What changed at pentecost?

A while back, I met someone called James, who said, “I’m not a Christian. I don’t really get Christianity. But could we do lunch so I can ask you some questions?” So we did, and he had so many questions we did lunch once a week for months, and finally I said “So what’s stopping you turning to Jesus?” and he said, “I’m not good enough, and I could never change”. I wonder if you can relate to that?

And the wonderful thing is that the Christian message says you don’t have to be good enough. Instead, you need Jesus’ forgiveness for how you’re not good enough. And you don’t have to change yourself. Instead, you need Jesus’ Spirit to come into your life and change you. And when James heard that, it was completely and radically new to him. As it was the very first time it was heard, which was at Pentecost 2,000 years ago. And in this series on the events from Easter to Pentecost, we come this morning to that Pentecost day, when a completely and radically new chapter in God’s dealings with the world began. So let’s pray that he’d speak to us now:

Father, Whether we would call ourselves Christians or not, please open or re-open our eyes to the relationship we can have with you through Jesus and his Spirit. Amen

So in Luke 24 we saw that Jesus rose from the dead to show that his death was actually at the heart of God’s plan. Then in Acts 1 (Luke’s ‘volume 2’) we’ve so far seen Jesus’s ascension back to heaven, with the promise that he’ll return one day to wrap up history. And his parting words to his disciples were (Acts 1.4-5,8):

…not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”…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.”

Last week, we saw them praying, preparing and waiting for that, and today we’re going to see how that promise was kept at Pentecost 2,000 years ago, and how that began this completely and radically new chapter in God’s dealings with the world. So first, Pentecost means:

1. A new way of relating to God

Listen to Acts 2.1-4:

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 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 and began to speak in other tongues [ie, human languages] as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now later in Acts 2 we’ll see how three thousand people turned to Jesus and received his forgiveness and Spirit, without sound effects or apparently CGI flames or e suddenly speaking foreign languages. Just like when I turned to Jesus and received his forgiveness and Spirit, there were no special effects. And if you’ve turned to Jesus, the same is probably true of you. And that’s because the crucial thing which happened to these disciples was receiving Jesus’ gift of his Spirit. And that’s the crucial thing we all need, but the other things; the sound effects, the flames and the foreign languages – were just signs for that unique, unrepeatable moment when the risen Lord Jesus first sent his Spirit into his disciples’ hearts. And they were signs pointing to what was going on.

So the sound of a mighty wind was a sign that the Spirit can bring God’s almighty power into our weak-willed hearts. So that guy James said one thing stopping him turning to Jesus was that he could never change. He said to me “I have habits I’ll never beat. And I could never point people to God like you”. But isn’t that precisely why Jesus told these first disciples to wait until they’d received the Spirit before trying to live for him and witness for him? Because we can’t do that in our own strength. James was right, we can’t change ourselves, unaided. That’s the wind.

And then all through the Bible, fire is a sign of God’s holiness and judgement. It’s a sign that he can’t live with our sin, any more than flame can live with paper. So the tongues of fire here were a sign that God by his Spirit can now come into peoples’ hearts without them being in danger from his judgement. And that’s because we’re now this side of Jesus’ death on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. So before that, in Old Testament times, God by his Spirit couldn’t live in the same way in the very hearts of people. More often it talks about him being among them corporately, rather than in them, individually. And that’s because sin and judgement hadn’t yet been dealt with on the cross, but once it had been, God used these tongues of fire at Pentecost to say ‘I can now come right into your life without judging and rejecting you for your sin. And I won’t leave despite your sin in future because I’ve dealt with it all on the cross.’

So that guy James said the other thing stopping him turning to Jesus was that he wasn’t good enough, which again was right. One of us is good enough for a holy God to be able to live in us for even a second without judging and rejecting us, but because of the cross, he now can. So the wind and fire were unique, unrepeatable signs of this new way of relating to God which began that day. So please don’t think you should have experienced those kinds of special effects, or that you will if you turn to Jesus. They were one-offs. Just like the foreign languages were. Acts 2.4 again:

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues [which means other human languages they’d never learned] as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So what was that about? Well, second, Pentecost also means:

2. A new task in relating to the world

So these disciples received Jesus’ gift of the Spirit, who enabled them to start speaking in human languages they’d never learned. On my first trip to Mallorca, I picked up a copy of this in the airport bookshop: Elizabeth Smith’s Instant Spanish. ‘35 minutes a day in 6 weeks and you’ll speak Spanish’, it says. Which, since I was only staying 6 nights, was never going to happen.mBut imagine studying Modern Languages and God enabling you to speak instant French on day 1, with no work. Or imagine Joe & Sarah Potter, Bible translators we support, being enabled to speak instant Ngoni in Mozambique. That’s the kind of thing that happened at Pentecost. Look on to Acts 2.5:

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

So towards the end of the Old Testament, God allowed his people Israel to be invaded and exiled to many other countries, where they settles and became nationals.And generations later, these Jews in verse 5 had either emmigrated back to Jerusalem, or were visiting. Acts 2.6:

And at this sound the multitude [ie, a crowd in Jerusalem] came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing [these disciples] speak in his own language.

So I guess the disciples had now spilled out of the house into the crowd. Acts 2.7-13:

And at this sound the multitude [ie, a crowd in Jerusalem] came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing [these disciples] speak in his own language.

So I guess the disciples had now spilled out of the house into the crowd. Acts 2.7-13:

And [the crowd] were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes [ie, Gentile converts to Judaism], Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues [our own languages] the mighty works of God [which I think must have included his most recent, most mighty works in Jesus’ life, miracles, death and resurrection].” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” [Presumably those ‘others’ heard the languages that weren’t their mother tongue, and thought they were drunken ramblings].

So, what was the risen Lord Jesus saying through this? Well, let’s think it through. He assembles a crowd of Jews, some of whom are Gentile converts and Luke says they’re from every nation under heaven. So he gets together a representative sample of the population of the whole world – Jew and Gentile. And then he enables his disciples to speak so that they hear about him in their own mother tongues. So I take it the risen Lord Jesus was saying ‘This is what I want to see happen – and what I’m going to enable – until I come again. I want to see my disciples crossing national and cultural and language barriers, to take the news about me to every nation under heaven.’ So Pentecost was like a ‘trailer’ for world evangelism.And it reminds us that it’s best done in mother tongues, which is why we start where we are, each trying to play our part here. But then there has to be cross-cultural evangelism as well, where Christians move to another country and learn another language, and where some of them, like the Potters, Browns and Hughes whom we support, translate the Bible into others’ mother tongues. And as someone has put it, that means our three options with cross-cultural evangelism are: go, send and support, or disobey.

So do you think perhaps you could best serve the spread of the gospel by going to a different country, or back to your home country? Is the Lord Jesus putting that on your heart? If you already have a second language (for example through your degree) how can you use that for the gospel? Because that’s a significant part of you which isn’t part of everyone. And then did you notice the end of Acts 2.10 which mentions:

visitors from Rome

Some of whom will have gone back to Rome as believers and witnessed to Jesus there? Well that’s the rationale for our internationals ministry and Mandarin ministry – as we share the gospel with visiting students and scholars, and they take it back to their home countries. Well lastly, Pentecost also means:

3. A new chapter in God’s plan

Look on to Acts 2.14-18:

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day [9am]. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,and your young men shall see visions,and your old men shall dream dreams;even on my male servants and female servantsin those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

So Peter was saying, ‘We’re now in a new chapter of the plan God laid out in the Old Testament, through prophets like Joel.’ In fact, it’s the last chapter. And to realise how completely and radically new it is, we need to understand that in the Old Testament, God’s Spirit came only on the privileged few – like prophets and kings. There was no question of everyone enjoying the same relationship with God that those few (like Moses, David and Joel) did. But through Joel, God promised that one day all God’s people would receive his Spirit so they could relate to him equally. Acts 2.17 again:

I will pour out my Spirit on all [that is, all my people]

And he goes on to say they will:

see visions…dream dreams…and…prophesy.

Which might leave you thinking “Well I’ve never had a vision or dream from God or been given a prophecy to say – so am I missing something?” And the answer is no. Those are things Joel experienced as an Old Testament prophet. So visions and dreams were how God made himself known to Joel, and prophesying was how he passed on to others what he knew. So Joel used Old Testament vocab to say, ‘In this new chapter, God will make himself equally known to all his people, and all his people will play a part in passing on what they know of him.’ And that’s true, isn’t it? So on the one hand, all Christian believers do have an equal knowledge of God, because we now know God through Jesus, and we know Jesus as his Spirit helps us trust him through the Bible and that’s open to all of us. So none of us has a spiritual ‘inside track’ to God.

And I’m always reminded of that when we interview people about how they came to faith, because however different their story is from mine, I find myself thinking “Yes, they’re describing exactly the same relationship with God that I know.” And however new a Christian they are, they have the same assurance of forgiveness, the same awareness of God at work in them, and so on. But the other thing Joel said about this new chapter is that all Christian believers will play a part in passing on what they know of God. And that’s also true, isn’t it, as we each play our part in evangelism. And, again, none of us has an ‘inside track’ on that. There’s someone in our church family who’s often said to me “I could never tell people about Jesus like you do”, ut I know that, in her own way, she’s told loads of people because you don’t need to have done a theology degree or an evangelism training course or know all the answers. You just need to know Jesus. Let me read from Acts 2.19-21:

And I will show wonders in the heavens aboveand signs on the earth below,blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke;the sun shall be turned to darknessand the moon to blood,before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day [which we now know as when Jesus comes again, as the creed puts it, ‘to judge the living and the dead’]. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

So verse 20 reminds us that this new chapter in God’s plan is also the last because the next thing on the horizon is judgement day, but verse 21 reminds us that God wants it to be a chapter full of people calling on Jesus to forgive them back into relationship with him. Pentecost was page 1 of that chapter, and thanks to God’s patience, it’s still being written.