Untitled Sermon (29)

INtor Introduction

Good morning everyone and happy Mother's Day.

If you have your Bibles, we will be in Acts chapter 2 starting in verse one as our story continues.

We started walking through Acts a few weeks ago. Luke is reading someone named Theophilus a detailed account of all that happened in Jesus' life.

We see after Jesus was killed and crucified, He rose from the dead. He spent 40 days opening the disciples' minds to all things concerning Him in the OT. And then He ascended into heaven.

Last week we saw the disciples gather together in unity and prayer waiting for the coming promise of the Holy Spirit. In this waiting time we see Matthias is selected to replace Judas.

And it's right after this our text for today takes place.

Acts 2:1–13 (ESV) When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others mocking said, "They are filled with new wine."

The day of Pentecost had deep significance in Jewish tradition. It was 50 days after the Passover, when God gathered the people of Israel together at Mount Sinai and entered into a covenant relationship with them.

Pentecost was the middle celebration of the three annual Jewish harvest festivals. It was called the Feast of Harvest because it celebrated the completion of the grain harvest. It was also known as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost because it took place seven weeks or fifty days after Passover, which marked the beginning of the grain harvest season. Unlike the other festivals, Pentecost typically drew the largest crowds to Jerusalem, with Jewish pilgrims arriving from across the Roman Empire and beyond. The city would have been teeming with visitors, creating a vibrant, multicultural atmosphere as people from every nation gathered to celebrate this important feast.

And it's here as the people of God celebrate this Feast of Harvest, the disciples are still gathered. And then something unmistakable happens.

We are told from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind came and it filled the entire house. It's here there is no doubt about what's happening. It's most likely something they could hear and feel. But in case that wasn't enough, divided tongues as fire appear and rested on each of them. And they were filled with the HOLY SPIRIT.

There is a lot of talk about what this means and what it doesn't. Could you imagine? If it wasn't enough to see Jesus killed and come back to life and then ascended into heaven... now this.

And I think it's helpful to consider what God is doing here.

Ultimately the picture we see is: to be filled with the Holy Spirit means to have something more powerful than yourself from outside of you come into you. It's a divine power.

And why is that important? — it's because the world today will actually say everything wrong with us, every problem we experience, comes from outside of us. And if you just look within for strength, resilience, wisdom, self-determination, you can overcome whatever problems you face. And sure, there are things that are outside of our control that do cause suffering, that do cause pain, because of someone else's sin.

But Christianity flips this idea on its head. Keller put it this way: "Christianity says your main problem comes from inside you, and out there God has the power to give you what you need."

That is such good news. The coming of the Holy Spirit from outside ourselves is incredibly liberating because it acknowledges a profound truth about our condition. Too often, we are self-centered and self-focused. We place ourselves at the center of our universe. And when problems arise in our lives, we're quick to blame external factors or other people.

But the beauty of Pentecost is that God's solution comes from outside our self-centered perspective. The Holy Spirit enters into us from beyond ourselves—not as something we generate or manufacture through our own efforts. This divine power meets us exactly where we are, acknowledging that the true source of our deepest problems lies within us, not just in our circumstances or in others.

But once again this passage is teaching us to say: No — the problem is inside of me, it's in here. There is an emptiness and a void I can't seem to fill. But out there, the power of God has the power to fill me.

And as the power of the Spirit comes from heaven, all of a sudden tongues of fire separated and rested on them all.

This is incredible — significant. In the OT when God's glory presence, and His special presence shows up, it shows up often as fire.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us of this powerful truth in Hebrews 12:28-29: "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire." God's presence has always been associated with this image of fire — powerful, purifying, and transformative.

In Genesis 15 when God is making a covenant with Abraham, He appears as a blazing torch.

When He appears to Moses for the first time in the wilderness, He appears in a burning bush.

After the exodus when the people are led out of slavery, He led them by a pillar of fire by night.

In Ezekiel 1, Ezekiel has a vision of the glory of God and he sees fire everywhere.

And what you begin to realize is when you see the fire of God and the presence of God in the OT, it was overwhelming. Sometimes fatal.

And now you see something here, right? On Pentecost. God's presence is now resting on every single believer.

The God in the burning bush is now resting on each person at Pentecost. They are truly lights of the world, they are truly burning bushes. The glory of God, the presence of God, has now come into every single believer. His presence is resting on them.

And this can be a lot, right? It can seem strange — some of these passages. When we think about God as fire, when we think about this picture, some of you might ask: Did this really happen? And my answer would be yes. We can trust this account.

First, Luke is working hard to get every detail of the story correct. If we really believe in the virgin birth, if we really believe in a crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, we can trust this is exactly what He said would happen in John 14–16. If Jesus truly is alive, then anything is possible.

And when you think about this group — it's still not the most likely group of people. There were apostles who were called out, set apart and trained by Christ. But they aren't the only ones getting the Holy Spirit. It rested on each one there that day. Luke tells us there were 120 people in this room.

The Spirit rested on male, female, trained and untrained — the Spirit of God rested on everybody. And it would be fair to ask: What does this mean? What does fullness of the Spirit feel like or look like? And while you will see the filling of the Spirit expressed in many ways throughout Scripture, there is something common about all the places you see this.

Keller and Alistair Begg helped me think about this. If you go back to Jesus' baptism, it's recorded that He hears a voice saying: "This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased." In other words, the Father is saying: "You are my Son and I delight in You."

That's the work of the Spirit at Jesus' baptism. And you may think: Well, of course, that's Jesus. But in Romans 8 we are told that when the Spirit of God comes into our hearts, the Spirit actually bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

Romans 8:16 (ESV) The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

Galatians 4:6 (ESV) And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"

In other words, the Holy Spirit comes and tells you about His love for you, His delight in you, and the fact you are His children. That's rich and powerful.

It's what Jesus promised in John 14–16. He says: I am going away and I've told you a lot, but when I leave, the Holy Spirit is going to come and manifest or show it to you.

This is why Jesus says it's better for you that I leave because when I leave I will send the Holy Spirit to you. In some ways, Jesus on earth was limited in his relationships. So when He ascends and sends the Spirit, the Spirit of Christ now rests on all believers. His relationship with us is unlimited.

If we aren't careful, we can be tempted to make the filling of the Spirit something mystical or magical. But in the most real and profound way, what we begin to see in Scripture is that when the Holy Spirit comes, you will know in your head — and it will be made real in your heart — the things God says about you:

That you are His That you are loved That He delights in you And all of a sudden these realities birth a fire and freedom in your life that's unstoppable.

Thomas Goodwin gives us a powerful illustration that I want to share with you today. Think about our baby dedication service this morning. When those parents held their children in their arms, did that suddenly make those little ones more their sons or daughters than they were five minutes earlier? Of course not — not in any legal sense.

But Goodwin makes this profound observation: While legally there's absolutely no difference between a child being held in a parent's arms versus sitting in a stroller across the room — objectively, no difference at all — but in how it feels, in what is experienced, in what really matters? All the difference in the world.

You see, when a child is nestled in their father's arms, they're not just legally his child — they're experiencing their father's love. They're feeling that embrace. They're knowing that security. They're experiencing what it truly means to be a son or daughter.

And that's exactly what happens when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and me in fullness. You begin to sense the Father's arms around you. You begin to become deeply assured of who you are. What started as head knowledge — "Yes, I'm a child of God" — comes flooding down into your heart, making all of this gloriously, undeniably real.

To know and believe someone all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise loves you like this — delights in you — and has gone to the most amazing lengths and depths to save us — that ultimately, at an immeasurable cost to Himself — Jesus dying on the cross, taking our place for our sins.

To really believe that and know it deep within your soul takes the power of the Holy Spirit. It's that fullness that helps us know — when He says: "I will never let you go." Nothing in heaven, earth, or time will ever make Him lose you. He will always hold onto you. And He will eventually take all bad things in our lives and make them right. And in heaven, He will glorify you, and He will perfect His work in you.

As Paul reminds us in Romans 5:5 (ESV): "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." That's what the Holy Spirit does—He allows us to know and experience the love of God in fullness.

That's the power and fullness of the Spirit. And it allows us to cry out "Abba, Father." And as His Spirit rests on us, we rest in Him.

And while I've been studying this week, I've been asking: What does this even look like? Like, how can I know I'm full of God's Spirit?

And Luke tells us what it looks like in verse 13.

Acts 2:12–13 (ESV) And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "What does this mean?" But others mocking said, "They are filled with new wine."

Apparently, it looked like — to the thousands of people celebrating the Feast of Pentecost — that the followers of Jesus were drunk. That's what it looked like.

Paul brings this together in Ephesians 5:18:

Ephesians 5:18 (ESV) And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

When someone has drunk too much, they become a different person. They lose their inhibitions, there seems to be a recklessness or fearlessness to the way they live. And that's most likely why the people that day thought it was some sort of new wine.

There was a joyful fearlessness. Men and women who 50 days earlier had one of their worst days are different. 50 days ago they were running for their lives. They were afraid. One of their best friends Judas had betrayed them. Jesus had been arrested, beaten, and killed. All of them fled.

After the resurrection we are told they are all together, locked away in a room scared. Peter had denied Jesus. Things were bad.

So how do you go from that… To speaking the gospel without inhibition out in public?

God's presence fills you. They were too happy, too joyful to be scared of anyone or anything.

They had truly come to life. The Heidelberg Catechism from 1563 captures this beautifully. When it asks, "What is the coming of life to a new man?", the answer given is: "It is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to."

Michael Reeves expands on this wonderfully when he writes: "The Spirit of the Father and the Son would never be interested in merely empowering us to 'do good.' His desire, which is the desire of the Father and the Son, is to bring us to such a hearty enjoyment of God through Christ that we delight to know Him, that we delight in all His ways, and therefore we want to do what He wants."

One of our discipleship questions we ask is: "Am I enjoying the nearness of God through Scripture reading and prayer?" And you can answer "yes" because His Spirit lives in you.

This continues to be the pattern in Acts, as these disciples of Jesus are arrested, beaten, jailed, and killed for their faith. God's presence gave them an unstoppable hope and joy. And that's why the people thought they had new wine.

But where new wine would have been a depressant — it would have made them stupid — it would have made them less aware of who they were — the Spirit does something different.

The Spirit of God gives us joy through intelligence. It gives us wisdom. The Spirit actually shows us what is real — that if the only thing that matters is what God thinks of you — that the One who has the power to create stars by His very breath loves you — that He will do anything for you — that He has given up everything for you — and He will never let you go — you are more aware of reality, not less.

You understand how we have a God who restores and redeems all things and people for His glory.

And as they were filled, they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them to.

Third mark of being filled with the Spirit is the Gospel — that you speak the Gospel. Help one another know Jesus by sharing the Gospel and our lives. Our mission is birthed out of Pentecost.

When you are really filled with God's Spirit, you aren't just thinking about how blessed you are. Or your own happiness. No — you are thinking more about God's mighty works. You are thinking more about the Gospel. You want to tell more people about Jesus. You can speak the Gospel in ways you couldn't before.

It's what Paul says in:

1 Corinthians 1:18–25 (ESV) For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

There is the power of God that is working through God's people — that is transforming the world.

What the Spirit does give us:

Convicts us of Sin - John 16:8

Makes us new - John 3:5, Titus 3:5

Indwells us - Romans 8:9, 1st Corinthians 6:19

Empowers us for Work - Acts 1:8, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

Makes us better people (fruits of the spirit) - Galatians 5:22-23

Prays for us - Romans 8:26-27

Understanding of God's word - 1 Corinthians 2:12-13

Counsels us - John 14:16-17

Sanctifies us (helps us grow) - 2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:13

Reveals the word of God - Ephesians 3:4-5, 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

Strengthens our faith - Ephesians 3:16, Romans 15:13

Inspires Worship of God - Philippians 3:3, John 4:23-24

Gives us wisdom and discernment - 1 John 4:1-3, 1 Corinthians 2:14

Testifies about US - Romans 8:15-16, Galatians 4:6

Gives us Boldness - Acts 4:31 and Acts 9:17-20

Unites all believers - 1 Corinthians 12:13, Ephesians 4:3-4

HE GLORIFIES CHRIST - John 16:14

And what's awesome is when the Gospel is first preached — it's preached in every single language at once. It is what verse 11 means when it says they began to speak in other languages. Here in Acts, the gift of tongues is the gift of people hearing in their own language.

Just look at how this Spirit-filling immediately produced the very things in that list we just saw:

The disciples were certainly empowered for work as they boldly proclaimed the Gospel

They received supernatural understanding to communicate God's truth

They were filled with boldness where before they had been hiding in fear

The Spirit united believers from every nation under heaven

And above all, their words glorified Christ as they proclaimed "the mighty works of God"

Right there at Pentecost, we see the Holy Spirit's work manifested in real time. The disciples weren't just theoretically filled with the Spirit—the immediate transformation of their lives demonstrated the Spirit's presence in powerful, tangible ways.

And the people are bewildered when this happened — 15 different language groups. And a group of people from Galilee — mostly uneducated — are somehow speaking their language.

And we know that's a real miracle because Galilee was a far-off, forgotten place. They had such a distinct accent that during Jesus' trial, when Peter is questioned if he knows Jesus, the person asking recognizes he's from Galilee. In Matthew 26:73, we read: "After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, 'Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.'" These Galileans were so identifiable by their speech that people in Jerusalem could pick them out immediately. Yet now, filled with the Spirit, they're speaking perfectly in languages they've never learned!

And the beauty of this is: By a deliberate miracle, God made sure there was no language and no culture that has precedence over any other in the Christian faith. That pride had no place among Christians. That one culture can't say to another: "We are better because of our culture."

A former Muslim from Harvard really drove the grace of this truth home for me this week. Lamin Sanneh says: As far as Muslims are concerned, God only speaks Arabic. All of God's words were in Arabic. All His communication. So when you want to hear God's real word, you have to become Arabic. You lose your culture. But not so with Christianity. Jesus actually improves your culture. It makes your culture complete. It's why Paul says in Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Tim Keller puts it this way: "Christianity is the most culturally diverse religion on the face of the earth. It takes radically different forms, because in Christianity, because of Pentecost, there is no one language. There is no one culture that is the right culture. Therefore, Christianity comes into every culture and renews every culture but, at the same time, honors every culture."

It's what Jesus always did—He raised the level of what God was doing. After the ascension, Jesus didn't just put the disciples in an Eden-like paradise; instead, He promised a new heaven and a new earth. And Pentecost reminds us of this.

To really understand what's happening at Pentecost, we need to go all the way back to Genesis 11. I mean, Genesis 10 gives us this long list of different nations, and then in Genesis 11, we see people coming together to build this tower—the Tower of Babel. They're trying to create this tower, this temple—basically a new religion without God. They were arrogant. They were proud. They were completely defiant toward God. And God had to respond to that... with judgment.

So they stopped working on Babel and the divisions of the human race continued. Because of pride and arrogance. But then a group of humble Jesus followers filled with the Holy Spirit they had all of these different languages but they couldunderstand each other. Why? Because the curse of Babel is being reversed.

And people who once were at each other's throats, people who couldn't understand each other, are understanding each other. They're being brought back together. Why? Because the judgment came down on Jesus.

The fire of God's wrath came down on Jesus so we could have the fire of warmth and love.

And the world was changed forever. We are here today because of what happened that day. And if you have never turned from your sin and believed in Jesus, asked Him to save you, I want to encourage you to do so today. And you can be confident if you do that He will fill you.

If you have already done that, be encouraged by what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Allow that to fill you with freedom and joy and respond to that like the early disciples by telling the world the good news about Jesus.

Rest knowing you are loved deeply by God and He truly always is with you.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for your deep and abiding love. Thank you that you are a God who fills us with your presence. Jesus, you said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Lord, thank you that you made that promise and you kept it.

May we all walk in the joyful fullness of the Spirit.

Amen.