Keep sharing good news without ads.
Reading Acts 2:1-13 where the Holy Spirit comes upon the apostles in the upper room, and they go into Jerusalem preaching the gospel. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
When the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles, He settled on them as tongues of fire. Now when we receive the Spirit of God, it may not have looked like that, but we received the same power they did when we understand the text.
You're listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website www .tt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.
Thank you, Becky. A delight to be with you all as we continue our study of the book of Acts. Today in chapter 2, and I'll begin by reading verses 1 through 13. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.
We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine. So at the start of chapter two here, this is the day of Pentecost.
And of course, that's what we're reading about. That day that is known as Pentecost. We know it as the day that God gave the Holy Spirit to his children, to the disciples in particular. But then all who would come to know Jesus Christ and follow him would likewise be filled with the Holy Spirit.
But what does this word mean? What is Pentecost? Well, Penta as a prefix, you probably recognize meaning five. So from the Greek, this translates as 50th or 50 days. It is 50 days after Passover. Pentecost is what it's called in Greek.
In Hebrew, the name of the holiday is Shavuot, or as we read about it in the Old Testament, the Feast of Weeks. And there was a double significance of the Feast of Weeks. It celebrated the wheat harvest in Israel.
But most importantly and more specifically, it is celebrating the anniversary of the day that God gave the law to Israel at Mount Sinai. And all of this is significant. Remember that Christ's death at Passover fulfilled all the types and shadows regarding Passover, everything that was pointing to Christ, who was to be our Passover lamb.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, for Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. So he is the one who is sacrificed as an atonement for sins so that all who believe, all who have faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven and we have fellowship, right standing with God our Father in heaven.
Then you fast forward 50 days to Pentecost. When God gave the law to Israel, and that's what's being celebrated there at Pentecost, but the law was powerless to save. In Romans 8, 3, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.
By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who were to walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God, cannot submit to His law. The law is powerless to save.
Going on in verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. We see this gift of the Spirit that overcomes the Spirit of sin and death, or the law of sin and death, rather.
For the law was powerless to save, couldn't save us. We could not be saved by the keeping of the law, but we are saved by the Spirit of God that has been given. And now with the Spirit of God, we are able to walk in God's statutes in such a way that is holy and pleasing and acceptable to Him.
This goes back to Ezekiel 36, where God promises through the prophet Ezekiel, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I will give you a soft heart and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
All of this fulfilled at Pentecost, showing once again to the children of Israel in particular, because that's where the gospel is first preached, that the law was powerless to save them. Their keeping of the law, their celebration of the law at this festival was not going to be their salvation.
Their salvation is Christ. Christ who gave himself for our sins and then Christ gave his spirit. He gave himself 50 days earlier at Passover and then 50 days later giving his spirit at Pentecost, his spirit which is life and the power over sin and death, which the law did not have power over.
And so again, all of this is significant as it shows the fulfilling of all these types and shadows that had been given even in the the holidays, the significance of those holy days, of the festivals and weeks that were kept.
In Acts chapter 2, when the day of Pentecost arrived, where were the disciples? They were all together in one place. And actually that word all goes back to in chapter 1 where we were reading about the hundred and twenty in the upper room.
Verse 15, in those days Peter stood up among the brothers, the company of persons was in all about 120 and said, brothers, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas.
And then, of course, that's that's related to Judas. But the scripture is also fulfilled in the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. And Peter is going to explain to the Jews that are celebrating there at this festival the significance of everything that they're observing here.
Because they're hearing the the mighty rushing wind, they see the disciples speaking in tongues, they're confused about all of this. And so Peter gives an explanation of how the law and the prophets were fulfilled through Christ and even the giving of his spirit on this particular day.
So here on the day of Pentecost, in fulfillment of all of these things that God had set forth beforehand to be fulfilled in the fullness of time, they were all together in one place, all being the 120 that were there in the upper room.
So again, as I mentioned yesterday, this is not just 12 disciples, 12 guys who witnessed these things. This is also other men and even women that are gathered here in the upper room at the time that the giving of the Holy Spirit comes upon them.
And it says in verse 2 that there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. This also goes back to Ezekiel, for it's in Ezekiel chapter 37 where the prophet Ezekiel is overlooking the Valley of Dry Bones and God tells him to prophesy over these bones.
Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord to these bones, behold I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live and I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live and you shall know that I am the Lord.
So I prophesied as I was commanded, Ezekiel 37 verse 7, and as I prophesied there was a sound, right? Just as here in Acts chapter 2 there was a sound, a mighty rushing wind, so likewise as Ezekiel in a foreshadowing of what would be the preaching of the gospel at Pentecost and even the preaching of the gospel to the world because the Holy Spirit still works the same way.
We might not hear a sound of a rushing wind when we come to salvation but nevertheless the Spirit of God changes the heart of a person to understand the gospel that is being preached so they may believe it and have faith in Jesus and so live.
So again Ezekiel hears a sound and behold a rattling and the bones came together, bone to its bone, and I looked and behold there were sinews on them and flesh had come upon them and skin had covered them but there was no breath in them.
Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy son of man and say to the breath, thus says the Lord God, come from the four winds O breath and breathe on these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me and the breath came into them and the breath is described as coming like four winds.
So again you have the the sound of a rushing wind that comes upon these dead who were raised up and then given life because the Spirit of God had entered them and this is like all of us we are all as dead men in our sins and transgressions in which we once walked.
Paul explains in Ephesians 2 .1 but when the gospel was spoken to us we heard and believed we became like dead men stood upright when we heard that external calling of the gospel but we still didn't have life in us and it wasn't until the Holy Spirit came in and regenerated our hearts from being dead hearts taking that heart of stone out of us and giving us a soft heart the soil being tilled so that when the seed of the gospel the message of the kingdom was sowed in our hearts it would take root and we would understand it it would grow and flourish and produce a fruitful harvest.
All of these things in fulfillment of what had been spoken about in the scriptures even ages ago. Jesus likewise compared the Holy Spirit to wind when Nicodemus questioned Jesus about what he was doing here and how all this stuff is supposed to work being born again.
I don't understand this concept. Jesus says in John 3 5. Truly truly I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Water in the Spirit again is going back to Ezekiel 36.
I will sprinkle clean water on you and I will put my spirit within you. Unless we are cleansed and given the Spirit of God we cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jesus goes on that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not marvel that I said to you you must be born again. The wind Jesus said blows where it wishes and you hear its sound. But you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
How does the Spirit move. We do not know at exactly what point were you saved. Did you go from being a dead man to alive in Christ. That's difficult to discern sometimes to there are some that have a clearer idea than others.
But how does the Spirit move in us. The way that the Spirit moves. It is mysterious. You don't know where the wind comes from. You don't know where it goes. And so the same is true with the Holy Spirit of God.
And here the giving of the Spirit to the disciples there in the upper room is with the sound of a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Now it filled the entire house may mean a couple of different things.
It could mean that the sound filled the house or it could mean that the the wind itself if it was indeed moving like a wind now I understand it says there came a sound like a mighty mighty rushing wind.
So there's nothing here saying that wind was blowing or that anything was necessarily moving but they heard something that sounded like a wind. But but if it was indeed the movement of air if that was involved in and accompanying this sound that came into the room then it likewise filled the entire house where they were sitting.
We know that the sound itself was heard even beyond the house because the sound is what draws the people to the disciples which we read about coming up here in just a little bit. So the sound like a mighty rushing wind filled the entire house where they were sitting.
And verse 3. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Now note here that Luke who is the writer of Acts is using a simile because it contains the words like or as so these are not literal tongues of fire that came and rested upon the disciples.
But it's the best way that Luke knows how to interpret it. That Luke knows how to explain it. Whatever this appearance of the Holy Spirit looked like it was as tongues of fire that had come and rested upon each one of them.
So it was like the Holy Spirit was visible for a moment and and in the the Spirit's kind of flowing movement it appeared as though fire and then rested on each one of them. And they were filled with the Spirit.
It was them seeing as though they were seeing the Spirit himself enter into them. And the appearance of God is often described as fire in the Scriptures the the holy purifying fire of God. Even the wrath of God being described as fire is still holy and purifying because it is going to cleanse and destroy and wipe out all who are evil.
In this particular case it's demonstrating that the holiness of God is entering the very person. And and this is what happens when we become believers in Christ. The Holy Spirit enters us and ransacks the temple that is in our heart all the idols that we had raised up things that we were worshiping and had placed in importance above God the Holy Spirit.
When we are convicted of our sin and place faith in Christ that spirit cleanses our hearts of those idols and instead we become God worshipers. Instead of worshiping the created things we go to worshiping the Creator.
So for us that fire the Holy Spirit that comes within us is purifying in itself though we may not see a tongue of fire that comes upon us. The baptism as of fire has certainly happened the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
There is a Pentecostal teacher and I'm tempted to say who this was but I'm not going to because I think it would distract from the point. But anyway a very well-known Pentecostal teacher just recently wrote a book and in an interview that he was doing for the book he talked about in this interview how the fire of God came upon him to write this book.
And it was just like this writing frenzy and it was because the fire of God was in his fingers. Folks that's that's not what that means. It does not mean that the fire of God is gonna come upon us to passionately passionately pursue our our interests.
It is the Holy Spirit of God that cleanses us from all unrighteousness and gives us a heart that desires God that that turns us toward pursuing righteousness instead of pursuing unrighteousness. This is what the Spirit of God does within us.
Divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. And this is also a fulfilling of the law and the prophets.
For as it says in Isaiah 28 11. For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to his people. So in verse 5 now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven.
And it mentions exactly which nations are talking are being talked about. Which languages were being spoken by the disciples. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.
They heard the sound of the rushing wind. They now see the disciples that are speaking in various tongues. And they were amazed and astonished saying are not all these who are speaking Galilee. Galileans like they recognize these are not educated men.
These are fishermen. Why is it that they're able to speak in languages other than their own tongue from Galilee. And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia Judea and Cappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia Pamphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes Cretans and Arabians we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.
By the way the mentioning of Rome there is significant because the church in Rome would be planted by those who were there in Jerusalem for Pentecost. And when they went back to their homes in Rome they planted a church there.
And so when Paul wrote to the church in Rome the letter that we have that is the Romans that's who he was. That's the church that he was writing to. No apostle had yet been there to Rome at the time that Paul was writing to them though he certainly wanted to come to them.
But that church was planted because of those who had been made converts there at Pentecost. And verse 12 all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another what does this mean. But others mocking said they are filled with new wine.
They think they're drunk. We're gonna talk a little bit more about Pentecost and the sermon that Peter preached there. Tomorrow we'll also be talking more about the this spiritual gift of speaking in tongues because it will come up again in Acts.
We'll bring it up again later. Didn't want to necessarily discuss that now but rather that we would come into a good pneumatology a gifting of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit moves and works in us to change the heart of stone into a heart that desires God.
And every single one of us have been baptized by the Holy Spirit if we are believers and followers of Jesus Christ. No it was not an event that looked like Pentecost when you came to follow Jesus. But nevertheless the same power that came upon the Apostles is the same power that is in you.
Not so that you may speak in tongues but that you may speak of the power of God that has rested upon you in the believing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. Heavenly Father we thank you for the giving of your Spirit.
And by the Spirit that dwells within us we have become temples unto the living God. Our bodies may we present to you as living sacrifices holy and acceptable unto God. This is our spiritual act of worship at this as the Spirit commands in Romans 12 1 teach us to walk humbly with our God and be patient to one another being gracious as you were gracious to us help us to be forgiving of one another encouraging and admonishing each other and holding out the gospel even to those who have not believed so that they too may come to faith and live.
We ask all this in Jesus name. Amen.
Thank you for listening to when we understand the text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry visit our website www .tt .com and click on the gift tab in the top right corner of the page.
Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.