Pentecost: The Birth of a Supernatural Body: Acts 2:1-13
OUTLINE:
I. The Supernatural Signs and Setting (1-4)
1. Like Wind: (Ezek. 37:9, 13, John 3:8)
2. Like Fire: (Matt. 3:11, Ex. 3: 2)
II. Supernatural Spirit-Enabled Speech (5-13)
1. The SPEECH was a SIGN of the promised baptism of the Spirit. (Acts 1:5)
2. Sent to an international body of believers to share a message with the world.
3. Sent as an understandable message of the mighty works of God.
III. The Supernatural Spirit
1. A unifying Spirit for Christ’s Spiritual Body (John 17:20, 1 Cor 6:17)
2. The Unified Body of Christ is FILLED with the Spirit. (Eph.5)
3. Provides a Unified Purpose and Goal to Proclaim the Mighty Works of God:
Born of God, filled with life FROM God, sent BY God with a MESSAGE about the Mighty Works OF God.
Last week we witnessed Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven, which was not Jesus’ final destination, but His return to His Heavenly home. Ten days later on Pentecost (or the Feast of Weeks, 7 weeks after Passover) Jesus keeps the promise that the Father would send His Spirit to walk with every believer.
Now listen to the Word of God in Acts 2:1: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. (probably the 120 of them from Acts 1:15) 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
I like to think of Pentecost as the birth of the Church, the birth of the Spiritual Body of Christ. The church is a kind of first fruits of the full harvest of all the redeemed. The promised Spirit arrives as a first fruit guarantee of our full future inheritance. It is the breath of God coming to believers. It’s the living breathing spiritual work of God from heaven that comes down into the lives of believers on this day.
Romans 8:9 says: However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So this is not an experience you seek or chase. This is not something for which you qualify or are worthy: It is part of the salvation given by God.
The Supernatural Signs and Setting (1-4)
The Spirit of the Living God comes with Supernatural Signs and Setting so that you can’t mistake that it is EXTRA-ORDINARY; It is a God-THING. The Spirit at Pentecost comes Like Wind- actually it resembles a blast equal to a hurricane or tornado of cyclonic proportion! It’s a wind that would blow you away…This is not a gust of hot air like we get in UT but an undeniable POWER FROM God HIMSELF from Heaven. How could you expect anything less from the very Heavenly Holy Spirit of the Living God? It comes from Heaven, where God lives; it is where Jesus ascended to reign. This is the Person of the Spirit of God coming in power from His throne room. John 3:8 says: “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (See also Ezek. 37:9, 13) The BREATH OF THE SPIRIT blows away the old life, blows away the chaff, but makes life new for those who receive the Lord Jesus.
The Spirit of God comes from Heaven Like Fire: It is Heavenly Holy Cleansing and Power (John the Baptist said in Matt. 3:11: "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.) Physical fire consumes that which it burns. This was not PHYSICAL fire but spiritual fire and the tongues of flames were evident to prove that the Lord Jesus sent this Spirit. It was the presence of God come from heaven to earth to cleanse and empower everyone who believer. He comes and rests upon those whom He saves.
In Exodus 3: 2 we read of a first that did not consume physically but resembled the very presence of God: “The angel of the LORD appeared to him (Moses) in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." 4 When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am."
It wasn’t real fire but the very presence of God because God spoke to Moses from the midst of the bush. God speaks to us, not from a flame, but through His Word and His Spirit in the very middle of our Hearts. He burns away the old life and creates a new clean heart and life that will relentlessly pursue HIM instead of the things of the World.
II. Supernatural Spirit-Enabled Speech (5-13)
Look at Acts 2:5: “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed (astounded, to be besides one's self) and perplexed (to be entirely at loss), they asked one another, "What does this mean?" 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
How do you know that this speaking in other languages was enabled by the Spirit of God and not on account of drinking too much or some other phenomenon? Because the speech was accompanied by Godly signs: the sound of a mighty wind and some kind of visual brightness or supernatural occurrence much like a bush burning in Exodus 3, but not burning up. The SPEECH was a SIGN of the promised baptism of the Spirit. (and no water was present!) The speech was the evidence of the promise of Acts 1:5: “For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Notice that the speech was sent to an INTERNATIONAL body of believers to share with the world. The people who were speaking were Galileans but they were speaking in every language of the then-known world. No longer would God’s revelation be centered on Israel as a nation, but the message of Salvation in Christ alone would be preached to all the nations of the earth. The prophecy of Joel 2 is being fulfilled: “I will pour out my Spirit on ALL flesh…that whoever calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved.”
Their speech was an UNDERSTANDABLE message of the MIGHTY WORKS of God. The clear indication is that people HEARD the message in their own tongue: They weren’t CONFUSED because they did NOT understand the message, as is the case so often with confusing tongues or gibberish, but they were shocked or confused that these Galileans could speak in THEIR individual languages so that they could understand the Gospel and KNOW THAT THIS GOSPEL COULD BE FROM no one else but God’s Heaven.
III. The Supernatural Spirit
The Supernatural Spirit of God is HIS unifying Spirit for Christ’s Spiritual Body. The Spirit acccomplishes among God’s People, His Spiritual Body, what Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:20, “I don’t ask on behalf of these, but for those who believe in me that they may all be one, even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may be in us so that the world may believe.” And He says it again in verse 22. “The glory which you have given me I have given to them that they may be ONE,” and verse 23. “I in them and you in me that they may be perfected in unity.” That’s four times in one prayer Jesus says, “I want them to be one. I want them to be UNIFIED; Send them the Spirit of Unity.”
This uniting of every believer with all other believers in the body of Christ comes by sharing the common life of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Paul says to the Corinthian church, (1 Corinthians 6:19): “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” In other words, it comes from God. The spirit comes from God as a gift from God. You’re not your own. You’re bought with a price. He paid a price. You belong to Him. He placed the Spirit in you.
Each one who belongs to Christ shares the same Spirit of God…and there is NEVER a shortage because the Spirit is infinite and omnipotent just like God the Father and the Lord Jesus. Paul made that clear in1 Corinthians 6:17: “But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”
Because everyone who is Born of God is Born of the Same Spirit, each person in the Unified Body of Christ is FILLED with the Spirit. Little fire-like tongues appeared over each one of them to make it clear that with no exception, each had received the Holy Spirit, and THEIR HAIR didn’t catch on fire. It was NOT ABOUT EXTERIOR FIRE! It was that they ALL HAD received THE UNIFYING SPIRIT OF God. They ALL TASTED of THE SAME SPIRIT.
Each was FILLED, but filled in the sense that you would fill sails and move something along like in the words of Peter, holy men of God, we’re moved along. Ephesians 5: And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, (you will lose control of your life) but be filled with the Spirit.” Baptism by God grants the Holy Spirit’s filling. Filling of His Spirit yields the saved sinner to Him. Now you have been marked by the Spirit. In the New Testament, we are told to keep being filled with the Holy Spirit. Keep yielding yourself to Christ in obedience to His Word and Spirit.
The Spirit is God’s power in you, leading you from heaven’s throne room. The SPIRIT IN YOU is why you love other believers. It’s why you want to serve them. IT’s WHY you want to witness to other and be devoted to God’s Kingdom. It’s why you want to care for them. It’s why you pray for your enemies. It’s why you enjoy prayer and worship. You’ve been bought with a price. You belong to the Lord. This is what he has given you. Verse 4 says, “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” Another way to say the same thing would be that they were inundated and immersed with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the first fruit as well as the guarantee that MORE IS COMING. The Spirit marks the permanence of God’s Promises and His faithfulness.
As the Holy Spirit is POURED out on the Body of Christ, He Provides a Unified Purpose and Goal to Proclaim the Mighty Works of God: I just love that phrase in verse 11: We hear them declaring the wonders of God. That is exactly what Jesus prayed for and promised in Acts 1:8: “But you shall receive POWER. After that, the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses.” He grants Power to PROCLAIM THE WORKS OF God. The miracle of speaking in other tongues was for the goal and purpose of declaring to the World what God has done in Christ. It was for PROCLAIMING and propagating the Good News of Jesus Christ. .
The Gospel is supernatural! It is other-worldly. It is from the Spirit of God from the very throne room of Heaven itself, from the ONE and ONLY TRUE God, who came in the flesh to die for the sins of mankind. This Spirit and Life is born of God, filled with life FROM God, sent BY God with a MESSAGE about the Mighty Works OF God, that HE ALONE IS MIGHTY to save those who are dead in their sin.
The Holy Spirit is like Fire that BURNS away impurities. He purifies our lives. He is like a Mighty Wind that will BLOW away the chaff of our lives, all the junk, so that the fruit remains. Water only washes the exterior but the Spirit gives life. Luke 24:49 describes the Spirit’s filling as having been clothed (to sink into a garment) with power from on high." Paul describes the Galatian Christians this way: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27) The Holy Spirit arrives and breathes life into the Church. He gives Life to the Church, and it is only the beginning. The Supernatural Spiritual Body of Christ continues to grow today. Has His Spirit given you life that will continue to grow eternally?
