Acts 2:1-11

7/20/2008

“They Were Filled with the Holy Spirit”

It was no accident that Jesus died on the Passover. He came to fulfill what the Passover of old prefigured and foreshadowed and prophesied. The people of God needed a greater Passover, a greater Exodus. Political freedom, social equality, judicial justice, economic prosperity and ecological rejuvenation cannot erase our guilt, remove God’s wrath and deliver us from the condemnation of the law. Truly, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Greater will be his sense of loss if he has so much to let go in his deathbed! Some may say, at least he got to stand at the top of the world; at least he had so much to call his own; at least he accomplished so much! Isn’t it so much better to have had than not to have had any? So much better to try, and experiment with, everything than to hold back and regret later? All that would be true, if this world and this life were all there was to life. But if this world is not all there is to life, as the Bible affirms; if this life of seventy, eighty years, is not all there is to our being, as the Bible affirms, then gaining the whole world only to lose it with our last breath would be such a profound tragedy, especially if we lost our soul along the way to the top--our sense of honor and integrity, of what is good and right and noble, of brotherhood and generosity--and lose our soul eternally under the judgment of God! Jesus came to save us from the eternal loss of our soul--from the vanity of a wasted, meaningless life without any eternal significance; from the wrath of God; from the eternal punishment in the lake of fire.

So it was no accident that Jesus died on the Passover. He died on the Passover to replace the old Passover with a new, better, greater Passover--a Passover that saves us from hell, from sin, from death and from meaninglessness. He died as the true Passover Lamb, whose death delivers us from God’s judgment once for all; whose blood shields us from the wrath of God forever.

And it was no accident that the Holy Spirit came down upon the Church on the day of Pentecost. The Feast of Pentecost is so called because it is fifty days from the Passover. If you recall, the Passover fell upon the fourteenth day of the first month (Ex. 12:6) in a new calendar God established prior to the Exodus. And we are told that the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on the third day of the third month (Ex. 19:16). How many days is that from the Passover, which was on the fourteenth day of the first month? Fifty days. So many Jewish rabbis associate the Pentecost with the coming down of the Lord on Mount Sinai (and with the giving of the Law).

We can easily see the similarities between the two events, namely the descending of God in loud sounds and in fire: “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled…. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire” (Ex. 19:16, 18); “And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:2-4). You see the similarities?

But immediately a sharp contrast becomes readily obvious as well. On the day of the Old Testament Pentecost the people were sternly warned to stay away from the mountain, which was covered with the fire and smoke of God. Should anyone approach the fire-covered mountain and touch it, he would be put to death (Ex. 19:12-13). But on the day of the New Testament Pentecost, the fire came down upon the disciples and rested on each of them! Why the difference? What has changed?

We may be sure that it was not the people that have changed. The disciples were no better than the Israelites at Mount Sinai. They saw the Messiah with their own eyes; they spent three years, observing and learning and living with the incarnate Son of God, listening to His amazing teaching and witnessing His amazing signs and wonders! Yet how often were they chided and rebuked by Jesus for their lack of faith, for being so foolish and slow of heart to believe! How were they any better than the Israelites? Yes, their forefathers constantly grumbled and complained but they also gave so generously for the construction of the tabernacle, to the point that Moses had to tell them to stop bringing their contribution! Surely, the disciples in themselves were no better than the Israelites at Mount Sinai!

If the people didn’t change, then did the Holy Spirit change? Was He less holy than He used to be before? No, the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, equal in power and glory with God the Father and God the Son. As God, the Holy Spirit cannot deny Himself. The Holy Spirit cannot become less holy than He is eternally. The fire, in which God came down on Mount Sinai, was the same fire that came down upon the disciples of Jesus Christ--a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. The fire on the disciples was no less dangerous to sinners than the fire that covered Mount Sinai. How was it, then, that the disciples were not consumed by the Holy Spirit and perish?

The difference, of course, lay in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ did not just bring about the pardon for our sins. It set off a whole chain of events, which could not be stopped, which would climax in our resurrection and in God’s final judgment of the world and in the new creation of heaven and earth! When Jesus rose again from the dead, conquering death forever, this world, which had been confined within the invincible walls of death, began to crumble down. Jesus’ resurrection broke down the seemingly invincible walls of death and the kingdom of heaven is making its advances into this world. This world, therefore, is already perishing away (1 John 2:8) on account of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Indeed, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the inauguration of the cosmic new creation!

Another important result of Jesus’ death and resurrection was this bestowal of the Holy Spirit upon the church. So long as we remain guilty, the curse of the law hangs over us like the sharp, heavy blade of the guillotine, ready to come down on our necks. But who is the Judge? Who is the Executioner? The Holy Spirit! He is the consuming Fire of God’s wrath against sinners! John the Baptist spoke of the Holy Spirit as the “unquenchable fire”, who will burn all unrepentant sinners like chaff (Matt. 3:12)! The Holy Spirit is none other than the lake of fire in hell, in which unrepentant sinners will be tormented forever! Therefore, any direct contact with the Holy Spirit would result in our destruction--thus the stern warning to the Israelites against coming near the Spirit-fire-covered mountain!

So then, how could the Holy Spirit rest upon each of the disciples without destroying them? It was only on account of the perfect Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by which He paid for our sins and removed our guilt once for all, as far as the east is from the west! It was because Jesus experienced in our place, on our behalf, the consuming Fire of hell on the cross. In that intense heat of the hellish fire Jesus groaned, “I thirst!” Because of what Jesus did for us, the Holy Spirit to us is no longer the unquenchable Fire of judgment and wrath but our Advocate and our Intercessor, who prays for us with groanings too deep for words; He is the Pledge of our eternal inheritance in Christ, the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out to God, “Abba! Father” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6)! What an awesome privilege! What an amazing reversal! How great and wonderful is our Savior, who changed our relationship with the Holy Spirit forever! This is how the New Testament church began!

But we must keep in mind that this is not the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ has been in existence from the beginning of history, from the time of Adam and Eve, in fact. It has existed in various forms and epochs--in the times before the formation of Israel as a nation, in the form of families and clans; after the formation of Israel as a nation, as a theocratic kingdom; and now in the New Testament era, as church. But the church of Jesus Christ has always been one church, same in essence. Its foundation has always been Jesus Christ. Its Head has always been Jesus Christ. Its mode of salvation has always been by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ--the Old Testament saints by their faith in the coming Messiah and the New Testament saints by their faith in the Messiah, who has come. The Old Testament saints saw Jesus through types and shadows and various ordinances of God, such as the temple and its sacrifices and the covenant offices of prophet, priest and king, etc. The New Testament saints have seen the fulfillment and substance of all these things in Jesus Christ.

But there is one important thing to remember: while we affirm the oneness of the church of Jesus Christ throughout the whole redemptive history, there are some things that make the New Testament church new and greater. What are they?

It is not that the Holy Spirit came down upon God’s people for the first time, that the Holy Spirit did not work in the Old Testament church. The Holy Spirit has been present in the world even at the time of creation (Gen. 1:2). And if anyone was saved in the Old Testament, it was because s/he was regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit! As we can’t, the Old Testaments saints could not believe in the coming Messiah on their own apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. And what about the Old Testament itself? We believe that all of Scriptures--including the Old Testament!--were inspired by the Holy Spirit. That means it was the Holy Spirit who inspired Moses and David and Isaiah and Malachi and all other Bible writers to pen the words of Scriptures! The Holy Spirit was active at work even in the Old Testament!

To see this point further, take a look at what the Holy Spirit enabled the disciples to do after His descent. As we said already, even in the Old Testament era, no one could be saved apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. What about being filled with the Holy Spirit as the disciples were according to v. 4? That was done in the Old Testament, too. We are told that Bezalel was filled with the Spirit of God to do all the work pertaining to the tabernacle construction (Ex. 31:3). Joshua, too, in a similar language, was said to be filled with spirit of wisdom (Deut. 34:9). Micah, too, said that he was filled with the Spirit of the LORD (Micah 3:8). And we can assume that all the prophets of old were filled with the Holy Spirit when they carried out their prophetic ministry.

We also find in the Old Testament an incident, which was remarkably similar to the account we find in our passage. In Num. 11, Moses complains to God concerning the heavy load he was bearing. In response, the Lord tells Moses to gather the seventy elders of Israel and station them around the tabernacle. Then the Lord takes some of the Spirit that was on Moses and put it on the seventy elders. And this is what we read in v. 25: “And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied.” Do you see? The Holy Spirit rested on them. Then they prophesied. We are not told what their prophesying was about. Biblical prophecy is not necessarily foretelling about future but forthtelling the counsel of God, which certainly includes the mighty acts of God. Do you see the similarities between this event and what we read in our passage?

But it is this incident, which also shows a dramatic contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament with regard to the work of the Holy Spirit. For right after that, we are told, “But they did not do it again” (Num. 11:25, NASB). This is very interesting. We should not understand this last statement to mean that the Holy Spirit left them afterwards. What was the whole reason for this phenomenon? God said in Num. 11:17, “I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.” It was not to have them prophesy as prophets but to assist Moses with the help of the Holy Spirit. This, they were to do not just once but throughout the wilderness journey. Their one-time prophesying, then, served as a temporary, visible demonstration of the Holy Spirit resting on them.

But some of you may know how this story ends. Two of the seventy elders were not present at the tabernacle but they too prophesied in their own tents. When Joshua urged Moses to stop them, Moses uttered, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the LORD’s people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit on them” (Num. 11:29)! We know how prophetic these words were and we see their fulfillment in our passage. You see, herein lies the contrast between the Old Testament and the New Testament regarding the work of the Holy Spirit.

The contrast is not the absence vs. presence of the Holy Spirit. Nor is the contrast the temporary vs. permanent abiding of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit has been consistent throughout the Old and New Testament eras. The contrast, then, is the greater, fuller endowment of the Holy Spirit upon the New Testament people, upon the New Testament church of Jesus Christ. That is exactly what God promised. Moses’ almost wishful thinking was translated into a formal, full-blown prophecy in Joel:

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit” (vv. 28-29).

In fact, this was the very passage that Peter quoted to explain what was happening when the critics mocked the tongue-speaking disciples as being drunk (Acts 2:17ff). What was happening on the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of the Joel prophecy, of what was merely a wishful thinking on Moses’ part. For among the 120 disciples gathered in the upper room, there were women as well as men, and some of the women were former prostitutes! Not only that, as the Book of Acts unfolds more, we see the Holy Spirit coming down on Samaritans and Gentiles as well! It is as though the outpouring of the Holy Spirit breaks through the confines of the chosen few of the Jews and floods into the general populace of the Jews and even into the villages, towns and cities of the Gentile world! And the Holy Spirit comes to them, not just regenerating their souls unto new birth from above, but also empowering them to do the work of God! Just listen to Paul’s injunction in Eph. 5:18, “[B]e filled with the Holy Spirit” (or, “Continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit!”)! Being filled with the Holy Spirit is no longer some special, extraordinary, temporary mode of being for the people of God. With this command, Paul presents the life of the New Testament saints as being filled with the Holy Spirit continually--at least, what is implied is the fullness of the Spirit always available to fill us according to the abundant riches of God’s grace.

By way of a side note, it is in this light that we must understand the significance of the tongue-speaking phenomenon. This is the reversal of the curse placed on humanity at the tower of Babel. There God confused the language so that people could not understand one another. Here, on the day of Pentecost, through the tongue-speaking phenomenon, people of many languages hear in their own tongues “the mighty acts of God”. This signaled that the gospel of Jesus Christ would go forth to the ends of the earth, gathering people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation under the name of Jesus Christ!

And that is what this empowering work of the Holy Spirit is about. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He told the disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-5). Why? Because “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The primary reason for the Spirit’s empowering was to enable the disciples to bear witness to Jesus Christ.

But why did the disciples need the empowering? Did they not witness Jesus’ death and resurrection with their own eyes? What help could they possibly need? Well, they needed courage, for they ministered in a hostile environment. After all, the religious leaders of their land just crucified their Master not too long ago. What is more, their message was scandalous, to say the least. It was to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness (1 Cor. 1:23). Everything about their message sounded ridiculous, even to the ears of the ancient people: the incarnation of the eternal, infinite Son of God; the virgin conception of Jesus; the humble carpenter from Nazareth as God’s promised Messiah, the incarnate Son of God; salvation by a Savior, who was executed as a criminal--a man hanged on a tree, which was a sure sign of God’s curse according to the Jewish law; a crucified man, which was an abomination to the Greco-Roman world; the real, physical, eternal resurrection of Jesus; and the crucified criminal as the Lord of all, even above the Roman emperor. Everything about their message was true but the disciples also knew all too well how ridiculous and scandalous it must sound to the hearers. They needed the courage to testify to this unbelievable, incredible and even absurd truth because they were cowards, who had all abandoned their Master in the moment of His greatest need. They needed, desperately needed, the empowering work of the Holy Spirit.

They needed the Holy Spirit to give them courage--the courage to stand by the truth and reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection at the face of opposition and persecution; the courage to proclaim the message they knew was scandalous and foolish to the hearers; the courage to risk mockery, humiliation, persecution and even death for the gospel. For such courage, they needed the Holy Spirit to heighten their awareness of the power and truth of their message above all the dangers they saw around them. Do you remember what happened when Arameans came to take Elisha? The servant panicked, seeing an army of soldiers and chariots all around the city. Elisha prayed for his eyes to be opened and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. That is what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit--seeing clearly with the eyes of faith the invisible yet greater realities of God and His kingdom. Because we live in this world in this body of weakness, the visible and physical things of the world seem so real and ultimate to us. We can sympathize and empathize with the people of the world, who see nothing more than this physical world!

The disciples needed the Holy Spirit to embolden them. They also needed the Holy Spirit to properly interpret the historical event of Jesus’ death and resurrection in the light of the whole Scripture. And they needed the Holy Spirit to give them the proper words to speak and to speak with clarity and authority, to speak with a conviction that was stronger than the conviction by which their hearers rejected and mocked their message, a conviction that was strong enough to scorn their mockery and threat and beating and torture, a conviction that was strong enough to consider their life not of any value dear to themselves. So, being filled with the Holy Spirit, Peter and John testified to the truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection before the Sanhedrin Council, which was breathing murder against them. Being filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen preached the gospel and prayed for those, who were stoning him to death. Being filled with the Spirit, even as a prisoner Paul spoke before kings and governors, “I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am--except for these chains” (Acts 26:24)! Because the Spirit, who filled him, Paul pitied the kings and rulers of the world and wished that they would know Jesus as he knew Him.

This is all the more possible and real in the New Testament era. Heb. 11 gives us a catalogue of the Old Testament saints, who braved shame and loss, persecution and even death, to testify to the surpassing value of the coming Messiah and His heavenly kingdom. Reading Heb. 11 is humbling. Their great faith humbles us. But amazingly, it ends with a note that God provided something better for us (Heb. 11:40). There is yet another sense in which the work of the Holy Spirit is fuller in the New Testament. This also has everything to do with Christ. We can say that the work of the Holy Spirit was limited in the Old Testament because Christ had not been fully revealed. Since the main ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify the Son (John 16:14), this ministry had to be quite limited before Jesus came. But now that Jesus Christ has come and accomplished our salvation, the Holy Spirit needs not hold anything back, as it were!

Should we be surprised that the New Testament church began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit when we consider the supreme goodness of the gospel message and its need to be shared with all the people in the world and all the challenges and obstacles that hinder people from believing this unbelievable message? This shows that the mission of the church, even the survival and sustenance of the church, is beyond human capacities and is wholly dependent upon the work and power of the Holy Spirit. We may produce with our own efforts the appearance of godliness but not the true power of godliness. There will be a difference between a church propelled by human will and wisdom and accomplishments and a church driven by the wind of the Holy Spirit.

The church of Jesus Christ is, among many things, a community of the Holy Spirit. We are born of the Spirit. We are baptized into the body of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. We confess that Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Spirit. We cry, “Abba! Father!” by the Holy Spirit. We serve one another by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We walk in the Spirit. We put to death the deeds of the body by the Holy Spirit. We are to bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. We are to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth from above, empowers us to live a life that testifies to the reality and power of Jesus’ death and resurrection. What are the challenges and obstacles you face as Christians? What are the sins that keep dragging you down and robbing you of the Spirit-filled life and joy? Have you given up? Are you just barely surviving? Please don’t! If you confess Jesus as Lord, you are already in the possession of the almighty Holy Spirit! He, who regenerated you, is also able to sanctify you. If He was powerful enough to raise you from the dead, to make you alive in Jesus Christ, now that you are alive, what is not able to do with you?

The Holy Spirit, the unquenchable fire of judgment, is now your Advocate, your Intercessor, your Enabler, your Strength, your Inheritance, your Spirit of adoption as God’s sons! Sin and Satan has deceived you and distracted you from the truth of this reality and damaged your faith with doubt and uncertainty! The word of God, the gospel, has been preached to you. Wake up and behold the glory of your life in the Spirit, in union with Jesus Christ, who died and rose again and is reigning as sovereign Lord over heaven and earth! Shake off your guilty fears. Shake off your doubt and half-heartedness! Shake off your timidity by the truth of the gospel proclaimed to you! What is the impossible task in your life? Loving and forgiving someone? Mortifying certain sins in your life? Unbridled anger and bitter resentment? Sharing the gospel with someone? If you feel defeated, if you feel overwhelmed (as we should), long to be filled with the Holy Spirit! Pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit! God has made the Holy Spirit fully available to the Church, to the saints! Open your mouth wide and God will fill you to overflowing abundance! You cannot open you mouth wide unless you empty out the idols of your life and the unbelief of your heart.

You know how difficult it is out there, how difficult it is to live with a heightened awareness of the eternal, invisible realities of God and His salvation, of heaven and hell. When we lose that awareness, are we not denying the most important part of being who we are? And isn’t that a draining and wasteful existence? Do we not need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so desperately to see the glory of your life in the Spirit, to live that glorious life as a testimony to the surpassing greatness of your wonderful Savior Jesus Christ? We are a Spirit people. We cannot be what we are made to be, we cannot do what we are made to do, apart from the life-giving, empowering work of the Holy Spirit. Be filled with the Holy Spirit! Open wide your mouth and see the abounding riches of God’s grace filling you to overflowing! Believe and pray that God will help your unbelief! For the Spirit of Christ shall not fail to bring us to eternal glory and perfection on that appointed day!