Acts 2:1-21 - Pentecost Redux
Acts Chapter 2:1-21
Pentecost Redux
In the upcoming preaching of chapter twenty-one of John’s Revelation, we’ll be returning, time and again, to the prophetic Word; for it is all prophesied. And it is all from God’s perspective and in His language.
Although it will seem like a whole-Bible review, Isaiah and Ezekiel will be featured prominently. But I don’t know of a better place to start than Pentecost. It is vital to what John is shown. It’s where chapter twenty one begins.
So, while you look on, I’ll read the text which is designated Acts chapter two, and make some comments. Then we’ll enter chapter twenty one of the Revelation next Lord’s Day with a better grasp of what John is shown there.
Acts Chapter 2:1-21
1) And they were all together in the same place in the day when Pentecost was to be fulfilled.
2) And sound did come suddenly from the heaven just as it were coming forth of a violent wind; and it did fill up the entire house where they were sitting.
3) And tongues as fire was manifest to them, being divided into parts and distributed; and it did remain over each of them.
4) And they all were brought under full influence of Holy Spirit; and they began to talk to themselves in other tongues, according as the Spirit had given to them from which to speak.
5) Now, Jews had been staying in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under the heaven;
6) and the multitude came together from the sound having come on and was confounded that they were hearing, each one in his own dialect, from their speaking.
7) And they were marveling and wondering saying to one another, “Lo, are all these speaking not Galileans?
8) And how is it that we are hearing, each of us in his own dialect in which we were begotten?
9) Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and the ones inhabiting Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, and Asia,
10) Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the Lybian region near Cyrene, and the visiting Romans,
11) all were beside themselves and utterly at a loss saying to each other, “What is this intended to be?”
12) But others who were mocking said, “They are full of sweet wine.”
13) But Peter, having been made firm together with the twelve, raised his voice and made himself sound out to them: “Jewish men and all those staying in Jerusalem, let this be a certainty to you and listen to my words.
14) These are not intoxicated as you suspect, for it is third hour of the day,
15) but this is that which was being spoken through the prophet Joel,
16) ‘and it will be in the last days, says God, I will pour forth from My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophecy. And your young men will see appearances. And your elders will be given to dream dreams.
17) In that day I will pour out from My Spirit upon My male servants and My female servants, and they will prophesy.
18) And I will give wonders in the heaven above and signs upon the earth below, blood and fire and pillar of smoke.
19) The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and notable day of Kurios to come.
20) And it will be everyone whoever calls upon the Name of Kurios will be saved.’
As you remember, our Lord was crucified on the day of the celebration of Passover. Having been raised out of death the third day, He left Jerusalem behind, meeting with His disciples on the fortieth day on a mountain north of Galilee, from whence He then ascended into the Glory Cloud tabernacle to be glorified at the Right and to receive His crown as King of Kings.
Having promised His disciples that when He departed He would send Holy Spirit, He told them to go back to Jerusalem and wait there… which they did.
On the fiftieth day (which the word Pentecost means – the first day of the week after seven weeks) there were mighty events that took place.
There were the same sight and sound phenomena – an incredible roar to the hearing, and fear-inspiring fire to the sight – that had also occurred twice before… at the completion of the tabernacle in the desert and at the completion of Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem.
So the event at Pentecost 30AD must be understood as the prophesied habitation of Almighty God The Spirit in His NEW holy temple – the body of Christ; for the same sights and sounds occurred here as in the two former tabernacles.
As Jesus promised, God the Spirit was poured from the sanctuary in the heaven, baptizing the entirety of our Lord’s new temple just as John the baptizer had promised. Here’s what he said as recorded by Matthew:
11) I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but He that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you in Holy Spirit and in fire,
12) Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly cleanse His threshing-floor; and He will gather His wheat into the garner; but the chaff He will burn up with unquenchable fire.
As we enter chapter twenty-one of John’s Revelation, we need to make inquiry once again into exactly what happened early that morning on the fiftieth day after Passover. Pentecost morning – 9:00 a.m.
It will help us, I think, to read parts of the King James translation of the “received text” and compare it (first at verse three) with the text that you have. The differences that we’ll see here are very important.
Here’s the King James (at verse three):
“…and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”
And now reading from the printed text that you have:
“…and tongues as fire were manifest to them, being divided into parts and distributed; and it did remain over each of them.”
“Tongues-as-fire” is the subject (it may seem strange to have a “phrase” as a subject, but that’s the way it’s written; it’s all in the nominative case – the case in which the subject always falls).
And Luke puts it so that we know this… the subject is “singular”, even though the word “tongues” is plural! “Tongues as fire” is a singular subject! That why Luke says “and IT did remain over each of them” (i.e. the manifestation of the fire from the Glory-cloud tabernacle). It was manifest to them as many tongues (that’s the way it appeared… as a plurality); but it was of one fire – the essence of which denotes the glory and brightness and purity of God, and of the coals of fire under the altar. (Remember, at the beginning of Ezekiel’s inspired vision of the Glory-cloud/Throne-room he described it like this:
“…then I looked, and behold a whirlwind was coming out of the north; and a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber (chashmal), out of the midst of the fire.”
This in our text is all the same phenomena –with the tumultuous sound and the fire! This fire is fire from the very Throne of God Himself. It is “the appearance of His glory”, according to Ezekiel. (Chashmal is the splendor of divine majesty from which came fire. It is the burning brightness of cleansing and separation and judgment. And special note must be taken of the fact that there is no fire, and no chashmal – the glowing color of fire – seen by John in chapter twenty one; for there is no “chaff” in God’s paradise!)
The “old English” word – “cloven” is, supposedly, the past tense of “to cleave” or to split. So the impression is left with the reader that there was a “split” tongue, or a double tongue (like as with the tongue of a snake – forked!) over each of the disciples.
Well, there are a couple of things seriously wrong with that translation… (not the least of which is the false impression that it leaves). The word simply doesn’t mean “cloven” (or cleft in two). And it should never raise the image of a split tongue, or a double tongue (or the tongue of a snake). The word means “divided for the purpose of distribution” – or allotment! Each tongue is a portion, or an allotment, from the whole! There’s not a “cleft” of each one into two!
But “tongues as fire” – singular – was allotted. And each one there, now being “members” of the Body of Christ, having been baptized by Jesus Christ in Holy Spirit, they now received a portion (which stayed over them). Each received a portion, or an allotment, of “tongues as fire”!
Let’s force our “mind’s eye” to accept the proper image, on warranties by text and history here…. There is the Presence of God the Spirit in the Glory-cloud; and the common components of His Glory-cloud appearance are here, aren’t they? There is terrible, awe-inspiring sound; and there is fire from the splendor of Divine Majesty.
The “fire” is manifest to them in a peculiar “shape” (one that has, heretofore, not been seen; prophesied, but not yet seen)!!! The fire of the Glory-cloud/Throne-room is there (as we’ve seen it before in the tabernacle and the temple); and Holy Spirit had been poured out, in baptism, from the Head (Jesus Christ) into the body (all the members)….
…It is the first day of the week (our Sunday); and all the congregation of Christ were meeting together and praying as The Risen Christ had instructed them ten days previously when He was glorified.
So, what we are to see, here, is that this is the baptism and inauguration of the new temple of God – the Body of Christ (and its earthy representation… the New Testament Church) the first day. Just as the Glory Cloud/tabernacle came when Moses completed the man-made tabernacle; and just as He did when Solomon completed the permanent temple in Jerusalem – so He has done so when the Greater Moses and the Greater Solomon completed all the work on the temple-made-without-hands!
The sounds and the fire of the Glory Cloud indicate that God the Spirit had filled this new tabernacle. (He had been poured out from the Head; and He now “indwelt” the body.) The fire of the Glory Cloud then took a peculiar “form” over them (actually this is in the passive voice, so it was “manifest” to them). It was divided into parts and distributed (or allotted); and it did remain over each of them! In other words “the allotted portion” remained over each of them. And the shape of each of these allotted portions of fire was a tongue!
It shouldn’t be such a mystery that Jesus Christ the spoken Word of God Incarnate gifted His New Church in this manner at its inception! From the Head, the body – the whole body – is separated out from the chaff and incorporated; and that new, essential union of Christ and His people is accomplished by hearing the Word of God spoken! We all hear in a “tongue”! And we Gentiles were of every conceivable variety of tongue.
And for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and His Church, to be established in the nations in a period of just thirty-five or forty years took a remarkable gift directly from the glorified Christ Who had been seated at the place of honor – at the Right – above the tabernacle of God!
“Tongues-as-fire” was apportioned to the Church in this upper room. All received a portion of the same. In this case, at the inception, it is not a “variety” of the fire – but, for the purpose of establishing the Church in the nations, a portion of the fire from the Throne of God stayed over each of them in the shape of tongues! Not tongues of flame going UP (as flame normally does… God created it that way), but fire in the shape of a tongue over each of them… going DOWN!
FOR THE PURPOSE OF ESTABLISHING THE CHURCH IN THE NATIONS... the Word of God had to be heard! It had to be spoken; and it had to be heard – in a tongue!
This is a fit and appropriate shape for the Glory of God to “assume”, isn’t it? – at the beginning! The Body of Christ had been baptized in Holy Spirit. And now it is The Nations who must hear!! They must hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the WORD made flesh!
BUT… not only is it fit and appropriate and good and perfect – and awesome and terrible and fear-inspiring; but it was also prophesied. The spoken Word of God had prophesied the spoken Word of God (tongues). The Word of God Incarnate had, afore, spoken the Word of God Incarnate. And even now (in our text) pours out from the Head the tongues necessary to speak the Word of God to Jews of many nations and tongues, and then the Gentiles. It has come directly from the glorified God-man.
And this is what He said through Isaiah the prophet, in chapter five (which has to do with the deplorable moral condition of the vineyard of God – Israel)….
“…therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness. And their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the Law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel” (a term always prefiguring God the Son).
And where have we heard that language? “The tongue of fire devouring the stubble and the flame consuming the chaff,” is the exact language used by John the Baptist when confronting the pharisees! Directly from this fifth chapter of Isaiah John prophesies the coming Christ Who will baptize in Holy Spirit and fire – gathering up His wheat; and burning up the chaff in unquenchable fire!!! And in the “baptism of the Spirit” Jesus does BOTH of these things! (In fact it is only ONE thing, isn’t it? It is the baptism of Jesus Christ in Holy Spirit.)
That same baptism burns up the chaff and cleanses and purifies the wheat (if we’re permitted to use the same metaphor). So the “inaugural baptism” of the New Testament Church figuratively and definitively did two things:
1) It poured out Holy Spirit from Jesus Christ the Head into His body… forming the second creation of humanity from every kind of flesh (i.e. from all the nations). They are all individuals; but they are also all born little ones into the same humanity – brothers (different from the first one); and they are all born of the same Spirit.
2) The “inaugural baptism” of the New Testament Church figuratively and definitively terminated Israel’s covenant relationship with God (burning up the chaff). (Considering the implication of number one, one would have to say that number two follows by necessity!) You see, if God’s newly created humanity (newly created in Christ) was composed of Gentiles and Jews of every nation, then the unavoidable implication is that the nation of Jews was no longer the vineyard of God, and that it would be covenantally terminated. So, as Isaiah and John both prophesied – both happened – the baptism did both!!
Now, I said “figuratively and definitively”. Effectively these things happened in time and in sequence. It was another thirty-five (or forty) years until Israel suffered the final disgrace and its ignominious end.
So we can see right away that Luke stays focused. The “foreign” Jews – those who were in Jerusalem for the Feast of Weeks – have the attention “center stage” here. Because they are obviously the ones who are here at the sovereign, providential will of God; and they are the ones who are the immediate instruments for establishing the Church in the Gentile nations.
And although the great “sound” of the Glory-cloud has disturbed the entire city of Jerusalem, Luke’s attention, again, is mostly on those who were from out of town (verse five).
Then we read:
“…and the multitude came together from the sound coming on….”
So we are to understand that many thousands of people poured into the streets looking for the source of that sound – the mighty sound of God inhabiting His new temple; and among them were large numbers of devout Jews from outside Jerusalem and Israel. In fact, as verse five indicates, every nation on earth was represented. (God had faithfully seen to that – providentially.)
Now, there’s a word here in verse six that’s found only right here in the Acts of the Apostles (as far as the Bible is concerned). It’s the word I’ve translated “confounded”. The word is used, in other writings, to communicate the idea of liquids being “poured together”. That’s what it means: “poured together”.
Now (with respect to that) as we see, large numbers of people are in the streets because of the incredible “sound”; and they’ve moved toward a particular direction of the city. And the apostles of Christ, newly born into the body of Christ and emboldened by the Spirit, and aware of the commotion, exit the upper room to speak to the crowds. And their speech was of many “tongues” or languages. (Certainly Greek and Hebrew languages, but the emphasis is on many languages.)
And because the foreign Jews were hearing in their own dialects, they were “confounded”! We don’t have much to go on here with regard to this word; but apparently it’s the idea of Holy Spirit having “poured out” such a distribution, or allotment, of this gift, that the crowds were just completely astonished and astounded and “mixed up” at the numbers of languages that were being (spoken!) poured out together. The effect of it all must have been overwhelming! So the word “poured together” must mean that the people were so inundated with such an excess… it was equal to bewilderment, or discomposure! They were “confounded”.
And let me make mention here (before we press on) that there are two marvelous acts of God going on at this scene…. One, of course, is the speech itself – in many languages. And the other is the “hearing”. As we all know, the spoken Word is a requirement of and a prerequisite of hearing; but “hearing” comes from God too, doesn’t it?
So, not only do we have a very special manifestation of the power of God (in distributing the languages of the nations to His apostles), but the even greater manifestation of His power is in the hearing, isn’t it? Why? Because it requires a rebirth in order to hear! A depraved, dead man-in-Adam can’t hear, can he? He has to have “new ears” and a “new heart”… otherwise, how can a dead man hear? He must be given ears to hear! He must be re-born into Christ – united to Him in His body… resurrected out of death.
So the “speech” is a gift distributed from the Throne-room of God Himself; and so is the “rebirth” (hearing) of mankind an act of grace - directly from God. So it is ALL from God! None of it is from us – or by us. It is from God, and by God… and it is for God!
Okay. Also in verse seven the crowds continue to be astonished at what was happening. The apostles are recognized for who they are!
And it spread through the crowd that all of these people were from Galilee! That certainly adds to the confusion and the wonder, because nothing good could emerge from Galilee… (especially from the city of Nazareth!). Galileans, for the most part, were to be “pitied” for who they were and where they were from! But here-they-were, speaking to the people of the world in every known language!
Verses eight to twelve all add to the information that Luke gives us concerning the confounding of the crowd that had been “poured together” by God from the nations.
Verse eight indicates that these poor “Galileans” were speaking in the peculiar dialects of certain portions of countries where these men were born and raised! Now, this doesn’t mean that the apostles were picking up certain “accents” within foreign civilizations (like the “Galilean” accent). That’s not what the word “dialects” means.
The dialects were peculiar forms of language which had been developed in a “communications area” or an “ethnic” area. And these dialects were being spoken by the apostles of Jesus Christ.
And let me just say that if the apostles had been “babbling” in unknown tongues, and if the foreign Jews had heard nothing but babbling, there would have been no “hearing”; and there would have been no mourning and poverty of spirit; there would have been no confession of sin and repentance; and there would have been NO additions to the Body of Christ that day!!!
No one would have heard the Gospel! There would have been no clarion call of O LOGOS – The Word!
Just one additional thing here, you’ll notice that there is, as a gift from God, a “boldness” on the part of the apostles. All of these are the same ones who came out of Galilee as “common men”. And all of these are the ones who disappeared when Jesus was arrested. Some of them followed, but, being terrified, they stayed incognito. And the appointed leader, Simon Peter, denied Jesus three times out of fear.
And after meeting the Risen Lord in Galilee, and receiving instructions to remain in Jerusalem, they met clandestinely for ten days in the upper room there in Jerusalem, waiting as Jesus instructed them.
But now, having been baptized in Holy Spirit into The Christ, and having been made members of His glorified body, they meet a multitude of Jews, many of whom are foreign dignitaries and men of “means”; and they begin to speak to them of the great things of God – in their own tongues! And, I suppose, there were a number of priests and pharisees from Jerusalem in that crowd! And that was all-the-more fearsome!
So, although the “fear” may have still been there (and I’m sure it was), there was a boldness there to overcome it. And what a striking contrast there is between the two.
And individuals and families are brought into the New Covenant Church as they hear the Gospel through the generations, and as they are incorporated into the body which has already been baptized by Holy Spirit poured out from The Christ. And the boldness must be there on our part, as messengers, in order that they might hear.
Now, in verse four, the printed translation says,
“… and they were brought under full influence of Holy Spirit….”
King James says, “…and they were all filled.”
As long as no one gets the impression that there are more than one “filling” of the Holy Spirit, I suppose the King James is okay. There is certainly an “outpouring” of Holy Spirit in baptism from Jesus Christ, isn’t there? The body and its members have received Holy Spirit from “The Head”, as He promised to send.
And the prophetic Word is fulfilled (upon the habitation of the New Temple) that God’s people would receive a heart of flesh (a real, human heart in place of the dead, stony one); and that they would be “caused” to obey God’s holy Law-word. All of this indicates (in early, prophetic language) the rebirth into the humanity of the God-man. It is, as John saw in chapter twenty: RESURRECTION from death unto life!
But the language in your printed text more fully takes into account the action of Christ in baptism and the results of the outpouring of Holy Spirit; for not only was there an outpouring of Holy Spirit from the Head, but there is an indwelling of Holy Spirit in the body… i.e. the “Body of Christ”. That’s why I translated it (as the word clearly implies) “brought under full influence….”
You see, since Holy Spirit has been poured out into the body, each one who is “joined” to the body and made a member of the Body as a little child, leaves his former heritage and is reborn into the new one. And the New One has already been filled with the Spirit! Speaking “anthropomorphically” here, a new “member”, a new “part”, is made a part of the body. And it becomes an integral part of the body. And it’s all attached to the Head! – the body already having been baptized!
There’s a “union” implied here… and explicit here; this is the first time that there’s ever been a glorified human – Jesus; and this (by extension) is the first time that Holy Spirit has ever been poured out into that body; and, therefore, this is the first time that man has ever come under the “full influence of Holy spirit”! The Lord Jesus Christ, in His great love for His elect people, has done all of this for us – even though we were dead in sin!
And it’s all because of the “indwelling” Spirit of God… an ongoing, eternal indwelling of God the Spirit in His New Temple.
Then, as the last part of verse four says,
“…and they began to talk to themselves in other tongues, according as the Spirit had given to them from which to speak.”
Now, King James says, “…and they began to speak with other tongues….” That translation says, simply, that they began to speak! The implication being that their “speaking” was to no one – and, therefore, pointless and aimless “speaking” or “babbling”.
But the word translated “they began…” is in the middle voice (reflexive); and what that means is that they began to speak to themselves – or amongst themselves. They were speaking to one other! What an awesome gift! They were trying it out in the group!
From the glory of God had come a marvelous gift… the ability to speak in order that the nations would hear! He had given them to declare! ... to speak. (Implied is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.) And the inverted “tongues as fire” was the manifestation of that gift. And it was for the purpose of:
1) conversion of the nations (Gentiles)
2) burning up the chaff
Luke, as is his practice, spends no time at all expanding on this great phenomenon. (He doesn’t even say how long “tongues as fire” stayed over them. But it was long enough for them to understand what had happened and how they were to use it!) But, to Luke, it’s just “a matter of fact”.
But the people of the earth had been separated at Babel by language! They were separated because they couldn’t understand one another. Language was “confused”. And God had, Himself, facilitated that.
And, now, here we see that that terrible shortcoming had been overcome – overruled – by special abilities given by God directly from the fire of His Glory-cloud! And they spoke as the Spirit had given to them to declare. And the Word of God would now go out unhindered by language! Wherever it is preached there is the Glory of God.
Now, let me just mention verses five through eleven. As we already know, Pentecost was a major feast in the Jewish liturgical calendar (the feast of weeks). And if some were able to go home and come back again after Passover, they did so. Otherwise many, who were from great distances, stayed for the entire period of time – from Passover through the fifty days to Pentecost!
As verse five says, these (for the most part) were “devout men”. In other words they were “thoroughly Jewish – i.e. judaistic. I suppose there might have been some proselytes to judaism too; but… mostly Jews.
Down through the decades and centuries many Jews were dispersed (for one reason or another) into the nations. And synagogues had been established in all of those places.
Being “devout men”, they were observers of the feasts that God gave to Moses at Sinai. They would come, if possible, to Jerusalem to observe them – especially now that the temple that Herod had begun, forty years previously, had almost been completed!
And, as the text says here in verse five, they were from “every nation under the heaven” (about seventy). Every nation was represented here by devout Jewish men! In the great dispersions of the past, families had been established in countries large and small, and in all the island nations… (wherever there had been civilization.) These were serious judaists! Whatever has been said previously about the elders and priests and scribes and pharisees of Israel is true about these Jews. Their religion was judaism; they were men (and families) of means (or they wouldn’t have been able to leave their homes and businesses and travel so far); and the fact that they would come so far to practice the feast indicates the deep and serious nature of their religion! (And remember, judaism is a false religion!)
And what I’m trying to get to here, first, is the quality of the witnesses to what has happened! Upon hearing the tumultuous “roaring” of the Glory-cloud/Chariot of God, thousands emptied into the streets of Jerusalem… men (and women and children included, although it’s not stated) – Jews from all over the world, men who were serious Jews and those who were of “means”. These were not followers of Jesus!!! So, no one can say that the witnesses were biased!
And they were met by those who were speaking the great things of God to them in their own native languages! And it wasn’t just Greek, Latin, Arabic and Hebrew! It was the peculiar language spoken on Crete… and in Libya… and in India and China and on the island of Patmos, and in the south tip of the Arabian Peninsula (and so forth). These people were speaking authoritatively (declaring) in the dialects that these Jews were born into, and while growing up in the nations!
This, you see, is the very beginning of the Christian Church in the nations of the earth! For these men (and their families) went back where they came from; and they (reborn children of God – members of the body of Christ) declared the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
They saw it happen; they heard the Gospel in their own tongues; three thousand men were reborn on this very day; and, when they went back, they became witnesses to Jesus Christ in the nations of their origin… messengers.
By the great sovereignty of Almighty God, all these men were there in Jerusalem – one by one – to hear the Gospel in their own language. And the Church was established in every nation during the first day of the New Testament Church!
The body of Jesus Christ was baptized that day – and three thousands members were added to His body.
It’s what John sees here in chapter twenty one! Pentecost is the new heaven and the new earth at its beginning; it’s the new holy city at its beginning; it’s the tabernacle of God with man – at its beginning!
It’s the paradise that was lost at the creation. It’s the paradise (heaven and earth Israel) that was lost, being destroyed at the Parousia. It’s the paradise that was won by the Warrior/Redeemer – the Strong Right Arm of God.
The sights and sounds of the flaming descent of God into His tabernacle in the desert are repeated here at Pentecost. Those same sights and sounds were present at the filling of Solomon’s temple. And at Pentecost those same sights and sounds occur as Almighty God the Spirit fills His new temple – the body of Christ. And a New Jerusalem is created in which God Himself dwells among His people and blesses all … to the ends of the earth.
We’ve done what we could do today. Pentecost… the new heavens and the new earth; the new Jerusalem, the new Holy Temple of God, the body of Christ – the Tabernacle of God with man. It all happened thirty-five to forty years before John received the Revelation.
And when John is shown the new holy city, there are no sounds of thunders and violent wind; and there is no sight of fire (or the color of fire); for in the Body of Christ there is no chaff.