Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day in which the church has historically focused its attention especially on the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Jewish day of Pentecost. So we're gonna do that this morning, and we're gonna turn to Acts chapter two, and we'll read the first 24 verses, and then focus our attention on the first four verses. So pay especially close attention to those first four verses. Now when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That's our text. Now we'll continue reading. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, Visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them speak in our own language the wonderful works of God. So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others, mocking, said they are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the 11, raised his voice and said unto them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And here he quotes Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness. and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and notable day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men and brethren. Now, he's no longer quoting Joel. Now Peter is saying in response. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you, by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him, being delivered by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death, whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. So far we read God's holy, and inspired word. Pentecost was one of the three Jewish feast days required by the law. There was, first of all, the law of the Passover, the feast of the Passover, where the Passover lamb was slain and was eaten in commemoration of the deliverance that God gave to Israel in Egypt. 50 days later, that's where the term Pentecost comes, there was another feast, as we'll see later on, a Thanksgiving feast, celebrating the small grain harvest, which was now complete. Then in the fall, there was the feast of tents, or tabernacles, where people came to Jerusalem, built makeshift dwellings, and lived in them for a week to remember the passage of Israel through the wilderness under Moses. We read here that Pentecost was fully come. That either means that Pentecost had arrived or that the feast day of the Pentecost had just passed by. It makes no difference. Either way, the events recorded in this passage connect us to the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. The passage before us records three very unusual events that took place while the disciples of Jesus were gathered at a house in Jerusalem. First, there was the sound from heaven as a mighty rushing wind. There was no wind, but there was the sound of a mighty rushing wind coming down from heaven and filling the whole house. Then there were divided tongues of fire that came and sat upon each one of them. And then thirdly, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and were given to utter the wonderful works of God in different languages so that Jews and proselytes from the whole Mediterranean area who were gathered because of the sound of that wind, were gathered together They heard each in their own language the wonderful works of God from these followers of Jesus. These events served as signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church. That was something that the prophets had prophesied long before Jesus himself had made mention of it. and the day, the night in which he was arrested. This coming of the spirit marks a very significant event in the work of God's salvation. It compares to Jesus' birth, where the Son of God came into our flesh. It compares in importance to his atoning death on the cross. It compares to his resurrection and ascension into heaven In fact, it's really the culmination of all these great works of salvation. And that's what we're gonna call attention to this morning, the spirit of Pentecost. We notice three things, a wonderful fulfillment, a threefold sign, and appropriate thanksgiving. We read that the disciples of Jesus were all in one accord in one place. They were in one place. According to chapter one, verse 15, there was at Jerusalem at this time about 120 followers of Jesus. And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples. Altogether, the number of the names was about 120. You recall that through Jesus' ministry, Crowds, large crowds were attracted to him. In his three Galilean tours, thousands upon thousands followed him. Then he fed them with a couple of fish and a couple of biscuits, and they wanted to make him their king. Then the next day, he told them in Capernaum, you have it wrong. I didn't come here to fill your bellies. I'm the heavenly bread of life, and they stopped following him. The whole thing collapsed. Then in Judea, a month before he was crucified, he raised Lazarus from the dead and his popularity spiked and they were going to make him king. But they all abandoned him and turned against him as he stood before Pontius Pilate. There were only 500 after his death that still followed him. Jesus appeared to 500 in Galilee. That was the total number of his followers. And 120 of them were in Jerusalem at this time. We read that they were all gathered in one place. It becomes apparent that they were all gathered in a house because the sound from heaven came and filled the house where they were all sitting. Whose house was that? We don't know. Some have suggested John Mark, who probably was the rich young ruler who came to Jesus. But from what follows, it's obvious that no matter whose house it was, it was near the temple. And it was near an open space to accommodate a large crowd that gathered in response to the sound of a mighty rushing wind. And we read that they were all with one accord. All with one accord. Literally, one passion, one desire. And that passion or desire that brought them together in unity was the promise of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had given them. That brings us back to the previous chapter, Acts 1, verses 4-5. through eight, let me read part of that. And being assembled together with them, this is before His ascension, at the time of His ascension, Jesus commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, you have heard of me. The promise of the Father, that which the Father had promised. What is that promise? Well, that's the next verse, John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. And then verse eight, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit shall come upon you. And you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. That was the promise of the Father. Jesus had explained that promise to them. He says, the promise of the Father which you have heard from me. He told them it was coming and so he said, now you wait in Jerusalem because in a few days that's going to come. The Spirit is going to come to you. And so they were with one accord, one spirit, one desire, gathered together waiting for the fulfillment of that promise. While they were gathered together, it was in the morning. It was only the third hour of the day, that's nine o'clock in the morning. Three very unusual events took place in fulfillment of the Father's promise. Suddenly, there came from heaven a noise, a loud thundering noise, a mighty rushing wind, and it filled all the house where the disciples were sitting. There was no end. But there was the sound of the wind. It came from heaven. It came into the house. It filled the whole house. But it was heard throughout all of Jerusalem. And that's what evidently attracted a large crowd in the courtyard or the empty space before that house, Jews and proselytes from the whole Mediterranean who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. Then there appeared unto the disciples cloven split tongues as of fire, which sat upon each of them. Again, not fire, but split tongues as of fire, a tongue of flame put on an end of a candle. You light the candle and you get a tongue. This was split. Now I noticed when I read the new NIV, not the NIV, I'm sorry, the New King James, it makes mention that a tongue sat upon the head of each one. And I think it's better to assume this way, that these tongues were all together. And they went from one to the other, to the other, to the other. Then finally, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them utterance." Notice, at this time, the Spirit filled the disciples. That was the fulfillment of the promise of the Father. The Spirit came and filled them, and the Spirit moved them to speak in other languages. From verse 11 of this chapter, it's evident that they spoke the wonderful works of God. They didn't speak in gibberish. They didn't speak about the weather or the upcoming sports events. They spoke the wonderful works of God as they were given to understand it now for the first time as they had never understood it before, and they spoke that to the crowd that had amassed at the sound of the mighty rushing wind. There you have the fulfillment of prophecy. You shall have the Spirit coming and filling you. Now a three-fold sign. These unusual events marked, well, the coming of the Holy Spirit, but now we're gonna go ahead to the prophet Joel and talk about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In response to speaking in different languages the mighty works of God, the opponents of Jesus and his followers mocked and said, yeah, they're drunk. They're full of new wine. Peter stood up and addressed them and said, well, it's only 9 o'clock in the morning. That's not very likely. And then he went on. to explain that what was happening was the fulfillment of the prophet Joel. Listen, verse 16 and on. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. Notice, I will pour out of my spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy." So here we have the idea of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It's important to understand exactly what this means. Now understand it's through the inner working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives that God bestows upon us his chosen, redeemed church all the blessings of salvation. And the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost speaks of the giving to the church the full measure of the Holy Spirit to enjoy the fullness of salvation. When I teach this in catechism to younger children, then I like to take a bucket or a jar and pretend it's full of water. And I'll even go into the kitchen and turn the water on and pretend it's full of water. I said, now, what will happen if I pour this all out on you? Well, that would not be good. What about if I would take and sprinkle it on you? Well, that wouldn't be so bad. So what about, oh, there's nothing in there. In the Old Testament, if you want to use that figure of pouring out, then in the Old Testament the Spirit was working the blessings of salvation, but it was as though that Spirit was only sprinkled on them, now poured out. So that now, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Church of Jesus Christ enjoys the riches of salvation. as not experienced by the Old Testament saints. For example, with the coming of the spirit, it is being poured out in full measure. All of a sudden, the church understood things that they didn't understand before. The Old Testament church lived in the shadows. Think of a statue, beautiful, bright, ornate, and all you see is the shadow that's cast. That's what the Old Testament saints saw, just the shadow. because the spirit was only sprinkled upon them, and therefore they were like children in knowledge and in responsibility. They had to have all the laws, the do's and the don'ts of the Mosaic laws. Don't do this, don't do that, you may pick up sticks on Sunday, you may do this. They were like children who had to be guarded with all kinds of rules and regulations. But now the spirit has been poured out and that makes a big change. Paul says in Galatians 4, now the church has grown from a child to an adult. All of a sudden, they understand things like they never understood before. Peter gets up and he explains what happens. They never understood why Jesus had to die. They didn't understand the resurrection and the ascension. It was a mystery to them. Now all of a sudden they understand. And through the Spirit, the full revelation of God is given. They're no longer looking at a shadow. They're looking at the real thing. And the blessings of salvation they enjoy, much richer than in the Old Testament. And the difference was the cross. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The work of the Holy Spirit to bestow the church On the church, the blessings of salvation all depends on the perfect sacrifice of sin. In the Old Testament, that sacrifice hadn't been offered. All the sacrifices of lambs and animals and bullocks in the temple only pointed ahead to one great sacrifice to come. It was a promise, and on the basis of that promise of what was to come, God gave them the Spirit. They enjoyed the blessings of salvation, but they lived in a shadow. But now Christ has come. Through one perfect sacrifice, He is atoned for the sins of the people. He has earned the salvation of those whom the Father gave Him. Now the Spirit can be poured out in full measure. I don't think that we fully grasp the difference between the church today and what we experience of salvation compared to that of the Old Testament saints. Now the three events that took place on Pentecost serve as a miraculous sign or miraculous signs of the spirit and his work. They serve as signs of his coming, of his presence, He has. The psalm, as of a mighty Russian wind, served as a sign of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Wind, what a powerful, irresistible force. Hurricanes, never been in a hurricane. But in the late 80s, I was in Jamaica. We had a mission station there. and I was delegated with someone else to go and visit, right after a major hurricane had swept right across the western part of Jamaica where our missionary was. What devastation. Nothing stands before that wind. Today, in this country, we have hurricanes. Have you ever seen the devastation of a hurricane? I can remember 1956. A hurricane went through Hudsonville, Standale. The sky turned green. Powerful devastation. Took all the water out of Lake Phennessy by Hope Church. Nothing stands up to wind. It's an irresistible force. So too the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes as an irresistible force from heaven. to bring us by faith to Jesus Christ and to our salvation. His work, the work of the Spirit, is not subject to the will of man. That's a popular view today. The error of free willism. You can resist the Spirit. The Spirit waits. waits patiently for you to allow him to work. That's incorrect. The Holy Spirit works sovereignly to enter into the hearts of God's people and to bring them to a conscious faith and to their salvation in Jesus Christ. In fact, truth be told, his work begins in the people of God, for whom Christ gave his life, to plant in their heart the seed of a new life. They're not even conscious of it. In the development of the covenant and covenant families, it usually comes at birth or even conception. And then by the power of the Word, the Holy Spirit, when it comes to our conscious faith in salvation, always works through the Word. Through the power of the Word, He awakens that seed and brings us to a conscious faith and brings us to Christ. to Christ and by the power of the word he keeps us in Christ and preserves us as a mighty rushing wind before whom nothing can stand and nothing can resist. Then there's the split tongues as a fire. They serve as the sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Fire has a lot of properties. When we think of, and I ask in catechism, well, what does fire do? Well, it burns things and destroys things. Yeah, it does that. But fire is also used to purify. To purify. When you have ore, like gold, it has impurities in it. So it's subject to fire. and those impurities rise to the top, and they're skimmed off, and then you end up with pure gold. We are tried by fire, says the Bible. In persecution, we're submitted to fiery trials for our purification. Well, the Holy Spirit is the one who purifies us from all our sins. When He sovereignly enters into our lives and brings us to faith in Jesus Christ, then He also transforms us through a mighty work. He cleanses us. Now that word of cleansing isn't finished in this life. It's an ongoing thing, isn't it? And it won't be accomplished fully until we're in heaven. But the Holy Spirit, when He brings us to Christ, doesn't leave us to live a life of sin. so that our life is no different than the ungodly. He turns us from sin unto God, from idols and idolatry unto the temple of the living God. So that through the spirit, our lives are significantly different from those of the world around us. That's a good question to ask. Is my life significantly, essentially different from the world of unbelieving men, women, and children? Is it so distinctly different that we're strangers to them? That's what it should be. That's the work of the spirit. And then finally, The speaking in many languages serves as a sign of the effect of the Holy Spirit. Those who have the life-altering presence of the Spirit, who has come irresistibly to them, will speak the wonderful praises of God. Now, we're commanded to do that. but more than a command, it's an inner desire, an inner compulsion. Through the Spirit, we've come to know Jesus as our Savior. We have come to know God as our Father. We have come to see that we don't deserve these blessings. They're blessings of grace, wonderfully bestowed, undeserved favor. And the fruit is this, we want to praise the living God. Our hearts and mouths will be full of the praises of God as we talk to each other in marriage, as we instruct our children, as we deal with one another in the church, as we live our lives in the community. That's the effect of the Spirit. And again, it's a good question, isn't it? How much is this evident in my life and your lives? But that's the fruit of the Spirit. And by the way, the fact that the disciples spoke in other languages, the wonderful works of God, so that all that gathered heard the works of God in their own language, points to the glorious reality that the Holy Spirit poured out upon the church, intended to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations. You know, in the Old Testament, Before the sacrifice of sin had been accomplished and the church lived in the shadows, one resolve was that only one tiny little nation enjoyed the blessings of God, the Jews. And they weren't much. As far as population, we're concerned. But now the sacrifice has come. And now God has a people. from all walks of life, all the nations of the world, and the Holy Spirit indicates through the language, speaking in many different languages on Pentecost, now I'm gonna go and bring the gospel to the nations, to gather in the church. So that's the second. I could preach a long time on that. An appropriate Thanksgiving. The Feast of Pentecost was really a Thanksgiving feast. We've already indicated that it was a Jewish feast required by the Law of Moses. Three of them were required. The name Pentecost which has the idea of five, 50, indicates that it was held 50 days after the Passover feast. And that Pentecost was a harvest feast. It came at the end of the small grain harvest in the land of Canaan. The Passover feast came at the beginning of that small grain harvest, at the end, was Pentecost. And much like our Thanksgiving Day in our culture, it was an opportunity for Israel to give thanks for the full harvest that they had enjoyed. And that gratitude was expressed according to the law or was to be expressed through the wave offering brought to the house of God. It was required of every male to bring to the Lord the first fruits of the wheat harvest. The small grain harvest began with the barley and then ended with the wheat harvest. The first cutting, first cut into the wheat harvest was to be preserved and that wheat was to be made into two loaves of bread. And those two loaves of bread were to be brought to the house of God given to the priest to wave before the Lord. And through that wave offering, Israel acknowledged that the harvest that they now had brought in had come from the Lord. It was the Lord's harvest given to them. And it was a promise to dedicate the harvest represented by those two loaves to the service of the Lord in gratitude. All that we have, all that we are, the full harvest, Lord, is yours. And we dedicate ourselves and what you have given us in the service of your name. That was the Feast of Pentecost. Now, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this day of thanksgiving for the Jews, it's obviously connected to all this. Let's bear in mind that the bounties of the land of Canaan, which God provided Israel at the time of harvest, were really a picture and a promise of greater spiritual blessings that God had for his people. Remember, in the Old Testament, the land of Canaan was the land of promise, the holy land. And it was a picture of the heavenly Canaan that God had for his people. That's no longer the case. The land of Canaan, where the nation of Israel is, that no longer is a picture. And no longer has any spiritual significance. was everything. There every family received an inheritance. That inheritance was supposed to stay in the family, a picture of their eternal inheritance in heaven. And so the earthly bounties of the land of Canaan received at the time of harvest was a picture of greater spiritual blessings in the heavenly Canaan to which Israel could look forward. In fact, along with that, A full harvest in the land of Canaan was a token of God's blessing and favor. And so God promised them, you remain faithful to my law and I will give you the bounties of the land and you will enjoy my blessings in the way of your obedience. But if you disobey and turn to other gods and forsake me and forsake the law, the land will not yield. And you will not enjoy my blessings. That's how significant it was. And this was all connected and related to the Passover feast, which was celebrated 50 days earlier at the beginning of the harvest. At the Passover feast, the Passover lamb was slain and eaten by every family. That Passover lamb represented the coming Savior as the Lamb of God, who would come and make one perfect sacrifice for sin. And the fact that this feast day and its significance was celebrated at the beginning of the harvest indicated that the spiritual harvest depicted by the small grain harvest depended on the coming of the Lamb of God. Here we have this beautiful harvest. It points us to a greater spiritual harvest of blessings and blessings in heaven and here on earth. But it all depends upon the Lamb of God, depicted in the Passover feast. Now the point is that through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, these greater spiritual blessings had now come upon the church. The Lamb of God had come, Jesus Christ. He had given his life as an atonement for sin, made the perfect sacrifice that was promised and depicted by all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. As a result, God had raised him from the dead, exalted him, and blessed him with all heavenly blessings of salvation. In fact, the book of Ephesians, chapter one, verse three, puts it this way. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, meaning there is this, that when God raised Jesus from the dead and exalted Him, He gave Jesus Christ all the blessings of the cross that He had earned, all of our blessings, a full harvest of the blessings. And in doing that, He blessed us with those blessings, even though we don't have them in our possession right now, but because Christ is our mediator, But now, those blessings must be given to us. And to that end, the Lord Jesus Christ poured out the Holy Spirit upon his church. And through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ bestows upon us all the blessings of the spiritual harvest of salvation that he has earned and received. And through the Spirit, he bestows upon us the full harvest. The full harvest. Prior to this, the Old Testament church enjoyed the salvation of God by the same spirit, but not like now. The harvest has been brought in. Jesus Christ has harvested all the blessings of salvation. The Holy Spirit has now come and been poured out upon us in fuller measure that we may enjoy that spiritual harvest as never before. But, even then, we now have only the first fruits of that harvest. Romans 8 verse 23 speaks of the fact that we have the first fruits of the spirit. The first fruits of the spirit, that means that for the present, We only have the beginnings of that spiritual harvest that come to us through the death of Jesus Christ. We only have the beginnings. But the whole harvest is going to be ours. If you have the firstfruits, that guarantees the whole harvest. And so the Bible also speaks of the earnest of the Holy Spirit. And earnest is a pledge. The fact that we now have the Holy Spirit in the beginnings of this harvest is God's pledge, God's guarantee. There's more coming. There's more coming. There's a full harvest. You only have the beginning of it. When will we receive the full harvest? when we get to heaven, when we're delivered finally from this world. But the full harvest really awaits the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven. When all the churches gather together through the resurrection and brought into a new creation, then we will enjoy the full harvest. But now we have the firstfruits of it through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. And as those who have the Holy Spirit and the firstfruits of the harvest of salvation, we must be thankful. We must be thankful. Every day must be a thanksgiving feast as we enjoy the firstfruits of the harvest of salvation. Of course we must be thankful. and sin. We could do nothing, not one thing, to escape. We deserve nothing but God's wrath. He could justly have condemned us all to eternal perdition, but he didn't. Out of a fallen human race, he saved a people, gave them to Christ to redeem. We didn't deserve that. Jesus Christ has reaped the harvest of salvation. And now he's given us the first fruits with promise of greater things to come. The response is gratitude, deep gratitude. And that gratitude must show itself by our prayers, the songs we sing, but also the way we live. Remember the Holy Spirit comes as a refining fire to cleanse us so that we turn from sin unto the world, from idols unto the living God. That's how we show our gratitude. And then we also speak the wonderful works of God. As the Spirit moved the disciples on that day centuries ago, speak the wonderful works of God. In your marriage, in your family, in the church, out in the world, joyfully, boldly, without shame, even though the world may shame us and turn against us. That's the fruit of the Spirit. And then, with the coming of the Spirit and the firstfruits of the Spirit, let us live in hope of the full that Jesus has now provided the first fruits of. Greater things are coming. Greater things are coming. A family here lost a loved one, a father and a grandfather in death this past week. Died in the Lord. I've served as a pastor, especially in my last church, many, many old people. I was there 19 years. I did many funerals. It's amazing. People at the end of life, in the world, they have nothing more to live. They have nothing to live for. It's all done. Not those who live in Christ and die in Christ. They've got everything to live for. So much more to come. What a blessing. The Holy Spirit has come upon us, filled us and poured out Let us as His people embrace that and reflect that in our lives. Amen. Father in Heaven, we give thanks to Thee for the Spirit of Jesus Christ poured out upon us. Come, power. the glory of thy name, in Jesus Christ we ask, amen.