The Outpouring of the Spirit.
Acts 2:4-13
The disciples are in the upper room when the Holy Spirit comes in verse
4, and then after that between vv. 4 and 5 some time elapses and they move from
there to the southern gates of the temple.
We are told that that morning they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
As we have seen that is not the same thing that we think of in terms of the
filling ministry of the Holy Spirit today in Ephesians 5:18. This is a
different word that is used than in Ephesians 5:18 where we are commanded to be
filled by means of God the Holy Spirit. It is the word pimplemi [pimplhmi] and describes a filling that
is first of all a sovereign act of God; the people don’t expect it at all. All
of a sudden they are surprised and there is this ministry of the Holy Spirit
upon them. It is more like the Old Testament ministry of enduement than the New
Testament ministry of the filling by means of the Spirit which is related to
spiritual life or spiritual growth. The second thing that we see is that it
always results in something that is spoken. Zecharias, the father of John the
Baptist, is filled by means of the Spirit and then he speaks. Elizabeth and
Mary were both filled by the Spirit in terms of this word pimplemi and immediately after that they
speak. Later on in Acts 9 Paul is filled of the Spirit and he speaks. So it is
always followed by some kind of speech that is empowered or energized by the
Holy Spirit. So these occurrences in Acts 2 and Acts 9 are the only times that
we have this word used in terms of the church age: only in this transition
period covered by the book of Acts. It is not found later on in the epistles as
something describing any kind of Christian experience. It first occurs in Luke
2—three times. Then it occurs in the early part of Acts, and that’s it. In Luke
that is still the Old Testament; it is not the church age. So this is not
related to a church age ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
They just hear the rushing mighty wind. There is no wind, it just sounds
like wind. When we look at this in terms of the fulfilment of the day of
Pentecost the term Pentecost is a Latin based word related to fifty days. The
day came seven weeks plus one day after the second day of the feast of
unleavened bread, so Pentecost relates to this fifty-day period after Passover.
The observance of this is spelled out in Leviticus 23:15-21. It is a second
harvest festival. The first harvest festival is the day of first fruits which
occurs three days after Passover. The typology was fulfilled when Jesus was
raised from the dead as the first fruits. That is the first fruits of the
spring harvest; this is the first fruits of the summer harvest. So it is
expressing that God is doing something new at this event. The names that refer
to this feast of weeks is first of all feast of weeks, feast of harvest, and
also it is called the day of first fruits. In this event the Biblical practice
as described in Leviticus was to have two loaves of bread—these were the only
loaves that were allowed to be leavened; there was the presence of sin
there—presented on one sheet representing the two peoples of God, the two
peoples that will come together in one body in the church age: Jew and Gentile
who become one in Christ.
All the fest days, the holidays, all looked forward to something that
God was going to do in Israel. So we can’t say
that the day of Pentecost was focusing on the birth of the church, we have to
restrict it to something related to Israel. If we look at the
progression of events in the spring calendar with the death of Christ on
Passover, the resurrection on first fruits, and now what happens on the day of
Pentecost is the coming of the Holy Spirit. That was the fulfilment. If Israel had accepted Jesus
as Messiah then this would have been the coming of the Holy Spirit that would
have been the fulfilment of the predictions related to the new covenant, the
coming of the Spirit and the establishment of the kingdom. Here is where we get
into that difficult stuff where there is still an offer of the kingdom on the
table for Israel but God started
something new, and so there are two things overlapping here in this transition
zone. The day of Pentecost foreshadowed the coming of the Holy Spirit and what
happened was that instead of something happening to Israel it is the birth of
the church. But everyone to whom something happens is a Jew. It all comes to
Jews, it is happening to Jews and there is nothing but Jewish Christians for
the first four or five chapters of Acts.
The first fruits represent the birth of something new. This is the
beginning of something new, the new organism which is the church, and the
church at this point is just comprised of Jewish believers. God is just
focusing on Israel in fulfilment of
that Old Testament typology.
We see a transition from the Law of Moses to the Law of Christ. In terms
of the new stage in history with the coming of the Holy Spirit this is a
fulfilment of two things that have been going on. The promise that started with
John the Baptist: that one would come after him who would baptize by means of
the Spirit and by means of fire. The baptism by means of the Spirit is thus
first prophesied by John. He is referring to Jesus who is going to baptize by
the Spirit. Then Jesus, just before He ascended to heaven, told the disciples
to wait here to receive the promise from the Father, “not many days from now,”
and they would be baptized by the Holy Spirit. In John 16 in the upper room discourse Jesus had predicted
that He would leave but He would be replaced by another comforter, the Holy
Spirit. So this event in Acts 2 is the fulfilment of what Jesus had promised in
John 16 as well as in Acts 1:4, 5.
This coming of the Holy Spirit is not just some sort of internal,
subjective event. They were not having a religious experience, a group
hallucination. What we see in the Scripture is that God never operates like
that; we never have this kind of subjectivity. When God did communicate
something to someone in private it was always validated by something in public.
So when God through Samuel, for example, anoints Saul to be the king of Israel there were
subsequent events that confirmed that in Saul’s life that would give evidence
to the nation that God had called him to be the king of Israel. The same thing
happens here. Even though there is a subjective reality to the coming of the
Holy Spirit on each one of these apostles it is evidenced by three things.
There is an external sound like a great wind, there is the visual appearance of
fire, and then there is this miraculous speaking in a language that they had
neither learned nor acquired. That validated the subjective.
The language that is used in several verses is the term “outpouring,”
that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the people. This term is not technical,
it doesn’t mean indwelling, filling, any of these things; it is a general term
that deals with all of them. There is the term “outpouring” in Acts 2:17, 18, 33 and these are the only references to the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and again in Acts 10:45 when the Spirit came
upon the Gentiles with Cornelius. So it is a general broad term for all of
these ministries of the Holy Spirit that would include all of the new
ministries that would come to the church age believer. The only other clear
reference to this that has anything to do with the Holy Spirit is in Romans 5:5
which says the Holy Spirit pours out God’s love on our hearts. It is not the
Holy Spirit that is poured out, it is that He pours out the love of God; so
that doesn’t really apply to this either. These ministries are the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every believer, the
giving of spiritual gifts to every believer, the sealing of the Holy Spirit to
every believer at the instant of salvation which secures them in their
salvation, and then the filling of the Holy Spirit. Of those none can be lost;
none are repeatable except for the filling ministry by means of the Holy
Spirit.
The next thing that happens, v. 4, is that they are all filled by the
Spirit and they began to speak with other tongues. Why did God give the gift of
tongues? There is only one passage in Scripture where the purpose of the gift
of tongues is given—1 Corinthians 14:21, 22 NASB “In the Law it is
written, “BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO
THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME,” says the Lord.
So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers;
but prophecy {is for a sign,} not to unbelievers but to those who believe.” When
Paul uses the word “Law” here he is going to quote from Isaiah 28, so he is not
referring just to the five books of the Old Testament but to refer to the
entire Old Testament.
This is a paraphrase here, not a word for word quote from the Isaiah
passage. As Paul quotes it under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he is
allowed to paraphrase and reshape text because he is applying it, pointing out
how it relates to a particular situation. Here he is talking about fulfilment.
This is a literal prophecy in Isaiah and it has a literal fulfilment. The
literal prophecy talks about Gentile languages being heard in Israel, in Jerusalem, as a sign of
judgment upon the Jews: that the fifth cycle of discipline was coming—military
defeat, and scattering through Gentile nations. So the confrontation is stated
by God that even though he would speak to the people—not necessarily saying
that He would be speaking doctrine to the people, that he was going to be
teaching them the Word; but that could be there, it is not a word that is
restricted to that—they would not listen. So it is a confirmation of their
negative volition, it is not something that is given because it will convince
and draw the Jews to God. They are going to hear this, it is going to be a sign
of judgment, and the sign of judgment is that they are still not going to
listen.
Paul says “tongues are for a sign.” That is a purpose clause. “…not to
those who believe but to unbelievers.” So the purpose of tongues wasn’t
oriented to believers but was oriented to unbelievers. In the original context
of Isaiah it is related to unbelieving Jews, and this was actually fulfilled
twice in history, or three times if we want to be technical about it. In Isaiah
28:10 there is a little sarcasm going on in the text, and then the section that
is directly quoted is, v. 11: NASB “Indeed, He will speak to this
people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, [12] … but they would not
listen.” The stammering lips and another tongue [language] is ho0w a foreign
language sounds to someone who doesn’t know it. What God is saying here is that
the way Israel will know that I
am bringing about this harshest of stages of divine discipline is that they
will hear Gentile languages in the land I promised would be theirs exclusively,
not outside the land. This goes back actually to Deuteronomy 28 where God
warned Israel that if they
continued to disobey Him they would be removed from the land. Deuteronomy
28:49, 50 NASB “The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the
end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall
not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no
respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.”
Let’s track this from the beginning to the end. The initial prophecy says
the sign of judgment, the fifth cycle of discipline, is that you are going to
hear strange languages, languages you don’t understand in the land that I [God]
gave you. Why is that important? Because when God called out Abraham in Genesis
12 He said: “In you all nations would be blessed.” From Genesis 12 on God’s
plan and purpose was to reveal Himself only through Israel. Divine
revelation, the Word of God and the promises of God, as Paul says in Romans
9:3, 4, still belong to Israel. God is going to
bless the nations via the Jews. So through the prophets of the Old Testament
God spoke and gave His Word and revealed Himself, and gave us the Hebrew
Scriptures. Then is 722 BC in the north and 586 BC in the south when God brought
about the 5th cycle of discipline they heard Gentile languages in
the land. Those are the first fulfilments of Deuteronomy 28. They are hearing a
language they don’t understand. It is simply the hearing of Gentile languages
in the land of Israel. Hebrew is the
language of God, not the Gentile languages. The issue is that they were hearing
these Gentile languages on the sacred soil of the land God had given them. So
when Isaiah comes along, and Isaiah was teaching 100 years before the invasion
of the southern kingdom and the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, he is warning the
same thing. It is the hearing of those languages when they should be hearing
the language of God that is the sign of judgment, the sign that God is
disciplining them and is going to take them out of the land.
The purpose for the spiritual gift of tongues is not to evangelize, that
is what the spiritual gift of evangelism is for. Tongues wasn’t given to give
special revelation. And it wasn’t given to teach the Word, that is why there
were apostles and pastors and teachers. For that there was no need for the gift
of tongues, that wasn’t the purpose. When people were speaking in tongues,
communicating in a language they had not normally or naturally acquired they
may have given the gospel, they may have taught some things, they may have said
other things related to the Word, but that is never the issue in Scripture. The
Holy Spirit never tells us what they said when they spoke in tongues, that
wasn’t the issue. The issue wasn’t what they said; the issue was that it was
said in Gentile languages. When we get into Acts chapter two where this event
takes place and all of a sudden these apostles (only the twelve) were the only
ones who spoke in these miraculous languages. It was not something that they
had learned or acquired.
Acts 2:5 NASB “Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from
every nation under heaven.” The term “living” here does not refer
to a permanent habitation. They are there for a short time, they are there for
the feast period. The question is raised: were these “devout” men Old Testament
believers? It is implied. We could say that because they are following the
Mosaic Law and had come from Rome, Libya, all over Turkey, Asia and many other
places for just this one feast day it shows their devotion to the Law and
obedience to Moses. So we can suspect that a large number of them are Old
Testament believers. Some obviously were not because they become saved at this
time. There is a transition that occurs between those who were already Old
Testament saints who make their transition into the church and others who were
not saved yet and just become saved.
All of a sudden they see these men, the apostles, and when they hear
this sound that brought the Holy Spirit upon them, and they come together and
try to figure out the source of the noise. Then they see the men speaking to
each of them in their native language.
Acts 2:6 NASB “And when this sound occurred, the crowd came
together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak
in his own language. [7] They were amazed and astonished, saying,
‘Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?’” Galileans
aren’t bi-lingual; they can barely speak Aramaic or Hebrew. They were the
country bumpkins. [8] “And how is it that we each hear {them} in our own
language to which we were born?”{ The word here for language is
not the word glossa [glwssa] which was used
earlier that is normally translated “tongues,” but is the word dialektos [dialektoj] from which we get
our word dialect. Then verses 9-11 list these. There are fifteen geographical
areas listed.
Acts 2:9 “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
[10] Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts
of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from
Rome, both Jews and proselytes, [11] Cretans and Arabs—we hear
them in our {own} tongues [dialects] speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”
Most of these are Jews. Some are those who have converted to Judaism.
First we have the disciples who are already saved. Now they at one time
become baptized by the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues all in one simultaneous
event. We will compare that with the other three events where speaking in
tongues occurs in the book of Acts. In Acts chapter eight we have the
circumstance where Philip and Stephen are two of six men chosen for a sort of
proto-deacon role for the purpose of helping to distribute money and food to
the Hellenistic widows, widows of the diaspora Jews that are in Jerusalem at this time.
Philip takes the gospel to Samaria and we see that
the Holy Spirit is going to be poured out in a separate act on the Samaritan
believers. Acts 8:12 NASB
“But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of
Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.” Then
because such a great thing has been happening that they sent word to Peter and
John in Jerusalem. [14] “Now when
the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the
word of God, they sent them Peter and John, [15] who came down and
prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.” So when
the Samaritan believers first believed the gospel they are not baptized by the
Holy Spirit; they are not placed in Christ; they don’t receive the Holy Spirit.
They just get justified. So Peter and John come down from Jerusalem and under that
apostolic authority—the same ones that were present in Acts 2 are the ones in
charge now, showing the unity of the church. The Jews hated the Samaritans and
had extreme prejudice towards them—they pray for them. Then the Holy Spirit
comes on them, showing the unity of the church. [16] “For He had not yet fallen
upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
[17] Then they {began} laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the
Holy Spirit.” No tongues are mentioned. They don’t speak in tongues. Why?
Because it is not related to the purpose at this point.
In Acts chapter ten is the episode where God is working in the Gentiles.
Cornelius is a centurion and Peter goes to his household, something that was
never done. A Jewish person did not go into the house of a Gentile. Peter
though, because of the vision that God had given him in the first part of the
chapter, goes into the house and explains the gospel and who Jesus is, 10:24-44. A couple of things
here to note in relation to witnessing. A lot of things in witnessing are just
common sense. What we see here in both cases is that witnessing involves a
dialogue. When Peter witnessing and preaches that first sermon in Acts chapter
two it is in response to people saying what is going on here. Same thing in
Acts 3 & 4. People ask what is happening and there is an explanation, so
there is dialogue that is going on. They are not engaged in drive-by
evangelism. One thing that is interesting is that when we look at what Peter
says in the early chapters he is talking to Jews who have an Old Testament
frame of reference. So he doesn’t need to explain a lot about who God is, about
sin, about a lot of things related to the Law; he is just going to apply those
passages to Jesus. But now he is not dealing with Jews. He can’t assume they
have a knowledge of the Scriptures; he has to explain things a little more
fully. So from 10:24-34 we have Cornelius
and Peter in a conversation. They are getting to know each other. What is
interesting in this event is that when he explains the gospel who Jesus is,
while he is speaking, the Holy Spirit falls on them because they believed in
their soul and God knew what they believed. God didn’t have to wait for them to
say they believed; He already knew that. Then they are baptized with water.
After that they spoke in languages, they exalted God. It is language that is
used for just praising God. It is like in Acts 2. When they spoke in tongues
they spoke of the mighty things of God. Does that mean they gave the gospel? If
God the Holy Spirit wanted to say they gave the gospel He would have told us
they gave the gospel. The point wasn’t what they said it was that it was said
on the temple mount steps in Gentile languages that makes it a sign of
judgment. It is not that they gave them the gospel, not that they explained the
Word; it is that whatever it was they said is secondary to the point. The point
is that it was said in Gentile languages in a place where it should have been
said in Hebrew and where the work of God in Hebrew had been going on to the
Jewish people. But because this is a sign of impending judgment it is given in
Gentile languages. That is the point. In each of these cases in Acts chapter
ten where there is speaking in tongues there is a group with Peter. And they
are astounded at what happens. And this is going to be talked about, it will
get around, and that is again evidence that judgment is coming.
Slides