We worked out last week that the Acts of the Apostles is really the Continuing Acts of Jesus. Well, if Jesus has risen, has returned to his Father in heaven, how can he continue his work on earth? He needs to be present in and with his apostles doesn’t he? And that’s why he instructs them to wait in Jerusalem until the promise of the Holy Spirit being poured out on them is fulfilled.
Well, the day comes at last. They’re still together; possibly in the upper room, but certainly in one place. And suddenly they hear the sound of a violent wind, filling the entire house where they’re sitting. Then tongues like flames of fire appear among them and settle on each of them. Imagine how they were feeling at this moment. If you were them, waiting for God to pour out his Spirit on you, I wonder what you’d be expecting. You might have thought back to the Old Testament examples of people to whom God’s spirit was given. People like Samson with his superhuman strength perhaps; or David with his great charisma that made him such a popular leader; or one of the prophets with their bold words of judgement on the nation or its king. But I’m not sure you would have been expecting all that happens here. Let’s think about what happens when the Spirit is poured out on Jesus’ followers here.
Well the first thing that happens is that there are these obviously supernatural signs of his presence - wind and fire. Notice Luke says the sound like the rush of a violent wind comes from heaven. There’s no mention of an actual wind. Rather this is a supernatural sign, a symbol of something that’s about to happen. Perhaps it signifies the power that’s about to be released in the apostles.
Where I live we’re surrounded by tall trees and when a strong wind blows you can hear it whistling through the branches. The first time I heard it I was really worried about how strong the wind must have been. I could just imagine it knocking the branches off one of the trees onto my roof. Just before we went to Germany there were news reports of a storm in southern Germany where people were being knocked over by the force of the wind. You can probably remember that Sydney to Hobart Yacht race a few years ago when all those boats were damaged by the gale force winds and a number of people drowned.
There’s no doubt that the wind is a symbol of great power, particularly something like this, the sound of a gale whistling through the rafters.
And then there’s the tongues of fire. Fire is a common symbol of purity in the Old Testament. Moses encountered God in a burning bush, the fire symbolising holy ground. When Isaiah was called you may remember that God sent an angel to him with a burning coal to cleanse his lips, so he could speak the words of God with confidence. The seraphim who surround the throne of God in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek 1:13) are creatures of fire. So these things that seem to be tongues of fire perhaps symbolise God’s purifying of his followers. Certainly they symbolise their preparation for speaking forth the word of God. And notice that the tongues of fire separate and settle on each one of them. Here’s where this outpouring of the Spirit is different to those other Old Testament examples. Now the Spirit is given to every believer. We each receive, first his cleansing power, then we receive the words he wants us to say.
Look at v4. "All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability." This doesn’t appear to be the same sort of speaking in tongues that we read about in other places, like 1 Corinthians 12, because immediately we read that there are people from every nation under heaven visiting Jerusalem and they all hear Jesus’ followers speaking in their own language. So it would seem that the languages that are being spoken here are earthly languages, not the heavenly utterances that Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14.
You realise the significance of this phenomenon as you read on. This isn’t just some freak show act from the circus. No this is an event with great significance for the preaching of the gospel. Look at v11: "in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power." If you wondered how these few disciples could preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, here we have the answer in microcosm. They can preach the gospel to the ends of the earth because the Holy Spirit will enable them to. Already on the first day that the Holy Spirit has been given, people from all over the known world are hearing the gospel. No doubt some of these will return to their homelands and tell others and so the gospel will spread. In other cases the Apostles and their successors will travel to tell them about Jesus. And so the gospel begins its spread to all nations.
So we begin to see how the Holy Spirit changes things, what the impact of his coming is on the first Christians. He comes with signs of great power. He falls on all of Jesus’ followers. He empowers them to speak boldly to people of every tribe and tongue.
But as we read on we discover more of what the coming of the Spirit achieves.
People are amazed and perplexed by what’s happening. Others start to poke fun at them for being drunk so early in the morning. So Peter stands up and begins to speak. And you can imagine this causing even more amazement. Because this Galilean fisherman begins to expound the Scriptures like one of their rabbis. He quotes Joel, he quotes Ps 16, he quotes Ps 110. And as he speaks he begins to both explain what’s happened to the disciples, but also to expound the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit begins to work through Peter to enable him to understand and to interpret the Scriptures, so his hearers will understand the significance of Jesus Christ.
In fact what Peter does is a particular example of what they’ve all been doing. What did we read in v11? "In our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power." All the disciples are enabled to speak about God’s deeds of power. The power of the Spirit that enabled the Old Testament Prophets to speak the words of God has now been given to the Church. The prophesy of Joel has been fulfilled. "your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 18Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy." So God’s people are given the power to speak God’s words to their hearers.
What’s more, they’re not just given the power to speak, but suddenly their fear and hesitation is gone. They speak with great boldness. The image of the disciples hiding away in an upper room for fear of the Jews is such a contrast to this picture of Peter standing up in the market square in the middle of Jerusalem calling people to repent of their rebellion, telling them that they put Jesus, the Messiah, to death. Suddenly Peter is warning and pleading with people to hear God’s word to them. And the rest of the disciples are just opening their mouths and the words seem to come out.
And notice what it is that the Spirit inspires them to say.
First the focus of their proclamation is on Jesus Christ, on who he was - "22a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know." On what he did - deeds of power, wonders and signs. On what happened to him. He was crucified, but God raised him from the dead. On the fact that the Old Testament prophets had foretold his coming, his death and resurrection. And finally they focus on his identity as God’s only begotten Son, now risen and exalted to the right hand of God.
But their focus isn’t just on who Jesus is. It’s also on what the people should do about it. So the message finishes with a call to repent, to be baptised as a sign of their new allegiance to Jesus Christ; it includes the assurance that Jesus’ death means their sins will be forgiven; and it includes the promise that the Holy Spirit will be given to them as well.
This is one of the amazingly encouraging things about this Pentecost experience. It isn’t just something for the beginning of the Christian Church. It’s an ongoing experience. Jesus continues to work through his Church as each succeeding generation repents and is baptised and receives the gift of the Holy Spirit, so they too can proclaim the gospel with power and confidence.
Of course we today should have even more confidence in preaching the gospel I guess, because we can see the effect it’s had already. Those first disciples didn’t have a clue what they were getting themselves in for. What do you think Peter thought would happen when he stood up to preach that first time? He wouldn’t have had any idea what sort of response he’d receive would he? As far as he knew he was likely to cause a riot and they’d all end up dead.
But we should know what to expect, shouldn’t we? Look at what happens as God’s Holy Spirit works, not just in the hearts of Peter and the other disciples, but also in the hearts of his hearers. They’re cut to the heart. They ask "what should we do?" And the answer is "Repent and be baptised." And that’s what happens. People’s minds are changed. They accept that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, the Lord, the son of God. They turn to Christ in their thousands. And it continues as the days go on, as more and more people share their new faith, their new understanding with others, "And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved."
Finally the Holy Spirit begins to shape them into a true representation of God’s people. They begin to meet together, to pray, to learn from the apostles, to remember Christ’s death and resurrection through celebrating the Lord’s Supper together and to pray with one another. And as they meet together, as they worship the risen Christ, wonderful things begin to happen. "Many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles." There’s a great out-flowing of generosity, of true fellowship with one another as those who have possessions sell them to support those who have nothing.
Now I want you to notice that the way the early church lives is a direct reflection of the way the nation of Israel was meant to be. They’re a community, centred around the worship of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. They’re a community where the bonds of fellowship are real, where no-one goes hungry because their brothers and sisters look after them, and they’re a community where the glory of God is revealed to the nations in a way that makes those nations want to come and join God’s people. They’re a community that gladly proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ, of his Lordship over all people and of the offer of forgiveness and peace with God that his death and resurrection have made possible.
But I want you to also realise that that early Church community is the same community that we now belong to as we meet here today. We’re the same Church that began on Pentecost Sunday all those years ago. We have the same Holy Spirit living within us. The same Holy Spirit inspires each one of us to carry out the works of ministry that he has for us. And like that early Church we too should be reflecting the sort of community that God desires for his people. We too should be a community that’s centred around the worship of God and of his Son Jesus Christ. We too should be a community that cares for one another in practical ways, that lifts up the weak, that shares our resources with one another in meaningful ways. We too should be a community in which God’s glory is seen and where people hear God’s call to turn back to him.
As we saw in that skit earlier, it’s not such a difficult thing to share the gospel with people. In fact it’s as simple as 1,2,3. 1. Develop your non-Christian friendships. 2. Pray for your non-Christian friends. 3. Talk about your faith with your friends.
And be encouraged by what we see here. As we share our faith in a natural way, it’s not us who do the convincing. God’s Holy Spirit is the one who will touch people’s hearts. God will enable us to get through the language barriers, the cultural barriers, even those that exist within our own circle of friends perhaps, so that people will respond to Christ as Lord. You see the Spirit has this dual function here. He not only empowers the disciples, but he also converts the listeners.
And if you’re still not convinced about whether you can do the same sort of thing as the disciples, look at v39: "The promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him." The Spirit is poured out on all flesh. The Spirit will give each one of us the words to say, the power to change people’s hearts, if only we’ll trust him to work through us.
Let’s look again at what the Holy Spirit does for these first Christians, and therefore what he’ll do for us.
He shows himself in power. He purifies them to enable them to speak. He enables them to speak in a way that their hearers will understand. He enables God’s people to understand and interpret the Scriptures. He empowers them to speak the words of God - to prophesy. He empowers them to call people to repent. He touches their hearts so they’re convicted of their sin and of Jesus’ identity as the Lord. He causes their hearers to repent and turn back to God. And finally he inspires them to generosity and true fellowship together.
Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit would continue to empower and inspire us as he did those first Christians.
For other sermons from this source as well as questions for discussion go to www.sttheos.org.au
