Sermon for MHBC (17 January 2021). You can listen on Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, or our website. Live at 11:00am on Sundays.
We are continuing our series from Acts on prophetic vision. I should clarify what we mean by this use of the word prophetic. A lot of times when we hear the word prophecy or prophetic, we think of future-telling. That is only one sense, and not at all the only sense Scripture uses. Scripture also uses the language of prophecy for proclamation and disclosure. A prophetic word in the Bible is often a proclamation of what God is up to. It can also be a word of disclosure, revealing something new. So, when we talk about seeking a prophetic vision, we really mean this sense of a divine word from the living God. We aren’t really talking about telling the future at all.
Now to understand our passage, you have to remember that God had been promising in the OT that he would do something new, that he would bring renewal to creation, and that would be evident because he would pour out his own Spirit when it happened. This is relevant for us as we continue to think about our future as a local congregation. What we need is renewal. Sometimes we use the word revival, which really means the same thing. Revival comes from the Latin word for life, so it simply means “to live again” or “to bring new life.” And as we are going to see, revival is an act of the Spirit. Revival or renewal, then, is an intensification of the activity of the Spirit.[1]
Let’s begin in Acts 2:1: “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.” Pentecost is a Jewish feast that occurs fifty days after Passover. It’s a big deal. People would travel to Jerusalem for the feast. But notice the disciples are doing exactly what they were instructed to do. They are waiting. They are all together in one place.
Verse 2: “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.” The prophet Ezekiel foretold a time when God would summon the wind to breathe on bones in a valley, and they would be raised and filled with the breath of God and given new life. Luke describes this as a mighty rushing wind. This is something dramatic. The Spirit of God is coming in incredible power, filling the entire house.
Verse 3: “And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.” It’s hard to determine exactly what this is, but remember what John said. I will baptize you with water, but one will come after me who will baptize you with the Spirit and fire. Fire means the presence of God has drawn near. It is a burning bush experience. This is a moment to take shoes off because they are standing on holy ground.
That’s clear in v. 4 because the Spirit of God fills them and they begin to visibly manifest this reality. Verse 4: “And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” This is a corporate filling, not an individual filling. “They are all filled,” Luke says. In our individualized western society, we tend to miss this aspect in Scripture. Seldom is it concerned with individuals. It is concerned with groups. In this case, all the followers of Jesus are filled with the Spirit.
This is the birth of the Church, and this is hugely important. We talk about Christmas and Easter being our high holy days, but Pentecost is equally as important. Pentecost is the day the Church is born. It is the day when that new thing God promised to do became a reality. It’s the day when Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones rising up and becoming flesh and being filled with God’s Spirit happens. And that is our reality. We need to really grasp what it means to say we are born again. It means the Spirit has rushed upon us as a mighty wind and filled us. And this is foundational to what it means to be a church. It means a community of people who are filled with the Spirit.
Now they are speaking in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The word translated utterance is a rare word in the NT—only occurring three times and each time in Acts. Luke tends to reserve this word for prophetic speech in the sense of proclamation and disclosure. Two of the three occurrences are here in ch. 2 (vv. 4 and 14). And this speaking in other tongues is a sign, a testimony, a confirmation, that God’s presence has invaded the area.
I wonder if you recall your conversion experience. It is quite possible that it was rather ordinary and hardly noticeable, but it might have also been remarkably transformative. Maybe it came later as well. But I wonder if you recall an experience when the Spirit of God took hold of you. I had this experience as a senior in high school. I was gripped by the Spirit of God. I became absolutely ravenous for the knowledge of God. And I was unashamedly committed to proclaiming Jesus and obeying him. I started witnessing to anyone who would listen. A group of us began witnessing in our cafeteria by gathering in the front for prayer in front of 400 or so other students. And I was eager to find others who were being gripped by the Spirit. For a brief period, I attended a large charismatic church where I would encounter the practice of speaking and translating tongues, which we will talk briefly about.
Such a dramatic experience happened collectively to about 120 people here in the text and they can’t contain themselves. They begin testifying about Jesus, and the confirmation of that testimony is in this supernatural speaking of tongues. Now the reference to tongues in Acts 2 refers to real languages that they did not previously know. Over the course of the next few verses, we see that people who speak various languages are able to understand this prophetic proclamation about Jesus, and the shocking thing about this is that these are a bunch of rural Galileans who could not speak these languages before. Look at v. 11: “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” Notice that this proclamation is all about the mighty works of God. In other words, they are saying God has done what he promised to do and that has all happened through Jesus.
Some people make fun of them because they are not acting in a natural way. Remember this is a supernatural experience. This confusion gives Peter the opportunity to preach the first sermon in the history of the church. Look at vv. 14–16: “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.” So he says the moment has come when God is doing what he promised to do. He points to Joel to confirm this.
The citation from Joel covers vv. 17–21:
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 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.
Now there is a lot of confusion about the end times and discussion of the last days. And frankly, much of this confusion is the result of declaring something to be biblical but not paying attention to what the Bible actually says. Peter cites a text from Joel about the last days and he says, “This is what’s happening in front of you.” The outpouring of the Spirit marks the beginning of the end. That means the Church is a last days community. What do I mean by that? I mean we proclaim that God has acted to redeem the world and he continues that process this very moment. And we also do more than proclaim it. We live in that new reality. We see that at the end of this chapter in vv. 42–47. We also see it in texts like 2 Cor 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ: new creation!” The question we need to ask as a local church is what would it mean for us to be a prophetic community of the last days?
This last days moment is marked by the supernatural activity of the Spirit. There are visions and dreams and prophecies. All of these things point to Jesus. All of these things testify to the fact that Jesus is king. This isn’t just generic spirituality. We aren’t just talking about god-talk and religion. This is a heavenly reality that has invaded our world. Jesus is king. The way to receive the Spirit of God, the way into new creation, is in Jesus.
Peter’s sermon is a lengthy argument to this point, but let me just hit the highlights. Jump down to vv. 32–33: 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.” They are witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. He is alive. And because he is alive, he is pouring out the Holy Spirit. Do you see the connection? Without the resurrection and ascension, without Jesus being king, there is no outpouring. But the outpouring of the Spirit is the evidence that Jesus is king. Look at v. 36—this is Peter’s conclusion: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” The crucified Jesus is king, and the Spirit’s visible activity attests to that.
So what is the response to these things? That’s what the crowd wants to know, and Peter tells them in vv. 38–39: And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized 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.” Put your allegiance in Christ, and the Spirit is yours.
Here’s where we need to draw our main application this morning. The things in this chapter are not the exclusive domain of charismatic churches. We aren’t talking about some fringe activity. It is apparent from these last two verses (and the entire NT), that the ordinary experience of every Christ-follower is the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Churches are pressured into a lot of activities. Tradition and routine and past experiences solidify those activities. But notice that priority number one is the church’s identity as a Spirit-filled community. As a Spirit-empowered community, the church is marked by the presence of God’s activity. The church is not just another non-profit organization. We are not simply a charity, though churches should routinely engage in acts of charity. The church is a Spirit-filled community. That means we focus on what we see here in Acts 2—prayer and proclamation. It means our lives are transformed in repentance.
Do you realize the power that is yours in Christ? Sometime read Romans 8 carefully. But for now, let me just summarize what you will find there. If your allegiance belongs to Christ, if you are united to him, the Spirit dwells within you. Whatever is corrupt and rebellious in you now has another part to contend with—the Spirit of the living God. You no longer have to live in the same patterns. You no longer are enslaved to your past. In Christ, there is new creation.
There is power to change. But that means we must submit to and rely upon the Spirit. Church historian Richard Lovelace once wrote, “The typical relationship between believers and the Holy Spirit in today’s church is too often like that between the husband and wife in a bad marriage. They live under the same roof, and the husband makes constant use of his wife’s services, but he fails to communicate with her, recognize her presence and celebrate their relationship with her.” He says that it is necessary for us to “make a deliberate effort at the outset of every day to recognize the person of the Holy Spirit, to move into the light concerning his presence in our consciousness and to open up our minds and to share all our thoughts and plans as we gaze by faith into the face of God.”[2]
So we begin exactly where the early church began. We begin by waiting dependently on the Spirit. Until the Spirit falls upon us, we can’t expect anything out of the ordinary. But when the Spirit shows up, transformative activity, bold proclamation, and compelling community are all realities. We are talking about prophetic vision. According to Joel, the outpouring of the Spirit results in prophetic visions. Only through dependence on the Spirit will we experience renewal. And when the renewal comes, it will be unmistakable.
[1] See Tim Keller, Center Church, 54–55.
[2] Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 131.