Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
In Acts chapter 2, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the believers at Pentecost. The chapter can be divided into three parts: the miracle of Pentecost, Peter's sermon and its impact, and the communal life of the believers. The day of Pentecost marks the fulfillment of Jesus' promise and the beginning of the church. The believers were gathered in one place, and suddenly there was a sound like a rushing wind from heaven. The wind filled the house, and tongues of fire appeared and rested on each of them. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages. This attracted a crowd of Jews from different nations, who were amazed to hear the believers speaking in their own languages. This event signifies the birth of the church and shows the supernatural work of God. So, here we are in Acts chapter 2. Things are beginning to get pretty interesting in the story line that's here in Acts. As you start trying to prepare to study for these, you know, you read through the verses and you think, okay, how much am I going to try and cover, and then you cut, okay, here's a good stopping point, there's a good break here. You start studying the verses and you're going to commentaries and cross-referencing verses and you're praying, and somehow you miraculously end up with exactly the amount of information that you need to do a 50 or 55 minute sermon. It's amazing. As we start chapter 2 in the book of Acts, it's important to remember that everything in chapter 1 was preparatory to this great outburst of the Holy Spirit that we're going to see being poured upon this band of praying believers. This happens at Pentecost. We'll talk about Pentecost more in a few minutes, but this is an actual feast of the Jews that's observed annually. And we know that over a 40 day period, they had listened to the teachings of Jesus, they had received his commission to become worldwide witnesses, and they had been given his promise of the Holy Spirit that would be granted to them as an empowerment for their mission. With the Lord's departure in his ascension, it seemed that there was nothing left to do for the apostles in the 120 in the upper room, but to wait and to pray. They were praying for the fulfillment of the promise, they were praying for their ability to understand, and then we see in chapter 2 that their prayer is answered in a mighty way. Chapter 2 forms a unity around the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. It falls into three main parts. Verses 1-13 talks about the miracle itself that happened at Pentecost. The second part, verses 14-41, talks about Peter's sermon and the tremendous results that came from that sermon. And then verse 42 to the end of the chapter, and we could say even beyond the end of the chapter, it's a picture of the life held in common by a greatly enlarged community of believers in Jerusalem. So if you would, please stand and we will read Acts chapter 2, verses 1-6. This is God's holy word, and when the day of Pentecost had finally come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues like fire, distributing themselves, and they rested upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Now, there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when the sound occurred, the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in their own language. May God bless the reading of His word. Our Father who art in heaven, holy, holy is your name. We thank you for watching over us, your children, us as members of Jesus' church, His bride. Holy Father, we seek your guidance this evening in the teaching of your word and ask that you keep us out of your way once again, Lord, so that your word can come forth and not ours. Please guide us to the understanding as only you can. And I thank you so much for those in attendance this evening and ask that you bless them richly. Lord, we know this is where iron sharpens iron, and this is where our knowledge of you and your ways is increased. I thank you, Father, for living in a country where we're free to worship, and I thank you for this facility that we can worship in. Father, we have so much to be thankful for, but we have nothing greater, nothing better than our salvation that's found in union with your Son, Jesus Christ. And it's in His name we pray, and all God's children said, Amen. So the moment that the 120 have been waiting for has finally come. The promise is arriving. In verse 1, it says, And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place. Now, Pentecost, I spoke a minute ago and let you know that this is a Jewish feast, and it's celebrated 50 days after the Passover. It's also, I'll tell you now and again later, I'm sure, but it's known as the Feast of Weeks as well. And we'll read through Leviticus, but it's seven weeks, seven times seven days, 49, and then the next day he celebrates 50. Pentecost means 50. So this is a celebration of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the offering made at this festival is two loaves made from the firstfruits of this wheat harvest. And the celebration was one of the more popular of the Jewish feasts, and it's even more popular than the Passover, according to many of the things I read about it. But this feast is a pilgrimage. The Jewish men of the Jewish belief are expected to make this journey to Jerusalem during this feast, and as we're going to find out in a little while, that was quite a journey. It's thought that this festival was especially observed and enjoyed because it occurred after the rainy season, and you can only imagine that traveling in Jerusalem in this day during nasty weather would have been a daunting task. The feast itself was a day of solemn assembly. Work ceased, full attention was given to the worship of God, and the feast has a number of names in reference. One of those, I told you, is the Feast of Weeks. It's also called the Feast of the Harvest. The technical name is the Feast of the Firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest. If you would, turn over to Leviticus 23, and we'll jump in at about verse 15. These are the Old Testament verses that talk about this feast. Leviticus 23, verse 15. It says, You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering, there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. Seven complete Sabbaths. Seven weeks. And you shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall bring a new grain offering near to Yahweh. You shall bring in from your places of habitation two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two-tenths of an ephah, and they shall be made of fine flour, baked with leaven as firstfruits to Yahweh. This feast is also covered in some other details in Exodus 23, if you're interested in learning more about it. But Pentecost has also been referred to as the birth of the church by many theologians. And we'll see why in coming verses. The group of believers in the upper room are said to be gathered in one place. Verse 3, as we'll get there, tells us that this place was in a house. And most people think that this is the same upper room that they've been staying in, and I tend to agree with that. But they've been using this upper room for waiting. They've been praying and waiting for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. And now we see that their wait has come to an end, because in verse 2, it says, And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. So, it's important to note here the suddenness of the Holy Spirit. Christ Himself works in this way. There was no distant rumbling that came into the house. It was not a low noise that gained volume. There were no horns blown to announce His appearing. Jesus did these things, right? When He appeared in the upper room, the door was locked. He didn't knock on the door and they let Him in. He didn't unlock the door and come in. No latches were raised. He just appeared to them. Here we have the same thing going on with the Holy Spirit. Paul told us plainly in 1 Thessalonians 5-2 that when Christ returns, it'll be like a thief in the night. Pretty sudden, isn't it? I think this is a common thing that we see in the Godhead, in the workings of the Godhead. He just appeared. I can only imagine there's some level of silence in this upper room, as much as you would expect, some people talking. And then this sound of a violent rushing wind appears, taking over dominance of anything that's going on in the room. It's further interesting to note that there's no indication that any one of the 120 people in this upper room felt any wind. It doesn't talk about their hair being blown, dust. They just hear it. The Scriptures only proclaim that the upper room was filled with the sound of the wind. The sound cannot be missed. It cannot be ignored. It fills the house where they're sitting and waiting. So here we have the wind being representative of the Holy Spirit. This is not the first time we've heard this. The wind is used as an example of the Holy Spirit in a number of places. John 3, 8 famously states, even in a similar fashion to what we're reading here in Acts, that the wind blows where it wishes. And you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from and you do not know where it's going. And so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit. The wind is an example of the Holy Spirit here. One more time. The verse goes on to tell us that the noise that suddenly came from heaven, a noise. A noise came from heaven. And I'm uncertain how to explain that the wind, the sound of this wind, came from heaven. And I'm further uncertain that if any of the 120 in that room at that instant in time knew that this sound of the wind was coming from heaven, I'm sure they were shocked. They knew that the Holy Spirit was coming. They probably didn't understand what that was going to be like. And here we have this rushing wind. It probably took them very much by surprise. So I'm really not sure if at that instant, that moment in time, that they knew this came from heaven. But one thing I do know for sure, that when the text was written by Luke, he knew with full clarity where this wind had come from. He is pointing this out particularly in this verse so that we know that this is a supernatural occurrence that happens at the hand of God. This came from heaven. This was not any ordinary wind. This wind was Spirit-filled. The supernatural activity of God is beyond our comprehension. Man cannot grasp God when he works in the supernatural realm of working miracles. The writers of the biblical text have had to use similes many times to explain things. For example, in Ezekiel 43, it's a well-known simile. It says, And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the way of the east, and his voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. The writers of the Bible had to write this in ways that people could have at least some picture of what was being told. So similes were commonly used. John Calvin in Eugenics suggested that it was requisite that the gift should be visible, that the Holy Spirit should be known. He should come in in a captivating way, that the bodily sense of the apostles might the more be stirred up because of our slothfulness, that if God does not pronounce Himself in great ways, we're subject to miss it. We're subject to write it off as, oh, something must have fell off the wagon back here. Strange wind. There's no clouds outside. So he does this in such a way that it captivates them, it captures them. And I'm sure after just a few seconds, it came to them that this is it. Here comes the Spirit. The promise has arrived. And I think what Calvin is saying is God has to show Himself through the Holy Spirit very clearly and robustly. And there's no denying God's presence or activity. Imagine in your mind the hundred and twenty hearing something like the sound of a violent wind. I'm sure they're packed in here. I mean, how big can this room be? There's one hundred and twenty people in there rushing sound, a violent wind. I wonder if the walls and the roofs are creaking. I wonder if the shutters that were at the windows were slapping the walls of the house. I wonder if the rushing air is shaking things in its path, straining to get past. In today's time, I can only imagine that we would explain something like that as the sound of an oncoming train or perhaps a jet that's getting ready to take off. And I have to fully think that they must have thought nothing was going to be more surprising than this. Nothing. They've never seen anything quite like this. And then all of a sudden, in verse three, And there appeared to them tongues like fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. Tongues appeared in the room. I mean, you get it, right? And they look like fire. And maybe they're all conglomerated together over here at the entrance and all of a sudden they come spreading out over the room and one goes to Josh and one lands on Colton and everybody ends up with one of these tongues like fire on them. Calvin further stated that these tongues are like fire, but they're not necessarily literal fire. He goes on to explain that these fiery tongues represent the fire that would be present in the preaching of the apostles and the disciples. These tongues rested on them, just the simple fact that it shows that all who were present received the spirit in those moments when the fiery tongues rested upon them. In my mind, I just, right? So here again, this was the uniform sovereign work of God on everyone collectively, not something sought after individually. It's at this point by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they were all made into one spiritual body, the body of Jesus Christ. All of one accord or mindset being separate, but one body. And we've heard this before, right? First Corinthians chapter 12, let's take a look. First Corinthians chapter 12, verses 12 through 25, for even as the body is one and yet has many members and all the members of the body, though they are many are but one body. So also is Christ for also by one spirit, we're all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free and we were all made to drink of one spirit. For also the body is not one member, but many. And at the foot says, because I'm not a hand, I am not a part of the body. It is not for this reason, any the less, a part of the body. And if the ear says, because I'm not an eye, I'm not part of the body. It is not for this reason, any the less, a part of the body. And if the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has appointed the members, each one of them in the body just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? And now there are many members, but one body and the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Or again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, how much the more is it that the members of the body, which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body, which we think of less honorable on these, we bestow more abundant honor. And our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no such need. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked. So that there be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. The body of Christ. We even go on to call the church the Bride of Christ, right? This is one body. I don't know what part of the body each of us are, but we all have an important role to play in the ministry of Christ. We all have a very important role to play. I'm going to go on. This is further supported in Galatians 3 and in Ephesians chapter 4. Not in as much detail as here, but if you're interested in reading more about that, there's a couple of good verses to reference with. The scripture states that the tongues like fire distributed themselves. Apparently these tongues like fire came into sight, appeared in some order, maybe of being one symbolic flame, maybe a mass of small flames. Who knows? They may have been in a row. They may have marched in there. And then they separated or distributed, as the scripture says, until a tongue sat on every person in the room. Interesting wind and now fire. Flames or fire have been a symbol of God throughout the Bible. God and his power have been displayed this way. Someday there's going to be a real display of fire. Everything reached through. Exodus 13 verses 21 to 22. And Yahweh was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to guide them on the way and in a pillar of cloud, a pillar of fire by night to give them light that they may go by day and by night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Fire Exodus 3 verse 2. The angel of Yahweh appeared to Moses here, it says him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. And some say that this is a fulfilling of Matthew chapter three, verse 11, where John the Baptist says, as for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Fire is commonly referred to when we talk about God and the many things he does. So these images of tongues like fire are a sign of the Holy Spirit. That would so, you know, tongues appear in the room on the people baptized with the Holy Spirit so they can do what? Speak in tongues. And then there's some irony here, you got little tongues and they sink in and now we speak in tongues. But they're not just speaking in any noise, they're speaking languages of the nations from all over the earth. Clearly understood. We'll see. So in verse four, I'm going to move on. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit was giving them utterance. So the Greek text indicates that the filling of the Holy Spirit was once and for all. What does that mean? Once and for all, the Holy Spirit did not come and go. The Holy Spirit came and entered and dwelt there. The indwelling Holy Spirit, he stayed there. The filling of the Holy Spirit is described in a number of different ways in the book of Acts. We see terminology like poured out in chapter two and chapter 10, came upon is used in chapter eight, receive is used in chapter two and chapter 10. But I had to ask myself, is this the first time anyone was filled with the spirit? And many people answered yes to that, and I thought, I don't know, something in my mind says dig. So here I go. Luke chapter one, verse 15, John the Baptist was filled with the spirit while still in the womb. And all three of these examples deal with John the Baptist as this should tell us something about him. Luke chapter one, verse 41, Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, was filled with the Holy Spirit. Chapter one in Luke, this is before Christ was born. Luke chapter one, verse 67, Zechariah, John the Baptist's father, was filled with the Holy Spirit to the point he became a mute for a period of time. Couldn't even speak, his wife looked at him and knew that the Holy Spirit had been at work with him, was the reason he couldn't speak. All of these instances of filling in the Holy Spirit basically refer to new converts, they point to the Holy Spirit's coming in various ways. These people are not signified by tongues as a gift to every believer. Just because you're saved, doesn't mean you need to speak in tongues. And we've got churches out here that believe they teach this. Oh, you can't be saved, you don't have the gift of tongues. Let's take you up here and dunk you until you decide to speak in tongues, right? MacArthur teaches that there is an obvious difference between being baptized with the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit. And I was taken a little bit back by this at first, and then I just kept reading. And he bases this teaching on the fact that there is no command to be baptized in the Holy Spirit to receive him. When you get saved, the Holy Spirit comes into your heart, when you are born again, when this process of regeneration happens, the Holy Spirit dwells within you. And he goes on to state that, however, in Ephesians chapter five, verse 18, we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. And his thoughts are that the baptism of the Holy Spirit grants one the power that the filling of the Holy Spirit will unleash when it's needed. I kind of like that. I never thought about it that way. The baptism of the Holy Spirit grants one the power that the filling of the Holy Spirit unleashes when it's needed. The tongues spoken here are other languages, other languages that are being used at the first fruits feast by devout Jews from various nations, and these nations ranged from Persia to Rome. It's kind of like saying from the east to the west. Persia is Iran. Rome is Italy. I don't know how familiar you are with the globe, but that's a long ways. These people had to journey from either ends. If they were in Persia and were going to come to Jerusalem, I don't know how long that would take, a month to ride a donkey or a camel that far. I mean, I don't know. The tongues spoken here are to be assigned to the unbelievers in Jerusalem, those people that do not know Christ, those Jews that have not recognized him as a Messiah. These tongues spoken are assigned to these unbelievers, according to First Corinthians, Chapter 14. The intention here is to show that the church would encompass people from all nations and all languages, not just the Jews. And Josh, you spoke on this some the other day. This is not a replacement theology. This is a unification theology that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what color you are, what sex you are. It doesn't matter where you're from, what your past has been. If you are saved, you're a member of this family. It's not a replacement theology. It's everybody coming together. One accord, right? The believers here in the upper room speak in other tongues and thereby prove that the Holy Spirit enables them and even controls them. When we pray for the Holy Spirit to take control of our service, we're praying that he will have his way here. We're desiring that his word goes forth. We're desiring that he takes control of the service and has us to hear what we need to hear. When we ask the Holy Spirit to give those in attendance ears to hear. We're asking for each one of us not only to hear the spoken word, but to understand the spoken word and be able to apply any portions of the spoken word to your life. There have been some theologians that have suggested that there has to be a gift of hearing in play here, and I get it. I totally get the logic behind that. But I've looked really hard and I haven't found that in the scriptures, and I would view that as unfounded speculation at best. Another noteworthy item discussed here is that the Holy Spirit has given them these tongues and utterances. These believers in the upper room were not taught how to speak in tongues. They didn't take a class to learn French or. They didn't have to read a book, they didn't have to attend a seminar. There was no repeated practice in your spare time. They didn't even have to watch an episode of the Flintstones because we've got people out here in some of these churches teaching people how to speak in tongues that nobody knows what they're saying and they tell them, well, let's just start out with the Abba Abba do my line. Say it as fast as you can over and over and over again, and then just take it from there. Yeah, but they have to do really. This was the work of the Holy Spirit alone. Many of our dispensational relatives in Christ will claim readily that we are now entering a new dispensation of the Bible or of history here in chapter two, and I can't disagree with them, I get it, but I struggle with the whole dispensational teaching. Sometimes it's almost like we change dispensations every time the weather changes. I struggle with it and I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm just saying that I struggle with it because I lean more toward a covenant theology and see us marking it, making a departure from the Old Testament covenant to the New Testament covenant. And here's why the law has been fulfilled in the finished work of Christ. The seed of the woman promised in Genesis three has come and defeated the serpent from the garden. The Messiah of all the teachings of the prophets has come and their prophecies concerning him have been fulfilled to the later. And now we enter into the covenant of the New Testament where the veil has been has been torn and we can boldly come before the throne of grace. Priests to mediate for us have been eliminated. Christ is our mediator now. No more sacrifices are needed for forgiveness of sins as Christ, the perfect lamb that was sacrificed so that all who believe in him shall not perish, but have everlasting, everlasting life. Now, Christ sits at the right hand of the father. He reigns and he's the intercessor for our sins. And I say amen to him. And we'll find this supported in Second Corinthians three. So let's flip over to Second Corinthians three. First to. First, to read, you are our letter having been written in our hearts, known and read by all men being manifested that you are a letter of Christ ministered to by us having been written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the hearts of flesh and such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything is coming from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Who also made a sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death and letters having been engraved on stones came with glory so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory on his face, which is being brought to an end. The Old Testament covenant is ending. It is done. Paul is supporting that. So a lot has been happening in these last three verses, and before I go on, I want to back up and let's get back up to speed here. Verse two, sound of a violent wind came and filled the house. Verse three, tongues like fire appeared and one sat on each of the one hundred and twenty people. They are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to speak in other tongues and the emphasis, the emphasis here is on the objectivity of the event. It was audible. It was visible. It manifested to an outward demonstration of inspired speech. So who were these Holy Spirit filled people supposed to use this gift of tongues or languages on? They got this gift and what are you going to do with it? Versus five and six, help us there. Now, there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven, and when the sound occurred, the multitude came together and were bewildered because each one of them, the one hundred and twenty, was hearing them speak in his own language. So as we discussed earlier, this very popular feast is occurring, the population of Jerusalem is believed to have doubled or potentially even tripled during this feast. The purpose of all these people being in Jerusalem was to worship God. They're observing the feast. The verse states that devout men were in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, only the most devout of Jewish men would make this pilgrimage from some of these distant nations. These are people who obey the law faithfully and reverently, trying their best to abide by the Jewish faith. So, you know, we got these people in the streets. And when the sound occurs, the multitude of people came together, what sound occurred? A little bit of a debate there. Some people say it's the sound of the roaring wind. Some people say they heard them speaking in tongues. I personally believe they heard both. So stay with me here, the streets are full of Jewish pilgrims from many nations. There's most likely shouting in the streets. There's most likely animals banging and crying out as they're steered through the people in the streets. There's potentially people there selling loaves of bread that people can take to the temple and shouting out their wares. And then suddenly the sound of a violent wind comes roaring out of this upper room. And it silences the people in the streets. What on earth is that? We've never heard anything like this before. And it suddenly came out. And what is this? And they're staring up at this upper room. And I have to think that the wind stopped there at some point. And they could hear their languages being spoken. Aren't you from Africa? You understand that? All these different nations. Understanding what they're saying in their own tongue. A true, genuine language, it'd be like me starting to speak German. I don't know German, but it just started roaring out of me. What do you think they were saying? We aren't told here what they were saying. I bet they were hearing the gospel. Somehow, some way, they're bringing them to the gospel. When the roar stops, the people are focused on the upper room, and that's when they begin to hear their own languages being spoken. And it utterly amazes them, as we'll see in future verses, that the speakers are recognized by the people in the street as being Galileans. How could a bunch of uneducated Galileans be speaking in so many different languages? And they had no idea that the true fulfillment of Genesis chapter 12 was taking a big step here. God told Abraham, I will make you a great nation. This word is getting ready to go all across the world. And he told him, and in you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. That blessing is getting ready to go forth to all the nations in the world. And this whole event is considered a reunification of God's people from old. You're all familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel, right? Genesis chapter 11, 7, 9, it says, Come, let us go down. I said I wasn't going to do this, but I am. Let us go down. Us capitalized in your Bible. You start with a capital U. It means God, right? God in plural, more than one. This is what we call the Trinity. Had one of my team managers talking about some of the mechanics that he has on his crew, and he said those three boys are thick as thieves. He said they work. I mean, he said they're just. There's nothing as thick as the Trinity. These three are one. And we have loved ones who participate in churches. They don't believe in the Trinity, they're Jesus only. And you have to speak in tongues to prove you're saved and you go to their services and it's a bunch of hopped up music and running around people gobbling like turkeys and making stuff up at this point, but you get the message. And they don't see the us here. They don't recognize the Trinity. And I don't know how they do that, I don't know how they use a version of the Bible that I would say is good. It teaches the same thing that mine does. And mine teaches me that this us was before time. In fact, they created time. This us created time, the first three words in the Bible says in the beginning, that's when time was created. Before that, there was no time. They were just eternal, had always been and will always be. This us created everything. The earth and everything on it and in it. This us promised us the seed of the woman. This us preserved that seed when Cain killed Abel. This us gave them Seth so that the lineage of Jesus Christ could continue. This us raised the waters that floated the Ark of Noah and at the same time held that Ark together and preserved the life of Noah and the lineage of that seed. This us preserved that seed in Isaac when Abraham and Sarah were old. And promised them you're going to have a child and Sarah even left. Preserve that seed through Isaac, this us destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, this us delivered Joseph out of slavery and imprisonment and made him the second in command of Egypt and saved the Israelites in the famine. This us was in that burning bush we talked about a few minutes ago with Moses. This us produced the plagues that convinced that the Israelites would be released and then we can go one further there and say after they were released, this us parted the Red Sea so they could get away from the armies. They were chasing them down and not only did it provide a way of escape on dry land, after they got across and the armies started coming across, he used that same water to destroy that army so that they couldn't run them down later. This us guided them through the wilderness for 40 years. This us gave them the Ten Commandments. This us instituted all the feasts. It tore down the walls of Jericho. It told Gideon, you got too many people. Your army is too large. Take them to the river and let them drink. And the ones with their heads up, those are the ones you're going to take. Because if you go in there and win with this many people, they won't realize I did it. You take only the ones with their head up. This us anointed a shepherd boy named David, King of Israel. This us allowed David to slay a giant named Goliath. This us made fools out of the prophets of Baal in Elijah's day. This us raised a dead boy to life through Elisha in the Old Testament. This us restored the walls of Jerusalem through DMI. This us stirred up the crowd and they shouted out to Ezra, bring out the books. We need to hear you read us the book. This us used Ezra to save the Jews. This us restored Job after he had been tormented by Satan. This us gave words to the prophet, prophetic words that would come true concerning all kinds of things from end times to our Messiah coming. This us delivered a baby in a manger through a virgin birth. This us was there when Christ was tempted by Satan and delivered him. This us was there at the baptism of Jesus Christ at the hands of John the Baptist. This us lived a perfect life here on this earth because we can't, we're not able to. This us suffered at a beating that should have been mine. They hung him on a cross and he died there and this us produced all that. This us resurrected him. Jesus Christ came out of that tomb. This us lifted him off this earth and during his ascension. This us delivered the Holy Spirit to the apostles. This us took a persecutor of the Christian church. His name was Saul and ripped the scales off of his eyes and he became one of the greatest evangelists that ever lived, if not the greatest. This us is going to return one day and claim his redeemed. And this us is going to take us to a place he's prepared for us. How can you deny this us? Sorry. Let us go down and there confuse their language so that they will not understand one another's language. So Yahweh scattered them there over the face of the whole earth and they stopped building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel. Isn't that the name of some kind of you get on TV, you can order this software and it teaches you how to speak for me, Babel. Therefore, its name was called Babel because there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth. And from there, Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth. So here in Genesis, God takes measures to disperse the people of Shinar all over the entire planet. They're doing the same thing. They want to be like God. They want to be their own God. And they're they're building this tower in this huge city. And they're getting a little too cocky. So let's go down there, just confuse their languages and just make it to where that they have to go all over the world. So their language is no longer one common language, but multiple languages, and they can no longer communicate, they can't even trade, they can't even lodge together. And we still see the effects of this today. There's over 7000 languages in the world today. And the fact that now the various people that the first fruits of the wheat harvest could hear the voices speaking in their own language shows God's reunification of this dispersed people, bringing them back together here in Jerusalem. One body of believers of one accord. Of one mindset through the Holy Spirit. Language is no longer a barrier here in that day, they're going to hear the gospel. So Pentecost is a watershed moment in the history of the church. The day of Pentecost was the moment in redemptive history when God unlocked the power of the Holy Spirit and gave the Holy Spirit to his church, not just for those who were gathered there in that day, but to the church of every age, to every Christian throughout time. That wind and that fire is as much for us today as it was for those gathered in the upper room. Were to be people of the Holy Spirit as well as of the son and of the father. So I beg you, if you're here tonight and you wonder whether the Holy Spirit dwells within your soul or not, my prayer is that salvation will be granted to you this very evening and would urge you to speak to our pastor, Josh or Jason or elder, any of our deacons, myself. And let's have a simple conversation concerning your state of the union with Christ. I thank you for your attention, father, God, most high, thank you for your word and the guidance we receive from it. Thank you that you sent your son to die in our stead and pay the debt we have run up and we have no way to pay it. Thank you for sending the comforter. The helper, the advocate, your Holy Spirit, who will guide us in our walk, if we will, but listen to him. Help us, Lord, to look to you in our times of need, but more importantly, help us to look to you when we don't need a thing. We love you, father, and thank you for all things and ask that you guide each person here home safely and you'll bring us back at the next appointed time. We pray this in Jesus name and all God's children said, amen. Amen.
