The Book of Acts 2:1-13 - Coming of the Holy Spirit
Acts 2:1-13 · Bob Eckel · Feb 2, 2014
Acts (2014), No. 05
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926415426215

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So I think for a change, we don't really need an introduction to chapter two. I think Jeremy kind of concluded chapter one, and I think we're transitioning into a whole new part of it. But we will go back to take a look at a few verses as part of our lesson today. So let's just go ahead and read the first 13 verses.

So who's up for that? Is there a handout or no? Well, it's being worked on for some reasons. We're running into computer glitches. We'll see if we can solve that problem. There is a handout in its way. But this is good. You don't have to anticipate me in terms of what I'm going to be saying. This is probably good. OK. Someone read, please. Acts 1, 2, 1 through 13. Here comes the handout.

Delivered in a speedy manner by Nancy. When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound, like the blowing of a violent wind, came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tons of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked, Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia.

You're doing well. Thank you. It gets harder. Phyrgia, that's not right, and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. Amazed and perplexed, they ask one another, what does this mean? some however made fun of them and said they have had too much wine. Alright, so let's first look at the first two verses. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place and they suddenly viewed this thing that came from heaven, a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. So in a sense, this is John the Baptist's prophecy fulfilled, isn't it?

If we look at Matthew 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. Notice both the Holy Spirit and fire, because they're both relevant in the verses that follow. And then that of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

Let's look back and read again Acts 1, 1 through 4. I said I'd refer back. This is the place where I meant to refer back. And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. No, Acts 1. Oh, Acts 1. Sorry. Acts 1, 1 through 4.

The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom he had chosen. To these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God. In gathering them together he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised. But she said, you heard of me, for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

OK, good. So in a sense, both John the Baptist was referred to in Acts 1, 1-4, John the Baptist in the gospel accounts, several gospel accounts, and here the Lord Jesus Christ promising something that was going to occur, presumably in the near future, sort of a hangout in Jerusalem, right? So don't go too far away here. We've got something that's going to occur right here.

Now, the day of Pentecost was really representing an annual spring feast, when the Jews presented the first fruits of their wheat harvest to God. And ultimately, this is really showing Exodus, but other texts in the Old Testament. I just chose this one as an example. You shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks. that is the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the feast of in-gathering at the turn of the year. And actually, I guess this feast was also there to celebrate the giving of the Mosaic law and also gathering together in unity. So let's look at those two verses.

So Exodus 19.1 and then Psalm 133.1 are two brief statements to justify what is stated here. In the third month after the sons of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for others to dwell together in unity. Okay, so this concept of being together and also the commemoration of the Feast of the Weeks and what it represented in terms of the Passover itself.

And then Paul gives further reflection on the importance of the Holy Spirit. being given versus the mosaic law. And let's perhaps look at those verses, too, because I think it really puts that into context in terms of what's going to follow. 2 Galatians 3.3, someone can take that. And also read 23 through 29. Are you so foolish? After beginning with the spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? And?

Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, For you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are at Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

So I think this concept of Pentecost being not only an annual feast that related to the Passover, but in fact the fact that it commemorated the Mosaic Law, and now we're seeing the Spirit being given at the Pentecost is a nice contrast. in terms of the law and the spirit, in terms of the dividing term between the two.

So everything's set up temporally to look at this. Temporal cost means 50. And I think that was mentioned in previous weeks here. And the Feast of Weeks occurred 50 days after the Passover. I think the second day of the Passover. Anyway, this was an interval that was projected based on the day and the Passover.

Holly? I guess I had a quick question about the law. being God given to lead people to faith. But that isn't really what it did, did it? No, it didn't. It asked people to respond to it by faith. But ultimately, the law was there to show how far short he falls. The law is there to convict, but in the Old Testament, it was by faith that you responded to the law. That's how you live the Old Testament life of holiness, trying to obey the law. That's what the priest annually was all about in terms of the forgiveness or at least the propitiation for the sins of the people. So we got it kind of reversed then by, you know, just trying on your own works to do the law without the faith, I guess, is when it became so important for Christ to come. No one keeps the law right. There's no one righteous. No, not one.

I mean, you know, it's the foundation of the cross. But the interesting thing is the timing here that reflects on the the annual feast of the harvest and ultimately the timing in relationship to Passover. And here the timing is perfect in terms of the Passover when Pentecost occurred for the birth of the new church. I mean, I think temporally the Lord knew what he was about here in terms of, and it's interesting who attended this. We're going to come to that in a second.

These are devout men. These are serious Jews who are in Jerusalem, who are witnessing this whole sequence of events. And probably worth looking at these two verses, too, because I think the significance of the 50 days after Passover is noted here. So Leviticus 23, 15 and 16, and Deuteronomy 16, 11. Let's take a look.

23.15 says, you shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaves of the wave offering. There shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath. Then you shall present a new great offering to the Lord. Okay, so there's the fifty days there.

The Deuteronomy passage? And thou shalt keep the feast of wheat unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God has blessed thee. And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord, and thou, thou thy son, and thy daughters, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and thy levites within thy gates. and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow and there are among you in the place which the Lord God has chosen the place his name there. Okay, so just a couple of verses reflecting on the beast of Eden.

All right, so this event was expected to be attended by all male Jews and within a distance of 20 miles and I couldn't find anything to constable to say this 20 miles distance but that was what was expected. So you are a man and Jewish, and ultimately were under the Israeli law, if you will, which they all should have been. They were expected to be there. So that's kind of the stage of the sale.

And who are they and what house? Well, Bob, it seems like that they points back to the Jews. Back to verse 15 and back to chapter one. There's one hundred and twenty plus one hundred and fifteen. And that's one fifteen. And at this time, Peter stood up in the midst of the gathering of about one hundred and twenty persons was there together and said, So, OK, so what house is this the upper room?

I don't know if you ever was. I don't know. Yeah, actually, the size of the people. This is a pretty big place. This isn't just a little. And that's what's interesting. It seems like we're going to get to that. They kind of move. I mean, it doesn't say that. But after a while, there's a lot more people. Yeah, we're going to get there. So. So we're not exactly sure what this was. Some people think it's the upper limit. Some commentators do and others don't. So I don't think we know.

It's not important really. But presumably the number there is around 120. according to Acts 115. So, noise like a violent rushing wind. Wind pneuma is interesting because wind pneuma is the same as wind spirit. I mean, in other words, spirit pneuma, same Greek word, translated either wind or spirit.

Look at John 3.8. It uses both words in terms of the translation. It's kind of an interesting verse. We're making this work too hard. John 3 8, somebody please.

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell where it whence it cometh. And whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. So here we're trying to win multiple times cited in the verse, but also Spirit, same Greek word, pneuma. I guess it's context, context, context, context, context.

But I think it's not probably just coincidental that this word is used. I mean, there is a violent in a violent nature really indicates power. I think what's this like tornado like? And I sense it's we think of a tornado kind of building up over time and it can be anticipated at least for for at least minutes or so. But this. Seems like it's a sudden gust of the more like a mind jarring instance. Violent. I mean for I mean it probably shook the room. Although the scripture doesn't say that. I mean this is something that is pretty vibrant.

So how would you describe it Tom. If it was just not tornado-like outside, but you just happen to open the window just when a gust hits, and you feel your ears begin to pop, that's what I would think. These microbursts come to you just like they're in a certain area, not widespread. All right. James has the answer. And it's not a way to process noise like a wind. Yes.

You know that that would make it even more confusing as to what's happening because everybody would look around. Perhaps. Have you read, you know, witnesses of tornadoes in terms of the sound? I mean, the gust of the wind and the damage that it ensues, it's the sound, apparently, like a freight train, I mean, just right next door. Anyway, it's fun to speculate, isn't it?

All right, so let's move on to three and four then. And there appeared to them tongues as a fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them others.

Our purpose today is not getting into 1 Corinthians 12 and looking at tongues. We're going to interpret this in context. I don't want to go down that road. How would you describe tongues as a fire? Again, just use your imagination a little bit. I mean, again, there's so much a scripture like this that ultimately describes an event that we have trouble envisioning. Well, maybe just a distortion of the view past above each person indicating there's something there, but we can't identify it. Well, fire, we identify, right?

Well, like fire. So it would seem that there might have been a shape to it that might have pointed upward or something. Not a fire in the stove yesterday. You know, being diffused within the stove. Some of these say cloven tongues or divided tongues. We'll come back to that in a second.

Anyway, tongues of fire, having trouble envisioning that too. Is this like the pillar of fire but consumable? I don't know. Exodus 3, 2 through 6 talks about the pillar of fire. And here was all around them and ultimately Well, you know, it's interesting here is if you keep reading and move right here and get there. Yeah, this is on each individual. The one the old testament was this everybody. Everybody in the whole camp saw this giant pillar. This is like each one has his own little flame or whatever.

It doesn't say when it went out though, did it? I mean, they didn't keep walking around with them. No. One would think that if it were truly equivalent to the pillar of fire, I would dare that Pharaoh had told his people, Identify that source. I want to see if it can be penetrated and they come back with no harm or something. Yeah, better not try that.

Well, what's different about the terrorism that is we understand from what's being described here? I think Roger was on that track. the pillar was surrounding the entire nation, was it not, and now we're talking about individuals being impacted. But unlike the pillar abiding over the entire nation, in fact that's why this tab here, each one received it individually, clothed it or divided it. So this fire-like, in a sense if you look at fire, and I did yesterday, kind of thinking about this, again flame here, flame there, it does divide in terms of the stove in which it's ingested. This is something that gets distributed unlike one place. A fire doesn't burn just with one pillar of fire going straight up. It diffuses. And in a sense, I think that that's the concept that we're dealing with here. Some translations say clove and are divided. Others do not. Actually, the New American Standard does not use clove and are divided. Whereas I think the King James, the Weymouth and a few other translations do. Roger. No. It's Saturday.

So the part of this goes, I guess the question to ask is how important is the image that this is supposed to invoke as as much as the specific words? I mean, he's writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So it's certainly not by accident that he says. appeared like tongues of fire, and it may not be as important, the specific image, as the fact that, like we've already mentioned, he's using fire, which, for the Hebrews, that's going to invoke, like we've already talked about, the pillar of fire. So, I think with some of these things, throughout the Bible, it's not as important, the mental image, trying to picture exactly what it looks like, as it is the the language that he's using and what connection that has to the other teachings of the Bible. And we'll come back to that in a sense, Jeremy, in that wind and fire are often ways that the Lord communicates.

So this is kind of a vehicle that he uses. And I think it's just kind of fun to speculate a little bit in terms of what these people are experiencing. I mean, we don't have to know the details, but it's fun to think about this event. It's a pretty amazing event in terms of history. All right, so both wood and fire again symbolize the presence of the Lord. And by the way, there are multiple scriptures for this, and I didn't even list them for you. Old Testament and new, indicating that that's a vehicle which the Lord uses.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. All is not an equivocation here. Presumably these 120 men were all filled with the Holy Spirit. And in context, how do you interpret here being filled with the Holy Spirit? No more aware of self. It's just him and only him. All right. Other thoughts. Yeah. Typically, you know, you controlled is usually it or influenced or filled out. Like the glasses have for that might be right. I think so. Right. Well, I think. I think you could interpret this under the power of the spirit. Suddenly there was something new that was energizing these men. So that's one thing to think about.

In Acts, this repeatedly refers to proclamation of the gospel. And there are multiple verses in Acts that relate that being filled with the spirit is spreading the word. Now, again, we're going to study that repeatedly throughout the study of the book. But being filled often was Circumstantially related to sharing the gospel, to the unbelieving world.

And then here, just a series of verses that really look at that. You can look up those on your own that just, again, relate to the filling of the spirit with sharing the gospel. But as believers, Paul has told us to be filled with the Holy Spirit, right?

Ephesians 5.18, and do not get drunk with wine. It's interesting, we come back to wine in verse 13. That is dissipation. but be filled with the Spirit. And so overall, let's see whether we can discuss this a little bit.

I think being filled is being totally controlled by the Holy Spirit, and thus we bring glory as new creations in Christ Jesus to the Heavenly Father himself. So the concept here of us as believers responding to Paul's command, this is imperative, being filled with the Spirit, is ultimately being totally controlled by the Spirit.

And that's all by faith and having the Christ life being lived out within us. We don't measure this with a human metric. The Lord, in whatever way, looks at us and at the life we live and walk as being increasingly filled. By the way, this filling can be intermittent and transient and presumably the growth curve is up, but we're not the ones to measure that, right? Being filled with the Spirit, I think, as Paul has commanded, really reflects the Christ-led life. Any thoughts? But here, I think in Acts, we interpret it a little bit differently.

Here are guys that work the Holy Spirit and dwell. And they're empowered immediately by the presence of the Lord. You pretty much alluded to it, but I love that every time the Holy Spirit, the filling or whatever, it's always a specific purpose. It's always a purpose that brings glory to God. But there's always a specific purpose. Good. OK.

And in this context, it certainly seems that when you're going to read here, they begin to speak other languages so that you see the purpose is kind of directly follows you're filled with it. And here's his purpose, what's going to happen. But there's actually more because earlier he said you'll be baptized and that's kind of filling in baptism. I'm not sure you're going to go there.

I'm not going to baptism because it's interesting in Acts 2, 1-13 baptism is not mentioned. It's just that the Lord Jesus Christ prophesied baptism and John prophesied baptism. But Acts 2, 1-13 in terms of the new church being founded didn't say anything about being baptized. I don't want to go there.

I will go there. We are all baptized when we are saved by the Holy Spirit. That's the once and forever baptism. The outward baptism as we see up front sometimes is really an outward sign of an inward change. That's all that is. People go to the Lord without being baptized. but I think people who want to be baptized are reflecting the fact that they've been changed and they'd like to make that public. Like Ingrid had mentioned before is that just because you're baptized doesn't imply that you're saved. How about infant baptism? How ridiculous that is. I mean that's for the parents right? To say that presumably they're going to raise their children in a in a moral and holy way. But the point is it's meaningless.

So people could have been baptized by John and just because everybody else was doing it doesn't necessarily mean that they were saved or believed I guess. But Holly, John was the last Old Testament prophet, right? So presumably he was of the Lord and ultimately the people he baptized were by faith baptized with the expectation. Because he had the right of first refusal. He did it with the Pharisees.

That's a good point, Tom. Well, and being baptized by John the Baptist, I would think in terms socially and things like that is different than in 21st century America getting baptized. So it would be not just, hey John, how's it going? It would be a monumental decision.

Peter immediately connects the operation of the spirit here to the baptism prophesied by John. In Acts chapter 11 he is referring to the conversion of the Christians of Cornelius and such, the man of Joplin. He says, I remember what happened to us, happened to them, as it happened to us at the beginning. And how Christ prophesied that we would be baptized. by the Holy Spirit. And so he says, this is what happened to us, this happened to them. And of course it doesn't mention in Acts 11 whether or not they saw the tongues of fire, but he said the same thing happened to them that happened to us.

And that was the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's an excellent point. So that really reflects the baptism of the Spirit as being saved, right? I mean, it's a one-time only event, and actually the adverb baptism, I'm not saying it's not worthwhile, it's simply again, evidence of what the Lord has done. Yes.

There's one scene that's probably taking place even as we speak repeatedly in areas where persecution is rampant and violent and immediate. Anyone is challenged not to be baptized by a huge horde of Mohammedans. There's only one way to go. Do the act as an evidence that you're no longer part of what they plan. OK. All right, good. Let's move on here now.

This process was ongoing in a sense of the early church age. I think, again, that kind of relates to what we've all said here in the last few minutes, is the idea that the proclamation of the gospel really was part of the spread of the word, and the filling of the spirit was necessary for that to occur. This isn't the flesh being activated here. This is a whole new age, a whole new process, a whole new proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And began to speak with other pots. I mean, Roger deserves credit here. He's always one step ahead of me. Sorry. It's an obvious reason. It's good. So how about this as an outward sign of God's power within? I mean, it's a redundant question. You know, by the way, you know, The Jews were looking for a sign, weren't they? I mean, they're always looking for a sign.

What better sign could the Lord give that I start speaking in Swedish? Jag talar på svenska. That's as far as I can go in Swedish. I don't speak Swedish. I become instantly fluent in Swedish. And these were other tongues. These are known languages. This isn't gibberish. This is a known language. How special is that? The purpose was to authenticate and further the truth of the gospel.

You have people that speak different languages. Although I have seen some people say most of these people neither have known Greek or Hebrew. But many probably didn't. And I don't think this would have been recorded scripturally unless people were capable of speaking in languages that were not their own that everyone could understand. And I thought it would be interesting just to think about this. Reflect back on Genesis 11 where God confounded or confused all the languages of the world. Why do we live? How many dialects are there? Like 10,000 or something? I don't know. I'm just throwing that number out. I mean, there's so many different languages and dialects. And the Lord had a purpose. What was the purpose of Genesis 11? Well, that's another question.

Well, I was I was saying, can it be also, you know, there were men of all different languages there. And this kind of brought them all together as one body. OK, would have been the purpose. I mean, they can all speak the same. So, you know, you've got certain dialect over here, language over here and they're all separated. But now they're all together. So I've got this little table in your hand and I pulled this from Constable. And this is the instances of speaking in tongues in Acts.

And 2, 1 through 4 is tongue speakers were Jewish believers. The audience was unsaved Jews and Christians. The relation to conversion was sometime after conversion. And the purpose was to validate for Jews God's working as Joel prophesied. In chapter 10, 43 through 47, Gospel said that these were Gentile believers who spoke in non-languages, and the audience was Jewish believers who doubted God's plan. The relation to conversion was immediately after conversion, and the purpose was to validate for Jews again God's working among Gentiles as he had among Jews. And the final circumstances in chapter 19, 1 through 7, these are believers in the audience of Jews who needed confirmation of Paul's messages. This is immediately after the conversion, like the Acts 10 chapter. And this is to validate to the Jews Paul's gospel message.

So the gospel kind of summarizes all these speaking in known languages in terms of who was speaking and ultimately the audience. I think that's useful. And we're not going to take time to study these other examples. But I think it's interesting to see that those speaking in tongues are somewhat different groups of people at various times in the Book of Acts.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation of their heaven. And when the sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. These are God-fearing men. These are people who are serious, who are gathering based on the command that these people re-enter Jerusalem at this time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Their origins described in Acts 2, 9 through 10. We'll come to that in a second.

Was the sound the wind or the sound of speaking in tongues? What do you think? in the context, they had to have been remarking afterwards that their language was going right to their heart, just the way they were taught. So you think it's the speaking in tongues that was the sound then, right? Yeah. Not the wind that was referred to earlier. Roger?

Well, you know, what's interesting, and I know this, I've read it many times, but it's actually more miraculous. You know, if you speak in Swedish, We only hear Swedish, but what this is saying is that we all speak 10 different languages and you say something and we each hear it. I mean, it's another level up just from you speaking. You're speaking and able to speak in, we all understand. 10 languages at once. Exactly. That is a totally miraculous event.

I mean, you speaking in Swedish is one thing, but you speaking... Is that the way other people perceive this, that somebody speaking in multiple languages with the same verbal expression or is it what they hear? Not what's being spoken. It's the hearing, not the speaker.

So, you know, I can regulate the sound. What's that, Tom? God can regulate the sandwich. When did you first discover this? It's what the Bible calls a dot meat. How big was the crowd? Well, it's kind of interesting to speculate here. Around 3,000 became safe that day according to Acts 2.41. That's not our text today. But the interesting thing as you look at this, the temple area where they were meeting could hold up to 200,000 people. People take a look at the temple in Jerusalem at that time. There were 11,000 people together.

I think again speculation is always fun. We don't know that apparently the crowd was relatively large this time. All right and although they were the water apparently there was no one who didn't understand. So back to the point. I mean everybody's comprehending here what's being said and Roger's probably right. I mean maybe you know 40 different languages were being spewed at the same time. I know. Anyway, I don't want to go there. All right.

Acts 2, 7, and 8, they were amazed and astonished, saying, why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? So that, in a sense, supports this contention that multiple languages are being spoken and understood. Bewildered, amazed, astonished. What more description do we need here? Right? Is there anything further we need to say about that? Those are kind of very demonstrative adjectives, aren't they?

The large majority of the disciples were Galileans, weren't they? These are not people from Judea. Matthew 26, 73, this is the way Galileans were viewed. A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, surely you too are one of them. For even the way you talk gives you away. And by the way, if you look at the description of people from Galilee at the time, they were described as rude, unpolished, and unlearned men. So the differences between Galileans and Judeans would have been easily detected.

This is a different kind of people. And we have that in our society today. There are unfortunately people that we, because of the way they speak, we may think less of, which is not You know, correct. But we do it particularly being politically correct. But that's not what we're talking about here. We've got people here who are being a few cents in a sense.

So I'm not going to read all these these names of geographic locations of these people who share. But I think you did a good job. But what I do and I took this from. from Burns handout actually in action. I looked at a series of maps online. I couldn't find all these areas geographically represented. But look at your handout here.

And I think it nicely shows kind of the distribution of the areas in which the people who were there came from. So Rome is pretty far west. Cyrene is in Libya. And basically, part of the empire is to the east. I mean, the names on that map are kind of location for once people came. So we've got people with probably lots of different languages and lots of different geographical ethnic areas of the Middle East, and actually of the world at that time. Now, verses 12 and 13.

It says, and they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others were mocking and saying, they are full of sweet lying. some continued in amazement and now great perplexity. So in a sense, this mood or sensing of the circumstances that they were being exposed to, it's now reaching another level of great perplexity. How do you define perplexity?

Yeah, they can't explain. Totally at loss. There's just no rational explanation for what they're experiencing. Could this be good? It wasn't good. It got their attention. And it's, you know, they couldn't explain it intellectually. So, you know, so it's not like they could logically deduce why this happened. So it made it totally spiritual. Other thoughts? Some might have merely perceived it as a really weird omen.

What brings people to the Lord? Other people who know the Lord. Is that going to be in the scripture? It's the spirit of God. He's convicting or convincing them of the truth of the gospel. And maybe in using other people to do it. But what's that step that must be taken? Faith.

They're being perplexed. They have to be considering what they're experiencing here, right? And they're witnessing all these people speaking in tongues and everyone's understanding. So there has to be something very special going on. How are you going to deal with that? Do you believe that it's something miraculous and the Lord is really reaching out for it? What's kind of cool here, we're going to see Peter, it's not like the Lord just stops here and says, okay, all these people believed. They have to believe something, and so Peter's going to give them something to believe. He's going to tell them the information they need to know to believe. So they have a miraculous event, but God doesn't stop with a miraculous event. In a way, this should help us to understand God does do miraculous events, but he deals in logic and he deals in the written word.

It's not just some supernatural event. People all of a sudden something happened. He deals with logical descriptions of what his son has done. And I wouldn't believe that. Not some necessarily miraculous event. Well, the neat thing about the temporal timing of this is the fact that again, this is Pentecost. This is 50 days after the Passover, which was a ceremonial time for the Jew.

And moreover, they're looking for a sign. They got one, didn't they? People speaking in known languages. So in a sense, it all kind of fits in terms of the transition from the met mosaic to a whole new principle of God reaching man. It's really amazing. In verse 11, it talks about, it's not just the fact that it's amazing that they were speaking in tongues, but it's what they were saying. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. And I think too, as far as being filled with the spirit, part of that is just like their spiritual eyes being opened. They just had a deeper understanding all of a sudden to the things of God. I'm glad you pointed that out. I kind of skipped over that with old geography, but you're right. In their own tongues, they're learning about the mighty deeds of God. That's relevant, and that's important to bring that up. Okay. All right.

Others were mocking. So what's your sense of that? Are these mockers going to be safe people? I would suspect not. They would think this is a kind of a funny theater presentation. The faith isn't there. If you're mocking, how can you have faith and mock at the same time? Well, you know, I was a mocker once. What? Before you had faith?

Right, but it's possible that the mocking really was a step towards getting saved for these people. I mean, again, speculation, but there were clearly people who were mocking this, and mocking means to scoff. Right, so far it's unexplained. I can't dig this yet. Well, in fact, most of us, before we were saved, were saved as adults, really, are very skeptical of these kinds of things. I was very skeptical, because I got saved at 30. So, I mean, I, you know, went through college and medical school and doing research, and I thought this was ridiculous, but ultimately... Although people could mock and scoff their whole life and never become saved. No, there's no question about that. Well, I mean, you can, you know, there's the phrase from Shakespeare, it means you don't have to protest too much. I mean, it's almost...

What do they have? When you have such a miraculous event, what are your choices? You have to do something with it. These others are kind of bewildered. Well, let's just write it off. Because that's easier than having to face up to the truth. And that's certainly what I would say most atheists do. So much of their bluster is having to... It's a way to avoid facing up to What the Bible says is evident from from nature. So these people very well could have been saved. And they're mocking is just some type of I hate to use a phrasal defense mechanism. Yeah. All right. And ultimately, those that were mocking that they thought these people were dropped basically.

And by the way, Sweet wine defines one is higher alcohol actually. That's if you look at you know kind of some commentaries there. I got repeatedly that the sweet wine has more alcohol in it. My translation says new wine which would imply the same thing.

I was interested in my daughter and her husband just over the last few days about. I mean, we all grew up under a very legal tent. My late wife, the mother of my five children, grew up in an alcoholic family, and so there was no alcohol ever in the home. And of course, being under the legal tent of the Baptist church that we were in, I mean, there's never any alcohol in the home at all.

So I respected that. I preferred to have something once in a while, but my first wife felt so strongly about it, I didn't drink at all. And so Sharon went home to be with the Lord. And then Margaret and I ultimately became more than friends. I married her. She respected that and didn't drink in the home when kids were still living at the home. And then when we'd go out, she'd have some wine. And I still wouldn't because I honored the children's mother.

But then I found out a couple of years later that all five children were drinking. time to make up. I didn't make up, but I clearly got on board. I'm going to point fingers, the Baptist Church said, well that really wasn't wine, it was just grape juice. Heck with that. I think Christ turned the water into wine at the marriage of Cana. Don't you? Don't you think this was wine? Of course, drunkenness is not scriptural in terms of the Christ-like life.

People criticize that, say, well, how do you know when you're not being affected? Well, I think you may not under certain circumstances. So let's say you haven't moved it too much, which we shouldn't do. You confess it, you move on, you get back in fellowship.

The point is, This is wine and I think it's nothing but sweet wine being more intoxicating potentially. That's what these markers are saying. These people are drunk. Isn't there some saying the poison is in the dose or something? You know, God gave us a lot of good stuff that we just kind of overdose on. Well, I think you could go many places with that. Right, yeah. But anyway, the criticism here for the mockers is these people are drunk. That's why they're behaving so foolishly. But how would you be speaking in those languages if you were a mocker? I would be speaking in no language. Blurring.

Well, I mean, I think the implication here is when you're drunk, you're not acting like you normally would. And so how do you explain these people that are not acting as they normally would? Well, in their mind, they must be drunk because they're acting crazy from what they would say.

So the point is that there's a change in behavior. The point is that they're being controlled by something other than themselves. That's what Ephesians says, don't be drunk with wine, be controlled by the Spirit. We're not to make ourselves a master of anything, but Christ, and be controlled by Him, just as wine has an effect on us, so will the Spirit have an effect when He indwells us. I'm just wondering if those mockers didn't hear any language at all, they just heard babbling. It wasn't translated for them. That's a very interesting point. perfectly into my last slide. Can you picture yourself there? Just try to think about that.

My point here is there anything less miraculous today? in terms of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to bring water to the Lord. I mean in a sense the visual astonishment was one thing but think about us being changed by the indwelling Holy Spirit and activating our new creations of Christ Jesus. Equally as miraculous today although we are not seeing anything you know, immediate and visual and like a loud noise or strong wind or anything like that. Jeremy. Well, I think if if we want to try to draw an analogy in order for me to look at this passage in order for the people to be receptive to the word. something miraculous had to happen. So they had to be, I guess, in a sense, convinced that they should listen to Peter.

And I think in our lives, when we're looking at our evangelistic techniques, it's not just, we don't just throw words at people and stand on the street corner. It's not just bullying them with words. We have to give them a reason. And what is the reason?

It's the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. If we are walking in the Spirit, that's going to be evident to others. And it's not that, well, you don't drink, smoke, or do, or run with those who do, it's for drink, smoke, or do. They need a miraculous event, but in our lives it's just equally miraculous, as you say, the Holy Spirit living out through us.

Holly is an expert on the Holy Spirit having just graduated from that Sunday school class. Think of the critical relevance of the third person of the Godhead, which by the way is the most poorly understood of the three, is it not? But yet Christ promised the Spirit and John promised a new baptism.

And boy, I don't know about you, the flesh is always alive and well. The flesh is capable of doing about anything at all times. It's just the spirit restrains. But more so the spirit lifts us up and gives us a view from above. And that citizenship is precious and it all began at Pentecost. The cross itself spoke enough, didn't it? But Christ said himself that there's more. There's more than my crucifixion and resurrection. There's the indwelling of the spirit and here it's exemplified in a perfect and miraculous way. It's a tremendous section of scripture.

And it would have died out, right? If that had not happened, it would have been like any other religion or whatever, probably just when the apostles died and all the people who saw Christ died, might have just ended. And this is the beginning as we'll see going forward now of the spread of the gospel and ultimately it began with this miraculous event called Pentecost.

Jeremy, close us in prayer, please. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for your grace towards us, for the Holy Spirit that you've given us and all the miraculous things that he does in our lives, Lord. We thank you for the teaching that we have here about this day of Pentecost and all that we can learn about you and your mercy towards us. We pray this all in your name, Jesus. Amen.