tongues

The following article is an excerpt from a 2008 sermon given by Cole Brown.

The Coming of the Spirit

Before Jesus ascended into heaven he gave his followers specific instructions to wait in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. As Acts 2 opens we find the 120 Christian believers doing just that – waiting together in one place. We know from chapter 1 that as they were waiting together they were enjoying community with one another, they were reflecting on the Holy Scriptures, they were talking about Jesus and all he had said and done, and they were praying together in unity. In verse 1 of chapter 2 we see that it is now the day of Pentecost, so it’s been about a week since Jesus gave them their instructions and left the earth. Pentecost was a huge Jewish festival. Jewish believers from all over the world came to Jerusalem, where the disciples were waiting and praying, to present their offerings before God. It was an important festival. And now that this festival has come and a week has passed I imagine the 120 Christian believers are wondering when Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit he promised. I imagine they are wondering how much longer they’re going to have to wait. But I’m sure the last thing they were expecting is that it would happen NOW. And even less were they expecting that it would happen like THIS. But it did. Suddenly.

This is what Luke explains in verses 2-4, “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” Remember that the believers knew they were waiting for the Holy Spirit but Jesus didn’t tell them how they would know when the Holy Spirit had come. But now there was no question. The Holy Spirit had come. And God made that extremely clear through visible signs of his presence. First, we are told, that a sound filled the entire house where they were sitting. This wasn’t one of those, “I think I heard something, did you hear that?” sounds. This sound was unmistakable. It was like the blowing of a violent wind from heaven. And that sound was accompanied by an equally distinct sight. They saw images of fire – what appeared to them to be tongues of fire – separate and then rest on each one of them. These signs of wind and fire were not arbitrary. To these 120 Jewish people it would have been very clear what was happening here. Because throughout the Old Testament both wind and fire are used to symbolize the presence of God and the activity of his Spirit. The believers would have remembered that the prophet Ezekiel once found himself standing in a valley of dry, dead bones. The Lord spoke to Ezekiel and commanded him to speak to the bones. As he did so the Lord sent wind to breathe into the bones and they came to life. God explained that the dry, dead bones represented Israel and the wind represented God’s Spirit which he promised to put in his people so that they would live, though they were now dead. The believers also would have remembered God’s presence symbolized through the fire of Moses’ burning bush and through the pillar of fire that protected the Israelites at night as they fled from the Egyptians. There would have been no question in the minds of these 120 believers that the eternal God himself was intimately present with them and the power of his mighty Spirit was at work amongst them. The Holy Spirit, which Jesus had promised them, had come.

And those weren’t the only signs they were given. There was a third. As they were filled with the Holy Spirit they began to speak in other tongues as the Holy Spirit enabled them. As these first believers spoke in tongues they were not making ecstatic utterances and they were not repeating syllables that did not make sense; they were speaking intelligible words in actual existing languages. They were speaking for the first time in languages that they did not know, had never studied, and had never learned. And their listeners understood them clearly. Remember that this was Pentecost. So Jews from every nation were gathering in Jerusalem. And each of them heard their own native language being spoken.

They were amazed by this as explained in verses 6-8, “When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?” The Jews, in general, looked down on people from Galilee as unintelligent, poorly educated, and not so well spoken. So they were shocked to hear these mere Galileans speaking a language they had never been taught — their language — so clearly and effectively. And this shock produced two responses. One group was intrigued. They wanted to know more. “What does this mean?” they asked in verse 12. Another group was more skeptical and made fun of them, “They’ve had too much wine,” they said.

The Interpretation of the Spirit’s Coming

Peter knew that people were perplexed about precisely what was going on, and he knew the importance of this event. He knew that what was happening in their midst was going to divide history. He knew that this event was proof that one era had passed away and that a new era was beginning. So, Peter, the same man who 50 days earlier was so frightened that he denied Jesus to a powerless woman, now, filled with the Holy Spirit, stands up to preach Jesus before an audience of thousands. The first thing he does is address their question. Are they drunk? No, he says. What you’re witnessing is not the result of alcohol. It’s only 9 in the morning! No, what you’re witnessing is something else. It’s not the result of alcohol. It’s the result of the Holy Spirit.

Peter reminds his Jewish audience of a prophecy spoken by their prophet Joel many years earlier. A prophecy every one of them would have known. In verses 17-21 we read, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” This is that, Peter says. What Joel talked about so many years ago – that’s what you see right now. Prophecy and promise are being fulfilled right before your eyes!

Peter announces that on this day – the day of Pentecost – everything has changed. He explains that with the coming of the Holy Spirit there has also come a new era. He calls this new time the last days. He doesn’t speak of the last days as being something far off but as something that has arrived with the coming of the Holy Spirit. In our day and time we always hear people talking about how “the last days have come” or the “last days are coming” or “we’re living in the last days” as if they are saying something profound and frightening. But this is not news. The last days have been here. The last days began 2,000 years ago with the coming of the Holy Spirit just as Peter says in Acts 2:16 and 17. Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the prophecies about his work. He became like us and came to us in order to save us. He lived the perfect life we could not live. He died the horrible death we deserve to die. He received the wrath of God that we should have received. He rose from the dead so that we could be free from death. He ascended into heaven to reign over the universe. And he sent his Holy Spirit to fill his Church, indwell his Church, and empower his Church to tell the whole world about who he is and what he has done. Through all of this Jesus has ushered in the last days. And we are now living in them. Though the time of final judgment and final salvation is still to come judgment and salvation are happening right now. And it is all based on how we respond to Jesus’ completed work. If we reject Jesus we are in the process of being judged and we will receive our final sentence when Jesus returns to the earth. If we accept and worship Jesus we are in the process of being saved and we will receive our final reward when Jesus returns to the earth. The last days have already begun. Judgment and salvation have already begun. And they will be consummated when Jesus Christ returns to earth to render his final judgments and the fullness of his rewards.

But, as Peter explains, not only has the process of judgment and salvation begun, but something else has also changed in these last days. In the previous era the Holy Spirit occasionally came to fill and empower certain members of the Jewish community (usually leaders) to accomplish certain tasks. But, now, the Holy Spirit will not be limited to just the Jewish people, or just a certain class of leaders. The Holy Spirit will fill, indwell, and empower all of God’s people. As Peter says in verses 17 and 18, “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” God is not just pouring out his Spirit on a certain race of people, or a certain nation of people, or a certain gender, or a certain class. God is pouring out his Spirit on all of his people – regardless of race, class, gender, or ability! Peter explains to his audience that this glorious promise is no longer something to hope for in the future. It is now something to possess in the present. This is that, Peter says. What you’re seeing today is what Joel prophesied about. What you’re seeing today is the beginning of a new era – the last days have begun and God is now pouring out his Holy Spirit on all of his people.

The Presence of the Spirit in Us

You and I weren’t there to see this or hear this. We live in a different time. We live in a different culture. And while we’re so thankful that Luke gave us this detailed and well-researched historical record we can sometimes treat it like that’s all that it is. History. And, yes, it is history. But its relevance to us is not just historical. This event and Luke’s account of this event have present relevance to you and me as we sit at our computers 2,000 years and 7,000 miles removed from what we just read. Because what we just read tells us something astonishing. It tells us that God has sent his Holy Spirit and begun a new era. It tells us that in this new era God is pouring out his Holy Spirit on all of his people. Which means that you and I don’t have to look forward to the day when God will send his Spirit to fill us, indwell us, and empower us. If our faith is in Jesus Christ we look back to the day he sent his Holy Spirit to us to fill us, indwell us, and empower us.

And don’t you forget it.

There are some who will tell you that you have to do something to receive the Holy Spirit. They will tell you that you have to tarry for him – to beg for him, to ask for him, to labor for him. They will tell you that you have to be a certain type of person to receive him; that you have to do this or that; that you have to stop doing that or this; that you have to reach a certain level of maturity or a certain level of righteousness before God will fill you with his Holy Spirit. But when they say that they make God like us, and they make us like God! And God is not like us. And we are not like God. We are evil. We rebel against the True God. We give our trust, and love, and obedience to people and things other than Jesus. We look to people and things other than Jesus to bring us fulfillment, and value, and security, and meaning. We are idolaters who so often worship ourselves in place of Jesus. We do what we shouldn’t do. We don’t do what we should do. Our actions, our thoughts, our words are all imperfect. And yet we think that we can somehow earn the Holy Spirit? We think that we can somehow work hard enough or pray long enough that God would want to live in us? How arrogant and self-righteous and self-worshiping do we have to be to think that we can make ourselves worthy of being the dwelling place of God?! That’s what we’re saying if we say that we have to pray to get the Holy Spirit or that we have to work to get the Holy Spirit. We’re saying that we can make ourselves a worthy place for God to dwell. That is despicable. How you could know the filth that lives in your heart and your mind and think that somehow you can earn the presence of the eternal God living in you is detestable. You are not God. You are nothing like God. And you could never give him a good reason to fill you with his Holy Spirit. And when you say that you can you deny God his glory. You make him like us. And he is not like us. He is not someone who only gives to people who give to him, he is not someone who says, “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.” No, he is a God of love, and mercy, and grace. Which means he gives to us the good that we do not deserve simply because he loves us. It means that he doesn’t give to us the bad that we do deserve simply because he loves us. Look back at Acts 1:4. Look at what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit, “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.” Focus on the words he uses to describe the coming of the Holy Spirit. “The gift my Father promised.” Gift. Promise. These are not things that can be earned by praying long enough or working hard enough. A gift is something that is given freely, that is undeserved, and unearned. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is a gift, meaning you don’t have to do anything to receive him. And the Holy Spirit is also a promise. Not an offer, not a possibility – a promise. God did not say, “If you do this then I’ll send the Holy Spirit.” He said, “I will send the Holy Spirit.” God did not say, “As long as you do A, B, and C I will send you the Holy Spirit.” He said, “I promise you the Holy Spirit.” Rejoice in that! If your faith is in Jesus he has already sent his Holy Spirit to fill, indwell, and empower you and he has done it according to his righteousness and not your own.

And don’t you forget it.

Yet there are still some who will tell you that you don’t have the Holy Spirit unless you speak in tongues. They read this passage in Acts 2 and they say that since the apostles spoke in tongues when they received the Holy Spirit then everyone will speak in tongues when they receive the Holy Spirit. The first problem with that is that the apostles spoke in actual existing languages that they were never trained to speak. If that’s the sign of the Holy Spirit then very, very few Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit. Because while lots of church people speak in tongues that are unintelligible I have yet to meet any that speak perfectly in an existing language. The second problem with that is that this is not at all what this passage is telling us. One of the easiest mistakes we can make when reading the Bible is to read a descriptive passage and treat it as a prescriptive passage (to read about something that did happen and assume that this is what should always happen). We have to be careful here. Because, remember, Luke is writing history. He is describing what happened at a certain time, in a certain place, with a certain group of people. He does not once imply that this is what will happen at all times, in all places, with all people. And no one really believes that anyway. It’s interesting that those who will tell you that you have to speak in tongues to have the Holy Spirit don’t mention the other signs that were present in this passage. Remember, the apostles didn’t just speak in tongues. First, they heard the sound of a rushing and violent wind. Second, they saw tongues of fire resting on each one of them. If we say that what happened to the Apostles when they received the Holy Spirit is what is supposed to happen to everyone then we can’t just say you have to speak in tongues, we have to also say that you have to have fire resting above your head, and a violent wind rushing through the building you’re in. You see we can’t just take a descriptive text in the Bible and turn in into a prescriptive text that applies to everyone. Instead, what we have to do is interpret the descriptive text in light of all of the prescriptive texts we find in Scripture. In this case, we have to see what passages in the Bible directly teach about the Holy Spirit and then we can interpret this historical event in light of the Bible’s direct and explicit teaching. If we do that it won’t take long to see that while tongues may be a sign of the Holy Spirit they are not the evidence of the Holy Spirit. Let’s start in 1Corinthians 12:4-11. The Spirit distributes the gifts as he wills. And it is very clear in this passage that he chooses to give different gifts to different people. To one he gives the message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues. He gives different signs to different people. Let’s read down further in 1Corinthians 12:29-31. Paul is asking his audience a series of rhetorical questions. And the obvious answer to each of them is no. Are all apostles? No. Are all prophets? No. Are all teachers? No. Do all work miracles? No. Do all have gifts of healing? No. Do all speak in tongues? No. Clearly, speaking in tongues can be a good thing. It can be something given to us by the Holy Spirit. But it is not proof that we have been given the Holy Spirit. So with tongues or without tongues if your faith is in Jesus Christ you can be certain that you are filled, and you are indwelled, and you are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And don’t you forget it.

This is wonderful news, isn’t it? You don’t have to do anything to receive the Holy Spirit and you don’t have to do anything to prove you have the Holy Spirit. All you have to do is believe. If you believe in Jesus Christ – if you trust in him, put your faith in him, and worship him – you are filled, indwelled, and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13-14 explains, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” This passage clearly teaches that at the moment we truly believed the gospel we were filled with the promised Holy Spirit. But not only is the Holy Spirit the result of our belief. He is also the cause of our belief. 1Corinthians 12:3 says this, “Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” In other words, the only way that you can sincerely and truthfully worship Jesus is if the Holy Spirit is already alive and at work in you. So the question is not, do you speak in tongues? The question is not, do you feel the Holy Spirit? The question is not, what have you done to receive the Spirit? The question is this: do you sincerely and truly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ? If you do then you can know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are filled, and you are indwelled, and you are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And don’t you forget it.

I go to great lengths to make this clear because so many Christians have been told that they don’t have the Holy Spirit or that they don’t have the “fullness” of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps because you don’t speak in tongues people have told you that you’re missing something. And that grieves me so much. It grieves me because it may make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. That somehow you’ve failed to be good enough and, therefore, God has withheld his Holy Spirit from you. It grieves me because it may make you frustrated with God. You may wonder why it seems like God has given the Holy Spirit to this person and that person but he hasn’t given the Holy Spirit to you. You’re wondering why he keeps passing you over. You’re wondering what they have done that you haven’t done. It grieves me because it may make you feel like you’re not prepared to do certain things. Maybe you think you can’t be involved in this ministry because you “don’t have the Holy Spirit” yet. Or maybe you think you can’t defeat this particular sin because you “don’t have the Holy Spirit” yet. It grieves me so much to think that you have been made to feel that you are not filled with the Holy Spirit because you don’t speak in tongues. And so I want to say again what the Bible very clearly says – if you sincerely and truly believe the gospel of Jesus Christ then you are filled, and you are indwelled, and you are empowered by the Holy Spirit. If you weren’t aware of it before you are aware of it now.

And don’t you forget it.

Maybe that’s not you. Maybe you’ve never been made to feel that you are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Maybe you’ve been taught that, yes, you are filled with God’s Spirit. And if that’s true – praise be to God. But the truth is even you need to be reminded of this. Because though you may know it, you sometimes live like you have forgotten it. So let me use Acts chapter 2 to remind you that, if your faith is in Jesus Christ, you are filled, and you are indwelled, and you are empowered by the Holy Spirit of the living God.

And don’t you forget it!

And don’t you live like you have forgotten it!

Knowing that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit should move you to do what the Holy Spirit has empowered you to do! Since you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit you should be proclaiming the gospel, and proclaiming the gospel, and proclaiming the gospel in the power of the Spirit! Since you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit you should be boldly speaking to people about who Jesus is and what Jesus has done in the power of the Spirit! Since you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit you should be resisting sin in the power of the Spirit! Since you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit you should be living like Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit! Since you know you are filled with the Holy Spirit you should be praying frequently and fervently in the power of the Spirit! Your life should look like a life lived in the power of the Holy Spirit because if you love Jesus you are filled, you are indwelled, and you are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And don’t you forget it.