Characteristics of the true church, Acts 2:41-47

There is much misinformation in Christian circles today as to the nature and purpose of the church.  Many books and articles have been written on the subject of church growth.  Many different strategies have been proposed for the building up of the church.  And as a result I think that in the last generation the church has changed more than at any other time in history.  However, I’m afraid that it has not always been for the better. I’m sure that many of the great ecclesiastical leaders of history would not approve or even recognize what is happening in many churches today.  In fact, I think that when we lose sight of God’s blueprint for the church and try to figure out according to our own wisdom how we might improve upon His plan, we often do great harm to the church and to the name of Christ.

Our passage today sets forth the first example of the church that we find in the New Testament.  We have spent the last couple of weeks or so describing how the Holy Spirit coronated this church with a great display of His power in order to validate and authenticate it as being from God.  Peter said in his message that it was obviously a mighty work of the Holy Spirit which had come from God to establish His spiritual kingdom on earth in the last days.  And so as this church is set forth in scripture as the premiere illustration of God’s church on earth, it would behoove us to faithfully follow it’s pattern in our practice as well. Because I believe that this scripture definitely reveals that this is God’s church.  And since God is the designer, then we should seek to follow the pattern of His design as we see it laid out for us here in this passage.

Now there are a five fundamental marks of a true church as set forth in this passage that I would like to point out for our instruction here today.  It is not a comprehensive list, perhaps, but it is an essential list.  There are things that can be added, but we cannot take any of these away and still have a faithful and true church according to the pattern set before us.

Let’s consider then these five fundamental characteristics of the church.  Number one is almost too obvious to mention, but unfortunately it’s importance is often overlooked.  It is essential that the church is saved.  I think that principle’s importance is reflected in the fact that under divine inspiration Luke bookends the passage with a reference to the fact that the church was saved.  The first reference is in vs. 40 “And with many other words [Peter] 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 three thousand souls.”  And then at the close of the passage is the other bookend: vs. 47, “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.” 

The church is the congregation of the saved.  “Ekklesia” is the Greek word from which the word church is translated, and it means the called out ones.  Called out to an assembly, a congregation.  And I think it’s important to understand that church membership is only possible when the Lord adds them to the church that are saved. (vs.47)  It isn’t something conferred by vote, or applied to, or that baptism procures.  It is something you are born into, and you must be born again by the Holy Spirit.  The word saved indicates that you are delivered from something.  We are saved from wrath, from the judgment to come against sin, and from the wages of sin which is death.  That’s what it means to be saved.  To be changed from death to life, from darkness to light, from sons of the devil to sons of God.  It is a supernatural conversion that is accomplished by repentance from your sins and faith in the work of Jesus Christ, resulting in new life and indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

So the church is made up of called out, saved, converted men and women.  That is fundamental to understanding then the purpose of the church,  especially today when we are witnessing a church movement that is deliberately trying to appeal to what they call the “unchurched.”  Basically what that means is that they are trying to redesign church to accommodate the unsaved.  But that is not what the church is designed by God to be.  The church is designed as the body of Christ.  And as Paul said what communion can light have with darkness?  When we understand that the church is the calling out to assembly of those that are saved, and that Christ has placed them into His body, then it should change our perception of what the church is supposed to be.  It doesn’t need, nor should it desire to become relevant or acceptable or attractive to the world.  It needs to be attractive to Christ.  It needs to be acceptable to God, holy and blameless as the virgin bride of Christ.

So that’s of first priority in the church; it is the body of the redeemed.  Secondly, the church’s next essential characteristic is that they are devoting themselves to the word.  Vs. 42, “They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching…”  Some versions may say the apostle’s doctrine.  They both mean the same thing.  What is the apostle’s doctrine?  It is simply the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Peter’s message is a great example of it.  He starts with scripture and explains the gospel of salvation based on the Old Testament text in Joel.  Then he expounds upon that doctrine with other supportive biblical texts.  It’s expositional teaching.  It’s exhortation.  It’s admonition.  Paul broke it down for us in 2Tim. 4:2 “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.” 

The apostle’s doctrine is simply this;  the congregation of the saved is strengthened, exhorted, equipped, taught and led by the teaching and preaching of the word of God through the ministers of God.  Nothing less will do. John Calvin said, “Those who think that the authority of the doctrine is impaired by the insignificance of the men who are called to teach, betray their ingratitude; for among the many noble endowments with which God has adorned the human race, one of the most remarkable is, that he deigns to consecrate the mouths and tongues of men to his service, making his own voice to be heard in them.”

In the great commission that was given to the apostles, the Lord told them to “go and make disciples of all nations, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.”  Sound doctrine is the heart of the life of the church. Not ritualistically observing the sacraments, not children’s programs, not music, not so called modern worship. If the church is not teaching the doctrines of the word, then they are failing in their primary responsibility.  And a Christian should not stay in a church that doesn’t make that a priority.  The church is not designed to be a Christian country club.  But it’s designed to teach the truth and apply it to our lives so that we might be obedient to what Christ has commanded us to do. 

Thirdly, the church is not only to be devoted to the apostle’s doctrine, but to fellowship. (vs.42)  We are the Beach Fellowship.  Sometimes I’ve had someone say, “why don’t you add the word church to your name?” Well, my answer is that would be somewhat redundant.  Fellowship is church.  Now to be accurate, they are two different words.  But you cannot have one without another.  The Greek word for fellowship is “koinōnia”, which means fellowship, communion, participation and intimacy.  It is really a unique word as used in the New Testament.  It sometimes is used to describe fellowship, other times it is used to describe sharing as in taking up an offering, other times it is used to talk about participating in the Lord’s Supper, that is why we refer to the Lord’s Supper as Communion.

Paul said that of first importance we are called into fellowship with the triune God. 1Cor. 1:9 “God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  And 2Cor. 13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.” As the church, as the body of Christ, we have fellowship with Christ who is the Head of the church, with the Holy Spirit who is the life of the church, and with God who is the creator of the church.

And then fellowship is communion of the Lord’s Supper, which is a picture of the fellowship we have with one another in the body of Christ. Paul said in 1Cor. 10:16  “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” We become one with Christ and one with the body of Christ, each other, symbolized in the eating of the bread and drinking of the cup.

And last but not least, fellowship is participation in the unity of the apostle’s doctrine. 1John 1:6-7 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

So fellowship then is not determined by finding a congregation that is similar to our economic standing.  It is not finding a church where there are a lot of young people because we happen to be young, or finding a church with a lot of older people because we are older people.  But church is the body of Christ which is made up of various members, different kinds of parts, but all of them unified by a common doctrine, and working together for a common purpose, to be the visible manifestation of Christ to the world individually and corporately.

The fourth characteristic of the true church is the breaking of bread.  This is my wife’s favorite.  If we were making up committees, this is the one she would want to be on.  She loves baking.  Her hobby is to bake something everyday.  No wonder I have such a hard time keeping my weight down.  My wife thinks that the meal that she cooks on Wednesday nights for our Bible study is a major part of our ministry.  And in a way she is be right.  It certainly seems like this was a characteristic of the first church. 

Now most commentators are going to say that this breaking of bread refers to the taking of the Lord’s Supper.  They say that there was a love feast that was like a communal meal, and then at the end of it there was an observance of the Lord’s Supper.  Maybe they are right. I don’t know. I can’t seem to prove it one way or another by scripture. However, I do know that both Jude and Paul speak rebuke to those in the churches that were abusing the Lord’s Supper.  But what I will argue is that there are familiar expressions that the apostles used in referencing the Lord’s Supper or the Lord’s Table, but this phrase “breaking of bread” is not one of them.  It is used in scripture only once before, and that is the meal that Jesus took with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  So while I wouldn’t discount that it could include the Lord’s Supper, I do not think that is necessarily what it’s talking about.  I think it is merely talking about good old fashioned hospitality.  Sharing a meal together is a hallmark of hospitality.

Let me try to explain the context here for a moment.  On the day of Pentecost, you had thousands of pilgrims that had come to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost.  And that day, 3000 of these men and women were saved.  And so the first church comprised a large number of people who did not live in Jerusalem, but stayed there after they were saved and lived in the portico of the temple where they were having services.  And so there was this unique situation that occurred there.  There were a large number of people that were essentially homeless.  How long they lived there we don’t know.  But every indication is that for quite a while at least, they did not go back to their homes in foreign countries, but stayed to receive the apostle’s instruction and lived in fellowship with the rest of the church. 

Now that should give us a better understanding of what was going on.  Because vs.43-47 are not a continuation of the list of essential characteristics of the church, they are an explanation of the original five. Look at vs. 44, 45, “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.”  See what I mean?  I’m not going to read into vs. 44 and 45 and say that the scripture says that the church needs to have a communist life style. That we all have to sell everything and give it to the church to parcel out. That is not what is going on.  If that were the case, then vs.46 wouldn’t make sense, which says they were breaking bread from house to house.  They wouldn’t have had any houses to break bread in if they all had sold their houses. 

No, like I said, I think the verses 43-47a are an explanation of the 5 primary characteristics listed prior to these.  For instance, vs. 43 says “Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.”  This is obviously an explanation or addendum to the statement that they were devoting themselves to the apostle’s doctrine.  There was a sense of awe, a sense of reverence, a sense of godly fear at the authority that the apostle’s spoke with.  Peter’s message was one having authority.  He had the authority of the power of the Holy Spirit.  And that was accompanied with signs and wonders.  The apostles were given the power of signs and wonders so as to authenticate their message as specifically appointed spokesmen from the Lord.   Paul declares that fact in 2Cor. 12:12 “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.”  Signs and wonders was the means by which God authenticated the apostles as speaking for Him, speaking His words.  He gave them authority and power and the words to speak, which became the words that were written down for us, which make up the Holy Scriptures.  It was specifically for that time and place as a sign gift to the apostles. 

So in like manner, vs. 44 and 45 illustrate for us what was the nature of that fellowship which was so essential to the foundation of the church.  The key word there is sharing.  That is communion, fellowship.  They shared what they had with one another.  Those people that were living there, unwilling or unable to go home, were supplied in their needs by the surplus of those who had the means.  They sold things that were considered surplus in order to give it to the church for the provision of the needs of the others.  This was true sacrificial giving as Jesus described in Luke 3:11 by commanding “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.”

This church illustrated what Paul would later describe in 1 Cor. 12:24, “But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.  And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” 

Then in vs. 46 we read they were “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.”  Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple refers to the unity of doctrine that was being taught to them by the apostles.  This is so important in the church, to have unity of doctrine.  The Bible says, “how can two walk together unless they be agreed?”  You may never have a church where there is absolute agreement over every interpretation of scripture, but there needs to be a unity of major doctrine, and most importantly a submission to the authority of the leaders as they speak the word of God.

Peter said in 2Pet. 1:20-21”But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”  Now that verse has a lot of implications, but one is that there isn’t really any room for private interpretations of scripture.  “Well, I think it means..” or “what does this mean to you?”  It is important that we have men in the pulpit who are committed to preaching the truth of God’s word and nothing but the truth, and then we need to check the scriptures to see if those things are so, as the Bereans did to Paul’s teaching, but then they need to submit to the authority of faithful preaching.  As I said a couple of weeks ago, the problem in a lot of churches is that the congregation picked a pastor, not God, and they chose a pastor like they were judging a talent contest; based on his looks and his personality and his entertainment factor.  They did not pick a man that was known to be a student and a preacher of the word.

And then back to our fourth point of breaking bread, vs. 46 is an extrapolation or explanation of that principle.  It says, “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.”  So they were together being taught in the temple, and then they invited those home with them to have a meal who didn’t have the means to a meal.  This then is not speaking of the Lord’s Supper necessarily, but good old fashioned hospitality.  It’s taking koininea to the next logical level, sharing a meal.  Sharing your home.  Sharing your resources with those who have a need.

One of the most telling examples that I see in our church that we are experiencing church as God would have us do, is when I see our people enjoy fellowshipping together after service, or at a restaurant, or at a get together like we did at the Valentine’s Dinner.  This is how we get to know one another.  This is how we get to the point of sharing one another’s burdens.  It doesn’t do true fellowship any good whatsoever when we ask each other politely, “how are you this morning?” And the automatic response is “Fine thanks.  How are you doing?”  “Oh, I’m doing great, thanks!” And that’s it.  That’s as far as we get in getting to know one another.  No, our goal is to be able to say as I quoted from 1Cor.12:24 while ago, when one person suffers, we all suffer, when one person is honored, we all rejoice.”  And one of the best ways to incorporate all the various members together into one body is to eat together, to share together, to help one another in the day to day trials of life.

The fifth element in vs. 42 of a true church was they were devoting themselves to prayer.  Prayer is one of the two offensive weapons that we have been given in the spiritual warfare described in Ephesians 6. All the other armor listed there is defensive. But prayer is not only defensive, it’s offensive.  You’ve heard it said that the best defense is a good offense. Eph 6:18-19  “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.”  I suppose that most of you are a lot like me – we just don’t pray like we should.  We don’t pray nearly as much as we would like to.  Jesus was a man of prayer.  He prayed many times all night on a mountaintop.  And when He came down from the mountain He was refreshed and empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit. 

I believe that much of our success on the beach is due to the Jericho March we do each year before the season starts.  It’s a time of sustained, strategic prayer for six nights and culminates on Sunday morning with the walls of opposition to the gospel coming down in this community.  But folks, we need to pray that way a lot more often than once a year.  I think it is the key to everything.  I don’t understand it, but I know it works.  The problem is that we don’t work at it. 

Hey, I got suggestion for those of you that don’t like my preaching all that much.  Did you ever think that by praying you could make me a better preacher? Isn’t that what Paul is asking them to do for him in Ephesians 6? “And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.”  I would really appreciate it if you guys would pray for me.  It doesn’t get any easier to preach the gospel.  And believe it or not, I have difficulty with speaking with boldness.  I may be loud, but that doesn’t necessarily make me bold.  Pray for boldness, but more importantly, pray that God would give me utterance, that He would give me the message that He would have me preach.

Well, those are the five marks of the true church, the indispensables, if you will of an effective church of God.  There is just one more point that is made here that needs to be pointed out.  We looked at 5 characteristics, and they all result in one consequence.  That is found in vs. 47, “And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.”  The consequence of a congregation of saved, born again, transformed men and women, who were taught the doctrine of the apostles, and who lived out their lives in fellowship, unselfishly sharing wealth and food and resources with each other, and devoted to prayer, and were sincere and joyful in their faith, the consequence of that kind of transformed lives resulted in God using their public testimony to be a means to bring others to the Lord.  That’s the kind of church that is attractive to the lost.  It’s not a place that looks like a nightclub or tries to look attractive to sinners.  The gospel’s attractiveness is that it offers hope from the despair of sin.  The power of a transformed life is the testimony that God can use to attract sinners to the gospel.  They come to church not because they can relate to it, but because they are attracted to the hope and peace and joy that we have in Christ because He has overcome the captivity of our sin.  That’s why Peter’s first response to those that heard his message and that asked what they needed to do was that they needed to repent.  And the need for repentance will be the apostle’s message on through the book of Acts. 

Listen, all of us that are saved have been placed in the body of Christ, to perform an essential function for the health and purpose of that body.  Christ has given to each of us a part in His body and placed us in the church as He sees fit.  Let us then be faithful and diligent to be about the business of the church, because that is what Jesus tasked us with in the great commission; “to go and make disciples, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.” 

Paul breaks down that commission for us in Ephesians 4:11-16 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,  from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”  Amen.

The ministry of the Spirit of Truth, Acts 2: 1-41

 Last week when I introduced this subject of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I said that understanding this text correctly is crucial to understanding not only the purpose of the church, and the function of the church, but the empowerment of the church.  It is one of the most important texts in the Bible and as a result I think it is one that the enemy has done his best to sow in the tares of confusion and false teaching, so as to render the church powerless and weak and ineffectual.  I would even go so far as to say that by deceiving people as to the true nature of the Holy Spirit and substituting a false doctrine of the Spirit, he has made a mockery of Christianity in many circles, and caused the church to be the object of derision and ridicule as unbelievers witness what is happening in the church in the name of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was about to pass on the baton of His ministry to the apostles, He said very clearly that the power to do that ministry, to carry on the work of Christ in His absence, would be due to the power of the Holy Spirit.  And so He said they were to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, so  that they would have the power to do the ministry that He was charging them to do.

Now this is such an important topic and yet I’m afraid that there is so much misinformation out there on this subject that we cannot just skim over it.  So I want to deal with it in a thorough manner, even if that means we might cover  some material today which was mentioned last week.  Today I would like to show you what the purpose of the Holy Spirit is, and what the Holy Spirit is not, and then I would like to show you what the Holy Spirit did, particularly on the day of Pentecost. 

To start with then, let’s look at what the purpose of the Holy Spirit is.  And to understand that, it is only necessary to go to the words of Christ Himself as the apostles were gathered with Him in the upper room during the Passover, the night before He was crucified where He delivers one long discourse as to how this transition between His ministry and the ministry of the Holy Spirit is going to work.  So we are going to cover a lot of verses in the book of John, starting in chapter 14 and going through chapter 16 in which Jesus outlines the purpose of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has just told the disciples that He is going away.  And then He says in chapter 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.” 

So note that Jesus is leaving, but in His place the Father will send the Helper, that is the Holy Spirit.  He is going to help them do what Christ had done.  Namely, speak the word of God.  Jesus starts off in that chapter saying “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”  He adds in vs. 10, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works.”  So first Jesus calls the Spirit the Helper, and then He calls Him the Spirit of Truth.  There is always this connection with the Spirit and with the word of Christ. John 6:63  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

Then back in 14:23 Jesus emphasizes that the Spirit of God will dwell in us.  He says, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” There is that connection again between the Spirit and the word of Christ.    Then in vs. 26 Jesus continues,  "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”  Now that is a comprehensive description of the ministry of the Holy Spirit; He will be your Helper, He will be the Spirit of Truth, He will teach us, and He will bring to remembrance the words of Christ.  Now that was specifically true for the apostles, and it is true for in a general way for us as well.  But especially for the apostles, Jesus is promising that the Spirit of Truth will bring to mind the words that Jesus said and taught, so that they might be able to teach the world the gospel of Jesus Christ.   So that the words of Christ might be able to be written down so that generations to come might know the word of Christ, because the knowledge of the word is the wisdom that leads us to salvation.  (2Tim.3:15)

In John chapter 15 Jesus reiterates again the mission of the Holy Spirit to give them the words of Christ and their assignment to be His witnesses. John 15:26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.” 

Then turn over to chapter 16, to continue what Jesus said concerning the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Look at vs. 7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;  and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;  and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”  Now we see a little more definition as to how the Holy Spirit will help the apostles carry out this ministry.  He will not only bring to their mind the words of Christ and teach them what to say, but He will also be working on the other end of the equation, working in the hearts of the hearers of the word to convict them of sin, reveal righteousness, and concerning the judgment to come upon the world.  So the Spirit works to equip the witnesses to give the testimony of Christ, and works through the word to convict the hearer as they hear the word of Christ.

Then very interestingly, Jesus says in vs. 12, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” 

What Jesus is saying is that there was a lot more that He could say to them, but that wasn’t the time.  After the Holy Spirit comes in power on the day of Pentecost, He would guide them into all the truth, He will tell them what is to come.  He will take the words of Christ and disclose it to them.  In other words, the Holy Spirit is going to reveal the word that will make up the New Testament.  So this is the whole of Jesus teaching on the Holy Spirit. He is the source of the word of Christ, and He is the power of the word of Christ.  There is no other emphasis given by Jesus as to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

See, the church is going to be founded on the doctrine and teaching of the apostles. Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.” That is the word and doctrine that will comprise the New Testament. That is the foundation of the church that Eph. 2:20 speaks of.   And that is really the overriding emphasis that Jesus puts on the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  He is the means by which the apostles will receive the word of God, which is the only equipment that they will need to turn the world upside down.

One other point we should make from the text we looked at in John 16:12, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak.  He will glorify Jesus, for He will take of Jesus and will disclose it to you. He says, “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  So we need to be mindful of the fact that Jesus was the exact representation of the Father, He spoke the words of God, He did the works of God, He was as Hebrews 1:3 says, Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s nature.  In the same manner, Jesus says, the Holy Spirit is the exact representation of Christ.  He will not speak on His own initiative.  But He will take the words of Jesus and disclose them to them.   And I love this; He will not glorify Himself.  See, the Son glorifies the Father, and the Spirit glorifies the Son, and so they are One.   I’ve said it before and I will say it again, because that is exactly what Jesus is saying; that if you want to know if something is of the Holy Spirit simply look at the word of God and see if Jesus did it.  If Jesus didn’t do it, then the Holy Spirit isn’t going to do it.  You’re not going to see the Holy Spirit running around acting in a way that is incompatible with what Jesus did. 

Now let me show you one other thing.  We know that Luke 2 tells us that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit.  He was fully man, and yet fully God because He was born of the Spirit of God.  And then at His baptism, at the start of His earthly ministry, the Spirit of God visibly came down out of heaven and rested upon Him.  And what did Jesus do at that “baptism of the Holy Spirit?”  Did He start speaking in tongues?  Did He start acting like He was drunk?  No, Luke 4 then says Jesus being full of the Spirit, was being led by the Spirit.  He began His earthly ministry under the power of the Spirit and He began to preach the word. 

So if I were to draw a diagram, then we might draw a man representing Jesus, and put a big S over Him, to represent that though He is in flesh a man, yet in His Spirit He is God.  And then that is a picture of those that are saved as well, is it not?  Man is born again, by the Spirit of God, filled with the Spirit so that we might be governed by the Spirit.  And then that is also a picture of the Word of God.  The Word of God was written by human instruments, through the apostles and prophets, yet it was by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. 2Pet. 1:21  “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” And 2Ti 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”  Now that is the comprehensive work of the Holy Spirit. 

Well that brings us to the second point of my message today, and that is what the ministry of the Holy Spirit is not.  The text says that as the disciples were speaking of the mighty works of God in 15 different languages some people that were in the crowd began to mock them, to ridicule them and say that they were full of wine.  In other words, they said they were drunk.  And Peter gets up and says to the crowd, “No, these men are not drunk as you suppose, for it is only 9 o’clock in the morning.” Now why were the disciples accused of drunkenness?  I would suggest to you that as the crowd were perplexed and amazed at what was happening, some of the bystanders there in a spirit of mockery attempted to explain what was happening by associating this phenomenon with something that they would have had some familiarity with.  And that was the mystery religions of Greece and Rome.

There were many different mystery religions that were being practiced at the time of Christ.  Many of them had started centuries earlier and are spoken of in the writings of Plato.  And while we don’t have time to go into them all today, there were two in particular that kind of epitomized what was being widely practiced in those pagan societies that the Jewish people lived among.  One was the cult of Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine.  According to the historian Livy, who wrote around the time of Christ, they were known for extreme intoxication, resulting in ecstatic experiences, unintelligible utterances which were believed to be of divine origin, and sexual initiation rites.   Much of what is known about the cult of Bacchus seems to be derived from the earlier Greek religion known as Dionysus, another wine cult.  This one also featured the intoxicating and uninhibiting effects of wine which produced the state of ecstatic possession by the god's spirit.  In these rituals the intoxicated participants would exhibit unintelligible ecstatic speech, and in some cases a trance like state where they rolled their heads back and danced to rhythmic drums and music while imitating anthropological movements.

A contemporary historian said of these Dionysian rituals; “Following the torches as they dipped and swayed in the darkness, they climbed mountain paths with head thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum which stirred their blood' [or 'staggered drunkenly with what was known as the Dionysus gait']. 'In this ecstatic state, they abandoned themselves, dancing wildly and shouting 'Euoi!' [the god's name] and at that moment of intense rapture became identified with the god himself. They became filled with his spirit and acquired divine powers.”

Plato's dialogues describe these ecstatic occurrences as well. In his Phaedrus, Plato discusses what was known as ecstatic madness in terms of prophecy, inspiration, poetry, and love. In discussing madness as prophecy, Plato alludes to the prophetess at Delphi, the priestess at Dodona, and Sibyl, all of whom he thinks "have conferred great benefits upon Hellas through their ecstatic speaking when out of their senses, but when not, little or none." For Plato, the contemporary poets were like the prophets and priestesses; they created their  compositions during ecstatic trances and from ecstatic utterances. Plato stated that good poets compose their poems not by art but because they are inspired and possessed. They are not in their right minds because God takes away their minds and uses them as his minister.

Though I could recite much more evidence from these mystery religions, I think what we have quoted here should be sufficient for us to see that these travelers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who were from the Gentile regions of Greece and Rome and the surrounding areas would have undoubtedly been familiar with these type of religious ceremonies in the mystery religions.  By the way, I think that the city of Corinth was a hotbed for that kind of activity and that is why Paul in 1Cor. 14 spends so much time on the abuse of tongues that was occurring there.  And when they heard these men and women speaking in foreign languages, they automatically assumed that they were seeing another example of these mystery religions that relied upon intoxication to produces these ecstatic utterances. 

But as I said, Peter was quick to point out that what they were hearing was not the effect of drunkenness.  There was no evidence to even suggest that.  It was 9 o’clock in the morning for one.  But the effect of the Holy Spirit was not anything like the drunken reveling of the mystery religions.  These 120 disciples were speaking of the mighty works of God.  And when they spoke, those hearing understood everything that was being said in their own dialect.  In the mystery religions, no one could understand the gibberish that was uttered when they were intoxicated and under spiritual possession.

And Paul writing in Ephesians makes that contrast as well between being filled with the Spirit and drunkenness.  Ephesians 5:18, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit.”  He is saying that the two are diametrically opposed.  Drunkenness is dissipation, it says in the NASB. It means depraved, degenerate. A life marked by licentiousness, reckless abandon.  It’s to abandon propriety, to act immorally.  That is what drunkenness produces. And that produced the ecstatic orgies of the mystery religions.   But we know what the produce of the Holy Spirit is don’t we? Love, peace, joy, gentleness, self control.  The opposite of drunkenness.

So we have looked at what the purpose of the Holy Spirit was according to Jesus, what the power of the Holy Spirit was not, and now let’s look at what the person of the Holy Spirit did.  The Holy Spirit is a person, don’t forget that.  He is not a power, He has power, He gives power, but He is not some inanimate power.  He is a person, the third person of the trinity.

Jesus said when “He, the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”  And we see that happening when He comes upon the disciples. 

The first thing that happens in vs. 11 is that the disciples begin to speak of the mighty deeds of God.  The text doesn’t tell us exactly what that speech consisted of.  We know it was intelligible speech, because 15 different nationalities heard it in their native tongue.  But if I might imagine what they were saying, I would imagine that it was something similar to what Jesus was saying to the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  When Jesus disappeared from their sight, remember they said how their hearts burned within them as He explained how the Old Testament scriptures spoke of Him.  Luke 24:27, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, [Jesus] explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”  I think that these 120 disciples were declaring something along those lines. 

So the first thing the Holy Spirit did was give the disciples the words to tell this multitude of devout men in Jerusalem.  He gave them utterance.  He put the words in their mouth to tell of the wonders of God.

The second thing the Holy Spirit did was He gave Peter a sermon.  This is Peter’s first sermon, and it’s also the first sermon of the church. When the church was born, the first activity was not to plan, not to have a strategy session, not to have a committee to decide what to do.  The first thing the church did was preach the Gospel.

Peter stands up and suddenly he is a Bible scholar.  He preaches an expositional sermon.  He starts off with a reference from Joel.  Peter says, these men are not drunk as you suppose, 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 OF 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 BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN,

I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.

I want to stop right there for a moment and point out that Peter doesn’t say that the evidence of the Holy Spirit being poured out will be that they will speak in tongues.  He says they will prophesy.  The charismatics would like to say that tongues is prophecy, but I would simply point out that Paul does not make that assumption.  In 1Cor. 14:1-4 Paul says, “Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.  But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church.”

There are two types of prophecy.  There is the predictive prophecy, where things are said concerning future events, and there is proclamation prophecy, which is proclaiming the word of the Lord.  That was what was happening on the day of Pentecost according to Peter. Not future telling, but forth telling.  They were proclaiming the mighty works of God.

However, Peter is quoting from a predictive prophetic passage.  And we could debate all day over which parts are still in the future and which parts have been fulfilled.  But the key as far as I’m concerned is that Peter is affirming that it is the last days, according to Joel.  And all of the New Testament prophets spoke of those days as the last days, whether Jesus, Peter or Paul or James or John.  They all spoke of the present age as the last days.  And so we have to understand that the last days or the last age is already begun.  It began at Pentecost.

I would suggest that it was an apocalyptic message particularly for Israel.  It was the last days for Israel.  Jesus had prophesied on the temple mount a couple of months before that this generation would not pass away until all these things took place.  And within 35 years, one generation, the temple would be destroyed and the sacrifices would cease, and the Jews would be massacred and the remnant scattered to the four corners of the earth.

So whether Joel’s language is simply apocalyptic and allegorical and referencing the end of Israel as they knew it, or whether or not he had a telescopic vision of the future that started at Pentecost and continues 2000 + years later, I don’t know for sure.  I tend to think it may have been fulfilled in 70 AD.  But it’s also possible to accomplish both an immediate result and a future result.

 Joel says in vs.19, ‘AND I WILL GRANT WONDERS IN THE SKY ABOVE AND SIGNS ON THE EARTH BELOW, BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND VAPOR OF 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.’

It’s interesting that not only does this OT prophecy establish the ministry of the Holy Spirit, but it addresses the gospel of salvation.  And Peter, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, uses this as a pretext to introduce the author of salvation, Jesus Christ.  Now isn’t that exactly what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would do?  He would disclose glorify Jesus, He would manifest Jesus. He would convict the world of sin, and righteousness and judgment.  And that is exactly what we see the Spirit doing in the message of Peter. 

And Peter introduces Jesus as the author of salvation in four verses.  He reminds them of the mighty deeds of God that Jesus had performed in their midst.  He reminds them of the fact that they were guilty of putting Him to death, and he tells them that God raised Him from the dead. 

And to give credence to that claim He quotes another OT scripture, this time from the Psalm of David, Psalm 16.  And Peter makes the obvious correlation to the Messiah whom David was speaking of, because he said, David is dead in the tomb and they knew where his grave was, but the grave of Jesus was empty, because God would not allow His Holy One to suffer decay.

By the way, Psalms says Sheol, and Peter says Hades.  They are the same place.  Peter says in 1Peter 3:18,19  that Jesus though dead in His body, yet alive in His Spirit, went to Hades and preached to those in prison, that is in Hell.  But God did not abandon Him there, but raised Him from the dead.

Peter continues his message in vs. 30 "And so, because [David] 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 are all 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.”

Then Peter quotes another Psalm, Psalm 110, all of this by heart, by the way.  He didn’t have some big scrolls up there he was rifling through.  He was just speaking the word of God as the Spirit gave him utterance.  In Psalm 110, David says, the Lord said to my Lord, which was a statement of divinity.  Peter is making the connection clear; Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, the second person of the trinity.  That is such an important doctrine, and Peter is making sure that is clear. 

Look at vs. 36, "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified."  See that?  Jesus of Nazareth whom you crucified, is both Lord and Christ.  Both God and Messiah.  That is the gospel.  And that truth of the gospel cut them to the quick.  Vs. 37, “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?”

That’s what the word of God does when it is spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit – it pierces to the heart. Heb. 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”  The word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it is empowered by the Holy Spirit.  And the Spirit of Truth will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.  That is what Jesus said He would do, and that is exactly what happened. 

And the result was that they interrupted the message at this point and said “what do we need to do to be saved?”  What do we need to do to be saved from the judgment we deserve from putting to death the Son of God?  And Peter’s answer was simple, “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 three thousand souls.”

Listen, this has been a long message, and I won’t belabor it any longer.  Except to say that it was your sin and mine that nailed Jesus to the cross by the hands of godless men.  We are as guilty as they were.  There is none righteous, no not one.  All we like sheep have gone astray.  We have all turned aside, we have all sinned against God. And as such we all deserve the judgment of God upon sin.  And that judgment is death.  The Bible says that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  You can escape that judgment by repentance from your sins and faith in the sacrifice that Jesus made for you on the cross.  And if you will come to Him in repentance and faith, He will give you the promise of the Holy Spirit, that you might have eternal life through Him and have the power to life that life for Him.  For the promise is for you and your children, and for all that are far off, as many as the Lord will call to Himself.  Today you hear His call, Come unto Me, all you who are weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  I trust you will come to Jesus.  As the scripture promised through the prophet Joel, “And it shall be that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The baptism of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2: 1-21

To misunderstand this passage we are looking at today is to put in jeopardy the entire purpose of the Holy Spirit and His ministry to the church.  Understanding this text correctly is crucial to understanding not only the purpose of the church, and the function of the church, but the empowerment of the church.

One of the main reasons that the church is not functioning effectively in our society today is that many people are completely clueless about the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  Lack of understanding the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is one of  the main reasons why the average Christian feels powerless to live a godly life.  The church has never in it’s history been as superficial and anemic in regards to true spirituality and godliness than it is today and that is largely due to an incorrect, unbiblical understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And that is ironic, isn’t it?  It’s ironic because there is more emphasis today on what is claimed to be the power of the Holy Spirit than at almost any other time in church history.  There is more emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit today than at any other time in recent history and yet this age is characterized by superficial, worldly, carnal churches that are more consumed with prosperity and physical “blessings” than they are with godliness.

Well, I don’t want to build a church like that.  And I’m confident that if you’re here today you do not want a church like that either.  There are a lot of other churches out there you could be a part of that would fill the bill if you were looking for  superficial Christianity.  But I believe, and I hope you believe, that God has a blueprint for His true church.  I don’t believe that God has given us the church so that we might have 52 different flavors and you get to pick the one you like the most.   I believe that He gave us the blueprint of His church that we are to pattern ours after right here in the first few chapters of Acts.  So I want to carefully examine this text so that we can be sure that we follow that example faithfully.  And also so that we might have the kind of fruitfulness that God expects us to have - the kind of fruitfulness that we see characterized in this first church which is given for our example and encouragement.

The key to understanding the context of this momentous event in church history is found in the eighth verse of the chapter one.  In Jesus’ last instructions to the disciples before His ascension He told them to wait for the promise of what He called  the baptism of the Holy Spirit in just a few days.  Then  Jesus said in Acts 1:8 “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

So what were they to wait for?  The power of the Holy Spirit.  The power to do what?  Be His witnesses.  To be His witnesses in word and deed.  And right there we should understand the nature of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit provides the power to carry out the ministry of Jesus Christ.  It’s not necessarily the power to speak in tongues.  To limit it to that would be to shortchange the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  It is the power to be the ministers of Jesus Christ to the world, by empowering His body, the believers in Christ, to be able to reveal Jesus Christ to the world in word and deed.

The first church we have as the premier example before us today had none of the usual things that we think are so essential for church success today.  They didn’t have a building, they didn’t have any youth or children’s programs, they didn’t have a worship team, they didn’t have social status in the community, and yet this church won thousands to Christ and sent out people who would start other churches throughout the world.  Why?  Because the church had the power of the Holy Spirit empowering it’s ministry.  Their people were empowered by the Holy Spirit to become shining witnesses, testimonies to the transforming power of salvation.

So it behooves us to examine this passage carefully so that we might faithfully follow their example and fulfill Christ’s purpose for our church.  First of all, note that the Apostles and the rest of the church were waiting for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit as Jesus had told them.  And on the tenth day after the ascension came the day of Pentecost, the day that Christ had promised.  It is important to understand what that day signified for the Jew.  Now please bear with me, this is important.

Pentecost means 50^th, which means this feast happened 50 days after the feast of the First Fruits as indicated in Leviticus 23.  There are three feasts there which illustrate the work of Jesus Christ.  The Passover pictured the death of Jesus as the Passover Lamb.  Then came the feast of the First Fruits which pictured Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  And then 50 days later was the feast of Pentecost which pictured the formation of His church. 

The feast of First Fruits was observed the day after the Sabbath following Passover, which meant that it was Sunday, the first day of the week. Christ was crucified on the Passover, was resurrected on the day of First Fruits, Sunday, and then Fifty days after that would fall on a Sunday as well.  So the day of Pentecost, the day the church was inaugurated by the Holy Spirit was on a Sunday.

During the feast of First Fruits, the priest would offer a wave offering of a sheaf of grain.  But during the feast of Pentecost they would offer two loaves of bread.  And contrary to the feast of Passover, the bread loaves of Pentecost had yeast in them, so they would rise.  Now what this signifies is that grains which are the fruits are baptized by the Holy Spirit into one body, represented by the loaves of bread.  And there are two loaves which represent the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jewish believers received the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the Gentile believers are baptized in the Spirit at the house of Cornelius which is found in Acts 10.   And the fact that the loaves are baked with leaven indicates that the presence of sin will be in the church.  The church will not be perfect until it is one day glorified in the presence of God.

So the believers and apostles are all together on the day of Pentecost.  We don’t know if they were in the upper room or not at that time.  It would have to be a very large room if they were, because there were 120 people gathered together.  Some think that they would have been in the temple worshipping God together when this happened.  The word house there can also be translated as temple.  So that would explain the reaction from the multitude to what would have been a very public phenomenon.  

As they were gathered together, a sound like  a violent rushing wind fills the place where they were.  It doesn’t say it was a rushing wind, but a sound like a violent rushing wind.  I imagine it might have sounded like a siren.  If you’ve ever been in a hurricane you know that sometimes the wind blows so hard it starts to whine like some sort of siren.  So there is this loud, wailing kind of sound that fills the place and alerts everyone that something is happening. 

Then it says that tongues like fire, or as of fire, appeared and were distributed over the heads of each one of those in the church.  And then the third part of the phenomena, they were  all filled with the Holy Spirit and  began to speak in other languages of the mighty works of God as the Spirit was giving them utterance.  Now all three of these things make up what Jesus described as the baptism of the Holy Spirit in chapter 1 vs. 5. 

I find it interesting that those people that claim a baptism of the Holy Spirit today only seem concerned with the third aspect of the phenomenon, that of speaking in tongues.  I haven’t heard any sound like a siren coming from those churches, or seen any tongues of fire distributing themselves on anyone’s head.  Furthermore, in the first experience everyone could understand what was being said in their own language, which is in direct contrast with what happens today when no one can understand anything that is being said.  Quite a different experience, I would say between what happened in Acts 2 and what is happening today.

So what exactly happened there in this baptism of the Holy Spirit?  What did it signify and what purpose did it achieve?  Well the Greek word for baptize is “baptizo” which has two meanings, one literal and one figurative. Literally, it means to be immersed, but the figurative meaning is to identified with.  So first of all the baptism of the Spirit means to be identified with Christ, the head of the church, and secondly to be formed as the spiritual body of Christ on earth, that is the church.

1Cor. 12:12-13 says, “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 were all made to drink of one Spirit.” 

Now try to understand how this works with me for a moment.  If we are to become Christ’s body on earth, then how is that possible?  How does my physical body become the spiritual body of Christ?  Well, it becomes the spiritual body of Christ when Christ’s Spirit indwells my body.  When does that happen?  It happens at salvation.  We are born again by the Spirit of God, made holy and  righteous through the transference of the righteousness of Christ to us, and then indwelled by the Spirit of Christ, that we might have the mind of Christ controlling our body. 

And that indwelling produces the third aspect of that baptism, we are filled with the Spirit.  That means we are controlled by the Spirit.  The energy, the power to energize this body the way Christ would have it operate is by being filled with the Spirit.  That power of the Spirit which fills us is like the wind that fills the sails of a ship.  It fills the sails and the ship is mobilized, it is under power.

Now let’s break all that down a little more in hopes of getting this settled in our minds.  Because it’s difficult enough to understand on it’s own, but when you add all the disinformation that has accumulated in many of us from years of bad teaching, or lack of teaching on this subject, then it becomes even more difficult. 

The three aspects of the baptism of the Holy Spirit are first of all, identification.  We  are identified with Christ.  We are born again by the Spirit of Christ and are now in the family of God.  Secondly, we are baptized into one body.  All believers are joined together and related because we all are one in Christ, and we all are indwelled with the Spirit of Christ.   And then thirdly we are all filled with the Spirit, that means given the power of the Spirit who enables us to do the works of Christ.

It’s important to note that historically the baptism of the Holy Spirit took place in two stages.  The Jewish believers were baptized at Pentecost and the Gentiles were baptized later at the home of Cornelius.  Today the baptism of the Spirit happens when a sinner is converted and born again by the Spirit of Christ.  You are instantly spiritually reborn into the family of God, you are instantly baptized into the body of Christ, the church, joined to every believer, and you are instantly filled with the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  All of that happened by the way with the 3000 souls that were saved as Peter preached.  There was not a subsequent baptism for those 3000.  They were saved, baptized in water and immediately added to the church.

Let me point out another reference which I think pictures this very well.  As you know, the children of Israel are an OT picture of the church.  And Paul relates the baptism of the Israelites to the church in 1Cor. 10:1-4 “For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;  and all ate the same spiritual food;  and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”   Moses is a type of Christ. In Acts 3:22 it says, “Moses said, ‘THE LORD GOD WILL RAISE UP FOR YOU A PROPHET LIKE ME FROM YOUR BRETHREN; TO HIM YOU SHALL GIVE HEED to everything He says to you.”  So the Israelites which are a type of the church are baptized into Moses in two ways: in the cloud, that is the Shekinah glory of God which went before them to guide them by day and dwelt in the temple in the middle of their camp, a constant presence with them, and they were also baptized into the sea, that is the Red Sea.  That represented identification with Moses, separation from the world, Egypt, and salvation from death.  And then you see the unity in the same spiritual food, the same spiritual drink, all coming from the rock who is Christ. 

So in like manner, as the church of Christ, we are identified with Him, become one with His body, and are filled with His Spirit who leads us and guides us as He indwells us.  He is constantly with us because He is within us.  We are not told to seek a baptism of the Holy Spirit, because that is done once for all when we are born again, but we are told to be continually filled with the power of the Holy Spirit because we need His power if we are going to serve God effectively.  On the day of Pentecost, they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and filled with the Spirit simultaneously.  But afterwards, though there were more fillings of the Spirit to do a particular work, they did not experience any more baptisms.  There is a distinction between baptism and filling. 

For instance, baptism means I belong to His body, being filled means that my body belongs to Him.  Baptism is non-repeatable, but the filling is repeated over and over again as we trust God for the  power to do what He asks us to do. Baptism involves all believers being united into one body, but filling is individually done as we yield to Him.

Now let’s consider the languages and the purpose and meaning of that part of this phenomenon.  Luke tells us that there were God fearing, devout Jews from 15 different nations present, and they each heard the gospel proclaimed in their own language.  Verse 4 the word used for language or tongues is glossa, which refers to language, but in vs.6 the word used is dialektos and means dialect.  There is no question that means that each person understood what the disciples were saying in their own native language or dialect. 

The question is why did this happen?  What is the significance of this sign?  Well, I gave away the answer in my question.  The speaking of various foreign languages happened as a sign to the unbelieving Jews.  We are going to examine Peter’s message in more detail next time, but note for now that Peter says this baptism of the Holy Spirit happened according to the prophecy of  Joel 2:28-32.   First and foremost then,  tongues were for a sign.  They happened as a sign to the Jews that a particular prophecy was being fulfilled. And Paul confirms this by quoting Isaiah in 1Cor. 14:21, “In the Law it is written, ‘BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME,’ says the Lord.  So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers.”

Now that is exactly what Peter is talking about when he stands up and rebukes those in the crowd who had suggested that they might have been drunk with wine.  Peter says no, it’s only 9 o’clock in the morning, no one here has been drinking at 9 in the morning.  But he says in vs. 17 “'AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,' God says, 'THAT I WILL POUR FORTH OF 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 BONDSLAVES, BOTH MEN AND WOMEN, I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR FORTH OF MY SPIRIT And they shall prophesy.”

This phenomenon was a sign of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to those unbelieving Jews, the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon the disciples to be a witness to them, that the last days had come upon Israel, just as Joel and the prophets had warned it would.  And a sign of these last days would be that by the languages of foreigners they would hear of the gospel of Christ and yet still they would not believe.  Israel as a nation would reject Christ.  Thankfully, 3000 of them did repent that day in response to that sign, and they were saved and God added them to the church.  But the nation of Israel as a whole did not repent, they continued to persecute and put to death the witnesses of the gospel (that’s what the Greek word witness came to mean, martyrs).  And so it would not be only about 35 more years ( this generation) before the judgment of God would fall upon Israel and the temple was destroyed and hundreds of thousands of them were killed and the rest dispersed.  This phenomenon was a sign that the end of the age of the nation of Israel had come. 

The phenomenon also correlated with the Tower of Babel which we read about in Genesis 11.  At that time the men of the world spoke the same language and thought that they would build a temple reaching to heaven as a testament to their great civilization.  But God came down from heaven and confused their language and dispersed them throughout the world.  So God’s judgment at Babel dispersed one people into many nations, but the Spirit at Pentecost united many nations into God’s people, bringing both the Jews and the Gentiles into one body, the church.  At the Tower of Babel one language was confused into many, but at Pentecost people of many languages understood the gospel in their own dialect. 

The bottom line is this; the baptism of the Holy Spirit is given so that we might be saved, identified with Christ, so that we might be unified with all other believers into the body of Christ, and so that we might have the power to be witnesses for Christ.  But though baptism of the Spirit happens once at salvation, there is a daily need to be filled with the Spirit. 

Did you know that Plato and the ancient Greek philosophers, long before the time of Christ, taught that the highest religious expression was found in a phenomenon of speaking in strange syllables which was induced by drunkenness?  This was practiced by the Greeks in their drunken, religious orgies.  So it’s interesting that some people observing what was happening would automatically assume the disciples were drunk.  But Peter is quick to show that they were not drunk.  And furthermore, this wasn’t some nonsensical gibberish, but it was men speaking of the mighty works of God.

So in reference to what Peter said in rebuttal to the charge of drunkenness, let’s look at how Paul contrasts drunkenness and being filled with the Spirit in Ephesians 5:18. “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;  always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;  and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”  Paul goes on to talk about wives being subject to husbands, husbands sacrificing themselves for their wives, parents, children, slaves, workers, etc, being subject to one another as unto the Lord. 

So what Paul is showing in verse 18 is the contrast between drunkenness and being filled with the Holy Spirit.  When a person is filled with alcohol, he loses control of himself and dishonors himself and God.  But when a man is filled with the Spirit, he exhibits self control and honors God.  That is the contrast and it is given to illustrate what being filled with the Spirit is and is not.  Being filled with the Spirit then is to exhibit self control, self discipline.  Unfortunately, that is not what we see most often when we witness the charismatic outbursts on CBN.  They revel in spiritual  drunkenness which they claim is of the Holy Spirit. They babble incoherently.  They exhibit a lack of control, a lack of discipline, and dishonor God. Paul makes it clear that they know not what sort of spirit they are of. 

If you are being filled with the Spirit, that is under the control of the Spirit, then you will walk in the Spirit and bring honor to God by the way that you live.  We have the power of the Holy Spirit available to us, indwelling in us, if we are saved.  The dilemma is whether or not we will trust in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit and be obedient to the Spirit.  When we do, we will be filled with the power to do so, and in so doing, we will be witnesses to the transforming power of Christ. 

Let me close by reading Galatians 5:19 which shows us that contrast between the life lived as evidence of the flesh and the life evidenced as of the Spirit.  “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality,  idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,  envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”  Amen.