The Church
The Story - How the Bible Explains Everything April 12, 2026 Acts 2 Notes
Today we are going to join the disciples and other followers of Jesus in their moment of limbo. They were with Jesus for 3 years during his earthly ministry, they watched him crucified but then they saw him after his resurrection. Jesus was with them for 40 days after the resurrection, and then he left them again, ascended into Heaven. And he told them to wait.
Now what? That’s not just their question—it’s ours. What do we do with the fact that Jesus has died for our sins, risen from the grave, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us? That is incredible news … but what comes next?
In the book of Acts, Luke recorded that God established His Church as His means to accomplish His purpose of rescuing all nations.
Audio
Good morning. My name is Jonathan. I'm one of the pastors here. I'm really happy and honored to be here today to fill in for Pastor Gary. He's taking some time off and we're still working on the story and we got another chapter to talk about today.
Now, if you've been with us since the beginning of the story, hopefully you're starting to get this. If you haven't been, let me catch you up real quick on the story. Okay. God created the world. He called it very good.
He made us in his own image and he partnered with us and shared his authority and his rule with us and gave us a commission. Be fruitful and multiply and take care of this creation that he's placed us in. From the very, very beginning, we took that freedom, that autonomy, and we made it, we turned it around so that it would be serving us instead of serving God. And we grasped what should not have been ours. And the fall happened.
And ever since that little move right there, that happened at the very beginning, God has been on a rescue mission. He's been on a redemption mission to take what has fallen and to turn it back into what he originally created, which is very, very, very good. And we've seen the fall. We saw Noah and. But we also saw a promise and a covenant made with Noah.
And we saw Abraham and we saw the covenant that God made with Abraham. We saw Moses and the covenant God made with Moses. We saw David and the covenant God made with David. And it turns out this God is a promise making and promise keeping God. That's one of the things we learn about him throughout all of this story.
But we still see humanity taking what is not theirs and turning it into their for their purposes. And that always ends up bad. When we take what God has given for our good and say, no, I'm going to have it serve me instead of serve him, it turns into not good outcomes. And so we saw that at the end of the Old Testament, they had been carried into captivity, they had returned back to Jerusalem, back to their homeland. But still something was off.
Something was not quite right. And then we saw the week before Easter. We saw the Christ. We saw that the hero of the story has written himself into it to come and do what we could not do on our own, to give us his righteousness, to save us and to give us his life. We celebrated that last week through the resurrection, the Easter story.
It's amazing. That's where we are in the story. Okay, now, have you ever been in limbo like I didn't ask you if you played limbo. I'm saying, have you been in limbo?
Thinking about this like my own personal life. I remember back when I graduated high school, you graduate high school, something big has happened. Something has fundamentally changed in your life. And for me, I went to college that next August, and that summer is living in limbo. You know what I mean?
Something big has happened. But you're like, I'm not ready to move on yet. I'm just kind of here. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I'm not a high schooler anymore.
I'm not in college. I don't know. Or maybe graduating college, but waiting for that first job. Something big has happened. You've graduated, you've accomplished something.
But what's next? And increasingly, can I get a witness to young people. This is getting longer and longer, that limbo period, right? It's hard to find a job, find a career after college. You're just in limbo.
You're just waiting. You're like, something big is coming. I know it, but it's not here yet. Maybe those are kind of like good examples. Those are examples of moving forward in life.
But there's also maybe some times when things hit, something big happens and it's not always a good thing. Like the inverse of that. You lose that job, and all of a sudden you find yourself at home with nothing to do, and you're going, what am I supposed to do now? And there's this uncertain thing coming, but you're in limbo. Or maybe you got a diagnosis from the doctor, but you don't know the treatment plan yet.
You're like, something bad is there, but I don't know what is coming next that's in limbo, right? Or maybe you're in the treatment plan and you're like, at some point this is going to get better, right? And you're just sitting there waiting for something, and you're not exactly sure what's coming, but you're just waiting. I think we can all say we've been in limbo at some point in our lives, but in a very real way, we're sort of in limbo now, all of us together. Have you ever wondered why?
So you come to Jesus, you give him your faith and your trust. He saves you, he gives you his righteousness, right? And he gives you life. Why doesn't he just, like, zap us away right then, Right? Like, that would be in some ways probably preferable, right?
Okay, I'm Saved. Cool. Let's go. Why am I still here? What is the.
What is the purpose of the time period between when we are saved and then when we die? Like, are we just. Are we just, like, holding on, like, white knuckling through life? Like, okay, I'm just trying not to sin. That's what I'm.
That's what I'm trying to do. Just try not to sin. Come on, come on, I'm waiting. Or is there something more than just passing the time that we're supposed to be doing in this period between when we've trusted Jesus and He's given us life, but we have not yet died and received something that's coming in the future? What is this limbo period?
Well, it turns out that's the part of the story we're going to enter into day, which is the disciples, they were in limbo. Jesus was here on earth. He was ministering. They were with him. Three years of Jesus ministry.
Then this awful thing happens. They're on this roller coaster. This awful thing happens. Crucifixion. Oh, maybe this is all.
Who knows? Maybe this is all for nothing. Oh, my goodness. Then three days later, he raises from the grave, and this is. Wow.
And then for 40 days, he's with them. He's ministering to them. They're out. He's telling them all this, you know, this information that they connecting the dots with the whole story. And, oh, this is amazing.
And then he leaves after 40 days. Okay, so they're saying, now what? That's where we are in the story. So as we learn what the disciples were told when they asked the question, now what we can learn what maybe it means for us as we're in this time period of limbo, waiting for something to happen, Something big has happened. Something's still coming.
What do we have? What's there for us in this period? In the book of Acts, Luke records this time period. And we're going to see here that God established His church right here. This is the now what he established his church as to be part of his mission to rescue his whole creation.
And we are here today in his church. We can receive that same invitation to be part of his mission to rescue his creation, that he's extended that same invitation to us. So how do we do this? How do we become the church that God has established? We're going to look in this text.
We're going to see really three defining marks of what it means to be the church that God established. Let's pick up in Acts Chapter two. We're going to read a few verses, and then we're going to skip down to the end of this chapter. So let's read Acts 2. 1.
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 a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.
And at this sound, the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? How is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. I'm completely assuming I'm saying these words right.
I have no idea if I am or not. I'm just going to be confident about it and be like, yes, that's how those are pronounced. Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene. And visitors from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.
Let's skip down to the end of this chapter. So we're going to verse 46 and 47. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved.
This is God's word. Amen. So let's look at how we can become the church that God has established. We're going to look at these three defining marks of what it means to be his church and how we can receive that invitation. The first is receive His Holy Spirit.
Receive His Holy Spirit. So let's catch up. Kind of. Let's put ourselves in the story. Where.
Where are we on the story? Right here. Well, we know that the place that they're in this story right here is somewhere in Jerusalem. The previous chapter, they were in an upper room. It was sort of like a private.
I won't say secret, but kind of out of the way room. It's possible we're in the same place here. There May be some indication that it was a different place, because if you remember what we just read, a whole bunch of people heard this, and it attracted a huge crowd. So, well, we know they were in Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is the place, of course, where the temple was. And a lot of the story that we've been learning so far has been focused on on Jerusalem being.
Being pretty important. And so here they are. Now, what's the occasion? We saw it in verse one of chapter two, when the day of Pentecost arrived. So Pentecost is just a Greek word that means.
Means 50 50th. This is actually referring back to a Jewish festival, the second of three big feasts that they did each year, pilgrimage feasts. And again, I'm just going to pretend like I know how to say this word. Shavuot. That was the Hebrew festival, that the Greek word Pentecost.
Pentecost is easier to say. I think that's why we stick with that. But it just means 50 days after the Passover, that's when that Hebrew festival, Israelite festival, was being celebrated. And it was a big feast, it was a big party. And this is when the Israelites would bring the first fruits of their harvest to God in thanksgiving and saying, God, you've allowed us to do this.
It's your creation, it's your rain, it's your dirt, it's your seed we're giving back, and we're saying thank you for the first fruits. That's what this festival was. This is why a whole bunch of people from all these different places were in Jerusalem, because it was a pilgrimage feast. They were here to celebrate. Who's here?
Well, it's the 12 disciples, or apostles, minus Judas plus Matthias. Read about that in chapter one. So we got 12 disciples now. And it says, Mary, the mother of Jesus was there. That's pretty cool.
And some other women that were been traveling around with Jesus were there and about 100 other people. And so we've got, I mean, I don't know, roughly, probably about the same number of people sitting here in this room right now, all together in one place, waiting in limbo. Jesus had told them to wait, and they were waiting for something big to happen. And something big, big happened indeed. It says that a sound, the sound like a mighty rushing wind from heaven comes.
And it filled the entire house. They were. And then divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Now, one of the things that you'll hear Pastor Gary say a lot, and it's 100% true. That if you're interpreting the Bible, especially the Old Testament, you read stuff in the Old Testament and you go, huh?
And what in the world Interpret the Old Testament through the lens of the New Testament. We look back to the Old Testament through the New Testament, and the New Testament helps us interpret what we're seeing in the Old Testament. The opposite is also true. We must look at the New Testament through the lens of the Old Testament because there's so many patterns and pieces of the story. We spent eight weeks of the story, eight of the 12 in the old Testament.
Why? Because there's a lot that's happening in the New Testament that, that you gotta understand the initial chapters in order to understand what's really happening down here in the New Testament. So you gotta be able to look at it both ways. And so let's put our brains on our story brains. So we're part of the story.
We're learning about the metanarrative. Let's see, when we see fire and a mighty rushing wind, are there connections with stories from earlier in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, that we should go, hmm, things that make you go, hmm, right? What are those things? Well, let's. Let's go back to the covenant with Abraham.
If you were here during that week, Pastor Gary talked about this, that God made a covenant with Abraham. He split these animals in two, and there was the blood path. And he asked Abraham to walk the blood path. And apparently he was too chicken to do it. And so God walked the blood path on both parties of the covenant.
Right. In Abraham's vision of God's presence walking that blood path, he appeared as a smoking fire pot and in a fire. That's how God's presence appeared there. Okay, let's file that one away. When God gave the law at Sinai, God gave the law to Moses at Sinai.
There's this. We covered this in the story. There's this amazing scene where there is thunder and lightning and cloud and smoke and earthquake and fire up on Mount Sinai. And that represents. We knew that represented the spirit, the presence, the glory of God.
People knew that. Now, there is a big connection here between the giving of the law on Mount Sinai and all of that happening and this mighty rushing wind and the fire. Another big piece that we know that. Okay, there's something here is because one of the things that the Jewish people were celebrating at Pentecost was the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. And so there's a connection here.
There's a connection here, but there's also some more. How Did God lead the Israelites through the wilderness, a pillar of cloud and fire? So given this picture, that this is the presence, this is the glory of God, when he told them to build the tabernacle, his tent, his moving tent in the wilderness where they would worship him, they dedicated it. And the glory and the presence of the Lord fell on the tabernacle. How did they know it fell?
Said that a fire came down and smoke came and filled the tabernacle. That's the glory and the presence of God. Then the temple is built. We learned about that. Solomon's temple.
They dedicated the temple. On the day of the dedication, God's glory and presence came into the temple as fire and smoke. This is. So we should be. If we've got our story brains on, we should be going.
Fire. Mighty rushing wind. There's. There's something here. This is.
This is the presence of God. Now, another thing you heard Pastor Gary talk about for a few weeks as we finished up the Old Testament was this vision that Ezekiel had that the glory and presence of the Lord would leave the temple.
It left through the east gate. It then sat on the Mount of Olives. And the way the Jews thought about that is that was the glory and presence of the Lord, basically waiting to see if they were going to repent.
Then later on, about 30 chapters later, in Ezekiel, Ezekiel sees another part of this vision that the glory of the Lord comes back the same way it left comes back into the temple. I think what we're seeing here is that the glory of the Lord, his presence has descended, but this time not on his building, but on his people.
That he has established a new place, a new address for his glory and his presence. And it's each one of us. Notice it said there's a little detail right there. Right. It was like tongues of fire that were divided, resting on each individual one of them, the glory and the presence of the Lord.
When you surrender to Jesus and He comes and gives you new life, his glory and his presence is in you fully, but there's enough for everyone. You know, it's this unity and diversity kind of thing. Like, he is everywhere in each individual person. And he's like, but the amount of spirit that I get doesn't diminish how much spirit you get to get. Right?
He's in all of us. So we are now the temple. That's what we're seeing here in Acts, chapter two, Jesus told him that this was happening. Look at Luke 24:49. This is during the period after he was resurrected.
But before he ascended, he said, behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city. And until you are clothed with power, on high. So that's why they were staying there. They were in limbo in Acts 18.
But 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. This is what Jesus was telling them was going to happen. You stay in Jerusalem, and power is going to come and clothe you from on high. And then you're going to.
You're going to be my witnesses, starting where you are in Jerusalem and then moving out from there. So for generations, God's presence lived in the temple, but now he's moved out, not because he's gone, but because he's chosen a new dwelling place. And that dwelling place is you. It's me. It's all of us together.
So I want to do this little experiment that maybe will help us kind of get in tune with what's going on here. Everyone take a deep breath together.
Now, for most of you all, that's the first time you thought about breathing the whole time we've been here, right? Generally, we don't think about our breathing like something's wrong. If we're thinking about our breathing, right, you're either underwater and you're like, if I breathe right now, I'm going to die, or if I've got some sort of medical issue and I'm having trouble breathing and you're actually paying attention to your breathing, generally, that's not a good thing, right? But breath. Breath is.
Boy, that's life, isn't it? Isn't our breath our life? In Genesis, chapter two, it says God breathed into the nostrils of this man that he created out of the dust, and then he became a living soul. So, like, our breath is actually a gift of God. It's what gives us life, right?
And it's what sustains us. Take away the breath, there's no life. So breath is life, and it's given by God, and it sustains us. And then, if you kind of think about it, we're all in a shared space here, and we all breathed in and we breathed out, and we're breathing in, and we're kind of like in a shared breath environment right now, aren't we? I know that probably grossed some of y' all out, but it's okay.
It's okay. But think about it. The air that you breathed in, is that your Air, like, does it belong to you? No, it's actually just given to you. And it's all part of a collective error that God has given to all of us.
And it's kind of like that with the Holy Spirit. When you receive the Holy Spirit, he's made you spiritually alive. He breathed into your nostrils and said, be alive spiritually when you receive the Holy Spirit. And him giving you the fullness of His Holy Spirit didn't detract from him being able to give His Holy Spirit to other people. And we're all shared partakers of the same one Spirit.
This is the Holy Spirit that's been given. This is one of the defining marks of what it means to be his church is that we are people who have been filled by the same Holy Spirit. That's who we are. We might have come from all sorts of different places, all kinds of different backgrounds, just like these people in this story came from everywhere. But we are shared partakers of the same Holy Spirit.
That's what his church is. And it's that Spirit that gives us spiritual life and it sustains us. I've found it kind of helpful for me sometimes in the morning is to connect my breath with this idea that God's Spirit is what's sustaining my spiritual life. And just take a deep breath. First thing when I wake up, sit down.
I'll say, God, fill me with your Holy Spirit. As I'm breathing in to just kind of like, okay, maybe I shouldn't be paying attention to my physical breath all day, but I should be paying attention to my spiritual breath all day. You know, the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to grow really as a believer is to more and more be in tune with His Spirit that's animating you and giving you energy and allowing you to participate in what he's got for you that day. And his kingdom that's coming to earth is to be in touch more and more with that and to be, you know, really transformed into a person who.
Who is in union with God more and more because His Holy Spirit is inside of you and it's animating you. He's dwelling in you because you are the temple. You're the place where he's chosen to dwell. That's the first. That's the first marker of what it means to be his church.
We receive His Holy Spirit. Let's move on in the story. The second. Second way we receive this invitation is to focus on his mission. Focus on his mission.
Okay, we got to keep going, man. There's so much meat here. I really hope. I really hope you guys read this whole chapter of Acts, chapter two. Maybe start with one.
It'd be okay if you got two chapters. Really get in there, man, and study this. There's a lot of meat on this bone here. We just can't cover it all today. But I want to pick one thread here.
So we see the story is moving from this. People that have been established, the Holy Spirit was given God came to a new dwelling place, his people. And then we see that they're speaking something. They're speaking in their language, but yet it's being heard by everyone who is present. And it was such a commotion.
All these people came and they're like, what's going on? I'm hearing my language, but they're not speaking my language. This is strange. What's happening now? Bible study method here.
When you're reading through scripture, one of the things, Mike Laramie here, who's on our teaching team and our small groups leader, he'll talk about this. Sometimes talk about speed bumps. Like when you're driving around, reading the Bible, driving along, and you go boom. Like, what was that? Right?
Learn to pay attention to those speed bumps as you're reading because they're the things that takes this from like an encyclopedia and turns it into a story, a rich story. And so the speed bump for me here as I'm reading this, look at that list of nations in verses 9, 10, and 11. They add nothing to the story, really. Like, they don't move the narrative forward. They could have just stopped Luke as he's recording this.
He could have stopped verse 8. How is it that we hear each of us in our own native language, skip down to the end of verse 11. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God that moves the story. What is with this list of 16 nations and regions and ethnicities and all in there together? What is the point of this?
And you can read it and go, that's strange. And then move on. Or you can let it be a speed bump and go, let me go back there. What's going on here? So if the first part of our story, the wind coming and the fire coming, is supposed to make us think about Sinai and the giving of the law and God's presence and his glory coming down.
I think this particular piece right here is supposed to give us. The Bible Project calls these hyperlinks. And I love hyperlinks because I've been a web developer most of my adult life. So, like, this One resonates with me. Hyperlinks where we're reading this, but it's supposed to make you go, wait a minute.
There's a story back in the Old Testament that this is hyperlinking to. And what is that? Well, let's look at Genesis, chapter 12, 2, 3. We covered this early on in our sermon series. This is God's promise to Abraham.
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Pop up this map here. This is from a website called visualunit.
Me. Pretty cool site. Never found it before till we were looking for this map. A lot of cool stuff there, so feel free to check that out. But he's attempted to basically plot all of these.
The names of these places that I could barely pronounce on a map, right? And say, where were all these people? There's a lot of meat on this bone, y', all, so go study it this week, I'm telling you. But I'll just, like, hit a couple highlights. Like, does it mean anything?
Is there significance to the fact that he says that there were people from Egypt here? Oh, wait, you mean that Egypt? You mean like enemy number one of God's people in the Old Testament? They're here. They're receiving the Holy Spirit.
They're part of God's family now. What, Mesopotamia? What civilization was from Mesopotamia? How about Babylon? Enemy number 1A of God's people in the Old Testament?
What they're in now? They're here. What's going on? Okay, look up Elam. And what was the capital?
Elam. There's this place called Susa. And then just file that away because we're going to be learning about Esther in a couple weeks. Just file that one away, and then you'll get it later. Okay, so, Elam, Rome.
All the way up there. You mean enemy number 1A of the church, Rome. What's going on? What's going on here? What are we seeing here?
I think we're seeing the beginnings of this fulfillment that God is blessing all nations. He's bringing them all together to this place to. To establish his church. And then he's given them a mission to now go and take this gospel, this good news of Jesus that we learned about last week, right? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.
They're all coming to this one place, and then they're getting ready to be scattered again. There's some cool things in here. Okay. There's another deep well here that we could be talking about, like, theologically that we're just not going to talk about right now. There's.
What do we see here in verse 4? They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. If we just interpret what that means through this story, it's pretty clear what's happening right here. They're speaking their native language, but others are hearing the language that they're from. So that's kind of weird, you know.
And it says, all these who are speaking, aren't they Galileans? What's the significance there? Well, did you know 11 of the 12 disciples are from Galilee? Galilee was known as, like. So it's up in the north.
And, you know, here in our. We have this, you know, geography that we're kind of. South is a certain thing, and north is a certain thing. You know what I'm saying? You got southerners and you got northerners, and we kind of know what that means.
You got to reverse that in Israel, kind of like in England. You got to reverse it. The southerners were the big city folk. That's where Jerusalem was. And northerners were the rural country folk.
So calling someone a Galilean back then was actually kind of like an insult. Okay. The closest thing I could say, what does this mean for us? Is like, the word redneck, you know what I mean? You know, so Galileans were like, you Galilean.
You know, And I'm sure the Galileans were like, yeah, I'm a Galilean. They, like, wrote a country song about it, like, yes, I'm a Galilean, you know, but people from the south were like, you're a Galilean. And they're like, yes, I'm a Galilean. It's that kind of dynamic that's going on. These are uncultured, you know, rough people, you know, from the north.
And they're saying, oh, by the way, any guesses on the one disciple that wasn't from Galilee? Yeah, it was Judas. Yep. So these people are like. They're just common people, you know, they're speaking redneck and they're like, how in the world.
Like, if you move to. Somebody in the lobby told me this in between services, like, I've been there. You move to this part of the country from the north, and you're like, I don't understand a word they say. And he Was like, this is what I experience every time I go to Bojangles. Like, I. I don't know what I'm about to eat, actually, because I have no idea what they're saying.
So these rednecks, they're talking, and I'm understanding them in my language. All of these languages here, this is what's happening. It's amazing. Okay, there's a hyperlink to Abraham's covenant. There's another hyperlink we should be thinking about here.
It's a story we haven't covered in the Old Testament in this series, but it's a pretty famous one. It's the Tower of Babel. What happened in the Tower of Babel? People came together into one place, and they said, we need to get to heaven. And so they, through their own devices and for their own glory, were building this thing to try and reach the heavens.
And God says, no, we're not having that. And so he took. They were speaking one language and he confused them and then created many languages and then scattered them. So what we're meant to be seeing here is a reversal of the Tower of Babel, because now instead of humans trying to make their way to heaven, God's made his way from heaven to Earth, right? He's taken all these people from different languages, different places, and brought them together.
Little twist here. He didn't say, okay, now y' all are speaking the same language now. He just made people understand it in their own language, which I think says something about this God. He's cool with cultural diversity, and he's cool with languages and different people being different. He's doing something special, though, that he's given us this common identity.
Even through that, I think there's something there. And what was the purpose of this day of Pentecost? Was it for humans mission? No, it was for God's mission. He said, I'm going to bring these people together, and instead of them being on their own mission, I'm going to give them my mission.
And little aside here what they're saying here, it says that they were speaking, the spirits gave them utterance. Like, what is an utterance? Like, that's not a word we use a lot. And when I first kind of thought about it, just in my head, I thought, oh, this is like mumbling. But that's not what the word utterance means.
It actually means, like a speech. Like what I'm doing right now. It's a prepared speech. It's discourse. So these redneck Galileans were giving, like, dignified speeches and that's one of the reasons they were like, what in the world's going on?
And this is what is happening. And this is my prayer. Anytime I get up here, anybody else gets up here behind this podium and start speaking, whatever redneck I'm speaking, I'm saying, God, through your holy spirit, please translate whatever the words are that I'm saying out of my mouth so that every person can receive it in their own hearts. And the miracle is that he does it. I'm witness to it for myself.
Y' all are. I know. Witnesses to it. He does it. He finds some way to translate whatever someone's saying.
When you look in the word or yourself when you're reading the word, he finds some way to translate it to your own heart. This is the miracle. That's what's happening here. And so let's put ourselves back in story mode. Let's think about, like, being at a play.
You're at a play, you're in the audience, the room's dark. You're seeing what's going on on stage, and you're like, this is the greatest play ever. Like, you were just enraptured by this play. This story that God is writing is the most amazing story. It's the story that undergirds every story that has ever been created.
Every movie that's been created, every novel is. Is all based on this story. And so we're watching this story unfold, and we're like, this is amazing, because you're just drawn into it. But the thing is, you're still watching the play. There's these actors on stage doing their thing, and you've just kind of left behind your old life for just a little bit.
You've just checked out, and you're just watching what's going on on stage. Have you ever heard of the fourth wall? You know what the fourth wall is in plays? So my theater nerds.
So a stage has three walls, right? These here and then one in the back. That's three walls. And then the fourth wall is this invisible wall that's between what's going on on stage and the audience and people on stage. You're supposed to not pay any attention to what's actually happening in the audience.
Like, these worlds are separate worlds, right? The world you came in on. But you came to put all that away so you could just. This is fantasy land over here. You're just partaking in that.
Here's what's happening in this part of the story. We learned when Jesus came, that this beautiful analogy that the author wrote himself into the story. So the hero is the author, and he's on stage. And you're like, this is the greatest play ever. This is amazing.
And all of a sudden, the hero turns and he looks at someone in the audience. He breaks the fourth wall. He says, come here. Show me on stage. You're like me.
I don't know what I'm doing. I'm not an actor, Right? This is what he's doing. He's breaking the fourth wall. This is not a play for us to just watch and to be spectators.
This is a play. This is a story that God has invited us to participate in on stage with him. Turns out, I guess the God that we're learning about in this Bible is a mastered improv. That's what seems to be happening here, because he's got a story that he's written. He's got a story that began and is moving towards a fulfillment.
Then he invites all these people onto the stage, and he is a master at taking us amateurs and whatever goofy things we do when we get up on stage and still weaving our collective stories together towards his fulfillment. That's what God's doing with all of us. So you are not here to be a spectator. You're here to be a participant. This is what's happening in the Book of Acts.
He's saying, I have a mission. I started this mission early on. You read about it in Genesis, chapter one. I gave this covenant to Abraham. I want to rescue my creation, and I've established a church that's going to be part of it.
The church isn't going to watch. The church is going to be part of it, of making that mission come true. And that's who you are. So we are fundamentally a people that are filled and influenced by the one Holy Spirit and that we're joining his mission. So this is the problem, right?
Sometimes we look and say, okay, well, I got my sins forgiven, so that's cool. That was nice. I guess I just want a little bit of Jesus to kind of, you know, I'm going to sprinkle a little Jesus over my life and get a little bit of, you know, flavor and taste, and it'll be a little bit better than it would have been if I hadn't had Jesus in my life. Like, you're the main character of the story, and you just want Jesus to come and kind of spice up your story a little bit. That's not what's going on here.
You're not the main character. We're not the Main character. Jesus is the main character. But we get to participate in his story on his mission. This is better anyway.
This is way better. Anytime we try and start looking inward, inward, inward, inward and going, okay, it's all about me, all about me, all about me. That never ends well. But when we release ourselves, give up ourselves as a kind of death to say, God, not my will, but yours be done. Turns out that's the most fun you'll ever have because you're joining his story.
Okay, let's move on. The third way that we receive his invitation to become the church that he's established is to participate in his community.
So we skip down, like I said. Please read all of chapter two. There's a great speech. There's a great utterance given by Peter here that is pretty cool. And you see lots and lots of things happening.
But we skip down and kind of see the result of what happened here. It says, day by day, attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes. They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God, having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. Just a few verses later, we learned that 3,000 people got saved on, like, at that moment that Peter got up and spoke. And then they started in this rhythm.
They started in a rhythm of gathering and scattering, of gathering and scattering. And that rhythm of doing that together is what God then used to then begin to establish his church. Now, the reason we're here today is because this church got on a mission. This church that we're reading about from 2,000 years ago, they got on mission, they accepted, they received Christ's mission, and they received his power through the Holy Spirit to do what he called them to do. That's why we're here 2000 years later, halfway across the world, worshiping the same God, because they ended up getting scattered.
But all along the way, there's little pockets, little pockets of believers all coming together, being his church, working together. So here's the thing that we have to understand, and we see very clearly in the Book of Acts, is that God did not write this story as an individual story for each one of us. He wrote it as a collective for us to be part of together. Look at John 17, 20, 21. This is Jesus prayer before he was crucified.
I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will ever believe in Me through their message. That's us. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one, as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us, so that the world will believe you sent me. Turns out the unity of his church is a key to the credibility of Jesus own mission on this earth to a watching world.
Wow. Talk about being invited into the story. He's like, hinging a whole lot on our ability to be in unity with each other.
Wow. Hebrews chapter 10, 24, 25. Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. So here's a command, y'. All, get together.
Stir one another up. You may have heard, like, an analogy of, like, a coal. You know, you've got a bunch of coals together, they're on fire, and it's hot. Take one coal out, move it over here away from the pile. What happens to that coal?
The fire dies out. And so we sometimes think about that analogy. We pay a lot of attention to the problem with the coal over here, that it's losing heat. Right? Have you ever thought about.
The real problem, though, is that if all the coals are left from the pile, there's no pile to do its job anymore. I was thinking about this last night. I had some family over. I was cooking hamburgers on the grill using charcoal. I needed those charcoal briquettes to be together to do their job.
They needed to heat. So we had yummy burgers and everyone could enjoy if all of the coals were out doing their own thing. We have no yummy burgers. And this is bad, right? So the togetherness of the coals, there's a reason for that.
Because they got a job to do. And if the coals aren't together. So don't think about the coal analogy and just say, oh, poor me over here, I've lost my fire. Also think about the fact that, hey, I'm over here and the coal needs me. The pile of coals needs me to do its job.
It's not just about you. You're not the main character, right? The mission that God has called us to together, that's what's important. And so, yes, for your own good, don't be too far away from the pile of coals, but get back in the pile of coals because we've got work to do. God's called us to this together.
Hear this. God did not save you so that you could be a discerning consumer of religious goods and services. That is not his purpose for saving you. So you can just go, well, you know, I just like the best Christian music and I like the best books and I like the best preaching and I like the best. And you're just, you know, a discerning consumer.
That's not why he saved you. He saved you because he's got a mission. And for some strange reason, he decided to partner with us for that mission. And he needs us to get to work now. We're not working on our own strength.
We're not working on our own power. If the first point didn't help us remind that this is God's spirit, His power inside of us, animating us, but he has decided to use his church for his mission. He could have done it without us, but he decided not to. And turns out there's. We're in limbo a little bit with the disciples.
We're still in limbo now because if you think about it, there's things that we're seeing, all these hyperlinks back to the Old Testament. You're like, man, that starts to fulfill this, that starts to fulfill that, that starts to fulfill this. Yes, it absolutely does. But like reality here, there's still something big coming, isn't there? Yes, something big has happened.
The Holy Spirit has come. He's established this church. All of the promises in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus. There's still something big coming. That's what we're going to learn about next week.
We're still in limbo a little bit, aren't we? What are we to do? Are we just to twiddle our thumbs waiting for the consummation that we're going to learn about next week? Or is there something for us to do? Is there a mission that God has called us to participate in?
The answer is yes. We are not to be sitting idly by. We're to be participating with God. His mission to rescue his whole creation. Turns out it's the best mission we could ever be a part of.
It's for our good. It's also for his glory. So this is what it means to be a part of his church, that we are a people and that our primary identity is that we are filled with the one Spirit of God. We are his children, marked by the seal of His Spirit. And then we're a group of people that decided, you know what?
It's his mission. I'm not the main character anymore. I'm going to join his mission. He's given us our mission statement. We're going to do it.
And then the third thing that we have to recognize, I know some of y' all would be like, I'm good. Let's just stop there. Is that he meant us to do it together. And that's why we have the church. That's why we have these gatherings.
That's why we have these gatherings here on Sunday mornings and in homes during the week, is because we cannot do it ourselves. We're meant to do it together. So would you receive this invitation, yield to his spirit, live for his mission, join his community. Because the story is still being written. It's not over yet.
The story's still being written. And by the grace of God, you're on stage and you get to be a part of it. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for what you have done for us. You not only have offered to save us, to give us your mercy, to not hold our sins against us, to do what we could not do for ourselves, which is to make us right with you.
You did this through your son, through his sacrifice on the cross, through his resurrection, you gave us new life. We are so grateful for that. But we are also grateful that you have given us a mission to join and that in your wisdom, you decided to create this church, this people that you would partner with and work through to bring your kingdom on earth just as it is in heaven. God, help us to join the work that you're doing. Help us to stop gazing inward and start looking at what you have called us to do.
For anyone here this morning who has not given your life to Jesus, I encourage you to stop and think about where the story you're writing is ending and join his story instead. It comes as surrender. It comes as a laying down of your old life. It comes as a death. But receive his promised life.
You can pray and say, God, I am so done with my own ways of trying to get to you. Trying to make my life mean something, trying to make my life better, just trying to survive. All that's ever led to is sin. It's only led to my rebellion against your ways. I'm ready to submit to you, to repent of my sins, to ask you to forgive me, to give me mercy and grace and new life.
God, I want to join you. I want to do whatever it is you've got for my life. I want to follow your will.
Pray this in your name. Amen.
Audio
All right. Good morning, church. Thank you so much for being here today. We are continuing our series. We're nearly at the end of it, a 12 part series we've called the Story.
And we've been going through really kind of the main snippets of scripture, if you will, covering really highlights, as you know, there's a whole lot more that we could have dove into. But today we're picking up kind of where we left off last week in this climactic moment where the one who God has been talking about for centuries, millennia, if you will, has arrived and has died for our sins, has risen from the grave. And now where we are today, the church is being born. And now we're in that time period now, in fact. So from creation to covenants to the catastrophe of the flood, the captivities and those prophets, all of that was pointing to Jesus.
And now here we are in the story, Jesus has come, Jesus has risen. And just before where we pick up today in Acts, Jesus has ascended to heaven. And this brings us to a really fascinating question today, which is what do we do with that now? What? And so let's jump into the story for just a moment and get kind of the emotion of what we might be feeling or what we could be feeling if we were first century disciples or apostles, and how this really still affects us today.
So just picture this for a moment. For several years, you've been hanging out with a famous teacher, a famous rabbi, who has not only been encouraging and spoke truth to you, but also you've seen miraculous things. You've seen him resurrect a person. You've seen amazing things. And now as the group of you are heading to Jerusalem for Passover, you're expecting a good party.
You're expecting Passover is meant to be. Hey, we're going to come celebrate. And we're going to celebrate for like a month of all the wonder that God has done. In fact, where we're picking up the story today, we're 50 days later where they're doing the end of this Passover celebration with the Pentecost, this wonderful feast. And so that's the expectation.
We're coming to Jerusalem to party. And that isn't what happens at all. They come to Jerusalem to watch this one. They've called their dear friend, their rabbi, their teacher, the one that they're even beginning to believe he might be the Messiah. They're starting to try to understand that now.
They watch him beaten, mocked and brutally crucified. And that's where we find ourselves in this story. And then for several days, we're in hiding. We're locking doors. We're worried now because if they'll kill him, oh, they'll definitely kill me.
We're getting terrified at this point. And as we're doing, that door's locked. All of a sudden, Jesus shows up and stands in the room with us. And we move from terror to awe to going, okay, wow. Now here's something that a lot of people don't realize.
Jesus didn't just come back three days later and stay for a couple of minutes. Do you know that Jesus hung around for 40 days after the resurrection? Not many people capture that when they're reading the Word of God. But guess what? Hundreds of people saw the resurrected Jesus and spent not just moments, but days and weeks with.
With them. So if you're in that time period, you're one of the apostles, one of the disciples, one of the people hanging out with Jesus for those 40 days, here's what you start thinking. You start thinking, boy, we've arrived. They tried to kill him. He's back.
They can't kill him again. He'll just get back again. What are they going to do? And if any of us dies, I mean, surely he'll raise us. We saw him do it, and he can raise himself.
You're starting to feel like, boy, we've arrived, we're good. He's bringing the kingdom now. And then Jesus starts repeating something that he began to speak to them back in John chapter 16. He says this. It is to your advantage that I go away.
Wait, what? We kind of like you here. We kind of like you hanging out with us. He says, it's for your advantage that I go away so that I can send the comforter, the promised Holy Spirit. This is going to be beyond your imagination.
I have to go so that you might receive this. So gather together. He basically tells them, hey, don't leave. Don't leave until this happens. Don't leave until the Spirit comes.
And so then they gather together for 10 days. They pray and they wait. And that's where our story picks up today. That's where I want us to kind of get in that mindset. Christ is risen.
Christ has died for our sins. Christ has now ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father. And this is great news. This is incredible news. But now what?
What do I do with that? Where does the story go next? Church? I want you to know something. I love this part of the story.
Do you know why? Because I'm part of this and so are you. This is our part of the story. This Jesus, this God who authored this wonderful creation, this wonderful story which is our existence. Not only does he become the greatest hero of that story, not only does he write himself in, which is amazing.
He breaks the fourth wall too. He says, hey, Jonathan, you want in? He breaks the fourth wall and says, hey, do you want to come on stage? Do you understand how cool this story is that suddenly it goes from alright, everything is happening on the page to now we're jumping in the book. You and I stand in the book of Acts.
Did you know that we're in the in between? Christ has come, Christ has ascended and Christ is coming again. We're in the in between the church. And we have a role to play, a wonderfully and powerful role where God has given us the Holy Spirit, has called us according to his purpose. And deep down there's something we know that we have truly longed for.
We want to be in. We want to be in the story. We want to be a part of something bigger. This is why we grew up, most of us watching movies or reading books that we wanted to dive into. We longed to be in them.
Some of you, it was sailing with Odysseus. Some of you, it was walking with the Fellowship of the Ring. Others of you, like me, you were ready to roll out with Optimus prime, alright, or be the fifth Ninja Turtle. I think there's room. There's room.
I don't know what color I'd pick, but there's room. Some of you, you want to be the fourth guy with Harry and Hermione and Ron. Some of you are like, I don't even know what that is. You're the same people that like sailing with Odysseus. You guys get along, it's okay.
We want to be in the story. We want to stand beside the heroes we grew up with. I have great news. This story is far better because not only is it real, it's eternal and it's the church which you're a part of. So there's an invitation.
Today then, in the book of Acts, we see Luke recording an event. This is in the past, but this event continues to today. God here established his church as a means to reach the nations. It was always his intent. This is who God is, that every man might be saved, that every nation might come to faith.
And he wants to use us in the story. He wants us to be the church. And what that looks like, I think you'll see as we dig in. You're going to see three really clear defining marks of how the Church is to be the one that God has established. So let's dig in.
Handful of verses in the book of Acts, Chapter two. Picking up at verse one. 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. 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. Amen. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.
And they were amazed. They were astonished, saying, are not all these men who are speaking? Aren't they all Galileans? How is it then that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphya, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene.
And visitors even from Rome, both Jews and Proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And then this opening act of the church ends this way. Chapter 2, verse 46. And day by day attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.
And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. I want to be a part of that church, don't you? Amen to that. Let's be that church that the Lord is adding to its number every single day. That the Spirit of God has fallen on in such a powerful way that it is obvious to the community, it's obvious to the nation around.
So here's the first defining mark, if you will, of what this church is that God has established that you and I get to be a part of. The first defining mark is that we would receive His Holy Spirit. This is where it starts. This is the game changing moment. This is where everything shifts.
Receive His Holy Spirit. Now, where they are in this moment is they're somewhere in Jerusalem. If you go back to Acts chapter one, you'll see them praying and preparing in the upper room. Now there's hundreds of them gathered. There's the 12, which now includes Matthias.
Judas is out for right reasons. They've added Matthias and there's. There's a couple hundred others, 120, I think the Bible mentions in Acts, chapter one, there's women there. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is there. And they're all gathered and they're praying.
And then in Acts, chapter two, it says that the Spirit of God basically fell on them, and they were in such a place that thousands of people could gather. Most of those people writing on this say this is somewhere near the temple area in Jerusalem, which is beautiful if you think about it, that the Spirit of God now falls on the people near the temple, no longer the temple itself. It's beautiful. So that's where the occasion we know here is Pentecost. That's the seventh week after Passover, where they come together and they celebrate.
They recognize that the harvest is complete. So there's a ton of people here. God has timed this up perfectly. This isn't an accident. God has made sure that in this moment there would be all the nations gathered, because he has a plan.
He has a plan for all the nations. And it says in this moment that a spirit, a wind came from heaven, this place where God dwells. And then verse two, it says, a mighty rushing wind. Now, this isn't particularly important, but I just want to share this with you. The word that's often used in Greek for wind is not the word that's used here.
The word that's used here is the word pneuma. It's often the word you'll see that describes the spirit. So it's interesting that here the mighty rushing wind is the mighty rushing breath. You would say the breath of God, perhaps that the expectation here now is that the Holy Spirit has come. That is the reason the word pneuma was chosen.
And if that wasn't clear, it says then that divided tongues as of fire appeared. So now the Spirit of God is coming out in a unique and different way. Before it fell on the temple, before it fell on specific people. Now it is going out and dividing in such a way that it could reach the hundreds, the thousands, the church today. And it says it rested on them.
This is new. Verse 4 says, Then they were filled with the Spirit and the Spirit gave them utterance. That's a weird word. How often do y' all walk around and say, today I'm going to say an utterance? I've never said that in my life other than just now, Spirit gave them utterance.
What in the world is that about? That word is meant to be this idea of an elevated discourse, like a prepared speech. That's what that word really means. So, okay, so what's going on here? When the Holy Spirit fell on them, it also fell on them with a prepared word that suddenly they were ready to speak.
They were ready to preach. The part of the story I did not read and I would encourage you to read this week. The Spirit of God falls on Peter, and Peter speaks for just a handful of minutes and 3,000 people come to faith. The Spirit of God shows up and gives them a word to say. That's what it means there by utterance.
Now, the Bible is a unified story. If you've been watching these with us, if you've been on this journey with us, you should see these symbols really jumping off the page that the Spirit of God shows up in wind and in fire. I'll go to several of the stories we've already covered together. Remember this. When God shows up to give a covenant to Abraham, remember how he shows up?
The Bible says he shows up as a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch. Smoke and fire. When he shows up at the Red Sea in the wilderness, he shows up as a pillar of fire by night, a pillar of cloud by day. What do you see? Wind.
Fire. Cloud. Fire. When he shows up at Mount Sinai, you see thunder and smoke. And you see fire and wind.
A place we didn't go together, but we could have is when Solomon finally completes the Temple, the Presence falls on it in a way that the Bible describes as fire and cloud. So when we read this together, if we've read the Bible at all, we should see, okay, God is showing up again. His Holy Spirit has fallen. His Presence, his glory has now fallen. But it's totally different this time.
How so? Because it's not a building anymore. And it's not even a specific person. It's a people. That's new.
That's new. That's the good news of the church today, is that when we come to faith, when we come to Christ, the Spirit of God is upon us, divided as a fire. So that way, you know, this place is a great place. I love it here. You know, I'm very thankful for what God has done in providing this opportunity for us.
But if we aren't here, the Spirit of God isn't either. Because the Spirit of God is with his people and his people when we come in this place. The Spirit of God is in this place when no one's here. This is a shell. This is a place for people to get together.
But it's not Even the church. My dad used to say this a lot growing up, because 19 years, we were portable. We met in schools, and it was kind of like a calling card that we would say, the church is not the steeple, it's the people. You know, he'd do this little image with me. How's it going?
Anyway?
I've done forgot how that even worked. But it's not the steeple, it's the people. He's right. And we were in schools, but we knew when we got together and we worshiped in those random auditoriums that the church had showed up. Because the church is where the people of God are, where the Spirit of God has now fallen on us.
And so this is what Jesus has been promising for years. They didn't really totally grasp it. We wouldn't have either. Now, thousands of years later, we're looking back and going, well, duh. But in the moment, they were trying to figure out, what is he saying?
Luke, chapter 24. Jesus says, Behold, I'm sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. And that's what they did. I don't know what he means exactly by that, but let's hang out until the power comes. And Acts 1:8, he repeats this.
He says, 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 in Samaria, and to the ends of Egypt, Earth. Oh, wow. The Holy Spirit then comes to all believers. When we come to faith, we receive the promised Holy Spirit.
Did you know that? How infrequent do you access that? It's kind of surprising how little we consider this, that the Spirit of the Most High God is upon all believers. That at any moment we can come into the Holy of Holies, have access to a holy God because of the blood of Jesus Christ, that we can come and say, lord, help me. Lord, be with me.
Give me wisdom in this. Grant me peace that we can come right in.
We take that for granted. In John chapter 7, Jesus says, Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For as yet, the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. So prior to his ascension, this hadn't happened.
But then you have this moment. Acts, chapter two. The Spirit of God comes. And now to all believers who all, all who would ever believe, receive the promised Holy Spirit. It's like moving day has occurred here in the Book of Acts, chapter two.
And this has been a real big surprise to the people of that day. It's maybe not as surprising to us, but it would have been a huge surprise to them. When you're first moving out, everything you own, like, if it's been a long time you've lived in this place, maybe it's a house you grew up in. Everything you own is in that place. There's pictures on every wall.
You filled every space. If you've got kids, the refrigerator is full of drawings. And that house really begins to define you. But then moving day comes. The furniture gets all packed up, the boxes are all loaded up.
The house becomes empty. And then it starts to feel very strange there. If you've ever experienced this before, after living in a place for a while, and suddenly you move, you look around this empty shell of a building. It doesn't even feel like home anymore. It doesn't feel like home because the people and the stuff that used to inhabit that place are gone.
It can be kind of depressing. This is, I think, what they felt for about 10 days. For about 10 days. He's gone, and we don't really know what he's saying, what's coming. What is this power?
What is this breath? What is this spirit? And then you move. And then this home, There's a new home. For generations, God had lived in a temple.
But this is moving day because no longer does he inhabit buildings, he inhabits people. This is the new thing that's occurred, that now we know as the people of God, that he's chosen a new dwelling place. And that's you. So, friend, there's an invitation to you today that step one in being the church is being the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. That the Spirit of God would abide in you.
And what that looks like looks different for everybody. But initially it means not my will, but yours be done. God. Initially it looks like saying, I've tried to blaze a trail my own way, but it ain't working out. I need a savior and a messiah.
Some of you need to make that step today and simply say yes to Jesus. I've heard the story. I've heard about the death. I've heard about the resurrection. I've heard about the ascension.
I've heard these things, okay, what have you done with them? Have you staked your claim in it and said, okay, me too? I want in by faith. You believe the spirit of God can rest on you. That's for some of you today, for most of you today, it's saying, all right, whatever the Lord says to me is a yes from me.
Because sometimes, guess what, friends? The Spirit of God is going to come into your life. You say, lord, Holy Spirit, fall. And we're singing these songs.
Spirit, fall, Spirit, lead me, spirit. We sing all this stuff, but do we mean it? Because when it falls, guess what it's going to say? Hey, you need to stop drinking. Oh, I didn't know that was the Holy Spirit.
Yeah, that was the Holy Spirit.
You need to reconcile with your father. You need to make your marriage right. When the Spirit of God shows up, it doesn't always show up saying, hey, good job, little guy. It rarely does that because it loves you. The Holy Spirit of God, the God of the universe loves you more than this.
It's like moving day. The question is, has he moved into you? Have you become the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God? Because sadly, we have a tendency to pray so very little and then work so very hard and wonder why nothing ever happens. And the reason for this, I think, is because we missed The Acts chapter one moment.
The Acts chapter one moment is they pray for 10 days, they preach for 10 minutes, and 3,000 people get saved. We miss that because we pray for 10 minutes and work our butts off for 10 days and wonder why nothing shows up. So I want to invite you today that some of you in the room need to say yes to Jesus for the first time, that the Holy Spirit of God might fall in your life. But some of you in the room have received this, but you don't access it ever. You need to spend a considerable amount of time with the Lord every single day.
This is the most important relationship in your life. It's more important than your wife, your husband, your children. And those things are important. I'm not even saying don't work hard there. You should.
But number one is your relationship with the Lord Jesus. And some of you are asking some really important questions right now. Where should I work? Who should I marry? What should I do next?
I can promise you this. You haven't prayed enough because there's no such thing as prayed enough. There's no point you reach where you've prayed enough like God said, We've talked enough. What? Since when is that possible?
You're going to spend eternity with your Creator. You don't reach a place where you've talked enough. Pray more considerable time with the Lord and be filled with the Spirit. That's number one. If you get nothing else today.
If you'll get that and it'll change your life. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. Amazing that the God of the universe would divide his spirit for his people. That each of us could receive it. Here's number two.
And if y' all liked that first one, you'll like this. If you didn't, you're really gonna hate this one. Focus on his mission. Focus on his mission. Notice I didn't say focus on the mission.
A mission. Your mission. His mission. Because there's a lot of missions that we could have. We've been instructed our whole life.
There's been a lot of things that we've heard we should be doing. We should be making money. We should be feeding our kids. We should be making sure our relationships are all right. We should make enough to where we can retire early.
And that's the goal. I mean, whatever your mission has been. And those are fine. Those are fine. That's not his mission.
His mission is simpler, but more challenging. Because his mission, although simpler, is completely selfless. Because it's not about you and me. It's about who's coming with us. Because all this is dust.
Every chair in the room, the building itself, everything that's in our hands. Everything we drive, every place we go. Not the mission. The mission is who's coming with us. Because that's the only eternal thing in the room.
The only thing with real value is the people. So to this, God focuses his mission. I don't want you to miss this. Of chapter 2, verse 5 through 11. It's careful that the Word of God says every nation under heaven was gathered.
Look, God's strategic. God knows Pentecost is going to be a moment where everybody in the whole known world is going to show up. And the reason that's important is because when I radically get a hold of them and change them, they're the ones that are going to go home and reach people with the gospel. Do you know that most of us are sitting in this room right now not because of Paul, Peter, John and the disciples? That's not the case.
We're sitting in this room because of people no one's ever heard of. We're sitting in this room because there were some faithful people that went back to Arabia and to Europe and to all of the known world. I'm sitting in this room because there's some people in my lineage that I don't talk about enough. People named. I have a grandmother named Wilda.
She's the reason I'm sitting here. Not Many people know her name. It's a weird name.
There's people in your past, moms, dads, grandparents, that no one even knows their names. But you're here because of them. And God does this on purpose. He schedules a moment for the Holy Spirit of God to show up when every nation under heaven is gathered so that they will go and be his witnesses. Because the apostles, it's not their job to reach everybody.
They were meant to reach some. And they were meant to write the word of God so that we might have their story, so that we might know more and learn from the Lord. But most of the people coming to faith are coming to faith by people we've never heard of.
This is a renewal, if you will, of what God had always promised, that the line of Abraham would be a blessing, not just to one nation, but to all nations. Genesis chapter 12, it says, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I'll make your name great so so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you.
And him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. The offspring of Abraham, who was to be Jesus. By him, all nations will be blessed.
Now, I'm not going to dodge something here. There's something kind of wild. I imagine some of you in the room are thinking, I'm surprised you chose this passage today, because we're in this tongues of fire moment. What are you going to do with that, Jonathan? We can't wait to see.
What are you going to do with this little dicey subject? I have no issue covering this, especially right here, because in this particular text, you have the tongues of fire falling. You have an utterance, you have the languages showing up. And here in this passage, it's very careful to say three times that they heard it in their own language. Language.
Now, I'm not going to get into the great debate of tongues of fire and tongues of heaven and all of that. We can talk more after service about that. I have a lot of thoughts. But in this passage, we are talking about languages. The word here in the Greek is the word glossa, which is where we get the word glossary.
These were real languages, I have no doubt, because the men respond by saying, how is it that they know my language? How is it I'm from Mesopotamia, I'm from Arabia? How are these weirdos from Galilee speaking my language? Not only that, they're speaking it correctly. There's another word used here, own native language.
It's the Word dialectos. It's where we get the word dialect. They've even got dialect right. I can tell you right now, some of you in the room might be really good with Spanish. You might be good with some foreign language.
But I guarantee you, when you get around those people of that real language, they're going to look at you and go, you're saying the right words, but you're saying them weird. That's probably going to happen to most of us. When I spent some time in Uganda, I was learning some of their languages, and I got to tell you, I really like RUF and bera, but it's so foreign to English that I know for a fact. And you know what? I look like I was sticking out like a sore thumb.
They see so few white people there that they come up and start pinching your skin. Is this real? Like, it's real. I mean, I just did not get blessed with the melanin you got. I mean, it's real, but so wild.
But I can tell you, those words, those things I was trying to say, oh, I stuck out like a sore thumb. But here they said, no, they've even got. They got the slang right. That's wild. That's what happened when the Holy Spirit showed up.
It showed up with a prepared word for them. And then everyone heard their natural tongue. In fact, they make a great question. They say, how is this possible, since everyone speaking are Galilean? Now, that might not jump off the page to you, but that was actually meant to be a shot, a slight.
It'd be kind of like someone saying to you, boy, you sound really intelligent to be such a redneck. You know, like, that's fair. Y' all have been hearing me preach. That's fair, you know, such a hillbilly. I'm so surprised.
You. You know, that would be like that slang. That's essentially what they're saying. How is this possible? One theologian wrote about the Galileans, that this was a common term to be used for people who were ignorant, rude or uncivilized, that the term Galilean was meant to express a deep reproach and contempt.
This dialect, in fact, the Galilean dialect, was considered very barbaric, corrupt. So not only are they rednecks, but they're like cussing like sailors. That's what was expected from men of Galilee. But not here. Here, Peter, the disciples, they show up speaking not only foreign languages, speaking them in the right dialect.
For weeks we've been saying, hey, do we believe in miracles or not? If y' all are willing to believe that there's a God who created the earth, that he flooded it once, that he can build things like this, then surely you can come on board with the fact that he can give you a language from time to time. I think that's small beans right there for God. That's easy. And he does it here.
That's what happens. So now Parthians all the way to Arabians. Sixteen nations are mentioned here. You can go ahead and pop up this image. This is a beautiful thing that God has done.
The entire known world has shown up now for Pentecost. They're coming from the four corners of the Roman Empire. It's a deliberate sweep of the unknown world. And the mission is starting right here in Jerusalem, that God has a plan and has always had a plan that he would gather and scatter. This is the church.
Do you want to know what it means to do church? Yes, you come here, you get encouraged. Yes, you come here, and God moves you and encourages and challenges you, but he also sends you. The church gathers, the church scatters. So now, wherever you go, you go, making disciples of all nations.
And it was never my calling. Not in your neighbors. Look around you. It wasn't their calling to go where you're going. God called you.
He called the Parthian and the Arabian to go like this. So that now, this week, I'm going to be where I'm at, shopping, where I'm shopping. And you're going to be at your workplace. You. We're going to be in the four corners of Rocky Mountain this week.
And the question is going to be, will we be the church sent with the good news of Jesus? It's the greatest mission. It's the only one that's eternal. People are the mission. People are all that matters.
And God has done a wonderful thing here. In fact, what we begin to see unfold, if we go later. In the Book of Acts, chapter 11, it says there were some of them men of Cyprus and Cyrene. This is an area in, like, North Africa. They were coming to Antioch, which is up here in, like, Turkey.
They were the ones speaking to the Hellenists. Hellenists is another word for the Greeks. And they were preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them. And a great number who believed turned to the Lord. So now you've got people all over the world witnessing, and people are coming to faith.
It's amazing. And God is showing a redemption, too. He's redeeming the nations here. It's Very important that you don't miss the nations he mentions. You could go back to Genesis chapter 10.
Genesis chapter 10, we call the Table of Nations. These are the sons of Noah, Hamshom and Japheth. And they begin to have sons and grandsons. And it doesn't take them very long before the sons of Noah are waging war against one another. The grandsons, the great grandsons.
Before long, you've got Egypt enslaving Israel. They. These are both sons of Noah. It's in this story that all of a sudden we see the Medes. This is like Persia.
We've got the Elamites. That's near Babylon. We've got Egypt itself. Oh, you're not supposed to miss this when you read Egypt. Everybody should be going, wait, what a minute.
What are we talking about? Egypt, Egypt, bad. Israel good. Not anymore. You understand?
Not anymore. We just sang a few minutes ago. Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, under the banner of one name.
I hope you don't miss this today. When the church gathers, we gather in one name. We don't gather because we all agree on some sort of political thing. We don't. You don't know this.
Maybe I got a sense of it as I look around the room, because I know some of your stories. Oh, no. Oh, no. We don't gather for that. We don't gather one race.
We don't gather one gender. We gather because of one name. Some of you are from foreign nations. If you trace your heritage far enough and back. We're from all corners of the earth, and yet we gather why?
For one name. And we better not miss that. This means that we are Christian first, not American. This means that's priority. We're the church long before we're anything else.
So the question is, will we also be a part of what God is doing in redeeming the nations to himself? It says in verse 11 that they shared the mighty works of God, the magnificent, the gift of his son, the payment for our sins, the resurrection. That must be what was intended here. We know what the mission is. Jesus gives us not only his mission statement, he gives us one.
So I do want to say this church, don't come up to me at any point and say, I just don't know what God's will is for my life, because I'm going to have a really hard time with that. Now, he may have a very specific will for your life, but if you want to know generally what God's will is for your life, it's pretty easy. It's in the book. So here's what Jesus says about himself. Here's Jesus mission statement.
Luke, chapter 19. He says, for the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost, okay? And he does that by not only reaching them, seeking them, but also dying for them and raising for them. That's what Jesus does. And then he tells us when he comes back resurrected.
Matthew, chapter 28. He says, here's your mission. Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold good news. I'm with you always to the end of the age.
What are we to do, church? Oh, I don't know what my mission is in life. Go make disciples of all nations. You don't get to be choosy about it either. But I don't like the way he looks.
Then you definitely should talk to him. I don't like the way.
Go. All nations. All nations. This one really messes with me. This is why I'm spending a little extra dose on it.
Because to be honest with you, I struggle in this space spot because I am project over people just naturally. And I know that's hard to hear, but it's a fact. When I think about getting a job done, I think about the work around it. I don't think about the people it takes to accomplish it. I'm project over people.
And God's like, we can use that, but we gotta change some stuff. Because I'm confident that the people are the mission. And if the people are the mission, then they are never the interruption to the mission. And I find people to be. So there's such an interruption.
I was going from A to B. I just wanted to go and buy milk. I don't want to talk. And yet God says, here, here are people. And I've written pastor on your forehead. You just can't see it.
It's true. My wife knows this really well. People ask me for money constantly too, and I never have any. I got bad news. I just.
I have no money. And even if I did, I wouldn't have cash. Who carries cash anymore under the age of. I don't know. I'm not going to go there.
Sorry. I apologize to whoever that offended just now, but a lot of us don't carry cash.
But people. If the people are the mission, then they can never be interruptions. And sometimes I do this crazy thing where I prepare a space. Like I host small group, for instance, and I prepare the place every chair Is right. The rooms are vacuumed.
I've even probably got something in one room that's making the place smell better. And then the people show up, and you know what they do? They mess up the space that I made for them. I thought I made it for them. And then I realized, wait a minute.
I think I did this for me.
The very rooms that are getting messy were for the people that I intended them to be for. And yet I'm mad. Oh, kids, this isn't just you, church. My kids. Like, we have a room that's the living room.
It's the family room. And when I walk in there, I'm like, there's clutter everywhere. Like, this is the family room. And I'm glad my kids don't do this. But they could do this.
They could say, yeah, we know. We're the family, being in the family room with our stuff. Some of you are like me. And by God's grace, we're gonna be okay. God's working on us.
But people are the mission. They're the mission. And if God's spirit lives in you now, you don't just attend church. You are the church. Wherever you go, your workplace, tomorrow, you're the church.
So act like it. Act like it. That people might see the hope you have in Christ Jesus and ask. That's how the verse is laid out. You show no hope.
No one's going to ask. In fact, they're going to wonder why it is you call yourself a Christian at all. Because you live just like they do. Except you seem to have more rules. That stinks.
That's not the real faith. That's not real Christianity. We're free. We have joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control. Do you understand?
We have it. Here's the third. Some of you have been on this journey with me a long time. You know, I've preached Acts 2, 42, 47 so many times. I did you a favor today and didn't preach that home text.
Although if I had, it would still be gold. All right. But this verse ends 46 and 47 with this idea of what it looks like to be the church. You're never gonna escape this. Introverts in the room.
Hear me. Cause I am one of you. You don't know this. Some of you. I am an introvert.
When I go home in a little while, I'm gonna do what I used to tell tell people a lot. I'm going to become my couch and I am going to be exhausted because I am an introvert. People tire me. Not because you're bad. I love you.
It's just who I am. But introverts in the room. I want you to hear something. The church is never done in isolation. It's not how it works.
In fact, there are hundreds of statements in the Bible where it says, together, they prayed together, they ate together, they were in the temple together, they were attending the temple courts together, they were giving together, they were together. And so we don't do church in isolation. The mission of God goes out in community, not isolation. And when that happens, the Lord adds to their number. That word number there in the King James is actually the word ekklesia, which is how we translate the word church.
He says they add to the church every day those who are being saved. So don't miss it. The mission of God does not go forward in isolated individuals. It moves forward and committed community. So I invite you today to continue in fellowship, to continue to be a part, not just of what we're doing Sunday morning.
Hey, I would encourage you today if there's somebody here that you don't have a lunch plan, go have lunch with somebody. Go to a small group this week. And we talk about this a lot. And people are like, oh, God, he's harping on this again. Do you know I believe this, though, right?
Like, I believe it. Something powerful happens in community. In fact, the gospel is tied. The credibility of the gospel is tied to our community. This is what it says in John, chapter 17.
I'm praying not only for these. Jesus said, I'm praying not only for these disciples, but also for all who will believe in me through their message. That's you and me. He's talking to us. He says, I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one.
As you are in me, Father, and I am in you, and may they be in us so that the world. So that the world will believe you sent me. So the people are going to watch, and they are going to watch in wonder and go, how is it that these people are in community together? This is why the church is so cool that people would come under the banner of one name that would normally never hang out. And I'm telling you, it's going to create sparks.
Sometimes you put cultures together. Some of us cook different. Did y' all know that some of y' all don't use salt and pepper. And we need to talk about it. All right?
But this starts to happen. You get some friction in the room, sparks fly. And all of a sudden you start wondering I don't know if we need to be together, but no, that's not what the book is all about. Hebrews. In fact, the writer of Hebrews, chapter 10, it says, Let us consider how to stir up one another, to love and to good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.
And all the more, as you see the day drawing near. Do it more, not less. There's an illustration we use in our one on one discipleship that really works great here. That if you want to build a great fire, you don't do it by putting a log here and a log here, a log here and lighten them. You clearly have never built a fire.
No, you want to stack them, go log cabin, go teepee, whatever works for you. But you're going to put them together and they're going to burn. But the moment you pull one of those logs aside, it's going to go out, it's going to fade, and it's going to go away from any heat. It will lose its purpose. Some of you are like, I just don't know if that's true for me.
You know, I do really good over here. No, you don't. You're a target. The evil one sees you. You're the goofy gazelle that got away from the pack.
And you're easy to eat. Get back. Come on.
Oh, but Jonathan, you don't know, man. I went to one of your small groups. I used to go to a church and such and such. They really hurt my feelings. And so I'm over here.
Such and such is still going to church, getting blessed, being in community. They are unaware that you're over here harping about it. Only one of you is bitter. This person's getting better.
But I just want to be alone. I don't want to go to church. Okay. Just know that the spirit of God comes and draws us together in community. When you make the decision to isolate, I promise you this, that was not from God.
So just know you're outside of his will when you make the decision. I don't want to do church stuff. I don't want to be in community.
That doesn't mean you have to do every little thing we offer here. Do you know why we offer certain things just to try to get more hooks in the water? Because we're just trying to help you find brothers and sisters in Christ and it's not going to work for everybody. Not everybody can do a weeknight group. Maybe you can do a morning Bible study with us.
Oh, I don't like 6am what other excuses do you have? I don't know what to do. Come to something. Be with people. I can't do any of the things you offer.
Then make a friend here and get together every week and have lunch. Find a way to live in gospel community in our city and watch what God can do. You were never meant to follow Jesus alone. If you isolate yourself, your faith will slowly grow cold. So now what?
Now what do we do? Church. I invite you today. Christ is crucified for you. Christ is risen.
Christ is ascended and he has sent his promised Holy Spirit for you and I. That is a promise that you have. Will you access it? Will you allow and yield to the Holy Spirit in your life, which sometimes will move you to aggressively address the sin in your heart. Will you yield then?
Will you make the determination that God's mission is my number one mission? I'll get side quests sometimes. God will allow some room there, but his mission is my number one. And then I'm going to make the decision. I'm going to be with God's people, especially when they get on my nerves.
Because it might just very well mean that you needed that or it might just very well mean that you need to help them. Some people are a pain. They just need a kind word to say, hey, you know what? You're not very easy to be with, but God loves you and I want to. And I'm not going anywhere.
Some people just need to hear, I'm not leaving you, even though you're a bear.
That was a word for somebody today. I think it was one for me. Here's the great news as I close. This story is still being written. You've been invited on stage.
Will you say yes? All right, I'm going in. I'm not going to sit on the bench anymore. I'm getting in God's story and by the grace of God, you get to be a part of it. So let's pray now.
Church. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your good word to us today that you allow us to get to be a part of of your wonderful story. I have no doubt, Lord Jesus, you would be a better preacher, a better missionary, a better person than I could ever be. I know that in spite of that, Lord, you offer us all the opportunity to be a part of the story. You thought it would be more, I guess, fun for us to get involved.
Lord, I'm so thankful for who you are.
It's kind of like, Lord, when I go out and mow my yard. And when my kids were little, they would come out and try to mow with me. I know good and well they were not going to mow a straight line. In fact, they couldn't even crank the motor. In spite of that, it was kind of sweet to see them try.
I think that's who you are, Lord. Oh, sure, you could have stayed and done it all, but that's not how you roll. You invite us to be on mission with you. We're not always going to cut a straight line, Lord. We can't even crank it sometimes.
But, God, you love us and you're excited that we get to be a part of it. Just for your goodness. Thank you for that, Lord. I ask now, Lord, would you encourage us help that person today that they're a believer, but they have never really truly yielded to the spirit of God. There have been things all throughout the last several months or years where, God, you've been saying, hey, can we talk about this?
Can we deal with your addiction? Can we deal with this place of hurt? Can we deal with this lack of reconciliation? That's the spirit. God, I pray today would be the day that they would yield.
Say not my will, but yours be done, Lord. Lord, I pray that would happen today for that other person who's come today. And they've never said yes to Jesus at all. Maybe they've heard some of this. Yeah, sure.
I heard Christ died on the cross he raised from the dead. I don't know. Today's the day, my friend. Would you yield to the spirit of God in your life? The one that's calling and saying, no, no, I'm here, I've saved, I've redeemed, I've restored, and I'm ready to guide you in everything.
That voice. Would you yield to that today? There's no reason to wait another moment. Today's the day. If you are there, that's who you are today.
Then pray with me. Simply this, Lord Jesus, I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, that you rose from the grave and you conquered sin and death for me. Because of this, I have incredible hope. And I'm asking you now, Lord, guide me. Show me your purpose in my life.
Help me to walk with you day by day. Dear friend, if you prayed that, we're so thankful for you today. I'm so encouraged by you. We're praying right along with you, Lord. Guide us.
Show us your purpose. Help us to be your church, Lord, if nothing else, that we would leave this place today and represent you as the true church of God. Wherever we eat, wherever we shop, wherever we go, from this place that people would know the light of the world is being carried by a small group of people, hopefully a much larger group of people. Throughout our city we pray all these things in Jesus name, amen.