The Baptism of the Holy Spirit - Part 2

So if you would, take your Bible and turn to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two will be in verses one to 11. Now it has been a few weeks since we have been in our study in Acts, but back on November the 13th, we got started in chapter two and we saw that chapter two was and is a great turning point in the book of Acts. We have come to see that Acts chapter one really serves as a bridge between Luke's gospel account, we know what gospel account that is, and Luke's Acts account, which is right in front of us.

We saw that chapter one was and is all about preparation and completion for the unfinished work of the great commission that lay before the apostles and those first believers. In chapter one, the apostles and that small band of about 120 believers, they were waiting for the power and the person of the promised Holy Spirit, all for that unfinished work that was right in front of them and chapter one, and in chapter one, the apostles and those 120 believers or so, they were waiting, but they were also choosing. Remember, they were choosing a replacement for Judas for that unfinished work that was right in front of them.

Well, we have finally gotten off the bridge of chapter one and into chapter two. Chapter two is about the giving of the Holy Spirit. We got off the bridge of chapter one, and we've gotten into this outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church, which was and is this great turning point in the kingdom of God here on earth. Now, back on November the 13th, we got started in these verses in what I called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That's the title of the message. And I shared that the title really comes from Luke's gospel account, where he gave us John the Baptist's prophecy concerning what took place in Acts two.

Luke 3 16 says, John entered them all saying, I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming. We know who that was, Jesus, the strap of who sandal, I am not unworthy to untie. I'm not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. So that is what verses one to 13 are all about, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. John said that these events and this day, that's he, that's Christ, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. So the title of the message tonight is a part two, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now, before we glance over a few things that we looked at last time, those things are important. And before we finish up the verses, I wanna make a clarification in case you're confused here. I want us to make sure we understand some things here. Although John called the events of Acts two, a baptism of the Holy Spirit, we need to see that it is better seen as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the filling of the promised Holy Spirit. Let me say that again. John called these events in Acts two, a baptism of the Holy Spirit, which it was, but we need to see that really it is better to see this as an outpouring, the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Now, let me explain why I say that. Acts two, four says that the apostles and these early believers were filled with the Holy Spirit. In this word filled here, it simply means to feel, to be fulfilled or to be feel. So what took place here was this. This was the one time event where the Holy Spirit was poured out as promised on the day of Pentecost for several purposes. This was truly and actually the birth of what we see as the New Testament church, the church had not existed before.

This was the filling and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in and on those apostles and those early believers, which was for the Great Commission work that was before them. This was the giving and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on and in the apostles and those early believers, which was for the work of the Great Commission. And all there on that day saw these things in that they were made manifest by and through great things that happened on that day. And when we continue throughout the book of Acts, we will see subsequent fillings of the Spirit. In Acts four, Peter was filled again.

In Acts four, 31, some of these same believers here were filled again. Also in Acts six, five, Stephen is described as a man full of the Spirit, but in Acts 7.55, we see that he was filled again. So what do we need to see here? What am I trying to say? How does all this fit together? And this is very, very important. In Acts two, we see the one-time event of the giving and the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit. And those subsequent fillings seen in Acts are what we see taught in Ephesians 5.18, where believers are commanded to be filled with the Spirit and to keep on being filled with the Spirit.

But this filling in Acts two and the subsequent fillings seen throughout Acts are not to be confused with the baptism of the Spirit at conversion. As seen in the New Testament, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a one-time event and work of Christ by which he places the believer into the body of Christ. This happens one time when one is converted to Christ.

We see this in 1 Corinthians 12.13, Paul says, "For in one Spirit," capital S, Holy Spirit, "For in one Spirit," the Holy Spirit, "we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, "slaves are free, all are made to drink of one Spirit." We see the same thing in Galatians 2.27, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ "have put on Christ." Now, what's my point here? And this is very important. We need to make sure we understand that this filling and outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, this baptism of the Holy Spirit in fire, as John called it, this was and is a one-time event never ever to be repeated in history.

Of course, we see this promise fulfilled and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on those non-Jews later on in Acts, but this great promised event at Pentecost was and is never to be repeated. We never see the apostles in the New Testament church seeking a repeat of that event. And so for us today, what that means is this. We do not pray for another Pentecost, nor should we expect another Pentecost. To do so is a misunderstanding of what took place at Pentecost and a misapplication of those things. As born-again believers, we have been spiritually baptized by Christ into the body of Christ. That happened at conversion.

And then throughout our Christian life, we are to be filled with the Spirit and continue to be filled with the Spirit throughout life. We see that in Ephesians 5.18. I've taught you that thoroughly. Now, with all of that said, let's read the verses and I'll explain how we will approach the verses in the message. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each 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 the sun. 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? Perinthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia.

Fergia, excuse me, Fergia, Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and visitors from Rome, both Jews and Priscillites, Christians and Arabians, 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. Now, back in our part one, we spent all of our time looking at verses one to four. And what I call those verses, the evidence of the baptism of the spirit. Now tonight, I will glance over a few things from verses one to four in this evidence of the outpouring of the spirit.

Then we will look at the effects of this outpouring from verses five to 11. And then the explanation of these things from verses 13, 12 to 13, which is really the beginning because Peter really explains these things starting in verse 14. So number one, the evidence of the baptism of the spirit. That's verses one to four. The evidence of the baptism of the spirit. Now we covered this thoroughly in our part one, but I wanna briefly touch on a few things that we really need to make sure we understand. Now remember why I use the phrase baptism of the spirit. It is not that I'm being like this crazy Charismatics that we see on television.

I use this phrase because of what we see in John's prophecy, Luke 3 16. But go back, let's look at verses one to four in Acts two. Just read them one more time because we need to get the verses in our minds. 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. In divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each 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 notice that we see the falling of the spirit and the filling of the spirit. Obviously the Holy Spirit came down from heaven. And verse two says that the spirit filled the place of the house where those believers had gathered. Excuse me. And verse four says the believers were filled with the spirit. So we can say that here we have the evidence of the promised Holy Spirit. We can say that we have a visible manifestation of the promised Holy Spirit and it is fulfilled.

He, the Holy Spirit, he descended from heaven to and in these apostles and those other believers, he filled their meeting place and he filled their hearts and minds and their lives. They were baptized with the spirit just as John prophesied. And here we have evidence of and an obvious manifestation of what John said what happened. Now we did study and see the importance of the day of the events and the importance of the place where they were meeting. But I wanna revisit a few things about the actual baptism. And this is definitely worth the review. Remember that we learned that the person of the Holy Spirit cannot be seen or touched.

As one writer said it, there is nothing sensory about the Holy Spirit. But here in verses one to four, God used three visible signs in this outpouring and baptism of the spirit, which was and is evidence of the outpouring. This was and is a visible manifestation of this outpouring. We can see that God used the wind, fire, and inspired speech or known foreign tongues. Now I am not going back over the meaning of the wind and the fire and the speech or tongues. But what I do wanna emphasize here is this, these were not random events. The wind, this wind, this fire, this God inspired speech, it all had Old Testament meaning.

On the day of Pentecost, there were Jews and proselytes to Judaism there in Jerusalem from all over the known world. So these Jews who saw and heard these things, they knew that in the Old Testament and in Old Testament times, the wind spoke of and represented the presence and the work of God. They knew that fire was used in Old Testament and Old Testament times to speak of and represent the presence of God. They knew that in the Old Testament and in Old Testament times, God spoke powerfully and supernaturally through men.

So what we must see in this evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is this, these were not random events. These things had Old Testament meaning, God providentially made known that this baptism, this outpouring of the Holy Spirit was actually from Him. And He did this through wind, fire and tongues. This was God using means or proof that these Jews and these Jewish proselytes understood as Old Testament and from God. Yes, these things were definitely miraculous and otherworldly, but these were manifestations that they would have recognized from their knowledge of the Old Testament scripture and Jewish history.

Now there are two lessons that we need to take home here. The first we looked at before, first, God does not do random things. God's not random. Many of the seemingly random things we see in the scripture are not random at all. The reason they may seem random is that we might not understand the meaning or the context of the background. But second, many of these things, many of these seeming random things have Old Testament meaning, therefore they are not random. Well, an example, these events at Pentecost. But I'll give you another example.

Later on in Acts 10, we will see that Peter had this vision of all kinds of animals, birds, even reptiles coming down in a sheet and God called him to kill it and eat it. Now for us, we would say, nothing wrong with that, I like meat. But when we understand the Old Testament background in context of these verses, we understand why Peter was so offended. It wasn't that he was a vegan or a vegetarian. It was not that he did not like meat. It was that he saw those things as unclean according to Old Testament law. So it seems odd and strange, but when we understand the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, it all makes sense.

Again, the evidence of the baptism, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as seen in wind fire, miraculous tongues was not random. Those things had Old Testament meaning. God by his good grace provided evidence for these Jews that this outpouring, this baptism came from him. But then number two, the effects of this baptism of the Holy Spirit. Number two, the effects of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We see this in verses five to 11. Let's look at those verses. 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 of these speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Now let me pause there. Here, now here we see the scene of these events. Pentecost was one of the three most important Jewish feasts on the Jewish calendar and all Jewish men were expected to participate in this celebration there in Jerusalem and this all centered around the temple and temple worship.

So that meant that Jerusalem was filled to the brim with Jews living in Jerusalem and devout Jewish men from many distant lands where Jews were living and even these proselytes who were Gentiles who had converted to Judaism. Jerusalem was full. Now this is how I wanna explain what happened here with that background in our minds. I wanna make six observations. Notice the great crowd. Now I've already mentioned this great crowd. We see that there were Jews there who lived in Jerusalem. Also they were Jews from all over the world where Jews had been dispersed.

Now we do not see any numbers here in the verses but later in chapter two we do see about 3,000 savingly believing in Jesus as Peter preached. So the point is this, this crowd was great in that it numbered in the thousands. This was a crowd numbering well over 3,000 from all over the world where Jews lived. Then notice the great sound. Verse two says that as the Holy Spirit came upon those believers and filled the house there was a sound like a mighty rushing wind. And this was not symbolic, no. This was real. This was so real that thousands there in Jerusalem heard the sound.

Verse one says that the believers were gathered in one place and as the Spirit came upon them there came a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind that filled the house where they were staying and the result was that the sound was so great and obviously heard that this great multitude of thousands of Jews in Jerusalem heard the mighty rushing sound of the wind. And then third, notice the great gathering. This is simple. Verse six says that the multitude came together. And notice what this means. They heard this great sound.

They saw that it came from, they recognized that it came from the house where the believers were staying and they gathered to that place. And then fourth, notice the great miraculous speaking. And when this great gathering of Jews from all over the world gathered to where the believers were, verse six says they were bewildered, the English Standard Version. The King James says they were confounded. And verse seven says they were amazed and astonished. And notice why they were bewildered, amazed and astonished. They were obviously bewildered, amazed and astonished not because of the sound of the mighty rushing wind.

This was because they heard Galileans speaking in known native languages from Jews all over the different lands. Look back at verses five to 11 again. Five to 11. I'll pick up at verse seven. They were amazed and astonished saying, are not these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? In verses nine on down refers to about 15 different peoples. Now notice what we must see here. They were not speaking unknown languages. This was not gibberish. This was not some kind of a alien language. They were speaking known languages, clearly understood by all of those hearing them.

John MacArthur gives a good list of who these people were and where they were from. This is good because to me this gives us a breadth of the great work of God here, the Perinthians. The Perinthians lived in what we know as modern day Iran and in this time they had not been conquered by the Romans. The Medes, they were partners in the Persian Empire at the time of Daniel's time and at the time they were a part of the Perinthian Empire. The Elamites, they lived in what is now Southwest Iran and they were also part of the Perinthian Empire at this time. The residents of Mesopotamia lived between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

And scholars tell us that many numbers of Israelites have been departed to that region by the Assyrians and Babylonians and some did not come back. Judea is a description of all of the region that was once controlled by King David and King Solomon and Cappadocia and Pontius and Asia and Fergia and Pamphylia were all regions in what is seen as Asia Minor. They had a large Jewish population just like Egypt. The districts of Libya around Serene were west of Egypt on the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea and a noted secular Jewish historian named Josephus mentions the Jewish population there.

And they were Jews from Rome and Gentile proselytes to Judaism as well. They were Christians, they were from the island of Crete and the Arabs were Jews who lived in the kingdom of the Nepotanian Arabs south of Damascus. Now what's my point here? Seeing who they were and where they were from is more than a Jewish geography lesson. The point is this, these believers were Galileans but they were speaking the known languages of all these different Jews from all of these foreign lands. These were real languages and this was truly in every way a great and a miraculous work.

Verse seven and eight, they were completely astonished by what they were saying, look, are not all of these who were speaking Galileans, then how is it that each of us hears in our own language our native dialect, that's the amplified. And then fifth, notice the great content of their speaking. I wanna say preaching but the text doesn't say preaching. Now if we stopped here, the purpose of these things really would be missed. What we learn now, God does not do random things. God does what he does for a purpose and with purpose. But notice that we see the content of their preaching.

Verse 11 says, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. So this tells us that when the Holy Spirit empowered and enabled these Galileans to speak and to preach in all those known languages, he also empowered them and enabled them to speak about the mighty works of God. What a question, what were they saying? What was the content of what they were saying? Now some may speculate that they were preaching the gospel. That would be a natural assumption. But verse 11 does not say that. Verse 11 simply says they were speaking of the mighty works of God.

And this is very important because this points to the purpose in these things. Those Galileans who were speaking in those 15 or so different languages did so as God empowered them. And this was to be a sign for all of the Jews who had gathered there, remember thousands. This was intended to be a sign for those Jews and the people of Israel so as to prepare them for when Peter was to step forward and step up and preach the gospel as he explained the meaning of all of these things. And then six, notice the great purpose in all these things.

Now I've already touched on the purpose of these things some but here I wanna wrap all of these things together. God, sovereignly and providentially used a sound like a mighty rushing wind, verse two, to gather together this great multitude of thousands of Jews who had gathered in Jerusalem at Pentecost, verses four to five, and God empowered and enabled these Galilean believers to speak of God's mighty works to all those who God had gathered together. And he empowered and enabled them to speak and to preach in all of these languages miraculously. And the reason that God did these things is simple.

This was not a bunch of Holy Spirit inspired and excitement for excitement's sake. Everything was for a purpose. And this was to prepare all those Jews for Peter's explanation and proclamation of the gospel. So here we see the effects of this outpouring, this baptism of the spirit. God used his miraculous work and works in and through the apostles and those other believers to prepare those Jews in Jerusalem at Pentecost for the gospel that was just about to be presented to them. Now there's a lesson here for us.

Although this outpouring was certainly miraculous and this was a one time never repeated event in the history of the kingdom of God, the point of all these things was to prepare and to open up the door to the Jews and Israel for the gospel and the fact that Jesus was and is the promised Messiah of God that they were waiting for. And for people today, God does the very same thing. Let me explain. God does not repeat the events of Pentecost to prepare people for the gospel, but God certainly works in people's lives to prepare them for the message of the gospel and salvation found in Jesus. Let me give you an example.

You come into contact with lost people, you share your faith, talk about church, you show them the gospel and the Christianity that you possess, you share verbally and non-verbally and in your life and through your verbal witness, they see Christ. Then sometimes you invite them to be a part of events and then they come and they're around us. All of those things are preparation to get them to a place where they hear the gospel. I give you a good one. Have you figured out that vacation Bible school is a big bait and switch? When we have a commencement service, I always present the gospel. Why? Because we have lost parents that are here.

They're coming to see their little boys and their little girls and they're here. I view that as a preparation, God's preparation in their life to get them here to hear the gospel. This was great and miraculous and very exciting for them, but for us in our day, it can seem a little ordinary and we can miss that, but we need to be reminded of that. But then number three, the explanation of these things. We see this in verse 12 to 13. Now here we really see the beginning of the explanation of these things.

I say beginning because the explanation really comes about when Peter stands up along with the other apostles and he begins to address the crowd. But here in these two verses, we do see that there's a quite a lot going on here. Now this is what we need to see. First, I want us to see the incomplete nature of these miracles and these great works. Yes, they were incomplete. I'll explain. Second, I want us to see the two different reactions to all of these things. So first, the incomplete nature of these great miracles. Now what we see here is not plain to see, but it is here and this is what I'm getting at.

These great miracles of God seen in verses one to 11 were not complete in that they were not self authenticating. These things were not enough to convince and bring saving faith to those Jews who are experiencing all these things. Do you see that? If everything stopped at verse 11, those Jews still would not have believed in Jesus as the promise of Messiah of God. Those Jews still would have been outside of saving faith. So the work and the works of God that were going on here were still incomplete at this point. But then second, we see those who were genuinely and spiritually curious.

Here in verse 12, we see that some of those Jews, not all, but some were amazed, they were perplexed, they were confounded and they ask, what does this mean? Now the text does not say that they possessed a genuine spiritual curiosity, but to me the contrast that Luke does make here tells me that was the case. Third, those that were genuinely and spiritually scoffing. Here in verse 13, Luke says, but others mocking said, they're filled with new wine. In my language, I would say it like this, others stood up and made fun of them and said, they're just a bunch of drunk people.

This means that those scoffing Jews were accusing these believers who were speaking in these languages, they were accusing them of being drunk. So we see that they were genuinely and spiritually scoffing and mocking. Now notice what we see here. The beginning of the explanation of all these things. This work was incomplete. God was still working. And we will see the completion of these things starting in verse 14, going all the way to verse 41. But we also see these two groups. We see those who were genuine in their spiritual curiosity and those who were genuine in their spiritual mockery of all of these things. We see that today.

We see some who were, I call them spiritually curious. They were, they are genuine, although they are lost. They were genuine, they are genuine in their spiritual curiosity, in their response to how God is working around them. God is drawing them and God is working in their life. A great biblical example is Nicodemus. In John three, on the night that he came to Jesus, Nicodemus was not converted. We believe he was converted later. But I believe we see a genuine spiritual curiosity when he came to Jesus. We have some just like that in our church. God has worked to bring them into our fellowship.

God has placed genuine believers around them and they are hearing the truth of God's word. They're hearing the gospel. They're seeing it modeled in you. They are not converted to Christ, but God is working and they are genuine in their spiritual curiosity. That goes on, that is encouraging to me. But we have others who come along who scoff and mock.

I think about people who have come, they visited, they've heard the gospel, they've heard direct verbal witnesses, they've seen a genuine work of the church and something comes along that they don't like and they develop a mocking and a scoffing, a cynical negative attitude and they just go their own way. It goes on all the time, sadly. Now as I close, notice what we've seen here. Chapter two can be seen as some of the most confusing and misunderstood Bible passages that we can name. But when these verses are studied, what is seen here is not that confusing. Am I right? It's really not that confusing.

We simply have the giving and the outpouring of the promised Holy Spirit for four basic reasons. First, it's the birth of the church. Second, this was to empower and enable those early believers for the Great Commission work in front of them. Third, this was to prepare the Jews and the nation of Israel to hear that Jesus was in fact the promised Messiah of God. Peter's just about to do that. And fourth, this was to prepare the Jews for the gospel message that Peter was about to preach that would birth about 3,000 into the kingdom. So chapter two, verses one to 13, those verses are all about the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And I will close with John's prophecy from Luke 3.16, from the Amplified. John answered them all by saying, as for me, I baptize you only with water. But one who is more mightier, more powerful, more noble than I is coming. And I am not fit to untie the strap of his sandals even as his slave. He will baptize you who truly repent with the Holy Spirit. And that's what we've seen here. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.