SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Is that better?
SPEAKER_01: Did you hear that I thanked you guys for being just so cool?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Well I um I'm not sure if Jason is tuning in, but he is somewhere in the wilderness where he feels at his best fishing and doing outdoor things.
SPEAKER_01: So we hope, Jason, if you're tuning in, that you're having a wonderful time there with your family, and I hope you see a lot of uh wildlife out there in Montana.
SPEAKER_01: Are we living in the old covenant or new covenant?
SPEAKER_01: This is old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Put up your hand.
SPEAKER_01: New covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, most of you are in the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure where the rest of you are who didn't put up your hand, but nevertheless.
SPEAKER_01: When did we transition from the old covenant to the new covenant?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But when was that that day date change that we like?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, today's new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday was old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: This amazing chapter in Acts chapter 2 will answer that question.
SPEAKER_01: But you know, you send your kids off to college, you pay a lot of money, and then often you go, like, what did I pay for?
SPEAKER_01: But uh my daughter Olivia is at college, and I actually think I'm getting my money's worth there because she called me up and said, Dad, did you know that there are still Samaritans around?
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, What?
SPEAKER_01: Like the biblical Samaritans?
SPEAKER_01: She's like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: And they actually sacrifice animals.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, no, I gotta check this out.
SPEAKER_01: And Google uh never lies.
SPEAKER_01: And um I I I Google this, and sure enough, there are Samaritans.
SPEAKER_01: There's a Samaritan community living in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: They approximately 900 to 1200 individuals, and they primarily primarily speak Arabic, Arabic and Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: They are a very peculiar group of people, and they somehow stuck in time.
SPEAKER_01: Their religious practices go back 2,000 years before Christ, and it's loosely based on the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, to this very day, they only accept the first five books of the Bible, also known as the Pentateuch.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I've got a very good audience here this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Written by wow, okay.
SPEAKER_01: Half of my work's done for today.
SPEAKER_01: And watching the celebration of Passover is absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_01: They go to all these mountains where they believe uh the the ark uh landed and where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac, but they somehow stuck in this dispensational time warp because they sacrifice animals.
SPEAKER_01: They actually sacrifice the lamb on the Passover and they paint themselves with the blood of that lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And they also paint their doorposts with the blood of that lamb.
SPEAKER_01: And while these folks are very sincere, they seem very genuine, I do believe they are stuck in the past and have not transitioned to the present reality.
SPEAKER_01: And one might ask, did these folk not receive the memo that says there has been a reset?
SPEAKER_01: And this morning I want to talk about a reset.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not gonna talk about the great reset where uh the WEF and Klaus Schwab said that by 2030 you will own nothing, but you will still be happy.
SPEAKER_01: There's some good news waiting for you six years from now, and you won't own anything, but you'll be happy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the Pentecost reset, and this was the point of transition from the old covenant to the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And a very exciting passage, but yet a very complicated passage in one way or another, because there's a lot of things here uh that that will need some explanation.
SPEAKER_01: So this morning I'm gonna go through the passage that that Web read, and that is Acts chapter 2, and I'm not gonna reread that because we've done that, but I'm gonna show you this morning five features of the Pentecost reset.
SPEAKER_01: Five features of the Pentecost reset.
SPEAKER_01: Can I get some slide movement here?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just try the clicker again.
SPEAKER_01: There we go.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Clicker is going.
SPEAKER_01: Five features of the Pentecost reset that I hope will provide you with some more clarity about the one, the birth of the church, and number two, the new role of the Holy Spirit in the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: But also I would show you that people are sometimes stuck in time because transitioning for human beings is often hard.
SPEAKER_01: Change from the old to the new is hard for people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna give you five aspects of the Pentecost reset.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just calling this the Pentecost reset.
SPEAKER_01: This is the day of the reset, the dynamics of the reset, the display of the reset, the documentation of the reset, and the doubt of the reset.
SPEAKER_01: And once we get to point number four, it's probably gonna be at noon, and then we'll probably have to wrap it up.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the day of reset.
SPEAKER_01: What was the day here?
SPEAKER_01: The day is Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 1 there.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 2, verse 1, the day of the reset.
SPEAKER_01: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
SPEAKER_01: These are the apostles, 12 of them gathering in the upper room.
SPEAKER_01: That very same upper room, it very likely was the upper room where Jesus celebrated the Passover with his disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Pentecost is an Old Testament feast.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we read about it, for example, Leviticus 23, 16, and it says, there you shall count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: Then you shall present a new grain offering.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we think about the day of the Pentecost, it it was fifty days between Passover and Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: And according to Arnold Frichtenbaum, he says Pentecosts celebrated God's faithfulness looking back.
SPEAKER_01: But also it was a feast looking forward of the promise of more things to come.
SPEAKER_01: It was a feast of first fruit, a feast of ingathering.
SPEAKER_01: It also celebrated God's covenant with Israel.
SPEAKER_01: And so, no doubt, Pentecost was one of those feasts that brought into remembrance God's covenant faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And as I was studying this passage, I was thinking, why don't we talk and think more covenant?
SPEAKER_01: I've been in ministry for many years.
SPEAKER_01: I can't remember when last I preached a sermon on covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Covenant is a big thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so one of these feasts, actually, all the feasts of Israel, brought to remembrance God's faithfulness, and these feasts were connected with the agricultural calendar and usually had to do with the harvest of a crop.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, if we look here in this passage, Luke uses specific words.
SPEAKER_01: In your translation, it might read, and my translation, it may read as follows when the day of Pentecost had come.
SPEAKER_01: Now in the Greek, that word had come is not there.
SPEAKER_01: The word there is fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: Luke is very specific, and it's one of his favorite idioms.
SPEAKER_01: The word fulfill or being filled.
SPEAKER_01: And this word here is specifically tailored to show the theological and prophetical fulfillment happening at this point.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, the theological fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: Let's think of the theological fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: Who fulfilled the Passover?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament feast of Passover because he himself would be what?
SPEAKER_01: The Passover lamb slain from the beginning of the world.
SPEAKER_01: He was slain as a sacrificial lamb and therefore perfectly fulfilled the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: Any celebration of the Passover today is saying basically, Jesus, you were not good enough.
SPEAKER_01: We need more lambs.
SPEAKER_01: And he was the once-for-all perfect sacrifice slain for your and my sins.
SPEAKER_01: And so Christ's death completely fulfilled the Passover.
SPEAKER_01: But there's another thing about his blood sacrificed for us on the cross, and that is the covenantal aspects of his blood.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 9.18 says that the first covenant was inaugurated with blood.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 9.18.
SPEAKER_01: For a covenant to be inaugurated, there was to be a blood sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus, his blood, was poured out to inaugurate a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: You can turn to Luke 22, 20, and I'll show you something there.
SPEAKER_01: And we will celebrate communion a little later this morning.
SPEAKER_01: But there's something to be said of that Passover meal, looking forward to what's going to happen at Pentecost.
SPEAKER_01: Luke 22, 20.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus in the same way took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Before a covenant can be inaugurated, there has to be blood.
SPEAKER_01: The old covenant was the blood of a lamb.
SPEAKER_01: The new covenant was the blood of a perfect lamb, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a prophetical fulfillment here too, because while Jesus instituted a new covenant at Passover, he paid the blood sacrifice, the price for that covenant to come into effect.
SPEAKER_01: That covenant would not come into effect until Pentecost, 50 days later.
SPEAKER_01: And if we think about Pentecost and the prophetical things happening at this point, our mind in Acts 2 needs to go back to Jeremiah 31, 31.
SPEAKER_01: Where God the prophet Jeremiah talks about a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Jeremiah 31, 31 says, Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: The prophets spoke about a time of a new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And if we, as we go through this, we got to think about some of the dynamics of this new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: There's a whole new set of dynamics.
SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of people erroneously think that the old covenant was a covenant of works.
SPEAKER_01: You had to work to earn your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: That is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Salvation has always been by grace alone, through faith alone.
SPEAKER_01: The new covenant is no different.
SPEAKER_01: But what is different with the new covenant is its dynamics, especially as it pertains to the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to show you that.
SPEAKER_01: Ezekiel 36, 27 reads, I will put my spirit where?
SPEAKER_01: Within you.
SPEAKER_01: In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did not permanently indwell people.
SPEAKER_01: People had the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It was a non-permanent abiding presence.
SPEAKER_01: That's why David prays and he says, Do not take your spirit away from me.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you could pray that because he was in the old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: But we as new covenant believers have this not presence of the Holy Spirit, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So there was a definite day in time when people were indwelt with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And Ezekiel 36, 27 prophesied about a day that this will happen.
SPEAKER_01: But there's a new dynamic in the new covenant community, which now includes you and me.
SPEAKER_01: It includes you and me.
SPEAKER_01: The old covenants would, the old covenant singular, would exclude you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: We're not Jews.
SPEAKER_01: We're not Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe some of you might.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I would not have been included in the old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: But Joel 2.28 makes this prophetical announcement that there will come a day that God will pour out his spirit on what?
SPEAKER_01: All humanity.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't know about your definition of the word all, but when the Bible says all, it means all.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And so this new covenant has two new dynamics: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and number two, the international nature of the covenant community.
SPEAKER_01: No longer is it an Israel-only or exclusively to Jews covenant.
SPEAKER_01: The new covenant incorporates all nations into this divine spiritual blessing of salvation and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And so Pentecost would mark the starting point.
SPEAKER_01: It was a reset in which the old covenant went out and the new covenant came in.
SPEAKER_01: And Pentecost was your day.
SPEAKER_01: And then on April 27th, 1994, it was the new South Africa.
SPEAKER_01: And I woke up that very next morning with a new president, a new cabinet, a new form of government, a new flag, a new national anthem, a new constitution.
SPEAKER_01: New street names, new city names, new, new, new, new.
SPEAKER_01: You think that wasn't jarring?
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't even sing my national anthem.
SPEAKER_01: It was in a different language.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was equally jarring for people.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, ugh.
SPEAKER_01: New covenant?
SPEAKER_01: So because change is hard for people, and people don't transition well, and people who've been ingrained in their religion for many years might go, I ain't changing.
SPEAKER_01: It's work.
SPEAKER_01: Why change it?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so there were three dramatic displays at the reset.
SPEAKER_01: Three dramatic displays at the reset to show that a portion of biblical history is now closing and we're opening up a new chapter of biblical history.
SPEAKER_01: And these three displays are by none other than the third person of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Never have we seen the Holy Spirit be displayed in this way in the entire Bible up to now.
SPEAKER_01: First display: there was a sound from heaven that sounded like a violent rushing wind, but you couldn't see the wind.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, wind?
SPEAKER_01: But nothing is blowing away.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 2, verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind.
SPEAKER_01: And it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
SPEAKER_01: And once again, Luke is employing this filling metaphor that he likes using.
SPEAKER_01: And he says this rushing wind, though it wasn't a wind, it was like a wind, filled the whole house.
SPEAKER_01: And that wind came from where?
SPEAKER_01: Heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we should start thinking something's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: At this point, the Holy Spirit has not been involved in human history quite the way it got involved here.
SPEAKER_01: And this may remind us of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night.
SPEAKER_01: In John 3.8, he says, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it's going, so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: And you know the interesting thing, whether you look at the Greek or whether you look at the Hebrew, the word wind and the word spirit is one word.
SPEAKER_01: And they use it interchangeably.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Jesus speaks about when the wind blows, he's not talking about the north wind or the south wind.
SPEAKER_01: He's talking about the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So just keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_01: Next display here is the tongues of fire.
SPEAKER_01: The tongues of fire.
SPEAKER_01: You see these pictures with little fires on people's head, but he says it as if it was fire.
SPEAKER_01: He's not saying it is fire.
SPEAKER_01: He says it's as if it's fire.
SPEAKER_01: It has the appearance of tongues of fire there, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, or as if it was fire, distributing themselves, and they rest it on each one of them.
SPEAKER_01: And these are the twelve apostles sitting in the upper room.
SPEAKER_01: And again, we got to give grace to Luke's economy of words here because he's trying to capture a supernatural event.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, how do I explain this to people?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, uh fire is often indicative of the divine presence.
SPEAKER_01: When Moses stood where?
SPEAKER_01: At a burning bush.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I'm here.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Elijah, he saw fire and wind.
SPEAKER_01: And John the Baptist in Luke 3:16 says, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
SPEAKER_01: Could this be the fire that Jesus talked about?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but it's it's a relatively proximal cross reference here, but I will let that be.
SPEAKER_01: But in any case, everything here is attributed to the work of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, something we've not seen in history this far.
SPEAKER_01: And so, really, everything up.
SPEAKER_01: To Acts 2 was Old Testament in one way or another.
SPEAKER_01: Old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: The new covenant begins at Acts 2.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: And here is something, again, that we've not really witnessed in the Old Testament, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And here again, Luke is somewhat obsessed with this work of the filling of the Holy Spirit, and it's all through Acts.
SPEAKER_01: All through Acts.
SPEAKER_01: And just about every time somebody is filled with the Holy Spirit, you know what happens?
SPEAKER_01: They dance and they fall over.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: They speak boldly.
SPEAKER_01: Every time you hear and Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, he spoke boldly.
SPEAKER_01: But here they spoke, but they spoke with what?
SPEAKER_01: Other tongues.
SPEAKER_01: If this is not being a wild ride, it is going to become a wild ride very soon.
SPEAKER_01: Buckle up, buttercup.
SPEAKER_01: Acts 2, verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
SPEAKER_01: They were speaking through the Holy Spirit with the voice of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And they began to speak in other tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the readers of this passage has notoriously taken license to reinterpret and say what the text is not saying.
SPEAKER_01: It has caused division in fellowship.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, it has driven a sharp line between Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal churches.
SPEAKER_01: That defines a Pentecostal church and a non-Pentecostal church.
SPEAKER_01: This is how we view this speaking of other tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me just draw you to verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Cretans and Arabs, we hear them in our own tongues, speaking of the mighty deeds of God.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, of the multitude of nations represented there.
SPEAKER_01: Now just remember, Pentecost was one of those feasts that as a Jew you had to make the trek back to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Passover, they would come for Passover, but some authors and historians say that Pentecost was much better attended than Passover.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: The wither is better.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, it's wither.
SPEAKER_01: People would come.
SPEAKER_01: And for example, of all the multitude of nations, he says the Cretans and the Arabs, for example, they were hearing these apostles talking about the mighty deeds of God in their mother tongues.
SPEAKER_01: If you were from Crete, the language that you spoke was Minoan, the ancient language of Manoah.
SPEAKER_01: And the Arabs would obviously speak Arabic.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we think about these foreign tongues, what are their purposes?
SPEAKER_01: What is the purpose?
SPEAKER_01: And some would say, well, it's so that people can hear the gospel in a multitude of languages.
SPEAKER_01: Look, we as Americans have a disadvantage.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us can speak what?
SPEAKER_01: Anglaise, right?
SPEAKER_01: But growing up in the ancient Near East, you would probably be able to speak Latin, Greek, and Aramaic.
SPEAKER_01: So if God wanted to communicate with people, he could have used any of those three languages.
SPEAKER_01: But he goes further.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what I call the documentary proofs.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that we look at, if we want to see this being authentic, it has to have some authentication on it.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a diamond ring and it's worth like a gazillion bucks, okay, you've got a little certificate that says this diamond is worth, you know, a hundred million dollars, whatever the case might be, right?
SPEAKER_01: Here is the documentation of the reset.
SPEAKER_01: Here is something being said of the Holy Spirit's new covenant operation, especially for the Jews.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, these people are stubborn, they're stuck in time.
SPEAKER_01: And now you want to tell me God is going to include all peoples, tribes, and tongues?
SPEAKER_01: Forget it.
SPEAKER_01: That's not God.
SPEAKER_01: And so as we see people here, verses five to seven, bursting forth, speaking in tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: That word living is like temporarily living there because of the Pentecost celebration.
SPEAKER_01: These were devout men speaking of people who were Old Testament Jewish believers.
SPEAKER_01: But it says they were from what?
SPEAKER_01: Every nation under heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 6, so we've got this international representation there.
SPEAKER_01: The crowd came together and they heard people worshiping God, speaking of the great works of God, but they're hearing it in their own mother tongues, their dialect wherever they are at.
SPEAKER_01: This goes up to Mesopotamia, right up into the Caucasus Mountains.
SPEAKER_01: This is probably going as far as Spain, North Africa, Ethiopia, Arabia, Rome.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, people are from all over.
SPEAKER_01: And because they are hearing people speaking in their language, they are freaked out.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it says verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: They were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.
SPEAKER_01: And so when Luke uses the word language and the word tongues, he's kind of using it interchangeably.
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, when he uses the word language, you know which word he uses in Greek?
SPEAKER_01: Dialectos.
SPEAKER_01: And we get the English word from dialect.
SPEAKER_01: And it says there in verse 7 they were astonished.
SPEAKER_01: Why are not all why are all are all let's try again.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: They were amazed and astonished, saying, Why are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
SPEAKER_01: It's like these people are from Galilee.
SPEAKER_01: And now they're speaking my language.
SPEAKER_01: They did not learn this language, they didn't go to language school, they didn't have Google Translate.
SPEAKER_01: The apostles were predominantly Galileans.
SPEAKER_01: They were proficient in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, but now they can speak more.
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
SPEAKER_01: Paul Bochi, say good morning to me in Afrikaans.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Paul's shaking his head.
SPEAKER_01: I know Ben can.
SPEAKER_01: Say it, Ben.
SPEAKER_01: Hoya mora, Hoya Mora.
SPEAKER_01: He learned that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's just qualify.
SPEAKER_01: He's not speaking in a foreign tongue.
SPEAKER_01: He is, but he learned that.
SPEAKER_01: These people were speaking a non-native language, a language other than their mother tongue, you uh unlearned.
SPEAKER_01: And people could understand.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: How is it that we hear them in our own language to which we are born?
SPEAKER_01: I mean these people are not that cool that they could just learn this in like a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if this was ecstatic utterances or babblings, or some call it gibberish, because quote unquote, this is the language of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Why in verse 11 does it say Arabs and Cretans heard them speak in their mother tongue?
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that Luke is using the word dialectos?
SPEAKER_01: Well, simply because these were spoken languages all over the ancient near is.
SPEAKER_01: They were foreign languages but unlearned languages, and therefore the crowds are amazed and bewildered.
SPEAKER_01: Period.
SPEAKER_01: Gibberish or ecstatic utterances, nonsensical speech would not amaze people.
SPEAKER_01: It would irritate people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if my if we were on the road trip as uh with with the family, if one way that we could drive Mariki nuts was when we as kids, well, kids, not the kids, uh, we we spoke wookie to each other in the car.
SPEAKER_01: Wookie, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It goes like this, look a lika like a tuki daka woke a mekamuka dickamaka bookabitika woo pooke diku too.
SPEAKER_01: And that means good morning.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we killed a lot of miles on the road trips uh across America.
SPEAKER_01: But that that would just irritate people, right?
SPEAKER_01: But the miracles of tongues here have a twofold purpose.
SPEAKER_01: They have a twofold purpose and serves as documentary proof of prophetical fulfillment, and there's a large symbolic component here.
SPEAKER_01: So let's look at the prophetical aspects here.
SPEAKER_01: God prophesied way back in Isaiah 28, because Israel is so stubborn, it doesn't listen to God speaking to them in their own language.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna bring people from all kinds of languages to shame them, to bring them to envy, to indeed provoke them to listen to him.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to Isaiah 28.
SPEAKER_01: I've got it up there.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 28, 11.
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, he will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.
SPEAKER_01: There's your prophetical fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: God said he's gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: God's gonna do that.
SPEAKER_01: And remember, these people here are Jews.
SPEAKER_01: The Jews of the diaspora, they dispersed all over the world, and they hear for Pentecost, and God is speaking to them in their mother tongues.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, the symbolic aspects of tongues.
SPEAKER_01: The effect of a foreign language at Pentecost was to demonstrate that the new covenant has an international character, a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-people character.
SPEAKER_01: And that's in fulfillment, too, of the prophecy of Joel 2.28.
SPEAKER_01: And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on what?
SPEAKER_01: All flesh.
SPEAKER_01: And that is translated in the NASB as all mankind.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna quote my professor here, the late Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Larry Pettigrew, as he writes, he says, Yet nothing more aptly expresses the will of God for world mission of the church than proclaiming the great deeds of God in the world's languages.
SPEAKER_01: This is what gives the Pentecost story its beauty and its meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Remember what Jesus said?
SPEAKER_01: He said, make disciples of who?
SPEAKER_01: All nations.
SPEAKER_01: Not just Jews, all nations.
SPEAKER_01: And remember in Acts 1.8, he says, Stay put until you receive the Holy Spirit, right?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Then you will go out and make disciples of all nations, beginning in Jerusalem, then going to Judea, then moving to what?
SPEAKER_01: Samaria, and to the ends of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And if you trace that, every time that people burst out in foreign tongues, it happens at that same occasion that the word of the gospel reaches those people groups in those areas.
SPEAKER_01: So this is what Dr.
SPEAKER_01: Petagro says.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Whereas the program of God had previously centered on the nation of Israel, the foot of foreign language serves as a powerful indication of a new program that extends beyond Israel.
SPEAKER_01: It is now operative.
SPEAKER_01: So no doubt the display of tongues was to serve as documentary proof that the new covenant is here, that the Holy Spirit is here.
SPEAKER_01: And it's this transition from the old to the new.
SPEAKER_01: The day after Pentecost was the entrance into the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit would now indwell people, and now all nations participate in God's covenant community.
SPEAKER_01: That is all good news, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad we, you know, uh, I mean, uh, if I was speeding today, I don't speed normally, but if I was, I've got to offer a little chicken or a little dove or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: Glad we don't need to do that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: It's gruesome.
SPEAKER_01: But in any case, uh we don't we're no longer in the old covenant.
SPEAKER_01: Uh the Holy Spirit permanently indwells believers, He's their seal of salvation, and it includes all nations.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we do missions.
SPEAKER_01: It's because the new covenant is here.
SPEAKER_01: But here's a sad point.
SPEAKER_01: Even though this is a transition with new dynamics, a new display of the Holy Spirit, everything here is outright miraculous.
SPEAKER_01: People are odd-speaking, wookie.
SPEAKER_01: Great things are happening.
SPEAKER_01: It is here.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Not everybody's on board.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some are.
SPEAKER_01: Some are confused and they need explanation, and the explanation comes next week, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh Acts 2, 14 to 47.
SPEAKER_01: That's the explanation, but you'll have to wait for part two here next week.
SPEAKER_01: I hopefully could explain to you exactly what's happening here and how Peter is explaining it.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, Acts 2.12.
SPEAKER_01: It says there, and they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, What does this mean?
SPEAKER_01: Having legitimate questions, being genuinely amazed, wanting answers is not the same as rejection.
SPEAKER_01: I think if I was there, I was like, What does this all mean?
SPEAKER_01: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: And they need an explanation, they will get the explanation.
SPEAKER_01: God never leaves people hanging, at least when it comes to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: But however, like with all things, it needs to be received with faith.
SPEAKER_01: Without a personal faith, it will only lead to what?
SPEAKER_01: Skepticism and criticism.
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what happened in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: What's happening there?
SPEAKER_01: Some people have legitimate questions, right?
SPEAKER_01: They're amazed, they're like, Wow, I've never seen this before.
SPEAKER_01: Something must be going on here.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the same.
SPEAKER_01: I was at Pentecost last year, it's not the same this year, right?
SPEAKER_01: In verse 13, he says, But others were mocking and saying, They are full of sweet wine.
SPEAKER_01: Like a good old shot of sherry.
SPEAKER_01: And it's early morning, these people are drunk.
SPEAKER_01: Others were mocking.
SPEAKER_01: Some of the translations say that some were sneering.
SPEAKER_01: And here's something to be said of God doing this great work.
SPEAKER_01: And God has done great works all through history.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a monumental, climactic work following 50 days after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And people respond with skepticism, cynicism, criticism, condescension, despite overwhelming evidence.
SPEAKER_01: Why is it that the people just don't see it?
SPEAKER_01: How's it?
SPEAKER_01: How is it that some go, whoa, this is cool?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it means, but uh this must be from God.
SPEAKER_01: And others go, yeah, they they they they've been boozing.
SPEAKER_01: They went to the bar this morning.
SPEAKER_01: First Corinthians two.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think I got a slide for 1 Corinthians 2.
SPEAKER_01: But in any case, 1 Corinthians 2, 10.
SPEAKER_01: This is a this is a verse that we all should memorize because it will explain a lot of things in life to us.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 2, verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: For to God, for us, for to us, God revealed them through the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
SPEAKER_01: You see, in order to understand the depths of God, we need the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And the Holy Spirit will explain the depths of God to us.
SPEAKER_01: Without the Holy Spirit, we don't see it.
SPEAKER_01: Period.
SPEAKER_01: You see, these folks, some were amazed and perplexed, others were just outright in opposition.
SPEAKER_01: They rejected it.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it seemed stupid to them.
SPEAKER_01: It was folly and foolishness to them.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they were in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 2.14.
SPEAKER_01: When some people are resistant to things of God, they critical, condescending, maybe outright belligerent.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 2.14 explains that.
SPEAKER_01: But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised.
SPEAKER_01: You see, resisting the Holy Spirit will make us not see things in its proper perspective.
SPEAKER_01: Things will seem crazy and nutty to them.
SPEAKER_01: Pentecost was a spiritual occasion.
SPEAKER_01: It was to be appraised and evaluated spiritually combined with faith, and which is a great lesson for us today.
SPEAKER_01: There are some lessons here, and I hate to end it somehow on a negative because this is really amazing.
SPEAKER_01: You and I wouldn't be sitting here if the new covenant didn't include you and me.
SPEAKER_01: You and I wouldn't be sitting here listening to this passage and go, whoo, this is amazing if the Spirit of God was not indwelling you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: God is in the business of change.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't change, but He does change the way He engages us.
SPEAKER_01: He changes the way that He works with us.
SPEAKER_01: It changes part of the package.
SPEAKER_01: It's part impossible of being a believer in the living God.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.
SPEAKER_01: The old things have passed away.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, new things have come.
SPEAKER_01: You see, for too many people sit in the church, they stick to the old ways.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Yeah, uh you've been here for a long time, but you know some people have known you for like a long time.
SPEAKER_01: You still the change.
SPEAKER_01: There seems to be no change.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you it has to change because you would new.
SPEAKER_01: Creature in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the old things have passed away.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, new things have come.
SPEAKER_01: Becoming a Christian involves change.
SPEAKER_01: It's not just a one-time change, it's a continuous process of change.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't like change, Christianity is not for you, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: Christianity is not for you.
SPEAKER_01: Christians are moved by the Holy Spirit of God, and they are driven to do amazing things, to reach cultures from across the oceans.
SPEAKER_01: They don't like, spirit-driven people don't like things to stay the same.
SPEAKER_01: And yet we can be so steeped in our transition, in our traditions, that we resist transition.
SPEAKER_01: Here was a very clear transition.
SPEAKER_01: Very clear transition, and some said, things have been working well for years.
SPEAKER_01: Why change?
SPEAKER_01: There were people like that.
SPEAKER_01: We've always done it this way.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I brought my friend here.
SPEAKER_01: Where's he from?
SPEAKER_01: He's from Rome.
SPEAKER_01: Me Antonio.
SPEAKER_01: My middle name is Roman.
SPEAKER_01: Marius.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what my parents were thinking.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, well.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe because I acted like a little Roman when I was little.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But nevertheless, imagine bringing somebody to church, and you're like, yeah, he's not a Jew.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it can't be.
SPEAKER_01: He can't be part of this.
SPEAKER_01: I met a guy once who did some work and ministry in church, and he brought people to church.
SPEAKER_01: And one day one of the elders went up to him and he says, What is it with all these new people you're bringing to church?
SPEAKER_01: What is it with all these new people?
SPEAKER_01: And the guy said, Well, who are these new people?
SPEAKER_01: They've been here for five years.
SPEAKER_01: And you still see them as quote-unquote new people.
SPEAKER_01: We don't like change.
SPEAKER_01: We don't like new people.
SPEAKER_01: We want things cozy and the same.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some of you sit in the same spot every Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm getting to that stage in life.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, you're sitting on my spot.
SPEAKER_01: How can I worship if I'm not in my same spot?
SPEAKER_01: I think years a lesson.
SPEAKER_01: I I'm not advocating year for change for the sake of change.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But often God does something and he moves people through his spirit, and things don't always make sense to us.
SPEAKER_01: And we need to show discernment, don't get me wrong, but to just blanketly blanket statements say we have a long history here.
SPEAKER_01: We've always done things in this way, might just very well be resisting the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_01: No differently than these people that were sitting here or standing in Acts 2 30 and say, This is nonsense.
SPEAKER_01: This is stupid.
SPEAKER_01: So resistance to biblical renewal and spiritual transformation is not only a church thing, it's a spiritual thing.
SPEAKER_01: God calls you to change your ways every day.
SPEAKER_01: God is not happy that you saved and stuck.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's no such a thing as the saved but stuck Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Christians change.
SPEAKER_01: Christians are renewed.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 2.12.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to think differently.
SPEAKER_01: You got to act differently than yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: You're going to be renewed biblically.
SPEAKER_01: So change is not just for the church.
SPEAKER_01: Church is for you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Change is an everyday thing.
SPEAKER_01: Renew your mind.
SPEAKER_01: And that word in Romans 2.12 is this constant, perpetual renewal.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to think biblically.
SPEAKER_01: You have to detox from the world because you've been programmed by the world all your life.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to detox from that and embrace God's way.
SPEAKER_01: Change is part and parcel of being a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: So let's think about those Samaritans.
SPEAKER_01: The story of those Samaritans.
SPEAKER_01: You think they embraced the Pentecost reset.
SPEAKER_01: They like, no, we got to stick to our own ways.
SPEAKER_01: And every Passover they gather together, they do their ritual, and they sacrifice lambs.
SPEAKER_01: And basically what they are saying is what you did to God was not convincing enough.
SPEAKER_01: That Pentecost thing, that was just like that was just a dog and pony show.
SPEAKER_01: And we gotta learn from that.
SPEAKER_01: Change is hard.
SPEAKER_01: Waking up in the quote unquote New South Africa was tremendously hard.
SPEAKER_01: It was so hard that millions of people immigrated to different countries.
SPEAKER_01: They just couldn't handle change.
SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to biblical change and when the Spirit of God is at work, we gotta go along.
SPEAKER_01: We gotta go along with the plan.
SPEAKER_01: So my dear friends, we've got a long history here.
SPEAKER_01: Sixty years, I believe, a little longer than I've been in existence.
SPEAKER_01: But guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna do things the same way that we did the past sixty years?
SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna just like it's always worked?
SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm not advocating change for the sake of change, but if we want to be stuck to when things began 60 years ago, we we might kind of fall out of vogue.
SPEAKER_01: We might just lose our place in God's plan of redeeming the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray and ask God to help us and change, and uh that we also will be ready here to embrace uh what is coming in terms of communion and prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper.
SPEAKER_01: Dear Heavenly Father, Pentecost is just such an amazing event.
SPEAKER_01: So many uh great lessons, Lord, but thank you that your spirit came to dwell in the new covenant believer, and that we have a new covenant, and that we can be part of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why we need to go out and share the gospel with all nations.
SPEAKER_01: Every tribe and tongue needs to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and poured out his spirit upon people.
SPEAKER_01: That's the message people need to hear God and uh make us a church that is uh uh not just uh happy to subcontract missions to other people, to outsource missions.
SPEAKER_01: Missions is everybody's job here, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: While we might not be called to full-time vocational ministry, we are called to be disciple makers.
SPEAKER_01: And and here in Grand Forks, we will reach the nations.
SPEAKER_01: There are so many foreigners here that have not heard the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And so, God, stir up within our hearts this passion to share the new covenant news with all nations.
SPEAKER_01: I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.