Acts 2:1-21
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.”
Peter's Sermon at Pentecost
But 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,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and 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.
And I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;
the sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
Grace, mercy and peace deal from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
What a day, the day of Pentecost must have been.
Can you imagine?
At this time the multitude of believers was at maximum of about 120. That's what the book of Acts tells us. They had been gathered in prayer,
hearing the apostles.
And then on this day, they are all together in one place.
And suddenly, the amazing happened.
There is that sound of rushing wind that filled the entire house where they were, and then tons of fire divide
and rest upon the disciples,
doesn't give us exactly where many artists will depict it, floating above their heads.
A theologian that I listened to said, maybe it would have been right in front of their mouths,
because of what would come next.
They were filled with the Holy Spirit, the wind, and the fire signified the amazing thing that was happening. And the Spirit empowers them to go out and speak.
Can you imagine being in that room?
And all of a sudden these things happen? And you're carried along by the Spirit? Most of us imagine it as an observer.
But can you imagine being one of the apostles?
Like what would that have been like? You're You're filled with the Spirit. And all of a sudden, the power of the Spirit pushes you out into the crowd.
And suddenly, you can speak Chinese.
I can't speak Chinese. But I think that would be pretty cool. I wonder if you're thinking like, they're like, What is going on? This is amazing. Right?
The people outside were just as amazed by the power of the experience. Some of them were confused. They thought the disciples were drunk. But Peter lets them know it was too early for that. Besides, I don't know of a single beer that can teach you a new language.
Wouldn't that be nice?
They go out, and they explain it's far too early. What is happening is what was predicted by the prophet Joel,
that on the last days, the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon God's people.
And you might be thinking, Oh, those are the last days, what are you talking about before the day of the Lord?
For them that might have been pretty clear, says, The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes that great and magnificent day.
When know that the sun was turned to darkness not too long ago, on the day that Jesus was crucified.
And I've heard that smart people say that right about that time there would have been illuminated a lunar eclipse,
which is what sometimes we call a blood moon.
Which meant all of these signs could have come to pass. Right before the Holy Spirit was placed on the apostles.
Meaning the great and glorious day of the Lord
was the day that Jesus was crucified.
And now we are in the last days, with the disciples filled by the Holy Spirit, sent out into the world to proclaim the Word of God, to all people.
This isn't the only time the Holy Spirit does his thing. In the book of Acts, the apostles are empowered by the Holy Spirit throughout.
It begins with Jesus, the book of Acts with Jesus saying you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
And it's the Holy Spirit from this moment that empowers the disciples, to be those witnesses and carry the message of Jesus Christ out into the world.
After this amazing day of Pentecost,
Ask. Peter preaches a powerful sermon to all who are listening and they are cut to the heart by his words, and they cry, Oh, what should we do?
And he says, Believe in Jesus and be baptized, and you will be saved.
3000 people become Christians that day, and are baptized. Now, if you are doing the math in your head, if you take 12 apostles, baptizing 3000 people for eight hours, that is one baptism every two minutes, eight hours a day.
Can you imagine that service? Are you excited, be pretty great, right?
The message of the gospel was empowered by the Spirit to go out into the world,
to bring all of God's people together,
to gather together the people from every place on Earth, so that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And it's the same today.
The Holy Spirit that filled the apostles, that put the fire above their heads, still fills the church today, and empowers us in mission.
And that power wasn't in the wind.
The power wasn't in the fire.
The power was in the Word of God.
Because that's what went out to the people and cut them to the heart. That's what went out and change them and gathered them together into the Christian church.
It would cause them to have faith so that he could be baptized.
And it works the same way. Today. Whenever you hear God's word, preached, spoken, told, whenever you hear the words, talking about Jesus, His death and resurrection for you, the Holy Spirit is at work in you.
He strengthens you.
He calls you, He changes your heart.
It is the promise that we have through the word of God. But the Spirit is at work every time the word is proclaimed.
Whether it happened back in the day of Pentecost,
or happens here,
or when you to go out and speak it to your neighbors, and your friends.
And I think that's a key promise that we need to hold on to
is that every time you speak the Word of God to people, they also received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is at work. In your words, when you talk about Jesus, no matter what happens, no matter the outcome.
Every time you speak, the Spirit is at work.
Which means the power of God is there. When you talk about Jesus. When you share God's Word with someone else, the power of God is working through you
to gather people into the church.
And what we do is we trust the Holy Spirit to do what he sees is right.
One of the things that I think we in the church have done is lost confidence in the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word.
We've lost confidence that it's the Spirit's job, to change people's hearts
through the ways that he promises to do it. And instead we focus in on other things,
on the experience on everything around God's word, rather than sharing it.
This summer, this past year, I started looking through a our curriculum or VBS curriculum. We've gotten questions about why we weren't using group anymore. So I went up to our old VBS curricula. And I just grabbed a couple of random ones. And one of the ones that I found was this high seas curriculum, which was focused in on the Word of God and I thought Great, maybe this will be awesome. How can you screw
up the Word of God, right?
They did
say over the five days, they said that the word of God was true, comforting, surprising, life changing and for everyone. And those things are right.
Good descriptions of the Bible. But when you look at the lessons, something odd was missing.
When they said the Bible is surprising,
they focused in on things like Peter, escaping prison and surprising the people.
When it was comforting, they focused on just some words of comfort.
But what was missing through all of the lessons, was a very important person.
Jesus,
he wasn't there.
The Bible is not true because it's true. The Bible is true in that it shows us Jesus. Right? If you don't see Jesus in the Bible, you're not reading it correctly.
The Bible is not comforting, without Christ, comforting you by His death and resurrection. In fact, without Christ, the Bible is quite threatening,
even scary.
The Bible is not life changing. Without the Holy Spirit, delivering faith into your heart and showing you Jesus.
Without Jesus, the Bible, well, it's just a book.
What this curriculum wanted us to do was get really excited about a book,
but not excited about Jesus, and not focus in on the words and the promises. He tells us.
It focused on the emotions you're supposed to experience, and not on the promises of God, that give us the Holy Spirit.
It's not the experience that changes hearts,
or the emotions about a program.
It's the word of God that delivers the Holy Spirit.
That's the pattern throughout the book of Acts.
When you follow the disciples along through their preaching and teaching, there is always something amazing that going on, but it is there to point us to Christ,
and the Holy Spirit does his work.
We see that in the day of Pentecost, the wind and the fire and the languages and it all points to a sermon.
Or how about when Peter and John they go to the temple and they seem they see a beggar. And he asked for gold and instead of gold, he gives him healing. And the people gather around and they go this is amazing.
And Peter preaches about Jesus.
And it's not the healing that changes minds. But the word. The same thing happens when Philip goes to Samaria. He proclaims Jesus Christ and the people believe.
Or how about when Peter, for the first time goes and preaches to the Gentiles where Cornelius is, they are sent by a vision, he goes there. And he speaks about Jesus. And it's not the vision, but the word. And all of a sudden, the Holy Spirit descends on the Gentiles who are there, and they speak in tongues and praise God.
Or how about when Paul and Barnabas are sent out on their very first missionary journey, and they go to a town and they are preaching and teaching and a beggar comes up? Another man who is unable to walk?
He heals the man. And the Greeks there are like, Zeus and Hermes are here.
Paul and Barnabas had to say, whoa, whoa, ah,
the miracle actually distracted them.
And he had to say, No, this is all about Jesus.
And the Holy Spirit went out through their words.
And over and over and over again. The mission of God was not through the miracles.
But it was the word that the Holy Spirit gave to the people around them. That was the power that changed hearts.
Not the experience.
What does that mean for us?
It means that no matter what we do
No matter how great or poor, the experience is around us.
The power of God is only shared. When the Holy Spirit goes out through the means that he is prone.
It's the word of God that gathers people into the church, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So whether it's here in this place, the Holy Spirit is at work with the word
or whether you share it with your neighbors.
The Holy Spirit only works through the Word. So have competence in that. It's the same thing that the apostle Peter used to convert 3000 people on the day of Pentecost. It's the same thing that St. Paul use when he went throughout the whole world to gather together people into the church, the exact same power is given to you and to me when we speak God's word to others.
It doesn't have to be amazing.
It doesn't have to be accompanied by miracles, or wisdom.
All it needs is God's promise.
Coming through the Holy Spirit,
which means that when you speak,
the Holy Spirit goes out to call by the power of the gospel. When you speak, the Holy Spirit goes out to strengthen people in their faith or turn them to Christ.
When you speak, the Holy Spirit makes people firm in God's promises.
We can trust
the God the Holy Spirit works every time the word is preached, every time the word is spoken.
In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai