Acts 2:1-14
When Jesus declared “It is finished”
from the cross he meant his work of atonement was finished. He did not mean his
work on our behalf was finished. There
remained more to do.
The Jews who held onto the hope of
the Messiah believed this Anointed Messenger from God would usher in the age of
the Spirit. Remember how John the
Baptizer said of Jesus, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of
whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have
baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
It’s clear that Jesus intended to
fulfill that expectation. John the
Gospel Writer reports that Jesus promised he would give the Spirit and spent
much of the night before the crucifixion explaining the ministry of the Spirit.
Luke tells us that Jesus spent part
of his post-Easter ministry preparing his followers for the coming of the
Spirit. Though Jesus told them they
would be taking the gospel to the whole world, he cautioned them against
beginning prematurely. Speaking of this
promised Spirit, he said, “I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But
stay in the Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Just before the Ascension Jesus
repeated that promise, this time warning them against getting caught up in
speculation about the future:
And while staying with them he ordered them
not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which,
he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you
will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)
This passage in Acts 2 tells the
story of Jesus giving the Spirit.
On our trip to Texas the weather was one
topic of conversation. It often is in
Texas. As we talked about tornadoes, we
recalled an experience we had when we lived in the tiny Panhandle village of Dawn.
One afternoon the sky suddenly darkened and the wind began to blow, to blow
even harder than we were used to on the Panhandle.
Within minutes the house began to shake with
the wind. We ushered the boys into an
inner hallway. I looked out the back door
just in time to see a metal building in our yard collapse. Then, suddenly, everything was quiet and
still.
About two miles away, on a straight
line from our house, another church member had lost several large trees in her
yard. Across the highway from us
eighteen boxcars had been blown off the railroad tracks. We had experienced a small tornado.
That old building in our back yard
was flimsy but not those battered and broken trees, not those boxcars. It took raw power to accomplish that.
Jesus’ gift of the Spirit to
believers is sometimes referred to as the birthday of the church. With that Gift the church received the power
to continue the work of the Risen Christ.
The tornado’s power aimlessly destroyed, the power of the Gift Jesus
gave allowed the new Christians to build.
The presence and power of the Spirit transformed the disciples. Receiving Jesus’ Gift marked a change in the
demeanor of the disciples to such a degree that observers would marvel at their
tenacity and their sense of assurance.
The events of this chapter in Acts
are so important that any church yearning to continue the work of Christ will
consider them carefully.
Let’s examine those events.
Jesus Gave His Gift on a Day to Remember
Pentecost is the Jewish feast day celebrating the first fruits of the barley harvest. Some fifty days after Passover, Pentecost was a holiday associated with the great rejoicing when no work was to be done. Although the feast didn’t have this connotation in the Old Testament by the first century Pentecost was seen by some as commemorating the giving of the Law. According to some, the possession of the Law helped to define the Jews as God’s people. In the same way, the possession of the Spirit would help define the church as God’s people.
In the minds of the Jewish believers,
Jesus’ promise to give the Spirit meant the church would know “the active presence
of God” in the lives and ministry of the Christians.
The disciples were all together in
some place (most likely in “the upper room” mentioned in 1:13). It apparently afforded privacy yet was close
to the temple that the crowds could immediately hear the activity.
In obedience to the Risen Christ’s
command the disciples had returned to Jerusalem to wait, and to pray. After ten days it happened. That day became a day to remember.
1) There was an auditory phenomenon
in the form of “a noise like a violent, rushing wind.” The language suggests it was the sound of a
violent wind but there was no damage. In both the Old Testament and the New
Testament the Spirit is often compared to the wind or breath. This speaks of power, power to shake their
world.
2)
There was a visual phenomenon in the form of “tongues of fire.” The text suggests the fireball first appeared
above the entire company and then it split into smaller tongues that rested
over the heads of the individuals assembled.
The experience was both corporate and
individual. The church as a whole
received the blessing and so, too, did the individual believers. But what was this blessing?
Luke explains that the disciples had
been “filled with the Holy Spirit.” This
is simply stated here with no real exposition but the epistles will explain
that the experience involves being under the influence of the Spirit and having
the presence of Christ wherever they went.
3)
The experience of the Spirit was accompanied by another phenomenon: the disciples began to speak in tongues, “as
the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression (in each tongue in
appropriate words).” (Amplified Bible)
While still experiencing this strange
miracle the disciples left the upper room and apparently headed toward the
temple. They couldn’t help but be heard.
Remember the city was filled with
pilgrims, some having taken up more or less permanent residence, some who may
have been there just for the duration of the holy days.
These pilgrims were from every part
of the Roman world, at least the eastern part of that world. At least fifteen
nations are mentioned. Those pilgrims
marveled that these Galileans were speaking in their particular dialects. Think about this, only a few days before
Jesus had told them they would be taking his message into the entire world; now,
in a remarkable way the world had come to them.
At first, the crowd seemed to be
divided into two groups. Some of the
pilgrims heard the disciples speak of the “mighty works of God” and were
“beside themselves with amazement” and “puzzled,” wondering what it all
meant.
Others, like critics of every age who
believe anyone at all excited about God is mentally unstable, declared the
disciples to be drunk—despite the early hour of the morning.
As unfair as that charge was, it gave
Peter an opening to speak, an opening he seized: He took only a moment to answer the critics
and spent the bulk of his message explaining what God was doing. He preached the gospel.
Now, I want to look at the morning’s
events as a whole. The movements of this
story have been repeated again and again in the history of the church. Many believe they form a pattern that is a precursor
to the church experiencing spiritual renewal and greater effectiveness.
The Pattern of Pentecost
The pattern is so simple we could
possibly miss it. Here it is.
1. They all prayed.
Jesus had told them to wait for the
coming of the Spirit. They spent that
time in prayer. United prayer. Focused prayer. The prayer time began almost as soon as they
had returned to Jerusalem after the Ascension.
Luke tells us in the previous chapter, “All these [disciples] with one
accord were devoting themselves to prayer….” (Acts 1:14) The phrase “with one accord” is
important. It suggests unity and
focus.
It would be wrong to say they agreed
on everything—time would prove they didn’t—but they did agree on the things of
unquestionable importance: they were
united in their determination to carry on Christ’s work in the world and they
were united in their recognizing their
need of God’s own power to do that work.
2. They all witnessed.
The furor which the subject of
“speaking in tongues” sometimes generates may keep us from seeing the important
issue in this event: The 120 believers,
both men and women, left that upper-room prayer meeting witnessing to “the
mighty works of God.” That’s at the
heart of witness, evangelism, sharing the gospel; whatever you may call the
task of calling others to faith will involve telling others what God has
done.
I want you to keep something in mind
about these pilgrims who were attracted to the disciples that morning, they
were probably more cosmopolitan than we might imagine. Chances are the men and women in that
audience were trilingual—speaking Greek, probably a little Aramaic, and their
own dialect. The gift of tongues was not necessary to communicate with them. The disciples could have spoken to them in
Greek, which was almost universally spoken in the Roman world. The experience of speaking in other tongues
was intended to capture their attention and to give affirmation to the
disciples.
Whatever else the experience may have
signified, it was confirmation that the disciples now had supernatural power to
communicate the gospel. And they all had
the joy of participating in that sharing of the good news.
3.
A man stood up to preach.
Preaching is one of the great
traditions of the Christian church.
Christian preaching was born on this day. Peter preached the first sermon.
The event reminds us that there is a
vital link between the witness of the individual Christian and the witness of
the church.
One of the themes running through the
Book of Acts connects the transformed lives of the Christians and the
proclamation of the gospel. Where men
and women lived obviously changed lives, the curiosity of onlookers was piqued
and a door was opened to share the gospel.
That happened when the crowd asked “What does this mean?” and it would
happen again.
The Pattern of Pentecost
and Us.
It’s one thing to examine the events
on the Day of Pentecost and discern a pattern; it’s another to discover how
that pattern translates into our own situation.
Still, it’s important we do so.
It’s important because Jesus hasn’t taken his Gift back. The Gift of the
Spirit is still ours. But sometimes we
act as if he had taken if from us.
A few years ago fifty-two penguins in
the San Francisco Zoo suddenly began swimming in circles. When the workers drained their pool for
cleaning, the penguins began walking in circles around the bottom. While the authorities didn’t have a clear
understanding of what the penguins are doing, they weren’t overly worried. Penguins swim for hundreds of miles in the
wild they were not likely to get too exhausted. In the end, the penguins got out of their
pond after nearly two and a half months of going in circles. They weren’t tired, they just decided enough
was enough and they had other things to do.
Unfortunately, people involved in a
church that is going in circles can become exhausted, discouraged, and
frustrated. And, they too, might decide
they had other things to do.
By no means did the church in the
Book of Acts go in circles. But doesn’t
it sometimes feel like our churches are?
Like the early church we need to focus on continuing the work of Jesus
Christ in world. We need to benefit from
Jesus’ Gift to us.
We can do this by following that
pattern of Pentecost. What will that
mean?
(1)
That church yearning to benefit from Jesus’ Gift will pray with unity of
purpose.
In some cases it may mean
rediscovering that unity of purpose.
Some churches have become confused about that. In some cases it may mean establishing new
priorities. It will certainly mean
seeing ourselves and our talents in a new way, especially if we’ve been
persuaded that a few more training courses, a clever ad campaign, or any other
gimmick is all we need to draw people to faith in Christ. It will mean seeking God’s power as if our
success depended upon it. Because it
does.
(2)
That church yearning to benefit from Jesus’ Gift will encourage each
member to witness to what God is doing in their lives.
The Christian who wants his or her
church to do more than merely maintain the status quo will be concerned about
the impact of his or her life on the watching world. The lives and words of individual Christians
have always determined the effectiveness of the local church.
A quarter of a century ago, Everett
Harrison commented on the remarkable growth of the church in Acts:”There is nothing here to suggest that the
increase was due to more public preaching.
While the possibility of such
preaching must be granted, the more likely explanation for the growth of the
Church at this stage was the transformation observable in the three
thousand. The impact of the few at
Pentecost had broadened and become the impact of the many.”[1]
Remember, the church grew almost thirtyfold that day.
Remember, the church grew almost thirtyfold that day.
(3)
That church yearning to benefit from Jesus’ Gift will communicate the
gospel creatively and clearly.
Certainly that will mean supporting a
pulpit which is faithful in opening up God’s Word and proclaiming it.
At the same time, it will mean using
other ways to communicate the faith to those who would never listen to a
sermon. The Word of the gospel may be
spoken from the pulpit or over a cup of coffee during a private
conversation. It may be communicated in
a carefully crafted letter. Some of you may have the skills to produce a blog or use your facebook page to share your faith.
That Word may be spoken or written;
it may be expressed in standard syntax and style or in a novel, dramatic form
with vivid imagery and poetic cadence.
Sometimes it may even be possible to speak that Word without the
listener knowing you are invoking the Word.
Last
week a disturbing report suggested that many of the older members of the so-called
“millennials,” those born sometime around 1980 until about 2000, have abandoned
faith. I haven’t been able to analyze
the report but I do know these young people are very different from my
generation. Most of what I learned, I
learned from books. Most of what they
learn, they learn from looking at a screen.
I was taught to distinguish between right and wrong. They were too, but
believe the greatest "right" behavior is tolerance and the greatest
"wrong" behavior is judgment.
I had and still have a high regard for “authorities,” they don’t. These young people aren’t likely to listen
much to a sixty-something standing behind a pulpit. They aren’t likely to respond to church
programs that are carried on just because we have always carried them on.
We need Jesus’ Gift if we are going
to reach this generation.
CONCLUSION
The late comedian Flip Wilson used to
portray a character named “Reverend Leroy.”
Reverend Leroy led a congregation called “The Church of What’s Happenin’
Now.” Few of today’s churches are that
blatant in their quest to appeal to a new generation but many have freely
jettisoned the vestiges of that church born on Pentecost. Many of these churches are growing, but more
and more studies show that the commitment of those sitting in their comfortable
chairs is only there as long as the entertainment is appealing and the sermons
aren’t too critical. Still other studies
suggest that many in the mega-churches have just shifted themselves from more
traditional churches—they aren’t really the product of evangelism.
We can be thankful for all they do
reach but even these churches don’t seem to have found the way to benefit from
Jesus’ Gift to the church.
At the same time, the answer is not
found in the example of those churches you see in almost every community, those
churches with the signs which say “Old Fashioned Preaching.” I am always puzzled by that. I’ve studied a little of the history of
preaching and I always wonder what era of preaching their pastor has
copied. Have these churches found the
secret to growth and effectiveness?
No. Often, in the words of a
friend of mine, they are preaching to the birds about the trees.
The secret is not going back some
fifty or seventy-five years to find out how to do church. That’s not going back far enough.
I prepared most of this message
before the word came that Chuck Colson had died. When he announced his conversion just before
he went to jail for his role in the Watergate episode, many thought it was just
a ploy to get a lighter sentence, that his Christian faith wouldn’t last. It did. Colson was a thoroughgoing Evangelical, but he
occasionally challenged his fellow Evangelicals. For example, he encouraged a greater
understanding between Evangelicals and Roman Catholics. And, more famously, he challenged what he saw
as the growing trust in political power to change the society when he warned
that “the Kingdom of God will not arrive on Air Force One.” He reminded his fellow Christians that we
still need Jesus’ Gift.
As we prepare to explore how our
church may do and be more for Christ, I hope we will remember the church that first
received Jesus’ Gift: A church that
wisely depended upon God, a church that involved every member in witness, a
church that confidently, clearly, relevantly, and lovingly proclaimed its
message.
And I hope we remember that Jesus’
Gift keeps on giving.
