Acts 2:1-13. A New Power
Today there are megachurches in some parts of the world that take in millions of pounds each year. They are large corporate organisations and the pastors need MBAs to run them. Some years ago the magazine ‘Business Week’ had as its front page headline,
“Evangelical America – Big Business – Explosive Politics”
Inside was a feature article that discussed this issue. At the end it said,
“For all their seemingly unstoppable success, evangelicalism must contend with powerful forces in United States society. The ranks of Americans who express no religious preference have quadrupled . . . Despite the megachurch surge, overall church attendance has remained fairly flat and if anything popular culture has become more vulgar in recent years.”
It is a great concern that ethical standards amongst those who attend church are so similar to those who do not. These problems are being seen throughout the world. What is the answer?
Jesus must have taught his disciples the importance of the prophecy in Ezekiel 36 because they keep referring to this:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” Ezekiel 36:25-27
The gift of the Holy Spirit is not to give experiences but to enable us to live effectively for God.
This chapter in Ezekiel ends with a promise that God will step in and hear his people’s prayers,
“This is what the sovereign LORD says: ‘Once again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep.” Ezekiel 36:37
Jesus’ followers waited patiently in the upper room with a sense of expectation. Doubtless they studied the Scriptures and prayed. They knew what Jesus had commissioned them to do but were unsure what would happen next.
It is the Holy Spirit who changes how people live and enables them to stand when the pressures are great. It is he who who transforms lives. He revives us and deepens our experience of God.
This passage in Acts chapter 2:1-13 describes the seminal event that was for the whole church, The Holy Spirit comes on every believer and ushers in the new age of the Spirit of God.
Acts 2:14-41 is Peter’s sermon in which he describes the meaning of what had happened at Pentecost. He emphasises Jesus and his death on the cross and that the Holy Spirit has been given so that others may know the great news about him.
Acts 2:42-47 then explains the effect the Holy Spirit had on the 3000 new believers after they were baptised.
1. The need for the Holy Spirit tv. 1-4
Why are many churches in Britain closing down? Why are so few people attending? It is easy to blame the quality of the preaching, the quality of the leaders, the emotionalism or the lack of it, the quality of the music or the lack of that. All these may be factors but essentially the problem is that Christians today do not, as a whole, have a singleminded desire to live their lives for Jesus. How we need this same spirit that the early Christians had, the Holy Spirit. If our churches today are going to reverse the present trends, we must open our lives to God again. We must receive him.
The first disciples had been taught the significance of of Joel’s prophecy,
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28
In the Old Testament God’s Spirit was only given to a few individuals to enable them to do a particular work for God. Joel foresaw the day when all God’s people would be gifted with the Holy Spirit. Peter explains in his sermon what the effect of this would be, all people would share openly with others what the Word of God is about.
These prophets foresaw the day when God would revive and restore his people. He would take out their callous hearts and replace then with sensitive hearts in which God’s law is written. This means that God’s people would be intuitively keen to minister to the whole world. This is what the early followers of \Jesus were praying for in the upper room.
Churches may have good technological skills and good business sense but still be lacking the power that only the Holy Spirit can give.
We cannot organise revival, just as we cannot control God. Revival occurs when God is active in the hearts of people. Our role is to be genuinely open to what he wants to do with us.
Let us test ourselves, do we have this appetite and longing to put god first and do what he says. Is my commitment to God that deep? Our prayer life will mirror how we really think. If we want to be sovereign we will cannot have a deep experience of the Holy Spirit. If we hunger and thirst for him and his pleasure, if we seek to please him above all else then the door is open for us to know again his power.
We evangelicals are often good at our theology but not so good at our intimacy with God. Love for God is always demonstrated by our obedience. Hadn’t Jesus repeatedly said to his disciples in the upper room:
“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15
“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” John 14:21
“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” John 14:23
How can we obey if we do not know God’s commands given in Scripture. It is a disaster to dissociate the guidance of the Holy Spirit from Scripture. The word of God was given to guide us. It is a strange concept of churches to have prayer meetings ‘to seek the mind of God’. We know how God thinks from Scripture. The Quakers in this country fell for such a dichotomy and look what has happened to them. We must prayer to humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God, to commit ourselves to achieving what God has already told us.
How do we experience the power of God again today. It is in the same way that we became Christians. We say to God, ‘I want you to forgive my rebellion against you and take over again.’ We return to that same sense of need and dependance on God. We cannot find this power by ourselves.
The church at Laodicea was similarly to many modern churches. The church members were relatively affluent but self satisfied. God saw their hearts. Their lukewarm commitment to him made him sick! Jesus said to them,
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realise that you are wretched, pitiful, poor blind and naked.” Revelation 3:17
That church was challenged to open their eyes to see their spiritual poverty.
The remedy was to go back to the beginning, and remember how they became Christians,
“So be earnest and repent.” Revelation 3:19
John goes on to explain that they need to allow Christ back into the centre of their lives,
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, |I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20
The members of the church at Ephesus were hard working, theologically sound and had kept going but there was one major problem.
“Yet I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first.” Revelation 2:4
They also need to go back and remember how they started the Christian life,
“Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.” Revelation 2:5
There was an urgent need to change direction,
“If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Revelation 2:5
Surely God is saying to us today, start again and commit ourselves to humbly obey and live for our Saviour.
The Wind and Fire
The young church was all together on the Day of Pentecost, presumably hearing the Scriptures read and explained and praying together. This day was also called the Feast of Harvest of Day of Firstfruits. It is no coincidence that God chose this day to empower his people so that they could go our and win fruit for Christ. Then,
“Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting” Acts 2:1
In the Old Testament ‘breath’ or ‘wind’ was a symbol for the Spirit of God. When Ezekiel given a vision of a valley containing many dry bones, he was told by the Lord to preach to them and say,
“Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” Ezekiel 37:10
Then, using the same Hebrew word for both wind and Spirit (ruach), God says,
“I will pour my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.” Ezekiel 37:14
Fire was also a symbol for God’s presence. Moses met God at the burning bush. The Israelites were let during the exodus by a pillar of fire at night. John the baptist had prophesied,
“But after me will come one who is more powerful that I . . . He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11
This fire is the fire of judgment,
“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matthew 3:12
It is also the light that shows people the way to harmony with God as well as the way to live.
It is also the fire of passion that makes our message so attractive. It is the light of this fire that warms people to Christ.
John Wesley was asked,
‘Why do so many people come to hear you preach?
He replied,
“People just come to see me set myself on fire and burn in front of them!”
The Spirt of god does more that keep us as faithful believers who work for Christ. He gives us that fire and that urgency that the early church had in Acts, that longing to see others won for Christ, that state where all the people in the church, young and old, male and female, are living in the world for Christ’s glory.
2. The need of the nations v. 5-11
When the Holy Spirit comes to us, whether as a church or as individuals, we witness to the whole world.
What is our message?
It is not to talk about the experience we have had. After Pentecost the church did not talk about the sound of wind or the tongues of fire they had experienced. Instead they used their voices to to declare the mighty deeds of God to everyone in Jerusalem. God is not to be trifled with. They pointed everyone to the power of God and the coming of his Son. He is great and good and loves all and longs that we should repent and live with and for him.
This is our message today. It is not primarily how people will find happiness or healing of their ailments, it is about Christ who is God and whom all must serve.
For whom is the message?
It is for the whole world. At that time the world was thought of as the Roman world, which was amply big enough as a mission field. Fifteen Roman empire areas are mentioned, divided into five regions, moving from east to west. Since the various dispersions of Jews caused by the Assyrian (8th century BC) and Babylonian (6th and early 7th centuries BC) Jews were now dispersed throughout the Roman empire and had set up synagogues where, to begin with, the early Christians could proclaim the message that Jesus is the Jews Messiah.
What is the language of our message
Although many of the people attending the Pentecost celebrations in Jerusalem would be Jewish and would probably speak several languages, God chose to speak to them in their own languages.
“. . . we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues.”
Probably most would speak Hebrew, many Greek and Latin but it was local languages that were given. The message is probably that God’s message comes to people where they are. It is not a Roman, Greek or even Hebrew message, it is God’s message for people where they are.
The Lollard revival in the 14th century that spread through England and Europe was associated with a translation of the Word of God into English. It is no coincidence that the revival in Germany in Luther’s time was associated with a translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible into German.
There are more that 7117 languages in the world. In the 1950s, 220 had the Bible in their own language. By September 2020 the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,551 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,160 other languages. This must have an impact.
One of the features of a real revival is that it affects all classes and all nationalities in any area. The kingdom of God is truly international.
This is very different from other religions. To become an orthodox Jew today a person has to accept the codes and practices of an ethnic group. To become a sincere Moslem also means entering an Arabic culture. No Moslem accepts that the Qur’an can be properly translated into other languages! Notice the similarity in dress and the beards of devout Muslims.
When God’s Spirit enters a church there comes a new power to break down barriers. There is a remarkable unity amongst those in Christ. The gospel reaches into local communities to transform them to live for Christ.
‘Tongues’, is another word for ‘languages’. The early church was given the supernatural ability to explain the gospel in unknown languages. This gift is not mentioned in any writings of the early church fathers as being a feature within mainline Christian churches. Augustine did refer to the occurrence in the very early church. Some people were suggesting that the gift of speaking real foreign languages was still necessary evidence for the presence of the Holy Spirit. Augustine strongly refutes this,
“How then, brethren, because he that is baptised in Christ, and believes on Him, does not now speak in the tongues of all nations, are we not to believe that he has received the Holy Ghost? God forbid that our heart should be tempted by this faithlessness . . . . Why is it that no man speaks in the tongues of all nations? Because the Church itself speaks in the tongues of all nations. Before, the church was in one nation, where it spoke in the tongues of all. By speaking then in the tongues of all, it signified what was to come to pass; that by growing among the nations, it would speak in the tongues of all.”
Many religious groups in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism as well as some groups in ancient Greece have claimed that the ability to make ecstatic noises is an indication of the presence of God and some call this ‘the gift of tongues’. This is not what is happening in Acts 2. In Acts an extraordinary miracle occurred in which the Christians were endowed with the gift to speak other languages and people from other nations understood the gospel from what was said. Are those speaking were largely Galileans!
This change is amazing. In Acts 2 there are several words used to describe the reaction people had to what they saw and the gospel they heard - bewilderment, utterly amazed, amazed, perplexed. It was after this that Peter spoke and gave a summary of this gospel.
How we need to pray for the empowerment of God’s spirit today, but, as the churches of Laodicea and Ephesus were told, this would require a radical return to making Jesus Christ the priority of our lives.
BVP
