Please open your Bibles to the inerrant, sufficient, life-giving word of God. Acts 2, I'll be reading verses 1 through 13. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place, and suddenly there came the sound from heaven. as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And 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. And 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. Then 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, and Egypt and the parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues, 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. Let's pray. Father. We thank you for your wonderful works that are spoken by your servants filled with the Holy Spirit. We pray that you would take these words and burn them into our hearts, teach us how we ought to live in the days that we exist in now, that we might be like these who were proclaimers of the wonderful works of God throughout the whole earth. Amen. Please be seated. So as we open up this text, I'm very well aware that God shepherds His flock through His Word. He leads His flock to the best pastures. He leads them to the clearest waters. and he feeds them, and as we gather here before his word, I just want us to recognize again, as we have many times when people ask us, where is this church going? And we're always going to say, to the word of God. And this text here this morning is the shepherd's staff of this church today. And so we're so thankful that you've gathered to hear it. Now, if the press reports are accurate, And we now have a new president. There are many ominous implications of this election. Some people are very nervous. Other people are terrified. This new administration has promised to do things we hope would never gain traction in America. And we have no idea what will unfold. That's a good thing. But our passage here today tells us all we need to know for the moment. This passage tells us everything we need to know to get through the days ahead. And as we saw in the previous chapter, it is not for us to know times and seasons, which the Father has appointed by his own authority, but you shall be filled with the Holy Spirit. And so it's not for us to know times and seasons, but it is for us to know how to get through them. And that's right here in this text. So this is a great text. I'm very delighted that we happen to be here. Now, what we find here really is a picture of history, the history of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's critical that the church has a very clear sense of history, and it's very important that you teach your children how to understand history. You know, it's, As many of you know, we buried my father this week, and we had such a wonderful time reminiscing about his life. But one time, my mother was telling me this story. A scoffer, somebody who did not believe the Bible, was talking to my dad, and he said, I believe the Bible's just another book of history. And he said it in a disparaging way, and my dad replied, well, then you better know your history. And he was talking about the Bible and there are a few things we need to remember at this time in history. And I want to remind us as a church what's happening in history and what's happening to the United States of America. In Psalm 83, 18, we're put on notice that God the Most High is over all the earth. In Daniel 2, 21, we're taught to remember that God is of the positioner of the politicians. He says, and he changes times and seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. In Isaiah 45.7, God informs us that he and he alone creates the calamity. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and I make calamity. In Proverbs 21.1, We realize that God wants us to understand what a detailed control God has over all the kings of the earth. He says, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it wherever he wishes. You can count on that every day of the week in Washington. In Ephesians chapter 1, 19 and 20, Paul prays for the Ephesian church that they would get really straight on something, on a matter of authority. And he prayed that the church would know that Jesus Christ was the supreme authority over all things. He says that He is far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named. only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him to behead over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." And if that's not enough, in Proverbs 21, we learn something about every king that ever ruled. In Revelation 19, Verse 16, we learn what the hierarchy of power looks like in the world. And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In Hebrews 1, verse 2, we learn how to think about the last days. Well, the last days started at the resurrection. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed to be heir of all things. We have to recognize that it is God who has always and will always destroy wicked kingdoms. And if you just look at history, you just ask yourself, where did those nations go? Where did those wicked kings go? God wiped them off the face of the earth. I was just reading this morning in Jeremiah 51. And Jeremiah's talking about Babylon, Babylon which will be destroyed in the sixth century BC, but the spirit of mystery Babylon will be destroyed at the very end, at the final judgment. And here's what Jeremiah says about Babylon. Babylon's always running hard in the nations of the earth. He's running in our nation for sure. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand that made all the earth drunk. The nations drink her wine, therefore the nations are deranged. Babylon has suddenly fallen and has been destroyed. Notice the opening phrase, this Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand. Continuing in verse 37 in Jeremiah 51, Babylon shall become a heap, a dwelling place for jackals. astonishment and a hissing. And he continues in verse 47, and all that is in them shall sing joyously over Babylon, for the plunderers shall come to her from the north, says the Lord. When we get to the book of Revelation, we're gonna see Babylon again, and we'll find the fulfillments of all these things. We are in Acts chapter one and two. And then we're going into the book of Revelation after we finish chapter two. I'm doing this because I want us to get some historical perspective on the book of Revelation. We've just completed our studies in the gospel of John. We've seen his glory. And now it's very clear, if our church is going to fulfill her mission, she must be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the work of redemption is complete, and now is the time to gather souls into the family of God. This is the subject of the book of Acts, as the gospel spreads across the world. So our time in Acts is designed to be kind of a bridge from the gospel of John to John's book of Revelation. These two chapters and acts, I hope, will help us gain some historical continuity of the Bible and also bridge from the Gospels to the spread of the Gospel and the things that will happen in the last days from the resurrection to the second coming of Jesus Christ. So I want us to consider these things in Acts before we get to Revelation. Because what is happening in the book of Acts is really the launching point of the backdrop of everything that happens in the book of Revelation. Acts explains what is happening on the ground through the power of the Holy Spirit. And Revelation is more complex. It gives us two views at once. It tells us what's going on in heaven, and it also tells us about the kinds of things that are going to be going on on the earth during the church age. So that's what we're dealing with here. Of course, you know, redemptive history breaks down into three sections. First, the redemptive acts of God in the Old Testament. Then secondly, God's revelation of His Son and the Gospels as fulfillments of those redemptive acts in the Old Testament. And then finally, the expansion of the church in the Book of Acts that's reflected in the letters contained in the New Testament, including the letter that was written by John. It is an epistle. It is a letter written to churches called the Book of Revelation. So, what we're finding here is the work of the Spirit in his church. Now, this text is, I think, particularly timely for us and exciting. It shows us how to get through the times and seasons. that the Father has fixed by His own authority. It is not for us to know times and seasons, but it is for us to know how to get through them. And that's what we find here at the beginning of the book of Acts. Now, by the way, I just want to make it very clear, my view, and I hope it's your view. This is not a time of uncertainty for the church of Jesus Christ. The church knows exactly what it's supposed to do. The church has been issued commands. The church just ought to keep rolling on, as it always has, preaching the word of God, gathering people together to sing the praises of God, participating in the ordinances of God, engaging in the fellowship of God. all the huggin' and kissin' and preachin' and prayin' that you can do is what we're supposed to keep doing. God is in control, and this world is not our governor. God is our governor, and it's such a joy to recognize that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. And we believe that God glorifies himself in everything. We believe that every joy or trial falleth from above. That's what we believe. So, but it's very important that we know our history. So this text, if you have an outline in front of you, you'll see, I've divided this into two sections, the first four verses focusing on the filling of the Holy Spirit, and secondly, verses five through 13, the reaction of the crowd. Now we encounter the most pivotal matter for the church of Jesus Christ in the church age, often the most forgotten matter, the Holy Spirit, particularly among the cerebral types. They often forget about the Holy Spirit. But when we arrive at Acts 2, we find ourself at this pivotal moment in the history of redemption, the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Now God has always been working in history, but with this historical event, God is escalating His power in the world through the outpouring of His Holy Spirit. He is concentrating His blessings on His people like never before in history. He has inaugurated a new covenant, and the Bible calls it a better covenant with better promises, and there's more power as a result of it. It's not that the Old Testament saints didn't have power. It's not that the Old Testament saints did not have the Holy Spirit indwelling within them. The Bible makes that very clear, they did. But there is something that God is doing in this era of the church age through the power of the Holy Spirit. So let's begin in this text here in verse one. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Now, I'll just stop with this phrase, with one accord in one place. Like these people gathered in this text, we are too gathered in one accord, in one place. This is what the people of God do. By the way, this language exists in other places in the book of Acts. Gathering together in one place. And there's no such thing as remote Christianity. The people of God gather together, and they gather together in one place. They've always done that, and the real people of God will always do that. Now, this is the day of Pentecost, you know that. It's very clear in the text. Pentecost means 50th, and this is called the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of the First Fruits of your labors. It's known as the Feast of In-Gathering, And it's really the beginning of the in-gathering of the church of Jesus Christ. You know, right around the corner here in Acts 3,000 will actually be brought into the church. This takes place seven weeks after Passover. The Feast of Weeks is seven days in a week of seven weeks. And the Day of Pentecost is 50 days after the resurrection and it's 10 days after the ascension of Jesus Christ. It also happens to be the anniversary of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai recorded in Acts 19 verse one. So it is Sunday and you know people often wonder why does the church meet on Sunday? Well this is one recognition of why the church meets on Sunday. The church is always met on Sunday after the resurrection and here they are meeting Now, this is the pattern. Now, you notice there are these sevens that are fulfilled in this text that are prophesied in the Old Testament by the feasts. And when we get to Revelation, we're gonna encounter sets of seven. I hope you will recognize that. In fact, in the previous chapter, we encountered the necessity of completing the number of the 12 apostles from 11 to 12. Why did they do that? Why did they so quickly? Why were they in such a rush to appoint another apostle? Well, because the Old Testament prophesied that there would be 12 apostles. And the apostles believed that they should complete the number of the apostles in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy to fulfill that picture. And so we find this number 12 in multiples of 12 in the book of Revelation. We're using these chapters in the book of Acts to kind of prepare our thinking regarding these numbers and these figures and these metaphors that exist. in the book of Revelation. But what we learn here is that there's a rich connection with these Old Testament practices that are fulfilled in the New Testament church. And it should not surprise us that in this outpouring of the Holy Spirit that there would be tremendous matters of fulfillment. And of course, this is a fulfillment of what was read earlier in Isaiah 44, the rivers of living water flowing into the church. This is the spring, the fountain of living water that Jesus prophesied in John 7, 37. where he said, if anyone believes in me, let him come to me and drink, and out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. This is being fulfilled here in Acts chapter two, verses one through 13. And these waters are gonna be poured out on all flesh, and the gospel will spread across the entire world. And frankly, it spreads very quickly right after these times. And the gospel will find its way to every tongue and tribe and nation. The world will never be the same again because a new era has dawned. People have tried to track the impact of Christianity in the world, and it's absolutely astounding. You take the person of Jesus Christ out of history, think about what drops out. It's astounding when you think about it. So the day, it was the day of Pentecost, verses two and three, the signs. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty, as 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 on each one of them. Now there are two signs here. and it recorded a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire. And the language that Luke uses here to describe what is happening, because he is an eyewitness of what happened, is he's using what are called adverbs of comparison. That means that the wind and the fire are metaphors. Notice the language. As of a rushing wind, as of fire. Now this is very common in the Bible, where you have metaphors that describe great things that God is doing, and the Bible is just full of metaphors. I was stunned when I preached through the book of Isaiah. You know, there's a metaphor in every sentence almost, and it was just beautiful to see the richness of the gospel, the beauty of the kingdom of heaven communicated through all these metaphors. So, there are metaphors that we use. In fact, we're getting ready to experience two of those metaphors in the Lord's Supper. Taking the bread and the fruit of the vine. These are both metaphors of something greater. We're going to be involved in baptism. That's a metaphor. We were buried with him in baptism. And in the same way that the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. By the way, it wasn't a dove. It was like a dove. The dove is a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. And Jesus says he was living bread. Jesus said he was living water. Jesus said that he was the door. And here we find wind and we find fire. And in the Bible, We could talk about so many of the metaphors. You know, the Lord covers us. The Lord has feathers in the Old Testament. He covers his people with feathers. Does God have feathers? No, it's a metaphor to tell you what a tender-hearted, caring, kind, protective father you have. That's what he's talking about. And like, you know, a hen gathering her chicks. You know, these metaphors are so wonderful. You know, I was reading in Jeremiah 50 recently where the wicked attackers of Israel, they are called cruel, they show no mercy, and here's how he describes them. Their voice shall roar like the sea. Well, it's a metaphor. And so Luke is using these metaphors to describe the fire and the wind, and we need to understand how common it is. Now, when you get to the book of Revelation, while people say, oh yes, Jesus is my bread, Jesus is the living water, his feathers are covering me, but when they get to the book of Revelation, they jettison all thought of metaphor. And they take everything absolutely literally. But the Bible wasn't written like that, and the prophetic literature wasn't written that way either. And so as we move into a portion of Scripture, a prophetic portion of Scripture, we will see remarkable metaphors. And we have to ask, do we take them all literally? So we'll deal with that then. Of course, as you're very well aware, dispensational interpretations of Revelation forget that imagery exists and they want to interpret most of it literally. So first you have this mighty rushing It is as of a mighty rushing wind. It was not literal wind, it was like wind, and it is a symbol of the presence of God, the mighty power of God. We don't know exactly what it was like. Luke describes it like a mighty rushing wind. It must have been an amazing moment. But we also know that wind has meaning in the Bible. Jesus made that very clear when he was talking to Nicodemus. He said the wind blows where it wishes. He wasn't talking about wind. He was using wind as a metaphor to talk about salvation. In Ezekiel 37 verse 9 and John quotes Ezekiel all over the place in Revelation. He says, oh come from the four winds, oh breath and breathe on these slain that they may live. So you have this wind that's described, and it's a figure of the power of God and his presence. Now, you've experienced this. There are moments when God is just so mightily present in a moment of time, and I think that's most likely what this was. And then second, fire. There appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. What in the world was that? And here, again, we find these adverbs of comparison. It was as of fire. Do you see that language there? It's translated correctly. And, you know, God is a consuming fire on the top of the mountain. Exodus chapter 24 and in Ezekiel chapter 1, 13, you find this picture of the living creatures and their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. And fire was brought out of the fire and out of the fire went lightning and the living creatures ran back and forth appearance like a flash of lightning. So you know John the Baptist said that one mightier than him was coming and he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire and I think this is a fulfillment of that right here in Acts chapter 2. So there are The effects here, and the effect, the immediate effect is speaking. They begin to speak languages. They begin to preach the gospel in various languages. It's very interesting. There are 56 references to the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. There are only 28 chapters. You could easily say that the theme of the book of Acts is the power of the Holy Spirit coming down upon the church, and I think that's why it opens up that way. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. and you shall be my witnesses. So this power is for the spread of the gospel. And this matter of speaking takes center stage in the matter of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the spread of the gospel. And there is in the book of Acts, an intimate connection between the filling of the Holy Spirit and speaking. It is the most prominent connection that you see in the book of Acts regarding the Holy Spirit, that speaking is the result. You find this in chapter four, verse eight. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, the effect of The filling of the Holy Spirit was that He spoke to them. In Acts chapter 4, 31. We read that when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness. The manifestation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was the speaking of the word of God with boldness. In Acts chapter seven, verse 55, we find that same connection between the Spirit and speaking. And he, being full of the Spirit, gazed into heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, and said, Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. This was Stephen at his martyrdom. He was a witness who spoke, and he finally spoke. being filled with the Holy Spirit when he was being stoned. So I think what we learn here is that when people are filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak, they open their mouths, they preach the gospel, they speak of the wonderful deeds of God in the world. And these tongues of fire and this wind represents it. So the focus here in this passage is the gift of speaking. and the outpouring of the Spirit resulting in the proclamation of the gospel. And so, you know, when the gospel is heard that you become a witness. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. Witnesses speak about what they know. We talked about that last week. What is a witness? A witness is somebody who saw something for sure and then they talk about it. And that's what we find here. And then in verse four, We continue the explanation of this, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there are many manifestations of the Holy Spirit that are explicitly explained in the Bible. and we could list them, but here in this passage, it is the gift of speech. This is the sign that is given. A spirit-filled people speak, and they were filled with the spirit in such a remarkable, unusual way that they were able to speak other languages that they didn't even know, that they'd never even studied before, and everyone was stunned by it. You know, who were these people they were speaking to? Well, there are 15 nationalities that are listed here. And the list includes descendants of Shem and Ham and Japheth. And I believe they represent all the nations of the earth. It's a representative gathering that is a foretaste of what will come to all the other nations. and the impulse that Christians have to bring the gospel in every tongue that exists in the world. This is what Christians want to do. They want to translate. They want to go places and they want to preach the gospel. We have missionaries in Turkey right now. Their first priority is to learn the language. If they can't learn the language, they can't preach the gospel. That's why we sent them. So it's just a massive focus of their whole lives right now is so that they can proclaim in the Turkish language that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he's coming again and that his kingdom is a great kingdom. So every nation needs to hear the gospel in their own tongue. You know, in Genesis 10, we have what is called the Table of the Nations, and then in chapter 11, there's the scattering of the nations at the Tower of Babel. And in Acts 2, this is another kind of Table of Nations. You've got 15 of them here listed. But instead of confusing the languages, God is translating the languages. God is restoring. He's bringing wicked people back. He's bringing them back home. And so what's happening in Acts 2 is the opposite of the Tower of Babel, where they did not understand each other. The gospel becomes the lingua franca that's spoken among those who love the Lord. and God is uniting his people. Well, of course, there is controversy surrounding this incident. Pentecostal theologians isolate this manifestation of the Spirit to be some kind of prayer language, and my view is that this is one of many manifestations of the Holy Spirit Pentecostals say that this is the sign of salvation. And my view would be that there are many others. Speaking is one of them. But this one is so dramatic and it's so defining that it just can't be ignored. It is the marking of the launching of the new covenant and the spread of the gospel throughout the whole earth. Now, there are four texts in the Bible that are said to be speaking in tongues. and that tongues are some kind of prayer language. Romans 8, 26, 1 Corinthians 14, 14 through 17, and Ephesians 6, 18. We don't have time to dive into every part of this, but I wanna give you a flyover of it. First of all, I think we should recognize that what was happening in Acts chapter two is very, very clear. They were speaking languages. They were speaking human languages that other people also spoke. They weren't unknown languages. They weren't prayer languages. They were actual languages that people speak in the world because the people heard the gospel in their own language, and it was a spoken language, and it was a miracle that it happened. This language that was spoken was known by the hearers, but it was unknown to the speakers. This is nothing like what Pentecostal theologians represent. Secondly, these tongues were actually signs of judgment toward unbelievers. This is very clear in Isaiah chapter 28. in verses 11 through 12, we learn that the tongues that are spoken of here is a fulfillment of a prophecy of Isaiah where the tongues come as a judgment against unbelieving Israel. And I'll quote a commentator, Keddie. Paul quotes Isaiah 28, 11 through 12 to show that the apostolic tongues were a covenantal sign rebuking covenant-breaking Jews. 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. That's what he's quoting here. Verse 11 in Isaiah 28. For with stammering lips and another tongue, he will speak to this people. and it is a sign of judgment against unbelieving Israel. So that's what tongues were a sign of. Third, if a tongue were spoken privately, or if a tongue were spoken in a church service, then someone, at least according to 1 Corinthians 14, 13, and verse 27, the tongue had to be translated. Somebody had to translate it so everybody else could hear it, understand what it was. So someone is speaking in a language not their own, someone who understands that language is hearing it, but the whole church is there too. So what about them? Well, Paul says, no, all this is for the edification of the body. So they need to be translated. Someone needs to say what that man just said, because it was said in another tongue. You know, how could it be a private prayer language if it had to be interpreted? How could it be a private prayer language when the gifts of the Spirit are not for yourself, but they're for the edification of the body? Or how could it be a private prayer language if it's a sign to unbelievers? 1 Corinthians 14, 22. So I don't believe this had anything to do with private prayer languages or people standing up in church and saying something that nobody understands, nobody, nobody, nobody understands it. It's a language. And somebody understands it. And if it's done in the church, then everybody is supposed to understand it. Because it's gonna get translated. And if it's not translated, it shouldn't happen. So, there you have it. Okay, what does all this mean? God has given his people a voice to speak of the wonders of God. and the Holy Spirit activates your voice to be a witness. And what this means is that you can be an effective witness, you can. You might think you can, but under the power of the Holy Spirit, you can be a faithful witness to Jesus Christ and speak of his wonders. Because that's what the Holy Spirit does. In this text, the most prominent manifestation of the Holy Spirit is that people speak. They want to speak. with a pastor in Florida this last week, Clarence Simmons. And we were just rejoicing, you know, that God has all the answers for his church, for all the stuff that's going down in America. We really were rejoicing. And Clarence said this. He said, we got the answers to America's problems, but we're not telling anybody. So there you have it. Maybe this text is before us to help us to open up our mouths like never before in a time when it's really necessary. So when you think about the power of the Holy Spirit, think about it at least in this context from the standpoint is that God wants to make you a witness who speaks. I heard somebody say that we need to remember that it's not how high you jump when you worship, it's how straight you walk and talk when you come down. That's the power of the Holy Spirit. So these people were filled and they received the fullness of God. are blessed with every spiritual blessing that's spoken of in Ephesians chapter one, and his spirit is sufficient for every need. It's meant to lead us through every single thing we will ever experience. Every joy or trial that's fallen from above is governed by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you can walk through anything. Now the filling of the Holy Spirit also is calibrated by what else you're filled with. There can be a difference between believers and believers. And it's usually a function of what they're filling their hearts with. You can quench the spirit. You can grieve the spirit. And you won't be like that other Christian who's full of joy and power and sound mind and fearless and a true witness. And you're not a witness and you are full of fear, but it's because you're quenching the Holy Spirit. You're grieving the Holy Spirit. You grieve and you quench the Holy Spirit by what you put into your heart and your mind. It has to do with where you go, where you take your mind, what you traffic in. What songs are you trafficking in? What are you looking at? Well, there are believers and there are believers. And some believers quench the Holy Spirit. That's why the Apostle Paul said, do not quench the Spirit. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. And the Holy Spirit is not grieved when you say, there is nothing on earth I desire beside thee. Well, then you find the reaction in verses five through 13. Well, first of all, we learn what kind of men they were. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And then there was confusion, verse six. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in their own language. Can you imagine that? Yikes, all these people running around and they are understanding something that they never dreamed they would. And then the amazement in verse seven, 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? It's nice to be born and learn a language. You know, it's really easy that way, isn't it? Well, these apostles, they never learned those languages. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and those dwelling in Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia. Well, the Turks say Cappadocia, by the way, having gone to Turkey. Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and other parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene. Visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues, what? I love this phrase, the wonderful works of God. Those are your marching orders. Go tell how great God is. Tell how wonderful he is, how good he is, how truthful he is, how comforting he is. Go tell the wonderful works of God. And then you had this mixed response of some of them. You had some onlookers, verse 12, They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what could this mean? And then you had the naysayers, the mockers, others mocking, saying, they are full of new wine. Well, so you already know this, but Christianity, true Christianity, is an offense to certain kinds of people. And they will mock. Sometimes there are worldly people within the church mocking. My guess is a lot of these were Jews, people who were part of the church. They were mockers. And some people will scratch their heads, some will be perplexed, but these were saying, you've lost your mind, you're drunk. I think this should just teach us again about what we should expect from the world. When true Christianity exists, there will be division and there will be mockers. And they'll always show up. Mockers hate obedience. They hate people obey. They hate people who have enthusiasm. They hate people who have passion for Jesus Christ. And they might be the most religious people in town. And so you should just expect that, don't worry about it. So okay, now let's back up. What in the world are we gonna do with all this? So here's what I want us to grasp. The way of the Lord from the resurrection to the second coming is a simple life. It's a life that is understandable. You're living in a particular time in history. It's been marked out in the Word of God. You won't know all the times and seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority, but you know that you're living in the last days between the resurrection and the final coming of Jesus Christ. And you're living in a period of history in which God is in control. But Christians aren't lost about what they should do with their lives in every era during the New Testament era. And what we know is that as a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. With the power of the Holy Spirit, you're continually being weaned from a corrupt world. You're being saved from a perverse generation. And you are more and more becoming yielded to Jesus Christ, and you are becoming like Him. And as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit, it's multiple manifestations of love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control. You're actually becoming a nicer person. as a result of the power of the Holy Spirit. Now we don't know what will unfold, but our passage here tells us all we need to know for the moment. This passage tells us how to get on through everything that's going to happen in the future. So it's not for us to know times and seasons, but it is for us to know how to get through them. and I'm so grateful for this passage. And God has poured out His Spirit, and we can have confidence. In John 6, 44, we know with certainty that He will draw the unsaved sinners to Jesus Christ. He will convict the world of sin and judgment and righteousness, and we'll know how to get through. In Romans 8, He'll help us in prayer. We'll know how to get through. In John 16, verse 13, we learn that He'll guide us into all truth. We'll know how to get through all this. In Ephesians 2.18, He will give us access to the Father. In 1 John 4.12, love will be perfected in us. In 1 John 3.24, He is with us wherever we go. In John 15, He abides in us and we in Him. In John 14.26, He will teach us all things. In Zechariah 4.6 and Acts 1.8, He will anoint us with divine power. We'll know how to get through. In John 14, 16, he tells us that he will be our helper, our paraclete, one called alongside to help. A helper just like Jesus Christ, every day of your life, through every crisis of your life, through every presidency of your life. In Titus 3, chapter four, verse seven, we learn that the Holy Spirit will regenerate the lost. In John three, he will cause the new birth. In 1 Corinthians 12, he'll give us gifts. In Galatians 5.22, he will give us good fruit. In Ephesians 5.18, well, we learn that he can be grieved. And in 1 Thessalonians 5.10, he can be quenched. But in Galatians 5.25, we learn that if we live by the Spirit, Let us walk also by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person. Romans 8.27 says that he is a person with a will. The Holy Spirit is not a force. The Holy Spirit is not something that just comes upon you. He is a person who speaks to you the word of God and he is a real person. In Ephesians 4.30, he's a person with emotion. In 1 Corinthians 12.11, he's a person with intellect. In Job 33.4, He's the breath of God. In John 14.16, He's a comforter. In Isaiah 11.2, He's the spirit of counsel. In Acts 5.3 and 4, He is God Himself. In Isaiah 11.2, He is the spirit of might. In Romans 8.15, He's the spirit of adoption. In Hebrews 10, 29, he's the spirit of grace. In Isaiah 11, 2, he's the spirit of knowledge. In John 14, 17, he's the spirit of truth. And in 2 Corinthians 3, 16, he is Lord. So, you know, as we move toward the book of Revelation, remember, that what we're reading here is a preparatory backdrop. All of the events of Revelation assume the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his work in people's lives. These remarkable experiences of the people of God will be fulfilled in the book of Revelation. Okay, so let's end with this. Pray as a church for the normal working of God through the power of the Holy Spirit in your life, and as we gather together in this local church, pray that we would be a Spirit-filled people with one another, not filled with ourselves, not filled with this world, filled with the Holy Spirit of God. And that we would be manifesting His glory in all the different glories of the Spirit including speaking to one another. You know, Paul was speaking to the Ephesian church and he said, be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. That's your calling today. You can do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, it is not for you to know times and seasons. But it is for you to know what a wonderful thing it can be to be dependent upon power from on high. Not full of yourself, full of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I'll close with the way that the Apostle Paul closed his second letter to the Corinthian church. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for opening up your word. We thank you for these marvelous promises, these marvelous opportunities to be able to endure everything that comes to us because you are so kind to your people and you have preferred us so sweetly by pouring out your spirit. Lord, may it be that we would be a people full of the Holy Spirit. Amen.