AF-S94-103005 Acts B
Alêtheia Christian Fellowship ~ Sermon 94 ~ October 30, 2005
Acts 2:1-3 ~ When the day of Pentecost1 had come, they were all together2 in one place. And suddenly3 there came from heaven4 a noise like5 a violent rushing wind6, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting7. And there appeared to them tongues8 as of9 fire10 distributing themselves, and they rested on each one11 of them.
KJV 2:1 ~ And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
1- Feast of Weeks (7) culminating at the day of…
2- Greek together is derivitives of ajllo>, like ajllh>lwn and su~n like sunagw~gh. This word is oJmou~ and is where we get homo as in homosexual or homogenus.
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Agenda ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Transition time never to be repeated?
Holy Spirit is a Gentleman and God is sovereign.
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3&7- Unexpected, God is sovereign. God always asks us to be faithful and in trusting Him to get busy despite to way things look and then at precisely the right time He acts.
4- Clearly from God, not manufactured and not from hell. We must be careful about our demands on God and, "making it happen."
5&9- Not wind or fire.
6- Wind is the same word in Hebrew and Greek for Spirit whether Ruach or pneumatos it is God who breathes life in this world and the next, in the physical and the spiritual.
8- The curse of Babel is lifted and the heart is made right from which the mouth speaks. In the Old Covenant the problem is not desire it is desire. God promised He would give all the people a new heart so they could desire that which they desired. It is our mouth that speaks and it is through this new heart that the mouth speaks praise in Spirit and Truth. Genuine worship from genuine relationship because the Spirit of Truth teaches us and fills us with Agapê.
The greatest gift to the Body of Christ at large from the Pentecostal Movement is charismatic praise.
The in-filling of God's Spirit teaches us reverence for a sovereign God, but the fullness of the Spirit allows us to praise God from our heart with freedom.
Is it emotional? Of course! How can you be in God's presence and not be emotional? If you are unmoved by God, you don't know God.
Penecostal renewal has taught us the value of subjective personal experience and yet, like most movements, it goes too far.
God will not be a party to human foolishness and will not reside with those who demand and never surrender.
How many people have experience after experience to the point that they must get their Holy Spirit, "fix," and yet have no maturity at all. Oh yes, I'm Spiritual, I speak in tongues and cast out demons, but I don't have the time or inclination to roll up my sleeves and deny myself.
It's like a marriage built only on sex. Sex is vital, and we must not do without it, but there's a whole lot more to marriage than that.
Don't for a minute dismiss the emotional side, but don't dismiss the other parts either.
10- That brings us to fire. Burn the chaff, burn up that which is evil and leave the pure gold.
2 Peter 3:10 ~ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.
All that is flesh will be burned, if you allow it to be burned now you won't go with it into the Lake of Fire.
11- The last thing is the Spirit came upon each one in the community.
Joel 2:28&29 ~ “It will come about after this
That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind;
And your sons and daughters will prophesy,
Your old men will dream dreams,
Your young men will see visions.
“Even on the male and female servants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
Isaiah 6:9&10 ~
He said, “Go, and tell this people:
‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking….
Matthew 13:10-15 ~ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’
Ezekiel 36:26&27 ~ “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.
John 4:23&24 ~ “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The Spirit is promised by the Father because it is promised in the Old Covenant. The Spirit is available, but can easily be neglected or dismissed.
Let's be real… How do you want to relate to God? His way with the fulness of His Spirit or do you want to keep things under your control?
Acts 2:4-12 ~ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues1, as the Spirit was giving them utterance2.
Now there were Jews3 living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered4 because each one of them was hearing5 them speak in his own language6. They were amazed and astonished7, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? “And how is it that we each hear5 them in our own language to which we were born? “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
TM: 2:5-8 ~ There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn’t for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, “Aren’t these all Galileans? How come we’re hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?
Acts 2:4-12 ~ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues1, as the Spirit was giving them utterance2.
Now there were Jews3 living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered4 because each one of them was hearing5 them speak in his own language6. They were amazed and astonished7, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? “And how is it that we each hear8 them in our own language to which we were born? ~ ~ ~ we hear9 them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity10, saying to one another, “What does this mean11?”
1- eJte>raiv glw>ssaiv, plural different not foreign tongues/languages indirect object of speaking out. What were they speaking? Praise! 90% of the Biblical references to tongues indicate it is praise of God and that is my experience as well. Sometimes it is groaning, but almost always it is thanksgiving and awe and praise of a mighty God and His perfection.
2- It is the Holy Spirit who give them, "To speak out." Who is the Holy Spirit to decide who does what? Clearly the Holy Spirit is abundantly present throughout the monotheistic Old Covenant and yet the Spirit is clearly separate, but co-equal with God. The Word of God is also abundantly clear in the Old. Make no mistake, there is only one God, He exists in the co-equal, but different Father, Son and Spirit.
3- This is purely a Jewish thing. Pentecost was the most well attended feast of the year and the whole world spoke Greek, how's that for timing? Are we in transition? Of course, but only fools throw the baby out with the bath water.
4, 7 & 10- Hard to imagine how you could stress more the complete shock and amazement of all these people. If a bunch of Galileans came out and praised God in various foreign languages do you really think people would be perplexed?
5, 8 & 9- Stesses that they heard there own language.
6- Now as opposed to eJte>raiv glw>ssaiv, different tongues, we have ijdi>a| diale>ktw| , one's own dialect.
11- What does it mean? Again we have total baffelment, but why exactly?
Some present could experience that something supernatural was taking place, while at precisley the same time others could see only foolishness.
Acts 2:13 ~ But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”
Gleukos is used only here, but several times in the Greek Old Testament, where it is fermented.