Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: acts 2:1-21

Theme: we have hope in the power of the Spirit

Doctrine: holy spirit

Image: people are amazed and confused

Need: hope

Message: he who is with us is more powerful than he who is against us

 

*Amazed and Confused*

Acts 2:1-21

*Intro*

 

*Reversal of Babel*

We want to hear people talking in other languages.

We want to be able to go up to a person of some other nationality and tell them the great acts of God in their language.

One of the biggest barriers to our ministry in other areas of the world is language.

One of my friends at seminary is going to a post in Africa with World Missions.

He has to spend the next two years, at least, in language study; doing very little else.

Would it not be great if he could go there and immediately start to speak in their language?

Do you remember the beginning of the language barrier?

The first time people could not communicate with one another because of they spoke a different language?

Turn with me to Gen 11.

The people of Babel decided to ignore the command of God in Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.”

They thought it would be better to be in one place, to build a city, to make a tower that reaches to the heavens, to make a name for themselves, so that they might not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

(Ge 11:4).

So, God comes down to see what they are doing, and this is what he says.

Read Gen 11:5-7.

The people did not want to do what God wanted them to, so he forced them to.

Read Gen 11:8-9.

He scattered them over the face of the earth by confusing their speech.

And the story we read this morning is a reversal of this problem.

Here in Jerusalem there are people gathered from all over the earth, people “from every nation under heaven.”

And now, thanks to the power of the Holy Spirit, every single one of them is hearing the disciples in their own language.

There is no longer any barrier to language.

The message of God is spread in all languages, to people from all over the world.

*Disciples all together in one place, waiting.*

Let us take a little closer look at this story.

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.”

(Acts 2:1) They were waiting.

They were waiting for the prophecy given by John the Baptist to be fulfilled.

“I baptize you with water for repentance.

But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

(Mt 3:11).

They were waiting for the promises of Jesus to be fulfilled.

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.

... I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (Jn 14:15-18) and “I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

(Lk 24:49).

and “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

(Jn 15:26-27).

The disciples were waiting.

Note, they do not seem to be afraid, as they were before.

In Jn 20:19 the beloved disciple describes the disciples as fearful people who have locked themselves behind closed doors.

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews.”

Now that Jesus has arisen, they seem to have more confidence, but they are still waiting.

They are unsure about what they are to do.

They look around at each other and wonder what the next step could, or should be.

Then something really crazy happens.

Suddenly, out of the blue clear sky, there is this strange sound.

It sounds like a strong wind is filling the house.

Picture them all sitting there around the table, talking about what Jesus had said, what he had taught them, what the weather was supposed to be like today, when suddenly it sounds like a tornado has entered their living room, like a 747 had parked on their dining room table.

Then, if that were not strange enough, fire appears in mid-air.

It separates into individual pieces and comes to rest on each of them.

I wonder if anyone ducked, not wanting their hair to get scorched.

On top of all of this, they turn to one another, and begin speaking in foreign languages!

All of these local boys, who have never travelled very far from the loving arms of their mothers were speaking in all the languages of the known world.

This would be like going to my high school reunion in Southern Alberta and having my friends, who have never left the province, speak to me in perfect German, or Polish, or Russian, or Mandarin, or Japanese.

Could you imagine how weird that would be?

Imagine the people beside you right now suddenly turning to you and addressing you in Arabic!

How weird would that be!

*Background to pentecost; festival of weeks *

This ability comes in rather handy, because there just happens to be in Jerusalem people from all over the know world.

What were all these people doing in Jerusalem anyway?

It says they were there for pentecost, but I thought pentecost was the celebration of the outpouring of the spirit, this very event reported in acts.

Yet, the author says that “there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.”

(Ac 2:5) What were these people doing in Jerusalem?

*            harvest*

Well, it turns out that originally Pentecost had a different meaning.

This is one of the three major festivals given in the torah.

This is one of the three times in which all Israelite males were required to be in Jerusalem.

(Le 23:16-21) “Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.

... On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work.

This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.”

So, all Israel was expected to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this festival.

Think of the commotion that this kind of festival would cause.

Every Israelite was supposed to be there.

Think of the amount of food that would take.

All the hotels would be full.

All the restaurants packed to overflowing every evening.

There would barely be room to move around the city.

*            torah*

By the time of Christ, however, this festival had taken on another meaning in the popular mind of the Israelites.

Tradition had it that fifty days after the Israelites ate the first passover and were liberated from the land of Egypt, they were encamped at the base of Mt Sinai as Moses received the torah from God.

The celebration of pentecost, then, was a time to commemorate this giving of the torah, the law, the teaching, the instruction of God.

The thing the Israelites needed to live in proper relationship with their Holy God.

This, by the way, is one of the reasons we still use the torah today.

This is why the law still has use for us.

Among other things, it is a guide for our lives.

It teaches us how we ought to live before the holy God that we serve, the righteous God that has called us his own.

Now, however, we have another reason to celebrate.

We celebrate the giving of torah, because we also celebrate the giving of the Spirit who gives us the strength to follow it.