Acts Chapter 2:1-13 Keeping Up Your Spirit I f You Have Received the Baptism of the holy Ghost and Speak in Tongues, the Spirit of God is calling and saying: Come Out of her my people! (Rev. 18:1-8) Yes, God is still moving! Are you perplexed by the many religious divisions that are dividing God s holy Ghost baptized people and hindering the moving of the Spirit? Do you wonder why the holy Ghost you love is being quenched at the church you attend, and speaking in tongues and the power of God is being left out? You are not alone - we are meeting people around the world who are hearing the voice of the Spirit saying come out of her my people. We are here to encourage you to obey that voice! One reason that the holy Ghost power seen in the bible is absent amongst us today is a lack of understanding of the New Birth. When is a person born again? Who is really in the body of Christ? When did the disciples have a born again experience? These are questions God's children, sadly, are NOT asking! 1 And then there are those who have experienced the Tongues of Fire. In the early 1990's the Lord started asking me questions while I was sitting in the Sunday morning services of the Lutheran Church my wife and I attended. The questions provoked me to want to know what the real truth was about what I was reading in the Bible and about God and Jesus. In my searching for the truth, God lead me to Pastor John Clark. Under his teachings while seeking Jesus' Holy Ghost baptism, I learned about real repentance. What I had been taught in the Methodist, Baptist and Lutheran Churches was to ask God or Jesus to forgive me for my sins and everything was forgiven. These teachings only promoted sin. With this doctrine I could continue living in sin without changing, thinking I was right with God. What Pastor John taught was that real repentance was to stop sinning, make right from your past anything God required of you and to seek Jesus for forgiveness with your whole heart. Once Jesus accepted your repentance he would give you his baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in an unknown tongue. The Holy Ghost is God's seal of approval that he has accepted your repentance. 2 III Peter and the Gospel to the Jews 1:1-12:24 B. The Founding of the Church in Jerusalem 2:1-7:60 1. The Coming of the Spirit and Peter s First Sermon 2:1-41 a. Introduction Shavuoth b. Coming of the Spirit Verses 1-4 c. Reaction to His Arrival Verses 5-13 d. Peter s Sermon Verses 14-41 III Peter and the Gospel to the Jews: I want to start by reminding us that Acts is a transitionary account. In fact, one could argue, this can be said of the gospels as well. We have 1 www.isaiah58.com. 2 www.isaiah58.com/holyghostbaptism.html
transitioned from the Law of Moses through the fulfillment of Messianic promises. But from the beginning of Christ s ministry to the day of Pentecost things are changing. And for that matter, even though Pentecost is considered the birth of the Church there is a period of transition from the synagogue to the church. And even here there continues to be changes as to how the church functions, changes that continue to occur up through today. And now just an aside. Remember we will be taking a break for the next two weeks. Then when we come back, the first Sunday in March, we will spend a couple of weeks talking about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Since there is so much misunderstanding of what is going on here in Acts, it seems this is a good place to take this quick side journey. a. Introduction Shavuoth: And speaking of asides, I thought I d take a moment to touch on the Jewish feast Shavuoth which occurred at the same time as Pentecost. Celebrate the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field (Exodus 23:16). Here s the description of Shavuoth from Judaism 101. Shavu'ot, the Festival of Weeks, is the second of the three major festivals with both historical and agricultural significance (the other two are Passover and Sukkot). Agriculturally, it commemorates the time when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple, and is known as Hag ha-bikkurim (the Festival of the First Fruits). Historically, it celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and is also known as Hag Matan Torateinu (the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah). The period from Passover to Shavu'ot is a time of great anticipation. We count each of the days from the second day of Passover to the day before Shavu'ot, 49 days or 7 full weeks, hence the name of the festival. See The Counting of the Omer. The counting reminds us of the important connection between Passover and Shavu'ot: Passover freed us physically from bondage, but the giving of the Torah on Shavu'ot redeemed us spiritually from our bondage to idolatry and immorality. Shavu'ot is also known as Pentecost, because it falls on the 50 th day; however, Shavu'ot has no particular similarity to the Christian holiday of Pentecost, which occurs 50 days after their Spring holiday. 3 Okay, here we see some ignorance of the part of Judaism 101. Martha Zimmerman talks about the relationship between Shavuoth and Pentecost in her book Celebrate the Feasts. (By the way, I ve given you an extended article from the perspective of the Messianic Jewish writer David Stern.) Seven weeks after the second day of Passover is the festival called Shavuoth, Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. Shavuoth is the Hebrew world for weeks. Pentecost is a Greek word which literally means fiftieth day. In Old Testament times farmers brought their first-fruits offerings of barley to the Temple on the day after the Sabbath, at Passover. On that day the counting of the weeks began. Shavuoth celebrates the first fruits of the wheat harvest seven weeks later. 4 From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 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 (Leviticus 23:15 17). 3 www.jewfaq.org/holidayc.htm. 4 Zimmerman, Martha, Celebrate the Feasts, Bethany House Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, 1981, p. 104. ) 38 (
There is still another significance associated with this time in the late spring. It came to be recognized as a memorial to the revelation of the Torah, God s gift of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai, on the fiftieth day after the Israelites were led out of Egypt (Exodus 19). Remembering the anniversary of the covenant between God and Israel, it is called the season of the giving to us of our Holy Torah. 5 Michael Green says: What, then, happened at Pentecost? Simply this. The three restrictions of the Old Testament days were wonderfully removed. The Spirit became available to one and all. He was now recognized as personal; he was not naked power, but marked with the lineaments of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 16:7). And he would never be withdrawn: he would remain with God s people both individually and corporately until the end of the age (15:8). 6 b. Coming of the Spirit: Now let s move into the text proper. The disciples, however many we are talking about here, were together in one place. This still may have been the upper room. Though, as we noted last time, if there are 120 around, then this could probably be better described as the upper hall. Wind: The Holy Spirit manifests Himself dramatically, which isn t surprising. He does this in three aspects, wind, fire, and speech. The importance of the event, the need to encourage the disciples, and a sign to the people mandated these manifestations of God s working. Jesus previously noted The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John 3:8). The Hebrew word ruah. and the Greek word pneuma can be used to mean either wind or spirit depending on context, so it is apropos for the Spirit to arrive to the sound of a great wind. We ve seen how John ties these two concepts together. We also find this same connection prophetically in the Old Testament where we see the wind as a source of life. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet a vast army. Then he said to me: Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD. (Ezekiel 37:9-14). 5 Ibid., p. 105. 6 Green, Michael, Thirty Years That Changed the World, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 2002, p. 249. ) 39 (
Fire: The next manifestation of God s presence appears to be tongues of fire. I say appear because that is what Luke states. Just as the Spirit appeared in the form of a dove at Jesus baptism here He appears in the form of tongues of fire. And these tongues descend on each of the disciples. Of course God manifesting as fire is nothing new, but will be a reinforcement of the Spirit s presence. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night (Exodus 3:2; 13:21). I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal (Ezekiel 1:4). Inspired Speech: But the wind and the tongues of fire are simply auditory/visual manifestations of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are filled with the Spirit. The filling is significantly different then the baptism of the Spirit. And the filling is signified by the disciples speaking in other tongues. The coming of the Spirit is both corporate and individual. He came on all the disciples at once, but His presence was manifested individually. This points to the significant difference between His role under the Old and New Covenants. His role was primarily corporate in the Old and is both corporate, within the church, and individual, in each believer. The word tongues in the Greek is: glw ssa gloœssa; of uncertain affinity; the tongue; by implication, a language (specially, one naturally unacquired): tongue. 7 Note: unacquired not unknown. Clearly these other tongues were not an ecstatic language, but languages spoken by Jews from other regions. Equally clear is, the disciples didn t understand the languages they were speaking. Obviously this is another manifestation of the supernatural power of the Spirit. We know this because the witnesses to these events stated: Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? (Acts 2:7 8). So the argument that speaking in tongues is a sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit is fallacious on all levels. First, remember these events are not normative. Second, the disciples were speaking in known languages, not ecstatic ones. Third, the speaking in inspired languages wasn t for the disciples benefit, but to demonstrate to the Jews, God s working in these events. Finally, It was the Holy Spirit who directed their words. Their audience understood what they were saying even if they didn t. Keep in mind, generally, the signs and wonders of the gospels and Acts were validations of God s working for the Jews. As the focus moves to an ever enlarging world, the world of the 7 Bennett, Rick, Key Dictionary of the Greek New Testament, OakTree Software, 2009. ) 40 (
Gentiles, these become more infrequent. Biblically, where do we find them again occurring with frequency, in prophecy when God is again focused on Israel and her restoration. This is why they aren t normative today. I m not saying they can t occur, just that the rarely do. The other point that must be kept in mind, and we will talk about this in the next two sessions, there is a significant difference between the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit. The first occurs the moment that an individual accepts Christ as savior For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free and we were all given the one Spirit to drink (1 Corinthians 12:13). and the second is ongoing and requires our being refilled. Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9:17). And so those who confuse these issues should remember, In the Law it is written: Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord. Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers (1 Corinthians 14:21-22). Conclusion: So what do we have here at the birthday of the Church? We have the Holy Spirit moving into a new role, indwelling each believer individually, and sealing them together to form this new entity, the body of Christ, His Church. This change was validated by signs and wonders, manifestations of God simultaneously with the Spirit s coming, wind, fire, and inspired speech. And with the filling of the Spirit, we will find Peter now opens his mouth, not to insert his foot, but to let out the Spirits words. It is His message which we will consider after talking about the doctrine of the Spirit. The Spirit s coming at Jesus baptism was the sign of the beginning of His ministry. The Spirit s coming here is the sign of the beginning of the Church s new ministry. And so we are all blessed by the Spirit s working. Here is how Zimmerman talks of one of the blessings of Pentecost. And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, celebrating this festival of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4), becoming the first fruits of God s harvest. God s power came to dwell in us. The prophets were continually calling the nation of Israel back to the living God who had made Himself known at the Exodus. We can know that same God, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 8 Stern points to another blessing. 8 Zimmerman, p. 106. ) 41 (
The miraculous event accomplished through the Holy Spirit amounts to a reversal of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). Then God confounded the speech of people misusing their unity for sinful purposes (the English word babble comes directly from the Hebrew). Here God enabled people whose different languages separated them to understand each other praising God, which is the proper use of unity. 9 So the Spirit seals us into the Church giving us a new family made up of believers all over the world. We are unified in the Spirit supernaturally, even if we aren t unified of tongue. And so, how have you been blessed through the Spirit? if Christ is in you, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:10 11, 13 14). Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me use me. Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on me. 10 I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me swill be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father s who sent me. the Helper, the Holy Spirit, he will teach you all things. (John 14:16-21, 23-24, 26). 9 Stern, David H., Jewish New Testament Commentary, Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., Clarksville, MD, 1996. 10 Iverson, Daniel, Spirit of the Living God, #389 ) 42 (
The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26) ) 43 (
Acts Chapter 2:1-13 Keeping Up Your Spirit III Peter and the Gospel to the Jews 1:1-12:24 B. The Founding of the Church in Jerusalem 2:1-7:60 1. The Coming of the Spirit and Peter s First Sermon 2:1-41 a. Introduction Shavuoth b. Coming of the Spirit Verses 1-4 c. Reaction to His Arrival Verses 5-13 d. Peter s Sermon Verses 14-41 III Peter and the Gospel to the Jews: a. Introduction Shavuoth: (Exodus 23:16; Leviticus 23:15 17) b. Coming of the Spirit: Wind: (John 3:8; Ezekiel 37:9-14)
Fire: (Exodus 3:2; 13:21; Ezekiel 1:4) Inspired Speech: glw ssa gloœssa Note: (Acts 2:7 8; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 9:17; 1 Corinthians 14:21-22) Conclusion: (Romans 8:10 11, 13 14; John 14:16-21, 23-24, 26; Numbers 6:24-26). Personal Application: This week spend some time considering the role of the Spirit in scripture, and especially how it applies to your life as a child of God and Spirit filled. Prayer for the Week: Lord, daily fill me with Your Spirit, that I might experience Your presence, power, and peace. In Christ s name, amen.