What is the primary influencer in your life: job, money, sex, vacations, food, alcohol, recognition,
education, friends or sports? All of us are under the influence of something. The
question is never, are we being
influenced; the question is what is
influencing us. Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to
debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”
In Acts 2: 1-8,
we read of how, ten days after Jesus’ ascension, the waiting for the disciples is
over, and they come under the influence and the power of the Holy Spirit.
In verse 1 the disciples
of Christ are in one place, perhaps in
the upper room or even the Temple. It is the day of Pentecost. Pentecost literally means the “50th”
and it is the 50th day after Passover. Of the great feasts in Jewish religious
tradition, this is the greatest. Pentecost is also called the “Feast of Weeks”
because of the passing of 7 weeks from Passover and the “Feast of the First
Fruits” because it marked the giving of the grain harvest as an offering.
In verse 5, we
read that there were staying in Jerusalem, God-fearing Jews from every nation
under heaven. This would refer to the diversity of people from the Greco-Roman
world present for this festival. This is what we call the Diaspora, a Greek word
referring to the scattering of the Jews over their history due to foreign
invaders. It’s amazing to me to step back from the details of an individual
text and see how God has been weaving his grand story through human history.
When the Holy Spirit
comes
Three miraculous things occur when the Holy Spirit
comes at Pentecost. In verse 2 there is a sound like the blowing of a
violent wind. In verse 3 they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire
that separated and came to rest on each of them, and in verse 4 they were filled
with the Holy Spirit enabling them to speak in other tongues.
Before we look at each of these individually, let’s look at
the word “suddenly” in verse 2. The Holy Spirit came without warning. The Holy
Spirit is an equal member of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God and is not some kind of “rabbit’s foot” that
we rub hoping that something awesome and powerful happens. The Holy Spirit
chooses to act or respond in a manner that is consistent with his character and
the divine will of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit cannot be controlled or
manipulated.
They experienced a
sound like the blowing of a violent wind. They did not necessarily feel a
wind, but the best understanding of what occurred is a strong wind. Wind sounds
like the word used for Holy Spirit in the Greek language, Pneuma. So the Spirit is
like the wind. We don’t know when the wind will blow and how strong it
will be. We can’t see it, but we feel its effects. But the Spirit is not
wind. An Old Testament parallel to what occurs at Pentecost is found in Ezekiel
37:9-10 when Ezekiel prophesied, and from the winds a breath breathed life into
dry bones. The idea of Pneuma in the
New Testament, like the story in Ezekiel, is about new life birthed out of the
power of God.
The second
manifestation of the Holy Spirit looked like tongues of fire splitting
apart and resting on each of them. Again, this is not necessarily literal fire,
but what appeared to look like fire. Fire is often associated in the Scriptures
with purity. We see this in the purification of Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6:6-7.
How we need the purification of the Spirit in our life! Unconfessed sin in our
life is the greatest barrier to the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit comes
to purify us; to convict us of sin, as Jesus emphasized in John 16:8.
For the third
manifestation of the Spirit we step back thousands of years from Pentecost
to Genesis 11.
In that chapter, the people of Babel wanted to put their
name on the marquee of life. They wanted to make a name for themselves so that all
the world would say, “Wow! Look at that city! Look at the tower!” It probably
looked much like a Ziggurat, which is
basically a pyramid with stairs. They wanted to make a name for themselves. The
word Babel has multiple meanings, one
of them being “the gate to the gods”. If you want to get God’s attention in a
negative way, then let your own pride and personal glory drive your life. He
can’t stand it and he won’t be around it. The other reason the tower is called
Babel is because it is the place of confusion. God saw their pride and took
away from them their greatest strength.
Pentecost was the
anti-Babel. These disciples waited on God and many believe they spent those
10 days praying in anticipation of the power that Christ promised. And the Holy
Spirit came suddenly, reversing the curse of Babel. One language and one power
that clearly pointed, not to the skills of the disciples, but to the power of
God.
This is what we call glossolalia. In Acts, it is the
God-given ability to speak in recognizable languages. The speakers of this
language were Galileans with a reputation for being uncultured, having a
difficult time pronouncing gutturals and having a habit of swallowing syllables
when speaking. These disciples were clearly not expert linguists; just regular
folks waiting on the power of the Holy Spirit. This was a deliberate and
dramatic reversal of the curse of Babel. There are other examples of tongues or
glossolalia in the Scriptures,
specifically in 1 Corinthians. Both are the same in essence but different in
purpose. The glossolalia in
Corinthians is about worship and edification as believers in Jesus Christ. The
clear purpose of this manifestation of the Spirit in Acts was to begin a new
and powerful work of God. It was about a spiritual harvest; to proclaim to this
diversified crowd of people from many nations and many languages the hope and
healing of Jesus Christ. In
Acts 2, tongues were all about the advance of the gospel. And
in verse 41, after Peter spoke to the crowd, 3,000 people accepted the message and
were baptized in one day. When this kind of power comes from the Holy Spirit,
it comes for a harvest of those who would follow Christ.
Filling of the Holy Spirit
Think of Pentecost as the first ever revival, but not the
last. Though historically, Pentecost is unique, the power and communication and
harvest of God are as necessary today as they were 2,000 years ago. The words
of Jesus in John 15:5 are clear that apart from him we can do nothing. Jesus was building on the words in
Psalm 127:1, that unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain. We are in
desperate need of the power of the Holy Spirit in our life and in our church
community. Pastor and theologian, A.W. Tozer wrote, “Where adequate power is
present almost any means will suffice, but where the power is absent not all
the means in the world can secure the desired end.”
It’s helpful to make a clear distinction between baptism of
the Holy Spirit and a filling of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism of the Holy
Spirit is what occurs when each of us crosses over from death to life and
enters into the adventure of following Jesus Christ all of our days. We see
this in Acts 11:15-16 and Romans 6:3.
Being filled with the
Holy Spirit is when we are being overwhelmed with the greatness of God. This
is what each of us who calls Christ, “Lord,” desperately needs. In Ephesians
5:18 we read, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be
filled with the Spirit.”
In this verse, the abuse of alcohol has overridden a person’s
normal abilities and actions. Such a person is under the influence. We are also to be under the influence but not of alcohol, or drugs, or any other
controlling force of life: food, work, exercise, shopping, popularity, or
success. We are to be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. The filling of
the Spirit in our life overrides any sinful tendencies on our part, to live, as
the Scripture says, “according the flesh.” “Filling” is to have the dominant
quality of my life be the Holy Spirit’s power. It occurs as we empty ourselves
of our pride and wait on God, inviting the Spirit to powerfully fill us.
History is sprinkled with great revivals, powerful movings
of the Spirit. One of the prayers of the great Welsh revival of 1904 was, “Fill
me, Holy Spirit, fill me, More than fullness I would know: I am smallest of Thy
vessels, Yet I much can overflow”.
We must be open to the filling
of the Spirit regularly as humble, submissive and anticipatory followers of
Jesus Christ. We are to be under the
influence of the Spirit.
“O Thou who camest from above the pure celestial fire to
impart, kindle a flame of sacred love on the mean altar of my heart! Jesus,
confirm my heart's desire to work, and speak, and think for Thee; Still let me
guard the holy fire, and still stir up Thy gift in me.” — John Wesley
Jason Esposito
Lead Pastor,
CrossWay Church
