The sermon 'Coming of the Holy Spirit' by Jason Dohm focuses on the events of Pentecost as described in Acts 2, highlighting the fulfillment of Jesus' promise to send the Holy Spirit. Dohm explains how the day of Pentecost was significant as it coincided with a Jewish feast, bringing many devout Jews to Jerusalem, setting the stage for the miraculous events that followed. The Holy Spirit manifested as a violent rushing wind and tongues of fire, filling the disciples and enabling them to speak in various languages, understood by people from every nation present. This miraculous event signified the empowerment of the disciples for the mission of spreading the gospel. Dohm emphasizes the unity among the disciples, their devotion to prayer, and how the Holy Spirit's coming marked the beginning of the New Testament church. The sermon relates the events to the broader narrative of God's plan to extend the gospel to all nations, using seemingly unqualified 'Galileans' to achieve His purposes. Furthermore, it reflects on the dual role of the Holy Spirit in permanently indwelling believers and providing special moments of empowerment for witnessing. The sermon concludes with an encouragement to embrace the gospel's call to all nations and the assurance of the Holy Spirit's presence and power in believers' lives.

Acts 2. 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 crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, Why, are not all these who are 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 all 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. But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them, Men of Judea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel.

And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth my spirit on all mankind, 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 bond slaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor and smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Men of Israel listen to these words. Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know this man delivered over By the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says of him, I saw the Lord always in my presence, for He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted.

Moreover my flesh also will live in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will make me full of gladness with your presence. Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the Patriarch David that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, Because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to seat one of his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was neither abandoned to Hades nor did his flesh suffer decay.

This Jesus God raised up again, to which we all are witnesses. Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now when they heard this they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?

Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." And with many other words, He solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, Be saved from this perverse generation. So then, those who had received His Word were baptized, and that day there were added about 3, 000 souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles' teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.

And all those who had believed were together, and had all things in common, and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." So today we enter Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 13 and it's Pentecost. It's the day where the Holy Spirit that's been so clearly and so repeatedly promised by Jesus during his ministry comes to kick off the New Testament church. Let's just take a second and review what we've already seen in Acts in chapter 1.

Luke at the beginning of chapter 1 we saw in his prologue he weaves together this new work which he's written also to Theophilus with the Gospel that he had written. And we just saw there's just tremendous overlap and consistency between what we saw at the very end of Luke and what we see at the beginning of Acts. And He gives us an account of the period between the resurrection and the ascension and he describes this 40 days where Jesus is appearing many times to many people and we saw outside of Acts that the total of people who Jesus actually appeared to between the period of, between the resurrection and the ascension was over 500 people. And then Jesus, right before the ascension, promises that the Holy Spirit is going to be sent not many days from them and he commands his disciples to remain in Jerusalem till it happens and he promises that it's going to happen right away and then there's a period of 10 days of great unity and devotion to prayer where the disciples are waiting but they're not waiting passively they are it with one mind they're with one accord and they're devoting themselves to prayer expecting that the Holy Spirit is going to be sent just as Jesus has promised.

And then at the very end of chapter 1, we see Peter and the apostles leading this effort to find a replacement for Judas, saying that we must have someone to replace him so they can be a witness to the resurrection with us. And of course he is the 12th Apostle or he isn't or he might be or I don't know Dan could you come back up and clarify that for us? But whether he was or he wasn't, the apostles select him to be a witness with them, to stand beside them, to testify that Jesus Christ really was resurrected. So straight to the text. Verse 1.

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. So we see that the day is here, the day has arrived where the Holy Spirit is going to be sent by the Father to dwell with us forever. And God didn't select a day randomly. He selected a day that was already special to the Jewish nation. He selected Pentecost.

And so Dan did a great job last week of setting the table for us and laying out what the three Jewish feasts were. But we're gonna, just because I'm pretty unfamiliar with that territory, I suspect maybe some of you are as well. We're just gonna have a quick review session on what those were. And the passage that gives us a comprehensive view of that, at least in summary, is Exodus 23 verses 14 through 17. Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to me.

You shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you were to eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib. For in it you came out of Egypt, and none shall appear before me empty-handed. Also, you shall observe the feast of the harvest of the first fruits of your labors from what you sow in the field. Also, the feast of ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in the fruit of your labors from the field.

Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord God." And so what Israel has done with these commands is they celebrate them typically for all who can, coming together to Jerusalem to celebrate these three feasts three times a year. The first being the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is the Passover feast to commemorate God miraculously bringing the people out of Egypt. Then 50 days later there's the feast of the harvest. It's a feast of first fruits and it's also called the feast of weeks. And then lastly there's the feast of the end gathering or the Feast of Tabernacles.

And Leviticus 23, 16 sets this. I don't have it on the screen, but you can just listen. You shall count 50 days to the Lord after the seventh Sabbath Then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord and this just spells out the timing between the Passover feast or the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of the harvest, which is Pentecost. And it's seven weeks in between and then plus one day. So it's seven times seven, 49 plus one day.

It's a 50-day span. And that's why it's called Pentecost, because Pentecost just means 50th. So why Pentecost? Why did God choose this day? There's obviously a reason because it's a day that already has significance and so we can assume safely that God is teaching us something by making this, by adding to the significance of this day, to choose it to send the Holy Spirit.

Well, John Calvin and Matthew Henry both comment on the effect of having the birth of the church happening in such a miraculous way, right before the eyes of the people who have gathered together, all the God-fearing people who are committed to celebrating these feasts together in Jerusalem before God, according to the commandment of God, have gathered together and now God is going to do this thing in the sight of everyone. Here's what Matthew Henry says, The Holy Ghost came down at the time of a solemn feast, because there was then a great concourse of people to Jerusalem from all parts of the country, and the proselytes from other countries, which would make it the more public and the fame of it to be spread the sooner and further which would contribute much to the propagating of the gospel into all nations." Remember, up until now there's been an isolation of the gospel message to the people of Israel, But now this is the line of demarcation where the Gentiles are being gathered into the gospel message. And so as these people come in from all the surrounding countries around Israel to celebrate this feast of weeks, the Pentecost feast.

God is going to do this as a way to begin to take the message of the gospel to the surrounding nations. After all, this is the feast of harvest. And as we see later in the chapter, Peter gets done preaching. People are cut to the heart and they say, what must we do? Peter calls them to repent and that day 3, 000 are added to the church.

There is going to be a big harvest here. And so the harvest feast is a very appropriate time for God to do this work. When Jesus is calling the disciples, He says what? He says, Leave those nets, come follow me, and I'll make you fishers of men. Right?

And in many ways this is parallel. There's the feast of Pentecost, it's first fruits, it's about harvest and wheat, and God says, forget about the wheat. It's not about fish. Don't worry about the fish. I'm going to make you fishers of man.

It's not about the wheat or the first fruit of plants so that you can eat. I'm going to...there is going to be a harvest here, but it's going to be much more significant than just harvesting your food. There's going to be a harvest of souls for my kingdom. Think about what a nightmare the Jewish leaders have on their hands here. They crucified Jesus to stamp out this little insurrection that Jesus is leading, so that this clamor will be stomped out.

And then you remember the road to Emmaus, these two men are walking, and Jesus comes and walks beside them unrecognized. And he's playing dumb, and he's just asking them some questions. And they say, can you be the only person in all of Jerusalem who doesn't know these things that have happened? Now remember, they crucified him to shut him up and to shut down this growing thing that's been happening. And now everybody in Jerusalem hears about it.

He's resurrected. He appears to over 500 people and The Jewish leaders have to be thinking, how could this possibly get worse? And in answer to that question, here comes Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is about to be given to the church. Verse 1 tells us the who of Pentecost.

They were all together in one place, and it points back to chapter 1 verse 15, where it's been identified that about 120 people had been meeting together, including Jesus' mother, including a number of different women, including all the apostles. And these are the people who are together in one place at the beginning of Acts 2. They were all together physically, But there was something much more significant happening here than just all being together in one location. The New King James says, they were all with one accord in one place. They were all with one accord in one place, which matches what we saw in chapter 1 verse 14, when it talks about them meeting together and being all of one mind.

There's tremendous unity that the Spirit has given them. They're all together with one mind and one purpose. Psalm 133 says this. This is actually all of Psalm 133. If You need to memorize a chapter of the Bible.

This is a good one. Psalm 133. Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes. It is like dew, it is like the dew of Hermon coming down upon the mountains of Zion.

For there the Lord commanded the blessing, life forevermore." Now I don't put these verses up there to say that somehow the unity that the disciples, the apostles and the people who were also there, that the unity somehow magically brought upon the day of Pentecost. That's not the point at all. But we do see the pattern that God joins together unity of the brethren and commanding His blessing. And this is exactly what we see in Acts 1 and 2. The people are all together, they're together geographically and physically, they are together in one place, but it goes way beyond that.

They're of one accord and they're of one mind and God sends His blessing on that. Verse 1 also tells us the where, or sort of. Sort of. It says that they were in one place. And the text doesn't give the exact location.

It could be this upper room. It could be the temple. It could be somewhere else altogether. We know it's in Jerusalem. That's as much as we can say definitively.

Verse 2 calls it a house, which is kind of problematic, because if we read to the end, Peter's just preached, and only the people who have received it are 3, 000 people. And I don't know of a bonus room like that. I have a bonus room, and it doesn't fit 3, 000. So exactly where it happens is unclear, but we do see, I think we get some hints from the last verses of Luke. Luke is closing out his gospel and he says this, and he led them out as far as Bethany and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

While he was blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. This is the ascension. And they, after worshiping him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising God." So I think there's a decent probability that Pentecost actually happens in the temple. Acts 5-12 talks about Solomon's portico, which is a designated area of the temple for the Gentiles. And Solomon's portico is also referenced in chapter 3 verse 11.

I'll say this about that. It's not that important exactly where it happened. If it was, Luke would have put it in the scriptures. The where isn't nearly as important as the who and the what of Pentecost, which we learn in the following verses. Verse 2 and 3.

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." The Expositors Bible commentary says this, I thought it was really interesting. Wind, as a sign of God's Spirit, is rooted linguistically. It has its root right in the words, in the fact that both the Hebrew word ruwa and the Greek word nouma mean either wind or spirit depending on the context. And this connection between wind and the Holy Spirit also has a basis in the teachings of Jesus. In John 3 verse 8, Jesus says, and He's talking about the Holy Spirit, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it.

But do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. So the sound of the event is like wind and it's not a gentle breeze. It's called violent and rushing and mighty. But the visible representation is like a fire.

It's like a tongue of fire that rested on each one of them. Fire has throughout the Bible comprehensively represented the divine presence. It did at the burning bush, you remember Moses comes aside to see what's happening because this bush is on fire but it won't be consumed. It was the presence of God. It was representing the presence of God.

That's Exodus 3. It was the presence of God as the pillar of fire by night in the wilderness, as the people know where to go because they're following the presence of God, the pillar of fire by night in Exodus 13. It's the presence of fire in the consuming fire on Mount Sinai as the law is given in Exodus 24, represents the presence of God. And it is the presence of God as the fire that hovered over the wilderness tabernacle in Exodus 40. They know that the presence of God is there because they see the fire.

And these would undoubtedly have been references really well familiar to the people who had gathered there. This is what John the Baptist prophesied just before the baptism of Jesus in Matthew 3. We looked at this a couple of weeks ago, but it's important that we reference it again here. As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Fire represents the presence of God, but there's also a purifying, cleansing sense that the Holy Spirit brings. Here's what Matthew Henry says, the spirit like fire melts the heart, separates and burns up the dross and kindles pious and devout affections in the soul in which as in the fire upon the altar the spiritual sacrifices are offered up. This is that fire which Christ came to send upon the earth. The Holy Spirit is a cleansing, purifying fire. And boy do we ever see this in the day of Pentecost where fire comes and there's cleansing and purification and also an empowering of the early church.

Jesus' baptism is actually a very interesting case study to put side by side with the day of Pentecost because it models, It's a model for what's going to happen at Pentecost. Just a couple of verses later from what we just looked at in Matthew 3, you see this. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him and behold a voice out of the heavens said, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." You see the parallel here between Jesus' baptism in the day of Pentecost. Jesus' baptism, there's a visible sign of the Holy Spirit coming and resting on him. This is exactly what we see in the day of Pentecost.

And then once this has happened we see a public ministry absolutely go into hyperspace. It was true of Jesus, these are verses in Matthew 3, immediately at the end of Matthew 3 He's sent into the wilderness to be tempted, and then in four, he's calling disciples and his public ministry is off to the races. That's what happened when the Holy Spirit lighted on Jesus at his baptism, and this is what happens in the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit comes with power, it rests on each one of them, and then the public ministry of the New Testament church absolutely goes into hyperspace. Luke is teaching us that the mission of Jesus' church, just like His earthly and His public ministry, depends on the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus' ministry, His public ministry, depended on the coming of the Holy Spirit to empower him to do his public ministry. And he was showing us that the day of Pentecost is coming, and the Holy Spirit will come, just as I promised. And it's going to empower the church to be a witness for me to the remotest parts of the earth. This should be no surprise to us. The Genesis of the New Testament church is the continuation of Jesus's ministry.

He might have left in body, but he's still the head of his church And he's directing his church forward into history. And just as his ministry was powered and directed by the Holy Spirit, so his continuing ministry after the Ascension through his church is to be empowered and directed by the Holy Spirit. Verse 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. You see the word all here.

All were filled with the Holy Spirit. All began to speak with other tongues. And it's very consistent with what we saw in verse 3, where the tongues of fire rested on each one of them, the text says. It rested on each one of them. And so this isn't some special dispensation for apostles in that time.

It wasn't just some special dispensation for these 11 or 12 men. It was for these 120 people that were there. John 14 talks about, is a place where Jesus talks about this coming time where he would send the Holy Spirit to indwell His followers. And it's John 14. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.

That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. This is Jesus talking about the time where the Holy Spirit will indwell believers. And at the time of Pentecost, the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the believer becomes much more intimate and personal. And It's in fulfillment to this promise of Jesus.

Peter, later on in chapter 2, I'm going to steal a little bit of the thunder from next week. Peter makes it so clear and so evident that this is a promise for everyone that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will be for all believers. Acts 2 verses 33 and then continuing in 38 and 39. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this which you both see and hear. Picking up in verse 38, Peter said to them, Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. Church This is a promise for us. It was a promise for all the believers then that those who would Trust and put their faith in Christ would have a helper who would come and indwell them forever Do you need a helper Do you need a teacher? Do you need a comforter or one who will come and give you power to be a witness? Well, this is our promise.

This is the promise that we can cling to. How about your children? Are you concerned that the Gospel will go forward into the next generation? Do you think they need a teacher, a helper, a comforter, someone who will empower them for that work? Yes.

And this is our confidence, the words of Peter, that the promise is for you and for your children, for all who the Lord will call to Himself. There are two, we have to be careful because there are two senses in play here at Pentecost. There are two things in play. There is this indwelling that I've been speaking of, which is permanent, which is abiding in the believer. And then there are special instances of the filling, there are special instances of filling where the Holy Spirit is manifested in an unusual demonstration of power.

Got that? There's two instances and we see them married up at the day of Pentecost. There's the sense where there's indwelling, where those who trust in Christ are indwelt forever by the Holy Spirit. And that's how the promise can be made true when Jesus Christ says that I will never, never, never, never, never leave you or forsake you. He ascends into heaven, why hasn't he left us and forsaken us?

No, he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, to indwell us. And it's not something that comes or goes depending on what kind of a day we're having. It's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's His promise never to leave us or forsake us. But also at Pentecost we see this special filling of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit comes with a very particular and unique demonstration of power and it's for the witness of the gospel.

We see both of these things here we continue to see it again in the book of Acts and Peter excuse me we do see it with Peter actually a couple of chapters later in Acts 4 we're going to see Peter called before the high priest, and it says, then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Does it mean that Peter wasn't indwelt with the Holy Spirit between Acts 2 and Acts 4? Of course not. The Holy Spirit has come and indwelled him and it's it's taken up permanent residence. But we see that in Acts 4 in this time of need where he's called before the leaders he's given special power.

He's given a special filling of the Holy Spirit. We see it again with Stephen, actually. This one's a great example. In Acts 6 and 7, we're going to study this in detail, so I won't drill down into the details. But When Stephen is selected as one of the first, as one of the seven, as the first group of deacons, it's said that he was a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

It's not connected in any way to any special outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it says that he was full of the Holy Spirit. He was indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And then as he's being stoned, the text says, But being full of the Holy Spirit, here's this special filling of the Holy Spirit. He looks up and he sees heaven opened up and Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God. We see those things side by side in Acts 6 and 7.

Pentecost was both. It was the promised, indwelling Holy Spirit being sent to all believers. And it was a gathering of believers being filled with power to accomplish a specific purpose for His glory. See these two things working hand in hand on the day of Pentecost. Verse 5, and 6, and 7.

Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished saying, why are not all these who are speaking Galileans? Devout men hear this violent rushing wind and that's how we know how violent and mighty the sound of this wind is is that it draws a crowd and what a crowd it draws even those who believe Peter's sermon later in the chapter will be numbered 3, 000. So the text doesn't say how many are there, but you could believe he didn't hit, he wasn't a hundred percent hit rate, or at least there's no indication of that there.

Peter wishes he could preach like that, or he could hit a hundred percent, but probably there were many more. And so they hear the violent rushing wind and there's a gathering, a gathering of curiosity, And they're puzzled because they show up and they hear these hick Galileans speaking their own language as if they had been born in their native country. Here's what Matthew Henry says, They observe that the speakers are all Galileans that know no other than their mother tongue. They are despicable men from whom Nothing learned nor polite is to be expected. God chose the weak and foolish things of the world to confound the wise and mighty.

Christ was thought to be a Galilean, and His disciples really were so unlearned and ignorant men." The passage that Matthew Henry references there comes from 1 Corinthians 1. For consider your calling, brethren. This is God's word to us. On the day of Pentecost, this is one of the key things God is teaching us. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world, and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not so that he may nullify the things that are so that no man may boast before God." This is the way of God.

Not that he would pluck out the most educated, learned, sophisticated men of the time to send forth the Gospel, but that He would take faithful people who would be of one accord, they would devote themselves to prayer. They might not be the most sophisticated. They might not know all the languages of the nations around them, but He would put His Holy Spirit in them. And they would become a witness to the ends of the earth. This is the way of God.

And we can take great comfort from that. We can draw great confidence from that. That God can use Galileans to do mighty things for the glory of his own name. Verses 8 through 11. Their perplexity continues.

And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites in residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Panthelia, Egypt in the districts of Libya and 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. These were people from all over the known world, from all sides of Israel. The north, the south, the east, and the west were represented here.

Some of them were undoubtedly residents of Jerusalem. Some of them undoubtedly had come to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, the feast of weeks. And that the Holy Spirit would manifest Himself in this way, tells us some very significant things about what we're going to see played out through the subsequent chapters and Acts, about the going forth of the Gospel into all the world. Matthew Henry said this, you're going to think I only read Matthew Henry, it's not true. I read a lot of different commentaries.

He was just the most quotable. Matthew Henry said this, and this is beautiful. This is one I never would have even touched upon if Matthew Henry hadn't said it. The dividing of tongues at Babel was the casting off of the heathen. For when they had lost the language in which God alone was spoken of and preached, they utterly lost the knowledge of God and religion and fell into idolatry.

But now, after above 2, 000 years, God, by another dividing of tongues, restores the knowledge of Himself to the nations. Do you see that? At Babel, there's this rebellion against God where they think they could do anything on their own power. They don't need God. And God confounds them by dividing their tongues.

And the knowledge of God is lost in many, many nations. But Now, as God is desiring to create a people from all those different nations, He manifests Himself in this way at the day of Pentecost, so that you could hear the Gospel in your own language. You could hear the mighty deeds of God in the language that you grew up speaking when you were on your dad's knee. Would they have been understood if they had spoken in Greek or in Aramaic on the day of Pentecost. For that audience, they were in Jerusalem probably.

Probably they would have been understood if the Holy Spirit had manifested Himself in a different way. Would that have set a different tone for the church and what was getting ready to happen for the Gospel? Absolutely. God is saying, God is saying, I am the God of every nation, every tongue, every tribe, and my mighty works must be known to the ends of the earth." It says that the content of what people were hearing was the mighty deeds of God. The King James Version says, the wonderful works of God.

These were the things that were being said. My favorite was the Holman Christian Standard. The Holman Christian Standard says, the magnificent acts of God. This crowd assembles because of this violent rushing wind, and what is the next thing to come into their ears in their home language they're hearing about the magnificent acts of God in Acts 10 is a good parallel passage here. And we see this connection again between speaking in tongues and the exaltation of the mighty acts of God.

Here it is. We're skipping John Calvin. Stay on track time wise. Acts 10. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message.

All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting in God." Do you see that in Acts 2? They're speaking in other languages but the content is what? The magnificent acts of God. And we see it again in Acts 10. The Holy Spirit comes upon these people, they're speaking in tongues, and what is the content?

It's the exaltation of God. This is a pattern for us, and it shows us that genuine manifestations of the Holy Spirit exalts God. It's about God and His mighty acts. It's not about us, or about our feelings, or about what might happen next week or next month, although some of those things might be in the content. But when the Holy Spirit manifests Himself, It's about God and His mighty acts.

Now, we can trust the apostles with something like this, with a special filling of the Holy Spirit, where there's this miraculous outpouring. But what about everyone else? I'm not willing to give the same amount of leash to everyone else that I would give to the apostles because they lived and breathed and walked and slept and ate and sat under the teaching of Jesus Christ for three years. What about other people who say they're filled with the Holy Spirit in this way? Well, some of them are undoubtedly genuine and some of them are undoubtedly wacko, self-seeking nutcases and we have to have a way to be able to separate the two.

And what is that? Well, I don't have the comprehensive answer, but I know one thing that we learn on the day of Pentecost is that one of the litmus tests is that An exaltation of God, a God-centeredness is about this. We get this instruction in 1 John, where John writes, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God, And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you heard that it is coming, and now it is all ready to be born. Because they do, even upon set purposes harden themselves in their ignorance and things most plain and Truly it hath been always so in the world for very few have been touched with the true feeling of God as often as he hath revealed himself." So far I've been feeling pretty good about this mocking thing. That's not me, that's the other guy until we hit the end of this Calvin quote. And I'm cut to my heart. He says, let's read that last sentence again after the dot dot dot.

And truly it had been always so in the world for very few have been touched with the true feeling of God as often as he hath revealed himself. God is revealing himself. He's revealing himself in creation. He's revealing himself by stirring you up in your heart. And how few times have we seen him revealing himself?

But we've turned into mockers and explained away the things that God is doing to show Himself to us. Conclusions. God is faithful to his promises. God is unswervingly faithful to his promises. Every time, every one.

Sometimes he might be slow, as you consider slow to be. But he's always faithful to his promises. He promised that he would never, never, never, never, never forsake us. He ascends, but He promises that He'll send the Holy Spirit. And here in chapter 2, on the day of Pentecost, He does.

He sends the indwelling Holy Spirit so that we would never be left. We'd never be forsaken. Praise the Lord. Our God is always faithful to His promises. Acts chapter 2, another promise kept.

Another promise kept to His people. Number 2, God is calling His people to be of one accord. To be of one mind. No this unity didn't bring on the day of Pentecost, but God has promised when we dwell together in unity, there He will command His blessing, life evermore. We should take that up in our minds.

We should take that up on our lips. This is a promise of God for Hope Baptist Church that as we have one mind, as we're in one accord, that God will command his blessing on us we will be filled with the Holy Spirit not not just just indwelt just as if that were inadequate but will be indwelt with the Holy Spirit but will also be filled with the Holy Spirit. God will command His blessing upon us as we dwell together in one accord as the disciples and the people around them did. As we have one mind in the Spirit. Number three.

Rejoice in being a Hick Galilean. Rejoice in being a Galilean. And stop thinking that that takes you off the hook. Stop thinking that not having a seminary degree means you don't have to teach theology in your home. That's a wicked thought.

You need to renounce that thought right now. Your lack of formal training puts you in the same boat with these hick Galilean apostles and their friends around them who were untrained and unlearned, but who had hearts towards God, who devoted themselves to prayer, and who were used by God in a mighty way. May it be so among us. May God, though we are not formally trained, many of us, find us to be faithful people who would devote ourselves in prayer, and humble ourselves just enough that we could get out of our own way so that God might use us in a mighty way to bring glory to Himself and to send the gospel to the ends of the earth. And lastly, the gospel is for every tribe, tongue, and nation.

If we take nothing else from the day of Pentecost, we should take God's kindness in allowing these people who came together just to hear what all the wind was about, to hear about his mighty acts in their own native tongue. What a kindness that is. God doesn't expect the nations of the world to come to Jerusalem. He's going to send his people out. They're going to learn all the different languages so that people can know his mighty acts, his power to save, his great sacrifice through Christ.

One passage that I want to commend to you in closing, which was just too long. I just couldn't touch on it, but really pertains to this. Fathers, take your families home and open up to Ezekiel 37. Actually start at the end of 36, or the halfway point of 36, and read through 37. It tells us a lot about the grace of God and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

And there's this wonderful story where God gives Ezekiel this vision where he's looking out over a valley of dry bones. And God says, Ezekiel, prophesied of those bones to rise up. Ezekiel says, okay, bones rise up and God breathes life into them. And there's this beautiful picture of the power of the Holy Spirit and the working of the Gospel to take bones, hopeless bones, and breathe life and put the flesh back on them. This is our message for a dying world.

We look out over this valley of bones. There's no flesh. It looks like there's no hope. But God wants to command His people to prophesy. Bones, rise up.

Be alive. Let the breath of God come upon you so that you might be saved through the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for the gospel. Thank you for saying the gospel to us over and over and over and over and over again to us, starting in Genesis and going through Revelation.

We must be very hard of heart for you to have to say it so many times, but there is a great beauty in hearing it again and again. We thank you for your word. We thank you for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which was poured out for us so that we might be reconciled to you. Though we were far from you, though we were hard-hearted, You called us and you made us your own because of your good pleasure. And we give you praise for it.

In Jesus' name, Amen.