Pentecost
Acts
2:1-21
6/5/22
Americans
are often criticized for not learning foreign languages. To be sure, Spanish, French and German are
taught in many high schools, and people study foreign languages in college. But when compared to people from Europe, our
population as a whole has far fewer individuals who can converse using
languages other than the one in which they were raised.
Now
certainly, it would be a good thing if more of us knew how to speak in other
languages. But I am always struck by how
this criticism fails to take into account the situation that exists here. The United States is a very large
country. There are over a dozen states
in this nation that I have never even been to during my life. It’s not like Europe where travel can quickly
take you from one nation to another where a different language is used. Instead,
I can drive farther than I ever want to drive and never need any other language
than English. To be sure, there is a growing presence of Spanish in some
areas. But that doesn’t change the fact for
the majority of Americans, English is the only language they are ever going to
need and with which they are going to interact on a regular basis.
Today we
celebrate the Feast of Pentecost. Pentecost was an event that featured the use
of many foreign languages. It was an
occasion when the disciples of Jesus Christ spoke in foreign languages they had
never studied and did not know. These foreign languages were made possible by
the Holy Spirit whom the risen, ascended, and exalted Lord Jesus had poured out
upon his church. As he promised, Christ has given the Spirit to the church, and
the Spirit continues to be at work in our midst today.
During his
ministry John the Baptist had said, “I baptize you with water, but he who
is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy
to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” John prepared the way for the coming
One. This One would give the Holy
Spirit. John also said that he was the
One who would bring God’s end time judgment.
John declared about him: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, to
clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but
the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
John was
exactly right about Jesus Christ. But what he didn’t understand was that the Christ
would suffer and die, and then be exalted in his ascension. He would be the coming One not once, but
twice.
Jesus suffered and died on the cross
on Good Friday. He was buried in a
tomb. But then, on Easter, he rose from
the dead just as he said he would. The
Book of Acts tells us, “He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many
proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of
God.” There could be no doubt about Jesus’ resurrection as the disciples were
taught by him, and ate and drank with him.
Act then tells us, “And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Jesus said that they would receive the Holy Spirit – the promise of the Father.
Forty days
after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. He withdrew his visible presence, and the
disciples remained in Jerusalem awaiting what the Lord had promised. They
waited for ten days. You have to wonder what that was like for them. The most
incredible thing in the world had happened.
Jesus Christ had risen from the dead after winning forgiveness on the
cross. He had fulfilled the Old
Testament. They knew this yet now they were waiting because the Lord had told
them, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
The disciples had to wait for ten days. Then on Pentecost, God acted in a dramatic way. We hear in our text, “When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
A sound like
a mighty rushing wind and the appearance of what looked like tongues of fire on
the disciples announced that God was acting.
Then they were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak in
languages as the Spirit gave them ability.
Faithful Jews
from many different areas had chosen to come and live in Jerusalem. The sound coming from the disciple’s location
attracted attention and drew them to that place. What they found was
astonishing because they heard the disciples telling the mighty works of God in
their own languages. They recognized that these were not cultured and well
traveled men. Instead they were from
Galilee – men you never would expect to know these languages.
The crowd was amazed and asked
“What does this mean?” But others mocked them saying that they were filled with
new wine – that they were drunk. Peter stood up and declared that it was absurd
to say they were drunk – it was too early in the day. Instead, what they were experiencing the
fulfillment of God’s promise. He said, “But this is what was uttered through
the prophet Joel: “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I
will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men
shall dream dreams;
even on my male servants and female servants in those
days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.’”
Peter
announced that Pentecost was the outpouring of the Spirit that was part of the
last days. And this fact led him to proclaim Jesus Christ and what he had done.
He said: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man
attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs
that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know--this Jesus, delivered
up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you
crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Peter told
the crowd “you crucified and killed” Jesus. Now they shared in corporate
responsibility for the action of their leaders, and certainly some of them may
have cheered for the death of Jesus. But
ultimately, we cannot escape these words either. It was because of us that God delivered Jesus
up to death. It was because of our sin
that God sent the incarnate Son of God to be the sacrifice on the cross to win
forgiveness.
In death,
Jesus received the cup of God’s wrath against our sin. However, Jesus had not remained dead. Instead Peter declared, “God raised him up,
loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held
by it.” Jesus had been the fulfillment
of David’s prophecy in Psalm 16: “For
you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy
One see corruption.”
Then Peter arrived at the central
truth of what was happening. He said, “This Jesus God raised
up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the
right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of
the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and
hearing.” The risen Lord, ascended and
exalted to the right hand of God, had poured forth the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ has ascended and been
exalted. But this doesn’t mean that he has left us. It doen’t mean that his
power is no longer present among us.
Instead, the Holy Spirit is the means by which he continues his work. Jesus had promised, “But
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea
and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
You have
received the Spirit in the same way that the crowd did on Pentecost. We learn
that the hearers were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the
apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for
all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Through
baptism you have received the Holy Spirit. Through the work of the Spirit God
has called you to himself. He has called you to faith in the crucified and
risen Lord. You have received the
forgiveness of sins, and that forgiveness continues to be true for you as you confess
your sin, repent and return in faith to God’s promise about baptism.
In the last
verse of our text, Peter completes his quotation of Joel with the words: “And
it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved.” In its original Old
Testament setting, “Lord” referred to Yahweh, the God of Isael. But now, Yawheh the Creator of heaven and
earth has revealed himself as the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has done this through the incarnation of the
Son of God, as Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin
Mary.
Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One
is Lord. God has called to you to faith
in him through the work of the Spirit. And as you continue to call upon the
name of the Lord – as you continue to believe in Jesus – you have the assurance
of salvation. You know that your sins
are forgiven. You know that to die is to
be with Christ. You know that the ascended
Lord will return in glory on the Last Day to raise up your body.
The Book of Acts describes how the Spirit
caused the church to proclaim the Gospel – to proclaim Jesus crucified and
risen from the dead - in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the end of the earth. You
believe because the Spirit caused the Gospel to come all the way to you.
But your reception of the Spirit and of
this salvation does not end with you. The Spirit’s power that called you to
faith now moves you to speak about Jesus Christ to others. You have a simple message to share: Jesus
Christ died on the cross for the sins of all and then rose from the dead. The rest of the work is up to the Spirit who
calls people to faith when and where he pleases. You are simply called to be witnesses to
Jesus Christ – to pass on the witness about the crucified and risen Lord by
which the Spirit has called you to faith and sustains you in that faith.
Jesus Christ died on the cross to win
forgiveness for you. God raised him from
the dead on Easter in order to defeat death.
In his ascension he was exalted to the right hand of God. On Pentecost the exalted Lord Jesus poured
forth the Holy Spirit upon his church.
He did this so that we can call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. He did this so that we can share the
crucified and risen Lord Jesus with others.
No comments:
Post a Comment