Well, good morning, welcome to church.
We're glad you're here. I'm glad to be here.
My name is Nick in visiting from Grand Rapids and just a special
thank you to Pastor Kurt and Jace for sharing the pulpit with
me again this morning. I was here a few weeks back, the
week after Easter and I kind of showed my hand a little bit then
to, to go. I'm, I'm a lover of the church
calendar. And today, this weekend isn't
just Memorial Day weekend. This is actually the day of
Pentecost, Pentecost Sunday. And I just thank you guys for
coming into to church on this weekend and for us to be able to
live into the Pentecost story. Last time I talked about the
three movements from Easter all the way reaching forward to 50
days afterwards to Pentecost and today being Pentecost.
I had no clue I was going to be here last time for this.
It's such a joy to be able to close out the Easter tide space
of of time, 50 days with you guys to be able to go, hey,
what's what is Christ doing at the the start?
He's resurrecting from the dead, bursting forth new creation.
Then in the Ascension, which was 2 Thursdays ago, he's raising up
to the heavenly realms to establish his authority over
this new creation. And then in the day of
Pentecost, we'll see today he's pouring out this new creation
into his people. And it's a beautiful, beautiful
movement, The early church father.
I also showed last time that I was a lover of the early church
in the 3rd century. So late 1 hundreds, in early 2
hundreds. AD the church father Irenaeus,
who was disciple of Polycarp, who was disciple of John, the
disciple in whom Jesus loved. So just two generations after
the apostles, after the disciples themselves.
Irenaeus is talking about the What do you call the great
recapitulation of Christ, a big word that we've shortened down
to recap the great recap of Christ.
That Christ would take up the entire sweep of the Old
Testament in his own life and not just replay it out, but
actually unravel it and replay it in its proper orientation, in
its fulfilment. Christ took up the brokenness of
humanity into himself and then plays it out in the perfection
of humanity and then delivers it to us on the day of Pentecost,
which is glorious, glorious good news.
And we're going to go there today.
I'm going to stick to my notes a little bit more today.
It's going to be less like the anecdotal kind of sermon and
it's going to be much more watching how Scripture rhymes,
how poetic Scripture is that the Old Testament is taken up by the
New Testament and brought to its fulfillment.
And I hope you guys will get a beautiful picture of that by the
time we're done today. But it means I, I need to stick
to my notes because if I'm going to to make it through all that
we're going to get through, I got to stay on on point with,
with what I wrote. So we'll start here in Acts 2,
but let me let me pray before we we dive into it.
Jesus Christ, Lord, we thank you.
We thank you for gathering us here today.
We didn't only come to church on our own accord today, but we
came because you called us and we responded.
We recognize that we're already listening to and abiding in your
voice. And I pray that today your, your
word, your voice would be made clearly evident both through the
Old Testament and then through the New Testament through and
the movement of God and his people and God being for his
people. Pierce our hearts, open our
hearts, and let us receive the word that you have for us today.
God, we love you and we praise you.
And it's in Jesus mighty name. And we pray in Jesus mighty
name, Amen. I'm going to do I ask you to
lock in here. We're going to go through Acts 2
for most of the chapter just to be able to kind of fuel our
imaginations, to be able to have eyes to see when we go back to
the Old Testament. So it's a bit longer, but stay
tuned. I might point out some of the
the moments that you want to kind of lock in so that way we
can understand what's going on. Acts 2, one through 24, and then
32 through 41. When the day of Pentecost
arrived, they were all together in one place, other translations
say in one accord. 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 utterance. Now they were dwelling in
Jerusalem. Jews and devout men from every
nation under heaven hear that, every nation under heaven,
that's going to come up later on.
And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were
bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own
language. And they were amazed and
astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking
Galileans? How is it that we hear, each of
us in our own native language, Parthians and Medes and
Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia,
Pontus, Asia, Fragria, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts
of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both
Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling
in our own tongue the mighty works of God.
And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one
another, What does this mean? But others mockingly said,
They're just filled with new wine.
But Peter, standing with the 11 disciples and apostles, lifted
up his voice and address the men of Judea and all who have
dwelled in Jerusalem. Let this be known to you.
Give ear to my words. These people are not drunk, for
it is only the third hour of the day.
But this is what was uttered through the Prophet Jewel.
And in the last days it shall be.
God declares to you that I will pour out on my out my Spirit on
all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophecy.
Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall
dream dreams. Even my male servants and female
servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit and they will
prophecy, and I will show wonders in the heavens above and
signs on the earth below. Blood and fire, vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned to darkness, in the moon to blood.
Before the day of the Lord comes the great and magnificent day.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. 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 and for now definite plan for
knowledge of God. You crucified and killed him by
the hands of lawless men, but God raised him up, losing the
pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held
by it. This Jesus God raised up, and of
that we are all witnesses. Being therefore exalted to the
right hand of God, and having received from the Father the
promise of the Spirit, he has poured out, this that you set
yourselves are seeing and hearing today.
For David did not ascend to heaven, but he himself said, The
Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make the
enemies, your enemies your footstool.
Let all the House of Israel therefore know for certain that
God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you
crucified. Now when they heard this, their
hearts were cut deep, and they said to Peter and the rest of
the apostles, brothers, what shall we do?
And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, each and
everyone of you at the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of
sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For this promise is for you, for your children, and for all who
are afar off. That's both locationally and
then also timely for all those who are far off Peter's pointing
towards us even today. For this promise is for you and
your children. And with many other words, he
bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, Save
yourselves from this crooked generation.
So those who received his word were baptized and they were
added that day about 3000 souls. A lot of movements there.
But as we go through the Old Testament, we're going to again
kind of race through a little bit the Old Testament and start
to see how are the the Jews of this age?
How are the 1st century hearers of this age and experiencers of
this day, Pentecost 2000 years ago, What were they thinking?
How was their imagination receiving this proclamation,
receiving this experience? Because our modern minds can
actually miss much of what's going on.
It's taking up the Old Testament in beautiful and remarkable ways
that unlock it in beautiful and remarkable ways and give it some
substance for us today. So you guys ready to go through
this, this journey of the Old Testament before we go there, I
want to say Pentecost is not merely a just spiritual
experience for a select handful. Sometimes we can almost we can
almost shrink Pentecost down to this, this day when yes, power
dunamis comes in, but we we tend to make it this experiential
kind of thing. It is that, but it's also so
much more. Something cosmic is happening on
the day of Pentecost and and Paul and you know, Jesus or
Jesus pointing to Paul's going to draw back from Peter's
declaring the day of in remarkable ways.
I'd said at the the start of the sermon here, but Pentecost is
actually the third act in the story of Christ securing and
delivering of new creation, resurrection secured ascension
positioned for him to outpour on us and for us to receive that
new creation into our bones. It is the story of God restoring
humanity to communion with himself through Jesus Christ by
the power of the Spirit. I will say, I don't think I've
said yet in this service, if you haven't grabbed a sheet, you're
welcome to to get up and move and grab a sheet in the back.
It's going to show you a bit of the juxtaposition that we're
playing with today. So that way you can move along
with us. But if you don't grab one now,
grab one on the way out. It's going to help to to keep
Pentecost open for you as you move forward in seasons to come.
We will also see this morning that Pentecost is the story of
the breath of God returning to humanity, the breath of God
returning to humanity. It's the story of hardened
hearts becoming living hearts again.
And it's the story of scattered humanity being gathered back
under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the word of God, and by
the power of the Holy Spirit. And to understand this we need
to go back to actually the very beginning.
In Genesis 126 and 27 it says God formed man and woman in his
own image and likeness and gave them rule and dominion over all
the earth, that they would be vice Regents under his rulership
and listening to his word in the proclaiming his word and acting
His word out over the globe. But then in Genesis 2 we
actually have a replay of the creation account.
And this time around it gives us a little bit of a different
picture. First time it just says God made
man and woman of his own image and likeness.
In Genesis 2 it says then the Lord is 27.
The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man
became a living creature. The point here is mankind was
formed of the dust of the earth, but they weren't full of life in
in their proper orientation until they were filled with the
breath of God. And when they were filled with
the breath of God, they became living beings in relationship
with God, in communion with God under His rule, in reign, and
moving forward as a royal priesthood on His behalf.
This is beautiful. This is also the beautiful
dignity that humanity has that nobody else has.
The angels were never filled with the breath of God.
This is humanity and humanity alone.
We are the crown of His creation in order to rule and reign with
Him. Which shows why Genesis 3 is so
heartbreaking that when mankind they were meant to move forward
with the voice of God, the Word of God ruling and reigning in
their life, open to his movement and then replaying his movement
out over creation. In Genesis 3, mankind turns from
the Word of God and sets their ear and then ultimately their
heart on a word of deception. The enemy comes in like a
serpent and starts spitting his lies, and as a serpent does like
venom started piercing to the core of their being, their heart
is influenced now by the venom of the lie, and man starts
turning inward on self. The great Augustine from the the
5th and 6th century and then Martin Luther, the great
reformer would talk about sin as the Latin phrase incurvatus in
say that man was turned inward on self, that they were closed
off. There's actually a a beautiful
sculpture if you ever make it down to Grand Rapids.
We have Frederick Meyer Gardens down there, beautiful sculpture
garden. And Auguste Rodin has one of his
sculptures in there and it's Eve after the fall, and her hand is
up against the the voice of God. She's stopping her ear and she's
closed inward. Her hand on her side is actually
kind of beast like he never finished out her fingers.
So she's actually almost tearing into herself.
Mankind turned inward always moves towards destruction.
From dust you came to dust. You shall return when we've
given up the breath of God. Praise the Lord that Christ
steps into. It's a beautiful sculpture at
Frederick Meyer. Not because the grotesque, you
know, shame filled existence of mankind is beautiful, but
because of what Christ has done with that, that he steps right
into that curved inward sense and bends us back upon himself,
ultimately to the cross and opens us up to communion with
God, life with God. I hear that, but Genesis 3 is
the great fall, the great turning inward, the giving up of
the Spirit of God, the voice of God, the breath of God.
In Genesis 2, when it says that the breath of God fills us, it's
ruach. It could be breath, wind, or
spirit that God placed His very spirit within us.
He breathed on us, He covered us with His wind.
Scripture is always trying to give us this picture of being
fully submerged with God, that mankind's proper condition in
Christ ultimately, But what we were originally created for is
to be filled with God, clothed with God, and walking with God.
It's almost like we're drowning in God's presence.
It's both encompassing us on the outside and filling us to the
the brim on the inside. And mankind offers it up to the
lie and replaces it for being led by self.
Now they're in self exaltation mode, self preservation mode,
self protection mode, self comforting mode.
They're ego driven versus God driven.
So the image bearers meant a steward, creation under God
become in the fall governed by the flesh.
They reject the spirit breath of God and begin to perish towards
the dust they were formed. And their hearts begin to harden
and here realize that dust that were formed from when our hearts
are made of that and they're devoid the Holy Spirit.
Now our hearts are dust. And as it hardens, what happens
to dust? It becomes solidified overtime,
rocky, Stony hearts. And we're going to see that play
out through the rest of the Old Testament narrative because this
then pushes forward towards Genesis 11 with the Tower of
Babel. The Tower of Babel, mankind
comes together and they say, let us make a name for ourselves.
They're turned inward, they're focused on themselves, and now
they're trying to exalt themselves.
So the one act of unity is for humanity to try and exalt
themselves up to God's level. One of the ways that Scripture
starts using the Garden of Eden is it's kind of three different
movements. It's the start of what was
supposed to be the holy city in in Genesis.
It's a garden in Revelation, when we get a picture of Eden
again now it's actually a holy city.
The other thing is it's a it's the holy mountain.
It's the meeting place of God. And then thirdly is it's
actually a temple. It's temple language.
I don't have time to work that out for you, but it's the first
temple Tabernacle that God makes for mankind.
And now mankind turned inward on self devoid.
The Holy Spirit trying to do life on their own accord, is now
trying to build their own holy mountain, the Tower of Babel,
their own holy city that they're going to rule and reign over.
And then their own temple that they would be priests in.
And God sees it, and it would be the absolute demise of His
people for them to try and do so.
They're trying to gain access to heaven apart from God.
They're trying to exhort and exalt themselves apart from God.
So God actually scatters them and then diversifies their
language. This is how we'd see the
nation's populated all throughout.
Now humanity is already fractured at this point, so it's
not God fracturing humanity, but it is him scattering causing
something of division less they think they could do it on their
own. That's Genesis 11, but then the
next chapter, Genesis 12, we see God calling Abraham to himself
and giving Abraham a special promise 12/2 through three.
I will make for you of you a great nation, and I will bless
you and make your name great. Hear the echo there before
humanities trying to make their own name great.
Now here God saying to Abraham, I God, I'm going to make your
name great. You can't do it on your own.
We were made for greatness. We were made to rule and reign
with God. We were made to rule and reign
over the angels. That's what we're told in the
New Testament, kind of baffles our minds.
God's promising, I will make your name great.
You don't have to do it on your own accord and then through you.
You will be a blessing and all the families of the earth shall
be blessed. God is promising Abraham that
the scattering that just happened in Genesis 11 will be
gathered back on a great day in the future.
In Genesis 12, the story moves forward with the people of God
continuing to operate in their own selfish, self protecting,
self-guided ways, and they find themselves in bondage in
captivity to Egypt and Pharaoh, who is ultimately a leader who
shows forth what the human condition the Babel Tower of
Babylonian heart posture will do.
Man turned inward on self rejects the Word of God and
hardens their heart. So God raises up Moses, and he
sends Moses, who is a type and shadow of Christ Jesus to come
to go over to Pharaoh and to declare the word of God to him.
Let my people go gives them ample opportunity.
In every single opportunity that Pharaoh gets, he closes his
heart down, stops his ear from the Word and Spirit of God, and
demands that the Israelites would serve him rather than
Yahweh. And in so doing the scripture
says, and he hardened his heart again.
The dust is getting compacted and his heart is becoming hard.
He cannot hear the word of God. So God liberates Israel through
the day of Passover in the blood of the lamb sends them through
the waters of the Red Sea. The Red Sea parts and the
Israelites move from their captivity in Egypt and then the
waters crash on all of Egypt. That was causing them to fear
God, that was trying to keep them in bondage, that was trying
to ultimately kill them. The waters take over and cleanse
Israel of as they move not just from bondage, but into God's
desire to draw them in as a covenantal people, to know His
heart, and to be a blessing for the nations around them.
So seven weeks later, this is actually where we end up.
Seven weeks after the Passover is 49 days, Israel comes up to
the Mount Sinai, the new holy mountain of God that he's
calling them up to, and God's heart and desire, his posture is
to go. I want to be your God.
I want you to be my people. Ascend up this holy mountain.
Meet me up here that I would be able to put my covenant within
you. We would be able to.
He's saying all this to Moses. Moses, have them consecrate
their hearts. Get them ready to be able to
meet me on the holy mountains. Then I could pour myself in to
them. But you also have to get the
picture of what the Israelites are seeing.
God has descended onto the mountain like thunderish rushing
wind, and then also the the entire mountain is just a flame,
a blaze of fire. As the glory of God is dwelling
on this mountain in Israel, so formed by Pharaoh in Egypt, is
terrified of God. They don't trust that this would
be a good thing. They're shaking at the knees and
they go, no, Moses, you go up there because I'm we're going to
die. It's literally what they say.
Moses, you go up lest we die. And Israel rejects God's
invitation to meet them and to make covenant with them.
Their hearts are showing themselves hardened.
That's 49 days in. Now on the 50th day, the day of
Shavat in the Old Testament, which is the Hebrew for the
Greek equivalent of the day of Pentecost.
Did you know that the Old Testament had a day of
Pentecost? And it's the day that Moses goes
up, ascends the holy mountain as the mediator between God and
man. God meets Moses on the mountain
again, covered in fire and rushing wind, and then God
writes with the finger of him, the law of the covenant, the law
of love of God and love of neighbor unto the stone tablets.
And see what God's doing here. He's offering to Moses a mirror
for Israel. God said I I desire to draw
Israel up so that I could write my law on the tablets of their
heart. But their hearts are so hard and
they've rejected me. So I'm going to write them on
these external tablets of stone to show you your current
condition. That's why it's a law and a
tutor unto us. By the time Moses, yeah, Moses
gets down to the bottom of the mountain, Israel has already
turned to another God. They're turning back to the
patterns of Egypt. They've taken all the gold that
they had, and they melt it down, and they make into a golden
calf, and they're calling it by the most holy Name, Yahweh.
Here's Yahweh that has delivered us.
We don't know what's happened to Moses, but here's Yahweh.
And Moses gets down with the law of God on these stone tablets,
showing forth the Stony hearts. And Moses is so enraged, he
shatters the stone tablets, which he doesn't realize is
actually a prophetic move for what happens when the Holy
Spirit pierces into our rocky heart?
He shatters us. He makes us new.
We'll see that here in a moment. And because of the idolatrous
hardened hearts of Israel. Hear this on the day of
Pentecost in the Old Testament 3000, died because of their
hardened hearts, because of their idolatry.
And you would think that waking them up, but it doesn't.
As we go through the rest of the Old Testament narrative,
Israel's just replaying this story over and over and over
again, turning to their own devices, turning away from the
voice, Word, and Spirit of God and trying to do things on their
own accord. But God does not forsake his
people. He does not forsake the people
of the earth that He wants to gather back.
So through the prophets he starts speaking in Ezekiel,
Ezekiel 3626 through 27, God says I will give you a new heart
and a new spirit I will put within you.
I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and I will give
you a heart of flesh, and I will put my very spirit in you.
Oh, what good news. I will take out of you the heart
of stone. I will smash it, shatter it to
restore to you a heart of flesh. Now this isn't fleshly as in
we're moving after the flesh. This is fleshly as in malleable,
receptive to the very word of God.
Softened would be a good way of saying that.
Alive again in the hands of God. Then Ezekiel starts to see this
picture of this valley of dry bones.
He he sees that he walks forward and it's just dry bones
scattered, these dead corpses all around.
And God starts speaking to him because I have no idea what's
going on, Lord, what's going on? How do I, what do I do in this
moment in Ezekiel 37, nine through 10?
Then he said to me, prophesied to the breath, and breathe on
the slain, that they may live, And the breath came into them,
and they lived and stood up on their feet.
You hear that the ruach wind, breath spirit breathe over them
in these dry bones who were once alive will now actually come to
fullness of life. And he does.
And he watches them come together, sinew and muscle and
skeletor in the skin over top and it's beautiful.
The breath of God fills the lifeless bodies until they stand
alive again. And through Joel, God says, in
the last days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.
It will come to pass. I will pour out my spirit on all
flesh. Your sons and your daughters
will prophecy. It's not just that He's going to
pour out His Spirit and bring us to life.
Now. He actually incorporates us in
His movement that we wouldn't just be dead men walking, but we
would actually be living with God, prophesying, declaring His
very word out to the world, cooperating and participating in
His great life, moving through our life.
Jeremiah tells us that the Spirit will write the law of God
on the tablets of our heart. You see where the prophets,
because God speaking through them, are picking up all these
Old Testament movements and declaring forth, there will be a
day that will come when all of this will be fulfilled.
Jeremiah 31 through 303133 For this is the covenant I will make
with the House of Israel. After those days, declares the
Lord, I will put my law within them, and I will write it on
their hearts. I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Watch how many times throughout
all of Scripture God is just declaring this I will be your
God. You will be my people.
Even in all of our our sin and deception and our rejecting God,
killing him on the cross. God's calling out, I want to be
your God. Will you be my people?
He knows we cannot do it on our own.
So thus he's promising. I will take out of your Stony
heart. I will put in a heart of flesh.
On that heart of flesh I will write inside of you.
I will transcribe my life, my heart, my law, my love into the
depths of your beings so that you could go and walk it out.
You could be my covenant people. You could participate with what
I'm doing all over again. And all of these rivers are
rushing towards and converging into the New Testament reality.
Here's some of these movements again already in the early
Easter tide, with the death, burial, resurrection, and
ascension. We already see Christ taking
this up, recapping, unwinding the terrible story of the human
condition and retelling it through its proper completion.
Jesus comes as the true and better Adam.
He comes as the true and better Moses.
And we can fill in others, David, Abraham.
He comes as the true and perfect one of God, the true Israel, the
true image of God, the true mediator between God and man.
He's a mediator over and above Moses because Moses was merely
man led by God. Christ is both God and man in
one person. He's the perfect.
He's the reliable one. We know that what He says is
true and firm and believable because it is also God at work
in Him as He is representing us as a human.
Christ sheds his blood, is the true and perfect Passover lamb.
Christ descends into death itself, and then Christ rises
again in victory as first born over the new creation.
Christ ascends the holy mountain, but not just to the
top of the mountain. Like Moses or David or the
prophets. He goes all the way up into the
heavenly realms, takes his seat at the right hand of the Father,
and now mediates on our behalf in a perfect and ever present
way. And then Acts 2 arrives in the
literal sense, Luke 2. When Luke's writing, he says
when the fullness of Pentecost arrived.
Or we could also read it as when the fulfilment of Pentecost
arrived and the Old Testament Pentecost pointed forward
towards a day when the fullness would come.
Now we have the fullness. We don't have to worry about and
wait on another Pentecost to come.
God has established this in its perfection.
This is not mere arrival. This is absolute fulfilment.
And then suddenly the Spirit descends upon the people of God
like the mighty rushing wind of Mount Sinai, and I will start to
see all of this imagery picked back up in what God's doing in
his people. Hear it again.
The ruach, the wind, the breath, the spirit has come.
Not only is this a fulfillment of Sanaa's foreshadowing, but
it's also the restoration of the human soul.
Now the rock breath of God has come in and filled us, rested
upon us to restore us back to what we were meant to be in the
1st place. Restoration of humanity all the
way back to Genesis 2. But actually it's all the
greater because in Genesis 2, God had made mankind in His
image and likeness, but He had not yet come in our image and
likeness. So the restoration that Christ
is doing by sending out his very Spirit in US is actually
establishing up a better royal priesthood, a more perfect royal
priesthood, because now we're linked to His life working in
and through US. The breath of God filling our
Stony dust filled lives to bring us back to life, brought to life
again by the breath of God, the Holy Spirit filling us at our
core. The very life of Christ, the
true and perfect image bearer of God is now living in us.
This is a bit of where I went last time I was here with you
guys, but it's so crucial. This is what Scripture is doing
as it's offering up to us, the story of God and his people as
it's inviting us into recognizing what Christ has done
with the entire Old Testament narrative.
Our lives included the lives of mankind turned inward and
restores us, unravels us, and He builds us into new creation
under God's rulership. And then tongues of fire rest
upon the disciples, just as the fire of God descended upon
Sinai. But realize the difference.
Here at Sinai, the fire comes down and rests on the holy
mountain. At the day of Pentecost in the
New Testament, the fire of God comes down and rests on his holy
people. And get this right, I don't
remember if I've said this in this service yet.
Moses ascends up. He wants the the Israelites to
come with them. This is what God's calling him.
And the Israelites reject. Christ ascends.
And this is interesting, though disciples are gathering in
what's called the upper room as they're waiting on the coming of
the Spirit, they have also ascended up with Christ in pure
desperation, in waiting on what God is going to do to fulfill
his promises. Christ says wait, do not leave
Jerusalem until power from on high, until new creation power,
the power of love. My own life has come and filled
you to your very core. Now the fire of God is resting
upon his people because through Jesus Christ, humanity itself is
becoming the dwelling place of God, the temple of the living
God. New Testament tells us this all
throughout. And God desperately desires to
dwell with us and in us. He desperately desires for us to
be able to come alongside Him, do life with Him, and for us to
participate in what it is that He is doing.
And then the disciples start speaking in many languages in
the scattered nations are gathered again in Jerusalem.
They hear the mighty works of God through their own tongues.
Babel is now being reversed. The scattered are being gathered
in through the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of tongues working
out. All of a sudden now everyone is
hearing the mighty works of God, the declarations of God in their
own tongue for them to be able to receive in their own hearts
and then get this other great reversal on the day of Pentecost
in the Old Testament because of the hardness of their hearts and
the deceitfulness of idolatry. 3000 die on the day of Pentecost
in the New Testament as the Spirit comes and starts
proclaiming the works of God in their own tongues, they are cut
to the quick and 3000 come to life in God by the Spirit that
very day. It's the reversal old creation
that was sweeping off into non existence and ruin because of
mankind's sinfulness. Turning from the voice of God to
another voice is now being restored through Christ, His
work, and His sending forth His life into our existence.
And then Peter stands and starts proclaiming, repent, turn, be
baptized, pass through the waters, leave Egypt behind.
Allow everything that's been selling you lies, that's been
holding you in bondage, that's been trying to take your life.
Allow it to go to death in the water as you are conjoined to
Christ's death. And then raise as you are
conjoined to Christ's life in resurrection life, in newness of
life in new creation. Life died to the old twisted
humanity that turned inward self in rise in the new creation
secured and now delivered by Jesus Christ, filled with
everlasting life. This is glorious good news.
Isn't aren't the scriptures beautiful and how they they're
just rhyming back and forth. And now when we see what Christ
was doing of taking all of this up, this stuff that as you go
through the Old Testament, you should weep and cry and go, this
is my story as well. This is heartbreaking.
The Lord continues to show up. And in my life, I've
continuously rejected the Lord. And Israel was rejecting and
rejecting and rejecting over and over and over again.
But God did not abandon Israel or the human race to their own
devices. He's done everything on our
behalf to make life in life abundantly available to us.
And this is where Pentecost becomes deeply personal for us,
because this isn't just a word for them 2000 years ago.
This is a promise and a word delivered to us in our hearing
today. Would our hearts be smashed and
shattered and pierced by the Holy Spirit today to be able to
receive this Word fresh and new? Would we allow it to to Pierce
into us and start to remake us into His image and likeness, to
be conformed not to the patterns of Egypt, but to the patterns of
Christ, who is the perfect image and likeness of God?
Would our lives be shaped into Him by His Spirit?
Would we allow Him to do that today?
Because if we do, life does transform at the end of Acts 2.
It's not just the the demonstration of the power of
the Spirit coming on and people turning their hearts.
That's beautiful and glorious. But Luke gives us more.
Closing out Acts 242 through 47, we start to see now what the
life of those believers looked like right after 3000 came to
know the Lord, and then more were gathered to them on a daily
basis. This is how it describes this
holy community of believers and covenant with the Lord.
They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers, and
all came upon every soul in many wonders.
And signs were being done throughout the apostles, and all
were who believed were together and had all things in common.
Do you see what's happening? The Lord is writing.
He's transcribing the law of God, the law of love, the love
of God, the love of neighbor unto their hearts.
And their hearts are coming alive to God, but also to
neighbor. And they're putting aside their
selfish gain, their selfishness. They're selling off their own
property in order for the love and betterment of the entire
community. They were selling their
possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all
as any had need. And day by day attending the
temple together, breaking bread in their homes.
They received their food with gladness and generous hearts,
praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to their number day by day, those who
were being saved. Paul goes on in Romans 8 to tell
us that the the righteous requirement of the law by the
Holy Spirit would actually start to become worked out in our
life, that the law was previously a tutor.
He says in Galatians, something that we would be smashed against
to realize we need a Savior. But in receiving our Savior and
then even more on the day of Pentecost in the great reality
that moves forward from there on receiving his very Spirit.
Now the law of love would actually get worked out in our
lives. You can think about it this way.
If the the spirit of Pastor Nick was able to be put on you, your
life would start to look more like my life.
You'd start to love the things that I love.
You'd have a a special affection and affinity towards my family
and you'd start reading books and you'd have really bad dad
jokes and you'd really like Thai food.
All these things that start working them out.
If we could take the spirit of Michael Jordan and put it on
you, you'd probably expect to show up on the basketball court
in a different way tomorrow than you did today.
In the same way, but infinitely greater.
When the Spirit of Christ gets put onto our lives, we start to
love the things that He loves. We start to despise the things
that He despises. We start to move in accordance
with His own being and the law of love, the law of God, the
life of God starts to move in and through our life.
And this is glorious, glorious good news.
So if you would bow your heads, close your eyes, I want to stand
before you. And you're hearing in the way
that Peter stood before those in Jerusalem that day of Pentecost
and say, we save from this crooked and perverse generation,
and we do still live in a crooked and perverse generation.
Repent, turn your hearts towards the Lord and allow His Spirit to
Pierce you to your core and take Christ on as your Lord.
You cannot do this life on your own.
It's us trying to do our life on our an accord that sets us up in
such despair in the 1st place. All we have at that point is
moving back to the dust from which we came.
But the good news, my friends, is that Christ has come to
restore you from dust and bring you into glory.
The glory of God working out in your life.
And this glory is eternal. So I invite you, whether you've
prayed this prayer or a prayer like this over and over and
over, or if this is your first time ever coming to the lordship
of Jesus Christ, if you all would pray out loud with me.
Lord Jesus, I turn from my old life to you to receive you, to
receive your life, to receive your law.
Forgive me Lord for trying to do this life on my own.
Lord, I need you. Would you save me today?
And there's a reality we need to be saved every day.
Salvation is an ongoing act. Would you feel me today?
Lord you are Lord, you are King and I am not in Jesus mighty
name, Amen. Also stay in that posture.
I'd be remiss and we did it a little bit in this prayer, but I
would be remiss if I didn't also do what Paul does later on in in
Acts 16 or 19 somewhere in there where he says to those who are
believers and he says, have you received the Holy Spirit since
you believed? We've just prayed in a general
way, but I also want to give you an opportunity.
Christ, when he's he's talking, he says a good father, even on
earth, a broken Father knows that when his son asks for a
loaf of bread, he won't give him a stone or a serpent.
How much greater is the heavenly Father who is perfect to his
absolute core, loving to his absolute core?
How much more will he give to you the gift of the Spirit for
those who ask. So again, posture yourself in a
position of receiving and we're just going to ask the Lord,
We're going to do exactly what Jesus said and say, Lord Jesus,
send out your spirit. Heavenly Father, send me your
spirit. Yes, Lord, I just pray.
I pray that as we're about to go out these doors and into the
world go, that each of us, whether we've been filled once,
100 * 1000 times, or if this is a new experience, Lord, that you
would meet us like the day of Pentecost that goes on Paul's
word said to be being filled by the Spirit.
So Lord, we just ask for you to fill us fresh and new as we go
out into the world. We'd be empowered by your life
teeming within our being, and we would be witnesses, martyrs on
your behalf, those who would proclaim to the goodness of
Jesus Christ the word of God, and we would testify with their
own lives as written testimonies, as living letters
to your goodness, your work, your ministry.
May it be so You're a good Father, and we can trust that
you will give and have given what you have promised to give.
So, Lord, we receive it here and now in Jesus mighty name, Amen.
Amen. Well, as I send you off, let me
send you off with a blessing. You are one in whom Christ
dwells in delights. You are living in the all
powerful, unshakable Kingdom of the Triune God of grace.
His Kingdom is not in need, it's not in lack, and it's not in
fear. Neither are you.
Go and share this good news with the world you come in counter in
to encounter with and may the Lord bless you and keep you may
make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May He give you his favor and his peace in Jesus mighty name.
Amen. Go and be the church.
Thank you guys.