Acts 2:4 … And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.The promised Holy Spirit Acts chapter 2 is shown by 2 symbols and those symbols are wind and fire. The Holy Spirit then enabled the preaching of the Gospel in multiple languages. Just by way of review, 1) God is three persons, 2) each person is fully God, and 3) there is one God (one essence). This is not a contradiction. We find from Scripture that God is three in person but one in essence. While it is not a contradiction it is OK to say that it is complex. We desire simplicity but this is what God is pleased to reveal about Himself and so we need as great a fidelity to Scripture as we can manage.
We stay inside the lines when we remember all three biblical teachings and then we don’t fall into;
1) Modalism or Sabellianism or Monarchianism
a. Teaching there is one God who pretends to be three
2) Arianism
a. Denies deity to Son or Holy Spirit
3) Subordinationism
a. Son has deity but is less than God the Father
4) Adoptionism
a. Jesus was a man until adopted/empowered as the Son
5) Rejection of the Filioque Clause (1054)
a. Eastern Church denies Holy Spirit is sent from both Father and Son
6) Tritheism
a. Denies that there is only one God
An important concept is that the three Persons of the Trinity have different roles in relating to creation. If you use economy in the old fashioned way to mean, “ordering of activities” then you can say that in the economy of the Trinity, the three Persons have different ways of acting in creation.
Even in the relatively specific topic of redemption the functions are distinct. God the Father plans and sends the Son for redemption (John 3:16; Galatians 4:4; Ephesians 1:9–10). The Son obeys and accomplishes redemption (John 6:38; Hebrews 10:5–7). The Father and the Holy Spirit did not come and die for our sins. The Son died for our sins. After the ascension, the Holy Spirit was sent by the Father and the Son to apply redemption.
The Son and the Holy Spirit are equal in deity, attributes, and essential nature to God the Father, but they are subordinate in their roles. This not a temporary state of affairs but is the eternally existing state of affairs (1 Corinthians 15:28).
Grudem quotes Berkof:
“The Trinity is a mystery … man cannot comprehend it and make it intelligible. It is intelligible in some of its relations and modes of manifestation, but unintelligible in its essential nature … The real difficulty lies in the relation in which the persons in the Godhead stand to the divine essence and to one another; and this is a difficulty which the Church cannot remove, but only try to reduce to its proper proportion by a proper definition of terms. It has never tried to explain the mystery of the Trinity but only sought to formulate the doctrine of the Trinity in such a manner that the errors which endangered it were warded off.”
So why do we worry about it? I could just say that if God has told you something then you are responsible for knowing it. However, it is far more serious than that. If you fall into a false belief about God and teach it and try to worship while misrepresenting God then you’ll be in deep trouble. If I fail to warn you about these relatively common errors that will wreck your worship and relationship with God then I’ll be in deep trouble.
Grudem says the “work of the Holy Spirit is to manifest the active presence of God in the world, and especially in the Church.” In the Church age the Holy Spirit is that essential driving power we need to accomplish the work God gives us to do. The Father has planned, the Son has begun, and the Holy Spirit completes and sustains. In the process of completing and sustaining the Holy Spirit;
1) Empowers
a. Gives physical and spiritual life (Psalm 104:30)
b. Gives power for service (1 Samuel 11:6; Acts 2)
2) Purifies
a. Put off sin and put on the fruit of God (Matt 3:11; Galatians 5:22-23)
3) Reveals
a. Prophets and Apostles (John 16:3)
b. Evidence of God’s Presence (John 1:32; Acts 2:2-3; John 7:39)
c. Guides and directs God’s people (Acts 8:29; Galatians 5:18)
d. Manifests God in convicting, blessing, and ordering us and our lives
e. Assurance (Romans 8:16)
f. Teaches and Illumines (John 14:26; John 16:13; Ephesians 1:17-19)
4) Unifies
a. God works in a community of people (Ephesians 4:3)
When the Holy Spirit works we must not forget that we as the people of God are not otherwise empowered, purified, spiritually aware, or unified. It isn’t automatic; it is the work of the Holy Spirit. We can grieve the Holy Spirit by an inappropriate response or by our lack of response.
In the Book of Acts we continually see the Holy Spirit at work to preach the Gospel and glorify God. Even in verse 4, right after the wind and fire, we see people empowered to preach, purified from their old sinful fears and weakness, revealing the Gospel in multiple languages, and certainly working in unity as we see the Church growing.
Acts 2:5-13 … 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.”The devout men from every nation under heaven were likely in Jerusalem for Pentecost. As we mentioned a few weeks ago, it was the Feast of Pentecost or Shabhu’oth. That is the Feast of Weeks (counting the time until the Torah is given) and a celebration of the wheat harvest (Festival of Reaping) and a celebration of the gift of the Torah or the Word of God to Israel. So it is harvest time and a celebration of God giving His Word to His people. That sounds like the perfect time for the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The devout men from every nation heard the Gospel in their own languages and without a Galilean accent. There are 15 nations listed. I don’t think this was a loud simultaneous yelling. The Holy Spirit brings order so each language was probably shouted out loudly but clearly. The languages had a purpose. The Holy Spirit was preaching and not just making a loud noise. It was harvest time and the Word was really present in power.
The disciples were visible, perhaps only as a result of the sovereignty of God but clearly they were not shut up in a room without windows. They were loud enough to be heard and seen. They had to be seen for the visitors to Jerusalem to recognize them as Galileans by their clothes since they were speaking the languages of the visitors.
The more cynical among the group suggested that those speaking were drunk and it was mostly likely a way to ignore and devalue the worship and instruction they were hearing in their own language.
Acts 2:14-15 … 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.It is encouraging to see Peter beginning to step into fulfilling the charge that Jesus gave him after the resurrection (John 21:15-19). Peter is charged with feeding and tending to Christ’s sheep. I’m sure he was doing this in the days leading up to Pentecost but here we have Luke’s record of it. Also, the point of it being the third hour of the day (9 am) is that you would fast until the fourth hour of the day (10 am). Peter wasn’t arguing that they were not a bunch of pagan drunks who didn’t know how to get up and get drunk by 9 am like any college student. Peter was arguing that they were obviously Galilean and obviously Jewish in Jerusalem on Pentecost for the feast. They were fasting just like everyone else until 10 am.
Acts 2:16-21 … 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. 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.’Peter quotes from Joel 2:28-32 showing the impact of the Holy Spirit to empower, purify, reveal, and unify. Peter didn’t have the power to preach like this before when he was simply a scared fisherman. Peter was purified for this purpose and the mouth that denied Christ is now confessing Christ. Peter can understand Old Testament Scripture in order to explain the Gospel. Peter can preach because he is part of a unified body of believers some of whom I’m sure the Holy Spirit had praying while he was preaching.
Peter preaches, and we should share the Gospel, in a Bible centered sermon. It is likely that Peter and the others with him had been focused on the verses in the Old Testament with direct bearing on the work of Christ and the Gospel. In part they were directed by Christ in His teaching – especially after the resurrection – to read the Old Testament that way. In addition, the Holy Spirit would have been laying the ground work through illumination so Peter and the others could see clearly what God had placed in Scripture. Peter reads a text and then expounds on the meaning of the text.
The Book of Joel is not a happy book. It is grim and deals with God’s judgment on Israel. Things are bad and the crops are failing. In that day, failing crops meant that someone would go hungry, not be well, or even die. How many of you are worried about a drought? Our grass gets brown but the coolers at the Grocery store still look great. That was not the way it was. Joel says it is bad and it is going to get worse but in the middle of the book he gives the best Old Testament description of Pentecost. Be sure to understand “Last Days” correctly. We are so stuck on “Left Behind” that we get left behind when Scripture tells us what Scripture means. The term “Last Days” has multiple meanings in Scripture and here it means the last days prior to the introduction of the Church at Pentecost. God is doing a radically different thing here that what was done before.
Representatives of the 120 or so people with Peter had just prophesied in at least 15 languages to the people present in Jerusalem. I think that the context of Joel – regarding God’s judgment – would lead you to conclude that the blood, fire, vapor, darkened sun, and moon of blood before the day of the Lord would be pointing at AD 70 when Jerusalem was judged. The promise that Peter states is a clear call to Jerusalem for repentance and to cry out for mercy from God. They only had about 35 years left and it would go by quickly. Some would repent and cry out to God and some would not. Joel says, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls (Joel 2:32).”
Regardless of where you place the blood, fire, vapor, darkened sun, and blood red moon … we know that this offer of salvation as a result of the blood of Christ is our charge as we preach the Good News of reconciliation with God. Compassion for the lost should be a part of our everyday lives and prayer for the Holy Spirit to give us a part in the harvest should be part of our daily prayers.
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