Acts 2:5-13

Acts 2:5–13 CSB

Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts), Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.” They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But some sneered and said, “They’re drunk on new wine.”

“They’re drunk on new wine.” [1]

The whole question of Acts 1, you remember, was of how God would fulfil the promise to extend his kingdom, his saving, sovereign rule, not only in Israel but through Israel, to reach the rest of the world. In other words, the question had to do with the challenge to see how God was going to fulfil what he had said to Abraham in Genesis 12:3: ‘In you, and in your family, all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ And this promise to Abraham comes directly after the dramatic and comic chapter in which the people of Babel are building a tower, thinking arrogantly to make a name for themselves. God’s response, as always, to human pride and arrogance is to overturn the project and ridicule the people, which he accomplishes by confusing their languages so that they cannot understand one another and cannot therefore work together on creating a human society which would have no need of the creator God.

Genesis 12:3 CSB

I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Now, Luke is implying, with the day of Pentecost this curse is itself overturned; in other words, God is dramatically signaling that his promises to Abraham are being fulfilled, and the whole human race is going to be addressed with the good news of what has happened in and through Jesus[2] I love how the Bible continually shows us that it's all about Jesus. the promises that God made to Abraham are being fulfilled by the good news of Jesus Christ. All the people present were Jewish or at least proselytes (Gentiles who had converted to Judaism), since the reason they were in Jerusalem was to attend the Jewish festival. But they had come from all over, from countries each of which would have its own native language and local dialects. Luke gives the list of where they came from in a great sprawling sweep, covering tens of thousands of square miles, from Parthia and Mesopotamia in the north and east to Rome in the west and Egypt and Arabia in the south, together with the island of Crete. The point is not to give an exact list of precisely where everyone came from in the crowded city of Jerusalem that day, but to splash across the page the sense of a great multilingual company all hearing words spoken in their own language.[3] Hardly surprisingly, to some it sounded simply like the slurred and babbling speech of people who have had too much to drink. Again and again in Acts we find opposition, incredulity, scoffing and sneering at what the apostles say and do, at the same time as great success and conviction. 1 Corinthians 2:14

1 Corinthians 2:14 CSB

But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

This is such a good example of how people who do not understand God and do not have the spirit of God living within them will not understand it. There's going to be times throughout our Christian walk with God where we're persecuted where we're mocked where we're called drunk when we're really full of the spirit. What we have to notice is that the opposition the scoffing the sneering they're making fun of happened but also God's word was bold God's spirit was moving and there was great conviction upon the people who were there. You see there's some who will never understand who will always make fun of us but never stop what God is doing in your life never allow people who don't understand to hinder what God has allowed you to understand. Had Peter stood up and said this is not us being drunk but since it looks that way we're gonna stop please forgive us we'll be quiet from here on out who knows what would have happened but one thing I know that would not have happened 3000 people would not have given their lives to Jesus and been baptized that day. That verse in first Corinthians clearly tells us that when the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us we begin to understand things that others don't understand and this story and acts clearly shows us that even though there were scoffers and even though there was things happening that nobody could understand and or explain even to this day God was still moving God's will was still being done. And now NT right has a very interesting take on the last part of Pentecost and I put it in this sermon to challenge you to ask yourself this question and it's not necessarily for me to preach what I think in this piece of the sermon but it's for me too present something to you and to ask you to ask yourself how you feel about this. Please ask yourself are you worshipping the Lord and doing everything that he's asking you to do or even telling you to do the way that he would have you to do it openly and freely not caring what others may think. Are there times where you want to get up and raise your hands and shout and you don't because you're worried about what others would think or are there times where you just wanna get down on your knees during worship and cry out to God but you don't because you're worried about what others would think are there times where the Holy Spirit has spoken to you when you're out and about about any specific thing but you haven't done it because you're worried about what others would think about you please think to yourself and if this is you in any way shape or form ask the Lord to help you with it.

And again and again in the work of the church, to this day, there are always plenty who declare that we are wasting our time and talking incomprehensible nonsense. Equally, some Christians have been so concerned to keep up safe appearances and to make sure they are looking like ordinary, normal people that they would never, under any circumstances, have been accused of being drunk, at nine o’clock in the morning or any other time. Part of the challenge of this passage is the question: have our churches today got enough energy, enough spirit-driven new life, to make onlookers pass any comment at all? Has anything happened which might make people think we were drunk? If not, is it because the spirit is simply at work in other ways, or because we have so successfully quenched the spirit that there is actually nothing happening at all?[4] and don't hear what I'm not saying right here I'm not saying the being full of the spirit always means we look drunk I'm not saying that for us to do what God cause us to do with boldness that we have to look drunk that's not at all what I'm saying but what I am saying is that when the spirit fills us and other people don't understand it we will look different and they will not understand it and are we always being understood without the spirit? Are we OK with not being understood with the spirit? You see quite honestly our church is kind of looked at is not understood when it comes to the Nazarene church as a whole in the district we're a little bit louder we're a little more charismatic we shout and we praise the Lord and a lot of them don't understand it but that doesn't mean that we're moving as freely as God would have us to move. I'm challenging you tonight to worship freely I'm challenging you tonight to ask the Holy Spirit to enable you to be bold. What we see in the scripture that we've read tonight is a group of people who have followed Jesus for three years who have just watched him go through the crucifixion who have now waited in obedience prayed in fellowship and sought the face of God and now been filled with the Holy Spirit and the very first thing that they face is scoffing in opposition but the beautiful thing about it is is that the feeling of the Holy Spirit made them bold made them not care about what others think and so we see from the very instant the church is born we see pushback but we also see 120 bold firefield spirit filled doers of Jesus Christ worshipping him without caring what others think and as we're going to see next week when Peter stands up boldly for the Lord and preaches the first sermon under the new covenant and 3000 people get saved and baptized that Jesus ministry had not come to an end it was just getting started through the Holy Spirit.