Worship is... (Part 5)
Worship is going.
This past Sunday was the day that the church remembers the event we’re going to look at today, the giving of the Holy Spirit. Pastor Scott spoke about some of these things and I wanted to follow up with that.
Acts 2:1-21
1 On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”
If you’ve been in church any length of time, you are probably familiar with this event. So what is going on here?
I. When: Shavuot
First, we need to know a little about the Feast of the Lord that falls on this day. It is instituted by Yahweh in Exodus 34:22. Most of the Feasts of the Lord had something to do with the harvest cycle, and this one was no exception. Over time, it also became the time when Israel commemorated the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and instituted His covenant with Israel. We call it Pentecost because it falls 50 days after Passover.
II. Where: The Temple Mount… Solomon’s Colonnades to be specific.
As the followers of Jesus waited for the Holy Spirit, they went to the Temple each day to pray. There were about 120 of them gathered. It makes sense they would go there because Jesus had called it “A House of Prayer,” and did much of His teaching in Jerusalem in that location. For them to go where Jesus had taught to wait for Jesus’ promise would have been natural.
III. What: The Ruach Ha’Kodesh
As they are praying, the Holy Spirit fell on them. There are a few things here to note:
A. The Jews were familiar with The Holy Spirit. He appears regularly in Scripture. What is unusual is the Spirit falling on everyone and staying. In the past, He had either come to unique individuals or had come temporarily. What happened here was a new blessing.
B. Why fire? The Holy Spirit came as a dove at Jesus’ baptism. So why fire here?
1. Hebrew was a pictographic language initially. The word for blessing is made up of three letters: A, S, and R. In pictographs, the word is made up of an image of a man’s head, and the combination of the S/R is the image of fire (strong devourer). The Hebrew pictograph for bless is “fire on the head.” Yahweh was making it clear that this moment was a blessing, and that the Spirit came to bless. As an aside, in the original language, it says the fire broke into multiple tongues and “it,” not “they” sat on their heads. Many tongues, one Spirit.
2. In the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, it says that when Moses went up, fire descended on the mountain. It may explain why the people below believed Moses to be dead. Over the years, one of the things celebrated by the Jews on Shavuot was the giving of the Torah. It was read in its entirety to the listening people. On this day when Israel remembered the giving of the Torah, God again comes in fire to renew His covenant.
3. Where did Moses put the tablets of the Torah? In the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. And where did God’s presence physically reside? The physical presence of God represented by fire touched earth in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple. Where does the Bible say God’s Torah resides now? In our hearts. And where did the fire of God rest? On us. Everything is connected.
C. Languages - Because this was one of the prescribed pilgrimage feasts, there were Jews from all over the world in Jerusalem. From the list in our passage, there could have been 120 dialects spoken, and interestingly, there were 120 disciples speaking. Everyone heard in their own languages. In this moment, Yahweh reverses the curse of Babel. It was there that the people tried to reach heaven in their own ability and God confused their languages and they were scattered and separated. On this day, Yahweh reunites them again. He reverses confusion and restores unity.
IV. The people’s response
First, let’s be clear. The people in the crowds that day were not pagans. It says they were devout Jews. They were people living according to Yahweh’s commands in the Torah. It’s why they responded so readily. They also responded because they totally understood the background of what was happening. They felt the wind. They saw the fire. They heard the Gospel being preached in their own languages. To the Jew, the past is currently happening in the present. They saw Sinai happening before their eyes and they needed interpretation. “What can this mean?” they cry. “We see what is happening, but we don’t understand what it means.” It was a visual parable that required interpretation.
V. Peter’s connection
So Peter interprets it for them. He connects it to a passage that they all would have known. He is not saying, by the way, that this is a direct fulfillment of this passage in Joel. He is, though, saying that this is part of what Joel prophesied. When Peter quoted this passage, the Jews listening would have thought through all of Joel’s prophecy. They had experienced the destruction, but Joel also speaks of restoration. Yahweh promises to restore His covenant with His people, which is exactly what is happening here in this moment. This moment is not the beginning of the church, but the restoration and continuation of the covenant of the Kingdom of God that Yahweh started on Mount Sinai. We Gentiles are not replacing God’s chosen people, but joining them in the Kingdom. The Church is not the New Israel, but the continuation of true Israel going all the way back to Abraham.
And to drive this point home, 3,000 people become followers of the Rabbi Yeshua that day. They accept Him as their Messiah. Why is this significant? All the way back in Exodus, Yahweh establishes His covenant with Israel. He writes the Torah on two tablets of stone and over 40 days, He teaches it to Moses. In the meantime, the people of Israel believe Moses has died. In Exodus 32, Aaron creates a golden calf and they begin to worship it. Moses descends and finds them already breaking the covenant established with Yahweh. They are barely two months away from their miraculous departure from Egypt. They are still drinking the water Yahweh provided from the rock. But they still turn away. They immediately break God’s covenant and on that day, 3,000 Israelites die. And here, thousands of years later, Yahweh renews that covenant. He writes His Torah on the hearts of His followers. And He brings 3,000 Israelites to new life.
So why did we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? It wasn’t for us. To answer that question, we need to look back one chapter. Jesus is about to leave earth and ascend into heaven. In His last words here, He says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The Holy Spirit comes SO THAT we can be His witnesses.
Being a witness is less about your words and more about your actions. Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, wants us to LIVE the Gospel in the world. Then He gives us a mission to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. Most of the time I’ve heard this passage preached, people talk about it in ever larger concentric circles. Your Jerusalem is the people around you, Judea is a larger group, etc. I want you to think about it in a different way.
To the people listening that day:
Jerusalem = the center of their religious identity
Judea = their national and ethnic identity
Samaria = the people they HATED
Ends of the earth = Gentiles
With that in mind, I want you to think about where God is calling you to live your witness.
Jerusalem – What religious community are you a part of? How can you be a witness there? The truth is that not everyone who SAYS they’re a Christian IS a follower of Jesus. They need a witness.
Judea – What is your national and ethnic identity? God calls you to live as a witness among people who are just like you.
Ends of the earth – God may be calling you to reach people somewhere else. You can do this through prayer. Maybe God is laying a region or people group on your heart. However, it’s probably true that you have people right around you that are from other places. Be a witness there.
Samaria – This one is especially hard. Who are the people you HATE? You might say, “I don’t hate anyone.” Let’s be real… we all have people that make us really angry. Jesus calls you to live the Gospel AMONG THEM!
Worship is going. On the day of Pentecost, they were worshipping God and it resulted in 3,000 new followers of Jesus. Gathering together to worship God on Sundays is amazing, but if it doesn’t result in a harvest for the Kingdom of God, then we are missing the point of the exercise. Let’s let the fire fall SO THAT we can see new souls in the Kingdom!
Songs for Sunday
Glorious Day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gklJ2XZwDHc
Jesus Paid It All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FHwdx5BIvc
King of My Heart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9hEMHT1i7A
Run to the Father
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcpeLDp0Foo
Here Waiting