Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Filling a Gap, Not Replacing a People
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There is a valley unseen by the Old Testament prophets that we are living in, it is a valley of time where God has chosen to work through a different people than Israel, the Church made up of all peoples. But just because this gap of time has been thousands of years, it does not alter what those prophets saw and recorded; the Kingdom of Israel will be restored.
More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com
This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).
Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner.
Welcome And Where We’re Headed
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come. And it signifies the spirit's arrival, by the way. Because who is associated with wind in the Old Testament? Well, a lot of spirit beings are associated with wind. Good angels are associated with wind, you know, as messengers. Demonic spirits are associated with wind. But also the Holy Spirit is associated with wind in the Old Testament. Between the day of Pentecost and the return of Christ, there is a great valley, a gap in time unseen by the Old Testament prophets, by those that have read the Old Testament, that were alive in Jesus' day, even. The apostles sat at the start of that great valley. They saw the kingdom, the promise of the kingdom being given to Israel, and they were anxious for it, and yet they did not get to see it. Paul, through all of his writings, saw this great gap of time, and he himself wondered how long it would last. There was no answer for them. In this gap between Pentecost and the coming of our King, is this mystery called the Church, that which you and I are part of. We haven't replaced Israel. We haven't taken their promises, taken their blessings. We are simply living in a gap of time when they are set aside. And yet, soon, very soon, perhaps, as we look at the rise of anti-Semitism in the world, as we look at nation after nation turning its back on Israel, perhaps that gap, that valley that we live in, is coming to a close. Are we as close to the end of other end of that valley as the apostles were to the beginning of it? Okay,
The Hidden Valley Between Prophecies
the day of Pentecost. So you've seen this picture last week. I kind of wanted to start with this just to burn it on your brain, so that you can remember that when you're looking at everything from the Old Testament, and when we study the Bible, one healthy way to do it is through progressive revelation, meaning that God, the Bible didn't drop down of out of heaven in one moment in time. It came over many, many years. And so there is progress in what God revealed. So I have usually said things like, if we lived in the time of Noah, then what was our Bible? It was the first six to eight chapters of the Bible. The uh what I call the Noahic Bible. If we lived in the time of Abraham, the maximum amount of the Bible that you had was the Abrahamic Bible, which was Genesis 1 through 24. Uh, if we lived in the time of Joseph, you know, then what do we have? Well, we have the Joseph Bible, which is just the book of Genesis, and then a very small portion of, well, really not any of Exodus, just the book of Genesis. So you have progress in Revelation. Of course, we have a lot more now. We have the Old and the New Testaments. And so if you're looking at things from the Old Testament, studying it progressively, if you look through the eyes of the prophets, then you notice that you know you see the coming of the Messiah, but it's like the mountain peaks. Uh, you see prophecies that deal with his first coming, and you see prophecies that deal with his second coming, right? And those are like the mountains. And but what you can't see from the Old Testament is the present church age because it's a mystery in the Old Testament. It was unrevealed. The prophets did not predict this. So when the Messiah came, they were expecting him, you know, to set up his kingdom. They did not look so much at the sufferings they knew of them, but they did not understand them. So they either said there were two messiahs, you know, one to suffer, one to reign, or um they just mainly focused on the reigning uh passages. Even on the cross, what are they saying? They're saying, if you are the Messiah, take yourself off of the cross. Save yourself, remember? Because if you are really the Messiah who can reign in glory, then you don't need to die. See? They were confused. But, you know, we see in hindsight, hindsight's 20-20, so it's not really fair. Um, but this is the way that history actually unfolds. So they didn't see the two comings of the Messiah, nor did they see the church age in between. They just saw one coming and preferred to see him coming to reign in glory. So part of what is being developed now as we go into Acts chapter 2 is this valley between the mountaintops. Uh, when we learn new information about the church. Now, this is difficult, especially if you lived in Acts 1 and Acts 2. It's difficult because this is new revelation. And so the understanding of this thing called the church, which is the body of Christ, took time. And that's why the book of Acts is one considered one of the most difficult books in the Bible. It's because it's a transition. There are several transitions. You're transitioning from God's focus on Israel and the kingdom offer to the church when the kingdom has been postponed from our point of view as far as its arrival in history. You're moving from a transition from uh the idea of uh the the um how do you say this? The um immaturity, let's just say immaturity of the church, because they don't know what's going on to a position of maturity toward the end of the book. You're moving geographically from Jerusalem to the remotest parts of the earth. So there are a lot of transitions that are happening, and that's why Acts is considered difficult. It's called a transitional book.
Progressive Revelation And Why Acts Is Hard
So let's look at the three teachings, the three things that go on in Acts chapter one, it's background briefly. Once again, Jesus' last teaching. What was the very last thing he taught? Well, he taught for 40 days about the kingdom of God, Acts 1, 3, which is very interesting because in Acts chapter 2 the church begins and the church is not the kingdom. So he taught 40 days about the kingdom, leading up to something different that happened in Acts chapter 2. So what he effectively did in his last teaching there, the first eight verses of chapter 8, is he taught that the spirit's arrival is not many days from now when he will start his baptizing ministry. But the kingdom's arrival is not for you to know. Like, when is that gonna come? So what Jesus did is he separated what had forever been connected in the Jewish mind. He separated the Spirit's arrival from the kingdom's arrival. And so what this does is this also teaches us that guess what? Now there's gonna be two comings of the Spirit. Again, that was not something seen from the Old Testament point of view. So it's something new. Uh the Spirit is now going to come at this time, not many days from now, he says, to baptize them. And the question becomes, baptize them into what? They don't know. Uh they don't understand the church. We know that it's being baptized in the body of Christ, which is the church. But again, that's hindsight. Uh but they didn't fully understand. Jesus had even said previously, I will build my church. But, you know, that's just a Greek word, ekklesia. It just means an assembly. Jesus is saying, I will build my assembly. Uh how did they understand that? You know, they they were definitely not thinking in terms of the body of Christ. They were perhaps thinking of him as building an assembly in the messianic kingdom or something like that. That's that's surely what they were thinking. Uh but later we learn that the church took on a special uh meaning, an assembly of believers, those who are in Christ, the body of Christ, a distinct group uh during this present age. So things like that. But that is the first thing that Jesus, well, the last thing he taught, but the first thing in the in Acts chapter 1. So now the Spirit is going to have two comings, just as the Son has two comings. First, he'll come for the mystery church to form that, and second, after all that, he'll come for the nation Israel. And then Jesus' ascension, verses 9 through 11. This is when he ascended and he disappeared in the cloud, and then we only know from there where he went based on the Old Testament, that he went to the right hand of the Father. He was exalted to that position, and he took his seat at the helm of the universe far above all the princes and principalities of darkness, awaiting his return. So he's there, but this had to happen before the church could begin. Why? Because he had to go to the Father so he could send the Spirit from the Father. John 16, 7. He says, It's to your advantage that I go away, for if I go, I if I don't go, I can't send the Spirit, you know, the helper, the advocate. So the Spirit is going to become the dominant person of the Trinity or the church age, which is very, very interesting. This has never been the case. So he'll be the doctrine that we look at relative to the day of Pentecost. Third thing that happened is the choosing of the 12th apostle, Matthias, and I rename this Jesus' choosing of the 12th apostle, because they didn't choose him. Remember? They said, Lord, show us the one you have chosen. So it's not really wrong to say that he's the one who chose him. And therefore, uh this is the laying of the foundation. The last piece in the foundation was laid because Judas Iscariot turned aside, and so that position needed to be fulfilled. And now that it is filled, the church can be built upon it. So those things had to happen. The Spirit separation from the kingdom, ascension of Christ, so he could pour forth the Spirit from the Father, and lastly, the foundation had to be laid. All because you cannot have the church begin until these things are in place. So
Acts 1 Setup Before Pentecost
let's go to Acts chapter 2 and do a walkthrough. There are three miracles that happen on this day, and they actually use the word thaumadzo, amazed or astonished, in this chapter to describe what happens. This was a word that was used from many of Jesus' miracles. A miracle will always cause astonishment. It will cause people to be amazed. They will want to take another look at this thing. So Acts chapter 2, verse 1, and when the day of Pentecost had come, that that word Pentecost is a Latin word in your English Bible, and it means 50th. It was the 50th day after the feast of first fruits. So, to recap, right, you've got four spring feasts on Israel's calendar. You've got three fall feasts. These events all happened in the spring. This is the fourth of the spring feast, Pentecost. So the first one is Passover. It's fulfilled in Christ's death. The second one is unleavened bread, which extended a full eight days and signified separation from the world. As Israel went out from Egypt, they were to be separate. And remember, no leaven, and leaven signifies sin. So it's the separation from sin. You're to live a separate life. That was fulfilled. And then third, the feast of first fruits, and that is the day of the resurrection. It's fulfilled in Christ's resurrection, which was Sunday morning. And then 50 days from then, you had the feast of Pentecost, because the name means 50th. Sometimes called the feast of weeks. But that's the feast that's being referred to here. And because a Jewish males under the age of or over the age of 20 had to be in Jerusalem for three feasts every year, they would usually go for Passover and stay for this entire period of time in order to also be there for Pentecost because you know you didn't have American Erlon. So they would just be what was called Katoikeo. They would be uh temporary residents. We'll see that word used in this passage. So you've got the native Jews who are Jews who live in the land in this passage, and then you've also got the diaspora Jews who are Jews from the outside Roman world for the day of Pentecost, these two types of Jews, native and diaspora. And um, they are distinguished in this passage in multiple ways, but essentially the ways that they are they are separated is that the diaspora Jews understood the foreign languages that were being spoken, whereas the native Jews did not. And so the diaspora Jews are amazed that they're able to speak in these foreign languages and dialects, but the native Jews are like, they're drunk. You know, who are these drunk people? So you see this distinction between native and diaspora Jew here in this chapter. So when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. Now we don't know what this one place was for sure, but it could have been the upper room where Jesus gave the upper room discourse in John 13, 14, and then he says, let's arise and go from this place. Or it could be possibly the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, according to Acts chapter 12, she had a larger home in Jerusalem. And Jerusalem at the time is not huge, but so it's highly possible it was one of these locations, but we don't know the exact place, but they were all together in one place. Now, why were they together in one place? Because Jesus said in his last commands in Acts chapter 1, verse 4, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, which he said, You heard of from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. As we go through this passage, it will never say that they are baptized by the Spirit. In fact, in verse 4, it'll say they were filled with the Spirit. And that's a different ministry of the Holy Spirit. And it actually never says they're baptized in this chapter. But we know they were because Acts 1 4 says, or 5 says, not many days from now. So you had again the fulfillment of Passover on the day of Christ's crucifixion, a Friday. That also begins the unleavened bread. The third day was Sunday, that's the feast of Passover, add 50 days to that, and you come to the period Jesus spoke of here in verse 5, not many days from now when they were baptized by the Spirit. But not yet, right? We're just in verse 1. So they're obeying his commandment, they're all together in one place. The question is, who is the all? Is the all the twelve? You know, they just picked the twelfth apostle, right? And Matthias was added to the 11th. But then also back in verse 15, previous chapter, verse 15, you see 120 persons. It says at this time Peter stood up in the midst of the brethren. A gathering of about 120 persons was there together. So is it the twelve who are there on the day of Pentecost? Is it the 120? There are good arguments both ways. I used to always hold that it's only the twelve. And a number of reasons for that, but I found there's also some pretty good arguments that it's the whole hundred and twenty. I think the question ends up coming down to who spoke in tongues? Was it the hundred and twenty or was it just the twelve? And again, it's a difficult, difficult problem to solve. I mean, what he just got done talking about in verse 15 through 26 is the whole 120 were there. So you may be inclined to think, well, it's all 120. But then you might say, well, you know, that's a lot of people in one place in the ancient world. 120 people, we don't have 120 people in this room at this time. So that's a lot of people, isn't it? Could a house really accommodate 120 people at that time? The other problem is, you know, you look down at verse 14, 2.14, and you see Peter taking a stand with the eleven to give an explanation. So you think, well, maybe it was just the 12 that were speaking in tongues. So there are the other problem is, of course, that the the um diaspora Jews say, are not all these speaking Galileans? In other words, from the Galilee region? And it would be quite odd that all 120 of those people were from Galilee, right? Yes, the 12 were from Galilee, but were all 120. So, you know, the it's a difficult problem to solve, but you know, it's not really that critical, I think, to the understanding of what transpired. So, verse 2, all in one place, because Jesus commanded, at least the 12, perhaps all 120, had come together 50 days after the resurrection, and they were waiting, and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind.
Wind And Fire Signs Of Arrival
Now there was no wind, okay, it was like the sound or noise of a violent rushing wind. Back in the early 1980s, I was in a tornado back in Paris, Texas, ended up killing four people, and I was home alone. Um I got out of school and I was just a little kid, I think it was eight years old, and I would stay at the Lollipop Hit Stop after school, and then it was right across from the apartment that we lived in. And so I was able to get across the street. Two big streets. Lamar and Clarkville Avenue. I had to cross, I think it was Clarkville. I can remember that far back. But then this, you know, I get this call from my dad saying, get in the closet. If you can get a mattress in there, get under the mattress, get your hamster. Which I did. I don't think he said that part. I'd say, but I'm getting my hamster. Scooby, you're coming with me. And uh got his little food and I made little trails, and he'd go pick it and pack it all in there like a squirrel and look like this. Fun stuff. But anyway, those those tornadoes, when they come, um, four people ended up dying that apparently went right over our apartment complex. You know you just never know exactly where they're gonna go, only God knows. And um, but it it's it's this violent rushing wind. It's as one woman explained it, she who's also been through tornadoes, she says it sounds like a thousand freight trains. Um, and that's the type of sound that was heard in verse 2. It wasn't just a little sound, and it's coming forth from that room, and this is going to attract all the people of Jerusalem. So it's a tremendous noise, it's a noise they've never heard before. But of course, it's not wind itself, it's just the sound of it. In verse 3, the second miracle, that was the first, it was audible. You could hear it. Uh and it signifies the spirit's arrival, by the way. Because who is associated with wind in the Old Testament? Well, a lot of spirit beings are associated with wind. Uh good angels are associated with wind, uh, you know, as messengers. Uh demonic spirits are associated with wind, but also the Holy Spirit is associated with wind in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 37, 9 through 14, in the vision of the dry bones. There's the Spirit who gives life to the bones. And it's like a wind or breath. And they receive breath and come alive, speaking of the regeneration of the nation Israel. Um but also in John 3, everybody knows the story of Nicodemus, who came to Jesus at night and said, Good teacher. What must I do to enter the kingdom of God? God says, Why do you call me good? Only God is good. And then he begins to explain to them that you have to be born again. And Nicodemus seems ignorant of this, and Jesus goes after him for that because he's the teacher of all Israel and he doesn't know these things. You know, this is something he should know based on Old Testament revelation. And in that passage, he says, he makes a parallel with the Holy Spirit. He says he's like the wind. You don't know where it's coming from or where it goes, but you do know the effects of it. And so we are able to move from the physical realm and the concept of wind and what it accomplishes. To how the Holy Spirit will work. And this becomes very important for our own personal spiritual life. It doesn't how he works in our life. So, like the wind. And that's why you have this violent rushing wind, because it's signifying that the Spirit has arrived. Verse 3 is the second miracle. It's a visual. It says, And there appeared to them tongues as of fire. Tongues as of fire, like flames of fire, distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. Back in my early days, the seminary, which was in Fort Worth, we would we lived in Lubbock, but we would go there for courses and conferences, Robin and I. And one of the places that we went was Biblical Arts Center that was up in Plano, Texas. It burned to the ground actually a few years after. But they had a giant panoramic of Acts chapter 2. It was huge. It was the distance from that corner to that corner, probably. I think it's 120 feet or something like that. And you it was an amazing piece of piece of art. Obviously all burned now. But um it pictured, you know, the tongues as a fire resting on each of I think the uh twelve in that great picture that was done. But you'll notice if you read this verse carefully, the flame was at one point, one source, and then it began to move out and settle or rest upon each of the either twelve or 120, whichever ended up speaking in in tongues, right? Um and the meaning of the the text when it says distributing themselves is that the like fire, it moves rapidly. You really got to get it under control, or you'll be in big trouble, right? And so um it rapidly moved from one source to rest upon either the 12 or the 120, and they were presumably in this one place, together in this one room. And verse 4 describes they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Like I said, this doesn't say they were baptized, but we know they were because chapter 1, verse 5 says, hey, not many days from now you're going to be baptized. And that is what introduced them at this moment into the body of Christ. This is when the body of Christ technically began. Because the baptism of the Spirit is what is necessary to introduce a person into the church. And we've gone through the proofs for this in the last months or so. So you know, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for we are all baptized into one body by one spirit. Okay, and that one body is the church, Christ Jesus Himself being the head. So this is a new thing that has begun. Now they don't understand that. Again, they they're gonna have to figure this out over the course of the book of Acts. But it did begin at this moment. And notice what they did when they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. It says they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. So this is the third miracle. It's an audible and visual, because you've got the fire, tongues of fire resting above them, and they're audibly speaking. The tongues, which is the Greek word glosa, in specific dialects, because later, dialect is actually a Greek word that's used in this chapter. Notice verse 6. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and they were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. But that word is not glosa, which we usually just translate language, but it's the Greek word dialectos, which we get that word dialect. So there's language. We all speak English, probably as our first language here, but there are different dialects across our country. The people in Georgia don't speak the same as the people in Boston, you know. Uh, and the people in Boston don't speak the same as the people in California. They speak different dialects. There are nuances, and when you run into these people, you always say, wait, where are you from? Uh because you are associating that dialect with a specific area. And they did the same thing. The amazing thing was not so much that they spoke foreign languages, lots of people speak foreign languages. What was so amazing is that these people were Galileans, and they were able to speak in the specific dialectical nuances, basically perfect speech for each of the regions mentioned in this chapter. So again, let's don't forget there are two types of Jews here. There are the native and the diaspora, but then there's another distinction that's happening. There's a distinction between Judea and Galilee. Judea is the area around Jerusalem in the south. Galilee was to the north, around the Sea of Galilee, which is a lake, not a sea, a freshwater lake, also called the Lake of Kinneret. Got some other names. But the people that lived up there were the rural people. And the people that lived in Judea were considered the urban people. And they had the same divisions that we have, uh, as far as people who are urban and people who are rural. The people who are urban, who live in all the big cities, think that that's sophisticated. And they're educated. And those people out there, those rural people, they're stupid country pumpkins. And that's the way that they think. This is the way people think. And uh even the people who are rural think, I don't want to be one of those people. And the people who are urban say, I don't want to be one of those people. Well, that's the same exact distinction that they had among Jews who lived in the land. You had the country bumpkins, the Galileans, and you had the sophisticated, educated urbanite. And um so that's part of why they are so shocked and astonished when they hear language, languages in very specific nuanced dialect coming out of the mouth of country bumpkins. This just is what is going on? They could not believe it. So that's part of what is happening. Verse 4, that's when the church began. And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Let's
Tongues As Real Languages
talk about these other tongues. There are two uh words, Greek words, that I'm gonna use to describe two different categories of tongues. The first Greek word is xenoglossia, and xenoglossia means technically foreign, xenos for a stranger or foreigner, gloss meaning tongue, so a foreign language. Okay, the second word I'll talk about is glossolalia. Glosolalia, and this word means technically tongues speaking. And these are two different phenomena. They can be confused by people, but they really are two different things. So, first of all, there's foreign languages. We'd say, well, that's like Spanish, it's like Russian, it's like French, whatever. A foreign language. But then you have glossolalia, and this is tongue speaking, or clapping the tongue, or babbling, it's ecstatic utterances. So I have a chart here that I put together. On the left, we have what is called biblical tongues. This is xenoglossia, and on the right, pagan tongues, which is glossolalelia. Those are the two different Greek words. On the biblical tongue side, xenoglossia, it refers to a real foreign language. And it's quite obvious on the day of Pentecost, these were real foreign languages, because if you look at verse uh eight, how they ask the uh diaspora Jews are asking, how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? So their native tongue, and these are tongues of the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrigia, Pamphilia, Egypt, the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God. So nobody can really dispute that these were real foreign languages that these Galileans were speaking, right? And therefore, in this left column, now xenoglossia is also the phenomena of them being an unlearned. And this is what distinguishes them just from someone who might go to the university or somehow learn a foreign language. Because in this case is they were unlearned. They were speaking, as verse 4 says, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. So then the source of these biblical tongues is the Spirit of God. So that's one classification of tongues. They're biblical tongues, which are xenoglossia, foreign language. The other column, pagan tongues, is glossolalia. Now, again, this is the word that just means tongue speaking. I said tongues flopping, but this is the idea of ecstatic utterances, meaning you're in some kind of ecstatic state. Um, it's babbling, it's gibberish, meaning they're not real languages. And we have many linguists around the world who have evaluated these things. They've evaluated them just in our country and in certain church circles like Pentecostal or Assemblies of God. And others have gone around the whole world and evaluated in pagan religions this phenomenon as well, which is still prevalent today. And they all conclude that these are not real languages because the speakers are borrowing the syllables, consonants, sound arrangements from their own native languages, and they're repeating those. This is a learned behavior pattern. You can be taught to do this, and the source of it then is possibly, on one hand, demonic spirits, or it's just a person's human spirit that are generating these. But these this is not biblical tongues. But what's happened in the 20th century in America, beginning in around 1901, the Azusa Street Revival, is this claim that there's been this outpouring of the Spirit of God in these what they call the latter days, even though Joel, the passage they're borrowing this from, is the latter days of Israel, not the latter days of the church. But so it's really Joel's talking about things after the church is already gone. He's talking about things in the tribulation, toward the end of the tribulation. But they borrow that passage to say there's been an outpouring now, and the Spirit is producing tongues. And again, this is mainly in your Pentecostal assemblies of God, the charismatic churches. Um, but linguists have evaluated this extensively because it's of great interest, this phenomenon, and concluded that it's in the right column that the speakers are taught this. This is pretty well known now. They're taught how to do this, it's a learned behavior pattern, and that they're repeating the sound arrangements of their own tongue. So if you're Chinese and you speak in tongues, that's you're gonna sound different than if you're an American and you speak in claim to speak in tongues, and you're gonna sound different than a Mexican, you know, or somebody in Canada. They're all different, and they're all just repeating what are common sound arrangements from their language. Um so what was happening here, though, is in the left column, right? Real biblical languages. Verse 5.
Why Pentecost Nations Matter
Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. That word living is the word Katoikeo, I mentioned before. It means they were temporary residents because they'd come all the way from Passover 53 days before, right? And so they just remained there, they were temporarily residing there. But they their permanent residents, he says, were every nation under heaven. And we have a list of those places down in verse 9 and following. Verse 6, and when this sound occurred, there's the audible miracle of the rushing mighty wind, like a thousand freight trains, like a tornado. The crowd from Jerusalem, of course, came together. And they're bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language or dialect. That's what's so surprising. It's a foreign language, but in a dialect. He says they were amazed and astonished. There's the word for a miracle, amazed. It was a miracle. And they asked, What? Why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? You know, the country bumpkins, right? How could these people reproduce those sound intonations to which they were not born? Because we all know if you take a second language, you usually are not as adept at it as those who are native. And they can tell. He says, and how is it that each of us hear them in our own language to which we were born? So they were native speakers of these languages. And then you see a long list of places, Parthians means Elamites. What's so interesting about this list? If you actually go to a map, this is why Bible study is so important, right? It's not to just read a list and then move on. Oh, that was interesting. Next, I don't know where those places are, who cares? Let's go on. You have people that are Bible teachers, right? Who've been gifted by God to be pastors and teachers, who are like, Well, I'm gonna look up every one of these places on a map. And when you do, what you find out is that number one, these places are on three different continents Europe, Asia, and Africa. And number two, it circles the Mediterranean Sea. And what did Jesus say in Acts 1.8? You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria enter the remotest parts of the earth. And right here we have a concentric ring pointing to the remotest parts of the earth that the people that were there on that day of Pentecost just happened to be from. Now, they're about to hear in verse 14 and following, Peter give an explanation for the tongue, right? He's gonna give this great long message that culminates in their need to basically become believers. But these people are gonna go home, right? They're gonna go back. Those from Parthia are gonna go to the back to Parthia. Those who are Medes are gonna go back to Media. You've got all these places, the Cretans, you've got people from Rome. I mean, what's the Holy Spirit doing here? Isn't he prompting or leading the way in the witness going out to the remotest parts of the earth? And that's why we find later in Paul's epistles, some of his epistles, like the epistle to the Romans, no apostle had ever been to Rome, but there was already a church there. You say, how can there be no apostle who went there to found a church? Well, because back in Acts chapter 2, there were people there on the day of Pentecost from Rome. And so when they left, they went back and established a church themselves. Same thing for the Crete, the Cretans there, verse 11, I believe. No apostle ever went to Crete. But Paul writes the book of Titus to Titus, saying, I left you at Crete to put in order the churches. Well, where did all the churches come from on the island of Crete? Well, there were people on the day of Pentecost who believed, and they were from Crete. So when they went home, they established churches. So let's look at some of these places that God strategically arranged for them to be there on that day in order to bring the message to them of Jesus' death and resurrection. And how is it we hear each of them in our own language and we mention all these places, and then you move on to verse 11. Cretans, Arabs, you know that salvation is there's only one name under heaven in which there is salvation, right? Acts chapter 4, verse 12. Two verses before it gives us that name.
Grace Through Faith Across Scripture
It says Jesus Christ the Nazarene. What did one of the disciples say? Can anything good come out of Nazareth? His brother said, Come and say Salvation is always forever by grace, which is unmerited favor, through faith alone. In Christ alone. He's the basis of salvation. Anyone who was saved before the cross, of course, is saved looking forward to the Messiah, that he would come and he would pay the penalty for their sins and rise again. Anyone who's saved after, we're looking back at the one who has done this. We're all saved exactly the same way. By grace alone, through faith alone, ultimately in Christ alone, who is the one who paid the penalty for our sins and rose again. How was Abraham justified? He lived before the law, right? The law hadn't even been given. He lived hundreds of years before Moses came. He lived hundreds of years before the Exodus and all that. So did Abraham keep the law in order to be justified before God? Impossible. There was no law for him to keep. So if you live before the law, of course, justification is by grace alone through faith alone. But what about after the law was given? Did that change then? No, it says of David that it was not on the basis of works, but through faith. Through faith. So whether you live before the law or after the law, it doesn't matter. Justification is by grace through faith. It's not by works of the law. So they will say then, well, why then was the law given? To show them their sin. So that they would turn to faith in the Messiah for righteousness. So the Bible talks about works righteousness and faith righteousness. But the only type of righteousness that pleases God is which kind? Faith righteousness. That's why when John the Baptist comes, right, and he keeps telling the nation, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is in hand. Then Jesus comes along, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Then he's got the 12, and he says, Go and teach. Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, do not go to any of the Gentiles, go only to the lost sheep of Israel, right? And say, What? Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What do they need to repent of? They needed to have a change of mind about what kind of righteousness they needed before God. That it's not works righteousness like the Pharisees taught, but it's faith righteousness, like John Jesus, and the 12 taught. And it's always faith righteousness. Whether it's the Old Testament, whether it's the New Testament, whether God's dealing with Israel or He's dealing with the church, was a Jew and Gentile in one body being formed here on the day of Pentecost. Starting with, of course, Jews from the diaspora as well as Jews here natively in the land. But salvation is always by grace alone, through faith alone. And it will never change in the future either. So notice what they were speaking in tongues in verse 11. These uh diaspora Jews said, We hear them in our own tongues, our own languages, speaking of the mighty deeds of God. What are the mighty deeds of God? Some people say, Well, they were given the gospel. No, that's what Peter's gonna do. He does that. The mighty deeds of God, the marvelous things of God. These are the miracles that Christ had done that in his earthly ministry. Those miracles authenticated that he was the Messiah. There were specific miracles that he did, which were called messianic miracles. The one I typically appeal to is the one in Matthew chapter 12. Because on that occasion, he healed a man who was deaf, so he couldn't speak, right? He was also blind and he was demon possessed. When Jesus healed him, the people saw this and they said, This can't be the son of David, can it? Meaning the son of David was the Messiah. They knew that only the Messiah could do this type of miracle. Because there were Jewish exorcists, they they cast out demons and things like that. But they had to get a verbal communication link with the demon. This this this man who was demon possessed was mute. He couldn't speak. And so, how did Jesus cast out the demon without getting verbal communication with the demon? See, how did he do that? And that's why they said, well, this is a messianic miracle. Only the Messiah could do this. And so there are certain miracles that only the Messiah would be able to do, and they would identify him for Israel. And that's why they're describing what he was, uh they were speaking as the mighty deeds of God, basically the messianic miracles that authenticated that Jesus was the one. And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, of course. I mean, how can this happen? Saying one another, you know, what does this mean? These Galilean Jews speaking all these perfect languages, perfectly dialectical nuances of these languages that are our native languages. Those are the people in verse 12 who are the diaspora Jews. They understood the words, but they didn't know the significance of them speaking in these other languages. Verse 13 is the native Hebrews. Here's where you take notes in your Bible. So verse 12 is diaspora Jews, verse 13 is native Hebrews. They're the others, they're mocking and saying, oh, they're full of sweet wine. They're drunk. Apparently, sweet wine was more intoxicating. Um, and so they're giving their explanation. But then verse 14, but Peter taking his stand with the eleven, so that means there's 12, right? Peter plus is one plus 11 equals 12. We got the 12th apostle in the previous chapter. He raised his voice and he declared to them, men of Judea, those are the native Jews, and all of you who are living in Jerusalem. That is the word for temporary residence again. So these are the diaspora Jews. He says, Let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk. So the Judean explanation of drunkenness is not correct. As you suppose, he says, for it's only the third hour of the day, it's 9 a.m. And during festivals, you couldn't drink till a later hour, which would be the sixth hour, and it was only the third hour, and nobody would do that during the feast. So nobody can be drunk, right? And then he gives this very interesting explanation.
Joel Quoted As Application Not Fulfillment
But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. And uh that little phrase, this is what probably the most debated phrase in all of Acts, Tuta Eston, and what it means. Because when you read what Peter, his explanation here in verses 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, and you read that and you say, Well, none of this happened. He says things like they shall prophesy. Well, they weren't giving prophecies, they were just declaring what Jesus had already done. They were professing history, not prophecy. Um granting wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below. No, so cosmic signs in the heavens, no. Signs on the earth below. I mean, you could argue for the tongues and the fire or something. Blood, no. Was there any blood on the day of Pentecost? No. Fire. Vapor of smoke. Maybe you could say fire. Well, the tongues of fire. Yeah, okay, there's a close uh connection there. Vapor of smoke, no, there was no smoke. There's nothing here about a big noise, but there was a big noise. There's nothing here about tongues in all of Joel's prophecy, but there were tongues. So it becomes this odd thing. Like, why did he quote Joel and say, this is what Joel was talking about? And we mentioned this a few months ago before the government series. Um, but here, I'm gonna show you something that really, really helps. What did Jesus say in Acts 1.5 would happen not many days from now? He said, You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. What happened in Acts 2? They were baptized with the Spirit. So, whatever Peter's explanation is, it's gonna agree with what Jesus said in Acts 1.5. And actually, there's twice in here in Joel where it mentions the Spirit. So there in verse 17, I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind. And then in verse 18, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit. Then you come later in his sermon down to chapter 2, verse 33, and he says, Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, this is remember, you had to have the ascension of Christ first, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he that is Jesus has poured forth this which you both see and hear. So again, the Holy Spirit. Now, unless you know how Jews quoted the Old Testament at the time of Christ, you won't really understand what Peter has done. But the first thing that Peter's done in verses 17 through 21, when he quotes that section from Joel 2, 28 to 32, is he's done something that Jews always did. They didn't quote verses of scripture, usually. They would often quote the entire section that they had memorized. We sometimes memorize verses, right? How many verses did you memorize this? How many are you going to memorize verses in 2025? You know, stuff like that. They memorized sections. So when they quoted them by memory, they would quote the whole section. So he quotes like five verses from Joel here, because that's the section that the in the Jewish Bible. Number two, they quoted the Old Testament four different ways. We know this from history. One of which is to make an application from a passage, which is what we have here. He's making application because of one point of similarity. And the one point of similarity is that Joel predicted that one day the Spirit would be poured forth. And what happened on the day of Pentecost? There had been a pouring forth of the Spirit. So he quotes it for that very reason. And we know this from Jewish culture. Now, we don't read our ideas into the Bible. We are supposed to read the Bible as it's intended to be read, as the authors wrote it. And that's what I'm describing. How did they quote the Old Testament in sections? And what in what ways? One of the four ways was to make an application. So is Joel totally fulfilled on the day of Pentecost? And we would not expect there to be a time when there's signs, cosmic signs in the sky above, and blood and fire and vapor of smoke on the earth, and the sun turning to darkness and the moon into blood. Is all that actually fulfilled on the day of Pentecost? Or should we expect that to be fulfilled to the very letter in the future in connection with Israel and the second coming of Christ? Many people want to say it's just totally been fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, and the details don't matter. Friend, when God speaks, all the details matter. God doesn't waste words. All that Peter is doing here is making an application of Peter's prophecy. He's not saying, don't expect this to happen for Israel in the future, because it already happened now in tongues. Joel doesn't even talk about tongue. What then did the tongues mean on this day?
Tongues As Warning And Israel’s Future
Some of them ask, what does this mean? Others said they're drunk. What does it mean? If somebody understands what the Bible teaches about tongues in Isaiah 28, they will understand tongues in Acts 2 and in the book of 1 Corinthians, right? Where Paul goes after them for abusing the tongue, the gift of tongues. In the Old Testament, in Isaiah 28, it taught that Israel, when they go into exile, will hear a foreign tongue. It is a sign of judgment. And in 1 Corinthians 14, the gift of tongues is called a sign gift. And it says it was a sign in 1 Corinthians 14, 21 and 22 for Jews. They understood that when they would hear foreign tongues, what it meant was that they were under judgment and about to go into exile. This was a warning to the Jews who were present that day in the city of Jerusalem, that they need to believe Peter's message, which is of course to believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the one who did the great and mighty deeds of God. Because if they didn't, they would be caught up in the judgment that was going to come by the foreign invaders, we would say, the Romans. Which happened in AD 70, didn't it? And what happened when the Romans came in AD 70? The Jew more than, first of all, a million Jews were killed in the land of Israel. A million Jews. Which is proportionally higher than the number of Jews Hitler killed in World War II. And those who were not killed were sent into exile to the nations of the earth. And then in AD 135, 138, the Bar Kakpa revolt, what happened again? The remaining Jews were exiled under Emperor Hadrian. And the Jews remained in dispersion and exile until the late 1800s, right? When you had the Russian pogrims, and Jews began to go back to the land. And then what happened in 1948? David Ben Gurion announced Israel as a sovereign state, and Harry Truman recognized that proclamation. And that year, 600,000 Jews returned to the land, which doubled their population because it was 600,000 before that day. And the very next year, 600,000 Jews migrated to the land of Israel to become a part of the new state of Israel. Now that population is over nine million. Probably a couple million are Arab, but about seven million Jews live in that land today. And now, right now, in this world, right now, there's a crisis for Jewish people. And they're saying, Where are we going to be able to live? Because anti-Semitism is rising again. And guess where they're going to end up be going? Probably. Probably going to be going back to the land. What's going on? Israel's been in dispersion for 2,000 years because when you look at those mountaintops, in between is this thing called the church. Those two mountaintops deal mainly with Israel. First coming of Christ for Israel, second coming of Christ to establish Israel's kingdom. The church is in between. If Israel is now going back to the land, what does that mean about the church? It's coming to a close. Romans 11 says, when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, then all Israel will be saved. There's a set number of Gentiles that are going to believe, that are going to be a part of the body of Christ. Once that number is reached, the church is over. Israel is going to return to center stage. And that means the tribulation and all those things will happen. Israel will be bought in brought into the bond of the new covenant, and then the kingdom will come. That's where we are living. But all this started with the church right here on this day. And it's that it's so significant. It starts with Jews, but guess what? It ends up bringing in Gentiles. We'll look more at it. Because Gentiles are the main people that are becoming part of the body of Christ that are being shown mercy, right? Only a Jew here and there. Of the whole land of Israel, you know, over 9 million people. Guess how many are Jewish believers in the land of Israel? 30,000. 30,000. That's a very, very tiny percentage of 9 million people. But it's growing. Messianic Christians are growing tremendously in the land of Israel. And it's an interesting thing to watch.
Wrap Up And How To Follow
But when the fullness is in, that's it. Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.