The King's Questions: What does

Notes:

Introduction:

Ascension Day and Pentecost: Focus on Questions about the King

Jesus has left: Now what?

“Why are you looking up at the sky?”

“What does this mean?”

“When the day of Pentecost came...”=Lit. “When the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled.” “End of a period of preparation and anticipation.” Peterson

What does the “Divided Tongues of Fire” mean?

Presence and Power

Fire=Presence

Indicates presence of God, “especially in his burning holiness and purity, consuming everything that is impure.” ESVSB

Presence:

Burning Bush:

Ex 3.2 “2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.”

Pillar of Fire

Ex 40:38 “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.”

Ex 13:21 “21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.”

Power:

Ex 19:18 “18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.”

Isaiah 4:5 “5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.”

Ezek 1:4 “4 As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.”

Individual aspect of the New Covenant

Purity:

Lev 10:1-3 “1 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.”

APPLICATION:

What difference does this make in our lives?

What does the “Mighty Rushing Wind” mean?

Creation

Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Resurrection

Ezekiel 37:9-10 “9 Then he said to me, “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.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

New Creation: Movement of the Ruach

Isaiah 66:15 “15 “For behold, the Lord will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to render his anger in fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.”

Something new is happening? Something transformative is happening. What is that?

Consummation

Chapter 20: Under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected; and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.

“Israel Church”

Like a birthday, but not. It’s like a cup filled?

What does “Speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance” mean?

Reverse of the Tower of Babel: Plenty of similarities and differences:

SHOW PICTURE

Differences:

Technology vs. Spirit

First piece of Technology:

If we put this and that together, we get something different. What should we do?

Hostile Takeover of Heaven: “To make a name for themselves.”

Tower vs. Temple

- the Tower of Babel means the Tower to the Gate to Heaven- that’s what Babel means in an ancient Babylonian language.

Tower=human attempt to create a spiritual stairway to heaven

Temple: Recreation of the Garden of Eden. Building, but organic.

God gives the dimensions, instructions.

Pentecost: Temple=People

Ephesians 2:22 “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

Similarities:

Geographic: Forced scattering

Stuck on the Plains of Shinar

Fill the earth and subdue it. Instead, squeeze together and push up to heaven

How to get humanity off their own agenda?

Inspiration: Language was a gift

Distracts them from making a name for themselves. Seeking one another who speak the same.

Given Languages with the same message: “We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God!”

At the foot of Mount Sinai, God commanded Israel to stay away lest they would be consumed by His presence. But now through the atoning work of Christ, the Spirit comes full force inside people. And the Spirit does so with a loud bang, flame, and language. And in an instant, Babel and Sinai unite in a culminating event of hope and joy. God has come, and he’s come to stay in people.