The Fire of Pentecost: A Divine Convergence | Acts

Remain standing and we'll read the Word of God. We'll be reading from the book

of Acts, chapter 2, and we'll read down through the entire chapter.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Listen now, because this is God's holy and inspired Word.

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.

Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because

each one was hearing them speak in their own language.

And they were amazed and astonished saying, Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans?

And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia,

Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belonging to

Cyrene, and visitors from Rome.

Both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We are hearing them telling

in our own tongues the mighty works of God And all were amazed and perplexed,

saying to one another What does this mean?

But others, mocking, said, They are filled with new wine But Peter,

standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them.

Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem Let this be known to you and give

ear to my words For these people are not drunk, as you suppose since it is only

the third hour of the day.

But this is what was uttered to 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.

And I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below,

blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and 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 upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Actually, I'm only going to read to verse 21.

Let's pray. Father, this is your word, and we pray that you would help us to

receive it with humility, grace, and by your spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated.

As we continue to work or plow or till our way through the book of Acts,

you'll notice the connection that Acts has made from the very beginning between

the ongoing work of Jesus and the work of the church.

The entire section of chapter 1 has led us, you guessed it, to chapter 2.

That's what all that theological training was for.

So as we introduced, actually, the whole section of chapter 1 is pointing us,

leading us step by step to chapter 2.

And in chapter 2, something begins to burst onto the scene that's quite amazing.

A lot of different redemptive themes from the Old Testament are flowing into

this, from Jesus' ministry are flowing into this.

A lot of different stages of redemptive history are coming together at Pentecost.

They're like multiple different tributaries, creeks, and rivers flowing into

one gigantic river that is bursting with a lot of redemptive themes.

Strange things, fire, tongues, judgments, prophecy, all of these different things

are flowing together in the book of Acts.

Strange, and in some ways, it seems contradictory themes.

The theme of Pentecost and harvest connected together with fire of judgment

and tongues. What does it all mean?

They're coming together as this small band of followers have been waiting for

this particular incident.

It's interesting that fire comes. I want to talk about two things this morning.

I want to talk about Pentecost.

So we'll introduce Pentecost before we get to the tongues and speaking tongues

and all of the good stuff that maybe you're interested in.

I first want to introduce what is Pentecost. In particular, the sermon's theme

is the fire of Pentecost.

As the scene opens in chapter two, we see the glory cloud presence of God coming

amidst those people there in the room.

They've chosen the 12 disciples, Matthias. They're waiting on the power of the

Spirit to come, the promise.

They've constituted this And now it's as if once the 12th apostle is in place

A floodgate of God's revelation from the Old Testament Begins to sort of swirl together.

I remember once in Uganda, there's a famous falls called Murchison Falls,

where the glory of the falls isn't that the falls is so high.

Most waterfalls you go to see, it's high. Niagara, it's big.

But Murchison Falls is an amazing falls because the entire Amazon,

or Amazon, the entire Nile River is squeezed together into a 30-foot ravine.

And it's like a gigantic divine fire hydrant. It's just gushing and flowing.

You can't hear when you get near it. It's so loud, and it's amazing.

Pentecost is a bit like that. A lot of the things that have been promised in

the Old Testament, a lot of the things that Jesus has said, prophecies from

Joel, blood, moon, fire, harvest, all these things are just flowing together

into the scene, so it's just gushing.

The sound of the glory cloud presence of God is so loud, you'll notice,

that's what attracts the people to come and hear.

What's going on over there? There's this gigantic roaring sound.

In the Old Testament, many times when God made his presence known at Sinai,

it was with smoke and fire and earthquakes and loud noise like the noise of a mighty rushing water.

I think that's a bit what's happening at Pentecost for us. So I want to slow down.

I know you can't do this with massive amounts of water flooding through.

If you try to open a floodgate, it just gushes.

But I want to try to open up one floodgate at a time and look at what's coming

together here at Pentecost. Number one, what is Pentecost?

I mean, many times when you hear about or study Pentecost, people immediately

jump to speaking in tongues.

But first, it's important to actually think about what is Pentecost. What is Pentecost?

It's not just this event. It's actually a feast that comes to us from the Old

Testament, and I think it helps us and informs us.

In Numbers chapter 28, 26 refers to the first day or the feast as the day of the first fruits.

Numbers 28 · chapter mention

The feast was, on the first fruits, was Yom Habikurim, the biblical festival

celebrating the first harvest of the crops.

One of the things you noticed, if you did notice it, when we read Leviticus

23, most of us don't notice much when we read Leviticus.

It's like this day, that day, Sabbath, Holy Convocation, so many lambs,

so many what? You just sort of zone out.

And the thing about Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28, as it gets us to Pentecost,

is that it's a combination of Passover, first fruits, and Pentecost.

In fact, it's such an interesting combination that at first reading,

you don't sometimes know when Passover ends and when Pentecost begins or when

the day of first fruits, because the day of first fruits is sort of wedged in

between Passover and Pentecost.

And it's supposed to be that way because the Feast of Pentecost is actually

something of the conclusion of the Feast of Passover.

We'll make that connection as we look at it in reference to Jesus and his ministry.

He is the Passover lamb, and he's coming by the power of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Pentecost is actually the same as the Old Testament Feast of Weeks that we saw.

It's called Pentecost simply because Greek-speaking Jews, the word Pentecost means the 50th.

So it's the 50th week after the Passover.

And remember, in Acts, that's what they're waiting on. Jesus told them to wait

on this great event that's about to come. What was the purpose of Pentecost? What was it doing?

You'll notice that the Feast of Passover was unleavened bread,

but the Feast of Pentecost was leavened bread.

One of the purposes, according to Jewish tradition, at least the way the Jews

would celebrate it even today, was that they would celebrate the coming of the law in Sinai.

But in the Bible, Pentecost is actually the celebration of the blessings of

the harvest that come after Passover.

Pentecost, though a separate festival, is part really of the close or the commemoration of Passover.

There's a sense in which Pentecost is the conclusion of the Feast of Passover.

One feast flows into the other naturally, and Pentecost emerges out of Passover.

Keep that in mind as we're connecting it together to the ministry of Christ

and the church. What's happening here?

Pentecost is emerging from Passover, and that's rightly so.

The blessings of the celebration of being saved by the blood of the lamb and

taken into the new land and given a place where they could reap a harvest from

what the Passover lamb has done for his people.

I hope even now your New Testament antennas are tingling a bit.

Of course, Jesus Christ, the great Passover lamb is going to lead us into the

harvest of the blessings of the new spirit of God in the church in the age or time of the church.

You'll notice Leviticus 23, I'll go back. In verse 11, it says,

you shall wave the sheep before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf.

On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it, and you shall offer

on that day when you have waved the sheep.

And then it goes on down to verse 15, seven Sabbath shall be completed.

Count 50 days to that day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall offer a

new grain offering to the Lord.

You shall bring them from your dwellings, baked with leaven.

So this time, And by the way, leaven in the Bible doesn't always represent sin.

We sometimes tend to jump to that because Jesus says, avoid the leaven of the Pharisees.

But leaven tends to indicate the pervasive influence of something.

The amazing way in which the leaven in the bread is going to permeate throughout

the whole bread and begin moving to fill it up.

So the ties between Passover and Pentecost are powerful.

It was the death of the Passover lamb, which brought the old leaven to an end,

and at the same time made possible for the new leaven to now be offered at Pentecost.

Okay, so the wave offering and the celebration of the first fruits.

Make no mistake, Passover, the death of the lamb, first fruits, Pentecost.

Passover, very simply, the death of our great Passover lamb,

the first fruits, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Pentecost,

the celebration of the beginning of a harvest.

And Pentecost was a celebration of the beginning of what you had.

You were to bring the first fruits. It was a great act of faith because it was

the first thing you got from that harvest after Passover.

It's the first thing you brought to the Lord as evidence of the Lord's blessing

to you and as evidence of your hope for the future in the Pentecost event.

And the leaven was to indicate the symbol of that pervasive movement of the

power of God throughout the loaf and into the land and into the future.

It's easy, and I hope you're already seeing the connection and tie to Jesus

Christ. We'll see that in a moment.

So one author, Jim Jordan, says, Just as soon as the lamb has been offered for

the people, immediately the land begins to blossom with new life and fruitfulness.

There's no delay in the progressive enjoyment of the kingdom of God.

The Feast of Harvest, which is Pentecost, falls on the day after the Sabbath,

seven weeks after the waving of the first sheath, The seven days of the recreation

have issued in seven weeks of true righteous maturation and growth,

for it was the leavened loaf which was waved to God.

Jesus rose on the first day of the first sheaf and imparted the Holy Spirit

to his disciples on that day, though the outpouring of the leaven of the Spirit

would not come until seven weeks here in our chapter, Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So that's the idea behind the Pentecost, that the Passover was to yield the

first fruits, The first fruits were to yield the Pentecostal harvest or the harvest festival.

And that's what Pentecost was.

Well, that seems to make sense, but you'll notice in the text,

it said the Holy Spirit came with fire.

So you have this harvest festival mixed with a symbol of fire.

What's up with the fire? Why is there fire?

I mean, you can see why the image of leaven, right? And you could move smoothly

into the kingdom saying, Jesus Christ is the Passover lamb.

He's been raised from the dead, the first fruits. He gives the Spirit,

and off we go. But why fire?

It's interesting. Again, there's these convergences or coming together of different

scenes or symbols that don't apparently go together.

What's the imagery of fire? Why fire?

Actually, fire goes together with harvest imagery quite well,

particularly when you notice the imagery of John the Baptist that we'll get to in a moment.

And John the Baptist is actually important for us. He said that the one who

comes after me will baptize you with fire.

Why do the teachings of John the Baptist present such a problem for people,

especially since they're kind of wedged together with Pentecost,

and they're wedged together in the ministry of Jesus.

When Jesus comes, John the Baptist says, this is the one that I told you about.

This is the one that's coming.

I baptize you with water. He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire.

And then he goes on to say, let me quote it directly, in Matthew chapter 3,

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

he will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire.

And then verse 12 says something interesting that tends to throw us off.

His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out the threshing

floor and gather his wheat into the barn and he will burn up the chaff with

unquenchable fire. You say, whoa, time out.

That must be the end of the world. That has to be the end of the world,

right? Because that's the day when the wheat will be separated from the chaff. Or is it?

I think the answer is, I love this answer, yes and no.

The answer is yes, it will happen at the end. but yes, it also is happening here.

The glory, the coming of the Son of Man and glory is happening right before our very eyes.

Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. He's enthroned. He sends his spirit

in the same glory cloud who brings tongues of fire.

At Pentecost, the great harvest festival, which is supposed to be a celebration

into the future, is mixed with a threshing floor imagery.

It's not uncommon, by the way, when you start to see this in the Old Testament,

you really can't unsee it.

There are so many scenes in the Old Testament where the blessings of God come on threshing floors.

It is at the threshing floor where Boaz meets Ruth and she offers herself as his bride.

It is at the threshing floor that the temple of God itself is built on the hill of Jerusalem.

This threshing floor, this ancient harvest place where the wheat is separated

from the chaff is a place where God comes down to be with his people.

And when he comes down to be with his people, there are two things,

blessings or judgment. it.

Here we see both of these things coming together. In other words,

what I'm submitting to you is when John the Baptist was saying,

literally the ax, the image he gives is the ax is at the root.

It's a picture of a man holding the ax, ready to strike the root of this tree.

Is that speaking about the end of the world? If you connect it to what's happening

in Acts chapter two, no, it's speaking about the judgment of the nation of Israel.

Israel has rejected her Messiah for the last time, for the last time.

And the ax that John the Baptist was speaking of is going to strike at the root

and there will be a simultaneous coming of the Lord at this threshing floor

to bring both judgment and blessings.

Judgment to those who will not receive it, blessings to those who will.

Jesus himself even said of this harvest imagery, I came to send fire on the

earth, how I wish it already were.

At Pentecost, we see that the prophecies of Joel are squeezed together in this

too, which makes it very odd.

If you're always looking at the prophecies in the New Testament as speaking

about the end of the world, you're going to miss significant changes that are taking place.

The day of judgment, the great and dreadful day of the Lord,

will come in the end when all will be gathered and all will answer at the great white throne judgment.

But this day is also foretold in the judgment of the nation of Israel.

And anyone who will not believe in Jesus Christ.

Would urge you, as I do from time to time, and I hope I always do,

find out where you are in this.

Find out where you are with the coming of the Lord. When the Lord comes,

when the Lord comes, will there be blessing or will there be judgment?

The prophets in the Old Testament were always speaking like this.

When the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes, those who are humble will

be blessed and those who are arrogant and prideful will be cursed.

We saw it at the end of the last chapter, didn't we? A strange mixture of the

blessing of the Lord coming to these people where they chose Matthias as the

12th tribal head of Israel, the church, and in the middle at smack dab, as my dad used to say,

smack dab in the middle of it is this guy named Judas with his bowels gushing out.

This horrible, gruesome picture of judgment right in the middle of the coming of the Lord.

It's typical harvest imagery. And we have now in the Pentecost imagery,

the imagery of Jesus Christ coming.

And keep this in mind, by the way, when the Holy Spirit comes, it is Jesus coming.

We have to keep this in mind, and I will repeat it probably until you get tired of me hearing it.

But the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is not the coming of the Holy

Spirit as a second blessing or as a way for you to speak in tongues or this or that.

But the coming of the Holy Spirit is Jesus being brought to his church.

He said, I will leave you, but I will not leave you alone. I will send you a

comforter. I will be with you.

Pentecost is that great transition of the ages in which we see the shift between

Israel and the church, not because the promises of Israel haven't been fulfilled,

but because the promises are being fulfilled.

It's even ironic, and I want you to see this before next week.

We'll get into tongues, speaking in tongues. But it's ironic too that even the

use of tongues is also ironically or oddly an image of judgment for Israel.

Listen, when the Old Testament prophets spoke to Israel, many times they would

say, when the judgment of the Lord comes to you, you're gonna be hearing people

speak in a language you don't understand.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14, with men of other tongues and other lips,

I will speak to this people. And yet for all that, they will not hear me.

It's interesting that they were saying this all along.

The prophets were saying this to Israel. If you do not listen to the Lord when

he brings you judgment, sooner or later, you're going to be hearing people speaking in foreign tongues.

And that's a sign of judgment. Again, usually we think of tongues as simply a sign of blessing.

That's all it is. Yay, we get to speak in tongues. We get to go out and the church grows.

Isaiah chapter 28 is where Paul is speaking from. He said, with the stammering

Isaiah 28 · chapter mention

lips and another tongue, he will speak to this people.

What do you think happened when Assyrians came in? What do you think happened

when Babylonians came in? They weren't speaking Aramaic or Hebrew.

They were speaking a different language. They were speaking a different tongue.

So even the fire and the harvest and the tongue's imagery is imagery of the

judgment of the nation coming and the judgment of all who will not listen to the words of Christ.

Deuteronomy 28, 49 says, The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar

from the ends of the earth as swift as an eagle flies, a nation whose tongue

or language you do not understand.

When the Israelites were rebellious, they would be judged by people coming in speaking tongues.

I don't know if you've ever heard it that way. I can tell you,

I never had. When I grew up, speaking tongues was just something Pentecostals

did as a sign of blessing.

But here now I'm seeing that there's a lot more to it than this.

The use of foreign tongues, tongues that some understood and some didn't,

tongues of a different language.

And by the way, remember this always. Tongues in the Bible is always a spoken, understood language.

It's not just a babble or babbling experience. It's an actual language.

You can see that the tongues by its very nature was not something that we would

expect to continue in the life of the church,

Because it was a sign We'll see it's also another sign as we go into next week,

but it's at least one sign It's a sign of the end of the nation of israel as

the people of god And the beginning of the fulfillment to israel the promises

of abraham that all the nations through him would be blessed Tongues were never

intended as something to keep going or to keep happening,

And we see this when the glory cloud presence of God comes at the beginning

of chapter two, it brings with him the imagery of Pentecostal harvest,

which at the end we'll see is glorious.

And you, church of Jesus Christ, should be reveling and thanking God for the

Pentecost and the celebration of Christ.

But when the glory cloud presence of God comes, it has a dual or a double-edged sword.

It's part of what the preacher has to do from time to time.

You know, I had friends in Uganda who were always saying, we want fire.

That's how they would say it. We want fire. They would shake their hands.

I don't want that fire, actually.

Judgment comes with fire. I want the blessings of Pentecost.

But the warning to all of us is, if you will not receive the words of Christ,

you will receive fire and judgment.

One theologian says, this event plainly shows that the fire of Messiah's baptism

is destructive, or at least includes a destructive aspect,

and that his baptism as a whole involves nothing less than the,

I'll just use the word, this guy throws big words around, than the eschatological

judgment in its dual outcome of salvation and destruction.

He just means, fancy way of saying, that in the end, all will answer to God.

Everyone will give an answer to God. And if you answer incorrectly,

if you answer wrong, if you're arrogant, if you're stubborn,

you will answer with fire or you'll be answered with fire.

He goes on to say, messianic spirit and fire baptism is a piece of God's discriminating

activity of the cleansing of the world threshing floor.

This fire will continue even with the preaching of the word of God,

even on a day like today, when the word of the Lord comes from the pulpit and

you hear, you need to remember the words of the prophet.

Today is the day of salvation. Do not harden your heart.

If you do, here's what you have to expect.

The fire of Pentecost, but not in a good sense, the fire of judgment of God.

Pentecost is a once for all historical event.

It will not happen again, nor will it continue after the days of the apostles

who have laid this foundation. You've heard me say that before.

Again, I'll say it again. However, and this is where I want to conclude with

gospel hope for us, for those who receive the blessings of the tongue,

those who heard the word of the Lord in their own language and believed it,

not those who heard only judgment,

but those who heard the word of the Lord can hear now the glorious hope of Pentecost,

which is the harvest of God's Holy Spirit for us and for the future. It's an amazing thing.

The terrifying judgment that comes on the arrogant springs forth in a harvest

a thousand times more for those who would believe.

The Feast of the Firstfruits took place after a week-long Passover celebration

because Jesus Christ became our Passover lamb.

And because he took the fire and wrath and judgment of God for us when he was

raised from the dead, that was the day of firstfruits for us.

That's the day of glorious hope that we have in this Pentecostal event.

Do we want to be a Pentecostal church? Yes.

Yes, amen. If this were a Pentecostal church, they'd be saying, hallelujah.

Yes, we want to be the people of the glorious harvest of Pentecost,

looking to the great high priest Jesus Christ, our Passover lamb,

who was the first fruits, the down payment of a great harvest that we will receive.

A bountiful harvest. That's why we have to end on the gospel. We don't want fire.

We don't want that. We want blessings from God. Paul says this,

or John says this, on the last, that great day of the feast,

Jesus stood and cried out, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and let him drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

But this he spoke concerning the spirit in whom he would, excuse me,

whom those believing in him would receive.

For the Holy Spirit was not given yet. That's what Jesus was talking about,

this Pentecostal event, with a flooding out of the Holy Spirit into us who believe,

the salvation of those who believe.

And that salvation would be in us like springs of living water that would gush

out and flow out into the world and bring the blessings of Pentecostal harvest

all over the world, in our families, in our children. Why?

Because of the first fruits of Jesus Christ.

Around 30 AD, the firstfruits of the Passover occurred for us.

The Passover lamb rose from the dead on the first day of the week,

exactly as was to happen in the celebration of these feasts.

On the first day of the week, the firstfruits were not just offered from the fields.

God himself was offered for us. The resurrection fulfilled the feast of the

firstfruits, and Christ came the firstfruits of all those who would be raised from the dead.

It's exactly what Paul said. Listen to 1 Corinthians 15, but each in his own

order, Christ the firstfruits, then that is coming those who belong to Christ.

Then at the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God to God the Father,

after destroying every rule and every authority and power,

just as the offerings of the firstfruits in the Old Testament anticipated a

greater harvest, so the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the firstfruits.

And now we also anticipate an even greater harvest in him and by his spirit.

Paul goes on to say of this Jesus, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.

Tongues that come here are not merely a sign of judgment on the rebellious nation

of Israel, but it's a glorious sign of blessings to those who would believe.

Christ saves sinners from all over the world and calls them to come to him.

And Pentecost teaches this glorious event. There is a harvest that began at

Pentecost that is continuing now, that we are a part of.

Those of you who believe should celebrate the Feast of Pentecost in Christ Jesus this morning.

Even as we come to this table, we celebrate the giving of our great high priest,

our lamb, the Passover lamb, who gives to us the harvest of new life.

And we can come. And that's the invitation.

The hymn that we sometimes sing, Come ye sinners, poor and wretched,

weak and wounded, sick and sore, Jesus ready stands to save you,

full of pity joined with power.

He is able and he is willing doubt no more. Let's pray.

God, how we thank you for Pentecost. We thank you that the tongues of fire that

came, though they came in judgment, they brought great blessings to us.

We thank you for Jesus Christ. And as we approach this Lord's Supper,

we ask, oh Lord, our God, that we would celebrate Pentecost,

the harvest that's given for us through the body and blood of the Lord Jesus

Christ himself. What a great harvest we have.

What a great hope we have. The Holy Spirit Christ in us.

Father, as we approach this table, help us to approach it with great hope and

thanksgiving, to celebrate, to be grateful and thankful, and to look forward

to the blessings that come to all those who believe.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.