We're going to look at the first 13
verses this morning. And we're going to notice that
today is, in here in this passage, that wonderful day of Pentecost. There's been a lot written about
this wonderful and amazing event in the history of the early church
about Pentecost. There's been a lot written, there's
been a lot said, a lot of opinion, and much of it is good, but a
lot of it is completely wrong and feeds the flesh, speaking
in tongues and all these different things. So we're going to look
at a few things. We're just going to simply look
at some key issues that are found in these first 13 verses And
just go from there. So in Acts chapter 2, it says,
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they, that is
the disciples, as we noted in chapter 1, those who were waiting
for the promise of the Father, which is the day of Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit making a more direct manifestation of His gifts
at that time. Those gathered together in prayer
in the upper room that we noted in chapter 1, verse 13. They were all with one accord
and they were in one place waiting for this glorious event that
was promised by the Father. And it actually was promised
in Joel. It was promised many, many years before it actually
happened. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of
a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they
were sitting. And there appeared unto them
cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to
speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem
Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded. They were confused as to what
was going on. Because every man heard these
apostles, the brethren that were assembled together at one accord
in one place, they heard every man, heard these guys speak in
their own language. And they were all amazed, and
they marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all
these which speak Galileans?" You had Peter, you had James,
you had John, you had Philip, the disciples, and then others. Some think it was the 120 that
were gathered together, as it stated in chapter 1. But they
were all Galileans, okay? If we could use today's terms,
they would be all Americans. They would be all people from
Jackson or whatever. And the day of Pentecost, which
we'll see here in a little bit, was a feast day, one of three
main feast days that was set aside in the Old Testament. So
where these men were gathered together, it was a feast day,
so there was a whole multitude of other people. It would be
like the carnival in Cape and Jackson, the festival, the fair.
You've got people from all over. You've got thousands of people
gathered in Jerusalem because it was the Feast of Pentecost
that the day chosen by God the Holy Spirit to come upon His
people for these special gifts for a time. Not today, for a
time. So they're all amazed, all these
people. Because they heard their own tongue. They heard 15 different,
at least recorded here, 15 different documented languages. And these
people, Chinese, Japanese, Finnish, whatever it might be, using today's
terms, everybody heard these men speaking in their own tongue,
their own language, their own tongue. They were amazed and
they said are they not all Galileans and how here we verse 8 men in
our own tongue wherein we were born Parthenians means Elamites
dwellers in Mesopotamia in Judea Cappadocia in Pontius Asia Pygia
Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Rome,
Jews and proselytes, Cretes, Arabians. We do hear them speak
in our own tongue and we hear them speak in our own tongue
the wonderful works of God. That's going to be important.
And they were all amazed. And they were in doubt. And some
said to another, what does this mean? And others mocked and said,
these men are full of new wine. That's where we'll stop. This
wonderful, that wonderful day of Pentecost. We're going to
look at three or four points. The first one, what was this
day of Pentecost? The word Pentecost simply means
50. And we'll get to that in a second. We won't turn there,
but if you're taking notes, just write this down, Leviticus chapter
23, you will find the three feast days appointed by God for appointed
by God as very important times of worship and service unto Jehovah. There was three of them. There
was the Feast of the Passover, there was the Feast of Pentecost,
and there was the Feast of the Tabernacles. And they go by different
names, but there was mainly three feasts in the Old Testament.
So bringing this forward to Acts chapter 2 where we are, It's
a set time that these feasts were appointed, so obviously
there were many people gathered together to observe these feasts.
That's why there were so many people from different nationalities
in Jerusalem. The Feast of the Passover was
just that. When the Israelites were in Egypt,
and what did they do? The Lord commanded them to kill
the Passover lamb. put that blood on the doorpost
and the lintels, and when that death angel came through, it
killed all the firstborn of every creature except for where it
saw the blood. It didn't touch those people's
Firstborn that was inside that household, when that death angel
came by, it saw the blood and it passed over that household.
And we know for obvious and for certain from the Scriptures that
God the Son chose that feast day to portray substitution and
redemption. Because when God the Father sees
the blood of Christ applied to us, We will not be punished. We will not be annihilated. We
will not be destroyed. Christ is the typical symbol
of the Feast of the Passover. That's why when Hollywood gets
a hold of this stuff or preachers who don't have a clue and they
just preach the historical lessons of these feasts, They missed
the whole import because everything that God gives in his book shows
forth his gospel, shows forth the Lord Jesus Christ in his
substitutionary work and death for his people. The death angel
came by and it smote some people. It didn't smite those that the
blood was applied. And I know people think that
God loves everybody and He died for everybody, but the fact is,
and the truth of the Scripture is, is that when God the Father
sees those for whom Christ died, sees the blood, they will be
passed over. Actually, more than that, they
have His righteousness. But just like the Old Testament
picture and symbol and story, not everyone was saved. Not everyone was protected. It's
the same thing. The second feast in Leviticus
23 is the Feast of Pentecost. And I told you the word Pentecost,
you can look it up in a dictionary, you can look it up in a concordance,
the word Penta, Pentecost, it means 50. This feast was to take
place 50 days after the Israelites left Egypt. And of course, they
had record keepers, so even to this day, even to this day, go
over to Jerusalem, they keep these feasts. They do different
things now. They keep these feasts, the Feast
of Pentecost. They know historically when that
nation was released out of Egypt. So 50 days, 7 Sabbaths, 49 and
1, 50, they keep the feast. This day, God the Holy Spirit
would make a more direct show of His sovereign rights and powers
by what we're reading in Acts 2. And the third one is called
Feast of the Tabernacles, and that was simply all the males
were to appear consecrated before the Lord. You can see that in
Numbers 23, specifically in Deuteronomy 16, verse 16, it explains these
in detail. Well, most people look at those
things and go, oh yeah, feast days, whatever. Look at these
at your leisure and I'll guarantee you you look at those things
through the eyes of grace and you're going to see the gospel
in every situation. They weren't just stories to
teach in Sunday school so our kids would understand a little
bit of trivia about the Bible. They're stories that have direct
connection to the glory of God in the person and work of Jesus
Christ. What was that day? What was the
day of Pentecost? That's what it was. All these
people are gathered together to come to observe this day,
50 days after the historical event of the children of Israel
being released from Egypt. There's many people around. Let's
notice the circumstances surrounding what was going on during this
time of Pentecost. Well, verse one, and the day
of Pentecost was fully come. They were all with one accord
and one place. God's people were with one accord
and they're at one place waiting by commandment of God for something
to happen. And I'm not really sure they
understood everything that was going to take place. But I think
what is beautiful is that they were with one accord and they
were in one place. I'm telling you, and I know for
a fact, out of this book and I know from experience, our Lord
loves and honors unity. He loves and honors unity. Unity of heart, we gather together
with one mind, one heart, to hear the Gospel. We don't gather
together, and I'm so thankful because you all have been so
easy to pastor these years, We don't gather together and then
Bruce comes in and he's got an agenda. Well, I've got my little
agenda that I want to do. And then Jackie doesn't come
and say, well, this is what I think we need to do. So many places
today, everybody's got some kind of agenda. They've got something
they want to do. They want to promote themselves.
It's usually what happens. Most of the places in the New
Testament, where you read about false preachers and false prophets
and wolves in sheep's clothing, usually what they're doing is
they're more concerned about numbers and about money and about
themselves and about their own agendas and what they can do. And then they're not at a church
very long. They go, they tear it up, they go somewhere else.
The circumstances surrounding Pentecost and that God honors
is unity of heart, unity of purpose, unity of doctrine, Unity in the
gospel. And may this be said of us here
today, God was with us today as we listen to his one gospel
message. Not two, not three, not four.
No, this is just your message. But there's more than one gospel.
There's one gospel. And we're unified under that.
We're unified under that. May God be honored as we obey
His desire for us to worship Him. We gather together to hear,
not for fanfare, not for show, but simply to worship Him. Where
two or three are gathered together and His name is there and His
gospel is being preached, He's honored. He's honored. We've had some situations years
ago where we've had people come in. We were talking about this
the other day. People come in and they've got
some talents and they immediately want to Oh, look at me, look
at me, look at me. And I remember Henry and some
of these older preachers making a comment that people can come,
sit down and listen and see what happens. But people,
some people that have got upset and left is because they had
all these so-called gifts and talents. And they couldn't handle
not being recognized. They couldn't handle just sitting
and listening to the gospel as an ordinary sinner like we are. They had to have some kind of
status and position. May that not be said of us, but
rather we listen to this one gospel message, we obeyed His
desire for us to come together and worship, and we prayed together
like the early New Testament church in unity and did what
we were enjoined to do. It says when the day of Pentecost
was fully come, they were all in one accord in one place. I'm not saying don't be yourself.
That's another thing. Cults, religious cults, want
to make everybody like everybody else. Usually it's the leader.
He wants to make everybody, or she wants to make everybody like
them. David Koresh. All these people,
they want to be just like me. You're a follower of me. No. I want you to be who you are
without violating the Gospel. And Addie, everybody has their
own unique gifts. That's what the church is. It's
like a family. How boring. Nathan and Sarah, after their
5th and 6th child, and Matt and Tara's 7th and 8th kids, if they
were all the same, no, no, you know, uh-uh. As funny as it was,
I was thinking about this this morning before we came here.
We got four cats, and every one of them is different. And we
got talking about the workman's dogs and stuff, rags, they're
different. And that's the preacher. I stand
up here and I preach the gospel and God will have His way. He
doesn't need me to manipulate or coerce. Now, there's nothing
wrong with exhortation and rebuke and things like that, but I don't
want everybody to be like me. That would be very upsetting,
very scary, and that would be wrong. But these brethren, they
were with one accord and one place, that is, their desire
to glorify Christ in the hearing and the preaching of the gospel.
And it's just about ready to explode. Secondly, let's look at the marked
occasion, the actual happening, the Holy Ghost coming upon His
people and giving them tongues. And the word tongues, that's
why I can't understand these Pentecostal fruitcakes. They jibber. I've heard them. I've got several friends who
are Pentecostal and I've heard one of them say, well, this is
how you speak in tongues. And they were just... And I go, do
you know what you said? They couldn't even tell me what
they said. Well, it was just glorify God. How can it glorify God if
you don't know what you're saying and I don't understand what you're
saying? Now, we've already seen and we know from this book that
the way God is glorified is by understandable, intelligible
preaching of the gospel. If I start preaching to you in
French. The outline might be accurate,
the doctrine might be accurate, but if you don't understand it,
this book says I'm like a symbol that's just flapping. You don't
understand it. I might impress somebody, but
God's not impressed. That is what the gifts of tongues,
the word means languages. And it's already in the context.
We hear everyone speaking in our own language. They said there's
what I on my study Bible. I wrote them down. I wrote them
down 15 years, at least 15 here documented, recorded languages. That's what these people heard.
A mighty rushing wind and fire cloven from heaven. What does that all mean? Well,
if you want to turn to John chapter 3 and look at verse 8, Christ
said that the Spirit is like a wind. Right? Can you control
the wind? Do you know where the wind comes
from? Well, it sounds like to me that what the reference there,
as is here, is that wind, which refers to the Holy Ghost, in
John 3, verse 8, is sovereign. It's uncontrollable. You can't
control. I can't control God. Oh, when
people pray and it changes God. No, it doesn't. You can't control
the wind. You can't contain it. It is free and powerful. and does what it pleases. As
a matter of fact, the word is, it lists where it will. That's what John chapter 3. The
wind blows and lists where it will. We don't know where it
comes from. Just like God the Holy Spirit in this day of Pentecost, sovereign. There's that word
again. In control. And look at the way
it's worded. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven. Well, how do you know this was
of God? Because it came from heaven. It didn't come from man. It wasn't initiated by man, just
like the gospel. The gospel Paul said that I preached
was not of men, but of God. He said, I didn't learn it from
the wisdom of men. I learned it from God. Mighty
then there came suddenly a sound from heaven as a mighty rushing
wind Filled the house where they were all sitting and appeared
unto them as cloven tongues like fire and fire is a purifying
in the scriptures shown to be purified and strong and again
something that's can't control and It said on each of them.
They were filled with the Holy Ghost and what they do they immediately
began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance
and Not unintelligible ramblings that made no sense. Specifically,
had a specific purpose. And that will be our last point.
But the marked occasion was this. The Spirit, here in the day of
Pentecost, it was from heaven, sent by God. And indeed, God
in His third person will be made more particularly manifest on
this special occasion. And if it's from heaven, it's
got to be real. It must be true. It must be genuine
and of high importance. It says it was like the wind
and fire as it is in sovereign. It does all he pleases when he
pleases at the exact moment he pleases. So it is with God, the
Father and God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit. When they are
to save a sinner, they're going to do it when they please, as
they please and how they please. Because it says, when the day
of Pentecost was fully come, at that exact moment and second
in time. That sounds like a God who's
on his throne. Not a minute before, not a minute
after, when it was fully come. What else accompanied this? This
occasion as they spoke in tongues, languages, not vain babblings,
as I've mentioned, or unknown languages or gibberish, but at
least 15 recorded, documented, understood languages. This miracle
of grace used by God to seal and to stamp his name upon the
happenings which occurred, all glorified his name, his grace,
his gospel, his son, and it was for this time only. And if you want to look at other
passages of Scripture, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 10, 2 Peter 1, verse
19, it's basically saying we have the full canonization of
Scriptures. They didn't at that time. We
have the full revelation of God in this book from Genesis to
Revelation. We don't need these. I know God's
still in the miracle business. I'm not saying that, but we don't
need the tongues and the signs and wonders. We have the Gospel. We have the written Word of God. All that we need, we have right
here. We now have the whole canonization
of Scripture and need not such demonstrations of exalted gifts. Lastly, it just amazes me when
you talk to these Pentecostal people and people who Twist the
scripture and rest them to their own destruction. What was the
Pentecostal message? Well, we're preaching the same
thing as the day of Pentecost Okay, tell me what they said.
Well, then they start babbling and I'm like, wait a minute timeout.
I Now this was noise abroad, verse
6, the multitude came together and they were confounded, like,
what's going on? They were troubled in mind, that
word means, because every man heard them speak in his own language.
There's your interpretation of what tongues is. The Bible interprets
itself. So I talk to a Pentecostal friend,
and he says, yeah, we preach the same message that they did
in Acts chapter 2. Okay, what do they preach? And then he starts
gibbering and babbling, and then he says, well, I've got the problem. I don't have the Holy Spirit
because I can't understand what he's saying. I would say it's the other way
around. I would say God uses common means. He doesn't use
the words of men's wisdom. The plain, clear speech of the
Gospel. Okay? Now, what did they say? Aren't these all Galileans? But
how we, verse 8, how we hear every man in his own tongue whereby
we were born. And in verses 9, 10 and 11, it
talks about those 15 different languages, at least. But what
was the message of Pentecost? We don't have to guess. It's
not up to me to discern it for you. You look with me at verse
11. We do hear them speak in our
tongues the wonderful works of God. That's the message of Pentecost. The wonderful works of God. That's
pretty broad. I don't have a problem with that.
The gospel's big. Our God's big. You know what
that word, wonderful, I've never looked this up and I like to
do this sometimes. You know what the Greek word
for wonderful is, Bruce? Two things, magnificent and perfection. The magnificent, perfect works
of God. Well, that must be The magnificent
and perfect work of the Father as He chose the people out of
every nation, kindred, and tongue. The perfect work of the Son who
shed His life-saving blood for the remnant of His heritage.
The magnificent work of the Holy Spirit as He makes the holy things
of God in Christ known to the sheep. The election of grace. Also, it must mean the wonderful
work of creating life from death in the souls of men. Isn't that
a magnificent work? That's a perfect work. To take
something that's dead in trespass and sin and make us alive unto
Him. That must be the blessed hope
of ruined sinners made complete and whole by the substitutionary
work of Emmanuel. the works of God. The amazing grace that lifts
a dead dog and vile sinners from the dunghill, as Samuel tells
us, from the dunghill and the heap of corruption and sets them
upon the pure, lovely, sweet-smelling accomplishments of the God-man. If we are to speak those wonderful,
magnificent, and perfect works of God, By contrast, then we
must not, as Henry said last night at ordination service,
so beautiful, Bruce, whoever stands behind here, reading the
scripture, quoting the scripture, teaching class, we must not,
dare not, even for a moment, speak of those foolish and damning
works of man. as a means to redeem or pardon
the sins that are held against us. The message of Pentecost
is the same message that we preach, the wonderful, magnificent, perfect
work of God, in contrast to the unsavory flawed works of man. Do you want to know why we don't
believe and we don't preach free will of man, the decision of
man, the choice of man, it's up to you, you have the power
to choose? You know why we don't preach
that? Because that would be preaching your works. Not the wonderful works of God. That's the message of Pentecost. In closing, let us therefore, brethren, tell,
as we are directed by God the Holy Spirit, because He still
does direct His people, the message of free and sovereign grace as
it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's the message. As we're going through Genesis
on Wednesday nights, we see the Gospels everywhere in this book. So, well, I don't know, pick
a chapter, pick a book, and in there you will find the wonderful
works of God, and you can tell somebody about that. That's the
message of Pentecost. That's our message. Well, when
I tell people what's going to happen, Verse 12 is what's going to happen.
And 13. And they were all amazed, some
will be amazed. And rejoice. Some some were in doubt. And some will mock. Verse 13, others mocking said,
these men are full of new wine. That's the reason when the gospel
message is preached, it's a challenge. You can't remain neutral. If
I'm clear. Say, well, that's amazing that
God would do something like that for a sinner like me. It's got
to be his grace. It's got to be his work. I want to trust in His works. I want to trust in His Son. I
want to trust in His Gospel. Do you trust in Him? Believe in Him? He gives you
all the graces to do so? Desire to be baptized? And then
what? Go tell somebody else. Go tell
somebody else. But you'll get people who doubt.
Nah, I don't think so. I don't read my Bible much, but
I hear tell. Or you get some people that,
well, I don't believe it at all. Or, that's not what mom said
or dad said or what my brother said or uncle said or... Some
will be in doubt. And then you'll get others just
playing out. Ah, you Christians. What a worthless lot you are. But that's okay. Let us, like
these brethren here, be of one accord in one place, encouraging one another and witnessing of Him. You can't
convert anybody. I can't convert anybody. Can't
save anybody. But we sure can pray for them
and tell them about the Gospel. It's in His hands anyway. Let
us be, as it was said of our Lord, let us be about His business.
As you work, as you play, as you raise your children, as you
sunset of your life, whether it's the beginning or the end
or the middle, just be about His business. Just glorify Him
and honor Him. John, would you close us please?