The Outpouring of the Spirit | Acts 2:1-13
Brian Hedges | June 4, 2017
Let’s bow together in prayer.
Gracious Father, once more we humble ourselves, we cry out to you in confidence in your mercy, in your grace, in the promise of the gospel. We ask you to draw near to us as we draw near to you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of your Holy Spirit. We ask you to give us insight and understanding into your word, into the meaning of Scripture, and into its ongoing relevance and significance for our lives today. We pray that you would work in our hearts this morning that which is pleasing in your sight. Work especially within our hearts the response of faith of outgoing trust and looking to you yourself as the author of all that we need, as the source of all that need. May you speak to us and renew us through your word, by your Spirit, and as we come to your table this morning. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Well good morning. It’s wonderful to see all of you this morning. I don’t know about you, but I spent a fair number of years in my early Christian life confused about the Holy Spirit. I grew up in a King James only church tradition, where the Holy Spirit was usually referred to as the Holy Ghost, and I think I somewhat associate the Holy Ghost with Caspar “the friendly ghost,” if you remember that cartoon from, I guess that was back in the ’80s. I think I even remember seeing a cartoon of Caspar the friendly ghost where he duplicated himself in lots of different ways, and I thought that God’s omnipresence through the Spirit worked something like that.
But the Holy Spirit was kind of nebulous, hard to grasp, hard to define, hard to understand. I knew that to be saved I had to be regenerated, I had to be born again by the Spirit, and I kind of understood that sanctification, my growth in grace, my progress in holiness, was somehow related to the Spirit.
As a young adult I encountered a fair bit of teaching, both personally and in books that I was reading at the time, about the Spirit-filled life, and that was even more confusing, because the more I heard about it the more I felt like I needed to do something; that there was a crisis experience I had not yet had, that there was some kind of surrender I had not yet done, that I wasn’t fully consecrated enough. And so I was walking aisles and praying prayers and trying in all kinds of ways to enter into this life, this Spirit-filled life and some elusive promise of victorious Christian living that never really seemed to come and last.
It’s only been with the maturity of years and a deeper understanding of Scripture and of theology that I’ve come to appreciate even more the work of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the ongoing significance of the Spirit’s work in our lives, and it all comes down to our understanding of Pentecost in the book of Acts.
Now, it’s interesting that as believers, as evangelical Christians, almost all of us celebrate Christmas every year and the advent of Christ. Almost all of us celebrate Easter every year and the resurrection of Christ. We don’t give a lot of thought to the ascension of Christ, which we looked at last week. Still less (in our Baptist traditions) we don’t give a lot of attention to Pentecost and the descent of the Spirit. But we have to remember that in Scripture the ascent of Christ was followed by the descent of the Spirit. Christ ascended, and then ten days later poured out the Spirit on the Church.
As Wes already mentioned, Pentecost was a Jewish feast. It was the Feast of Weeks, a festival that was held 50 days after Passover. It was a feast of covenant renewal for the people of Israel; it looked back to their deliverance from slavery in Egypt through the exodus, and it was especially associated with the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. It was at this feast when many pilgrims from all over the ancient world had gathered together in Jerusalem for this feast. It was at this time that Christ poured out the Spirit on the church.
Theologian Graham Cole says, “If there is one event in the Scriptural narrative that, more than any other, is associated with the Holy Spirit, it is Pentecost.” Pentecost really is a hinge event. Everything in Scripture about the Spirit either leads up to Pentecost or flows from Pentecost, in much the same way that the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ are hinge events, so that everything about sacrifice and everything about forgiveness and everything about the atonement leads up to the cross or flows from the cross. In the same way, everything about the Spirit in Scripture either leads to Pentecost or flows to us from Pentecost.
So it’s important for us to understand what Pentecost meant, what the day of Pentecost meant; what happened in the giving of the Spirit or the outpouring of the Spirit on the Church.
So, we’re going to look at Acts chapter two, where this event is recorded, verses one through 13 this morning, which records for us the event itself, and then for the next couples of weeks we’re going to look at Peter’s sermon following this event in Acts chapter two. So this is going to be several weeks of trying to dig into the significance of the gift of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and then we will end on June 25th by looking at this portrait of the early church, at the end of Acts chapter two, and we’ll do that on our membership Sunday; a wonderful day for us to recount what a New Testament church looks like.
But this morning, Acts 2:1-13, we’re looking at the outpouring of the Spirit, the event itself on the day of Pentecost. So let’s read that passage together; Acts 2, beginning in verse 1.
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.’ And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ But others mocking said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’”
This is God’s word.
And as the question is asked in verse 12, “What does this mean?” that’s also what we want to ask this morning: What was this event on the day of Pentecost, this outpouring of the Spirit?
I want you to see three things about it: the promise of the Spirit, the signs of the Spirit, and then the work of the Spirit. So the promise of the Spirit, to help us understand how this event was a fulfillment of something that had been promised. Wes already called attention to this theme of promise and fulfillment in Pentecost. The signs of the Spirit, to help us understand the very strange phenomena in this passage of the mighty rushing wind, the tongues of fire. And then the work of the Spirit. What did the Spirit actually do on this day, and what does that mean for us?
I. The Promise of the Spirit
Okay, so number one: the promise of the Spirit. We can’t fully understand verses 1 through 13 without appealing to what is going to come in Peter’s sermon, so let me read a couple of verses from Peter.
In verse 33, Peter says, “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [that is, Christ] has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.” So I just want you to see, right there in the text, verse 33, Peter calls this the promise of the Holy Spirit, and it is the Father’s promise of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Peter says, received by Jesus from the Father and then poured out on the church.
Then Peter extends this promise of the Spirit to those who hear, verses 38 and 39. “Peter said to them, ‘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, for the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
So, this outpouring of the Spirit was a fulfillment of a promise. And the promise of the Spirit, the gift of the Spirit, is extended to all that God calls. Everyone who repents, believes, is baptized in his name, receives this gift of the Holy Spirit. So this has ongoing significance for us. We also receive the promise of the Spirit through faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, what exactly was promised here? The Holy Spirit, of course, was active in the Old Testament; even in Genesis chapter one we read of how the Spirit moved over the face of the waters. The Spirit was active in the Old Testament, so what’s the specific promise here? I think to understand that we have to go look at some of those promises. We have these coming, first of all, from Jesus himself.
Jesus says in Luke 24:49, “Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Now again, the life of Jesus, and this is especially true in the gospel of Luke, the life of Jesus is marked from first to last by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived in his mother’s womb by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river the Spirit descended in the bodily shape of a dove as God pronounced his approval of his Son: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” In Luke 4 Jesus preached his first sermon in a synagogue, and he quotes from the prophet Isaiah and says that the Spirit of God is upon him.
His whole life and ministry is marked by the Holy Spirit; from “womb to tomb to throne,” as Sinclair Ferguson says. His whole life is life in the Spirit, marked by the Holy Spirit.
But here Jesus promises to send the Spirit to his disciples, to send his Spirit to the church. “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city, in Jerusalem, until you are clothed with power from on high.” That’s a clue as to what this gift of the Spirit is. It was a gift of power. The Holy Spirit was given to the church in power. That’s the promise.
You see this again in Acts 1:4-5. “While staying with them Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “You heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So this is a promise of being baptized with the Holy Spirit. That is, it is an immersion in the Spirit. It’s not just a sprinkling. It is a full plunging into the power of the Spirit; an immersion in the Spirit, a baptism with the Spirit. In the same way that John the Baptist with water, he said, “There is one coming who is going to baptize you with the Spirit and with fire.” Here Jesus alludes to that and says, “It’s coming not many days from now. You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus is the one baptizing, the Holy Spirit is the element into which they are immersed.
Then in Acts 1:8 (we read this last week), Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” So again, it’s a promise of the Holy Spirit coming in power on the church, power specifically for the purpose of their witness.
That’s not all that’s entailed in the gift of the Spirit on Pentecost; we’re going to see more features of this, more implications of this, next week. But this is what I want you to get for today: The gift of the Spirit, the promise of the Spirit that Jesus gave to the Church, was the promise of the Spirit coming on the Church in significant power.
We also should just give a nod to the Old Testament promises, for the Old Testament also promised the coming of the Spirit in a new way. For example, the prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 36, speaks to God’s people who are exiled, who are dispersed among the nations, and promises to gather them, to sprinkle clean water upon them, to clean them from their uncleanness and from their idols, and then in verses 26 through 28 we read, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, to be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people and I will be your God.”
That last phrase is the covenant formula in Scripture: “You will be my people, I will be your God.” This is a promise of a new covenant, or a renewed covenant; covenant renewal. It’s a promise that the Spirit will do something internally.
He says, “I will put my Spirit within you.” So, here’s another feature to the gift of the Spirit on Pentecost; it is the indwelling of the Spirit. “I will put my Spirit within you.”
Notice how Ezekiel uses that language of pouring out. Ezekiel 39:25, 29, “Therefore thus says the Lord God, ‘Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.’” Verse 29, “‘And I will not hide my face anymore from them when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel,’ declares the Lord God.”
Then just one more passage. Peter directly connects the gift of the Spirit with the prophecy of Joel. You see this in [Acts 2] verses 14 through 18. “Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: “And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”’”
So there’s a connection here between the pouring out of the Spirit and then the words that they speak, and in Joel’s prophecy it’s a wide distribution. It’s not just the pouring out of the Spirit on an anointed few, a select few; it is the pouring out of the Spirit on all, on all flesh, on all God’s people.
Now when we look at all of these promises together, we look at what happens on the day of Pentecost, I think it shows us that the day of Pentecost was unique. It was unique. It was a one-off event; it was something that happened one time, but that has ongoing significance and implications for the church.
The day of Pentecost was so significant in redemptive history, that is, the history of God’s saving deeds, that the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck, in perhaps an overstatement, said, “After the creation and the incarnation, the outpouring of the Spirit is the third great work of God.” I mean, that’s huge! The outpouring of the Spirit, he says is the third great work of God. The creation’s the first great work of God, the incarnation is the second, and then the outpouring of the Spirit.
There’s something unique here about what God did on the day of Pentecost in giving the promise of the Spirit. It was unique and unrepeatable in salvation history, much like the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ. Jesus was only crucified once, he was only raised from the dead once, and he ascended into heaven once. Single events, but events of huge significance, huge importance for the Church.
So there are ongoing implications of this event for the church and for believers today. You might think of it in this way: just as you and I must enter into a personal experience of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, so that by faith our sins are forgiven through the cross and we are raised to walk in newness of life in Christ, united to him in his death and resurrection, we have to enter into this personally. It only happened once, but we have to enter into it personally. In the same way, this one single event at Pentecost must be entered into personally, and it happens in the same way, and I believe it happens at the same time.
When you come to faith in Christ, when you believe the gospel, you receive all the benefits of what Christ did on the cross, and you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. When you believe in Christ, the Spirit of God indwells you, he indwells you, and you are given a new power. You are given new experience, the experience of the Holy Spirit.
But, there are then many repeated fillings of the Spirit that take place after that point. Just as you, many times in your in your Christian life, even after you’re justified, even after your sins are forgiven, even after that first time when you confessed your faith in Jesus Christ and your sins are washed away, you still ask for forgiveness when you sin, and you restore the fellowship. You ask again and again.
When you’ve sinned, you “confess your sins, and he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness,” First John 1:9. And in the same way, we ask again to be filled with the Spirit. We are to continually be filled with the Spirit. That’s why Paul tells us to be filled with or by the Holy Spirit, in Ephesians 5:18.
So, here’s another illustration; think of it like this. Think of a wedding and a marriage. Now ideally you get married once, you get married to one person once, and you make vows on your wedding day. When you make those vows, you exchange rings, and then the minister at the end of the ceremony says, “You may kiss your bride. I now present to you Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” or Jones, or whatever. That happens one time, and it’s a change of affairs. I mean, from that time forward, this couple is married. Something changes legally; something changes in their relationship. It’s a one-time event, but it affects the rest of their lives.
But if that married couple kiss on their wedding day and never kiss again, troubles are coming, right? They’re not going to have a good relationship. There needs to be many renewals of the love, many renewals of the vows, many renewals of that basic relationship, many times that the husband and wife come together in love and affection for one another.
I think our relationship with our God - Father, Son, and Spirit - is very much like that. There is a point in time where God did the great work of salvation through the gift of his Son and the gift of the Spirit. There is a point in time in your experience when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are forgiven of your sins, you are justified, you are regenerated, you are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then there is an ongoing life, an ongoing relationship with God, many times where you are filled with the Spirit, where the Spirit renews you, where the Spirit comes to you in fresh power and grace.
Sinclair Ferguson says it’s like an earthquake. He says, “Pentecost is the epicenter, but the earthquake gives further aftershocks, and those rumbles continue through the ages.” The epicenter of the earthquake was on the day of Pentecost. The Spirit was given, the promise was fulfilled, the Spirit came upon the Church in great power. That happened once. But the ongoing implications of that rumble through the ages.
So every time a church is revived, every time God’s people experience renewal or reformation, every time you personally repent and come back into communion with God, every time you receive fresh power and strength and grace from God, it’s a result of Pentecost. It’s a result of this gift of the Spirit to you.
Okay. The promise of the Spirit.
II. The Signs of the Spirit
Number two, the signs of the Spirit; the signs of the Spirit. There are two signs, two phenomena that you see here in this passage.
(1) There’s, first of all, wind; the sound of a mighty rushing wind. Just notice how it reads. Let me actually read verse 2: “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” So it doesn’t exactly say it was wind, but it was a sound like a mighty rushing wind, that filled the house.
Just notice a couple of things about this. First of all, it came from heaven. Now that’s important, because as we saw last week, Christ has ascended to heaven. He was lifted up to heaven. So when you read Acts 1:9-11, you have this stated several times: “He was lifted up, and cloud took him out of their sight.” That’s in verse 9. Then verse 10: “While they were gazing into heaven as he went,” then verse 11, these men in white robes say to them, “Why are you looking into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way in which he went.”
So, it is from heaven. This is just showing us that Christ, from heaven, sends the Spirit. He gives the gift of the Spirit. In fact, Peter makes that point in verse 33, “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he [the exalted, ascended Christ] has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”
So then, what’s the significance of wind? Well, in Scripture wind is symbolic for the renewing power of the Spirit, the creative power of the Spirit. So even in Genesis 1, the Spirit of the Lord moves over the face of the waters, or in Genesis chapter 2, where God “breathed into Adam the breath of life.” It’s a moment of creation. So then when you find in later passages where the Spirit of God comes like wind, or there’s this association of images, it has the idea of new creation. It has the idea of new birth, of regeneration.
So for example, do you remember when Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again”? “You must be born of the Spirit.” In verse 8 of John chapter 3, this is what Jesus says. He says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” So there you see it! There’s an association of the Spirit and wind and the giving of life, God breathing life into his people.
Or take Ezekiel 37. Remember when the prophet saw this valley full of dry bones, and he’s asked this question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Then he’s told to prophesy to the breath, or the wind. “Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’ So I prophesied, as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”
That’s a picture of renewal, it’s a picture of recreation, of new creation, of regeneration. It’s a picture of the restoration of God’s exiled people, bringing them back, a renewal of the covenant, and that’s what happened on the day of Pentecost. It was a restoration; it was a new creation. It was God’s powerful, renewing grace coming upon the church.
(2) Then you have a second sign: fire. Not just wind, but fire. You see that in verse 3, “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” What’s the fire?
Well, again, fire in Scripture is symbolic of something. It’s symbolic of God’s holy presence. Fire, because of the purity, the holiness, the burning holiness of God, and his presence. You remember the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, where Moses saw a bush, a flame, but it was not consumed. Or do you remember the pillar of fire that led the children of Israel through the wilderness? A pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, and it was God’s presence. Exodus 13 says, “The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire.” The Lord was there! The Lord was manifesting his presence by fire.
Or do you remember on Mount Sinai, when the Ten Commandments are given? Prior to that, in Exodus 19, it says that Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. Or then the fire upon the tabernacle in Exodus chapter 40. All of these, and there are many more references in Scripture, all of these show us that fire represents the purifying, sanctifying, holy presence of God with his people. So you have it here.
I love the way John Newton put it in one of his hymns, where he says,
“Round each habitation hovering,
See the cloud and fire appear,
For a glory and a covering,
Showing that the Lord is near.”
The nearness of God, the presence of God, drawing near to his people. That’s what was happening here; that’s what these signs mean.
Now, just one more quick question before we move to the third point: why were they divided tongues of fire? Why tongues of fire? Well, perhaps it’s an association with the gift of tongues, which I’ll try to explain here in just a moment. But I rather like Calvin’s explanation. Calvin said that the reason the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of tongues was to show that he would be in the mouths of the apostles, and that he would give to them what was required to execute their office and their commission.
He was sanctifying their words. He was giving them words, and in fact, that’s what we see when we look at the work of the Spirit.
III. The Work of the Spirit
So third point now, the work of the Spirit. We’ve seen the promise, we’ve seen the signs, now the work of the Spirit.
I just want to point out here three things that happened in Acts chapter 2, and again, I’m summarizing and simplifying here. We’ll dig into other aspects of the Spirit’s work in the next couple of weeks. But three things I want you to see here, especially in verse 4 and then in what follows.
What I would like to argue here is that these three things are a pattern that should also be true in our lives, okay? So here are the three things. There is filling, there’s proclamation, and then there is salvation.
(1) First of all, the filling. Notice that the Spirit fills the apostles in verse 4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and it’s interesting that that language of filling is used over and over and over again in the book of Acts, and then a couple of times in the epistles as well.
So there seem to be repeated instances of fillings. So for example, in Acts chapter 4 Peter is filled with the Spirit and then speaks. At the end of Acts chapter 4, when the first persecution has broken out on the church and the disciples gather together to pray, in verse 31 it says, “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”
Peter again is filled… I’m sorry, not Peter, but Saul is filled in Acts chapter 9. Again in Acts chapter 13 the disciples are filled, in Acts chapter 13. And then Paul, of course, tells us that we are to “be filled with the Spirit.”
So that’s the first thing, this filling of the Spirit, and again, it carries all the dimensions of what we’ve talked about. It is the filling of the Spirit with power, it’s the presence of God, for the sake of the witness of the church.
(2) Then notice what follows; not just filling, but proclamation. Again, verse 4, “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” That phrase is important: as the Spirit gave them utterance. They were filled, and then they spoke. They were filled by the Spirit, and then they spoke the word of God. They proclaimed the word of God.
Then, really, verses 5 through 13 are giving us a record of that, and do highlight another supernatural aspect of this, which is their speaking in tongues. Now probably as soon as I read that passage that’s where everybody started scratching their heads, “What is he going to say about that? What is this speaking in tongues?”
I fully understand this is controversial in the Christian church. There are different perspectives on this, and I’m going to give my perspective. It’s not everyone’s perspective, but it’s my best understanding of this passage.
What I would suggest here is just three things, three observations about the gift of tongues here in Acts chapter 2. I’m not going to address now 1 Corinthians 14. If you want to know what I think about that, you can go to our website, look up a sermon on the gifts of the Spirit from 2013.
But here in Acts chapter 2, three observations about tongues. Here’s the first: the gift of tongues in this passage is clearly the gift of speaking in other languages. It’s not ecstatic speech. It’s the gift of speaking in other languages. The word “tongue” means language, and that’s what this gift is.
That’s really clear in the narrative that follows, verses 5 through 13. People are amazed! Look at just verse 11, the second half of verse 11. They are amazed, they say, because “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” They hear languages; they hear in their language! So there are all these foreigners; they’re gathered from all over the Jewish dispersion, they’re gathered in Jerusalem for this feast, and they all hear the gospel proclaimed in their own language.
That’s what amazes them, because here are Galileans. These are unlearned, uneducated men, and they speak with power and they speak in other languages that are supernaturally given to them on the spot in that moment, and the people are amazed because they hear about the mighty works of God in their own language.
That leads to the second observation: this gift had a missiological or an evangelistic intent. The reason it was given is so that these people would hear in their own language the proclamation of Scripture, the proclamation of the Gospel. They would hear the mighty works of God.
Then, thirdly, it was also a sign with a redemptive, historical significance. This is the inauguration of the last days, the age to come; it is the uniting of God’s people from many different languages. In fact, many commentators point this out, that in Acts chapter 2 you really have a reversal of what happened in Genesis chapter 11. Do you remember the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11, where God sent confusion to the nations because of their arrogance and their pride and their idolatry. He sent confusion of the nations, and they are divided in their languages, and in Acts chapter 2 you have the exact reversal of that as every person hears the mighty works of God in their own language. It’s the undoing of Babel; it’s the reversal of Babel.
It is a preview, really, of the time when people will be gathered from every kindred, tongue, tribe, and nation, and the nations will gather to sing the praise of Jesus, to say, “Worth is the Lamb who is slain.”
(3) And then the third thing you have in the work of the Spirit is salvation, as the Spirit brings conversion to the people. Don’t get too distracted by the gift of tongues, so that you miss the significance of what happens in the rest of Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 is significant because it is the first widespread account of conversions after the ascent of Christ and the descent of the Spirit. The Father, through the Son, gives the Spirit to the church, and thousands are brought into the Kingdom.
You see it in verses 36 through 41. I won’t read all of this, but you’re familiar with it. They are cut to the heart, they say, “What must we do?” and Peter tells them to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and then in verse 41 we read that “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.” Conversion; people are brought to Christ.
So here’s the pattern. This is the pattern, and I think you can see this in other places in Scripture as well. There is filling for the sake of proclamation, so that people will hear the gospel and be saved. That’s the work of the Spirit in the church. It’s not the only thing the Spirit does, but it’s a significant thing that the Spirit does, and that’s what you and I need as well.
The Spirit has been given once and for all on the day of Pentecost, but we need the continual, ongoing filling of the Spirit, so that we preach the gospel, whether in a formal setting like this or whether you are speaking evangelistically, sharing the gospel of Christ with a friend, a coworker, or a fellow student, the Holy Spirit is the one who makes the word effectual so that people are brought to faith in Jesus Christ.
So, the promise has been fulfilled, the signs shows us the power, the renewing power and grace of the Spirit, his sanctifying presence with us, and his work is to continue to fill us as we proclaim the gospel for the sake of the nations.
Let’s pray.
Gracious Father, we thank you this morning for the gift of your Holy Spirit, that in giving us your Spirit you are equipping us with everything we need for life, for godliness, and for faithfulness in our mission as your people. We thank you that this took place on the day of Pentecost, but also that in our own personal experience we are baptized by your Spirit into the body of Christ and can be filled.
We pray for that this morning. We pray for that in our own lives, we pray for that in our church. We pray that you would fill us afresh, that your Spirit would empower us, that your Spirit would equip us to speak the word with boldness, not only within these four walls, but in this community, in our neighborhoods, in our relationships with others, that we would speak about the mighty works of God; that we would speak of what Christ has done, that we would share the gospel with others, and that the Spirit would work powerfully to add people to your church.
We pray now as we come, not just to the word, but to the table that we would be enabled to draw near to Christ in faith. And again, we recognize that the work of your Spirit is necessary for that, that as we come to the table it’s the Spirit who enlivens our faith, that it’s the Spirit who has united us to Christ. It’s the Spirit who gives us fellowship with the risen and ascended Savior. It’s the Spirit who makes the gospel real and powerful and effective in our hearts.
So we pray that as we take these elements that that would be true for us this morning. So draw near to us we pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Brian G. Hedges
