In this chapter, in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the Apostles' doctrine. That is, these 12 gave teaching doctrine that became foundational for the church from this day, its birthday, forward.
So that's foundational. Today on Connect with Skip Hytech, Pastor Skip shares what an apostle was and the special function they served. But first, here's an opportunity for you to take a deep dive into what God's Word says about the Holy Spirit. How deep is your understanding of the Holy Spirit and the gifts He gives?
Listen, as Skip Hytech unpacks his person and power in this teaching clip. The Holy Spirit is a divine person who helps us. How many of you think you need all the help you can get to live your Christian life?
Yeah, I'm with you. We need help. As you grow in your understanding of the Holy Spirit through our Connect with Skip Hytech monthly resource, you'll learn how He helps believers, that's you, to walk with Christ. When it comes to living the Christian life, it's not hard. It's impossible on your own. You need His power to be able to do that. You need His help to be able to do that, and we have His help. For your Connect with Skip Hytech gift of $50 or more, we'll send you the complete Expound Holy Spirit series and Bring the Rain, Skip's book on expositional teaching.
Call 800-922-1888 or give securely online at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, let's turn to Acts 2 as we join Skip today. Let's go back to verse 24 because I left you hanging last week, didn't I? So, I left you hanging because in verse 24, they prayed because they have to replace an apostle. Judas hung himself, and the rope broke, and his bowels, his guts splattered all over the rocks.
That's what they said in the book. It's in the Bible, so I'm just telling you what happened. And so, now they have to replace the apostles. So, verse 24, they prayed, and they said, now listen to how beautiful is this prayer.
You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two you have chosen to take part in this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell that he might go to his own place, and they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. The question comes, it has been proposed by some, that perhaps they made a couple mistakes here. This is what some have thought. Did they make a mistake in limiting God, first of all? And some will say, yes, that is the problem, because they said, not which person on earth person on earth do you want, Lord?
They said, which of these two? So, they only gave God two choices, and the reasoning of those who think this is wrong is that they say, well, the obvious choice was Paul the apostle. So, they limited God. If they had just would have waited, God was going to replace the apostleship with Paul the apostle.
And I will grant you, Paul is called an apostle. The other mistake that people say that was made is that they cast lots. Okay, we want to find out God's will. Who has the dice? Let's throw dice.
Oh, snake eyes. Okay, so that means so and so gets in. So, it seems odd to some people that you have New Testament believers throwing dice, casting lots to find out the will of God. Now, that shouldn't be too strange to you. If you know your Bibles, you know that in the Old Testament, there was a method that the priest would use when somebody wanted to discern God's will. There were two stones. One was called the Urim, and the other was called the Thummim. The Urim and the Thummim. We don't exactly know what they were, but they were some kind of a way to look at a stone, two stones, black and white, it is believed, and discern what the will of God is by casting lots. And if you think, well, I still think that's a horrible way to discern God's will, how about this? In Proverbs 16, it says, the lot is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. As if to say, even with the Urim and the Thummim, this archaic way of discerning God's will, God sovereignly is superintending the outcome of what is cast. Now, having said that, I immediately have to say, you'll be relieved to know that this is the last time casting lots is ever mentioned or practiced in the Scriptures. You'll never read of it again.
Last time. The early church will not do that after the Holy Spirit comes upon them. There is no need. The Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised, will guide you into all truth, all truth. So He's going to direct them. So were they making a mistake?
I guess that's up to you to decide, but there's a bigger question. What about apostles? They feel the need to replace an apostle with somebody who's going to be called one of the 12 apostles. So are there still apostles today? Are there still apostles today? Or have they vanished off the scene? And that is a question I've been asked on many occasions.
Are there apostles today? Here's how I answer it, and you're not going to like it. Yes and no. See, I told you you wouldn't like it.
It's like, that's so unsatisfying. Yes and no. Who answers a question like that?
Skip Itzig does, and here's why. In the strictest sense, in the strictest sense, there are no more apostles today. But in a functional sense, there are.
You say, that didn't help. Okay, so let me explain myself. In the strictest possible sense, there were only 12 apostles who, number one, saw the resurrected Christ, were with Him during His earthly ministry.
And that was the criteria involved here. You have to have been from the beginning with Jesus, and you saw Him after He resurrected. Well, nobody can claim that today. Nobody today alive was with Jesus during His earthly ministry. So in a strict sense, there are no more apostles. The apostles, that is the 12, laid the foundation of the church. Paul said that the church was laid by the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. And in this chapter, in verse 42, they devoted themselves to the apostles' doctrine. That is, these 12 gave teaching doctrine that became foundational for the church from this day, its birthday, forward.
So that's foundational. Also, there seems to have been signs that accompanied the strict role of the apostle of the 12. Jesus promised them, you're going to go, and these signs will accompany. And Paul, when he writes the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians says, though he never numbered himself with the 12, he said, I am not behind even the most eminent apostles. In fact, the signs of an apostle were wrought through me in your presence. So he is saying, I performed signs that were known as signs of an apostle. And Paul is called an apostle to the Gentiles. But Paul the apostle wasn't following Jesus from the beginning of his ministry, and that was one of the criteria. And he didn't see the resurrected Christ, but he eventually did. After the ascension, there was a time when he's on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to him.
So I guess you could see he saw an after view of it, but not in the sense that these 12 did. So no, there are no more apostles in the strictest sense. However, in the broader sense there are, in the functional sense there are, and here's what I mean, 75 times in the New Testament you will find the word apostle.
Many of those times, many of those times, many of those times they do not refer to the 12 apostles that were with Jesus from the beginning. For example, Barnabas is called an apostle. Paul called an apostle. Timothy was called an apostle. Silvanus was called an apostle.
Andronicus and Junia, you go, who? They were apostles, that's who. All of these in the New Testament were called apostles.
Why? Because they had some apostolic function. They had a function. You see, the word apostle, apostolo or apostolos, if you're talking noun or verb, means a sent out one or a messenger.
The original classical Greek word referred to an expedition or a fleet of ships that were sent out. By the time we get to the death of all of the 12 apostles, after they were gone, a book emerged called the Didache, or something is called the Didache, because that's how we anglicize it. The Didache was a manual for the churches on how to spot a false prophet or a false apostle. So they designated people as true apostles and false apostles after the death of the apostles. So it was still used, not in a strict sense, but in a functional sense.
Does that make sense? Now, in Eastern churches to this day, they will refer to missionaries as apostles. They're sent out, they're church planters, or they're plowing new ground culturally.
And in that case, they function as apostles. So you can take that as far as you want to. I thought you'd be interested to know, and I hope that answered the question that I left hanging. It's funny because I said my wife hates the words at the end of a movie to be continued, and I left you with those words at the end of Last Message, to be continued. And now it's continued.
Now we're in the sequel. Verse 1, Chapter 2. Verse 1, Chapter 2. When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all in one accord in one place. Now you are about to see, you're about to see the apostles, but you're about to see different apostles. You see, the last time we saw the apostles in the gospels, these guys were unlearned and ignorant fishermen from Galilee. They still kind of are, but now you read that they're bold. They sound articulate. They sound knowledgeable of Scripture.
You know, these blue collar workers, something happened to them. And I'm just setting you up because what did happen to them, you know what happened to them. There was number one, a new presence, and number two, a new power. The new presence was the resurrected Christ. They saw Jesus alive after His death.
That changed them forever. But then also a new power, the Holy Spirit coming upon them. And you will see now through this book an empowerment.
An empowerment is the Holy Spirit fills them and they go out into the world. So when the day of Pentecost had fully come, what is the day of Pentecost? Pentecost means 50th, and it really literally refers to the 50th day after the wave of the sheaf offering of first fruits as spoken about in Leviticus 23. It comes after Passover, and it is one of the three major festivals that Jews, especially Jewish males, especially those who lived around the environs of Jerusalem and Judea, they were required three times a year to appear in the temple before the Lord for these feasts.
Pentecost was one of them. The day of Pentecost had fully come. Now the day of Pentecost becomes to the church the most important day of the church's existence next to the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. Because it's the birthday of the church.
It's when it gets started. Jesus said, I will build my church, Matthew 16, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. The promise is coming true.
This is the birthday. This is when the Holy Spirit baptizes them into the body of Christ and fills them with power, and extraordinary things will take place. And you'll see them. And hopefully, by God's grace, some of you in your lives will be able to experience that. I always, I always want to experience whatever the Lord has for me. I get excited at the prospect that the Lord might want to just tweak my journey a little bit, change my course, give me some new direction, some new gift, some new adventure.
You know, the older you get, you want to wake up excited in the morning. And it's always exciting to find out what's God going to do now? Are things going to change? And hopefully, you'll experience more of the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. Somebody came up to me and said, you know, those three weeks on the Holy Spirit just set me into a whole different mode and tone of just possibility. Good.
I hope so. And I hope that some of the things we read in the book of Acts, you'll see in your own lives. On one hand, I have to say you are in a dilemma because you go to this church. You go to that church that, well, you believe that the Holy Spirit can fill a person. So because you are open to the filling of the Holy Spirit and the empowering of the Holy Spirit, there are those in the community go, oh, so you're one of those crazy people, those wild people. But then because you are not wild and you are not out of control and you believe that all things should be done, but done decently in an order, some on the other side who just love to swing and dance and froth and shout, think that you're kind of dead.
Because you don't have enough of the Holy Ghost. And so you're caught in between, and I'm glad you are, because I think the key word here is balance. I do believe from the scripture that there is a legitimate filling and empowering where he gives gifts that are mentioned in the Bible today, today.
It's for today. But I also believe that it should be done decently and in order and that there should be organization of the organism. Somebody put it this way, and I get the sentiment of it, though I don't agree technically with it, but I like the sentiment of it. Too much of the word and you dry up, too much of the Spirit and you blow up, enough of both and you'll grow up. So let's fix ourselves on the word, be open to the filling of the Holy Spirit, and let's grow up and grow into the future and grow in God's power and God's grace. The day of Pentecost had fully come, I'm not getting very far. And they were all in one place, and this doesn't mean they were all in one car, a Honda Accord, they were all in one Accord, and they were all in one place, one car, a Honda Accord, they were all in one Accord.
That would be like Guinness Book of World Records, 120 people in an Accord. But they were all together in harmony with each other in one place. And suddenly a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and one sat on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit prompted them or gave them utterance.
In the day of Pentecost, the early church, 120 of them in an upper room experienced three phenomena. One was an audible phenomena. Two, there was a visible phenomena. And three, there was an oral phenomena. First of all, there was something audible. They heard something and it was the sound of or as of a mighty rushing wind. Sorry, it's probably a horrible interpretation of it. But when I read the Bible, I try to hear it. Now, please notice the verbiage.
It says as of. This, he's not describing the weather conditions in Jerusalem. It was a windy day in Jerusalem or some meteorological phenomena. It was a sound. They heard something. It was a sound as of a rushing mighty wind. It doesn't mean it was windy. It could have been perfectly calm, but they heard this sound.
So it was an audible phenomenon. Now, why a rushing mighty wind? Well, if you know your Bibles, and I know some of you do, you know that the Lord spoke to Job through a whirlwind. The Lord's voice came from that. You remember that Jesus in Jerusalem was there with Nicodemus and was probably walking outside as the breeze shot through the trees above them. And he said, the Spirit blows where he wills.
And you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it's going. He likened the movement of the Spirit to a wind. Also, did you know that in Hebrew and in Greek, so Old Testament and New Testament, the word in Hebrew for wind is the same word for Spirit. And in Greek, the word for wind is the same word for Spirit. So in the Old Testament, Hebrew, ruach hakodesh is literally Spirit, the Holy, the Holy Spirit is a ruach, Spirit. If you were to say there's a wind here and you were in Jerusalem, you would use the word ruach, it's wind, same word, Spirit and wind. In the Greek language, same principle. Spirit in Greek is pneuma or pneumatas.
And it is also the same word for breath or wind. So they hear something. It's something that is an audible phenomenon, a sound of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. So that got their attention. Then, here's the second phenomenon, then there appeared to them divided tongues, now notice again, as of fire. So don't think that their hair is getting burned.
It's like, ah, that's hot. It's what they saw. It's a visible phenomenon as of fire.
Doesn't necessitate that they're deriving heat from it. It's something they saw. Divided tongues as a fire and sat upon each of them. Why fire? Well, again, if you know your Bibles, you know that sometimes fire was used as a symbol of God's presence. What did Moses see in Exodus 3? He walked by something that was a burning bush.
It was burning but not consumed. And the angel of the Lord spoke to him through that bush, said, take your shoes off, you're on holy ground. On Mount Sinai when God spoke and gave the law, there was lightning and thunder and fire and smoke, a symbol of the presence of God. What was it that directed the children of Israel by night for 40 years through the wilderness? A pillar of fire. So these are symbols that they would be as Jewish people in their history familiar with. Wind and fire, a symbol of the presence of God, a symbol of the Spirit of God. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now, something about Pentecost, and I'm just, I'm laying groundwork. You know, I always bite off more than I can chew. I fully believed I'm going to get all the way through chapter 2 in one setting. Even there's a lot of rise.
I can do that. And if you were willing to sit two hours, I would too, but that's unrealistic. It's unrealistic on a number of levels. But this, what we're reading about, this event is an atypical event. It's an atypical, non-repeatable event. You never read of what happened to Pentecost happening ever again like this.
So this is something, why does this happen? Because it's the birthday of the church. This is day one of the church.
God is getting their attention. Only 120 of them are in this church. And it says they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, all 120, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, including Mary and Martha, including the 12 apostles.
They were all, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. Gospel message. Your generosity helps keep these teachings you love on the air to reach many others as we expand into more major US cities and all across the world. Just call 800-922-1888. That's 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate.
Thank you. Be sure to join us tomorrow as Skip examines the amazing events on the day of Pentecost. But something gets their attention. They're not only speaking other language, they're speaking in direct dialects of people who have come to the Feast of Pentecost, Jewish people who are from all over the known world. And some of the places, it's a three-day journey there to Jerusalem, at least if not more in a three-day journey or a week journey back. So they're from afar and people are going, how is it that these Galileans are able to speak our dialect? Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever-changing times.
