WEBVTT 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:12.480 Well, Acts chapter 2 describes the beginning of the church. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.120 And the word church, even in Greek is ecclesia. 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:19.120 It means the called out ones. 00:00:19.199 --> 00:00:29.760 It is a word that was used for the synagogues would often, as they gathered in the Old Testament times in the life of Christ, they would call themselves Ecclesia when the gatherings of the synagogues were together. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:44.079 He did not say that he would build a new synagogue. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:00:53.119 He did not say that he would start a new organization that would be just like the ones that were confronting him all day long everywhere that he went. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:57.840 But he asked Peter very plainly, Peter, who do you say that I am? 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:03.520 And Peter responded in Matthew 16 with, You are the Lord, the Christ. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:05.519 You are the Messiah. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:12.879 And Jesus said, Upon this confession, I tell you, Peter, that I will build my church. 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.359 The church is a body. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:16.400 It's living. 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:19.920 It is made up of individuals that are saved by faith in Christ. 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.200 We are all bricks, but we are living bricks, and we are put together. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:25.280 The church is the temple of God. 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:37.280 In the Old Testament, there was a physical temple that was built under Solomon's watch, and that the nations were to pray to if they wanted to call upon Yahweh, although they too seldom did. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:39.040 And that temple was torn down. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:51.040 It was rebuilt again, of course, by Herod, the butcher of Bethlehem, and he established it as the focal point of the Judaic religion, and the Jews worshipped at Herod's temple even during the life of Christ. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:57.599 But Jesus again said, You can tear that temple down, then I will rebuild it again in three days. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:04.319 And of course the people were astonished, saying it had taken us, you know, who knows how long to build that temple, and you're going to build it in three days. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:16.400 And Jesus was speaking of his own body, John lets us know, that his own body is what would be torn down, it would be rebuilt, and we, as those who are brothers and sisters in Christ, are adopted into the body of Christ. 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.319 And so we, in a very real sense, are the temple of God. 00:02:20.639 --> 00:02:23.599 This is how Paul describes it in 2 Corinthians. 00:02:23.840 --> 00:02:24.800 We are the temple of God. 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:26.319 We're built together brick upon brick. 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:33.039 1 Corinthians 6 even, we are united one to another as the temple of God. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.759 This is the reality of being in the church. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:36.960 It is living. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:40.479 In the church, there are not ethnic divisions, or at least there should not be. 00:02:40.560 --> 00:02:42.800 There are Jews and Gentiles that are brought together. 00:02:42.960 --> 00:02:45.120 Under the old covenant, there was a dividing wall. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:51.439 The old covenant had a Berlin wall that went straight up and kept the Jews on one side and the Gentiles on the other. 00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:55.520 The court was separated in the old covenant between where the Gentiles could go. 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.400 They couldn't even go to parts of the court that the Jews could go. 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:00.080 There was a court for the women. 00:03:00.159 --> 00:03:10.479 There was a division between the sexes in the temple where the women had their own court, the Gentiles had their own court, only Jewish men could go to the closest they could get, and then the high priest would be separated even from that. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:12.960 So it was layer upon layer of separation. 00:03:13.039 --> 00:03:16.960 And this in Ephesians 2 and 3 is what the church has torn down. 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:20.879 Jesus is through his own death, through his own death, rips the veil. 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:39.280 The veil marked the separation between the holy place and the outer place where the nations could come, the veil was ripped, and now everybody, regardless of their ethnicity, their nationality, their gender, their language group, regardless of that, they have access to the holy place through faith in Christ. 00:03:39.439 --> 00:03:41.039 That's what it means to be part of the church. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:44.000 The division is gone and it is replaced with unity. 00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:48.639 That unity is brought about, Ephesians tells us, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.280 The Spirit seals us and makes us one. 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:54.240 We have a unity that comes to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:57.919 And I say to you that that is a new covenant reality. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:02.000 That that is a brand new thing that happens in the book of Acts. 00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:04.560 That in Acts chapter 1, that was not true. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:07.360 And by the end of Acts chapter 2, it is true. 00:04:07.599 --> 00:04:12.800 In Acts chapter 1, even though the veil of the temple had been torn down, that was still prefiguring what was to come. 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:22.399 What was needed for that unity in the church, what was needed for that one body, Jew and Gentile together, was the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every single believer. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:29.199 And that is what Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, wait, wait until the Holy Spirit comes, wait in Jerusalem. 00:04:29.279 --> 00:04:32.639 You'll go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the othermost parts of the world. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:34.480 You will be my witnesses to all the nations. 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:36.639 Matthew 28 is the great commission. 00:04:36.879 --> 00:04:39.759 Go into all the world, making disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:41.040 Go, go, go, go, go. 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:48.079 Remember, all Jesus' ministry, it was wait, all Jesus' ministry was saying, don't go, wait, be quiet, keep it a secret. 00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:49.040 You know I'm the Messiah. 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:49.519 Shh. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:51.199 Don't tell people I raised you from the dead. 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:54.000 Shh, don't tell people the whole ministry was that. 00:04:54.319 --> 00:05:02.879 And at the very end, Matthew 28, at the very end, Mark 16, the very end, Luke 22, the very end of John 21, all the end of the Gospels, it all changes. 00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:05.839 At the end of all the gospels, it's a go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:10.000 But then in Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, just not quite yet. 00:05:10.240 --> 00:05:14.160 Wait one more minute, because you need the Holy Spirit. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:17.120 That's the energy, that's the strength that you need. 00:05:17.199 --> 00:05:22.079 That's the empowering for taking this news that Jesus is the Messiah of the nations. 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:26.959 He's not just the Messiah of the Jews, He's the Savior of the whole world, not just of the Jews. 00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:34.879 But in order to take that, you need the Spirit who binds you and Gentile together in the body of Christ to indwell your hearts and empower you. 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.199 So that's what they were told in Acts chapter 1. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:38.879 Wait, wait, wait. 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:42.079 And then Acts chapter 2 happens. 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:44.319 We'll look at this passage together. 00:05:44.480 --> 00:05:45.600 Acts chapter 2, verse 1. 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:47.519 The day of Pentecost arrived. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:49.680 The Pentecost is a holiday. 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:52.160 Pentecost is a word that means 50th. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:55.839 It was the kind of Hellenized description of this holiday. 00:05:56.000 --> 00:06:00.800 The Jewish name of it is the feast of weeks. 00:06:01.199 --> 00:06:04.959 It's the celebration of the wheat harvest. 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.920 It's 50 days after the Passover. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.040 That's why it's called Pentecost. 00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:10.399 It's 50 days after Passover. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:16.079 All the main feasts are described in Leviticus 23, and there's an order to them, a sequence. 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:30.800 The first, of course, is the celebration of Passover, where the lamb is brought forward in Leviticus 23, and he is sacrificed for sin, and the lamb becomes the offering to God, that he would pass over in his wrath on you. 00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:33.360 That you deserve God's wrath because you're a sinner. 00:06:33.600 --> 00:06:38.800 You deserve to be under judgment, whether or not you're an Egyptian or an Israelite, there's no distinction. 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:54.240 God's wrath is coming, but the blood of the lamb on the doorpost in the Exodus marks that you had made a sacrifice and God accepted the sacrifice of the Passover lamb, and because of the shed blood, passed over you and didn't give you the judgment your sin deserved. 00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:55.199 That's Passover. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:58.639 The Jews commemorated that every year by offering a Passover lamb. 00:06:58.800 --> 00:07:03.199 Now this ends, of course, with the death of Jesus Christ, who is the Passover lamb. 00:07:03.360 --> 00:07:04.399 He is the final lamb. 00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:13.920 So you understand that every Passover lamb in the Old Testament was looking forward to Jesus, who is the final, ultimate, and last Passover lamb. 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.000 He is the one that it was all pointing to. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:17.360 He's the true Passover lamb. 00:07:17.439 --> 00:07:18.560 So that's the first holiday. 00:07:18.800 --> 00:07:24.879 Passover, it's the feast, and of course, is fulfilled in Christ who brings it in its fullness. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:29.360 The second of the holidays in Leviticus 23 was the feast of the unleavened bread. 00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:32.399 And that was supposed to be the Sabbath after Passover. 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:36.160 And there was a very complicated way for determining what Sabbath that is. 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:43.920 All kinds of Pharisees and Sadducees fought over it, but it was eventually settled on that it is the Sunday immediately after Passover. 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:46.079 So Passover is on Friday. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:48.240 Jesus sacrifices the lamb on Friday. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:07:54.879 The Sabbath then stands in in that middle period, and the feast of the unleavened bread would have been that next Sunday. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.639 And that Sunday is the day that Jesus rises from the grave, of course. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:00.319 He's a firstfruits offering. 00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:02.639 This is what 1 Corinthians 15.20 says. 00:08:02.720 --> 00:08:05.120 He's the first fruits in 1 Corinthians 15.20. 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:07.519 He's the first fruits of those who have died. 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.319 And so death gives up its first offering. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:14.079 And Jesus, when he dies on the cross on Passover, goes to the grave. 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:22.879 He releases them, sends them up to heaven where he will join them on his way up. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:29.759 He stops back at earth, you know, of course, and uh proclaims the kingdom of God with the disciples, and he ascends into heaven. 00:08:29.920 --> 00:08:33.919 So Jesus is the first physical resurrection of that new life. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.559 He is the first fruits offering of the dead. 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:37.600 So that's the second offering. 00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:42.559 First is Passover, second, first fruits, and then the third is Pentecost. 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:50.080 50 days later, 49 days after the feast of the unleavened bread of the first fruits is Pentecost. 00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:52.000 Pentecost was the feast of weeks. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:53.919 It was the celebration of the harvest. 00:08:54.000 --> 00:08:58.399 It was uh of the plant, not the harvest, but of the planting having been accomplished. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:02.000 It was a celebration of the seeds are down and everything is going to grow. 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:05.840 And so you're bringing your first fruit offering in that sense to the Lord. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:11.279 Fifty days later, there's a unity in the feast of weeks. 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:13.919 There was a oneness that the Jews celebrated with it. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.600 It was one of the main festivities that you would go to the temple for. 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:21.600 You would travel even from faraway places to get to Jerusalem for this. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:28.960 It was a massive, major holiday that demonstrated their unity that they all are receiving from God's kindness. 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:30.080 That's the holiday. 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.240 Acts chapter 2, verse 1 is that day. 00:09:32.480 --> 00:09:34.320 Again, we don't really celebrate this now. 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:39.679 And if churches do celebrate it, they celebrate it as a spiritual holiday of the coming of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:39.759 --> 00:09:46.720 And so we overlook, I think, the Jewish significance of it, which was the celebration of the unity they have having received God's provision. 00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:48.799 So the day of Pentecost arrived. 00:09:48.879 --> 00:09:50.480 They were all together in one place. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:55.200 That altogether was the dozens and dozens of Christians that are in the world. 00:09:55.519 --> 00:09:58.080 Verse 15 of Acts 1 says about 120 of them. 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:00.480 So we're dealing with some small numbers right now. 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.919 It was big enough to be a house church, and they're all gathered there. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:09.519 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:14.000 And it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 00:10:14.320 --> 00:10:16.399 So the wind didn't fill the house. 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:21.039 The sound is what it says filled the house, and the Greek language is pretty obvious. 00:10:21.120 --> 00:10:25.919 Some English translations make it seem like the wind filled the house, but the antecedent here is the sound. 00:10:26.480 --> 00:10:28.159 It rocked the house. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:29.279 They were astonished. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:30.559 It's like an earthquake. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:32.720 They're shaking. 00:10:32.799 --> 00:10:42.480 In fact, uh, it's in the ESV it says a mighty rushing wind, but it is the Greek word here for some kind of uh tremor, some kind of hurricane kind of force. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:45.360 It's the kind of wind that's so loud it rattles you. 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:50.639 So you might hear this in uh not so much in Virginia, but windier parts of the world. 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:54.480 You know what it's like to wake up in the middle of the night with the wind shaking the whole house. 00:10:54.639 --> 00:10:56.000 There's the sound of the wind. 00:10:56.080 --> 00:10:58.080 You can even hear it coming before it gets there. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:10:59.840 That's this idiom right here. 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:01.679 So they're all gathered together. 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:04.720 They know the Holy Spirit is going to come. 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:08.399 Jesus has said that repeatedly, but now it's here. 00:11:08.559 --> 00:11:10.879 They weren't, they were expecting it, but they weren't expecting it. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:11.440 You know what I mean? 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:15.120 Like they knew it was going to come, but they're still surprised by it. 00:11:15.360 --> 00:11:16.960 And it shakes the house. 00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:19.039 The noise fills their ears. 00:11:19.200 --> 00:11:22.480 It is an astonishing, astonishing scene. 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:35.200 And I don't think they knew the Holy Spirit would come like a mighty rushing wind, but it's, I think, useful to know that in both Greek and Hebrew, the word for wind and the word for spirit are the same word. 00:11:35.279 --> 00:11:39.519 They're kind of homonyms or the same word covers both uh meanings there. 00:11:39.600 --> 00:11:46.879 And so there's a lot of puns, even in the Old Testament, with that, where in Ezekiel, for example, God compares the coming of the Spirit to the coming of the wind. 00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:51.840 He breathes on Ezekiel in the Old Testament and telling him to preach spiritual truth to people. 00:11:52.080 --> 00:12:00.960 The most obvious example of this is in John chapter 3, when Jesus asks Nicodemus, uh, well, Nicodemus asks Jesus, what does it take to get to heaven? 00:12:01.120 --> 00:12:04.240 And Jesus says, You have to be born again, and Nicodemus can't believe that. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:07.120 I mean, how dare you tell a Pharisee he's not saved? 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:11.600 And Jesus tells Nicodemus, the wind goes where it wills. 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:14.320 You might hear it, but you don't see where it's coming from. 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:16.879 So it is with everybody who's born of the Spirit. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:19.759 So that's the picture then of being born again. 00:12:19.919 --> 00:12:22.720 The Holy Spirit comes to you, Jesus, relates it to winds. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:25.200 You don't know where it's coming from, you can't direct it. 00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:33.120 Even today, with all our modern-day technology and weather and patterns and whatnot, you don't know where the wind is going, but it just happens. 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:36.559 This is true of the Holy Spirit as well. 00:12:36.720 --> 00:12:41.519 The Holy Spirit comes to people to bring them faith, to regenerate them, to give them life. 00:12:41.679 --> 00:12:44.639 That is a reality that is an old covenant reality as well. 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:47.759 Old covenant saints had to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit. 00:12:47.919 --> 00:12:50.159 He had to cause their dead hearts to come alive. 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.240 We know this because Nicodemus, remember, said, What do you mean after you're born again? 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:57.200 And Jesus said, You're the teacher of Israel, and you don't know that? 00:12:57.919 --> 00:12:58.960 You've got to be kidding me. 00:12:59.120 --> 00:13:03.360 You should have funked out of a seminary, Pharisee seminary, whatever they would have called it. 00:13:03.919 --> 00:13:06.399 You have to know that in order to be saved, you must be born again. 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:08.320 So that's an old covenant reality. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:16.399 The new covenant reality here is the unity that comes from the indwelling of the Spirit, and that's where we are now. 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:30.159 The house is shaken, the people are deafened, and then verse 3: divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:32.960 So ain't nothing like this happened before. 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:35.759 Tongues. 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:43.679 The word tongues is glossia, which means languages, and but it's it's also a homonym. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:49.759 It's you know, in in Greek the word for your is the word for languages. 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:51.519 It's the same word. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:56.799 And so there's it's an image here, something that looks like a tongue. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:14:03.120 And honestly, fire looks like tongues quite easily, you know, flesh-colored whatnot, and it's on fire. 00:14:03.279 --> 00:14:11.440 So little things of fire fill the room with the sound of the wind and settle on each person. 00:14:11.600 --> 00:14:13.039 Now it's not actual fire. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:20.159 There's very clear it says something like fire, tongues as of fire, and it's a comparative word in Greek. 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:21.840 It means something like fire. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.080 So I don't think it was hot. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:26.559 It's not gonna burn you in that sense. 00:14:26.639 --> 00:14:29.919 They didn't get burned, scalded when it landed on their heads. 00:14:30.080 --> 00:14:45.840 Uh but it's something like that, meaning it was, I don't know, in fuego, like it was illuminating, it was flickering, I don't know, it was shaped like a tongue, but it had some kind of fire-like element to it, and it settles on every person's head. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.600 So that's weird. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:49.919 But it happened. 00:14:50.639 --> 00:14:57.120 And as it rested on each one of them, they were, while this is happening, all filled with the Holy Spirit. 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:13.039 So at this moment, you'll see this throughout the book of Acts, this is their baptism of the Spirit, where the Holy Spirit, who had previously regenerated them, chapter 1, verse 15, remember, describes them as being in the company of the apostles and the disciples. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.039 They were followers of Jesus Christ. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:18.240 They were studying the Word of God in Acts 1, verse 16. 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:25.679 They were devoted to the teaching of Jesus, they believed in his resurrection, they were being persecuted for it, or they were afraid of that, they were hiding out because of this. 00:15:25.919 --> 00:15:33.759 So these people are believers, but this is their baptism of the Spirit, meaning they are now introduced, inducted into the church. 00:15:33.919 --> 00:15:35.759 They're the church's first members. 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:39.919 They're the first Baptist, the first Baptist Church, Jerusalem. 00:15:40.399 --> 00:15:40.960 There they are. 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:51.679 The Holy Spirit seals them, fills them is the word, and the word filled in uh Greek is from the inside out to the top, so the Spirit is its internal dwelling. 00:15:51.919 --> 00:15:54.559 This is very different than the old covenant. 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:56.320 This is very different than circumcision. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:06.799 Circumcision did not work inside out, but rather outside as an indicator of something that would come in the future, in hope or in faith of a future circumcision of the heart. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:10.240 Well, this is the circumcision of the heart happens with their conversion. 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:12.559 This is now the baptism that indicates that. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:21.919 They are filled with the Spirit, and as a result of this, verse 4, they begin to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:28.000 And I like that the ESV renders it tongues because it's keeping you aware that it's the same word that was used earlier. 00:16:28.159 --> 00:16:34.399 In other words, the fire that landed on their head was an indicator of the linguistic gift that they were about to experience. 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:42.799 Because the fire was shaped like a tongue, they now speak in a tongue, and you know, it doesn't it wouldn't make sense to work the pun the other way. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:48.720 It wouldn't say like something that was shaped like a language landed on their head, and they begin to speak in languages. 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:51.600 But you get the idea that the idiom works both ways. 00:16:51.759 --> 00:17:02.240 The downside of it rendering them both tongues is you get all kinds of people today that think that speaking in tongues as gibberish is a real act of the gift. 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:07.920 Because if it was language, it would say language, so we just speak in tongues, andalanda, shandalana, shandalana kind of language. 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:10.160 But that's you know, it's a language. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:16.880 It is the word for language, it's not a mystical language, it's a real live language that people actually speak. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:34.400 There was people didn't claim to have the gift of tongues being of, you know, a foreign language really at all until, at least in any big scale, until the Azusa Street Revival in the early 1900s, where that kind of teaching swept and became the charismatic and the Pentecostal church breaking out of Los Angeles. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.480 All kinds of crazy things come from Los Angeles. 00:17:36.640 --> 00:17:37.759 I apologize. 00:17:38.079 --> 00:17:41.759 I wasn't even alive, but it's just how LA goes. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:54.960 And it spreads like wildfire, another Los Angeles pun there, all around the world, and people begin speaking in languages, I you know, gibberish, identifying them as languages. 00:17:55.039 --> 00:17:57.920 And that is the predominant experience of the Pentecostal church. 00:17:58.079 --> 00:18:09.519 The Pentecostal church through the 20th century would say that unless you speak in tongues, then you are not uh you haven't experienced the baptism of the Spirit. 00:18:09.680 --> 00:18:19.519 Most Pentecostals wouldn't say you're not saved unless you speak in tongues, but they would definitely say a hallmark of the Pentecostal movement is that if you haven't spoken in tongues, you have not been baptized in the Spirit. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:21.119 It's a one-to-one correspondence. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:27.599 Everyone who's been baptized in the Spirit has spoken in tongues, and for all the 20th century that was considered to be a real live language. 00:18:27.839 --> 00:18:30.960 And then something happened around 2000. 00:18:31.359 --> 00:18:33.680 Namely, Al Gore invented the internet. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:42.480 And with the advent of the internet, you can record the speaking of tongues, and no longer is it claimed to be a language. 00:18:42.640 --> 00:18:50.880 Most people will not claim that it's an actual language anymore because Google Translate debunks that, and now what you get is now it's shifted to a prayer language. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:19:00.640 This is the common charismatic teaching today that this is a prayer when I speak in that a tongue, it's a prayer language, and it's something that was given to me to communicate with God directly. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:07.039 They'll point to 1 Corinthians 14, say it's a language I speak to God with, and it's only angels can understand that kind of thing. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:09.119 But that's not what's happening in Acts 2. 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:13.839 I'll talk more about that later, but I just want you to understand before we get to this, that's not what's happening here. 00:19:14.079 --> 00:19:16.160 It is the word for languages that is used. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:22.720 The reason it's rendered tongue is not because it's not a real language, the reason it's rendered tongue is because they are shaped like tongues. 00:19:22.799 --> 00:19:24.240 So it's a pun that's happening here. 00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:28.640 Something is shaped like a tongue, they speak in a language, but in Greek it was the same word. 00:19:28.880 --> 00:19:36.799 They're speaking in the language, and as the Holy Spirit is giving them utterance, so they don't know the languages they're speaking in. 00:19:37.200 --> 00:19:43.759 They haven't learned them, and that's going to be important in a second, but they're speaking them clearly because it is God who is speaking through them. 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:46.960 So this is happening, and it's creating a scene. 00:19:47.039 --> 00:19:56.000 So there's the noise of the wind, of course, there's the fire-like things in their heads, and now there's 120 people speaking in different languages. 00:19:56.799 --> 00:20:01.599 Well, outside, verse 5, dwelling in Jerusalem were Jews. 00:20:02.480 --> 00:20:05.519 Devout men from every nation under heaven. 00:20:05.680 --> 00:20:06.640 All kinds of people are there. 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:08.799 And they're there, of course, for the Feast of Pentecost. 00:20:08.960 --> 00:20:13.440 A lot of times people would come for the Feast of Passover and they would stay for a few months. 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:17.680 Sometimes they would come and go, sometimes people would just come for the Feast of Pentecost. 00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:26.880 The point is that there's a lot of activity in Jerusalem, a lot of people from around the Roman Empire, and they are there to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:36.319 And they are hearing this room of people, this house of people, probably a large house, Jewish houses even in Jerusalem, could have extended courtyards. 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:39.920 There's a massive amount of pla uh space here. 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:56.319 If the place that is attributed as the upper room today, I mean I don't think it's the actual upper room, but if you go to Jerusalem and you can go see the upper room, to me it looks like it was built roughly 1940 rather than, you know, uh 2,000 years ago. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.359 But pretending it's in that location, it is a location that's open. 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:01.839 There's even parks and fields there right now. 00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:08.400 So it's not that far from the it's like a five or six minute walk to the um to the temple from there. 00:21:08.559 --> 00:21:17.279 So assuming that's in that area where it happened, there's lots of open space there, and people gather around uh and the multitude, verse six, is coming together. 00:21:17.359 --> 00:21:20.079 And notice verse six says they're drawn by the sound. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:25.599 So the sound of the tongues, the sound of languages, the sound of the wind. 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:27.519 There's lots of sound. 00:21:27.680 --> 00:21:37.839 It's having a magnetizing effect, as you could imagine, you know, in in your neighborhood, if there's a strange sound coming from up the street, you'll probably go investigate. 00:21:38.079 --> 00:21:39.359 You'll probably go see what's happening. 00:21:39.440 --> 00:21:46.559 Well, it's drawing scores and scores, hundreds of hundreds, up to thousands and thousands of people are being drawn to this. 00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:48.640 So this is crazy. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:53.599 At the sound of the multitude, they came together and they were bewildered, verse 6 says. 00:21:54.079 --> 00:21:57.920 Because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 00:21:58.160 --> 00:21:59.599 This is why it's so important to understand these. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:01.440 Are real languages. 00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:06.799 And the people who are brought there are all hearing the proclamation in their own language. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:08.000 This is not gibberish. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:09.440 This is not a prayer language. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:20.880 This is a proclamation from these Christians about God to unbelievers, and unbelievers are hearing it in their own language. 00:22:21.519 --> 00:22:23.039 That's the key point. 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:25.279 They were amazed, verse 7 says. 00:22:25.359 --> 00:22:26.960 That's that word we talked about this morning. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:30.799 They were flabbergasted, bamboozled, befuddled, gobsmacked. 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:37.200 They were astonished because nothing like this has ever happened before, and they don't know what to do with it. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:39.119 They're astonished. 00:22:39.759 --> 00:22:43.920 And they said, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:46.160 Which should make you laugh a little bit. 00:22:46.319 --> 00:22:51.359 Like the first thing they notice, these people are from Galilee. 00:22:51.759 --> 00:22:54.559 And so that's that's a derogatory comment. 00:22:55.440 --> 00:23:04.480 I know it's not correct to make fun of people from the southern United States because of their southern drawl and all that, but that would be the closest thing I can think of to help you understand this. 00:23:04.640 --> 00:23:07.279 Apologies, Alex, you're giving me the angry look right now. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:10.880 But that would be the closest idiom I can hear of. 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:19.039 They're speaking in these languages, and the people come and like fire, noise, strange languages, and they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:22.160 And the craziest thing is these guys are from Galilee. 00:23:22.880 --> 00:23:24.480 Galileans aren't educated. 00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:26.400 Galileans didn't go to school. 00:23:26.640 --> 00:23:29.519 Most Galileans are probably not literate. 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:35.440 I mean, the educators are, but most Galileans aren't, like the educators being the priestly class would be. 00:23:35.519 --> 00:23:37.039 But most Galileans are fishermen. 00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:37.839 They're out of the middle. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:41.759 This is the exam, the response people had when they first heard that Jesus was from Nazareth. 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:42.400 Remember? 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:44.160 Hey, come see the Messiah. 00:23:44.319 --> 00:23:45.279 He's from Nazareth. 00:23:45.359 --> 00:23:48.720 And the response is, can anything good come from Nazareth? 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:49.839 Of course not. 00:23:50.079 --> 00:23:51.519 These people are uneducated. 00:23:51.680 --> 00:23:54.559 That's gonna come up again later in Acts chapter 4. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:57.359 They're gonna be astonished that these people are such powerful speakers. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:24:00.960 They must have been with Jesus because they're from Galilee. 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:02.640 So they have to get over that first. 00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:09.599 First of all, they've got to hear through the southern drawl, understand, okay, that's great preaching, even for a Galilean. 00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:14.559 Verse 8, they're from Galilee, but how can we hear each of us in his own native language? 00:24:14.640 --> 00:24:16.079 That's the astonishing thing. 00:24:16.319 --> 00:24:17.920 They're hearing their own language. 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:20.079 Galileans do not travel the world. 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:23.200 Galileans don't get out and go to visit Egypt. 00:24:23.440 --> 00:24:26.559 They don't go on an adventure to Iran. 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:28.960 But these ones did, it appears. 00:24:29.119 --> 00:24:30.880 They're speaking our languages perfectly. 00:24:31.039 --> 00:24:32.960 We get a list of all the languages. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:35.680 And I think it's interesting, this list. 00:24:36.640 --> 00:24:39.279 You hear that it starts with Parthians. 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:42.720 Partheons were, they're, that they're not in the Roman Empire. 00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:53.599 They're a deposit of Jews that had been exiled, probably by the Assyrians, and they didn't assimilate, they didn't come to Samaritans, like most of those who the Assyrians exiled. 00:24:54.000 --> 00:24:59.119 They went out there and they kept an ethnically distinct group on the far side of Iran. 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:00.720 They never got conquered by the Romans. 00:25:00.880 --> 00:25:01.680 They're not Romans. 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:03.359 They're the group of people that aren't Romans. 00:25:03.440 --> 00:25:09.599 So that I'm just giving you this picture so you know how far away they are from Galilee and how far away they are from Jerusalem. 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:13.599 I mean, these people are from past the edge of the Roman Empire. 00:25:14.160 --> 00:25:15.119 And they're there. 00:25:15.279 --> 00:25:21.519 The Medes, those are those that were, you know, the Persians, Darius, last part of the book of Daniel. 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:22.319 That's these people. 00:25:22.480 --> 00:25:28.000 There were Jews that had been part of the Medo-Persian Empire that did not return in the exile. 00:25:28.160 --> 00:25:38.880 And some of them, as the Persian Empire fell, a lot of it fell to the Greeks, some of them did not assimilate with the Greeks, most of them did, but some of them went and joined forces with the Parthians. 00:25:39.359 --> 00:25:40.960 These Medes here, apparently. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:42.960 And the Elamites, same kind of people. 00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:47.440 They're the southwest part of Iran, and they're right on the edge of the Roman Empire. 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:50.799 Some of them might be Roman, but they're all Jewish, this group here. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:55.680 And then residents of Mesopotamia, that's the area between the Tigris and the Euphrates River. 00:25:55.920 --> 00:25:59.200 Then Judea, that's Jerusalem. 00:25:59.359 --> 00:26:01.200 That's of course there are Judeans there. 00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:01.920 No kidding. 00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:03.279 I mean, that's where it's happening. 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:04.480 Their neighbors came over. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:05.599 Hi, Judean. 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:10.640 Cappadocia, that's uh, and Pontius in Asia. 00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:14.079 Those are all parts of Asia Minor. 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:15.680 Those places are. 00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:27.759 I think is how you pronounce the word if you see it in the Greek, phagria or whatever it would be say it in English, but Fugia in Greek in Phamphylla, those are parts of Asia Minor. 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:29.519 And then you get Egypt. 00:26:30.480 --> 00:26:35.839 There were more Jews living in Egypt during the life of Christ than were living in Israel. 00:26:36.720 --> 00:26:40.319 The Israelites had left en masse to get away from Herod. 00:26:40.480 --> 00:26:45.759 So there were more Jews there than in Israel, and some of them are back for the feast of the Booze. 00:26:45.839 --> 00:26:46.480 They're there. 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:49.599 Egypt, Alexandria is the main Jewish city there. 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:52.799 That's where the Septuagint came from, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:57.279 It's a hotbed of Jewish economic activity, of Jewish religion. 00:26:57.359 --> 00:26:59.359 Remember, they're translating the Old Testament into Greek. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:04.400 That's taking place there, including parts of Libya, if you go on. 00:27:04.960 --> 00:27:06.319 So that you're going past Egypt now. 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:16.319 So we've worked from all the way on the other side of Iran, all the way down through Jerusalem, through Asia Minor, which is the Mediterranean basin, where churches are going to be planted pretty soon, and then all the way up past Egypt. 00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:21.839 Now you're into Libya, Cyrene, that's the very edge of North Africa, and then across over to Rome. 00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:31.279 So you've made like a full circle here: Rome, Asia Minor, the far part of Iran, all the way back through Jerusalem, and then all the way back up. 00:27:31.599 --> 00:27:32.960 The only thing we're missing here are Syrians. 00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:34.000 We get them in a second. 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:36.960 All these people are both Jews and proselytes. 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:41.039 And I think proselytes here is modifying the visitors from Rome. 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:44.880 So there's people from Rome that include both Jews and proselytes. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:55.759 So people that had been Gentiles who'd been converted to Christianity, living in Rome, going on a vacation or a field trip or a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem for this holiday. 00:27:55.920 --> 00:27:58.400 So this these people have a crazy story for sure. 00:27:58.640 --> 00:28:15.440 What kind of Roman living in Rome converts to Judaism, then goes on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of weeks, and then gets swept up in Pentecost hearing these disciples preach about Jesus. 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:19.359 I'd like to hear that guy's baptism testimony. 00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:24.319 And then Cretans, I mean, Cretans, what are you gonna say about Cretans? 00:28:25.119 --> 00:28:26.240 I have some ideas. 00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:31.839 They are evil beasts, they are lazy gluttons. 00:28:32.480 --> 00:28:34.400 That's what Paul calls them in the book of Titus. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:35.920 And I think it's true. 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:37.680 They're there. 00:28:37.839 --> 00:28:38.880 And then Arabians. 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:40.720 Arabians are Arabs. 00:28:40.960 --> 00:28:45.200 And some Arabs were Jews, especially those around Damascus. 00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:47.920 So there's likely people from Damascus here. 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:49.519 That's the Kree you've got. 00:28:49.599 --> 00:28:53.440 So this is a very eclectic group from all over the world. 00:28:53.680 --> 00:28:55.759 It's as far flung as you can imagine. 00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:10.240 And they're hearing twelve guys plus a hundred and ten others speaking in their languages, their languages of their little, their their domain, their languages of their home nation. 00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:13.759 They're hearing these people speak in it perfectly. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:16.720 And they're astonished. 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:22.079