I had the privilege of being present at the birth
of three or four of my children and observed
with wonder as well as with great joy the seeming
miracle that was taking place in birth. In our
text today, we have the privilege of observing
through historical record another birth. It is
the birth of the Church of Jesus Christ. Imagine
the joy in heaven as God the Father and the holy
angels observed the birth of the body of Jesus
Christ, the church. Now, of course, there are
some who understand the church as being simply
the continuation of Old Testament Israel. And
so to them, there is nothing particularly unusual
that happens here in Acts chapter 2. The church
existed before, they say, and this is simply
an event in the church or in new Israel, as they
call it. But we most radically disagree with
those who take that position, believing that,
in fact, the church is a unique and distinct
body. It existed in the mind and the purpose
of God before creation. But in fact, in reality
and in history, it did not exist until this Pentecostal
day recorded in Acts chapter 2. And when the
day of Pentecost had come, they were all together
in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven
a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled
the whole house where they were sitting. and
there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing
themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak with other tongues as the
Spirit was giving them utterance. Our text today
records for us the narrative of this birthday
event. Notice with me first in verse 12 the occasion
itself, the occasion. What is the time of this
birthday? It is on the day of Pentecost. This
is the Old Testament Feast of Weeks, as it was
called by the Jews in the old days, later to
be called Pentecost by its Greek name. Pentecost
simply means 50. This particular Jewish feast
came 50 days after the most recent of the feasts,
the Feast of First Fruits. We read about this
feast in Leviticus chapter 23. I'd like you to
turn into the Old Testament to that passage and
read a couple of verses with me regarding its
institution. Leviticus chapter 23. In this chapter
is recorded all of the feasts which the Jews
were to observe annually. Pentecost was one of
three feasts at which all the Jewish males were
to be present together. Passover, Pentecost,
and then Tabernacles in the fall. It says in
verse 15 of Leviticus 23, You shall also count
for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath,
that is the Sabbath of the first fruits, the
previous feast, from the day when you brought
in the sheaf of the wave offering, there shall
be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty
days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then
you shall present a new grain offering to the
Lord. from your dwelling places two loaves of
bread for a wave offering made of two tenths
of an ephah. They shall be of a fine flour baked
with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. So you
will notice that part of the offering on this
day of Pentecost involved the bringing of two
loaves. And these loaves were to be baked unusually
with leaven. For if you know anything about the
Old Testament sacrifices, you know that they
were to be without leaven, but this is an exception.
Now it seems that there is a typical significance
to that. That is that there is a picture here
in Leviticus 23. which now in the New Testament
is clear to our understanding. The two loaves
that were to be offered as one sacrifice seem
to represent the church, the one sacrifice, composed
now of two bodies, Jew and Gentile, who were
becoming one in this new entity. The loaves were
to contain leaven, which is a picture of sin,
and which tells us the present state of the church.
For there is still sin amongst us. Until that
day we are caught up to be with the Lord, and
all of that will be removed. Our sins now are
forgiven for Jesus' sake, but sin is still present
within us. We still do sin. And so you see in
the offering on that Old Testament day of Pentecost,
there was great significance that pointed to
what the church is today. Now come with me back
to the book of Acts. And notice how the Holy
Spirit puts these words in verse 1. And when
the day of Pentecost had come. Literally, it
says, when the day of Pentecost was being fulfilled
or being completed. An interesting phrase. There
are some people who think that it may mean that
the day itself, that 24 -hour period, was being
completed. And that's possible. For as you know,
the Jews counted the day as beginning at sunset
the night before. the morning of the next day
as we look at it, and so the day as the Jews
looked at it was being consummated. It was more
than half over to them. But it seems to me there's
something here more than just that. What the
Spirit of God is telling us is this, that the
day of Pentecost, in its meaning and in its significance,
was now about to be fulfilled. in what is to
take place in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Later, the day of Pentecost was associated among
the Jews with the giving of the Old Testament
law. They reckoned this way. They figured that
it was 50 days from the time that Moses led the
people out of Egypt. until the time that he received
the law on Mount Sinai. And so on this day of
Pentecost, or 50th, they also associated the
meaning with the giving of the law. That was
true on this day of Pentecost in Acts chapter
2. That was in the thinking of these Jews as
they gathered together. I think that has significance
as well. because now what is about to take place
will fulfill Pentecost. Or to put it another
way, as it might have been in the minds of some
of these people, what was about to take place
was the fulfillment of the age of the law. A
new age was now about to begin, that is the age
of grace, or we might say it, the age of the
Spirit. And so in that sense, the day of Pentecost,
was being fulfilled as well. That was the occasion.
Now who are the people? For it says they were
all together in one place. The they refers undoubtedly
to the same group as we see in chapter 1, verse
15. That is the 120 disciples of the Lord, including
that small group of the 12 as they are now numbered.
They were all together in one place, all 120
of them. You say, what is the meaning of that?
Well, it indicates to us that the blessings of
God are not just for a few of His people, but
for all of His people, for they were all together
in one place. And I think that we see here as
well the unity that was among those people, the
unity that united their hearts as a core of men
and women. followers of Jesus Christ. They were
all together in one place. You say, where was
the place? Well, there's a difference of opinion
about that. The text could be read one of two
ways. It could be that they were in the temple
at this point. It does mention the house where
they were sitting in verse 2, and the word house
could be applied to the temple. But it seems
to me most logical to think that they were in
the upper room where they had been waiting these
ten days for the Spirit of God to come. And that
later they moved from that upper room to the
temple area where they did their preaching. Now
notice with me the phenomena on the birthday
of the church. For it says suddenly some things
happened. That word suddenly is peculiar to the
book of Acts. It is used again in chapter 16
and once again in chapter 28 as an adverb. What
it means is that without any warning, unexpectedly,
suddenly, this took place. Isn't it interesting
how often God works that way? Gideon was out
threshing. suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared
to him and spoke to him. Mary was going about
her routine in Nazareth, and suddenly the angel
Gabriel appeared to her. The shepherds were watching
over their flock by night, and suddenly the angel
of the Lord appeared. And when he had finished
his speech, suddenly there was a whole multitude
of the heavenly hosts, the Scripture says. How
often God works. unexpectedly without our anticipating
it. That is the way that Jesus is going to come
too. Suddenly He will appear in the heavens and
with a shout will call forth His church, the
bride of Christ, to be at His side. Suddenly.
On this day of Pentecost, suddenly some things
happened. There were three observable, audible
miracles. The first one was a noise. It is a
noise from heaven. And it says it was like a
violent rushing wind. Literally, the Greek says,
an echoing sound as of a violent wind being borne
along. And so you get the idea of a hurricane
or a tornado -like sound. The word refers to
a loud reverberation. It is used by Luke in his
gospel of the roar of the sea and its waves.
It was that kind of a roar, that kind of a noise,
like a violent wind being driven along. It does
not say, though, that it was windy. There was
no current, no movement in the air. Simply the
noise of a hurricane. It's sort of like you sitting
in your house during a Minnesota blizzard, and
outside you hear this violent, rushing wind going
by your house, but inside it's completely calm
and still. They were surrounded, however, by
that noise, and yet there was no movement in
the air. And then it says there appeared fire,
or something like fire. It was in the form of
a tongue which rested upon each one of them.
It was a fire distributing itself over the heads
of all 120, apparently, of these disciples. It
seems to picture here a single flame which is
broken up. which may signify the unity and yet
the individuality of all of these believers.
The fire was emblematic or symbolic of the personal
power which each was now receiving for an aggressive
witness to bear light to the darkened minds of
the unregenerate around them. And then the third
miracle was that of tongues. It says they spoke
in other tongues or languages. You say, is it
true that it was languages which were earthly
known languages or was this an ecstatic utterance
of some kind? It seems to me that if you read
this text for what it says, it is unmistakable
that these were in fact known earthly languages.
Several times the word tongues is used. And parallel
with that, there is another key word. It is found
in verse 6 and again in verse 8. It is translated
in the version I have before me as language,
but the literal word is dialect. They were amazed,
those who heard them, because they heard each
one in his own dialect, indicating that this
was, in fact, a language. It was the language
of the hearers, of the people who were gathered
there for the day of Pentecost. They were able
to hear these disciples speaking in their own
languages because the Spirit of God gave those
disciples, those unlearned Galileans, the ability
to speak in a language they had never studied.
Now there are some who say that, no, they spoke
in an ecstatic way. utterance, that was no earthly
language, and these people were gifted to hear
in their own language. So the gift was in the
hearing, not in the speaking. But I do notice
it's called the gift of tongues and not the gift
of ears, if you'll pardon me. It does talk here
about the gift of tongues, their ability to speak
in languages which they had not learned. in order
that the gospel message might be disseminated
to all of those Jews who were in the audience
on that day of Pentecost. And I would remind
you that on this feast of Pentecost, there were
Jews from all over the Roman Empire. They had
come together for this annual feast, and this
was the big one. The population of Jerusalem
on the day of Pentecost each year. would swell
many times its normal size. There are some scholars
who say that just in the temple area alone on
the day of Pentecost, there could easily have
been 200 ,000 people, 200 ,000 Jews from all
over the Roman Empire. And it was to that vast
multitude of people that these disciples, these
120 of them, were gifted to be able to speak
in those many different languages so that the
gospel could be clearly presented to them. It
talks about them speaking here in an utterance.
The last part of verse 4, the term in my version
is utterance. That word literally means to give
a weighty speech like an oracle. It is not a
word that is ever used of ecstatic, emotional
kind of speaking, but it refers rather to the
content of what is being said as being weighty,
even as it were an oracle. It is a word that
is used again of Peter in verse 14 when it says
that taking his stand with the eleven, he raised
his voice and declared to them. The same word
is used there regarding Peter. It is used again
in Acts 26 verse 25 when Paul defended himself
before the king. These are the only times it's
used in the New Testament. And so that word utterance,
again in verse 4, indicates to us that what was
being done here was a miracle of languages. Now
you say, why were these phenomena present on
the birthday of the church? Why did God cause
this noise? the appearance of a fire -like substance
over each of the disciples, and the gift of languages.
God caused these phenomena to take place to signal
the fulfillment of His promise of the coming
of the Holy Spirit. They were waiting in Jerusalem
for the promise of the Father to be fulfilled.
Acts 1 and verse 4. And this is the fulfillment
of it. You will notice that in the context of
Acts chapter 2, however, the term baptism with
the Holy Spirit is not used. That is interesting
to me. It's worthy of note. And yet this was
the initial baptism with the Holy Spirit. Turn
with me to chapter 11, rather, in the book of
Acts. Look at verse 15. And here we have an accounting
of Peter regarding that day of Pentecost as he
relates it to what happened at the house of Cornelius,
a Gentile who was saved. Now in verse 15 he says,
As I began to speak, that is, on that day, the
Holy Spirit fell upon them, that is, to Cornelius
and his household, just as he did upon us at
the beginning. that is, on the day of Pentecost.
And so in verse 15, he describes it as the Holy
Spirit falling upon them. Verse 16, And I remembered
the word of the Lord, how he used to say, John
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized
with the Holy Spirit. And so Peter says that
the Holy Spirit falling upon them was the baptism
of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus had promised.
And then in verse 17 he says, if God therefore
gave to them the same gift as he gave to us also
after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was I that I could stand in God's way? And so
in verse 17 he calls this the gift of God, the
promised gift of the Father. And so in Acts chapter
2 we have the fulfillment of what Jesus called
the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
fell upon them. The gift of the Father, what
He had promised to send, was given on that day.
Well, you say, what is the baptism with the Holy
Spirit? What does that mean? The baptism with
the Holy Spirit was the act of God whereby He
consolidated all true believers into one body.
in Jesus Christ, and identified them with their
Lord, the head of their body. The baptism with
the Holy Spirit, I repeat, is the act of God
whereby He united or consolidated all believers
into one spiritual body and united that body
to Jesus Christ. its head. You and I today are
baptized with the Holy Spirit at the moment that
we are saved. For at that moment we are placed
into the body of Christ and identified with Jesus
Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
And that is why when the Apostle Paul writes
to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 12,
verse 13, he says, For by one Spirit Were you
all baptized into one body? He does not command
them to seek it as some kind of a later experience,
but he says to those people, you were all baptized,
and the tense of the verb there means at one
point in time, it was done, it's over with. You
were all baptized into one body by one Spirit.
That is the baptism with the Spirit. The miraculous
signs which marked this occasion indicated that
something new was happening. Do you remember
what happened when the law was given on Mount
Sinai? Do you remember the display of miracles
which God caused as the law was given to impress
upon His people His power, His holiness? He caused
that mountain to smoke as though it were a volcano.
And there was fire, and there was the sound of
trumpets, and there was thunder. And the people
of Israel down in the plain below the mountain
shrank back from the mountain in terror of it.
You see, when God was beginning something new
there on Mount Sinai, He indicated it by miraculous...
And that's what he's doing here. Something new
is beginning. It's the birthday of the church.
And therefore he causes all of these phenomena
to take place to indicate that here is something
brand new in the world. A new body, a new group
that God is dealing with. A new age is beginning.
The age of law is over. The age of the Spirit,
the age of grace is beginning. Israel, because
of unbelief, has been set aside. God now is bringing
together a new body of people, the church of
Jesus Christ. And he signals all of this by the
phenomena that we see before us in Acts chapter
2. He wanted them, and he wants us to realize,
the epical nature of this event, that a new dispensation
is taking place. And may I say to you that when
this age is over, God is likewise going to cause
miraculous phenomena. This age will close with
some of the most astounding events that have
ever happened in the history of the world. Indeed,
Jesus indicates to us it will be a day unlike
has ever been before or will ever come again,
as this age is brought to a close. Now I want
you to notice that although the term baptized
with the Spirit is not used, there is a term
in verse 4 similar but distinct. It says they
were all filled with the Holy Spirit. What does
it mean to be filled with the Holy Spirit? We've
talked about that before. It is not some kind
of a hidden word. It simply means to be filled
or empowered or controlled or dominated by the
Holy Spirit. Filled pictures the sail of a boat
that is filled with the wind, the result of it
being that the ship, the boat, is carried along.
and moved, empowered. And so when these believers
were filled with the Holy Spirit, it simply means
that the Spirit of God empowered them. He enabled
them. He was the one who caused them to be able
to speak in these languages. Because of his filling,
the weak became strong. The timid became bold.
The carnal became spiritual. because of the filling
of the Holy Spirit. There is not a greater need
among God's people today than to know this filling
of the Holy Spirit. If we are God's people in
truth, we know already the baptism with the Holy
Spirit, for that happened when we were saved.
But we need afresh every day and every hour the
filling of the Holy Spirit. You will find again
and again through the book of Acts that they
were filled. They were filled. Again, they were
filled. And once more, they were filled with
the Holy Spirit. Now, what is the reaction to
all the phenomena, to all that is taking place
on the birthday of the church? Well, it talks
in verse 5 about the Jews who were living in
Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under
heaven. We've mentioned why they were there.
And when this sound occurred, in verse 6, the
multitude came together. How many? Who knows?
Undoubtedly, there were tens of thousands of
them. Now, you say, what is the sound that they
heard? Well, the word that is used here for sound
is different than the word in verse 2 where it
describes the noise from heaven. Now they may
have heard that roar, but then they may not have.
The word sound in verse 6 refers undoubtedly
to the speaking in tongues, in languages, by
these disciples. They heard that, and it piqued
their interest. They wanted to know what this
was all about. Notice their reaction. Verse 6.
They were bewildered. So there was bewilderment.
The word means confusion. The root verb here
means to pour together. And you get the idea
that as they tried to put all of these things
together, they were mixed up. They could not
quite figure out what was taking place. It goes
on to say in verse 7 that they were amazed. So
not only was there bewilderment, there was amazement.
Again, in verse 12, the same word is used. They
continued in amazement. The word means they were
distraught. If you were to put this in the vernacular
today, it would mean it blew their minds what
was taking place. They had never seen anything
like this before, and they did not know how to
relate to what was happening. In verse 7, it
says they marveled, and so they wondered at it.
And the tense of the verb means that over and
over again they tried to run this through their
minds. They could not get over this. They marveled.
In verse 12 it goes on to say that they were
in great perplexity. They were at a loss to be
able to explain this. So you get the idea, don't
you? In their reaction they were confused. They
were amazed. They marveled at it, trying to put
it all together, but it just didn't congeal for
them. They didn't know how to interpret this.
And so what did some of them do at least? Well,
while some continued to ask what it meant, there
were others who mocked and saying, these people
are drunk. That's what the problem is. They've
just had too much sweet wine. When the world
does not understand something, for that matter,
when some Christians don't understand something,
intellectually, they tend to criticize and to
mock. And that's what happened here. These Jews
could not put it together. They could not understand
it intellectually. They did not relate to it,
and therefore there were some of them at least
who mocked and criticized and ridiculed what
was taking place. Both by word and by gesture,
so the verb indicates, they jeered. The apostles
and the other disciples who were speaking in
tongues. A less intensive word but the same basic
verb is used in Acts chapter 17 when Paul spoke
on the hill, Mars Hill in Athens. It says that
on that occasion there were some who mocked him.
Same idea. On the day of Pentecost, on the birthday
of the church, there were those... who ridicule
because they could not understand. There are
those today who do the same, don't they? Now,
what are some of the observations that we can
make in relation to our text? How can we apply
this to our lives? Number one, Pentecost had
a remarkable impact upon the world. Listen, as
important as the giving of the law, on Mount
Sinai, so is Pentecost. Just as important. Listen
to this. As important as the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ on the hill of Calvary, so
is Pentecost. I did not say more important, but
I said just as significant as that event, so
is this event. in Acts chapter 2, the birth of
the church of Jesus Christ. We're going to celebrate
Christmas in a few weeks, and a few months after
that we'll be celebrating the resurrection on
Easter Sunday. But we don't usually celebrate
Pentecost Sunday, do we? There are some liturgical
churches which do, but we do not. Why is that?
I think because we fail to understand how important
this day is. This is one of the most remarkable
events in the history of the world. When God
came in the person of His Spirit and indwelt
mankind permanently. In the Old Testament, He
would come upon... believers for a limited period
of time for a specific purpose. But now He comes
into the world to indwell believers permanently
and to seal them into the body of His Son. What
are the results of this day? Well, just briefly,
the results to believers are three. Number one,
union with Jesus Christ. We've talked about that.
Now we share the same life. We have the same
power of His resurrection dwelling within us.
We are now members of His body, of His flesh,
of His bones. We are His eyes. We are His hands.
We are His feet in the world. We are united to
Jesus Christ as one with Him. That is one result
of Pentecost to believers. Number two, not only
union, but illumination. Now we have illumination
or understanding of the Word of God. I like what
G. Campbell Morgan said regarding the day of
Pentecost. In half an hour after Pentecost, they,
the disciples, knew more about Jesus Christ than
they had ever known before. Why? But Jesus said,
when He, the Spirit, has come, He will guide
you into all truth. He will teach you. And today
you and I have the Spirit of God as our teacher
to illumine our hearts. Number three, the result
of Pentecost for believers is power. Do you see
the change in these men and women between chapter
1 and chapter 2? Do you see what happens to them?
A group of people rather withdrawn, retiring,
waiting, anticipating, suddenly aggressively
and boldly go out to confront their world for
Jesus Christ. This is none other than what Jesus
promised in Acts 1 .8, but you shall receive
power. After that, the Holy Spirit has come upon
you. You and I take that power for granted today,
I think, too often, and thus we don't utilize
it or appropriate it. But the same power that
they knew in Acts 2, which came upon them at
that moment, now indwells each of us. All that
it needs is to be released through our lives.
What is the result of Pentecost to the world?
A couple of things I want to mention. Number
one, conviction. Jesus said that the Spirit of
God would come and bring conviction to the world.
John chapter 16, verses 8 through 11. What did
He mean by that? Weren't people convicted before?
Of course. But now in this age, there is a new
quality, a new weight of conviction upon the
world. As the Spirit of God does His work, as
He never has before in the history of mankind.
And secondly, as a result of Pentecost, He is
in the world today restraining lawlessness. It
may well be, and I have no Scripture proof of
this, it may well be that after the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ, Satan began immediately
to put together the whole antichrist system and
to bring about as quickly as he could the person
of antichrist to counteract what jesus christ
the true christ had accomplished i say it may
be that immediately he intended to bring all
of that to pass there is some indication of that
in the word of god but the spirit of god came
and today is hindering and restraining Satan,
in his efforts to congeal and bring together
lawlessness. Now we believe that at the rapture
of the church, he's going to be taken out in
that ministry, so that he will no longer restrain
as he does now, and the result of that will be
Satan will very quickly bring together his system,
his anti -Christ system of lawlessness. But now
the Spirit of God is hindering and frustrating.
and restraining Satan from doing all of that
in the world. And then the result of Pentecost
for Jesus. What is that? Number one, the administration
of the redemption which he purchased at the cross.
It is being carried out as the Spirit of God
works in the hearts of men and women around the
world as the gospel is preached. and convicts
them of their sinfulness and draws them to faith
in Jesus Christ. Jesus died and shed His blood
for the church, and now the Spirit of God is
applying that gospel message, and people are
being drawn out and wooed by the Spirit of God.
He is calling them from the corners of the earth
to believe on Jesus Christ, to be saved, to be
made a part of this body in this age. The bride
of Jesus Christ is being prepared right now as
a result of the Spirit of God being in the world.
And secondly, as a result of Pentecost, the life
of Jesus is being multiplied through His people.
Realize this, that before, when He was on the
earth, He was limited to one place at a time.
Either He was in Galilee or He was in Jerusalem.
or he was on the far side of the Sea of Galilee,
or he was in Samaria, but he was in one place
at a time because he limited himself in his incarnation
to a human body and to our humanity. But now
he is glorified, exalted, adored in heaven, and
he has sent the Holy Spirit who indwells us and
multiplies his life. So that everywhere you are,
Jesus is. So that now he is in many places at
one time. So what did Pentecost mean to Jesus?
But the multiplication of himself through his
body, throughout this age, throughout the whole
world. So that in that office or that factory
or in your home or in that school room, Jesus
Christ is there. as you are there, as united
to Him. It's a marvelous thing. Wonderful truth.
A sobering truth. A second observation, briefly.
God's work in the world, as on the day of Pentecost,
can neither be ignored nor repeated. We cannot
ignore what took place on this day. We rejoice
in it, in fact. But just as we cannot ignore
it, we cannot repeat it. We cannot pray for another
Pentecost in the church any more than we can
pray that there would be another Calvary when
Jesus would die on the cross. For that is a once
-for -all occasion. He died, and that was it.
And so is Pentecost and the coming of the Spirit
of God. He came once, and that's all he needed
to come. And he is in the world today.