Good morning, everyone. Welcome this morning. And as we continue to worship our Lord, we come before Him in humbleness. We come before Him with contrite hearts. We come before Him confessing our sins to Him because we acknowledge that He is holy and that we have fallen short of His glory, but that He has cleansed us. He has given us salvation. He has redeemed us. He has shed His everlasting and steadfast love upon us. And He has bought us for His own children. Isaiah, in Isaiah 6, these very familiar words, sees this vision of the Lord filling the temple with His holiness and is brought to the end of Himself. Brought to a realization of His sinfulness and then cleansed by the Lord and then sent by God. into service for His kingdom. And this morning, that will be the theme not only of this portion of our confession of sin and praise for God's strengthening power and for His redeeming grace in our lives, but also praying that as we come into His Word today, He will He will strengthen us by His Word and by His Spirit to serve Him and to live our lives as a perpetual service of worship in His Kingdom, as His people, as His temple. Isaiah records these words, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim, each had six wings. With two He covered His face, and with two He covered His feet. And with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled with smoke. And I said, Woe is me, for I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" And then I said, here am I. Send me. Let's pray this morning that we would encounter the holiness of God even as Isaiah did. That it would cause us to look upon our sin and be honest about it. To recognize it and to confess it before the Lord. To acknowledge it. But then to acknowledge also what He has done to cleanse us from it. To purify us. To make us His people. And to commission us. into His service. Let's pray this morning that as He reminds us of who we are in Him, that He would remind us of the call that He's placed on each of our lives, not to live for our own pleasure, for our own desires, for our own good, but to live our lives every minute, every day as a service of worship to Him by going into this world and proclaiming the truth of this redeeming grace to people who need to hear it. Bow your heads this morning. Take a moment to confess your sins before the Lord, to acknowledge His grace, and to surrender your life to Him. Our great Heavenly Father, how easy it seems for us to take Your holiness for granted, to minimalize You, to trivialize You, to fashion You after our own image and our own imaginations. to try to strip You, Father, of Your glory and Your righteousness and Your purity. And Father, we acknowledge that we do that because we're not comfortable with Your holiness. Because the blazing glory of Your purity and Your righteousness exposes all of the sinfulness and all of the ways in which we fall short and fail to measure up. We're not holy as You are holy, and our flesh hates to admit that. And so, Father, as we come into Your presence this morning, we pray that by Your Spirit and by Your Word, You would not allow us to trivialize You. You would not allow us to minimalize You. That, Father, You would impress upon our hearts in a way that is new and fresh this morning, the truth of who You are and the great glory of Your character and Your nature and Your holy name. And that as you do that, Father, you would impress upon us again in a way that is new and fresh this morning, how sinful we are. Father, we are impressed with the great weight of our sin. We pray that You would cause this light of the Gospel that You have shed abroad in our hearts to glow brighter and brighter every day. That You would remind us, Lord, even this morning, that as great as our sin is, it is for this sin that You sent Your Son to die. and that His death is perfect. His blood is priceless. And the salvation that He has won for us, the redemption that He has purchased for us, is absolutely indefectible. And Father, we pray this morning that You would help us to understand and to appreciate and to love this great salvation that You have given us. Fill our hearts with joy this morning, Lord. Remove the distractions of this world and the things that cloud our minds, the things that fatigue us and weary us, Father. We pray that You would remove all of that and that You would cause the truth of Your Gospel and the truth of the life that we have in Jesus Christ Father, to well up within us and to fill us with gratitude and joy, that we might sing Your praises in spirit and in truth, that we might worship You in a way that is worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Father, as Your children, we come before You as our great Heavenly Father, and as we have just sung, we come casting our cares upon You, because we are confident that You love us, that You care for us, and that in fact, Father, You take great pleasure in meeting our needs and answering our prayers. And so, thank You, Father, as Your people, we give You thanks this morning for all of the ways in which You have heard our prayers and answered. Lord, as we worship You this morning, may we do so with grateful hearts, thanking You for everything that You have done for us and anticipating all of the ways in which You will continue to use us and being submissive to Your will and Your call in our lives. Father, may we not chart our own course in this life. May we surrender to You. May we call You our Lord and our King. And Father, in this, may You be glorified, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them, and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 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 language? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, 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. 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 men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 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 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. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst. As you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up, according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ. this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need, and day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. And God's people said, Amen. Isn't Acts chapter 2 a wonderful chapter of scripture, a wonderful portion of God's word? where we can all at the end of that chapter say amen to what God was doing in those days. We're not going to take the time this morning because we simply can't to go through Acts 2 verse by verse, all 47 verses, and try to understand exactly what it is that God was doing in those days and the way that that chapter deserves to be treated because There are many, many, many, many sermons that should and could come out of this chapter. But this morning, I want to focus particularly on one of the themes that we see revealed here. We've spent a lot of time over the last few weeks looking together at what God says in His Word about what the life of a Christian consists of. And that's part of what I want to see from Acts 2 in terms of correlating to the study that we've been looking at in the last couple of weeks. What that life looks like. What it looks like individually as each one of us lives by faith. And then what it looks like corporately as we live together as the body of Christ. That's what we see here. We see the body in action. We see the life of the body manifesting the Spirit of God and the goodness of God and the love and the power of God. And we've seen really that the sum of all of it over the last couple of weeks, and we'll see it again here today, the sum of everything that the Christian life is and the sum of everything that the church of Jesus Christ and the body of Jesus Christ is, is Jesus Christ, isn't it? He is what our life consists of by faith. Jesus Christ in us. is our hope of glory. And there is no hope other than that. If all we are are people who try to act like Him, people who try to think like Him and do things like Him, but in our own strength, we have no hope. Our only hope is that He is in us. dwelling by faith, united to us, His Spirit communing with our spirit, transforming us by the renewing of our minds, being formed in us, as Paul says in the book of Galatians. He's what our life consists of. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That's what Paul labored for. You remember like we saw last week as an expectant mother longing for nothing more than to see Christ formed in the hearts and the lives of Christian men and women. And as He's formed in us, as our lives become more and more conformed to His image together, we are all formed together as His body, as we saw last week. We are bound together by the power of the gospel. bound together by the power of the resurrection by which He was raised from the dead and by which we have been given newness of life, that same energy, that same divine, spiritual, supernatural power fuses us together as brothers and sisters in Christ by the presence of His Spirit within us. We are one people. We are His children. We are a new covenant family of brothers and sisters bound together by the blood that He shed on the cross. Together we are the truest family. Right? So what is the Christian life? It's Christ in me. What does that life look like? It looks like Christ through me. What is the church? It is the body of Christ. The community of His blood-bought children. And this morning, to round out this little excursus that we've taken, let's ask ourselves, what does the life of that community look like? If we're all God's chosen, blood-bought, Spirit-born, Christ-filled people, and if we're all bound together as His new covenant body and family, our lives and priorities and purposes being defined by Him, then what will this community look like? What will this body, this church look like in action? That's the question. And it might not look exactly like that group of Christians in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost that Joe just read about. We might not expect to see exactly the same kinds of things happening every day as happened on that day. I think there are a lot of people in the church today who teach that we should expect that. That we should expect to be filled with the Holy Spirit subsequent to our salvation in a unique way that causes us, for instance, to speak in tongues. There's a lot of people who teach that. I think that's a mistake. Because I don't think that everything that's going on at the day of Pentecost is something that we should expect to see going on every day in the life of the church. We don't see tongues of fire on one another's heads. We may not see thousands of people literally coming to Christ and souls being saved in a single day. We're not going to hear the Gospel being preached in known foreign languages that we haven't learned or studied, but suddenly, miraculously have the ability to speak like was going on in that day. Maybe we won't see the exact same thing, but nonetheless, what I want for us to see and be confident of this morning is that the same Spirit who was poured out, Peter says, poured out in fulfillment of Joel's prophecy of the end times, the same Spirit who was poured out into the hearts and the lives of those Christians there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost is the same Spirit who has been poured out in our hearts and the hearts of all believers. in all places and at all times. And he's working by the same power to accomplish the same goal as he was working to accomplish then. Now, the book of Acts picks right up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off because it's written by the same person. Luke wrote both books, and he wrote them both to the same person, a man named Theophilus. Theophilus' name means a lover of God. And providentially, he was. He was a believer in Jesus Christ. He'd been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. He loved the Lord, but he needed to be encouraged. He needed to be built up. He needed to be given confidence that the message of the Gospel that he had heard and trusted and believed in was in fact true even after the death of Jesus Christ. He needed to be encouraged that the message of the Kingdom of God was still the viable message now that Jesus had been crucified by the Romans and everything that His disciples had hoped for seemed to have been lost. And so in order to give confidence not only to Theophilus, but to all Christians, Luke writes this, what is really a two-volume work. the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, one focusing on the power of God at work in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, and the other one focused on the same power of the same God at work in the lives of His people through His Spirit after His death and resurrection and ascension into heaven, in order to convince us, see, that God's program isn't finished. once Christ dies and is raised and ascends into heaven. That God is still at work, employing the same power, acting through the same Spirit to accomplish the same goal that Jesus had as He lived His life on this earth and we're a part of that goal. Jesus is still doing what He promised His disciples that He would do before He ascended into heaven. What did He promise them? He promised to be with Him always. even to the end of the age. And he promised in John to send them the Holy Spirit, the Helper, who would come and teach them and lead them and empower them. And then after he made those promises, he died. And as he died, their confidence wavered and it faltered. They didn't understand all that his death meant Remember the story in Luke chapter 24, as two of the disciples were traveling down the road to Emmaus, a little town about seven miles away from Jerusalem, and as they were walking, a man came alongside them and joined them in their journey. And it was none other than the risen Jesus Christ. But they didn't recognize Him at first. And as they walked, he asked them what it was that they were talking about on their way. And essentially, they said, what do you mean, what are we talking about? Where have you been? They said, are you the only one in Jerusalem who is unaware of the things that have just happened here? And he said, what things? And they answered him like this, they said, things about Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed in word before God and all the people, and how our own chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death and crucified Him. That's what we're talking about. how this man that we thought was the Messiah, who was such a powerful prophet and preacher and who worked miracles and healed people and raised men from the dead, how this man has been crucified. He's dead. And they said we had hoped that He was the One to redeem Israel. You hear their despair? We had hoped that He was the One. They're disappointed. We thought He was the long-awaited Redeemer. We thought that the Kingdom had come, but He's dead and He's gone. They've lost hope. They even told Him that they'd heard the reports that the women had been to the tomb of Jesus, and that it was empty, and the angel had said that He was alive, but when they went to the tomb, they didn't see Him. He wasn't there, and so they didn't believe it. And Jesus said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe. He said, wasn't it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory? In order, you see, for everything you've hoped for to actually come to pass. For redemption to come to Israel. For the Kingdom of God to actually be built. Wasn't it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into His glory? Ascend into heaven. Their hope hadn't been lost. It had been established by His death and resurrection. Their Redeemer had come. The Kingdom had come. They just didn't understand how. They didn't understand the greatness and the glory of the Kingdom. And so, Luke records that Jesus taught them as they walked down the road to Emmaus. He says, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures, the whole Old Testament, the things concerning Himself. He interpreted the Old Testament for them. He showed them that He was the fulfillment of it all. Every promise that God had ever made, every purpose that God had ever established, everything that the Old Testament looked forward to, all of it concerned Him. In Acts 1, again, we see the disciples' confusion. How difficult it was for them to understand the great depth of what it was that Jesus had accomplished by His death. Even by His resurrection. Verse 3, look back at chapter 1. It says that after Jesus was raised from the dead, He presented Himself alive to His disciples, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking to them about the kingdom. He'd been teaching them for three years more than before His death. And now that He's died and been raised from the dead, He spends 40 more days of intensive teaching with them, focusing specifically on the kingdom. I mean, wouldn't that just be the most profound time of learning ever? Wouldn't you be absolutely filled beyond measure with truth and knowledge and wisdom if you'd been sitting at the feet of the resurrected Jesus Christ for 40 days? How many questions would you ask Him? Would you cover all of the bases? Do you think that He would in those 40 days have the opportunity to teach you everything that you needed to know about the Kingdom? And Jesus capped that time off with this incredible promise, verse 4 of Acts chapter 1, and while staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father. Which He said, you heard from Me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. not many days from now. What an incredible time that must have been. What an incredible promise that is to be baptized, not into water, but plunged into the depths of the Holy Spirit's presence and power. But look, here, after this 40-day intensive time, with Jesus learning about the Kingdom, look at what they ask Him. Verse 6 of chapter 1. So when they had come together, they asked Him, Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? That's what they wanted to know. After all that teaching, after everything that He said to them and taught them from all the Old Testament prophets and all the writings that concerned Him, really, they're still missing the point. Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? What's wrong with that question? Two things, mainly, that Christ corrects them on. First of all, they asked Him, Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? At this time. They wanted to know when the Kingdom of God was going to be fully and finally built. And Jesus answers them in v. 7, it's not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. He says the issue isn't when. The question isn't when. When is for God to worry about. Don't get caught up in trying to predict when God is going to fully fulfill all of His plans. When the culmination of it all is going to be. We get caught up in that, don't we? Reading the newspapers and watching eagerly what's going on in the world around us and wondering if this is the time. The question isn't when. That's not where our focus should be. And the second error in their questioning was this. They asked Him, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Their focus was too narrow. They were thinking of the kingdom of God. They were thinking about the future only of a single nation on the earth. And Jesus corrects him again. He says in verse 8, "...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses." Where? In Israel? Well, sure. But not only there. You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all of Judea, the southern part of Israel where they all lived. And in Samaria, that northern part of Israel where those half-blooded Samaritans that they hated so much lived. You'll be my witnesses there too. And to the very ends of the earth, he says. Your concept of the kingdom is way too small, he tells them. The kingdom is much, much bigger than you've ever imagined. It's not just going to involve Jewish people. It's not just going to involve Israel. And it's not just going to be built today. It's going to be built as you go out to the very ends of the earth as My witnesses. filled with the power and the presence of My Holy Spirit. And as they go, Jesus knows that that's exactly what they're going to need to be His witnesses. They're going to be in need of a power, of a strength that goes way, way beyond their own means. Why? Well, you know why. You live in this world. You understand the animosity towards the Gospel that exists in this world, the hatred of God that exists. You feel the temptation to keep your mouth shut in order to avoid being ridiculed or mocked or persecuted. In John 15 and verse 20, Jesus said, "...a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." He doesn't say, look, as you go out in this world to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, I'm going to pave the way. I'm going to smooth the road so that there aren't any bumps. There won't be any opposition. There won't be anybody to hang up your proclamation of that Gospel. There won't be any persecution. He doesn't say that. In fact, He says the opposite. You're not greater than Me. They persecuted Me. Surely, they're going to persecute you. And so as you go, He says, out into this world full of people who hate Him, this world full of people who will persecute anyone who loves Him, as they go, they will need divine strength to be His witnesses. And so he says in verse 8, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses. Two things to notice there. You will receive power, and the word in the Greek is the word dunamis. You've heard that word before. We get words like dynamite from the Greek word dunamis. Power. Raw, unrestrained power is what God is going to pour out into the hearts and the lives of His people. And the second thing to notice from verse 8 is that when you receive this power of the Holy Spirit come upon you, you will be My witnesses. Not, you may if you so choose. Sign up for this disciple-making class or elective. And utilize that power to be My witnesses if that's what you feel up to doing. That's not what Jesus says. Jesus says, look, I'm filling you with My Spirit and I'm filling you with the power of heaven, the power of resurrection and newness of life for no other reason than to leave you here on this earth when I go in order to continue the work that I started, in order to be My witnesses, in order to cause the Gospel to spread to the very ends of the earth. It's the power of God that they're filled with by the Holy Spirit. And it's the purpose of God that their lives become defined by. And in Acts 2 that Joe just read for us, God unleashes that power on His people, doesn't He? In chapter 2 there, verse 1, when the day of Pentecost arrived. Pentecost came 50 days after the Passover. It's been 50 short days since Jesus' death. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they, Jesus' disciples, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven. This wasn't just any wind. This wasn't just a breeze. just a storm that they had experienced the likes of any other time in their life. This rushing wind came from heaven itself, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting, and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now normally that's where our focus gets caught up, right? And I don't want that to happen this morning. I don't want you to get caught up with the question of whether or not speaking in tongues is something that still happens today like it happened that day. That's really not the point here. I don't believe that speaking in tongues does happen today like it happened in that day. Mainly because that manifestation of the Spirit served a particular purpose that is past now. A purpose that God serves in other ways now. And also because the tongues that were spoken on the day of Pentecost were languages that were known to the people of the world at that time. Not unknown languages, not angelic languages, not nonsensical babblings, but known languages. Verse 6, And at this sound of people speaking in these tongues, at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered. Why? Because each one was hearing these people speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these people who are speaking, are not they all Galileans? And so how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, and Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylgia, and Egypt, and parts of Libya, visitors from Rome, languages literally from every part of the known world. Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, people from islands, people from the desert, people from every geographic region, they were saying, we're hearing these people telling in our own tongues about the mighty works of God. What went on, on that day, was the divine, supernatural enablement of Galilean Jews to proclaim the Gospel and the mighty works of God in known languages that they'd never before studied or learned. So that people from those various parts of the world who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost could hear the Word of God proclaimed in their own language and at the same time see a miracle. that would prove to them that God Himself was at work. The tongues were no languages. Just like if you woke up one morning and could suddenly speak Chinese even though you'd never learned Chinese. That is what was going on in Acts 2. And I'll tell you this, that's not what's going on in a lot of churches today. Whatever's going on isn't what the Bible describes. But this morning, that's not what I want us to focus on. I want us to focus on what God was doing here and why. Here on the day of Pentecost, 50 days after the death of Jesus Christ, on that day, God was consecrating for Himself a new covenant temple for His presence and the mediation of His redemption. Nothing short of that. The word wind in verse 2. The sound from heaven of a mighty rushing wind. That word in Greek is the word pneuma. In Hebrew, it would be the word ruach. And in both biblical languages, the word for wind is the same word for spirit. On the day of Pentecost, it was the Spirit of God who came rushing in to the presence of the people of God. Just like God had done back in the book of Exodus. You remember in Exodus, God had led the Israelite people out of Egypt. How? By appearing to them as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. It was the same thing day and night. They just saw it differently because the sun was out during the day and it looked like a cloud. But when it was dark at night, the glory of God glowed like a fire from in the midst of that cloud and led them down to Mount Sinai. And when they got there, that glory cloud of God's presence came and rested on top of Mount Sinai. And when it did, when the presence of God took up residence, the whole earth shook. And the sky was split with thunder and lightning. And then God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and then God commanded the people to build him a tent. a tabernacle, a portable temple for him to live in in their midst as a person would live in the midst of a neighbor. And so God came down. The visible manifestation of the presence of God's glory, the presence of God's Spirit came down from Mount Sinai and filled the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle. That's what happened in Exodus. And in Acts 2, the same thing happens. God's Spirit does the same thing. He comes down, this time from heaven, to dwell in the midst of His people. And as He did that, there were divided tongues of fire that came to rest on each of them. Miniature pillars of fire. Just like in the Old Testament. miniature glory clouds divided so that the presence of God rested now on each believer, filling each believer with His presence as He had filled the holy of holies in the Old Testament. And as He filled them, He united them together as one people with one purpose. And what happened was a kind of reversal of the judgment that God had poured out at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. There, you remember that story. The people had rebelled against God and they built this tower, this massive cultic worship center, this temple for worshiping pagan idols and false gods. And as a judgment, what did God do? He confused their tongues. He varied their languages and they were scattered to the ends of the earth. They were not united. But here, do you see what he does? Here at Pentecost, all of that diversity of language and geography was used in fact to accomplish God's purpose of redemption, wasn't it? As His Holy Spirit and as His Spirit-filled people are now given the power to speak all of those languages from all over the earth, God was working to conquer idolatry. to create worshipers of Him and to unite people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation into one body of Christ. A full reversal of the judgment of Babel. They became a temple that day for His presence. They became a church that day. An assembly of believers who worship Him In the New Testament, the word church never ever once refers to a building or a place. It always refers to a people. And it refers to a people in one of two ways. Either the whole number of God's people across all times and in all places, or a local group of those people. For example, in Ephesians 1, Paul says that God, having raised Christ from the dead, put all things under His feet and made Him head over all things for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. That's the global, universal church, right? the body of Christ, the whole number of the redeemed who live by faith in Jesus Christ from every corner of the earth throughout all time. And in that sense, there is only one church, isn't there? Only one true body of Christ united together by faith in Him. There is not another true church that is united together by faith in something or someone else. But the New Testament also uses the word church to refer to a group of those believers in a particular place. In Acts 11, Luke refers to the church in Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 1, Paul refers to the church of God which is at Corinth, that particular group of the body of Christ. The book of 1 Thessalonians is addressed to the church of the Thessalonians and so on and so on throughout the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 16.19 Aquila and Prisca together with the church that is in their house send you hearty greetings in the Lord. Philemon also addressed to the church in someone's home, someone's house, a group of believers that are meeting together for worship. And so, the word church applies to God's people either in a global, collective sense or in a localized sense as a group of Christians, a subset of the whole body gathered in a specific place. And I want to ask the question this morning. In that localized sense, what is it exactly that makes a church a church? What did God do in the lives of these believers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost that formed them into a church and not just a group of people? And very briefly, I think that Acts 2 lays out seven things that we see throughout the rest of the New Testament that must be in place for a group of Christians in a local place to be considered a church. First of all, they have to be believers. They have to call on the name of Jesus Christ. They must be saved by grace through faith in Him. The New Testament makes that abundantly clear. We are adopted into the family of God through faith in the Gospel as we saw last week. Here in Acts 2, Peter proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the response of the people is this, verse 37, When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. A church is first of all, an assembly of people who have repented and believed in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and been filled with the Holy Spirit of God's presence. Secondly, these believers are to be baptized. That's the command that Peter gave. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. And in v. 41, that's what happened with those who believed. So those who received His Word were baptized. And there were added that day about 3,000 souls. And that was the consistent and uniform practice of the early church. As people believed, as disciples were made, they were baptized. Those baptized believers had to assemble together on a regular basis. And that's what they immediately began to do in Acts 2. Verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and prayer. And verse 44, and all who believed were together and had all things in common. They were devoted to being together in the Lord. They didn't neglect to assemble together. They were devoted to it. And then fourthly, when they were meeting together, they were gathered for the purpose of worship. The apostles' teaching, prayer, the breaking of bread and communion, verse 47, praising God, having favor with all the people. They were gathered together first and foremost for the worship of God. Fifthly, In their worship, the Word of God was what was emphasized at the core. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. They didn't neglect it. They didn't water it down. They didn't sideline it because the culture didn't like it. They didn't try to emphasize things that people thought might be more exciting. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching in all that they did. And sixth, in their worship, they also celebrated the Lord's Supper, the breaking of bread. It doesn't just mean they ate meals together. It means that they broke the bread of the covenant together. They didn't just feast for their bodies. They gathered together to feed their souls on the grace of Jesus Christ. God commands that for His people. that we do that in remembrance of the death of Jesus Christ so that by faith, as we fix our focus on what He has done for us through faith in the power of the Gospel, He will continue to grow us and strengthen us. And then seventh and finally, something that comes out in many other places in the New Testament, as these Christians gather together, They did it under the guidance and the authority of duly appointed leaders. Paul was careful to appoint elders in all the churches, Acts 14 says very clearly. And he taught Timothy and Titus and ordered them to do the same thing. And Peter said that Christ has given elders to the churches as under-shepherds, men who oversee the work of shepherding the flock of God. Without proper leadership, without duly appointed leaders, you don't have a church according to the New Testament definition. Those seven things define a church. A community of baptized believers coming together regularly to worship God through Jesus Christ, to be exhorted from His Word, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, all under the guidance of duly appointed leaders. So here we are. The community of believers, the church of Jesus Christ at Felton, baptized, meeting together, worshiping, preaching, celebrating the supper under the guidance of our elders. Let me just ask you, is that all there is? Is that it? Is that enough? Or is there something more than just our meeting together that must mark us as a Spirit-filled church? How about that first church in Jerusalem? What did their assembling together look like and result in? It resulted in the fulfillment of Jesus' command for them, His commission for them to go as His witnesses to the very ends of the earth. They didn't just come together, and then go home, and then come together, and then go home. His commission in Matthew 28 was to go unto all the earth and make disciples, teaching them and baptizing them into this community that He's made us a part of by His grace. Isn't that our call? Not just to get what we need, but to be used by Him to go out and to give that grace to the world around us. to go into this dark place full of idolatry and rebellion and immorality and unbelief and to preach Christ crucified like Peter did. That's a powerful sermon. to preach the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, to boldly proclaim the Word of God that is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword so that by that Gospel, the Spirit of God might do what He did that day, pierce people's hearts and cause them to say, what must we do to be saved? and then calling on them to repent and be baptized and forgiven and receive the Holy Spirit. That day at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit moved with such incredible power that 3,000 souls were added to the body of Christ in that single day. And again, the point really isn't the number or whether or not the Holy Spirit is going to work in that same way every day. The point is that the same Spirit who indwelt and empowered those Christians at Pentecost, that same Spirit indwells and empowers us. Do we live according to that reality? And here's the thing. Again, He doesn't indwell and empower us so that when and if we feel like it, we can make use of that power in bringing the Gospel to the nations. as if being His witnesses was an option, an elective in the Christian life that we can choose whether or not to sign up for. That day at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God filled His people and consecrated them as His new covenant temple. In the Old Testament, God dwelt in the tabernacle in the temple in the midst of His people. Why? in order to grant them salvation, in order to draw near to them so that they might worship Him, and so that in worshiping Him, they might be filled with His power to proclaim His glory to the nations around them. That's what they were supposed to do. 1 Chronicles 16, sing to the Lord all the earth. Tell of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations. and His marvelous works among all the peoples. That's what His people were supposed to do. Worship Him and then proclaim His glory and salvation to the nations who didn't worship Him. To all the earth to be a light unto those nations. Bringing people out of the darkness of idolatry and into God's presence to find the salvation that He offered to worship Him. And they didn't do that, did they? They weren't light to the nations. They didn't spread the glory of God to the ends of the earth. In fact, it was the darkness of the world that was constantly coming in and snuffing out the light of truth in the Old Testament, wasn't it? As they allowed the corruption of the nations to pollute the people of God and to utterly defile the temple of God as we've seen in Ezekiel. And so God abandoned that temple, didn't He? He left it and He allowed it to be destroyed. And after the exile, they rebuilt the temple. But you know what was missing? In the literal, physical temple in Jerusalem throughout the rest of the Old Testament after the exile, the one thing that was missing from the temple was the presence of God. the pillar of fire, the glory cloud, never came to re-inhabit that temple. Even in Jesus' day, the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies remained vacant until Pentecost, when the Spirit returned with the sound of a great rushing wind and consecrated a new temple, not one made of wood and stone, but of human hearts. for the same purpose. To grant us salvation, to draw near to us that we might worship Him, and so that in worshiping Him we might be filled with His Spirit and with power to proclaim His glory to the nation. What failed to happen in the Old Testament, God has made to happen in the New. What didn't happen in the centuries and millennia of Old Testament history happened by the power of God's Holy Spirit fifty short days after His death. That's all it took. 3,000 souls from all across the known world heard the glory of God and His Gospel and they were cut to the heart and they were saved. And that was only the spark that lit the fire that spread like wildfire across the globe and that fire is still spreading today as the power of God transforms hearts and lives for His Kingdom. The Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, do you not know that you are God's temple? And that God's Spirit dwells in you. And that God's temple is holy and you are that temple. We are that temple. Filled with His Spirit. filled with His power, which means that every minute of every hour of every day of our lives, not just when we come to this building, but every day that the Spirit indwells His temple, is a day that is lived in the presence of God's glory as a service of worship to Him. It's exactly what Paul says in Romans 12. I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Your life as God's temple is an ongoing service of worship to Him. It's not for you. And your greatest call in His service is to be His witness in this fallen world, to proclaim Christ crucified to the lost, so that by His grace they might be found and filled with His Spirit to come and worship Him as well." Do you see how worship and witness go together? John Piper wrote these words which I think perfectly describe what the church is to be according to the will of God. He says missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Does that surprise you? Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. The ultimate goal of the church is worship. And missions exists because in this world, worship does not exist. Worship. Not just in His temple, but as His temple. Worship is the ultimate goal of the church. That's what we see in the book of Acts from the earliest days of the church. A community of Christians devoted to worship on a daily basis. Devoted to the apostles' teaching and fellowship and the breaking of bread and prayer. To meeting each other's needs. They were selling their property and giving it to anyone who had need. Steadfast in the pure worship of God and the teaching and preaching of His Word, and committed to taking the light of the Gospel into the darkness of the world. Committed to missions and personal evangelism because in the hearts of the unbelievers out there, worship isn't happening. In your workplace, in your families, The worship of God doesn't exist everywhere. The Spirit of God doesn't dwell. The light of truth doesn't burn. The hope of heaven doesn't abide. And so, God has called us to be His witnesses to go to those places that His Spirit might be poured out, that people might be saved and brought to be filled with His Spirit and made to worship Him. And I hope and pray that as a church, we never settle for the bare minimum. We've got those seven things going on. And that's good enough. I hope and pray that we strive and long to be used by God's Spirit, to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, so that He can spread His glory over it like the waters cover the sea. And so will you remember this morning that that call on your life isn't an optional one? Will you remember again that your life isn't your own? That you are His temple? That you're not here for you? That it's no longer you who lives? Will you trust Him? That if you are devoted to His purposes in your life, then incredible things will happen through your life and for His kingdom and His glory? Will you trust Him? that as you go forth to preach His living truth to a world that hates Him and may persecute you, that He'll be with you, no matter if they mock you or ridicule you or beat you or scourge you or martyr you. He'll be with you. And that it'll be in His strength that you go. And that as you go in that strength, wherever He calls you, whether it's across an ocean or to your neighbor's house or a coffee shop or the lunchroom at work. Wherever you go in His strength, hearts will be filled with His Spirit as He causes the Gospel to be the power of God unto salvation. Eternal souls will be saved for all eternity. And the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will continue to cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. I don't want us as a church to settle for anything less than that. A people who understand themselves to be His temple, filled with His Spirit, called by His power to go and be His witnesses. Let's not settle for anything less. Father, we pray that by Your Word, You would energize us. And we pray that by Your Spirit, You would not only teach us, and You would not only continue this work of stripping from us all of the sinful patterns in our thoughts and in our lives, but that, Lord, You would raise up for Yourself a people in this place who would be willing to go and do whatever You want us to do, whenever and however You want us to do it, no matter what the cost, Lord, in order to be Your witnesses and serve Your Kingdom and be the vessels by which the great truth of salvation is brought to the nations. Father, help us not to be so selfish that we would hoard the gift of Your redemption and not go out boldly proclaiming it to the world. And so we pray, Lord, for a revival of Your Spirit in the world around us and starting in this place in our own hearts, that You would stir in us and that You would fill us with a love for Your truth and for Your Kingdom and for those in the world who need to hear that truth proclaimed. And that there would be no other priority that would transcend that one. And that, Father, You would do incredible things in this place, in our hearts and lives, and through Your people in this community and in the world around us. in order to make Your glory known, in order to put Your holiness on display. Father, we love You, and we give You all the credit, and we ask for Your strength, and pray for it in Jesus' name, Amen.