WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.320 Looking together this morning at Acts chapter one and two, the passage that we read earlier. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:14.320 Last Sunday was Pentecost, Sunday, and that's the Sunday in the year when we particularly remember 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:19.760 the gift of the Holy Spirit, when the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:26.320 descended on the disciples, just as the Son was taken up to be with the Father. So the Spirit 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:36.399 came down upon God's people. Pentecost is about God, it's about God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:00:37.120 --> 00:00:42.879 It's about the gift of the Holy Spirit for us, but it's also about who we are, and that's what I 00:00:42.879 --> 00:00:49.359 want to focus on this morning. I want to think about things that are said in this passage that 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:57.280 help us to understand what we should be as the church, as God's people. The first of those words, 00:00:57.280 --> 00:01:04.560 I've got four words for us to think of. The first of those words is the word together, together. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:12.719 Three times a year, the people of Israel were to be together. They were to come from different parts, 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:19.359 initially, of that promised land, and then by the time of the Acts of the Apostles, by the time that we 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:26.959 joined the story here, they were coming from across the world on three occasions. There was the most 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:36.239 important festival feast of the Jewish calendar, which was Passover. Passover was the time when God 00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:43.679 redeemed his people. He set them free. He made them a nation at Passover. Then there were two 00:01:43.679 --> 00:01:49.280 other festivals, one of which was Pentecost, the one that we're talking about here, which was a 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:56.239 harvest festival, of which there were three in total. Then the other one, Tabernacles, was later 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:02.239 in the year. We're talking April, May, and October. Three times a year, the people of Israel were to 00:02:02.239 --> 00:02:10.079 be gathered in Jerusalem. That's why there was such a crowd who then heard what happened later on. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:15.120 The people were to have gathered from across the country. At this stage then, they're coming from 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:21.120 across the world, from every nation under heaven. We're going to have a look at that list of places 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:29.359 and nations, slightly later on this morning. The Feast of Pentecost, the particular festival 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:38.000 that's talked about here, was seven weeks from just after Passover. The way in which it worked out 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:48.640 is the day that Jesus rose from the dead was day one, and then day 50 would have been the day of 00:02:48.640 --> 00:02:55.360 Pentecost. It would have been on the same day of the week, Sunday, by our reckoning. In the Jewish 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:59.440 understanding, although this isn't particularly in the Bible, because they were thinking of, well, 00:02:59.440 --> 00:03:06.480 what happened at Passover, and where would the people of Israel have been 50 days after Passover, 00:03:07.200 --> 00:03:14.560 well, they would have been at Sinai receiving the law. This harvest festival was also in the mind 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:19.760 of the Jewish people connected with the giving of the law. That may be significant as well, 00:03:19.759 --> 00:03:27.439 to try and understand why on this particular day the Holy Spirit was given. So on that same 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:32.239 festival day as the people of Israel were gathered, there was another gathering, and that was the 00:03:32.239 --> 00:03:40.399 gathering of the followers of Jesus. There were the 11 disciples, Judas no longer alive. There were 00:03:40.399 --> 00:03:47.280 the female disciples of Jesus who were not apostles. There was the mother of Jesus, and there 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:53.280 were his brothers and possibly also his sisters. We know the names of four of Jesus' brothers, 00:03:53.280 --> 00:04:00.800 and at least two of them were definitely believers, James and Jude. In total, 120 people who'd been 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:07.199 part of the group that had followed Jesus were gathered together in the upper room, and they 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:13.360 were praying. And the reason they were praying was because Jesus had said after he'd risen from the 00:04:13.360 --> 00:04:19.439 dead that they should wait. So even though they knew about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, 00:04:19.439 --> 00:04:25.520 they didn't go out straight away to proclaim that. They were to wait. They were to wait for 00:04:25.520 --> 00:04:32.080 the giving of the Holy Spirit, and that is what the people were praying for. In that room, 120 00:04:32.080 --> 00:04:40.160 people, and this was day 10 of the prayer meeting. So this was the 10th day that they'd been gathered 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:45.520 together praying in this way, and it was nine o'clock in the morning. By their reckoning, 00:04:45.520 --> 00:04:50.240 the day starts at six o'clock, and so the third hour would have been nine o'clock in the morning 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:57.360 by our reckoning. So the first thing that we see is that the people were together. Together. 00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:07.360 The second thing we see is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now if you had been present 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:12.639 on that particular Sunday, on that particular day of Pentecost, then there were particular things 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:18.879 that would have been observable to the to the human eye or the human ear. First of all, there was a 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:26.960 sound of mighty rushing wind filling the house. Secondly, we see that there were divided tongues 00:05:26.960 --> 00:05:33.040 of fire. Tongues here is simply describing how fire separates and separated on top of each of 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:40.000 the individual people there. Each of the 120 people had a tongue of fire descending and resting on them. 00:05:40.960 --> 00:05:45.600 Presumably that would have been visible even for someone who didn't accept what was happening. 00:05:46.320 --> 00:05:50.240 And then the third thing which would have been observable, the third phenomenon, 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:57.120 was that they spoke in other languages. It says that very clearly, and we'll come back to that 00:05:57.120 --> 00:06:04.240 later on, they spoke in these other languages. What wasn't visible, but the spiritual reality 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:11.600 behind all of this is that these group of 120 followers of Jesus Christ were filled with the 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:19.360 Holy Spirit on that Pentecost Sunday. Now the Holy Spirit, the third person of the 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:26.800 Godhead of the Trinity, was not unknown to the disciples before Pentecost. It's not true to say 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:31.120 that no one had ever heard of the Holy Spirit and all of a sudden on the day of Pentecost 00:06:31.120 --> 00:06:38.079 he makes his appearance. Right at the start of the Bible, just at the moment as God is creating 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:43.759 the heavens and the earth, it says that the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 00:06:44.960 --> 00:06:52.400 David, King David, having sinned was concerned that he would be left and abandoned by God. And 00:06:52.399 --> 00:07:00.399 he says, take not your Holy Spirit from me. So David had some experience of the Holy Spirit. 00:07:01.359 --> 00:07:06.479 And then Jesus, when he was speaking to his disciples before having been crucified, before 00:07:06.479 --> 00:07:13.120 having risen from the dead, before the Holy Spirit had been given in the way described here, says to 00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:22.399 his disciples about the Holy Spirit, you know him. So you know the Holy Spirit for he dwells with you, 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:31.040 and he will be in you. So the Holy Spirit was not unknown to the people of the Old Testament, 00:07:31.040 --> 00:07:38.319 and he was not unknown to the disciples before this moment of Pentecost. But at this moment, 00:07:38.319 --> 00:07:46.560 the disciples, the 120 received more than they'd had before. Jesus describes what happens. In these 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:55.039 words, he says, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. You will receive power. In other parts of 00:07:55.039 --> 00:08:01.439 the Bible, it talks about how we have received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, 00:08:01.439 --> 00:08:07.360 Abba Father. And Jesus spoke, and there's other passages we can talk about, but Jesus spoke about 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:15.520 the Holy Spirit as streams of living water. This is what the disciples, the 120 received on that 00:08:15.520 --> 00:08:22.000 Pentecost Sunday. That's what they needed to wait for. They weren't ready until they'd received 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:31.759 this. Now the circumstances are different for us. And the staging is different. We don't have this 00:08:31.759 --> 00:08:37.919 gradual staging where Jesus has risen from the dead in this time of waiting. But the gift of the 00:08:37.919 --> 00:08:46.159 Holy Spirit is the same. It's the gift that we receive as believers. We receive it right at the 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:51.600 start, right at the moment that we become Christians, as we hear the message of the gospel and believe 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:58.960 we receive the Holy Spirit. That's what Paul asks, rhetorically asks, the church in Galatia when 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:05.200 he writes in his letter, did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by the hearing of faith? 00:09:05.920 --> 00:09:14.720 And as we hear the gospel with faith, we receive the Holy Spirit. But that's not the end of it. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:20.800 It's not that we receive the Holy Spirit once and that is the end of our experience of God's 00:09:20.800 --> 00:09:27.440 Holy Spirit. Paul goes on in that same passage in Galatians and he says, he who supplies the Spirit 00:09:27.440 --> 00:09:34.240 to you and you and I, as it says in Ephesians, we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit again 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:41.680 and again, just as we need in other respects to be praying and believing, we need to be receiving 00:09:41.680 --> 00:09:48.400 the Holy Spirit constantly. So the second thing that was true about those believers and is to be 00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:54.160 true about God's people, as well as being together, that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:59.679 at the point of coming to faith and throughout our Christian lives, we need the Holy Spirit. We're 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:06.799 not capable of living our Christian lives simply on the understanding of the truth or simply in our 00:10:06.799 --> 00:10:14.799 own commitment to Jesus Christ. We need God's Holy Spirit in order to live the Christian life. We 00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:21.759 need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. There's a third thing which we can see and again, this is 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:27.519 something that happened to the 120 and is also to be true of God's people and it's the word 00:10:28.159 --> 00:10:37.120 declaring, declaring. As we receive the Holy Spirit, just as the 120, we declare the mighty 00:10:37.120 --> 00:10:46.080 works of God. They were all filled and began to speak and it wasn't just the apostles who began 00:10:46.080 --> 00:10:52.800 to speak because the list of places and peoples is more than 11 and I think we're to understand 00:10:52.800 --> 00:11:00.160 that all 120 began to speak to declare the mighty works of God, the big works of God, 00:11:00.160 --> 00:11:06.800 the mega works of God. That was what they were declaring, that's what they were saying. Now, 00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:11.680 this is quite an Old Testament phrase. It reminds us, for example, of Psalm 71, 19, 00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:18.000 your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You have done great things, O God, 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:27.439 who is like you. Or even more, the prayer of Jesus' mother Mary. If you remember in Luke chapter 1, 00:11:27.439 --> 00:11:32.399 we have some prayers that things that Mary said and this is one of the things that she says 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:38.959 in her prayer. For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:44.879 These great things anticipated in the Old Testament and of course experienced by Mary, 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:51.440 the mother of Jesus, the great works, what God did through Jesus Christ. This is what the disciples, 00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:57.200 having been filled with the Spirit, were declaring. I can imagine them singing it, 00:11:57.200 --> 00:12:04.879 maybe they were saying it, but they were saying it joyfully for all to hear. That's the way it 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:10.639 should be as we're filled with the Holy Spirit. We want to declare, we want to be saying those 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:16.799 things that God has done in Jesus, giving praise to God for the gospel and telling others about 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:22.480 the mighty works that he's done in Jesus Christ. Again, that's quite similar to something that 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:28.559 Paul the apostle says in the letter to the Ephesians. This is for Echesons chapter 5 and starting 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:36.879 at verse 18. Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual 00:12:36.879 --> 00:12:43.039 songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:48.559 everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:56.559 out of reverence for Christ. The reception of the Holy Spirit is invisible. In this case, 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:02.000 there were some signs, but there aren't always signs to accompany. So what is the sign that the 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:08.079 Holy Spirit is present in our lives? Or we can see it in this verse as we address one another 00:13:08.079 --> 00:13:15.039 in spiritual psalms and songs, as we're giving thanks to God for Jesus Christ and as we submit 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:20.239 to one another out of reverence for Christ, these are the signs of the Holy Spirit's filling and 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:26.879 presence. And it's something that we find in the Bible. It's almost a principle that out of the 00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:34.000 overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. The things that we say say what's on our hearts. 00:13:34.720 --> 00:13:40.480 And when we're joyful and happy and thankful and rejoicing, is that what comes out of our lips? 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:48.240 Is that what our heart is full of to declare the mighty works of God? I think it's good to 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:53.279 ask what is on our heart and to be asked again that God would fill us with this Holy Spirit, 00:13:53.279 --> 00:13:59.680 that we would declare His mighty works and particularly His mighty works in Jesus. 00:14:00.560 --> 00:14:06.000 So we've looked at three things that are to be true of God's people. The first thing is that we 00:14:06.000 --> 00:14:12.240 need to be together, together praying, together in unity, together in fellowship with one another. 00:14:12.240 --> 00:14:18.480 And the second thing that we need to do is that we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:23.680 And we need to keep on being filled with the Holy Spirit, just as we need to keep on praying, 00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:30.960 keep on believing. And thirdly, we need to declare the mighty works of God. That should be what's 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:35.360 on our hearts. And if it isn't on our hearts, maybe we need to be filled again with the Holy 00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:41.200 Spirit and strengthen and renewed so that we can declare God's mighty works to reach 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:47.759 the mighty works, to respond in praise and thanksgiving. But there's a fourth thing that we also see here. 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:54.960 And it's also important. It's not enough for us as Christians to be declaring the mighty works of 00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:03.920 God. God's people also needs to be heard, heard and understood. In other words, Pentecost or 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:12.240 the Bible or church is never just about us. It's never just about those people who are already in 00:15:12.240 --> 00:15:18.079 church. It's not enough for us to be declaring God's mighty works if no one is listening. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:27.279 And those international pilgrims on that Pentecost Sunday heard. They heard. Now, at that stage, 00:15:27.279 --> 00:15:33.039 they were all Jews. Some of them were born Jewish and some of them were proselytes, which means that 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:37.519 they were converted to Judaism and they went through all of the rituals in order to become Jews, 00:15:37.519 --> 00:15:43.679 just like the Ethiopian eunuch that we read about in Acts chapter 8. They were all Jewish, but they 00:15:43.679 --> 00:15:50.079 lived across the whole world. And those Jewish communities which were already scattered across 00:15:50.079 --> 00:15:58.639 the world, they became the seedbed in which the church then grew. Whether it was people who'd 00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:04.799 believed on the day of Pentecost or whether it was simply communities of Jews across the world, 00:16:05.439 --> 00:16:11.600 those were the places where the Christian church first sprouted and grew and meant to be joined 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:18.080 in by people from other nations. Recently, I was in touch with a young lady who's a student, a post 00:16:18.080 --> 00:16:25.439 graduate student in Edinburgh, and she's from a part of India called Kerala. Maybe some of you 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:30.800 know that there's a very old Christian community and almost certainly that Christian community in 00:16:30.800 --> 00:16:37.920 that part of India goes back to the apostle Thomas. It's just possible it doesn't, but there's every 00:16:37.920 --> 00:16:44.000 reason to believe that Thomas the apostle went to that place and preached the gospel and the church 00:16:44.000 --> 00:16:51.120 was born in India in the first century. What I hadn't realised, which this young lady shared with me, 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:58.000 is that there was a synagogue in that part of the world. And so when Thomas arrived in South India 00:16:58.000 --> 00:17:03.360 to preach the gospel in the first century, there was a synagogue to arrive at and that was the basis 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:09.359 for the Christian community that exists to this day, the so-called Thomas Christians. And that 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:16.559 story was repeated throughout the world. That this event at Pentecost wasn't just a one-off event, 00:17:16.559 --> 00:17:21.039 this was something that was continued and lots of the places which we're just going to look at now 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:28.879 that are mentioned are significant as the story unfolds. The most westerly point mentioned in 00:17:28.879 --> 00:17:37.680 this list is Rome, which of course is the end of the book of Acts where Paul arrives to preach the 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:46.480 gospel. Okay, let's look at this list now in chapter 2 and verses 9 to 11. Now some of these are the 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:54.880 names of peoples, some of these are the names of places, but in his coverage Peter really starts 00:17:54.880 --> 00:18:01.200 in the west and starts to work his way from the Parthian Empire, which we would call Iran, 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:08.720 right the way across towards the west and his final point is Rome. And then possibly as an 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:14.079 afterthought or for some reason separately he mentions the Cretans and the Arabians who would 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:19.839 have been in slightly different places, but there were also representatives on the day of Pentecost. 00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:25.439 I haven't been able to put together a full list of languages, but this would have certainly 00:18:25.439 --> 00:18:32.799 included Parthian, which would be very similar to Farsi, Kurdish, various dialects of Greek, 00:18:32.799 --> 00:18:41.199 so Greek wasn't spoken in the same way across the world, Latin, Demotic Egyptian, which is probably 00:18:41.200 --> 00:18:47.519 similar to Coptic, which is a language still spoken by Christians today, and of course Arabic. 00:18:48.720 --> 00:18:54.080 And there's another detail here which I think we should draw attention to. Do you notice what they 00:18:54.080 --> 00:19:01.039 said, the people who were responding to this miracle, they said these words, are not these who 00:19:01.039 --> 00:19:09.200 are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:15.600 or possibly a better translation would be in his own native dialect? Now what do we know about 00:19:15.600 --> 00:19:24.400 Galileans and the way they spoke? I don't know if you remember, but when Jesus was being tried, 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:33.039 Peter came close to the court and he wanted to sort of be nearby and someone picked up that he 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:38.319 must be a Galilean, and the way in which they picked it up is because Galileans had a very strong 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:46.480 regional accent. One of the features of Galilean Aramaic or Galilean Hebrew was that they would 00:19:46.480 --> 00:19:51.599 lisp. So they had a sort of speech defect that would be common among all the people, that was 00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:57.359 part of their regional dialect. So for example instead of saying shalom, they might have said 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:05.279 thalom, or if Peter said the word man, which is ish in Hebrew, he might have said ith. And by picking 00:20:05.279 --> 00:20:10.879 up this strong regional dialect, they could tell that Peter was was one of Jesus' disciples. 00:20:11.519 --> 00:20:17.359 So can you see the miracle that God did? That not only were these Galileans speaking people's 00:20:17.359 --> 00:20:23.200 languages, but they were speaking even their regional dialects correctly. That that was the 00:20:23.200 --> 00:20:28.639 miracle that God did. It was amazing that these Galileans would be speaking these foreign languages. 00:20:28.639 --> 00:20:34.399 Imagine in your own mind someone with a really strong regional accent speaking perfect foreign 00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:42.720 languages. And that was what those people experienced on that Sunday. And also notice this nature of 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:50.320 the miracle that God did. On Pentecost Sunday, God could have done a different miracle. And here's 00:20:50.320 --> 00:20:56.160 the different miracle God could have done. All of the 120 could have praised God in their own 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:04.240 Aramaic language. And God miraculously could have given the hearers the ability to understand 00:21:04.240 --> 00:21:09.920 their Aramaic. God could have done that miracle and everyone would have understood. But God chose 00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:15.519 to do the miracle in a different way. If you like the miracle wasn't a miracle of uniformity, 00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:22.400 the miracle that God did at Pentecost was a miracle of diversity. And if there's an event 00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:30.400 in the Bible that this looks very similar to, it's the Tower of Babel. So the events of Pentecost 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:35.840 are like the power of Babel backwards. The Tower of Babel was an event in the Old Testament where 00:21:35.840 --> 00:21:40.240 God confused the languages of the people and they started to speak different languages and couldn't 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:46.400 understand one another. But at Pentecost, God brings the blessing of understanding through this 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:53.040 diversity, through his great works being proclaimed in all of these different languages. 00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:59.519 We need to remember English isn't in the list. Okay, the closest languages are Greek and Latin to our 00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:06.480 own language. No one would have imagined at this juncture that in this Germanic dialect that someone 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:11.359 might be able to translate the Bible and for God's works to be proclaimed. But we take it for 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:16.720 granted. And there are thousands of languages across the world now where the Bible has already 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:23.600 been translated where the Gospel is preached. That is the miracle of Pentecost that God did 00:22:23.600 --> 00:22:30.640 on that first Pentecost Sunday. And he is continuing to this day. I think there's another 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:35.279 application for this as we think about how the church needs not just to declare the mighty 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:40.559 works of God, but also to be heard. And it also relates to our own setting here in Edinburgh 00:22:40.559 --> 00:22:46.960 and to English. I'm sure I'm not the only Christian who has the experience that I've told 00:22:46.960 --> 00:22:52.879 someone the Gospel and they've not understood me. I've said something that's extremely meaningful 00:22:52.879 --> 00:22:58.879 to me that touches my heart and I believe. But when I say it to someone else, they just 00:22:58.879 --> 00:23:05.200 don't get what I'm talking about. I've used the language of my Bible translation. I've 00:23:05.200 --> 00:23:11.360 used my Christian shorthand to explain things, but it just doesn't make sense. And that's 00:23:11.360 --> 00:23:16.799 been the experience of Christians throughout history. At times, for example, in the first 00:23:16.799 --> 00:23:21.600 century, when Christians spoke about the resurrection to some of the Greek heroes, that 00:23:21.600 --> 00:23:27.759 was bad news. Some of them fell about laughing. They thought, that's crazy. You mean you died 00:23:27.759 --> 00:23:33.200 and you want to go back into your body? And as Christians, we need to know that we're 00:23:33.200 --> 00:23:38.240 speaking to. And as Christians, we need to not just say the Gospel, but to understand 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:44.880 how it sounds in the ears of those we're speaking to. We need to learn the language of the people 00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:52.240 we're speaking to because the message of Pentecost is, God speaks your language. 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:57.920 In the second century, the Christian thinkers latched onto a really crucial word, which is 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:03.840 logos. So the logos is simply word in the Bible when it says in the beginning was the word. 00:24:04.480 --> 00:24:09.600 But this was a concept which existed in the Greek thinking of the time. And Christians were able to 00:24:09.600 --> 00:24:16.240 say, well, when we talk about Jesus Christ, he is that logos that you know. In our own time, 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:22.080 we need to relearn how to tell the Gospel in the language and using the words of the people around 00:24:22.080 --> 00:24:27.360 us. They're changing. We all notice how the words are changing. People are thinking in different 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:33.119 concepts and different ideas. And the Christian Gospel has always got across as we have learned 00:24:33.119 --> 00:24:39.519 to tell people the Gospel in their language, in their understanding, using their words, 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:46.079 because it can get across because God speaks our language. And so the four things that we see about 00:24:46.719 --> 00:24:52.559 God's church, God's people that were true on that day of Pentecost, and we want to be true now in 00:24:52.559 --> 00:24:58.480 our church here in Edinburgh, are first of all that we want to be together. We want to be united, 00:24:58.480 --> 00:25:03.759 united in prayer, united in purpose. And we want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:09.279 And having been filled with the Holy Spirit, we want to declare God's mighty works. 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:15.679 And as we praise God and give thanks to him, we don't just want to leave it there. We want 00:25:15.679 --> 00:25:20.559 to be heard. We want the people who speak a different language who otherwise would not 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:27.119 understand this for them to hear. And just as on that first Pentecost, on that first Pentecost Sunday, 00:25:27.679 --> 00:25:34.879 that those who speak to us would be able to give that same testimony. We hear them telling in our 00:25:34.879 --> 00:25:48.720 own tongues the mighty words of God. Amen. Let's pray together. Our Father, we give you thanks 00:25:48.720 --> 00:25:53.680 and praise for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We give you thanks and praise for the gospel of 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:59.200 our Lord Jesus Christ and for the salvation that you brought to us through him. We thank you that 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:06.240 we can trace back through all the different chain, little links in the chain back to this day when 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:11.360 the Christian church wasn't hundreds of millions of people, but it was just 120 people in one room. 00:26:12.079 --> 00:26:17.920 And that one dot on the map has now become millions of dots across the globe. And we are 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:23.920 this morning, one of them. We pray, Lord, that we would be able to continue that, that we would be 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:29.840 able to be filled with your Holy Spirit. And we pray that as we declare your works, that there 00:26:29.840 --> 00:26:36.720 would be those who wouldn't just be there and watch it, but they would say, yes, we can hear 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:49.839 God is speaking our language. So we give you praise, our God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.