Making the Theological Understandable
King David, the Jews’ favorite son, spoke of the Resurrected Messiah and in Acts 2:25-35, the Apostle Peter appeals to the Jews to heed David’s prophecy. Click the link below to listen to the message “David Said.” It was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on October 19, 2014 by Barbara Shafer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKdFkZG_gMw&feature=youtu.be
Last week we saw that one of the ways people try to diminish the Gospel and discredit the works of God would be to ridicule it. Today, I wanted to look at the speech Peter gives in response so we can see a really good outline for how to present the Gospel by addressing the question
Who will be saved?”
It’s a question people ask even today. There are plenty of ideas swirling around out there.
For some, they think they have their ticket to heaven because of Jesus but their sins never really mattered. They think you’re judgmental because who are you to say it’s sin? God LOVES me just as I am. (Why then did Jesus die?)It is this question (Who will be saved?) that is behind a favorite question of evangelists:
Where will you be one minute after you die?
Peter didn’t handle the situation that way or ask that question, even if it is a pretty good one used by people like Billy Graham. Confronted with a really diverse group (including mockers, devout Jews, Jewish converts, curiosity seekers, and a crowd of onlookers), Peter springboards off their question (v 12) “What does this mean?” and the mockery and he launches into a full blown evangelistic altar call.
Peter counteracts the wine explanation and says, Acts 2:16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.”
The Jews and the Jewish converts were eagerly awaiting the “last days” which is a term we know more loosely as the time between the Ascension and the Return of Christ. To the Jews and Jewish converts it didn’t mean that because they didn’t believe in Jesus. They were not Jesus’ disciples. To them, what were the “last days?” It’s not like the last slice of pizza, or the last lap of speed skating. It’s a period of time, an era with definable features. It begins with God’s reversal of the fortunes of the chosen people, evidenced by the Holy Spirit being poured out on all people. To the Jews, the last days would be the time period of deliverance from their enemies. And who would deliver them? Their Messiah. And God, who had chosen them, would do it.
17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” All people doesn’t really mean all. Just like last doesn’t really mean the very last. We have to take it in the same context that the Jews and Jewish converts would have immediately known! If you go to the passage that we had read for us this morning in Joel (Joel 2:15-29), you’ll see God is talking about His people: All people are His people, the faithful people of Zion (what we see as the faithful people of God in all ages). Our God doesn’t save “ALL” as in every human being (Judas included) just to make sure He fills the heavenly football stadium. He saves those who love Him and who acknowledge He is God and we are sinners dependent on Him for deliverance.
To Peter’s hearers among the Jews, they would have known this important context of Joel:
Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly. 16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber. 17 Let the priests, who minister before the LORD, weep between the temple porch and the altar.
(This is repentance—our owning that we haven’t lived lives that honor God. We haven’t been holy or lived with kindness toward others. Verse 17 continues…)
Let them say, ‘Spare your people, O LORD. Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?”
(The Jews and Jewish converts would see this as the last days! A petition for God to spare His people for His Name’s sake! He is a covenant-keeping God. He made promises to them!) Context continues:
18 Then the LORD will be jealous for his land and take pity on his people. 19 The LORD will reply to them: ‘I am sending you grain, new wine and oil, enough to satisfy you fully; never again will I make you an object of scorn to the nations. 20 ‘I will drive the northern army far from you,
(The northern army at the time of Joel’s writing would have been Assyria and Babylon—what we know today as Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, and Jordan. Interesting note for our times as it relates to the nation state of Israel, is it not?)
20 ‘I will drive the northern army far from you, pushing it into a parched and barren land, with its front columns going into the eastern sea and those in the rear into the western sea. And its stench will go up; its smell will rise.’ Surely he has done great things. 21 Be not afraid, O land; be glad and rejoice. Surely the LORD has done great things. … 25 ‘I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten– the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm–my great army that I sent among you. 26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. 27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed. 28 ‘And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Some of you may be thinking, Time out!
The timing is all off!
These nations are STILL warring against Israelis and against Christians!
You’re right. Prophecy is kind of that way. Prophecy is kind of like pouring cups of water into a bucket until it’s full of water. Prophecy can be filled one cup at a time until the final suffering, the final deliverance. The Holy Spirit being poured out on believers in Jesus Christ is a major filling of the bucket, preparing us for that final deliverance of God’s people as the last cups of water finish to the brim.
God’s people throughout the ages have looked forward to a time of rest in the presence of God. In the plan of God, suffering –like the locust plagues and enemies warring—draws us to the place of seeking His presence. Desiring to be saved! Crying out for deliverance! Sometimes all you can do is cry out, “Help!”
Have you ever suffered?
Maybe someone you love has died or broken your heart by leaving you. Maybe you had rebellious kids who took every opportunity to reject your parenting influence, went down a bad path, and maybe are still there. Maybe you lost a job that you depended on to pay bills. Maybe you were forced into early retirement and are living now on a fixed income.
In times of suffering, we can draw inward to embrace the pain…depend on ourselves, which leads to depression….OR we can look upward knowing that we have a God who loves us…which leads to hope…and which ends with deliverance. Because God is faithful!
That’s what Joel was telling us.
Suffering happens.
It’s a given.
We live in a broken world.
And NOT because God created it already broken!
God created it perfect and beautiful and whole and holy!
We broke it.
And it stays broken until Jesus returns because of human sin!
But we can use it as an opportunity to draw near to our faithful God! Turn from trying to save ourselves. Turn from disagreeing with God and agree with Him–if He thinks sin is sin, it is! (You know, it doesn’t matter if some circuit court or the Illinois or Wisconsin Supreme Court says something’s OK. It doesn’t even matter if the US Supreme Court says it’s OK. God is the Supreme Judge over all that and He’s not looking to take a vote or apt to change His mind because a group of men and women in black robes with a law degree think sin isn’t sin. God is the One who defines good and evil, right and wrong, sin and purity.) Maybe part of our problem is that we don’t take God seriously. We need to turn from believing there’s nothing up there, as if heaven’s lights are on but there’s nobody home. Turn from believing you’re on your own and there’s nothing after this life. Turn from all that and turn TO God.
Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved!
So when Peter goes on to quote this passage from Joel, he makes a couple of notable changes (interpretive ones, if you will), reflecting his understanding that Jesus changed it all! Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter reveals his new understanding of how Jesus’ life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension brought old truths to new light–the same truths that had previously been unclear. I’d like to point these interpretive changes out because it’s how Peter leads to the altar call:
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. (Peter reverses the order) 29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days (Peter repeats and they will prophesy). 30 I will show wonders in the heavens (Peter adds, above) and (signs) on the earth (below), blood and fire and billows of smoke. 31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful (glorious) day of the LORD. 32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; /(Peter ends here, but Joel continues)/ for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, among the survivors whom the LORD calls.
The speaking in tongues that people had heard—the many known languages—were a sign of God’s presence! Cups of water being poured and poured and poured until the bucket will someday be full of God’s presence among His people and He comes to be with them, to judge their enemies, and to usher in eternity….when it’s filled to the brim!
Probably the most notable things that would have popped out to the Jewish hearers would be:
(1) The pouring out of the Spirit is evidenced by the prophesying going on (verse 18). They will prophesy—it’s the divine explanation for what they heard, not wine causing the speaking in languages! What is prophesying but some people speaking God’s words to other people by His power?
(2) The wonders of God are presently being declared but as cups of water, they haven’t reached the top of fulfillment. Cups of water. We haven’t seen the sun going out, or the moon turning blood red, or the fire and billows of smoke assigned to the final battle of God’s destroying all evil once and for all! It’s defeated by Jesus already (the last days have begun), but someday, it will be thrown into the lake of fire. That Last Day to beat all last days is known as Judgment Day.
(3) Here’s a most notable interpretive change though: the Jews and Jewish converts would have noted the word glorious…instead of the word dreadful (a Hebrew word also meaning fearful, terrible, terrifying, and awesome—not like a 21st century dude would say it—but like something that would cause immense fear).
If it’s that scary, why would Peter call it glorious?
Because Jesus removed all the dread of death from those who call on His Name!
This is amazing stuff!
Because Jesus died, it’s a great and glorious day for those who call on the Name of the LORD!
There’s nothing to dread at all! No fear!
Jesus took the wrath we were expecting and died on the Cross so we wouldn’t have to experience it… if we trust in Him.
So Peter connects the “Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved” with our salvation in Messiah, Jesus. Saying, 22 “Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Peter will go on in his speech and we’ll look at that some more in coming weeks, but for now, consider what a life-changing, life-giving message Peter is stating as an answer to Who will be saved?
(1) For those who feel like they have to burn off their own sins in purgatory, Jesus says NO! He died so that your sins would be paid for…in full…once for all time! His Spirit’s pouring is evidence that the work is done…and if you’ve trusted in Him, you’re saved! The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of that inheritance, Scripture tells us! He’s your guarantee!!!
(2) For those who feel like Jesus loves them and sin doesn’t matter, God says, NO! Jesus had to die because sin DOES matter and Jesus’ death for us was the greatest evidence ever presented that God does in fact LOVE us more than we will ever fully know. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
(3) For those who say dust to dust then we are nothing and rely on the self-help section of the book store, social workers, horoscopes, and clichés…Jesus says NO! You’re not nothing waiting to happen. He can give you new life because there is eternity yet to come…and it’s so great that He had to die to make it possible for us to join Him there!
The bucket is being filled with water of baptism–baptism by the Holy Spirit, His coming into the hearts of more and more of those who say Yes to Jesus! Because His Name is powerful. And His sacrifice both perfect and accepted by the Father.
But there’s a group I skipped over. The group who thinks Jesus saves us whether we want it or not.
God’s answer to that one is NO. The one who is saved is the one who calls on the Name of the LORD!
You see, sin matters. Repentance matters. Jesus matters and His death matters!
If you have not trusted in His Name for your future, it’s not too late. As long as you have breath in your body, you can trust our faithful God. Agree with God about your sin and His holiness. Everyone who calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved!
Let’s pray.
Answering the question “Who will be saved?” this message on Acts 2:16-24 was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on October 12, 2014 by Barbara Shafer. Click on this link to listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXShtOdONo4
On Wine and Wonders: A Tale of Two Explanations
Have you ever been mocked? Been made fun of? Had someone ridicule something you said?
It can be even worse than being outright rejected, yes? It’s worse because rejection says that at least your thought is being taken seriously even if your opponent presents arguments to the contrary and you agree to disagree.
But, mocking, ridicule, being made sport of…these actions take whatever you thought was good and proceed to assign you to being stupid, trample your ideas as being nonsense, and condemn you as being worthless.
That’s exactly what is happening in our passage of Acts today. We’re in Acts 2:13-21 and in the flow of Acts, we’ve seen the Holy Spirit come with signs and wonders of speaking in tongues. He came on the disciples in power just as Jesus promised He would in the earliest verses of the book.
The disciples were speaking in other languages, known languages to many who had gathered for the Feast of Weeks at Pentecost. Heard by all who gathered, and yet, what do some do? They make fun of it.
How do we cope when someone does this?
Today’s passage gives us 4 wise strategies for dealing with rejection, ridicule, and mockery.
Actually, they’re strategies for dealing with Satan. Rejection, ridicule, and mockery are just his tools to achieve humiliation, division, reduce God’s supernatural works to human explanation, and to keep the Gospel and Jesus’ disciples from having an effect. Satan wants to stop the work of God and keep the Kingdom from coming on earth as it is in heaven. We can deal with this wisely by following a pattern that Peter did.
Strategy #1: Confront it to keep it from taking root. Acts 2:13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.” 14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:”
Note he stood up…with the Eleven…and addressed the whole crowd, including the mockers. Why? Because mockery doesn’t just impact the ones speaking the ridicule. It impacts all the hearers. In fact, ridicule is designed by Satan to divide by discouraging the heart and stopping the work of God…AND to keep others from following Jesus through making them feel ashamed. Shame is the ultimate goal of ridicule.
We see ridicule in numerous places in the Bible. For example when the Jews were rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, a task of God for protection of God’s people, Satan wanted that protection to stop. So what did Satan do? He sent discouragers like Sanballat in Nehemiah 4:3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building– if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!”…they wanted to stop the work of the Jews but God encouraged where Satan discouraged. And then it says in 4:7 But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the repairs to Jerusalem’s walls had gone ahead and that the gaps were being closed, they were very angry.”
Dispiriting is a work of Satan even in today’s passage and Satan gets angry when it doesn’t appear to work. Tough luck for Satan. But it doesn’t keep him from trying to dispirit us.
So, when confronted with the supernatural of all the Galileans speaking in foreign languages to bring people in to the Kingdom, our adversary, Satan, inspires people to try to assign a natural explanation to it. (Silly though it was, since who suddenly becomes an expert speaking a foreign language when they’re drunk? Dance on tables. Pass out. Bow down at the porcelain throne. Jail time for a DUI, yes, but to suddenly speak a foreign language? I don’t think so.) But it’s Satan’s best effort to strip the supernatural of God out of the miracle. Assign a natural explanation. Ridicule the disciples.
Think about all the ways our culture tries to ridicule, divide, and shame Christians. Just a quick look at the Internet, television and newspapers—particularly at election time—and you’ll see anyone with Christian values being ripped to shreds by Satan’s willing accomplices in the media.
Here’s Confrontation Coping Skills 101: Peter confronts the lies. He stands up and addresses everyone—including the mockers—in public! Because everyone who heard the mocking was subject to its evils of dispiriting discouragement.
Sometimes you’ll hear people say, “Praise in public; Criticize in private”…and while true when it comes to the sphere of employment, it doesn’t apply to Satan’s lies designed to dishearten all who hear it and stop the work of God. It doesn’t apply to false teachers who twist the Word of God and strip God of His authority. In these cases, the correction must be commensurate with…equal to…the number of those harmed. So Peter stands up in the public square to deal with it head-on. To confront it!
But now we’ll see that HOW we confront it is as important as the act of confronting it. We can confront it as a worldly person and destroy our witness for Jesus Christ…or we can confront things in God’s way and let our witness shine. Rise above the ridicule!
Which brings us to Strategy #2: Use it as an opportunity to include…because ridicule is designed to divide. Division is a great tool of Satan and he’s most likely to try it in the Church. “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem,” Peter includes both “fellow Jews” and then he brings others in…”all of you who live in Jerusalem.”
How many times when a President is making a speech does he start with “My fellow Americans?” Quite often. Whether he continues to unite or divide is up to the individual President, but the opening words offer the opportunity for bringing us together. By appealing to what we have in common!
So we confront lies, but we still use it as an opportunity to include others. Then we counteract the lies with God’s Truth, divisions with fellowship, and dispiriting with the powerful encouragement of God’s Word.
You see, Satan’s currency is falsehood. He lives in lies. He tells lies. He’s called the father of lies.
Anyone who does likewise is a son of the devil, according to Jesus—(which BTW is an important point in and of itself. Jesus believed in the devil and talked about him. A lot. Not as a funny little guy in a red suit with horns that kids will dress up as for Halloween or which belongs on canned ham. Jesus knows Satan as the most insidiously evil, sneaky, nasty, worm of a being that ever existed. Jesus didn’t underestimate Satan and we go wrong when we do. When we accept the caricature of him as just being a jolly guy in a red suit encouraging you to have fun. He isn’t Flip Wilson’s “The devil made me do it” as in buying a dress you didn’t need. The devil wants you dead. The devil wants you in hell. The devil wants to murder you and have you living in depression and shame and defeat day in day out until the day you die and join him in misery. He’s a defeated enemy who just wants to take as many people down with him that he can. That’s who the devil is, according to Jesus.) Jesus said this about the devil and those men and women the devil uses to discourage us:
John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
This should be a good message for us in an age of relative truth and in which we’re afraid to call anything a lie. The only people we’re truly deceiving are ourselves when we use words like spin, narrative, version of the story…or when we “Cry Wolf” and insist that something is true when it’s not. Suddenly Ebola comes upon us and we don’t know who is telling the truth anymore. Do we believe the CDC when the story keeps changing? We’ve been told so many lies that we don’t know whether to worry or trust. Everything seems to be a million shades of gray when what we want is something in black and white. Something we can trust. Something we can take to the bank. A little truth goes a long way in a world of lies. So every bit of opposition is actually an opportunity for Truth.
Strategy #3: Use lies/opposition as an opportunity to counteract it with explanation of truth.
Verse 14 continues, “Let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
The lie that was being introduced is that men are drunk at this feast and there’s nothing special about what happened. While I’ve seen drunks staggering around at many times of day, including 9 am, Peter’s point is that it’s not wine that is causing this, but wonders. Wonders that the fellow Jews…the devout Jews…would have been waiting to see fulfilled…what they heard declared as the wonders of God…IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGES!! They heard it. Then Peter quotes from their Scriptures.
Which brings us to Strategy #4. Use the Word as your weapon. When we know the Word of God, we can confront and teach against error with the Truth of God. The Sword of the Spirit. It’s the best tool for the spiritual battle—the spiritual realm being ground zero for the battle of lies versus the Truth. Here’s the Old Testament (Jewish Scripture) passage these devout Jews would have been waiting to see fulfilled!
Acts 2:17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. 19 I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
We’ll look at this passage a little bit more next week, but for now, let’s just say that the “fellow Jews” would have been excited to see the connection. It always helps us (when confronting error with truth) to begin with a point of connection. And moreover, the Spirit of God, alive in God’s Word, can make connections and combat lies in ways that regular words cannot. Knowing your Bible (both Old and New Testaments) is invaluable in counteracting lies, ridicule, any ideas or comments designed to dispirit you on a day to day basis. The Word of God is particularly helpful because Scripture tells us in Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
And Isaiah 55:10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Sometimes that purpose is correction and there’s no better weapon than the Word of God.
It’s easy in this life to have the wind taken out of your sails. To start well and finish poorly. To give up the fight. To give in to the lie that tells you nothing will ever change. To let your heart get discouraged and drop into depression. To let go of the miraculous and embrace the earthly. To ignore God and just say evolution caused it all. To say the Cross of Christ is meaningless and go back to trying to earn your way to heaven.
Discouragement is one of the most evil tools of the evil one, our adversary, Satan.
In every life opposition comes. In every church too. And Satan has a whole tool box of favorites. Lies. Deception. Division. Ridicule. Stealing your joy, your hope, your trust in God. But today’s passage gives us 4 wise strategies for coping:
When faced with opportunities to attribute God’s work to wine or affirm and declare the wonders of God…what will you do?
Let’s pray.
* * *
This message, On Wine & Wonders: A Tale of Two Explanations was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church in Racine, WI on October 5, 2014 by Barbara Shafer
This sermon, On Wine & Wonders, was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church in Racine, WI by Barbara Shafer (10.5.2014). Click link below to hear the message on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dMofYudk0s&feature=youtu.be
Speaking in tongues is one of the most controversial, strange, and misunderstood concepts in the Bible. It has been the source of divisions in the Church, perhaps even more so than ideas surrounding baptism. Its various camps of belief form fierce adversaries whose behavior can seem anything but Spirit-filled by how they treat one another. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Today’s passage, Acts 2:5-12, can help us to begin to make sense of “speaking in tongues.” Our passage actually gives us two clues for doing this.
W
e’ve been working our way through the book of Acts and the Holy Spirit promised in the earliest verses of chapter 1 has arrived. The setting is Jerusalem during the Feast of Weeks, a harvest feast coinciding with the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. We know it as Pentecost…celebrated fifty days after the Passover.
It is fitting that this should be the end of one harvest and the beginning of another, signaled by the coming of the Holy Spirit. It’s as if God is saying the type of harvest in the days prior to the Resurrection are concluded and the type of harvest during the days after the Resurrection will be something totally new.
Jews from all over the known world made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for many of the feasts, including the one at Pentecost. Ethnic/religious Jews and Jewish converts came to honor God with their presence at the Temple during such times. “Up to Jerusalem” was how these pilgrims viewed their trek and some of these pious Jews—particularly elderly ones—would stay on at Jerusalem to live out their last days, hoping to be buried in the Holy Land.
Our passage Acts 2:5-12 begins: Acts 2:5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
This is probably referring to the known world of that day, but the point is they were God-fearers (as distinct from disciples of Jesus). These God-fearers came from many nations–nations in which different languages were spoken and different accents were associated with regions. By analogy, it’s kind of like in the US, it’s pretty easy to tell who was born and raised in rural Georgia vs. Massachusetts by the way they speak.
Last week, we looked at the coming of the Holy Spirit and it said in v 2, “there was a sound like a violent wind blowing from heaven. And then in verse 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” So, the Jews assembled for the feast heard this.
6 When they heard this sound [that violent wind], a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?
Galileans would have had a distinctive accent and yet, when the tongues of fire rested on them and they were filled with the Spirit, suddenly they were able to speak in many languages that were easily understood by those gathered. The Scriptures say, “As the Spirit enabled them.”
Here’s the first clue for making sense of speaking in tongues. The Spirit enables it. Speaking in tongues is a SIGN.
This is a sign of the coming of the Holy Spirit…as distinct from gifts of the Holy Spirit which we’ll look at in a moment. This was a sign for the God-fearers, the Jews and the Jewish converts that the Holy Spirit had come pointing to Jesus’ sacrifice as accepted by God the Father. Remember way back in our earliest weeks of the book of Acts? “Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This Spirit enabling was a sign that they were receiving power from heaven, but more than that, it was an equipping for witness!
Clue #2, Speaking in tongues is EQUIPPING FOR WITNESS. Why? So that the expanding circles of witness outlined in Acts 1:8 would begin. In Jerusalem. To the very ends of the earth.
How better to do that than to equip those disciples in Jerusalem during the harvest feast to speak in the native languages of those God-fearers who had gathered? And it wasn’t done in the privacy of an inner room amongst disciples only. No, it was out in the open amongst those who were not disciples.
Remember last week how the Spirit came upon Eldad and Medad in Numbers 11 even though they were not assembled at the tent? They had stayed behind in the camp? And people noticed! Well this is much the same type of deal. The Spirit gave the ability to the disciples in the presence of those who were not disciples for the purpose of witness. The God-fearers and Jewish converts would be presented with evidence that the Spirit was upon the disciples. The disciples speaking in tongues was a sign just as it was when Eldad and Medad prophesied in the camp!
Speaking in tongues is not something anyone does for him or herself. It’s something done for the purpose of witness…to those who are not believers. To those who have not heard the Gospel. To those who are being presented the opportunity to believe or reject the good news!
As our passage continues in verse 8, those gathered say, “8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs– we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
Do you catch it?
Do you hear the witness in the words they speak?
The “wonders of God” were being declared! That’s witness!
If you look at the list of nations from which the Jews and Jewish converts had come, you’ll find something very interesting: they are a very similar geographical “known world” to that which we heard about in our Old Testament reading this morning from Genesis (see links below). I propose to you that the Spirit enabling the disciples from one dialect (Galileans) to speak in many languages (understandable to all the known world) and each disciple recounting the very same wonders of God is in some respects a reversal of Babel’s scattering and confusion.
Let’s do a loop back to Genesis 10 and 11, in which we see the story of the Table of Nations and a flashback in our OT reading about Babel to how they came to be dispersed.
Genesis 11:1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
They got the bright idea to make their own way to God…a stairway reaching from earth to heaven in order to bring God down to their human level. Before we’re too hard on them, let’s think of all the ways we try to find our own ways to God, to bring God down to our level.
We create God in our own image all the time!
That’s what the people of Babel were doing. In creating this ziggurat, this stairway from earth to heaven, as part of a temple complex, they were trying to exert their authority to bring God down. In doing so, they’d make a name for themselves. Bringing God down to the human level—their making Him just one among all the other Canaanite gods who had attitude problems and jealousies and bickering—well, it wasn’t in man’s best interest. It certainly didn’t honor the One True God who created them and saved their ancestors through the great flood.
Their common language and easy understanding made their self-centered endeavor possible, so in v 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel–because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
That whole earth included what is listed as the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. Just make a note because if you do a little comparison of that Table of Nations, you’ll see that they’re remarkably similar to the nations gathered at Pentecost listed in today’s passage of Acts. Basically it’s the people groups from what we’d call the entire Middle East, up to Turkey, over to Iraq and Iran…as far west as Rome, down to northern Africa (Libya and Egypt). Let’s just call this the region of modern conflict! Amazing, is it not?
These were the areas to which people had been scattered to keep them from trying to bring God down…and yet, thousands of years later, these dispersed people groups were gathered to Jerusalem in order to hear the message—in understandable language— and carry the Gospel back home…to the ends of the earth. They gathered at Pentecost to hear the wonders of God declared in their own language.
You know what? People are still trying to preach the Gospel, facing persecution in those same places….just like we heard about regarding the ultimate fate of the 12 disciples last week. I think of Saeed Abedini, the pastor in Iran , who is in jail for preaching the Gospel and refusing to convert to Islam…and so many others who face persecution because of the Gospel being declared as God’s message of love to all the nations.
In Babel, misguided man had the ability to understand each other, and could do the nearly impossible by building a worship complex—earth to heaven–in order to bring God down to the human level. This was not in man’s best interest, and was an affront to God so He scattered them.
But in Acts 2, God overrides what He had done in scattering—with a huge difference!
So speaking in tongues (as given by the Holy Spirit) is both a SIGN that God is on the scene and it is His EQUIPPING us for worldwide witness.
Let’s return to our passage verse 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” What does speaking in tongues mean?
Well, that’s a very good question. To some, it means speaking other languages with great ease like we saw in today’s passage. Boom! You’re speaking it. Better than Berlitz or Rosetta Stone. The Holy Spirit just enables you to do this and you go from 0 to 60 in no time.
To others (and more commonly), it means speaking as a spiritual gift. Speaking in a “Holy Spirit language”—unintelligible to the human ear—but known to God. This is far more common in some charismatic churches and they base their understanding in the giving of gifts by the Holy Spirit–gifts like teaching, mercy, evangelism, etc. —like the ones in the survey I’ve been encouraging you to do. And yet, in many of these surveys, there are a few gifts that are often ignored. Why? Because the developers don’t want to get into all that controversy. Those gifts left out are called the charismatic or miraculous gifts or sign gifts: Healing. Miracles. Speaking in tongues. Interpretation of tongues. And sometimes the gift of prophecy.
If you were to have a numerical scale from 0-100, many charismatic churches like the Pentecostal, Assembly of God, etc. would rank closer to 100—in which it is believed all people who are Christian get filled with the Holy Spirit and will speak in this “Holy Spirit language,” if they are genuine.
All the way at the other end of the spectrum would be those in which people acknowledge that speaking in tongues (viewed as babbling—ironic word is it not?) used to happen in the early church and is written about in Scripture, but those days have already died out. They’d place themselves nearer to 0—asserting that no one truly speaks in tongues anymore and that those who claim to do so, for the lack of a better word, are faking it. People who think these gifts have died out would be called cessationists, meaning they think these were temporary gifts and have now ceased. Ended. Period.
0-100.That leaves a lot of space in between. People who are good Christians can fall into the area in the middle. Some closer to 0; some closer to 100. As we proceed through the book of Acts we will see this topic surface a few times. Each time we will dig a bit deeper into it.
For today at Plymouth, though, what do we make of it? Well, Jonathan Edwards—one of our favorites who articulated the Way better than many in American Protestantism—said:
It was not God’s design that miracles should always be continued in the world. Miracles are only for introducing the true religion into the world…to confirm to the world that it was a divine revelation. But now, when the true religion has long since introduced and the canon of the Scripture completed, the use of miracles in the church ceases.”
I will tell you that I do not speak in tongues and even have a really hard time learning other languages. I will also tell you that I know people who are by every measure faithful Christians (many in seminary, many from other countries)…people who tell me they DO speak in tongues and I have no reason to doubt their experience. Many of them go as missionaries to areas of the world that the Gospel has not penetrated…or to those areas of the world in which Christianity is largely dying out.
Experience can be both a help and a hindrance.
The Word of God is what we must base our beliefs upon at the core. Edwards, Calvin, Whitfield, and Augustine, famous Christians among many others who were deemed cessationists, definitely appealed to the Word of God and found their experiences validated in the Word. They understood the importance of the Word, but I wonder if they haven’t interpreted the Word as a product of their cultures.
The known world—as these men experienced it—is not all there is. The known world is still expanding as we reach areas of the world for which the Gospel is still being introduced as the true religion…or areas in which the true religion has died out and is being re-introduced. Scripture’s picture isn’t being added to—something that every Bible-believing Christian should reject–but it is kind of like the difference between a high resolution picture and a low resolution picture. We are presently being given pixel detail…in focused depth of understanding and the Good News is reaching an expanding population of people. Stop and think about this for a moment. If the Gospel had already reached the very ends of the earth and the Kingdom was complete, Jesus would have come back and all of us sitting here would be left behind.
My personal view is what would be characterized as “Open but Cautious” and I’d place myself far closer to the zero side of the 50 middle-marker. I believe that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Part of the reason so many in the Reformed sector of the Church reject these miraculous gifts is because some of the more charismatic churches have misused, misunderstood, and abused the notion. These gifts, being slain in the Spirit like you see on TV and speaking in tongues, have become kind of a litmus test for the genuineness of one’s faith.
In fact, years ago when I answered a lot of questions on AllExperts, I had people writing to me, in a panic, because they believed themselves to be Christians but didn’t speak in tongues and were feeling pressured to fake it so that others in their church would think they were Christians, too. They felt like they had to do this to fit in. It is this pressuring within the Church and what appears to be a total preoccupation with speaking in tongues—as a litmus test—that has caused a strong reaction against it. Therefore two polar opposites have formed, each claiming genuine faith and vigorously rejecting the other’s view.
But I wonder about areas in which the Gospel is just now being introduced—tribal areas and rural places in the 3rd world where people have a spiritual connection we’ve largely dismissed here. In places in India, South America, and Africa, for example, they have a greater awareness of a spiritual realm that the Bible says is quite real and persists all the way to eternity. It’s the realm in which Jesus presently resides. Of course, that’s where the spiritual battle is also happening. People in those cultures appeal to “the gods” or to “the spirits” what we would call “spiritual powers” (Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.)
People in these cultures believe in the spiritual realm—not having reasoned it away like so many of us—and they are in touch with it more. They cast spells and tantrics. They have witch doctors, voodoo, taboos and give people the evil eye. They see rocks and trees as having spirits (like our Native American population has nature spirits). This spiritual component—unChristian as it is—makes them more open to seeing the presence of God in someone speaking in tongues as both a sign and a witness. It doesn’t make them stupid. They’re just sensitive to something many of us have long since decided to deny…and they haven’t seen yet how those nature spirits aren’t gods because they haven’t been introduced to the Gospel.
Besides 3rd world cultures, however, there are areas in which the intellectual and learned population has rejected Christianity because it’s not scientific enough. To these advanced cultures—ones denying the spiritual realm altogether—God sends missionaries.
And a missionary speaking in tongues can be a sign to their culture as well–not to overlook the spiritual battle as they seek a name for themselves, building ivory towers of education to the heavens to bring God down to a science level or to deny Him altogether. Learned atheists are far too common in many areas of the world. Tongues may be a sign to these learned unbelievers… a sign of judgment or a wakeup call to reconsider what cannot be seen or measured.
I don’t believe that speaking in tongues or their interpretation will be a common experience at all. Nor do I believe the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues is for everyone, just as the gifts of teaching or evangelism aren’t given universally either. In America, we’re not uncharted territory, nor are we so far gone…yet… that Christianity has disappeared from the heart of the nation.
But for areas in world where these miraculous gifts might be of some use in bringing the good news of the Gospel, the ends of the earth needing a sign and witness, far be it from me to tie God’s hands and say that He can’t.
What’s our take-home message then? What do we do?
It’s not about us! We will be wise always to see such matters as:
A SIGN of God’s presence having come down to authenticate the truth of the Gospel and an
EMPOWERING by God’s presence for witness to the ends of the earth, after which the end will come.
Let’s pray.
“Making Sense of Speaking in Tongues” (a sermon on Acts 2:5-12) was first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on September 28, 2014 by Barbara Shafer. Click link below to listen on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shGyuPJvT6w&feature=youtu.be
Today’s passage of Scripture, describing the coming of the Holy Spirit, is fitting for Rally Sunday and our fall Kick-off. His coming kicked off the entire Church for all time. But it’s also one of my very favorite passages in the Bible. Of course, I didn’t even know it existed 20 years ago when my life seemed to be going through one brush fire after another. That all changed on November 21, 1994…coming up on a 20 year anniversary for me…when I had the Brush Fire to beat all brush fires:
The Holy Spirit paid me a visit, only I didn’t know who He was at the time.
I’d gone to church on and off as a kid. Rarely, if ever as an adult. I had a vague understanding of Father and Son. I sang the Doxology “Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” and as I’ve mentioned here before, my next thoughts were, “I don’t believe in ghosts…” Until November 21st, that is.
I had a role model ever since High School, actually 2: Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. They were my role models because, as Renaissance men, they seemed nearly perfect, doing all things well. I had tried to be like them; I tried to be perfect because perfectionism wouldn’t leave me feeling guilty, only loved.
I didn’t know enough to know that they weren’t perfect. And my trying to be like them wasn’t going to make me any more loved or feel any less guilty.
In my attempts at perfection, I was the cherished mother volunteer at my kids’ elementary school and let’s just summarize this whole thing as God put me between a rock and a hard place in order for Him to deal with Rebel Barbara and her nasty pride.
I ended up in a District 70 elementary school board of education meeting to speak a word on behalf of parents with God having paved every step of the way. I stood up, looked out over the 285 unionized teachers who previously would have called me their best friend in the parent community and I had a word to speak into their contract dispute which had gone on for months and had begun showing up in the classrooms and in the hallways putting many children in the crosshairs between their teachers and their parents. Christian parents and Christian teachers had been praying for a solution to this problem. God had a solution, but—unbeknownst to me—it involved me and my speaking some truth God wanted said so that the problem would get resolved. I went to that meeting prepared as I would for any talk, knowing I was unique in our whole district because of the rock and hard place. I knew somehow that God was in it, but denying all that because I wasn’t a Christian. A patriotic American, suburban housewife, and proud mother of two, emphasizing the word “proud.” I stood up to speak and chickened out. I didn’t want to be unloved by my kids’ teachers so I glossed over everything and decided just to sit down instead of speaking up.
God didn’t like that idea so I later described this event to people as feeling the heavy hand of God on my shoulders and His unmistakable voice telling me I’d let Him down. He recounted all the very clear preparation He’d done for YEARS in my life to prepare me for such a moment and then He asked me if I fear man or Him. I might have said “man” 15 minutes earlier, but at that moment, I was shaking inside and admitted that I knew I’d been disobedient to the God of the universe. Not a place anyone wants to be in. I told Him I was sorry and that I was also really scared, but that I didn’t want Him to be angry with me. So, I surrender, I said. BTW, no one else knew what kind of spiritual battle was going on in the front row. I said to God, “OK. If You want it done, will You please take over? Use me? I’m willing. I’m scared and I just don’t have the courage or strength to do it myself.” So He did. He took over and did He!
I felt what I described at the time as being like a power surge coming down the top of the back of my head, down my spine and filling my lungs fuller than with air itself. Someone asked a question, my hand went up involuntarily, I was called forward, spoke what I needed to say with words that were not my own and I do not remember to this day what I said. I do remember being booed. That was a pretty profound experience being booed by many people who used to call you “friend.” And then I went to sit down wondering what on earth had happened to me. What on earth I had done! Just to close the loop on the story, the contract dispute was resolved that very evening after the board meeting, but I was forever changed.
Then today’s Scripture Acts 2:1-4 came on the scene. It was actually 2 months after that fateful day of my conversion…my surrendering, my becoming a Christian. I was in a Community Bible Study class and we were doing Isaiah. I came in during the second half of the study that had begun in August and in our small group, a woman named Linda mentioned—as an offhand comment really—about the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost. I asked her, “Where is that??” She told me and I went home and devoured the entire book of Acts.
I finally had a name for what had happened to me. I experienced a physical sensation of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Now, if you’ve never had that experience, that’s fine. Just like the puzzle pieces from last week, we aren’t all the same…and aren’t supposed to be. The Holy Spirit doesn’t always make a show out of it. But even in a quiet way, His indwelling is just as powerful, His indwelling kicks off your ministry life of active service to Him in the Church, and is the very same guarantee of being in the family of God. When Jesus returns, the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit is how Jesus will know who belongs to God and who does not. Kind of like iron filings and a magnet. Boom. We’ll all meet up because God recognizes His Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:11), no matter whose heart He’s living in and no matter how showy or silently He came to dwell there.
Why was mine such an oddball experience then? I can’t say for sure, but perhaps it is because this was what I’d need to keep from falling away in the years following when my daughter died. When I had cancer. When we’d lose jobs and have to move over and over again. When I’d be insulted and ridiculed even in the newspapers …and have to deal with rejection by the world, by Christians, by churches, and yes, by pastors. When given tough words of truth to speak to world that really didn’t want to hear it. When feeling like being a Christian only invited a world of trouble and sadness and becoming a spiritual target that I never wanted to be. All I wanted was to be loved and thought well of. This trouble was not what I signed up for. Without something solid and undeniable, falling away would be really easy. I can deny all kinds of things that I think—I’ve got a very vivid imagination—but I cannot deny things that I’ve lived, felt, or experienced.
Here’s our passage: Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost [Feast of Weeks—a harvest feast] came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Do you hear all the togetherness? All, one, whole, all each, all! This will be really important. Why?
The disciples in today’s passage had a tough road ahead of them too. Far tougher than anything I’ve ever known! Church tradition tells us that nearly all of the disciples went on to face persecution and crucifixion and death by other means. Consider these as suggested inChurch tradition:
Could it be that they ALL needed a powerful, unforgettable experience? An experience that they witnessed together of all of them being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Today I want to focus on how the Holy Spirit indwells believers. Next week, I’ll do my best to tackle the very strange and controversial subject of speaking in tongues. Every Christian needs to know what it’s all about and be free to examine what the Scripture says about it, but for now, let’s just look at this indwelling thing.
In our OT Scripture reading this morning, the presence of God had been in the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire. The leaders were gathered together…not everyone. Leaders gathered at the Tent…but some were back in the camp. The presence of God descended from the cloud:
Numbers 11:23 The LORD answered Moses, “Is the LORD’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.” 24 So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the Tent. 25 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took of the Spirit that was on him [Moses] and put the Spirit on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but they did not do so again. 26 However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the Tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. 27 A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” 28 Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” 29 But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!”
God knew who His chosen leaders were—whether in the camp or at the Tent. The Spirit rested ON them. Only when the Spirit rested on them did they prophesy, but in verse 25 of that passage “they did not do so again.” Spirit comes on and off and rests and leaves. God’s presence is in a cloud.
Why did the Spirit of God come ON people in the Old Testament, but not IN people like the Spirit does in the New Testament?
Jesus says this in John: John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever– 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. “
Well, prior to the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, we were not clean.
We sacrificed lambs and goats and doves and rams and all kinds of their body parts and splashed blood all over the place but it never took away our sin. The author of the book of Hebrews says it this way: Hebrews 10:3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am– it is written about me in the scroll– I have come to do your will, O God.'” …10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
What did all that blood do in the OT? It just showed God we were trying to take sin seriously, but it never seriously took our sins away.
Not even placing them on the head of the scapegoat who trotted off to the wilderness with all our sins on it wondering, “What gives?” Or maybe feeling lucky that he wasn’t the other goat whose blood was everywhere. Kind of like that scene from Moneyball where Brad Pitt’s character Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane is talking about firing players and asks Peter Brand his assistant, “Would you rather get one shot in the head or five in the chest and bleed to death?” and Peter asks, “Are those my only options?” The scapegoat and the one sacrificed must have felt the same way.
Well, in the OT, there weren’t any other alternatives for the Holy Spirit. He either rested or He didn’t. There was no indwelling of a Holy Spirit because our hearts were anything but holy or forgiven. It took Jesus’ sacrifice to make our hearts a suitable temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. 1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
So in the OT, God’s presence was in a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire, a theophany as a burning bush and His power came upon people like Saul and Moses and the elders. None of them experienced God’s indwelling.
Which brings us back to our passage: Each disciple was filled…
Even today each disciple of Jesus who has been made clean by the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus…will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Each—individually! All—together! That’s what the Holy Spirit does. He kicked off the whole Church forever with His coming!
That’s how these disciples could be dispersed to different areas of the world to preach the same Gospel and to do this kind of witness to their deaths. God’s Holy Spirit was IN them and I cannot emphasize enough what a huge deal this is!
The Holy Spirit dwelling IN us means that God’s presence goes with us wherever we go and ought to inspire us to holy living all the time, not just on Sunday mornings for a couple of hours. It ought to bind us together no matter whether we’re tax collectors like Matthew or their enemies, the Zealots. It ought to bind us together whether we’re male or female. It ought to bind us together whether we are Republicans or Democrats. It ought to bind us together whether we are Christians with dark skin or light skin.
With the Holy Spirit IN us as believers, we’re all one in the family of God, equally saved, equally loved, equally forgiven! How can we dislike any our family members in the Body of Christ when they have the Holy Spirit too? How can we fail to stand shoulder to shoulder, refuse to work together for the sake of the Gospel when His Indwelling Spirit goes with us and binds us one to another?
We want Plymouth Church to grow. You want to know how that will happen? It will happen when each of us filled with the Holy Spirit decides to take sin seriously, take unity seriously, take the Gospel seriously, and take our role in the Body of Christ—what we talked about last week—and thank you to the people who took that survey and sent your results in to the Plymouth email address on the bulletin! What a blessing to each other! What an encouragement! That’s the kind of teamwork I’m talking about…that happens when the Holy Spirit dwells in each of us and empowers all of us. He’ll kick off a whole new season for us if we’re willing! He’s indwelling in each of us and is ready to roll.
In a world in turmoil, there are dark days ahead for Christians, but with the Holy Spirit empowering, indwelling, and reminding us of Jesus, we can endure through prayer…shoulder to shoulder, side by side with our brothers and sisters in Christ at home and overseas. And with His power, by His grace, and on account of His Holy Spirit’s coming, we will prevail. His victory is already won and the Holy Spirit’s coming is our guarantee! Let’s pray.
This is the audio version of the message entitled “The Holy Spirit Comes” from Acts 2:1-4, first preached at Plymouth Congregational Church of Racine, WI on September 21, 2014. Click the link below to hear the message which includes a testimony of how I (Barbara Shafer, SeminaryGal) came to follow Jesus Christ and why I believe the Holy Spirit is the best kept secret of evangelical Christianity.
The Holy Spirit Comes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tJAczWE0pU&feature=youtu.be
Let me just start by reminding you, “Don’t open your box until we’re ready!” This is a one-of-a-kind interactive sermon. You may have heard of the Do-it-Yourself Messiah, you may have heard the Little Red Hen say, she’ll do it herself, or maybe you have done home improvements that were do-it-yourself. This isn’t completely a do-it-yourself sermon, but there will be plenty of times today for us to do shout-outs and offer insights on completing our numbers. So, don’t open that box yet!
In the flow of the book of Acts that we’ve been investigating over the past month, we’ve seen that the Holy Spirit will be coming and He’s the gift worth waiting for. We’ve seen that the disciples were challenged to think beyond the way things always had been and were challenged in their thinking even further when Jesus went away. Now, we’re at the point where the 11 remaining disciples are going to choose Judas’ replacement, not with just another warm body, but with one whose history, personal spiritual maturity and willing witness to the resurrection would make him ideally suited to work in synergy with the other disciples in a one-of-a-kind apostolic role.
Which brings us to today and completing our numbers. Just as time spent with Jesus—what we called Necessary Time—was not just a time frame of 24 hours, but included amplitude of spiritual maturity, completing our numbers isn’t just a function of having a quantity.
Completeness has both an element of quantity (the right number) and the quality (the right person).
Completing our numbers is both a quantity and quality thing. Because it’s spiritual when we’re talking about the Church, the process by which we do things in the Church must be spiritual too. It differs from how we do business everywhere else.
How does one go about making spiritual decisions in the Church? How do you know when you’re finding the right person?
Taken as a whole with last week’s passage, today’s passage Acts 1:23-26 tells the rest of the story on how we complete our numbers.
Last week we saw that Peter appealed to Scripture and that they looked for someone who had the Necessary Time of preparation. Today we’ll see a few more. Let’s listen:
Acts 1:23 So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Some of you may never have heard of these men before and maybe you’re wondering about the casting of lots. Basically throwing dice. So before we get to the things that endure and a process of spiritual decision making, it’s worth noting that there are three lasts in this passage.
Casting lots is something recorded throughout the Old Testament—and we heard about in our Scripture reading this morning from Proverbs 16—as a way of discerning the will of God. We see this in Exodus 28:30 Also put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart whenever he enters the presence of the LORD. Thus Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD.
How did they know what God wanted back then? Throw dice, polished stones, or the Urim and the Thummim to help make the decisions. Because God gave this means, it’s not luck! But it does eliminate the possibility of the person making the decision playing favorites or resorting to means other than God’s choice.
In our passage today, we’re not talking about lucky snake eyes, but we are talking about a spiritual process of completing our numbers. About discerning God’s will for His Church. So let’s circle back to the beginning of the process that we saw last week.
It starts with a spiritual leader (one who differs from a business leader). Step 1 in the process: We need a Spiritual Leader who looks to the Word!
Acts 1:15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)
What gave him the right to stand up and be their leader? Let’s just acknowledge that he rose to leadership among the 12 while Jesus was still among them. If you read John 1:35-51, you’ll see that Peter was not the first disciple chosen, and he wasn’t even the first in his family. His brother Andrew was. But Simon was named Peter (Simon Peter, the Rock!) by Jesus because God saw him not for who Peter was (impulsive and unstable) … but for who he would become (a spiritual leader) by value of that Necessary Time.
Suffice it for our purposes right now to acknowledge that every group needs a leader, spiritual groups need spiritual leaders.
Governance by committee is seldom the best way if everyone is of equal authority and standing. What happens in the absence of leadership is the Kitty Genovese effect—which is actually kind of a misnomer because it’s not exactly what happened in the murder of Kitty Genovese, but the name stuck. The Kitty Genovese effect is what happens when there is more than one person who has the potential to act and each person defers to the point of inaction (a diffusion of responsibility). It’s also called the Bystander Effect. It’s what happens in the absence of leadership. We all look at one another and wait for someone else to make decisions. When no one leads, we’re all bystanders.
So step 1 in the process is we need a spiritual leader who looks to the Word. Peter rises to the occasion in this group of 120.
Peter said in Acts 1, verse 16, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus– 17 he was one of our number and shared in this ministry… 20 “For,” said Peter, “it is written in the book of Psalms, “‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and, “‘May another take his place of leadership.’
Peter appeals to Scripture and concludes in verse 21 “Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
Spiritual leadership looks back at the Word, assesses a need, and sets future direction. Judas needs to be replaced. The vision was completing the numbers and that became their immediate goal.
Step #2: Spiritual leaders assess needs, cast a vision, and clarify goals.
So what do they do? Does Peter pick his favorite? Does Peter pick a family member? Does Peter pick the person with the most seniority? No. No. And No.
Good leaders don’t command. Good leaders lead and if a leader has no followers, who is he leading? No one! Good spiritual leaders do what Peter did. Peter stands up among the 120. He appealed to Scripture. He assessed the need and concluded what is necessary to be done. He cast the vision, but he realized he wasn’t a one man show. The 120 mattered. So, here comes the group!
Step #3 in completing our numbers—that spiritual task—involves evaluating alternatives. The group—not Peter alone—the group proposes two men Joseph/Justus and Matthias.
Acts 1:23 So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
Under spiritual leadership that appeals to the Word, sets goals, and involves others, they pursued a process that involved God.
Step #4 Then the group prays, asking God to make the decision.
How often when we’re making decisions do we conclude there’s a need, look at alternatives and then make a decision without ever thinking about God’s view of the matter?
Look at all the ways the disciples involved God in their workings:
Why pray? Well, we cannot possibly be expected to know everyone’s heart. We cannot even be expected to know anyone’s heart, including our own. As it says in Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 10 “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.” So they ask God.
No, even something like completing numbers was a spiritual decision so they appealed to God through the means He had given them: His Word and the casting of lots. (Remember, the Holy Spirit hasn’t come yet, so the disciples used the means God had given them back in Exodus). Word and lots.
We have a benefit. Next week the Holy Spirit finally comes. We can appeal directly to God because of the Holy Spirit, but where we’re at in the flow of Acts—as we’re kind of walking in the sandals of the disciples—they don’t have the Holy Spirit so they do what God had given them: Word and lots.
They appealed to Scripture and cast lots. They had (1) a spiritual leader who looked at God’s Word, (2) he set a vision and a spiritual goal, (3) he invited the group to share in the alignment and alternatives, (4) they prayed asking God to choose for them, and now
Step 5: They accept God’s choice.
Matthias was the choice and there was no do-over. No “eenie, meenie, miney, moe” and when it lands on the one you don’t really want you continue on with “my mother told me to pick the best one” which means that it was the one that I wanted which, of course, makes it the best.
No. They did not do that. It fell to Matthias and if God made that decision for them, then the disciples would embrace God’s selection. Which brings us to the important 6th step:
Step 6: They follow through.
Acts 1:26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.
They followed through. They completed their numbers. They didn’t procrastinate, debate, or second guess. They followed a spiritual process for a spiritual decision. God was involved the entire time and when He made the choice, they did what spiritual people do: they followed through. Matthias was added to their numbers.
We never hear from Matthias again, nor most of the rest of the disciples in the rest of the NT. Most of what we have in history is from the traditions of the early church. That leads some people to say that the Apostle Paul was supposed to be the 12th apostle, the replacement for Judas. Paul saw the Risen Christ, but where he’s at in Acts right now, he’s the least likely person to be chosen. He will enter our stage in a few chapters as the arch-enemy of the church. So what do we do?
We assume that completing the numbers was important for now. So the Holy Spirit would come to a complete group and if God was in the decision from the get-go, He put each disciple in the 120 for a reason. Which brings us to your box:
So, why did I give you a puzzle box?
OK, in the Body of Christ, each church will have a picture of Jesus they are looking to complete with all the pieces. That’s what the 11 did. They needed completeness with 12 in order to look like Jesus.
Does the picture we have at Plymouth need to look exactly like the picture at another church—even in Racine? Or is the most important thing that it looks like Jesus? Must we be the exact same as another church or can we have our own unique presentation? Will another church’s picture look like Jesus? Different setting. Same Savior.
Now, open your box. How many pieces do you have? (1,2,3?)
How do you feel about the number you have? Think about how Joseph called Barsabbas also known as Justus might have felt. He was not chosen. Out of the 2, he could have felt like a loser. But out of the 120 he was still valued enough to be put forward as one of the 2.
When it’s not about us, but it’s about Him, Jesus Christ, we don’t need to feel proud or bad about what we bring to the table. Here’s why:
A good starting place for each of us in the Body of Christ is to see where in the puzzle we fit. On that same little card with your puzzle piece, there is a web site https://gifts.churchgrowth.org/cgi-cg/gifts.cgi?intro=1. I know not all of you are Internet kind of people, but for those of you who are, I’d encourage you to take this fun little quiz. It will help you to see how God has especially gifted you—as a believer in Jesus Christ with the indwelling Holy Spirit—to fit into the puzzle here.
Furthermore, each of us has a mission field that is related to our sphere of influence. Think about your life. Maybe you have a career, play golf, do gardening. For those of you who garden maybe you know people who like to do that and you could invite them to our free workshop on Saturday.
Maybe you have family. Like Andrew. John 1:41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
Maybe some of you like to fish. Reach out to those who also like to fish and bring them with you to church on Sunday and become fishers of men, like Jesus told Peter! It’s our Fall Kick-off next week so maybe bring your friends who love the Packers and ask them to join us for our hot dog cookout. It’s like a tailgate party!
We will want to complete our numbers. By finding our missing pieces. If you’re not an Internet person, there is a book called Network by Bugbee and Cousins (published through Willow Creek) that you could get and do the survey in the book. Because when each of us is doing what God has called us to do, when leaders lead, when prayer warriors pray, when evangelists share the Gospel, when those with creative gifts like singing, instrumental music, art, or dancing do what they’ve been created to do…born-again to do…then our puzzle can be completed and be a full picture of Jesus. That’s what witnesses to the world.
We want the world to see Jesus—the full, complete picture—when they look at Plymouth. Each one of us matters. But we need to invite God to be part of the process from His Word, to His goals, to His community, to our inviting Him to make the decision, and our accepting the outcome of our prayers as from His hand. And then we must follow through. So this week, pray about your role in completing our numbers and then follow through.
Let’s pray.