WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:04.160 Well, before we get to the book of Acts today, I want to show you something. 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:06.320 I have an old Bible. 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:10.720 This is a 1615 edition of the Geneva Bible. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:16.320 It's the very same translation the pilgrims brought with them on the Mayflower. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:19.679 They loved its translation, they loved its notes. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:23.839 They didn't like that newer one that King James I had authorized. 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:26.079 They wanted the old version. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:35.200 And before you reach the book of Genesis, there are several pages of genealogy that runs from Adam to Christ. 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:42.960 And in these pages, there's a woodcut of a half-finished building. 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:46.960 And it's kind of crumbling under its own ambition. 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:57.679 And underneath it, in Old Typeface, English typeface and spelling, it says this, almost exactly what you said today, Ethan. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:02.000 At Babel's building, languages divided. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:08.719 And then it references Genesis 11, in the Apostles, understood. 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:10.319 Right there. 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:22.239 So 300 years, 400 years before Ethan got up to say those very words, they had already been said by a 17th century printer. 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:36.879 And what it tells us is that what we cannot do to bring about a spiritual life that unifies together a people who have absolutely nothing else in common, only God can do. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:43.120 And so we're going to discover how that begins to happen in the book of Acts and chapter two. 00:01:43.359 --> 00:01:44.799 So let's turn there. 00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:57.120 As we enter into Acts chapter 2, there are three things I want us to hold on to. 00:01:57.519 --> 00:01:59.840 And they'll help you see where the sermon is going. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:02.159 They are the three points of the message. 00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:13.599 This morning we'll discover that we need to depend on the spirit for a life that we cannot create, that we need to depend on the spirit for a unity that we cannot capture. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:18.719 And we need to depend on the spirit for responses that we cannot control. 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:24.240 Everything this morning builds out of those three lines. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.400 Well, let's take a look at God's word. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:30.560 Let's read it together, and then we'll anchor it here in a few moments. 00:02:33.120 --> 00:02:34.719 Here's the word of God. 00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:39.120 When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. 00:02:39.599 --> 00:02:47.120 Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were staying. 00:02:47.360 --> 00:02:52.560 They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each of them. 00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:59.439 And then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:04.879 Now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under heaven. 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:14.719 And when the sound occurred, a people, a crowd came together and was confused, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 00:03:14.960 --> 00:03:22.000 They were astounded and amazed, saying, Look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:26.159 How is it that each of us can hear them in our own native language? 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:46.080 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Pergia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts, Cretans and Arabs. 00:03:46.319 --> 00:03:50.960 We hear them declaring the magnificent acts of God in our own tongues. 00:03:51.120 --> 00:03:57.199 And they were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:03.199 But some sneered and said, They are drunk on new wine. 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:16.639 Now, Luke told us in the previous chapter in Acts chapter 1, that the risen Christ had gathered his disciples together on the Mount of Olives and gave them a command that was wrapped up in a promise. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:20.000 You might remember that in verses 4 or 5 of chapter 1. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:33.360 While he was with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father's promise, which he said, You've heard me speak about, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit in a few days. 00:04:33.600 --> 00:04:45.759 And then in verse 8, he says it again you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:54.240 Jesus promises them not a training program or a strategy, but power when the Holy Spirit comes on them. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:05:01.360 And before we go forward into what that means in Acts chapter 2, we need to step back for just a second. 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:07.120 Because as Jesus said in Acts 1, you've heard me talk about this already. 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:16.319 And so in John chapter 16, he said to them that night before he was crucified, It is for your benefit that I go away. 00:05:16.560 --> 00:05:20.319 For if I do not go away, the counselor will not come to you. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:24.720 And if I go, I will send him to you. 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:27.360 Now notice what Jesus said there. 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:37.040 He didn't say that the Spirit would come instead of Jesus, but the Spirit would be cut would come because of Jesus. 00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:45.040 And John even tells us in John 7, 39 why the Spirit did not yet come during the earthly ministry of Christ. 00:05:45.279 --> 00:05:54.240 And he says these words in John 7, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. 00:05:55.519 --> 00:05:58.160 There's something very important being said here. 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:08.000 And what it is saying is that the Spirit's coming was waiting, not on the disciples' readiness, but on Jesus' exaltation. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:28.399 Jesus had to finish his work, his teaching and miracles, his work on the cross, his burial, the resurrection, and the ascension to the Father's right hand, before he could do this as the glorified Son of God. 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:36.720 Now hold on to that, because in just two weeks we're going to hear Peter say that in the sermon that we'll read about. 00:06:37.199 --> 00:06:52.000 And in verse 33, he said, Since he, Jesus, has been exalted to the right hand of God and has received what the Father has promised, he has poured out what you both see and hear. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:07:05.040 So when we get to this statement in Pentecost, and we get to this passage of Scripture, I want you to know that this is not a separate event apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:18.879 What happens at Pentecost is because of the ascended and enthroned Jesus Christ, who is acting in his first inaugural action as king. 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:23.120 And so the sermon title this morning means a lot. 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:26.319 Jesus sends the promised spirit. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:30.879 It's not the spirit arrives, Jesus sends him. 00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:42.319 Now, this passage of scripture is a narrative text, and narrative makes an argument unlike you might receive when you read one of Paul's letters. 00:07:42.480 --> 00:07:45.120 It doesn't argue like Paul does. 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:56.800 And so as we go through this passage this morning and those three points that I mentioned just a moment ago, I want you to watch with me as this passage unfolds. 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:07.199 I'm confident that all of us will learn some things today in this passage that perhaps some of you, if not many of you, have never heard before. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:21.759 And the reason is because this passage of scripture is one of the most attention-grabbing passages, and yet one of the least understood passages in Scripture. 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:27.920 It's often long pondered, but it's often misunderstood. 00:08:28.480 --> 00:08:34.080 And the depth of it deserves our careful reading and hearing. 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:39.039 And its meaning is too, too important to move past. 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:45.600 So as we go through this, and this morning is going to be a little different than many of my other messages. 00:08:45.840 --> 00:08:58.559 This is going to be more of a running commentary and a theological uh emphasis rather than maybe a more practical or devotional focus of a sermon. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:00.080 I love it all. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:04.559 This one is going to mean that we need to turn our brains on a little sharper. 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:06.720 I hope you had your coffee this morning. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:09.519 So let's look at those three points. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:13.919 First of all, to depend on the Spirit for the life that we cannot create. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:16.879 And I want you to look at verse one of chapter two. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:23.039 There, Luke says they were all together in one place. 00:09:23.679 --> 00:09:26.720 Well, it's a little hard to be all together when you're not in one place. 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:31.120 So Luke is doubling down here to tell them, tell us that the people are here. 00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:32.799 They're unified together. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:36.720 They are doing exactly as Jesus told them to do. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:41.519 But what's interesting about that is what's not said here. 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:47.200 There's nothing about them praying fervently. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:50.799 There's nothing about them sort of generating anything. 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.080 They're just there. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:10:00.240 No descriptors of their actions, no statements that they're a collective people longing for a private religious experience. 00:10:00.399 --> 00:10:01.840 They're simply there. 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:04.480 I think that's important. 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:08.320 But suddenly, something does happen. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:20.320 And what happens is not the buildup of 50 days of increasingly fervent prayer meetings, as though they had finally earned what's about to happen by their intensity. 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.399 Look at what it says in verse 2. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:32.720 Suddenly a sound, like a violent rushing wind, fills the house. 00:10:33.919 --> 00:10:40.960 It's not a wind, it sounds like a violent rushing wind. 00:10:42.799 --> 00:10:49.759 Luke is straining with ordinary language to try to grasp something that words just can't quite envelop. 00:10:49.840 --> 00:10:54.399 So he reaches for something that might be like what happened. 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:58.799 It's like a violent rushing wind. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:10.559 And many, many years ago, after I'd left home, uh my mother and father living in Illinois at the time had a tornado pass over their house in the middle of the night. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:15.919 Thankfully, it didn't destroy much, a little bit of damage to a shed that my dad and I had built together. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:19.360 But my I'll never forget what my mother said when she described it. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:25.679 She said it was like one of those old freight trains just passing over the house. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:34.480 That loud, rushing, rumbling noise was the sound of that wind in the tornado. 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:39.440 This is what they're sensing in that house. 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:42.080 But also look at verse three. 00:11:43.919 --> 00:11:52.639 There they see tongues like flames of fire appearing, dividing and resting on each one of them. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:11:56.480 And these fire-like tongues divide. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:06.799 And what's interesting is that the word about them, the these fire-like tongues resting, is that it's said in the singular. 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:16.559 So it's not a bunch of different tongues landing on people, but a collective separation and movement on all. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:21.360 This is one spirit individually given. 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:30.000 Now, let's just mark out for a second here the sound and the fire. 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.519 The sound and the fire. 00:12:33.840 --> 00:12:40.480 The rumbling, violent, shaking noise, and the fire. 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:44.639 Does that combination sound familiar to you at all? 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:50.320 Wind and fire. 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:52.720 And Pentecost. 00:12:53.039 --> 00:12:54.799 There's no accident here. 00:12:55.679 --> 00:13:13.120 By the time of Christ, Jewish tradition had long connected the Feast of Pentecost not just to the harvest festivals, but to something else that was vitally important to the people of Israel. 00:13:13.360 --> 00:13:23.279 They connected Pentecost to another mountain, to a mountain with fire, another mountain 1,500 years prior to this. 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:40.399 Jewish tradition not only saw Pentecost as a harvest festival, they also understood it as the very day that God made the people of Israel a covenant community by giving them the law from Mount Sinai. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:51.679 And it was then that they were brought into a covenant relationship with God under the Mosaic covenant. 00:13:53.039 --> 00:14:01.759 Now, whether everybody in this crowd understood the connection, we have here a contrast of two mountains. 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:20.320 One mountain with fire and a rumbling roar that no person could ever approach and hear a house with a loud rushing roar and a fire that God inhabits. 00:14:22.000 --> 00:14:26.799 The writer of Hebrews makes this same contrast between these two mountains. 00:14:27.759 --> 00:14:45.519 He says, You've not come to what could be touched, could not be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm, to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words, that those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:48.320 For they could not bear what was commanded. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:52.720 Even if an animal touches this mountain, it must be stoned. 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:59.600 The appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am terrified and trembling. 00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:11.279 The writer of Hebrews is describing that mountain on the day that the law came down, the day that the people were brought into covenant community under the Mosaic law. 00:15:11.519 --> 00:15:16.080 And then he says, Instead, you've come to a different mountain. 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:41.200 Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the myriads of angels and festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 00:15:42.000 --> 00:15:43.759 Do you feel the contrast here? 00:15:43.919 --> 00:15:54.960 On the day of Pentecost, these people were gathered not just for the harvest festival, they were gathered to celebrate themselves as the covenant people of God under the Mosaic dispensation. 00:15:56.000 --> 00:16:04.720 And now here they are, discovering something happening on this mountain that's different than the mountain they were commemorating. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.000 At Sinai, even Moses trembled. 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:13.600 At Sinai, an animal that so much as brushed up against the mountain had to be killed. 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:16.639 People could not draw near it. 00:16:16.879 --> 00:16:23.600 Not the people, not the animals, not even Moses himself until he was called up. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:32.240 But the fire of that first Pentecost spoke about the inaccessibility of a holy God. 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:52.639 But at this Pentecost, at this Pentecost, sent by the ascended king, is the very Spirit of God coming down to people and dwelling among them and in them. 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:54.799 Do you see the contrast? 00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:13.680 What a remarkable thing this is that the fire on that mountain that was dreadful and fearsome has been replaced by the glorious intimacy of the Spirit of God in his people. 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:16.720 Now take a look at verse 4. 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:24.720 Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:28.720 They were filled, decisive, done. 00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:37.200 What surprises me in this verse is that the CSV drops out a word that it should have kept, I believe. 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:43.279 Look at the last word, as last phrase, as the spirit enabled them. 00:17:43.519 --> 00:17:50.079 The ESV puts it this way: they began to speak in other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:53.920 And that word utterance is a very weighty word. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:58.799 It's only used three times in the whole New Testament, all three times in the book of Acts. 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:08.799 Peter uses it down in verse 14, and then Paul uses it in Acts chapter 26 about proclaiming the word of truth. 00:18:10.160 --> 00:18:17.680 This word is an authoritative testimony about the mighty acts of God. 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:30.480 What that word is telling us is that what's coming out of the mouth of these people is just like the prophets speaking in the Old Testament. 00:18:30.960 --> 00:18:34.319 They are declaring the mighty acts of God. 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:50.400 All of them, not just an office of a prophet, but all the speech people speaking with divine utterance of the mighty acts of God, as though all of them were prophets. 00:18:51.359 --> 00:18:56.720 Which is exactly what Peter is about to describe in verse 28. 00:18:57.039 --> 00:19:00.000 I will pour out my spirit on all people. 00:19:02.319 --> 00:19:22.000 Coming from promises in Isaiah, until the Spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the book of Ezekiel, where God says, I will place my spirit upon you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances. 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:47.119 So here we have a rush of a sound, tongues like flames of fire in an upper room, the Father keeping his promise, the Son just enthroned, issuing the Spirit to come, the mighty acts of God being declared in a multiplicity of languages. 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:51.039 What we have here is fulfilled prediction. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:20:00.400 And it's not the kind of satisfaction you get when the weatherman gets it right three days ahead of time, and you go, he told me Wednesday it was going to be a beautiful weekend. 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:01.119 And guess what? 00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:01.759 He was right. 00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:03.200 I can't believe it. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:09.759 This is everything the Old Testament has longed for. 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:18.079 This is the new heart, a law no longer written on stone, but in flesh. 00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:28.079 This is the spirit permanently residing among the people of God and not just resting on a few for an office of prophet, priest, or king. 00:20:29.039 --> 00:20:38.480 This is the very thing that Isaiah and Jeremiah had been describing, and the people have been longing for the consolation of the people of God. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:49.279 And Isaiah spoke of this day as a glorious one, and he uses prophetic poetry to describe how enriching it is in Isaiah 32. 00:20:50.319 --> 00:21:12.000 Until the Spirit from on high has poured out on us, then the desert will become an orchard, and an orchard will seem like a forest, and then justice will inhabit the wilderness, and righteousness will dwell in the orchard, and the results of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness will be quiet confidence forever. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:27.039 Isaiah is talking about that day that when the Spirit comes, words like justice and righteousness and peace and confidence will inhabit the people of God because the Spirit is present there. 00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:30.480 That's what we're talking about. 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:43.039 That time when the law would be written on the heart, not just staring at people from stone on the outside of them, but on the very insides of who they are. 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:51.519 Now notice Jeremiah doesn't say this is a covenant with all nations. 00:21:52.400 --> 00:21:59.279 He says this is a covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah in Jeremiah 31 31. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:06.400 The promise here is spoken to Israel about Israel. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:23.119 And in this room, on this morning, the eleven, the women, Mary, Jesus brothers, and all the rest that make up the 120, every single one of those people is a Jewish person. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:25.680 Every single one of them. 00:22:26.400 --> 00:22:31.599 This is not the church swallowing up Israel's promise. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:38.640 This is Israel's promise being kept to the people who are Israel. 00:22:42.480 --> 00:22:44.960 And notice what kind of movement this is. 00:22:47.119 --> 00:22:48.960 This is monumental. 00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:53.920 And this is one of the big questions that arises in church discussions. 00:22:54.319 --> 00:23:00.960 Is what happens here in the book of Acts meant to be repeatable every time we gather? 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.000 Or is it something else? 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:06.960 And I believe it is something else. 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:20.000 People would say that Acts chapter 2 sets for us a paradigm, which means that every believer in every age must find a repeat of what's happening here. 00:23:20.960 --> 00:23:35.440 I think what we're seeing here, like I said a moment ago, is the answer to the longings of all the Old Testament for the inauguration of the new covenant in which God would indwell his people. 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:44.480 And the signification of that is done in this dramatic way as it unfolds first among the Jews. 00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:58.720 It is the historical hinge upon which the whole covenantal relationship of God with his people is transformed from old covenant to new. 00:24:01.119 --> 00:24:03.680 And notice something about the timing here. 00:24:04.880 --> 00:24:06.160 Pentecost. 00:24:07.119 --> 00:24:08.720 What is Pentecost? 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:15.680 Well, it's the feast of weeks, it's the 50th day after Passover. 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:24.000 It's one of the three great feasts in which all the males of Israel had to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate. 00:24:26.079 --> 00:24:30.240 And the word in Greek just means 50th, Pentecost. 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:41.359 It's counted 50 days past the first sheath of the barley harvest that is raised and waved before the Lord during the Passover. 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:49.200 And here is the wheat harvest, in which this harvest is also celebrated. 00:24:49.440 --> 00:25:04.319 So it's the second of two harvests in which the first fruits of the barley harvest at Passover and the wheat harvest of Pentecost are waved before the Lord. 00:25:05.279 --> 00:25:08.880 Now you're thinking, what are we doing in the book of Leviticus here? 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:12.079 This is important. 00:25:14.880 --> 00:25:20.559 Jesus rose during the Passover festival as the first fruits. 00:25:21.839 --> 00:25:31.119 Fifty days later, the second firstfruit harvest is happening here at Pentecost. 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:36.160 And the New Testament uses that language all over the place. 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:39.599 Christ has been raised from the dead. 00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:45.279 First Corinthians 15, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:53.759 And then he says in Romans 8 that all believers have the firstfruits of the Spirit. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:01.759 And James adds in that we are a kind of firstfruits among all his creatures. 00:26:03.200 --> 00:26:21.039 The two celebrations of Passover and Pentecost, the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, the resurrection of Christ and the new birth of God's people, who are now people who hold the hope of a resurrection themselves, are celebrated here. 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:27.440 It's no accident that this day has come, and it's come on this day. 00:26:28.319 --> 00:26:37.359 Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection harvest, and here on Pentecost is the first fruits of a soul harvest. 00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:45.519 Both landing on a calendar that had been marked out for this moment centuries before. 00:27:07.359 --> 00:27:09.200 Behold, the new is come. 00:27:10.559 --> 00:27:16.799 And what's happening here is not some experience reserved for the spiritual elite. 00:27:23.440 --> 00:27:32.240 That a new covenant has surplanted the old covenant, that life has entered into this world of woe and sin and death. 00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:35.839 That if you belong to Christ, you are a part of this. 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:43.519 No, let's go back to this room for a second and just back up and think about it for ourselves here for a moment. 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:48.480 This happens in this room. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:55.440 Not because the apostles are finally ready by building themselves up in fervent prayer. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:00.640 What's happening is not a spiritual dividend based upon their fervor. 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:06.160 It's the life of the Spirit that's given, not manufactured by them. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:18.319 Think of it this way: a dry riverbed, late summer, it cannot produce full banks of water. 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:26.880 It cannot generate rainfall by the shape that it has, its deep channels or its steep banks. 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:35.680 A dry riverbed is a dry riverbed until it receives water. 00:28:37.119 --> 00:28:45.359 The riverbed doesn't fill itself, it only accepts what's poured out on it. 00:28:47.359 --> 00:28:51.359 And what we find here is a life that we cannot create. 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:55.759 What is happening here is something that only God can do. 00:28:57.279 --> 00:29:04.559 These people are receiving this because it is God's good pleasure to give this at this time. 00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:09.279 Think about ourselves at this moment. 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:15.759 Just think about the relationship that that might have for us in the dynamic of our own personal life. 00:29:16.480 --> 00:29:24.400 Maybe you're here this morning and you're thinking to yourself, I need to be a better person. 00:29:25.200 --> 00:29:28.240 I need to live a different life. 00:29:28.720 --> 00:29:32.319 I need to get myself into a better place. 00:29:32.480 --> 00:29:33.839 I think I'll go to church. 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:36.079 I think I'll try harder tomorrow. 00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:39.440 I think I might be able to be a different person. 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:49.920 And I think if I do that well enough, God might accept me and I might be able to just go into heaven and have Him bring me there. 00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:52.720 I want to tell you something. 00:29:52.960 --> 00:29:54.480 You cannot do that. 00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:56.960 You cannot do that. 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:01.279 You cannot produce the life that you're longing for. 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:03.839 It doesn't happen like that. 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:09.839 Jesus told Nicodemus, a religious man himself, one who was scrupulous about the law. 00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:16.319 He said, unless you're born of the Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:20.000 It is not something you can produce. 00:30:20.880 --> 00:30:25.359 It's something, however, by the grace of God you can receive. 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:33.519 And the scriptures tell us that whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:48.880 And if you're here this morning and you've been looking at yourself and you've been trying to do better out of yourself, and you've been longing for a different life, and maybe just maybe it might be able to grab a hold of you if you just stick to it long enough. 00:30:50.240 --> 00:31:11.759 The only thing God is calling you to do is to release that self-effort, release that trust in yourself, and to call out to him for the life that comes through Jesus Christ alone, and to seek his transformation in your heart, not what you might be able to produce. 00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:34.079 But if you're here as a believer and you've kind of gotten back into that old cycle of, well, I've got my good days and my better days, and my not so good days, and my bad days, and you think if you tally up your better days enough, you'll be what are we doing here? 00:31:35.119 --> 00:31:38.400 We're reducing ourselves to the same mindset. 00:31:42.079 --> 00:32:17.279 When you step into that next hard conversation, or when you face that next surmounting wall of trouble, when you are called upon to love someone you can't, and when you are asked to step into a place of obedience that runs contrary to the patterns of life that you've ingrained in you, the answer to that is not just to take a deep breath and grit your teeth and shoulder into it. 00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:22.880 It is to look to the living God and say, God, I need you. 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:36.400 I need you to give me the kind of life that would bring me into love, that would bring me into obedience, that would bring me into joyful perseverance through my trouble. 00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:44.400 Because those things are the fruit of the spirit, they are not the output of a determined person. 00:32:45.119 --> 00:32:47.680 Only God can produce those things. 00:32:48.960 --> 00:32:50.799 Well, let's keep moving. 00:32:51.920 --> 00:32:55.599 And I'll be quicker with my points than the next two. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:33:05.359 Not only do we need to depend on the spirit for a life we cannot create, we need to depend on the spirit for a unity that we cannot capture. 00:33:05.599 --> 00:33:08.799 And we see this is in verses five through 11. 00:33:09.359 --> 00:33:19.359 I'm not going to repeat these words, but you'll notice there that Luke is giving us a whole list of names. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:22.799 Take a look at verse 8 and 9. 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:27.119 15 of them. 00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:32.160 Now, Luke chooses his words carefully. 00:33:32.480 --> 00:33:36.160 There's not a wasted word one in God's word. 00:33:36.799 --> 00:33:50.079 And here we could have had summarized in a single sentence a lot of people from a lot of different places speaking a lot of different languages, and it would have been just as just as comprehensible as this. 00:33:50.640 --> 00:33:57.359 But instead, he lists all these names from all these places. 00:33:58.319 --> 00:34:01.839 That's an enormous amount of narrative space, right? 00:34:03.119 --> 00:34:05.279 Luke's not wasting words here. 00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:07.759 He wants you to feel something. 00:34:09.119 --> 00:34:10.400 Look at it carefully. 00:34:10.559 --> 00:34:12.480 Take a look at verse five. 00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:24.960 It says in verse five, now there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout people from every nation under earth. 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:26.480 Do you catch that phrase? 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:32.559 Devout Jews, every nation under earth. 00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:35.280 Under heaven, sorry. 00:34:35.920 --> 00:34:38.480 Not Gentiles, necessarily. 00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:41.760 Verse 10 confirms that. 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:45.440 Visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes. 00:34:45.599 --> 00:34:52.960 Now there we finally enter into what might have been Gentile converts to the Jewish religion. 00:34:53.599 --> 00:34:59.360 But one thing we can know for certain, there's not a single uncircumcised person there. 00:35:00.559 --> 00:35:07.360 All of them are either Jewish or they are Jewish convert, Gentile converts to Judaism. 00:35:07.519 --> 00:35:09.039 Every single one of them. 00:35:28.639 --> 00:35:35.440 That's why it says, devout people from every nation under heaven. 00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:37.679 What's happening here? 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:43.679 What's happening here is exactly what Ezekiel promised in Ezekiel 36. 00:35:44.400 --> 00:35:52.880 For I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and will bring you into your own land. 00:35:53.679 --> 00:35:59.199 These people have come from the very reaches of the known world in its time. 00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:02.960 These are not neighboring towns or neighboring provinces. 00:36:05.039 --> 00:36:10.000 Parthians were citizens of Rome's bitter, unconquered rival empire. 00:36:10.239 --> 00:36:19.920 And the names spanned the ancient world all the way from modern-day Iran all the way over to the western part of the Mediterranean. 00:36:22.400 --> 00:36:26.559 Luke is pinning the miracle to these precise words. 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:44.639 He's pinning it to the ingathering of the Jewish people from all the nations who come to this place and find, as we'll see before we get to the end of this chapter, that they are now unified with the presence of God and the Spirit of God dwelling in them. 00:36:46.559 --> 00:36:48.639 Now notice how they listen. 00:36:50.239 --> 00:36:56.960 Each one describes it as his own language or dialect. 00:36:57.679 --> 00:36:58.639 Dialect. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:09.199 This miracle is not aimed at the crowd, it's aimed at persons, each one hearing individually the mighty acts of God in their own language. 00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:13.519 What's happening here? 00:37:14.880 --> 00:37:23.840 Exactly what a seventeenth century printer put in a woodcut in a Geneva Bible. 00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:41.599 And exactly what a young man, I'll call you young, what a young man said in our service earlier today, that what Babel had done is now being undone. 00:37:43.360 --> 00:38:03.199 Babel was humanity in effect saying that we, by our collective human effort, might be able to build a name for ourselves, that we might be able to build a tower that rises up into the heavens, that we might be able to build a unity that's founded on our own ambition. 00:38:04.880 --> 00:38:08.239 And God says, that is not going to happen. 00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:17.840 And in judgment and mercy, he confuses one language into many and scatters the people all over the face of the earth. 00:38:18.400 --> 00:38:21.840 And humanity's lived in disunity ever since. 00:38:25.119 --> 00:38:34.320 But here he gives his own spirit, and here he pours out that spirit directly on humans. 00:38:34.800 --> 00:38:44.079 And here, for the first time, despite their languages, the people have a unified knowledge of God. 00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:56.400 And it's not one language restored, it's many languages now understanding the mighty acts of God. 00:38:57.360 --> 00:39:01.920 At Babel, God confused the languages into many and scattered humanity. 00:39:02.079 --> 00:39:13.760 And at Pentecost, God is doing the reverse by restoring the one language of worship among the many nations and the many languages on earth. 00:39:15.360 --> 00:39:22.320 Everything the Babel scattered in judgment, the Spirit is now creating in grace again. 00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:28.480 A unity that we cannot, cannot capture. 00:39:29.519 --> 00:39:32.639 Only the Spirit can bring this kind of unity. 00:39:33.119 --> 00:39:50.559 Only the Spirit can bring people of such diverse places and of diverse languages and of diverse cultures together and have all of them in one place worshiping the very same God, the very same way. 00:39:54.559 --> 00:39:58.400 But what began in this room is only just the beginning. 00:40:00.320 --> 00:40:06.239 God meets these scattered people and he brings them into the new covenant through the new birth. 00:40:06.480 --> 00:40:13.440 And the first wave is exactly how Paul describes it in Romans chapter one, to the Jew first. 00:40:14.800 --> 00:40:16.639 And this is what we see. 00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:20.719 But something else is about to happen. 00:40:21.119 --> 00:40:37.840 Because remember Leviticus, Pentecost, as the second first fruits harvest over against the Passover, the barley during Passover, the wheat during Pentecost. 00:40:38.639 --> 00:40:55.679 Well, in the feast of Pentecost, they would take two pieces of leavened bread, not unleavened bread this time, leavened bread, and they would take it and they would wave it before the Lord. 00:40:58.239 --> 00:40:59.840 Why two pieces? 00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:03.679 Why two pieces of leavened bread? 00:41:04.480 --> 00:41:14.159 Why two pieces of leavened bread put together and waved before the Lord during a feast of harvest? 00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:41.519 I dare say this, Jew and Gentile bound together, both sinful in themselves, filled with leaven, but by the mercy and grace of God, a part of a firstfruit harvest that gets waved before the Lord as a declaration of the wondrous, wondrous harvest that only God can give. 00:41:42.239 --> 00:41:44.000 That's what we see here. 00:41:44.880 --> 00:41:48.400 The Spirit is holding on the Jewish people here. 00:41:49.599 --> 00:41:59.599 But in a few short chapters, eight chapters later, Peter, a Jew, is going to be told to go to a Gentile house. 00:41:59.920 --> 00:42:05.039 And there he and his companions are going to be shocked by what they see. 00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:12.480 And what they see there is that the gift of the Holy Spirit has been poured out even on the Gentiles. 00:42:14.800 --> 00:42:22.639 And why I think this is just a one-time event, listen to how Peter describes it when he's called back to Jerusalem to give an account for what's going on. 00:42:22.960 --> 00:42:27.039 And those guys are like, uh, you know, tell us what you were doing there, Peter. 00:42:27.280 --> 00:42:29.440 You know, you know we don't do this. 00:42:31.679 --> 00:42:45.599 And he says to them, as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as it did on us at the beginning. 00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:58.000 He goes all the way back to this moment in Acts chapter 2 and says, Now the Gentiles are also part of the new covenant. 00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:04.079 The Gentiles are also receiving the gracious acts and promises of God. 00:43:05.840 --> 00:43:16.480 And he doesn't say it fell on them just like it's happening to us every time we get together, just like it did on us in the beginning. 00:43:17.440 --> 00:43:18.800 It happened. 00:43:20.880 --> 00:43:34.000 By the time Paul writes to the Galatians and the Ephesians, the truth that Jew and Gentile are bound together as one has become more known and more understood and more appreciated by all. 00:43:35.039 --> 00:43:43.199 And so he could say clearly in Galatians 3.28, there's no Jew or Greek, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. 00:43:43.440 --> 00:43:51.360 Or he might say in Ephesians 2 14, for he is our peace, who's made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. 00:43:52.159 --> 00:43:58.639 These two separate loaves, leavened as they are. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:03.280 Are not kept separate anymore. 00:44:03.920 --> 00:44:15.440 They are bound together and lifted up to God and waved before Him as a display of the worship of the God who brings a harvest. 00:44:16.079 --> 00:44:18.320 And we are unified together. 00:44:18.639 --> 00:44:28.400 As he said in Ephesians 1, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. 00:44:28.719 --> 00:44:38.719 And when you believe the Holy Spirit is the down payment of your inheritance until the redemption of the possession to the praise of his glory. 00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:49.840 Gentile, you too can receive the promises from the scriptures, the Old Testament. 00:44:50.400 --> 00:44:57.599 And you too can enter in to all the wonders that God had promised to his people. 00:44:58.000 --> 00:45:04.000 Because you too are a person brought into the family of God. 00:45:04.719 --> 00:45:10.559 You were once without God, without hope, without promises, outside the covenants. 00:45:10.719 --> 00:45:18.960 You were separate from God, and now you are brought near, brought near by the grace of God. 00:45:21.039 --> 00:45:23.119 So what is this telling us? 00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:55.199 Fifteen nations worth of native speech spoken out of Galilean mouths, speaking in such a way that once they hear the explanation of it all, 3,000 of them believe and begin the work of lifting up the first of the two loaves that are going to be there on that day of Pentecost, just like was about to happen that very same day inside the temple itself. 00:45:57.119 --> 00:45:59.199 So let me say this clearly. 00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:09.199 To every person who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are unified together in the bond of love, in the faith of Christ. 00:46:09.840 --> 00:46:12.719 It is not a unity we have to manufacture. 00:46:12.960 --> 00:46:20.639 It's not a unity where we have to separate every single person out and go, I see you, I hear you. 00:46:30.079 --> 00:46:50.559 Because at the very depths of who we are, no matter what shade this is, no matter how many gray cells are working or not up here, no matter how thick or thin your wallet is, whether your wall doesn't have a sheepskin on it or it has 17 of them, whether you're from America or not, it doesn't matter. 00:46:50.800 --> 00:46:53.519 If you're in Christ, we are one. 00:46:54.239 --> 00:46:55.199 We are one. 00:47:04.719 --> 00:47:06.239 No human can. 00:47:06.880 --> 00:47:14.400 From the very day of Babel, humanity has gone its separate ways until this day. 00:47:15.440 --> 00:47:17.840 And it's continuing to happen now. 00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:23.760 So I want to say something by way of practical experience for all of us. 00:47:24.800 --> 00:47:33.440 Perhaps you've been a part of this church or visiting this church for some time, and you're still hanging on to old patterns of life. 00:47:33.760 --> 00:47:36.480 I hang out with those who do the same things I do. 00:47:36.639 --> 00:47:40.880 I hang out with the people that know the same experiences that I've had in life. 00:47:41.119 --> 00:47:49.360 I hang out with the people that have a shared sense of identity according to my nationality or my background. 00:47:50.880 --> 00:47:54.079 The body of Christ is far richer than that. 00:47:55.039 --> 00:48:26.960 And let me encourage you to go find someone perhaps you've only just said hello to, who doesn't share the same background that you have, who doesn't look like you do, may not even speak with the same accent that you have, and find that unity that you have in Christ and share it with each other and discover a unity that transcends anything this world could ever, ever capture. 00:48:29.199 --> 00:48:49.440 And if you're here this morning and you've been among us as the body of Christ, and you felt like you've had to learn a different language to feel at home here, I want to tell you, with every ounce of our being, we are trying to make the focus, the unity that we have in Christ. 00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:55.280 You don't have to feel awkward no matter what your background is. 00:48:55.440 --> 00:48:58.960 You don't have to feel awkward no matter what shade of skin you have. 00:48:59.119 --> 00:49:03.280 You don't have to feel awkward no matter if you can speak English well or not. 00:49:03.440 --> 00:49:07.760 If you're in Christ, we are brothers and sisters together. 00:49:08.079 --> 00:49:09.119 Together. 00:49:11.440 --> 00:49:13.440 Well, I need to move on. 00:49:14.800 --> 00:49:16.719 Let's go to this third point. 00:49:18.239 --> 00:49:29.199 And what we see here is we need to depend on the spirit for a life that we cannot create, and we need to depend on the spirit for a unity that we cannot capture. 00:49:29.760 --> 00:49:35.440 But we also need to depend on the spirit for results and responses we cannot control. 00:49:36.079 --> 00:49:38.880 Now take a look at verses 12 and 13 here. 00:49:39.599 --> 00:49:45.599 We see the people responding to what's happening, and their reaction is a mixed reaction. 00:49:45.840 --> 00:49:50.880 They were all astounded and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? 00:49:51.519 --> 00:49:56.320 But some sneered and said, Oh, they're drunk on new wine. 00:49:56.880 --> 00:50:07.920 Now back up to verse six, and you see that the people are confused, that their minds are mixed up, that they're disoriented, they're confused. 00:50:09.440 --> 00:50:15.679 Verse 7, they're astounded and amazed, literally outside of themselves. 00:50:17.119 --> 00:50:26.159 And verse 12, they're perplexed, genuinely at a loss to understand what's going on. 00:50:26.800 --> 00:50:29.360 So Luke is showing us an escalation. 00:50:29.599 --> 00:50:38.559 They go from confusion to astonishment to a real moment where they just can't go any further to try to understand it. 00:50:38.880 --> 00:50:40.639 A cognitive impasse. 00:50:40.880 --> 00:50:44.159 They can't get over this, they can't figure it out. 00:50:44.880 --> 00:50:48.480 And then from there, the responses begin to fork. 00:50:49.199 --> 00:50:52.000 Some are saying, What does this mean? 00:50:52.480 --> 00:50:57.599 And they leave the question open because they're waiting for an answer. 00:50:57.840 --> 00:51:01.360 And then there are others are going, they're just drunk. 00:51:03.360 --> 00:51:07.519 And they've begun to build an explanation for what's happened here. 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:19.920 Same wind, same fire, same people speaking words of the mighty acts of God in their ears. 00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:24.480 And some of them are saying, What's going on? 00:51:25.039 --> 00:51:28.000 And others say, Well, I know what's going on. 00:51:28.320 --> 00:51:29.599