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We find ourselves this morning in Acts chapter two, as we continue our verse by verse exposition of the book of Acts. We come to this very fascinating text filled with astounding displays of the glory and the sovereignty and omnipotence of God, and I might add that it is a text that is terribly misunderstood by many in the body of Christ, and I believe needlessly so.

Before I read the text, let me give you some Old Testament background that I believe will prove helpful in your understanding of what the Spirit of God would have for us in his word this morning. We could go to Leviticus chapter 23 and read of how God spoke to Moses and Moses to the sons of Israel through seven holy convocations. There were seven sacred festivals - sacred feasts - where the people would assemble together to worship, and as you study those feasts, you would soon discover that each feast symbolized some great spiritual truth pertaining to the character of God, as well as his plan of redemption and the kingdom to come. God didn't just whimsically come up with some things for the people to do, because they might get bored. Everything he prescribed for them was for a purpose; and together the seven festivals in the Old Testament delineated God's program from Calvary to his second coming; from the Passover lamb to the Lion of Judah, who will ultimately come and redeem his chosen people and establish his glorious kingdom, the one promised to Israel.

Now, if you look at the calendar, the Jewish calendar, you would discover that the first three feasts were held in the spring. Let me give them to you briefly. First, there was the Feast of Passover that commemorated God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and then immediately following that was the Feast of Unleavened Bread, where the Israelites commemorated their need to completely separate themselves from all of the paganism and idolatry of Egypt, as well as separate themselves from sin in general. And then there was the Feast of First Fruits, and there they would dedicate the first gleanings of the barley harvest to the Lord, as well as consecrate the entirety of their ultimate harvest to the Lord; the first fruits being a promise of a full harvest that would eventually come. Ultimately, we will see that that symbolized resurrection. And then 50 days after the Passover, also 50 days after the barley harvest, they had what was called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Harvest. The New Testament term is the term "Pentecost," meaning 50th, because it was 50 days after Passover. And during the Feast of Harvest, that Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, they dedicated the first fruits of the wheat harvest to the Lord, and this, of course, symbolized the great spiritual blessings that would also come to all those who feared God.

Then there was a gap of time in the calendar, and later on in the fall, there were three final convocations and feasts that were held there was the Feast of Trumpets called Rosh Hashanah. There they consecrated the seventh month as a sabbatical month, and when they would do that, they would blow the shofar, the ram's horn, the trumpets as a memorial, as we read in Leviticus 23:24, reminding them of of God's covenant promises, his covenant relationship with Israel, and the promises that he has given them.

And then there was the next feast, the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, and that was a time for cleansing, for personal and national repentance, a time for the forgiveness of sin, also a time to remember all that God had done for them in his mercy thus far, and then finally there was the feast of booths that was also called the Feast of Tabernacles, or sometimes it's called the Feast of Ingathering, and there they would celebrate the final harvest in autumn, also commemorating God's faithful care for Israel during her wilderness wanderings, when he tabernacled, or literally dwelt among them. And again, that feast pointed to that future day when God would ultimately dwell with his covenant people forever. And these festivals ultimately, as I said earlier, delineated God's plan of redemption and restoration of Israel from Calvary all the way to the second coming, as well as all that he would do to believers in the church age.

I want you to understand that now, where we are in redemptive history, we can look back on these festivals, and we can see some things that they did not see in those days, those things that the festivals ultimately pointed towards. For example, we see that Christ has already fulfilled the first four feasts. He fulfilled Passover, and that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God that was slain. He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread, fulfilled by Christ's perfect life, where he was utterly separated from sin, as well as fulfilling the law of God in his life, utterly separate from sin. He fulfilled the Feast of First Fruits that was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ, and then 50 days after Passover, and this is what we will be looking at today, was Pentecost again - the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Weeks. And remember that was another time where they offered the first fruits, and that was fulfilled some 2000 years ago by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God, who was the first fruits of our inheritance, moreover, the first fruits of the first believers in the church, all of that happened that day, the body of Christ. And those first believers were the first fruits of the ultimate harvest of all who will be gathered into the church.

Now, the fulfillment of the last three convocations is yet future. The Feast of Trumpets will be fulfilled when Israel is regathered into its land and worships the Lord in spirit and in truth at the second coming of Christ, at the establishment of the millennial kingdom. The Feast of Atonement, Yom Kippur, certainly it was fulfilled by Christ's substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, but its ultimate fulfillment will occur when he forgives and cleanses the sins of Israel in a national way when he saves a future generation of ethnic Jews. and then the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, that feast that marked the final harvest of the year's crops, one that was a time of great rejoicing, will be celebrated ultimately in the millennial kingdom, as we read scripture, when Christ will tabernacle or dwell among his people.

Now, as a footnote, again by way of background, because I believe this is so crucial in understanding Acts chapter two, in Ezekiel's amazing and precise description of the millennial temple in Ezekiel chapter chapters 40 through 48, we learn that three of these feasts will once again be required, namely that of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Booths or Tabernacles. And you say why? Well, because in the millennial kingdom, in the millennial age, that will be Israel's promised kingdom, and these feasts will point millennial Jews and Gentiles, both saved and unsaved, back to the marvelous work of redemption that Christ accomplished when he came in incarnate form; the one who once came in humility but would then be reigning in glory. Those will be memorials that will be both symbolic as well as pedagogic in that they will teach the marvelous truths of salvation.

Now, the Feast of Pentecost, Trumpets, and Day of Atonement were festivals in the Old Testament that pointed to things that were going to happen, but in the worship of the millennial kingdom they will not be necessary, because they have already happened, and how incredible to imagine the fulfillment, for example, of Zachariah's prophecy concerning the future restoration and reconciliation of Israel, when she finally serves the Lord as the witness nation she was intended to be. For example, in Zechariah 8:22 we read that, "Iin that day many peoples," in other words, during the millennial kingdom, "...many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord." He goes on to say that, "In those days 10 men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'"

Now, with this background, we will also be able to better see the miracle of divine providence as we look and see what occurred at Pentecost in Acts two. Dear friends, it is absolutely staggering to think that God, in his infinite power, can orchestrate perfectly all of the events of history, all of the sequencing of history, to come together on the precise dates of these feasts, not to mention to do so in such a way is to fulfill precisely and perfectly their symbolic meaning down through redemptive history.  And when we look at the text today, we see that all of this occurred 50 days after Passover, after the Lamb of God was slain, and here in Acts two we see again the fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks, the fulfillment of Pentecost, the fulfillment of that time when they offered the first fruits by the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the first fruits of our inheritance, and also the first fruits of the first believers in the church, the body of Christ, who were the first fruits of the ultimate harvest of all the believers that will ultimately be gathered into the church.

Now, another important theological truth I believe should be mentioned here to give us the proper context. The first century Christians deduced from Exodus 19:1, and I'll not take time to go there. They deduced from that text that chronologically Pentecost fell on the anniversary of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. Isn't that fascinating? What a coincidence. Someone might say. No, no, no. What another testimony of the providence of God. Think of the significance of the parallel here. For the Jews, Pentecost was the day of the giving of the Law, but now for Christians it is the day of the giving of the Holy Spirit. It is not by accident, my friends, that this parallel exists. The Holy Spirit came on Pentecost to further distinguish the old covenant from the new covenant. You see, in the old dispensation of Judaism, their hope was only in the keeping of the law by the power of the flesh, but now in the new dispensation of grace, our hope is in the righteousness of Christ, and our salvation is produced and preserved and empowered by the Spirit, not by the flesh.

Now, with that background, let's go to the text and see what the Spirit of God tells us, beginning in Acts chapter two, verses one through 13.

"And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 

"And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

"And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

"Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

"And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language.

"They were amazed and marveled, saying, 'Why are not all these who were speaking Galileans?

"'And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

"'Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

"'Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

"'Cretans and Arabs - we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.'

"And they continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, 'What does this mean?'

"But others were mocking and saying, 'They are full of sweet wine.'"

I would ask you to focus with me this morning on two primary categories that will help us understand the text. First, we will see the Spirit's dramatic descent, and understand what actually happened there on that day; and secondly, we will see the Spirit's miraculous message. And by the power of the Spirit, I trust we will all be submerged into the very depths of divine truth that we might be raised to the very pinnacle of worship this morning.

Now, one more important piece of background before we look at the text, earlier, we can see, according to John 7, that Jesus was at the Feast of Booths, the Feast of Tabernacles, and this was a feast that was known for its little huts, they would build little huts as a reminder of all that God provided for them in the wilderness and their wilderness journeying, but also the idea of being in fellowship with God. They would also light lamps, and there was a lot of water drawing that occurred during that feast, and we know, according to John 7, that Jesus, during that feast, went up to the temple and began to claim to all of the people that were there his deity and his authority. Well, naturally, this absolutely infuriated many of the Jews, and they tried to seize him, but we also know that many of them believed him. And later on, in the last day of that feast, I want you to hear what happened.

According to John seven, beginning in verse 37 Jesus said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke," I want you to catch this, "...this He spoke of the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."

You see friends, the Spirit is the ultimate source and sustainer of spiritual life, even as water would be to our crops and to our very person. Now, 50 days after Passover, after Jesus' ascension back into glory, back to the Father, the Spirit now is ready, even as Jesus has said in here in John seven, he is ready to be given. Now, I want you to understand, and I'll expand on this more later, he is not to be persuaded, he is not to be induced by prayer, he's not to be manipulated or cajoled somehow by some spiritual religious ritual. No one is told to tarry and wait for some special thing to happen here, but he is going to be given to those early believers; and what you are going to see, my friends, that what happened is that they were also given the ability to speak in tongues, actually a variety of different languages, not the ecstatic gibberish that we hear today; and what we're going to see that those tongues were given for the sake of unbelievers, not for the sake of believers, but for unbelievers, according to First Corinthians 14:22. And those tongues were given as a sign with a threefold purpose, the purpose of judgment, blessing, and authority. Now, keep that in mind. I will expand upon it.

First of all, let's notice the Spirit's dramatic descent in verse one, "And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place." And of course, this would be a reference to the 120 that were in The Upper Room. "And suddenly..." verse two, meaning unexpectedly, "...there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind..." in other words, Luke is telling us here that out of nowhere came a sound that they had never heard before, a sound that came down from heaven. That's why he has to use simile here. He says it was "like a violent rushing wind." I have been in a tornado before, maybe you have too, and everybody that's been in one will will say the same thing. It sounded like a freight train coming over our heads. That's the idea that we have here, a terrifying sound. And it's fascinating, and certainly by no mistake, that the words for wind and the word for Spirit, both in Hebrew and Greek, are exactly the same. Notice what the text says, "...and it," referring to the sound of the wind, "...filled the whole house where they were sitting." So, in other words, the sound, not an actual wind here, but the sound of something that sounded like wind filled the house where they were sitting. And I think it's important that we not go too quickly by the word "sitting." The Holy Spirit put that there for a purpose, and I believe part of that was to demonstrate that this was indeed an act of a sovereign God. It was not in response to anything that man was doing, because sitting means they were not praying. Standing or kneeling were the only two appropriate postures for prayer. They were probably relaxing, they might have been eating, they were not seeking some special blessing, not some second blessing, as you often hear, some miraculous outpouring. They were simply waiting for what Jesus had promised that the Father was going to give them.

Now, notice verse three, "And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them." Now, frequently in Scripture we see fire as a symbol of the presence of God, the blazing forth, for example, of his Shekinah. We could look in Exodus 13, see it in the burning bush. We could see it in various places in Exodus, when the pillar of fire led the Israelites at night through the wilderness. There was certainly the consuming fire at Mount Sinai in Exodus 24; there was the fire of his Shekinah that blazed forth between the cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant, over the mercy seat, one that produced such a glow within the tabernacle that the whole camp of Israel could see, regardless of where they were camped. They could look at the tabernacle, and they could see the glow of the glory of the fire of God emanating from the tabernacle. And now what you see here in Acts two, the glorious presence of the Spirit of God visibly rests not upon Israel as a corporate entity or upon some certain leaders of Israel, as he would often do in the Old Testament, in the old economy. Remember the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament would temporarily abide on the people, but now in the New Testament he is going to permanently indwell his people - his people individually, not corporately - so the emphasis here is that only individual believers in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord can have this personal relationship with God, whose Spirit now abides permanently within them.

Paul reminds us of this in First Corinthians 6:19 where he said, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own." So Christ ascends, and the Holy Spirit descends. And my, what a dramatic descent it was. No one could miss it. It was the birth of the church, this grand and glorious transition in redemptive history. Suddenly, these believers were supernaturally baptized, which literally means immersed or placed into the body of Christ, as promised in chapter one, verses four and five; each one of them being united together with the Spirit. And you must understand that this becomes the divine pattern now for all believers in the church. At salvation, when we are born again, we are all immersed into the body of Christ. We are all baptized at that moment, we are united forever to Christ. Again, the apostle Paul makes this clear in First Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 12, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we are all made to drink of one spirit."

Now it's important for you to understand that the baptism of the Spirit, again, it is a one-time act at the at the time we are saved at salvation. There's no need, as some would suggest, for us to somehow try to seek this later on in our Christian life. Nor, as we are going to see, is that baptism evidenced by speaking in tongues. Such a concept is utterly foreign to scripture. Yes, it happened here, but for a reason, as you will understand.

There's no such command or instruction anywhere in scripture for us to seek some second blessing to be baptized by the Spirit. There have been several occasions, probably more than a dozen in my life, where people have asked me, "Sir, have you ever been baptized with the Holy Spirit?" And, of course, the evidence of that in the minds of many would be that I would also therefore speak in some ecstatic gibberish this idea of speaking in tongues, and therefore that I have somehow ascended to a higher level of spirituality and have joined kind of the elite core of Christendom. And of course, my answer to that is "Yes,  I've been baptized with the Spirit. That happened when I was born again." And I can go to First Corinthians 12:13, "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free," and so on. We've all been made to drink of one Spirit.

You see, friends, you must understand that if you do not have the spirit of God, you are not saved. There's no salvation apart from that. In fact, Paul says in Romans 8:9, "If anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him." It doesn't take a great theologian to figure out what that meant. You see, nowhere in Scripture, again, are we commanded to be baptized with the Spirit. Even here, the Spirit was given; it was not sought for. The Assemblies of God's denominational magazine, called the Pentecostal Evangel, has published a creed in its masthead every week for years, saying in part, and I quote, "We believe the baptism in the Holy Spirit, according to Acts 2:4 is given to believers who ask for it." End quote.

Now I would humbly argue that the problem with that statement is that the believers didn't ask for it in Acts two. Again, you just don't see that anywhere in Scripture. And don't you think that if such an important spiritual reality were dependent upon us. Don't you think that God would have made it clear? "Folks, sometimes you need to do this, and here's how you need to do it, and here's what's going to happen when it occurs."

Now I want you to understand that the reason why I believe so many people fall into this heresy is that they have no understanding of the signs of tongues, for example; that it's - it was a sign of judgment, blessing, and authority, as we will see more in a moment - they have no understanding, therefore, that tongues were for the sake, in the early church, for the unbeliever, as Paul said in First Corinthians 14:22 when he said, "So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to unbelievers." In other words, tongues have no place for the church, no purpose in the church. But I want you to also understand, while the baptism of the Spirit is not something we seek, because we are immersed into the body of Christ in union with Christ when we're saved, we are told to be filled. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18 we are told, "Do not be drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit." In other words, don't be intoxicated with liquor, as many of them were doing in their religious rituals, but rather be intoxicated with the Spirit of God, be under his influence.

And if we look at other passages in the New Testament, we see that that happens when we die to self, when we surrender ourselves to the complete control of the Spirit of God, as he reveals himself to us in his word. You see, the baptism of the Spirit empowers us at the moment of salvation, and the filling of the Spirit discharges that power in a life of godliness.

You see, friends, I want you to understand there is nothing deficient in our salvation when we are born again. There is not something else that somehow needs to happen to make us complete in Christ. We're told in Second Peter 1:3, "His divine power has granted to us all things pertaining to life and godliness." In Colossians 2:10 we read, "In Him you have been made complete." In Titus 3:5, where the text speaks of the rebirth of the soul spirit, we read, "He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." Regeneration - "palingenesia" - it means "born again" in the original language, and regeneration is literally the instantaneous supernatural impartation of spiritual life to the spiritually dead. And beloved, there is nothing inadequate or insufficient in that regenerating process.

The scriptures tells us that that we are now born of God. In Ephesians 2:10 we're told that, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." And theologically we understand, as we look at Scripture, that the author of regeneration is God, the agent of regeneration is the Holy Spirit, and the instrument of regeneration is the Word of God. So for those believers who are being told, "You know, there's something missing in your spiritual life here," friends, the only thing that might be missing is a heart of faith and obedience. You need to understand that if you deny yourself, if you die to self, if you walk in the Spirit, if you grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ, if you live out a life of obedience by the power of the Spirit that lives within you, you're not going to feel as though something is missing. What will be missing is not the Holy Spirit, but humility and faith, self-denial, obedience, all of which are based upon sound doctrine, and as a result of that, because of your disobedience, you may have grieved the Spirit or quenched the Spirit, but there, what you need to do is not somehow be baptized, or or come up with some new special filling of the Spirit in the sense of some supernatural work that needs to occur within your heart and within your soul, but you need to repent and you get serious about your walk with Christ. Otherwise, you will remain just living out a life of religious hypocrisy with a thin veneer of spirituality filled with emotionalism and pride, and so on.

But notice something else here in the text, in verse three, "And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each of them." The word tongues in the original language is "glōssa" and it was the Greek word, the normal word that was used for "language"; something that is composed of different parts of speech, nouns and verbs and adverbs, and so on. You see, friends, this was the great effect of the Spirit's presence resting now upon them.

Verse four, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance." Now, please hear this: this was a miracle of God - a supernatural manifestation of divine power, a special revelation of the presence of the living God -unlike the so-called tongues of today that are not bona fide miracles.

Also, as a footnote, it's important for you to understand that this supernatural ability to speak in languages is not a result of the baptism, but rather a result of the filling of the Spirit; and it's also important for you to understand that Israel is being temporarily displaced, as we have studied before. Israel is now being temporarily displaced as the custodians of divine truth, the truth that they have rejected, and this is now being transferred to the Gentile church. God is setting aside Israel as his witness nation, and he is transferring that responsibility to the church. No longer will men approach God through the Levitical system of the old covenant, but now through the new and the living way of the new covenant, and all of that provided in Christ. And the miracle of tongues, therefore, functioned as a sign of this transition, as well as a sign of judgment on unbelieving Israel for the hardness of heart; a sign predicted hundreds of years before in Isaiah 28:11 where the prophet warned, “Indeed He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue." And Paul explains this in great detail in First Corinthians 14, especially verses 21 and 22.

But this also, tongues now, is a sign of blessing, because you see now the Samaritans and the Gentiles were equal with the believing Jews. Isn't that great? Because of this, we are all now able to experience the glories and the grace of God, and this is evidenced by other New Testament accounts of others besides believing Jews receiving the Spirit as well. For the Spirit of God to fall even upon non-Jewish believers was hard for the early Jewish believers to swallow. Remember, Peter had a dickens of a time with that whole deal, right? God had to work a work of grace in his heart before he would accept it. So therefore, what's happening here, my friends, is God dramatically demonstrates this truth at the very beginning. That's why it's a sign of blessing by having the Spirit of God fall upon not just believing Jews, but upon the Samaritans in Acts eight. He also fell upon Cornelius and his household, a Gentile in Acts 10, and even Ephesian Gentiles who had believed the message of John the Baptist. We read about that in Acts 19. For these reasons, my friends, such a dramatic experience should never be considered normative for the church today - the second blessing, evidenced by ecstatic gibberish, and so on. nd sadly I have read all of the major writers who hold to those beliefs, and I find that they, and I say this with love and with utmost humility, in my humble opinion, they have tortured the text beyond recognition, and in so doing they have violated all of the exegetical, contextual, and theological considerations that are necessary to understand what happened at Pentecost. And as a result of that, these teachings have brought chaos into the church. You see, the sign of tongues served its purpose for the judgment of Israel, as well as the establishment of the church, and it's no longer necessary.

Furthermore, the ability to speak in a language they had never known before was a miraculous gift from God, like other similar miracles, like signs and wonders that occurred in the early days of the church. Tongues passed from the scene, that's why they're no longer operative today; tongues, as we see it here in Acts two. In fact, it's mentioned only in First Corinthians, which was the earliest of the epistles, and never again in the later epistles. Even when spiritual gifts are discussed, they're never mentioned. They faded from the scene. Their purpose had been completed.

Now, indeed, many people down through history have spoken in tongues. The idea of ecstatic, meaningless emotional gibberish, and this was a practice that Paul thoroughly excoriated or condemned in First Corinthians 14, because it was wreaking havoc upon the church. There was chaos in the church, there was a lack of order, women were speaking, and that was clearly forbidden. There was no interpretation, there were spiritual pride, and on and on it goes. And certainly, even today, we see many people continuing to speak in tongues, but it's not in known languages as it was in the New Testament, but rather this ecstatic gibberish. You see this in in pagan religions, you can see this down through history. You can see it today in paid good religions, in certain cults. You can see it, for example, in the animistic religions like voodoo. And sadly, even in fringe groups of evangelical Christianity. And sadly as well, many times those groups also hold to other erroneous and heretical doctrines. Beloved, please hear this. It's so tragic, isn't it? That which God gave to unite his body, Satan has used to divide it. What a tragedy that is.

So we've seen the dramatic descent of the Spirit. Now let's notice the Spirit's miraculous message. Notice that these tongues now were actually languages. Look at verse five, "Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven." Again, go back to your background. Remember, it was the Feast of Weeks, it was Pentecost, and at Pentecost all of the Hebrew males were required to be in, guess where? Jerusalem...for the sacred festival, and they were there, as the text says here, "from every nation under heaven." The way you could translate that in our vernacular is they were from all over the place, as the text goes on to indicate.

In verse six it says that "...when the sound occurred," again, the sound of like a violent rushing wind, the multitude, "came together and were bewildered, because they were each one hearing them speak in his own language." Now, here the term is not glossia, as it was earlier translated, the word tongues, but it's a synonym of glossa, it's "dialektos." We get our word "dialect" from that. Again, nothing at all concerning some ecstatic, meaningless gibberish.

In verse seven, it goes on, and it says, "...and they were amazed and marveled, saying, 'Why, are not all, why are not all of these who are speaking Galileans?'" Now, again, you've got to understand the context. They thought in those days that if you were from Galilee, you were kind of a considered a rural, ignorant, uneducated redneck hayseed. That's the idea here. It's like, you know, this can't be true. I mean, these rednecks, if you want to put it in our vernacular, they're speaking in all these different languages, and according to verse 11, they're speaking "the mighty deeds of God." This is unbelievable.

Look at verse eight through 11, "'and how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians,'" he says, that would be modern Iran, "...and Medes," which would have been the ancient Persians and the day of Daniel that became part of the Parthian Empire, "...and Elamites" which would be southwest Iran, "and residents of Mesopotamia." Mesopotamia means "between the rivers," and so these would have been the people that lived between the Tigris and Euphrates River. They would all come to Jerusalem for the feast.

He goes on, "Judea," which would be southern Israel, "and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia," all were regions of Asia Minor. "Egypt, and the districts of Libya around Serene," which would have been west of Egypt on the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Not only that, there were, “visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans..."  who were those from the island of Crete, "...and Arabs," which would have been the region of southern Syria. Aand notice what he says, "...we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God."

Now, friends, please understand, to speak the mighty deeds of God was customary for the Jews, and it was very important for these unbelieving Jews to now recognize that these Jews that followed Jesus were also praising God. The mighty deeds of God is frankly even included in Jesus' model prayer that he gives us in Matthew six. Remember where we begin by extolling the glories of God, praising his name and his kingdom, and praying that his will would be done. And frequently we see the people of Israel in the Old Testament praising God by rehearsing his mighty works, especially after some great manifestation of his glory or his deliverance. Remember the glorious song of deliverance sung by Moses and all of the people after crossing the Red Sea, when they saw all of the Egyptian charioteers that were chasing them drowned in the waters. There in Exodus 15, and the great song of Moses, we read, beginning in verse one, "I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; the horse and its rider He is hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him." Then, in verse 11, "Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, awesome in praise, working wonders?" My friends, perhaps those early Christians in those many tongues were saying those very words. Perhaps they quoted Psalm 96 beginning in verse one, "Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name, proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, his wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods."

And you see their ability now to speak the mighty deeds of God in all of these languages became also a sign of authority, because now the unbelievers could hear this and recognize that what was going on was a work of God, which therefore validated both the message and the messenger, that was the purpose of the tongues in those days.

And I marvel at the scene, again, think with me, don't lose the context of all that's going on, the flow of all of this. Beloved in the miracle of divine providence, though they did not realize it, God comes along and gathers all of the devout men of Israel, most of whom were apostate; men that were scattered all over the early world, and he brings them all to Jerusalem - to Mount Zion, to the future city where the Messiah will reign. And then secondly, he gets their undivided attention with the sound of this violent rushing wind that came from heaven. And then he immerses these precious Jewish believers in the upper room into this glorious organism, the body of Christ, He baptizes them into the church, the "ecclesia," meaning "the called out ones." And then finally the Spirit of God fills them with a permanent indwelling and in order to give the people a sign, he causes them to speak of the mighty deeds of God in a multitude of languages that heretofore they had never known. What an amazing miracle to speak to these unbelieving Jews, who were there from every nation under heaven.

You see, friends, again those early tongues were a sign of the transition, as well as of judgment; and obviously caused them to ask the right question. In verse 12 it says, "and they continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, 'What does this mean'" In other words, they're saying, and rightfully so, "God is up to something here." And, of course, the Lord caused them to have that spiritual hunger, and he was getting ready to feed them in Peter's sermon that will follow. Yes, God was up to something, and the answer was simply this: you unbelieving Jews, you need to understand that God's prophetic word is being fulfilled. These tongues are a sign of judgment upon you, that judgment that was prophesied by Isaiah hundreds of years before, when he warned in Isaiah 28:11, “Indeed He will speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue." You must understand that because you refused to believe the truth and crucified your Messiah, Israel is now being temporarily displaced as the custodians of divine truth, and that role is now being transferred to the Gentile church, that will also include Samaritans, and it will also include believing Jews. God is temporarily setting you aside as his witness nation. He's transferring that responsibility to the church. Yes, God is up to something. No longer can man approach God through the Levitical system of the old covenant, but now through Christ, through the new and living way, man can approach God in this new covenant. Yes, God is up to something. The miracle of tongues is the sign of this transition. It is the sign of blessing as well, because now God's saving grace has been expanded beyond even the Jews, but to the Gentiles; and the glorious gospel of Christ will be preached to the Gentiles, even your hated friends that live so close to you. And I use "friends" loosely - the Samaritans - the ones that they hated worse than dogs.

Yes, God is up to something. Jesus Christ satisfied the justice of God on the cross, and now his grace is made available to all who will believe in him as Savior and Lord. Again, dear friends, please understand there is nothing about the purpose or the phenomena of these events that have any relevance in the church today. You've got to see that the purposes of the signs of the tongues has long been fulfilled and also remember the baptism of the Spirit was not something they prayed for. It was a divine act. It was given to them, it was the result of the Spirit's filling, not the baptism that resulted in the tongues, which were known languages, not some ecstatic gibberish. And those tongues were not for the edification of believers. There's nothing edifying about the emotional gibberish that we hear today. Those early tongues were meant to unite, not to divide.

They were a sign of judgment, a sign of the temporary displacement of Israel, signaling God's change in this program - the transitioning of Israel from being God's witness people to the church - a sign of now them having the authority, the church that is the authority to speak divine truth, a sign of great blessing, because now there would be unity. So sad.

I close with these thoughts. I've been around churches and talked with probably into the hundreds of people who have come out of some of these movements. I know there are a number of you that have. Churches that advertise, "Do you speak in tongues, and if not, would you like to learn how?" I hope you understand after today that just that's a non sequitur, that just doesn't fit at all with scripture. And then I've been around it, where they will try to teach you various syllables, and it starts to sound kind of spiritual, even though it makes no sense whatsoever. It's absolutely meaningless. And others will say, well, you don't need to be taught, you need to just kind of let go, kind of let God, and people will tell stories, and I've heard so many of them, how that suddenly, because of the power of peer pressure, you know, the music is going on, and everybody's around them, and all this emotion, and tears, and everybody's saying, "Man, you just got to get the second blessing now. You just need the second, but just go ahead and let yourself go, let yourself start making noise, and it's going to be from God." And then people begin to say a few things, and all of a sudden, they get all this praise, and the emotion gets to a fever pitch. Friends, you must understand that our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. We are sheep, and if we're not careful, we will allow ourselves to get sucked into all manner of things. Nowhere in scripture do we see anything close to this.

Beloved, this early gift was exactly that. It was a gift. It was a bona fide miracle; unlike anything we see today. There's no learning, there's no practicing, there's no just let yourself go and it will happen, but rather the text said they spoke "as the Spirit was giving them utterance." Oh dear Christian friend, don't be deceived, don't lose sight of the staggering implications of what happened on the day of Pentecost. What an incredible transition, and what a mighty, sovereign, holy, merciful, loving God we serve. No doubt some believed on that day, but sadly, verse 13 says, "Others were mocking and saying they are full of sweet wine." Like many that hear the truth today they just turn away from it, and they turn aside to myths, and no evidence to the contrary can convince them, only the regenerating power of the Spirit of God. So may we all rejoice, beloved, in the gift of faith, the gift of the indwelling Spirit of God, who empowers us completely at the moment of salvation, that we might bear much spiritual fruit for the glory of God. Let's pray together.

Father, may you cause these incredible truths to resonate within our hearts. May you protect us from deceit, and may you give us just a profound sense of your presence, even as we think upon all that you have done in the past, and what you're doing in the present, and what you're going to do in the future. I ask in Jesus' precious name, and for His sake, Amen.