Sunday Messege - Acts 2 -2-27-22 - Pastor Gil

 

Lets Pray:

Father, we come before you this morning as living sacrifices, and we present our bodies to you. And we know that's our spiritual act of worship, that's our reasonable service.

We are thankful for all the many mercies and blessings you have given to us.

So we give to you this morning our attention, our ears, and our mind to process these thoughts.

May our lives be conformed to

 the image of Christ one step at a time. as we consider and apply

Your scripture, your word, in Jesus' name,

Amen.

While a disciple is a student, one who learns from a teacher, an apostle is sent to deliver those teachings to others. "Apostle" means messenger, he who is sent. An apostle is sent to deliver or spread those teachings to others. This is the beginning of apostleship…The beginning of the church…

To ponder the inception and creation, the birth, if you will, of the first church, in the name of Jesus, is all most overwhelming… As I read it reminds me of a delivery room in the hospital. One of the most exciting places to be. Usually it is.

People come there to have babies. They've long anticipated the event.

And then, there is the sheer, pure joy to see those grandkids born. So a delivery room is so wonderful.

I want to take you back 2,000 years to a delivery room, so to speak, when the church is born.

It's the birthday of the church, the day of Pentecost just over 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem.

Well, on the birthday of the church, not one, two, or even three were born, but 3,000 spiritual babies are going to be born.

So we’ll jump right in to Acts , Chapter 2…

Oh, I almost forgot, let's go back to Verse 24, for a moment because I left you hanging last week.

I left you hanging because in Verse 24 they prayed, because they have to replace an apostle Judas that hung himself.

So now they have to replace the him , so Verse 24, they prayed. And their prayer is one of beauty..

“You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place.

And they cast their lots and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.

The question comes, it has been proposed by some that perhaps they made a couple mistakes here.

This is what some have thought. Did they make a mistake in limiting God first of all?

And some will say, yes, that is the problem, because they said, not which person on earth do you want Lord? They said which of these two? So they only considered two choices, and the reasoning of those who think this is wrong is that they say, well, the obvious choice was Paul the Apostle.

So they limited God in this way. If they just would have waited, God was going to replace the apostleship with Paul the Apostle. And I will grant you Paul is called an apostle.

The other mistake that people say that was made is that they cast lots.

It amounts to throwing dice. So it seems odd to some people that you have New Testament believers effectively throwing dice, or casting lots, to find out the will of God.

But that really isn’t so strange…

Consider , that in the Old Testament there was a method that the priest would use when somebody wanted to discern God's will. There were two stones. One was called the Urim and the other was called the Thummim, the Urim and the Thummim. We don't exactly know what they were, but they were some kind of a way to look at the issue. The two stones, black and white it is believed, used to discern

what the will of God was, by casting lots. And if you think, well, I still think that's a horrible way to discern God's will. How about this?

In Proverbs 16 it says the lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

As if to say, even with the Urim and the Thummim, this archaic way of discerning God's will, God sovereignly is superintending the outcome of what is cast.

Now having said that, I immediately have to say you might be relieved to know that this is the last time casting lots is ever mentioned or practiced in the scriptures. You'll never read of it again.

The early church will not do that after the Holy Spirit comes upon them. There is no need.

The Holy Spirit as Jesus promised will guide you into all truth all truth, so He's going to direct them, as he directs us today.

So were they making a mistake? I guess that's up to you to decide,

but there's a bigger question.

What about apostles?

They feel the need to replace an apostle with somebody who's going to be called one of the Twelve Apostles.

So are there still apostles today or have they vanished off the scene?

And that is a question I've been asked to consider on many occasions and the question arises in my mind again today. Are there apostles today?

Here's how I answer it, and you're probably not going to like it.

I would say Yes and no.

Who answers a question like that?

I do and here's why. In the strictest sense there are no more apostles today. But in a functional sense there are.

Consider this: In the strictest possible sense, there were only Twelve Apostles who number one saw the resurrected Christ and were with Him during His earthly ministry.

And that was the criteria involved here. You have to have been, from the beginning, with Jesus and you needed to see him after He resurrected.

Nobody can claim that today. Nobody alive today was with Jesus during His earthly ministry.

So in a strict sense, there are no more apostles. The apostles, that is the 12, laid the foundation of the Church. Paul said that the Church was laid by the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. And in this chapter in Verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. That is, these 12 gave teaching, doctrine, that became foundational for the church from this day, its birthday, forward.

So that's foundational. Also, there seems to have been signs that accompanied the strict role of the apostle of the 12. Jesus promised them you're going to go and these signs will accompany.

And Paul, when he writes the Corinthians in second Corinthians says, though he never

numbered himself with the 12. He said, I am not behind even the most eminent apostles. In fact, the signs of an apostle were wrought through me in your presence. So he is saying, I performed signs

that were known as signs of an apostle. And Paul is called an apostle to the Gentiles, but Paul the Apostle wasn't following Jesus from the beginning of His ministry. And that was one of the criteria, and he didn't see the resurrected Christ. But he eventually did after the ascension.

There was a time when he's on the road to Emmaus Jesus appeared to him.

So I guess you could see he saw an after-view of it,

But not in the sense that these 12 did. So my answer would be no, there are no more apostles in the strictest sense.

However, in the broader sense there are.

In the functional sense there are, and here's what I mean. 75 times in the New Testament you will find the word "apostle." many of those times--do not refer to the Twelve Apostles that were with Jesus from the beginning. For example, Barnabas is called an apostle. Paul called an apostle. Timothy was called an apostle. Silvanus was called an apostle.

Andronicus and Junia-- Who? They were apostles, that's who. All of these in the New Testament were called apostles.

Why? Because they had some apostolic function. You see, the word apostle, apostelo or apostolos if you're talking noun or verb, means a sent out one or a messenger--

The original classical Greek word referred to an expedition or a fleet of ships that were sent out.

By the time we get to the death of all of the Twelve Apostles, after they were gone, a book emerged called the Didache or some just call it the "Did-a-key,"

The Didache was a manual for the churches on how to spot a false prophet or a false apostle. So they designated people as true apostles and false apostles after the death of the apostles.

It was still used, not in the strict sense, but in a functional sense.

Now in eastern churches to this day they will refer to missionaries as apostles.

They're sent out. They're church planters or they're plowing new ground culturally. And in that case, they function as apostles so you can take that as far as you want to.

I thought you'd be interested to know and I hope that answered the question that that could have been hanging from last week..

Verse 1 Chapter 2.

"When the day of Pentecost had fully come they were all in one accord in one place."

Now you are about to see the apostles, but you're about to see different apostles.

You see the last time we saw the apostles in the gospels these guys were unlearned and ignorant fishermen from Galilee.

They still kind of are, but now you read that they're bold.

They sound articulate. They sound knowledgeable of scripture like rabbis. You know, these common workers ; something happened to them.

I believe that you know what happened to them.

There was a new presence, number one and two a new power.

The new presence was the resurrected Christ. They saw Jesus alive after His death. That changed them forever. But then also a new power, the Holy Spirit coming upon them and you will see now through this book an empowerment. An empowerment as the Holy Spirit fills them and they go out into the world.

So when the day of Pentecost had fully come--

What is the day of Pentecost?

Pentecost means 50th, and it really literally refers to the 50th day after the wave of the sheaf offering of first fruits as spoken about in Leviticus 23. It comes after Passover. And it is one of the three major festivals that Jews-- especially Jewish males-- especially those who lived around the area of Jerusalem and Judea-- they were required three times a year to appear in the temple before the Lord for these feasts. Pentecost was one of them.

It says that …..The day of Pentecost had fully come.

Now the day of Pentecost becomes to the Church the most important day of the Church's existence next to the death of Christ and the Resurrection of Christ. Because it's the birthday of the church.

It's when it gets started. Jesus said I will build My Church, Matthew 16, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The promise is coming true. This is the birthday. This is when the Holy Spirit baptizes them into the body of Christ and fills them with power. And extraordinary things will take place going forward… And hopefully, by God's grace, some of you in your lives will be able to experience that.

I always want to experience whatever the Lord has for me I get excited at the prospect that the Lord

might want to just adjust my journey a little bit, change my course, give me some new direction, some new gifts, some new adventure.

You know, the older you get, you want to wake up excited in the morning. And it's always exciting to find out what's God going to do now? Are things going to change?

And hopefully you'll experience more of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.

I hope that some of the things we read in the book of Acts, you'll see in your own lives

They all gather of one accord…. One reason..one purpose…..And suddenly, a sound from heaven as of a

rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and one sat on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spiritand began to speak with other tongues as the spirit prompted them or gave them utterance."

On the day of Pentecost, the early church, 120 of them in an upper room, experienced three phenomena.

One, was an audible phenomena.

Two, there was a visible phenomena.

And three, there was an oral phenomena.

First of all, there was something audible. They heard something, and it was the sound of or as of a mighty rushing wind.

When I read the Bible, I try to hear it. Now, please, notice the verbiage.

It says "as of." He's not describing the weather conditions in Jerusalem. It was a windy day in Jerusalem--

It was a sound. They heard something. It was a sound as of rushing mighty wind.

It doesn't mean it was windy. It could have been perfectly calm, but, they heard this sound. So it was an audible phenomenon. Now why a rushing mighty wind?

Well, if you know your Bibles, and I know some of you do, you know that the Lord spoke to Job through a whirlwind. The Lord's voice came from that.

You remember that Jesus in Jerusalem was there with Nicodemus and was probably walking outside as the breeze shot through the trees above them, and He said, "the spirit blows where he wills." And you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going. He likened the movement of the Spirit to a wind.

Also, did you know that in Hebrew and in Greek, so Old Testament and New Testament,
 
the word in Hebrew for wind is the same word for Spirit.

And in Greek, the word for wind is the same word for Spirit.

The sound and it filled the whole house where they were sitting, so that got their attention.

Then, here's the second phenomenon.

Then, there appeared to them divided tongues--

now notice again-- as of fire. It is not fire it has the voraciousness of fire…

It's what they saw. It's a visible phenomenon as of fire.

Doesn't necessitate that they're deriving heat from it. It's something they saw, divided tongues as of fire

and sat upon each of them.

Why fire? Well, again, if you know your Bibles, you know that sometimes fire was used as a symbol of God's presence.

What did Moses see in Exodus 3?He walked by something that was a burning bush. It was burning but not consumed. And the angel of the Lord spoke to him through that Bush. Said, take your shoes off, your on holy ground. On Mt.Sinai when God spoke and gave the law, there was lightning, and thunder, and fire, and smoke, a symbol of the presence of God.

What was it that directed the children of Israel by night for 40 years through the wilderness?

A pillar of fire.

So these are symbols that they would be, as Jewish people in their history, familiar with. Wind and fire, a symbol of the presence of God, a symbol of the Spirit of God. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit."

What we’re reading about is an event that can never be repeated..

You never read of what happened at Pentecost happening ever again like this.

Because it's the birthday of the Church. This is day one of the Church.

God is getting their attention , he is joining them and He is arming them to go forth into the world.

Only 120 of them are in this Church. And it says, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit."

All 120, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, including Mary and Martha, including the Twelve Apostles.

"They were all, all of them, were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they began to speak with other tongues

as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. Imagine !

And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and they were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language." His own dialecto-- his own dialect.

Now Galileans-- you know about Galileans--

everybody in Jerusalem thought of Galileans as hicks ?

They're just, you know-- Uneducated, uncouth, country bumpkins or people from the mountains or province. And a Galilean would speak they were though to be so dumb.

But something gets their attention. They're not only speaking other languages. They're speaking in direct dialects of people who have come to the Feast of Pentecost, Jewish people, who are from all over the known world. And some of the places it's a three day journey there to Jerusalem, at least, if not more. And a three day journey or a week journey back. So they're from afar, and people are going, how is it that these Galileans are able to speak our dialect? And it says Verse 7, "They were amazed and marveled

saying to one another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one in our own language in which we were born--

Parthian, Medes, Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia. Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya joining Cyrene, visitors from Rome both Jews and Prosylites, Cretans--" that'sfrom the island of Crete-- "and Arabs. We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God."

In 1 Corinthians 14--

12, 13, 14 talk about gifts of the Spirit, and Chapter 14

goes into depth about the gift of tongues.

He uses a different word there.

He uses the word glossolalia.

Glossolalia is a Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 14. The huge difference between the tongues in Acts 2

and the tongues in 1 Corinthians 14-- Acts 2 understandable languages. Acts Chapter 14, unable to understand those languages without a special gift of the Spirit called the gift of the interpretation of tongues. Indiscernible, unable to discern them. So these references are not the same.

Why do I bring that up? Because some people say, well, the gift of tongues

was given to the early Church so they could preach the gospel. That's not why the gift of tongues was given. In fact, they are not preaching the gospel in this as you will see.

I want to point that out to you in a minute.

They're not preaching the gospel.

They're not using this to convey a message to human beings.

But there are similarities but there are differences in the 1 Corinthians 14 gift of tongues and the Acts Chapter 2.

Again, Acts Chapter 2 is atypical, non-repeatable event.

It is the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church. These tongues are in known languages

to get the attention of outsiders. The 1 Corinthians 14 gift of tongues is not for outsiders. In fact, Paul says if somebody is in your assembly who is unlearned, they don't get it they're an unbeliever,

and they hear you speak in tongues, they're going to think you're nuts. They're going to think you're crazy. Now why would they think you're crazy?

Well, because it's a language that you don't understand, that they don't understand. It's not the same kind of speaking in tongues.

And in 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says whoever speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to man but he speaks to God. And he doesn't understand, no one understands him, however, in the Spirit he speaks mysteries.

Verse 11, they're not preaching the gospel. Not yet.. They are sharing with each other ..whoever can hear…



In fact, they don't begin the gospel preaching till Verse 14. And what people hear is Verse 11, Cretans, Arabs we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God. They're still not hearing preaching. They're hearing praising. Their hearing testimony…

Let stop here for today……

Lord,

We are ever thankful for your word to guide us through this life. We pray this morning that you will open our understanding so that we may incorporate your desires into our heart. We ask this morning for your blessing upon our efforts here as well as on our families. We ask for your strength and guidance as we teach our children and set a righteous example for loved ones and others that our lives touch. We pray for our brothers and sisters everywhere that they may be safe from harm as they minister around the world. We ask for your mercy for those who struggle both physically and spiritually.. Help us to distinguish daily your works from the guile of Satan..

We ask these things in Jesus’ name…

Amen