Sermon Tone Analysis

Without the Holy Spirit there would be no church.

Without the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t understand the Scriptures.

We wouldn’t be able to fellowship in unity.

We wouldn’t bear fruit and we couldn’t effectively witness.

So the Holy Spirit is just as essential for God’s plan of salvation now as it was back in early days of the church.

We may think the events in the book of Acts were for a special time, for a special people, and for a special purpose, and they were, but the Holy Spirit is still just as essential today and is still at work in many dramatic ways.

One of the ways the Holy Spirit works is when He dramatically gives His people patience and this is no trivial matter.

And anyone who has ever been impatient knows how difficult waiting can be be without God’s help.

Hudson Taylor told those who wanted to be missionaries to China that there were three indispensable requirements for a missionary:

1. Patience

2. Patience

3. Patience

Galatians 5 says patience is a fruit of the Spirit which means it is a gift we’re given.

The reason we start out emphasizing patience is the disciples had already been waiting for approximately ten days since Jesus commanded them not to leave Jerusalem.

That must have been extremely difficult for them.

So, even before Pentecost we see the Holy Spirit at work.

The disciples were being taught to be submissive to what God wanted.

As we learned last week, they were being submissive to waiting, to Scripture, and to God’s choice of who would replace Judas.

So, that’s where we left off last week.

The Holy Spirit was already working…working to instill patience within the disciples (which is no small task) while they waited for him to come in an even more dramatic way.

In this section we are going to look at three things: The coming of the holy Spirit (when did He come, what did He sound like, what did He look like), the effect of Holy Spirit, and the response to the Holy Spirit.

The coming, the effect, and the response.

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

When did the Holy Spirit come?

What did He sound like?

What did He look like?

The Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost...

Pentecost occurs 50 days after Passover, in fact, the name Pentecost literally means “count 50.”

Pentecost usually occurs around the first of June every year and because of the way it’s counted it always lands on a Sunday.

This year it falls in a couple weeks on Sunday, June 9.

The weather in Jerusalem is usually nice in June so it is the best attended of all the Jewish Feast days.

It’s also called the “feast of firstfruits” in the Old Testament because it is a time of celebration for the beginning of the harvest season.

We could call it the Jewish version of our American Thanksgiving.

Since Pentecost is when farmers would begin to harvest it’s a perfect time for God to pour out his spirit on the firstfruits of an even greater harvest, his church.

During the time of Christ, Pentecost was also celebrated as the anniversary of when the law was given on Mount Sinai.

Although not based upon any specific Scripture, Jewish tradition believed the giving of the law happened 50 days after the Exodus, on Pentecost.

So, on the first Pentecost the law was given but on this Pentecost in Acts something even greater, the Holy Spirit, is given which fullfills the promise of Joel 2:28...

I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity … Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

So, Holy Spirit came on Pentecost which is significant because Pentecost marks the beginning of an amazing harvest and because it also marks a contrast between external law keeping and an internal change of heart in those that are saved.

What did Holy Spirit sound like?

What happens next, happens suddenly.

There’s no count down or warning.

All of a sudden there’s a sound from heaven like the sound of a hurricane or a tornado.

I’ve heard that a tornado sounds like a roaring train and I know what that sound like because we used to live near train tracks.

Our whole house shook and rattled which was bad enough but imagine if the sound actually came from inside the house!

This was no gentle breeze.

The greek word for spirit is pneuma, which is the same word for wind.

Jesus said in John 3:8

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...

The Holy Spirit isn’t wind, but it is like the wind.

You can’t always see it but you know it’s present.

On Pentecost there was no mistaking the Holy Spirit’s presence.

It didn’t come with a gentle blowing breeze but with mighty power, like the sound of a locomotive.

The Holy Spirit isn’t always visible but in this case He was.

What did He look like?

Literal tongues or flames isn’t what’s being described but something “like” them.

Fire is often used as a symbol of God’s presence in the Bible.

In Exodus 3:2-4 God’s presence is like a flame of fire within a bush.

And in Exodus 24:17 we’re told as Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the law

The appearance of the Lord’s glory to the Israelites was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop.

A consuming fire isn’t a little flame.

A consuming fire is one that devours everything in its path.

It can’t be stopped.

Perhaps you’ve heard of prairie fires in Nebraska that happened in the 1800’s.

In 1865 one was deliberately set to drive out the Native Americans.

Within three days the entire Nebraska region south of the Platte River from Kearny to Denver was left blackened and desolate.

The Effect of the Holy Spirt

One of the effects of the Holy Spirit is that whatever He touches is permanently changed even more permanently than a prairie fire changes the landscape.

Let’s look at verse 4 for another effect...

The Holy Spirit effects what He touches and the primary effect relates to communication.

Those who were filled with the Holy Spirit began to speak in tongues!

So what exactly does it mean to speak in tongues?

Negatively, we know it doesn’t mean a drug induced kind of hallucination, because later Peter says they weren’t drunk.

And we also know that the speaking in tongues wasn’t a miracle in hearing because verse 4 emphasizes speaking.

So, if they weren’t drunk, and the miracle wasn’t in the hearing but in the speaking then tongues, in this context at least, must be the supernatural ability to communicate in recognizable languages such as Aramaic, Latin, Greek, and many of the other languages from around the world.

Now, the exact nature of what it means to speak in tongues is a debated issue which I don’t intend to make a central issue.

But what is clear in this passage is that the disciples were given the ability to communicate with other people and to be understood by the diversity of people present.

Understandable communication is one of the primary effects of the Holy Spirit.

So, the communication is widespread.

Probably every literal nation is not what is meant here.

Australians and Native Americans probably weren’t present.

But from Luke’s perspective every nation was represented.

And, if we study the list of nations in verses 9-11, which we won’t read right now, it doesn’t take much to see that the crowd was multi-lingual and multi-ethnic.

They were all Jews but from all parts of the world.

Some were ethnic Jews but others had converted to Judaism.

Present are the descendents of Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth…from the whole world.

It’s interesting that at the tower of Babel the world was scattered through different languages but now the whole world is drawn together in Christ and able to hear the gospel through the communication of Holy Spirit.

Now, at some point all these people must have moved to a larger area, an area large enough to accommodate the 3000.

Some speculate they were on the temple grounds when they heard the Holy Spirt come.

The initial reaction is one of confusion, not because they didn’t understand but because they did.

They couldn’t understand how it was happening...

Galileans had a reputation for being uneducated and difficult to understand.

They had a thick accent.

If you’ve ever been on the phone with someone in India for tech support you can probably relate.

Even though the person from India speaks English very well I have a very difficult time understanding them, especially over the phone because of their accent.

So the people in Jerusalem are astounded and amazed because these are Galileans and there’s no accent!

They are speaking the various languages perfectly!

Skip down to verse 11...

Amazing!

But how do people respond?