The Breath, Wind & Spirit of GOD
Acts Series • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.
3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.
4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.
In the 1st Chapter of Acts and carrying over into the 2nd Chapter, in the first few verses we see the disciples and also the whole 120 together praying, reading the Word, being obedient to God, being unified in prayer and also in fellowship.
This shows us that before we can be filled, we must recognize our emptiness; by gathering together for prayer, in obedience, and these disciples did just that.
They recognized they did not have the resources within themselves to do what they could do or should do; they had to instead rely on the work of God.
As a result of them understanding that they didn't have what it takes within themselves to be the witnesses that God called them to be, they are in the Upper Room seeking the face of God. Verse two tells us… suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house where they were staying.
The references to “wind” and “fire” are significant. The word for “Spirit” is the word translated “wind” here. It also means “breath”. Both “spirit” and “wind” or “breath”—mean “to blow, to breathe.” The sound like the blowing of a violent wind from heaven points to the power of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of His coming. We also know that the very name of God is meant to sound like the very breathing we do. Before we added a vowel to God's name Yahweh it was YHWH meant to sound like every breath we take! Every breath taken by anything that breathes is saying God , a baby's first breath is saying God.
This makes my spirit do backflips when I think about it, because God is breathing His spirit not just on them but in them. Every single Jewish person who heard or read what Luke wrote right here would 100% think of the time when God breathed his breath of life into Adam and Eve, His new creation.
7 Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.
Then the LORD God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being. So, Luke is telling us that God is breathing His Spirit into the men and women who were in the Upper Room that day.
The wind also stood for the Power of God in a literal sense, but it is also showing how powerful the Spirit of God is within us.
In John 3:8
8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Jesus talks about the Spirit. “The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Like the wind, the Spirit is invisible but powerful; and you cannot explain or predict the movements of the wind.
When Jesus used this symbol, Nicodemus should have readily remembered Ezekiel 37:9
9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man. Say to it: This is what the Lord God says: Breath, come from the four winds and breathe into these slain so that they may live!”
The prophet saw a valley full of dead bones; but when he prophesied to the wind, the Spirit came and gave the bones life.
Again, it was the combination of the Spirit of God and the Word of God that gave life. The nation of Israel was dead and hopeless; but in spite of the morality and religion of the people, they needed the Life of the Spirit.
The new birth from above is a necessity (“Ye must be born again”), but it is also a mystery. Everyone who is born of the Spirit is like the wind: you cannot fully explain or predict either the wind or the child of God! If you have Jesus living inside you, you are never alone.
If you have Jesus inside you, you have a mighty Spirit that moves like a rushing wind, and if you allow it to lead you…you will walk in His power…you will talk with His boldness…you will love with his love…you will overcome by His might… you will understand by His communication… you will witness by His authority… you will be born of the Spirit… and the flesh will not appeal to you.
So, all it says is a sound like a mighty rushing wind filled the entire room, but what it meant was so much more.
After it tells us about the mighty rushing wind, it goes on to say in verse 3 they saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. The idea behind the picture of fire is usually purification, as a refiner uses fire to make pure gold; or fire can burn away what is temporary, leaving only what will last.
The sinful things the fire is burning away are temporary, sin is temporary, the flesh is temporary, the things of this world are temporary, but our God is eternal… the life He freely gives us is eternal… His love is eternal, and He begins purifying us of the temporary worldly things preparing us for eternity and at the same time transforming us on earth.
In certain places in the Old Testament, God showed His special pleasure with a sacrifice by lighting the fire for it Himself – that is, fire from heaven came down and consumed the sacrifice.
The experience of the followers of Jesus on Pentecost is another example of God sending fire from heaven to show His pleasure and power, but this time, it descended upon living sacrifices
romans 12.1
1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit: Essentially, the rushing mighty wind and the tongues, as of fire, were only unusual, temporary phenomenon, which accompanied the true gift – being filled with the Holy Spirit.
But we should do what the disciples did before and during their filling with the Holy Spirit.
The disciples were filled in fulfillment of a promise.
They were filled as they received in faith.
They were filled in God’s timing.
They were filled as they were together in unity.
They were filled in unusual ways.
Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver… no understanding without the Spirit of truth… no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit… no Christlikeness of character apart from His fruit… and no effective witness without His power.
As a body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead. Just as the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus when John baptized Him, so that He entered His public ministry ‘full of the Holy Spirit’, ‘led by the Spirit’. ‘in the power of the Spirit’ and ‘anointed’ by the Spirit (Lk. 3:21–22; 4:1, 14, 18), so now the same Spirit came upon the disciples of Jesus to equip them for their mission in the world.
Then in verse 4 it tells us they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the spirit enabled them. This is the fulfillment of Acts chapter one, verse 8. Jesus tells them that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on them and they will be witnesses, and as we've just read in versus 1-4, the Holy Spirit has fallen on them and filled them and baptized them and enabled them to be witnesses.
The tongues in which the apostles were miraculously enabled to speak were the various native languages of the visitors of Jerusalem. Scholars connect the tower of Babel where God confused man's language to stop them from building the tower with the day of Pentecost where God reversed that confusion and they all understood each other in each one of their languages.
7 Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
In Gen. Chapter 11 verse 7 God used their language so that they would not understand one another’s speech. God was not threatened by what humans were doing. Rather, He recognized that unified, sinful humanity had enormous potential to sour his creation. So, in order to put the brakes on evil humanity playing God, He decided to disunify them and confuse their language.
So Fast forward to the day of Pentecost… we see the disciples and the 120 unified in prayer, unified in fellowship, unified and being obedient to God, and He comes down and He allows them to understand each other and He allows all the people of many different ethnic backgrounds to hear the wonders of God in their own language, and then Peter, stands up and preaches an amazing sermon.
So when we bring all this together we have the disciples and the 120 in the Upper Room being obedient to God, seeking his face in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and we have the breath of God breathing on these disciples, filling the Upper Room with God's presence… and filling each one of their hearts with God's presence… and we see the divided tongues of fire purifying the disciples in the 120, preparing them and refining them to go out and start the church, and then finally we see them completely full of the Holy Spirit and speaking in languages that they don't know how to speak and everyone is hearing the wonders of God in their own language.
So the day of Pentecost was an amazing day it was the day where we see humanity united in seeking the face of God… it was a day where we see the church have the Spirit breathed into it… it was the day that we see the beginning of the bride of Christ and endued with power from on high… and it was the day that each one of us sitting in these very seats should cherish and respect, because without this day the church would not be the fire-filled, spirit-filled church that it is today!