What meaneth this? - what happened at Pentecost.

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to Acts chapter 2, reading verse 12 for our text. And they were all amazed and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? And it is specifically the question, What meaneth this? is upon my spirit. Acts chapter 2 and verse 12.

The day of Pentecost, the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit, a day that is known as the birth of the Christian church, the beginning of it, sometimes is referred to as Whit Sunday or White Sunday, where churches would equate the gift of the Spirit as the white dove or wearing of white vestments. But it is a day of great importance in the Church of God.

And we would always remember that the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And in no way would we think of this day being the beginning of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has, with the Father and the Son, always existed from eternity. No beginning, no end.

But His operations in the Old Testament, very different than the operations in the New. In the Old Testament, it was through prophets, it was through visions, that the truths of God were revealed. We have in Hebrews a summary in the opening chapter there of that difference.

God, who at sundry times in divest manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. And our Lord testified that the work of the Spirit he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. The giving of the Spirit is specifically this time remembered with the power and all that accompanies it as we hope to look at this morning, a very great difference than the Old Testament that just through prophets now it is bestowed upon all of the people of God through the preaching of the Word. So what have those seen here as they gather together and they ask this question, bringing down what meaneth this? We are told in quite detail the whole picture of what is happening here. They gathered together in one place and they were sitting, we are told, verse 2.

But there came a sound, a sound from heaven, a rushing mighty wind. And then, not just the sound, but also visually, there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire sat upon each of them. And we are told in verse four that they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and that had an effect upon them. they began to speak with other tongues. And it's very, very clear here that this is not gibberish. These are clear, identifiable languages that in the providence of God, with all of those from different areas, languages, countries, were in Jerusalem at that time. When they hear what is happening there, Then they all gather together, and they come. And they're amazed. They're confounded, because every man heard them speak in his own language. They understood.

Today, we have those that are gifted in languages, and they'd study, and they're able to speak in another language. And those of that language can understand that language. But here, it was done instantly. no learning, it was just instantly done. And there were those, the great test of course is whether you can speak another language, is the, those that know that language can understand what you're saying. And these they could, and not only understand, but they could see and hear what they were saying as well. In verse 11, we do hear them speak in our tongues, the wonderful works of God. It was not just anything.

No, the signs and things that were done here were not just irrelevant signs. We could ask for a sign of something that was nothing to do with what we wanted. One of the brethren once said, someone had asked if they were child of God that the rain that was falling might suddenly stop. Where the rain stopped, it didn't prove that they were child of God or not. It could be taken as a sign. But it's got no correlation between a saving of a soul and the actual sign given.

But here, every part of the sign, it had great significance. the giving of the Spirit, the way it was actually evidenced in, we think of how our Lord said of those that were born of the Spirit, thou, thou hear'st the wind, the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. That had that teaching. And here they come with the sound of the wind. And then you see that which sat upon them and the effect that was upon them.

And when we think of when in Noah's day they refused to spread out and to proclaim or to spread out through and fulfill the command to replenish the earth, God confounded their languages so that they then could spread out. But now it is being reversed. The command had been to go out to preach the gospel to every creature. But how can we do that when there's all different languages?

Immediately the Spirit is given. This gift is given. And the effect is not just irrelevant either, because it's not just speaking a language. But the very thing, the wonderful works of God, that is what is being spoken. So every part of the sign of this has everything to do with the sending out of the gospel, everything to do with the Holy Spirit, with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we'll see, with the fulfilling of scriptures too. Yet with all of these things that were done, Those that were hearing it, those that were seeing, they were in doubt. They were saying one to another, what meaneth this?

Now we know from the explanations, and we will look at it soon, what it meant. But it does tell us something, doesn't it? We can have things that are very remarkable, signs that have great significance. and not know what they mean. We don't know what they mean.

And especially thinking of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Those that may be partakers of the Spirit's work, but they don't know really what it means. They're not able to clearly Identify this is the Spirit's work. If this work is on me, then I am a child of God.

And it needs to be interpreted and set forth in that way. There were those that had some thought of what it meant, and they mocked. They said, these men are full of new wine. Peter answered this. third hour, nine o'clock in the morning. That was not the reason. So then Peter, he answers, he gives the meaning of this.

You know, years later, Paul, the Apostle Paul, on his third missionary journey, he really wanted to get back for Pentecost. He wanted to be in Jerusalem. He viewed it as a special time, looking back years afterwards. And we do, even today, of course, remember, as is recorded for us here. So I want to look at seven Seven answers to this question, what meaneth this? Of course, Pentecost, the very word, the Greek word, means 50. The first meaning that I bring up, I do it really in chronological order, thinking back to the Passover. When the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, the lamb was slain, answering to Christ's death, Christ's sacrifice. And that then released them. And they came out of Egypt.

And 50 days later, they came to Mount Sinai and the law of God was given. It was a type, a type of the Lord's work in his death and also his resurrection. When our Lord died, then he rose the third day on the first day of the week. Forty days later, he ascended into heaven, as we read in the first chapter of Acts. And then ten days after that, we have Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit. So in the first place, it is a fulfilling a time a shadow set forth in Exodus that was given some 1450 years before.

I do like to amplify how the plan of salvation runs right through the scriptures. God is not slow to fulfill his word. One day with the Lord is as a thousand years, a thousand years as one day. But one of the great seals that the Word of God is the Word of God is that that which was prophesied and that which was shown in time is fulfilled, has been brought to pass.

The second thing of what it meant was also going back to the Levitical law, the type of the first fruits. The Jews had the feast, the feast of the first fruits. The Lord Jesus Christ is the first fruits from the dead. He is the first begotten from the dead.

And then after that feast, 50 days after, then there was to be the Feast of Weeks and this answers again to Pentecost and the gift of the Holy Spirit. These were the types that were given to the children of Israel and these are the things then that they were doing. They were gathered together for the Feast of Weeks. They were gathered together for these times and it was at this time that then the Holy Spirit is given.

But the one that Peter picks out and sets forth is the prophecy in John. He says, These are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. In verse 16, But this is that which was spoken by the prophet John. And he sets forth what is recorded in Joel, and set forth in the second chapter in Joel. Some, it's difficult. We don't know when Joel actually prophesied. Some think anywhere between 400 and 800 years before Christ, a long span, because no actual dates or kingdoms are mentioned in his prophecy. But Peter, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, clearly identifies that this is being fulfilled. Especially verse 17, it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh. Not just the Jews, but upon all flesh.

And he quotes the whole of that prophecy and finishes it with, and it came to pass, shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Right back with Joel is prophesying of the gospel to the Gentiles and this word especially is quoted some four or five times in the word of God. that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so Peter again is pointing this people that is God's people and through whom Christ came and who had all of the prophets, all of the prophecies, who knew the scriptures, who rested in them, those who had not received Christ as being the True Messiah, Emmanuel, those who had rejected him and crucified him, Peter is bringing them back to their own scriptures and to own prophecies and showing that these things are all done in accordance to what has been foretold. It's a good thing to be able to trace as the Lord did to those two on the way to Emmaus. in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

The fourth thing that we'd say has come to pass, what it means is that what Jesus himself had said would happen has come to pass. In verse, in the first chapter, Acts 1, our Lord had said, In verse 5, for John truly baptized with water, but he shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. And then in verse 8, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the utmost part of the earth." The words of the Lord Jesus Christ, not just the prophets, but the Lord Jesus Christ himself speaking of what should come to pass, and Peter here identifying this is what has come to pass. There's another thing. that this means as well. And that is that our Lord was risen and ascended and making intercession in heaven.

In John 14 and verse 16, the Lord says, and I will pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you.

The Lord had told of the Spirit being given In response to his intercession, I will pray the Father. One of the great officers of our Lord in heaven, we know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He ascended up unto the right hand of God, where he maketh intercession for us. It is through our Lord and through the Spirit that intercession is made for the people of God, and the very gift of the Spirit is an evidence of that effectual intercession. He tells us before He suffered, before He laid down His life, before He rose, before He ascended, that this is what He would do. He would pray the Father. He would make intercession. And this here, what it means is that intercession has been effectual and the Spirit has been given.

We need to trace our blessings to the intercession of our Lord. We pray, we pray through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then it is through Him that our petitions are made acceptable to God, that they are received, that they are enacted. Every blessing comes to us through Jesus' precious blood.

And it comes because we have an advocate with the Father. There is a voice that speaks for us in heaven's high court for good. And this should be an encouragement to us in prayer, in presenting our petitions, but also when those petitions are answered, and when things prophesied in the Word of God are answered in our own lives and in our own experience, to be able to clearly say, this has come upon me, I have been blessed with this, with these blessings, because of the intercession of the Lord. He knew he died for me. put away my sins at Calvary, and because my debt is paid, and because he's endured the wrath of God for me, he has sent forth this into my heart, and he has wrought this in my life, and to link those things together. This is what Peter is doing, is linking what is happening here to what has been foretold, and it's for the comfort, the strengthening of the Church of God. so that the Church knows why she is blessed, how she is blessed, what is happening, that she should receive those blessings and not in ignorance of that.

And so when they say, what meaneth this? We may say it means that we have our Lord ascended in heaven, making intercession, and the Holy Spirit is given as a result of that. intercession. But then in their sixth place, the work of the Holy Spirit, attending the ministry, had begun. What meaneth this? What a beginning is in this chapter There's four things really to be highlighted here.

The first is that the servants of God, and Peter is representative here, have been equipped for their ministry. The fear of man is taken away, the spirit is given, the knowledge of the scriptures, the understanding of the scriptures, is all given that he should stand in this way. Peter, a man that by nature, was fearful of man, fearful of a maid, fearful of the Jews that came, had to be reproved by Paul. And yet under the Spirit, he is fearless and he is able to preach so clearly. And later on this follows right through the acts of the apostles as well as they brought before the rulers and the Jews and the council.

The Holy Spirit equips the servants of God. Whereas all of the people of God shall be taught of God, great shall be the peace of thy children. We need that special anointing, teaching, and equipping to be as an under-shepherd, to preach the word of God with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. And that is vital.

And you see the difference, the change here with Peter. and with the disciples a beginning of this of ministers of those sent forth beginning with the apostles that shall have the spirit rest upon them to proclaim the words of God and the works of God and with the promised blessing attending their ministering. The second thing is when the Word is preached and when it is set forth, then there are convictions under the Word. Peter was very clear when he preached and set forth before them what they had done with our Lord Jesus Christ.

He begins his sermon really with Verse 22, ye men of Israel, hear these words. And immediately he begins with the Lord Jesus, to set forth Jesus of Nazareth, one that they had despised. But he says, a man approved of God among you. How was he approved of God?

Because of the miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him. And you see again with this, Peter is drawing a link between what the Lord Jesus Christ did and what God gave him to do, as to witness that he was truly the Christ. Of course, from this time and right through the apostles, they also did miracles. Those witnesses were the same, that Christ had raised from the dead and that they had been blessed with the Holy Spirit. And so the signs followed. but he immediately charges them with the death of our Lord, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain.

And God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should beholden of him. And as he again goes back to the Old Testament that they prided themselves in, to David that they rested in and believed him to be a prophet, and he shows the connection, shows how the scriptures were fulfilled concerning our Lord. He was not left in the grave. He rose from the dead. He ascended. He did not see corruption. So he expounds and sets forth how David really preached Christ in his day. And you know, as he preached, as he set forth these things, then there was end effect. He seals it just the same as he began in verse 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Then comes a work, a work that is to be done, right to the end of the world, the vital work, the work we should never overlook, and that is the conviction of sin. Under the preaching of the word, they were pricked in their heart. They are convicted, they are brought in as a sinner. This is the Holy Spirit's work. To convict of sin, to convince of sin, to bring one in to be like the public and God be merciful to me a sinner. It is a spiritual work.

It is not a work of the flesh of a natural man to bow and to humble and to confess sin. and iniquity and confess before God, really, I have no works, no goodness, I'm all guilty. And to confess that before God, you know, they not only pricked in their hearts, but they had another question. What shall we do?

I didn't just give up, they didn't say there is no hope, they didn't say that we must surely be destroyed because of what we've done. Do notice that gleam of hope, even in that question. I wonder how many of you have asked that same question. Under a sense of sin, under a sense of your guilt, what shall we do? And it's setting forth that there is a way forward, but not in our works, not in our deeds. Often it comes in that kind of a language, the same as with the Philippine Jaya, was asking in that way. We ask it in terms as if there may be something that we can do.

But there is a path, not by our own works, and in one sense they could never retrace their steps, they could never undo what they had done, and you and I cannot undo our sins, we cannot, they're already laid against us, already we are sinners, already we are convicted, whoso offendeth in one point is guilty of all.

And so then we have another a blessing unto the word, then Peter said unto them, repent. And it's very evident from what happened, what followed, that they did. Repentance and remission of sins is to be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Repentance is a turning, turning from sin, turning unto God, or here in this case, going from a position of hating the Lord, crucifying Him, saying that Jesus of Nazareth wasn't the Christ, to testifying that He was and that they were guilty and that He truly was the one that should come and had come and had ascended. Their repentance was a complete change. That was preached.

And that was given. Another work of the Holy Spirit is to give repentance, to turn sinners, to change our hearts, renew us, work in us that which by nature is not there. It is the work of God to change and to turn us. That is the gift of God. It is to be preached. And it is the Holy Spirit that gives it.

For you and I, it will feel as if we are doing it. It will feel as if we're the ones. We are guilty. We are sorry. We are changing direction. But that power and that that is being wrought in us is of the Holy Spirit. But the repentance then is, as it were, put to our account. as an actual act that we are acting, and it is through the Holy Spirit. And so, Peter says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.

You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. You might say, they'd already had the gift of the Holy Ghost. They'd already been imparted to them What is this extra gift? Is it not that we shall abide with them, or the answer of a good conscience, and of assurance, and good hope through grace? What a difference, you might say, in the feelings of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

The same Spirit works conviction, and sorrow, and pricked in their heart. The same spirit brings repentance and godly sorrow, and the same spirit then gives and implies that remission of sins, deliverance from condemnation and guilt, the spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

Those gifts that are given, of baptising, and sets forth the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, sets forth what had happened to these here in Jerusalem, dead to themselves, to their own hope, and alive unto God, quickened by God's grace, a real change that was wrought in them, and so We have the gospel that is also set forth in verse 39, for the promise is unto you and to your children, to all that are far off, even as many, as the Lord our God shall call. The gospel of the irresistible call of God, the promises, all the promises of God, yea and amen, in Christ Jesus. promise, a gospel promise, and the Lord said, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. And it is, as it is, a little snapshot here of the preaching of the gospel, of a setting forth the way of salvation, and what was the effect of it.

As he spoke to them, I love that word in verse 41, then they that gladly received his word were baptized. The same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And at the end of the chapter there, the Lord added to the church, daily such as should be saved. The beginning of the church, adding to the church in this way.

This is where we get our order from, confession of faith believers' baptism and the Lord's Supper, all in these last verses, there's an entrance into the Church of God. And so this chapter, very, very important chapter for us, and the work of the Spirit adding to the Church of God.

This is something that in our Lord's lifetime never happened. It couldn't be preached Jesus Christ and him crucified, that was a dark shadow for them. It could be preached that the day of the Lord was at hand, salvation was on its way, and that the Lord Jesus Christ was the true Christ, the saviour that should come into the world. But here what an effect under the preaching of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is souls brought from darkness to light, saved and brought into the church, and is continuing to follow on. So when they ask that, what is it? What meaneth this? It means the work of the Holy Spirit, attending the ministry, has begun. And what a blessing that it continues and will continue.

And so the last point is the disciples were now free to go out from Jerusalem because our Lord has said that they were to tarry in those words we read in Acts 1, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, verse 4, But wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, ye have heard of me. You have this in the gospel soon. Tarry in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

Now they could. The conditions were right now. He mentioned about the languages. It was in Noah's day, the spread was because of not understanding one another. But now the spread will be through persecution. When they persecute you in one city, then flee to the next. And they were to go over all Israel and right through the world in that way. Now these are the things, this is what is meant here. This day of Pentecost and what has been begun and what is now continuing to be done.

The work of the Spirit, how vital. that the Spirit of God rests in a church, and those signs follow the preaching of the Word, conviction, repentance, receiving of the Gospel, and blessed with assurance and comfort of the Holy Ghost. May the Lord bless this Word to us, and that when the Spirit I pray the Spirit will work in our hearts that we're able to clearly recognise it as the Spirit's work. And those of us who know the Lord, be renewed again to remember how it is that we have been brought to know the Lord, why it is that we were changed, how it was that we were brought in as sinners and brought to receive a measure of gospel, comfort and assurance.

What if this account had just stopped at this word, what meaneth this? Without it being opened up, without Peter's message, it was needful, wasn't it? Maybe with us as well, we need the Lord to come and through the word interpret to us. Show to us, open to us, reveal to us the many of things that have happened in our lives, that the Lord has brought to pass.

Sometimes it is only looking back that we can see more clearly. You might be able to say with Laban, with Bethuel, the thing proceedeth from the Lord. For this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. This time, of course, could truly be said of Psalm 118. This is the day which the Lord hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. The Lord bless the world. What meaneth this? Amen.

What meaneth this? - what happened at Pentecost.

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What meaneth this? - what happened at Pentecost.

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About Rowland Wheatley

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