Pentecostal Fire (Acts 2:1-13)

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This week, we look at the arrival of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This singular event has empowered the church for her mission for the last two thousand years. How do we apply the lessons of Pentecost in our church today?

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Introduction

One of my favorite stories in the Old Testament - Ezekiel’s Dry Bones.

It’s one of those stories that had immediate consequences for Ezekiel - but it has so many clear connections to what would happen at Pentecost and even what has happened in our own lives.

Ezekiel 37:1–10 ESV

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

In our Old Testament, there’s a connection between the word for wind or breath and the Spirit of God.

So when we open our Bibles to Pentecost, we read about the wind coming upon this infant church, blessing them with the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

And suddenly, this church found itself very much alive.

That same Holy Spirit is still busy and working today.

That same Holy Spirit is as much the power source of the church today as it was on that day in Jerusalem when the Spirit came at Pentecost.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he told the disciples to wait for the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

They’ve waited for 10 days - and now, during the Feast of Pentecost, the Spirit made his appearance.

So as we dig in this morning, I would ask you to figuratively - literally if you like - stick your finger in the air and see if you can feel the breeze.

I firmly believe that God is still working and moving through the Holy Spirit today.

So let’s turn our attention to Acts 2 and the story of Pentecost

Scripture Reading

Acts 2:1–13 ESV

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And 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? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Don’t ever doubt God’s timing (Acts 2:1)

This is one of these passages that you could sit and process for a while. You don’t even get past the first two phrases and you’ve already got good stuff that needs to be chewed on.

The Day of Pentecost.

Pentecost is something that is celebrated by liturgical churches. Baptists don’t have a Pentecost festival per se.

Biblically, the Pentecost is known as the Feast of Weeks.

Described in Leviticus 23, The Feast of Weeks is the second of the three “solemn feasts” that all Jewish males were required to travel to Jerusalem to attend (Exodus 23:14–17; 34:22–23; Deuteronomy 16:16).

This important feast gets its name from the fact that it starts seven full weeks, or exactly 50 days, after the Feast of Firstfruits.

Since it takes place exactly 50 days after the previous feast, this feast is also known as “Pentecost” (Acts 2:1), which means “fifty.”

Due to the calendar, Pentecost almost always happened in the first part of June.

In spite of it being one of the lesser known feasts that the Jews celebrated, Pentecost was actually one of the most celebrated in Jerusalem because it was the time of year when traveling conditions were the best.

Jerusalem would have been crawling with pilgrims who had come to the city for the celebration. Some historians suggest that Pentecost would attract as many as 200,000 Jews from around the Mediterranean.

Pentecost didn’t happen at a regular weekend, it happened when there were Jews from all over the Mediterranean gathered there in the city.

Which, if you were about to launch a movement to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, a great time to do that would be when you could preach the Gospel to a crowd of people who represented a huge part of the known population.

Don’t Ever Doubt God’s Plan (Acts 2:2-6)

I think we can all agree that God’s plan for Pentecost was absolutely spectacular.

What we read about is stunning. Now, the disciples didn’t know what was about to happen. But they still trusted the LORD

Imagine being in that place…

A room, probably much smaller than this one…but filled with anticipation and expectancy.

Filled with 120 folks. We don’t know what they’re doing exactly at this time. We’re only told that they’re all together in this one place.

I imagine that prayer was taking place. Perhaps Peter and John were chatting about what they believed their next actions should be. Maybe time spent with Matthias sharing the memories that they collected from their time with Jesus.

And as they were praying, a sound began to fill the place.

PROGRAMMING NOTE…BEGIN CLIP OF WIND SOUND. LET IT PLAY OUT TO THE END. MAKE IT SO LOUD THAT I HAVE TO RAISE MY VOICE TO SPEAK OVER IT.

I imagine it started out low - perhaps so low no one noticed.

But it didn’t take long for the place to be filled with the sound of a mighty wind from heaven.

Heaven’s wind…the great wind that brought life to Ezekiel’s valley - was now bringing power to this small band of believers gathered there in that room in Jerusalem.

This was all part of God’s plan.

His way is always better.

This day that the disciples were granted the gift of the Holy Spirit would have been burned in their memories for the rest of their lives.

Don’t miss a key part of this remarkable plan.

He gave the disciples instructions to wait.

But you know, that’s one of the hardest things for us to do as Christians - wait.

Our struggle with waiting is quite interesting - especially considering how many times the Bible tells us to wait upon the LORD.

God says wait, and we say hurry up.

And too many times, we’re ready to go ahead and force God’s hand.

I think about one of the most destructive examples of this behavior in the Bible.

Abraham and Sarah were given God’s promises.

They know what God’s plan was.

But when God’s plan didn’t come to fruition in the timing they deemed best, they went ahead and tried to force God to move through the introduction of a surrogate named Hagar.

The child that came from that union was named Ishmael. Islam traces its origins through Ishmael.

So track with me here. Abraham and Sarah force God’s hand…one thing lead to another…and now you have to take your shoes off when you go through security at an airport!

During this ten day waiting period, there was no ministry, no preaching, no attempts to reach the pilgrims arriving in town. God said wait - so wait they did.

Had they gone out and tried to do ministry, the fact of the matter is simple - they would have fallen flat on their faces.

Which still happens, by the way.

Churches that try to do ministry apart from the Spirit’s blessings are often ineffective and poorly received.

God’s plan is always infinitely better than our plan.

So we need to learn to start listening to the LORD and doing what he says rather than doing what we want and asking God to bless it.

So what happens? Well - as the sound of the wind fills the room, the fire of the Holy Spirit descends on the assembly, the group moves outside, and you begin to see the miracle of Pentecost moves beyond the initial assembly.

God gives the gift of languages to the assembly.

They move outside and they begin to describe the “mighty works of God” to those within earshot.

But they do so in the language represented by those at the festival.

And this draws a crowd. But every crowd has its critics. This group was no different. Which helps us remember the third point this morning…

Don’t Ever Doubt God’s Power (Acts 2:7, 13)

You see two interesting expressions of doubt here.

Aren’t these all Galileans?

This first doubt is easy to overlook.

Who were these people who were suddenly masters of various languages?

Their hearers were amazed because they saw Galileans as backward, rednecks, country bumpkins, hillbillies…pick your pejorative.

Some of the sounds necessary to speak proper Hebrew & Aramaic are sounds that start in the back of the throat and Galileans couldn’t pronounce those words.

You see little hints about this - like when Peter is waiting outside during Jesus’ trial. They are able to identify him as a Galilean and it is likely because of his accent.

This point is simply this...

If they couldn’t speak Aramaic properly, how in the world could they suddenly become masters of all these other languages?

The answer is that they couldn’t.

There’s no Rosetta Stone or Google Translate.

It wasn’t possible for these people to suddenly have the ability to speak…at least it wasn’t humanly possible.

The second expression of doubt…They must be drunk.

When all else fails…question their sobriety!

I know there’s a lot of people in this world who think they gain skills while under the influence that they wouldn’t have otherwise - however, I’d say the experience across human history is this - drunkenness doesn’t enhance any of our intellectual abilities.

It actually leads me to believe that it is the mockers who are actually drunk rather than the disciples.

Don’t ever put limitations on God’s power.

We want to make excuses for God.

As I said last week, I want to see God do again in our generation some of the mighty works that he did in the timeline of the Bible.

I want to pray the simple prayer - “Do it again, Lord.”

I firmly believe that God can do it again. His character, he’s power, his goals haven’t changed.

What has changed is us.

Our hearts are inclined toward other things.

That same Holy Spirit that made himself manifest through the sound of rushing wind and the appearance of fire lives in side of you and me.

Say that - He lives inside me.

Listen to what Paul said beginning In Ephesians 5:15

Ephesians 5:15–21 ESV

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Don’t Ever Doubt God’s Heart (Acts 2:8-11)

Look at who all was present there on the day of Pentecost.

Partians, Medes, Elamites, Babylon, Judea, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya…Rome.

That’s quite a geographic representation.

All of these different native tongues were being spoken.

I recently heard a report saying that New York City is the most linguistically diverse city in the world.

There’s not a lot of consensus on the matter, but the average number reported suggests that more than 600 languages are spoken in NYC.

Obviously, there weren’t 600 languages there on Pentecost, but it does give us a point of comparison.

All those languages represented a group of people who mattered to God.

And that gives us a very clear picture of what God’s heart truly is.

God has the heart of a missionary

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

God wants everyone everywhere saved.

That doesn’t mean that everyone everywhere will be saved.

The Bible speaks of that wide road that leads to destruction and the narrow gate that leads to salvation.

There’s gonna be a lot more people who reject the Lord than receive the Lord.

But that doesn’t change God’s heart.

This has direct consequences for you.

God loves your neighbor and your coworker.

God loves your supervisor and your doctor.

God loves your teacher…God loves your student.

God loves your mom and your dad.

God loves your wayward son and daughter.

And God wants them saved through the power of the Gospel and filled with the Spirit.

And it could be that God is raising you up to be the means by which that person hears the Gospel and is saved.

There was absolutely nothing special about this 120 folks in the upper room.

We know about their professions, their careers.

They looked just like us.

A random collection of folks from all walks of life meeting together because they’re eager to see Jesus do something in their lives.

So God showed up withe the gift of the Holy Spirit and he sent those folks out to reach the nations.

And it turns out the nations were waiting right outside in the street.

The only thing that has changed in the last 2,000 years is that we realize that our world is much larger than we did back then.

At the same time the world is larger, it is also so much smaller.

Over on the east side of Atlanta, just under the shadow of Stone Mountain, you find a little community known as Clarkston.

Over the last three decades, this quiet Atlanta suburb has become home to thousands of refugees representing more than 40 countries and speaking at least 60 languages

Think about that for a moment. That’s here, in our own state

COVID has taken quite a toll on our missions and evangelism efforts.

We are beginning the work to revitalize those efforts.

Coming up on July 17-18, we’ve got an opportunity for you to connect with our own community as we turn the church inside out.

The Great Commission tells us to go and make not sit and wait.

We’ve learned that the sit and wait method of evangelism is really fruitless, which shouldn’t surprise us at all.

We need to remember that going isn’t limited to some far-off mission field.

Particularly when the mission field begins where our parking lot ends - with our very own neighbors.

Conclusion - Don’t Ever Doubt God’s Word (Acts 2:14-16)

After a time of this miraculous expression in various languages, Peter stands to address the crowd.

I love this scene.

This is like Steve Rogers coming out of the tank after the super soldier serum injection.

Peter the impulsive fisherman just got his Holy Spirit injection and now he’s the spirit-filled preacher.

50 days ago he didn’t have the courage to stand with Jesus and now that’s all he knows how to do!

He cues up the first sermon of the Christian church.

AND he really shucked the corn.

Isaiah 55:10–11 ESV

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Listen church - God is in charge of outcomes. He gives us the simple command to be his witnesses.

If we’ll do that, empowered by the Holy Spirit, informed by the Word of God…He will take care of the outcomes.

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