Why Pentecost Matters (Acts 2:1-21)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving 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 a 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 there 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 his own language, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

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

Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabeans.

We hear 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 it to them.

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 through the prophet Joel.

And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy, and I will show wonders in the heavens 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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be to you.

In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Let's pray.

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, and lighten with celestial fire.

Thou the anointing spirit art, who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.

Thy blessed unction from above is comfort, life, and fire of love.

Enable with perpetual light the dullness of our blinded sight.

Anoint and cheer our soiled face with the abundance of thy grace.

Lord, what a gift is your word.

And what a gift is your spirit.

Would you illumine your word to our hearts this morning?

That it would be life.

That it would be light.

That it would be renewal.

That it would be comfort.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

Well, this is a very well-loved passage in Acts chapter 2, isn't it?

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Not just well-loved for myself because Cretans show up in verse 11.

Mind you, St.

Paul also quotes a well-known proverb at the time in his letter to Titus that all Cretans are liars.

So take what I have with a grain of salt.

But this is the giving of the Holy Spirit.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is Pentecost Sunday.

And the simple, well, to put my sermon simply, the main idea is this Pentecost matters because the Holy Spirit matters.

And yet, I think misunderstandings, ambiguities, or misdirections seem to abound when it comes to understanding the Holy Spirit.

Rachel and I were recently watching a film that I think has shaped at least a couple generations' understanding of the Holy Spirit up till now, and that film is Star Wars.

Maybe you've heard of it.

Maybe I, you know, you haven't heard of me talk about it in the last five minutes.

But of course, in Star Wars, the Jedi, the good guys, are powered by this thing called the Force.

And the Force, as it's under explained by the great Jedi Master Obi-Wan, is what gives a Jedi his power.

It's an energy field created by all living things.

It surrounds us, it penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.

Now that's great for Star Wars, but it's amazing to me how if we start to drill down on what it is that a Christian, how a Christian understands the Holy Spirit, or how a Christian interacts with the Holy Spirit, often the language used sounds a lot like a Jedi describing the force.

And one wonders, is this the way it's supposed to be?

So often our language falls short of describing the Lord, the Holy Spirit as the giver of life who proceeds from the Father, the third person of the Trinity, who indwells us, who empowers us, who renews us, who regenerates us, who restores us, and who is accomplishing God's good purposes in his world.

One Bible scholar named Gordon Fee describes the Holy Spirit as God's empowering presence.

It is his personal, empowering presence at work in our lives, conforming us to Christ, confirming his promises to us.

And we start to see the Holy Spirit execute this amazing ministry right here in Acts chapter 2 on that first Sunday of Pentecost.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And every time the church, churches like ours, celebrate Pentecost Sunday, we remember that we were a church empowered by God's personal presence.

And we're sent out on mission.

Pentecost matters because the Holy Spirit matters.

And we ought to understand who the Holy Spirit is and what he does rightly.

Here's three things I want us to see in Acts chapter 2, three things that are going to shape a Christian's understanding of who the Spirit is and how it is he's at work in our lives.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit, number one, fills the Christian.

The Holy Spirit number two empowers the Christian.

And the Holy Spirit number three fulfills God's purpose.

He fills, he empowers, and he fulfills.

So I hope that today, in our brief time together, we get a clearer sense of who the Holy Spirit is and how he's at work in our lives.

But I also hope that we come away with a renewed sense of gospel comfort and gospel commission, because that's what Pentecost is all about.

So open up your Bibles or your order of service, if you will, to Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Let's understand who the Holy Spirit better and get a better sense of why Pentecost matters so much.

The first thing Luke, the author of the book of Acts, wants us to see is that the Holy Spirit fills the Christian.

When the day of Pentecost arrives, verse 1, now Pentecost is like a harvest festival.

So it would gather Jewish people from all around the Roman Empire to worship together in Jerusalem and give thanks together.

This was an important anniversary for the Jewish people.

So here they are, 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, the disciples, were sitting.

Last we saw the disciples in chapter one, they were gathered together in prayer, and divided tongues as of fire, appeared to them, and rested on each one of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Did you see that?

What a key verb.

Now much is much ink has been spilt about what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

We've seen the Holy Spirit fill individuals in the Old Testament scripture up to this point, but impermanently and for particular tasks.

The filling here seems to be a permanent filling.

It's a never-ending sort of filling.

That's what Jesus is saying in our reading from John chapter 14.

John 14 · chapter mention

The Holy Spirit comes and he stays.

But what does Luke mean by being filled with the Holy Spirit?

If you were to ask the author, Luke is trying to articulate his theology of what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit through very vivid images.

A few commentators mention it's like Luke is straining for the words to describe exactly what's happening here.

A little like how he's straining for words to adequately describe the ascension, one chapter previous, what we celebrated last Sunday.

So Luke gives expression to what's happening here with two really key images: a mighty rushing wind in verse 2 and divided tongues of fire in verse 3.

Now, what are we supposed to make of that wind and fire?

Have we seen those things show up together before in Scripture?

For Bible students, we've seen them show up in key moments where God's holy, overwhelming presence is described.

Think about Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Moses encounters God at the burning bush.

Here is fire surrounding this bush, making this place holy, and yet not consuming the bush.

Very mysteriously, the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire within the bush.

God called out to Moses from the bush, remove the sandals from your feet, the place where you're standing is holy ground.

God's holy presence is a fiery presence.

But God's holy presence is also like life-giving wind.

If we fast forward the story to Ezekiel chapter 37, we have a very famous vision of a valley of dried bones that are reanimated by God's word.

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

God does resurrecting, restoring work by his word, but he does it by his spirit as well.

So God tells Ezekiel, this is what the Lord says, breath, pardon me, he tells Ezekiel to prophesy, prophesy to his breath, come from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, these dry bones being reassembled, so that they may live.

So Ezekiel says, I prophesied as God commanded me, and the breath entered into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet.

God's holy presence, his empowering presence, is like a wind, a life-giving wind, and a fire of holiness.

And the amazing thing is we see these things come together at such crucial moments.

If I can add one more, it would be this.

Exodus chapter 19, where God's people have left Egypt and are now encamped at Sinai, and God is making his holy presence made manifest to his people, and it is an awesome sight.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

That is an understatement if ever there was one.

Exodus 19, Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God.

Imagine going out of your house to meet God.

Holy smokes, quite literally.

They stood at the foot of the mountain.

Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the Lord came down on it in fire.

Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.

That's God's overwhelming holy presence.

What's really significant about this in particular, and this is something I learned from studying earlier this week, Pentecost, it was understood by the Jewish people who are celebrating it here on their first Pentecost Sunday, was understood to be the anniversary of the giving of the law at Sinai.

It was this scene that the Jewish people were gathering together to commemorate.

Imagine that.

God's word, God's law, which points to him and how God's people ought to relate to him now, comes to its fullness by the giving of the Spirit on this Pentecost Sunday.

But God no longer meets with his people on a mountain, he indwells them.

Christians no longer go to Mount Sinai or go to the temple to meet with the Lord.

They are little Mount Sinai's.

They are temples of the Holy Spirit.

See, do you see what makes Pentecost Sunday so significant?

God comes to dwell with his people, to indwell his people.

And if you are in Christ, you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

You are made a temple of the Holy Spirit.

And therefore you are made holy because God's holy presence lives in you.

Now maybe that gives us a new perspective on what can sometimes seem to be be a very crippling commandment.

And the commandment is this: be holy as I am holy.

Do you ever look in the mirror like me and think, that is an impossible task?

I fail every time I try to strive.

Even for the holiness, the goals I set for myself I fail at.

The holiness and perfection that God expects, there's no way.

Well, could this give us a new perspective?

Through the cross and through the resurrection, we've been reconciled to God in Christ, and now through the Holy Spirit, the giving of the Holy Spirit, we've been made into holy temples of God's presence.

Could be holy mean less striving for moral perfection and instead yielding ourselves to the patient and renewing work of God who lives within us.

Obeying His commandments is us inviting more of His presence to dwell with us.

It'd be something like that.

The theologian and church reformer John Calvin writes that we may become partakers of salvation.

Pardon me, that we may become partakers of salvation, Christ baptizes us in the Holy Spirit and fire, quoting Luke chapter 3, bringing us into the light of faith in his gospel and so regenerating us that we become new creatures.

Luke 3 · chapter mention

And he consecrates us, he makes us holy, purged of worldly uncleanness as temples, holy to God.

That is who we are in Christ.

We are holy because the Holy Spirit fills us.

So the Holy Spirit fills these first Christians, and they get up to something quite extraordinary.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So what is going on here?

That's the question.

Here's what we're going to see, point number two.

The Holy Spirit fills the Christian, but the Holy Spirit also empowers the Christian for mission.

So here they are, speaking in tongues, declaring the gospel, and this crowd is amazed and astonished, verse 7.

All sorts of people from all around the Roman world hear the gospel being proclaimed in their home language as the Holy Spirit enables the disciples to do.

Verse 11, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God, which is shorthand for their declaring the gospel in a way that everyone can understand.

What an extraordinary occurrence.

Isn't this exactly what Jesus has commissioned his disciples to do just one chapter earlier?

We did a study of Acts not long ago, eh?

And we looked at the key commissioning verse for the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

You, Jesus says to his disciples, will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, here in this city, in Judea, the surrounding area, in Samaria, across cultural boundaries, and to the very ends of the earth.

That's the commission Jesus gives.

Now Jesus could say to his disciples, so, chop chop, get at it.

That's hard work.

Better pull up your bootstraps.

Notice something extraordinary is happening here.

The commission that God gives to his people, pardon me, the power required for the commission that's given, is supplied also by the God who gives that same commission.

God supplies to us what he requires from us.

So if the mission is evangelism, God is empowering evangelism by his Holy Spirit.

That's what's happening here in this extraordinary way, as they're unable to declare the gospel in foreign tongues.

But it happens in all sorts of other ways as well.

Paul is listing just some of them in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 concerning spiritual gifts, which, by the way, when we read the term spiritual in the New Testament, we need to think not kind of an ambiguous, bespoke spirituality that sort of, you know, Canadians in 2025 we sort of like to think.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

The word spiritual in the New Testament relates to the Holy Spirit.

It is the adjective of the Holy Spirit.

So concerning Holy Spirit gifts, there are a variety of gifts, Paul says, but the same Spirit.

There are varieties of service, but the same Lord.

There are varieties of activities, but the same God who empowers them all in everyone.

To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

And he lists off a number of them, doesn't he?

Wisdom, knowledge, faith, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, interpretation.

That's not meant to be an exhaustive list, but to give us a sense of God empowers all Christians in various ways to accomplish his good work together.

Verse 11 all these, all these gifts are empowered by one and the same Spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

So God empowers the work of the church for mission, for evangelism, for declaring his good works, for living life together.

I mean, I'm always amazed by serving with other Christians who have gifts that I do not have.

My mom's here this morning, I'm going to embarrass her because I was planning to embarrass her, thinking she was going to be on the live stream here.

My mom has this incredible gift of administration.

And I'm amazed by it whenever it is that I give her a call and say, can you help me figure this out?

Administration is listed elsewhere in the New Testament as a spiritual gift.

And that's a gift that I do not have.

I cannot make numbers add up no matter how much hard I try.

And yet God enables individuals to accomplish that.

We think of the musicians we hear of new song, we think of our tech crew, we think of our greeters, all these different ways God enables us to service, all for that singular purpose of making the good news known.

God empowers us for mission.

Doesn't that give us confidence?

Doesn't that give us a sense of God who calls us also and gives us the very thing we need to accomplish his purposes?

He doesn't throw us back on ourselves and say, try harder next time.

He calls us to rely on the power that he gives us by his Holy Spirit to accomplish his good purposes in the world.

That gives us confidence.

Also gives us, I think, a weighty sense of that commission.

Because God has called us into the very mission of making the good news of the resurrected Jesus known to all the world.

And here we are in Port Perry, and that is our call, isn't it?

To proclaim the true and life giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

God supplies his Holy Spirit to accomplish that.

I love the way that Michael Reeves, a theologian, puts it.

He says, it is not that God lounges back in heaven.

Simply phoning in his order that we get on with evangelism so that he might get more servants.

He says the truth is that God is already on mission.

In love, the Father has sent his Son and His Spirit.

It is the outworking of his very nature.

God is not lounging back while we get at the mission.

God is empowering us himself for the mission he calls us on to.

What an adventure.

So here's the crowd, amazed and astonished that they're hearing God's empowered servants make the gospel known.

But not everyone's amazed and astonished.

You'll notice this.

I kind of love this.

Some are amazed and astonished, but uh, and asking, what does this mean, verse 12?

But verse 13, others mocking said, Well, they're filled with new wine.

Don't pay attention, they got into the hooch.

You know, that sort of thing.

What's going on here?

Well, Peter wants to make known exactly what's going on here.

Make no mistake, is Peter's point.

What's happening here fulfills God's purpose.

That's what the Holy Spirit does.

Point number three, he fulfills God's purpose.

Peter stands up in front of this crowd and he wants to make known a promise that God has given through the prophet Joel is being realized.

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, your young men shall see visions, 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 shall show wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor and smoke, this cosmic scale here.

The sun shall be turned to darkness, 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.

Peter's point is this: the restoration promised to God's people in this moment through the prophet Joel, restoration promised to a people in exile, restoration to a people who've experienced a devastating plague.

This restoration is most fully realized as God renews and remakes his world and inaugurates his new creation through his word and through his Holy Spirit.

And Peter is getting up in front of everyone saying, that's just happened.

New creation has been inaugurated.

God's renewal and restoration is at hand.

Don't miss it.

Don't mistake it for drunkenness.

God is doing an incredible thing here.

And not only is God doing an incredible thing, he's calling his people to participate in this incredible thing.

Did you notice that?

Verses 17 and 18.

In the last days it shall be, God declares, I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh, but sons and daughters will prophesy.

Young men will see visions, old men will see dreams, male and female servants.

In those days I'll pour out my spirit.

They shall prophesy.

Everybody's going to get in on this.

Because I want everyone to participate in this new creation work that I am inaugurating.

What an amazing thing it is to be a Christian.

Because it's not that we just get to lounge back and see God do his work.

We get to get called out into the field and be participants in the renewing and restoring work that God is doing in the world.

The work that He has realized in Christ, the work that He has inaugurated through the giving of the Holy Spirit, the work that will be fully realized when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again in glory and brings his kingdom with him, and he will dwell with us forever.

It's new creation work that is at hand.

God's restoring and renewing work through his Holy Spirit.

So what an amazing thing it is to be a Christian.

What an amazing thing it is to be a church.

Because the church exists at the precipice of the earth as it is now and the earth as it shall be, glorified in Christ.

Renewed and restored.

Completely and fully realized.

We are at the precipice of eternity, the cutting edge of God's new creation work.

When we come to church, we don't just come to church to hear some nice things about what Jesus did one day.

We come to anticipate the work that God will fully realize on the day where our Lord Jesus Christ returns, and we come presently ready to receive his good gifts of grace through his word and by his means of grace so that we ourselves can go out into the community and be agents of the new creation wherever he sends us.

What an amazing thing it is to be the church empowered by this Holy Spirit who indwells us.

Isn't that an incredible thing?

I love the way that one theologian puts it.

Please indulge me with one last quote here.

No, I lied.

Second last quote.

See, all Cretans are liars, I told you.

Here's how Frank Thielman puts it.

God did not leave his human creatures helpless within the fallen world they created for themselves.

He gave them Jesus.

And Jesus gave to those who trusted him the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit has given Jesus' followers a new society, the church, the embassy of the inaugurated new creation.

The church is a group of people in whom the Spirit of God is at work, helping them live more and more in the way that God created human beings to live.

And he lists just a couple of examples.

Trusting God as he's revealed in Jesus Christ, working at the tasks he's given them to do without greed, and advancing human society through loving families.

The Holy Spirit is at work in and through us, isn't he?

This is the mission.

God's new creation purposes being realized and fulfilled through the Holy Spirit.

So we're probably thankful at this point, I hope, that God didn't just give us the force.

That would be too small a gift, wouldn't it?

He's given us a much better gift.

The Puritan Thomas Goodwin puts it this way: not only doth God bless with all other good things, but above all, by communicating himself and his own blessedness.

What is it that God gives us in the Holy Spirit?

He gives us himself with all of his benefits and all of his blessings.

What a comfort it is to know that our Lord Jesus has not left us as orphans, but he is with us even to the very end of the age as we go about the mission he calls us into.

Pentecost matters, doesn't it?

Because the Holy Spirit matters.

So in the power of the Holy Spirit, let us go forth rejoicing in the goodness of the gospel.

It shall come to pass that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

May it be so.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.