Acts 02_05-13 Same Message, Different Outcome

Read Acts 2:5-13 – In our study of Acts we’ve come to this glorious moment – the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the HS to permanently indwell all believers, thus creating the church – all believers from this point until Jesus’ comes again. We are connected with these by that same animating Spirit.

The primary mission of the church has never changed. Mt 28:19: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” They, and we, are to be His witnesses “to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). That means testifying to the fact that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and rose again to provide forgiveness from sin and a relationship with God for all who put their trust in Him.

But that message is eternally polarizing. II Cor 2:15: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” The news of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection brings every person to a crisis moment that means eternal life or eternal death.

One little 4-year-old boy asked his pregnant aunt, “Are you going to have a boy or girl?” She replied, “I don’t know.” He then asked, “Well, when are you going to decide?” Well, we may not get to decide boy or girl, but we all eventually decide Christ, or no. One day we’ll see every person had a moment of decision when they could have gone either way – a moment of destiny.

So here on the first day of the church, we’ve seen the spectacular signs that accompanied this initial outpouring of the Spirit. It provided once-for-all clear and unmistakable evidence that the HS has arrived as Jesus promised. Now, in vv. 5-13 we’ll see the effect of His arrival – how it prepares for the message to come, and how some blow it off without even hearing the message.

The Diverse Audience

5 “Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.” That these were “devout” (God-fearing) says most of them were Jews who were part of the “diaspora” – dispersion that had resulted from the Assyrian captivity in 722 BC and the Babylonian in 505 BC. These resulted in Jews living all over the known world. The devout among them often returned to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at feast time.

But Luke’s emphasis is that in this new era, the gospel of JC is going to all people everywhere – right from day one. The gospel and the HS who propels it transcend ethnic, national and linguistic barriers. After the great flood the nations of the world derived from descendants of Noah’s three boys – Shem, Ham and Japheth – and all represented here. Most of the people were Semites – Jews and Arabs prominent among the nations listed. But Egypt and Libya are here – descendants of Ham – and Cretans and visitors from Rome – descendants of Japheth. Thus, Luke is telling us that on the Day of Pentecost the whole known world was there in the representation of the various nations.

There’s a message in that. The Fall of mankind brought extensive alienation to all of God’s creation. Man was alienated from God, from others, from nature and even from himself. We look at our world with skeptical eyes and say not much has changed. But the very fact of the church indicates that with the coming of Jesus and the HS, God has already put in motion His kingdom plan to “unite all things in [Christ]” (Eph 1:10). The great battle to reverse the curse of the Fall and establish God’s universal rulership has begun with his reign in the hearts of His people. The church at the leading edge of this kingdom purpose – all initiated by the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross.

So, at Pentecost, God is showing that this kingdom purpose is not limited to Israel – it is for everyone. The effects of the language confusion at Babel, the result of man trying to reach God by his own devices, has now been reversed by God reaching man -- everyone hearing the gospel in his own tongue. It’s not the end; but it’s a start, and it is all God’s doing, not man’s.

And everyone is invited! Every nationality, every ethnic group -- everyone. At the World Congress of Evangelism in Berlin in 1966 many diverse nations were present. One pastor was a native of Africa, face marked by heavy cuts, colored in tattoo fashion – but now a believer having heard and received the gospel. One night 2 Auca Indians from Ecuador, told how in their primitive jungle existence, they had been held captive to superstitions and murderous warfare with other tribes. They speared to death the 5 young missionaries who came to share the love of Christ with them. But a wife and sister came back, lived with the tribe, learned the language and led them to faith in Christ. Now they shared the story of Jesus with former enemies, everywhere they could. As they spoke, the African believer jumped from this seat, ran down the aisle and threw his arms around them with tears streaming down his face. Completely different cultures – same life-changing gospel.

Don’t you long for that – even in our own community – to see the gospel of Jesus get to every home, every culture, even here. We need to pray for that, Beloved. The gospel is for everyone, and that must be our heart as well.

II. The Dynamic Attraction

What was the dynamic attraction? 6) “And at this sound the multitude came together.” What brought them together? The sound of the mighty rushing wind -- not the tongues. That’s a plural word. Sound is singular, and the only singular sound in the text is the sound of the HS coming like a mighty wind.

This is instructive in our seeker-sensitive age as we desperately try to attract an audience by the world’s methods – by making people feel good. That is not our mission. Our mission is to present God’s redemptive message to others, not to make them feel good. That would be like telling a cancer patient take two aspirin and everything will be okay. We come to hear His voice, not to be entertained. He is the attraction, – and He is enough – more than enough.

We forget that He is that mighty rushing wind. He is a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). And He is here, and we come to meet him on His terms, not ours. He is the attraction, not the pastor or the musicians or the guest magician. Annie Dillard says, “It is madness to wear ladies velvet hats to church. We should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.” When we lose our sensitivity to the HS, we lose our center. You can attract a crowd by marketing techniques;but what you do to attract them you must do to keep them. If it’s anything less than the work of the HS in our lives, we’ve undersold; we’ve lost our way.

We’ve adopted the idea that to be relevant we must be like the world – same rock music, same grunge clothing, same glamor, same success-oriented offerings, same definition of success. But Simone Weil hit the nail on the head when she said, “To be always relevant, you have to say things that are eternal.” And the only way to do that is to share the Word of God under the power of the Spirit of God – just like Pentecost. The attraction is Him, not us.

III. The Divine Attestation

Now the gathered crowd is greeted by a stunning display. 6) “And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?” The sound of the wind draws them to another spectacle – every one of them hears God praised in his own dialect. Basically the major languages of the civilized world are represented and as the crowd catches on, they are bewildered, confused, wondering, “How can this be?” It feels like they’ve entered the twilight zone and they’re blown away. Their amazement is further intensified by the fact that it is Galileans doing the speaking – guys from Hicksville.

So, what’s happening? First, let’s note what is not happening. These are not ecstatic utterances – unworldly speech. People who know these earthly languages understand what they hear. Second, these are not sermons. They are not preaching the gospel. They are praising God – exalting His name and reputation. An interesting sidenote is that speaking in tongues disappeared from church history from the apostolic age to 1901 when Charles Parham coaxed an ecstatic utterance (he thought Chinese) out of Agnes Ozman at Bethel College in Topeka, KS. His vision was to duplicate Acts 2 in taking the gospel to other countries. He actually sent some people to China, where no one could understand them. In fact, I know of no recorded instance of anyone speaking in a language unknown to them for the purpose of missions.

So, what was Acts 2? It was attestation – a miracle giving credibility to the message that followed. How would a lawyer establish his credibility? A hundred testimonials from people he helped would go a long way. So signs and miracles were God’s affirmations of a new age beginning with Jesus.

Attesting miracles defined the time of Christ and the early apostolic era. How do we know? The Bible tells us. Heb 2:3: “how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” Miracles, of Jesus and the apostles had more than one purpose, but the major one was to affirm the speaker as a true messenger of God. This was true of Jesus. Peter makes the same point in his message in Acts 2:22: “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.” Why miracles? To affirm Jesus was truly the Son of God as He claimed. No one else was doing anything like He was.

Miracles also attested the apostles. Paul wrote in II Cor 12:12: “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.” As the apostles entered new cities with a crazy message about Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah who died an atoning death, miracles affirmed their credibility – exactly what is happening in spades in Acts 2. The message is “Listen up. This is the real deal. God is here.”

So, do we have attesting miracles today? Generally, no. Why? We have something better. We have the gospel of JC in writing. You say, “How could some 2,000-year-old writing be better than a good miracle?” Good question, but when you think about God not only speaking to man, but writing it down so that we have it always on the shelf and in our lap. What a miracle that is!

Luke 16 tells of a rich man who ignored the beggar Lazarus outside his door for years begging for food. So, they died, the rich man ending up in hell and Lazarus in heaven with Abe. So eventually, when the rich man found there was no relief for him he asked Abe “send him [Laz] to my father’s house” to his five brothers [Lu 16:27-28]. 29 “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets [Scripture]; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’” It’s logical. A resurrected dead man is more compelling than Scripture any day. But God says, “Not true. If they won’t hear my Word, they’ll explain away even the greatest of miracles.” It is the Word that attests our ministry today -- sufficient for all we need (II Tim 3:16-17). But as the church began, God graciously preceded the message with attesting signs showing what followed was from God Himself.

IV. The Driving Aim

Now, note the subject of tongues is, “the mighty works of God.” Fascinating. Why not the gospel? Isn’t that the most important thing? Even the gospel has one higher aim – the glory of God. We’ll never understand our need for the gospel until we understand something of the greatness of God, of how far short we fall of that glory, and of all He has done to bring us home. So, preceding the message is the driving aim of praising and worshiping God.

John Piper says, “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. . . . Worship, is the goal of mission, [aiming] to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God.” Time prevents us developing this further, but until we grasp that all of life is to be God-centered, we’ve not really understood the gospel at all. The ultimate aim of our existence is God’s glory and the worship of Him.

V. The Divided Attitude

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.” The point here is simple. Against clear and indisputable evidence, some were mocking before they even hard the message. “They are drunk,” they laughed. But since when did getting drunk allow someone to suddenly speak in a real language that was unknown to them? It was a foolish statement driven by hearts that were determined not to believe no matter what the evidence.

TBS in Romans 1 that every person knows God intuitively from the complexity of creation if nothing else. Rom 1:20b: “So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” The mocking of these men only betrays the hardness of their own hearts. So, while many would believe on this day and find the message a “fragrance from life to life”, these would find the same message an aroma “from death to death.”

Conc – Let me close with this poem of reminder: “When statesmen have had their last parley, / And despots have made their last threat; / When prophets are dumb with misgiving, / And forces of conflict are set; / When factions misleading and treacherous / Bring chaos where order prevailed; / When freedom long cherished is vanquished, / And leaders long trusted have failed, / When God and His Word are derided, / And men and call it useless to pray; / Remember that God is still sovereign, / And HE has the last word to say.” God’s last Word will not differ from what we’ve heard today. How much better to hear Him now as an aroma of life to life, than to hear it then when it will be the aroma of death to death. Spurgeon challenged the mockers very directly: “You may laugh yourself into hell, but you cannot laugh yourself out of it.” So, in this, your moment of decision, we beg you, come to Christ. Let’s pray.

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