to believe things that are shallow and temporary.

[21:04] And God has given you this internal book with promises and things that are yet to be fulfilled. And it's exciting. And so we should have this sort of Maranatha spirit in us.

[21:18] Lord, come. But also this courage and joy that we're not being shaken because things are getting a little difficult and strange. You can't stop God's timepiece.

[21:31] His calendar will be fulfilled. Now, that was a little parenthetical thought. Today, the trumpets, the feast of trumpets, right?

[21:42] The trumpet hasn't sounded, which means we're still living in the season of Pentecost. The season of harvest. And so as we're here to engage in the harvest, what do we need to carry out that work?

[21:55] Right? If you're a farmer, you know, you got to pull in the crops. You better have a big green tractor. Well, guess what? God gave each of us a big green tractor this morning.

[22:06] And let's find out who he is. Look at verse two. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty Russian wind.

[22:17] And it lifted and it filled, excuse me, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. You have perhaps 120 disciples gathered in the upper room.

[22:32] 10th day, maybe there are expectations. Maybe it's been 10 days. Where's God? Where's the promise? Maybe they're thinking it's not going to happen. No, we're trying to be patient. We're trying to pursue the Lord, do what he's asked of us.

[22:46] And then all of a sudden, in an instant, in an instant. You know, I don't think people should actually fly in airplanes.

[22:58] I think it's just not right. I know there's physics behind it, but I still think it's magic, black magic. How are we alive up that high in a tin can?

[23:10] I don't understand. It's so heavy. A plane is so heavy. I mean, Bernoulli, he was a freak. I don't understand. But if you've ever flown and it's just like, you know, and you hate to fly, and then you're up there.

[23:24] And we flew a bunch, especially when I was a college pastor, I was taking trips all over the globe. And then went to Ethiopia a couple of times and you kind of get into, you get lulled is what happens.

[23:36] And you begin to be tricked like you think it's normal, but it's not. It's never normal. But you start to think it is. And then you're just saying, I've been there, done that, been there, done that. And it's almost like you're just lulled and then something, you hit some turbulence or the plane just drops instantly.

[23:52] Like, I don't even know because I'm not outside, but it feels like a hundred feet. I don't know. And you're just like, I'm going to die, you know, and it's that feeling of, oh, what just happened?

[24:08] That's what's going on here, church. This happened, it says, suddenly, unexpectedly, wind is vibrating the house.

[24:20] And you have to wonder if those inside are like, is this an earthquake? What's going on? Some of you guys felt this and you're a little rumbling and you freak out. You can't even imagine what this must have been like.

[24:34] Like a mighty rushing wind. This is the promise God's Spirit showing up in the form of this wind.

[24:46] And I want us to see that this is an incredible image of power. In fact, the Greek word for spirit is pneuma. Okay. We know the word pneumatic, which is what?

[24:57] Some machine that is air driven. Okay. Numa in the New Testament is the word for spirit. But it's also the word for breath and the word for wind.

[25:09] They're all the same word. And so we're given these pictures. God accommodating for us to understand his spirit and it's wind is this image of the spirit.

[25:23] You also have in the Old Testament, the word is ruach. I can't, but that's similar to the word. And it's used to describe the spirit.

[25:35] Genesis one, two, the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit, the ruach of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Guess what?

[25:46] The same word is used then in Ezekiel 37, this picture of these dry bones coming to life. And it says, then he said to me, prophesy over these bones, Ezekiel 37, four and five, and say to them, oh dry bones here, the word of the Lord thus says the Lord God to these bones.

[26:04] Behold, I will cause breath to enter you. Ruach. And you shall live. It's talking about God's future plans for Israel there.

[26:16] But what is so striking is we have this image of the spirit of God. It's like wind. He's like breath.

[26:28] So he's like wind. He empowers. He is like breath. He brings life. This is the spirit of God that if in Christ we possess today.

[26:41] And it's a wonderful picture for us to understand what the spirit accomplishes in our life. And maybe you're this morning going, man, the spirit is power.

[26:54] The spirit is life. Man, I want to use that. Maybe somebody like, I want to leverage that. And you're thinking of Star Wars in your head. You're thinking, man, if I could just use that force.

[27:09] It's really bad theology. Let me just say a few things about God's spirit. God's spirit is not it.

[27:21] It's a he. It's God's spirit. The Holy Spirit is a he. And when he showed up, he didn't come through coercion or anyone's schedule.

[27:36] He came of his own accord and he came suddenly. And I just want to caution us. Some people will come to the book of Acts and go, man, it's prescriptive. I think it's actually descriptive.

[27:49] And I think you can get into all sorts of theological problems when you begin to say, man, the book of Acts is prescriptive.

[28:00] I need to start baptizing people in the Holy Spirit. Scripture is clear that baptism of the spirit is associated with conversion. 1 Corinthians 1213, in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body.

[28:16] It's describing conversion. I don't baptize anyone in the Holy Spirit. I don't have that authority or power. It's something the Holy Spirit does of his own accord when someone gives their life to Christ.

[28:32] They are baptized into Christ by God's spirit. So when someone comes up to you as a Christian and says, man, you're a Christian, but you need to get baptized in the Holy Spirit, you already are according to Scripture.

[28:52] And I want us to note there is no biblical command in the New Testament for believers to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. It doesn't exist.

[29:06] The only command we're given is in Ephesians 5.18 that we should be filled, play ra-oh, controlled by God's spirit.

[29:17] And I would suggest this morning there was actually a greater filling of God's spirit in each one of our lives as we took time to confess sin to the Lord. Because what we were doing is we were emptying ourselves of ourselves.

[29:32] And we were then in a place where God had more of us. That's what it means to be filled, to be controlled. But for sake of argument, let's pretend that Acts is prescriptive.

[29:45] Okay? There is still no example where man forces the Holy Spirit to do anything. And I want us to understand this.

[29:57] There's three occasions in Acts where the Spirit shows up, and they're all very different. You have Acts 2 here while the spirits or while the disciples, they're actually, it says in chapter 1 verse 14 that they're gathered and they're committed to prayer.

[30:11] And I believe they're praying here because it says they're sitting. So the disciples here are praying and then suddenly, unexpectedly, the Spirit shows up. In Acts 10, Peter was preaching.

[30:25] And then it says the Holy Spirit fell upon, not coerced, just fell upon. And then Acts 19, Paul was baptizing and it says the Spirit came upon.

[30:36] So he came of his own cognition. At our home, we have a dinner bell.

[30:47] Julie has a cowbell hanging from the back porch and it's to call everyone from dinner. If you hear that ring, you better drop what you're doing and you better get to the table.

[31:00] Now, that bell, it's for the family, but it's really for me. I mean, let's be honest, we know. And if I don't act on that, there's multiple consequences, Cindy.

[31:15] It's real. The Holy Spirit is not obligated to drop anything because we ring the dinner bell.

[31:27] The Spirit is present this morning because God's people are present and the Spirit of God dwells within us. That's very important. I can't use like the right words, the right emotions to coerce the Spirit.

[31:44] Man, if I just use the right music, man, if I have some smoke machines and, you know, it's like you can't manufacture that. And a lot of what happens, I think, in some churches is just a lot of emotionalism.

[31:56] And the world sees through it. That's the most disgusting part because people are savvy and they know when they're being played.

[32:08] And the Spirit of God is not our bellhop to respond at our whim. I had a strange occasion three weeks ago.

[32:21] I was in Portland. I did a wedding. And then I had a gal come up to me right before I was about to go do the wedding. And she had kind of been ignoring me the whole, but she was kind of part of the wedding party. And then she just came up to me. It was kind of strange.

[32:33] She's like, hey, I have a word for you from the Holy Spirit. I'm like, okay. I mean, I was very polite. I know contrary to what you guys think, I was really polite.

[32:46] But it was like, the Holy Spirit is going to come and, man, fill your church. People are going to be falling all over each other. And I'm just like, oh, no, like, does she know we've got some elderly folks?

[32:58] And this is quite possible. And she gave the word. And then I said, thank you, you know, test every prophecy, hold the good, dismiss the bad.

[33:12] And then she just, and that was the only time she talked to me this entire weekend that I was there. And it was just odd. It was just odd. I don't think we leveraged the Holy Spirit.

[33:25] I like what Dr. Piper says. He says this, he, the Holy Spirit will never become anyone's bellhop. He loves and he serves, but he keeps his own hours.

[33:37] He knows what is best for us. So the Spirit descends of his own volition.

[33:49] What sort of uncommon empowerment accompanied on this particular day? Look at verse three and four. Says, and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each of them.

[34:02] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. I believe that expectations were way exceeded related to the gift that God had promised to send.

[34:19] It says that tongues with the appearance of fire, and it says divided tongues. As a child I was thought like, oh, fork tongues like a snake. It's not that, but there's a division.

[34:32] There's separate. And it says they came in the form of fire. And if you read Scripture, fire in the Old Testament always represents God's presence.

[34:46] I don't have time to read, but in Exodus three we see God shows up burning bush, flame of fire. Exodus 13, the Lord, he leads Israel.

[34:58] Pillar of cloud in the day, pillar of fire by night. God is present. And he always shows up in this appearance of fire. And here again in Acts two we have this what theologians call a theophany, a visible manifestation of the invisible God.

[35:14] So we have this appearance of God in the form of fire. But the key question for us is this, how is it different than how he revealed himself in the Old Testament? And there's a massive difference here.

[35:25] Because what you have here that's unique about Acts two is the fire is not just in one central place, but it is spread out. And it is now resting on the heads of all of the disciples gathered.

[35:36] And it could have been resting on the 120, maybe it's the 12. Scriptures, it's not clear there. But we have this image of these tongues of fire resting on now individuals.

[35:49] And I love this that now we have God's present resting on the many. And it's a wonderful picture. It reminds us that we are the presence of God.

[36:03] Of God. We're the presence of God in this city. And as we scatter as a church, as we leave here, we get to each one of us be about ministry this week in some form with the people that we happen to cross our paths.

[36:21] We're representing Christ. And it's an incredible picture here.

[36:33] And I believe it's actually a fulfillment of John 1412 where Jesus says, you're going to do greater works than me because I'm going to go to the Father. I don't think Jesus is there saying you're going to do greater works in terms of like, oh, we're going to raise people from the dead.

[36:46] Like Jesus raised people from the... how greater do you get than that? Like Jesus rose people from the grave. Well, I don't know. We kill them, we raise them, we kill them, we raise them again.

[36:59] I mean, how do you get better than raising someone from the grave? I believe the greater works is the fact that now the spirit resides in God's people to where ministry is it's happening in parallel all over this planet.

[37:15] I believe that's the greater works. Well, let's consider the scene that this may look at verse 5 to 11 says, now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

[37:26] And at the sound of them, at the sound, 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?

[37:41] And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome.

[37:58] Both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. During Israel's feast days, Jerusalem would blow up in the population.

[38:17] And it could have been anywhere from 100,000 to a million, you know, normal 100,000 feast, festival times for Israel, a million. I mean, the city would have been packed.

[38:30] And it says, devout men from every nation were present, Jewish males, proselytes, perhaps their families making pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jews who had been dispersed throughout the land, maybe took up residence in other parts of the world through the Assyrian conquest, Babylonian exile.

[38:51] And so this event is happening with the apostles, these disciples, perhaps 120 near the temple and there's commotion. I'm sure other people heard what's going on here.

[39:04] A crowd is gathered. Perhaps we're moving now, settings from the upper room down to temple courts. But the crowds nearby, they heard the wind.

[39:18] And they want to see what's going on. And what happened is they ran straight into a miracle. Because in verse six it says they are bewildered because they're hearing language in their own tongue.

[39:32] They had begun speaking other languages, living in other parts of the world. They didn't need an interpreter. They heard these voices, languages they could understand.

[39:46] And it shocked them. It shocked those from out of town. And the thing that made the biggest impact is how are these individuals, how do they know our language?

[39:59] How do they know the language of the place where I came from? In fact, these are not educated men. They're what? Galileans. It's derogatory.

[40:11] They're backwoods. It's like they're from Wazoo, kind of a thing. Okay, they're from the UW. Is that better?

[40:25] I mean, it's gotten myself. We secretly think we're better than each other. We've never talked about it, but it's there. And it's palpable.

[40:38] It's just Galileans, how in the world, unsophisticated, uneducated fishermen, they're articulating the gospel in a language foreign to them.

[40:49] And I love the scene because it's very liberating for us. It's very liberating. If you catch this, because what it does, it liberates us from what? From posturing, from needing self-importance.

[41:05] And what we have here is just a scene of God saying, I'll use the ordinary. I'll use these Galileans. These nobody's, these clay pots.

[41:16] They're yielded to my spirit. I'm going to use them. It's a wonderful picture. And I think for us, we need to just, at some point in life, get comfortable in the skin that God put us in and be okay.

[41:30] Not lazy, not passive, but celebrate everything the Lord has made us and not made us. Content with intellect, our looks, creativity, et cetera, et cetera.

[41:47] And I think the fact that our God loves to use the ordinary, it's quite liberating. It's joy inducing. It's wonderful.

[42:00] And we have here, interestingly enough, in verses 9 to 11, we have this shopping list of languages that are being spoken. We covered a lot of this ground in our study in 1 Corinthians, but this isn't gibberish.

[42:11] It's gloss, it's language. But what's cool about the description of these languages, if you research them, you'll see that it's actually describing five different regions, and it's a movement of the east to the west.

[42:30] These languages are spoken. These are, and these are, and then it ends up with Rome. And it's a cool picture of just sweeping across the land.

[42:44] Even as far as Rome. And that's where the actual narrative of Acts is going to end up. The gospel, it's going to get there.

[42:57] I hope that you don't miss here, too, that the spirit-empowered ministry, evangelism better be part of it. If somebody claims that they have a spirit-empowered ministry, and evangelism isn't a part of it, I would question, is that really led and empowered of the spirit?

[43:17] Because you see that this gift was given to see the gospel proclaimed, to see the kingdom advance, to see people hear about the wonderful thing that God did through the person of Jesus Christ.

[43:30] So this event, it's, I'm sure it's quite a scene. I don't know if we can recreate just the energy and the intensity of what's taking place, but at least we understand here the response, verses 12 and 13.

[43:47] We'll end here with the response of the crowd. It says, and all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocked, saying, what are they filled with? New wine?

[44:00] And so you have two responses to the miracle of God at this event. And I believe it's essentially the same response you get when you talk about the gospel, when you talk about Jesus.

[44:11] You get one of two responses. Either there's interest, excitement, or there's skepticism. Mocking. They said here that these uneducated guys, they're full of glucose, is actually the Greek word, sweet wine.

[44:29] They're like, these guys are drunk. Even though they're making perfect sense in the languages in which they're speaking. But I love the fact that we have these two responses and it out unboldened us to be about talking about important things, talking about Christ with others.

[44:44] Because these are the two possible outcomes. And it should bolster our confidence. There's not going to be any surprises here. People are either going to be, okay, I'm interested, let's talk more.

[44:55] Or they're going to say, no, I'm not interested and they may make fun of you. But there's not really any surprises here. In fact, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2, we're the fragrance of Christ.

[45:10] Whether it's death to death or life to life. Those are the responses.

[45:23] I like the fact that you have Christians here in the first century that they're called a name. Some of us don't share Christ because we're afraid of the name. I don't want to be a hater.

[45:35] I don't want to be a loser. I don't want to be uncool. And here you have the first proclaimers of the gospel. They're called drunkards.

[45:47] And you will get some of that. And I think we need one another because we need the encouragement that comes when we have those conversations. And maybe they don't go so well. I spoke with a gal Friday.

[46:03] She just wanted to know what I was doing with the day and I had to be preached. She says, I studied this morning and now I'm going to drive for a bit. She's like, oh, studying. This guy's old. Is he in school? Is he dumb?

[46:14] I don't know. She's like, really? What are you studying? I'm like, I'm glad you asked. And I was like, yeah, I was studying the Bible today.

[46:26] That was the response. It's the best.

[46:40] Awkward. Let me end with a couple applications for us. What do we do with this section of scripture? Well, two applications.

[46:52] First one is this. We seek daily to be filled with God's spirit. He is an empowering spirit for any ministry to happen through any of us.

[47:06] Don't get drunk with wine. Be filled with the spirit. And the issue is control. Who's controlling you? Who is controlling you today? And we have that image from Ephesians 5, 18 and 19.

[47:20] Alcohol is a controller. It'll control you. In fact, it'll give you courage. Dumb courage. The Holy Spirit gives you smart, real courage that you can name Christ.

[47:37] And when you're not walking in sin, and this morning it's been good to gather and to participate in communion because we've confessed our sins. Pray that you've confessed your sins to the Lord. So right now you should feel an extra measure of the joy of your salvation to where you're like, I could.

[47:51] I could do something for the Lord this week. I could have a conversation. I could talk about important things. I don't have to always talk about sports and the weather and cars or whatever it is that you like to talk about.

[48:03] I could talk about important things. And the spirit of God, it gives us courage. He does.

[48:14] I'll give you one example. I talked with a fellow Saturday. I was driving. Friday again. And asking him, young man, what are you doing? He's studying geology right now.

[48:26] And he's like, geology, that is so cool. And it just amazes me that God put all these elements and materials in the ground and we can use them and then create things.

[48:37] And I said this to him. I'm like, man, it blows my mind. God created this giant game of Minecraft and we can take stuff that he put in the ground. I was young, I said that and we can sub-create.

[48:50] Like Tolkien said, it's incredible and discover the laws that are there. And he was just like, yeah.

[49:03] He didn't know what to do with me, but it's like, I'm going to point to God. And it wasn't out of context. I mean, really, that's how I feel. I'm just blown away that the splendor of God, we can know that he exists by the stuff that's made.

[49:22] It's like, duh. Every time I look at anything else that has structure and beauty and order, it's like, I know this cup was made by a cup maker. And then we see the creation and we're like, uh, it just happened.

[49:35] Magic. Lots of years in magic. It's engineered and we can engage and talk to people about that. But we need to be filled with God's spirit, which I'm encouraging us to just short a counsel sin.

[49:50] If you're struggling, confess your sin, find a brother, find a sister, coven it together. Because we're in this together. I want you useful and joyful and I need you and you need me.

[50:01] And we need to be filled with God's spirit daily. It's a daily choice. Who's controlling us? It's being in that posture of yes God that Pastor Scott talks about all the time. Is that your posture today? God, whatever you ask, yes.

[50:15] Second application, we need to recognize that we're living between two feasts, church. The trumpet has yet to sound. Today is yet the day of harvest.

[50:26] It's yet the day of harvest. And the task, as our title states, the task is unfinished. The gospel is yes for the nations, but it's for Spokane.

[50:39] And there's people here that need a savior. I drove another woman this weekend who was 430 and she was already bar hopping. And it was just sad. She got into my car, older gal.

[50:50] She's like, hey, sweetie. I mean, okay, I got sweetie. She's very friendly. You know, she came. She had her Dixie cup, had a shot, you know, had her alcohol in a Dixie cup.

[51:02] And because the bar was not live enough, she had to go to another one. It's just like, there's like this God shape hole. There's people. There's protocols all around us.

[51:14] They need to know the table set and the Father is very kind. He forgave you. He forgave me. He forgave them. Amen. Father, thank you for time together.

[51:25] Thank you that the spirit given on the day of Pentecost is a spirit that indwells us today. Lord, we don't want to quench your spirit. We want to walk with you, enjoy you. Lord, if there's folks here that are struggling with a particular sin, would you empower them through your kindness, your grace?

[51:42] Give them the capacity to say, Lord, I want to obey you and I want to enjoy you. And Lord, if there's drastic measures they need to take, give them the courage to do that and remind them that they are amongst family here.

[51:56] And we should be here for one another. And might we be aware that we are not walking alone, that every time we gather we're ready to encourage a brother or sister.

[52:07] Thank you, Jesus. Amen.