Acts 2:1-4, 12
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. … 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
We are here today to consider the topic of the Holy Spirit and me, how the coming of the Holy Spirit and the reality of the presence of the Spirit should impact my life. This is the season of Pentecost and we are to look together at this topic this morning.
We need to learn to see the things we thought we know all about in new ways. We are too often stuck in seeing the world in only one way and forget that we can be led to different viewings.
A wealthy oil baron once commissioned Picasso to paint a portrait of his wife. When the work was completed, the baron was shocked to see the image that had been created. "Why that looks nothing like my wife! You should have painted her the way she really is!" Picasso took a deep breath and said, "I’m not sure what that would be." Without hesitation, the oil baron pulled out his wallet and removed a photograph of his wife saying, "There, you see, this is a picture of how she really is! Picasso, bending over, looked at it and replied, "She is rather small and flat, isn’t she?"
The point is clear: The man was so wrapped up in HIS view of his wife he could not understand anyone else’s view of her. On the day of Pentecost there were many Jews who understood, who saw Gods new view of the world through the eye of the Spirit but there were also many there who did not, who could not see the world around them in any other way than the way it had always been.
We must remember that Pentecost in the Jewish tradition commemorated the giving of the law at Sinai. What the disciples experienced when they were all together and the Spirit came upon them was nothing less that the release of the law of the Spirit of life, replacing the old covenant law of sin and death. But, Pentecost was also a time of the celebrating the first fruits, a harvest festival. This experience of the disciples was only the first fruit of the outpouring of the Spirit, and we must consider, “What will the outpouring of the Spirit look like in our day as we get closer and closer to the Lord’s return?”
Sometime back the Associated Press carried this dispatch: "Glasgow, Ky.--Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor."
I am not going to look at the fact of the coming of the Spirit, but what it means for us and I shall do so by looking at the symbols that came with the Holy Spirit that first Pentecost.
Come with me into West Texas during the Depression. Mr. Ira Yates was like many other ranchers and farmers. He had a lot of land, and a lot of debt. Mr. Yates wasn’t able to make enough on his ranching operation to pay the principal and interest on the mortgage, so he was in danger of losing his ranch. With little money for clothes or food, his family (like many others) had to live on a government subsidy.
Day after day, as he grazed his sheep over those rolling West Texas hills, he was no doubt greatly troubled about how he would pay his bills. Then a seismographic crew from an oil company came into the area and told him there might be oil on his land. They asked permission to drill a wildcat well, and he signed a lease contract.
At 1,115 feet they struck a huge oil reserve. The first well came in at 80,000 barrels a day. Many subsequent wells were more than twice as large.
In fact, 30 years after the discovery, a government test of one of the wells showed it still had the potential flow of 125,000 barrels of oil a day. And Mr. Yates owned it all. The day he purchased the land he had received the oil and mineral rights. Yet, he’d been living on relief. A multimillionaire living in poverty. The problem? He didn’t know the oil was there even though he owned it.
It is fair to say that you and I are a lot like Mr. Yates at times. We are heirs of a vast treasure and yet we live in spiritual poverty. We are entitled to the gifts of the Holy Spirit and his energizing power, and yet we live unaware of our birthright. We gather today to remember how rich we are.
1 Instructive Symbols: Wind and Fire
Living in Cape Town we know the devastating effects that fire and wind have when they are combined. We have watched in morbid fascination as plantations have been destroyed and houses consumed by the powerful combination of wind and fire.
1.1 Wind
In the New and Old Testaments, wind is an indicator of divine presence. In fact the word “wind” and “spirit” are the same word in both Hebrew and Greek. And so, when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus he says:
John 3:5-8 “5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.”
In Ezekiel’s vision in the valley of the dry bones, he says the following in Ez 37:9-10: “9Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.”
Notice that this was no ordinary wind: (1) It came with a mighty sound, (2) from the heavens and (3) filled the place where they were together. Just as breath, air and wind are the source of physical life so, this wind - the power and presence of the Holy Spirit - would be the essence of spiritual life in the church.
We must remember that those who were together that day had already experienced salvation: met with the resurrected Christ. This outpouring of the Spirit was not for salvation but for empowering for service, they needed to be spiritually empowered for the task that Jesus had committed to them and this spiritual strength came through being filled with the Spirit.
We know that the wind comes in different forms: gentle puff of air that cools us on a hot summer’s day; stirring breeze that revives us when we are hot and bothered; a blustery gale; or a hurricane, tornado or whirlwind
Well, when the move of the Spirit is like the gentle puff of wind, it is the Spirit who comes to comfort us when we are struggling. The stirring breeze is like the Spirit coming to call us to action, it wakes us up and we set the sails ready to move. When the Spirit comes like a gale, all we can do is prostrate ourselves and when he comes like a hurricane, tornado or a whirlwind, he splits the rocks that block the work of God in our lives and he blows apart the things we have created.
1.2 Fire
Fire is, likewise, an indicator of divine presence: remember Moses and the burning bush, Elijah and the prophets of Baal? No less than 8 times do we read in the Scripture, “Our God is a consuming fire”
The poet William Blake wrote a poem about Pentecost. Part of the poem says:
Unless the eye catches fire, God will not be seen.
Unless the ear catches fire, God will not be heard.
Unless the tongue catches fire, God will not be named.
Unless the heart catches fire, God will not be loved.
Unless the mind catches fire, God will not be known.
Why fire? Well, fire brings light. The Holy Spirit came upon them as tongues of fire to show that they would walk in the light.
James Packer, Your Father Loves You,
“The Holy Spirit’s distinctive role is to fulfill what we may call a floodlight ministry in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. So far as this role was concerned, the Spirit "was not yet" (John 7:29, literal Greek) while Jesus was on earth; only when the Father had glorified him (John 17:1, 5) could the Spirit’s work of making men aware of Jesus’ glory begin. I remember walking to church one winter evening to preach on the words, "He will glorify me" (John 16:14), seeing the building floodlit as I turned a corner, and realizing that this was exactly the illustration my message needed. When floodlighting is well done, the floodlights are placed so that you do not see them; in fact, you are not supposed to see where the light is coming from; what you are meant to see is just the building on which the floodlights are trained. The intended effect is to make it visible when otherwise it would not be seen for the darkness, and to maximize its dignity by throwing all its details into relief so that you can see it properly. This perfectly illustrated the Spirit’s new covenant role. He is, so to speak, the hidden floodlight shining on the Savior. Or think of it this way. It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder on to Jesus who stands facing us. The Spirit’s message to us is never, "Look at me; listen to me; come to me; get to know me", but always, "Look at him, and see his glory; listen to him and hear his word; go to him and have life; get to know him and taste his gift of joy and peace." The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.”
But the fire also brings heat and those who were filled with the Spirit are to burn with love, they are to be passionate about calling people to repentance, they burn with self-sacrifice. If only we would experience the same mighty movement of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the same fire to burn in us with the same effects.
These were also, we read, tongues of fire. The Holy Spirit would give them his inspiration; they would speak as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. The church that was born on that day would be a speaking church, speaking the word in the power of the
Holy Spirit. It would be this word, infused with the Holy Spirit’s power will burn up the dross and consume the sin in people’s lives. To this day the Holy Spirit calls us to this type of preaching. What wonderful, flowery preaching we hear today, much more like motivational speaking than preaching. It does not confront that which God calls sin and does not call people to faith in Christ, but seeks only to empower and inspire without challenge and conviction of sin. It is a demonic distortion of the true purpose of preaching and witness.
So, in the wind and the fire we see two powerful symbols that speak of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When they are together the effect can be terrifying
2 Immediate Effects of the Coming of the Spirit: Filling and Speaking
2.1 Filled
The first thing that we note is that they were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not given in small measure; he was poured out upon them in great quantity. They were filled because they had been empty and, once they were filled, they were not empty any more. They were not filled with their own agendas, their own ways of doing things, their own plans, schemes and ideas; they were filled to overflowing with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This was only possible - they could be filled - because they were, first, empty
2.2 Speaking
The second thing that happened is that they began to speak in languages that could be understood by the people. I believe that this is the Holy Spirit’s way with people: he will speak to us in words that we can understand. And what words they were that were spoken that day, the words had fire in them and the hearts of those who heard were like dry tinder. The words spoken set people’s hearts on fire and they were further fanned by the wind of the Holy Spirit until a mighty blaze broke out in that place.
3 Issue of their Preaching
What were the issues that Peter preached about on that day?
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.’
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
3.1 In the first place, repentance: “Turn from your sin and turn towards God.”
3.2 In the second place redemption: “Salvation is in nowhere else except faith in Jesus
3.3 In the third place, rebirth: “You must be born again.”
3.4 And finally, remission of sin: “Your sins will be forgiven.”
4 Impact of the Experience
37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” … 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
There was deep feeling in those who heard these words, they were “cut to the heart” and this led to an earnest enquiry from those whose hearts had been touched and moved, “What shall we do?” they asked. They showed themselves open to receive the word that they had heard and they were baptized and received into the fellowship immediately. They showed themselves steadfast, they gave abundant worship to God. They were characterized by overwhelming generosity and continual joy. They praised God at all times and we see that there was a daily increase of the number who were being saved.
