We are in a series that we're calling To the Ends of the Earth. And I just love the idea of the global mission that we have. Sometimes we get kind of into life and we get real focused on our little world. But this is a big world. This is a world that it needs to be impacted by you. A big world that needs to hear the gospel. And you can have a part in that. I was once flying, and I was trying to sound cool. I was a young pilot, a new pilot, and I was flying at night, and I was approaching an airfield. And so I got on the radio, and you're supposed to tell the tower who you are, your distance, and your tail number and everything, kind of what you want to do. So instead of saying all that, I said, guess who? I thought that was cute, kind of funny, kind of cool. And then all of a sudden, the entire airport went dark. It's a black hole. And the controller gets on the radio and says, guess where? The disciples had been waiting and waiting and waiting, but the guessing about who and where and when and how and why was now over. For the Holy Spirit In Acts chapter two, as we're studying the book of Acts, and we're going through the book as we should, verse by verse, we're teaching through it expositorily, we come to Acts two, verse one, where it says, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. We're gonna ask a couple questions here. One, we're gonna ask, what is this day of Pentecost? And then why does it say it was fully come? Is that the question that you had? I hope so, because that's the question I'm going to answer. Well, does that mean that it was fully common? In other words, it rolls around once a year and now it's finally come. Is that what it means? I don't think so. Actually, I think there's something more here and really incredible. I can't wait to share this with you. What is Pentecost? Well, if you know your Greek, you know, it's 50, right? It's 50. of the days since another festival. Okay, so Pentecost. It was one of the three major feasts in the land of Israel. There were seven feasts of Israel, but this one was like Passover. And this one was like the Feast of Tabernacles. You would go to Jerusalem if you were a Jewish male for this day, for this festival. Pentecost. It was here. So let's read about those three major feasts in the land of Israel. In Exodus, verse 14 of chapter 23, it says, three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. What is that feast? Well, we just learned about that recently here as we had what we call the Passover experience. And we taught about a Passover Seder table and some of the things that were, of course, from Scripture. That's where this whole thing came from. But a lot of things were added in. Did you know the three things that were in the Passover Seder from Scripture are the matzah or the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs and the lamb. Now we didn't eat lamb and they don't eat lamb anymore because they say, because there's no temple, you shouldn't bring the lamb. And I also think there's more to it. I think the lamb was Jesus. He was the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. And so there shouldn't be any more sacrifice of lamb. Now, some of you are probably going to eat lamb on Easter. We probably will. And there's nothing wrong with that. But those are the only three things that we find in the Passover story at the Passover table. But then you have all these other elements, right, that they do. And again, they all do point to Yeshua, to Jesus, which I think is amazing that Jewish people that don't know him are still showing him at their Passover Seder. As we stand here right now, Passover is beginning here in, at least in our time zone here in Chicago. And so it is the feast of unleavened bread. They would have this Passover, the actual Passover, where the lamb, the blood was put on the doorpost, the angel of death would pass over. The firstborn sons in that home, adults or kids, would survive. And if there was a home that didn't have that blood in Egypt, they would be killed. So that's Passover. And I think we have a deeper understanding of Passover now, don't we? Especially as it relates to Jesus. So that's this first feast that everyone comes to Jerusalem, all the men do, at least, and often they brought their families. It says, thou shalt eat unleavened bread for seven days. So it was an actual one evening, and then one night. It would continue for seven days, unleavened bread. Why unleavened bread? Well, because first of all, it was a picture of Jesus. He had no sin. Sin was always represented by leaven. You put a little sin in and it makes a lot of mess, right? And Jesus didn't have any sin. He didn't have any leaven. He warned us to be aware of leaven, be aware of sin in our lives. But it was also because this wasn't a nice little journey out of Egypt to Israel. This was an emergency evacuation. You don't have time to let the bread rise. So they had this unleavened bread for seven days. It says, as I commanded thee in the time appointed in the month of Abib or Aviv, and it's also the month of Nisan. It's the same month in Jewish calendar, the first month. For in it thou camest out of Egypt. That was the whole point of that 10th plague, that 10th horrible thing that happened to so many people and animals actually in Egypt. Egypt was decimated by this time and then they would soon thereafter lose their army as well in the Red Sea. and none shall appear before me empty. So that was the first feast, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Passover. And then it says in verse 16, the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of thy labors, which thou hast sown in the field. So that is an important feast. It's this feast that we're talking about today. Now, some people get confused by first fruits because there's actually a beginning of first fruits and an ending of first fruits. This is the ending of first fruits, which is Pentecost, 50 days after first fruits, okay? And we'll go into that a little bit. That was the second of the major feasts that the men had to come to in Israel. to jerusalem and then it says and the feast of the in gathering which there are other names for these feasts so-called feast of booths feasts of tabernacles and that's in the fall so these first two passover and first fruits or pentecost were in the spring and then it says which is at the end of the year which is the feast of in gatherings you brought in your all of your your crops or your fruits, your harvest. First fruits is the beginning of the harvest. It's actually the bringing in of the barley at the beginning of the, that's gone through the winter and grown. If you go to Israel right now, we just got back from Israel a month ago or so, and the fields were just starting to come up, the barley fields from the rains. And so they would, by this time, a little bit later in the year, but close to now, they would receive those first fruits. They would gather the first clumps of grain and then present those to the Lord. Fifty days later is the feast that we're talking about today, the Feast of Pentecost, or And then there's the Feast of Ingathering, Feast of Tabernacles, which is the end of the year when thou hast gathered in thy labors out of the field. So Jerusalem, at the Feast of Pentecost, the last of the first fruits would be full of people from all over the world. Jewish people from all over the world would come and some people that were not Jewish, but they were still worshiping the one true God were coming to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was packed. And that's an important thing to remember as we go through scripture, is to really understand the background of the story, the culture, the details of the story here, especially in the book of Acts. So let's go back to Passover for a second. How do we know that Passover was fulfilled, that Jesus is our Passover? Well, it says it very clearly in our Bible, in 1 Corinthians 5, verse seven, it says, purge out therefore the 11, that ye may be a new lump. How do you like that? You're called a lump in the Bible. as ye are leavened for even Christ our Passover. Christ is not the last name of Jesus. Christ is the, it's the word Messiah. It's Latinized. Okay. So it's Messiah, Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus, the Christ, even Jesus, the Messiah, or the Christ, our Passover is sacrifice for us. I'm gonna come back to that, but that's very, very important when you look at these feasts, these festivals, that they're all pointing to one person. It's incredible. And then the day after the Sabbath, after the Passover, would be the gathering of first fruits. Now, this wasn't a major holiday, it wasn't something that you had to come to Jerusalem for, but if you had crops, you were supposed to bring that first bundle that first sheaf to the temple. And there was a sacrifice and an offering, and you weren't supposed to eat of it until you had done that. What happened on the year that Jesus died, which was Passover, and then there was the Shabbat, the Sabbath, so I believe he died on a Thursday, there was a special Shabbat or Passover on Friday. You say, well, I thought he died on Friday. Hold on. And then there was the actual Sabbath on Saturday. So what would be the day after the Sabbath on after Passover? It would be Sunday. Okay, isn't that interesting? Jesus rose again on that day, right? On the day of first fruits when they were to be bringing these first fruit offerings to the temple. And you know what? First Corinthians actually tells us this. First Corinthians 15, 23, but every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits after they that are Christ at his coming. What does that mean? That means he's the first to be resurrected And there were other resurrections, we know that. Jesus raised people from the dead and there were other resurrections in the Old Testament. But this is the first resurrection where everything is right, everything is new. The other resurrections were. Corpses that came back to live in a dying world this this first fruit the first real resurrection was a Once in final resurrection with a new and glorified body and since he did that That's the first fruit the promise of more to come Why would you have to bring that offering to the temple the first of your of your field? What if after you gathered the first crop in your field? What if a big hailstorm came and destroyed the rest you've just given away the one That's faith. Jesus is the first fruit of so many of us, of so many others that will be resurrected. Job, one of the oldest books in the Bible, actually looks forward to this when he says in 1925, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the later day upon the earth And though after my skin worms destroy the body, isn't that lovely? I hope you've already had your meal. The worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. There's going to be a bodily, physical resurrection for all people. But for the saved, it will be a body that will be designed to live forever in heaven with God. Jesus is the promise. that Christ the first fruit so Christ the Passover Christ the first fruits do you see a trend here well I wonder what Pentecost is I'm glad you asked 50 days after first fruits which was just after Passover we have this 50th Pentecost This First Fruits, 50 days after First Fruits, it's also called, and sometimes these things will confuse you because there's several names for these feasts. It's also called the Feast of Weeks. You say, why weeks? You just said it was 50 days. It is 50 days, but it's also seven weeks. Okay, so we have the Festival of Weeks, seven Sabbaths after the first fruits is 50 days. And that's called not only Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks, it's also called Shuvot. Now you're really confused. Why is it called all these different names? Well, there's Greek, Shuvot is Hebrew, which means weeks. Okay, it's really simple. Okay, so you might hear it called Shavuot, you might hear it called Feast of Weeks, you might hear it called Pentecost because that's a Greek name and that's the name that is referenced here in Acts 2. Now today, Shavuot, which is something that would come around late May or June, this 50 days after first fruits, it's kind of the ending of the first fruits harvest. Today, it's mainly celebrated for the giving of the law. And it was 50 days after the exodus that God gave Moses the law on Mount Sinai. So that makes sense. And certainly it is a wonderful thing that God gave Israel the law. But at the time of Christ, it wasn't really that wasn't the main focus. The main focus was it was a festival to express thanksgiving to the Lord for the blessing of the harvest. So Jesus, the firstfruits, 50 days later, what happens? Well, we're about to find out what happens, but I think you probably know the Holy Spirit comes on the day of Pentecost. Okay, this is unbelievable. Okay, so let's think back through this. Passover is fulfilled in the death of Christ. The Feast of Firstfruits is fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ. And the Feast of Pentecost, or Shavuot, is representing the fulfillment of what? It's the birth of the church. It's the day that the church comes into existence. And it's a wonderful, wonderful day. It was a day that was considered a mystery. The church was a mystery. It wasn't unplanned, but it wasn't known. The plan was for Israel to accept the Messiah, her Messiah. He is here, he's come, but they didn't understand that he would die. and resurrect. And they rejected him as a nation. Many people accepted him. There's a whole room full of Jews that accepted him here in the upper room in Acts 2 and Acts 1. But we have here on Pentecost another fulfillment. Remember how we said the day of Pentecost was fully come in verse 1? So that doesn't mean it just kind of rolled around again and now it's fully here again this year. I think this means the fulfillment of Pentecost has come. Okay. The type in which it was for centuries celebrated has now arrived. Okay. So if you don't know some of the background, you might not know any of that stuff. As you read your Bible, you might just read. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come and you keep going, but this is incredible stuff, isn't it? The church is bored. There were two arriving airplanes that were both contacting the tower at the same time and the air traffic controller says, Delta, United, who wants to land first? That's how I know this is a made up story because I've never heard them ask that. The Delta pilot immediately gets on the radio and says, go ahead Delta, I'll wait. Think about what I just said. Much to the United pilots dismay. The much anticipated, you want me to say that punchline again? Okay. The Delta pilot immediately said, go ahead, Delta, I'll wait. Y'all get it now? No? You wanna say it again? Okay. Two airplanes were arriving at the same time. The controller said, which one do you wanna land? The Delta pilot gets on the radio, says, go ahead, Delta, you can land first. Okay, now you get it. You don't know, nevermind, okay. The much anticipated Holy Spirit has arrived. And the church has arrived. This is a really awesome day. This is a really awesome thing. And the church age continues to this day. You say, how long will it continue? We don't know. I know the end point is when we are raptured, when we are taken out of this earth with the return of the Lord in the clouds. He's promised to come and return for us. And then there's one last seven year period that the world is gonna go through called the tribulation. but the church is still in operation today. Have we always done well? No, we haven't. Sometimes we have. There were church ages that did better than others, but we had an age in which here in America, we were sending missionaries around the world. Now they're sending missionaries to us. It's kind of a, I mean, it's great in that sense that they're doing that, but it's also kind of sad that we're not sending missionaries anymore. To me, I'm gonna answer the question, is speaking in tongues biblical, is speaking in tongues for today in this message, but I do think we need to speak in, we need to use our tongues more. I'll just put it that way. Okay, and I'll get to that as I conclude. Acts 2, 2, and suddenly, Now remember, there was about 120 people in an upper room. This is the same upper room that Jesus celebrated that last meal with his disciples. He washed their feet, he taught them, and now they're all assembling there. They had been assembling there after the crucifixion. They saw Christ there. Okay, so now after 50 days, after he rose, now there's this sound. There came a sound from heaven. Remember, they were told to wait. They were supposed to be patient. They weren't really patient. I felt like they rushed bringing in that 12th apostle who replaced Judas. Either way. But now, here it is. They hear a sound. We have two main gates to our body. We have the ear and we have the eye. And to the ear gate comes a sound. A sound from heaven. A sound that's up and it's as a rushing, mighty wind. We've had some tornadoes lately around the country and especially a few here. And have any of you ever been in a tornado? There's a few of you. How about a hurricane? The sound of a mighty rushing wind. And I think everyone that describes that sound, you say it sounds like a hundred freight trains. And so they heard this sound. This roaring, rushing sound. And it filled the whole, all the houses, or it filled all the house where they were sitting. The sound was reverberating, maybe deafening. And remember, they're in Jerusalem. The upper room was somewhere in Jerusalem. There's a place that we visit that we call the upper room, and it is an upper room, but it's rebuilt because the whole city was destroyed. But it probably is very similar in location. So you can just picture Jerusalem is full of people, and now there's this big sound, and they're in this upper room, and they're hearing this. And it says, verse three of Acts two, there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire. Oh, this is weird. I mean, this is weird. I mean, this is cool. Well, not cool. It's like fire. But it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Holy Spirit has arrived, the third person of the triune God. Jesus has left, but he promised us a comforter. He said, I'm gonna send my spirit. Remember, there's one God, but there's three persons in the triune Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Jesus the Son had returned to heaven to the Father and sent us the Spirit. The Spirit is still here today. You say, how come I can't speak in tongues? Well, I'm gonna answer that for you in a little bit. But now the Holy Ghost has come. They saw with their other gate to the body, the eye, these cloven tongues as a fire, each resting upon all the people in that room. And then the Holy Spirit is baptizing believers. The Holy Spirit has identified them with Christ. as his body here on this earth. Isn't that amazing? And that does still apply to you. In 1 Corinthians 12, 13 it says, for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body. This is the Holy Spirit that started at Pentecost. It continues today. If you're saved, you've been baptized into one body. Whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, we have been all made to drink into one spirit. That's the unity that we should have because we have one spirit in us. We should have one goal, one cause, one encouragement. But don't confuse what we're reading here in Acts with Revelation where it talks about this baptism of fire. You don't, and I've heard Pentecostals and Charismatics say I want, they're praying for the baptism of fire. I would tell you don't do that because the baptism of fire that we read about in Revelation was from the wrath of God upon those that had not received him. So don't ask for that. If you do, you're asking for judgment. There's a distinction between this baptism of fire and the flames as a fire that sat upon them. Make sure you keep that distinction. So this must have been an incredible thing. They were filled with the Holy Ghost. They began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So they were filled with the Holy Ghost. I'm going to explain what that is, but that's different than other things that the Holy Ghost does for us. The Holy Ghost regenerates us, indwells us, and seals us. So when someone trusts Christ, when someone puts their faith in Jesus and Him alone, not their religion, not their works, but just in Jesus, that He died and rose again, immediately the Spirit of God regenerates that person. That you take something dead and make them alive. The Bible actually, in John 3, 5, Jesus says, Except a man be born of water. That's the first birth the birth of a mother and of the spirit This is what we're talking about here. You need to be born again born of a spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of God So at the moment of faith, you're born again and that takes place by the Spirit of God. He regenerates you You don't have to ask for it. You don't have to wait for it. You don't have to long for it You don't have to wait for some evidence that happens at the very instant. You don't really even realize it but you are regenerated at that moment and And what else happens? Well, we also know that at that moment, we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. Every believer in this church age is indwelt by the Spirit of God. As a matter of fact, Romans 8, 9 says, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, you're not of his. So every Christian today, if you have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you've been regenerated and you're indwelt by God himself. You say, how come I don't feel like it sometimes? It's probably because you're not walking in the Spirit. You're not fellowshipping with the Lord. You're not yielding to Him. Then we have something called being sealed by the Spirit. And that's a sealing that Make sure, it guarantees us this eternal relationship with God. Ephesians 1 in verse 13, it says, in whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, so that's when you're saved, you believe, you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you've trusted in that. In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were what? Sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. You know, some people say you can lose your salvation. You think God's sealant isn't good enough? It's gonna leak or what's going on? No, he seals you. If God seals you, don't you think he seals you? It's like sealing a jar of preserves. You seal that jar, you do a good job with that, you open that jar up in a year, it's gonna be amazing. God seals you, okay? With the spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. Anytime you, purchase something large, you're going to probably give them earnest money. It's called earnest money. It shows your earnestness about this, this thing until you can get the rest of the financing or whatever worked out. Here's something that you're going to give. It's this guarantee of an eternal inheritance. The spirit of God seals us unto the redemption of the purchased possession, and that's when we are physically with the Lord in our new body unto the praise of his glory. So we have this regeneration by the Spirit. We have this indwelling by the Spirit. We have the sealing by the Spirit. And some people say, well, I need to ask God for the sealing of the Holy Spirit. No, you don't. It says it's something God does after you believe. You don't have to ask for any of that. You don't have to desire it. You don't have to wait for it. These things happen. And then the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, for by one spirit, we are all baptized into one body. So we have the baptism of the Spirit of God. We're baptized into the body of Christ. So here on the day of Pentecost, all four ministries of the Holy Spirit have been already accomplished. The church is now born, and all four of these things still happen today. Then you're saying, well, you said you would tell us what the filling of the Spirit is. Okay, I'm gonna tell you what that is. That's something unique that was happening here. It happened in the early church. What is the filling of the Holy Spirit? It is the Spirit equipping you for service. Okay, if God wants you to do something and you're open to that and you're willing to do what he wants you to do, he's going to equip you for service. What is the service that they're doing here? Well, they're giving people the message of hope in their language that they didn't know. Now, is that the whole point of speaking in tongues here? It actually isn't. What's the point of them speaking in tongues here in Acts 2? What's the point of all of this happening? Well, it's to show the church is legitimate. It's to show that God is active. It's the same reason Jesus did miracles. Was it so that he could feed people or that he could heal people? I mean, that's a great, a wonderful thing that he did and it changed people's lives, but that's not why he did it. He did it to show who he was and his power. That's what this filling of the spirit is here. And speaking of tongues here, the result of that filling of the spirit. Now, I think we can still be filled with spirit today. Absolutely. Okay? In Ephesians 5.18, it says, don't be drunk with wine, wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. As wine will control you, and it's 50% of the people committing crimes, and 50% of the people that crimes are happening to are a result of alcohol, alcohol controls people. Don't have anything to do with that. Don't be foolish in that. But you should be filled with something, and that's with the Spirit of God. How? Say, Lord, today, use me, equip me for service, fill me. You say, well, then can I speak in tongues or can I heal people? I'm going to get to that. You just you all have to be more patient, OK? OK. It says they were filled. Look back at verse four. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. What were they doing? They were speaking in known languages. So what is happening today in churches that believe in tongues, it's usually Pentecostal or charismatic churches, I can't tell you what's happening, but I can tell you that I don't think it's biblical. So that gives you two other options. One, it's something that they're just doing emotionally or making up. Sometimes I do think that people do make just gibberish up. I've actually heard it myself and I know for sure it was somebody just making it up. Or it could be demonic, okay? So those are the only two options I see. I don't understand it, I don't get what people are doing today, but I don't think it's biblical because these were known languages. And any time, remember Corinth was having trouble with all of this? And Paul was writing, they were using their gifts to like elevate themselves and I can do this or I can do that. Even if it were for today, people aren't using them right. They're supposed to have an interpreter, and it's not some secret prayer to God, some prayer language. This was a known language, folks. That's what tongues is in the Bible, biblical tongues. You say, well, are they for today? Just be patient, be patient. I'm getting to that. So remember all the people that were in Jerusalem from all over the world for Pentecost, for this feast of Shavuot, you remember that? All over the world, so that also means that these people had, they knew all these other languages. They'd come from all throughout the Roman Empire to Jerusalem for Pentecost. And so they were speaking the languages of those people. And these were ignorant people. In other words, these were not highly educated folks. Not to say they're stupid, because I don't think anyone's stupid. I just don't think they, I mean, people were amazed that they were speaking in these languages because they hadn't had the training. They hadn't had the education, and it's hard to learn another language. But there they were, and I think it was perfect diction, inflection, intonation. You know, if you learn another language, it takes a long time for you to sound natural in that area, or even the dialect that you're speaking. I think they were speaking perfect dialect, perfect. inflection and everything with the languages that they didn't know. That's what was happening today. Now, our tongues for today are the sign gifts for today. I believe there are still spiritual gifts in operation today, but I don't believe that the sign gifts are. Why? Well, let's look at 1 Corinthians 13. Remember, Paul was writing to the Corinthians to correct a lot of errors. One of them was abusing this gift of tongues. He says in verse 8, charity, which is agape love, never faileth. But there, whether there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. Is that talking about the gift of tongues? I do believe it is. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect is come. What is that? What is that which is perfect? I think it's this, I think it's the Bible. The Bible's completed, in the early church it wasn't. And it was being born and it needed legitimacy and God was giving that through people doing amazing things that they shouldn't be able to do. Tongues, speaking in a known language to people that could understand you. But that which is perfect is come, we have the Bible, we don't have to have, the church is established, we don't have to have these other gifts anymore. That which is perfect is come, the scripture, then that which is in part shall be done away. So that's how I understand all of this. And there are people that disagree with me obviously on that, but I think we're right. And again, even if it were for today, people are doing it wrong. So that's where we stand on that. So we have the Holy Spirit arriving on the day of Pentecost, not begging him to come, he's in the world today. And a lot of people say, well, I've never been filled with the Spirit, or I've never spoken in tongues, am I really saved? Hey, you're saved if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. If you've said, I'm a sinner, and Jesus, the Savior, died for my sins, perfect Son of God, rose again, I trust in him. If you've done that, you're saved. You're saved, even if you don't feel like it. There are most days, not most days, but some days I don't feel like I'm saved. but I am. It's not a feeling, it's a fact, okay? It's a fact. How do we know? How do we know the Spirit's here? How do we know the Spirit is a part of our life? Well, here's one way that you'll know. He helps you understand the things of God, the things of Christ, the things of Scripture. You read something, you don't understand it, say, Lord, help me understand it. And there's going to be a supernatural thing that can happen, and you can learn that way. I remember being on a flight and the flight attendant asked if I would like dinner. And I said, yeah, what are my choices? And she said, yes or no. And she was not very difficult to understand. And neither were the disciples. Neither were the people that were speaking in tongues. They were easily able to be understood in known languages. Acts 2 5, and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now, when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? That's kind of a put down, isn't it? But they, you know, from the kind of the country, they were in the rural areas of the Galilee. They weren't known to be highly educated, but here they were. speaking in all these languages that people knew and could understand. They say, and how hear we every man in our own tongue? wherein we were born. And then there's a whole list of where people came from, the Parthians, the Medes, the Elamites, the dwellers of Mesopotamia and Judea, Cappadocia, Panches, Asia, Phygia, Pamphylia, and Egypt, and the parts of Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews, proselytes, all these people from all over the world, the Cretes, the Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. This wasn't gibberish. This was no language. And they were all amazed and were in doubt. They couldn't believe it. I can't believe this. How is this happening? Saying one to another, what meaneth this? And then there were other cruel, there's always a cruel person. Others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. Why is that such an insult? Because new wine for sure is non-alcoholic, it's grape juice. How can you be drunk with grape juice? I think they were known to not drink alcohol, but that's again, my opinion on that. But the sound, the sound of this rushing wind would have gathered a crowd. And remember, there were 120 people in the upper room that we read about in Acts 1. And so the 120 believers are now speaking to this crowd in known languages. These people were amazed at this. They were perplexed by this. They understand the words, but they couldn't understand how it was happening. How could these looked down upon Galileans actually be speaking in these other languages? So when I think of the gift of tongues, and I have for sure thought that the gift of tongues have ceased, it's called cessationism. I do think that we do need a tongues movement today. Now you say, what are you talking about? Our deacons are getting really nervous right now. We need people's tongues to start giving the gospel more. We need people to learn other tongues and bring the gospel to the lost, to the uttermost parts of the world. This is what we need more than anything today. The Holy Spirit has come. The church is here. I don't think we have much longer. The church began there at Pentecost. It has gone through the decades and the centuries, and here we are in what we consider a modern era of enlightenment, but we still have the same problems, and the problems seem to be getting worse and worse. What's the solution? We need people to use their tongues to share the message of hope. Angels could have been given the responsibility to bring the gospel to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family, to your boss, to your co-workers. Angels could have been given the responsibility to bring the gospel to the Philippines and to India. But they weren't. God could have written it in the sky, and certainly he has the ability to make these massive billboards in the sky and to show the whole world the gospel, but he didn't. He's given you, your mouth, your tongue, the responsibility to bring the message of hope to a hurting, dying, lost world. You have the spirit of God, you have the power within you. Stop moping, stop being bitter about whatever the problems you have in life and start ministering to other people with the gospel of hope. Maybe God does want you to take the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, to the ends of the earth. Pray about that. You say, I'm too old. Hey, I think a lot of the people that brought the gospel to faraway places probably thought that too. It's not just for young people, it's for anybody. I know a lot of retired people that are missionaries. So think about it. And if God, through the spirit of God, is convicting you, that means the spirit of God is at work in your life today. Have you received by faith, Jesus? Have you put your trust in him, the one that died for your sins on the cross, the one that is the Passover lamb, the first fruits? of our salvation, of the resurrection, the one that sent his spirit on the day of Pentecost, fulfilling these great feast days. Have you put your faith in him? Have you trusted in him? Jesus is his name. He's the son of God. He never sinned once. He was predicted. He came, he lived, he did so many great things. He died innocent, but as a sacrifice. And if you'll apply that blood of Jesus, to your life, you will be saved and you will be part of that resurrection. He guarantees it. And the Holy Spirit seals you and guarantees it as well. Would you believe in him? If you haven't done it, do it today. And then if you have, let us recommit to using our tongues for the sake of Jesus.