The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit

[0:00] Please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 2. We just began our sermon series in the book of Acts a couple of weeks ago.

[0:25] We're in chapter 2 today. I was a little ambitious, I think, and attempted to cover up to verse 36 today, but that would have been a really, really long sermon, so I cut it down.

[0:43] You guys could thank me later. And I'll try to cover that last part next week as part of next week's passage. So Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 21.

[0:56] Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we feel keenly our weakness, our shortcomings, our weariness.

[1:26] But Lord, in your Word, we see your Spirit's life and power.

[1:42] And Lord, we want our lives as your people to be characterized by that spiritual power.

[2:03] Lord, we hunger for the feeling of your Spirit. We know that you've given us the Holy Spirit to us, to all of us, to your church, to your people, as deposit.

[2:21] We sense His power coursing through us. And Lord, we want to be filled by Him more and more. So we ask for your help, Lord.

[2:38] Meet with us this evening. Speak to us. We hang on your every word. In Jesus' name we pray.

[2:56] Amen. Let's read Acts chapter 2, verses 1 to 21. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

[3:09] And suddenly, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.

[3:25] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now, there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

[3:41] And at this sound, the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

[3:59] And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians.

[4:22] We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean?

[4:36] But others, mocking, said, They are filled with new wine. But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give ear to my words.

[4:53] For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

[5:16] Even on my male servants and female servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above, and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

[5:32] The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass, that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[5:50] This is God's holy and authoritative word. Many of us in this room have seen undeniable demonstrations of God's power. Whether it's supernatural healing, or a compelling prophecy, casting out of demons, or something else.

[6:11] And all of these are enabled by the Holy Spirit, who is the third person of the Trinity, the one who manifests or makes apparent God's presence. And this passage teaches us that the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ sends the Holy Spirit to indwell God's people, and empower them to be His witnesses among the nations.

[6:32] We're going to see first the Spirit, the Spirit of power, verses 1 to 13, and the Spirit of prophecy, verses 14 to 21. So let's look at verses 1 to 13 first.

[6:45] It begins in verse 1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. So day is a reference to the 120 disciples mentioned in chapter 1, verse 15, who were all gathered together in the selection of the 12th apostle.

[7:04] And this group included the 12 apostles, of course, but other disciples as well. And it says it was the day of Pentecost. Literally, Pentecost means the 50th part.

[7:14] And it refers to the Feast of Harvest that Exodus 23 talks about. Because the Feast of Harvest was celebrated 50 days after Passover, it also came to be known as Pentecost, 50th part.

[7:28] It's also called the Feast of Weeks in the Old Testament because it marks a week of weeks, seven weeks, seven complete 49 days.

[7:38] So that culminates with the celebration on the 50th day, which is the Pentecost. And it's appropriate that the Holy Spirit fell upon the church at Pentecost because now the harvest of the saints begins in earnest with the power of the Holy Spirit.

[7:58] And moreover, because after having been delivered from their slavery in Egypt at the time of the Passover, Israel arrived at Mount Sinai about on the third month, it says in Exodus chapter 19.

[8:10] So after a week of weeks. Because of that, the festival Pentecost eventually came to be associated not only with the harvest, but also with the covenant, the making of the covenant and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai at the time of Moses.

[8:24] And so this is, the coming of the Holy Spirit is a fulfillment of the prophecy in Jeremiah 31, 33, where it says, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

[8:36] I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. So in the same way God made a covenant with Israel on Mount Sinai and gave his law, he's making a new covenant with God's people at Pentecost and giving not a law on a tablet of stone, but on the tablet of our hearts.

[8:59] He's writing, he's engraving his law by the Spirit. Verses 2 to 4 describe what happened. It says, And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

[9:13] And divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[9:26] So Luke notes three things here. He notes sound, sight, and speech. First thing is sound. A sound like a mighty rushing wind.

[9:37] Imagine like a whirlwind filling this place. Grab everybody's attention. Second, there is sight. Divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each of them.

[9:50] It says it's like fire. So it may not be literal fire. However, it's something with the appearance of fire. It looks like tongues of fire that's resting on each believer.

[10:06] You see that. And then third, there is speech. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. So three things.

[10:18] Both the mighty rushing wind and fire often appear throughout Scripture to represent the powerful presence of God. 2 Kings 2, verse 11, God takes Elijah up into heaven by a whirlwind in the midst of chariots and horses of fire.

[10:36] In Ezekiel 1, verse 4, when God appears, it says, Behold, a stormy wind came out of the north and a great cloud with brightness around it and fire flashing forth continually.

[10:49] And in the midst of the fire, as it were, a gleaming metal. Gleaming metal. So this is a fulfillment of John the Baptist's prophecy in Luke 3, verse 16, when it says that the Messiah would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

[11:03] It's the fulfillment of Jesus' promise in Luke 24, verse 49, in Acts 1-8, that, Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

[11:18] Jesus had said it in John 16, verse 7, only after His ascension can He send the Holy Spirit to us. And now He keeps that promise as the risen and ascended Lord.

[11:28] He sends the Spirit to indwell God's people and empower them to be His witnesses among the nations. We saw in Acts 1-11 that Jesus ascended into heaven, and now we see the Spirit in Acts 2-2 coming down from heaven.

[11:44] Sorry, I'm just going to put this down because I'm short and I can't see the other faces. I'm like in the way. I think it's important to ask ourselves at this point, do we associate the Spirit of God with power as we see in this passage?

[12:15] Look at the dramatic entrance, right? It's unmistakable. The mighty rushing wind tongues as a fire. Is that how you think of the Holy Spirit? Or do you tend to think of the Holy Spirit as kind of a wallflower?

[12:31] The quiet type. Maybe even silent. That imperceptible, unnoticeable person of the Trinity who stays out of our way. In our Western world, we are impressed by and make much of physical power, military power, political power, rhetorical power, rational power even.

[12:57] But have we uncritically accepted a materialistic worldview that underestimates or ignores spiritual power? Power from the unseen realms.

[13:11] Isaiah chapter 31, verses 1 to 3, contrasts spiritual power from physical power. It says, Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong.

[13:29] But do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord. The Egyptians are man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit.

[13:41] When the Lord stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble and he who is helped will fall and they will all perish together. It's the spirit, not the flesh, that is more real and more powerful and more dependable, according to Scripture.

[13:58] Scripture. And yet, too often, we rely on our own fleshly strength related on the Spirit's power because we are walking by sight and not by faith.

[14:13] So we've seen here the Spirit's manifestation in sound and sight, and the final phenomenon that Luke notes is speech. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[14:26] So the divided tongues as of fire that rested on each believer is connected to their speaking in other tongues. It's the same word. Tongues of fire and speaking other tongues.

[14:38] So the Greek word for tongue is the same as the word for language. So then it's the Spirit of God resting on them like a tongue of fire. That is what enables them to speak, to diversify speech in other languages.

[14:54] The miracle here is that believers are enabled by the Holy Spirit to speak foreign languages that they have never learned. And that's enabled by the tongue of fire that's resting on them.

[15:06] Now it says in verse 5, There were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

[15:19] A sudden sound like a mighty rushing wind of course would attract the crowd and it does. And sure enough, when they gather, they are surprised by yet another sound.

[15:32] So Pentecost was the second of the three major festivals that the ancient Jews celebrated and some scholars estimate that close to a million people, a million pilgrims visited Jerusalem for Pentecost.

[15:44] So this could be a very sizable crowd. They're gathered because of the rushing wind and the sound that they hear and then they hear these people praising God in their own languages even though they've come from all these different nations.

[15:59] This is a reference to the Jewish diaspora who live outside of historic territories of Israel and it says that they were bewildered by these sounds of Galileans who did not have a reputation for being learned and knowing many languages speaking in fluently in these languages they have never learned.

[16:20] Let me digress for a moment just to explain the difference between the tongues mentioned here in Acts 2 and the gift of tongues mentioned in other parts of the Bible especially 1 Corinthians 14.

[16:33] Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 14 verse 2 that the gift of tongues enables believers to utter mysteries in the spirit and that no one but God understands them.

[16:44] So in 1 Corinthians 13 he calls it the tongue of angels tongues of angels and so for that reason in order to understand the gift of tongues 1 Corinthians 14 13 tells us that we need to pray that we may interpret.

[17:02] We need what 1 Corinthians 12 10 and 30 calls the interpretation of tongues which is a spiritual gift. In summary then the gift of tongues is praise to God uttered in a heavenly angelic language which requires not a translator but a spiritual gift of interpretation.

[17:24] This is very different from what's going on here in Acts chapter 2. In Acts chapter 2 verse 4 it says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues languages as the Spirit gave them utterance.

[17:37] And the fact that this is a reference to other human languages is confirmed by the Jews' response in Acts 2 7 to 8 are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language?

[17:52] The word used for language there is not the same word as the word tongue. It's the word that can only refer to a human language. And so these Jews from various nations heard their own native human language being spoken by these believers.

[18:08] believers. And the fact that they were able to understand what they were saying without the gift of interpretation also confirms that this is not the gift of tongues. And this is why some theologians make a technical distinction.

[18:23] They call the gift of tongues glossolalia and they call this ability to speak in other human languages xenolalia. But that raises the question if what's happening in Acts 2 is not the spiritual gift of tongues what is it?

[18:41] Why is it happening at all? And in order to understand Acts 2 we need to understand Genesis 10 to 12. In Genesis 10 we find what is called the table of the nations.

[18:57] After the flood it lists the genealogies of Noah's three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth and then concludes in Genesis 10.32 that these are the clans of the sons of Noah according to their genealogies in their nations and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.

[19:15] So in the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament that the New Testament believers use the word nation there's the same word that's used here in Acts 2 verse 5 when it says now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews devout men from every nation under heaven.

[19:30] And then Luke lists the nations that were there represented in Jerusalem from east to west in verses 9 to 11 his Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia Judea and Tappadocia Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Temphylia Egypt and the parts of Libya belong to Cyrene and visitors from Rome both Jews and proselytes Cretans and Arabians now because Luke uses contemporary terms of his day the names of the nations are not exactly the same as the nations listed in the table of nations in Genesis chapter 10 but if you put them on the map they refer to the exact same nations in the same geographic area so this first map I hope you guys can make it out is the nations that Luke lists in chapter 2 of Acts so he kind of describes them from east to west starting in Parthia and ending in Rome but if you look at the second map there this is the map of the table of the nations in Genesis 10 exact same geographic area and the description there goes in roughly kind of counterclockwise order from the northeast so they're the nations from that form kind of the farthest reaches of the known world at the time from the perspective of an ancient

[20:54] Jew and the fact that Luke had the table of the nations in mind is confirmed by what he says in Luke chapter 10 verse 1 where he tells us that Jesus chose and sent out 72 disciples there's exactly 72 descendants of Noah in the table of nations in Genesis 10 so Luke's telling us that God's people are called to be missionaries to all the nations of the earth and so he has that in mind as he's writing this the one notable difference is that while the table of the nations goes as far west as Tarshish which is modern day Spain Luke's list only goes as far as Rome and that's because the book of Acts only tracks Paul's journey to Rome that's where it ends that's all that he had access to but interestingly enough Paul mentions twice in Romans 15 of his intention to go to Spain which is modern which is what the ancient city of Tarshish was and church tradition holds that Paul did after he's released from prison in Rome go there so then Luke is presenting to us here in Acts 2 the initial impetus of the movement of the gospel going forward to every nation on earth and there's still more connections between Acts 2 and Genesis 10 to 12 with the table of the nations in Genesis 10 it looks like human beings are obeying their God-given mandate to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it so humans were created to reproduce and spread out filling the earth with the image of God but God's plan meets resistance in Genesis 11 in the land of Shinar in the city of Babel which is a brazen name in Akkadian means the gate of the God people decide to settle down instead of spreading out and filling the earth as God commanded them to do and they say to each other in Genesis 11 verse 4 come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens and let us make a name for ourselves lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth but God will have none of this human hubris so it says the Lord came down and confused their language so that they may not understand one another's speech and he dispersed them from there over the face of the earth and then there's a word play on the name Babel which in

[23:26] Hebrew sounds like the word that means confused so the famed gate of the God is reduced a city of confused babblers recalling this Babel incident Deuteronomy 32 8-9 says this when the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance when he divided mankind he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God but the Lord's portion is his people Jacob his allotted heritage sons of God does not mean that God has other sons besides Jesus the Lord Yehovah is called the Most High God who is like no other God he's the Lord of Lords and God of Gods and he exists in three persons Father Son and Holy Spirit he is the one true God the son is described as his only begotten son in John 3-16 Jesus is called his only son in 1 John chapter 4 verse 9 Jesus is unique but the phrase sons of something in

[24:29] Hebrew is an idiom that doesn't necessarily refer to paternity Psalm 89 22 for example calls a wicked person a son of wickedness Proverbs 31 5 describes those who are afflicted as sons of affliction so these sons of God then are not literal sons of God but they are like God like beings they they are spiritual beings who are members of the divine council which you see in 1 Kings 22 and Job chapter 1 and 2 God divided up the created world into nations ethnic people groups and within their respective borders according to the number of the sons of God meaning there's a spiritual being that rules over each nation Israel however is the portion of Yahweh the Yehovah the most high God but then in Psalm 82 God rebukes these sons of God for governing these nations with injustice and wickedness and he declares that he will demote them and destroy them in the future it says in

[25:36] Psalm 82 verses 6 to 8 I said you are God sons of the most high all of you nevertheless like men you shall die and fall like any prince arise oh God judge the earth for you shall inherit all the nations Asaph who is the author of this psalm prophesies of a time when the Lord will dethrone and destroy these so-called gods of the nations and then inherit all the nations for himself so all of this forms the background that helps us to make sense of what's happening here at Pentecost the word divided in divided tongues used in Acts 2 is the same word used in Deuteronomy 32 8 to refer to the divided mankind according to the number of the sons of God and the expression other languages and the bewilderment that is caused by those speaking in other languages is the same word that is translated as confused in the account of

[26:38] Babel in Genesis 11 so what's happening here in Jerusalem is not a mere local event it's a cosmic event it's nothing less than the reversal of Babel at Babel people sought to exalt their own names and God came down and confused their language so that they could not understand one another speech and God dispersed the people over the face of the earth but at Pentecost God comes down again but this time he gathers all the nations to himself and enables them to understand each other's diverse languages and people are now confused that they can't understand each other and they are not trying to promote their own names but they are instead praising the name of Christ and the wondrous things that God has done through him at Pentecost the spirit of God puts the wicked sons of God on notice the only begotten son of

[27:40] God has begun the process of dispossessing these sons of God remember the way Jesus described his conflict with demons in Luke chapter 11 verses 21 and 22 when a strong man fully armed guards his own palace his goods are safe but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil Jesus is the stronger man who overcomes the strong man binds the and then despoils them he is the one that's despoiling the nations rescuing them saving them at Babel the Gentiles were disinherited but starting in Pentecost the nations are now reclaimed the Gentiles are now re-inherited by God and we are called as emissaries of that kingdom to announce the arrival of Christ the king so that the nations that have suffered under the unjust and wicked and cosmic powers over this present darkness these nations who due to their slavery to sin were bound to these hostile spiritual forces of evil might be absolved of their sins and redeemed rescued from their tyranny and brought under the gracious and just reign of

[29:03] Christ the king this is why in Peter's sermon ensuing sermon he explains Pentecost as proof of the lordship of Christ he explains Pentecost in terms of Christ's lordship I hope this is exciting for you guys this is an epic mission we're part of a cosmic warfare this is why spiritual warfare is real this is why we feel it here this is why if you go to mission fields the frontier where these so called gods rule the battle is much more intense and you see a very vivid and undeniable conflict because there are spiritual forces who have had a stranglehold over these nations in the past that are now opposing us fighting against us one one of my one of my favorite songs facing a task unfinished and the verse and chorus of the psalm captures this this is where other lords beside thee hold their unhindered sway where forces that defy thee defy thee still today with none to heed their crying for life and love and light unnumbered souls are dying and pass into the night we go to all the world with kingdom hope unfurled no other name has power to save but

[30:40] Jesus Christ the Lord but in order to be effective witnesses of Jesus Christ we must be empowered by the Holy Spirit it says in verses 12 to 13 and all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another what does this mean but others mocking said they are filled with new wine when we come under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit some people will mock us and say that we are filled with new wine that they're crazy this contrast between being filled with wine and being filled with Holy Spirit occurs again in Ephesians chapter 5 18 which says do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the Spirit even though as we Holy Spirit this doesn't mean that every believer is full of the Holy Spirit this is why throughout Acts Luke describes certain people as being full of the

[31:43] Holy Spirit which implies that some others are not full of the Holy Spirit for example in Acts chapter 6 verse 3 the apostles instruct the brothers to pick up from among them seven men of good repute full of the spirit of wisdom and they pick among others Stephen who is described as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit similarly Barnabas in chapter 11 verse 24 is described as a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith so even though the indwelling of the Holy Spirit among believers is a permanent and once and for all reality we are still supposed to seek continually the infilling of the Holy Spirit and this is why the contrast between being filled with new wine and being filled with the Holy Spirit is helpful many linguists speculate that the word alcohol is derived from the Arabic word which means spirit ancient Arabic speakers may have believed that a drunkard was possessed by a spirit that produced intoxication whether that etymology is true or not it highlights that useful contrast between being filled and controlled with wine and being filled and controlled by the spirit in both cases you are ceding your lordship and your possession of yourself

[33:02] I've shared this story with some of you before but there's a homeless man that I've come to know in East Cambridge and one time when I was talking to him at Dunkin Donuts in a rare and remarkable moment of sobriety and what controls me the saddest thing you can hear from an alcoholic what controls you we call drunk driving DUI driving under the influence it's illegal because when you're drunk you are not actually in control to be filled with the spirit means to be immersed in the spirit submerged in the spirit to be overcome by the spirit to be controlled by the spirit to come under the influence of the spirit to become a Christian is to be possessed by a spirit not by evil unclean spirits who steal kill and destroy but by the holy spirit who gives life who brings assurance of faith and abundance of hope and abiding love and it should be our aspiration to be controlled by the spirit of

[34:20] God to come more and more under his influence to conform ourselves more and more to his will to find our mind in his word which was inspired by the spirit of God to pray to seek him to surrender ourselves to the will of God wherever he may lead us God to God that God intends for us and then in verses 14 to 21 Peter addresses the onlookers and explains what is happening at Pentecost and his main point is that the miraculous sound and sight and speech can be explained by the outpouring of the spirit of prophecy he says in verses 14 to 16 but Peter standing with the eleven lifted up his voice and addressed them man of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem let this be known to you give ear to my words for these people are not drunk as you suppose since it is only the third hour of the day that would be nine o'clock in the morning in our rendering but this is what was uttered through the prophet

[35:22] Joel and then he cites the prophecy of Joel in Joel 2 chapter 2 verses 28 to 32 here in verses 17 to 18 and in the last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my male servants and female according to Peter what Joel prophesied would happen in the last days is happening already so then from a New Testament perspective every age since the age of Christ is the end times it's the last days the final countdown has begun the hourglass has been turned that means we are end time people presently living in that age and one of the main signs of the end time is the outpouring of the

[36:24] Holy Spirit on all flesh in the Old Testament period the Holy Spirit was still there of course his eternal third person of the Trinity but he empowered select individuals for particular God given tasks in all to the church is the construction of the temple or the tabernacle prophethood priesthood judgeship kingship the Spirit of God came upon a select group of people temporarily to help them fulfill specific charges but in the New Testament age the Spirit of power comes upon all flesh without discrimination of course it's only for those who repent and are baptized in the name of jesus christ for the forgiveness of sins as peter will qualify in verse 38 but the holy spirit indwells all true christians whether they are male or female young or old slave or free and this great privilege that was once the prerogative of kings and prophets and priests of old is now ours every member of the church prophecy in a narrow sense is relaying what god reveals to us in the form of speech words phrases sentences that sometimes god speaks audibly or other times just plants into our minds spontaneously visions are what god reveals to us in the form of sounds and pictures audio visually while we are while we are awake dreams are similar except it's what happens when we are sleeping but all of these can be put under the general category of prophecy as peter does in verse 18 because they're all forms of divine revelation now every believer can hear the voice of god now this doesn't mean that all believers are prophets throughout the book of acts luke refers to certain individuals with the title prophet which implies that not every believer is a prophet for example he calls barnabas simeon lucius and manan prophets in acts 13 verse 1 he calls judas and silas prophets in acts 15 verse 32 he calls agabus a prophet in acts 21 verse 10 so not all are prophets and that's confirmed by first corinthians 12 28 to 29 as well where paul asks the rhetorical question are all prophets assuming that the answer is no because god created the church to be an interdependent body with diverse gifts not everyone has not one person has all the gifts because god designed this so that every member of the church is interdependent on each other so not all are prophets however according to acts 2 17 to 18 every christian has access to the spirit of prophecy the holy spirit who according to first corinthians 1 searches the depths of god and comprehends the thoughts of god we all of us have access to this holy spirit and so in that sense it's not inappropriate to say to speak of the prophethood of all believers in the same way we speak of the priesthood of all believers while as a pastor i do represent christ and his authority to the local church i am not a mediator between you and god you need no other human mediator because there is one god and there is one mediator between god and man the man christ jesus the god who hears me and speaks to me is the same god who hears you and speaks to you the very spirit of the living god dwells within you are you living today like you have this kind of privileged access sometimes christians live like people who are wandering around the outskirts of a concert venue trying to peek in to see what's going on inside wondering if the ticket that they have is even legitimate whether the security guards will kick them out or not when in reality the ticket they have is vip access with full access backstage if only you draw near to him if only you would incline your ears to him you would hear him speak to you the spirit of the living god dwells within you his power is yours that prophecy in joel cited here in verses 17 to 18 have already been fulfilled on the other hand verses 90 to 20 predict future events that have not yet been fulfilled this and i will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and vapor of smoke the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the lord comes the great and magnificent day notice that in verse 17 it says the last days in the plural but then in verse 20 it speaks of the last day in the singular the last days begin with the birth of christ with the coming of christ his first coming but the last day singular comes when christ returns his second coming so the joel's prophecy here spans that whole gap that whole range so the first part of the events the coming outpouring of the holy spirit has already been fulfilled it's part of the last days but these events that precipitate the return of christ are not yet it waits to be fulfilled before the last day in the singular but joel quotes the full passage because he wants to get to joel 2 verse 32 which he quotes in verse 21 and he shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the lord shall be saved this is the pivot point in peter's sermon this is when he starts getting evangelistic the lord's name represents his authority his person his power and to call upon the name of the lord is to entrust ourselves to his saving work but who exactly is this lord in joel's prophecy this lord is the lord god jehovah but as we will see in the following passage next week peter tells us more specifically that we need to call that this lord is the lord jesus christ who died and was raised and ascended to the right hand of the father this is an incredible statement he's identifying the man jesus christ the son of god with the lord god of all creation because it's the risen and ascended lord jesus who sends the gift of his spirit to empower his people many people in the world are spiritually seeking they seek spiritual highs through a hodgepodge of different practices longing for salvation longing for some experience of transcendence but if you want a relationship with the god of the universe if you want a fellowship intimacy with the triune god if you want to receive the gift of the holy spirit that peter's been speaking of here that we see here at pentecost the only way is by repenting of your sinful ways and believing in jesus and calling upon his name that is the only way for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved our sinful pride and rebellion against god our refusal to acknowledge him and live for him we must renounce those things we must renounce ourselves and pledge our allegiance to jesus and believe in his atoning death that he paid for our sins on the cross for us that's the only way in ezekiel chapter 10 prophet ezekiel describes a sad picture of the spirit of god the glory of god departing the temple in jerusalem and then later he prophesies in ezekiel chapter 36 of how the spirit of god will return he will gather his people from among the nations cleanse them sprinkle clean water on them he will give them a new heart and a new spirit he will put within them he will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh and he will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules that's what we're seeing here in pentecost in acts chapter 2 the spirit of god and 1 corinthians 6 describes believers christians as a temple of the holy spirit if you want to be a temple of the holy spirit if you want the spirit of god to dwell within you the spirit is not coming when you are still alienated from god and defiled by your sins he is a holy spirit and this is why you must turn to jesus entrust yourself to him be reconciled to god the father through jesus and then he will sprinkle his clean water on you then he will give you a new heart and he will come and dwell within you then you will taste this power of the spirit of god let's pray together heavenly father we pray for all those who are watching or listening and all those who are here who do not yet know you that they might give their lives to jesus that even now they might they might give them their lives over to you in prayer entrust themselves to you and be filled with the spirit we pray for those of us who already have the indwelling spirit but who have not been engaging him who have not been accessing him his power who have not been turning to him listening to him oh lord help us to draw near fill us more and more with your spirit empower us speak to us in jesus name we pray amen