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PENTECOST AND THE ROLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Acts 2:1-4
Bob Bonner
February 28, 2010
If we were to take a poll in which everyone of you were able to answer honestly the following questions without fear of being embarrassed by others knowing how you answered, many of you, and unfortunately many in the churches across our country as well, would answer in the following manner:
Has your passion to know Christ above everything else grown cold? Yes.
Would you describe your prayer life as something important to you, evidenced by the amount of time you spend praying for yourself and others? No.
Do you have a strong desire to personally study or read your Bible? No.
Do you regularly wrestle with unbelief? Yes.
Are you experiencing more victory than failure over temptations in your life? No.
Are you battling with an ongoing critical spirit or jealousy or worry or aimlessness or hopelessness or frustration? Yes.
Are you excited about or interested in telling others about Jesus Christ? No
From time to time, all of us have experienced one or two of these things and on certain days may answer a question or two this way. In this poll, I’m not referring to those once-in-a-while experiences, but rather as a whole, as a general description of your life, do you answer four or more of these questions this way?
As I understand what the word of God teaches, I don’t believe this is what God has intended for the Christian. In some cases, these types of answers reveal that the individual has never committed his or her life to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In other words, some who answer the questions this way are not saved.
In other cases, these individuals are saved, but either because of ignorance about the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives or because of an ongoing sin or present rebellion against God, they are not experiencing the joy of the Lord or the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit. They are living their lives as though, historically, Acts 2 never occurred in the redemptive plan of God--as though Christ’s promise of indwelling power from the third person of the trinity, the Holy Spirit, never was given.
In Acts 2, we are embarking on a study of an amazing passage of Scripture that documents the coming of and the beginning of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life. My goal in studying this chapter with you today and in the weeks to come is to help you fan to life the coals that have been buried in the ashes of your failure. I want you to realize that the Holy Spirit is your Helper and the one Who waits for you to let Him bring you to life. That is why it is so important for us to find the answers to the following questions.
What exactly happened at Pentecost?
What has been and presently is the role of the Holy Spirit in the world today?
What is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit? What is the Filling of the Holy Spirit?
And finally, what is the relationship between the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and the Filling of the Holy Spirit?
Some of this may seem a bit dry, but please stay with me. This morning we are pouring the cement slab from which were going to build the Taj Mahal in the coming weeks! Or maybe I should say, the text we are looking at today is God’s slab for building up His church. Today our goal is to look at and answer just the first two of these questions.
The second chapter of Acts marks a turning point in the history of God’s kingdom. A new phase of His redemptive plan for the human race unfolds as the church is born. The coming of the promised Holy Spirit marks the birth of the church and the beginning of this new phase of God’s plan of redemption for our lives. As we move from Acts 1 to Acts 2, notice the following comparison of the information covered in both of these chapters.
In Acts 1, Jesus Christ made a promise that the Holy Spirit was about to come in a very unique way. Back in John 16:7, about eight weeks prior to this event, Jesus promised that He would send His Holy Spirit to help them. Then about six weeks after His resurrection, Jesus left, and ten days later, on the day of the celebration of Pentecost, that promise of His sending His Spirit was fulfilled.
Back in Acts 1, Jesus told the disciples to return to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit’s imminent coming. During the next ten days of waiting in Jerusalem, the eleven disciples and others talked about Jesus and His teachings, they searched the Old Testament scriptures together, they prayed together, and they worshiped and praised God in the temple together. As a result, a feeling of unity and expectancy came over them. They were freed from the petty jealousies and personal rivalries that had at times disrupted their fellowship. Typical rivalries of the times which brought divisiveness were embodied in the sects of the Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots, Herodians, and the Samaritans. And then, even though they were expecting Him, we will read in a moment that they were still surprised at either the Holy Spirit’s coming or the manner of His coming or both.
In Acts 1, Jesus commissioned the twelve. In Acts 2, Jesus empowered the disciples to get their job done.
In Acts 1, Jesus held back the disciples. He told them to return to Jerusalem to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2, the Spirit came, and now they were sent forth with the Gospel.
In chapter one the Savior ascends, and in chapter two the Spirit Descends.
So you see, chapter 2 of Acts marks a whole new beginning in the lives of those who chose to follow Jesus Christ. In a dark world, this day brought them hope and courage to face their future.
Having set the contextual table, let’s read and look at together just the first four verses of Acts 2. Luke writes:
1When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one
place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent
rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves,
and they rested on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was
giving them utterance.
If we are going to understand this particular feast of Pentecost and why it was so unique, we must first understand how this feast came to be and what it commemorated. The word “Pentecost” means “fiftieth.” It is the New Testament name for what we read about in Exodus 34:16-23, “The Feast of Weeks,” or Harvest, which was celebrated fifty days after another Jewish feast, Passover.
It’s important to understand that God intended there to be a link between Passover and other Jewish feasts that followed Passover. To be specific, the Holy Spirit’s coming on the day of Pentecost was not an accident. The fact that the feast of Pentecost follows a logical order of the two religious feasts that precede it was meant to teach us a lesson. According to Leviticus 23, there are five feasts mentioned. For the purposes of our study, I want us to look at just the relationship between the first three feasts.
The first feast mentioned is Passover, which pictured the future killing of the final “Passover Lamb,” Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 5:7)
A second feast was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, celebrated the day after Passover, which would have been Resurrection Sunday. During that feast, the offering of the first fruits of the grain harvest was made. According 1 Corinthians 15:20, this feast pictured the resurrection of Christ, “the first fruits of those who are asleep.”
The third feast, fifty days after Passover, was that of Pentecost, also known as the Feast of the Harvest. Another offering or pledge of first fruits was made at that time. According to 2 Corinthians 5:5 and Ephesians 1:13-14, the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost as God’s first fruits to us. As God’s first fruits to us, His Holy Spirit’s coming is God’s pledge for more to come by way of the believer’s future inheritance. In other words, the promise and coming of the Holy Spirit is God’s down payment or pledge of great things to come for those who know Christ.
Hence, the fact that God was following His preordained pattern of feasts supports the understanding that the Spirit’s coming was not induced by men’s actions such as praying, fasting, withdrawing, or being of one mind. The Holy Spirit was going to come regardless of our actions, just as Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection were supernaturally ordained by God to happen at His will and perfect timing.
In addition, you might be interested to know that Pentecost was one of three major feasts of the Jewish calendar which all the Hebrew males were expected to celebrate in Jerusalem. So a huge number of non-resident Jews were in Jerusalem during Pentecost. According the Jewish historian Josephus, the city of Jerusalem (which normally had a population of 50,000) would often be swollen in numbers to well over a million. It was to this multitude of Jews that the miracle of Pentecost was directed.
We also read in verse 1, “They were all in one place.” Most commentators agree that this one place was probably the same private dwelling mentioned in Acts 1:13, that being the upper room where Christ and His disciples had met on a number of previous occasions. There is a question as to whether the “they” refers to just the twelve or the 120 disciples mentioned in Acts 1:15. Without having been there, there is no real way from the information given in the text to know for sure. It’s my sense that there were probably 120 disciples in this place fellowshipping with one another and later preaching Christ to the thousands in the Temple in their own languages.
In verse 2 Luke tells us that the following events took place “suddenly,” a word in Greek that emphasizes the element of surprise. Even though the believers knew the Spirit’s coming to be imminent, they were nevertheless caught by surprise. The same will be true when the Lord returns to earth in His second coming. Believers will know from the signs that His coming is near, yet He will still come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night. That word “suddenly” not only points to the surprise of the timing of the event, but to those unexpected dramatic signs that accompanied the Spirit’s coming. When you look at verses 2-4, you see that the events following this baptism that Christ promised in 1:5 are accompanied by three miraculous signs. Two are audible and one is visible.
A. T. Robertson, a Greek scholar, explains that the word for “noise” describes “an echoing sound as of a mighty wind borne violently.” It wasn’t wind, but it sounded like the rushing of the wind. That which was remarkable about this event was the sound without the wind. If there had been wind, it would have been mentioned, and the sound would have been quite unremarkable. But with no storm, no wind, no lightening or thunder, this sound of a mighty wind was stunning. Chuck Swindoll suggests that it was like the deep, deafening roar of a Boeing 747 at take-off. It came from inside the house, but others could hear it outside, hence their coming to the house to find out what was going on. The fact that those who were gathered were “sitting” indicates that they were not praying at that moment, for the position of prayer during that time was either kneeling or standing.
The second unique event that marked this baptism or coming of the Holy Spirit was the visible sign of the “tongues of fire” that rested only on those who were at that place, sitting in that room. This fact supports the idea of one unique, never to be repeated Pentecost. Furthermore, the fact that they were surprised by this event and that it took place on all who were in that place affirms that this was the result of the sovereign work of God on all of them collectively, not something that they sought after individually. The “filling of the Spirit,” something different than the baptism of the Spirit, which we will look at closely in a couple of weeks, would from this point forth come upon all believers. But for these, the baptism of the Spirit and the filling were a simultaneous event.
In verse 4 we note the second audible sign, the third sign in all. It was the hearing of each other speak and the understanding of previously unlearned foreign languages. As you look at this verse, keep in mind they were, at first, only speaking to each other in the room. Only when we come to 2:5 do others show up and observe these disciples speaking to them in foreign languages. Some who heard them speaking these languages thought them to be drunk. But they were quickly corrected by those from the foreign lands whose languages they were speaking.
There has been much dispute in the past one hundred years over what is meant by “to speak with other tongues.” We will look at this more in weeks to come, but we will not be doing an exhaustive study on it today. Suffice it to say that even the Assembly of God’s leading theologian, Gordon Fee, agrees after a close examination of this text, that the tongues mentioned here are not some ecstatic utterance or angelic tongue or prayer language that some suggest is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12-14. But rather, the mentioning of tongues in this chapter clearly refers to the miraculous ability to suddenly be able to speak and understand a foreign language once unknown to the speaker.
There is one more observation that needs to be made about this particular event of Pentecost, and that is that it is not repeatable. The events that took place on this Pentecost are no more repeatable than the Passover, crucifixion, the first fruits resurrection, or the ascension of Christ. This particular Pentecost experience when God birthed the church can never be done again. When we study in two weeks the Baptism of the Spirit and how it relates to the filling of the Spirit, you will understand more clearly why this baptism is a one-time, unrepeatable event.
To those who would like us to believe that this baptism of the Spirit is repeatable today, I raise several questions:
Where is there another record of these three signs taking place altogether or even individually?
Where is there another record of the sound of a 747 taking off, but with no wind?
Where are the visible tongues of fire suddenly dancing on a large group of people?
Where are those 120 people together in a crowd of foreigners, able to suddenly speak and understand the foreigners’ various languages?
In my research, I have found no such other event in history in which all of these events have taken place. This was clearly a very unique event signaling God’s initiation of an entirely new era in His redemptive plan. Furthermore, you will see that understanding the role of the Holy Spirit from this point in history forward is critical to your walk with Christ. It is critical to your experiencing spiritual life today, rather than existence. It is the key to contentment when life doesn’t turn out the way you expected.
If you really want to grasp the importance and uniqueness of the Holy Spirit’s coming, or what is called “the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” you need to distinguish the difference between the Old Testament ministry of the Holy Spirit and the New Testament ministry of the Holy Spirit following Pentecost.
In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came and left individuals. He never came to permanently empower or direct or help others. For the most part, it was up to an individual’s personal self-discipline to live righteously. This led many during the Old Testament times to the incorrect belief that one could earn or maintain God’s approval through their performance rather than through faith in what God had provided in the sacrificial system. Knowing that before his salvation, the Apostle Paul thought he could earn God’s favor based upon his performance, we can better understand what Paul later had to say about this practice of trying to perform or earn God’s favor by righteous living. In 2 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul instructs us that trying to live up to the Law, trying to earn God’s approval based upon personal righteous living according to rules, “kills” you. And by “kill” he means it causes you to live in defeat and depression and hopelessness as a direct result of always failing no matter how hard you try to perform well. In Romans 7, in Paul’s own testimony, it was this personal failure, this dying inside as a result of not being able to defeat the sin of covetousness in his own life that brought him to the realization of his own spiritual death. In contrast to this, in 2 Corinthians 3 Paul teaches us that it is the Holy Spirit that gives life and power and transforms our lives. We no longer are left here to merely exist in our defeat, but we can live with hope, growth, and acceptance from God. We can, as well, when we live as Spirit-filled Christians, experience the forgiveness of God, His approval based upon the work of Jesus Christ, and the transforming power of the Spirit.
After Old Testament saints had finished their work, or if they refused to obey God, or if they used their position for personal gain, the Spirit could then be withdrawn from them. This was true of Balaam, Sampson, and King Saul. At times like that, they were left to fend for themselves.
In Old Testament times, the Holy Spirit came upon certain individuals to equip and prepare them for a special service or a unique event or to perform an official duty. For instance, the Spirit of God empowered a weak, frightened Gideon so that, armed with nothing more that torches, pots, and horns, he won the trust of 300 men and went to war against 135,000 enemy soldiers. And he was victorious! This same Spirit came upon Elisha, who held the office of a prophet, to speak forth the truth of God and to perform miracles so that people would recognize that he was God’s spokesperson.
Furthermore, simply because the Spirit came upon a person did not necessarily mean that they were believers or even saved. Such was the case of one pagan deliverer that God used to rescue Israel during the period of the Judges. His name was Shamgar and his entire story is but a by-line in Judges 3:31.
Different than the Old Testament’s temporary moving of the Spirit on only certain individuals, the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is a permanent abiding in all who put their confidence in the finished work of the Savior, Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, God’s Holy Spirit never leaves you. He dwells in or abides in all believers and is there to enable and empower all who submit to His leading in their lives. The Holy Spirit effects the transformation of a person’s life. The Holy Spirit enables us to have victory and freedom from those sins and habits that enslave us.
Jesus foretold of this coming New Testament ministry of the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17. Jesus spoke these words just about two months before Pentecost. At that time, the Holy Spirit was merely with Christ’s disciples, in the same way that His Spirit had always been with others in the Old Testament. When Jesus spoke the words of John 14:16-17, the Holy Spirit was not permanently indwelling the disciples. Let’s look exactly at what Jesus says, paying particular attention to His last words. Jesus says, “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper (the Spirit]), that He may be with you forever.” Notice, this is the first time the Spirit is ever said to be with someone forever. This is a new concept for the disciples. So Jesus goes on to further explain what He means. “That is, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides (presently) with you and will be (in the future) in you.” Jesus makes it clear that presently the Spirit is “with” them, but sometime in the future, He “will be in you.” And that “will be in you” will be “forever.” And approximately two months later, this major change in the role of the Holy Spirit took place at the baptism of the Spirit at Pentecost.
So, what exactly happened at Pentecost? What has been and presently is the role of the Holy Spirit in the world today? In short, a brand new era of hope and life based upon the transforming power of the Holy Spirit began at Pentecost. This experience previously had never been known on a permanent basis by any human being. As a result of that day, God has gifted you who know Jesus Christ with the very power of His Spirit to grow, to change, and to experience a new life of hope in Christ.
Long ago, I left behind the idea that if it is going to be, it is solely up to me. In its place, God has offered those of us who have put our trust in Christ a supernatural life lived out in the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. And that new life, that supernaturally powered life, is what God’s Word calls the Spirit-controlled or Spirit-filled life, which we will look at next time. Different than the baptism of the spirit, living the Spirit-empowered, Spirit-controlled, Spirit-filled life is not automatic. It requires a choice on your part. And we will explain how that works in a couple of weeks.
But for you who don’t know Christ, this new life of hope, forgiveness, and change all begins with committing your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
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