Think for a moment about something that you anticipated greatly. Perhaps it was the birth of a new baby. Perhaps it was when you received your driver’s license. Perhaps it was when you started a new job, made a new purchase, or went on a first date. There’s something really special about experiencing something for which you’ve been waiting a long time.
Throughout the Old Testament and throughout the ministry of Jesus, the people of God were promised that something special was coming. They were promised that God’s Spirit would be given in a powerful and unique way.
In today’s passage, we learn about when that promise was finally realized. Today’s sermon is entitled “The Pouring Out of the Promise.”
Before we get into this passage, let’s go to God in prayer and ask Him to speak to us today.
(prayer)
Acts 2 describes the wonderful moment that the Holy Spirit came upon the early Christians, and the age of the church would be changed forever.
Join me in Acts 2:1-13:
1 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. 3 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them. 4 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 They were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites; those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts), 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues.” 12 They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But some sneered and said, “They’re drunk on new wine.”
Ok, let’s do just a little bit of review from Acts (just one chapter so far). In Acts 1, Jesus appeared to His followers, He told them to wait for God’s promise, He left the earth, and the disciples prayed and prepared for what was to come.
Now in this passage, the moment is here. God is pouring out His Holy Spirit on His people. That is what we come to in Acts 2.
In Acts 2, we see the miraculous event itself, then we see Peter’s explanation of what is happening. Today, we’re only going to look at the event itself.
So, as we reflect on the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit, let’s realize three characteristics of the coming of the Spirit.
First, . . .
I. The coming of the Spirit was supernatural.
When we read this passage, we cannot help but realize that Luke intended for us to know that this situation was a supernatural act of God.
It’s fair to say that the types of things described in this passage don’t normally happen.
Pay attention to how Luke describes these events in verse 2. He says a sound like a violent rushing wind was present.
Now, we know something about the sound of violent rushing wind in Florida, don’t we? We’re the hurricane state!
It was about a year ago (almost to the day) that Hurricane Ian came through. I remember hearing the violent rushing wind outside. It was powerful and imposing.
Can you imagine if that sound was inside the house? Yet, Luke says in verse 2, “Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying.”
The sound that they experienced was inside the house with them; it filled the house. This sound was probably overwhelming and awe-inspiring.
I guarantee you that those in that place knew that this sound was not natural; it was supernatural!
We see also what are described in verse 3 as “tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.”
Now, we don’t know exactly what these looked like. I doubt any of us could recreate an accurate artistic rendering of this moment.
It’s likely that Luke is doing the best he can to describe these unusual supernatural flames that were present in that place.
Also, let’s remember how many people are probably present in this house.
We recall from verse 15 of chapter 1 that there were about 120 people present.
From what we can tell from the most natural reading of chapter 2, verse 3, there were likely “tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested” on all 120 or so people.
Some have suggested that these tongues of fire rested only on the twelve apostles, but I don’t understand the passage that way.
So, just imagine how incredible and supernatural this event is. Even if the tongues of fire rested only on the twelve apostles, that would be incredible enough, but it’s likely that it was around 120 individual displays of this supernatural occurrence.
We also see that this event is marked by fire, which is often an indication of the presence of God.
We see God reveal Himself in fire with Moses and the burning bush.
We see God guide His people with the Pillar of Fire when He led them out of Egypt.
We see God show up with fire with Elijah on Mt. Carmel when He consumed the sacrifice before the false prophets of Baal and Asherah.
John the Baptizer said in Matthew 3:11, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but the one who is coming after me is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
This event is marked as a supernatural event by the fire that was present.
Then verse 4 brings even more clarity to the fact that this was a God thing.
Verse 4 says, “Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them.”
It was the Holy Spirit of God who made this possible. It was the Spirit of God who enabled them to speak in tongues (by the way, we’ll talk about what that was in just a moment).
Church, it was only by God that these things happened, and we must also realize that if something incredible is going to happen with us, it will only happen by the power of the Spirit of God; it will only happen in a supernatural way.
We don’t need natural-born leaders and natural-giftedness in our church; we need Holy Spirit-empowered godliness and devotion from our leaders.
We don’t need human charisma and wisdom; we need God’s Spirit to guide us and direct us.
We don’t need more of what the culture has to offer; we need what only God can give us through His Holy Spirit. We need His guidance, His provision, His anointing, His comfort, His conviction, His unity, His correction, His love, His mercy, and His power!
We need the supernatural Holy Spirit of God.
First, the coming of the Spirit was supernatural.
Second, . . .
II. The coming of the Spirit was astounding.
Look again at verses 5-8:
5 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 They were astounded and amazed, saying, “Look, aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language?
Why was this astounding? What exactly is happening here when the Bible says they “began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them?”
Well, verse 6 answers that question. Luke tells us that “a crowd came together and was confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.”
So, when we hear that they were speaking in tongues in this passage, we know that it means that they were speaking actual languages that were intelligible by others. Notice also that the ones who were hearing the languages did not seem to be filled with the Spirit. They are the ones who simply gathered because of all of the astounding commotion.
So, this astounding spiritual act was carried out by those who were filled by the Spirit in such a way that those who were not filled with the Spirit could witness this supernatural and astounding event.
Not only is this event astounding in its own right, but the onlookers noted that the group of people who were performing this supernatural miracle were Galileans.
You see, Galilee was a region north of Jerusalem, and folks up there, it seems, were viewed sort of as simple country folk. They may have even been thought of as uneducated and unsophisticated.
The reality is, they were, in fact, often uneducated and unsophisticated. That’s why this was astounding! These folks didn’t go study other languages all of a sudden. Rather, they were speaking languages that were not known to them but were known to those hearing them. This miracle was astounding!
Luke goes on to say that the languages that were being spoken were understandable to Jews who were in Jerusalem but were from other areas surrounding Jerusalem. They spoke different languages and were amazed that these Galileans from Israel were speaking these foreign tongues.
Verse 12 tells us again, “They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’”
In fact, we realize in verse 13 that the only logical explanation that some could come up with as to how this astounding act occurred is that these people were drunk.
For the record, I’ve been around some drunk people at times, and I’ve never seen them speak foreign languages that they didn’t know before. Drunk people are not generally more impressive than when they are sober; they are less impressive.
Nevertheless, some didn’t accept this supernatural and astounding miracle, which should be a lesson to us all. Without the Spirit moving in us, we sometimes won’t realize when the Spirit is working around us (repeat).
However, the Bible makes it clear that this was an astounding miracle.
Finally, let us see that . . .
III. The coming of the Spirit was foundational.
Well, what do I mean by this?
Let’s remember that all we’ve studied in Acts up to this point was in preparation for what would come; it was in preparation for this moment.
Then, from this moment on, things would be totally different for the people of God.
This event is one of the foundational events that launched the age of the Church.
You see, we have certain ages in the life of God’s people. For example, we have the age of Creation, the age of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), we have the age of the Law, the age of wandering, the age of the Promised Land, the age of the judges, the age of the kings, the age of exile, the age of Jesus on the earth, and now we have the age of the Church.
This event, the coming of the Holy Spirit, was foundational to the age of the Church.
By the way, we see in verse 1 that this event happened on the day of Pentecost.
Pentecost comes from the Greek word that means “fifty” because it occurs 50 days after Passover.
Pentecost celebrates the first harvest of the agricultural season. That’s why so many people were in Jerusalem; they were celebrating the feasts and festivals that happened that time of year.
So, on this particular day of Pentecost, we have the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. That is why this is often called THE Day of Pentecost.
Church, this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit to which John the Baptizer referred. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, to which Jesus referred in Acts 1:5. This is the foundational event that marked the beginning of the Church.
The coming of the Spirit was foundational for the Church. This event changed everything!
This reality takes us directly to our bottom line:
Bottom Line: The Holy Spirit changed everything for the Church.
We need the Holy Spirit so that we can be the church who God created and called us to be.
God graciously and powerfully sent His Spirit to help us receive power and to be witnesses for Jesus.
So, let us recognize that the Holy Spirit changes everything.
Challenge yourself this week in the following ways:
Weekly Challenge #1 – Thank God for sending His Spirit.
What a glorious blessing it is that we have the Holy Spirit of God to empower us, to encourage us, to instruct us, to guide us, to bless us, to direct us, and so much more.
Spend some time this week thanking God for sending His Spirit.
Weekly Challenge #2 – Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you in a fresh way.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live a boring and simple life without the Spirit of God at work in me.
I also don’t want to live an exciting and wild life without the Spirit of God in me. I want supernatural and astounding power that comes only from the Spirit of God. I hope you do as well.
Take some time this week and ask the Holy Spirit to fill you in a fresh way.
(Gospel presentation)
(closing prayer)
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