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Acts 2:1-12 - Part 1 · Providence Baptist Church - Sermons

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As Wes said, we are beginning in Acts chapter 2.
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If you turn there with me to Acts chapter 2.
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And as you're getting there,
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! I hope that you take opportunities to thank all of the musicians in our church.
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We have so very many that share the stage and swap out so graciously together.
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I'm especially thankful for the way in which they prepare.
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They are here earlier than most of you,
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which likely means they got up earlier than most of you to get this together.
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The guys that have to come and run the technology.
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I keep mentioning we have this new board.
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We're still sorting it out back there and figuring out all the technical intricacies of it.
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I'm thankful that Wes and Liz worked to find us new,
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Christ-centered, God-honoring songs to sing together.
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So if you don't, be sure to take some time at some point to thank them.
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It's not why they do it, but let's affirm them and keep them moving on in that process.
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Our text for this morning is Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 12.
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And this morning we have the great privilege and joy before us to observe a significant watershed moment in the life of the church.
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Everything changes after this.
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If you have placed your faith in the personal work of Jesus Christ,
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this is part of your history.
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And it has great significance for your life in Christ.
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We have before us the day in which God unlocked the power of the Holy Spirit and gave it to the church.
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Beloved, this is God's Word to us.
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It was written for His glory and for our good.
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We would all do well to listen to it in order to believe its promises and to obey its commands.
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And I begin reading in verse 1 of chapter 2.
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And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?
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We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.
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And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,
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What does this mean?
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Now before we pay close attention to today's text,
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I want you to recall so far in Luke's record what has happened.
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Chapter 1, verse 3.
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We get a little summation of Jesus' post-resurrection ministry.
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He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs,
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appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
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So He has been with them, going out from amongst them and telling them more.
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He's teaching them about the kingdom of God.
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And then a command comes to them, verses 4 and 5,
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to stay and to wait.
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While they were staying with them, He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,
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but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said,
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You heard from Me.
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For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
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And then verse 8.
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We see the promise of power for the fulfillment of their purpose.
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And that is the gospel to the ends of the earth.
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You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
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And you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.
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And then verse 9.
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We witness the ascension.
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And when He had said these things as they were looking on,
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He was lifted up and a cloud took them out of their sight.
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So we talked last week about the time in between Jesus' ascension.
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What were they doing?
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They were together and devoting themselves to prayer.
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And they had a concern for what the Scriptures had to say.
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They cared about apostolic authority.
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They replaced Judas with Matthias in this time.
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And then 10 days later, we see chapter 2, verse 1.
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The day of Pentecost arrives.
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And Pentecost means 50th.
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This celebration is also known as the Feast of Weeks.
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And for them, it was a yearly feast.
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Happened all the time as subscribed by Leviticus chapter 23.
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We now know it as the day of Pentecost.
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We don't continue to celebrate Pentecost the way they did,
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but it's a day in the history of the modern church.
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And what a day this was.
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Now, there is so much to consider in this text.
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And so I've decided I'll deal with it this week and next.
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And if you're here with us last week, I really said to you, I expressed to you,
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I really hope not to get off the preaching schedule that I set out for the year.
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We're already off the schedule.
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There's just too much in this text to deal with it well,
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to aptly talk through it in a single week.
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And so next week, we will look broadly at what is meant by being filled with the Holy Spirit
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and the exact nature of its implications for us today.
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There's a lot there.
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I came to my study of it this week with certain assumptions that I found to be true,
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but boy, did I find a lot of other understandings of this particular text.
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And I really think we need to take some time to work through that.
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What does it mean to be both baptized by the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit?
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And so let me just say to you, this week,
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you ought to be studying and prayerfully considering what these things mean.
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And then I'll do my very best by grace to speak about it next week.
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There's so much here.
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And I fear if we don't get it right here,
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we're going to get very confused as we work our way through the rest of the book.
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Okay, so I'm preparing notes.
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I've got, as I have gotten fairly good at looking at pages of notes
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and calculating that into minutes of preaching,
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this morning, I said, whoa, this is an hour and 45 minutes by my quick estimation.
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And so what I'm going to do this morning,
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or what I did frantically at 5 a.m.
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is I stripped out the historical context.
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Okay, so I'm pulling that portion of the text out.
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So we're going to look at verses 1 through 12 in that way,
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and then we'll pick up and look at it in light of the filling of the Holy Spirit,
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and that works specifically next week.
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So hopefully that'll make this a much shorter sermon,
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but still an important one.
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So don't hear me saying I'm taking out unimportant details
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and just throwing you historical context
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so that I don't have to talk about it next week.
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It's still very important because in those historical details,
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we can see God's sovereign reign over redemptive history.
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So that's what I want.
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That's the goal of today.
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The one thing I want us to see together from verses 1 through 12 of chapter 2
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is God's sovereign reign over redemptive history.
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He has always been in control of redemptive history.
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He is in control of redemptive history here in Acts chapter 2,
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and He still is in control of redemptive history.
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We find here this event that happens,
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like the sending of, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
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However, the disciples did not fulfill some special sort of requirements
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in order to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
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They hadn't worked out some type of equation,
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and then they were filled.
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This is entirely a divine act,
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a work on God's part.
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Now, you remember that Jesus commands them in verse 4 and 5.
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They were commanded to stay and wait.
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They're not commanded to pray that the Holy Spirit will come.
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They're commanded simply to stay and to wait.
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Now, certainly in between time,
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we find that they're doing some praying,
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but that is not what Jesus commands them to do.
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I think it's wrong to assume that that is what they were doing.
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They're praying for other things.
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They're praying the way that Jesus taught them to pray.
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They're praying that God's kingdom would come,
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and God sends the Spirit.
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Verse 2,
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It being the Spirit,
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the sound of the Spirit fills the entire house where they were sitting.
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So they're gathered again in a house.
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We can assume it's the same upper room that they've been part of in the end of Jesus' ministry,
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and in these in-between days waiting for the day of Pentecost.
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But we don't know exactly what they're doing.
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But what we can know is that they weren't at this time praying.
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The positions of prayer in their day were to stand,
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to kneel,
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or to lay prostrate on the ground.
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Luke records it for us in this way.
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He's clear to say in the house where they not just were,
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but where they were sitting.
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They could have been having a meal.
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They could have been discussing the Scripture.
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They could have been discussing their morning and how it had gone.
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We don't know what they were doing,
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but they weren't praying.
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And I'm pressing at this with you,
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not to mitigate the importance of prayer at all,
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but to say they weren't working something out on their own.
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The sending of the Spirit of God was not synergistic.
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It was monergistic.
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The pouring out of the Spirit was divinely decreed.
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Let me further make the point to you.
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The beginning of verse 2,
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Luke records,
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and suddenly,
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which is to say it was a surprise to them.
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They hadn't sorted out the equation.
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They weren't doing the right things.
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And then He came,
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and suddenly there came from heaven.
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They'd been waiting,
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and here He is.
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And it came from heaven.
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He emphasizes their surprise and the source.
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Their surprise and the source.
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This is going to have much later significance into next week
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as we talk more about the filling of the Holy Spirit.
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So, the day of Pentecost arrives,
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and they were together in one place.
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Now, in order to see God's sovereign reign over redemptive history,
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that He sent the Holy Spirit at this particular time,
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in a particular way,
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to show His sovereignty over redemptive history,
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we must first understand,
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as 21st century Christians,
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the significance of Pentecost.
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As a matter of fact,
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it would be helpful to understand the feasts
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outlined in Leviticus chapter 23
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as they present for us
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a New Testament timetable.
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This is very cool, beloved.
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The way that God set forth the feasts
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in order to fulfill in Christ
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what those feasts were meant,
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what they prefigured for us,
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what they represented.
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So, if you'd like to turn to Leviticus chapter 23,
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you can.
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I'm not going to read much of it.
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So, if you'd like to be there
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just to see what I'm talking about,
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but for further study,
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at very least,
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write down Leviticus 23
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and go and look at this.
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First, God prescribes the Passover.
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The Passover feast.
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And the killing of the Passover lamb
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pictures the death of Jesus Christ,
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our Passover lamb.
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And this was when Jesus was crucified.
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The Passover.
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Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5,
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last half of verse 7,
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Christ,
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our Passover lamb,
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has been sacrificed.
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So, Passion Week ends there
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with Passover.
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Jesus Christ is crucified.
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The second is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
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And it celebrated the day after Passover.
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It was an offering of the first fruits
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of the grain harvest.
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They came together and feasted
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and made an offering.
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Leviticus 23, 15 commands
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that it be celebrated
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the day after the Sabbath.
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Now, in Jesus' day,
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the popular interpretation
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of that command meant
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that the offering would always be
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on a Sunday.
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There were some competing interpretations
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between the Sadducees and the Pharisees,
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but the observed interpretation
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was that of the Sadducees.
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So, the Feast of Unleavened Bread
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would have always been on a Sunday,
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and it would have coincided
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with Jesus' resurrection.
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Tracking the timeline?
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This pictures Jesus
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as the first fruits of those
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who have fallen asleep.
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Raised from the dead
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just as we are raised
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from the dead in Christ.
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1 Corinthians 15, 20,
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Paul writes,
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But in fact,
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Christ has been raised
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from the dead
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the first fruits of those
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who have fallen asleep.
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Right?
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To the audience he's writing to,
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they get this.
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They're very aware
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of this system of feasts
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that the Jews celebrated.
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The third outline
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in Leviticus 23
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is Pentecost.
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Right?
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The Feast of Weeks.
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It's a nether offering
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of first fruits.
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And let me read to you now
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from Leviticus 23, 15 and 16.
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You shall count seven full weeks.
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That's why it's called
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the Feast of Weeks.
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Seven full weeks.
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Seven days.
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Right?
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From the day after the Sabbath.
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From the day that you brought
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the sheaf of the wave offering.
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You shall count 50 days
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to the day after the seventh Sabbath.
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Then you shall present
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a grain offering
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of new grain to the Lord.
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So, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit
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on the day of Pentecost
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as the first fruits
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of the believer's inheritance.
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Are you catching the significance
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of the timeline
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that was set forth
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in Leviticus 23
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and that God now is following
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in these events
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in redemptive history?
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He sent the Holy Spirit
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on the 50th day
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because it was the day of Pentecost.
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It's not because the apostles
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got something right.
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Right?
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It's monergistic.
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He had already decided
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this is how this will happen.
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Right?
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Praise God for His sovereignty
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in all of these things.
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Right?
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Jesus sends the Holy Spirit
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on the day of Pentecost
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as the first fruits
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of the believer's inheritance.
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Ephesians 1, 13 and 14.
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Paul writes,
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So, God decrees
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that the Holy Spirit
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be sent to the disciples
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on the day of Pentecost.
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Isn't that incredible?
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That just the very history of it
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speaks so much
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of who God is to us
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in Christ.
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And when he does this,
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there's some audible evidence of it.
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Verse 2 says,
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And suddenly there came from heaven
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a sound like a mighty rushing wind
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and it filled the entire house
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where they were sitting.
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Now, I don't think it's proper
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for us to understand
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that there actually was
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a rushing wind.
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Right?
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All of their hair
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got incredibly messed up.
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I don't think that's
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what's happening here.
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But Luke is grasping at metaphor.
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He's trying to explain
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what it sounded like.
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And he says that.
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And it's there in the Greek,
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like.
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And later on,
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as he describes
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the divided tongues,
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he says,
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as of fire.
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Doing the very best that he can
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with the language at his disposal
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to help us to understand
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what was happening here.
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In both Hebrew and Greek,
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the words for wind and spirit
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are the same words.
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And wind is often used
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as a picture of the Holy Spirit.
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Do you recall Jesus' explanation
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to Nicodemus in John 3.8?
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The wind blows where it wishes
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and you hear its sound,
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but you do not know
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where it comes from
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or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone
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who is born of the Spirit.
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You see that symbolism there
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and the Spirit comes
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and you can audibly hear Him coming
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like a mighty rushing wind.
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There's also visible evidence.
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Verse 3.
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And divided tongues,
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as of fire,
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appeared to them
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and rested on each one of them.
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That was very commonly understood
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that fire was symbolic of light.
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And that may be a little difficult for us
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because very few of us
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ever see much of anything by fire anymore
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because we have all this technology
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around us
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that generates light
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in a much different way.
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But for them,
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this would have been
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the only source of light
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apart from the sun
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and the reflective properties
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of the moon
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and the stars.
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And so,
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the fire itself
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was symbolic of light.
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The Holy Spirit illuminates,
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gives light to,
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the truth of God.
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Jesus said in John 14,
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verse 25 and 26,
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These things I have spoken to you
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while I am still with you.
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But the Helper,
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the Holy Spirit,
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whom the Father will send in My name,
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He will teach you all things
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and bring to your remembrance
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all that I have said to you.
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So, the Spirit of God
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comes in this way
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and consistent with the promise
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that Jesus made concerning Him.
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And this same Spirit
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is ours today,
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although He comes to us
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in a much different way,
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not like mighty rushing wind
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and with divided tongues
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as of fire.
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This amazing transitional event
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happened here.
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We receive the Spirit
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in a much different way,
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but yet we still have
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His power
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and His illuminating purpose
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for the Scripture.
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Verse 4 says,
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And they were filled
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with the Holy Spirit
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and they began to speak
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in other tongues
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as the Spirit
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gave them utterance.
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Now catch,
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they're doing this
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as the Spirit
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empowers them for it.
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They're not doing it
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of their own accord.
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They're doing it
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under the guidance
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of the Spirit of God.
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and they're speaking
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in other tongues.
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Now we are going to get
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to the complexity
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of what that could possibly mean
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in other texts.
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But all it means
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in this text
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is that they've spoken
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other known
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spoken languages.
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Here.
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For sure.
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Without a doubt.
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That's what it means.
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Verse 6, 7, and 8.
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And at the sound
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of the multitude
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came together.
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So all of these people
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were gathered around
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at this mighty rushing sound.
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It's my presumption
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that the disciples,
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not just the apostles,
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but all of those
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that are there gathered,
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come out of the house
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and begin to speak
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in these varying
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known languages.
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And they were bewildered
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because each one
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was hearing them speak
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in his own language.
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And they were amazed
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and astonished,
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saying,
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Are not all these
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who are speaking Galileans?
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And that is to say
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they're all from
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the same region,
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which is that they would have
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spoken the same language,
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but also Galileans
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were not intelligent people.
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Lay people, right?
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These weren't
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sophisticated city people.
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Like, how could they
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possibly know
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all of the languages?
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That's what they're suggesting.
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Aren't they all Galileans?
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Like, how is it even possible
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that Galileans
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would know
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so many known languages?
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And how is it
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that we hear
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each of us
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in his own
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native languages?
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Right?
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So they're speaking
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in these known languages,
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but what were they saying?
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The last part of verse 11
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tells us.
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We hear them telling
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in our own tongues
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what?
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The mighty works
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of God.
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They're speaking
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in the languages,
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the native languages
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of these people,
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so they can hear
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and understand
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what?
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The mighty works
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of God.
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At the outset
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of our study of Acts,
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I set forth
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some goals for us,
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three goals.
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Do you recall goal three?
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Goal three was
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to pay careful attention
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to the means
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and the ways
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of the Holy Spirit
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for our study of Acts.
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Pay careful attention
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to the means
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and the ways
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of the Holy Spirit.
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I've said to you before,
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the primary role
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of the Spirit of God
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is the exaltation
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of Jesus Christ
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in the salvation
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and perfection
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of His church.
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The exaltation
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of Jesus Christ
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in the salvation
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and protection
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of His church.
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This is His primary role.
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It's going to help us
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filter a lot of understanding
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about the Spirit of God.
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The primary means
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is the Word of God
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spoken
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by the people
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of God.
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And here we see
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the first record
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of the ways
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that that happens.
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Speaking the Word of God,
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speaking of the mighty works
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of God
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in the languages
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of the people.
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So He uses this
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as a method
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by which to tell
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people that speak
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other languages
23:39
about the mighty works
23:41
of God.
23:44
Now I want to draw
23:44
your attention
23:45
to the front of your bulletin.
23:47
God finds
23:48
very creative ways
23:49
to humble me
23:51
and to remind you
23:53
of my great need
23:53
of grace
23:54
in the typo
23:57
in the Charles Spurgeon quote.
23:59
I can't, of course,
24:01
misspell some insignificant word,
24:03
but it has to be
24:03
the third part
24:04
of the Trinity
24:04
that I call
24:07
the Holy Spirit.
24:12
So let me read it to you
24:13
as it should.
24:16
He said,
24:17
There will never be
24:18
any mighty work
24:19
come from us
24:20
unless there is first
24:21
a mighty work
24:22
in us.
24:24
No man truly labors
24:25
for souls
24:26
unless the Holy Spirit
24:27
has first
24:28
worked mightily
24:30
in Him.
24:31
No amount
24:32
of planning
24:33
or preparation
24:35
has any value
24:36
whatsoever
24:37
apart
24:38
from the power
24:39
of God
24:40
at work
24:41
in us
24:42
and through us
24:44
to accomplish
24:44
His purposes.
24:46
Set that very clearly
24:48
in your mind, beloved.
24:50
That's axiomatic
24:51
to understand
24:52
what the Christian life
24:53
should look like.
24:54
And we are so quick
24:56
and so ready
24:57
to run off ahead
24:58
apart from Him.
25:00
Stay and wait
25:02
for the power of God
25:04
that your ministry
25:05
might be effective
25:07
because apart from it
25:08
it will not be.
25:10
God is sovereign
25:11
over redemptive history.
25:14
He is calling together
25:16
His church
25:16
and we are merely
25:17
instruments
25:18
in His hand.
25:21
Another way
25:22
to see God's
25:23
sovereign reign
25:23
over redemptive history
25:25
is to consider
25:27
what has happened
25:28
on this day,
25:29
this day of Pentecost.
25:31
Right?
25:31
So it's a day
25:32
that God has set forth
25:33
hundreds of years earlier,
25:35
Leviticus chapter 23
25:37
and it's become
25:38
this festival
25:40
after the dispersion
25:41
of Israel
25:42
and the regathering
25:43
of it
25:44
and the dispersion
25:44
of it
25:45
and the regathering
25:46
of it
25:47
that there are
25:47
Jewish people
25:48
and there are converts
25:49
to Judaism
25:50
spread out
25:51
all over
25:53
the known world.
25:55
And Pentecost
25:56
as one of these
25:57
three major feasts
25:58
would have brought
25:59
together Jews
26:00
from far
26:02
and wide.
26:03
It's a unique day
26:05
that would have brought
26:05
these people
26:06
together.
26:08
The multitude
26:08
was in Jerusalem
26:09
for the worship
26:11
of God.
26:11
That's why
26:12
they had gathered there.
26:13
It was for the
26:13
proper worship
26:14
of God.
26:15
It was the perfect
26:16
moment in history
26:18
to begin
26:19
the church
26:19
of Jesus Christ.
26:21
The beautiful
26:22
opportunity
26:23
for the apostles
26:23
to begin to preach
26:24
that all that you
26:26
have practiced,
26:27
all of the Judaism
26:28
that you know
26:29
was meant to point
26:30
you to Jesus
26:31
and He has come
26:33
and He has died
26:34
and He has been raised
26:35
and He has ascended
26:36
that we might believe
26:38
in Him.
26:39
This is crucial
26:41
to the gathering
26:42
of those people,
26:43
the starting
26:44
of the church
26:44
and then later
26:45
we'll see in the
26:46
book of Acts
26:46
there again
26:47
they're scattering
26:49
back out
26:50
to take that good
26:50
news of Christ
26:51
to the world
26:52
around them.
26:54
Verse 5
26:55
Now there were
26:56
dwelling in Jerusalem
26:56
Jews,
26:58
devout men
26:59
from every nation
27:00
under heaven,
27:02
Parthians
27:03
and Medes
27:04
I'm not going to
27:04
read all that again.
27:05
I worked so hard
27:06
at pronouncing those
27:07
right once.
27:08
You've got the text
27:09
before you,
27:10
right?
27:12
I'm going to read
27:13
from you
27:13
from MacArthur's
27:14
commentary on this
27:15
and actually
27:16
I'm going to have
27:16
to pronounce those
27:17
again because
27:17
he talks about them
27:18
here.
27:20
But he just sums
27:20
all this up
27:21
and says this
27:21
so well
27:22
and I just want
27:23
to give him
27:23
the proper credit
27:24
due him
27:25
for this
27:26
and give you
27:27
some explanation
27:27
of who all
27:28
these people were.
27:29
So there were
27:30
Jews living in
27:30
Jerusalem
27:31
at the time
27:31
of Pentecost,
27:32
devout men
27:33
from every nation
27:33
under heaven.
27:34
Those who went
27:35
to the trouble
27:36
to make the pilgrimage
27:37
were obviously
27:38
devout men.
27:39
They traveled
27:39
far distances
27:40
to be there
27:41
at this time.
27:42
The phrase
27:42
from every nation
27:43
under heaven
27:44
is an idiomatic
27:45
expression meaning
27:46
from many lands
27:47
or from all
27:49
of the nations
27:49
where Jews
27:50
had been dispersed.
27:53
It was a broad term.
27:55
Parthians lived
27:57
in what is modern
27:57
Iran.
27:58
They had never
27:59
been conquered
28:00
by the Romans
28:00
and remained
28:01
their bitter enemies.
28:03
Medes partners
28:04
in empire
28:05
with the Persians
28:06
in Daniel's time
28:07
were now part
28:07
of the Parthian
28:08
empire.
28:10
Elamites lived
28:10
in what is now
28:11
southwestern Iran.
28:12
They too were part
28:13
of the Parthian empire.
28:14
The residents
28:15
of Mesopotamia
28:16
lived between
28:16
the two great rivers,
28:17
the Tigris
28:18
and the Euphrates.
28:20
Great numbers
28:21
of Israelites
28:21
had been deported
28:22
to that region
28:23
by the Assyrians
28:24
and Babylonians.
28:25
Not all had returned
28:26
to Palestine
28:27
at the time
28:27
of Cyrus' decree.
28:30
Judea should probably
28:31
be constructed
28:32
in the broadest sense
28:33
as all the region
28:34
once controlled
28:35
by David and Solomon.
28:37
That would explain
28:38
the absence of Syria
28:39
from the list.
28:41
Cappadocia,
28:42
Pontus in Asia,
28:43
Phrygia and Pamphylia
28:45
were all regions
28:46
in Asia Minor,
28:48
modern day Turkey.
28:49
They had a large
28:50
Jewish population
28:51
as did Egypt,
28:53
particularly in the city
28:54
of Alexandria.
28:55
It was in that city
28:56
that the Septuagint,
28:57
the Greek translation
28:58
of the Old Testament,
28:59
had been produced.
29:01
The districts
29:01
of Libya
29:02
around Cyrene
29:03
were west of Egypt
29:05
on the African coast
29:06
of the Mediterranean Sea.
29:08
Josephus,
29:09
a Jewish historian,
29:11
mentions a Jewish
29:11
population there.
29:13
That there were Jews
29:14
in Rome
29:14
as well as Gentile
29:16
proselytites,
29:17
so converts to Judaism,
29:18
is obvious
29:19
from the Emperor
29:19
Claudius' expulsion
29:20
of them some years later.
29:22
That's recorded
29:22
in Acts 18.2.
29:25
Cretans were from
29:25
the island of Crete
29:26
off the southern
29:27
coast of Greece.
29:28
Arabs were Jews
29:29
living in the kingdom
29:30
of the Nabataean Arabs
29:31
located south
29:32
of Damascus.
29:33
And so they are people
29:34
from far and wide,
29:37
from all around
29:38
what is mostly known
29:41
of the world
29:41
in that day.
29:42
Of course,
29:42
there are people
29:43
much further than that,
29:45
but this is the
29:45
perfect orchestration
29:47
of events,
29:48
right,
29:48
brought together again
29:49
by God's sovereign reign
29:51
to jumpstart
29:52
the rapid expansion
29:54
of the church.
29:55
We find the church
29:56
on three continents
29:57
in one generation
29:59
after this,
30:00
right,
30:01
watershed,
30:02
amazing moment
30:03
in redemptive history.
30:06
And verse 12 says,
30:08
And all were amazed
30:09
and perplexed,
30:11
saying to one another,
30:12
What does this mean?
30:16
They're not wondering
30:18
what the words,
30:19
the mighty works of God,
30:20
are, right,
30:21
but they're speaking
30:22
the mighty works of God,
30:24
the Old Testament works
30:25
of God up to this place.
30:27
Quite likely,
30:29
some new information
30:30
about the kingdom of God
30:32
coming in Jesus Christ.
30:34
I don't think verse 12
30:35
is meant to mean
30:36
that they're scratching
30:38
their heads
30:38
and they need clarification,
30:40
but they're saying,
30:41
This is a major day.
30:43
What does this mean?
30:45
Right?
30:45
Here are these people,
30:46
these Galileans,
30:47
speaking in all
30:48
of these various languages.
30:50
What does it mean?
30:52
And it marks this
30:53
massive transition,
30:56
a new economy
30:57
of the Holy Spirit,
30:59
the life of the church.
31:01
Further in chapter 2,
31:03
Peter stands up amongst them
31:04
and tells them
31:05
what it means.
31:07
It's the fulfillment
31:08
of Joel chapter 2,
31:11
which speaks of the
31:12
outpouring of God's Spirit
31:14
and the coming judgment
31:16
of God.
31:17
And the end of that
31:19
from Joel 2.32
31:20
in Acts 2.21,
31:23
Peter says,
31:24
And it shall come to pass
31:26
that everyone who calls
31:28
upon the name of the Lord
31:29
shall be saved.
31:32
And we see the conviction
31:33
of the Spirit
31:34
in the lives
31:35
of the early church
31:36
and this massive expansion
31:39
of that number of disciples,
31:41
that about 120
31:42
that we see
31:43
in chapter 1
31:44
gets blown up
31:45
to thousands
31:46
upon thousands
31:48
in just a matter
31:49
of days.
31:51
What an amazing event
31:53
for us
31:55
to observe
31:56
together.
31:57
And beloved,
31:58
this is
31:58
our history.
32:00
It's part of our story.
32:02
It has implications
32:03
for today.
32:05
And I hope
32:06
you've seen
32:07
God's sovereign reign
32:08
over that story.
32:11
We are part
32:12
of God's
32:13
redemptive purposes.
32:16
You,
32:17
if you've placed
32:18
your faith
32:18
in the person
32:19
and work
32:19
of Jesus Christ,
32:22
have a place
32:23
in this story
32:24
and it is
32:25
a glorious one.
32:27
Let's pray together.