May 19, 2002 Acts 2:1-21
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 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.
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 and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 "`In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (NIV)
The English language has many sayings that are connected to body parts. For instance, if you “stick your foot in your mouth,” it means that you say something really dumb. If you are going to “give someone an ear full”, it means that you will yell at them. If you are told to “keep your nose out of it”, it means that you should mind your own business. And if you “give someone a helping hand” it means that you are going to help them out in someway.
If things looked different up here this morning, be rest assured that your “eyes weren’t playing tricks on you.” Instead of wearing white, I am now wearing red. There’s a reason for that. This means that it’s time to switch seasons - to go on with the last “festival” of the festival half of the church year. Today is the official day that we call “Pentecost.” It means 50th. On this day, the Holy Spirit did something very special. Instead of sticking His foot in the disciples’ mouths, the Holy Spirit stuck his tongues - tongues of fire - on the disciples’ heads. In the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy, He enabled the disciples to speak in tongues. He gave their mouths what we would call a “helping hand.” So the theme for today is ~
The Holy Spirit Stuck His Hand in the Disciples’ Mouths
I. Enabling them to speak in tongues
Pentecost was originally known as the Feast of Weeks. There were three special festivals throughout the Old Testament that the men of Israel were expected to attend. The first one was the Passover. The second, fifty days after it, was the Feast of Weeks. In between Passover and the Feast of Weeks, the Jews would regularly have their wheat harvest. So God established the Feast of Weeks - 7 weeks after Passover, to be exact, as a time that the farmers could bring their first fruits to the Lord. They would bake two fresh loaves of leavened bread and wave them before the Lord, signifying that their harvest had come from the Lord. That’s why there were so many people from all over the world in Jerusalem at this time - from Media, Egypt, all over the place. They came to give the Lord the firstfruits of their grain harvest. What an opportune time this was for the Holy Spirit to give the New Testament Church a helping hand!
Acts 1:15 tells us that there were about 120 believers at the time this story takes place. It mentions the 11 disciples, along with some women, the mother of Jesus and his brothers were among these believers. Jesus had told them before He left in Acts 1:4-5, "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." So they waited, and waited, and waited. Then finally, about ten days later, they were gathered together when there was the sound of a blowing of a wind ~ but no wind. It filled the whole house where they were staying. The sound must have been very loud, maybe like a fierce hurricane - since people from all over Jerusalem came running to where the disciples were once they heard the sound. Again, you can see the purpose in the Holy Spirit’s sign of His presence. First, he waited for the Jews to come for the Feast of Weeks, then He brought all of these foreigners together at one place in Jerusalem to hear the testimony that was about to take place.
And then it happened. In fulfillment of Jesus’ promise, something that looked like tongues of fire appeared in the midst of them, separated, and came to rest on each of them. Then they began speaking in tongues - languages that they had never spoken before, were suddenly being spoken by the disciples who had never studied the languages before. If you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you realize how impossible it is to do something like that. Some dialects use their throats more than others. Some use their lips. For instance, German is what I would call a very macho language. When you speak it, you can really spit it out - something a construction worker would like. “ACH DU LIEBER!” While French is more of a woman’s language - fluent and more flowing like. It seems like it was written for love birds. “Por fa vor!” You can’t just pick up on these accents and languages over night. You have to grow up with some of those languages if you want to learn the actual dialect. Even to learn the vocabulary takes years. But the Holy Spirit made these men masters of languages in just a second! Here was a group of men and women who could speak every language in the book fluently, and tell the Jews about their beliefs in their own language! The disciples were able to give them a very clear testimony as to what they had done to Jesus and Jesus had done for them.
That’s why we celebrate Pentecost today. The Holy Spirit used this special day to give a clear testimony of Christ and bring three thousand people to faith. We praise the Holy Spirit for allowing the disciples to miraculously do this and spread the Gospel. Think about how great that would be if we could still do this today!
Some people actually claim that they can do this, but in a different way. They call themselves Pentecostal. Usually, when someone calls himself a “Pentecostal”, it means that he claims to be able to “speak in tongues.” In a Pentecostal service people get all excited, and then start speaking some form of gibberish that no one can understand, and then they try to have someone interpret it. It’s completely different from what the Holy Spirit did here. To me, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do what people claim to do today. If I were trying to communicate my faith with you, why would I speak in a foreign language, and then have someone interpret it back into English for you? Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:19, in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue. But I digress. My purpose is not to get in a whole discussion about speaking in tongues. We may want to set aside a few Wednesday nights to study the matter in Bible class.
If there’s one thing you can admire about the Pentecostals, it is their desire to believe in God passionately, to feel the delight of communion with him, and to see him at work in their lives. In a sense, we can sympathize with them. Who of us hasn’t gotten bored with a worship service and wished there was more “spirit” involved? But our wants also reflect a lack of appreciation for what we already have. Many husbands and wives may want a more passionate relationship with their spouse, but that doesn’t mean that their spouses are unloving - or are lacking what they need. If often happens that disgruntled husbands and wives take that leap into adultery, searching for greener pastures. It isn’t until they get to the other side that they realize the grass isn’t greener on the other side. Think about that, before you go searching for the greater emotions and the greater experiences. What are you are actually saying to God? “It isn’t enough for me to know that Jesus has lived and died for me.” It is telling God, “your revealed love to me that I read about in the Bible doesn’t make me happy.” This is a rejection of God in and of itself.
So we need to remember what we have. We have God’s direct revelation, telling us that Jesus has died for us. God promises in black and white that Jesus’ blood has made us holy in God’s sight. We have the Lord’s Supper, where God promises us that Jesus died FOR US. We have Baptism, where God promises that our sins are washed away. And what is more, we can already speak “in tongues.” In 1 Corinthians 12:3, Paul said, “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’, except by the Holy Spirit.” We all believe that. We say it with conviction. We can already speak in a language that unbelievers cannot speak, but can hear. We can clearly profess that Jesus is our Savior to people who can at least understand what we are saying. No unbeliever can say it and mean it. But we can. We don’t need any more than that.
II. Fulfilling the prophecy of Joel
Notice what happened shortly after the Holy Spirit put His hand in the disciples’ mouths. 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." I have seen drunk people do many things - wet their pants, get in fights, get sick, and pass out. They can stagger, they may even seem to be speaking in tongues - since half the time you can’t understand a word they are saying and say things they wouldn’t normally say. But I’ve never seen a drunk person start speaking a foreign language and give a good profession of his faith in Jesus Christ. Never. It was a ridiculous charge. But the devil couldn’t do anything else but to try and plant a seed of doubt in the people’s minds. Maybe he could get someone to cast some doubt on the situation. That’s the way he works. When Jesus was driving out demons, the Pharisees claimed that Satan was casting out Satan. It was a completely ridiculous charge. But the devil just tries to plant the doubt.
So Peter could not let this blasphemy continue. He said, These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 "`In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Some of the Jews were dismissing the Christians as just a bunk of drunkards. So Peter showed them that Christianity was not a “wing nut religion.” These were Jews; faithful Jews who thought enough of God’s Word to return back to Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks. Therefore, they probably knew their Old Testament rather well. So Peter pointed them back to the Old Testament to prove that this day was actually predicted beforehand. Joel predicted that a day would come when God would pour out His Spirit on all people. There were men and women - “all of them”, as Luke said, were filled with the Spirit. Peter was showing them that this wasn’t some random act of weirdness that happened on some people who had a little too much wine during the celebration of the Feast of Weeks. God had planned this day far in advance, and now it was coming to fulfillment. How? Through the Christians! The same group that they had heard was just a cult.
When you realize that the Holy Spirit had inspired the prophet Joel to write that text about 900 years prior to Pentecost, you also realize that since the Holy Spirit is God He also knew what the text would be used for. So you will notice - the Holy Spirit didn’t only predict Pentecost with this prediction. He also included a prediction of Judgment Day. The sun will be darkened and the moon turned to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord! Why would the Holy Spirit include a prediction of Judgment Day with Pentecost? Wouldn’t it be a warning to those Jews who were there on Pentecost? If Christianity really was true - if Jesus was the Messiah - then the Jews were in the wrong religion. If they were in the wrong religion - if they truly did crucify the Messiah - then they would be doomed on Judgment Day! Peter pointed to that judgment for those who rejected Christ in his speech to follow. All of this shows us that the Holy Spirit had his hand in the growth of the Church in ways that we don’t even understand. Not only did He give His disciples the ability to speak in tongues. He predicted it. He planned it. And He fulfilled it. It was a well planned out event that the Holy Spirit brought to fruition.
As the Church continues to spread God’s Word - in different languages and in different nations, the devil will continue to bring the same challenges. Today, he doesn’t outright accuse us of being drunk. But the same plan of attack is there. We are called bigots. We’re accused of hate crimes. Today it is sinful in the world’s eyes to tell someone they’re sinning. We are looked at as unloving for condemning homosexuality and adultery. People look at us like we’re crazy for saying that we shouldn’t worship with people of another faith. They accuse us of being male chauvinists for not allowing female pastors. Even though God’s Word is clear on the matter - we are regarded as idiots. How different is that from accusing us of being drunk?
But notice what the Peter did in the face of ridicule. He didn’t hide. He didn’t run into a corner. He proclaimed the truth all the more clearly. He showed them as plainly as possible, that this was the fulfillment of what the Holy Spirit would say.
What we have to realize is that the Holy Spirit is still in control today. Paul warned Timothy through inspiration of the Holy Spirit that this exact thing would happen. 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. But what did Paul tell Timothy to do? But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:5) If the Holy Spirit predicted Pentecost 900 years before it ever came to be - and fulfilled it, he also knew that we would have to undergo ridicule today. But we have to be rest assured that the Holy Spirit is still in control today. All we can do is continue to proclaim the truth of God’s Word even more clearly, just as Peter did in the face of adversity. Then we and many more will be ready for the coming of the Lord. For those who believe in Jesus as their Savior, it will then be a GLORIOUS day, instead of a DREADFUL day.
As I have grown older, my taste buds have changed. I used to be very sensitive to hot things. I remember being at a get together at the seminary, where I ate a jalapeno pepper. My mouth started watering, my eyes were tearing, and my face got all red. Everyone was laughing at my facial expressions. They could tell right away that I had eaten something that didn’t agree with my mouth.
Can people tell that you have something in your mouth that makes you act differently? When you speak with them, can they tell that it has been possessed? Just as God poured his Holy Spirit on the disciples through the baptism of fire at Pentecost and gave them the ability to speak in tongues, he has poured the Holy Spirit on you through your baptism of water. Now the Holy Spirit has His hand in everything you say. He has enabled you to speak about your Savior. Thank the Lord, and make every day a celebration of Pentecost. Make it so everyone can tell that your mouth and your whole body is possessed with the Holy Spirit. Amen.
