Bible Guys Classics: Acts 2

Well, if people who know different languages impress you, there

is nothing more impressive than this next story.

So here's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we are the

Daily Bobb guys.

Okay, so today we are doing something fun, I think. Okay,

So here's what I've done about fun. Well, you have

no idea what I'm about to do, no idea? Okay,

here it is. I've pulled up a list on my

phone that has the top ten most common fears, and

I want you to try to name off the top

of your head as many as you think are on

this top ten list, on this one on the top ten.

These are the top ten of the world.

Public speaking.

Oh, hang on, I guess I should have studied these first,

I guess. Yes, public speaking is up there.

Yes, spiders.

Spiders is actually number one. Sneaks snakes is number three,

public speaking was number two.

By the way, Okay, oh, signailed one, two and three. Yes,

what more do you need from me, dude?

Well, come on heights, Yes that's number four.

Speed speed yeah nay. Drowning Nope, no, like water. There's

no water thing in there.

No, not not well, yes, but not in the top ten. Okay,

do you want me just to listen to the rest.

I gave you the top four. Okay, I feel like

that should count it for.

Some crowded spaces or small spaces, believe it or not.

It says the fear of thunder and lightning.

Wow, and then the fear the top ten.

Yes, who's writing this? I don't know. It's called I

don't want I don't I don't want to. I don't

want to even give the website. But it's just it's

it is a website because I.

Don't want to, you know, because everything on the internet

is true.

Yes, fear of germs. And by the way, this one here,

there's a note that it has risen fear.

Of germs moving up.

It's it has moved up into the top ten. Okay,

well you think about that right, yeah. So and then

the fear of being alone?

Oh okay, isn't that terrible?

Yeah, so here's my next question for you real quick.

Yeah, thanks for investing us all.

Yeah, it's not depressing now.

Everybody's waking up. They're just getting them the morning they

listen to the podcast, going oh good, this is gonna

help me today. Oh, that reminds me. I'm terrified of germs.

Well, you know what about people who listen at.

Night for the go to bed, Go to bed fighters?

All right, okay, so here's so here's a question.

I've never listened to this again.

Of the fears that we mentioned, which one are you

most afraid of? Oh?

Man, I just need to pick one. I guess I

think the one. So I'm not afraid of heights, But

the one that I'd become most cautious about is the

higher I go. So I just crossed the bridge, a

hanging bridge in Nepal. Yeah, it's a mile long, one

of those like Indiana Jones hanging ridges. Oh yeah, and

it shook like that. Yeah, and I'm up about I

don't know, two hundred feet and uh. Aster of fact,

we had a seven hundred foot elevation game to get

up and go across this bridge. We were going to

this giant idol of Shiva, and it was that that

turns my stomach right, So I like it. So I

like scary things. Yeah me too, So I like it.

But I found myself hanging on a little tighter thing.

So probably heights. Out of all those that we mentioned,

heights is the one that causes me to pause the moment.

Have you ever jumped out of a plane.

No, I haven't. I wanted to my son. Our plan

always was when he turned eighteen, We're gonna mp out

of a plane. And then the church has a key

man policy on me, and it specifically says I can't

jump out of planes or I avoid the policy.

Oh, she can't do anything like that, so.

I couldn't do it. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to. Pretty soon,

I hope that key man policy goes away and then

I can do it.

Well, nobody cares about me enough, so I jumped out

of a plane, so I'm not important enough to have

a policy.

Yeah. Yeah, Well it's all the church people are just

hoping someday Jeff cashes out so that they can, you know,

get several million dollars and pay off the building. There

you go, there's going to be a day when I'm

worth more dead than alive to the elders the here

Itage Church. That that's gonna happen, but not today, hopefully

not today. So anyways, Hey, that's that was a cool one, man.

Yeahs ten reasons why things that people are afraid of.

So one of the best things you can do is

face your fears. Yes, honestly, and just pushed through it.

Face your fears.

I see what you did there, You turned it.

Yeah, that's right, because most of the time our fears

are are somewhat unreasonable. There there's a little bit of danger,

but the probability of this actually being the thing that

gets you is very, very small. So learning to face them,

I think, is one of the best things you can do.

And the second best thing you can do is google

Bob Newhart Stop It.

Yeah.

Bob Newhart is a counselor. He plays a counselor in

this bit. Yeah yeah, and it's and it's called stop It.

And that's all I'm going to say. And it is

one of the funniest counseling bits I have ever seen

him entire life.

If you ever decide you want to come and counsel

with either me or Chris, you should watch that video

clip first and just realize that's essentially what you're gonna

get from it, right, stop it? So Okay, So we

are continuing in this series on the Book of Acts,

and I love the Book of Acts, and it just

revs up. It takes a little while and then it

starts revving up and going faster and faster with the

spread of the Gospel. So Jesus has resurrected, and we

read that in the end of Book of Matthew he

gives them the great commission go make disciples. He tells them,

I'm going to fill you with the Holy Spirit, and

then you're going to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the

uttermost parts of the world. And then they pray because

they're not sure what's suposed to happen. Next they go

in the upper room. Every problems of her problem they're praying.

And then now this is the result of this a

few days later. So all these first three days we've

read are just a few days apart. Right, So here

we go. We're gonna read the first like sixteen verses,

and then we're going to jump to the end of

the chapter. Because Peter preaches a long message. He's long winded,

like you are, Chris. So on the day of Pentecost,

all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly

there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of

a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they

were sitting. Then what looked like flames or tongues of

fire appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone

present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking

in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

At that time, there were devout Jews from every nation

living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone

came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own

languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed.

How can this be, they exclaimed, These people are all

from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our

own native languages. Here we are Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people

from Mesopotamia, Judea, Capaducia, Pontius, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphilia, Egypt,

and the areas of Libya around Syene, visitors from Rome,

both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, and

we all hear these people speaking in our own languages

about the wonderful things God has done. And they stood

there amazed and perplexed. What can this mean? They asked

each other, But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying

they're just drunk, that's all. Then Peter stepped forward with

the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, listen carefully,

all of you, fellow Jews and residence of Jerusalem. Make

no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as

some of you are, assuming nine o'clock in the morning

is much too early for that. Know what you see

was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel. Then he

preaches this whole message about how God had promised the

Holy Spirit would come. Then he talked about Jesus dying

and resurrecting, and then it comes down to in verse

thirty six. So let everyone in Israel know for certain

that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to

be both Lord and Messiah. Peter's words pierced their hearts,

and they said to him and to the other apostles, brothers,

what should we do? And Peter replied, each of you

must repent of your sins and turn to God and

be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the

forgiveness of your sins, and then you receive the gift

of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to

your children, and to those far away, all who've been

called by the Lord our God. Then Peter continued to

preach for a long time, strongly urging all his listeners

save yourselves from this crooked generation. And those who believed

what Peter said were baptized and added to the church

that day, about three thousand in all. And then here's

the descriptor of their very first church, which I love.

I want to be just like this as a church.

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and

to fellowship, and to sharing and meals, including the Lord's Supper,

and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over

all of them, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs

and wonders, and all the believers met together in one

place and shared everything they had. They sold their property

and possessions and shared the money with those in need.

They worshiped together at the temple. Each day they met

in homes for the Lord's Supper, shared their meals with

great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and

enjoying the good will of all the people. And each

day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were

being saved. Wow, yeah, definitely, Well that's the goal.

Well, it's it's definitely the mentality, the sentiment, right, the

attitude I'm not sure about selling everything I have and

then throwing it all into the middle.

Well, it's because you're not a good Christian you love

things rather than.

So all the multi millionaires so have they throw in

the middle.

It's not a command, no, I know, it's just that

they loved each other so much that they were willing.

To Yeah, I know, yeah, so yeah, but but yeah.

They're a little bit of a legalist, and so when

you read the Bible, you tend to read every word

as a command to you rather than no. And this

is what happens. When the spirit really impacts me by

the way he's making my spirit comes on you, then

you probably will.

But okay, anybody who knows me knows I'm the opposite

of a legalist for certain. But yeah, I love the

fact that people loved each other so much that they

took care of each other. And so the sentiment behind

that is is that if somebody is in the church

and they're hurting, that we should be able to be

so close and so tight knit and and you know,

be a part of their lives in such a way

to where we help them.

Right, and there are always people in a church who's hurting. Yeah, right,

so it would be I think the point here is

that they were sacrificial right right there. They were willing

to sacrifice for their brothers and sisters in Christ. That

was it. And by the way, it's three thousand of

them at that point, right right. It was just this

overwhelming thing. The other part of it was immediately when

you converted to this because Christianity was just a sacked.

It was a for most people, they thought it as

a cult, and so they lost their homes a lot

of times, they'd lose their jobs, they'd lose a lot

of their their their ability to make money, income, and

so there's this kind of a crisis that's happening right there.

And you know, those who had resources were willing to

sacrifice the resources for those who were losing resources because

of the kingdom.

Yeah. Yeah, So let's go back to the very beginning

where it says the tongues of fire came down, So

obviously there is experience was unlike ours today. They had

this quite literal and physical experience of visually seeing flames

come down and set upon each person, and they experience

this very unique introduction in their lives by hearing other languages.

So imagine if I'm speaking a language and then people

have five different languages walking in. All five of those

people here hear me in their own native tongue. That

is what it's describing. And it is just an unbelievable miracle,

is what it is. And so it's just like God

to you know, introduce the Holy Spirit with this unbelievable, unexplainable,

miraculous experience where where those who are you know, in

act chapter two are not going to doubt it anymore,

right like, because after all, you know, we receive the

Holy Spirit and it may take us a little time

to realize, Wow, this is beyond coincidence. You know, this

is this is God working in my life. I sense,

I experience, I feel the power of God in me.

It made up. But they needed convinced because they didn't

have any history of the Holy Spirit, right right, So

God introduces the Holy Spirit to this group of people

and to us with this unbelievable, miraculous, you know, out

of this world kind of experience.

Well, it's no secret I love the Life application study Bible.

If you don't have one, get one. You can get

them on an Amazon for like thirty dollars or thirty

five dollars in hardback, and I just love it. I

have several of them. But the notes here, there's two

notes for verses three and four. It says this was

a fulfillment talking about the fire, the earthquake, all that

kind of stuff. This was a fulfillment of John the

Baptist words about the Holy spirits baptizing with fire, and

of the prophet Joel's words about the outpouring of the

Holy Spirit. So this moment was a fulfillment of prophecy. Right.

It wasn't a declaration that this is the way it

has to happen all the time. This is what was

prophesied was going to happen the first time, right, Right,

And then it says why tongues of fire. Fire symbolizes

God's purifying presence, which burns away the undesirable elements of

our lives and sets our hearts aflame to ignite the

lives of others. Right. And then at Pentecost, God confirmed

the validity or Holy Spirit's ministry by sending fire, just

like he sent fire for Elijah, just on Mount Carmel,

just like he sent fire with Moses, with the Ten commandments,

all these kinds of things. And then the next note says,

God made his presence known to this group of believers

in a spectacular way, roaring wind, fire, and his Holy Spirit.

Would you like God to reveal himself to you in

such recognizable ways. He may do so, but be wary

of forcing your expectations on God. And then it talks

about Elijah also needed a message from God in One

Kings chapter nineteen. First came to great wind, then an earthquake,

and finally a fire. But in that instance, God's message

came in a gentle whisper. So God may use dramatic

methods to work in your life, or he may speak

in gentle whispers. Wait patiently and always listen. So God's

not bound by a circumstance, or we can't require him

to do a thing or another thing. God most of

the time speaks in gentle whispers. Sometimes he does something dramatic,

but most of the time it's that gentle whisper. Yeah,

so he says and psalms, be still and know that

I'm got That's great.

So that's really what the what is the what happened,

and it's and it was prophesied. The why did God

choose to do something like this? I find it very

interesting the notes in chapter two, verses nine through eleven

in my study Bible as well, and it says, why

were all these places mentioned? You know, all the different lands, right,

there's a list of many lands from which the Jews

had come to the festival in Jerusalem. These Jews were

not from Palestine because their ancestors had been dispersed to

other parts of the world to the captivities and persecutions,

and very likely some Jews, some of the Jews who

responded to Peter's message returned to their homelands with God's

good news of salvation. And here's sort of the point.

It says, thus God prepared the way for the the

spread of the good news. And as you read the

Book of Acts, you will see how that way was

often prepared for Paul and other messengers by people who

had become believers at Pentecost. So think about this, So

the world, you know, Jesus came at the perfect time.

Jesus came at the time you know. In fact, the

Book of Glatian says when such a time had come right.

It said when the perfect when the perfect time had come.

You know, I forget the King James phrase that I'm

thinking of, but anyway, but that's what it means. It

means when the perfect time had come, Jesus came into

the world. God sent his son. So for all the

times you know in past history, you know in future history,

God chose for Jesus to come down. And the world

was perfectly prepared for the Gospel to spread. Number one,

we know that Romans had developed a system where they

conquered the world, and even the roads that led and

united the different cities. It was perfectly a positioned for

the Gospel to have spread easily.

Not only that that was a fairly new technology. Yes,

those well built roads, Yes, was kind of a new thing.

Yeah. And then also Greek. Everybody spoke the Greek. There

was one language. It was the business language, which means

that everybody could talk with everybody of a different language

because they all knew Greek. Well, here's sort of what

this passage is saying. It's saying those who were present

at the festival heard everything in their native language, and

they would have gone home. And it was for the

purpose of spreading the Gospel and spreading the news of

this Christian movement that God is starting. So think about

what better way to kickstart, you know, the spreading of

the news than to have this great experience. And by

the way, it's in everybody's language, which says everybody understands.

It's so brilliant. God is so strategic. Sometimes we miss

out on how God is playing. We're in life, we're

playing checkers. You know what God should do? He should

do this, he should do that. And God's always playing

like multi level chests, right right, like from Star Trek.

Yeah, multi level Chess. I am so pleased that you

just throughout that reference.

Yeah, it warms my heart that you talked to Trachy. Yeah,

a little bit wife is too.

That's great.

But so in this it was incredibly strategic that Jesus

died at Passover, probably because of the prophecies of it,

but it also really highlights for those Jews that were

looking for the answer. Jesus is the lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world, so that

was important. Forty days later is the Pentecost, the Feast

of Pentecost, and that's another kind of big festival. So

it wasn't uncommon in those days that people would make

a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Jews that were dispersed all around

the world make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and stay from

Passover to Pentecost right during that time. So all of

the word about Jesus dying in this resurrection, the rumors

are spreading, all this stuff is happening, and then the

Holy Spirit comes only forty days later. You gotta imagine

if it take you a month and a half or

two months to get there. You know, they're not flying

on planes, so they're riding in boats and riding on

donkeys and walking, so take a couple months to get there.

You'd stay a month or two and then take another

month to go home. So these people are from all

around the world, and God chose then on that day

to be able to spread the gospel through the whole

almost the entire Roman Empire at the time, all on

this one day, because they're all the step up and

preach the gospel. So this is the first time that

the idea of tongues is introduced in the Bible. And

this version of tongues is very clearly the supernatural ability

to communicate the Gospel in known languages, even though it's

said here these people are just Galileans. They thought of

Galileans as being the most uneducated people in Israel.

Right, They just the blue collar work right.

Right, Well, they're thinking of it as the hillbilities of Israel. Right.

That's kind of the how they treated them. It's how

they treated Peter. It's how they later on are going

to treat Peter and John later as you guys are

unlearned men from Galilee. What in the world? And here

they are again, they're amazed. These guys aren't educated. They

didn't go out and learn all these languages, but they're speaking.

And so it's interesting they while almost everybody could have

done business in Greek, that wasn't their heart language. Their

heart language was Parthian or Mead or Elamite or right that.

So God made sure that with this gospel, the Gospel

was not presented on a business level. It was presented

in a heart language kind of way. And that's why

he decided to have them all be able to speak

this way. So that's really powerful. And then after Peter

gets up and preaches, it just rocks their world. He says,

you need to repent of your sins, turn to Christ,

be baptized, and they do three thousand people. It goes

from one hundred and twenty to three thousand, just like that.

And then you see this incredible picture of the local

church where they're sharing what they have. They're praying together,

they're sharing meals together, they're worshiping together, they're sharing the

Gospel together. And I love in verse forty seven says

all while praising God and enjoying the good will of

all the people. I want to ask our listeners today,

how hard do you work for the good will of

the people in your life as opposed to typing in

all caps on social media or whatever. Right? And then

each day the Lord added to their fellowship. Those were

being saved, so they weren't trying to figure out how

to grow their church. They were just being the church

and God did the growing. Yeah.

That's great. Yeah, By the way, I have to I

can't zoom past this. Growing up in the bar business,

my family owned a bar. This is the verse where

it tells us, if you're wondering when is too early

to get drunk? Nine am is definitely too early, because

he says he's number one, they're not drunk, and number

number two it's also nine in the morning. That's right,

So I can't I got to mention that that's right, can't.

Well, back then too, their their their wine wasn't as

powerful as ours. Right, So so natural fermentation doesn't go

to the level of alcohol that that we currently do,

or we enhance our fermentation process. The drink a lot

of So buddy, you'd have to be drinking a lot

to be drunk down black.

It's like those you know whatever.

So you know, somebody just took notes, Oh, I shouldn't

be drunk at nine in the morning. Great, well not

at all.

Well, I'll tell you what. In the end, we see

that the churches, you know, it's moving forward. The gospel

is being spread. People are being added to the church

every day, and more importantly, the church is being the church.

Just like you said. They weren't trying to you know,

here's our massive goal. No, they were just being the

church with each other. And you know what, here's a

message that's compelling to people. Yes, And one of the

reasons why the church grows is because it's attractive. So

the church is supposed to be attractive. It's supposed to

be irresistible. And when the church is functioning on all cylinders,

When it's operating on all cylinders, it's supposed to be

the closest thing to Heaven this side of eternity. And

the church is run by imperfect people. We have bad

church experiences, but there are so many times where the

church functions in a sweet spot. And there's so many

times where when you get a dose of the good.

You know, it's like eating chicken. My professor used to

tell us you spit out the bones, right, you eat

the chicken. And he used to say, but oh that

chicken right. He used to see it all the time.

Eli harre you. He's passed now, so's it. But I

know we're coming up on the at the end of

our session here, so any last sentence.

Yeah, I just want to remind people sign up at

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