God poured out

Bible reading

Acts 2:1–16 NLT

1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. 13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!” 14 Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. 15 These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. 16 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:

Intro

Survey: what is the greatest gift of the Holy Spirit?

Story

Intro

OK, that’s interesting. Let’s see what the Spirit did right at the beginning of the church.

The account in the second chapter of Acts is the beginning of the story of the church, but it’s also the beginning of the story of the Holy Spirit’s constant, active presence in a group of people.

You see, before Pentecost, the Holy Spirit would come upon certain people at certain times in order to deliver prophecy or some other ability (such as super-strength, in Samson’s case).

All this changed on Pentecost, so let me tell the story of what happened, and then I’ll try to tease out a couple of important things for us.

Background

It was Pentecost. About a week ago, Jesus had ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father. He had told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the power of the Holy Spirit to come upon them. While they were waiting they had elected a replacement for Judas the traitor. But they hadn’t done much else. They waited, crowded together in a room. Maybe they were afraid, after all, Jesus had been put to death for his claims. Maybe they were confused. But they certainly weren’t active. They were waiting.

Pentecost was a busy time in Jerusalem. Even busier than Passover. Pentecost was perhaps the greatest of the pilgrim festivals. The Jews called it the Festival of Weeks. Sometimes it was called the Festival of First Fruits, after the harvest grain presented at the temple. This day was also believed to be the very day in the year when the Ten Commandments had been delivered to Moses at Sinai.

The self-isolation of the disciples in the middle of such an important, bustling festival must have been hard.

The coming of the Spirit

But then, around nine in the morning, when all the disciples were gathered in their room, three startling things happened. It started with a sound from above like the roaring of a mighty windstorm. Did the disciples think of the wind that breathed life into the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision? Perhaps. The sound of the wind filled the house. It was overwhelming.

And then something new happened. Flames suddenly appeared, tongues of flame, one above each disciple. Yet they were not burning. Like the fire that did not burn the bush from which God spoke to Moses long ago, this fire settled down on each head. Did the disciples remember John the Baptist’s promise that Jesus’ baptism would involve wind and fire? Maybe, but before they could discuss it, something even more amazing happened.

Each of the people present, each and every one, was suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit. And they all began to speak in languages they didn’t know. It was as if the curse of God at Babel, the confusion of languages designed to prevent humanity unifying in defiance of God, had been broken. Now humanity could be unified once again, but not in defiance of God, but rather in full and complete reliance on him. After all, God had right then made his dwelling place in each one of these ordinary people.

The acts of the Spirit

Of course the disciples were not going to sit around after this. They were filled with the Spirit, with the power and love of God. These were no longer timid, confused followers of a crucified man. These were God-filled brothers and sisters of the Lord of the Universe, the one who sat at the right hand of God the Father, and whose name was above every other name. These were people who suddenly had a direct connection to the very throne of God. These were joint heirs with the Son of God, new members of the family of God. These humble disciples were now hidden in Christ, who sat at the right hand of Yahweh, and they hid in themselves the very Spirit of God. Nothing could stand in their way. They were more than conquerors.

And so they spilled out of the house, speaking in dozens of languages, strangely with their own accents (many of them Galilean). The Holy Spirit was not like a demon, he did not possess them and take over their minds. No, the Holy Spirit blessed them with new gifts, at this time the gift of being able to speak the language of this pilgrim, or that visitor, or that diaspora Jew living in Jerusalem.

Did the disciples attract attention in the crowded streets of festive Jerusalem? Did they, what! The people swarmed them. “How can ignorant Galileans speak my language?” was the question on everyone’s lips. It didn’t matter where they came from, Asia, Africa, Europe, even the capital of the empire, Rome, one of these disciples was speaking their language. And they were gushing out the glories of God, the wonders of his works.

Like water finding a path, the disciples and their excited followers flowed into the space in the outer courts of the temple, where weeks before Jesus had taught and fought.

Now Peter stood up where Jesus had stood. The other disciples looking on were aware of the complex history here, which the festival-goers were ignorant of. The disciples knew that Peter had denied Jesus. That when Jesus had been on trial, Peter had denied knowing him and then run away. But they also knew that Jesus had shown his love for Peter, and had offered him a second chance. Not just a second chance at the same thing, but a chance to do something even greater than he had before.

So now Peter stepped up to take that chance, to take that responsibility, to take that risk.

WIth a joke Peter dismissed the mockers who were attempting to dismiss the extraordinary activities of the disciples. And, shouting over the crowd, Peter launched into a pesher, a type of sermon favoured by the Essenes, which explained how a particular Scripture was applied. This event, said Peter, is something you have read about in the Tanakh, in the sacred text of the Jews.

He took the people back to the prophet Joel, and explained that, in the last days the Spirit would be poured out on all people, regardless of background, age, gender, or race. And everyone who called on the name of the Lord would be saved. That was happening right now, Peter explained. And the Lord who saves was Jesus.

Peter explained what had happened fifty days earlier. Though Jesus was clearly the messiah, the Jews, Peter’s audience, right there, the people he was shouting at, had handed Jesus over to the Romans to be killed. But you cannot kill the Son of God, and so he rose again, just as David had prophesied in Psalm 16.

Peter was careful to explain to his listeners that Psalm 16 could not have been talking about David when it promised release from death, because David’s tomb was right outside the city. Herod had failed to rob it, and instead had built a memorial over it. Everyone knew David’s bones were still in there. So it was David’s descendant, Jesus the Messiah, who was promised, and who God raised up.

Peter must have had the crowd captivated by now. Ancient prophecies coming to life right in front of your eyes! Sudden pangs of guilt and doubt!

Peter waved to the disciples around him, maybe 120 people. “These people,” he exclaimed, “we all know that Jesus rose from the dead, because we witnessed it! And we saw him ascend into heaven, where he is now sitting at the right hand of God. And he is the one who has poured out the Holy Spirit on us! This Jesus is the one you crucified!”

How long did the silence last? Did the crowd glance around awkwardly? Did they just stare at the ground? At last, they said to Peter and the eleven apostles who stood beside him, “What can we do?”

Here stood those guilty of putting the very Son of God to death. They had known he was the Son of God, who else could have worked the miracles he worked? But they had not wanted to bow down to him, and instead they had nailed him to a cross. Surely they deserved to die. What could they do?

But Peter knew. Peter had seen what Jesus did with those who had betrayed him. So Peter said, “Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you too will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise of God is for all who are distant from God, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

What sweet words! What incredible good news! What a beautiful message! We can all receive forgiveness, we can all be reconciled with God, we can all join his family.

And so three thousand new disciples were added to the church on its first day, that Pentecost day almost two thousand years ago.

Takeaways

What can we take away from this? What does the beginning of the church teach us about our position here in these long, last days?

Well, the Holy Spirit is still poured out on us, as Peter said. What does the Holy Spirit give us? He gives us a connection to Christ, he gives us new life, he gives us the power to speak of the wonders of God. When we look at the end of Acts 2, and we see the beautiful harmony in which the disciples lived, we see that the Spirit also gives us the power to love: to love God with all our heart and mind and body, and to love our neighbour as we love ourself.

The greatest power of the Holy Spirit is not in miracles, in the healing of broken bodies doomed to die, or in the speaking of strange languages. No, the greatest power of the Spirit is to connect people to God. To empower us as ambassadors for God, drawing people back into relationship with him, and growing in relationship with him ourselves.

Paul says,

1 Corinthians 13:1–3 NLT

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

The power of the Holy Spirit is the gift of God’s love, everything else is a means to that end.

Let’s pray.