Joel Brooks: If you have a Bible, I invite you to turn to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. Is returning there. Can I just say that over the past few weeks, it's been encouraging for me as I have seen, continued evidence, over and over again, that the Lord is doing something unique in our midst, over the last, these last few weeks? I'm hearing more and more stories about how people are shutting off kind of this boredom that they've had going to church for so long.
This boredom that they've had in their Christian faith and really embracing the mission of God in their lives. And God's sparking something new in them. I'm hearing more and more stories from people about how they are being compelled by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with their families for the first time, or their coworkers, or their neighbors. And this is resulting in more people coming to know Jesus. More and more.
I I'd say, more than any time in the 10 years of this church, I have been seeing people come to faith in Jesus. And this has just been an incredible encouragement to me to see the Holy Spirit on the move. And it's not just those outside the walls that are coming to faith. There's people in here who the spirit is just waking up. They're realizing that they've been dead, sitting in church for years, and for the first time, they're hearing the gospel.
And it's not because other pastors or another churches haven't been faithful to preach the gospel, it's just that God, through his spirit, for the first time, is opening up hearts to hear the truth, and they're being transformed by it. And hardly a day has gone by in the last 3 weeks, in which one of you has not emailed or texted me, and just said, can we get together and just pray? And can I tell you, there is nothing that thrills me more as a pastor, than when you hear the people in your congregation just begging to have time to pray with you? And even after we prayed in small groups last week, after the sermon, I got several emails and texts from a number of you asking if we could do that every week from now on. Okay?
Now, that has never happened in the history of Redeemer that you guys have been begging for more group prayer after the message. But what an encouragement to hear that. And then several of you also added to that. I also think that would get rid of our space problem, if we were to just do that. And and if that was you, I I want to both exhort and rebuke you.
Okay? I wanna exhort you for your desire to pray, and I wanna rebuke you for your lack of faith concerning prayer, and that you actually think if we commit ourselves to pray, less people will be changed in coming in to this place. And I just wanna say before we even open up Acts 2, that I believe that this is just the beginning, and I'm really thankful and excited about this new chapter that I think the Lord has for us here at Redeemer. So our text tonight comes from Acts, chapter 2, beginning in verse 1. 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 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 speak in his own language.
And they were amazed and astonished saying, are not all these who speak got speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus in 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're filled with a new wine. But 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's only the 3rd 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. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. If you would, pray with me.
Our father, whenever we see you on the move, I feel like our reaction is always to be amazed and perplexed, and to ask, what does this mean? And I pray now through your spirit that you would show us what this means through your word. Lord, I pray that your spirit, he would use your word to change us. That my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But, Lord, Lord, your words would remain, and they would change us.
We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So in 2 weeks' time, we will celebrate Ascension Sunday. And in order for us to understand Pentecost, we need to understand that the Ascension and Pentecost are linked together. As a matter of fact, Pentecost is the direct result of the ascension.
If you remember a few weeks ago, we began to look at the ascension of Jesus and how as he approached the heavenly city, as he was going back home, and the the host of heaven crowd out to welcome him, and they're calling out Psalm 24. Be lifted up, oh ancient gates. Lift up your head, oh gates. Be lifted up, oh ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory?
He's the lord strong and mighty. Lift up your head, oh Gatsby, lift it up, oh ancient doors, that the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? He's the lord of hosts. He is the king of glory.
And as they are calling out to one another, these words, Jesus, he comes in and you can picture the moment, the flags unfurl, the gates are open, Jesus comes in, and he sits down on his throne. He ascends to his throne. And at that moment, this is when Jesus would ask his father, father, remember you promised me the nations. Give me what you promised. And and what good father could deny such a request from such a son?
And God the father, he answers that request by pouring out his spirit at Pentecost. And it's there at Pentecost that then the lordship of Jesus begins to be proclaimed to the ends of the Earth and God's kingdom advances. Pentecost, if you will, is the starting pistol for the great commission. The great commission begins here. Now when we left off last week, the disciples, they were still in the upper room, and they were waiting.
Rather than taking matters into their own hands, rather than going out and trying to advance the kingdom, handing out tracts, you know, going to the mall, talking to strangers, sharing their faith, doing all of that, instead, they they got together and they simply waited because they knew the next move was God's. And so they wait and they say, God, we're waiting. The next move is yours. Until you move, we're we're not leaving. And so they actively waited on him.
They knew that unless the Lord builds His house, they would be laboring in vain. And so the question was, would Jesus give what He had promised them? He had promised that they would be clothed in power. He had promised them that they would be baptized with the spirit. He had promised them that it was for his good that he went away.
He had promised them that greater works would they do, because he was going to the father. Now would Jesus keep his word? Waiting might seem like they are doing nothing, but nothing could be further from the truth, because waiting here is an exercise of faith. Now often, when we wait, we are doing nothing. And so, we might hear the great commission, or we might hear the Lord prompting us through His spirit to do something, and often our reaction is, well, let me pray about it, which is just code for let me do nothing about it.
But I'm gonna say I'm gonna pray about it, and then maybe after 3 days, you'll you'll leave me alone. But that's not what the disciples are doing here. They're actively waiting. They're expectant. They're praying.
And these are people who were given a mission by God, and they were just waiting for God to light the fuse and empower them to carry it out. 9 days go by though and they're still waiting. Now the reason that they are still waiting is because Jesus is still waiting. He's waiting for just the right moment to send forth his spirit. And that moment is Pentecost.
Pentecost happened 10 days after they were waiting. Pentecost is called the Feast of Weeks, or the festival of the first fruits. It's a harvest festival, that was celebrated 50 days after Passover. Matter of fact, the word Pentecostal simply means 50th, and so it was celebrated 50 days after the Passover, and it was an enormous Festival. People came from near and far packed into Jerusalem to celebrate this Harvest feast.
If you wanna compare it to a comparable American holiday, it would be something like Thanksgiving, in which family fly from all over. We we get together in order to have a feast. And during that feast, we remind ourselves that the reason we can have this feast is because of God's provision. God is the one who's taking care of us. God is the one who has blessed us.
And so that's what Pentecost was. And for the Israelites, who lived in an agrarian society, seed, And it came as a it's kind of a turning of the season for them. Up to this point, they had been working hard. They have been tilling the soil, sowing the seeds, watering, watching over the growth, and they finally have begun harvesting. And then when Pentecost comes, finally, they get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
They went into Pentecost worn down, tired, exhausted from months months of working hard doing all these things, but now finally, the new season was coming in which they got to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and so they would eat these first fruits at Pentecost, and their expectation was these are the first many days like this are to come. And so they would enter into this season of rest. For me, that day is, Memorial Day, not in its meaning, but in its timing. Memorial Day marks kinda the beginning of summer, for me, and it's probably similar to most of us here. And I'm sure most of us have been going pretty hard since the fall.
You've been working really hard since the fall, and then you make it to Christmas, and Christmas might be the most wonderful time of the year, but it's also the busiest time of the year, and so by the time you make it through Christmas, you're even more exhausted. And then you hit the new year, where you've been given all these new projects to do, and on top of that, you're trying to keep all of your new year's resolutions. For those of you who had a spring break, you went in limping and nearly on empty by the time you got there, and I can guarantee you, in a month's time, I'm gonna look out here, and you guys are gonna be on fumes. Everybody, by the time it gets towards the end of May, is just so tired, and you're waiting for a new season. You're waiting for the days to be longer.
You're waiting for all the soccer practices and baseball practices to end. You're waiting for a season of refreshment. That's Pentecost. And it's no coincidence that Jesus waited until Pentecost before He poured out His Spirit. It's on this day that He chose out to pour out His Spirit, because he poured it out on the people who'd been laboring long and hard, making so many sacrifices, laboring, doing so many rules and regulations, but now God's spirit falls on them and gives them a a new energy, gives them a new rest, it rejuvenates their spirit, it gives them unspeakable joy.
We call this new life. It's a new season, and it's just the first fruits of what is to come. Hear me, if your version of Christianity, if if your Christianity in your life looks like endless and lifeless, fruitless labor. Or if your Sundays are an obligation that you have to go to, if your small groups are a drudgery, If you're serving is nothing more than an exhausting duty. And your obedience Jesus looks like rules you just have to follow or how you're always trying to say the right things, or do the right things at the right moment.
It just feels like legalism. If that's your view of Christianity, you need to understand that you don't understand what it means to be filled with the Spirit, because God's gift of the Spirit was to let you enter into a season of rest, rejuvenation, unspeakable joy, new life. That's why his spirit was given out on Pentecost. But Pentecost represented more than just this harvest festival for the people. Early on, the Israelites, they began doing the math, like 50 days.
Okay, 50 days after the original Passover is when the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, and Moses went up on top of Mount Sinai to meet with God and receive the law. It was 50 days after the Passover that God made his covenant and made Israel his people. And so, in addition to celebrating just this harvest festival, they began celebrating Mount Sinai when God met with Moses. And if you remember anything about that occasion, it was a terrifying experience for the Israelites. You read about it in Exodus 19.
When the Israelites, they went and they got to the base of the mountain, a thick cloud covered over the mountain there, and there was thunder and there was lightning and there was this trumpet blast that began to grow louder and louder and louder. And then the mountain was wrapped in smoke, and it began to tremble. And it says that the Lord descended upon it in fire. And you read after that, one of the great understatements of the Bible, it says, and the people were afraid. They weren't just afraid, they were terrified.
We read these words in chapter 20, says, now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. The people were afraid and trembled and stood far off and said to Moses, you speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, lest we die. These people were scared to death at the base of this mountain. At one point, we read that they literally covered their ears, because they couldn't take the sounds of the thunder and the trumpets, and it was scaring them too much. And they're like, Moses, there's no way we're going near that mountain.
You go. And Moses does go. And in chapter 24, as Moses is up on the mountain, we read, Now, the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, in the sight of all the people of Israel. So, Moses, he goes up on top of the mountain, and once again, there's a rushing wind and fire that meets him. Fast forward to Pentecost.
These disciples, these 120 disciples that are there, there's rushing wind. There's fire. This mighty rushing wind is not just a breeze. The language that's used there is the type of language you would use to describe a tornado or a severe storm. The entire place would have shook, And then it says, fire fell down.
Now throughout the Bible, fire is a symbol of God's presence. Genesis 15, fire comes to Abraham in that burning cauldron. Exodus 3, God meets Moses in the burning bush. God goes before the Israelites as a pillar of fire in the wilderness, and then God meets Moses here by coming down on top of the mountain in fire. And now here at Pentecost, fire comes down again.
But this time, it doesn't rest on just one person. Fire rest on all the people there. Now I don't want you to miss the importance of this. What we see here is essentially every person in that room is is becoming a Mount Sinai. They're becoming a place where where God comes down to dwell.
Every person was encountering God just like Moses encountered God. And it was here that God, he didn't write his law on tablets of stone. He began to write his law on human hearts and to forever changes. This is not just a fulfillment of Joel chapter 2, which Peter's gonna talk about next week. This is the the fulfillment of Ezekiel 36, which we read earlier.
It's the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31, where God says, the days are coming that I will make a new covenant in the house of Israel, and I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Hear me, that is a promise for us here. We are a temple of the Holy Spirit. We are a jar of clay, an earthen vessel that holds a precious treasure. We are a miniature Mount Sinai, in which God has come down to be with us.
And, hear me, there's no other religion, there's no other belief system that offers anything close to this. The Spirit of God coming down, filling us with His presence, giving us new life, rejuvenating us, giving us joy, writing the law of God on our hearts. It's incredible. No longer is the law a burden to us, but now we actually have the power to live it out, to joyfully live it out, because it's written on our hearts. That's what it means to be a Spirit filled Christian.
And here were the people in Moses' day could not fathom the new relationship we now have with God. That God himself would dwell within us. We actually know that Moses long for this day. In numbers 11 at one point, he's he's kind of longing and he expresses this phrase. He says, oh, that the people, that all the people might be filled with the Spirit of God, Just like he was.
And here at Pentecost, we see God's people filled with his spirit, just like Moses was. Once the Spirit of God was poured out on these disciples, tongues of fire resting on these disciples, The next thing we see is that they immediately began speaking. The result was them testifying. Once again, the direct result of being filled with the Spirit, and we're gonna see this over and over again in Acts. It is proclamation.
This time, they begin to speak in different languages. The disciples, they rush out of this house like their hair is on fire, and there's this large assembly out there waiting for them because apparently people have been gathering around because they could either hear the, the wind rushing down or hear a 100 20 people speaking in tongues at the same time, whatever it is. But the people have gathered around, and then the disciples come out and they immediately begin proclaiming the mighty works of God. The word tongues here. The word tongues is the word for languages.
This is not what we see later when we get to Paul's letters in 1 Corinthians, chapters 12 through 14, where there's talking about tongues of angels, or some kind of ecstatic utterances. That's not the tongues being described here. The word is simply glossalia. It means language, and here, the disciples are clearly speaking in other known languages. And when the people hear them, hear them speaking fluently and perfectly, without an accent, in their own native language, they can't believe it.
They say, aren't these people Galileans? Which would have been kind of a knock on them. That's like saying, aren't people, you know, country with a k? They they they shouldn't be doing this. They there's no way they should be speaking like this.
And notice what the disciples began speaking. They didn't rush out of that room and say, oh my gosh, I just had the most amazing experience. I gotta tell you about it. They didn't declare their own experiences. They began declaring the mighty works of God.
We're gonna see in next week's sermon when when Peter gets up and he preaches, he declares what those mighty works of God are, and it's the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and how now forgiveness and salvation is preached in his name. They began to preach the gospel. Now, do not do not miss the importance of this event here. I would say, you cannot overstate the importance of the first proclamation of the Gospel, which is what we have here. The first proclamation of the gospel was in every language, all at the same time.
The very first presentation of the gospel was not in Hebrew. It was not in Greek. It was not in Aramaic, but everybody heard the gospel presented to them in their own native tongue. The reason this is so important to us, what, is because what it means is that there's not any one nationality or any one ethnic group that can lay an exclusive claim to Christianity. The Jewish people don't own a more authentic version of Christianity.
The Africans do not own it. Europeans do not own it. Asians do not own it. At Pentecost, God decided that for the very first declaration of the gospel, it would be to everyone in every language all at the same time. And so there is no ethnic group that can lay an exclusive claim to Christianity or claims somehow their version is more authentic than another ethnic group's version.
Now this sets Christianity apart from the other major religions in the world. For instance, in Islam, you will find that the Quran cannot be translated. When I was in college, I actually took a class on Islam, and the first thing that our professor did when he walked in, is he said, this is a class on Islam, but, you will not be reading the Quran. Except, for the Quran cannot be translated into English. You'll be reading a paraphrase of the Quran, but the Quran has to be in Arabic for Allah speaks in Arabic.
And so as far as the Muslims are concerned, Allah is Arabic. And this is why when Islam comes into a culture, it eventually replaces that culture with the Arabic culture. Islamic countries become Arabic countries, because their God speaks Arabic. The Christianity we see does not belong to any one culture here. What we see is that when the gospel And once again, this is utterly unique among the major religions.
Laman Senay, he's currently a Yale University African professor. He's also taught at Harvard, and he's taught at Aberdeen. Now, he's currently at Yale. He used to be a Muslim. He even got his PhD in Islamic History, but he has since converted to Christianity.
And, he writes about the uniqueness of Christianity in this regards, and how a Christianity does not seek to change a culture, but works within that culture and renews it. And he says all the other major religions, they seek to change the culture, and then he even argues, even secularism seeks to change one's culture. And we'll hear this quote. It says, as a professor at Yale University, I see that it is not just other religions that do that. Secularism does it too.
Listen for all their talk on diversity, Harvard and Yale are interested in producing only different color European liberals. They think of diversity in terms of food and dress, but others must convert to their worldview. An example of this is the average African. The average African sees a spiritual side to the world, but when that African goes to Yale, he is told that the world has no spirits and no miracles, and Yale guts him of his Africanness. Christianity, though, lets Africans become renewed Africans, not just remade Europeans.
Christianity accepts the reality of the spirit world, but then removes the tendency in African cultures towards superstition and violence, because it shows Christ now as the victor over all the evil spirits. And how Christ overcame through love and service and not through violence and manipulation. Christianity does not suppress their culture, but it redeems it. Christianity, it frees Africans, if you will, to be the people they know that they were called to be. When the gospel goes forth, people or cultures are not converted.
They're not converted from one culture to another. They're converted to Christ. And, I would argue that churches need to be incredibly sensitive to this Because there is a danger, there is a danger about us infusing American patriotism in with Christian evangelism. And that has no place within the church or in Christianity. Christianity never seeks to convert people to some culture.
Christianity also doesn't try to just take all the different cultures out there and blend them together and make one homogeneous culture. That was never Christ's plan. It was never God's plan throughout scripture. His plan that every tongue, tribe, and nation would come and and worship Jesus. That the nations of the earth and the kings of the earth would come forth and to give him praise, and that every culture has something distinct to bring to the table in worship.
Every culture shining a unique light on who Jesus is. That's always been God's plan. I want you to notice that Luke here, he actually takes the time and he takes the space to begin to name all of these different people, all these different people groups, all these different nations. If you were to pull up a map, a current map. This would actually be over 40 different countries that Luke lists here.
Basically, it's the known world to these people at the time, and what we are seeing is that the world is being transformed by Jesus. They're all hearing the gospel in their own native tongue, and being transformed by it. Hear me, I want our church to be more Pentecostal. By that, I don't mean we change our name. 1st Pentecostal Holiness, Apostolic, Church of Prophecy, International, signs and wonders, you know.
Or that, you know, Lauren and I have to get a new hairstyle or whatever it is. Sorry. I mean, what I mean by Pentecostal is that we would have a heart for the nations. That God would open up our eyes to see what he is doing around this world. And that we would begin to see Pentecost, not just as a past event, but as a present reality in our lives.
Perhaps, a good way to celebrate a harvest festival would be for us to actually lift up our eyes and to see that the fields are white for harvest. And that we would pray for God's power for us to go and to bring in that harvest. Listen. I'll be as direct as I can. For all of you here, there's not a person here who can fulfill the reason that you were born, apart from God's Spirit working in you.
No one can fulfill the reason they were born, apart from God's Spirit in them. You can do some wonderful, some great things, but you will not fulfill your purpose for being here. That comes with being filled with the Spirit of God and being used by Him. Is this something you're actively seeking and desiring? I pray our church will be a spirit filled church for God's glory and for the joy of the nations.
Pray with me. Lord Jesus, we pray that your Spirit would do a mighty work in us, both in us and through us. I pray we see many people come to know you, Jesus. We will know the joy that comes from seeing that transformation happen in both us and in the lives of others. Lord, we thank you for your grand plan that you have.
That Christianity is way more than bound to an American culture or a European culture. But, Lord, every tongue, tribe, and nation will come and will rejoice before their King. We long for that day, and I pray we begin to see that reality here and now. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.