Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I now can sing Since I've been redeemed I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock I faith in Christ my redeemer King I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock Then roll, roll, billows roll I'm on the everlasting rock of ages Roll, roll, billows roll I'm on the everlasting rock the storms may rage and the billows roll I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock no earthly storm air can move my soul I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock Then roll, roll, billows roll I'm on the everlasting rock of ages Roll, roll, billows roll I'm on the everlasting rock I am secure for my faith will hold I'm on the everlasting, everlasting rock My life He doth with his love in full I'm on the everlasting.
O' er every thought and step Reason.
The light of truth to us Display and make us know and choose thy way.
Let Holy Spirit every Lord that we from God may near depart that we from God may depart.
Lead us to holiness the road which we must take to dwell with God.
Lead us to Christ, the living way.
Nor let us from his best to strain Nor let us from his best to stray.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: Welcome to the Voice of Hope. I'm your host, Anthony High.
Today we continue our series in the Book of Acts, and I'm once again joined by Arlen Horst. Our study takes us to Acts chapter two, where we see the Holy Spirit come upon the believers on the day of Pentecost.
This moment marks a turning point as God's people become the dwelling place of His Spirit. We'll look at the signs of wind and fire, consider who the Holy Spirit is and see how this promise is for all who respond to Christ in repentance and obedience.
This passage reminds us that the Holy Spirit's work did not end in Acts. It continues in the lives of every believer. Today.
Let's join Arlen as we turn to Acts chapter 2 and consider the arrival of the Holy Spirit.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: So in Acts chapter two, we see the Holy Spirit poured out.
And this is new first time, totally different level than ever before.
And so he arrives and his work is validated right away with the speaking in tongues.
But we also want to focus on ourselves, because as we study this, I would like for us to invite the Holy Spirit and experience Him.
You know, the Holy Spirit is confusing and sometimes held at arm's length because we're not sure exactly what to do with it, we do with him, which is unfortunate. And so I want our takeaway to be to invite the Holy Spirit into our lives and experience Him.
[00:05:00] Speaker D: I caught something that you said there. You said it and then you corrected yourself and said Him.
[00:05:05] Speaker C: I did.
[00:05:06] Speaker D: And that's probably a key point we need to recognize. It's easy in the English language. Is it? Right now it is a person in the Trinity.
[00:05:14] Speaker C: Right?
[00:05:14] Speaker D: That's a key key point there.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Yes. This is part of who God is.
Let's look at what happened here in Acts, chapter two and open ourselves up to the Spirit and more of Him.
So in Acts, chapter two, it's clearly divided into three different sections. Today I'd like to look at the first two. The Holy Spirit coming and then Peter's sermon. We're going to look a little bit at Peter's sermon, but the majority of our time will be spent looking at the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Have you ever been to another country where you go visit their temple or their holy site?
[00:05:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I've been to other countries and I've seen their sites, but I was
[00:05:53] Speaker C: not in one, so. Okay. Once when I went to New York City, we visited a Buddhist temple.
Our hosts there had taken us to the temple.
And then in Nepal, we also had the opportunity to visit a holy site. But it struck me because as we go into their holy sites, they have a list of do's and don'ts. You don't do this and do behave like this.
In 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, we're called the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
And I don't know how often we connect this holiness with us being a temple, like many other religions do with their holy sites.
But I wanted to mention that here at the beginning because this is a big deal. This is a big shift. The curtain in the temple was ripped from top to bottom. Like, that's not the holiest of holies. And where is that?
It's us. And so this demands our respect.
This sets it at a high level. And like, how does that change what I do to this body? Like, that needs to be the motivation for our behavior. This holiness that is in us through the Holy Spirit. Like that should change how I.
How we do everything.
And. Yeah, and that's kind of to set the tone of where we're going with today.
How big of a change it was for humanity, really. Like, God pours out his spirit on us.
Incredible.
[00:07:24] Speaker D: There are two aspects to that as you talk about that. There is the individual. Like, as we get into it. It's individualistic, but as Peter points out, it's also corporate, like, as the believers are together and they work together.
That is also the temple.
[00:07:42] Speaker C: Yeah, we'll say more about that when we. After we read the passage. Let's read Acts 2, 1, 13, and then we'll discuss the Holy Spirit coming.
[00:07:51] Speaker D: When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord, in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind. And it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Then there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and 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. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans?
And how is it we hear each in our own language in which we were born? Parthenians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene. Visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabswe hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God.
So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others mocking, said, they are full of new wine.
[00:09:22] Speaker C: So in verse one, God sends the Spirit on Pentecost.
And you could say, well, why? Why did he do it? But I think it is interesting to look at Pentecost and how it was started in the Old Testament and see some of the. Some of the similarities and what God is up to in the New Testament.
If you look in Leviticus 23 or Deuteronomy 16, it explains some of these Old Testament feasts. And many of them have been fulfilled in Christ. About half, they say, to the exact day, Passover, Christ sacrificed.
And now we have Pentecost, which is 50 days after Passover, or seven weeks after the day after Passover, as I understand it, which is why it's also called the Feast of Weeks.
And this is when the children of Israel were supposed to bring their harvest and offer it like a wave offering.
And the Feast of Weeks was also the holiday when all the male Jews were required to travel to Jerusalem. There was only three of the feast of the Passover, the feast of weeks, and the feast of Tabernacles and the list of places you read. They were from all over. And they would bring a portion of their harvest.
In Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 8, it talks about some of the things that they could bring.
Wheat, I think, grapes, figs. And then they would offer this portion to the Lord.
The feast of weeks was seven weeks or 50 days after Passover.
And.
Yeah, why? Why did God choose that day? And how do you answer that question? I'm not exactly sure.
But one of the things that they were supposed to do at the feast of weeks was to wave two loaves. And many people have said that is symbolic of the Jews and the Gentiles coming into the church.
I'm fascinated by how many of the feasts were fulfilled to the day in Jesus Christ. And then the ones that were fulfilled, what about those? What's coming?
It makes you ask that question. And there you have many ideas and interpretations.
But I think it's worthwhile to think about if some of them were fulfilled so exact, surely there's something coming in the future with the ones that haven't been fulfilled. God ordained Pentecost to be the day that the Holy Spirit comes in new way. Like this has never happened before. He hasn't poured out his Spirit on all flesh.
And if you Skip the chapter two division, like, just go from chapter one right into chapter two, like the 120 are there, then they're still there.
And then God pours out his spirit on them. And then I'd like to think about the wording that is used in verse two.
Okay. It's compared to wind. You sound of a mighty rushing wind.
That is a good descriptive word of the Spirit.
Wind. You can't see it, you can feel it and you know it's real.
And that's a lot like the Holy Spirit. In fact, In John chapter 3, Jesus uses that comparison to the wind when he's describing to Nicodemus about the work of the Spirit.
And it's powerful. Like, we all know the effects of tornadoes and hurricanes, like strong wind.
And yeah, I like the. It's a good illustration word for the Spirit wind.
And then in verse three, he talks about the cloven tongues, like fire that came upon each person.
And if you look back through the Old Testament, back through the rest of Scripture, and look at how many times fire is used to illustrate God. Oh, many, many passages talk about our God being a consuming fire. So I think it's only fitting as he reveals this part of himself, there's fire that accompanies it.
And what's unique about this time, though, is the fire is individual. It's on the heads of individuals in this corporate setting. The 120 work together corporately and they saw the fire individually.
And if you think about the people that were there, it's relatively small.
120 people is not that big of a group.
It's like God, are you sure you know what you're doing here? Like, this is just a little crew of people when you look at the size of the whole world.
But I'd like to, you know, step back and tell me a time when God was limited by size, something small.
And when humans get the feeling that, oh, that's small, how can God do this? You can know that there's a good story coming up, right? I mean, yeah, look at David and Goliath. Look at Gideon's army. Like, it's so small. God, how are you going to do this? I mean, you could go on and on with examples, but the lunch, the five loaves and the two fish, so small. But look at what God can do with small things.
[00:14:18] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: So here we have small beginnings.
Verse 5 and 6, I think, illustrate and show us how God is at work.
God is here because Pentecost was when Jews from all the nations were coming to Jerusalem, so the people were there. He pours out his spirit.
And Second in verse 6, he validates this work with the speaking in tongues, speaking in all these languages.
And the people, is it in verse seven are like, wait, aren't all these Galileans?
Like, these are just Galileans. How can they know all these languages? And so they were taken aback by hearing their language from the Galileans. Here's God bringing the people together and then validating it, this pouring out of the Spirit by having all these people hearing their own languages.
What a timely miracle. First of all, in verse six it says they were confused. Like, then they were amazed and marveled. And then they start talking about it.
And it's neat to see where all the people came from on a map. And it covered a broad area.
[00:15:28] Speaker D: It was the known world at that point.
[00:15:30] Speaker C: Yeah, it's incredible. It's neat to see how God orchestrated this.
Of course, verse 12 and 13, like all events, you have the people that are amazed.
What does this mean?
And then you also have the people that are, ah, they're just drunk.
And it's like, oh, isn't that typical? I mean, we have that all the time when there's People involved.
That brings us to the end of the first section and the Holy Spirit being poured out.
Before we move into Peter's sermon, I'd like to think a little bit about the Holy Spirit. Like, how do we get the Holy Spirit today?
This is also a big picture.
Thinking about the Book of Acts, like, I think it's very hard for us to take these examples in Acts and say, this is what must happen today.
Some people do. But did you ever hear the great wind and see the tongues of fire?
I never did. Does that mean we don't have the Spirit?
I don't think there's many people that say, well, we have to hear the wind and see the fire before we get the Spirit.
But it is a good question. How do we get the Spirit?
And to answer that question, I'd like to use the things that are presented here in Acts that Peter mentions later. In chapter two, he says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
So there he connects it to repentance.
Over in Acts 5. 32, it's a similar passage, but Peter says, and we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
There the Spirit is connected to obedience. And if you go back to Luke chapter 11, Jesus says, if you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give this Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
So what's the requirement to get the Holy Spirit there asking.
And here again, I don't think we should just take one of those verses and say, this is how you get more of the Holy Spirit. It's a piece of it. It's. It's a like, let's take the whole of Scripture and if we want more of the Spirit, yeah, I think repentance is necessary. I think obey obedience like Acts 5. And then asking for him like, it gives us a rounded picture. Maybe there's something I missed. I don't think God is limited to one method. Thankfully, he's a big God and there's variation in his working. The second question I'd like us to think about is, how are we filled with the Spirit?
And for that, I think of the illustration with a cup of water that has rocks in it, and I have one of those cups along.
But if we see this cup here, picture this cup of water filled with rocks.
And is it filled with Water. And it's full of the top. I can pour a little bit of water in there.
And the water is coming out now. It's overflowing.
But is it full of water? And I think this is how people are sometimes. Because if I take out. If I take one of these rocks out, take out a few of these rocks, now the water level goes down and we can be filled with the Spirit, if we want to call it that, we can take on more of the Spirit. And here the issue is me. Like, I get in the way.
I'm not who I should be. Sin gets in the way. But the more I purify myself, the more I'm cleansed, the more God can fill me and work.
And so, you know, at conversion, do we get the spirit?
I believe absolutely. Are we filled with the Spirit as much as we allow God to fill us? And I think that's. It's up to us more than up to God. Like, God wants to fill all of us with himself, with the Spirit. And that brings me to the next point of how do you know if you have the Holy Spirit? Because there's many answers to that question. You have to speak in tongues, you have to heal people, then you know you have the Holy Spirit. Right?
And. Yeah, how do you answer that question? It is a big question.
Romans 8 speaks to this.
Well, and here again, this is not original with me, but I've heard someone refer to Romans 8 as a chapter about our hero, the Holy Spirit, our hero, the Holy Spirit. And if you read Romans chapter 8, right there at the beginning, you will see that to be filled with the Spirit is to get rid of the carnal nature, to get rid of the sinful nature.
Someone has explained it to me that the sign of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the holy life.
And I like that. It makes a lot of sense to think that God, thrice holy being the best description of who God is. Holy, holy, holy. And if he's going to fill us with a piece of himself, then you will become more holy.
[00:20:21] Speaker D: You become like him. Yeah, is the other terminology.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: And so I don't say you have to speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You have to do this. Or I say, if you have the Holy Spirit, you will be living a holier life.
And then that's how we can know we have the Holy Spirit. And you're right, it is hard. These things are tough. And we can.
There's. Sometimes we say no, we shrink away from it. Like we don't want to go There do we have to.
But God is patient and God works with us, and we're grateful. I also want us to think about this idea of how we quickly swing out of balance. Like, I think many times our focus is on the Holy Spirit, or it can be on the Holy Spirit. And if, as we see in John 16:13, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will not speak on his own, and he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come, he will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. Like the Holy Spirit's focus and emphasis is to honor Jesus Christ, to point us to Jesus.
And so I'm a little bit uncomfortable when focus turns to the Holy Spirit and it's all about the Holy Spirit
[00:21:31] Speaker D: or the person on the stage.
[00:21:33] Speaker C: That too, when you know, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will be pointing people to him. Right. And so I think that's a good perspective to keep in mind.
The Holy Spirit points us to Jesus.
I want us to be welcoming of the Holy Spirit and invite him in.
I think because of some of our experiences, because of some interactions we've had with people that said they had the Spirit, we keep them at arm's length.
Let's take down that wall and welcome the Holy Spirit for who he is into our lives. Get rid of the rocks, fill ourselves with more of who God is, and good things will happen. Good things will come out of that.
So this takes us to the second part of Acts, chapter two, which is Peter's sermon. And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on Peter's sermon. There's a few highlights I want to mention. The first one is, I think it's incredible and neat to see how as he preached the Jews who were hearing this, there was many of them, it clicked, it made sense.
This is what they were taught the Jewish religion their whole life. And to hear Peter preaching this, and I believe it was a light bulb moment, the light comes on. Yes, we want this.
[00:22:42] Speaker D: And do I have this right? Peter is quoting from Joel.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: Yes. He has a long quote from Joel. He has a quote from Psalm, I believe.
And I think that's the second point. That's very neat. Like, Peter knew the Old Testament and he quoted it and brought it in the Bible into his sermon. And that's a good challenge for us. How well do I know Scripture and tie that into what's going on around me? I was challenged when I thought about that because do I like, look at read the newspaper and say Ah, look at that. That's fulfilling the passage about the selfish part or pride going before fall. Like, we can do that if we read it with the right eyes. And I think that's what Peter was doing. And so I want to be like that. I want to be a student of my Bible and apply it to life.
Another thing from Peter's sermon that is notable is verse 24. It says there was no way for death to hold him.
Like Jesus died and death couldn't hold him.
And I take comfort in the fact that soon, soon that's going to be said of all of us. And then he ends the sermon. In verse 36, he says, Let all Israel know this for sure.
God has made him both Lord and Christ. This Jesus whom you crucified. Many Jews were convicted by that and repented. Like, what shall we do? And Peter, Peter leads them.
Verse 40 talks about how with many other words, he taught them, which we don't have record of that here, but we have him leading to that point. And he continued to disciple them. And I believe this is their world clicking with Christianity.
It's coming together.
And like, cultures don't change fast. So, you know, these are Jewish. This was a Jewish stronghold.
So you can believe with these new ideas, there's going to be pushback. There's going to be, wait, what are you doing here? You can't say that here. We're this. And sure enough, that happened to these new Christians.
This was revolutionary. This was a big change. And there were some people that didn't go along with it. They didn't, like, starts small, 120 people. But at the end of Acts chapter two, there's 3,000 that make it their own. And they take it back to their areas. And yeah, it's starting.
God in his wisdom, orchestrated this to happen on Pentecost when he poured out his spirit.
So, yeah, that brings us to the end of today's lesson, kind of to wrap it up, acts chapter two, huge change, exponential growth, 120 to 3,000 for this body of Christ the church.
And so we look at the Holy Spirit arrival, how he's poured out here, and then the work is immediately validated.
And it's encouraging. It's neat to see this, but I want our takeaway to be an invitation to the Holy Spirit into our lives so that we can experience him.
Let's not hold him at arm's length. Let's bring him in.
And if we need to get rid of rocks, repent, do it. Like, let's be vessels that he can use and I would like to end with a promise in John 16 that Jesus gives. He says, when the Holy Spirit comes, He'll guide you in all truth.
That's the comforter that we can have.
This Holy Spirit can be in our lives, guiding us in all truth, which is what we want. This is what people want. So let's push out sin, purify ourselves and fill ourselves with the Spirit and allow him to lead us.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: You've been listening to the Voice of Hope.
Today's study from ACTS Chapter 2 reminds us that the coming of the Holy Spirit was not just a historical moment, but a personal gift for God's people.
We are reminded that the Holy Spirit lives within us, guiding our choices, shaping our character, and gives us strength to follow Christ.
A Spirit filled life is not measured by outward signs, but by a heart that's being changed as we go. May we examine our lives and turn away from what hinders our walk with God and make room for the Spirit to work more fully in us when we do. God uses our changed lives to point others to Christ.
If you've been encouraged by this study in the Book of Acts, we invite you to listen to more of our Bible teaching at Heralds of Hope.
There you'll find past episodes, additional podcasts and videos, as well as ministry updates and links to our content on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. Please be sure to follow and rate us. If you've enjoyed this episode, we'd love to hear from you. You can email us at hopeheraldsofhope.org or call 866-960-0292 and you can write to us at heraldsofhope, 6183 Lincoln Highway, Harrisonville, PA 17228.
Join us the next time as we continue our journey through Acts and see how the Church radiated the Spirit's power.
Until then. May God's Word strengthen your faith and remind you that his work in the world is far from finished.
Thank you for listening to the Voice of Hope.
[00:28:17] Speaker A: Lead us to God, our final rest to be within forever blessed.
Lead us to heaven is bliss to share fullness of joy forever There fullness of joy forever.
