Changes on Pentecost | Acts 2:1-21
Luke's account of the day of Pentecost reveals three changes that occur with the birth of the New Testament Church: (1) the presence of God, (2) hope for the nations, and (3) the beginning of the end. This sermon is part 3 in "Building the Church," Bryan Craddock's series of verse-by-verse sermons on Acts 1-7.
As soon as babies are born, we start talking about who they resemble. We notice their hair and complexion. We look at the shape of their face, their eyes, their mouth, even their ears. Some features are like their mother and others like their father. You might even find a trait from a grandparent that skipped a generation.
As fun as that is for us to see, the sad reality is that we also pass on genetic health problems to our children. Some scientists would like to intervene and change that. I’m grateful for modern medicine, but such efforts may be going too far. I am also skeptical about whether they will ever succeed. Only God can truly rescue us from the effects of our fallen human condition, whether physical or spiritual, and the birth of the New Testament Church is a major step forward in that process on the spiritual side.
Though the Church is descended from Old Testament Israel and shares some similarities, fundamental differences become clear as soon as it is born on the Day of Pentecost. The Lord does not remove all the spiritual problems of the fall, but he brings about significant modifications in the spiritual DNA of the Church. Luke’s account of Pentecost in Acts 2:1-21 reveals three changes that occur.
Why do we need to understand them? If we fail to do so, we become susceptible to distorted views of spiritual life such as shallow ritualism, burdensome legalism, and experiential mysticism. The changes that take place on Pentecost are part of the gospel. They show us the privileges of being New Testament believers so that we can live with gratitude, hope, and purpose.
The Presence of God
If I was out somewhere and needed help when I was growing up, we had to find a pay phone, put in a coin, and remember the number to dial home. We have experienced a dramatic change since then. Most of us now have mobile phones that we carry around. They allow us to communicate and have instant access to information any time anywhere, and that has revolutionized the way we live. The birth of the New Testament church marks a similar revolution in spiritual life.
When God rescued the people of Israel from Egypt, he made his presence known to them visibly in a fiery cloud. As they journeyed through the wilderness, he would dwell in the middle of their camp in the Tabernacle. Once they entered the land and eventually built the Temple in Jerusalem, his glory remained there. So, Old Testament believers could pray to God wherever they were, but drawing near to the Lord still meant going to Jerusalem. In fact, the Law required them to travel and appear before him three times a year (Ex 23:14-17). Pentecost was one of those pilgrimage feasts.
But Jesus promised to bring about a change. He said that he would send a Helper to be in his followers (Jn 14:16-17). He said that they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Ac 1:5). So, on Pentecost the presence of God begins to dwell within every believer.
Luke describes this dramatic shift in Acts 2:1-4 by saying,
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.
The Greek word Pentecost simply means fiftieth day. The Old Testament Law calls it the Feast of Weeks (or in Hebrew Shavuot) because it is celebrated seven weeks after Passover (Ex 34:22; Lev 23:15). So, it often falls around the beginning of June, and Numbers 28:26 describes it as the day of firstfruits, a time to present grain offerings to the Lord from their early harvests. Though the connection is never explicitly stated in the Bible, Jewish tradition holds that Pentecost falls on the same day that the Lord spoke the Ten Commandments. So, today orthodox Jews celebrate Shavuot by lighting candles and staying up all night studying the Torah.
Scholars debate whether that tradition was already held by First Century Jews. Either way, the phenomena that Luke records on Pentecost mirror what happened at Sinai when the Law was given. Exodus 19:16-18 describes a great storm, a trumpet blast, and the fiery presence of God descending upon the mountain. Luke speaks of a mighty rushing wind from heaven and tongues of fire coming down to rest upon each of the followers of Jesus.
Back in Acts 1:15, Luke mentioned that there were about 120 people in the group. The Apostles, Mary, and the brothers of Jesus were there. But so too were the women who followed Jesus and several other people. The fire came upon all of them. As John the Baptist had predicted, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11).
Luke tells us that they were also filled with the Holy Spirit, and that term speaks of something in addition to the Spirit’s indwelling. Other people had been filled before. Luke’s Gospel tells us that it happened to John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, when she met Mary and to John’s father at his birth (Lu 1:41, 67). They were temporarily filled to deliver prophetic messages. They allowed the Holy Spirit to control them and work through them. For the believers on Pentecost, being filled enabled them to speak in tongues. I will say more about tongues and being filled with the Spirit in a moment.
Before we move on, however, we should consider the implications of God being present in every believer. It is both frightening and encouraging. Under the Old Testament system of worship, only the high priest was able to draw near to the holy presence of God in the temple. Everyone else was kept at a distance. Anyone who ignored God’s commands and violated those boundaries was struck down by God (Lev 10:1-2; Num 16:35; 2 Sam 6:6-7).
But through the indwelling of the Spirit, we become God’s temple. So, we must honor his holiness in everything we do. In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Paul says,
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Thankfully, the Holy Spirit also helps us obey. When the people of Israel had been led away into captivity for their disobedience, the Lord foretold the coming of the Spirit through the Prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel 36:26-27 tells us that he said,
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
The full realization of this prophecy seems to be related to the return of Christ and the establishment of his earthly kingdom. The prophet speaks of Israel finally being delivered from all uncleanness and experiencing prosperity and peace in the promised land. But on the Day of Pentecost, the followers of Jesus began to experience the firstfruits of this transformation. The Spirit teaches us and convicts us, but we can still make choices that grieve him. So, we must let the presence of God within us shape how we live. We must be filled with the Spirit, and that leads us to a second change from Israel to the Church.
Hope for the Nations
What happens when people drink a lot of alcohol? Their muscle control and sense of balance are impaired. They begin to stumble around. To make matters worse, their vision might become blurry. They struggle to concentrate and remember things, and that affects their judgment. They begin to lose control and act impulsively. You never know what they will say, but their speech might be so slurred that you cannot understand it anyway.
On the Day of Pentecost, some of the people who hear the followers of Jesus speaking in tongues mockingly accuse them of being drunk. That dismissive judgment says more about their own condition than that of the believers. The miraculous event reveals the hope for the nations that comes with the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. To understand that hope, we must look again at how Luke describes it in Acts 2:4. He says,
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
When people are “filled” with wine, they lose control, and the critics on Pentecost accuse Jesus’ followers of that. Ironically, a lot of Christians today hold a similar view. They believe that speaking in tongues happens when people work themselves into such an ecstatic emotional state that they start uttering unintelligible sounds. Some point to 1 Corinthians 13:1 and claim that this is an angelic prayer language, but that view misses the entire point of the Spirit’s filling and the biblical gift of tongues.
When Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 he includes self-control. This characteristic is also evident in his description of what it means to be Spirit filled in Ephesians 5:18-21. He says,
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
The indwelling of the Spirit gives us the hope that we can overcome the lack of control that leads to a debauched sinful lifestyle. We find strength as we rely upon the Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us. He helps us worship and build up one another in meaningful ways. He enables us to overcome our selfish impulses to be humble, thankful, and reverent.
The Spirit also equips us to proclaim the gospel, and that is the purpose of the gift of tongues. In Acts 2:5-13, Luke tells us,
Now there 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 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."
So, who is present in this audience? In verse 11, they are described as Jews and proselytes. Proselytes are Gentiles who have adopted the Jewish faith. So, it makes sense that they would know other languages, but what about the Jews here?
Many Jews began to be scattered from the land seven centuries before this as various empires conquered Israel. It was God’s punishment for their disobedience. So, subsequent generations of Jews were raised in other lands speaking other languages. Some of those present on Pentecost may have returned to live in Jerusalem. Others may have simply traveled there for the feast. But they do not know what to make of this miracle.
The gift of tongues is a sign of hope for the nations. Genesis 11 tells us that the world’s diversity of languages began as an expression of God’s judgment at the Tower of Babel. People tried to find unity and strength apart from the Lord by building a tower. It probably served as an idolatrous temple. So, the Lord intervened by confusing their language and scattering them around the world.
But in Genesis 12 we learn that his plan is also to bless all the families of the earth through Abraham’s descendants, the people of Israel. Pentecost reflects that goal. The Spirit enables the followers of Jesus to speak languages that they have never learned. As the mighty works of God are proclaimed in a variety of languages from around the world, the confusion that began at Babel is momentarily reversed. The Lord wants people from every nation, tribe, and tongue to hear his gospel and be saved.
But there is also another side to this miracle. As Paul explains the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, he says,
In the Law it is written, "By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord." Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.
So, the gift of tongues serves as a supernatural sign of grace to unbelieving people from other nations. It enables them to understand the message and confirms the truth of what is being proclaimed. But Paul quotes these words from Isaiah 28:11 to show that the gift is also a sign of judgment for the Jews. They were supposed to serve as a kingdom of priests representing God to the world, but they failed in their mission. So, when the followers of Jesus speak in tongues to the Jews, it shows that a dramatic shift is beginning that will lead the nations to hear and speak God’s truth in their languages, while the Jewish people become hard-hearted, closed-minded, and spiritually blind.
We already see this dynamic developing on Pentecost. Those who mock are probably the locals who do not understand any of the foreign languages that are being spoken. Even as they accuse the believers of being drunk, those proud Jews are the ones whose spiritual perception has become impaired. They are stumbling around spiritually and have lost control to such an extent that they crucified their Messiah. The Lord has given them over to the mind-numbing influence of sin.
What does this all mean for us? Most of us are probably not of Jewish descent. By God’s grace we have been rescued from the blinding intoxication of sin. So, we should rejoice and give thanks for the great privilege of hearing and understanding the truth of the gospel.
We should also respond by devoting ourselves to the mission of crossing social, cultural, and linguistic barriers to tell others about the mighty works of God. As we do, should we seek the gift of tongues? In 1 Corinthians 13:8, Paul says that this miraculous gift would cease at some point. It seems to me that it has served its purpose as a sign of God shifting his focus to the nations. He can still work miracles if he should choose to do so, but to reach people from other nations, missionaries must now do the hard work of learning a language. The Church must strive to communicate the hope of the gospel to the nations.
The Beginning of the End
A dry barren field does not become a lush garden overnight. It needs gentle rainfall to soften it up. Seed needs to be sown. Then more water is needed over time for it to flourish and bear fruit for the harvest. The people of ancient Israel were familiar with these agricultural cycles. They had a season of early rain that prepared the soil and a later season of heavier rain that could give them an abundant harvest.
But at some point in their history, their plight became desperate. A plague of locusts swept over the land, devouring their crops and leaving their fields barren. The Lord spoke through the Prophet Joel and revealed that this was his way of getting their attention so that they would return to him (Joel 2:12-13). He prophesied that at some point early and late rains would come that would give them true abundance (2:23-25). But instead of a downpour of water, God would pour out his Spirit.
Peter quotes Joel’s prophecy to explain what is happening on Pentecost. I think the best way to sum up his point is to say that the coming of the Spirit marks the beginning of the end in God’s plan of salvation. Acts 2:14-18 tells us,
But Peter, standing with the eleven, 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.
There is some debate over how the coming of the Spirit on Pentecost relates to these verses from Joel 2:28-29. Peter seems to make a direct link between the two, but there are two problems with that. First, Joel speaks of the Spirit being poured out on all flesh, which was not happening. It was limited to those 120 followers of Jesus. Second, Joel links the coming of the Spirit to the last days, and two thousand years later we are still waiting.
Some argue that Joel is using exaggerated language, so we should just accept Peter’s inspired interpretation. Others say that Peter is only pointing out the similarity between Pentecost and Joel. A few claim that Peter is overly excited and makes a mistake. I think that we find a better explanation in the early and late rains.
Joel refers to this weather pattern in Joel 2:23, just a few verses prior to this quote. So, Peter probably considers Pentecost to be the early rain. The people of Israel had become like a barren field, but the coming of the Spirit softens the soil for the sowing of the gospel. The church sprouts and grows until the end when the late rain of a universal outpouring of the Spirit will bring true spiritual abundance in Israel in preparation for Christ’s return. So, the coming of the Spirit marks the beginning of the end times phase of God’s plan.
In his epistles, Peter continues to emphasize the idea that the end times have begun. In 1 Peter 1:13, he speaks of setting our hope on the revelation of Christ. In 1 Peter 4:7, he calls believers to be self-controlled and sober minded in prayer because the end of all things is at hand. Then in 2 Peter 3:8-9, he explains the apparent delay in Christ’s return by saying,
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
So, the Church is born for the end times. We must maintain a sense of urgency in proclaiming the gospel. Christ’s return is imminent. On Pentecost, Peter stresses that urgency to his audience by continuing his quotation from Joel. Acts 2:19-21 tells us that he said,
And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor 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.'
When Joel spoke those words, it reminded people that some things are more frightening than a plague of locusts. The earth will face a series of cataclysmic events before the Lord comes. But they could find comfort and assurance by humbling themselves and calling upon the Lord to save them. Peter makes the same point with his audience, and he goes on to explain what Pentecost says about the Lord Jesus Christ. We will return to that thought next time.
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It has been almost two thousand years since the Church was born, but the changes that came about with the coming of the Spirit should still shape how we live. We must strive to live a holy life, because God is present in us as his temple. We should rejoice in the hope of salvation for people from every nation, tribe, and tongue. We should proclaim that good news to them with urgency because Pentecost was the beginning of the end.
If you have never done so, I urge you to call upon the Lord. Believe in the death and resurrection of Christ. Confess your sins and ask him to save you from the coming judgment. If you want to learn more about salvation and the work of the Holy Spirit, Romans 8 would be a good chapter to read.
If you’re a believer, does your life reflect these changes? Do you need to change your approach to spiritual life? Has it become an empty ritual, a bunch of rules, or the pursuit of an experience? Recognize who we are as members of Christ’s church--indwelt by the Spirit, filled with hope, anticipating Christ’s return. We should faithfully proclaim God’s mighty works.
May his glory be displayed in us!
Reflect
What do you find most encouraging about this passage?
Do you need to approach spiritual life differently? How so?
What could you do to develop a more consistent habit of speaking of God’s mighty works?