The Coming of the Holy Spirit, The Day of Pentecost

Introduction

Welcome to the Lord’s Day. Today is a special Lords’ day service, that of Pentecost. There’s some minor controversy about Pentecost, but I’ll explain that in the sermon. We start our first Wednesday night service where we go through the 1689 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith, which we follow - with a minor disclaimer which I’ll go over Wednesday night at 7 PM. Be sure to be there to hear it.

Let us rejoice in the Lord, and be glad!

Acts 2:1–21 NASB95PARA

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear 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?” But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.” But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; Even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy. ‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above And signs on the earth below, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. ‘The sun will be turned into darkness And the moon into blood, Before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. ‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

There is a slight controversy about Pentecost. 99.999% of Christianity agrees it is the birth of the church. The rest says it is the empowerment of the existing church, which they claim started in Matthew18

The Roman Catholic church, in order to establish Peter as the first Pope, tries to take Matthew 16 out of context and claim Matthew 16 is the birth of the church.

All that the Bible tells us is that it is the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the temporary giving of the sign gifts to authenticate the twelve apostles. I do see both sies of the argument between Matthew 18 and Acts 2. It’s possible we’re forcing Acts 2 to have weight on it that it’s not meant to bear - however.

Christian commentators have always interpreted Acts 2 to be the birth of the church. It’s only Landmark Baptists and Baptist Briders who - among Protestants - see Matthew 18 as the birth of the church.

The other controversy is Continuationists, who believe that the sign gifts are in effect today. They believe this was the pouring out of the Holy spirit onto the church - they’re right - and that gift continues today - and they’re wrong. Careful exegesis of the passage will show you that speaking in tongues is not present today. Glossolalia - the ecstatic speaking in tongues - was never a part of Christianity. It is a part of Hinduism, Mormonism and other religions, but never Christianity. The gift of tongues was actually correctly interpreted by the Pentecostal originators as the miraculous speaking of foreign languages by those who’d never studied. It was only after finding that Pentecostal missionaries were speaking gibberish and not real earthly languages that the Pentecostals changed their interpretation of tongues to be “Heavenly languages”. When you believe something and someone demonstrates it to be wrong, you must change your beliefs. It has been demonstrated time and again that the gift of tongues Pentecostals do is not the Biblical gift of tongues - we are talking about right from the beginning of the Pentecostal origins.

Acts 2:1–2 NASB95PARA

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

John Macarthur - in his writings on this passage - suggests that they were eating a meal together. the word used is καθήμενοι, which - depending on if you were interpreting it Greek style would be a meal and if you were interpreting it Jewish style would mean they were studying the Bible together. In Judaism, Shavuot was practiced by staying up all night studying the Bible starting after the meal the sundown before all the way until the sun rose. If they were eating, the question is, what? Answer - probably fish sandwiches.

Does the Greek text say Pentecost? It does indeed. Πεντηκοστῆς, or “fifties” is specifically mentioned. Oddly enough, the celebration in Judaism was called “Sevens”, or “Shavuot”. It is the celebration of the giving of the ten commandments. The first Pentecost or Shavuot was the Law - the second was The Spirit. Let’s look at the rest of verse 2.

Acts 2:1–2 NA28

Καὶ ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό. καὶ ἐγένετο ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθήμενοι

The Bible here uses wording that was familiar to its readers - the words Holy Spirit also mean wind of Holiness. It’s a peculiarity of both Greek and Hebrew that the words πνευμα and רוַח both mean wind and spirit at the same time. Eze 37:9

Ezekiel 37:9 NASB95PARA

Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ”

John 3:8 NASB95PARA

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

This gets lost in English translations. A mighty wind, a violent wind is πνοῆς βιαίας. This suggests the sound of a hurricane perhaps. It also totally tilts on its side Western notions of the Holy Spirit being weak.

Exodus 19:18–19 NASB95PARA

Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.

Why the tongues of fire? It was not to herald they now had the ability to speak in tongues. It was because at the giving of the law, Mount Sinai - notice Sai-nye, not Sai-knee-ai - was enshrouded in flame, heralding the arrival of God.

The fact flames were over their heads was the sign that God was within each of them at that time.

Really - take a few minutes and really think about this. This is something we completely take for granted today. We go to buy our favorite ice cream, and someone else got blessed to buy the last one, and we shout, “where is God in this calamity?”

Well, if you’re a Christian, one part of God is within you. This is the same presence that was inside the Temple and kept men from standing, Overcome by the heaviness.

When the Temple was accepted, Solomon’s sacrifices were consumed by fire from heaven. God did it. Yet another case of God doing something unilaterally. The concept of synergism - the cooperative partnership of God and man does not exist. The Bible is monergistic to its core. Abraham’s covenant - one sided. The Exodus from Egypt - one sided. Atonement for sins - one sided. Salvation - one sided. In many many cases, one sided.

The apostles began speaking with other tongues. γλώσσαις. This is where we get the term Glossolalia for ecstatic utterances in languages that don’t exist. In other words, babbling.

This is not the case here. It’s an exercise of bad exegetics and bad hermeneutics to try to claim Acts 2 is about only the giving of the sign gifts.

Isaiah 28:11–19 NASB95PARA

Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen. So the word of the Lord to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. “I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of lies And the waters will overflow the secret place. “Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol will not stand; When the overwhelming scourge passes through, Then you become its trampling place. “As often as it passes through, it will seize you; For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night, And it will be sheer terror to understand what it means.”

Tongues held a number of meanings.

The church is born - or empowered, depending upon your interpretation.

The Apostles truly were sent by God.

Judgment now had come upon Israel.

A new dispensation had occured - the New Covenant of Jer. 31:31 was now in place.

Jesus Christ is God incarnate, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

The teachers of Israel had been judged, and the results were not good.

Jesus - throughout the Gospels - was not shy at all about telling people they were not of the Elect. He was not shy at all telling people they were going to Hell.

With us, it is a warning. With Jesus, it is a judgment. It is terrible. It is sure. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone that supports the Temple. It’s the Lord’s doing.

And all of those Rabbis who heard this and saw this, if they reflected on it, would remember in their most terrified moments Jesus telling them, “your sin remains.”

You are going to Hell. it will last forever.

Acts 2:7–8 NASB95PARA

They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

I don’t know if they were audibly speaking Hebrew and the fourteen different nations around them heard each in their own native language, or if the twelve apostles were suddenly fluently speaking the Gospel in the fourteen languages. If you read the church fathers, when they discuss tongues, they say they too don’t understand. Only John Chrysostom knew any of the Apostles, and I don’t even think he knew.

The final point of today’s reading is this: Peter identifies this as Joel 2’s fulfillment - yet we know this won’t be fulfilled until the time of the end.

It’s a particular oddity of Jewish thought is that in some ways, the appearance of a part is the equivalent of the appearance of the whole. This was the first day of the Last Days.

If this is the first day of the last days, then in some ways it also includes the last day of the last days. All of the Book of Revelation is heralded here.

Peter knows immediately that the sign of the speaking in tongues, in known foreign languages which the Apostles had not learned - was a sign of judgment, as we’ve mentioned. He concludes this long passage spoken of judgment with the words,

All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.

If you connect the thoughts it starkly contrasts this: If you call upon Jesus’s name and look to Christ for salvation, you will be saved, justified, glorified.

If you do not, judgment has come. Physically, and shortly, spiritually. You are in Hell forever. The most excuseless man in Hell will be the ones who saw Christ with their own eyes, knew He was the Messiah and rejected Him. And there were men present in that crowd to whom that day was a hint of their judgment.

The elect view it as a promise. If God gives us the downpayment of salvation through the Holy Spirit, then this chapter is proof of that.

You know you are saved because of the Holy Spirit’s presence within you.

Moved to prayer? That’s the Spirit.

Moved to jealousy for God’s glory? That’s the Spirit.

Moved to worship God? The Spirit.

Understand the Scriptures? That’s the Spirit.

Let us rejoice in the Lord.

Numbers 6:24–26 NASB95PARA

The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance on you, And give you peace.’