Acts Chapter 2 Verses 1 – 4

• So here they are, on the Day of Pentecost, and it fully Being foreshadowed for thousands of years, the Promise of the Father is fully revealed…and, “There appeared to them divided tongues,” or distributed tongues and in the Greek, “like as,” or “fire like,” and they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance…

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 5 – 12

• There are some very clear and important details to consider here so that we can rightly understand what is going on Biblically…first, Luke is able to report exactly what they were all saying in these other tongues. He says in verse 11 that they were speaking the wonderful works of God!  And how does he know that?  Because there were men there, in that place, or around that place that gathered because, as it says here, they heard speaking in their own language in which they were born…and then Luke names 18 groups of people with 18 different languages that all heard and understood because the “other” tongue was indeed another known
• So, this is awesome and it is clear…this scene…when the Holy Spirit was poured out, divided tongues as of fire, just like John the Baptist said in Matthew Chapter 3 verse 11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  And that is fulfilled right here on the Day of Pentecost (50 Days after the Passover) and these men, all 120 of them, begin to proclaim the splendor of God in the languages of all of the nations!
• What did Jesus say in Chapter 1 verse 8? “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”  To and in all nations…I love this!  And so what do we see as the Spirit is poured out?  A miracle, languages of the nations proclaiming the wonderful works of God! 
• Check this out! Jesus had asked the WORLD of them (quite literally) in Acts 1:8!  We have no indication that they were even able to understand fully what had happened there on the cross of Calvary!  That their sins were forgiven, wiped clean, and that message…the message of the gospel was born!  They weren’t talking about it between them…white boarding there in the office of disciples of how best to proclaim the good news!  HA!  They were locked away, afraid…even frustrated…certainly confused…, they asked Him, “Lord, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel?” 
• Another most practical nugget!!! Most of you if not all of you are facing decisions and things today in your lives right now that seem hard, difficult, maybe even way out of the realm of possible…but God has asked it of you!  Listen, I’ve said it before and it bears repeating today, God’s Word is God’s enablement!  If you choose to obey Him then through His own Spirit and power He will enable that obedience and He who sees in secret will reward openly!
• How on earth are we going to proclaim Jesus to the end of the earth? Google translate?  Jesus sends His Spirit…tongues like fire upon each of them and they speak Parthian, Mesopotamian, Pamphylian…there must have been one guy even speaking Pig Latin!  “Esusjay oveslay ouyay!”  HA!  What’s my point!? The impossible arrives…they wait, they obey…God delivers…write that down. 
• Just an additional quick and cool point to make here, remember back in Genesis 11 when Nimrod was building a tower to heaven, the Tower of Babel? When the people were living in open and complete rebellion against God?  The nation of “Let us!”  “Let us make bricks, let us build ourselves a city, let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth!”  God said spread out!  Cover the earth and yet they wouldn’t…do you remember what God did?  It was then that the languages of the nations were born because God came down and confused their speech!  They had to divide, because one would ask the other for a cup of coffee and it was gibberish (or babbling) to them!
• But here is something amazing! With the gospel, with pouring out of the Holy Spirit, the work of Nimrod, a picture and type of the devil himself, the Anti-Christ himself, is completely reversed!  The languages all being brought together again and understanding being present.  Now, the application, and I LOVE THIS, do it your way, follow you heart like Roxette taught you in 1988!!!  And move into “Let us” nation…know what’s coming?    Division.  Loss…but man, receive the Holy Spirit and the loss is reversed…understanding surges and folks from all different places and backgrounds are brought together and the Bible says, “They were amazed.”
• So…is this the same thing Paul wrote the church in Corinth about? If you’d like, turn to 1 Corinthians 14 and I want to show you a couple of things that will help answer that question.  Well first, look quickly at 1 Corinthians 12 verse 10.  Here Paul is laying out what he calls the “manifestation of the Spirit,” which, “Is given to each one for the profit of ALL…”  And in verse 10 he mentions, “Kinds of tongues.”  Now subtle but interesting, in Acts Chapter 2 the word/phrase is “other tongues” and in 1 Corinthians 12 it’s, “kinds of tongues.”  Totally different word in the Greek and that is important and interesting as we press on…
• Paul continues and speaks of the manifestation or gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14…Read 1 Corinthians 14 Verses 1 – 23; 27 – 28; 33. So is this the same as what we see happening in Acts Chapter 2?  I say yes and no.  Yes in that the tongues spoken in Acts 2 and even Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians are and can and could be a language known to man…Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…”  But Paul also lays out that speaking in a tongue unknown to man, the tongues of angels as it were, the language of heaven…that can happen as well as a manifestation of the Spirit…but don’t forget...it’s NEVER weird and it’s always for the edification of whomever/ALL is present.
• And so, pray in a tongue of angels, that’s going to happen, most likely, in your prayer closet or as Paul would say, the world is going to look on and think you are out of your mind…OR/IF it is going to happen anywhere else then it will be 2 or 3 at most and there will be interpretation and that interpretation has to be towards God…as a tongue, the manifestation of the tongues of angels is a message directly from your spirit to God…1 Cor 14:2…so, I conclude that there are tongues of men…like we are seeing in Acts 2…and tongues of angels…like we are seeing in 1 Cor 14…
• But here’s the thing…God is NOT the author of confusion…and much of what we see today is just pure confusion…but 1 Corinthians 14 ends with, “Let all things be done decently and in order…” There’s the key…what we see today, for the most part, lacks decency…courtesy and love and service and edification to ALL…and order is thrown just right out the window…  Can you imagine if that happened at McD’s?  You order and when they call your order you go get it and they just throw it out the drive thru window!!??  You wouldn’t stand for that in McD’s!!!  Why would we stand for that in the Body of Christ!!!  We serving more than mystery burger happy meals up in here!!!

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 12 – 17

• Check this out, good rule of thumb…Peter begins to give a scriptural basis for what they are seeing and that is EXACTLY what is required! If we don’t see it in the Bible then be very careful calling it correct, right or worthwhile in the church where Jesus is the Head…in fact, here’s a more specific way of looking at it in terms of what goes on in the church.  Did Jesus speak of it in the Gospels?  Was it practiced in the Book of Acts?  And is it continued through the epistles of the Apostles?  What you’ll find, in terms of Calvary and how we conduct service…you can say yes to all of those questions…and therefore I’m confident that we don’t waste any time…

Acts Chapter 2 Verses 18 – 21

• Welcome to the New Covenant! Sacrifices?  Baptisms?  Circumcisions?  Burnt offerings?  Unleavened breads?  Nothing is required now…the only requirement now is that you would call upon the name of the Lord!  That doesn’t mean to dial God up and order a pizza…to call upon the name of the Lord is to place your faith in the finished work of the cross…where sin was dealt with finally and completely!!  And in the midst of the Spirit being poured out…a great and mighty sign and wonder…in the midst of all of the stuff going on…Peter takes the crowd to the reason and meaning and point of it all…that you and I would be saved…