Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
In the book of Acts, the author discusses the events of Pentecost and the appearance of the Holy Spirit. The gift of tongues was given to the believers in the upper room, allowing them to speak in various languages. This was a reunification of people who had been scattered due to different languages at the Tower of Babel. The event at Pentecost was temporary and served a specific purpose. The amazement of the crowd was focused on the ability of the Galileans to speak different languages. The message being conveyed was not fully understood at that point. The Galileans were considered culturally backwards, so their ability to speak other languages surprised the audience. The author also mentions that the loss of the common language at Pentecost is not directly connected to the account in Genesis about the Tower of Babel. The event at Pentecost may have provided a temporary common language for all to hear. So, as we look through the book of Acts, as I said earlier, we'll be covering verses seven through fifteen tonight. And last week we discussed the aspects of the Jewish feast called Pentecost. We read about the appearance of the Holy Spirit, how that he appeared in the sound of a rushing or violent wind. We read about how that he appeared in tongues like fire. And this gift of tongues was given to all the 120 in the upper room. We see the gifts of the Holy Spirit being demonstrated in front of the Jews in the street. And we further discuss something of a reunification of the believers in that crowd. And what I'm talking about is, in case you weren't here, at the Tower of Babel, everyone spoke in one language. They became evil, and we see that many times in the Bible. They were seeking to be powerful like God. They were going to build a city to heaven if they could, which I think we all know that they would have got to the ozone layer at some point and run out of air and died. But nonetheless, that's what they tried to do. And God saw in their heart who they were, and he scattered them throughout the world by giving them different languages. They couldn't communicate. They couldn't trade. And this group that had this language ended up going this way, and they were just dispersed and ended up across the nation. And here we have people in the streets that have these various different languages, or some of them. And all of a sudden, we have the believers that were in the upper room speaking, and the people hear them in their own tongues. So there was something of a reunification there in that everyone was understanding what was being said, no matter who they were. And I'll talk a little bit more about that later, but it was here that multiple language were given to these people who had been prevented from communicating easily. And this is something of a reversal of the scenario in Babel. This disunity of the people via various languages is being overcome by a new language of the Holy Spirit, which brings about this new unity amongst these people. It's interesting to note that the Jewish tradition, and you won't find this in your scriptures, so don't dig too hard, but the Jewish tradition maintains that all the people and all the animals spoke the same language. Now, I don't know how much I believe in all that, but I do know of a talking snake that it talked about. So I'm not going to say that that's true. It's just a Jewish traditional teaching. But they hold that the animals lost their participation in that common language at the fall, and man did not lose his until generations later at Babel. We know well that the common language will be restored to all believing people on the last day, because we will know and be known. It's going to be interesting. We say Abraham, and that's going to be someday, right? And he's going to look at you and say, I know you. Interesting. So I've heard a lot to recognize that nowhere does Luke directly connect the loss of this common language here at Pentecost to the Genesis accounting at Babel. Luke does not do that in his writings, and he's really good at pointing out Old Testament scripture that are connected with the things he's saying. So some of this reunification stuff, it's a bit of logic in a sense, and it just fits. It makes sense. This is what's happening. But we have to realize that this is temporary. This is very in the moment. And it doesn't last forever. It doesn't last for days. This is in the moment. So it doesn't make the teaching of reunification wrong, it's just not verified scripturally, I guess is what I'm trying to say. We should also note that this event at Pentecost may have provided one common language for all to hear. In this one occasion, and we see this miracle occurring at specific times, and we only see this miracle occurring when specific understanding is needed throughout the Bible. Anytime you see that the tongues are being used, it's an in the moment thing. It's for then, it's for that time, for that purpose. And then this, for instance, the gift of tongues and languages is obviously used to jumpstart the Great Commission. Now, tonight, I'm going to break this teaching off at verse 15, and if you look at the bold numbers, if your Bible is laid out that way, that may seem like a little bit of an odd place to break this off. But quite honestly, if I go beyond verse 15, I start getting into where Peter is talking about what the prophet Joel has said. And there's not enough time this evening to do justice to all this, so I'm going to break it at 15 and then we'll pick back up at 16 the next time we get together. So if you would please stand, we're going to read Acts 2, 7 through 15. This is the eternal God's word. Verse seven, so they were astonished, they were astounded. Some some translations say marveled, but so they were astounded, marveling, saying, behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans and how is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born? I'm probably going to butcher a few of these names, so bear with me. Parthians, Metis, Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judah and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs, we hear them in our own tongue speaking of the mighty deeds of God. And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocking were saying they are full of new wine. But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, men of Judea and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words, for these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is the third hour of the day. May God bless that reading. We'll have a quick word of prayer. Father, I pray that this evening will be dedicated to you and the worship of you. We seek your leading this evening, Father, remove us out of your way so that your word can come forth to celebrate you, Lord. Thank you one more time for all you do. I don't think we can ever thank you enough. And we pray this in Jesus name and all of God's children said, Amen. You can be seated. So verse seven and eight, so they were astonished and marveling, saying, behold, are not all of these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of them in our own language? There are three points here of this amazement, of this astonishment. I'm using points, did you notice that? There's three points here for the people in the streets of Jerusalem. Point number one, the hearers in the street are more than surprised that a group of people from Israel where locals spoke Aramaic and Greek are suddenly speaking multiple other languages that they know these people have probably never heard, let alone learned. And these languages from all around the known world and the linguistic barriers that have existed for centuries are removed when the Holy Spirit enables these 120 believers to convey God's revelation in numerous languages. These believers are demonstrating to the audience that God can be praised in any language and it is not confined to one language or nation. He's going on to, you know, to show us it transcends all variations of human speech, yet at this point, the audience is simply amazed by the languages being used, but not by the words that are being said. You follow me there? They're amazed that they're speaking Norwegian, French, German, all these different languages that they have in this wide expanse of nations that we're going to read about, and they're just amazed that these people can speak that language. They're not amazed at what's being said at this point. And later on, we'll see this. The actual message that's being spoken isn't observed, and this is confirmed when they ask, how is this possible? How is it that we each hear them in our own language? How is this? So that's point number one, they're amazed that the Galileans. Can speak other languages. How is it that Galileans can do this is something that astonishes them. The people in Galilee have had a bad rap. And there may be truth in it, but this bad rap is placed upon them. Galilee is known as a culturally backwards area. Poverty stricken, uneducated people live there. And this audience is amazed that these simpletons, if you will, such as the Galileans, know more than their native tongues. So let's take just a moment and substantiate that. I don't want you to take my word for it. John, chapter one, verse forty five. John, chapter one, verse forty five. And in these two verses, we have Philip going to find Nathaniel. So Philip finds Nathaniel, he says to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? Is there any good thing that can come out of there? And Philip said to him, come and see. Well, the thing we don't realize is, is that Nazareth is a city in Galilee. So when you ask, is there any good thing can come out of there? That's a reflection to this. In John, chapter seven, and I'm going to turn over here and read this starting with verse forty two, we have an accounting of Nicodemus before the Pharisees. John, chapter seven, verse forty two, has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was. So a division occurred in the crowd because of him, because of them, some of them were wanting to seize him, but no one laid hands on him. And the officers then came out to the chief priest and the Pharisees, and they said to them, why do you not bring him? And the officers answered, never has a man spoken like this. And we're talking about Christ here. And the Pharisees then answered them, have you also been led astray? Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed. And Nicodemus, he who came to him before being one of them, said to them, does our law judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he is doing? And they answered him, are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee and everyone went to his home. So here we have another accounting of when Nicodemus was even minorly defending the works of Christ, the teachings of Christ to the Pharisees, they started making this accusation toward Nicodemus, are you two from Galilee? And you should search and see that no prophets come out of Galilee and their intent here is not to be right or wrong, but to belittle Nicodemus before the crowd and discredit any substance that he may have regarding Jesus Christ. They're using Galilee as a known area where people are less than most due to poverty and lack of education. And then I dug a little further and realized thinking about Galilee and the fact that these people are lesser. Now, let's just turn over the first Corinthians chapter one. For consider your calling, brothers. That there were not many wise, according to the flesh, and not many mighty and not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong and the base things of the world and the despised. God has chosen the things that are not so that he may abolish the things that are so that no flesh may boast before God. What's this saying? He uses the weak, he uses the unpopular. Many times over and over again, how many times did he choose the youngest son instead of the oldest? How many times did he use people that were impoverished? This is God's nature, if you will. This is what he does. So Christ coming from Galilee is just what Jesus, I mean, this is the work of God. This is what he does. And we see it again in Matthew 11. And Jesus says at that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Over and over again, we see this, so that's point number two. They're amazed that uneducated people can speak another language. Later, we will see that they are amazed that the language is being spoken or used to teach the mighty deeds of God. But at this point, we're not there yet, so I will hold off on that. But I feel it's imperative to state that God does not repeatedly grant this miracle of speaking in a foreign tongue in every instance, we find Paul and Barnabas in Acts chapter 14 when they address the people of Lystra, they do not use the people of Lystra's tongue. In fact, I have a hard time finding that they said a whole lot, period. This gift was given at a point in time to be used for a limited amount of time in a particular, for instance, in time, and I know that sounds a little bit like a vice president or something, but using time over and over again. But that's what these gifts were, they were limited, they were temporary and they were used for one purpose. Any teaching declaring that tongues is an essential gift that must be held to be saved, in my opinion, is a heretical teaching, period. So let's ask ourselves how many nations are represented in these verses that we're covering, because verse five says now there were Jews living in Jerusalem. Devout men from every nation under earth. They're in this audience that are amazed and astounded, and now Luke takes the opportunity to explain the expanse of these nations. So we read through verses nine through 11 and all these different nations. And when I first read it, I thought, now, what am I going to do with this? I've got this roll call of nations to go through. But you have to realize that after the Babylonian captivity, not all the Jewish people returned to Palestine, not all of them went back to a land that they they knew was familiar. Some remained in Persian Mesopotamia. There were some deported out of Babylon to Asia Minor during the fourth and third centuries before Christ. Others settled in Egypt, especially around Alexandria. Some traveled to Rome. The Jews resided everywhere in the Roman Empire. There are 15 nations listed in this roll call. And this was spoken by a member of the crowd. This isn't Luke, this isn't Peter, it isn't one of the believers. But one of the people in the crowd is doing this roll call. And this list of nations covers North Africa, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene. And then if you go north and west, it goes all the way to Rome. And you go to Rome and you go southeast, it goes to the Mediterranean island of Crete. And then finally, if you go to the go to the east, it goes all the way to Asia Minor and south of there to Arabia. All of these territories are recorded in the history of having extensive Jewish communities. One item that I didn't cover, verse 10, there's a word there used that's called proselytes. You may or may not know what a proselyte is. A proselyte is someone who was not born a Jew, he's a Gentile, and they have fully converted to Judaism. So when you read proselyte, this is a Jew, but it's not someone who was born a Jew. They have done the conversion outside of birth. So it's at this point that the members of the crowd realize that the believers are speaking of the mighty deeds of God. These believers are likely speaking a wide array of miracles, wars, one prophecies, the Old Testament. And most certainly they're speaking had to contain the gospel of Christ. Life, death, resurrection, ascension, the good news of the gospel has to be wrapped up in there somewhere. And there are base verses that they could have been using. Exodus 15, verse 11, says, Who is like you among the gods, O Yahweh? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, fearsome in praises, working wonders? And Psalm 40, verse 5, is very similar here, and it says, Many, O Yahweh, my God, are the wondrous deeds you have done and your thoughts toward us. There's none that compare with you. I would declare and speak of them, but there are two numbers to recount. It could have been specific teaching. Could have been something about Elijah, could have been something in the Garden of Eden. Many things we can speculate, but we're not told for sure. The only thing I feel certain about is that there was a gospel in there. And they were glorifying God and whatever verses they were using, whatever was being said. And it's at this point that you realize that the gospel is already starting to spread all over the world right here. These people in the streets are from all over the world, every nation under heaven is the verbiage that's used in the verse. Some of these people are going to believe and go home. They're going to take the gospel with them. And that spread to every nation is already starting. And the apostles are probably not 100 yards from the upper room. This is the way the Holy Spirit works. Verse 12 to 13, it says, And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others mocking were saying they're full of new wine. So I'm going to go through some things here, and I need you to understand there are two groups of people here. There are a group of people saying, What does this mean? And then there's a group of people who are mocking, saying they must be drunk. OK, there's two groups of people here. And Luke continues his account of this crowd's reaction by stating that they were astonished and greatly perplexed. The people in the street are unable to explain this mystery, this miracle. Some of them are asking the question, What does it mean? Well, John Calvin stated we should not miss the principal fruit of the miracle expressed in that they are inquiring and thereby declare that they are ready to learn. For otherwise, their amazement and wondering would not have done them any great good. And certainly we must so wonder at the works of God that there must also be a consideration and a desire to understand. And we'll see later in chapter two that many will come to understand and find salvation. The furthering of the church and the gospel of Jesus is the primary objective of these passages. And some of these people are going to be granted the wondrous gift of salvation. And there are still others who will not. And this is the plot of true evangelism. And it's bothered me before. The thought of I'm going to evangelize, share the gospel with this person. What if they say no? What if I'm the only person that tried to share the gospel with them? What if they say no and they reject? And someday at the Great White Throne judgment, it's unveiled. And there I am sharing the gospel with them when they say no. There's a side of evangelism. That is beautiful. People receive the gospel. People are saved. There's a side of evangelism that is necessary, and we cannot shirk our responsibilities there, but it's not nearly as beautiful. It's a beautiful message. But the eternal destination of that person who rejects it, there's nothing beautiful there. So obviously, some of the people in the street are shown to be objectors of the gospel. And boy, they're more than prepared to stand opposed to the advancement of this gospel. Some of this crowd are so lost that they clearly see the majesty of God, the work of the Holy Spirit in this gift of tongues. And it's clear what's going on. But yet they mock Him. They're mocking the people. They're mocking the government. They're mocking the people, they're mocking the gift, they're mocking God. And it seems to me. That there for the for the first time, there appears a motive and it kind of runs through the book of Acts. Without the element of personal faith and experience, even the most profound aspects of God, the aspects of the good news are not self-confirming and they can lead to skepticism and they can lead to rejection. And quite honestly, we see this today. You don't have to go very far out into the community to find people that are so blind, they can see nothing of God's light. You don't have to go out in the community very far to find people that are so deaf that even in the pure presence of God's word, they can't hear it. The simplest reasoning concerning God's word is like it's in a different language. People such as this are certainly in jeopardy of never being granted the salvation of Christ. These people are living a life in the religion of humanism. And the discussions with these people, you'll often find that they readily seem to admit, well, yeah, there's a God. Yeah. Well, I went to church when I was a kid. I heard all about it. But they have no reverence for God. They do not revere him for being the creator. Their sole concern is for themselves, right? I mean, when we think about it commonly, they feel as though they are good people and really don't have any worries when it comes to the afterlife, to the day of judgment, to the white throne judgment. They don't feel like they have any worries here. And it's for these, we must pray for the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit to come upon them. A verse that I'm very fond of, and I know I've used it here before. In 1 Peter 3, 15, it states that we must always be ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and fear. This is a very evangelistic, apologetic verse. And hidden within these verses, there's a directive here. There's a directive to each of us that we must live our lives in such a way that causes someone lost to ask us this question. And it took me a while to realize that that has had an impact on me. You have to be an example, right? No matter what the trials we're going through, we still have to be the example. The verses just before this is all about the suffering of the believer. Rejectors in the world are commonplace, and we should be prepared to direct them to the cross. When we look at the book of Acts, rejection oftentimes comes with ridicule, and it'll go from ridicule to questioning and threats. Chapter 4, verse 7. And as though that's not enough, it may come to imprisonment, the person who shares the gospel. Chapter 5, verse 18. And then things can escalate to be even worse, to where that you're beaten, beaten, strapped is a word that is used in some of the translations with a whip. And worse. And it can go all the way to murder. Chapter 7, verse 58. And we may ask yourself, why is this the case? Well, John 15, verse 18. And you all have heard this before, we're informed by Jesus himself that if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. And the fact that the world can hate Jesus in his teaching of love and hope and salvation just speaks volumes in regards to man's fallen state. What did he ever say or do for it to be necessary for him to be hung on a cross? He was found guilty in a kangaroo court and hung on that cross. He did this willingly. This was done to fulfill scripture. It was done to bring about salvation. I get it. But what right did they have to hate him? What did he ever do? He told them the truth and the truth they didn't want to hear. In order for the Christian to understand how one could reject open, miraculous God activity, you have to understand the doctrine of total depravity. Here I am going to get a little bit Calvinistic on you. But this doctrine of total depravity teaches that the unregenerate man has inherent corruption, original sin from the fall in the Garden of Eden, and this corruption extends to every part of man's nature. This includes the faculties, it includes all the powers of your soul and your body. It leads to admission that there is no spiritual good, no good in relation to God, no spiritual good in the center at all. There's only perversion within man's sinful state. And what is meant by total depravity? So I dug out an old book I had on the shelf by Morton Smith and here I am on points again. I'm sorry, but I got five points for you. Man's apostasy and I'm just going to read this man's apostasy from God is complete with the fall in the Garden of Eden. God demands perfect obedience and Adam became a rebel. He was a rebel to God. This state has been passed down from generation to generation until today we suffer from the same condition. Point number two, the favor in communion with God as it was in the garden, the soul condition of true spiritual life has been withdrawn. Point three, a schism was introduced into the soul of man, the painful reproaches of conscience were excited and can never be allayed without an atonement. This led to fear of God, distrust, prevarication and by necessary consequence to innumerable other sins. And from these three points, you find point four that we confirm that the whole nature of man has become depraved, understanding that God's grace does prevent us from being as depraved as we possibly could be, but we still are that number that none are righteous, no, not one. The will is now at war with the conscience, the conscience pleads for following God's law because it's written upon every man's heart. The will stands opposed. An understanding of spiritual things becomes dark and the conscience becomes seared as the will takes over and the appetites of the body are inordinate, its members are instruments of unrighteousness. And lastly, he goes on to say there remained in man's nature, no recuperative principle. He must go on from one evil deed to another unless God interposes. Truly, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So the depravity man is all inclusive of all mankind descending from Adam. Ephesians four, 17 to 19, and I'll read it for you, don't have to turn there. This is therefore this, I say, and testify in the Lord that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their heart. And they haven't become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for practices of every kind of impurity with greediness. And I want you to notice something here at the very end of this verse. Every kind of impurity says every kind of sin, right? And they're doing it greedily. They're doing it selfishly. How could you make every sin out there worse? You do it selfishly with greediness. Romans one, 21 through 25 supports this with for even though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened, professing to be wise. They became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image and the likeness of corruptible man and the birds and four foot animals and crawling creatures. Therefore, God gave them over in their lust of their hearts to impurity, that word again, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. So a lot of this talk about idolatry. I'm not sure how far we would have to drive to find a Buddhist temple, but it's probably not as far as we would like for it to be. But we could go to a Buddhist temple and find statues that are images of some God that they worship. And that's kind of what's being talked about here. But idolatry has changed. The idolatry of today has many different images than it did in what's being discussed here. Idolatry today, it involves self. The primary types of idols in this day. How many people do you know that are worshiping their home? How many people, you know, that worship their cars, their children? Fame, power and prestige. I want to be that person. These are many of the idols we see today. Romans 3, 10 through 12 reads, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands. There's none who seek God. All have turned aside together. They've become worthless. There's none who does good. There's not even one. This verse very clearly captures man's state without God very clearly. And we are dead in our trespasses and sin. And therefore, we need a Savior. And that Savior came in Jesus Christ. The members of the crowd ridiculing that the believers are drunk comes from their state of their heart. I could probably go on for a good period of time teaching about the various aspects of man's depravity. But I think this probably provides a good overview of why we believe what we believe. And I'm not a huge fan of Friedrich Nietzsche in any way that even he was able to recognize when he stated, for thus you speak, real are we entirely without belief or superstition, and thus we stick our chest out, but alas, we're hollow. Many people wandering out there today are hollow. They have a void in their soul. And they're trying to fill it with so many things out here in this world. And there's only one thing that's going to fill it. And that's the same Holy Spirit we're reading about right here. Belief in Jesus Christ is the only thing that's going to fill that hole in their soul. It seems that many people have a regard for health and they live a long time, but pursuing Christ is too risky. It's too risky in regards to their accomplishments and their success in life. Working for Christ's dominion, it's too burdensome. Get your pencils ready, okay? I'm going to try and impress you here. Francis Fukuyama calls this condition megalothymia, M-E-G-A-L-O-T-H-Y-M-I-A. It's a condition of one who strives for superior status, even to a tyrannical end. It has an extended passion for a higher life. Everything is set aside to promote oneself as being of a higher class. Transgenderism is taking people from being in a classified health condition of gender dysphoria to being examples that we're supposed to look up to. Why would one publicly present themselves in this manner? The door has been opened for a person who has indwelling shame to become a person of prestige, to become a person of notoriety. And they're almost taking revenge against the people they feel like has been keeping them down when they're guilty of keeping themselves down. They're guilty of not believing in Jesus Christ. They're guilty by not being saved. And I don't just want to pick on one group of people because it's real easy to pick out some sin you're not guilty of. This is applied to any obsession that rules one's life and prevents a relationship with God. It could be your boat. It could be your motorcycle. It could be your dog. It could be anything. And it kind of struck me that it really seems like having your best life now fits in a lot of different teachings, a lot of different beliefs. We'll move on here and want to go back to the ridicule from the crowd. Verse 14 and 15. But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is the third hour of the day. So in earlier days, the multitudes came to Christ. And now we see multitudes coming to the apostles. Peter realizes that the task of being a leader belongs to him. So in the face of the crowd, he stands and faces thousands of Jews in the street. He confidently and boldly addresses them. There is no doubt. There is no hesitation. And yes, this is the same Peter who denied the cross before a servant girl. The very same one. The presence of the other eleven apostles standing with him conveys to the crowd that Peter speaks on their behalf. And the twelve are prepared to die for their belief in Christ as the Messiah. We think about the lives of the apostles. If we look at the historical recordings, every one of them died as a martyr, executed with the exception of John. Every one of them died deaths, brutal deaths. Torturous deaths. And I think almost every one of them had the opportunity to reconnect with their lives almost every one of them had the opportunity to recant Christ and their belief in Christ. And if they would recant, they would be spared their life. None of them did. Not one. No, not one. If there had been any doubt as to whether there was truth here or not, you've got to believe that one out of those twelve, if you count Paul, you say 13. You've got to believe that one of them would have recanted to save his life. If there was any doubt whether the story, whether Christianity is true or not, you've got to believe that one of them would have recanted when he laid on that table or he hung on that cross or before they lit that fire. You've got to believe that one of them would have. None did. Not one. So the verb used here for declared to them is rightly understood to mean speak seriously to speak with gravity. And then Peter goes on to say, give heed to my words. What is he saying there? He's saying, listen to me. And once again, this is an exposition of Peter expressing his confidence, boldness, no hesitation, no equivocation in his heart. He's speaking with no lack of certainty, implying urgency on the behalf of the audience. And we've talked about the change in the apostles that we've seen here in just a few verses. It continues to occur. The Holy Spirit is working within them, and it almost appears that with the indwelling Holy Spirit in them, it almost makes it seem easy and natural. But don't don't be fooled. There will be tests to come that will change that perception some. Not everything is easy. That's why the word persevere is in here to persevere to the end. But there will be tests coming that is going to make it clear that they stood their ground and it wasn't easy. And I find it interesting, and I'm getting ready to wrap up here and find it interesting that Peter got these guys in there, they're just drunk and Peter does not push these scoffers very far. He simply pacifies them, if you will. With his explanation, these believers are not drunk, he states, it's entirely too early for such as that it's nine o'clock in the morning, nobody's drunk at nine o'clock in the morning. Well, nine o'clock in the morning was a customary hour of prayer for the Jews, and they typically wouldn't eat or drink until somewhere in the neighborhood of 10. But Peter doesn't want to waste time defending his people. But Peter doesn't want to waste time defending his people's sobriety because he's got a gospel to preach. He has souls to save and he has the kingdom work to do. So in closing, the points of emphasis that Luke is expounding in his treatment of the Pentecost, the church has now been empowered for its mission through the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Just as Pentecost was a festival of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, many of these people in the street are going to be the first fruits of the harvest of the Holy Spirit. And the spiritual harvest did not culminate at Pentecost, it's only begun there. And like a stone thrown into the lake, it's going to be ripples ever widening and spreading and going. So the New Testament church begins with 120 who wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit and when he comes, he opens the floodgates by addressing Jews from every nation under heaven. And God's truth is no longer confined to the city of Jerusalem or the nation of the Jews, but it spreads worldwide. And all the different languages of these nations, the Holy Spirit through the mouths of the believers present a message of the wonders of God. To all the people in the streets. And whether they believed or not, they heard it. They heard the message. And Peter will not be using different programs, methods and approaches and there's not a whole lot of, there's no choreography here, there's no built-in dramas, I didn't notice any hip-hop music or secular psychology. You know, no management techniques that I've read about through the years and really weren't even really any advertising strategies here. And Peter is yet to show any concern around having a better life here on earth, because he's concerned about the eternal life. He's concerned about the gospel and nothing but the gospel. So I beg you, we here at Shepherd's Rock Bible Church, most of us are here for the gospel. So I beg you, we here at Shepherd's Rock Bible Church must adhere to the truths of Christ's gospel, not only in our bylaws, not only in our teaching, but as well as in our lives away from the church. And I urge you this evening to weigh your own status with Christ, your union with him and his gospel. I urge you to increase your walk regarding many aspects, try and read a little more, pray a little more, study a little more. Apply to your life a little more. Growing in Christ is a good thing. That's what we're supposed to do. And I urge you to remember that we have elders and deacons here. If you have any questions, any problems arise, feel free, ask away. That's why they're here. And if you find yourself tonight lost and questioning your salvation, I pray that salvation will be granted to you this very evening. And if you need to talk to someone about that, please, more than willing, I know that the deacons and elders are. Let's have those conversations. Holy Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you will use what has been taught tonight to bring us closer to you. And we pray that we may be able to apply your word to our lives more and more. Lord, I ask that you use this church to bring your kingdom to this community, this city and beyond. And I pray that you will bless each family represented here tonight. Father, please deliver us all home safely. Please bring us back at your next appointed time. And I pray this in the name of Jesus. All God's children said, amen. Thank you very much.
