The Coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-13)

Welcome and Announcements

Bible Study & Prayer resumes this week.

Church Workday on October 1, 2022 starting at 9:30am.

Please prepare to partake in the Lord’s Supper on October 2nd during Sunday AM Worship.

Let me remind you to continue worshiping the Lord through your giving. To help you give, we have three ways to do so, (1) cash and checks can be given at the offering box. Checks should be written to Grace & Peace; debit, credit, and ACH transfers can be done either by (2) texting 84321 with your $[amount] and following the text prompts or (3) by visiting us online at www.giving.gapb.church. Of course, everything you give goes to the building up of our local church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Call to Worship (Ps 63)

Our Call to Worship is Psalm 63, which is a psalm of David that was written when he was being chased by his son Absalom. Absalom had stolen the throne from David and was seeking to kill him; and thus, David runs and hides in the wilderness of Judah. You’ll see as we read through the psalm some imagery of the desert utilized by David to describe how he longs for the Lord. He ends this psalm by claiming that he will praise the Lord as the rightful king of Israel. Please stand and read Psalm 63 with me—I’ll read the odd-numbered verses; please join me in reading the even-numbered verses.

Psalm 63 ESV

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. 1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. 4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. 9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth; 10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

Congregational Singing

Beautiful Savior (All My Days) (193)

O Great God (35)

His Mercy is More (Lead)

Scripture Reading (Luke 24:36-53)

Our Scripture Reading this morning is a passage that we looked at a few weeks ago for Scripture Reading as well. We’re re-reading it this morning because it is a passage that gives a promise that is fulfilled in our sermon’s text this morning. In Luke 24 we see Jesus telling His disciples to go and make more disciples and then He promises to send the Holy Spirit to enable them and equip them for the work of the ministry. Deane can you read Luke 24:36-53 for us?

Luke 24:36–53 ESV

36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them. 44 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.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.

Preaching of God’s Word (Acts 2:1-13)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to Acts 2:1-13.

Our text for this morning continues the historical narrative that we’ve been working through since the start of our time in the Acts of the Apostles. What we see in this text, is the fulfillment of the promise that Jesus gave before His ascension, which we read from Luke 24:36-53; and unfortunately, because of the false teaching of many, many people in our modern-day world, we have to spend some additional time this morning refuting false teaching while working through this passage. This refutation confronts the issue of speaking in tongues and the misrepresentation of this text to prove that speaking in tongues is a requirement of genuine belief. (Let me be abundantly clear, that’s what the false teaching teaches, not what the text itself teaches.)

And the worst part is that much of this false teaching involves an issue in this text that isn’t even the main point of the passage, but I’ll make that clearer the further we get in this morning’s sermon.

Let me be abundantly clear before we read the text--the point of this text is two-fold: (1) when Jesus makes a promise, He keeps that promise; and (2) when He commissions His people, He equips His people.

Keep this in mind as we read Acts 2:1-13.

Acts 2:1–13 ESV

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

As we study this passage, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) The Arrival of the Holy Spirit (1-4) and The Speaking of Tongues (5-13). This morning, we’re going to be taking a significant look at the Day of Pentecost and what exactly the speaking of tongues was in this moment. And again, while we will spend some amount of time discussing the issue of speaking in tongues, I do want to be abundantly clear, the speaking of tongues in Acts 2:1-13 isn’t the point—the point is the coming of the Holy Spirit, which was a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to empower them and equip them to proclaim the Gospel truth.

Prayer for Illumination

The Arrival of the Holy Spirit (1-4)

Our text starts this morning by giving us the setting in v. 1, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.”

Sometimes, I think Christians today don’t realize that Pentecost originally started as a Jewish holiday—most believers today assume that the Day of Pentecost was something that was only celebrated by the early church as the day that the Holy Spirit came and indwelled the believers permanently for the first time, but it’s important to note that the Day of Pentecost existed prior to the church.

Before the advent of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost was a Jewish holiday that celebrated the end of the harvest. In Hebrew, the day is called shavout.

Historically, we see the roots of shavout or pentecost in Leviticus 23:15-16 “15 ‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.”

Which simply means that the Jewish shavout or original pentecost was a day in which the Jewish people celebrated the second harvest of the year in which they would then present a grain offering to the Lord.

As the holiday or festival evolved, by the life of Jesus, it became the day that the Jewish people would celebrate the giving of the Law from God to the Jewish people.

This explains why on the day of Pentecost, there were tons and tons of people in Jerusalem. They were there to celebrate the end of the harvest and the giving of the Law.

Which gives us some possible ideas as to why God chose for His Spirit to come this day—if we’re looking at it in context of what the day means:

The day of shavout or pentecost was a day in which they would remember how God provides for them—now, God provides for them in a new way.

Another reason might simply be that this was a day in which the Jewish people who were exiled throughout the land would gather together—so all the Jewish people who weren’t normally in the same location now can bear witness to what the Holy Spirit did on the day of Pentecost.

Regardless, the day chosen for the advent of the Holy Spirit was a day in which the Jewish people were already together to celebrate a different occasion.

They were all together in one place celebrating the giving of the Law to the people of Israel and the end of the second harvest of the year.

And that’s when the Spirit descended and indwelled those who genuinely believed, vv. 2-3, “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.”

Note first, that v. 2 makes it clear that whereas there was a large gathering of Jewish people in Jerusalem, the event of the Holy Spirit initially indwelling them was focused on those within this house.

This is the same house that the 120 were in when they made the decision to replace Judas Iscariot with Matthias; it’s quite possibly the same house that the last supper was eaten in.

And we aren’t certain if in vv. 1-4, the 120 were still all here or if it’s just the apostles, but regardless of if it was all 120 disciples or just the 12 apostles, we see a significant event happen to those that were there.

V. 2 speaks of a sound of a mighty rushing wind coming from heaven and filling the entire house.

Of course, the implication is that this rushing wind was quite possibly the Holy Spirit itself entering into the house.

But the question is, what exactly does v. 3 mean? “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.”

Note that this is figurative language—in fact, the NLT emphasizes the figurative language here very well, “Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.”

There’s something happening in this passage that is shown through symbolic means. Patrick Schreiner writes of this symbolism, “Fire was . . . associated with the temple, as Israel offered sacrifices (Exod 29:18) and fire inside the tabernacle (Exod 40:38) and temple (2 Chr 7:1 . . . ) God answers in fire on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs 18:38) when Elijah requests help (2 Kgs 1:12). Fire, like wind, indicates the presence of God . . . At Pentecost the fire divides and does not consume (Luke 3:16). It comes not on the mountain but rest on people and does not annihilate them. In the OT people are not fit for the fire of God to dwell on them, but now they have the ascended priest interceding for them and pleading their cases and thereby become the priestly prophets like Moses.” (Patrick Schreiner, Acts, Christian Standard Commentary, 113)

Or in other words, we’re seeing the presence of God resting upon His people and in this instance, we see the presence of God symbolized by tongues of fire; and there’s a reason for this, it’s actually quite simple, because the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in v. 3 then continues with their first act as an indwelling people of God in verbal proclamation of the Gospel.

V. 4 says that “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Note that this is referring to a permanent indwelling of genuine believers by the Holy Spirit. This is not the same as when the Bible teaches us to be continuously filled by the Spirit, that is a different matter altogether.

Sometimes what happened in Acts 2 is referred to as the baptism of the Holy Spirit and occasionally, we see instances of the Holy Spirit being poured out or coming upon people or people simply receiving the Spirit. Again, that’s not the same as the continuously being filled with the Spirit that we see elsewhere.

In every instance that the Holy Spirit is spoken of like this, it’s speaking of new converts and it points out the fact that the Spirit comes to permanently indwell every believer in different ways—not every new believer’s experience of being indwelled by the Spirit is signified by the speaking of tongues.

Or in other words, despite what the Pentecostal movement of churches claim, not everyone can nor should be expected to speak in tongues. In fact, Paul points this out in 1 Corinthians 12:29-30, “29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? 30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?”

In the case of our brothers in Acts 2, their speaking in tongues wasn’t a result of their salvation or even their being filled by the Holy Spirit. Rather, the Holy Spirit filled them and then enabled them to speak in tongues for that one moment to proclaim the Gospel to those that were there.

It wasn’t supposed to be normative, it was simply a moment in which the Holy Spirit equipped them to speak different earthly languages for the purpose of the proclamation of the Gospel.

Which by the way, the Greek word translated as tongues is the word γλοσσα and can also be translated as languages.

The point here really isn’t the speaking in tongues, but rather the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to them concerning the Holy Spirit.

He promised that the Holy Spirit would come and the Spirit did indeed.

He promised that the Holy Spirit would equip them.

He promised that the Holy Spirit would help them.

And the Holy Spirit did.

The Spirit prepared those that had already believed for the work of the ministry.

We see this in the simple truth that they began to speak in other tongues “as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

Now the speaking of tongues is a unique event that isn’t normative, so in vv. 5-13, Luke describes what the speaking in tongues looked like and sounded like. He does this by describing where all these people were from and pointing out that the apostles were speaking to this large group of people and they were all understanding them in their own native languages. Look at vv. 5-13.

The Speaking of Tongues (5-13)

Acts 2:5–13 ESV

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Luke continues by pointing out the large amounts of people in Jerusalem at that time from the various different places.

Because the Roman Empire had control over much of the Mediterranean area during the Pax Romana, which made a much larger area safer to live in, the Jewish people had spread throughout much of the Roman Empire, but this is a Jewish feast day.

When you consider the Jewish understanding of what it means to worship God in the first century, it makes sense that there would be large amounts of Jewish people in Jerusalem from all over the empire.

Unlike today, where God’s people can worship the Lord anywhere, the Old Testament law required Jewish people to go to Jerusalem, to the temple, to worship the Lord.

Thus, Jewish people that normally lived in other areas of the empire descended upon Jerusalem to worship the Lord together.

Of course, because they lived in different areas of the kingdom, many of them spoke different languages—it wasn’t like our modern-day United States where just about everyone in the US speaks English.

There were, of course, languages that were more common than others—Latin was significantly utilized because it was the language of the empire itself.

Koine Greek, which is the Greek that the New Testament was written in, was utilized in the eastern Mediterranean region into the Middle East.

But then depending on the area that you lived in, the more common language might have been something else—the Roman Empire didn’t force the regions to give up their own culture or language when they were conquered, they allowed the regions to continue utilizing their own languages—thus those from Mesopotamia spoke their specific languages, those from Asia, spoke their languages, and so on.

What’s happening on the day of Pentecost is that the Holy Spirit did something supernatural to equip the apostles to speak in such a way that everyone heard them in their own languages and understood them.

The speaking in tongues in Acts 2 wasn’t to validate that the Holy Spirit had come upon them, rather, the speaking in other languages was a tool given by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the Gospel to all the people around them in their various home languages.

There were various different people in Jerusalem “from every nation under heaven”. And vv. 6-8 continues with, “at [the sound of the Holy Spirit’s advent] the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing [the disciples] 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?”

Note concerning the question of what exactly they heard that caused them to gather together has two logical answers:

It could be that they initially heard the rushing wind that the Holy Spirit caused as the Spirit came and rested upon the disciples.

Or they could’ve come together because they heard the apostles speaking in such a way that they were curious as to what they were saying.

Regardless of what exactly caused them to come, their response was that of bewilderment. They recognized that every person around them was hearing the apostles speak to them in their own language and it caused them to pose a few questions. They acknowledged that something unusual and supernatural was happening and they wanted answers as to what was happening.

The first question is in v. 7, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” — this isn’t just a simple question concerning the provenance of the apostles. Galilee was a rural, agriculturally-oriented area. The surrounding cities and areas considered Galilee to be almost backwards, maybe what we would colloquially call “hick-ish.”

The fact that the apostles could do something like this was simply unheard of especially considering where they’re from.

The second question is in v. 8, “how is it that we hear, each of us in his own language.” — this shows us the nature of the miracle at hand. This is not some made-up language, this isn’t even some sort of angelic language—this is every person in the crowd hearing the apostles speak and each individual person hearing what was being spoken in their own native language.

This question is then expanded in vv. 9-11 by expressing how impossible this truly is by sharing where all the people were from. We see fifteen different areas mentioned by the people and you probably wouldn’t know where these locations are by the names given to them in this passage, but you’d probably recognize the areas with their modern-day names—Parthia is modern-day Iran; the Medes and Elamites would be the area between Iran to towards the northern Middle East, what’s called Mesopotamia here.

Judea is still in existence; Cappadocia is modern-day central Turkey. Pontus is northern Turkey and Asia refers to the Aegean sea coast. From the Aegean seacoast, Phyrgia continues inland and Pamphylia would be the south-eastern portion of the Mediterranean sea. Egypt, Libya, and Cyrene would be the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea or what we typically refer to as Northern Africa.

We see people from Rome itself, people from the island of Crete and those who are farther east and southward in Arabia.

The point really is that they’ve all come from various distant lands—and in a sense, we could say that most of the known world of the west was represented in some way on the Day of Pentecost.

Note what they hear in v. 11, “we hear them telling in our own tongues [or languages] the mighty works of God.”

What exactly they were proclaiming about the mighty works of God, we don’t see yet—though judging by what Peter says in his sermon in next week’s passage, it is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But also note, what their response to this is, vv. 12-13, “And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”

For the first group of people, this event caused curiosity and wander; they recognized that this was something amazing and miraculous that couldn’t and wouldn’t normally happen

This first group is probably the same group that soon listens to the words that Peter preaches and then responds with repentance.

For the second group of people, this event was written off as nothing but the apostles being “filled with new wine.”

Despite the fact that every person who heard the apostles heard them speak in their own languages, they mocked and pretended like the apostles were just drunk.

Despite the fact that what the apostles said was intelligible, they pretended like they couldn’t understand the apostles, which sounds precisely like how unbelievers who refuse to believe the truth reject even blatant evidences of truth.

In the remaining few minutes, let’s take some time to learn how to apply this passage in a way that is biblical and God-honoring. I’m going to suggest that you may have heard this passage twisted and abused to fit a certain theological position, so let me encourage you to look at this passage seeking to only learn what the passage teaches and not seeking to prove ideology.

Application

As I mentioned in the introduction of this text—despite the fact that we’ve spent a significant amount of time discussing speaking in tongues—speaking in tongues isn’t the actual point of the passage. In fact, misunderstanding this truth has led to various churches and Christians taking the idea of speaking in tongues in the completely wrong direction and has caused all sorts of false teachings and vain discussions. The point in this passage isn’t that those who are filled by the Holy Spirit will speak in tongues; nor is it that speaking in tongues is a sign that a person is genuinely filled by the Holy Spirit.

There’s two primary points that are emphasized in this passage and it’s those points that drive the application: (1) Jesus made them a promise and this promise is kept in vv. 1-4 and (2) As part of Jesus’ promise to them, the Holy Spirit equipped them to proclaim the Gospel—or put differently, the Holy Spirit equipped them to obey Jesus (5-13).

Jesus kept his promise (1-4)—we see in vv. 1-4 the Day of Pentecost, the apostles in the upper room, and suddenly there was a loud sound of rushing wind, we see this symbolic event happening with divided tongues as of fire, the apostles are then filled by the Spirit, and then they start making proclamations with various different languages simultaneously.

Now, many people in more pentecostal and what we call charismatic churches look at this text and they isolate it from the rest of Scripture and develop whole doctrines based on their taking this text out of its context.

So, they read this and they then make the assertion that this is evidence that when people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak in tongues.

And then they develop that doctrine by stating that those who don’t speak in tongues can’t possibly be a Christian because those who are filled by the Holy Spirit have to speak in tongues.

But in making this assertion and by taking this passage out of context, they reject sound biblical hermeneutics or in other words, they aren’t interpreting Scripture the way that Scripture teaches us to interpret Scripture.

For instance, you’ve heard me mention multiple times that you cannot isolate a single passage of Scripture from its context—doing so, can change the meaning of the verses that you’re reading.

What’s the context of this passage? The context is that Jesus made them a promise just before ascending—and just a few verses after making that promise, He fulfills the promise by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

By taking it out of context, you can make it mean what you want it to (like this idea that all believers must speak in tongues)—but by keeping it in context, you see that this isn’t about speaking in tongues, but rather the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise.

In addition, a cardinal rule with biblical interpretation is that you always interpret Scripture in light of Scripture.

Again, consider Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 12 that not every Christian speaks in tongues—if you’re going to claim that everyone has to speak in tongues, then you either have to explain away 1 Corinthians 12 or ignore it—neither of which are good options.

In context and in light of other passages of Scripture, Acts 2:1-13 isn’t about the necessity of every genuine Christian speaking in tongues, but rather Jesus’ promise being fulfilled by the Holy Spirit.

Or in other words, the passage isn’t about speaking in tongues, it’s about Jesus fulfilling His promise to the apostles.

It is yet, another example of Jesus being worthy of our trust—He keeps His word.

So, our first application is simple—Jesus keeps His Word even when life seems out of control, so trust Him.

In addition to this, we see in vv. 5-13 another application to consider. It’s found in this statement the Holy Spirit equipped them for obedience (5-13)—The Holy Spirit indwells the apostles for the first time in Acts 2 and then the Spirit equips the apostles to speak in various different languages to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Or again, the Holy Spirit equips the apostles to obey Jesus.

For the apostles, that meant giving them the ability to speak various different languages simultaneously to proclaim the Gospel to everyone in Jerusalem who happened at that time to be from various different places.

The filling of the Spirit wasn’t a temporary issue, it was a permanent indwelling, which we then see happen later on in Acts to Gentile believers as well.

And through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who by the way was sent to indwell the apostles by God, the apostles were equipped in a unique way to do what Jesus had told them to do.

Remember, Jesus commissioned them to go and proclaim the Gospel and now the Holy Spirit has enabled them and empowered them to obey.

Now, we know that the same commission that Jesus gives to the disciples in Matthew 28 is given to all who genuinely believe—we are all to go and make disciples of every nation.

For most believers, there is a certain amount of trepidation or fear when it comes to trying to make new disciples. We tend to be anxious whenever it comes to sharing our faith with anyone, let alone going beyond just sharing our faith to helping someone become a disciple.

We tend to worry that we won’t have the right words to say or we won’t know what passage of Scripture to use; or we tend to worry that by making our faith known to others, they won’t like us or they’ll reject us.

The second issue, the fear of man is a sin problem that you need to repent of—you’ve elevated how you feel or what you think other people might think about you to a level that you’re disobeying God. It is sin and you must repent.

The first issue, that anxiety or the worry that you might not know the right words to say or what passage of Scripture to use can be absolved by remembering that Jesus has commissioned you to make disciples; and the Holy Spirit empowers you and enables you to make disciples; so go make disciples.

This same idea applies to everything that God calls you to do. I mean that in a general sense of the word call and in a specific sense of the word call:

In a general sense, we know that all believers are called to make disciples—we also know that all believers are called to reject sin, to repent from their former lives, and to seek holiness.

We know that believers are to reject the works of the flesh and seek the fruits of the Spirit.

And I could go on with other ideas, but I think you can see where I’m going with all this.

The Bible teaches believers to live a certain way—it’s the general call.

It’s the Holy Spirit that empowers and enables believers to live the way that Scripture teaches us to live.

While you’ll never completely fulfill every aspect of this call because you live in a sin-cursed world and you’re dealing with the curse as an individual you’re still required to reject sin, repent from your former life, seek holiness and the fruits of the Spirit.

And you can only do any of this through the Holy Spirit’s work within you.

In a specific sense, you’re called by God to serve Him in a way that He has gifted you to serve—I mean this in both a church-ministry sense and a career sense.

As someone in a local church, God has gifted you in such a way with both gifts and your personality to serve in such a way that brings glory and honor to His name. The Spirit empowers and enables you to do this faithfully.

As someone in your chosen career, God has gifted you in such a way with both gifts and your personality to work in such a way that brings glory and honor to His name. The Spirit empowers and enables you to do this faithfully.

The question is, are you fulfilling the calling that He has given to you with your spiritual gifts and personality?

If God is calling you to preach—are you preaching? If He is calling you to teach—are you teaching? If He is calling you to serve—are you serving?

If God is calling you to be in full-time ministry—are you doing it? If God is calling you to teach in a Christian school—are you? This applies to every career field—if God calls you to be an accountant, are you willing to do it? If God calls you to be a custodian at PO, will you do it?

Are you fulfilling what God has called you to do?

God has called you to serve Him in the local church and in your career and in every aspect of your life.

You might say, but I can’t do these sorts of things; but the Holy Spirit empowers and equips His people to serve Him well.

You might say that I’m not intelligent enough, I’m not charismatic enough, or I’m not good enough; but the Holy Spirit empowers and equips His people to serve Him well.

Really, how we could sum up this bit of application is like this—God has called you to live like a Christian ought to live and He has called you to serve Him however He has gifted you and however He has made you regardless of if you feel equipped to do it and regardless if you feel good enough or intelligent enough or charismatic enough.

He has called you to serve Him and His Spirit equips you to serve Him—so serve Him by obeying Him.

Put simply, Acts 2:1-13 though often misrepresented by those who seek to misuse the text, teaches us to (1) trust Jesus because He keeps His promises and (2) serve Him by obeying Him—even when you don’t feel like you’re good enough, or smart enough, or charismatic enough, or equipped enough. His Spirit equips and enables you to serve Him and obey Him—so serve Him well and obey Him.

Pastoral Prayer

Congregational Singing

I Will Glory in My Redeemer (196)