The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues^[1] as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." (Act 2:1-13 NIV)

When I was looking at the NIV for a reference as to what you guys were going to be reading, I saw that it starts this chapter different than my version. Mine says “had fully come,” yours just says came. I wondered about that so I looked at the text using this bible software I’ve got and noticed that the KJV has the Greek rendered that way as well, but none of the other major versions do. I thought that was odd, so I checked out the Strong’s number on the word, which is the only means of getting at the original language that I have, and noticed that the word has an odd definition. Here it is:

συμπληρόω

sumplēroō

soom-play-ro'-o

From G4862 and G4137; to implenish completely, that is, (of space) to swamp (a boat), or (of time) to accomplish (passively be complete): - (fully) come, fill up.

Thayer’s Greek Dictionary has it as to be full completely, as in the hold of a boat or completely fulfilled in time. I thought that was an interesting choice of words, considering how the holiday of Pentecost was celebrated. Hold you finger here in the text and we’re gonna go back to Leviticus 23, starting in verse 15.

This day that we call Pentecost is the Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks. It was held on the 50^th day after Passover, so it was called “50^th Day”, which, in Greek, is Pen-tay-kos-tay.

" 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. (Lev 23:15-16 NIV)

I did a bunch of research on the internet on how Shavuot was celebrated and it made me catch something in the phrasing that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

We had a Christmas tradition in our house growing up that has now carried over to our children. I think I called it the Christmas box, or something. It was a box with 25 drawers, each with a number on it. Starting on the 1^st of December we would open up the drawer for that day and it would have a small gift in it. Usually candy, but it could be a matchbox car or a marble or whatever. We used to count down the days till Christmas had fully come. And that’s exactly what devout Jewish males were supposed to do starting the day after Passover. They were to count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath.

So when the day of Pentecost had fully come, there they all were, together in the same place. Now remember, up to this point they are still acting on an Old Testament mindset. I’m sure that all 12 of the Apostles doing what good Jewish boys are supposed to do during this time, I’m sure that the evening before, they had reached 50.

Outside, a few verses later, you see much of the same thing. There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jew from every nation under heaven. Shavuot was one of the three temple days in the Old Testament calendar. The first is, of course, Passover. You were required to go to wherever the priests had set up the Bronze Altar to bring your sacrifices to God. On Passover it was a lamb. On the day after the Sabbath on that week, it was a first fruit offering, probably of barley… Then count off 50 days and bring more sacrifices and the first fruit offerings of wheat and whatever. At the time of our story the temple is where the sacrifices are brought to, so every Jew was required to make the trip to Jerusalem during this time. To this day, the population of Jerusalem nearly doubles at Passover as the devout come for their pilgrimage. It’s like Times Square on New Year Eve with religious connotations. Outside the room that we find the 120 men and women, the city of Jerusalem is filled to the brim with people from all over the world. Take a look.

(verse 9) Parthia, Mede, Elam were all in what is now called Iran… and it’s the same people living there now, the Persians and Medes. Mesopotamia is the region “Between the Rivers” of the Tigris and the Euphrates, what is now called Iraq. Judea we know, Cappadocia is a city in Samaria, Pontus is a little north of there and Asia is what we now call the Middle East… Saudi Arabia, Yemen… Kuwait, Abu Dabai, Dubai. Phrygia and Paphylia were cities in what is now Turkey. Egypt and Libya we know, Cyrene is just a little further than that. Rome is of course in Italy, and here Luke mentions that proselytes, or converts to Judaism, had come from there also, Crete is an Island in the Mediterranean and my MacArthur Bible says that the Arabs were from South of Damascus, which would make them Syrians and Jordanians.

All of these different nations were there, from every corner of the Roman Empire, in town for the Holy Day. There would have been a million people teeming in the city with the cries and cacophony of a hundred different languages. It was also the time when the first grapes came in, and new wine was on the shelves and in the markets. The vegetables were in and fruits were starting to appear and the celebration was on in the place to be, Jerusalem the Holy City.

I think its important to note that there were Jews from every nation there because the Jews had been flung to every corner of the world. God had used the Assyrian to take capture the Idolotrous Northern Kingdom of Israel, now called Samaria over 500 years ago. The Southern Kingdom of Judea had gone Idolotrous and been taken away some 400 years ago. These Jews were spread to the furthest reaches of the empires that they were captured by as we could see in the book of Ester.

The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those seeking their destruction. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. (Est 9:2 NIV)

The Persian Empire was huge and they were in all the provinces. From history we know that they were all over the Greek Empire as well, and here in Luke we see that the whole Roman Empire had devout Jews in it. God had dispersed them, they’re still dispersed. And like today, only a small part of them had returned to Israel. Nehemiah said there were about 50,000 that came with him. There were a few that were already there, more came after him, but for the most part, the bulk of the Jews in the world did not live in Judea. They were still required to make sacrifices though, so the devout would make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem on the holy days, and then return to their lands.

So what we have is the equivalent to 4^th of July Weekend here in MB. Tourist, religious tourists, were in town by the droves. This years Holy Days festivities were marked by a certain sense of oddness surrounding the rather unpleasant death of an itinerant preacher by the name of Jesus. Remember that when He entered into Jerusalem 60 days ago, the whole city had turned up to cheer His entrance. A lot of these tourists had started to arrive then and hadn’t started the trip home across the know world just yet. This would have been an interesting year, and you know how rumors and talk goes. The talk of the town would have been Jesus, and the drama of the Sanhedrin pushing ole Pilot around to get Him killed, and didn’t you hear… 3 days later His tomb was empty… yeah, I heard that the disciples stole the body… yeah, right how many guards were there… still, what else could have happened… don’t know… hey, what’s the noise?

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. (Act 2:1-3 NIV)

120 men and women were sitting in an upper room on the 2^nd high holy day of the Jewish calendar. They were all of one accord, which I bet made a remarkable contrast to the world outside of them at the time. Native born Jews, raised in the area, all asking themselves some remarkable questions about life, and death and what it all means. It was noisy outside, and I’m sure that inside the heads of those 120 it was pretty noisy there as well… and out of that came the sound, like the sound of wind in a hurricane. Do you think you would have jumped? I think I would have. I’m not entirely sure what I would have done when it looked like I was on fire… great sounds and sights, overwhelming the emotions and senses… but remember Elijah? He saw great sights as well, fire and earthquakes and great rushing wind… but God was not in the wind, or the fire or quake.

And… in addition to the wind and the flames… the Holy Spirit filled them. The Holy Spirit had filled people before, but not like this. Now He had come to live with men. Now he was here to stay. The great kingdom of Heaven had been claimed in the hearts of those men and women, a bridgehead had been established and now the curse of the ages had been reversed. Man had spent 4 thousand lonely God deprived years away from the Garden when God had walked with us in the cool of the evening. God had come to walk with them for 3 years and die for them. Then He had left and He sent the other person of the Trinity to live among the redeemed people of earth. Immanuel, God with us.

There was yet another curse being reversed, at least temporarily. When God had seen us gathering at Babel to build a mighty tower in our own name, He had scattered us by confusing our languages. If you look at the first Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, the word in that story of Babel is the same word used here in verse 6. Again we have a confused crowd, and they were confused… they had been confused for 3000 years. They were so confused when a group of Galilean hicks came running out of a building speaking a language that was common to them all, the only explanation they could come up with is that they had been in to the new wine. And what was it that they were hearing… why, the wonderful works of God. Well… what else would they be speaking. How many times have you just been knocked over by the awesome power of God that you’ve just wanted to shout it to the world? They were shouting and the miracle is, the people heard them just like in the beginning when God created us for His glory, with one tongue and one nation to praise His mighty works. This here is the picture of perfect humanity. Speaking everyone’s language and proclaiming the Glory of God in the Highest.

This is the birth of the church. The first thing they did was proclaim the mighty works of God. I guess we can say that’s its not really a fair comparison, cause they already had a building… but it was just somebody’s house. I suppose we could say that they had even spent 10 days in a planning session determining hierarchy. Perhaps they had come up with some growth strategies and had begun to organize some teams. Maybe. Whatever their plans were though, ended with sound of a rushing wind. When God Himself descended upon the group that could now properly call themselves The Church, the first thing they did was run outside and proclaim the wonders of God till the crowd thought they were drunk.

Let me ask the question. Do you think that anyone in Myrtle Beach has ever thought that about our church? Have we ever, even as ourselves been so worked up over how great God is that people have begun to wonder if there was anything special in the bean casserole? Has anyone even thought that we were weird?

We’re going to see this theme over and over again in this book. God Himself gets involved in visible ways, and what we see is an outpouring of people proclaiming His wonders. I’ve never read the Purpose Driven Life, but I do know what our purpose is. We were created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That is why you have a mouth and don’t absorb food through your skin like worms do, so you can proclaim His wonders. If your not doing that, you’re not doing what you’re supposed be doing, regardless of whatever other achievements you’ve made. And if you’re using that mouth to curse Him, woe to you my friend. I wouldn’t want to be there when you meet Him and, if you were smart, you wouldn’t either.

The church has been borne on the backs of men and women, like the 120 and like us, who have dedicated their lives to proclaiming God’s greatness to the world. That great cloud of witnesses stands around us bearing scars of a million different deaths to bring the good news of Christ to you. What are we doing?

I mean really, what are we doing? Are we here tonight because we like the food? Are we here for the fellowship? Are we here for the studies? Or are we here to proclaim the greatness of God and His wonders. Do we go to work to proclaim the greatness of God and His wonders? Do we eat, do we sleep, do we play to glorify the God of our salvation?

Or are we rejecting Him? Has the death of God Himself meant nothing to us, to me? Worse yet… are you still in your sins proclaiming your own goodness? Are we so arrogant to think that we are worthy of praise, when the one who gives us each and every breath has decided to give Himself up to death, so that if we believe in Him we could live?

I don’t think those 120 would have thought so, and we’ll see what it was that the crowd was hearing next week, because Luke recorded the words of Peter’s speech and we’ll take that apart and look at it. They were moved by the Holy Spirit to tell everyone who would listen, and a bunch who wouldn’t, that Jesus Christ was God and that He had loved them so much, He gave Himself up for them. Do you still not believe? If you believe do you still not trust? If you trust, are you still silent? Is there even a possibility that we could be marked out as those crazy Jesus people. Are we in Southstrand to become a forgotten footnote in an expansive story of the Glory of God? Or are we to do deeds that shall be remembered for all eternity.

And what of you, unbeliever, are you still proclaiming your own glory. Has the story of your life been the story of “I?” I promise you this, when God does something, He does not share His glory with anyone. He has not worked to glorify you, but only to glorify Himself. Are you still trusting in your own salvation? Have you been looking to your own wonders, your own greatness? That’s not of God. Trust in Jesus and His greatness, none other is worthy.

Prayer: