We are dealing with the book of Acts at the moment. We've started a new series on Acts. Last week, we started with Acts 1. This morning, we're going to look at Acts 2, which really is, I hope we will see soon, part B of what was already started last week, which was part A. So we're going to turn to Acts 2.
We're gonna read the whole chapter. So it'll be a bit longer than usual, our reading, but it really explains the whole part of what has happened in this momentous occasion, the coming of the Holy Spirit. So let's read Acts 2:1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they, the disciples, were all together in one place. And suddenly, they 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, they 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, the disciples, 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 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. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocking said, they are filled with new wine.
Peter, standing with the 11, lifted up his voice and addressed them. Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even on My male servants and female servants, in those days, I will pour out My Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words.
Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst as you yourselves know. This Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. For David says concerning Him, I saw the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore, my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced.
My flesh also will dwell in hope, for You will not abandon my soul to Hades or let Your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with Your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that He would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ that He was not abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh see corruption.
This Jesus, God raised up and of that, we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God and having received from the father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies Your footstool. Let all the house of Israel, therefore, know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified.
Now, when they, this is the crowd, heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. And with many other words, he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptised and they were added that day about 3,000 souls.
This is the word of God. The gospel writer Luke has a characteristic and famous obsession with the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts alone, Luke speaks of the Holy Spirit 57 times. That is a significant amount. Luke is also the only New Testament writer to describe the events of Pentecost.
As he records the amazing events of that day, Luke is deliberate in describing in what we would call a description of the Spirit coming as a salvation historical event. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit, in other words, is not a small thing. It is a monumental shift in the unfolding, in the advancement of God's plan of salvation for the world. This magnificent significant moment in the history of the church, indeed, the beginning of the church has, however, caused many Christians to see the Spirit's coming here in Pentecost in Acts 2 as a pattern for Christians everywhere to experience what is called a Spirit baptism. They look at Acts 2 and also the subsequent reception by the Samaritans in chapter 18 in chapter 8 rather, the Gentiles in the house of Cornelius in chapter 10, and then the disciples of John the Baptist in chapter 19 as being the norm by which we live out the Christian life.
You may have heard the question posed to you, have you been baptised by the Holy Spirit? But if you follow the book of Acts carefully, you actually notice that most of the time, including here in Acts 2, that when the Holy Spirit comes to people, it happens at the same time as their conversion. And it happens the same time as their water baptism. In other words, being filled with the Holy Spirit isn't a secondary separate event. The coming of the Holy Spirit is part and parcel of a person's conversion and thereby their salvation.
If the Holy Spirit is poured into the heart of someone when they come to genuine faith for the first time, then we are led to ask the question, what is happening here in Acts 2? Because the disciples, you can argue, were already believers. And theologically, if we understand that it is the Spirit's work to bring us to salvation, to conversion, what is this seemingly secondary event that is happening for the apostles? Well, let's begin at the beginning. What is the context?
Remember that when we find the disciples at the beginning of Acts 2, they were waiting in Jerusalem for what Jesus had promised them already in Acts 1:8. Through Jesus' ministry on earth, these men, these 11 disciples recognised and witnessed in the life, in the ministry of Jesus for those three years, the in breaking kingdom of God. They saw Jesus with their own eyes performing incredible deeds by the power of the Spirit. And yet, in this past month or so, Jesus had died. Jesus had been raised from the dead, and He had ascended to heaven.
Before leaving them, Jesus says that they needed to carry on the same work of building the kingdom. They have to do what they saw Jesus doing for those three years. And this poses a huge problem. How can this handful of Christians carry on the kingdom work that they had seen their master busy with? Acts 2 indicates that the answer to their needs is the gift of the Spirit.
Last week, we see Jesus promising the Holy Spirit to the disciples in order to empower them for their mission of becoming witnesses to His resurrection, to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Dramatically and theologically, Acts 1 has prepared us, the reader, to understand the significance of what is happening here in Acts 2. In our passage, we are given a remarkably brief description of the Holy Spirit's arrival. Four verses. Verses 1 through to 4 is the arrival of the Spirit.
A much longer section is then devoted to how the disciples and the audience in Jerusalem respond to this arrival. We are led to understand that this critical event happens in the presence of Jews from all the nations, nations who speak different languages. It is for the purpose that Jesus gave them of being witnesses that they receive the gift of tongues, to speak in many languages to these disciples so that they may understand what is happening. What we are led to see is that God is now busy with the new covenant promise. The same promise we read in Jeremiah 31 this morning.
In the last days, I will pour out My Spirit. People will not have to say, know the Lord. They will all know Me. I will write My law, My word into their hearts. What is happening in Acts 2 is God bringing the Jews, bringing His people into the age of the new covenant.
That is what Peter's speech in Acts 2:14-36 is all about. Peter explains the arrival of the Holy Spirit as an eschatological event, meaning, an end times event. The moment is fulfilling God's ancient promise made through the prophet Joel, in particular. In fact, Peter speaks as if he himself is a prophet. He speaks on behalf of God as he is saying these things.
When has Peter ever done that in the gospel accounts? He speaks as if he is like Joel. And Peter focuses on one thing only, and it's not the gifts of tongues. It is not on the flames above them. It is not on the rushing wind that drew the crowd to come and see what it was all about.
Peter's focus is to explain the real cause of this event, the resurrection and the ascension of the Messiah. Jesus is presented by Peter as the exalted Davidic ruler, as the greater Moses. And Peter challenges his hearers to change their perception of Jesus, to share the convictions of his followers standing before them, and to respond by being baptised with water and thereby receiving the Holy Spirit as the sign of the new covenant. Don't get lost in the detail. The Holy Spirit arrival is not about the supernatural power.
It is about the proclamation of Jesus Christ for the salvation of all who will believe. That is the point. It means that the arrival of the Holy Spirit doesn't create a special class of spiritually gifted Christians over and against others. The Holy Spirit empowers a Christian to carry on the apostolic witness, which Jesus commanded in Acts 1:8. Wait for Me in Jerusalem so that I may send the power of the Holy Spirit, so that you will be My witnesses.
Secondly, the Holy Spirit's arrival into someone's heart signifies genuine saving faith, empowering them to keep believing and to be transformed towards holiness and maturity. Why do these two things happen separately for the disciples, the apostles? I would say only because they are special. Only because at one time, the Holy Spirit was working in them. It wasn't that the Holy Spirit never existed and then all of a sudden He's in Acts 2.
We understand, we believe biblically that they believed who Jesus was because of the Spirit's work, but now they are empowered. They are given the mandate and the ability to be these witnesses of the kingdom. And so I don't want to work through Acts 2 in a prescriptive way this morning to say this is what was taught and therefore this is our life, how we are to respond. But I want us to look at the theological impact of the Holy Spirit. What we see in His arrival.
And there are three things that I want us to look at this morning. Three main promises of the Holy Spirit. Firstly, the Spirit's presence. We mentioned last week that Jesus gave some teaching on the Holy Spirit before He goes to the cross in the upper room, John's famous upper room conversation. Jesus promises His disciples what is translated in the Greek, paraclete.
Paraclete is the Greek word, which is famously difficult to translate. It means helper. It means advocate. It can mean intercessor, comforter, champion, or adviser. The Spirit is said by Jesus to be another Paraclete, inferring that Jesus was also a Paraclete, that Jesus Himself with His disciples was their adviser, their helper.
It means that Jesus Himself will be replaced by the Holy Spirit. This other being, this Holy Spirit will be just as good as having Jesus with them. He says that they will not be left alone as orphans, that it will be like Jesus being with them. In fact, the other paraclete will be better so in so far as when Jesus was on earth, He's confined to one place at one time, the Spirit will be everywhere at all times. And so this morning in Acts 2, we see the Holy Spirit coming to His disciples and we are to understand this simple but very profound truth.
First and foremostly, we are not alone. We're not Christians trying to maintain some ethereal relationship with a God so far removed from us. We're not desperately trying to cling and hold onto some philosophy that is vague and amorphous and hard to grasp. The Christian faith is a relational faith, and at the heart of it is the idea that we are not left without our God. Most remarkably, this God, this helper, this paraclete is within us.
Our bodies are His temple, Paul will later write. Where we go, the Holy Spirit goes. And what is true of individual Christians is also true of His entire church. The church is the temple of the Spirit. He is with the church.
He is inside the church. He goes with the Ming's family to Thailand as the church, empowering the church everywhere, beautifying and sanctifying the church. Since the Spirit dwells in us and with us, it is unnecessary for us to invoke Him, to say to Him, come, Spirit. Be with us, Spirit. Spirit, we invite You into this place.
We don't have to say that. He is with us. In Acts 2, it is not the disciples, it is not the Jews from the parts of the world who say to the Spirit, come. It is the Spirit who comes to them. And He says to them, come, receive the good news of Jesus Christ.
Instead of us creating manufactured moments of droning music, repeating mantras more like pagan worshippers than Christians, we need to simply develop the awesome awareness that He is with us. And then we respond to that knowledge. His work is not to give you or I ecstatic experiences. His work is to convince you to believe in Jesus, to bear witness to Him, and to stop living for yourself. And He does all of this because of the encouraging knowledge that He is with you always.
The second thing is the Spirit's help. It is incredibly comforting to know that God doesn't ask us to do anything without His enabling us to do so through His Spirit. Nothing He asks of us, He doesn't empower us to do. I hear Christian preaching make this mistake all the time. We might say we are saved by grace and yet we will say we are sanctified by our works.
That is a heresy. While the Bible instructs us to make every effort to grow in godliness, our strength, our vigour in pursuing holiness comes from the Holy Spirit. And while we are indeed to be witnesses of the apostolic message of Christ, we are only empowered to do so by the Spirit. It is His inner strength that enables us to work out our entire salvation in fear and trembling before Him. How do I know this?
Well, various parts in the New Testament profess to this, but Romans 8 is great in explaining this. Paul explains the nature of our new life as Christians in terms of the indwelling and empowering life of the Spirit in us. Let's have a quick turn to Romans 8, if you have your Bibles with you. We'll jump through just a few of the verses there to see some very specific teaching on the Spirit. Verse 5, Paul says, 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.
Verse 9, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit. If in fact the Spirit of God, what, dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. Verse 11, 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. Verses 13 to 16, finally, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
But if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. What this means is that the Holy Spirit is the one who stirs the desires in us, who controls our thinking to desire, to appreciate, to be drawn to God.
It is by the Spirit that we put to death the misdeeds of the body. It is by the Spirit that we are assured of our adoption as sons and daughters of God most high. In fact, you could say it as strongly as this, that no aspect of the Christian life is possible apart from the Spirit's aid. Only the Holy Spirit can give us such love for Christ that all other affections are smothered. Only He can give the inner strength and enables us to say no to sin and yes to righteousness.
And so whatever a preacher may ask you to do, he should ask you by assuring you of the Spirit's enabling presence to help you, to aid you, to empower you to do those things. It's precisely what Jesus Himself did when He gave these disciples the great commission, the overwhelming task of reaching the whole earth. He says to them, make disciples of all nations, and then He accompanies it with this promise, surely I am with you always. God never asks us to do anything apart from His enabling us by His Spirit. And then thirdly and lastly, we see the Spirit's guarantee.
The Spirit here in Acts 2 is poured out as a giant down payment of eternity. He is received as the one who guarantees us and reminds us of a glorious future that is ahead. In various places in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is spoken of as a guarantee, as a deposit. 2 Corinthians 1:22 says, for example, God has set His seal. He has set His seal of ownership on us.
He has put His Spirit on in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Guaranteeing what is to come. This word in the New Testament guarantee or deposit is used only of the Holy Spirit. What it means is that the work of the Spirit is to give a foretaste of eternity. Through this presence, heaven is breaking into our hearts.
Through His presence, we taste peace, we taste joy, we taste the power and the glory of the world that is to come. This deposit excites our hearts with expectation. He stirs us with hope of glory. Because of the Spirit, we know that sooner or later, all will be well. Meanwhile, when you are frustrated with the mundaneness of your life, with your imperfection, with your distance to the glory that you know God has, we are frustrated only because we know that something better is coming.
We know what is mundane because we know what is glory. And so the Holy Spirit is a guarantee of future glory. And we should never ever think that the Holy Spirit is a small deposit. It is a giant down payment. So much of God's grace and glory has been revealed to us by Him now.
The Spirit's presence stirs in us not simply a distant hope, but a real and immediate one. So much so that we can leave everything behind to follow Him in Thailand. Because I have my hope now. My treasure is with me now. The Holy Spirit is so powerful, so sovereign, so determined that as Christians, we should actually be expecting for heaven to be progressively breaking into this world in our work through His work.
It's exactly what the book of Acts shows us. The church grows amazingly. The church grows surprisingly despite incredible resistance. We see the church loving God and others deeply. We see that they sell their possessions.
They give up their homes and their property to provide for those in the church in need. They preach boldly. They die for the sake of the gospel. Why? Because it is the church that is driven by the irresistible, indestructible power of the Holy Spirit.
It is the kingdom of God breaking into this world. As Christians, we therefore expect and we pray for times of revival. We expect and pray for times of renewal in the church. We can expect for many conversions, even in these difficult days. We can expect to grow powerfully in our personal holiness.
We can expect the gospel to win and the church to triumph. And so we see these three things the Holy Spirit does in our lives, that He is with us, that He offers us help, and that He guarantees us of our eternal hope. Those are three things worth being very grateful for. This past week, I had the privilege of going to Gloria's house, Gloria and Christian's house, who host a Bible study of Chinese people. You may have seen on Facebook a week or two ago, we had some pictures and a write up about their work along with Joanne and Henk as well, I believe.
It's a wonderful work that they are doing among Chinese Christians and Chinese people exploring Christianity. At one point in the evening when I was meeting with them, we had a time of listening to the testimonies of these Chinese Christians. They spoke about how they came to faith within the context of severe anti-religious mindsets within Mainland China, within the communist regime that they live in. Time and time again, we heard the story of how God would bring healing or divine protection or supernatural insight. So much so that they would profess that the gospel was always being proclaimed.
God's word was being distributed. People were being converted, and the kingdom was growing against all the force, all the carefully calculated work of the communist regime to resist. Why is this possible? Is it because there was a charming leader to lead that charge? There are no charming leaders.
Was it because they had the resources and the money? They're just ordinary people like us. Was it because they were well equipped and well trained even for that work? No. It was all possible only because the Holy Spirit was sovereignly driving the mission of His church.
And so friends, if you want to see the power of the Holy Spirit, if you want to experience the dynamic real life God living with us, you don't need a special anointing service. You don't need to follow influential leaders who profess to have supernatural gifts. You don't need to wait on the Holy Spirit as though He's running late or He's far too busy to get to you. If you want to see the power of the Spirit, be involved in the mission and the purpose of the church. You wanna see miracles?
You wanna see conversions? Get going with the normal work of attending church, being involved in Bible studies, inviting your friends, praying for their conversions, and treasuring the gospel of Jesus Christ with your hearts. And then, brothers, sisters, sit back and watch. Wait and see how God works. There is nothing better to commit your life to.
Nothing more meaningful, nothing more spine tinglingly awesome. And we thank God for the day of Pentecost because on that day, we received the presence of God, the help of God, and the guarantee of God. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, our risen Lord, and God, our father, we thank You that we may approach the throne of Your grace, that we have been sprinkled clean by the pure and holy word of God, that we have had an intercession made for us by the Holy Spirit and mediated by a high and holy priest, the Lord Jesus. Forgive us, Lord, for having such small ambitions for Your church.
Forgive us, Lord, for such small ambitions for our lives. Forgive us, Lord, for pretending that the call of the church has changed. Father, we thank You that You have not let us try and stumble about trying to figure things out in our own wisdom and strength. Thank You, Lord, that You have not left us as orphans. We thank You that You are the one who is at work in this world right now.
Forgive us for the frantic harshness by which we try and reclaim the kingdom when it is Your work. Forgive us for trying to fight for our rights when we are slaves of Christ with no rights, bar from obedience to Jesus. Spirit, we pray that You'll create an unrest in our hearts that will not settle for anything less than the purpose to which You have called us, the church, the temple of Christ, the place where Your kingdom is breaking into this world. And so we pray, Lord, let Your kingdom come. Let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus' name. Amen.