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WHAT IT TAKES TO TURN A NATION TO CHRIST
Acts 2:5-13; Isaiah 28
Bob Bonner
March 28, 2010
There is no question that the early founders of our country made it their goal to birth this nation on the solid foundation of the worship of Jesus Christ. Recently, I watched three excellent sections of The Truth Project that leaves no doubt of this fact. From the middle of the 1700s through the early 1900s, the United States of America was probably the most outwardly committed Christian country in the world. Certainly we were the leading country for sending out missionaries into the rest of the world for the sole purpose of telling others about Jesus Christ. During that era, the church in America was committed to fulfilling Christ’s great commission found in Acts 1:8, to be His witnesses “to the uttermost part of the earth.”
However, for some time this has not been our country’s standing in the world. As recently as the mid 1980s, another country has taken over the lead for being known as the most Christian nation in the world. Today, this relatively small country leads the world in its missionary outreach. In fact, presently it is sending Christian missionaries to our country to preach the Gospel to our people. That country is South Korea.
I was in seminary with a couple of Koreans who came to this country for higher Christian education, and I learned their reasons for sending missionaries to our country. Humbly they would state two reasons beyond the Biblical mandate to preach the gospel to the whole world. The first is that they are grateful to us for having sent missionaries to their country in the past to share the Gospel with them. After World War II and the Korean War, the Gospel gave them hope and an eternal perspective on what is most important in life.
But after living in our country for only a short time, many were shocked to see first hand that this once great Christian nation of ours, and more specifically the Christians themselves, had turned their backs on God and their previously deeply held commitment to serve Jesus Christ with all of their heart, soul, and mind. The South Koreans became painfully aware even before we did, that we who had sacrificed so much to come to them with the Gospel now needed their help. They recognized that our country was in deep need of revival. Hence in droves, South Koreans are sending missionaries back to our country to reach others for Christ and to challenge the milk toast Christians to recommit their lives to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
In light of this, as we continue in our study of Acts and observe how God dealt with the nation of Israel, I challenge you to keep in the back of your minds the following questions: “Could it be possible that God would forsake the United States of America?” “What will it take for revival to be realized among the Christians who are already here?” “What will it take for our nation to return to the Lord?” As we consider our texts for this morning, I hope to show you how the lessons learned from Israel’s past and present history give us answers to these questions.
When we come to the New Testament, we find a Jewish nation that has strayed far away from following after God. Oh, they were Jewishly religious, but as a nation, they had no heart for God.
To more fully appreciate the setting for our next section of study in Acts 2:5-13, we need to go back in Israel’s history, to Isaiah 28, to see the prophetic promise that was being fulfilled in Acts 2. Like Acts 2, Isaiah 28 relates a time in which the spiritual leaders of Israel had turned their backs on God. In the interest of time, we will not read the entire chapter, but I ask you to turn there and note with me some of the highlights that give us a feeling for why God said what He does to Israel at that time in its history, and how what He said then has significance in the life of the Jews as we meet them in Acts 2.
This chapter was written just before God used the evil gentile nation of Assyria as His rod of discipline in the rebellious nation of Israel’s life. God removed His protective hand from Israel and allowed their evil, pagan enemies, the Assyrians, to wipe out the northern half of Israel, that is, ten of the twelve tribes, for having turned their backs on God. Within this historical and immediately to be fulfilled prophecy, there was a second future fulfillment that would take place during the first century when Rome, likewise, was used by God to discipline the wayward nation in AD 70. We know that this prophecy had a two-fold fulfillment, both earlier and later, because the Apostle Paul refers to its second fulfillment in 1 Corinthians 14:21.
God’s message in Isaiah 28 is primarily aimed at the religious leadership in Israel at that time. Throughout this chapter they are painted as men who are more interested in partying and being drunk than they are in spiritually leading their people by example so that they will follow after the Lord. In the first eight verses of this chapter, God makes six references to just one area of this leadership’s ungodly failures. It is the failure of being drunks. I don’t mean that they were merely drinking alcoholic beverages, but rather it speaks of them being stone drunk, falling all over themselves and wallowing in the vomit that often follows the abuse of alcohol.
In response to Isaiah’s and other prophets’ preaching against this and other ungodly activities of their leadership, these unqualified “leaders” respond in verses 9-10 with the following mocking words aimed at Isaiah and the other prophets. They say. “To whom would He [meaning God] teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?” In other words, these arrogant Jewish leaders who believe themselves to be spiritually mature and a notch above the prophets, mock Isaiah and the other prophets, calling them immature babies as it concerns the spiritual things of God. The implication is that God would never work through such inexperienced or unwise men in the ways of the world as these.
Their next three words need to be explained. “For He says . . .” In the original language, the words “He says” are not there. When certain translators include them here, as though God were speaking, they mislead one in understanding the text. God is not the one speaking here, but He is later in verse 13, copying their words for a reason. These words are a continuation of the ungodly leaders’ mockingly saying these things as if they were Isaiah and the other prophets. This verse would be better understood if it were read, “For Isaiah and his cronies say, “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there.’” This quotation is a Hebrew limerick that is purposely made to sound childish. In other words, these ungodly leaders are mocking Isaiah and the other godly prophets of his day for preaching like immature grammar school children who can only recite nursery rhymes. In short, these leaders are inferring, “You are babbling like school children who recite nursery rhymes as though truth or life can be that simple. You are not saying anything that is spiritually significant or sophisticated. When you grow up and become as spiritually mature as we are, you won’t be so black and white or hard and fast about God’s precepts. You will see that life is much more complex than your hard and fast rules. You will learn that when God says ‘no,’ He does not always mean ‘no.’” Ironically, as history later proves out, these very leaders were the spiritual babes, while the prophets were the godly mature saints.
In response to the ungodly leaders’ mockery of His prophets, God speaks up with a prophetic message that begins with verse 11 and finishes with verse 22. In verse 11 God gives these leaders and the future Jewish leaders of the first century a sign of coming judgment. Please note: this is not a sign of blessing to Israel, but a sign of coming judgment and rebuke. The reality of this being a sign of judgment in Acts 2 is supported by Peter’s subsequent sermon. In that sermon, Peter quotes from the prophet Joel, whose entire book’s message is on the coming judgment against Israel. Likewise, Peter’s sermon is a warning for individuals to repent, based on Joel’s prophetic message of judgment.
The prophet Isaiah writes, “Indeed, He [God] will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue.” In other words God is saying, “So you foolish leaders want to talk about babbling! Well, I’m going to give you some real babbling.” The expression “stammering lips and a foreign tongue” is a Hebrew parallelism describing foreign languages that don’t make sense to the Jews. To these ungodly Jewish leaders, the foreign languages will make as much sense to them as the babbling of an infant trying to talk. In the immediate prophetic historical context, this prophecy referred to the non-Hebrew language of the Assyrians who were about to attack and defeat Israel. Later in the first century, the Acts 2 tongues will refer to another coming prophetic judgment upon Israel. In this case, it will be that God will temporarily turn away from nation of Israel and work with the church, which will be made up of foreign-tongued gentiles as well as Jews.
From verse 13 down to Isaiah 28:22, God prophecies His near-coming judgment upon Israel by their destruction at the hands of the Assyrians. But in the very middle of this prophetic judgment, God points to a way of hope that eventually finds its fulfillment in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. In fact, it is a veiled reference to the Gospel. Look at verses 16-17 which read:
16Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a
stone, a tested stone, a costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly
placed. He who believes in it [relies upon it] will not be disturbed [or
“stricken with panic” TNIV]. 17I will make justice the measuring line and
righteousness the level.”
This is a reference to the righteous life that Jesus will live on earth, which will set such a perfect measuring line of righteousness that everyone else will appear crooked or evil in comparison. Obviously, this is a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ as the chief and “costly cornerstone” Who would be the key to Israel’s future as their Messiah and King. This future prophecy was fulfilled in Christ and will be completely fulfilled when He returns to earth to rule as King over His Millennial Kingdom.
Sure enough, God’s prophecies from Isaiah have come true, both in their near and far prophetic fulfillment. In the near fulfillment, Assyria came in at God’s discretion and wiped out the northern half of Israel. Fast forward to the first century, and we have the later and second fulfillment of this prophecy. There were then the same arrogant type of Jewish leadership at the helm in Jerusalem. These leaders led the people to reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah and subsequently had Him, the “costly cornerstone,” like the prophets of old, murdered. And once again, God brought in gentile languages as a sign of God’s coming judgment against Israel for rejecting their King, Jesus Christ. Once again, God disciplined the nation of Israel and put them temporarily in the corner. In the meantime, God works through the church.
Once more, as God did not totally reject the Jews back then and maintained a faithful remnant, so He would call to Himself a faithful remnant of Jews who would believe the Gospel and put their faith in Christ as a result of Peter’s preaching on Pentecost in Acts 2.
Now, let’s return to our passage of study in Acts 2. Because the scene takes place on Pentecost in Jerusalem, it is important to remember that Jewish pilgrims from all over the earth had returned to the city of Jerusalem as was prescribed by Old Testament law. As a result, the normal population of this city had swelled to over a million. God’s timing to break out the church and to spread His Gospel to the Jews all over the world could not have come at more strategic time.
The scene is the upper room, filled with 120 early faithful followers of Christ. The baptism of the Spirit has taken place with such a loud noise that people outside the building housing the upper room have come by to investigate what the commotion is all about. We read in verse 5:
Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every
nation under heaven. 6And when this sound occurred, the crowd came
together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing
them speak in his own language [dialektos = dialect]. 7They were
amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are
speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we each hear them in our own
language [dialektos = dialect] to which we were born? 9Parthians and
Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the
districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews
and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues
[glossais = languages] speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” 12And
they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one
another, “What does this mean?” 13But others were mocking and
saying, “They are full of sweet wine.”
The text does not clearly identify when what was happening in the upper room became public knowledge or when the disciples moved out of the upper room to the larger venue not far away, on the temple mount. Evidently upon hearing the sound, these residents of Jerusalem who lived nearby the building housing the upper room assembled to investigate. When they found the source of the sound, they were amazed to discover Galileans speaking in the native languages of the remote regions from which these Diaspora Jews had come. The Jews in Jerusalem who could not speak Aramaic would have known Greek, so there was no real need for other languages to be spoken. Yet when they heard these Galileans speaking in their home grown languages, they were taken aback. Sometime after this, the crowd of people presumably moved from the streets and followed the 120 disciples into the temple area, where further reactions to the praising of God in different languages by these 120 newly baptized in the Spirit Jews continued.
Note the four reactions from those who witnessed the events of this day, following the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In addition, pay attention to several terms that describe the hearers’ mental and emotional state.
In verse 6, a key term that describes their emotional state is the word “bewildered.” It describes someone who has been stunned or hit hard emotionally by an unexpected event. To put it another way, these Jews were staggered by these events. In a word, their first reaction was confusion.
Then we read in verse 7 and verse 12 that they were “amazed.” This is a term that means “to push out of their senses.” In the terminology of the late sixties and early seventies, it “blew their minds!” Verse 7 adds another descriptive term, “astonished,” which is a word that refers to someone who is seeking a solution to something. The city slicker Jews from Jerusalem, who judged themselves to be far more sophisticated than the rural, backward, ignorant, and uneducated Galileans, couldn’t figure out how these unlearned men, who were known for butchering their own Hebrew tongue, could so clearly and precisely speak a foreign language. This had shaken their prejudicial senses to the core.
Then in verses 8-12, we see that all of the people there moved from their curiosity and questioning to what verse 12 cites as “perplexity.” This suggests literally “thoughts running through their minds,” trying to come up with some kind of logical answer for these unusual people speaking all of these various languages and dialects.
They experienced confusion that grew in intensity toward panic.
If you look closely at Luke’s registry of the dialects, you see an order to his list. He begins with those Jews who spoke dialects east of Jerusalem: the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and the rest of residents living in the Fertile Crescent and Mesopotamia. Then he moves north, with the mention of Judea as a reference not just to the district of Judea, but in the Roman mind, this included the whole of Jewish dominated Palestine, Syria, Armenia. From there, he moves to those dialects of the Jews that had come from northwest of Jerusalem, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia—all Roman provinces of Asia Minor, as we know it today. Then he moves south to Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrenne, in northern Africa. And finally, he mentions the most western Jewish pilgrims’ home of Rome.
After this, he changes from the geographical areas from which these Jews had come, to the people groups that stood out as unique to all Jews. First, you have the proselytes or the non-Jewish converts to Judaism. Then, to be more specific, Luke points to the most despised of Jewish brethren, those reprobates from the Island of Crete and the Jewish nomads who never settled anywhere but traveled the lands southeast of Jerusalem known as Arabia.
Also, make note that what everyone was speaking in these tongues was not the preaching of the Gospel, nor was it personal or public prayer. Rather, they were speaking of “the mighty deeds of God.” These words of praise toward God, being lifted up publically, had been typical of Jewish life and worship ever since God birthed the nation of Israel. For instance, in Exodus 15:11 we read, “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?” Then in Isaiah 25:1, “O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name; for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.” In Psalm 40:5 the psalmist declares, “Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders which You have done and Your thoughts toward us; there is none to compare with You. If I would declare and speak of them, They would be too numerous to count.”
Yet, even with this history of publicly praising God for His mighty deeds, these same 120 Jewish believers, who made up the first membership of the early church, would later be labeled as “blasphemers,” or those who speak heretically of God. But the 120 believers were not so, for in keeping with their Jewish tradition dating back to Moses, they spoke only of the greatness of God.
The fourth initial reaction to these 120 speaking in foreign tongues was denial, a typical reaction to something not fully understand. In verse 13, many mocked these believers for being drunk and hence tried to dismiss and deny them or what they were doing as being born of God.
Notice the ironic contrast between what happened back in Isaiah 28 and what is happening here. Back in Isaiah’s day, it was the religious leaders who were drunk and mocking the sober prophets. Now here on this special day in Acts 2, these 120 believers who are soberly, prophetically praising God and doing right are criticized and accused of being drunk by those who rejected Jesus Christ. That is, on this day of Pentecost they were rightfully praising God for His mighty deeds.
This was a stunning wake-up call, a sign from God that Peter goes on to explain. All of this sets the stage for his jumping up and declaring that they are not drunk and then preaching one of the greatest evangelistic messages ever given by a human being. No drunkard has ever preached like that.
I now want to return to what I sense God wants us to focus on today for our personal edification and application of His Word. This morning we began with these questions: “Could it be possible that God would forsake the United States of America?” “What will it take for revival to be realized among the Christians who are already here?” “What will it take for our nation to return to the Lord?”
If we look at the Scriptures concerning how God dealt with Israel as a nation, we can learn much to answer these questions. First, let us understand that there never has been nor will there ever be another nation like Israel. It is the only nation that God has called His own. During Old Testament times, it was the only truly theocratic nation, a nation where God could be called the King. Hence, not all promises or commands that God made to Israel can be applied to other nations today.
So, let’s look at these questions. “Could it be possible that God would forsake the United States of America?” The answer is absolutely “Yes!” The only nation that God promised to never permanently reject is Israel. So, no matter what other nation seeks after God, there is no guarantee that He will not forsake it. There is no obligation upon God to continue to bless one nation over another.
So what can we, as believers of a nation that started off well as worshipers of God and who have been mightily blessed in the past, do to turn our nation back to God, so that He might continue to bless us? Really, the answers to that are no different than the example set before us by these early disciples of the church.
First, it takes a remnant of people who are sold out to Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. God is looking for Christians who are wholeheartedly committed to fulfilling His purposes in His ways, as spelled out in Scripture. Today, we have many who claim to be Christians but are living carnal lives, lives that do not represent a firm commitment to Christ and His purposes. Hence, if we want to see our nation be blessed by God, there must be a wholesale personal revival among Christians to return to living as men and women who are committed to Jesus Christ as the Master of their lives. Until that takes place among the Christian citizens, no nation will receive the blessing of God.
Secondly, committed Christians must recognize that for a nation to turn toward God requires a supernatural work of God, not the work of Christian political activists. In the first century, the Jewish Zealots tried that and failed miserably. Now, don’t misunderstand what I just said. God does put people in high places to serve Him and to influence others and to promote the Gospel. But He does not use the fleshly programs of men nor the laws of a political regime to fulfill His spiritual goals. If you want examples of how even a godly political regime cannot change the heart of a country, study the reigns of King Hezekiah, his son, King Manasseh, and his great grandson, King Josiah. What you will see is that no political party’s desire to rule religiously by law, even if it is God’s law, will change the hearts of the citizens. That’s why the prophet Joel warns the individual as well as the nation that the lost must change their inner hearts, not their outward religiosity. Furthermore, to change the heart of any person requires not obedience to moral or religious laws, but the supernatural work of God.
In this country, God has given us a privilege, temporary at best, that each of us can vote and campaign and make a difference for Christ. But in the end, we must seek His face through prayer and depend upon Him to do a supernatural work in the lives of the unbelievers through the work of His committed followers. At Pentecost, Peter preached to the lost individuals who needed Christ. Likewise, if we want to see our nation blessed by God, we should pray that the lost who live around us would trust Christ.
Thirdly, God has already given us a commission to follow after. His instructions are the only directions we have as to how to reach our world for Christ. Until we make His Great Commission the priority of our lives, He won’t even blink at our wishes to bring back the traditional Christianity this country once knew.
The 120 disciples who made up the first wave of the church were Jews who loved their country. Yet they did not seek after political change or to run the Romans out of their country so that they could return to the good ol’ days. Instead, they focused on personal revival, reaching the lost, and making disciples. They left the restoration of their nation to God. And so should we.
As just one Christian, I would love to see this become a nation once again where Jesus Christ is adored and worshiped, and to see His holy and moral standards upheld. However, we have no commission from God to make this nation a Christian nation or to try to turn it around to be such. But we do have a commission to be His witnesses and to make it our objective to make disciples for Jesus Christ! If we focus on fulfilling that commission, doing what God says, living holy lives according to His Word as students of His Word, and going about making disciples for Jesus Christ, then maybe, mercifully, God will once again make this a nation known for its commitment to Christ. Other than this prescription, our nation has no hope of restoration. So, let’s keep His priorities and His commission in mind, rather than our own wishes and agenda. God may mercifully choose to restore this country to its former greatness as the leading Christian nation in the world, or He may not.
When you look at this three-step model to turn a nation toward Christ, where do you need to focus? On personal revival or rededication to serving Jesus Christ as your master? Or do you need to focus more on personally praying for those lost friends, relatives, and acquaintances around you? Or do you need to bear down on making disciples for Jesus Christ?
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