The Day of Pentecost | The Birth of the Church
Lessons from the 1st Century Church | A Study through the Book of Acts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewThe church was prepared in chapter one for the fulfilled promise of the Holy Spirit in chapter 2. The promised Spirit arrives and brings empowerment to the church for a global mission to the world for Christ.
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Introduction
As I have told you all before, I worked for/managed Mazzio’s Pizza, in Beebe, for some five years. One of the most mundane, hardest, and yet important parts of the shift was the prep time before the lunch or evening rush. However, that prep time was necessary. If was not done properly it would cost, and at times, cost immensely. This is the same for just about anything that is worth doing. You have to prep for ball games no matter the sport. You have to prep for events that you are either hosting, leading, or participating in. It was no different for the church in the 1st Century. Chapter one was their prep time.
Within chapter one we find forties days of prep given to the 1st Century church. They were given lessons of preparation by the Lord Jesus Christ for forty days. They were given their mission and instructed on that mission for forty days. They had to reassess the team and fill the empty vacant slots, but not with just anyone. They need to inquire of the GM, God, for who He wanted to call to fill that position. Then they were called to wait until rush hour, opening day. They need to rest and wait for the empower of the promised Spirit. This all took place in chapter one. Chapter one of Acts was the prep time for the mission at hand. Brothers and sisters we have had our prep time and now it is time to get to work. We see in Acts chapter two, it gets real. The church is empowered by the promised Holy Spirit and never looks back. May we be empowered, and filled as they, and get busy being on mission.
Focus Passage: Acts 2:1-13
Opening Passage: Acts 2:1-4
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.
Outline:
As chapter two begins, we read, When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place (v.1). As we open up with verse one we see the setting of the stage for God’s promised Holy Spirit to come. As we look at the stage before us, we see fifty days had come and gone since the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Day of Pentecost, meaning fifty, was also the festival of weeks and would take place fifty days after the Annual Passover, and was at times more celebrated due to warmer temperatures. We also see that the disciples, the 120 in the upper room, had been waiting ten days in prayer. Finally, we see that they were all together in one place. There is something to be said about God’s people coming together, in prayer, for multiple days, praying for God to move. When is the last time, we here at CBC, came together for an extended period of time praying for God to move. If we want to see God move, this is what it will take. God moves, when His people come together with one mind and one mission and one heart and motive.
Once one realizes the stage being set and how God has put everything in place, it is time to see what God does. Brothers and sisters, I truly believe God has set the stage for something big here in Bald Knob and I believe that CBC is at the center of it, but we must be unified in heart and consecrated in prayer, and seeking in Spirit, and patiently wait in anticipating for God to move, just as we see was taking place here at the Day of Pentecost.
God Showed Up (vv.2-4)
2 And suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out.
God showed up in three ways
1. The sound came - ‘…suddenly a noise like a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting...’
Brothers and sisters when God shows up and shows out, there is no question that He is there. The picture before us what we call here in the south a Texas Tornado filling one’s home. It was a wind that engulfed that room and was unmistakable.
Throughout the Old Testament, God’s presence is mentioned in conjunction with wind.
When Elijah was questioned by God on Mt. Horeb, Elijah thought God would be in the mighty wind or earthquake, but it was the whisper that God spoke in, but once again, Elijah looked for God in the mighty wind
11 So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
When the prophet Isaiah was concluding his prophetic work, he writes that God would restore Israel, but He would come as a mighty whirlwind and destroy those who were His enemy
15 For behold, the Lord will come in fire, And His chariots like the whirlwind, To render His anger with fury, And His rebuke with flames of fire.
For the 120 disciples that were in that upper room that evening, there was no question as to who was showing up, it was God almighty. It was the God of angel armies.
2. The tongues appeared - ‘…And tongues that looked like fire appeared to them, distributing themselves, and a tongue rested on each one of them...’
Once again, God reveals himself through the appearance of flaming tongues. The actual picture is that of a singular tongue that appeared and then separated itself among the 120 disciples.
Not only was wind associated with the presence of God throughout the Old Testament, but fire was as well.
God called Moses out of a burning bush
2 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not being consumed.
As God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Moriah, the mountain was surrounded by smoke fire and quaked
18 Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the entire mountain quaked violently.
It was fire that fell when Elijah was putting God against the prophets of Baal
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood, and the stones and the dust; and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 When all the people saw this, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God!”
Finally, when Ezekiel had his very own thrown room encounter such as John on the Island of Patmos, He describes God as having fire all around and within from the waist up.
27 Then I noticed from the appearance of His waist and upward something like gleaming metal that looked like fire all around within it, and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw something like fire; and there was a radiance around Him.
For the disciples who had been in consecrated prayer for ten days, there was no doubt of who this was…it was God showing up.
3. The Holy Spirit filled them - ‘…And they were filled with the Holy Spirit...’
Brothers and sisters let us truly understand what is before us. As the Lord Jesus had promised, that which was promised had come. The Holy Spirit of God had arrived as promised.
i. He filled them to empower them
8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and as far as the remotest part of the earth.”
ii. He filled them to teach them the Words of the Father
13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
iii. He filled them to use them to share the convicting Word of the Gospel
8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment:
9 regarding sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 and regarding righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer are going to see Me;
It was only through the empowering, teaching, convicting presence of the Holy Spirit that disciples were going to turn the world upside down for the Lord. It is only by the same empowering, teaching, convicting presence of the Holy Spirit that we will do it once again. We are nothing apart from the Jesus and power of the Holy Spirit.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Not only did God show up...
God Showed Out (vv. 1-4)
1. God showed out by filling the disciples with His Spirit
Many people associate what took place on the Day of Pentecost with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. However, what took place on the Day of Pentecost is something different. Baptism of the Holy Spirit of God happens at the point of conversion for every believer. When one accepts Christ as Lord and Savior they are baptized with the Spirit at that very moment.
11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a one time event, but the filling of the Spirit of God can happen over and over and is something to be sought by every believer. For it is the filling of the indwelling Spirit of God that allows the child of God to be used mightily for God.
The show of the Day of Pentecost of was a one time event, but not the filling of the Spirit. How the Spirit showed out was. The filling of the Spirit happens over and over throughout the book of Acts.
Peter, when explaining what happened at Temple Beautiful with the healing of the lame man, was filled with the Spirit (Ac 4:8)
When the disciples came together in prayer, the place they were at was filled with the Spirit and began to shake (Ac 4:31)
James, the first martyr for the Christian faith, was being stoned to death, it is testified within the Scripture of him...
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
Finally, when Saul, who became Paul, was facing the magician, Elymas, during his first missionary journey, finds recorded of Him and this conversation...
9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, stared at him,
10 and said, “You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord?
God showed up by filling His disciples with His Spirit
2. God showed out by giving His disciples the ability to speak His Word - ‘…filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with different tongues, as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out...’
What are the different tongues being mentioned of here? Is it angelic speech that some would have us believe? Are they some special language that no one knows and we need an interpreter for? I believe the answer to the question is before us within our text.
Several truths can be found within our text about the message being spoken, the message being delivered, and the audience being addressed.
Truthfully, we must know that...
God Spoke Out (vv. 5-11)
1. God spoke audibly through the disciples - ‘…the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out...’
The message presented before us is an audio message from God Himself. It is a message clearly presented
2. God spoke clearly through the disciples - ‘…And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and they were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language...’
Many have erred thinking that the words being spoken that day were of an unknown tongue, an angelic tongue. As we look at the original language of the New Testament, we see two words used to speak of tongues...
glossolalia, meaning ecstatic phenomenon or an angelic, unknown tongue
dialektos, meaning dialect or known language
The text before us is dialektos. Meaning, God spoke clearly with a known tongue or rather tongues.
We must understand that tongues are not for the saved, but rather for the lost. Prophecy is the for the saved according to the Word of God (1 Cor. 14).
To further bring about the clarity of God’s message to the crowds is that fact that there were at least 15 different sects of nationalities there and all fifteen heard the Word of God in their own language.
11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty deeds of God.”
3. God spoke convincingly through the disciples
God spoke convincingly through unlearned men - ‘…Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans...’
God spoke convincingly through the lostness of men - ‘…They were amazed and astonished (v. 7)…And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity (v. 12)...’
God spoke convincingly the Gospel message - ‘…we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty deeds of God...’ (v.11b)
Conclusion:
God showed up. God showed out. God spoke out. Now, you must respond. You stand a crisis of decision as those in attendance did that day. You may very well be asking the same question they asked that day, What does this mean (v.12). You may be here and wondering within self, how do I come to know this Jesus? I want to know more! I want to make sure that I know that I’m redeemed! I want to know what it is like to know the freeing love of God. For some of you, you may be as the others within the crowed that day, jeering and saying, They are full of sweet wine! May I declare to you, you need Jesus. You have but two ways to respond to this message. You can either respond positively by accepting the clear message of the gospel that has been presented, repent of your sin, and call upon Jesus as Lord and Savior, or negatively, which is reject the Gospel of Christ. Which will it be?