13 Sep MVMT 02: Pentecostal power

Acts 2:1-13

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “church”? For some of us, we might think of a place we go to on Sunday. So if people ask you, “What is a church?” what comes to your mind is ROCK Sydney International at Artarmon. Or maybe for some of us, when we think of a church, we think of the pastor of the church. So you immediately think of this forever-young Asian man who preaches the gospel to you weekly. Although there is some truth to all those answers, those answers fall extremely short of the Bible’s definition of a church. The word church comes from a Greek word, “ekklesia” which means an assembly of people called out around an idea. It is a gathering of people who are called out of their ordinary life to live out their new belief. With another word, the church is not a building, a place, or a pastor, but a movement. Let me give you a definition of the church. The church is a movement of ordinary people with the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit united around the message of Christ. So, when you join a church, you join a movement. And movements move. The danger for the church in every generation is to stop being a movement and instead become a place people simply attend on Sunday. The church stop moving and become stagnant. If the church is no longer on the move, then it has ceased from being the church that we see in the New Testament. This is why we will spend the rest of the year to look at the book of Acts.

The book of Acts tells the story of how the church came to be. I think the book of Acts is named wrongly. It is called the Acts of the apostles. But I don’t think it is correct. Yes, it tells the story of the apostles of Jesus but the apostles are not the main character of the book of Acts. The main character of the book of Acts is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. You can separate the Bible into three different eras. The first era is God the Father in the old covenant. The second era is God the Son in life and ministry of Jesus on earth. The third era is God the Spirit in the new covenant. And the new covenant continues until Jesus’ second coming. Which mean we are living under the new covenant today. We live in the era of the Holy Spirit. Last week we have seen how Jesus promised that he would send the Holy Spirit. In our passage for today, we see the fulfilment of that promise. The day of Pentecost is the inauguration of the new era of the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts is the story of the Holy Spirit working through the apostles and the church. Why is this important? Because if the book of Acts is simply the story of the apostles, then this book carries less significance after the death of the apostles. But if the book of Acts is primarily about the works of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the church, then there is much that we can learn from this book.

There is a big argument on how you should interpret the book of Acts. Remember that the book of Acts is an actual historical account, written by Dr Luke. It consists of historical narratives. How do you interpret history? There are two opposing views: prescriptive and descriptive. The prescriptive camp says that you should apply everything in the book of Acts literally. Whatever is written in the book of Acts is something that you must apply today. Here is the problem with this view. That is not how you interpret historical accounts. If you try to apply everything in the book of Acts literally, you will get into many troubles. Let me give you one example. In Acts chapter 1, the apostles wanted to replace Judas with another apostle. Do you know how they did it? They cast lots. Is that how we find a new pastor today? “Guys, I am resigning as your pastor and we will roll the dice to decide the next pastor. Oh, Isaac, the dice has chosen you.” Anyone staying in the church? If Acts is prescriptive, then let’s roll the dice and decide the next pastor that way. On the other hand, the descriptive camp says that what happens in the book of Acts stays in the book of Acts. That’s just how God did it in that day and time and we should not expect God to do the same in our time. Here is the problem with this view. Who gets to decide that what happens in the book of Acts stays in the book of Acts? Is there any Bible verse that said that we should not expect to see signs and wonders today? Do we have a different Holy Spirit than the apostles? Last time I check, there is only one Holy Spirit and he is given to all Christians. And the same Holy Spirit is the one who inspired the book of Acts. Do you see the problem?

So, let’s take a poll. How many of you think we should interpret Acts prescriptively? How many descriptively? How many are waiting for me to give you the third option? You guys know me so well. I think the right answer is both. We have to take into account that there is something unique about the apostles and the early church that cannot be repeated today. For example, even though we have the same Holy Spirit, we don’t get to write the Bible today. And you no longer see people die on the spot when they lie to their pastors. If someone lied to me and they died on the spot, I’ll be in jail. And then you might have to throw the dice to find a new pastor. And yet, because we have the same Holy Spirit and we are under the same era as the apostles, we should expect to see the works of the Spirit continues today. It might not be in the same intensity, but it still continues. Stay tuned for next Titik Temu on Tuesday 22^nd September. There are parts of the book of Acts that simply tell us what happened, and there are parts that we can take and apply to our lives. So we can’t take everything in the book of Acts at face value but we also can’t ignore it as simply a historical accounts. I’ll help you navigate through it for the next four months.

Let’s recap what happened earlier. In Acts 1, Jesus is about to leave his disciples. And the disciples are ready to go. They just saw the resurrected Christ and they are ready to play part in the movement. But Jesus tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit first. They are not going to be able to play part in the movement of God without the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus says it. Acts 1:8 – 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. This is the mission statement of the book of Acts. Just think about how massive the mission is. First of all, Jesus says that they will be his witnesses in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the place where Jesus was brutally killed a few days earlier. The people in Jerusalem hates Jesus and the disciples. And Jesus tells them that they will be his witnesses in the place where the people hates them. But they will also be his witnesses in Samaria. Samaria is a place that they hate. There is a racial tension between the Jews and the Samaritans. Jesus is not only sending them to a place where the people hates them but also to a place where they hate the people. On top of that, Jesus is sending them to be his witnesses to the end of the earth. “That sounds cool. But where is that?” They have no clue what Jesus is saying. They don’t have the world map as we do. So the mission that Jesus entrusted to his disciples is massive. It is pretty much a mission impossible for the common uneducated men. So what’s the plan? Jesus says, “I want you to wait for the Holy Spirit.” The movement of God is not dependent on the power and wisdom of men but the Holy Spirit. Without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, there is no movement. As the body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Holy Spirit is dead. So, Jesus tells them to wait. And there are about 120 disciples at that time. But if you read to end of Acts chapter 2, there are 3000 Christians. If you do the math, that is 2500% growth in one single day. That is a good day for church growth. And not only that, by the end of the third century, Christianity has turned the Roman empire upside down. It begins with 120 people and in a few hundred years, the movement has spread throughout the empire. What happened? Let me tell you what happened. The day of Pentecost happened. Jesus fulfilled his promise. The Holy Spirit was poured out on these 120 disciples and the rest is history. By the way, there is only one Pentecost. The day of Pentecost is unique and unrepeatable. It marks the inauguration of the new era of the Holy Spirit. I was going to title my sermon “The first and only Pentecost” but I might get in trouble.

Let’s get to the passage. Three things that we can see in this passage. The manifestation; the reversal; the wonder.

The manifestation

Acts 2:1-3 – When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

These verses are exciting. There is a sound like a mighty rushing wind and there are tongues of fire appeared out of nowhere. Imagine if that happened today. Imagine if you see a tongue of fire on top of the person next to you. What would you do? You will try to blow the fire off their head, right? But you can’t because you are wearing a mask. But I think because these verses are exciting, we often tend to skip the historical background behind this supernatural occurrences. Luke tells us in verse one, “When the day of Pentecost arrived.” Before the day of Pentecost become a celebration of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as we know it, it is first a Jewish celebration. The day of Pentecost is actually a feast of harvest. It is a day where the Jews bring the first fruit of their crops as a thanksgiving to God. For example, let’s say you have a strawberry farm. In the feast of harvest, you would bring the first harvest of that season as an offering to God and trust God with the rest of the harvest. The first harvest also gives you a small taste of what is coming. If the strawberry of your first harvest is sweet, then you know the rest of the harvest will be sweet. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is poured out on the day of Pentecost as a foretaste of what is to come. God is in the process of restoring what was broken. And the day of full harvest is coming in the future when Jesus returns. But until then, we are given a foretaste of that future through the Holy Spirit. That is why this day is very significant.

Look at what happens. First, there is a sound like a mighty rushing wind. So it is not actually wind but the sound of it. In the Old Testament, wind is used to signify a new creation. The words wind, breath, and spirit come from the same Hebrew word. And there are tongues of fire. In the Old Testament, fire is used to signify either the judgement of God or the presence of God. In this context, it used to describe the presence of God. So what we have in this passage is the manifestation of the presence of God. The disciples already have the knowledge of the presence of God. But now, they experience the presence of God through the sound of wind and tongues of fire. So they not only have intellectual certainty of God’s presence but also experiential certainty. The presence of God through the Holy Spirit is not just something they know but something they experience.

But here is what strange. Luke notes that the tongues of fire rest on each individual and not just the apostles. All 120 people have the tongue of fire on their head. Why? Because this marks the beginning of the new covenant. In the Old Testament, God promised that a time will come where he would pour out his Spirit on all people. The Spirit of God would not only dwell on selective few but every Christian. This is a game-changer. In the Old Testament, you have to go to a specific place or person to have access to God’s presence. But in the New Testament, the presence of God rests on every believer. Every believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And this is not a second baptism. This is where you need to differentiate between prescriptive and descriptive. Today, some churches differentiate between being Christians and being baptised with the Holy Spirit. They say that you can be a Christian and not have the Holy Spirit because that is what happened in this story and many other places in the book of Acts. They see this story as prescriptive. Let me just say it as clear as I possibly can. You cannot become a Christian without the Holy Spirit working in you. It is impossible to be a Christian and not have the Holy Spirit. There is no separation between believing in Christ and being filled or baptised with the Holy Spirit. Every Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit. The teaching of the New Testament is abundantly clear on this. So what do you do with the fact that many disciples in Acts are filled with the Holy Spirit long after they become believers? Here is where you need to see the history of what God is doing. The book of Acts is the transition between two eras: the era of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And the pouring out of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of a new era. So the disciples who lived in the transition between two eras need to know that Jesus’ time on earth has ended and the time of the Holy Spirit has begun. Hence they need to experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But for you and me, New Testament makes it clear that if you can confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, it is because the Holy Spirit is already dwelling inside of you.

Let’s apply it to us then. What does it mean for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Being filled with the Holy Spirit is having God gives us himself. It is experiencing the truth of who God is. It is God giving us foretaste of what is to come. God is not just telling us about something that he will do in the future, but through the Holy Spirit, he is bringing the future into the present so that we may have a foretaste of what the future is like. Which means that we don’t have to wait for the eternity future to see the work of God in our life. At this very moment, in all our weaknesses, the Holy Spirit is shaping us for future glory. Rankin Wilbourne gives an illustration that sticks with me. Let’s say you grow up with mean and critical parents that always see you as a disappointment. But then one day, as you clean the garage, you find a dusty lock cabinet. You pick the lock and open the cabinet and discover the paper that proves you had been abducted as a baby. Your parents are not your parents, they are criminals. You discover that your real mom is the queen of England and your dad is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist and a world-wide known model. And you say to yourself, “Of course, this explains everything. No wonder I’m so smart. No wonder I look good in the mirror. I am extraordinary. I knew something is wrong with my so-called parents that I live with now.”

Do you see what happened? A lot of time we are like this young man. We lived with our heads down believing that we are a disappointment and there is nothing we can do about it. Until we discover the truth. And this truth changes everything about us. It tells us that we are different. It tells us that we have the power to change. Our lives do not have to be this way. The way we see life and the way we see everything changes. We walk out of that garage with a brand new perspective. We no longer walk with our heads down but we start to skip-walk. This is what the Holy Spirit does. The Holy Spirit makes us a new creation. The Holy Spirit tells us that we have God dwelling inside of us. So give up on our small ambition and dream. There is no reason why God cannot use us. We can make a change. We can make a difference. But at the same time, remember that it is only a foretaste, a first fruit. The complete package has yet to come. This gives us an incredible balance. In one side, we have tremendous hope that we can make a difference, but on the other side, we do not become over triumphant. We do not fall to the trap of prosperity gospel where following Christ equals to living our best life now. The best is yet to come but we are living today with the power to make a difference. Let’s look at the next one.

The reversal

Acts 2:4-11 – ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. ⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

This is the part where I might get in trouble with some Charismatic circles. If you grew up in some Charismatic circles, the Sunday of Pentecost was the one Sunday where you were very nervous about coming to church. Especially if you did not speak in tongue. Right? If you are not familiar with the term speaking in tongue, it is when Christians speak in a language that does not sound like any language you know. You were nervous because you knew what was coming. Your church looked at this text and said that the sign you were filled with the Holy Spirit was that you were able to speak in tongue. If you did not speak in tongue, that meant you were not filled with the Holy Spirit. So at the end of the service, your church would have an altar call for you to be filled with the Spirit and to speak in tongue. So you walked forward and they prayed for you. But for many of you, nothing happened. You still can’t speak in tongue. And you felt like you were an inferior Christian because of it. So what did you do? Fake it til you make it. Right? There is a reason why if you go these churches, their tongue sounds awfully similar to one another. “Kuraba raba..” Too much? Let’s move on.

This is inconsistent with the teaching of the New Testament. The New Testament not only teaches that it is impossible for you to be saved without the Holy Spirit, but it also tells you that speaking in tongue is not equivalent to being filled with the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongue is not the sign of the Holy Spirit but one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You may or may not receive that gift. Paul explains this in 1 Corinthians 14. However, I am also convinced that what we see in Acts 2 is not speaking in tongue as many would define it. The nature of the gift of tongue that we see in 1 Corinthians 14 and Acts 2 are very different. The gift of tongue in Corinthians is given for the edification of the church, it requires interpretation, and it is speaking to God and not men. But in Acts 2 it is very different. The gift of tongue in Acts is not directed to God but men. And it does not require interpretation. These 120 people receive supernatural ability to speak in recognizable languages. People who hear them understand what they are saying. It’s like me and Greek. I spent two semesters studying Greek and I memorized vocabs weekly. It was a lot of struggle. There were some days that I cried because of it. But then let’s say one day I go on holiday to Greece and I am invited to preach at a local church. And when I open my mouth, I suddenly speak fluent Greek with no accent whatsoever. The people in the church thought that I am a local person. That is what’s happening in this text.

What does it mean? It is beautiful. Luke does not want us to miss the point. He goes the extra length to list all the different nationalities that are present at the time. Why did he do that? Luke is trying to show us the reversal that the Holy Spirit does. Thousand of years before the day of Pentecost, everyone used to speak the same language. There was one language that united everyone on earth. But then the people became proud and wanted to make name for themselves by building a tower that ascended to heaven. It is called the tower of Babel. The tower of Babel was men’s attempt to ascend to heaven. Because of it, God confused their language so that they could not understand one another. It created divisions between them, and they were scattered to different parts of the earth. The confusion of language was God’s judgement for their sin. But on the day of Pentecost, the reversal happens. The Holy Spirit descends on earth, many nations come together and the language is united. Instead of division, the Holy Spirit brings new unity that transcends racial and linguistic barrier.

It means that for Christians, the most important thing about us is no longer our race or nationalities but Christ. This is especially crucial in the last few months where the problem of racism is rampaging. What the Holy Spirit does is he gives a new identity that unites every tribe, nation and tongue under Christ. It does not mean we have to agree on everything. We may not see eye to eye in everything. But as Christians, the unity that we have with one another is far greater than unity that we have with anyone else in the world. In Christ, we are closer to one another than we would to an identical twin who does not know Christ. It means that right now I have a lot more in common with a widow in Africa who is also a believer than I do with people of the same race, same school, same age, who is not a believer. For example, I have my own style of preaching. You guys can guess it. I always start with reading the Bible, introduction, expository sermon with three or four points, illustrations here and there, points you to Jesus and applications. And throughout the sermon, you guys remain quiet except for the little laugh and courtesy amen here and there. That’s the way we do it. But if you go to an African American church, they are very different from us. The pastor would yell and sing in the middle of the sermon. And there is organ playing in the background when he gets excited. And the people would yell back at the pastor. It is chaotic. I love listening to them but there is no way I am going to do that in RSI. “I say to you Jesus cares. Oh no, you are not listening to me. I say Jesus cares!” Okay, I stop. We are very different. And yet the Holy Spirit gives us new unity that transcends all our differences. This is what’s amazing about Christianity. Christianity does not belong to any particular culture. Christianity transcends every culture. So, if you are Indonesian, believing in Christ does not make you less Indonesians. The gospel does not remove our cultural distinctiveness but the gospel gives us a greater identity. Yes, you are Indonesian. But you are Christian first, Indonesian second. You are Christian first, Australian second. We are first and foremost Christian. We have so much more in common with African American Christians than we do with other Indonesians or Australians who are not Christians. Let’s move on.

The wonder

Acts 2:12-13 – ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

In light of this unexplainable event, there are two responses. First, people are amazed and it leads them to want to know more about the works of God. Or second, it leads to mockery. It tells us something about signs and wonders. Signs and wonders by itself are not self-authenticating. Signs and wonders are simply pointers toward something else. You can see it here. These two groups of people experienced the exact same wonder and yet they responded very differently. Miracles by itself do not make you a believer. It is very possible for you to experience miracles and never believe in Christ. Miracles are simply a pointer and not the point. It is never about signs and wonders. It is always about God who performed signs and wonders. More on that on part 3. Look at what Luke says in verse 11.

Acts 2:11 – both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. The disciples are performing signs and wonders. They are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. But their message is not, “Look at the signs and wonders. Look at what I can do. This is amazing.” No. Their message is about the mighty works of God. The phrase mighty works of God refers to God’s saving act in history. In the Old Testament, it is about the exodus. How God delivered Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders and brought them into the Promised Land. In the New Testament, it is about the gospel. It is the good news of what Jesus has done. This is the purpose of signs and wonders. Signs and wonders are given for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel.

There is another meaning to the day of Pentecost. For the Jews, the day of Pentecost is also the anniversary of the giving of the law at Mt Sinai. What happened when Moses received the laws of God? It began with the manifestation of the presence of God. God came down and manifested his presence to the people of Israel in the form of fire, wind and quake. When the people saw it, they were afraid to come near to God. So, Moses went up to Mt Sinai to be the mediator between God and the Israelites. At the top of the Mt Sinai, Moses received the laws of God. But as soon as Moses received the laws, the Israelites broke the law. They committed idolatry. They created a golden bull and worshipped it instead of God. Then the wrath of God came down and 3000 people were killed because of it. But thousands of years later in the same day of Pentecost, the great reversal happened. God came down in the person of the Holy Spirit and manifested his presence with a sound of mighty wind and tongues of fire. Rather than a fearful event, it was a joyful occasion. Christ had gone up to be a mediator between God and the people of God. And when Christ went up, the Holy Spirit was poured out on all believers. And the laws of God were no longer written on tablets of stone but the laws of God were written on their heart. The grace of God was poured out and 3000 people were saved by the end of the day. How is it possible? Because of the mighty works of God. It was possible because of the gospel. Jesus made it happen. At the cross, Jesus took the fire of God’s wrath so that we could have the fire of God’s Spirit. At the cross, Jesus took every single drop of God’s wrath toward the sin of his people. And once Jesus finished his work at the cross, he cries out, “It is finished” and he died. And the moment he died, the veil that separated the presence of God from the people of God was torn apart. Now every believer has access to the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. We no longer need to go to a temple to seek the presence of God. God is living inside of us in the person of the Holy Spirit. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is the meaning of Pentecost.

Let me close with this. How many of you ever get drunk? Don’t raise your hand. What happens when you are drunk? You become fearless. You lose control of your body. You do things that you normally wouldn’t do. Am I right? But why are you fearless? Because you can’t think straight. It is a stupid fearlessness. But Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:18 – And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit. Interestingly, Paul contrasts being drunk with wine with being filled with the Spirit. Why? Because when you are filled with the Spirit, you also become fearless. But it is not a stupid fearlessness. When you are drunk with wine, you become fearless because you lost sense of reality. But when you are filled with the Spirit, you become fearless because you have a greater awareness of reality. It is an intelligent fearlessness. You are fearless because you know who Christ is for you. You know that you are the child of God and that the Holy Spirit is living inside of you. That’s what makes you fearless. That is the reason you are clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not power for the sake of power but power for the sake of the gospel. The Holy Spirit empowers you to be witnesses of Christ wherever you are. The Pentecostal power is the power to be witnesses of Christ and play part in the gospel movement.

Imagine if you truly believe this. Imagine if you truly believe that you are clothed with the power of the Holy Spirit. What would you do? It takes one day for 120 ordinary people who are filled with the Holy Spirit to grow into 3000 people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. And right now, let’s say every one of you who are here and listening online truly believes that there is the Holy Spirit inside of you who empowers you to play part in the gospel movement. What would happen to our church? What would happen to our city? Listen. God does not need the smartest and most resourceful people for him to turn a city upside down. The gospel movement involves ordinary people who are filled with the Holy Spirit. We need Christians who move in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the good news is that power is already yours. All you have to do is move.

Discussion questions:

1. Explain the difference between prescriptive and descriptive. How should approach the book of Acts?
2. “The day of Pentecost is unique and unrepeatable.” Agree or disagree? Why?
3. What does it mean for Christian to be filled with the Holy Spirit?
4. What is the purpose and the meaning of “speak in other tongues” in Acts 2? Why is it different from the gift of the tongue?
5. Explain “the mighty works of God” in the day of Pentecost.
6. How does the Holy Spirit empower you to be witnesses of Christ in your own context?