This morning we will begin to examine chapter 2. Our text today will be 2:1-13 and the title of the Lord’s sermon is, “Filled with new Wine”. Let’s read our passage, pray, and then examine it together.

Read Acts 2:1-13

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and restedon each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Prayer

Examine

Verse

1When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

Commentary

The day of Pentecost arrived 10 days after the ascension and 50 days after the resurrection.

The entire church all 120 members were gathered together in one place, the upper room.

Luke tells us that God used a mighty rushing wind to announce that he was about to do something spectacular. This isn’t the first time this happened in the Scriptures.

At the height of Elijah’s depression which was generated by persecution and the Israelites rejection of God, the Lord displayed his sovereignty by passing by him while he was wallowing in the wilderness. In 1 Kings 19:11 we read:

And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

Right after God passed by, a strong wind tore the mountains. And later, God gave Elijah instructions to anoint Jehu as the new king of Israel. Jehu held a spectacular campaign to purge Israel of all the family members of the house of Ahab and Jezebel. The Bible says He destroyed them all!

In Job 38:1 God rebuked Job for questioning his sovereignty and authority. It says: Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said. God spoke to Job through a cyclone. Shortly after this the Lord restored back to Job, in a spectacular fashion, all that he had had lost and more because of his tribulation.

While Ezekiel was in exile in Babylon God came to him and gave him a vision of his magnificent glory. In Ezekiel 1:4 we read. As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal. God displayed his glory in a spectacular way and then a little later he called and equipped Ezekiel to be one of His greatest prophets.

So God has used the wind to announce that he’s about to do something spectacular in several passages and that’s what we have playing out in our text. Take notice to how Luke points to the origin of the mighty rushing wind. He wrote that it came from “heaven”. He no doubt included this little statement so that there would be no mistaking where this power came from. There were skeptics in those days just as there are today. Men do all they can to attribute the workings of God to mere nature, to happenstance or to idols or to other people. Luke makes a preemptive strike against that sort of thing in this verse. Look at verse 3.

Verse

3And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and restedon each one of them.

Commentary

The divided tongues of fire represent two important things.

The anointing of the Holy Spirit. This was God’s way of covering his people with the Holy Spirit. This is that permanent thing that God does at the moment of belief or just before belief. This is different from the filling of the Holy Spirit because the filling can increase or decrease.

Some have tried to tie this event to Matthew 3:11 where John the Baptist proclaimed that Jesus would baptize people with fire. There is difficulty with this claim because the context of that passage has to do with divine justice and judgment.

The second thing the divided tongues of fire represent is:

An anointing of the ability to communicate the gospel in foreign languages. This is not an empowerment to speak in what some refer to as “angelic tongues”. The context does not allow for that kind of meaning and verse 11 makes it clear. This has to do with communicating the gospel intelligibly in other languages. I would like to note in case you’re wondering about my view on tongues; I do not deny the existence of them. But I am skeptical because of the wide spread abuse of them in certain church circles and because the use of the word tongue or tongues in the Scriptures is usually a reference to languages. Also, in every case that I’ve seen them employed, mostly on TV, there is never a translator or translation and that seems to violate the instructions Paul gave in 1 Corinthians 14:28.

Let’s look at verse 4

Verse

4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Commentary

Luke goes on to note that they were not only covered or anointed by the Holy Spirit but that they were also filled with the Holy Spirit. This is what made these folks ready to do the ministry of the gospel. There is a great principal here for us. Before we engage the ministry of the gospel by sharing the truth with others and by doing good works in our community, we should first seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So much of the trouble that is present in ministry today could be avoided if God’s people would do this.

Those who are filled with the Spirit are less likely to:

Argue their theological positions to the point of upsetting people.

Apply biblical truths to those that are outside of the faith in a way that isn’t Scriptural or gracious.

Act critically towards those that they serve with.

Walk in self-righteousness.

Experience ministry failure or in-affective ministry.

One of the greatest examples in Scripture of failed ministry due to a lack of being filled with the Holy Spirit took place when Jesus’ disciples failed to cast an unclean spirit from a young man. They tried and tried and tried but to no avail. Jesus came and saved the day and later that night they asked him why they failed. Jesus said to them, “That kind of spirit can only come out through prayer (Mark 9:12).” What did Jesus mean by this? Did he want them to pray more and that’s what would do the trick? No. These men were extremely prideful just as we are. They often argued with one another about who the greatest disciple was.

They boasted, they bragged, and they rubbed their God given gifts and privledges in each other’s faces. Bottom line, these guys were very much filled to the max with themselves. When a father brought his possessed son to them for healing, their pride and self-centeredness was brimming and overflowing. When they tried to cast out the unclean spirit out of his son, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit was so minimal and weak within them that they couldn’t do the job. In other words, they couldn’t heal the boy because they were filled with themselves instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit who brings power from on high.

Jesus knew this. He knew why they failed. And he told them that if they would have humbled themselves and prayed earnestly for God’s help and to be filled with the Holy Spirit, they’d a got the job done.

Look back over the last 5 or 10 years of your life. Count the times that you’ve failed in ministry. Maybe you had a spiritual conversation with a family member, friend, neighbor, or peer at work and it turned into a flaming train-wreck. Or maybe you lead some sort of event and it didn’t go well. Maybe you preached a sermon that seemed to fall on deaf ears or maybe the room was filled with lots and lots of distractions.

Could it be that the reason why things turned out so badly was because of your own lack of preparedness? Because you forgot to humbly pray and to seek God for power and for a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit? How many times have we stepped out in our own strength and arrogance and chalked it? I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the amount of times that’s happened to me.

The church of the upper room spent quite a bit of time in the presence of Jesus Christ through prayer, they were covered with the Holy Spirit, they were anointed with languages, they were filled with the Holy Spirit ready to engage the ministry of the gospel and at the end of verse 4 it says that they began to speak other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. This was like a testing of the gift of languages before they went out. Let’s look at verses 5-11.

Verse

5Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?

9Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.”

Commentary

In verses 5-7 Luke tells us that the little church of 120 left the upper room and went out into the streets and to the temple. He wrote that there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven and that they were bewildered by the sound of a mighty rushing wind and by how a bunch of Galileans were speaking in their foreign languages. Galilee was the farming community of Israel. It’s where the “Good ‘Ol Boys” roped donkeys and partied on canal banks. Galilee wasn’t known for its prestigious universities because it didn’t have any. It wasn’t known for education because most people there weren’t educated. It wasn’t known for its religion or piety or for its sophistication or for its incredible shopping. Those from the surrounding areas felt that the Galileans were below them in every conceivable way.

This is why the devout Jews from every nation under heaven exclaimed, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language?”

They were astonished at this. Wouldn’t we be if we exited our tour bus in Italy and a bunch of farmers came to us from a, less than desirable county, and began to speak to us in our own language? How much more astonishing would it be to look over and to see the German, French, Russian, and Chinese folks that were on the bus with us being engaged in their own languages as well? First thing I’d do is check my water bottle to see if someone put something in it!

Luke included a list of the different people groups that were present during this moment. He listed 13 different regions which included Jews, Jewish converts, and gentiles.

Now why were all these people gathered in Jerusalem at this time? They were gathered for a major festival that took place each year called the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Pentecost. The Feast of Weeks was held 50 days after Passover. The Feast of Weeks is significant for several reasons.

It marks the end of the harvest or grain season which was about 7 weeks (Exodus 23:16).It commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the entire Israelite nation assembled at Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:22-23).

It required that all devout or religious Jews be present at the Holy City for the event. There were 3 yearly events that required a pilgrimage to the temple. The Feast of Unleavened Bread which took place the day after the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Feast of Weeks or Feast of Pentecost. This explains why there so many people present from all over the world. Now why did God choose to use this particular event to pour out His Spirit and to begin the church age? There are probably a lot of reasons.

Might I suggest that one might be because whenever God seeks to display his glory by initiating major change in world, He goes big and pulls out all the stops!

The population in Jerusalem swelled into the hundreds of thousands and even millions during these great feasts which made this the opportune time for God to display his glory through initiating world-wide change through the implementation and initiation of the Christian Church. The bible illustrates that God goes big in this way in so many places and through so many stories.

Examples of how God goes big when he seeks to glorify himself by initiating major change in the world.

When God hit the reset button on humanity in Genesis 6 & 7, he didn’t do it by springing a leak on a garden hose. No, he cracked open the skies and ground which released water with such force that mountains and canyons were formed and every living creature was destroyed with the exception of those that were on the Ark. When God seeks to display his glory by initiating major change in world, He goes big.

When God shifted humanity from one city to the ends of the earth, he didn’t gently coach the earth’s inhabitants like a travel agent to check out exotic places. No, he turned their idolatrous Tower of Babel into a pile of rubble and he confused their languages so that they would leave. When God seeks to display his glory by initiating major change in world, He goes big.

When God rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, he didn’t do it via persuasive speech or through clever arguments. No, he unleashed 10 plagues that wreaked havoc on the land and demeaned the Egyptians false gods and he parted a body of water that the Bible calls a sea. When God seeks to display his glory by initiating major change in world, He goes big.

When God put His Son on a cross for sinners, he didn’t do it in someone’s backyard in a cul-de-sac in some remote town like Barstow. No, he put him on a cross at the top of a hill in a major city on a major travel route during the most popular festival of the year, the Passover, where approximately 2.5 million people were gathered. When God seeks to display his glory by initiating major change in world, He goes big.

When God sends his Son back to establish his earthly throne, he won’t do it covertly like Seal Team 6. No, the Bible says in Matthew 24:29-31:

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

As I said before, when God seeks to display his glory by initiating major change in world, He goes big.

It is the same with what is playing out in our text. God had foreordained and predestined to use a yearly event where thousands or even millions of people would be gathered to glorify himself through a massive miracle and through initiating the church age. Verses 1-11 make it so clear that God got a lot of people’s attention through the sound of rushing wind and through the extraordinary witnessing of 120 upper room Christians who left their abode to do the work of the ministry by preaching the gospel in foreign tongues to everyone that they came across. Look at verse 12.

Verse

12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Commentary

Luke wrote that those present were amazed and perplexed and that they began to speculate about the meaning of it all. Back in verse 11 he recorded that some of the witnesses talked about how the upper room Christians testified to the mighty works of God. If you’ve ever wondered how to share the gospel with others, there you go. You simply testify to the mighty works of God. Tell them about the mighty things he’s done in your life and in your family and at your church. Tell them about the things that God did in the OT and how those things point to Jesus. Tell them about the life, death, burial, and resurrection of your Messiah. Tell them how they can be saved through repentance and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Look at our last verse, verse 13.

Verse

13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

Commentary

As it was with the Pharisees who heard Jesus’ claims and saw the confirming miracles, some present rejected the evidence that God had brought forth through these upper room Christians. They even went as far as to mock them by claiming that the believers were filled with new wine, buzzed is what we would call it. MacArthur wrote, “They tried to explain away the miracle of speaking in languages as a drunken frolic.” And why is this? Why did some of these people do this? 1 Corinthians 1:23 makes it clear. It says that “Christ crucified, the gospel, is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks.”

Ultimately, the events of Pentecost didn’t line up with Orthodox Judaism and that’s why the mockers mocked. And what was Orthodox Judaism? It was and still is a system of religion that is based on works righteousness where adherents earn their standing with God.

Orthodox Judaism is similar to every other religion in the world. They’re all based on earning a ticket to heaven. That is the religion of our land. Most people here believe that when their time comes and their standing before God that he will pull out a scale and weigh their good and bad deeds and they’ll have just enough good ones to squeak by. If that’s what you believe my friend, you’re sorely mistaken.

The Bible makes it clear that the greatest deeds of fallen men are nothing more than filthy rags before the Perfect Holy God. The Bible teaches that under no circumstances what-so-ever do we possess the kind of righteousness that is required of God. It teaches that the required righteousness is found only in Jesus Christ because he’s the only one that ever lived a perfectly righteous life. The Bible teaches that because of what Jesus did through his perfect living, his blood soaked sacrifice, his burial, and his miraculous resurrection, that God made a way for sinners like you and I to be made righteous before Him. That God made a way for sinners like you and I to be cleansed and saved. The Bible goes on to say that if you turn from your sins and place your faith and trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ, you will be saved.

This doesn’t mean that you will never sin again, it means that you will never view sin the same way again. You will grow to dislike it because you will see how it offends your Father in heaven and how it harms you and others. Some liken true faith to a battle against sin. That’s a fairly accurate description. Being a follower of Jesus is a battle against the self and its lusts and perversions. It isn’t easy at times and sometimes we fail. But the grace of God is there for us. You must know this, It is better to battle against sin for a short time than to be in opposition to God forever. Eventually you will win your battle against sin through Jesus Christ but no one wins the battle against the Mighty God.

In comparison you are a trillion times smaller than a gnat before Him. He can sling you into the abyss with the batting of one eye. I ask you this morning, make peace with your Creator at this very moment. Throw yourself before His mercy seat and tell him that you want to be saved by His Son. Pledge yourself to the One with nail scarred hands who took your sins upon his body at Calvary.

The ear of the Lord is ever open to those who cry out for mercy and grace and the arm of the Lord is not too short to rescue repentant sinners from impending doom. You don’t have to leave this place as a mocker and enemy of the Lord. You can leave as a son or daughter of the Most High God and as a member of His blessed church forever.