God Descends

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:12

Acts 2:1–13 – The Story of the Church: Living Into This Drama in the 21st Century
Third Sunday in Lent – March 7, 2021 (am)

This is one of the most stunning events in Scripture, standing right alongside the sky and pasturelands around Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born, or dawn at His empty tomb on that Sunday He was resurrected, or just ten days earlier here when He was taken up from [earth] into heaven (1:11). This text is narrating the fulfillment of one of the most mysterious but anticipated events in all of Scripture. It’s confirmation of the promised new covenant (NC) with God.

Isaiah wrote that 32:15 [when] the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, … the wilderness [will become] a fruitful field, and the fruitful field [will be] deemed a forest. 16 Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. 17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever. In other words, with the giving of this Spirit, the promised new heavens and new earth with its justice and righteousness and peace will break into this present world from on high bringing with it an assurance of the full and final delivery of all this blessing! 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.

Through the prophet Ezekiel, God said: 36:26 … I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 28 … [A]nd you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. … 39:29 And I will not hide my face anymore from [you], when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.

Zechariah also makes mention of this [pouring] out of a spirit of grace (Zec.12:10). And the prophet Joel [speaks] of it even more. We’ll save that for next week, though, because Peter quotes five verses from Joel 2 in his sermon explaining all that happened here on this day (14-41). But, make no mistake, this event is as massively important as it is long promised!

This part of the story comes in two parts.

Receiving the Giving of the Holy Spirit – 1-4

John Stott (60) opened his commentary on this passage saying: Without the Holy Spirit, Christian discipleship would be inconceivable, even impossible. There can be no life without the life-giver, no understanding without the Spirit of truth, no fellowship without the unity of the Spirit, no Christlikeness of character apart from his fruit, and no effective witness without his power. As the body without breath is a corpse, so the church without the Spirit is dead.

In Act.2 we see the gift of the Spirit (1-13), the reach of the gospel (14-41), and the life of the church (42-47). But the Spirit of God, the giving of the Spirit, is the power that enables it all!

Pentecost was the second of three convocational feasts each year, so Jerusalem was full of visitors. In addition to celebrating the beginning of wheat harvest, it was associated with the renewal of the covenant made with Noah and then with Moses (Marshall 73). By the second century ad, the Jews celebrated it as the very day on which the law had been given at Sinai (Bruce 50). On this day, the 120 (cf. 1:15) received and were filled with the Holy Spirit of God. Fire came down from heaven just as it did at Sinai (Exo.19:18). But the description is so brief and relatively simple—dramatic and detailed, but not overly developed.
1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, think tornado, a train, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That’s it! Promise fulfilled! So begins the NC era!

They [spoke] in other [languages] not because [speaking] in other [languages] is some kind of pinnacle religious experience, but because people who speak other [languages] need to hear the gospel! That, after all, was the purpose of the gift of tongues. It was a sign to unbelieving Israel that the era of the Gentiles had come (1Co.14:21)—to get their attention! It was also a miraculous, if temporary, neutralization of Babel (Gen.11) that spotlighted not only of the universality of the gospel but its power to save—anyone, anywhere! (39)

Responding to the Giving of the Holy Spirit – 5-13

And it did its job! We’ll see the numbers in next Sunday’s text. But today we see that there were people in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost who were from [all over the known world] (5, 9-11) at that time. Luke seems to have listed them (8-11) in five geographic groupings moving from east to west (Stott 63-64). But where they were from is simply a backdrop for appreciating what they saw and especially what they heard!

Whether it was the roar of the mighty rushing wind (2) or their expressions of [bewilderment] because each one was hearing them speak in his own language (6) (but a case can be made for the wind [Longenecker 737]), it was the sound that drew a multitude together (6). And they were amazed and astonished (7) at what they heard, and especially because [those] who [were] speaking were Galileans (7). Galileans had difficulty pronouncing the Hebrew gutturals and were in the habit of swallowing syllables when they spoke, and so were looked down on by residents of Jerusalem as being [uncultured] (cf. Mk 14:70) (Longenecker 737 [edit Stott 64]). Yet, there they were, telling the mighty works of God (11) in the [language] of every group that was gathered in Jerusalem that day!

Isn’t that just how God would do it—[appointing] what is foolish in the world to shame the wise? (cf. 1Co.1:27) 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Many longed to know. And Peter was about to step up and address this question (14-39). But the best explanation others could come up with was drunkenness! (13) And that can bring a smirk because we think we get why they said it. But we should probably hear it as more troubling than amusing. How was new wine (13) going to help Galileans speak the [glories] of God in all these [unlearned foreign languages]?

It wasn’t! But the more important question is: why would anyone suggest that Galileans telling the mighty works of God must be drunk? It may’ve been ethnic prejudice against Galileans. But that ignores the greater slight. The Galileans weren’t the main actors on this stage, the Holy Spirit was! And these skeptics were denying His work in about the most derogatory terms they could find. They were attributing the work of God to fermented drink! One commentator paraphrased v.13 to say: no spiritual power here, just people who’ve had too much to drink. And he went on to add: Here for the first time appears a motif that runs through Luke-Acts—in itself, without the element of personal faith and experience, even the most profound aspects of the good news are not self-confirming but can lead to skepticism and even rejection (cf. Luke 24:11; Acts 17:32; 26:24) (Polhill NAC 105).

People who are opposed to the very idea of God will find ways to explain away everything He does, no matter how great it is! So often I’m struck by Matthew’s description of the band of disciples who were with the resurrected Jesus before His ascension. Mat.28:17And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. In the very presence of the resurrected Jesus with His glorified body, some doubted! But then, we live in the midst of this miraculously grand universe with all of its interconnected and interdependent creatures and forces and processes, yet for many people it’s still more possible to believe that it sprang into existence and came to be what it is all by itself with no help than it is for them to believe that there is a God Who made it all!

We’re called and equipped by God to preach the truth to such people. But as we do that, we need to make sure we don’t end up imitating some of their worst habits, like disbelieving or explaining away the mighty works of God (11). It wasn’t just the Galileans who were acting uncharacteristically at this feast of Pentecost! God Himself was doing a whole new thing! And it just didn’t fit the paradigm of some of those who were present. God doesn’t act like this! Or, to put it another way, it was easier to believe that these Galileans were acting under the influence of a natural power than a supernatural one, because God just doesn’t do this!

But, you see, the fact is that He does! Psa.115:3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. And this is how He was [pleased] to pour out His Spirit and establish His NC community! This is how He was [pleased] to call to saving faith all whom He purposed to save on this day! This is how He was [pleased] to confirm that the gospel is for the nations! And it’s always best for God’s people to allow Him to act in the way He purposes to act!

Conclusion

We really don’t want to number ourselves among those who try to attribute the work of the Spirit to some other force or power!

We really don’t want to limit God according to our understanding, our expectation of what He can do, or will do, or of how He will do it, or how He can do it!

We especially don’t want to minimize the definitive and distinguishing Gift He has given to initiate, and inhabit, and identify His chosen and charged people!

Due to many misuses and distortions of God’s actions in this chapter there are professing believers who want to make pronouncements about what God does and how He works that leave little room for manifestations of His power. And those that do happen should be described in much the same way as these skeptics described them here!  

Now, I’m not suggesting that we should take any different view on the supernatural works of God than we’ve clearly expressed in our Doctrinal Statement. But I am suggesting that we be very careful how we describe powerful works of God that do still happen in our day, and how we characterize those to whom and among whom they happen!

I think we want to be very careful that we actually believe Psa.115:3 Our God is in the heavens [and] does all that he pleases—that we don’t begin acting as though this verse says: our God fits into this box and does only what our documents say He does.

I think we want to be very careful that we don’t end up believing in a God Who would never surprise us—or worse, is not able to surprise us! Now, there is no inherent worth in just being surprised by God. But a God Who is unable to act in a way His people didn’t anticipate is no God at all, but is only an idol of their own making!

The Holy Spirit Who’s been given to the church is the third Person of the Trinity, God of very God come to dwell with us and make us His people, make us the new Temple (Eph.2:21). We don’t want to take that lightly, or make it common!

We live in the NC era where life in the new heavens and new earth has already broken into this present, fallen world and is beginning to make all things new! With the coming of the Holy Spirit, that which we long for most, which is almost too good to believe, is proven to be true!

This present world with all its evil and suffering and doubts and disappointments has been invaded by that Being, that Person, Who does all that he pleases (Psa.115:3). And He is infinitely good! So, what does this mean? (12) That’s precisely the question that was asked at this feast of Pentecost. And as we move into the next section of this chapter (14-41) we’ll hear God’s answer through the lips of Peter.

But for us this morning I can say that, when our trust is in Christ we are recipients of this very same Spirit of God Who was poured out on the disciples in Jerusalem that day! We are just as much the Temple of God as they were! The in-breaking of the new heavens and new earth is just as much our as theirs! We are part of every nation under heaven (5) whose trust in Christ reconciles us to God in this life and therefore promises us eternal life with Him in the next!

This is the very same Holy Spirit we receive, the same Spirit who goes for from this place with us into whatever situation or scenario or struggle awaits is in this coming week.

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Resources

Bruce, F. F. The Book of Acts, Revised. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.

Gempf, Conrad. “Acts,” in New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition, edited by D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, and G. J. Wenham, 1066-114. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity, 1994.

Longenecker, Richard N. “Acts,” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary, volume 10, edited by Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland, 665-1102. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007.

Marshall, I. Howard. “Acts,” in Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament, edited by G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, 513-606. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.

_____. Acts. Volume 5, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1980.

Polhill, John B. Acts. Volume 26, The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1992.

_____. Study notes on Acts. In ESV Study Bible. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008.

Stott, John. The Message of Acts. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity, 1990.

Next Sunday: What Do These Things Mean?, Acts 2:14–41