Acts 2:14-21 | The Truth About Pentecost

Amen, church.

Great to be in the house of the Lord.

Let's go before him in prayer, and as we do, we're gonna come out of Psalm 96 today.

Father, you have received our songs to you.

Psalm 96 starts with Sing to the Lord.

Sing to the Lord all the earth.

You are worthy of our song.

You are worthy to be blessed.

Your name is to be blessed, and you are the one who brings salvation, of which we are the recipients of that glorious salvation that we are to tell of from day to day.

God, give us boldness, give us courage, give us lips to declare your glory among the peoples and your marvelous works.

Father, as we look to Acts chapter 2, we see your glory and your marvelous works on display.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Unfold those marvelous works for us.

Help us to understand what you have written.

Open our eyes that we might behold wondrous things from your word.

Empower the preaching of your finite servant, I pray.

In Jesus' name.

And all God's people said.

Amen.

Well, let me have you stay standing for the reading of God's Word today as we come out of Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, feel free to and please grab those.

Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And if you don't have a Bible, a couple things.

One, we've got Bibles on ledges on the sides of the worship center.

They are gifts to you.

If you don't own a Bible, please take one.

Bring it back because you'll see we go through God's Word every single week.

And today is no different.

We're going to hear the word of the Lord, Acts chapter 2, beginning in verse 14, reading down to verse 21.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And as always, the verses are on the screens to my left and to my right.

This is the word of the Lord for today.

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

For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's 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 my 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, that great and magnificent day.

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

That's good news, isn't it?

This is the word of the Lord for you today, and may the Lord write these eternal truths on your hearts, and with that you can be seated.

Church, so good to be in the house of the Lord with you.

My name is Scott, I'm the lead pastor here.

If you have a copy of God's word, why don't you grab it?

You're already there if you were reading with us, Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

And uh as you're getting yourself situated today, one of the things you may have noticed over the last few weeks is we've been testing out different places to put announcements.

And uh some of that is because we're working on the continuity of our liturgy, feeling at times that announcements can be a little chunky in the middle of a service.

And so bear with us as we kind of work with that and figure out what might work best.

For example, most of you don't show up on time, so didn't know that Pastor Chris was already up here giving some announcements.

But we saved the best announcements for you, which is check in, team, all right?

Let's get before you leave today, check into service, QR code on there.

If you go to Doxa, shame on you if you don't know how to do this.

Now, if you're old, I get it.

Maybe the technology is a problem.

And all I'm saying is, wow.

Did you do it, Bob?

You guys did it?

Did you tap?

He doesn't do it.

Did you do the QR code or did you tap?

I actually keep it.

Okay.

However, you do it.

I'm so glad we're all here today.

I forgot this is the 8 30, too.

I can say old people jokes that the 10:30 and the 1230, but the 8:30, you're all here, so you've been up for like four and a half hours by now.

This is like midday.

You'll get lunch afterwards.

It'll be great.

Wish I could come.

I feel it already, man.

I turned 40 and now I get hurt sleeping.

It's terrible.

If you're new, we're so glad that you're here.

We're just wanting to be a happy family, aren't we?

We're so glad that you're here.

Welcome to our church.

Yeah, we're excited.

We love being together.

We love each other.

Uh, there is a first-time visitor desk out there.

We want to make sure you get checked in.

Uh, if you get questions answered, if you want information about the church, you want to meet one of the pastors, usually it's me out there.

Uh, we'd love to be able to do that.

But you also check in, there's a QR code for you.

That lets us know you're ready for us to contact you.

That's basically what that is, right?

Sometimes you come to church and you're like, I'm not sure if I want to connect with you yet, Pastor, but I'm glad to just be here.

That's fine when you're ready.

QR code's there for you.

Check in.

We will get back to you.

Would love to help you get connected to the church as well.

Last thing, guys, before we get into God's word, uh, loved ones, those who call church, uh Doctors Church your home, don't forget to give today, right?

If you are a believer, this is part of our worship.

And it's not something to be done once a year.

Sometimes that's the way it's done.

And it's really to be done regularly, cheerfully, sacrificially, like something I'm giving up, not just the tipping God with the excess money that may come in in a certain month.

No, you are choosing deliberately to give as the first thing that you do with your money.

And one of the things to just think about as we think about the future and giving and how we long to be a generous church, and we're trying to model that within our own bodies.

Let's let me just take a look at the world.

So this came in, this is GCC, and these are some of the churches being planted that we will give a six-figure sum to around the world.

As you guys continue to be generous, we will continue to be generous.

And so every one of those places is a place where a church is being planted.

This is what we get to be involved in.

You'll see there's churches being planted in Greece, Albania, Spain, Pakistan, various places in Africa.

We get to be involved in that work.

Your giving goes to this in a six-figure kind of way.

And the more our generosity overflows, the more our generosity will overflow to the nations that they might get the gospel, they might get good, faithful Bible preaching churches.

Okay?

So that is our goal, and you can do that by the way, giving through the app, you can give online through the website, and you can drop off if you have a physical offering in the black boxes on the walls as you leave the service today.

Man, we've had a lot of fun already, haven't we?

All right.

Title of the message.

I did have fun making this title, The Truth about Pentecost.

The truth about Pentecost.

Now there's a familiar term that a lot of Christians know.

Some would even identify themselves as, and the term is Pentecostal.

Maybe you grew up Pentecostal.

Did I get any hands?

I grew up Pentecostal, A.G.

Assemblies of God, Church of God, something like that.

Not a bad thing.

Just out of curiosity, some I feel like that was the shame.

Like he's gonna he's gonna say something.

I don't I don't wanna be a part of what he's gonna do next.

I'm just curious.

Turns out the Pentecostal movement's actually quite large, traces back to the early 1900s, maybe you know this.

Really back to a Bible training school and some odd, extraordinary, ecstatic experiences that took place in Topeka, Kansas, under a guy by the name of Charles Fox Parham, which really put the Pentecostal movement on the map.

Where it became this kind of more well-known movement was years later through William Seymour in the Azusa Street revivals of Southern California.

I don't know if you heard about those.

In the movement of Pentecostals, at least one of the foundational theological things that they were driving at and continue to drive at today is this connection that speaking in tongues, which we see in the beginning of Acts chapter 2, is the evidence of spirit baptism.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So, in other words, no speaking in tongues, no evidence you have the Holy Spirit.

Clear?

And so, people, you can imagine all kinds of chaos and confusion ensued because the Pentecostal movement took a once-for all pivotal turning point in redemptive history, and they turned it into a repeatable expectation.

That this is what all Christians were supposed to expect, a sort of prescriptive pattern, if you will, and as a result, all kinds of chaos and confusion has ensued.

The interesting thing about the Pentecostal conviction here that speaking in tongues was the evidence of spirit baptism is that it often led people to being discouraged and even doubting whether or not they were actually saved.

Which is the exact opposite of the point of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Rather than it creating discouragement and doubt, causing you to question whether or not you're actually a believer, the point of Pentecost was to assure you that if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

That's the point.

And so the irony is to hear the stories of those who leave the movement and talk to me as a pastor about this all the years they doubted their salvation because they didn't speak in tongues.

But here's the thing all of this could have been avoided if we had just let Peter speak for himself in verses 14 and Ford.

Because you've got all these people marveling.

Look at Acts 2, verse 12.

Acts 2:12

All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, you see it?

What does this mean?

So before we grab a Bible verse and take it wherever we want to take it, maybe just maybe hear me out here, just hear me out for a second.

Maybe we just let the Bible speak for itself.

Maybe we let the explanation come from Peter instead of reading our experiences into the Bible.

Because what Luke does for us in verses 1 through 13 is describe what happened at Pentecost.

But then Peter explains what happened at Pentecost.

See, today, like I almost have this kind of weird vested interest.

I kind of want to take the term Pentecostal back.

Like, I kind of want to be like Pentecostal Christians in the right sense.

I want to take us back to Scripture so that we can say, you know what, we're Pentecostal Christians.

We are pro-Pentecost in the true way, in the proper way.

There was a social media trend, I don't know, recently where I don't know if you saw this kind of amongst conservatives, but it was something to the effect of, you know, you want to be a true rebel, then take responsibility, get a job, get married, have kids, and love Jesus.

Then you'll be a true rebel.

You've seen this?

And the whole playoff is that everyone's doing these super rebellious things, but actually the most rebellious thing is to do all these very God-honoring things.

Take responsibility, get a job, get married, have kids, love Jesus.

That sounds pretty good, right?

Well, let me play off that.

You want to be a true Pentecostal?

Then we gotta understand what Pentecost is all about.

So let me give you a few things just out of the gates as we frame this.

You wanna be a true Pentecostal?

Then let's talk about it like this.

First, Pentecost is this a sign of Christ's coronation.

Okay?

Pentecost is the proof Jesus Christ is reigning as king.

And remember, I did this, I don't know, back in Easter or something like that.

But right, chapter one of Acts, Christ ascends with the clouds.

The question we're all wanting to know is what?

Did he make it?

Did he make it?

Right?

It doesn't really help us if he just goes up.

He needs to go up and sit on the throne.

How do we know?

Because the promises of the king are being unleashed on the people.

That's how you know.

It is the sign that Jesus Christ is king.

It's the first thing a president does, right?

When a president makes all these promises, he gets to his position, and what does he do?

Well, the first thing I want to do is fulfill the promises that I've made.

Promises made, promises kept.

Jesus Christ said, I will ascend and the Spirit will descend.

Promise made, promise kept.

If you ever wondered whether or not Jesus Christ made it to the throne and is ruling and reigning, he is, and the proof is, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

You want to be a truly Pentecostal?

See Pentecost in that light.

It's a sign of Christ's coronation.

Second, it's a sign of the inauguration of the new covenant age.

Y'all, the new covenant has begun.

And we see that promise in Acts chapter 1, verse 8.

Acts 1:8

You will be my witnesses.

The Holy Spirit being poured out is a sign of the start, the inauguration of the new covenant age, empowering the church's mission in fulfillment of Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36.

I will put my spirit in you.

It's a sign of the new covenant age.

To be truly Pentecostal is understand there are so many more significant things than what it's often played off as.

It's a sign of Christ's coronation, it's a sign of the inauguration of the new covenant age, putting his spirit in his people.

Number three, it's the sign of the inauguration of Israel's renewal or Israel's restoration.

It's the sign of the inauguration of the renewal of Israel.

This is the whole point of Acts chapters 1 through 7.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

The Lord begins with the restoration of Israel.

In fact, you can even see it the way this plays out.

You got the whole apostle group reconstituting as the 12.

Watch this.

But Peter, verse 14, standing with the 11.

Okay?

That's significant.

Super hard math here.

11 plus 1 equals.

So good, you nailed it.

That was as bold as I've ever heard any answer that I've ever solicited out of you.

12.

12 has a significance because it was the tribes of Israel, right?

So look what the Lord's doing.

He's reconstituting the tribes of Israel, if you will.

There's a playoff that happening.

And Peter is speaking on behalf of them as a unit, as a display.

Even think of the audience.

Who's the audience that Peter starts with?

Men of, you can read it right out of the text.

Men of Judea and all who dwell in what?

Jerusalem.

Oh man.

Doesn't this help us to understand Pentecost better if we just have this as a framework?

Man, I never heard this explained about Pentecost.

It was always about speaking in tongues and spirit baptism and these things that were kind of, well, it seems experiential.

I'm not sure where I'm where you're going with that.

Sign of Christ's coronation, sign of the new covenant age, sign of Israel's renewal, last thing.

It's the spirits coming upon a new temple.

Right?

The people all of a sudden become the temple.

Those gathered receive God's presence.

The very temple that, or the very spirit that departed from the temple, is now restoring and coming to the people of God.

And they are receiving his presence.

So now you have that as the foundation, but Peter drives at something significant, and it goes after the doubt and the discouragement that can often set in when you get discouraged that you don't speak in tongues, and so therefore you don't have the spirit.

Peter's like, that's not the point at all.

The point is actually to assure you that if you are in Jesus Christ by faith, you will most certainly be saved to the glory of God.

He wants you to enjoy that assurance that you can have.

And so what Peter's gonna drive at in our text in particular is this.

Let me give you the big idea.

All that was just pregame.

Pentecost is proof.

This is why Pentecost happened.

That's what Peter's gonna tell us.

It's proof the promised age of salvation has arrived.

And assures all who call on the name of the risen, reigning Jesus shall be saved.

This is what Pentecost is meant to do.

Let everyone know that today is the day of salvation, and you can have the utmost rock solid confidence that if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ alone, you shall be saved.

And so you could say, in a sense, to be truly Pentecostal is to be fully assured of your salvation in Jesus Christ.

That's the gift the Lord desires to give and display through Pentecost.

But let's jump in.

We're here to be truly Pentecostals.

I can't wait, guys.

By the end, we are going to be awesome Pentecostals.

Alright?

So to be truly Pentecostal, just my fun little play on this, in the best way, in the proper way, a few things come out of the text.

Number one, and I find this interesting, let erroneous opinions be addressed.

If you're gonna be truly Pentecostal, then address the erroneous opinions that come up about how we're to take Pentecost.

Mind you, it happened that day.

People were confused, errors were coming up.

What was I seeing?

What was taking place?

We have been botching how to understand what takes place in Acts chapter 2, verses 8 through 11 for years.

Acts 2:8–11

But Peter addresses it.

And so we get into Peter's message, and one of the things about Peter is that he's one of the main preachers, right?

In fact, 25% of the book of Acts is speeches.

This is one of eight from Peter.

In some sense, he's really the first key witness.

You go back to Acts chapter 1, verse 8, and you will be my witnesses in Judea, Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

Peter's stepping forth going, This is what it looks like to be a witness.

This is me leading the way.

By the way, note the unity of the group.

They are standing together.

They are unispeaking.

We say that a lot on the elder board.

We want to make sure we unispeak because we're a unit.

We're one.

There's not multiple messages that are come out of this.

There's one message, and we all stand with Peter and behind Peter as Peter is the preacher.

And we get a sort of reliable reader's digest version of the sermon.

I'm convinced that the sermon had more in it, but we're getting a reliable reader's digest version, not unlike when you're late to a sports game and you turn on your smart TV and you can go through catch up plays to get to live TV.

This is sort of the same thing that's happening here.

This isn't the totality of the sermon, but it is the reader's digest version of the sermon and reliable for us.

We pick it up in verse 14, where Peter addresses this erroneous opinion that was going on at the time.

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed the men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, excuse me, 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 supposed, since it's only the third hour of the day.

Like Peter's trying to make something clear.

It's interesting that they're asking, what does this mean?

And the first thing Peter does is let me address what's wrong about what you're thinking right now.

Like the Alan Jackson, it's five o'clock somewhere defense is not accurate.

Like you can't use that here.

And that's literally what he's saying.

To Peter, merely just brushing off what was taking place because what was taking place at nine in the morning as if these people were right taking the bottle down is not a legit argument.

And he's sort of putting that aside.

They must be drunk.

Peter's like, that's not it.

But he does say something that's interesting here because his defense is they're not drunk as you suppose, since it's only the third hour of the day.

He's basically saying, guys, it's 9 a.m.

But there's more going on about that.

It's not just, hey, people don't drink unless you're like a raging alcoholic at 9 in the morning.

It's an interesting defense.

There's more to that.

It's the third hour of the day.

It's around 9 a.m.

See, 9 a.m.

in that time was the hour of morning worship.

See, when you say the third hour, what should have struck the mind of those who are there and those who are consistent, faithful worshippers, is this is the hour of morning worship.

It was the hour of sacrifice, it was the hour of prayer.

And so the third hour of the day was a time in which you had sacrifice on the mind if you were rightly oriented to the worship calendar structure of every day.

It's no coincidence that it's the third hour on Pentecost that the Spirit of God is poured out.

At the very hour where sacrifice should have been on the mind, is the very hour that the benefits of Christ's sacrifice are poured out on the people.

Pentecost, meaning 50th.

That is, take Passover, count 49 days, the next day you celebrate the feast of weeks.

This is one of the three great pilgrimage festivals, feasts of the Old Testament.

And what Christ pouring out of the Spirit, the Father and the Son pouring out the Spirit is doing is taking the day, the celebration of this feast that celebrated the first fruits of Israel's harvest in the Old Testament becomes on this day the day that Christ gathers the first fruits of a worldwide gospel harvest.

That's what's going on here.

And so the point is listen, they're not drunk as you suppose.

It's the third hour of the day.

Connect the dots.

The hour of sacrifice is the hour that the sacrifice of Christ and its sufficiency and all the benefits purchased in the death of Jesus Christ.

One of those supreme benefits is the Holy Spirit being poured out on the people.

So Pentecost is not just proof that Jesus reached the throne.

Pentecost is proof that Jesus Christ's saving work has been accepted and the blessings purchased are being poured out on people.

This is Howard understand it.

You start by addressing the error, and he subtly begins to slip in some hints as to what's going on here.

In fact, he gets to it later on in this same sermon as it goes in Acts chapter 2, verse 33.

Acts 2:33

He says it perfectly for us.

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

This is what Pentecost is about.

But he starts here.

We'll get this more as we go in the text, but for now, let's say this to be truly Pentecostal in the biblical sense in Acts 2 is to be like Peter here.

Be one who in the midst of confusion brings clarity.

We were on a family trip recently and we went to church.

And honestly, when I sit in church, I will tell you that I, doesn't matter who's preaching, I am there to receive the word of God.

I'm not there to critique a bunch of stuff.

I don't even want to do that anyway.

I'm just happy to be sitting in a service listening to the word of God.

That being said, I'm listening to the word of God as a Berean.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

We'll get this later in the book of Acts, where they didn't just listen to the preacher and receive what he was saying.

They studied the Bible to make sure that that dude was aligned with this book.

This is what Peter's gonna do for us.

Whatever you think Pentecost is about, take that thought and put it up in alignment with this book.

You put your experiences, you put all the ecstatic things you may have witnessed, you put your interpretation of that all under the book.

You receive a sermon and you receive it under the book.

You don't just take it because I'm saying it, you take it insofar as it aligns with the word of God.

It is my job to make it align with the word of God 100%.

And I take that very seriously.

That being said, finite sinner, saved by grace, working my tail off to get this right.

Not always gonna get it right.

You need the word of God to lead you.

This is what Peter is teaching us.

So if you're gonna be truly Pentecostal, the irony is you're actually gonna care about error and you're gonna address error, not fall into it.

Now, here's the second point, and it's tying into exactly what I'm saying right now.

To be truly Pentecostal in the true way or the best way, let Scripture interpret Pentecost.

It will save you so much consternation.

Let Scripture interpret Pentecost, meaning let the Old Testament, let Acts interpret Acts.

Let the Old Testament interpret Acts.

When they ask this question in verse 12, what does this mean?

Peter doesn't look to describe the experience for us.

Because I think if he did, we would kind of go like, well, how do we get that experience again?

Well, let's read the text and he tells us all about how to, how the experience took place, and maybe we'll conjure up that experience.

He didn't do that.

His concern is to help them interpret the experience.

It's not so much to describe what they saw, it was for him to describe what God has said about what they were seeing.

That's a massive difference.

Now, Peter's sermon expounds three Old Testament texts.

We're only going to get to one today, which is Joel chapter 2.

Joel 2 · chapter mention

But his sermon is three Old Testament texts expounded to answer this question.

And today we get it in Joel 2.

I mean, this is expository preaching in its finest.

He tells us, look what happens in verse 16.

But this, being this is what you're seeing, this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel.

Okay, so go back to Acts chapter 2, verses 8 through 11.

Acts 2:8–11

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

By the way, there was a day when tongues was only known as actual human languages.

But I digress.

Just read it in the Bible.

Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia and Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus and Asia and Phrygia and Pamphylia and Egypt, and man, I'm doing well on this, and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, just sit, read it fast.

You know what I'm saying?

Both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.

Here's what Peter's saying.

That is Joel.

This is what was uttered through the apostle or the prophet Joel.

This that you're seeing is that that Joel was prophesying.

This is what's called a Pesher interpretation, which is just me nerding out and saying Jesus did a lot of this.

Wherein Old Testament prophecies and promises were connected to, in some eschatological sense, the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Connected in some way to his person and his work, in a way that at the time of the writing wasn't fully clear, but now in Christ, that fuller, richer, redemptive historical significance of the Word of God comes to light through Jesus Christ.

And so the pouring out of the Spirit on believers, declaring God's wonderful works in foreign languages, is the fulfillment of Joel.

Not a partial fulfillment of Joel, not still awaiting fulfillment.

This is the fulfillment.

And furthermore, this is not a new meaning for Joel.

This is simply the disclosure of the fuller historical redemptive significance of Joel.

How are we doing?

So then he keeps going.

He actually quotes Joel.

Remember, what you're seeing, Acts 2, is what Joel was prophesying.

Okay?

So here we go.

And in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.

That is amazing.

The end time Old Testament promise was that the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh indiscriminately.

Think about the Old Testament.

The Spirit was poured out on craftsmen building the tabernacle.

The Spirit was poured out on kings leading God's people.

The Spirit was poured out on prophets proclaiming the truth.

The spirit was poured out on judges leading the people.

But now, in the new covenant, all flesh, and this is his point.

And so we get so wonky in the middle of this because there's some crazy stuff that comes on.

But his point is the spirit has been poured out on all flesh.

And watch how simple he does it.

He tells you it's been poured out on male and female, young and old, and those of highest class and lowest class.

That's what he's trying to tell you.

Now watch, I'll show you it.

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

It's amazing.

God's spirit on all flesh.

Man, woman, all.

We'll get back to the word prophesy.

And your young man shall see visions, and your old man shall dream dreams.

We'll get back to visions and dreams, because again, that's where we want to run with those places that we shouldn't.

The point is, men and women, young and old, receiving the outpouring of the Spirit.

Right in line with the context.

Let's finish the last one.

Verse 18.

And even on my male servants and my female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.

Are you finding this?

Male, female, young, old.

The lowest of the low.

Male and female servant, doesn't matter what your place is.

Here's the joy of the new covenant era.

We are a spirit-indwelt people.

If you are a Christian, that is, you have come to trust in Jesus Christ by faith, the gift of salvation in part is the Holy Spirit dwelling in you permanently as a seal of the good things to come.

And as an empower of your life in being transformed, ever increasing into the image of Jesus Christ Himself.

Now, back to the whole, and they shall prophesy.

That's where you can insert all matter of creative license right there.

Isn't that true?

Well, it says dreams, well, it says visions.

Can I just tell you all of that's in the same category and all of that's pulling from Old Testament context?

This is so important, otherwise we just run with this.

It's dreams, it's visions, expectation, we should be doing all these things.

Hang on a second.

Remember in the Old Testament it says, and people use this in like modern churches, without vision the people perish, right?

And then the pastor gets up there, it's like the New Year's message, and he's like, without vision, the people perish.

Let me give you a vision for the next five years of our church.

You've been there, you've been there.

That that word vision just means the word of God.

When you're talking about the Old Testament, there were periods of time that were just, there was no vision among the people, right?

You had the 400-year period of silence between the end of the Old Testament and the coming of Jesus Christ, right?

You have the time in 1 Samuel, where 1 Samuel says, in those days there was no frequent vision, there was no proclaimer of the word of God, there was no one to tell us the truth from God himself.

Those were dark times in Israel.

So when Joel is prophesying this, what he's prophesying in line with the Old Testament is that there is going to be a restoration of prophecy, is the idea.

Now, in the context of Peter and what he's talking about here, he's putting it together like this the universal gift of the Spirit is going to lead to a universal ministry of those who will prophesy about the good news of the wonderful works of God in Jesus Christ.

Again, what you're seeing is what Joel was speaking of.

So all of a sudden, this makes so much more sense.

God is making himself known in this new covenant era through his people, because you are spirit indwelt.

Young, old, male, female, high in exalted positions, and lowest of the low.

You have the spirit of God, you have the gospel of God, and so listen, Acts 1.8 is for you too.

You know him, and you are to make him known as his spirit-empowered witnesses, and that is the point.

And so don't get confused.

You add anything else to that besides what's taking place in this text, you're adding to things that was never intended to be the case.

This is why it's so important to let Scripture interpret Scripture.

Peter keeps going.

And I'll 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.

Now, if you can remember back, how many were with me in Luke when we did this?

And it blew some minds because we went through that whole section of Luke 21 and we're like, whoa, we thought that meant something else.

And I was like, I don't think it means what you think it means.

And you're like, but I thought that my whole life.

I've seen Left Behind.

I'm like, I'm not sure left behind is the way to go.

But, right?

But we can agree to disagree, and we can love each other, and this church can support different views, of course.

But what I would like to suggest is the same way that Luke was using stock apocalyptic imagery from Isaiah is the same thing he's doing now, preparing the people for the day of the Lord, which really got its start at the destruction of Jerusalem, which is a far more significant event that needs to be far more significant in our minds as Christians, AD 70 than it currently is, but of course we know culminates in the actual ultimate, consummate day of the Lord.

But all of God's judgments are on one string, as it were.

Many expressions of days of the Lord that leads to the day of the Lord, the ultimate day of the Lord.

Now, when we see this language, blood and fire, vapor of smoke, darkness, moon to blood, all of that is stock apocalyptic imagery for times of great social and political upheaval.

Not unlike Isaiah's use to speak of the judgment of Babylon in verse chapter 13, verse 10, or his use in chapter 34, verse 4 to describe judgment of the nations.

Those things did not literally happen, but what he's saying is what's going to happen is so great, so extraordinary, so stunning is the upheaval of what's coming that it is as great as the dissolution of the heavenly bodies.

And boy, would it be when the temple comes down.

The place where God meets his people, that place of interconnection between heaven and earth being destroyed, and with it the old covenant and its system coming to an end.

God puts a definitive kaputz to it.

So that any who have been walking with Christ wouldn't revert back to the old covenant covenant, but be confident in the new covenant and what they have in Jesus Christ.

The Spirit, the outpouring of the Spirit was a kind of forewarning of the day of the Lord.

Which again begins with Jerusalem but will end in the great day of judgment.

Peter is warning them there is a near-term judgment connected to the long-term judgment.

That will be so significant.

It will be as if the stars were falling from the sky.

That's the language.

Here's the point.

We have got to interpret the Spirit's work at Pentecost by the Word of God.

We have got to not read our experiences into Scripture.

We have to submit our experiences under the Word of God.

We can't be isegetical reading what we want into the Bible.

We need to let the Bible hem us in to not get us way off track.

And I maybe even say it like this, and I hear this often.

There are spirit churches and there are word churches.

You ever hear this?

What kind of church do you go to?

Do you go to a spirit church or a word church?

That is a terrible bifurcation, and I reject it wholeheartedly.

Because here's the church.

If you go to a spirit church where the word of God is not held high, you don't go to a spirit church.

And if you go to a word church, you do go to a spirit church, period, because the spirit superintended the writing of the word of God.

You want to be connected to the spirit, then be connected to a church that proclaims and heralds and humbles themselves under the word of God.

Now, all that being said, to be truly Pentecostal in the best way, here's how he concludes.

Peter says, let Pentecost provide you assurance of salvation.

There's a judgment coming.

They're gonna see it in but a few years.

It's ultimately connected, as it were, on a string to the day of the Lord judgment.

But for those of you who are in Christ, and for you, you're not awaiting the judgment of the destruction of Jerusalem in 80 70.

That's not your issue.

Your issue today, church, is you are awaiting the judgment to come, that ultimate final day of the Lord, stand before the God of the universe and give an account.

And Peter wants you to be rock solid on your assurance.

What Joel prophesied then was meant to provide assurance of salvation to all who look to Christ.

Listen to this.

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

The Lord that Joel spoke about all those hundreds of years before is identified with Jesus Christ.

To all who call upon the name of the Lord.

Man, here's the thing.

You want to be Pentecostal?

Be rock solid in your assurance.

Not because of what you do, not because of how many times you go to church, but because your faith is rooted in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And you will be saved from everything and from the ultimate things.

You will be saved.

You will be forgiven of your sins.

You will be granted eternal life.

You will be indwelt by the Spirit of God.

Be Pentecostal by calling on the name of the Lord to be saved.

Take encouragement from what Peter is saying here that salvation can come to anyone.

It doesn't matter what your background is, it doesn't matter your social status, your ethnic background, your moral prequalifications or condition.

There is no condition in coming to Christ except that you are a sinner in need of a savior.

Be Pentecostal and don't push off Christ till later.

Don't push off, hey, when I'm out of college, I'll get more serious about Christ, or when I'm on my deathbed, then I'll consider Christ.

No, consider Jesus Christ now.

Put your faith in him.

Get into those waters of baptism.

Man, we ought to be running into those waters.

We baptize people every single month, and that sign of baptism is a covenantal sign of incorporation into the body of God's people.

It's that sign of God's covenant faithfulness to you, that because of what Jesus Christ has done, if your faith is in him, you are saved.

Bear the mark of the covenant.

Enjoy the gift of baptism, signed to you of your dying and your rising to new life in Jesus Christ.

Running as the Old Testament people did, kind of like them, out of Egypt through the waters.

This is your journey.

Out of sin through the waters.

Listen, if you want to be truly Pentecostal, don't look to the wind or the tongues of fire.

Look to Jesus Christ and walk with a healthy swagger.

That you're not trusting in anything else but what is wholly sufficient to save you, both now and forevermore.

Amen.

Father, we love you.

We thank you for your word.

God, we pray that you would magnify your word amongst us by pointing us to Jesus, causing us to be witnesses of the great truths in your word, witnesses of all that Jesus Christ has done, witnesses of the gospel.

And Lord, would we live with the rich assurance that for those whose faith is in Jesus Christ alone, we shall most certainly be saved.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.