On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came with extraordinary power. What significance does Pentecost have for believers today?
Teaching Notes:
The Power Of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-13
Intro: What is the meaning of “Pentecost” in 2:1? The word literally means 50th. It is the 50th day, after the 2nd day of Passover.
Lev.23:5 – Passover – represents the Cross of Christ
Lev.23:10 – First-Fruits – represents the Resurrection of Christ, the first-fruits of those who sleep.
Lev.23:15-17 – Weeks or Pentecost – represents the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the NT church.
What happened at the Feast of Weeks? Well, 7 weeks earlier at the Feast of First-Fruits, a sheaf of grain was waved before the Lord. Now, it is not a sheaf of grain, but 2 loaves of bread baked with leaven. I believe there is symbolic significance here.
· 2 loaves – points to the body of Christ comprised of both Jew and Gentile. Of course, on Pentecost only Jews were incorporated into the body of Christ, but there was coming a day when the Holy Spirit would fall upon gentiles and incorporate them into the same body as well.
· Leaven – in Scripture, leaven is often a type of sin. Usually in the offerings of the OT, leaven is excluded. Here, interestingly it is included. Why? Because the church of Jesus Christ will never be a sinless church. Until He returns, it will always be tainted by sin.
· Feast of Harvest – that is what this feast is called in Ex.23:16. The Feat of First-Fruits was the beginning of the harvest, and this is the end. Well, Pentecost brought in a great harvest of 3,000 souls.
Acts 1 sets the stage for the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus gathered His disciples together and commanded them to wait in Jerusalem until they had received the Promise of the Father, which He identifies with the baptism with the Holy Spirit. In 1:8 Jesus informs them that when the Spirit comes they will receive power with the result that they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. Further, Luke 24:49, a parallel passage says that Jesus will send forth the promise of the Father upon them, and when He does they will be clothed with power from on high. Obviously, the disciples believed that in just a few days the Spirit would come, and when He did, there would be displays of power. Well, that’s exactly what we have on the Day of Pentecost. The power of God on Pentecost is manifest in something they heard, something they saw, and something they spoke.
1. Something They Heard: a noise like a violent rushing wind (Acts 2:2)
· Was this something they felt or heard? “a noise”. It sounded like a hurricane, although they didn’t feel a thing. It filled the “house” where they were sitting, probably the same upper room of the house mentioned in ch. 1.
· Why this noise? God wants all to know unmistakeably what is taking place – the Spirit has come! Notice, that this is a noise like a “violent rushing wind.” Jesus described the Spirit as the wind in Jn.3:8. The wind is invisible. We can’t see it, but we can see its effects. Notice that this was a “violent” rushing wind. The ESV says a “mighty” rushing wind. The noise was intended to draw attention to the power of the Spirit. A tornado is able to lift entire houses into the air and destroy them effortlessly. So, too, the H.S. can manifest extraordinary power!
· Why From heaven: Luke inserts this fact to make sure his readers know that this noise did not have an earthly, natural explanation. Its source was from heaven, from God.
2. Something They Saw: tongues of fire (Acts 2:3)
· What happened? There appeared to them tongues as of fire. Apparently at first they saw a large fire which separated and formed what looked like tongues. These “tongues” distributed themselves and rested on each one of them. This is unreal, like a sci-fi movie!
· What was God communicating by fire? “Fire” symbolizes the presence of God. When God entered into covenant with Abraham he did so by causing a smoking oven and a flaming torch to pass between the pieces of the sacrifice. Later God appeared to Moses in a burning bush. Further, God led the children of Israel in a fire by night.
· What was God communicating by “tongues”? Because that was how they would be His witnesses to the ends of the earth. God would empower their speech. Fire burns and spreads. So too, speech ignited by the Spirit is passionate and will continually spread through Christ’s servants. Throughout the book of Acts, whenever someone is filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak God’s word boldly.
· Why did these tongues rest on each one of them? Surely this must speak to the fact that under this New Covenant, the Spirit is not limited to certain ones like in the Old Covenant (prophets, priests, and kings), but is for all God’s people (2:4 “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit; 2:17 “I will pour fourth of My Spirit on all mankind). This empowering to be His witness is not just for an elite few, the Billy Grahams or Charles Spurgeons. No, it is for you and me.
3. Something They Spoke: unlearned languages (Acts 2:4)
· What was happening? It seems clear that these disciples began to speak languages that they had never learned but were known by Jews who had come from other parts of the world to Jerusalem. These Jews and proselytes came from all over the known world, from Rome to Arabia, Egypt and Africa.
· How did the crowd react? Bewildered (6), amazed and astonished (7), amazement and great perplexity (12). This would be like a group of people from many different countries and languages going on a trip to the jungles of Papua, New Guinea. When they arrive, several members of the tribe stand up and begin to speak loudly. To everyone’s amazement, everyone is able to understand in their own mother tongue what they are saying!
· Were they preaching the gospel? Some expositors have suggested that, but 2:11 says they were speaking of the mighty deeds of God. That fits well with the description we have of tongues in 1 Cor.14 as prayer or praise. Later Peter addresses all of them in 1 language, speaks of the death & resurrection of Christ, and that is when 3,000 are converted, not before. The tongues did not convert anyone, but it did arrest their attention so that they listened to Peter’s gospel preaching.
· Is this the exact same gift of tongues that we read of in 1 Corinthians? I don’t think so. Here, the languages were readily understood by the hearers, and the companion gift of interpretation of tongues was unnecessary. There no one understands, and the one who speaks in a tongue needs to pray that he may interpret. We need to understand that these manifestations of the Spirit on Pentecost were unique. No where else in Scripture do we read of disciples hearing a violent rushing wind or seeing tongues of fire when they were baptized with the Spirit. No where else do we find disciples speaking in languages they had never learned with the result that bystanders understood them in their own language. These manifestations are intended to point to the specialness of Pentecost. We are not told that the 3,000 converts spoke in tongues (Act 2:38-47), or that the church in Jerusalem did when they were filled with the Spirit (Acts 4:31).
· What was the symbolic significance of these “tongues”? It appears we have a reversal of Babel. There God confounded their tongues so they would not be able to understand each other and separate from each other. Here, God overcame the language barrier to indicate that the nations would be gathered together in Christ, prefiguring the day when all the elect shall be gathered together from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
What Does Pentecost Mean For Us?
In one sense, Pentecost is unique and unrepeatable, like the cross and the resurrection. It is a historic day which can never be repeated because it is the day when God first poured out His Spirit on the infant church. But in another sense, Pentecost has been repeated many times throughout the history of the church. Why do I say that?
· Premise 1: the power of the Spirit that Jesus promised is extraordinary power. It is not the same as regenerating or sanctifying power. I see this from Jesus’ own expressions “Spirit shall come upon you”; “you shall be clothed with power from on high” and from the effects of this power in Acts.
· Premise 2: the promise of power was in order to evangelize the world (Acts 1:8; Luke 24:49).
· Premise 3: the task of world evangelization is not yet complete.
· Conclusion: therefore the promise of this extraordinary power to carry on this work is still for us today.
What I am saying is that God has purposed to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth through extraordinary outpourings of His Spirit. We call these revivals. Jonathan Edwards wrote, “From the fall of man to our day, the work of redemption in its effect has mainly been carried on by remarkable communications of the Spirit of God. Though there is a more constant influence of God’s Spirit always in some degree attending His ordinances, yet the way in which the greatest things have been done towards carrying on this work, always have been by remarkable effusions, at special seasons of mercy.” (A History of Redemption, Works, vol.1, p. 539)
Suddenly: there was no advance warning. This took place before anyone knew what was happening. This word points to the sovereignty of the Spirit. He blows where and when He wishes. We can’t make Him do anything. He is free.
Let me give you another example of the power of Pentecost. In 1871, after the great Chicago Fire, D.L. Moody was in New York seeking financial help. 2 sisters had been praying for Mr. Moody for weeks that God would grant him the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Then suddenly, “One day, in the city of New York – oh, what a day! I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name… I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me all the world – it would be the small dust in the balance.”
Brothers and sisters, we need the power of the Spirit. We need to pray, and ask, and supplicate our God to pour out the power of the Spirit upon us, not that we will hear noises or see visions of fire, or even speak in unknown tongues, but so that we will faithfully be His witnesses to the ends of the earth!
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