Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision
Pentecost The BIG Picture Part 2 07/06/08
Message: ‘Pentecost…the BIG picture’ pt.2 Text: Acts 2:1-13
Introduction: Two Sundays ago, I stood here trying to force pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together without looking at the top of the box to see what the puzzle should look like.
By application, I said that we are often so concerned with the details of God’s Word that we fail to step back to see the big picture. It’s vital to understanding and applying God’s Word to our lives that we step back and see how the details of a particular text fit in to the big picture of Scripture.
Let me illustrate. There are people who just open the Bible and point to a text and believe that God wants them that specific text to their lives …details…Ok say you opened the Bible and you pointed to Matt. 27:5
· ‘So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.’
Next you open the Bible and point to…Luke 10:37
· ‘Go and do likewise.’
Details are important, but details without the big picture can be problematic. On the other hand, just seeing the big picture without the details greatly hinders our Christian walk. How?
ILL: Look at the top of the puzzle box and continue to talk about how pretty everything is but never open the box to put the puzzle together.
Just seeing the big picture without the details greatly hinders our Christian walk. How? We never get anything done. We spend so much time looking at the big picture that we fail to do anything with the details!
· I’m a Christian (big Pic)
· But I really don’t like to read the bible, come to worship on Sundays or spend time in serving in the church. (details)
We need both the big picture and the details of God’s Word to rightly live out the truths of Scripture.
Transition: Turn in your Bibles to Acts 2:1 (pg. 830 in the Bibles under the chair in front of you) For it’s there that we will see the details of the Pentecost event in light of the big picture of redemptive history.
I. Pentecost and Fulfillment Matthew 2:1
Read: Acts 2:1
Remember I said that there is a connection between the OT Feast of Pentecost and the NT Pentecost event? With the great variety of Bible translations available we have made it easy to miss the finer details of God’s Word. This has happened here in verse 1.
Read: Acts 2:1 ‘When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.’ (NIV)
Read: Acts 2:1 ‘And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.’ (KJV)
Notice there is a slight difference between the NIV and the KJV. A literal translation of the Greek here would be ‘When the day of Pentecost was complete, or was fulfilled, they were all together in one place.’
The Greek for ‘fully come’ ‘had come’ ‘was complete, ‘was fulfilled’ is the same word used in Galatians 4:4
Read: Gal. 4:4 ‘But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law’ (NIV)
The idea in Galatians is the same as in Acts 2:1…God made a promise a long time ago, that he has finally kept, fulfilled, completed.
Why is this important? Luke was trying to tell us that the OT Feast of Pentecost that was observed for 1500 years found it’s fulfillment on this day.
OK, again why is this important? Because there are those who believe and teach that we should seek a Pentecost event in each of our lives…with the accompanying sign of speaking in tongues.
But, since Pentecost was an event that fulfilled, completed a promise of God, there is no reason to seek it’s fulfillment again in our lives. Let me show you why.
· The OT Feast of the Passover remembered God’s deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt. When the Israelites placed the blood of a lamb on the doorposts of their home, the angel of death passed over them…. Passover. It looked forward to a time when the Messiah would come and bring complete salvation.
· When Jesus died on the cross, and shed his blood for those who place their faith in him for salvation, the OT Feast of the Passover was ‘fully come’ ‘fulfilled’ ‘completed.’ Jesus is the Lamb of God whose blood was shed to bring complete salvation. That’s why Christians don’t celebrate Passover…
Jesus fulfilled it, He completed it.
Here’s the point. Just as Jesus fulfilled the OT Feast of the Passover, the Holy Spirit fulfilled the OT Feast of Pentecost. So we don’t need to seek another Pentecost event in our lives.
Simply put, the Holy Spirit didn’t come because the disciples were all together praying, asking for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues.
Luke, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, give no indication that if we simply repeat the steps found in Acts 2:1-4 we can have the same experience as the early disciples. Look at the details of the text…it’s just not there.
Transition: OK. From the details and the big picture we can see that Pentecost is the sovereign work of God, fulfilling God’s promise of a spiritual harvest, not a repeatable event in the life of the Christian. That is important if we are going to understand what comes next.
II. Pentecost and Other Tongues Matt. 2:2-4
Read: Acts 2:2-4
We live in a society that is fascinated with feelings. Even many churches seem to place a high value on feelings.
Have you ever wondered how the disciples felt when all this happened to them? Well you will keep on wondering because Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, doesn’t tell us how they felt.
Luke:
· pays gives us the details,
· but places no emphasis on the sensational.
· He gives no lengthy description of the unusual phenomena.
· And he says nothing about how those in the upper room ‘felt’ after they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit, places the emphasis, the greater amount of words
· on those who witnessed the event,
· on Peter and his first sermon,
· and on the 3000 who were saved by placing their faith in Jesus.
It’s in examining the details of Acts 2:1-13 that we see where the Holy Spirit places the emphasis of the text…that too is where we must place our emphasis
· Not on the sensational act of other tongues
· But on the supernatural act of salvation
In addition to the brevity of the account of this event, notice the uniqueness of it as well. While there are a couple similar incidents described later in the Book of Acts, only here do we read about
· The sound of a violent wind
· The appearance of what looked like tongues of fire
Let’s look a little closer at what these phenomena symbolize.
‘The sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven.’
· You should know that the word in both Greek and Hebrew for Spirit is also translated ‘wind’ or ‘breath’. Both are often associated in Scripture with the Spirit of God.
Read: Ezekiel 37:1-14
Again the picture here is of the Spirit of God symbolized by the wind and breath of God bringing life where there is death.
At the Pentecost event the violent wind from heaven symbolized the coming of the Holy Spirit to bring life to those who believe.
‘They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.’
· Frequently in Scripture, fire is associated with the presence of God…the Burning Bush in Ex. 3 The Pillar of Fire that lead the Israelites in the wilderness in Ex. 12
· Let’s add to that the tongue. In the book of James we read that our tongue speaks what is found in our heart. Jesus says pretty much the same thing in Matthew 12 when he says that the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.
· So, lets put it all together and look at the big picture
-The violent wind is symbolic of the Holy
Spirit coming to bring life.
-The tongues of fire is symbolic of the
presence of God in the hearts of the
disciples by the coming of the Holy
Spirit.
Make sense? See the connection? OK…now on to the ‘other tongues.’
Speaking in ‘tongues’ has been the focal point of many controversies in the history of the church. And ‘tongue’ speaking has been around for about as long as there was been a church…but it has always been on the fringe of what was considered true doctrine and practice.
One of the reasons for this is there has never been a consensus on what ‘tongues’ is.
· Some say it is something that happens when you receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit when you mature in your faith. If you never speak in tongues again, you will when you receive this baptism.
· Some say tongues is a sign to unbelievers of God’s power. Some say tongues is a tool Satan uses to confuse and divide God’s church.
· Some say tongues is the ability to communicate with God.
· Some say tongues is a heavenly prayer language.
· Some say tongues is the ability to speak a known language without having ever learned that language.
And if that weren’t enough, Christians are not the only ones who speak in tongues. The practice is found in many pagan cultures and religious practices. So what do we do? Well, you’ll have to come back next week to find out.
Conclusion
This is a very controversial chapter. That’s why I am sending so much time on it. Many denominations and doctrines are built around it. While some churches and people set it aside, afraid to look at it for fear they will become a fanatic.
But to be honest, what the church needs is more fanatics for Jesus Christ. Too many of us are stuck between Calvary and Pentecost.
· We’ve gone to Calvary for forgiveness but not to Pentecost for power.
Again, I’m not talking about duplicating the Pentecost event…that’s not possible as we have seen this morning.
What I am talking about is a fresh and ever increasing sensitivity to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
When we look at the details in light of the big picture of Scripture we’ll see that Pentecost was a historical event signaling the birth of the Church of God and the first harvest of souls for the Kingdom.