The Purpose of Pentecost (Acts 2)

“Presence, Participation, & Power”

We have been examining the text of Acts 2 for the last three weeks and today, on Pentecost Sunday, I would like to step outside of our series in Acts to answer the question, what is the purpose of Pentecost?

As a church that is “Pentecostal”, we recognize the importance of the Holy Spirit moving in our midst. We believe in the continuation of the Biblical gifts of the Spirit and are thankful for the fruit the Spirit brings. However, I think that even as a Pentecostal church we may miss the point that…

I) The Holy Spirit came so that we might have the presence of God living in us. (John 14:16-17)

We should not think of the Spirit as the Pentecostal Santa Claus who gives us all kinds of cool gifts to enable us to be healthy, wealthy, and wise. Rather, we should see that the Holy Spirit is the gift, the gift of the abiding presence of God in our lives.

"The life that the Spirit gives is not some abstract thing. In fact, it is not primarily some thing that he gives at all. The Spirit gives us his very self, that we might know and enjoy him and so enjoy his fellowship with the Father and the Son."[1]

What could be better than that? It is by the Spirit that the Father and the Son indwell us and commission us as the church. God’s eternal covenant is reiterated throughout the Bible and contains statements such as:

• I will be your God—a call to know God faithfully (Eze. 36:27-28).
• You will be my people—a call to community, as his family (Ex. 6:7).
• I will dwell with you—a call to live in his presence (Lev. 26:11).

Neil Cole writes, “I have come to understand the church as this: the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet.”[2] Such a definition of the church brings me to the next purpose of Pentecost.

II) The Holy Spirit came to invite us to participate in the ongoing mission of God.

If our shared purpose in life, as Christians, is to glorify God in the world (Eccl. 12:13; John 15:8), then how do we do this? By obeying his commands, however, this is not a legalistic formula but a relational dependence. God is both relational and missional. His mission (what he does) is a manifestation of his being (who he is). God is outwardly focused and relationally inclusive. He wants to be in a relationship with his creation, not because of any need on his part but simply because of the overflow of his love. The mission of God is to “rebind the broken cosmos,” to redeem and reconcile the world. In the Holy Spirit, he invites us and then integrates us and all our diversity into that ongoing mission. We are an integral part of his plan. When integrating into the mission of God, I once heard that the following four "D" words are a helpful checklist...

• Discover: What is God already doing in this neighborhood? How is he pursuing and engaging the lost? What is the conversation the Holy Spirit has been having with them?
• Discern: How does God want us to participate? What can we offer? What can we learn?
• Do: Join his mission in humble obedience. When God opens the door to be witnesses, what are we going to do?
• Debrief: Share with each other what you are doing, not to brag but in order to be mutually encouraged and accountable. We can't do this alone. We need to be considerate and cooperate with others. We are to be part of a body, a spiritual family, a church. We must develop both our actions and reflections on those actions.

Last week, we spoke extensively about fellowship, but are we willing to step into the mission of God, or are we content with managing our own efforts for our own purposes?

Defining the Task —The Great Commissions

As Jesus’ time with his disciples drew to an end, he gave them what is called the “Great Commission” (i.e., a mission beyond national and ethnic Israel) as differentiated from the local commissions given earlier (e.g., the sending of the 12 and then the 70 to go preaching and healing in all the towns and villages of Israel that Jesus would soon visit). This commission is presented five times in Scripture, each time with a slightly different emphasis. I illustrate these commissions by using the well-known “Five Flavors Lifesavers” candy. They are all lifesavers, just different flavors. So too, all five versions of the commission of Christ may have slightly different flavors.

1. The Discipling Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)[3]

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As followers of Jesus, we are to “make disciples.” What does discipleship mean?

• It means that we are allowing Christ’s teachings to actually guide our life’s journey.
• It means we (and they) are becoming more like Jesus.
• Jesus is the content of our discipleship.

So, how do we make disciples? This text gives two primary ways. The first is “Baptism,” representing not merely a religious ceremony but the internal transformation of a person’s loyalties now expressed publicly. It is the outworking of repentance. Discipleship changes how we answer such practical questions as:

• How do I spend my time?
• How do I spend my money?
• How do I make my decisions?
• What attitudes and characteristics do I value?

And hidden within this list is a tricky discipleship detector. The true disciple of Christ comes to understand that it is not really an issue of my time, my money, or my decisions. If I understand the radical commitment of baptism, I am dead to “my” and alive to Christ.

The second way we are to make disciples is “By teaching them to obey Christ”. It is quite popular to use the metaphor, “the dust of the Rabbi’s sandals,”  to illustrate this aspect of discipleship (Ray Vander Laan was the first I heard use it). The phrase either refers to how a rabbi’s disciples either followed him closely on the dusty road to hear everything the master was discussing, or to how they sat on the ground at his feet to hear his teaching. So, for us to become disciples and to “make disciples,” we need to be spending time with Jesus and thus be doing what Jesus did. It has been said that “Genuine discipleship cannot happen apart from the mission.” Jesus did it that way. He taught and trained his disciples while he was going about the mission of his Father! I suggest that it is the same today. We learn as we engage with what God is already doing around us.

2. Evangelizing Commission (Mark 16:15-20) 

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

The flavor of this commission is found in sharing the gospel (good news) with “all creation,” with the desired result being belief and baptism. While some debate this “longer ending” of Mark’s Gospel, all of the accompanying signs mentioned are attested elsewhere in the New Testament and the Church Fathers.

At Pentecost, we received the same Spirit that Jesus received at his baptism in the Jordan River. What did he do? He preached the good news, healed the sick, and delivered those oppressed by the devil. He came to seek and save the lost, and he made disciples, who would one day do the same thing.

The Spirit continually moves us beyond ourselves (our self-interest, comfort zone, culture, etc.) and gives us a heart and a passion (and compassion) to reach out to the lost, joining Jesus as he continues to seek and save the lost. Successful evangelism is taking the initiative in the power of the Holy Spirit, backed up by a loving, godly life, and leaving the results up to God.

3. Preaching Commission (Luke 24:44-47)

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Preaching is rooted in our time spent with the Lord, seeking Holy Spirit-led understanding of the word (all parts of it), and it consistently calls for a decision on the part of the hearer.  

In the early church, preaching connected the dots between what had been written in the Old Testament and how those scriptures were fulfilled in Christ Jesus. But beyond information, preaching brings us to our personal and collective need to repent and receive the forgiveness of sins that Jesus offers to us. Preaching shows us that the answer to the problem of our sin is Christ and him alone! There is only one gate by which we can enter. Jesus is that way.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit expanded his work of opening our minds to understand the Scriptures. There are many throughout history who have come to saving faith in Jesus simply by reading the Bible. This is the work of the Holy Spirit!

4. The Sending Commission (John 20:21-23)

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 

The Father sent the Son and the Spirit, and now sends us, but we are not on our own—they all go with us. Michael Reeves' insight and British wit come out as he built on this verse,

“The disciples should not have been at all surprised. Jesus had told them he would be resurrected, and he had told them that “whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19). The first thing the Father does, of course, is love the Son, breathing out his Spirit on him. Just so, doing as his Father does, Jesus breathes out the Spirit on his disciples. In fact, he had already said to them: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” (John 15:9). But the Father also sends the Son; and doing as his Father does, Jesus thus sends his disciples. Like Father, like Son. That entirely changes what mission looks like. For it is not, then, that God lounges back in heaven, simply phoning in his order that we get on with evangelism so that he might get more servants. If that were the case, evangelism would take a lot of self-motivation—and you can always tell when the church thinks like that, for that’s when evangelism gets left to the more adrenaline-stoked salespeople/professionals. But the reality is so different. The truth is that God is already on mission: in love, the Father has sent his Son and his Spirit. It is the outworking of his very nature.”[4]  

We have received the same Spirit that Jesus received at his baptism in the Jordan River. What did he do? The Spirit propelled him into the wilderness for a time of testing centered on his trust in his Heavenly Father and what the Father had said about him being the "beloved Son." The Father sent the Son and the Spirit. The Spirit also sent the Son after the baptism. It bears repeating that Jesus preached the good news, healed the sick, and delivered those oppressed by the devil, all while coming to seek and save the lost, he made disciples, and he loved us to the end and beyond. Today, as a result of the work of Christ and his sending the Spirit at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit moves us beyond ourselves and gives us a heart and a passion and compassion to reach out to the lost — to seek and save the lost. In being sent, we are actually joining the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as they go! We are compelled by the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14-15, 20)!

5. The Witnessing Commission (Acts 1:8)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

The word “witness” comes from the root that is transliterated as “martyr”. All too often, witnessing or speaking out about the resurrection of Christ has been punctuated with the death of the witness. Jesus needed intimate fellowship with his Father and the filling of the Holy Spirit to see his mission through to the end on the cross. We are no different in our dependence. It will take the power of the Spirit for us to stand strong to the end. Such endurance is not found in a stoic approach to doing our duty. It will take transformed desires, holy desires that come from seeing our triune God as he really is!

Summary of the 5-Flavored Commissions

John Amstutz ably synthesizes these "five flavors" of the Great Commission into one concise statement with the two imperatives (commands) underlined,

"Going as my witnesses in the power of the Holy Spirit, preach the good news of repentance and forgiveness of sins in my name to everyone, baptizing those who repent and believe. And make disciples by teaching them to obey all I have commanded. Do this beginning in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth—and I will be with you to the very end of the age."

Our ability to integrate effectively into the ongoing mission of God is due to the fact that we are not going on our own...

• We go in the same Spirit as Jesus
• We go in Jesus’ authority
• We go with Jesus’ power
• We go with Jesus’ continued presence (John 10:37-38; 14:9-13, 20-21; 17: 20-23)

As the Church, we are a people called by God and sent to participate with God in mission. We are a body that is sent by the Spirit. We don't gather for our own sake but for the sake of others…

Discipling—“of all nations" How? Baptizing and teaching to obey.

Evangelizing—sharing the good news with all creation!

Preaching—the repentance and forgiveness of sins by faith in the risen Christ.

Sending—is not taking over but joining a missional God in his loving task.

Witnessing—speaking the truth of what Jesus has done in love, to the end.

III) The Holy Spirit came to empower us to live faithfully, bear good fruit, & glorify God in the world.

From the very beginning, the plan of God has depended upon the power of God, not the strength of mankind. Abram was a landless, nameless, heirless, powerless nobody with the promise of God who was going to change all that, for the good of the whole world. It was as a result of Pentecost that the fulfillment of that promise expanded beyond one nation to many,

Now the Lord said to Abram, 

“Go from your country 

        and your kindred 

        and your father's house to the land that 

         I will show you. 

  And I will make of you a great nation,

  and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 

        I will bless those who bless you,

                     and him who dishonors you I will curse, 

               and in you                      all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

(See also Gen 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:13-14)

If you still don’t believe me, perhaps Galatians 3:14 will convince you,

"He redeemed us in order that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."

In review, the primary purposes of Pentecost include:

• The Indwelling Presence of God (The Father and the Son, by the Holy Spirit)
• Integrated Participation in God’s Ongoing Mission
• Spiritual Power of God to fulfill our mission assignment

Pentecost. Perhaps such a day is worth remembering.

---

[1] . Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith (Kindle Locations 1326-1328).

[2] Neil Cole, “Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens." In Perspectives on the World Christian Movement 4th Edition, edited by Ralph D. Winter and Steven C. Hawthorne, 643-45. Pasadena, CA: Institute of International Studies, 2009.

[3] The titles for these five commissions are taken from missiological lectures given a number of years ago by Foursquare pastor, missionary, and professor John Amstutz.

[4] Reeves, (Kindle Locations 1610-1625).

Wind & Fire Come Down to Earth Pt.2 “What Shall We Do?”

Last week we ended with the promise that, “it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”(v.21, Joel 2:32) But what is his "name"?

1) The Call to the Risen Christ (v.22-35)

Peter preaches about "This Jesus"

In this section of his sermon, Peter makes it very clear that the name of the Lord upon whom we must call is Jesus of Nazareth. This first part tells us quite a bit about him. As you read through these verses, I encourage you to make a list of the things it says about who Jesus is, what he is like, and what happened to him.

 ²² “Men of Israel, hear these words:

                    Jesus of Nazareth, 

                        a man attested to you

                                             by God with mighty works and

                                                                 wonders and

                                                                 signs

                                       that God did through him in your midst,                      

   as you yourselves know— ²³ 

             this Jesus,

         delivered up according to the definite plan

               and foreknowledge of God,

   you crucified and killed

                                  by the hands of lawless men. 

                                               ²⁴ God raised him up,

                                                          loosing the pangs of death,

                  because it was not possible for him to be held by it. 

²⁵ For David says concerning him,     [Quoting from Psalm 16:8-11]

“‘I saw the Lord always before me,
    for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;
²⁶ therefore    my heart was glad, and

                     my tongue rejoiced;
                     my flesh also will dwell in hope.
²⁷ For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
                     or let your Holy One see corruption.
²⁸         You have made known to me the paths of life;
         you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’

²⁹ “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence

                                         about the patriarch David that

                                                     he both died and was buried,

                                              and his tomb is with us to this day.

³⁰ Being therefore a prophet,

         and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him

                              that he would set one of his descendants

                                                                on his throne, 

³¹            he foresaw and spoke about

                      the resurrection

                             of the Christ,

                                that he was not abandoned to Hades,

                           nor did his flesh see corruption. 

³² This Jesus God raised up, 

                                and of that we all are witnesses. 

³³ Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God,

                         and having received from the Father 

                                                  the promise of the Holy Spirit, 

      he has poured out this

                          that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. 

³⁴ For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
³⁵     until I make your enemies your footstool.”’ [Psalm 110:1]

In speaking about verse 22, I mentioned a good quote about the “mighty works and wonders and signs” by which God “attested” to Jesus. Here is that quote,

Three terms are used to describe the way in which this took place in the course of his ministry. There were miracles (dynameis, 'powers') or mighty works, signifying the operation of God's power or kingly rule through him (cf. Lk. 11:20). But these could also be called wonders (terata), because of the amazement they effected in the witnesses, and signs (semeia), because they pointed beyond themselves to the character of Jesus and the significance of his coming. (Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, 145)

Peter’s audience had certainly heard about the mighty works God had done through Jesus. Peter claims as much. We need to remember that the claims of Acts and the Gospels could have easily been disproved if they were not true. It was during a time when there was an abundance of eyewitnesses. Yet, the evidence pointed towards the truth of what they claim…that “this Jesus” was Lord! Here is a simple list of some of what this passage says about Jesus of Nazareth…

• v. 22 He was attested by God working through him in power
• v. 23 This Jesus, delivered up on schedule (according to plan), but what did they (and by extension humanity) do with him? “You crucified him.”
• v. 24 God raised him up since it was not possible for death to hold him.
• v. 31 He was foreseen by David
• v. 32 He was raised up by God, and the 120 disciples speaking that morning were all witnesses.
• v. 33 He poured out the Holy Spirit
• v. 34 He is the “My Lord” of Psalm 110:1, which is the most quoted verse of the Old Testament in the New Testament. In fact, Jesus himself quoted it in Luke 20:41-44.
• v. 36 God made him both Lord and Christ!
• v. 36 This Jesus [is the same one] whom you crucified

Don’t miss Peter’s emphasis on “this Jesus” in making his appeal. The same Jesus who taught in their synagogues and healed the sick in their streets had died and been raised.

In church, we played the audio of a classic sermon excerpt, entitled “My King” by the late Dr. S.M. Lockridge, which was originally preached in 1976, fully 40 years ago. We used to listen to it at least once a year. Here is a link to the audio.

“Well, I wonder…do you know him?” When we listen to this wonderful description of the Lord Jesus, perhaps we can relate to the dilemma the listeners faced that day.  

2) The Confrontation… Getting a clue; facing the facts  (v.36)

   Let all the house of Israel therefore

                                       know for certain that God

         has made him both Lord and Christ,

    this Jesus whom you crucified.”

There is a scene in Disney’s The Kid  (perhaps the only Bruce Willis movie without shooting or explosions) where Willis’ obnoxious character, Russ Duritz, realizes that he has to go to someone he had mistreated to find the answer to his own problem. At one point, she says, “Can I get a warm-up on my coffee while he is getting a clue?” Well, that morning in Jerusalem, there was a whole crowd of people “getting a clue!”

Let me also say that this passage does not give any support to anti-Semitic claims (Most, if not all, of the 120 speakers were Jewish). Jew and Gentile alike, all the world collectively, and each of us as an individual, are responsible for Jesus’ death!  What that first audience had going for them was a conviction, which led them to ask a faith question instead of finding someone else to blame.

3) Their Conviction (v. 37)

    Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart,

and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,

“Brothers, what shall we do?” 

When I read this, I can almost hear the “Oh crud! We are so busted!” To learn that Jesus was God's plan for their salvation…but that they had rejected and killed him, would be brutal news. Think about Isaiah’s reaction after he realized that he was in the presence of God but was not sinless. He cried out, “Woe is me! I am utterly undone!” (Isaiah 6) On Pentecost, the crowd reacted much the same as that morning long ago. Oh, that we were “cut to the heart” more than we are. It seems that we are a culture that has turned denial of personal responsibility into a profession and a form of performance art! If you don’t believe me, just take a moment to read the patronizing safety instructions on everything!

But there would be good news for the crowd that day… Peter answered their question.

4) The Change Jesus Brings (v. 38-41)

   And Peter said to them, 

     “Repent and be baptized

                 every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 

              for the forgiveness of your sins,

                               and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

   For the promise is for you and 

                                 for your children and

                                 for all who are far off,

                                      everyone 

                                        whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 

⁴⁰ And with many other words

                                he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, 

                            “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 

God’s promise of salvation in Christ was not just for Jewish people long ago. Certainly, it came through the Jews, but it was for all the world. I will discuss the specific command of “repent and be baptized” below, but here I want to clear up the phrase, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” We often get this wrong. Only Jesus can save us. What this means is that we have to "make a break with the generation…and call on Christ!" A.T. Robertson summed it up, "Be ye saved!"

5) The Conclusion—the Church did some Math (v.41)

    So those who received his word were baptized,

                              and there were added that day

                                                          about three thousand souls.

Why do I say the church had to “do some math?” Because they “added” 3000 souls that day. In saying this, I am fulfilling my promise for another “Dad joke” this week. I also challenged the kids in the congregation to do the math and tell me how many people were a part of the church as of Acts 2:41. Are you smarter than they?

The crowd's question, “What shall we do?” is a good one for us to ask as well. Jesus took our sin upon himself, making eternal life available for us, so we should:

1. Repent.

Repentance is a complete change of mind resulting in a change of direction. It is not merely external/behavioral, but internal and relational. Repentance involves sorrow for sin…our old way of life is no longer what we glory in. In repentance, we are relationally turning back to our Heavenly Father in Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit! It is important that we realize that we don’t repent in order to be forgiven, but because we have been forgiven in the death and resurrection of Christ. We love him because he first loved us!

2. Be Baptized.

“Baptism” is a Greek word that has been given English letters without translation. So what does it mean? The nuances in the original language include both immersion (like a sunken ship) and identification. I have to ask myself the question, “In what am I immersed?  With what, or whom, am I primarily identified? For the nation of Israel, it was the Exodus event. In fact, 1 Cor. 10:2 says, “they all were baptized into Moses at the Red Sea” but this is not our defining moment. Christians are defined by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism is about our declaration, identification, and obedience:

• Declaration—We are saying something.  In baptism, we are declaring that we are dead to sin and alive to Christ.  We are making public our decision to submit to Christ and to leave behind the sinful things of the past.  We are saying that we have determined that because of Christ's finished work on the cross, we will no longer allow sin to reign over us, but instead will submit our lives to Christ, actively living for Him. In baptism, we are immersed in Christ!
• Identification—We are relating to Someone.  In baptism, we are identifying ourselves with the Savior, in both his death and his resurrection. In going down into the water, we identify with the death and burial of Christ. In coming up out of the water, we identify with the resurrection of Christ. We are saying that if there is going to be any distinguishing feature, any recognizable traits in our life, it will be that people recognize by our life and our words that we are followers of Jesus!
• Obedience—We are following Someone.  In baptism, we are obeying God's Word, beginning our life with Christ in an appropriate way.  We are commanded to be baptized; Jesus has given us an example to follow.  In being baptized as a profession of our faith in Christ, we are beginning to walk with the Lord as we ought. Until we begin to do the basic things he has told us all to do, how can we have confidence in any kind of specific/personal leading from the Lord?

3. Receive the promise of the Spirit and of salvation to all who call on the Lord Jesus!

• God comes to live within us through the Holy Spirit.
• He forgives us of our sins, something we could never do for ourselves.
• He empowers us to live faithfully unto God and each other.

Do you know him today? If you have never asked Jesus to forgive your sins and to be the Lord of your life, you can do so today. And if you do, make sure you tell someone!

If you haven’t been baptized and want to declare God’s work in your life, identify with him, and obey his commands, I suggest that you talk to your pastor about it as soon as possible!

Wind & Fire Come Down to Earth: “What Does This Mean?”

Birth of the Church, Part 1

This week our text was taken from Acts 2:1-21, which contains the first part of the narrative recording what transpired that first Pentecost, 50 days after Jesus’ death and burial at Passover. Remember what Jesus had instructed his followers to do—stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit, then they were to become witnesses of the resurrection beginning in Jerusalem and reaching “to the ends of the earth.”

We will examine Acts 2:1-21 in four steps: (1) The Coming of the Holy Spirit; (2) The Correction; (3) The Connection; and (4) The Call to Faith.

1) The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4)

A) Symbolized in Wind & Fire

  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.

Pentecost

The promised Holy Spirit came upon the followers of the risen Christ in power on Pentecost (lit. the 50^th day), which was the day after the seventh Sabbath following Passover. Originally celebrated as the Feast of Weeks, spanning from the firstfruits of the barley harvest at Passover to the completion of the wheat harvest (Ex. 23:16; Lev. 23:17-22; Num. 28:26-31), but had become more of a remembrance and renewal of the Law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai. Expositors Bible Commentary aptly notes, “Whereas Pentecost was for Judaism the day of the giving of the law, for Christians it is the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit.” The Law told people how to live, but didn’t enable us to keep it. The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to live faithfully in the love of Christ. 

We see that the account of this “coming” emphasizes God’s action to fulfill his promise and the apostles’ availability you receive it. However, I am intrigued by the symbolism of the wind and the fire.

Wind

While many commentators speak of the house being filled with a great wind, that is not what the text says. If we read with an eye for detail, we see that the house was not filled with wind, but with “a sound like a mighty rushing wind.” A physical wind might have been thought to be just that, but the sound of a violent wind with no wind…now that points to the Spirit! You see, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for “breath” and “wind” was ruach, which was also the word for “spirit”. In Genesis, God “breathed” into the man that he had made, and he became a living being. Later in Ezekiel 37, there is the famous vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, which the Lord planned to bring back to life. In 37:9 the prophet was instructed, “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.” Ruach is both “breath” and “winds” in this verse. God can take what is dry and dead and bring it back to life. Likewise, in the New Testament, the Greek word pneuma also meant “breath,” “wind,” and “spirit.”  What better way to communicate the presence of the Spirit of God at such a moment of change than in the sound of a great wind? The sound of the wind completely filled the house.

Fire

The “tongues of fire” that appeared would probably have reminded the men and women gathered in the house that morning of the fire on Mt. Sinai at the giving of the Law (appropriate given the seasonal emphasis) and the pillar of cloud/fire that manifested the presence of God with his people in the exodus and beyond as noted at the dedication of the Tabernacle in the wilderness,

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. (Exodus 40:34-38)

And at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple after the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies,

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 8:10-11)

While in the OT the fire/cloud was a sign of the Lord’s presence in the midst of the people, here there is a difference. The tongues of fire “rested on each one of them.” God’s presence was not only externally and corporately with them but internally and personally indwelling and empowering them. The symbolic fire might also allude to the scene in Isaiah 6:1-8 when Isaiah needed to have his “unclean lips” cleansed by a fiery coal from the altar of God before he volunteered to be the one sent by the Lord to prophesy to the people. In the Gospels, John the Baptist proclaimed that the coming Messiah would baptize the people with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16).

Psalm 104:3-4, certainly a familiar passage to the disciples, poetically ties both symbols together in a way that relates not only to the presence of the Spirit but to the commission Jesus had placed upon them,

“He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
 he makes the clouds his chariot;
    he rides on the wings of the wind;
 he makes his messengers winds,
    his ministers a flaming fire.”

In keeping with the tabernacle and Temple passages, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit. They weren’t just sprinkled, splashed, or shampooed with the Spirit but filled to the brim and spilling over with the presence of God. What did they do as a result? They spoke (in other languages) as the Spirit gave them utterance! We should note that the use of “utterance” (apophtheggomai) signals that this wasn’t “everyday speech but one ‘belonging to dignified and elevated discourse’" (also verse 14). From this small detail, perhaps we might learn that each Spirit-uttered word has weight to it. But so far, the text hasn’t told us what it was that they were saying.

The result of their filling was that they were free to love and free to praise in a whole new way.

When filled with the Spirit, what kinds of things would they speak in those languages?

This “coming of the Holy Spirit” on that Pentecost morning was not without a ripple effect of responsive “comings” as we will see.

B) Coming of the multitude (v.5-8)

  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? 

Such an unusual occurrence began to draw a crowd. “At this sound,” they came, but were they drawn by the sound of the wind or the words that were spoken, or maybe both? What we know is that “devout men” or “God-fearing men” (lit. those who “take well [carefully], i.e., circumspect religiously, pious) came to investigate. They were likely Jews from the Diaspora (when the Jews were scattered throughout the world under Assyrian and Babylonian domination, they put down roots where they were planted, and many remained there even after some returned to Jerusalem after the exile (Ezra, Nehemiah, etc.). These men would have either been pilgrims in town for the holy festival or men who had grown up abroad but had returned to live in Jerusalem. The point is that there were people there representing all the known nations (pas ethnos). In Genesis 11, we read of the Tower of Babel where the one people were separated by the confusion of their languages. Here we have many languages hearing the one message by the Holy Spirit.

These people were not prepared for what they would experience. It was outside of their cultural/theological experience. The text uses three different terms to describe their reaction: they were bewildered (sün-khe'-ō, to pour together, to confound. Used only five times, all in Acts), amazed (exístēmi,  to throw out of position, displace, astounded), and astonished (thaumazō, to wonder or marvel). Such a three-fold description magnifies their paradigm shift! It reminds me of the Portland Trailblazers’ announcer who sometimes uses three alliterative terms to describe what an opposing coach might be feeling after the Blazers break the game open (e.g., “He’s confused, confounded, and consternated!”). The thing that freaked them out was that no matter what their background was, or what language they spoke, they heard the witnesses of the resurrection speaking to them in what today we might call their “heart language.” While they might have understood the message if spoken in Greek, it meant so much more in the language of their heart.

C) Coming of the world (2:9-11a)

                          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—

As we have noted, in a proleptic way, the commission to preach the gospel to all the world was fulfilled on Pentecost. It was like a down payment on their calling to be witnesses. God initially brought the world to them and, through these initial conversions, opened the door for the Gospel to be proclaimed in many lands and to many peoples. Today, we are experiencing something similar in many cities and suburbs around the country as we have a tremendous influx of immigrants, which, if we recognize it, will be an unparalleled mission opportunity!

So what were the disciples saying as the Spirit gave them utterance?

D) Coming of the message (v. 11b-12)

                             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?” 

They heard them speaking “the mighty works of God,” certainly in terms of the birth, life, teaching, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ! This was really messing with their comfortable religious understandings. In addition to the previously used word, “amazed", Luke adds perplexed (diaporeō, to be entirely at loss; also used only five times and all in Luke/ Acts). Has God ever spoken the truth into your life—so much so that you were entirely at a loss as to how to process it? At the church where I served for many years, we would often have people enter the building, and as the congregation sang praise to God, they sensed the Holy Spirit meeting them in a powerful way and would often burst out in tears of repentance and joy.

But there are always “others” who, instead of marveling, try to cover up their own inability to process by resorting to mocking.

2) The Correction: “No, it’s not That!” (v.13-15)

But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

But Peter, standing with the eleven,

                           lifted up his voice and addressed them:

“Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem,

               let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. 

For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, 

                                     since it is only the third hour of the day. 

The “third hour” would have been 9:00AM, before the Jews would have breakfasted or consumed wine. This answer by Peter, “Nine O Clock in the Morning “ would one day become the title of the late Rev. Canon Dennis Bennett's autobiographical account of how a high church, Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian was drawn to the Pentecostal experience of the baptism of the Holy Spirit attended by speaking in unlearned tongues and how the Charismatic renewal spread in the 1960s.

Do you find it ironic that the first church sermon came in response to skeptical mocking?

Peter used their musing, misunderstanding, and mocking to propel him into a doozy of a message!

3) The Connection: “This is That!” (v. 16-20; Joel 2:11-14, 28-32)

Peter began that first evangelistic sermon by connecting the dots between what the multitude was observing and the Old Testament prophecy of Joel 2.

The context of Joel’s prophecy was a devastating locust plague (possibly serving as an object lesson predicting an invasion by enemy armies). After the locusts come, land, and eat everything…then they lay eggs. Then there is a terrible time of waiting for the larvae to hatch and eat anything that remained or was starting to grow back.

If we go back and read Joel 2:11-15, we can see the true character of the Lord revealed, even if there was uncertainty over deliverance from any specific circumstance. The Lord is relational, and his call was for them to return to him.

   The Lord utters his voice before his army,
for his camp is exceedingly great;
    he who executes his word is powerful.
For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome;
    who can endure it?

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
    “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
   and rend your hearts and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
    for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
    and he relents over disaster.
   Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
                 and leave a blessing behind him,
a grain offering and a drink offering
    for the Lord your God?

And then in v. 17 the priests’ prayer, “Spare your people, O Lord…” is recorded. Do we ask God for mercy today? Only if we know we need it! You see, a request for mercy is a confession of a need for mercy. In Joel’s day, they were making a bet based on an incomplete understanding that gave room for doubt, “Who knows?” … perhaps the Lord will spare us.

Peter, in addressing the multitude, actually quoted Joel 2:28-32 in Acts 2:16-20,

But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

   “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,
             and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
             and your young men shall see visions,
             and your old men shall dream dreams;
   even on my male servants 

             and female servants
              in those days

       I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
   And I will show wonders in the heavens above
                     and signs     on the earth       below,
                                            blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
                                  the sun shall be turned to darkness
                 and the moon to blood,
    before the                                     day of the Lord comes,

               the great and magnificent day.

Peter connected the dots between the prophecy in Joel 2 and what they were seeing and hearing that day—namely that the Holy Spirit was being given to everyone who would believe and receive him. We need to take note of the inclusive language used here. “All flesh” indicates that all races/ethnicities will be included, the mention of both male and female recipients indicates the coming of the Spirit was not gender restricted, young and old indicates that it was not generationally bound, and finally the mention of servants indicates that this Pentecostal experience was not based on socio-economic strata. This inclusive manifestation of the Spirit is crucial to our understanding of the church. The Spirit breaks down the dividing walls of society in a continuation of the work of Christ according to the heart of the Father.

While the last part of the Joel quote containing the apocalyptic imagery did not happen immediately, as perhaps Peter suspected, it would happen shortly in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem AD 70. The descriptions are consistent with the dust of armies moving and the smoke of the city burning. In 2002, we were visiting family in Southern Oregon, and because of smoke from a large wildfire, we didn’t see the sun for a week. I finally caught a glimpse that looked like a dim red traffic light in the sky. Other places on earth (e.g., Beijing) often have a degree of air pollution severe enough to hide the sun and moon. Josephus, the first-century historian, vividly described the fall of Jerusalem in similar terms.

However, whether or not Peter expected such apocalyptic signs to be fulfilled in the near future or not, he quoted the whole passage from Joel most likely to get to the last line found in v. 21.

4) The Call to Faith (v. 21)

   And it shall come to pass that 

          everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord

                                         shall be saved.’

This is the verse to which Peter was headed. The call to the Lord in faith will certainly be answered. We can have absolute confidence in the salvation made available by the Lord if we ask. However, this doesn’t mean that we will be spared (in this life) from all the consequences of our actions (e.g., speeding tickets, flunked tests, or investment losses).

In conclusion, let’s ask ourselves a few questions:

What was this Pentecost experience? God was pouring out the Holy Spirit on all who responded.

What kind of God is he? “He is gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.” (Joel 2:13)

Where does he come to dwell? The Holy Spirit dwells not merely in our midst, but within our hearts!

When filled by the Spirit, what do we speak? The mighty works of God! 

What do we hear? God speaking to us in our heart language.

In faith, do we ask honest questions, seeking understanding? Or merely spew ad hominem attacks (Latin, “against the man”), demonizing what is outside our own experience?

Jesus, in conversing with the teacher, Nicodemus said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)

Jesus was born of the Spirit

The Church was born of the Spirit

Individuals come to faith and are “born again” in the Spirit.

Right to the very end of the Bible, we find the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing...

The Spirit (pneuma) and the Bride say, “Come.”

            And let the one who hears say, “Come.”

            And let the one who is thirsty     come;

                   let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Rev. 22:17)

Have you called on the name of the Lord in confession and faith?