Dr. Rodney Plunket

Acts 2

Today is the day of Pentecost according to the Christian calendar. The Jews used more than one calendar system in the time of Christ and finally settled on one that is different from the one that Christians adopted, but according to the one adopted by Christians this is the day that best conforms to the Pentecost of Christ’s day. Pentecost came fifty days after Passover. As many of you will know, it was fifty days after the Passover of Christ’s death that the Holy Spirit descended and the Church was born.

The Book of Acts reports that special Pentecost and tells of the life of the Church following that event. It also makes very clear that the power of the Holy Spirit was central to all that happened in the Church as it spread across the Roman world. That day of Pentecost is foundational to the Church of Jesus Christ. This morning I want us to try and understand that day better. And to do that we need to do some fairly serious Bible study.

Let’s begin in the Old Testament. Let’s begin in the Book of Numbers. In Num 11:11-15 the responsibilities of leading Israel have caused Moses to experience unhealthy anxieties and stress. The people constantly complain, and they look to him for all kinds of day-to-day decisions. He is finding the strain overwhelming. He complains to the Lord, and the Lord responds. He tells Moses to select seventy elders and to bring them to the tent of meeting.

When the selected elders are gathered at the tabernacle, the Lord comes down in a cloud and speaks to Moses, and the Bible says that he "took some of the spirit that was on him (i.e., upon Moses) and put it on the seventy elders; and when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied." However, they did not become permanent prophets, in fact, they never prophesied again.

But that is not the whole story. Two men, Eldad & Medad, who were "among those registered," did not come to the tent of meeting but stayed inside the camp. Nevertheless, the spirit rested upon them and they prophesied.

Joshua was very loyal to Moses and likely felt that the prophesying of these two men within the camp could adversely affect Moses’ authority. As a result Joshua asked Moses to make Eldad and Medad stop prophesying. But listen to the response of Moses. He said, "Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them all!" (Num 11:29). This passage is significant because it is the first statement in the Bible to reveal that God’s people would be greatly blessed if they had the spirit of God.

Let’s look at two later Old Testament prophets who realized this same need. Let’s turn first to Ezekiel and listen to the Lord’s words in Ezek 11:17-20.

Therefore say: Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. When they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them; I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may follow my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

In Ezekiel (Ezek) 18:31 the Lord says, "Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?" Now look with me at Ezek 36:24-28

I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Notice that in all three of these passages from Ezekiel the purpose of this new spirit is to produce an inward renewal that will cause the people to live according to the will of God. Let’s be sure and get the point here. Ezekiel is preaching to people who are in exile because they have failed to abide by the will of God. Ezekiel is predicting that in the future, when the Lord gathers his people together from all the places where they have been scattered, at that time he will give to them a new spirit so that an inward renewal will take place which will cause them to live according to his commands. In other words, he is going to work on his people from the inside. Also be sure to give special attention to the fact that in chapters 11 & 36 this new spirit is referred to in a context of the Lord describing the restoration of his people, and in each place he describes that restoration as a time when he will gather his people together from every country into which they had been scattered.

Another relevant passage is Ezek 39:29. This verse is another which comes at the end of a section in which the Lord is referring to the restoration of Israel, and here he also describes that restoration as a time when he will gather his people together from among the nations. At the end of that description he says, "and I will never again hide my face from them, when I pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God."

Now be reminded of what the Lord says in the passage from the Book of Joel, the passage that we used as our Scripture reading this morning. The book of Joel primarily centers around a plague of locusts that had devastated the land of Judah. These migratory grasshoppers had voracious appetites, and they had all but stripped the land clean of edible vegetation.

The prophet is inspired to see something very important in the plague of grasshoppers. He sees that this devastating event is just a taste of the future if the people do not prepare for that "great and terrible day of the Lord" which is to come. Therefore, he calls for repentance and fasting in 2:12-17. He then, in 2:18-27, confidently assures the people that the Lord’s response to their repentance will be to bless them greatly.

What does all of this have to do with "the new spirit from God"? That is what Joel 2:28-32 tells us. It tells us that after their repentance, the Lord will pour out his spirit upon the people and wondrous things will take place. And "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (2:32). They will be saved from "the great and terrible day of the Lord."

Now, before we turn to the NT let’s quickly summarize what we have seen. First, Moses, way back in the book of Numbers, desired that God place his spirit upon all of his people. Second, Ezekiel foresaw that the Lord would, indeed, place a new spirit within his people and that such would occur when the kingdom was restored and the people of God were gathered together from all over the world. Third, Ezekiel makes clear that this spirit would be given so that the people would abide by the will of God. Fourth, the prophet Joel also foresaw the pouring out of God’s spirit upon his people, and he saw that its coming would be preceded by repentance.

Now let’s go to the NT keeping all of this in mind. Let’s think first about the preaching of the prophet John the Baptist. The New Testament says that he went before Jesus to prepare the way of the Lord. How did he prepare the way? He preached, according to Mark 1:4, "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins," and multitudes of people did repent and were baptized, "confessing their sins," as a result of his preaching. But do you also remember what John the Baptist said about the one who was to come after him? Listen to his words in Mark 1:7-8. He said,

"The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

It is all proceeding just as Joel foresaw. The restoration of the people of God would be preceded by repentance, and repentance is both the goal and the effect of John’s preaching. But there is more. Just as Ezekiel and Joel foresaw, so too now John the Baptist; repentance would be followed by the giving of the new spirit from God.

Now turn to Acts 1. Here Jesus has already been crucified and raised from the dead. He has appeared to the twelve apostles and is talking with them. Let’s listen to their conversation as recorded in Ax 1:4-8.

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. "This," he said, "is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."

So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replied, "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

For a person who has read Ezekiel and Joel, these words should create tremendous excitement. One senses that the transforming spirit predicted by these great Old Testament prophets is about to be given by God to his people.

And then it happens. In Ax 2 we read of the Holy Spirit descending upon the followers of Jesus. That enables these disciples to speak in a multitude of languages. And a multitude of languages was needed, because this was Pentecost in Jerusalem, and on the Day of Pentecost there were Jews from all over the world there. All the different languages being spoken caused skeptics to claim that these followers of Jesus were drunk. Peter defends against this charge by quoting from the Book of Joel, the same passage we read as our Scripture reading this morning.

What is the point that Peter expected to make to his initial audience from that quotation? I hope that is obvious. Peter want his listeners to know that the Holy Spirit of God had been poured out. Believers from every nation into which the Jewish people have been scattered are being preached to in their own language. Do you see the convergence of the two realities prophesied in the OT. People are being gathered together from all over the world; the Holy Spirit is being given by God just as Joel had predicted several hundred years earlier. And all of this follows a time of great period of repentance and renewal generated by the preaching of John the Baptist as well as the preaching of Jesus and His followers. Peter, therefore, in Acts 2 has good reason to contend that these people who are proclaiming "God’s deeds of power" are not full of wine; they are full of that new spirit from God for which the Jews had been waiting since the time of Ezekiel.

Peter continues preaching, and, in vv 22-36 he seeks to convince them that Jesus, whom they crucified, is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, the king like unto David for whom they have longed for centuries. The people are convicted by this dreadful accusation, and they cry out, "Brothers, what should we do?" Listen to Peter’s response in Ax 2:38-39.

Peter said to them, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him."

Peter makes clear that by being baptized they can have all their sins washed away, but he says even more, and what he says maintains the tie between this very special Pentecost and those prophetic words in the OT. He makes clear that the Holy Spirit from God will be given to them as well, just like the prophets Joel and Ezekiel had said, just like Moses had wanted. Peter preached that God’s Spirit was to be placed upon all who, believing that Jesus was the Christ, repented and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. He went even further. He also insisted that this promise of the Spirit extended to all whom the Lord would call, and that phrase, "whom the Lord calls," goes right back to Joel, Joel 2:32.

I think many have never realized why Peter’s sermon was so effective. I hope what we have said this morning helps. The people saw signs, signs which Peter convincingly connected back to their sacred scriptures. These signs thus connected persuaded his audience that the Lord was fulfilling ancient promises to restore Israel, to make her all that he had intended.

You see the church is forever to be the restored Israel, the true Israel, the Israel that is true because it is built around a king like David who has been anointed by God and who sits even now at his right hand. But the church is also the restored Israel because it has received the new spirit from God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who allows God to work on us from the inside, the Spirit who helps us to pray, the Spirit who give gifts to us all according to the will of the Father. The Spirit who has often been hidden from us because, I suspect, of concerns about too much enthusiasm or too little control.

Realizing that Christians have been given the Spirit of God will not solve every problem. It will not on its own guarantee doctrinal purity, nor will it cause us to become irreversibly one. We need to remember that first century churches had heresies and disunity in spite of the fact that they believed that the Holy Spirit was within them.

But although no panacea for all church problems, the awareness that the Holy Spirit from God is within us means that we are not alone. It means that God is actively working within us to transform us according to his will.

Do you remember the prayer of the Apostle Paul in Eph 4:14ff? In v 16 he prays "that according to the riches of" God’s "glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his spirit." Then in vv 20-21 he ends the prayer. He ends with praise. Listen. "Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Amen indeed. May we all open our inner selves ever more fully to the new spirit from God who can do far more than we can ever ask or imagine. May we all be open to his re-creation power, so that we can constantly be made new, and constantly become more and more like Jesus. If you need to begin as did those on the day of Pentecost by repenting of your sins and having them all washed away in the waters of baptism, won’t you come and allow God through his Spirit to create a new heart in you? Won’t you come now as we stand and sing?