Good News for Every People, Language and Nation

I'd like us this morning to turn back to the passage that we read a few minutes ago, to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

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There's about 120 in Jerusalem and perhaps a few hundred more in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.

Today, the number of disciples of Jesus Christ is a vast, uncountable number of people all across the globe.

And worship today is going on in more languages than we could count.

How did it get from that situation, just the most a few hundred in Palestine 2,000 years ago, to this vast number today?

Well, the answer is that it has a lot to do with what happened on the day of Pentecost.

Now, Pentecost is a unique event, just as Jesus' death and resurrection and ascension into heaven are unique events in God's plan and purpose in world history.

And Pentecost is also very closely bound together with Jesus' ascension into heaven.

Peter talks about that in verse 33 of Acts chapter 2, which we didn't read, but there he's really explaining what is happening.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And he says that Jesus has been exalted to the right hand of God, and from there he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.

So Jesus has been exalted, and from that place he has poured out the Holy Spirit.

Also in John chapter 16, that's Jesus' message to his disciples the evening before his suffering, his crucifixion.

John 16 · chapter mention

And there he says to them,

Unless I go away, the counselor, and the counselor is a name for the Holy Spirit, the counselor will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

So at the beginning of Acts chapter 2, we read that when the day of Pentecost came, they, that's all the disciples, were all together in one place.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And the place was probably the temple.

That would be the only place big enough to house the number of people that's spoken about in this chapter.

And we read of four things happening.

The first is wind.

The second is fire.

The third is the spirit.

And the fourth is languages.

So first of all, wind.

In verse 2, we read that suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

The words in both Hebrew and Greek, the two main biblical languages, the words for spirit, is the same as the word for wind or breath.

So the word for spirit can mean spirit, wind, or breath.

Jesus, earlier on in John chapter 3, when speaking to Nicodemus, had likened the spirit, the Holy Spirit, to the wind.

John 3 · chapter mention

You can't see the wind, but you know it by its effects.

We see that frequently when we see windmills.

You can't see the wind, but you see the blades going round.

And, of course, we see the effect of it when we turn on the lights and the fridges going and the oven and everything else that relies on electricity.

We don't see the wind, but we know it by its effects.

And this sound of the wind symbolizes and comes along with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

And it's not a gentle breeze.

It's a violent wind that blows from heaven.

And the promise of the Holy Spirit is closely connected with power.

Jesus, at the end of Luke, tells the disciples,

I'm going to send you what my Father has promised.

But stay in the city of Jerusalem until you have been clothed with power from on high.

And at the beginning of Acts, Jesus says to them, again to the disciples,

you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you.

Now, the Holy Spirit of God has been active since the beginning of creation.

We read that throughout the Old Testament.

Right at the beginning, the Holy Spirit is there at creation,

hovering or brooding over the surface of the waters.

And throughout the Old Testament, when we read of prophets and leaders being sent,

so often we read of God's Spirit enabling and empowering them.

But now, at Pentecost, the Spirit comes with a new and unprecedented power.

And it's not just on a few select individuals who are special, but on all of God's people.

That's what Peter says, quoting from Joel's prophecy,

that in the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all the people.

And that is what is happening here at Pentecost.

So that's the first thing, wind.

The second is fire.

In verse 3, they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire

that separated and came to rest on each of them.

I mentioned just briefly, when we were introducing the reading,

that Pentecost came to be viewed and celebrated

as the annual celebration of the giving of the law

to the Israelites, to Moses at Sinai.

And when that took place,

we read in Exodus chapter 19 that Mount Sinai was covered with smoke

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

because the Lord descended on it in fire.

And here, again, we have the Lord descending,

not on the mountain, but on His people in fire.

The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is God,

is the Lord, is Yahweh,

and He descends on the disciples in fire.

This is an appearance of God.

Also, John the Baptist had said to people,

he said that he was not the Messiah,

but he says, I baptize you with water.

This is in Luke 3.

I baptize you with water,

but one who is more powerful than I will come,

the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

And so, what John had predicted is now taking place.

The third thing that happens is that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit in verse 4.

Now, there's different terms that are used here.

In this verse, it's that they were all filled,

or filled up with the Spirit.

John the Baptist had spoken of Jesus,

the one coming after him,

baptizing people with the Holy Spirit.

And Peter, when he quotes from Joel's prophecy a bit later on,

he speaks of the Spirit being poured out.

So, these are all different terms for the same thing happening.

The Spirit, they're filled with the Spirit,

they're baptized with the Spirit,

the Spirit is poured out on the disciples.

Now, the terminology of being filled with the Spirit is also used later on,

particularly when the disciples have to speak up about their faith in Christ,

what they have witnessed in the events of Jesus' death and resurrection.

But these other terms of being baptized with the Spirit,

the Spirit being poured out,

are only used of this one-off experience.

And we see here that they're all filled with the Holy Spirit.

It's not that some are filled and not others.

All of them, all the disciples, are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, you might wonder, how does that relate to us today?

Well, all those who believe in Christ,

all believers in Christ,

receive the Spirit, they're filled with the Spirit,

when they come to faith, when we come to faith.

At the end of this sort of event on Pentecost,

in verse 38, Peter says to the crowd that gathered there,

repent, and each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus the Messiah,

so that your sins may be forgiven,

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So basically, all who repent of their sins,

all who come to faith in Jesus Christ,

receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Paul writes to the church in Corinth and says that,

we were all baptized with one Spirit,

so as to form one body,

whether Jews, Gentiles, slave or free,

and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Abraham Kuyper, who was a Dutch theologian,

around the turn of the 20th century,

used an illustration,

which I guess was really apt for his own time,

because places were coming onto,

you know, electricity was being spread,

and places were coming onto the grid,

and he used the illustration of a whole city

being put on the grid, the electricity grid,

so power is given to the whole city,

so that's like Pentecost.

But then, in sort of subsequent days, weeks, months,

outlying villages,

and even individual houses

are linked up to the electricity grid,

and that is like what happens when we today come to faith.

If you as an individual,

when you put your trust in Jesus Christ,

it's like you're linked up to the grid.

You receive the power of the Holy Spirit,

the Holy Spirit works in your life,

you are filled with the Spirit,

when you come to faith in Jesus Christ.

And then the fourth thing that happens is languages.

In verse four,

that they began to speak in other tongues or languages

as the Spirit enabled them.

So this is a miracle of speaking.

It's not a miracle of hearing,

it's a miracle of speaking.

They actually spoke in many different languages.

It was a sudden, miraculous ability to speak in languages

that they had never previously learned.

These are human languages,

languages spoken by different ethnic groups,

and it's the Spirit,

the Holy Spirit,

that enables them to do this.

Now, the following verses sort of explain this a bit more.

In verse five, it says that

there were staying in Jerusalem,

God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

And they were there for the festival,

the Feast of Pentecost.

Many Jews who were sort of scattered around the world

would retire to Jerusalem

to live out the rest of their days there

in the Holy City.

And also, people went on pilgrimage.

People went as pilgrimage,

particularly at festival time,

to Jerusalem.

And in verse six, we read that

when they heard this sound,

a crowd came together in bewilderment,

because each one heard

their own language being spoken.

So these people who had come to Jerusalem,

they would speak the language

of the place they had grown up in.

Probably many of them didn't have much Aramaic,

which was the local language in Jerusalem.

Then in verse seven, we read that

utterly amazed, they asked,

aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?

Then how is it that each of us hears them

in our own native language?

Galilee was not known as a place of learning.

It had a reputation for kind of being out

in the sticks, being a rural backwater.

There was no way that these Galileans,

of all people,

could know all these different languages,

some of which came from very far away.

In fact, we've got a slide with a map.

Can we have the next slide?

Yeah, I don't know how clearly you can see that,

but it's got the names of the different places

just scattered around the Mediterranean

and the Middle East.

So, and Luke lists them in verse nine.

Pardians, Medes, Elamites,

residents of Mesopotamia, Judea,

and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt,

parts of Libya near Cyrene,

visitors from Rome,

both Jews and converts to Judaism,

Cretans and Arabs.

We hear them declaring the wonders of God

in our own languages.

Now, for those of us,

probably the majority here,

whose first language is English,

it's probably hard for us just to imagine

how amazing this was

because almost everywhere you can go in the world,

you will find some people at least

who will know at least a bit of English.

But imagine a Gaelic speaker

traveling to Pyongyang,

the capital of North Korea.

And there they encounter

a rural North Korean peasant farmer

getting up in the public square

and addressing them in perfect Gaelic.

And there you get a bit closer

to what's happening here.

But it's not just one language,

it's in loads of different languages

that people hear,

the apostles, the disciples,

speaking to them

the wonders of God

in those languages.

So, Peter goes on to

relate these events

to Joel's prophecy

of the last days

when God would pour out

his spirit on all people.

But there's another

Old Testament passage

which is not referenced explicitly,

but I think is in the background here.

And I think Luke hints at it.

That's Genesis chapters 10 and 11.

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

The list of different nations

in verses 9 to 11.

Maybe Luke is kind of echoing

the list of nations

that is given in Genesis chapter 10.

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

After the flood at the time of Noah,

it just recounts how different nations

emerged from Noah's descendants

and spread out across the globe.

And then in Genesis chapter 11,

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

we read of the Tower of Babel.

Let me just read that to you.

This is Genesis 11 from verse 1.

Now the whole world had one language

and a common speech.

As people moved eastward,

they found a plain in Shinar

and settled there.

They said to each other,

come, let's make bricks

and bake them thoroughly.

They used brick instead of stone

and bitumen for mortar.

And they said,

come, let us build ourselves a city

with a tower that reaches to the heavens

so that we may make a name for ourselves.

Otherwise, we will be scattered

over the face of the whole earth.

But the Lord came down to see the city

and the tower the people were building.

The Lord said,

if as one people speaking the same language,

they have begun to do this,

then nothing they plan to do

will be impossible for them.

Come, let us go down

and confuse their language

so they will not be,

so they will not understand each other.

So the Lord scattered them

from there over all the earth

and they stopped building the city.

That is why it was called Babel

because there the Lord confused

the language of the whole world.

From there, the Lord scattered them

over the face of the whole earth.

So at Babel,

there was a communication breakdown

in judgment on the arrogant plans

of that society.

Pentecost

is a communication breakthrough.

Immediately following that account

of Babel in Genesis 11,

we have another genealogy.

And from all those different nations,

God selects one man,

Abram,

out of them all.

And God promises that through Abram,

all the families of the earth

would be blessed.

That's in Genesis 12, verse 3.

Genesis 12:3

That all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.

And now,

at Pentecost,

God had begun to fulfill

that promise

through the death

and resurrection

and ascension of Jesus into heaven.

Through those events,

salvation

for the world

is achieved,

is realized.

And now,

God sends the Holy Spirit

to give power

to the disciples

to witness about Jesus

to the ends

of the earth

in fulfillment

of that promise

to Abram

that all peoples on earth

would be blessed

through him,

through his offspring.

And the sign

that God gives,

along with the sending

of the Holy Spirit,

is that now

God is breaking through

those barriers

set up at Babel

in judgment

on the godless pride

and arrogance

of that society.

God's word,

his message,

the good news

of Jesus Christ

is not just

for one people

or nation

or language,

but for all.

Now,

all the people there

at Pentecost

were Jews,

either by birth

or by conversion

to Judaism.

The gospel impacting

non-Jewish nations

comes later

in Acts.

But this event

anticipates

and signposts

the good news

of Jesus Christ

going to every nation

and tribe

and especially

language

because the good news

of Jesus Christ

is for everyone.

now,

in the past,

I myself have preached

on Pentecost

being a reversal

of Babel.

But that's not

quite right.

If it were,

the apostles

would have maybe

declared the praises

of God

in their own language,

in Aramaic,

and everyone would have

miraculously understood them.

But that's not

what happens here.

Instead,

the Spirit

enables the disciples

to speak

in the numerous

languages

that were understood

and represented there

in Jerusalem

at the feast.

God does not

abolish

the different languages.

Rather,

He communicates

in those languages.

And that's really

important for us

today.

There are

many different

religious traditions

that claim

that one particular

language is

the sacred language,

the holy language.

It might be Arabic

or Sanskrit

or Pali

or Latin

or Syriac

or some other language

that people say

that is the language

that God speaks.

That's the sacred language,

the holy language.

But according to the Bible,

there is no one language

that God communicates in.

God speaks

in every language.

language.

Just think about that

for a minute.

This service

today

is

in English,

the English language.

And for most of us here,

that's

our

mother tongue.

We hear

the word of God

read

and preached

in English.

And we respond

in praise to God

in singing

and praying

in English,

a language

that didn't exist

at the time

of Pentecost

and whose roots

lie in languages

spoken

at the furthest

corners of the earth

from the perspective

of Jerusalem.

But the fact

that we don't even

think about that

most of the time

is really significant.

It's just so

normal,

so natural

to us

because the gospel

has made itself

at home

in the English language.

And that's,

of course,

just as true

for those of you

who speak in

other languages,

the other languages

some of which

we read

from earlier.

And

the fact

that we don't

even think about

this most of the time

is really significant.

It's the work

of the Holy Spirit,

the Spirit

of Christ,

the Spirit

of Pentecost,

the Spirit

of

mission.

That work

that was begun

here on the day

of Pentecost

and is

manifested

by this

miracle of languages.

And we should

give thanks for that,

give thanks that we

can approach God

in our own language,

in our own mother tongue.

It also

tells us that

the work of

Bible translation

is so important

and so in tune

with what is

happening here,

the work of the Spirit

at Pentecost,

so that everyone

may read and hear

the Word of God

in their own

language,

in their own

mother tongue.

And hear the voice

of God

in their own

language.

500 years ago

this month,

the New Testament

was first published

in modern English.

William Tyndale,

the man who

translated it,

labored hard

on that task

and he had,

he suffered exile,

he was exiled

and in the end

suffered martyrdom

for his efforts.

And yet what he achieved

had just

enormous effect

on the English

speaking world.

And indeed

that influence

is still here today.

Even in modern

translations

his influence

is there

and indeed

in English language

he has left

his mark.

And we should

give thanks for that,

that God

used him

to translate

the Bible

into our own

language.

And of course

it's not just English,

it's in countless

other languages too.

Just last October

I was at a conference

in Pakistan

and I met

a man there,

he wasn't a Christian,

he was a

Shia Muslim

cleric

from the far

north of Pakistan,

a place called

Baltistan.

The language

there is

Balty.

And he said,

oh I've got a friend

who's been involved

in translating

the gospel

into my language,

into Balti.

And he tried

to get him

on the phone

to speak to me

but that call

failed.

But it's just

amazing just

to hear of that.

They're in

northern Pakistan

in this language

receiving

the New Testament

in their own

language.

And of course

that's repeated

again and again

all across

the globe.

hope.

I've been in

prayer meetings

where people

have just been

told, you know,

pray in your own

language.

And there's been

people from

speaking Persian,

Dari,

Sarani,

and other languages

praying in those

languages in that

meeting,

praying in their

own mother tongue.

And I think

Pentecost tells us

that Christian

mission that is

in step with

the Holy Spirit

is in no way

imperialistic.

That true

biblical faith

is not an

imperialistic faith.

It doesn't seek

to impose on

listeners,

on new people,

a language and

a culture from

outside.

But the gospel

makes itself at

home in every

language and

culture that it

goes to.

Now, sadly,

sometimes the

church has not

been or was in

step with the

Holy Spirit in

that.

It has imposed

an outside

language and

culture.

But the work of

the Holy Spirit

is to communicate

in every language,

in every culture

on earth.

God is also a

God who creates

and loves,

and God is to

bring unity to

all things in

heaven and on

earth under

Christ.

Christ.

But God is also

a God who

creates and

loves diversity.

Every snowflake

is unique.

Every acorn

is unique.

Every set of

fingerprints is

unique.

And in the

renewal of all

things, in the

new creation,

we will see that

diversity.

In the redeemed

human race,

we will see not

the abolition of

diverse cultures

and languages,

but they're

bringing together

in their renewal

and redemption

in Jesus Christ.

That is why one

of the final

visions we have

in the New

Testament is in

the book of

Revelation 7

Revelation 7:9

verse 9,

where John the

seer writes,

After this I

looked, and there

before me was a

great multitude

that no one

could count,

from every

nation, tribe,

people, and

language,

standing before

the throne,

and before

the Lamb.

Amen.

May God

bless his

word to us.