Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / Acts: Enlarging Our Vision

Pentecost The BIG Picture Part 3 07/13/08

 Message: ‘Pentecost…the BIG picture’ pt.2     Text: Acts 2:1-13                                  

Introduction:  I like football. Specifically, I like the Philadelphia Eagles. I will listen to it on the radio, but I prefer to watch it on TV. But, there’s nothing quite like sitting in the stands on a cool fall afternoon. You can smell the game. The hot dogs are cooking. The popcorn is popping. You can hear the crunch of an Eagle defensive end tackling a Giants receiver just after he caught the ball…causing him to fumble it. The sound of the crowd is much clearer when you are at the game.

That’s a little like corporate worship. We can listen to church on the radio or watch it on TV, but there is nothing like being in the fellowship of God’s people. Hearing first hand, the great works of God from the people God is touching. We are encouraged and hopeful that God’s great works will touch our lives as well.

And the way God touches our lives is through the Holy  Spirit. Last week I said that we need the Holy Spirit. We need to be sensitive to his presence and walk in his power. So we can’t be afraid because of what some have associated with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, namely tongues.

For those who weren’t here last week, I began to examine Acts 2:1-13, I got part of the way through verses 2-4 and I will continue today where I left off last week. If you want to know what I said, you can ask the person in the Sound Room for a copy of last weeks message or you can go to the web site and get it.

So, let’s continue our examination of Acts 2:1-13

Read: Acts 2:2-4

First, notice that the ‘other tongues’ mentioned here in Acts 2:4 is clearly known foreign languages, that were unknown to the disciples. That’s what the text says in 5-11.

Note that Luke doesn’t call them ‘tongues’ but ‘other tongues.’ Let me explain why.

·       To Pentecostals ‘tongues’ = a heavenly language spoken by the angels and the Holy Spirit.

Read: 1 Cor. 13:1-3

This is the only text in the NT that mentions an angelic or heavenly language. But a careful examination of this text shows a clear pattern uniting all three verses.

Paul begins with an actual ability or action

·       speak in the tongues of men

·       gift of prophesy

·       have faith

·       give all I possess

Then Paul takes them to the extreme

·       speak in the tongues of men, changes to speak in the tongues of angels

·       gift of prophesy, changes to fathom/understand all mysteries and all knowledge

·        have faith, changes to move mountains

·        give all I possess, changes to surrender my body to the flames

He said this to make the rhetorical and practical point that even at the ultimate or extreme end of the spectrum, without love these things mean nothing. What you find here is an example of hyperbole: exaggeration for the purpose of making a point.

Pay close attention to the details. Paul does not say that it is possible or even desirable to speak with the tongues of angels. Instead he is saying that even if such a thing were possible, it would not be the distinguishing mark of the Christian

…genuine love is that mark.

·       These 3 verses are placed in parallel in the Greek. That means however you interpret one verse you must interpret the other verses the same way.

·       Since we know Paul didn’t know/understand all mysteries and have all knowledge, since he didn’t move mountains or give his body to be burned… he also didn’t speak in the tongues of angels.

Yet, he said he spoke in tongues. Since it can’t be a heavenly or angelic language, he must be talking about something else.

Lets look at one more example of Greek parallelism in a text that is used by supporters of tongue speaking to prove the existence of a heavenly prayer language.

Read: Romans 8:18-27

·       Pentecostals see verse 26 ‘but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words can not express.’ As a heavenly prayer language…tongues.

·       The problem is, verse 26 is placed in parallel to verse 22 ‘We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth…’

·       Correct biblical interpretation would say the groaning of creation and the groaning of the Holy Spirit must be the same. Especially since both of the words for ‘groaning’ comes from the same Greek root.

·       So… since creation doesn’t speak a language that we can personally experience, neither does the Holy Spirit speak a language that we can personally experience.

Tongues is not a language of angels or of the Holy Spirit. That’s what you see from the details in these verses.

Second, there is relatively little said about tongues in all of Scripture. In fact, there is no mention of tongues in all 4 Gospels (except for a passage in Mark that almost all scholars believe is not part of the original text but added later in history.) In the Gospels we have the seed of every doctrine of the New Testament, but no mention of tongues.

Third, Scripture tells us  in 1 Jn 4:1 to test the spirits. This means we are to determine whether something is of God or not. How do we do that?

·       Supporters of tongue speaking would say we determine what is from God by personal experience and by God’s Word….but the emphasis, has always been on personal experience.

‘This happened to me and I it just feels right. So, I know it’s must be of the Lord.’

‘A friend of mine prayed for months and received the gift of tongues and he said it was so wonderful that it has brought great blessing to his life, so it must be from God.’

·       More conservative Christians would say we determine what is from God by God’s Word alone. Scripture never gives us freedom to base the truth of something on personal experience.

In fact, going from God’s Word to experience is a tool of Satan to get us to sin. He tried it with Jesus in the wilderness. ‘Just turn these stones into bread…I know you are hungry, Jesus.’ In other words, don’t trust God’s Word to provide for you, take matters into your own hands, do something, experience something. 

We determine what is from God by God’s Word alone.

Fourth, God gives his gifts, all his gifts, including tongues, according to his sovereign will by the power of the Holy Spirit and not according to our desire or passionate prayer.

Read: 1 Cor. 12:4-11

Remember, the disciples were not in the upper room praying to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues…They had no idea what either of them were. What happened was the result solely of the sovereign will of God, not the disciples passionate effort.

So, if tongues is not the language of angels or the Holy Spirit, what is it?

Read: 1 Cor. 14:21-25

‘Through men of strange tongues and through the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people but even then they will not listen to me. Says the Lord…Tongues, then’

Paul connects ‘tongues’ with the ‘strange tongue’ (language) and the ‘lips of foreigners’…again known languages. Add this along with the other texts I mentioned and this is what we get.

·       Tongues is a gift given by the sovereign will of God through the Holy Spirit.

·       It is an ability to speak a language known somewhere on earth by someone who has never learned that language.

·       It is an expression of praise and thanksgiving addressed to God.

·       It is not for personal edification but for public declaration.

·       It is not for the benefit of believers but for unbelievers.

Transition: I am sorry that I have given tongues more time in these messages than Luke did in Acts. I think it was necessary and I hope it was helpful. But, we’re not done with the text. What happened when the disciples were speaking in other tongues?

III. Pentecost and Evangelism     Matthew 2:5-13

Read: Acts 2:5-13

Note that this section is larger and given in greater detail than the previous section on the ‘upper room’ event. Luke gives priority in his writing to the response of the hearers rather than to the phenomenon of tongues itself…Why?

Because central to the Book of Acts is the birth of God’s Church and foundation of the work of Evangelism…remember the connection between the Pentecost event and the Feast of the Harvest.

Luke writes that people from 15 nations were present. And like whenever the Holy Spirit is moving today there were mixed responses.

·       Some were amazed and confused but they asked what it all meant. They were curious, interested in finding out more.

·       Then there were others who said the disciples were drunk, that they thought it was 5 o’clock somewhere and opened up a few pitchers of wine. They weren’t interested in the wonders of God just the commotion the event was having on Jerusalem.

Whenever the Holy Spirit moves in the lives of people who are sensitive to his presence and open to his power, great things happen for the Kingdom of God. And God’s people experience great joy.

ILL: A famous motivational speaker was asked about his most difficult speech. He answered ‘Well, it was when I was asked to speak at a national convention of undertakers. My topic was to explain to them how to look sad during a $10,000 funeral.’ You see, when there is joy inside, it hard to keep it from showing. (Melvin Newland)

The disciples were rejoicing and speaking of the great works of God…to everyone who had ears to hear…and on that day, there were a lot of ears.

Truth be told…I don’t know what they said. But I do have an idea. Since they were speaking of the great works of God, I think they could have been reciting Scripture. After all, where do we find out about the great works of God? In his Word. Perhaps it was something like this.

Read: Psalm 136

Don’t you think that would have gotten the people’s attention? Maybe they were thinking ‘If God could do all that…perhaps he could do something great in my life?’

Notice that

·       before Peter gives the first sermon about Jesus in the New Testament,

·       before people respond to the forgiveness of sin and free gift of eternal life

they were drawn by the proclamation of the great and mighty works of God.

·       This tells me that perhaps we need more testifying of what God has done.

·       This tells me that perhaps we can’t afford to be shy when it comes to telling others of God’s great works.

·       This tells me that perhaps God’s great work of salvation and the bringing in of his harvest is preceded by God’s people rejoicing and praising God publicly for what he has done…in the world, in his church and in our lives.

Just my thoughts.

Conclusion

While Pentecost in Acts 2:1-13 was a once for all event the filling of the Holy Spirit is a repeatable event enjoyed by all Christians who are sensitive to the presence and desire to walk in the power of

the Holy Spirit in their lives.

What’s the bottom line if we do these things?

·       The Holy Spirit will give us the power to go beyond our human limitations, to reach the unreachable, to take a strong stand with fresh conviction.

·       The Holy Spirit will inspire us to take our faith across barriers of culture, race and nationality.

·       The Holy Spirit will motivate us to move to a new level of daily dependency upon God, one that will give us a deeper sense of peace in the midst of our personal storms.

·       The Holy Spirit will give us a greater concern for the welfare of people around us that are being devastated by the storms in their lives.

As long as we continue to think that Christianity is something WE do, we miss the point. It is not about what WE do, but what GOD does.

And what he does, he does through the Holy Spirit.