Asking for a Revival
Acts 2:1-13
Online Sermon: http://www.mckeesfamily.com/?page_id=3567
“From the fall of man to our day, the work of redemption in its effect has mainly been carried on by remarkable [i.e., extraordinary] communications of the Spirit of God.”
Jonathan Edwards, leader of the Great Awakening
Over 2,000 years ago right before His ascension the Lord told His disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they received the promised gift of a divine Advocate (John 14:16), the Spirit of Truth (John 14:16) who would aid them in their Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations (Acts 1:4-5; Matthew 28:18-20). Knowing that there are none truly righteous (Romans 3:9-20) and that they were being sent out like sheep amongst the wolves (Matthew 10:16) who would undoubtedly persecute them (John 15:18-25), the disciples needed the Holy Spirit not only to enable them “to live kingdom lives” but also to effectively plant and water seeds of righteousness (1 Corinthians 3:6-9). In Acts chapter two we are told of the glorious day when the wind and fire of the Spirit filled the hearts of the 120 brethren and not only were they able to speak in many languages that they never learned but were also empowered to do great miracles in Jesus’ name and add to the church daily! For those believers who are in churches that rarely have a baptism and are left to rejoice in seeing a mere visitor it often feels like one is on a “spiritual treadmill of regular church attendance, involvement in ministry, seminars and endless religious activity” but still barren of power and fruit. This of course raises all sorts of questions. Was the Day of Pentecost a one-time event or are we too clothed with the same Holy Spirit’s power to effectively go and make disciples of all nations? “What makes the difference between a Christian who is progressing, and one is, who is either regressing or standing still?” Surely, He who wishes none to be lost (2 Peter 3:9) has cloaked those who are amongst such ripe fields (Matthew 9:37) with the divine power to show them the Spirit by which they must be baptized to enter His kingdom? We know God is active today so how does one ask and receive another awakening? The following sermon is going to review Acts 2:1-13 to not only see what happened during original Day of Pentecost but also to understand what is required to see explosive growth in our hearts and churches this very day!
The Day of Pentecost
Receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit happened on the “Festival known in late Judaism as Pentecost.” It was the second of three great annual festivals of the Jewish people and got its name because it was celebrated 50 days after the Passover. While early Hebrew and Aramaic speaking Jews knew this celebration also as the “Feast of Weeks” (Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:10) or “Day of the First Fruits” (Numbers 28:26, Exodus 23:16) due to its celebration of the first fruits of the grain harvest (Exodus 23:16; Lev 23:17–22; Num 28:26–31); it was later celebrated as the “anniversary of the giving of the law on Sinai.” It is fitting that the divine power demonstrated on Mount Sinai under the Old Covenant would once again be shown to announce and celebrate the New Covenant in Christ’s blood (Luke 22:15-20)! On this Jewish holiday many pilgrims from all over the known world would come to the Holy City of Jerusalem to celebrate God’s law and bountiful provisions. “It is appropriate that the event that was going to propel the gospel to the ends of the earth took place at a time when people from the ends of the earth were in Jerusalem. While what happened on this celebration day did not begin the church as the body of Christ, for it already existed by this time, the gift of the Holy Spirit empowered the believers to not only have a more intimate and personal relationship with their Savior but also to obey His command to proclaim the Good News to the ends of the world!
The Wind
While the 120 disciples mentioned in Acts 1:15 were meeting and praying in the upper room an incredible life-giving miracle happened. Luke tells us that “suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” (verse 2). In the major ancient languages of Hebrew, Greek and Latin “wind” was often used to symbolize the “Spirit.” Wind, after all, “is of all material things, one of the most spiritual in appearance; it is invisible, ethereal, mysterious” hence it is fitting that it would symbolize the divine presence and power of the Holy Spirit (2 Sam. 5:24; 22:16; Job 37:10). In the same way that God breathed into Adam, and he received life people need God to breath His Spirit into them to be born again and receive eternal life. In examining the importance of this glorious event Charles Spurgeon stated, “by Him are we quickened at the first; by Him are we kept alive afterwards; by Him is the inner life nurtured, and increased, and perfected. The breath of the nostrils of the man of God is the Spirit of God.” Ezekiel’s prophesied new heart and dry bones coming to life (37:9-14) was now a reality for the final Messianic Age had begun! Even though the wind blows where it may (John 3:8) and therefore cannot be controlled or subject to any human command, the 120 disciples who entered into the upper room to wait patiently to receive the promised Comforter were granted a miraculously gift from heaven that empowered them to cast down every vain imagination of the lost and effectively fulfill Christ’s command to witness the Good News first in Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria and then to the ends of the world (Acts 1:8). This was the first sign that the Spirit of God had been received.
The Fire
The second sign that the Spirit of God had been received was not focused on sound but on sight. Luke in verse three tells us that “they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” After having read the stories of Abraham seeing the burning lamp (Genesis 15:17), the burning bush (Exodus 3:2-5), the pillar of fire that guided the Israelites by night (13:21), the consuming fire on Mount Sinai (24:17), fire that hovered over the wilderness tabernacle (40:38), and the fire at Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18); the Jewish people came to associate “fire” as a symbol of God’s divine presence! Receiving this fire was the fulfillment of John the Baptist’s promise that the One coming after him would not baptize with water but with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11)! The implications of receiving “fire” relates to purification (Isaiah 4:4; Jeremiah 7:20; Malachi 3:2–4; 4:1) not only of the believer but the lost as well. Fire not only brings light and warmth to the believers He calls His own but also ignites them with passion to let their light shine so that their deeds and witness might point to God the Father in heaven. “May a fire burn steadily within to destroy our sin, a holy sacrificial flame to make us whole burnt offerings unto God, a never-dying flame of zeal for God, and devotion to the cross.” God is a consuming fire not only to the saved but especially to the lost! While our witnessing is to focus on the Good News it must not be done as an invitation of some form of cheap grace but must embrace the truth that “fire” also represents “the consuming judgement of God (Isaiah 66:15, 18) that will forever burn away the chaff of the “stubborn and disobedient” in the unquenchable flames of hell! While God’s and our love is to be the primary motivation of missions, judgement must be spoken for until one truly knows of the eternal wailing and gnashing of teeth one simply cannot know the true peril one is in! Since the tongues of fire fell on all present, praise be to God every believer has the passion to be purified by the Spirit and the conviction to preach to the lost before it is too late!
Speaking in Tongues
The third sign that the Spirit of God had been received happened when each of those in the upper room “were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them” (verse 3). The filling of the Spirit is not to be confused with the Baptism by the Spirit. While the baptism of the Spirit is but once and “places you into the body of Christ,” being filled by the Spirit can happen many times in a person’s life and is often accompanied by some supernatural tasks to be performed. The task of those who received the tongues and fire was to speak in tongues the Good News to those attending the Pentecost. The 120 did not speak the ecstasy (1 Corinthians 14:2), the language of angels (1 Corinthians 13:1), or the groans of the Spirit that words cannot express (Romans 8:26), they spoke in the local languages of the God-fearing Jews and proselytes that came to the festival from Egypt, Asia Minor and Italy which represented the known world of their day! What truly made this miraculous was that these were men without college education (Acts 4) and despite being Galilean who often “had difficulty pronouncing gutturals and had the habit of swallowing syllables when speaking” they spoke in many languages fluently and eloquently!” Lest we get too caught up on the speaking of tongues, this was but one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the reason why it was given was at this time was to “invite every tribe and language and people (Revelation 5:9-10; 7:9) under the rule of His Son (Ephesians 1:9-10),” to hear the Good News that salvation was being offered to all regardless of genealogy, nationality or status! While “Babel and Eden were not undone by the Day of Pentecost they were redeemed and their negative effects” only remained on those who chose to not believe in the atoning sacrifice of the Son! Pentecost then is to be seen as the prophesied outpouring of the Spirit of Ezekiel 37, the announcement of the Messianic age and the “world-wide expansion of the church.”
The Response
So, what was the response of the people who heard “the wonders of God in their own tongues” (verse 12)? To see and hear the Holy Spirit poured out in such extraordinary power one would think everyone would have fallen on the ground prostrate or leap for unspeakable joy that the prophesied Messianic age had come but that is not what happened! While some were amazed and ready to give God the glory others gave into skepticism and attributed the miracle as nothing more than gibberish of those filled with new wine! “Jesus encountered a similar type of criticism when his opponents said He was doing His miraculous work through the power of Beelzebub (Mark 3:22).” When revival comes there will always be some believers in the Christian community who in not understanding the significance of such an event and will try to dismiss it is really occurring. “This is a reminder that the miraculous is not self-authenticating, nor does it inevitably and uniformly convince. There must be the preparation of the heart and the proclamation of the message if miracles are to accomplish their full purpose!” Also from this passage it is important to remember that the “suddenness” of this miracle points to the Holy Spirit as being “free and sovereign and not bound to anyone’s timing to technique for how to get His power!” Revival is not fabricated by the church’s will but must be asked for in humble submission and joyful expectation that God will do good to His own in His time. And when revival does arrive do not worry about what the scoffers say but instead rejoice that God felt you worthy of such persecution (Matthew 5:10)! Be so filled with the Holy Spirit that God has complete control of your every word, thought and deed (2 Corinthians 120:5)! Leap for joy and fall prostate at the Father’s feet not as one drunk on wine but on His might and power and sovereignty to rule over all things seen and unseen (Colossians 1:16) as you repeat Isaiah’s words “here I am, take me” (Isaiah 6:8)!
Being Filled by the Spirit
After having read about the Pentecost one can’t help but wonder if and how do revivals happen today? Since the Spirit is the same as when He hovered over the waters in Genesis as He was in Jesus’ day when the 120 disciples miraculously spoke in tongues, one can say confidently that YES revival can and does happen in many churches today! While we certainly cannot command the Spirit to start a revival at our church what we certainly can and must do is to prepare our hearts to accept one! “The Spirit can bring life to anyone but chooses only to do so with those who are open and ready to be filled with an unquenchable desire to serve! To have this happen we need to pray that a “flake of fire might fall into our bosom,” to not only “drown out all the puny voices of doubt and uncertainty” but also to ignite passion to not just know and memorize the Bible but to humbly bow our knees in total submission and genuine desire to joyfully serve in any way asked! Also, to become ready to receive the Spirit’s fire burning within our hearts (Luke 24:32) we need to humbly ask God to search our hearts to reveal anything that might offend the Spirit (Psalms 139:23-24) and keep Him from using us as instruments of His righteousness! And above all even though it can be frustrating, irritating and even a little intimidating we must be patient and wait for the Spirit’s leading in our lives for it truly is not by “might nor by power but by the Spirit (Zechariah 4:6) that we can do miracles in the name of Jesus! As we wait, we are assured that the very God who “has poured our His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5) has a glorious plan for every one of us (Jeremiah 29:11) that will come to fruition in His time! Let me finish this sermon with a beautiful prayer from Charles Spurgeon:
“O Spirit of God, thou art ready to work with us to-day even as thou didst then! Stay not, we beseech thee, but work at once. Break down every barrier that hinders the incomings of thy might. Overturn, overturn, O sacred wind! Consume all obstacles, O heavenly fire, and give us now both hearts of flame and tongues of fire to preach thy reconciling word, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”
Sources Cited
John Piper, Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2007).
Tony Evans, “‘The Power of Spiritual Passion,’” in Tony Evans Sermon Archive (Tony Evans, 2015), Ac 2:1–8.
David J. Williams, Acts, Understanding the Bible Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2011).
Richard N. Longenecker, “The Acts of the Apostles,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: John and Acts, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 9 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981).
F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1988).
Ajith Fernando, Acts, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998).
C. H. Spurgeon, “The Pentecostal Wind and Fire,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 27 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1881).
David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009).
James Montgomery Boice, Acts: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1997).
Lee Martin McDonald, “Acts,” in The Bible Knowledge Background Commentary: Acts–Philemon, ed. Craig A. Evans and Craig A. Bubeck, First Edition. (Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook, 2004).
William J. Larkin Jr., Acts, vol. 5, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Westmont, IL: IVP Academic, 1995), Ac 2:5–13.
