The Holy Spirit Comes / The Church is Born
Acts 2:1-13 (NASB77)
1 And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.
2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language.
7 And they were amazed and marveled, saying, ” Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 “And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?
9 “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
11 Cretans and Arabs– we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”
12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
13 But others were mocking and saying, ” They are full of sweet wine.”
My beloved please understand that the day of Pentecost was one of the most if not the most phenomenal and important events in all of history. There are several reasons why the event was so important. My beloved this is a BIG DEAL….
- It was the coming of the Holy Spirit
- It was the birth of the church.
- It was the corporate filling of the Holy Spirit, of the body of believers with the promised presence of Christ (John 14:16-18).
- It was the personal filling of the individual believer by the Holy Spirit.
- It was the Presence and Power of God coming upon believers, gifting and equipping them to proclaim the glorious message of salvation to men.
- It was the Holy Spirit coming to the church to gift the membership of the Body the ability and power to minister and grow the N.T Church.
Let us read the record of the second Pentecost with the Gentiles to put the One we are going to focus on in context.
44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.
Acts 10:44-48 (NASB77)
45 And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also.
46 For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, 47 ” Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” 48 And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.
We’re in a series we are calling: “That Old-Time Religion.” And, I told you our last Lord’s Day if you want something new, then try something old, because we need to go all the way back in order to find the pattern for a New Testament church. We can find the biblical pattern in the book of Acts. As we saw last week these folks, so long ago, did so much with so little, and we do so little with so much
Note the obedience: We must not skip over the believers were in “one place,” in the city of Jerusalem precisely where Christ told them to go and wait upon the coming of the Holy Spirit. They were obedient—obedient despite the great danger the Jerusalem authorities posed to them.
Now, the day of Pentecost was a great festival. Perhaps a million Jews were in Jerusalem on this day of Pentecost, and there were feasts, fellowships, meetings, reunions, and worship. But, on this day there were 120 people who were the center of attention. These were our Lord’s disciples that day, and they were about to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Lord used the old testament feast to build on the birth of the new testament. church.
Ok, do not miss this picture: What did it all mean when they would take all of these ingredients and celebrate this feast—this feast of Passover. Well, those animals that were sacrificed, the blood sacrifice, speak of the completeness of Calvary. Ten in the Bible is the number of completeness of God’s order. And, that speaks of our peace offering that we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. The oil that was mixed into that bread represents the Holy Spirit, because oil in the Bible has been an emblem of the Holy Spirit. And, those two loaves picture the Body of Christ—the Church. Why two loaves? Because the Church is now made up of Jew and Gentile. Two also is the number of witness, and it is the Church’s job, duty and privilege to witness the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.
So on the day of Pentecost, the disciples 120 of them went up into the room as individual grains of wheat. But, after Pentecost, they had come down one Body. 120 disciples went up into an upper room, like individual grains of wheat, but no longer are they 120—now, they are God’s loaf, baked together, God’s church.
The first sign is that the Holy Spirit was visible: Acts 2:2 (NASB77) 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (The power of the church was so powerful that others in the community heard it.)
Second, there was the sound in verse 2, of the wind and on its heels there was the sigh of fire in verse 3: Acts 2:3 (NASB77) 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. Fire also is an emblem of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because fire spreads and fire consumes. It was said of John the Baptist that he was a burning and shining light. There can be no shining unless there’s burning. And, our Lord wants to consume our lives for His glory.
Third, the Holy Spirit is not only visualized, it was also vocalized. Notice, if you will, beginning with verse 4: Acts 2:4 (NASB77) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, this was miraculous and unexplainable . Those 120 disciples began to speak in foreign languages. (Not an unknown tongue, they understand the message of the Gospel in their own tongue.)
4th. Let us look at Acts 2:12 (NASB77) 12 And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”
Fifth, the Holy Spirit was lived out or seen through the Christians as they lived life among the world. The disciples did not keep to the Upper Room; they went out and shared Christ by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
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