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 going, how is it that these Galileans are able to speak our dialect? Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip takes a look at the amazing, miraculous events on Pentecost. But first, here's a resource all about the Holy Spirit's power and purpose in your life. The Holy Spirit bestows many different spiritual gifts on believers, like prophecy, healing, miracle working, and more.
And each gift shares a common purpose, to edify others. Here's Pastor Skip Heitzig explaining the best way to use our spiritual gifts. I think man's greatest capacity is to be a channel from which the Holy Spirit flows into us, but then out from us, as Jesus said, like torrents of living waters. Dive into this month's Connect with Skip Heitzig resource to discover who the Holy Spirit is and deepen your understanding of how and why he gives spiritual gifts to believers. He comes on us to give us his empowering.
He has something he wants us to do, a task he wants us to perform. The Complete Expound Holy Spirit Teaching Series is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to help this ministry continue reaching a lost world. Plus, we'll include a copy of Bring the Rain, Skip's book on expositional teaching.
Call 800-922-1888 or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Now let's turn to Acts 2 as we listen in for what Skip has for us today. 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 gifts, 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, 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 has 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, 120.
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. 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 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. 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, 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 it's, 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, 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 though there's a lot of verses, 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 that's what we're reading about. This event is an atypical event. It's an atypical, non-repeatable event. You never read of what happened at 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. And they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and their word dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and they were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language, his own dialecto, his own dialect. Now, Galileans, you know about Galileans.
Everybody in Jerusalem thought of Galileans as what? I've told you before. Hicks.
Hicks. They're just, you know, I won't do it. Uneducated, uncouth, country bumpkins. And a Galilean would speak and it's like, oh my goodness, so dumb.
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, and 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? And it says, verse 7, they were amazed and marveled, saying to one another, look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one in our own language in which we were born, Parthian, Medes, Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya, adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans, that's from the island of Crete, and Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. They're speaking in known languages on the day of Pentecost.
Fast forward, I won't go into this deep because we want to wait until we get there, but 1 Corinthians 14, 12, 13, and 14 talk about gifts of the Spirit, and chapter 14 goes into depth about the gift of tongues. He uses a different word there. He uses the word glossolalia. Some of you who have a Pentecostal background, you may not know Greek words, but you probably know that one because that was taught to you. Glossolalia is a Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 14. The huge difference between the tongues in Acts 2 and the tongues in 1 Corinthians 14, Acts 2, understandable languages. Acts chapter 14, unable to understand those languages without a special gift of the Spirit called the gift of the interpretation of tongues.
Undiscernable, unable to discern them. So it's not the same thing. Why do I bring that up? Because some people say, well, the gift of tongues was given to the early church so they could preach the gospel. That's not why the gift of tongues was given. In fact, they are not preaching the gospel in this, as you will see. I want to point that out to you in a minute. They're not preaching the gospel.
They're not using this to convey a message to human beings. But there are similarities, but there are differences in the 1 Corinthians 14 gift of tongues and the Acts chapter 2. Again, Acts chapter 2 is an atypical, non-repeatable event.
It is the day of Pentecost, the birthday of the church. These tongues are in known languages to get the attention of outsiders. The 1 Corinthians 14 gift of tongues is not for outsiders. In fact, Paul says if somebody is in your assembly who is unlearned, they don't get it. They're an unbeliever and they hear you speak in tongues, they're going to think you're nuts. They're going to think you're crazy.
Now, why would they think you're crazy? Well, because it's a language that you don't understand, that they don't understand. It's not the same kind of speaking in tongues. And in 1 Corinthians 14, Paul says whoever speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to man, but he speaks to God. And he doesn't understand.
No one understands him. However, in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. So what are these tongues in 1 Corinthians 14? Well, we're going to wait till we get to 1 Corinthians 14 because we're not in. I'm just kind of showing you the difference. But there is a difference.
There is a huge difference. But they notice we can understand their language. And I want you to look at verse 11 because I said they're not preaching the gospel. In fact, they don't begin the gospel preaching till verse 14. And what people hear is verse 11, Cretans, Arabs, we hear them speaking in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God. They're not hearing preaching.
They're hearing praising. Now, this does fit 1 Corinthians 14, which is something that is given to the church, the ability to speak in a tongue, which is a prayer or a praise to God. There's no such thing, according to the Bible, as a message in tongues. Again, 1 Corinthians 14, too, whoever speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to men but speaks to God.
No one understands him, but in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. So an interpretation of a tongue is going to sound like somebody magnifying the Lord, praising the Lord, or praying to the Lord. It's directed to God, not to man. There's no message in tongues. There's a prophecy, but there's no message in tongues. So they're hearing praise.
So, verse 12, they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, whatever could this mean? Others mocking. There's always mockers. Every crowd, every situation, every event, there's going to be a mocker. I know because I grew up as a mocker.
And hopefully, I'm more repentant of that as years go on. Others mocking said, they're full of new wine. They've just been drinking too much, man. You know, you say anything. Really, isn't it amazing how articulate these drunk people can be in foreign languages?
That's the best little thing they could come up with. They have to resort, and most people who don't have good arguments or good skills in logic, they have to, in an argument or a position like this, resort to what is called an ad hominem attack. You can't deal with the issue intellectually or satisfactorily, so you just attack the person. Oh, they're a bunch of idiots. That's an ad hominem attack.
Instead of saying, what's wrong? Let me dismantle your argument. Let's talk about the argument, the issue, without getting to something personal. But this is a personal attack. They're drinking new wines.
Now, let me just suggest to you a strategy. You've got Jews from all over the known world, from Iran, from Iraq, Mesopotamia area, Tigris, Euphrates River Valley. They're Jews who have come to Jerusalem. You have some from North Africa, Libya, Cyrene, et cetera, Egypt. You have some as far as Rome. You have some from Asia Minor.
All these areas mentioned are from Asia Minor. All these lands are in Jerusalem. Now, they heard this phenomena. They're about to hear the gospel. Many of them are going to get saved. So in getting saved, in hearing the gospel, in believing in Jesus Christ, imagine what's going to happen as they go back home, three days journey, a week journey into their lands, carrying the gospel. This explains why when Paul would visit a couple of different areas, he finds a church already there, believers already there, and he hasn't plowed that ground.
Well, who did? I think some of these guys and gals who heard and believed and they went back and they started sharing what they heard, what they saw, what the Lord did in their lives. Now, let me suggest this as a possible strategy for missions. Jesus did say, go into all the world and preach the gospel, but what do you do if the world comes to you? Well, you know, if you think about it economically, you could sure save a lot of money instead of just sending mission groups out all over the world. If you actually discovered that here at UNM, we have international students and they're the brightest from different countries in the world, the best and the brightest.
They come to American universities. They have different backgrounds, different cultures, different religions to befriend them, to share with them, to get them saved. Imagine what will happen if they go back to their family and their country. So yes, you could spend thousands and thousands of dollars and organize the trip and go out and we should go. This doesn't mean we shouldn't go, but we could sort of rethink this and say, and since we all can't do that, there's some living right here. Let's pray through a strategy to reach local foreigners on our soil. Love them, invite them to church, invite them over to coffee, tea, because that's more customary in their culture, dinner, et cetera, and see what the Lord could do with that.
I saw this and I thought, cool strategy, maybe we should employ this. So, crowds mocking, saying they're drunk, full of new wine. Now you're about to hear the first sermon ever preached and it's preached by? Duh-duh, Peter. Peter? You mean that Peter? Peter?
Mr. Foot in his mouth, sandal in his mouth, Peter? The guy who said a lot of stupid stuff, Peter? The guy who denied Jesus, Peter? Yep, the very same Peter, who now is fulfilling what Jesus said. Jesus said, Peter, Satan has been asking for you. He wants to sift you like wheat, but I prayed for you, Peter, and when you are restored, strengthen your brethren. Jesus promised Peter that he would fail because he's being attacked, but he would be restored, and Jesus in John 21 restored him. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Commission him again.
Commission him again. Now we see Peter filled with the Holy Spirit after seeing the resurrected Lord, and Peter the fisherman, the bumbling fisherman, is now a lean, mean, preaching machine. I mean, when I read this sermon, it's like this guy is all over it. It's an expository sermon. It's deep in scripture, the way he applies the text. Now, New Testament preaching in the book of Acts contained a couple of things. Number one, a proclamation of the gospel and an exhortation to repent. There was always the gospel, which included the death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ, and he'll do that in 20 seconds.
I mean, he'll just 30 seconds, he'll cover all that. And then there's an exhortation to repent and be baptized. So he's going to not just give information, he's going to call for transformation, and you'll see this as a template throughout the book of Acts. That's Skip Hytink with a look at what happened on Pentecost and why it's so amazing.
His messages from the series Expound Acts. Find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Now, here's Skip to share how you can connect you and many others with the truth of God's Word with a gift to keep these messages going out around the world through Connect with Skip Hytink. Studying the scripture is absolutely essential if you're going to have a world view that's biblical and remain strong in your Christian faith.
Well, that's why we share these verse-by-verse Bible teachings to build you up in God's Word so that you can stand strong no matter what. And when you join me in this work through your generous support, you'll keep these teachings that you love available to you wherever you listen. Would you partner with me in this effort? Here's how you can give a gift today. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give a gift. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate, or call 800-922-1888.
800-922-1888. Thank you for your generosity. And did you know you can now connect with Pastor Skip and his resources via email? Simply go to connectwithskip.com to sign up for emails from Skip. When you do, you'll receive a weekly devotional from Skip, among other new resources and ways to grow in your walk. So sign up today to keep in touch. Come back next week for more from Skip series, Expound Acts. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross. Cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, a connection. Connect with Skip Hyten is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.
