Pentecost — The Day the Church was Born
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Good morning Church!
I want to thank each of you for joining us on this cold Lord’s day! I also want to welcome all those who may be joining online as well.
Today we are going to be picking up where we left off last week.
We began a new journey last week into the Book of Acts and we looked at Chapter 1. We concluded that there were three points of application that we needed to work on if we are going to succeed in our mission of Bursting out the door in 2024 and those were...
We must Wait upon the Lord — Easier said than done I know but it is something we must learn to do. The disciples were given a promise by Jesus once He ascended on high that they would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit very soon.
And then we learned that it didn’t happen immediately but that they had to wait on it. And we learned how sometimes, if we want to receive the blessings of God we have to learn to wait on God, amen.
The second thing we looked at was how We’ve got to stop Worrying about the things of tomorrow and simply learn to focus on the things of today. The disciples were so caught up in when God was going to restore the kingdom of Heaven that they weren’t focusing on the job that was right in front of them.
Jesus told them to stop worrying about that, that it was none of their business and to focus on the fact that they were about to be endued with power from on high and that their main focus was going to be witnessing to others about Him.
And lastly, we looked at how We must Work until Jesus comes, amen. What kind of work should we be doing?
We must Evangelize — Who? The world! Start local but don’t stay local. Jesus told the disciples they would be witnesses unto Him in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
If we are going to burst out the doors in 2024 we must do our part in evangelizing the world…telling the lost of the goodness of God and the price He paid so that they can have eternal life!
We must Edify — Who? Ourselves and other believers. Jesus said to go and teach! The only way we can teach is if we know what it is that we’re teaching!
We talked about the importance of getting in the word of God and learning as much as we possibly can in order that we can teach others about it! And we talked about how we ought to be shining the love and light of God to others everywhere we go lifting up those Brothers and Sisters in Christ who may need our help physically and spiritually.
We must Endure — And lastly, we talked about how if we endure to the end of this road we call life…Jesus said you shall be saved. When all looks dark and gloomy and it seems as if there’s no hope we must keep on keeping on for the Kingdom of God!
Today, we’re going to pick up here in Chapter 2 and we are going to look at probably one of the most single important chapters in all the Bible because it has to do with many of You!
Do me a favor…raise your hand this morning if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
Each of you that just raised your hand are part of something bigger than yourselves. Your part of something bigger than New Home Missionary Baptist Church. You are part of the Church of the Living God and this morning what I hope you understand is what we are about to read is ultimately where we got our humble beginnings.
Right here in Acts Chapter 2, we are going to look at The Day the Church was Born and we are going to see the plan of God begin unfolding right before our very eyes and we are going to see these same disciples who have been somewhat frail and fearful begin to preach with Holy Boldness and we are going to see people’s lives changed for eternity!
And my prayer this morning is that maybe if you’re sitting here and you couldn’t raise your hand a second ago when I asked who had accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, my prayer is that by the end of today’s service, God will do a work in your heart and you too will be able to say… “I have decided to follow Jesus.”
With no further ado, if you have your Bible’s turned to Acts Chapter 2 and Verse 1 would you say, Amen!
The Promise from On High — (Vs. 1-4)
The Promise from On High — (Vs. 1-4)
The first thing we see here in Acts Chapter 2 is that the promise Jesus had left the disciples with, finally comes to pass.
Now last week, if you will remember, we learned that the day of Pentecost was the 50th day from the feast of the passover, right?
Chuck Swindoll writes — Hellenistic Jews used this name to denote the Jewish Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), also called the Feast of the Harvest, which begins fifty days after the Passover meal (Lev. 23:15–16; Deut. 16:9–10). For centuries, this time between the two feasts has been a period of great anticipation for devout Jews.
And the Bible tells us here that the day of Pentecost was fully come...
John Phillips said — The day of Pentecost had come fifteen hundred times before. Now it was fully come. It had come and gone, come and gone, ever since Moses instituted the feast. Now it had come to stay.
And it tells us that they were all with one accord in one place.
This phrase “one accord” denotes the inner unity of a group of people engaged in an externally similar action.
They weren’t just gathered together in one place physically, they were gathered together in one place mentally as well. They were together in body and soul!
Can I just say when you get this kind of unity in a Church, you’re going to see some sparks fly, amen.
And I don’t mean angry bad sparks, I mean Holy Spirit sparks, amen!
And that’s exactly what we are going to see next here.
Look at Verse 2.
Now, there are a couple things I want to point out here.
Notice where this sound of mighty rushing wind came from? Heaven right?
And notice where the Bible says it went? It filled all the house where they were sitting right?
Now, John Phillips brought out some things I had never noticed before on this.
John Phillips — It was not wind but a sound like wind, something resembling a rushing hurricane. This sound was not of earth, but of heaven, and it was symbolic. It announced the presence of the Holy Spirit.
The wind is another of those divinely chosen biblical symbols of the Spirit of God. He comes from heaven; He fills the world; He moves at will. He cannot be cornered or contained by any special interest group. His comings and goings are according to fixed laws, but He is sovereignly trammeled by none. He can be commanded by nobody. He is at the service of man, but He will do what He wants, not what we want, and He is omnipresent and omnipotent. All that is perfectly symbolized by the sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind.
In speaking to Nicodemus of the new birth, Jesus said: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
It was something they heard, however, and it arrested their attention as it filled the house. Nothing was heard of this wind outside; it caught only the ears of those in the upper room.
The age about to begin, however, was indeed to catch people by the ear. It was to be an age of faith—faith that “cometh by hearing” (Rom. 10:17). Also, they heard the sound, but there was no other sensation. They heard this wind, but they did not feel it. There was no emphasis on feeling at all, for it is faith, not feeling, that is the hallmark of this age.
Chuck Swindoll said — It was “like a violent rushing wind” (2:2), a sound we might compare with standing next to a 747 at takeoff. Luke doesn’t say “a wind blew through”; he describes a noise. The curtains didn’t blow. They felt no current or movement of air. In the ordinary environment of a house, a deafening roar came from above.
And if the sound of a mighty rushing wind weren’t enough…look at what else happened in Verse 3.
Now, this wasn’t fire as we know it to be. As we will see, it was a consuming fire but not in the sense that we know fire to be consuming.
If you will remember, God appeared to Moses on the backside of the desert in the form of a burning bush but the bush was not consumed.
I believe this is the same kind of fire Luke is describing here that sets down upon every disciple in the room.
The only way to describe what took place in this room was a God thing!
But the Bible tells us that these flames that resembled “cloven tongues” or “divided tongues” appeared out of nowhere and they rested upon each of them.
Now, this isn’t very easy to explain and I can only imagine the same thoughts were running through the disciples minds… “what in the world is going on?!”
The reality was, what was going on was not of this world amen!
But this sound of a mighty rushing wind sets down in this place and then these firebrands begin to rest upon each of them and we can only assume they were there long enough for everyone in the room to look around and witness these supernatural flames set down upon all who were in the room.
And then look what happens in Verse 4.
This was the baptizing of the Holy Ghost and Fire that John the Baptist had prophesied and Jesus had promised!
John the Baptist said in...
11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
And Jesus said in...
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The Holy Ghost had now come and with Him the power from on high that Jesus had promised that would enable these men and women to become the witnesses that Jesus knew they could be!
And I want you to see something that would be the beginning of the fulfilling of Jesus’ promise that the disciples would be witnesses of Him in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth.
The Bible says here that when they were filled with the Holy Ghost that they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now, some of your charismatic groups nowadays have taken this and run with it and they speak with unknown tongues and say that you aren’t fully saved until you’ve spoken in such a language.
There is nothing in scripture that says such and to speak in an unknown tongue without an interpreter is actually counterproductive to the work that God has called us to do.
Paul addressed this in 1 Corinthians 14.
21 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
22 Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.
23 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?
24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all:
25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.
And then Paul goes on to say in Verse 33...
33 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
The speaking of tongues that took place here was for a specific purpose and that purpose was to jump start a movement of salvation that would spread across the world which is exactly what we see next.
Look down at The Publishing Abroad.
The Publishing Abroad — (Vs. 5-13)
The Publishing Abroad — (Vs. 5-13)
Vs. 6 — In his own “language” — where we get our word “dialect” from.
It wasn’t some unknown heavenly language that no one understood but rather they were simply speaking in languages foreign to the local language in Jerusalem which more than likely was Aramaic or Hebrew.
Vs. 7 — “They were all amazed and marvelled” — Can I just say that even today when God does a mighty work and a great movement amongst His people breaks out many people marvel and are amazed!
Vs. 13 — Even today when God moves in a way that can’t be explained by mortal minds people choose to mock instead believe!
The mocking wouldn’t last long though. God had a different end in store this time!
Look down with me at The Preaching of Peter.
The Preaching of Peter — (Vs. 14-36)
The Preaching of Peter — (Vs. 14-36)
Vs. 36
Lord — Greek (kyrios) — Master — speaks of someone in supreme authority.
Christ — Greek (christos) — Anointed one; the prophesied Messiah.
John Phillips — They had crucified Him, God had crowned Him. They had entombed Him, God had enthroned Him. They had cast Him out, God had caught Him up. They had executed Him, God had exalted Him.
Chuck Swindoll — Amazing, isn’t it? Just a few weeks earlier, Peter had denied being one of the Twelve and disowned Jesus with curses. His denial would have driven him out of ministry altogether if Jesus hadn’t intervened to restore him.
Just days earlier, he cowered in a dark room, fearing the power of the religious authorities in the temple. Now that the Holy Spirit had arrived, look at the effect! Peter witnessed with remarkable power. He had become a transformed man.
And as we are about to see, the Holy Spirit still has the same, saving, transforming power today as it had on the day of Pentecost!
Look down with me as we finish out this message at The Pricking of Their Hearts.
The Pricking of Their Hearts — (Vs. 37-41)
The Pricking of Their Hearts — (Vs. 37-41)
17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Vs. 38a — “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ”
Repent — Greek (metanoeō) — to change one’s mind
It’s a change of heart, that brings about a change of mind, that brings about a change in actions.
Vs. 38b — “and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”
The thing I want to point out here is the fact that when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost right then at that moment.
Paul said in...
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Charles Stanley said — Every believer receives the Holy Spirit the moment he or she accepts Christ as Savior. The Lord sends His Spirit to indwell us because He knows how inadequate we are — we cannot possibly live the Christian life on our own.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit makes us able to accomplish every good work He calls us to do. God never made us to be sufficient within ourselves. He made us to be adequate in Him — which is why it is so important that we always trust in and obey the initial promptings of His Spirit.
This morning if you are here and trying to live the Christian life without trusting in Christ, you are trying to accomplish an impossible feat!
The Bible says in...
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Paul said in...
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Listen friend, the Bible says...
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Paul went on to say...
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
This morning friend, you cannot make it to heaven on your own!
You cannot live the Christian life on your own.
You cannot draw near to God on your own!
That is why we need the help of the Holy Spirit!
Over and over and over again Christ referred to the Holy Spirit as our “Comforter”.
The Greek word for “Comforter” is (paraklētos) and it means advocate, helper. It refers to one who helps, advocates, or comforts someone on behalf of another.
The only way we can walk the Christian life is through the aid of the Holy Spirit and God knows that and that’s why when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior He sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts to indwell us, to help us, to guide us in all things!
Closing
Closing
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.