A Breath of Fresh Air

“Immanuel Spirit” – Part 1

(Acts 2:1-4, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, December 26, 2010)

2:1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

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

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

When the day of Pentecost arrived... (1)

Long before the Pentecost event of around the year 30 AD described in these verses, the Holy Spirit is. Even in the very opening verses of the Bible we read that the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. With all His power, poised for the great acts of creating and ordering the world, He touched the chaos of matter that was formless and void, and when Jesus, the Word of God, said, “Let there be light,” the Holy Spirit made it so in accord with the will of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit brought life into being.

When the time came for a new world, long after the tsunami of sin entered the world that God had called “very good,” it was the Holy Spirit again who brought the life of the Word of God into the womb of the virgin Mary, so that Jesus Immanuel, God with us, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, the Author and Giver of Life. Jesus was born at just the right time. He fulfilled all that He came to do as our Messiah, and at just the right time, He died. In all of the accounts of our Lord's death, the precise time closely associated with that even was the Passover. Now we know that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

It was three days later, on the Jewish Feast of the First Fruits associated with the Passover, that the Resurrected Jesus, the First Fruits from the dead, appeared to His disciples, and eventually to 500 others. Paul indicates the special role of the Holy Spirit in that resurrection display of eternal life in the opening verses of His letter to the Romans, where He says that our Lord “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.” But it was 50 days later, on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, that Life touched us in the body of Christ, the church. It was then, several days after Immanuel Jesus had ascended to the right hand of the Father, that the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church and New Covenant life arrived on the gathering of apostles and others who would be used by God to gather His church.

It is not a coincidence that Jesus' death is so closely connected to the Passover. It is not an accident that His resurrection from the dead happened on the Old Testament Feast of First Fruits. Are we supposed to understand something about the Day of Pentecost that makes it particularly important that this great event happened when the Day of Pentecost arrived?

What was the meaning of the Day of Pentecost? Pentecost was one of the big three feasts that all of the males in Israel were required to attend. The feast is all about the gathering of the grain harvest that began with the barley at around Passover and ended with the wheat at Pentecost. Jewish and Christian traditions have built up around this feast that will distract you from the simplicity of its meaning. It is all about the harvest. We understand the biblical Old Testament Feast of Pentecost best based on the biblical New Testament event that God brought about as described in Acts 2. The Pentecost event of Acts 2 reminds us that God is all about the harvest of His people from throughout the world. It was that harvest of people that Jesus was speaking about when He said to His disciples that the harvest was plentiful, but the laborers were few. The secret of that great harvest that was revealed in Acts 2 is that the ascended Christ would send forth His Holy Spirit so that His church would become faithful representatives of His harvest, gathering in the nations through a Word plainly spoken and heard and through a life lived.

And suddenly there came from heaven... (2-3)

We have to stop thinking about the church as the possession of one or more of her leaders. Jesus is the King of the church. He said it would be better for us if He went to heaven, and it is better. He is reigning over the church. He said that He would build His church, and He is doing that now. Our answer comes to us from heaven. Without the power of our King who bought the church with His blood, there is no way that we could storm the gates of hell and expect to live. We need Pentecost from heaven in order to be harvesting the nations of the world for Jesus.

The power that came upon the church in Acts 2 was the power of God from heaven coming to be with us on earth. That power was the power of Immanuel, God with us, born in the church that He has brought to life. That power was the Person that was hovering over the face of the deep in the days of creation. That is why there were such unusual manifestations that took place in front of so many witnesses. This was not a story of great men who through the force of their rhetoric, wisdom, or strategic insight were about to build a great world religion. This was the beginning of the New Covenant era by the coming of “God with us” into the lives of what would become a mighty harvest force, a new colony of heaven on earth.

God came in power to the twelve apostles and the 120 who were gathered there waiting and praying. He came from heaven. He came with the sound of wind. (The word for wind and spirit is the same.) That wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. Flames or tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. They were the temple of God. The fire that Moses saw in the burning bush, the fire that Elijah called down upon the sacrifice at Mount Carmel, the fire of God was upon the church. God was with them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit... (4)

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and He had an immediate impact. They began to be agents of the Lord's Pentecost harvest. How would they gather in the people of the world into this living temple? They began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Holy Spirit gave them the gifts that they needed in order to display the power of heaven that day at this important moment, a moment of God's obvious power for those who had ears to hear.

The word used for tongues means “languages.” From the amazing experience described in the verses that follow, it appears that this small group began to speak in other languages. He spoke the languages of the pilgrim Jews from other lands who had remained in Jerusalem from that Passover of the death of Jesus through this Pentecost when the Holy Spirit gave birth to the church by the power of God in us.

They were changed by the power of heaven that had now become the power of heaven on earth. And a wave was started that day in Jerusalem. The law of entropy tells us that things fall apart under heaven. But this was a wave that came from heaven, and it is expanding. It will keep on doing its work. One day the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the seas. You have been touched by that wave. You are agents of God's harvest.

1. What was the significance of the Old Testament feast of Pentecost and how does this relate to the gift of the Holy Spirit?

2. What happened that day to the apostles and perhaps to the church?

3. Who is the Holy Spirit, and how was the church prepared for Him?

4. What kind of “tongues” were given that day? Why would this manifestation of the Holy Spirit have been given at this important time?

OT Passage: Genesis 1:1-2