Pentecost And The Holy Spirit

Wind. Fire. A crowd that thinks the disciples are drunk at 9 a.m. Pentecost is one of the most misunderstood moments in the Bible, and it’s also one of the most hopeful. We walk through Acts 2:1–21 and show why Pentecost is not a random spiritual spectacle but God keeping His ancient promises and giving His own presence to His people.

We talk about what Pentecost meant in the Jewish calendar, why Jerusalem is filled with people from across the world, and why the miracle of many languages matters for the mission of the church. From there we follow Peter’s sermon, especially his use of the prophet Joel, to see how the Holy Spirit is poured out “on all flesh” and how that changes the story for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

Then we bring it down to street level: Who is the Holy Spirit, and do we actually need Him? We name the hard truth that Scripture calls us spiritually dead apart from God, and the good news that the Spirit applies the work of Jesus to us, unites us to Christ, and grows real fruit like love, joy, peace, and self-control. We also clear up confusion around tongues and “extra” spiritual tiers, and we highlight the ordinary, steady shape of a Spirit-filled life: faith, repentance, prayer, courage, and trust that God is near.

If you’ve ever wondered whether God is distant, whether you’re stuck, or whether real change is possible, this conversation is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Transcript

Welcome And Acts 2 Reading

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I've never been described as the most Pentecostal preach in the Presbytery, so that's uh that's awesome. Uh I like that. Uh yeah, so good morning. My name is Michael Previtera. I'm uh currently pastor at New City, Presbyterian Norwood, and we are planting Lamb of God Presbyterian in the College Hill neighborhood, serving College Hill and Beyond. Um and when I agreed to uh come today, I actually didn't know that I'd be moving this weekend, so we actually moved to College Hill yesterday. Uh so I'm exhausted. So if I fall asleep up here at some point, just no, it's not you or the scripture or anything, it's just I'm beat. Um but I'm really glad to be with you today, especially on this day of Pentecost. Um I'll talk a little bit about what that actually means in a second here, but we're gonna look at Acts, the book of Acts, uh, chapter two. Um, and I am reading um verses one to twenty one. Uh this is the story of the day of Pentecost, or part of it at least. We're not gonna read the whole thing. But uh, yeah, if you would stand for the reading of God's word, uh I shall read this. Luke writes, uh, When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place, 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. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now they were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and at this 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? And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius 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, 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? But others said, They are filled with new wine. But Peter, standing up with 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, for these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it's 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 daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. 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 in the earth below, and 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. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are a God who speaks, and who speaks through your Spirit-inspired word. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would open our eyes to see the Lord Jesus Christ, open our ears to hear what you have to say to us, open our minds to know you, O God, more, and to give us hearts to love you as we hear from your word this morning. May you be glorified in all things. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

What Pentecost Means For Christians

SPEAKER_00 3:39

Well, like I said, today is Pentecost, and uh if you didn't know that, that's okay, number one, but the today the church remembers this story when the Holy Spirit was given to God's church. Uh originally, Pentecost was a festival in the Jewish calendar that marked 50 days after Passover. So this is not like something Christians made up. It was happening pretty often. It was a holiday that existed long before our passage day, and still it's celebrated by many followers of Judaism currently. It's known as the Feast of Weeks, and during the celebration, people would enjoy the produce of the first fruits of the grain harvest and commemorate the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. Uh, and no work was to be done, and every male Israelite was required to appear at the temple in Jerusalem. But after Pentecost, uh recorded in the book of Acts, which we just read, uh, for Christians, this day has been radically changed in light of the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ. So we no longer commemorate the giving of the law, uh, but as Christians, we actually commemorate now the birth of the church itself and the giving of God's Spirit in our hearts. Um dig in this passage this morning, and I want to look specifically at what God did on this day and why it matters, uh, and uh figure out what it means and how it speaks into our lives now 2,000

Waiting, Prayer, And The Setup

SPEAKER_00 5:01

years later. So let's let's look into the story uh first of all, figure out what's going on here. Um we didn't read this part, but Acts chapter 1 sets the passage up before us. This takes place, this story we read today takes place after the crucifixion and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. And before he ascended to heaven, Jesus told his disciples to wait together for the coming of his Spirit. If you look at, if you were to look at Acts chapter 1, verses 4 to 5, um Luke, who also wrote the book of Acts, this is like Luke part two, uh, Luke writes, and while staying with them, Jesus ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, You heard from me, for John baptized with water, and you'll be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. And so a bunch of people did just that. Like they followed what Jesus said, they waited. Uh, probably about 120 in total is kind of the estimate. Uh, and that included the original eleven apostles. Um, remember, Judas betrayed Jesus and and killed himself and uh was no longer there, and so a guy named Matthias replaced him. Uh and then uh there were some women as well, and Jesus' mother, Mary, uh, and his brothers. Uh and they all gathered together with some other disciples and they waited for about probably a week or so. And and Luke tells us they devoted themselves to prayer, like they spent all this time in prayer before what we read this morning. Now remember, 50 days before Acts chapter 2, uh before our passage was the day of Passover, which also was Good Friday and Easter. Um, and 50 days before this passage, Jesus had been crucified. And all of the disciples, including Peter, had abandoned him and denied their association with him. Uh Peter did that three times. Uh, and they were still probably kind of wanted men, because you know, Jesus in the eyes of the society was a failed Messiah who was trying to start a political revolution, and so possibly all these all of his followers were wanted uh by the authorities. Uh, and at the very least, they were greatly dishonored in the eyes of the of their uh countrymen because they were part of this failed revolutionary movement. Uh and and according to everyone else, other than the disciples who saw the risen Jesus, this was a failure. And then on the day of Pentecost, something very strange

Wind, Fire, And Many Languages

SPEAKER_00 7:24

happens. Right? The Holy Spirit is poured out, we read, uh, and there's a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and all that are gathered, you know, hundreds of some people, and there's flames floating all over their heads, uh, and then these people start speaking in other languages they don't know. And they're declaring the mighty acts of God. Now, because it was again a religious law for Jewish men to come to the temple on Pentecost, there were Jews gathered from all over the world in Jerusalem for this festival, uh, and they hear this sound, this wind, you know, and all these languages being spoken. That didn't sound like wind, that sounded like hawking a loogie. I'm sorry. Um, and they're like, What is going on? What is this sound we're hearing? What is all this noise? And they come, and and everybody's kind of dwelling outside in these tents as part of the festival, and so they're probably all outside hearing this. Um, and and they come and find the disciples and say, Whoa, we're all hearing them speaking in our native languages. Uh how's that happening? Plus, these guys look like some kind of redneck backwater hicks from Galilee, and there's no way these guys know how to speak Parthian. Right, that's kind of their assumption. These people don't know how to speak this. How is that happening? And then Luke tells us some of them ask this really important question: what does this mean? And others said, Well, clearly these guys are just drunk. Two questions. Are they drunk or what does this mean? And amazingly, Peter, remember, Peter was the guy who was terrified of being associated with Jesus and denied him three times, stands up, and he starts off by saying, guys, it's 9 a.m. It is way too early to be drunk. So it's not that. It's not new wine. And also, God is fulfilling what he has spoken through the prophets in the Old Testament. And he quotes Joel, and he could quote a whole bunch of other prophets, because this is all over the prophetical work books, but he quotes Joel and he uses this really poetic language about the moon turning to blood and all this stuff, and he says, you know what? Everything that Jesus was doing, and what God is doing, Jesus is doing now through us, God was talking about in the scriptures for centuries. He promised that. And as proof, that's why this is happening right now. This is proof that everything that Jesus claimed about himself and everything that God promised in the Old Testament uh was true. And we didn't read this section, but if you were to continue to read on, Peter then quotes uh from the Psalms that King David wrote, and he says, Jesus was raised from the dead, just like it says in the Psalms. So he he says that God's fulfilling his promises to pour out his spirit on all flesh. God is fulfilled, has fulfilled his promise to raise the Messiah from the dead. Um and and that means you should turn to Christ. And the crowds, now that these these disciples have realized that these guys aren't just drunk, um, they say, Well, crap. What do we do with this? And Peter says you need to call in the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved, and you should repent, and you should be baptized, and you will receive the forgiveness of the sin of sins and the Holy Spirit. And what happens, we read, is that 3,000 people that day do just that and become followers, become disciples of Jesus. That's that's the Pentecost story. But this passage is ultimately about the fulfillment of God's promises in the Old Testament, right? The giving of the Holy Spirit, which the Holy Spirit was present at creation. If you read Genesis 1, the Spirit hovers over the face of the water. Like, the Spirit's been around for a long time. This isn't like, oh, the Spirit's here now. No, the Spirit has been a part of God's work for millennia before this. He was present in creation, he was breathing in humanity to give us life. Um, and here, the giving of the spirit is the birth of a new era in human history. And it's from many people, from many ethnic groups. And we'll see, if you continue to read Acts, like this isn't just the promise it's giving to the Jewish people, it also comes upon the Gentiles as well. Uh a lot of scholars would call this the birthday of the church, right? This is the day in which the church was founded as a new community of God's people on earth. Now, you might be asking, well, why does this matter? Right? This is really interesting, uh, but what does this mean for me? I mean, I understand uh it was probably important for people 2,000 years ago when it happened, but why does it matter for me?

Who The Holy Spirit Is

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Well, a couple things. We should probably back up a little bit and ask uh, who is the Holy Spirit? Kind of just assume we know what we're talking about when we say that. Who is the Holy Spirit? And notice I phrase that question as who and not what. Not what is the Holy Spirit, but who is the Holy Spirit. Because the Bible shows us that the Spirit was one, God, um, and in the Spirit of Christ. And in the Bible, the Spirit is specifically he and not it. Like whenever there's pronouns used for the Spirit, it is he, not it. He's he's a who, not a what. Uh, and like I said, it's not the first time we meet him, he's all over the Bible. Um, in fact, he shows up, he shows up at creation. Um uh in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit also uh gives life. He connects people to God, he empowers individuals with extraordinary gifts and wisdom and artistic abilities and leadership and prophecy, uh, and he enables them to accomplish God's divine purposes. And in fact, when the tabernacle is built in the Old Testament, the temple is then built as well. The Spirit comes and dwells in the most sacred area of the temple, the Holy of Holies, uh, and he is the manifest presence of God among his people. Right? The Spirit is God, God and God's presence. Uh, he's not a force. Um, and this is part of that whole Trinity thing that Christians confess, which is uh a mystery that we don't fully understand, but we confess and believe because we see it all over the Bible. Um, but that God is one, and yet God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So He is God. And again, you might be asking, okay, interesting, but what does that have to do with me? Like, do I need this spirit thing? Uh do I need God's power in my life, really? And you might be asking that because you you you know, you could be saying, you know, currently I'm doing okay. Uh things are fairly going fairly well. I don't have a lot of challenges right now. Uh there's nothing that requires supernatural power

Why We Need The Spirit

SPEAKER_00 14:10

for me. You know, I go to work every day and I bring home a paycheck and that's good. And most days I can get by. So do I really need this spirit thing? A spirit person. But what the Bible tells us is that apart from the Holy Spirit, you and I are dead. Not actually dead, dead, but like spiritually dead. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are at war with God. We are his enemies. Like, sure, we're not as bad as we could be, but everything that we do is full of sin and it's tainted, and we constantly miss the mark of God's law. That's why we confessed our sins this morning, because we do. Uh and we do sin and we need to confess them. Uh and we have this propensity to mess things up over and over again, and our understanding is darkened, and we are not alive. And in fact, the spark of life is not in us, and we are capable of all kinds of horror. You just gotta read the news and see that. Uh, and we look alive, but really we are like walking dead. Like we're like zombies. Um, and that is one way to live in the world. Alive, but not really alive. And that's why the New Testament tells us that you and I need to be made alive. And this is why Pentecost matters. Because I need God's spirit. I need God's spirit to open my heart to even know God. Uh, I need God's spirit to help me love God because naturally I don't want to do that. And a dead person can't believe, right? I'm dead. I need to be made alive. And I need the Holy Spirit to apply the work of Christ to me, right? The cross. You ever wonder how this whole cross and resurrection thing as Christians we talk about? How do, you know, Jesus died for my sins, uh, he paid the penalty for my sin. How do you get that? How do I actually get that other than like, oh, it's out there in theory? Well, the Spirit applies Christ's work to me. He unites us to Jesus, right? Um so that that everything that Jesus did, He did, I I have done in Him through His Spirit, right? We're connected mystically. And the Spirit gives us gifts, wisdom, knowledge, faith, uh, miracles, power, um, for the common good. And Paul tells us also that the spirit, we read this in Galatians, the spirit produces character transformation, right? The spirit bears fruit in our lives. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. We need God's spirit for all of those things. Because that's real life. And it doesn't come naturally. And even more, if you have God's spirit, not only are you uh no longer an enemy with God, but you're an adopted child. Like the spirit is the spirit of adoption, as Paul calls him. Uh, we are adopted sons and daughters of God. We are part of the family of God. And the spirit strengthens us in our weakness. The spirit intercedes for us through prayer. We are sealed with God's people, as God's people with the spirit. And the spirit is actually the sign that we can cling to the idea and the truth that God is for us, that Christ is for us. His spirit is like the down payment of that truth. And that's what the book of Acts tells us. You may not want the spirit or or or like the spirit in your life or think you need it, but guess what? If you're a believer in Jesus, the spirit is already yours. Notice this in the passage, when the people in Jerusalem turn to Christ, Peter says, uh, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that's what happens. Those who come to Christ turn to him and they're baptized, and they receive both the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Faith Is The Sign

SPEAKER_00 18:15

And what's really interesting is that in kind of the modern West and even Western Christianity, we assume that if this is the legacy of uh the charismatic movement in the world, um, but we assume that if the spirit's in you, you're doing all sorts of crazy stuff. Right? You're speaking in tongues, I don't know, you're floating, you're I don't know what you're doing. You're all doing all kinds of wild stuff. You're having visions, you're doing miracles and healing. But notice the Bible doesn't say that here. Sure, it can happen, right? Sure, the spirit comes upon Peter and the other disciples in the upper room and they speak other languages. But if you read the book of Acts, the Spirit's poured out at least seven times in big ways, and it doesn't always look like this Pentecost thing.

unknown 18:59

Right?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Sometimes there's healing. Um, sometimes there are other languages that are spoken. Uh, but for these 3,000 souls, we don't read that anything wild happens. And Luke would tell us that. Like, oh, the 3,000 people were baptized, and then all of a sudden they were doing all kinds of stuff. No. Um it doesn't say that. The spirit, the sign of the spirit is faith. Right? To choose to be a Christian, these 3,000 people put their trust in Jesus, and that trust in Jesus is the sign of the Spirit's work. Because remember, Jesus was just crucified 50 days before. It's kind of wild to all around, you know, we can say this 2,000 years later, like, oh, Jesus was Messiah. But for them, that would have been super weird to say. And they say, no, we're gonna choose to believe. We believe, we believe that Christ has died and Christ has risen and Christ will come again. And so just want to encourage you, Christians, um, because this is a Presbyterian church, this is not one of our strong suits, even though I am the most Pentecostal preacher in the Presbytery, um, don't believe the lies that say that it if you have the Holy Spirit, you must be some sort of miracle worker. You've got to be doing all kinds of stuff. You've got to speak in tongues if you're a Christian, right? Uh, there are traditions out that have said that out there, but that's not the picture in the Bible. The most common picture in the Bible of a spirit-filled Christian is ordinary men and women who have faith in Jesus Christ, who seek to turn away from their sins, and seek to live a life that's patterned after the teachings of Jesus, and possibly God does some miraculous thing through you, right? When I'm praying for someone that needs healing, I'm praying that God would heal them, and maybe God chooses to do in that moment or not, I don't know. But that's more extraordinary than normal. But just know this: if you're a follower of Jesus, that's a spirit-filled life. And if you are a believer in Jesus, the Bible tells us that you already have his spirit. You don't have to do anything extra to get it. You don't need a second spirit baptism. You know, the spirit is yours if you confess that Christ is Lord. He dwells within you. And that calls for a response.

Call On Jesus And Live

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Um we need to ask, what do we need to do in light of this? Well, most importantly, know this. This is kind of the big thing, and this is the basis of Pentecost, is that Jesus did die on a cross 2,000 years ago. He did pay the penalty that our sins deserve. We deserve to be on that cross. And Jesus did rise from the dead, and because of that, he has been declared Lord and Messiah, and Jesus didn't come. To chastise you or tell you you're a loser. He didn't come to tell you to get it together and try harder. He came to rescue you. He came to save you. He came to forgive you of your sins. He came to bring you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He came to bring you out of death and separation with God into life and life eternal with him. Like God loves you so much that he wants to dwell inside you by his spirit. That's pretty wild to think about. If you could meditate on that the rest of your life. And so, if all those things are true, as Peter says, if you have not turned to Christ, if you've not given him your allegiance and you want life in the midst of a world of death, call in the name of the Lord and be saved. If you're struggling with something in your life right now, call on the name of the Lord and be saved. And if you're a Christian already and you've already called on the name of the Lord, if you've already given your allegiance to him, if you don't know this, realize what is yours right now. Realize what God has done for you, that he's put his spirit within you, as I mentioned, that God's not far off out there in the cosmos, right? He's actually very near. He's very close. He dwells within us. The same spirit I mentioned dwelled in the Holy of Holies in the old temp, in the temple in Jerusalem. That same spirit that if you entered in the Holy of Holies wrongly, you would die. That presence of God dwells within you. People would pilgrimage to Jerusalem to be in the presence of God. And after the coming of Christ in the day of Pentecost, God's presence is now in us, both individually and corporately as a church. And notice what it did for the disciples. Again, 50 days before our reading this morning, Peter was hiding. He was not a biblical scholar or a rabbi. In fact, the fact that he was a fisherman means that he was a rabbi school dropout. And here, he's this really powerful preacher. 3,000 people gave their life to Christ. No one has ever done that when I've preached. Maybe it'll happen today. That'd be great. That's never happened for me. Peter did not go to seminary over those past 50 days. He didn't take a leadership or a communication course. What changed between this Peter and the Peter of 50 days earlier was that he received the Spirit of Christ. And that should give you and I great courage. Because if you are a follower of Jesus, you have the same Holy Spirit dwelling in you. There's nowhere you can go to be apart from God. Jesus can't ever leave you or forsake you. He'll never go away from you. He's claimed you as his, he's adopted you as a son or daughter. He's marked you off, he's sealed you with his spirit, he's put a stamp of approval on you, and you and I now belong to Jesus. And that should give us great hope. Because whatever happens in the world, first of all, God's not going anywhere. He's with me. And if there's areas in your life where you feel like you're struggling or you're weak, uh, we can call upon God's Spirit to help us. Um I don't know if you know this. Uh our problem with sin and things that we struggle with and things that we continually do that we don't want to do is so often one of the reasons, one of the reasons we struggle with that is not just for not just because we're sinners, but so often we just try to handle it on our own. Right? We think we don't need God's help. But what if we just said in a moment of temptation, Lord, would you help me? Holy Spirit, would you give me strength? Um that was a prayer I prayed this morning. This is not to like toot my own horn here, but like I am exhausted today, and I was like, Lord, I need your help because I I don't know how I'm gonna do this this morning, because I just want to go back to bed. Right? That would be life-changing. Uh AA and the 12-step programs know this, and this is what they train people who are in addiction recovery to do, right? When faced with temptation, your addiction, you're supposed to pray and surrender that to a higher power. Christian, do you know you have the highest power? The Spirit of God dwelling within you. Francis Schaefer in his sermon, The Lord's Work and the Lord's Way, pointed out the pattern for the disciples in this chapter of Acts. Um, it should be the pattern for our life as well. Uh Jesus called them to be his witnesses in Acts chapter 1, and instead of getting busy, they start with prayer. Schaefer says this the disciples' first motion was not toward activism. Christ is risen, now let us be busy. Though they looked at the world with Christ's compassion, they obeyed his clear command to wait before they witnessed. If we who are Christians and therefore indwelt by the Spirit are to preach to our generation with tongues of fire, we also must have something more than an activism which men can easily duplicate. We must know something of the power of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is the remembrance that what the Holy Spirit did through the church 2,000 years ago is also what he can do today in our lives, in our neighborhoods, at your workplace, in our city. God is so for you that he was willing to take on flesh and die in our place. God is so for us that he defeated the great invader of his good creation. Death is death itself. And God is so for us that he would choose to put his spirit within us, sinful and stubborn though we still are. So on this day of Pentecost, I want to encourage you again to call on the name of the Lord and be saved. Receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself. Amen.

Closing Prayer And Commission

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Let's pray. Holy Spirit, our God, Spirit of Christ, we do thank you that you would choose to dwell within sinners like us. Spirit, we pray that you would breathe new life into all of us today, again, afresh, because we need that. We pray that you would use us mightily, not just so that we could win at life or whatever it is we're doing, but that you would use us for your mission of rescuing the world. Help us to be obedient to your commandments and to the great commission you've called us to make disciples of all nations. Would you do that through us, through this church? We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.