Seeing the day as past and gone is always scary right before you preach, as though you're inviting people to fall asleep, as if that wasn't enough problem in and of itself. What we're going to do tonight is shift gears a little bit. I've been in the book of Revelation. We have looked at John's vision of the church in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. And now we're going to move to Luke's vision of the church in the book of Acts, and we will camp out tonight and in the morning in Acts chapter 2. Now, if you want more on Revelation chapters 21 and 22, I preached eight sermons, I believe it was, at my home church on those chapters. And those sermons are available on the web. And then also I did some Similar stuff, I can't remember how much it overlaps exactly, but I also gave a couple lectures on Ecclesiology at the R.L. Dabney Center in Monroe, Louisiana, which is Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church's study center. I gave a couple lectures on Revelation 21 and 22. I think it was fall 2006, probably about a year ago. The church there has got those available as well. But as I said, we're shifting gears. We're going to shift into the book of Acts, and what we'll find as we look at Luke's vision of the church, if you were to compare that to John's vision of the church, John's vision of the church in Revelation 21 and 22, and Luke's vision of the church in the book of Acts, especially Acts chapter 2 that we'll look at, you'll of course find a whole lot of overlap, but you'll also find something of a different perspective. John in the book of Revelation describes the church for us in images and in symbols. For Luke, in the book of Acts, he defines the church primarily in terms of a historical event, the event of Pentecost. Now that's a once-and-for-all event that has ongoing implications, so it's not just history relegated to the past, as we'll see, it has all kinds of implications for the life of the church today, but he defines the church in terms of what God did about 2,000 years ago when the Father through the Son poured out the Spirit upon the church. Now one thing that you see when you look at Luke's vision of the church is something that I think also you can find in John's vision of the church in the book of Revelation, and that is that the church is not some kind of voluntary club. Americans very often have thought of the church as a kind of voluntary club or voluntary organization. That's not what the church is. The church is a public institution. It is an institution that is intrinsically social, intrinsically political. And one of the ways that we know that is that the defining events, the events that define the church, that give rise to the church's identity, not the least of which is the event of Pentecost itself in Acts chapter 2, is a public, political, social, event. Of course, you could also point to the death and resurrection of Christ even behind the event of Pentecost itself. That's an event that obviously has political and social and public dimensions to it and ramifications to it. And so the Church does as well, the Church being created by those events, the death and resurrection of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. Those are the events that give rise to the Church. The Church takes its shape from those historical events. Now we saw in John, in Revelation 21 and 22, as John describes the Church there for us, the Church is this new creation, this new heaven and earth. We saw there that the church is this new creation, this new humanity. We're going to see that in Luke's account in the book of Acts, there's a whole lot of overlap with that, and yet Luke gives us a significantly different perspective, a significantly different take. It's fully compatible, of course, but it is somewhat different. In both texts, I think what you see is that the church is called to embody what it means to live under the gracious lordship of Jesus Christ, what it means to be his kingdom, what it means to live under his reign. The church exists through the gospel, the church exists for the gospel. The church exists as an outpost of the kingdom of heaven, a colony of heaven on earth, modeling life under Christ's Lordship. Okay, so with those things in view, let's look at Acts chapter 2. And what I'm going to do tonight, just as my first couple talks from Revelation 21 and 22 were sort of preliminary, you could say, sort of setting the stage to then dive in and exegete the text and really see what it has to say about about the church. So tonight, this is going to be sort of preliminary, sort of a bird's eye view of what happens in Acts chapter 2. We're going to look at the phenomenon of Pentecost itself, this event in history that's recorded for us in Acts chapter 2. Then in the morning, we're going to look at the fruits of Pentecost, what it means to be a Pentecostal church. And of course, I'm not talking about the denomination of Pentecostals, but I'm talking about a church that the church as she arises from the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts chapter 2. So let's read this. This is Acts chapter 2. I'll read the whole chapter. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one set 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 the 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, 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. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and on my maidservants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. And they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope For you will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will your Holy One, to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of joy in your presence. Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that at the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne. He, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he poured out this, which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. Then those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of the bread and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all as anyone had need. So, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people, And the Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. This is the word of the Lord. Father, we do thank you for Pentecost. We thank you that this event that happened a long time ago continues to reverberate down through history to our very day. We thank You that the Spirit that was handed over from the Father to the Son and poured out by the Son upon the church, that Spirit is with us today. That Spirit is at work even now as the Word is being read and preached. And Father, we pray that Your Spirit would mold us and shape us this day into the kind of community, the kind of people that You would have us to be. We pray for the blessing, Your blessing, to rest upon Your Word. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen. May 24th, AD 30, 9 a.m. in the morning, it happened. The promise of the Father, the promise of Jesus the Son, the promise of the ancient prophets was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit was poured out on the church and a new age in history began. An age in which the Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son would take center stage. From this point on in the book of Acts, The Holy Spirit becomes the chief protagonist. Indeed, from this point forward, it is the Spirit who will move the drama of the Kingdom of God forward throughout history. What was Pentecost? Pentecost was a feast day ordained for Israel in the Law of Moses. means 50th, 50th day. It was celebrated 50 days after Passover. Pentecost in the Old Testament is described mainly in Leviticus 23 and in Deuteronomy 16, so you can go to those passages for the details of how it would have been celebrated in Old Covenant Israel. It was also known as the Festival of Harvest because it celebrated the beginning of the land's fruitfulness. Now in Acts chapter 2 verse 1, Luke says that the day of Pentecost was fulfilled. He says the day came to fulfillment. And by that he means this event here, the outpouring of the Spirit, is the fulfillment of what that day was all about in Israel's history, in Israel's calendar. The Spirit was poured out as a sign that now God is beginning to harvest the nations. This is the first fruits of the new age. The sacrifice of the Passover lamb, that's Jesus of course, is now bearing fruit. What Jesus won for His people, what He achieved for His people, on the cross, He is now working in His people by His Spirit. See, Jesus died and rose again to form a Spirit-indwelled community, a community that would bear His name, that would worship the Father through Him and by the power of the Spirit, and carry on His mission by the power of His Spirit. And now, Luke tells us, those things are happening. Pentecost is coming to fulfillment. From here on, the public work of Jesus, by His Spirit, will be concentrated in the church. See, this is a major turning point in history. It's kind of like in C.S. Lewis' series, The Chronicles of Narnia, if you're familiar with. probably the most famous book in that series, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, you know that in that story in Narnia, it's Christmas. But as the story progresses and as things start to happen, they find that Aslan is on the move. And in Narnia, it's always winter, but never Christmas. But there's a sense that Christmas is coming. The snow begins to melt. Aslan is doing things, and the reign of the White Witch is coming to an end, the reign of winter, the reign of darkness and death. That's what's going on here. See, the spring thaw has started to come. The long winter, the long night is coming to an end. The sun is beginning to rise. The warmth of the Spirit has come. See, that's what Pentecost is all about. We have to understand it not as a private event, that takes place in the interior lives of the disciples, we have to understand it as a public, history-changing, world-changing event. See, Pentecost in Acts 2 is all about fulfillment. It's all about the transition of the people of God from old covenant to new covenant, from old creation to new creation. It's the shift, you could say, from Israel to the church, which is God's new Israel. See, when Jesus comes and then when Jesus pours out His Spirit, it's not just modifying the old order. It's not just making adjustments within the old creation. No, it's inaugurating a whole new world, a whole new epoch in history has begun, a new creation has dawned. Pentecost inaugurates a new era. And there are public, visible, and audible signs that point to what is really going on here. These are the phenomena of Pentecost. They show us what this event is all about. The way Luke records this event, he shows us that this moment in history draws together multiple strands, multiple themes from earlier parts of the biblical story. He shows how they come to fulfillment, how those things are coming to their full realization and the outpouring of the Spirit. One of the things he shows us here is that the church lives in union with Christ, her Savior. See, Jesus was baptized with the Spirit to launch His ministry to Israel. So now the Church is baptized with that same Spirit to launch Her ministry to the nations. Just as when Peter preaches, he speaks of Jesus doing signs and wonders. So at the end of the passage, we find the apostles are doing signs and wonders. As the Savior, so the saved. The church is in union with Christ. What happened to Christ is now happening to His people. Furthermore, in the Old Testament prophets, God promised to baptize His people. He promised to baptize, indeed, many nations. and now that's coming to pass. So these audible and visible events are very, very important. We're told here that the Spirit comes like a rushing wind. Now, it's interesting, in both Hebrew and in Greek, the word for wind and the word for Spirit is the same word, and it's only context that really allows you to tell what's going on. But there's obviously a deep theological connection there as well that is at work here. This reminds us of Genesis chapter 1. The Spirit comes as a rushing wind. Well, in Genesis chapter 1, the Spirit rushes over the waters of the earth. The Spirit hovers over the waters of the earth at the beginning of the creation week. It reminds us also of Genesis chapter 2, where God breathes life into Adam. He takes a clod of dirt, as I already talked about a little bit, and he breathes life into this clod of dirt, and Adam becomes a living being. He becomes an in-souled creature made in the image of God. He breathes life into Adam. Well, the breath of God is his life. He fills Adam with a rushing wind, so he becomes a living being, a living creature, so he becomes a man. And it also makes us think of Ezekiel chapter 37, where the prophet describes the nation of Israel as dry bones down in a valley. And as the prophet is watching this vision, the wind of God rushes down into that valley, sweeps down into the valley, and the bones begin to come to life, and the bones are reassembled. They take on flesh and there's a resurrection and that's a picture of what God is going to do for the nation of Israel. It's the restoration of Israel. See, Pentecost fulfills all of that. It marks the beginning of a new creation. It signals the last days of the old world order and the first days of the new world order. If I can make another reference to the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, if you remember there, What the witch has done is turned all these creatures in Narnia to stone. But Aslan goes and he begins to breathe on those creatures and his breath brings them to life. Well, that's the Narnian Pentecost. Well, here you have Pentecost in our world. And it takes the people of Israel who have hearts of stone. God breathes His Spirit upon them. He brings them to life. He restores Israel. He makes Israel new. He brings Israel into this new world order, this new creation. We're told in Acts chapter 2 verse 2 that the wind filled the house. Now that's interesting because that's basically the same expression that's used back in the book of Exodus chapter 40 and also in 1 Kings chapter 8 when God filled the tabernacle, when He filled the temple, when He filled His house with His presence. What's interesting, though, is in those passages, no one could bear to stay in the house. When God moved in, everybody else had to move out. They could not bear to be in the presence of God. But here, when the rushing wind comes, it fills the house. But not only that, it fills the people. You see, it's really a people house that God is building. God is filling the church as His new temple with His presence, with the presence of His Spirit. See, a new era in history, a new creation in history, calls for a new temple. And so that's what you have here. The church is the new creation, the new humanity, the new Adamic humanity, but also we see the new house filled with God's presence. We also have here tongues. Now this is really interesting. On Pentecost morning, the disciples spoke the gospel in foreign languages, languages that they did not naturally know. And so everyone, even those distant travelers who had gathered in Jerusalem for the feast, are able to hear the gospel proclaim the news about Jesus announced in their native language. Now, of course, this is a reversal of the story of Babel back in the book of Genesis, where God confuses the language in order to drive the people apart. There are all kinds of connections with that story, only now that's happening in reverse, you might say. God is using the differentiation of languages in order to bring the people together. See, what is the church? The church is the true tower to heaven, the true Babel. The church is the true Babelic community, multilingual community, that is, in a sense, you could say, a tower to the heavens. It's also interesting, back in the book of Genesis, right around the time when you have the the story of the Tower of Babel, you also have in the book of Genesis what is called the Table of Nations. It's a list of all the nations that existed in the world at that time as a consequence of Babel. Well, so in Luke's account here in Acts chapter 2, he gives us a table of nations as well, a list of nations. representative nations, nations that are represented at the feast there in Jerusalem. Just as there is a language miracle there in the book of Genesis where God confuses their speech, so here he does a language miracle, but obviously there's this huge difference. At the Tower of Babel, the different tongues brought division, discourse, Here, the different tongues will bring the many nations together. Here, the gift of tongues will bring harmony. Here, the gift of tongues will be used by God to show that He's reuniting humanity through the gift of His Spirit. See, Babel was a curse. Pentecost is a blessing. Because of Babel, the peoples were scattered. Because of Pentecost, they'll be gathered into one new community, the community of the church. That Babel man tried to climb up to heaven in his own strength. Here, the gift of the Spirit comes down from Heaven, God gives Himself to His people. Rather than man having to scale a tower to invade Heaven in his own power, God opens up Heaven and graciously pours forth His Spirit so that man can know Him, so that man can be connected with Him. Pentecost shows us, no longer will God be working primarily with the single nation of Israel. No longer is God going to focus His work on Israel. Now, it was never the case that God worked with Israel exclusively. There were always non-Israelites called Gentile God-hearers who knew God, who worshipped the true God, but who remained on the outside of Israel. But God worked primarily through one nation, through the nation of Israel. That's not going to be the case any longer. See, God would send to the Israelites prophets who spoke their own language. Now God is going to send prophets, spokespersons, to every nation under heaven speaking their language. He's going to come and speak to all the peoples of the earth in a language they can understand. See, now the kingdom is being opened up to all peoples. God is speaking to all the peoples of the earth in their native languages. See, this new humanity that God is forming by His Spirit will not have any barriers. It will not have any ethnic or racial walls, you could say. The Spirit is forming unity out of diversity, forming a single people out of the multitude of peoples that exist in the world, forming one new nation out of the many nations, tribes, and tongues. in the world. This is, you could say, God's vision for the church, the vision that God gives to us here in Acts chapter 2. Now, there's something else interesting going on here, and I just want to make reference to this. I'm not going to really go into this in depth. It'd be kind of a side point to what my real intention is in teaching out of Acts chapter 2, but you do need to understand this aspect of it as well, I think. because this is part of the whole transition that takes place from Old Covenant to New Covenant. Tongues, I've said, are a sign of blessing, God's blessing to the nations, that the kingdom is now open to all peoples, all nations are free to come in and they will share in the same citizenship, the same status in this new Israel that God is forming. But tongues... The fact that the gospel is being preached in a multitude of languages, tongues are also a sign of judgment against Old Covenant Israel. Now it's interesting, you go back to the Old Testament, there are a few references to tongues other than the Tower of Babel. And in each one of those cases, you see that tongues are a sign to the Jews of a coming judgment. When God speaks to Israel in a foreign tongue, you can find this referenced in the book of Deuteronomy and in the book of Isaiah, it is a sign of judgment on the covenant people. So just one example of this, 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Listen to what Paul says, and I won't read the whole section here, but in verses 20 and 21, this is what he says. I may read down to 22 as well. Brethren, do not be children in understanding, however in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips, I will speak to this people, and yet for all that they will not hear me. Now there Paul is quoting from Isaiah chapter 28. He goes on and says, Therefore tongues are foresigned not to those who believe, but to unbelievers. But prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for those who believe. Okay, what is Paul saying? This is a really cryptic passage in one sense. Paul is quoting from Isaiah 28. And he says, Isaiah 28 says, With men of other tongues and other lips, I will speak to this people, to the Israelites. I sent them prophets who speak their own language, God is saying. They rejected those prophets. They would not listen to those prophets. So now I'm going to send them a people who speak a foreign tongue. Maybe that will get their attention. And who this is referring to, actually, are the Assyrian invaders. It's a reference to the Assyrian empire that will come and conquer Israel. See, because Israel rejected the word spoken in her own language, God's going to send these foreign invaders, these Assyrians. They will overrun Israel. They will take Israel into exile. People coming and speaking a strange language, a foreign language, to the Israelites is a sign that Israel is under judgment. And that's a part of what's going on here in Acts chapter 2 as well. Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 14 that tongues are a sign to unbelievers. Specifically, he has in view unbelieving Jews. See, tongues are a sign of judgment against Israel, a sign of blessing for the nations that the kingdom is now for them, but a sign of judgment on unbelieving Israel, which has wanted to keep the kingdom for herself, which has rejected her Messiah. and ultimately that judgment did come to pass in AD 70 when, now it's Roman invaders, not Assyrian invaders this time, but Roman invaders who come and who destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple and they don't leave one stone upon another at the temple in Jerusalem, which is actually just in accord with a prophecy that Jesus gave as well. If you look at the Olivet Discourse, as Jesus is walking through Jerusalem with his disciples, in awe of the temple, and Jesus says, not one stone will be left upon another. And then they say, well, what will be the sign of this? And Jesus begins to give them all the signs that will lead up to the destruction of the temple by the Romans. That's what's going on. Now, what's also interesting about that is that in Acts chapter 2, when Peter quotes from Joel's prophecy, talks about the outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh, so that would be inclusive of the Gentiles. But then God says He will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and the awesome day of the Lord. Well, that's the same kind of language that Jesus uses, the sun being turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Jesus uses that same language in Matthew 24 in the Olivet to describe this coming judgment on Jerusalem and on the temple. So, this is a two-edged event. It's judgment for unbelieving Israel. It's blessing for the nations. And if you're wondering why sun being turned to darkness and moon being turned to blood, well, remember on day four of the creation week, the sun and moon were created to rule the day and the night, to rule over the earth. They become symbolic pictures then of earthly rulers in the rest of the Bible. So, for example, when Joseph has his dream and the sun and the moon and the stars bow down to him, everybody knows right off the bat that his mom and his dad and his brothers, their rule is going to be subordinated to his. Of course, in our American flag, we still use heavenly bodies, stars. as signs of earthly government. So when it speaks here of the sun and the moon falling, this kind of decreation language, the sun and moon turning black, turning red, that decreation language is specific to Israel in this context. It's a judgment that's going to fall on the nation of Israel. So Pentecost really is a two-sided event, and I think that's really important for us to remember. We should never take God's blessings for granted. God's covenant blessings always have an element of conditionality to them. Israel's possession of covenant blessings were contingent upon persevering faith, receiving the Messiah that God sent to them, persevering in faith in Him. And because Israel rejected that Messiah, because of her unbelief, the kingdom was taken from her and given to a people who would bear its fruits. The Jews who had rejected the Messiah did not share in His work, did not share in the gift of Pentecost, the gift the Spirit. It's also interesting, if I can just stay on this theme for just another minute, Peter really, towards the end of his sermon in verse 40, he says, be saved from this perverse generation. What does he mean by this generation? Well, Jesus has already talked about this generation a lot in the Gospels. He said, this generation will be accountable for all the righteous blood shed on the face of the earth from Abel all the way down, and he says, all the old covenant martyrs, and of course, too, you can add John the Baptist and Jesus himself to that, who are also martyrs, whose blood is shed at the hands of wicked and unbelieving Israelites. That generation was special because that generation of Jews was, you could say, the culmination of Israel's long history of apostasy. And so judgment had to fall on that generation. Of course, that also means that those who would be ethnically Jewish in our day are not under any kind of special curse. They're welcome to come into the church just like anybody else and to receive all the same blessings that come with being a part of the people of God. But up until 70 AD, that's the decisive point, when the temple is destroyed, the Old Covenant is being judged, and that's when it comes to an end. See, between 30 and 70 AD, You sort of have two temples. You've got the temple in Jerusalem, which is where the unbelieving Jews are still pointing, saying, that's God's house. And you've got the Christians who are saying, no, we are God's house. The church is God's true temple. Well, which is the true temple? Well, after 70 AD, only one temple is left standing. And that's what's going on here. So tongues are a sign of blessing to the nations, but also a sign of judgment and curse. on that generation of Israelites because they are culminating Israel's long story of apostasy. Well, some other links to notice. That's kind of a rabbit trail I just went down, but let me talk about some other links here to notice. Pentecost, I talked about how it was the first fruits of the harvest. that Israel would celebrate. It's also when Israel remembered the giving of the law to Moses out Mount Sinai. So they would also remember the giving of the law at the Feast of Pentecost, 50 days after that Passover in Egypt. And when they then crossed out of Egypt in the Exodus, the Red Sea crossing, Moses went up on the mountain to receive the law, to receive the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. And of course, if you look at the Old Testament account of that, it is a dreadful event. Three thousand people died that day. Now what happens here at Pentecost, when Pentecost is fulfilled, when the Spirit is given, three thousand are saved. And that's not just an interesting coincidence, that's God's pattern in history. See, the law is a ministry of death, as the Apostle Paul says, because the people were unfaithful. The law becomes a ministry of death. The law brings death, but the gift of the Spirit brings life. Moses went up, and the law came down, written on tablets of stone. Jesus, as the new and greater Moses, goes up. He ascends into heaven, and the Spirit comes down. The Spirit comes to write the law of God on our hearts and to enable us to fulfill that law. Another connection, we're told that fire falls from heaven. Fire falls from heaven in the form of tongue-shaped flames. And these tongue-shaped flames come to rest upon Now, I think there's several things you can connect this with. I think perhaps the most obvious is Solomon's temple. What happened when Solomon built his temple and dedicated the temple? When God moved into the temple, you might say. When God took up residence in Solomon's temple, fire fell from heaven to consume the sacrifices. Well, now fire falls again from heaven. And again, I would say it consumes the sacrifices. See, what's going on here? This fire means that God has come to dwell in His church. The church will be His new and true temple. Flames resting on each disciple means that each one of us is a miniature temple, you might say, in which God dwells. Fire from heaven falling upon the disciples also means that we are the sacrifices. See, in the New Covenant, animal sacrifice is put to an end. The termination of animal sacrifices is the cross, but that does not mean that the way of sacrifice has terminated. See, Jesus fulfilled all of that, but now we are in union with Christ, and so we are to offer ourselves, as Paul says in Romans chapter 12, as a living sacrifice. All throughout the Bible, all throughout the New Testament, I should say, sacrificial language is used to describe the service and especially the worship of the people of God. Fire falling from heaven to rest upon us, to rest upon the disciples, shows now the disciples will be sacrifices. They will be living sacrifices, offering themselves, offering their worship. This is what it means to have God's fire in us. Of course, this also goes back to John the Baptist, something John the Baptist prophesied. He said that Jesus would baptize with the Spirit and with fire. Fire is a symbol of the Spirit. It's a sign of the Spirit. You see that going on here, these tongues of fire. It's interesting, too, that it's tongues. Tongues of fire. You can connect that with the speaking in tongues that goes on here, but I'll say a little bit more about that. The church is to be a fiery-tongued people. You might think of Isaiah chapter 6, where the prophet is given this vision of God, high and lifted up, God in all His exalted glory, and the cherubim and the seraphim are arrayed around God's throne, singing, holy, holy, holy, and the prophet sees this vision and he recognizes that he is unclean, but fire is put to his lips. to purify his lips, to purify his confession, to purify his speech. And then God says, who will go? Who will go be my spokesman to the people? And Isaiah says, here I am, Lord, I will go. See, to be a fiery turn of people means our speech is being purified by the Spirit so that we can be God's spokespersons, so that we can speak for God, so we can confess truth, and so we can speak truth in the world around us. We might also think here of Isaiah chapter 30 verse 27, where God himself is said to have a tongue of fire. See, to be a flame-tongued people, a fire-tongued people, is to be like God himself. It means we speak God's truth. Now, that's what this event is all about. Those are the various phenomena that happen here in Acts chapter 2 and what they mean. And I think they do define for us what the church is, what it means to be the church. It means we're the new humanity, the new temple. It means we're God's new Israel. It means that we have been commissioned as God's representatives, his mouthpieces, his Spokespeople in the world. It means that we are the new Babel, you might say, the true tower to heaven. It means that we are the spirit indwelt people. It means all these things, all these things taken together. Peter then preaches this sermon, and here I'm not going to do full justice to his sermon, I just want to kind of give you an overview of this. I already talked about some of the imagery that is there in the quotation from Joel chapter 2, but let me race you through what Peter preaches here because it is important even though I don't have time to go into full depth here. Peter is preaching. When he gets up, he says, this is what the prophet Joel spoke of. He says, this is that. What the prophet Joel spoke of, this is the fulfillment of his words. His words are coming to pass. They're coming to fulfillment in this event. What the prophet Joel foretold, this is what you're seeing. Joel said the Spirit would be poured out on all peoples. Now it's happening. Now all God's people are sharing in this anointing of the Spirit in this gift. of the Spirit." Peter proclaims that the Spirit is specifically the gift of the Father to Jesus and the gift of Jesus to the church. He says, Jesus was executed by you Jews. He's speaking directly to the people who crucified Jesus. He says, you had Him executed, but now the Father has raised Him up and enthroned Him as Lord over all. The verdict of condemnation that you passed against Him has been overturned by a higher court. He was condemned by your court, but in God's court, the Father's court, He has been vindicated. Yes, Peter says, Jesus died, but His body did not see decay. He emerged from the tomb triumphantly. He is the greater David who has conquered death. See, David's body still rests there in his tomb. But this greater David came back from the dead. And David, when he wrote Psalm 16, was speaking prophetically because he knew that the Christ would come from his line, he knew that the Christ would undergo death but then be raised up again and enter into his messianic glory, his messianic kingdom. More than that, Jesus has been seated at the Lord's right hand. He's now subduing his enemies, fulfilling Psalm 110. See, Peter sees this as the fulfillment of Psalm 110. Jesus has taken His feet at the Father's right hand. All His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet. And then Peter says, we are witnesses of these things. Don't doubt it. Don't try to argue with us. We have seen these things. We have proof of it. Our eyes have seen it. Our hands have touched Him. We've been with the risen Lord. Don't try to argue with us. These things are clear. These things are evident. Peter says, this is the sign that Jesus has been made Lord. He has given the Spirit just as He promised. He told His disciples, wait in Jerusalem for the gift of the Spirit, for the promise of my Father to come to fulfillment. Now it's happened. The words of Jesus have come true. Jesus is the giver of the Spirit. See, Jesus and the Spirit fit together like giver and gift. What does Jesus do for His people? He gives them Himself by giving them His Spirit. He gives the Spirit to dwell with us, to unite us to Himself. The Spirit comes in the name of Jesus, and the Spirit points us back to Jesus that we might trust in Him, that we might put our hope in Him. Now you can imagine what this did. Those Jews who were gathered there, who were hearing this sermon, this proclamation, seeing all these things going on, the rushing wind and the flames of fire and the tongues and all these things going on, they're cut to the heart. Many of the Jews come to realize that they have crucified their own Messiah, that God sent them Messiah and they rejected Him. And so Peter's sermon stings. And they cry out, what then must we do to be saved? And Peter is ready with an answer. Peter says, repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. He says, the promise is for you, it's for your children, and it's for those who are far off. That is to say, those who are outside of Israel. It's for the Gentiles as well. It is offered to all, all to whom the Lord our God will call. Now, look at this response that Peter calls for. He calls for repentance. What is repentance? Well, repentance is, simply put, turning around. It's a change of mind, a change of heart. It's doing a 180. They've got to do a 180 when it comes to Jesus. They've been thinking this way about Jesus. They've got to turn and think this way about Jesus now. They've rejected Jesus. They've got to receive Him and embrace Him. They despised and mocked Jesus as a messianic pretender. They've got to receive Jesus as the true Messiah and now indeed as the world's true Lord. They've got to turn and worship Him and serve Him. Peter also says, be baptized. See, repentance alone is not enough. You can say it's not baptism without repentance, nor is it repentance without baptism. It's both together constitute a full response to the gospel. This is because baptism is God's gift. Baptism is how God gives us Christ and His benefits. In baptism, God offers us forgiveness. He offers us the Spirit. Those are the two gifts, the twin gifts that Peter speaks of. He says, repent and be baptized. and your sins will be forgiven and you will receive this promised gift of the Holy Spirit. Those two gifts, forgiveness and the Spirit, really comprise the whole of our salvation. Those two gifts constitute the fullness of our salvation. But those gifts, offered to us as they are in baptism, must be received with a living and repentant faith. They must be received with a vital faith. You could say baptism is a treasure chest, Repentant faith is the key that unlocks it. So in baptism, God offers us his gifts. We receive those gifts with a vital repentant faith. Baptism offers us forgiveness and the Holy Spirit of repentant faith receives those things in the waters of baptism. And I think this is very interesting. Peter, in his sermon here, holds together the very things that the modern church, I would say especially the American church in her history, has driven apart, has separated. Peter keeps these things joined together. See, the gospel that Peter preached is both experiential and ecclesial. It is both supernaturally worked by the Spirit, but also sacramentally worked by the Word and by baptism. It comes through the Spirit as the Spirit works in us, but it also comes through the means of grace, like His preaching and baptism. Peter shows us the gospel calls for an individual response, but it also calls for institutional membership in the covenant community. See, following Jesus means repenting of sin and living within His church with His people. And that's why it's both baptism and repentance. Repentance is something each one of us has to do. In baptism, we are joined to the church community. So it's the one in the many. It's the individual response and it's also the institutional membership. The outward means of grace in the church go with the inward change of heart in the individual. See, baptism and repentance, it's the church, the institution, the community we've got to be a part of, but also the individual response to the gospel. These things are held together. And I'm afraid all too often American Christianity is has pressed upon us a false dichotomy between those two things. And so you've either got an emphasis on the sacraments and people say, well, if you're baptized and you're in the church, that's enough. It doesn't really matter too much how you live. You're baptized. Come what may, God's sort of stuck with you no matter what you do. Or you've got those who focus so much on the inward response, the private response, the heart response of the individual that they're cut off from the community and from the means of grace. Peter holds all of those things together. Now, another note here about baptism. Baptism in this context is clearly a work of God. It's interesting here when he speaks of repent, that is an active verb. That's something we do. We've got to repent. Now, it's also a gift of God, but it's something we're responsible for. We've got to do it. But then when he talks about baptism, he uses a passive verb. He says, let each one of you be baptized. See, baptism is something done by another. No one baptizes himself. In baptism, God is the chief actor, the chief agent. He's the one doing the baptism. He may use a pastor to do that. He uses his church to do that. But it's ultimately God's act to give you a share in the once and for all death and resurrection of Christ on the cross and the once and for all baptism of the church here at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. See, our individual baptisms make us sharers in the once and for all spirit baptism that Christ gives to the church here in this context. And I find it very interesting that Peter says in this sermon, if he brings the sermon to a close, that this is also for our children, that the promise is extended to our children. See, this is in keeping with the way the old covenant worked. See, the new covenant And the content of the covenant is radically transformed. But the structure of the covenant, the fact that the covenant has conditions, the fact that the covenant has a built-in principle of succession, you might say, that it includes the next generation, that remains the same. It is just like the old covenant in this respect. The fact that Peter says it's for our children, that's echoing language from the book of Genesis, where God says to Abraham, I will be a God to you, and to your children. The Pentecostal church, then, must be a church that includes and integrates children into its community. You know, sometimes you hear it said, you know, our children are so important because they're the church of tomorrow. Well, no, what the New Testament says is, The children are the church of today. They're part of today's church. You don't have to wait. They're part of the church already. They need to be integrated and included into the life of the church already. I don't know what the statistics are in America, but in the United Kingdom, a thousand young people, so I'm talking about people under age 20, a thousand young people walk out the doors of the church every Sunday, never to come back. That's just amazing. I don't know what it is in America. It may be somewhat better than that, but probably not a whole lot. We have not understood that this promise is to us and to our children. We need to understand what it means to include our children in the life of the church, to include them in this spirit indwelt community that God has formed the church to be. And then Peter says it's to those who are far off as well. This is something that in a way is different from the Old Covenant. Now remember I said the Old Covenant is focused on Israel, but there are also these Gentile God-fears. And sometimes there were a lot of Gentile God-fears, like Jonah's Ninevites are Gentile God-fears. They don't all get circumcised and become Jews, but they worship the true God. And there are a multitude of examples of that in the Old Testament and even in the book of Acts, you run into some Gentile God-fears. So it was never an exclusive thing. People outside of the nation of Israel could know God and could experience His grace and His salvation. But now that's going to happen on a much greater scale. And now those who are on the outside of Ethnic Israel are going to be brought in and given full citizenship in the Kingdom of God that Christ has inaugurated and the Spirit has come to create. So it's not just for Israel, it's not just for those who are nearby, it's for those who are far off as well, those who are outside of Jerusalem, outside of Judea, This new covenant community is to be Catholic, universal, in a way that the old covenant community never could be. See, the gospel knows no boundaries, no boundaries of age or ethnicity. And I would say that both ageism and racism both subvert the gospel. See, if you put up these barriers, these requirements of age or ethnicity before somebody can come, that's not going to work. It's not going to work. It's not going to work. that denies the gospel, that repudiates the gospel. Well, then it's interesting in verse 42, we've got this fourfold description of the church. And this is what I'm really going to focus on in the morning. So I won't say much about it here, but just know how important community is to this. You know, you take all these things together as they give themselves to the teaching of the apostles and as they fellowship with one another, and as they break bread together, and as they pray together, all these things are things that are happening within the church community, within this community that the Spirit has formed. See, it's very, very interesting. You can talk here about the church as the new Israel, the new temple, the true Babel, the new Adamic humanity, you know, all these things. We're in union with the risen Christ. We share in His Spirit baptism. All these things are glorious things to talk about, but what does it look like on the ground? That's a very high and lofty vision, but what is it lived out? Well, here Luke shows us, and when he does so, he describes a community where the members of that community are living in harmony with one another, in love with one another. They're working together, they're fellowshipping together, they're sharing meals together, they're praying together, See, remember the core covenantal promise we saw in Revelation? That core promise that's woven all throughout the Scriptures? What does God say? I will be your God and you will be My people. He doesn't say, I will be your God and you will be My persons. I will be your God and you will be My scattered individuals. No, God doesn't just save a bunch of individuals. God saves a people. He saves a community. Salvation has this social component to it, this communal dimension, communal aspect to it. Really, you could say, as Luke shows us here, community is at the heart of the gospel, and the gospel is at the heart of community. Further, what Luke shows us here is he goes on at the end of the chapter to describe the growth of the church. He describes how great the community life of the church is. And then he concludes the chapter by telling us the church keeps growing. The church keeps advancing. It keeps expanding. Community is vital to the mission of the church. And I don't know what your experience in churches you've been in has been. In my experience, I've seen this happen again and again, people will be attracted to the Christian community long before they're attracted to the Christian message. I mean, they may not know anything about Christian doctrine, Christian theology yet. but a desire for God has been awakened in them by seeing the Christian community in action. See, Christian community is vital to the mission of the church, and oftentimes before the Christian message can sink in, people need to see it embodied in a community that is living it out. See, that's a big part of what I think is going on at the end of the book of Acts. Luke focuses everything on the internal life of the church. And then he tells us how much the church is growing. He doesn't tell us anything about their evangelistic strategies or techniques. He just talks about how they're living together in community. See, I think far too much of our evangelism tries to answer questions that nobody's asking. And they're not asking because they haven't seen us in action. They haven't seen what we do. how we live. If they did see how we live together, if they did see this kind of community, an Acts 2.42 kind of community, they would be the ones asking the right questions. And then we could give them the answers that they need to hear, gospel answers, biblical answers. So one of the things that Luke shows us here about the vision of the church is that mission, that the mission of the church to reach the nations, mission is a community project. It's something that we undertake together as a body. We are to be a community saturated in the gospel. And as we are a community saturated in the gospel, living the gospel out towards one another, that's going to be the kind of community that draws in outsiders. Let's pray together.