Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction:

Remember anticipating Christmas morning when you were a child?

How great that night was when you went to bed, not falling asleep fast enough for the morning to come!

Or how about a Birthday, Anniversary, or some awesome event, whatever that may have been.

Well, we have that taking place here in Acts 2.  The disciples were obeying their Lord, waiting and anticipating for the promise of the Father and then……….

It happened!

God poured out His Spirit on the disciples.

That’s what I want to share with you today.

!! A.                 There was God’s providence (v.1a).

!!! 1.                  “When the day of Pentecost had fully come…”  (v.1a).

!!!! a)                  God’s providence.

!!!!! (1)                 What is /“providence?”/

It means, /forethought, to make provision for a thing.

/The doctrine of providence affirms God’s absolute lordship over His creation and confirms the dependence of all creation on the Creator.

!!!!! (2)                 The Feast of Pentecost needs to be understood in order to see God’s providence at work.

Pentecost was celebrated fifty days after the Passover.

It was also known as the “Day of the First Fruits” (Numbers 28:26), or the “Feast of Weeks” (Exodus 34:22), or the “Feast of Harvest.”

!!!!! (3)                 Pentecost was a day of celebration, a day when the people were to heap praise and thanksgiving upon God.

There were three particular reasons which they were to thank God.

!!!!!! (a)                 */The harvest of the fields/*.

Note the very name of the Feast says that it is a celebration of the “First Fruits.”

It was celebrated when the first fruits of the harvest began to come in, which was around the first of June.

It actually opened the harvest season.

!!!!!! (b)                */The Exodus/*, the deliverance of the nation Israel from Egyptian bondage (Deut.

16:12).

The people were to thank God for the day he delivered them out of slavery.

!!!!!! (c)                 */The giving of the law upon Mt.

Sinai (Exodus 19-20)/*.

This was the day the people were constituted as a nation, as the great nation of Israel.

They were to live as God’s very own people upon earth.

They were to thank God for Himself and for His law, the rules and principles He had given to govern their lives and nation.

It is important to note that the Jews figured the law had been given to Moses fifty days after the Exodus.

!!!! b)                  How all three events were fulfilled in the coming of the Holy Spirit.

!!!!! (1)                 When “Pentecost was fully come” the first fruits were born—the church itself and the first harvest of souls.

The new beginning, that is, the filling of the Holy Spirit, began fifty days after Jesus’ death and resurrection (Acts 2:4).

!!!!! (2)                 The coming of the Holy Spirit had a very specific purpose.

The Holy Spirit was to live and work within the heart of man, and to come /“upon”/ man for spiritual power.

!!!!! (3)                 The coming of the Holy Spirit was two things.

!!!!!! (a)                 It was the birth of the church, the new people of God. 

!!!!!! (b)                It was the institution of the new law, the new rule and principle of God.

Man is now to be guided by the Spirit who empowers him to live right and to serve Christ.

!! B.                There was man obeying and being in one accord (v.1b).

!!! 1.                  “They were all with */one accord /*in */one place/*…”  (v.1b).

!!!! a)                  They were in one accord – unity like Christ.

!!!!! (1)                 *One Accord*: the same mind or spirit; oneness of mind and heart.

It means to be one in spirit and purpose.

All 120 of the believers were of the same spirit, of the same mind.

!!!!!! (a)                 The idea is they were after the same thing, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

They were focusing and concentrating their thoughts and energies upon seeking God for the promise of His Spirit.

!!!!!! (b)                The word is used only eleven times in Scripture, ten of those times are found in Acts, one is found in Romans.

(i)                   One accord in prayer (Acts 1:14; Acts 4:24).

(ii)                 One accord in one place (Acts 2:1).

(iii)                One accord in daily worship and the Lord’s supper (Acts 2:46; Acts 5:12).

(iv)               One accord in obedience (Acts 8:6).

(v)                 One accord in a business meeting (Acts 15:25).

(vi)               One accord is needed to glorify God (Romans 15:6).

!!!!!! (c)                 The phrase “one accord” is also used to refer to the unity of unbelievers and enemies \\ of the gospel (Acts 7:57; Acts 12:20; Acts 18:12; Acts 19:29).

*Listen to the way Kenneth Wuest puts it: *These all continued to give their persistent attention with absolute unanimity to prayer which was characterized by its definiteness of purpose, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with His brethren.

!!!! b)                  They were in one place – obeying Christ.

!!!!! (1)                 The believers were in “one place,” in the city of Jerusalem precisely where Christ told them to go and wait upon the coming of the Holy Spirit.

!!!!! (2)                 They were obedient despite the danger the Jerusalem authorities posed to them.

!!!!! (3)                 One thing is absolutely essential if a believer wants to receive the fulness of God’s blessing: /Obedience./

The believer must obey and follow His instructions.

*Jesus made this clear by saying to the disciples *“If you love me, keep my commandments.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Helper, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:15-17).

!! C.                There was the Spirit’s infilling (v.2-4).

!!! 1.                  “Suddenly there came a sound from heaven…”  (v.2)

!!!! a)                  As a mighty sound—as the rushing of a “mighty” wind (v.2).

!!!!! (1)                 The association of the sound of a *rushing mighty wind*, filling the *whole house*, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is unusual.

!!!!! (2)                 But it probably has connection with the fact that in both the Hebrew and Greek languages, the word for /spirit /(as in /Holy Spirit/) is the same word for /breath /or *wind*.

Here, the *sound from heaven *is the sound of the Holy Spirit being poured out on the disciples.

!!!!! (3)                 The sound was from heaven, that is, from God.

It came from God’s activity, not from the activity of natural causes upon earth.

It was supernatural.

God created sound for this very special occasion.

!!!!! (4)                 The sound filled /all the house/, that is, it was localized upon the house where they were /sitting/.

Why?

!!!!!! (a)                 An audience needed to be gathered for the first preaching of the gospel, therefore, people needed to be startled and attracted to gather from all over Jerusalem, seeking to know what had happened.

.

 

!!! 2.                  “There appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire…“(v.3).

!!!! a)                  As fire—as split tongues that sat upon each believer (v.3).

!!!!! (1)                 The *divided tongues, as of fire*, appearing over each one are also unusual.

It probably should be connected with John the Baptist’s prophecy that Jesus would /baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire /(Matthew 3:11).

!!!!! (2)                 Note also that the tongue symbolizes the instrument of speaking and preaching and sharing the gospel.

The Holy Spirit was to be the burning power of the tongue, of the convicting message to be proclaimed.

!!!!!! (a)                 The idea behind the picture of *fire *is usually purification, as a refiner uses fire to make pure gold.

Or fire can burn away what is temporary, leaving what will last.

This is an excellent illustration of the principle that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not just for abstract power, but for /purity/.

!!!!!! (b)                In certain places in the Old Testament, God showed His special pleasure with a sacrifice by kindling the fire for it Himself.

Fire from heaven came down and consumed the sacrifice.

(i)                   The experience of the followers of Jesus on Pentecost is another example of God sending fire from heaven to show His pleasure and power, but this time, it descended upon /living sacrifices /(Romans 12:1).

(ii)                 Under the Old Covenant, the Holy Spirit rested on God’s people more as a /nation/, that is, Israel.

But under the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit rests upon God’s people as */individuals /*- the tongues of fire *sat upon /each /of them*.

!!! 3.                  “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit…”  (v.4).

!!!! a)                  The result (v.4).

!!!!! (1)                 */All were filled with the Spirit (v.4a):/* both the body (church) and each individual believer were filled.

They were /“all filled”/ with the presence and power of the Spirit—all of them corporately and each of them individually.

!!!!!! (a)                 A critical point is often ignored and neglected.

The command to be filled with the Spirit is still God’s command to every believer, both individually and corporately (the church).

*We should not come under the influence of anything else but the Spirit of God *"And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit," (Ephesians 5:18)

*Jesus said *"If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!“  (Luke 11:13)

!!!!!! (b)                The disciples were given the gifts of the Spirit to carry on the work of the ministry upon earth.