Acts chapter two has just so much doctrine. Like it was just every element has something to
question. I would probably say when I look at a single chapter of the Bible, I would probably say
just in the ministry that I've been in for almost seven years, I probably get most questions
coming from chapter two. Like if I looked at all the questions and I said, where are they coming
from primarily? Like what is the main chapter? Often it's chapter two of the book of Acts for
several reasons. And so I do want to give due diligence to the passages here, but let's start
there in verse number one. It says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place. The title of the sermon tonight is the day of Pentecost.
The day of Pentecost was fully come, the day of Pentecost. If you don't know what Pentecost means,
it simply means 50. Okay. 50. It's 50 days after the Passover. Okay. 50 days
since Christ was crucified. This is what's known as the day of Pentecost.
And so it's a celebration where the Jews would come just like many times when they were holy
days. You read about them in the Old Testament, the Jews would come and they would gather into
Jerusalem and whether they're given offerings or what have you, it was a time of celebration.
So not only do we have the Jews living in Judea and in Galilee and other places coming,
but there are Jews coming from other nations, coming for this festival here on the day of
Pentecost. And so the day of Pentecost is a very significant event after the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. You won't read about the feast of Pentecost or the day of Pentecost in the Old Testament. In
the Old Testament, it's known as the feast of weeks. So if you read that, you know about the
feast of weeks in the Old Testament, you know, it's the same celebration as the day of Pentecost
here. Now, just very quickly, there in verse one, it says, and they were all one accord in one
place. Who were all in one accord in one place? Very quickly, come back with me to chapter one,
Acts chapter one, verse number 15. It says, and in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of
the disciples and said, the number of names together were about 120. So we had seen last
week that there was 120 that were gathered together, waiting for this promise of the
baptism of the Holy Ghost to come upon them. And this took place on the day of Pentecost.
So it's 120. And if you just come down with me to verse number 26, in Acts chapter one,
verse number 26, it says, and they gave forth their lots and their lot fell upon Matthias,
and he was numbered with the 11 apostles. So once again, it's 120. And now you've got 12 men of the
12 apostles of the Lamb, they're representing Acts chapter two on the day of Pentecost.
So what happens on this special day, verse number two, back to Acts two, Acts two, verse number two,
it says, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a Russian mighty wind, and it
filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues,
like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled, look at this, and they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance. All right, so this is what takes place on the day of Pentecost, all 120 gathered together,
waiting for this promise. And it comes like a mighty wind, a Russian mighty wind. And all of a
sudden, there are these clothing tongues of fire upon their heads or upon them. And then they have
the ability, as the field of the Holy Ghost, they began to speak with other tongues. Now,
this is not a Pentecostal church, this is the Baptist church. You know, the word tongue is,
yes, tongue, like that, okay. In Spanish, when we say language, the word for language in Spanish is
lengua, lengua, which is where we get language from. And also, the tongue is lengua, like it's
your language. And so when we talk about speaking with other tongues, it's just another way of
saying to speak with other languages. And we're going to look later on in this same chapter,
what those languages were. They were languages of other nations, language, other languages that
are spoken, you know, like, like we would say, German is another language, we would say,
Russian is another language, we would say, Cantonese is another language. And if one day God
fuels you with the Holy Spirit, and if you're able to go out and speak in a language you've
never spoken before, that would be the gift of tongues. All of a sudden, being able to speak
with another language. Now, why would God give such a miracle, such a power? We're going to read
that in a moment. But what I want to cover here, once again, in verse number four, it says,
and they were filled with the Holy Ghost. I want you to notice how the Holy Spirit chooses to use
language and words to describe what's happening to these people. They have been filled with the
Holy Ghost. Well, come back with me to Acts chapter one, which I kind of mentioned last week
about this being controversial, but I just don't understand why this needs to be controversial.
In Acts chapter one, Acts chapter one, Christ speaks these words in verse number five,
Acts chapter one, verse number five, he says, For John truly baptized with water,
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence.
So Christ appeared for 40 days after his resurrection, showing himself resurrected to all
his disciples. And he says, there's not many days hence, in 10 days, quite literally, you know,
on the 50th day after, well, minus three, I guess, because he was bed for three days and three nights,
that they're going to have the ability. So a week later, they're going to have the ability,
and they're going to have this baptism of the Holy Ghost. And so we get to chapter two,
and it says they were filled with the Holy Ghost. So again, just as a natural reader,
without some type of bias, you read that and go, you've got to conclude that being baptized with
the Holy Ghost is the same as being filled with the Holy Ghost. And that shouldn't be controversial.
Just a natural reader should see that, you know, without thinking, oh, what are people going to
label me? Are they going to label me a Pentecostal? Are they going to label me a heretic?
Just a reader, any child would read verse number one, being baptized with the Holy Ghost,
not many days hence, and then they get filled with the Holy Ghost. Okay. And so this is exactly
what Christ said will happen to them. This is the promise that came from the Father.
Now I want to build a little bit more out of this because we know the Book of Acts
is a continuation of the Book of Luke. I proved that last week. Okay. So what I want to do right
now, come back with me to the Book of Luke and come with me to Luke chapter three, come with me
to Luke chapter three, because Jesus is not the only one that said they were going to be baptized
with the Holy Ghost. This is they teach. And that came from the very beginning of his ministry
in Luke chapter three, verse number 15, Luke chapter three
and verse number 15, it says here, and as the people were in expectation and all men
mused in the hearts of John, whether he were the Christ or not. You know, John the Baptist was a
great preacher. He had a great ministry and people are wondering, is this the Christ?
Now, is this the promised Messiah? Could John the Baptist be the promised Messiah?
And then this is how John the Baptist responds, verse number 16.
John answered saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than
I cometh the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with
the Holy Ghost and with fire. So this is quite interesting. So we see the teaching all the way
from John the Baptist, from the very beginning of the ministry of Christ. And then it continues,
look what it says here, being baptized with the Holy Ghost. We know what that is. That took place
on the day of Pentecost, but then it says and with fire. That's quite interesting because it
continues in verse number 17, whose fan is in his hand and he will freely purge his floor and will
gather the wheat into his Ghana, but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. Okay. So this
baptism with fire is a burning with fire unquenchable. That doesn't sound too good.
Like my first thought when I read that, I think of hell fire, a fire that is unquenchable. Okay.
So the reason I want to bring your thoughts to this, I just want to show you the different
kind of views that are out there. I want to show you what I believe is happening here. Because
again, when we look at Acts chapter one, Christ says you're going to be baptized with the Holy
Ghost. Did you notice that Christ did not say and with fire. He just told his disciples you're
going to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. He didn't mention the fire in Acts chapter one.
Then we have Luke chapter three and John the Baptist mentions being baptized with the Holy
Ghost and with fire and the fire there doesn't sound too good. Okay. And I personally believe
that the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not the same as the baptism we fire. I believe these are
two different things. Being baptized with the Holy Ghost is what believers can experience by
the empowerment of the Holy Spirit of God to do something great for him. And being baptized with
fire to me is being thrown into hell fire. And because remember baptized means to be immersed,
you know, thrown into the lake of fire and being burnt and tormented forever and ever.
So I want to sort of show you why I come to that conclusion. Partly because Christ did not mention
the fire in Acts chapter one. But also when we look at Luke chapter three, let's get let's
backtrack a little bit and let's get a little bit more context of what we read there in Luke chapter
three. Let's start there in verse number seven. Luke chapter three in verse number seven.
It says here, Then said he, this is John, then said he to the multitude that came
forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who have warned you to flee
from the wrath to come. So is everyone that's coming to John the Baptist ministry a saved or
desiring to be saved person? No, there are Pharisees, there are people that hate John,
there are people that hate Christ, there are people coming to criticize his ministry.
And so it's these people, the Christ rejecting Jews, that he says is a generation of vipers.
Okay, and tell them who's going to, what's it, what's it say?
Who have warned you to flee from the wrath to come? So the wrath of God
is still abiding upon them. And then he says in verse eight,
Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise
up children unto Abraham. So what is the problem with these people that are a generation of vipers?
They're trusting in their generations, they're trusting in their DNA, they're trusting in their
blood. We're children of Abraham. And John the Baptist says, Look, you need to come with fruits
of repentance. You got to repent from trust in Abraham and your physical DNA to be saved.
And that's still being taught today, by the way, by many churches, the Jews are fine.
You know, they're God's chosen people just by their DNA. You know, that's garbage. They're
going to repent from that. Okay, and put their trust on Christ, of course.
So he's speaking to these unbelievers. And then he says in verse number nine,
And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Every tree therefore which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. Okay, then he says, you know,
you'll be baptized by the Holy Ghost. Christ is coming who's going to baptize the Holy Ghost,
and we fire. And that there's the whole context of the fire reference there. Okay. So what we see in
Luke chapter three within context is that there are wicked people, wicked unbelievers coming on
the scene, who are trusting in their physical DNA to be saved. Okay, so you got a choice,
you know, do you want Christ to baptize you the Holy Ghost? Or do you want Christ to baptize you
with fire? Okay, Christ can do one of these two things for you. So now let's look at some other
references here. Let's build a little bit from this. Come with me now to Matthew chapter three.
Okay, because this reference of being baptized by the Holy Ghost comes up in Luke, Matthew and Mark.
Okay. And when we compare all three Gospels, it points us to a certain direction. Okay,
look at Matthew chapter three and verse number 11. Matthew chapter three and verse number 11.
It says here, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. But he that cometh after me
is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost
and with fire. Again, I believe he's saying here, he's speaking to believers, Holy Ghost,
and then we fire the unbelievers. Okay. Again, he continues in verse number 12,
whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the
Ghana and he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Again, very negative
connotation there, right? Now again, before we go to verse number 11, there's a little bit of
context that leads up to verse number 11. So let's get back to that context a little bit there in
verse number seven, Matthew three, verse number seven. But when he saw many of the
Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers,
who have warned you to flee from the raft to come. So we can see who he's talking to,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We know that majority of them were Christ's rejecters, right?
And then he says in verse number eight, bring forth, therefore fruits meet for repentance
and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that
God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid onto
the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and
cast into the fire. So then he talks about again, Christ is coming, he's going to be baptised you
of the Holy Ghost and we're fired because he's speaking to the group. You know, there are
believers and there are non-believers there in that conversation. All right. Now the book of
Mark for me cements that the baptism with fire is to the ungodly. Okay. Come with me now to
Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one and look at verse number
eight. Notice what's missing. Have a read of it yourself. Notice what's missing. Mark chapter one,
and verse number eight. I have indeed baptised you with water, but he shall baptise you with
the Holy Ghost, with fire. Why is that missing in Mark? Well, let's look at the context. Okay.
So let's just start there in Mark chapter one, verse number one. The beginning of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the son of God, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John did baptise in the
wilderness and preach the baptism and repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto
him all the land of Judea and they of Jerusalem. And we're all baptised of him in the river of
Jordan, confessing their sins. So Sulfur in the book of Mark, we have, they're all believers.
They're coming from different places. They confessing their sins. They're getting baptised.
Like they're on board with John. They're on board with his message. All right. And then it says in
verse number six, and John was clothed with camel's hair and with a girdle of skin about his loins.
And he did eat locusts and wild honey and preach saying, there cometh one mightier than I after me,
the latchet of his shoes. I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptised you with
water, but he shall baptise you of the Holy Ghost. So why is and we find missing? Because the Christ
rejectors are not mentioned in this chapter. Otherwise it wouldn't make sense. What we've
seen much of the wonders and one or just people come in readily accepting what John is preaching.
So the author Mark says, all right, well, we'll capture this part being baptised with the Holy
Spirit, Holy Ghost, but we won't include and we fire because that will confuse the reader.
It's like, hold on, there's no one wicked here in Mark chapter one that's been recorded.
But then we have the book of Luke and book of Matthew capturing the Pharisees and the
Sadducees, the generation of vipers. Then we're capturing the context of and we fire.
And so when we go back to Acts chapter one and Christ says being baptised with the
Holy Ghost, but doesn't mention the fire, it's because again, he's referring to believers only,
which is why we get to Acts chapter two. And it's the believers that are being
empowered or being baptised or being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
I hope that makes sense. This is why I couldn't do all of chapter two in one night.
There is just a lot to explain. And these are the kind of questions that I get asked from
different people about different issues regarding this book.
But what I want you to do now is come back with me to Luke.
Come with me to Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one and verse number 15,
Luke chapter one and verse number 15.
Luke chapter one. Again, the book of Acts was written by Luke.
So if we ever want to understand, like I've said this many times,
if you ever want to understand a sentence, a teaching, a doctrine,
just try to stay narrow in your understanding. Try to stay in the same
verse or surrounding verses or the chapter or the same book.
And if you still can't really understand what's being taught,
look to see if the author has written other books.
All right. So like, if I want to further understand the book of Acts,
it's probably good to go to the book of Luke to see if he's actually covered that topic.
Or if I want to understand, you know, first John, second John or third John,
it's probably good to go back to the book of John, right?
To really understand if he's developed something that will then come into,
and then I'm not saying don't go to other authors. I mean, God, there's one author, it's God.
But you know, that is generally the best way to understand scriptures when you want to narrow
down some context, start narrow and then widen it little by little to understand
what is being taught. All right.
So one of the controversy about the baptism of the Holy Ghost is that, and again,
I don't know if this is all Baptist, but so far that I've come across,
this seems to be what they believe. They seem to believe that the baptism
of the Holy Ghost occurs at salvation. And so for me to say it's a separate event,
the empowering or the feeling, okay, that is kind of heresy.
And the only reason that I can think of them thinking it's heresy
is because it sounds like what the Pentecostal say.
But I don't care what the Pentecostal say. I don't. I just want to care what the Bible says.
I care, you know, to read, to study, to seek the Lord.
I don't go and listen to what the Pentecostal say.
And guess what? I don't even go and listen to what the Baptist say.
I mean, if the Lord God's appointed me as a pastor to teach and to feed God's word,
he's got to equip me with the ability to do so.
I mean, that's the whole purpose of being someone that can feed the people, the word of God.
So let's have, let's take a look at this. Look at Luke chapter one
and look at verse number 15. Speaking of John the Baptist, it says,
I mean, God has empowered John the Baptist to be filled in from the very beginning,
as soon as he's born, to be able to do something great for the Lord.
You may recall the story when Mary comes and says she's pregnant and
the baby leaps in the mother's womb.
It's like there's some type of empowerment that has already been given,
you know, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
And I would say this has been baptized with the Holy Ghost.
I don't have a problem with it.
But if you say, well, being baptized is being saved, the moment you get saved, well,
I don't think you're going to get saved in the mother's womb, right?
You've got to come to an understanding of Christ and what he's done for us.
But we have seen, say, Balaam, which is the false prophet,
we've seen the Holy Ghost come and empower him to speak certain words.
And that man wasn't even saved.
So we can see that this feeling, whether it's the Holy Spirit upon you or within you,
or the baptism, something like this, is an empowerment that is coming from the Holy Ghost
to cause you to do something you could otherwise not do.
Like in your own flesh, in your own strength.
You're in Luke 1, come with me to verse number 41, Luke 1 41.
This is, we're talking about Elizabeth here.
Elizabeth, John the Baptist's mother, it says in Luke 1 41,
it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary,
the babe leaped in her womb.
Oh, that's what I was referring to.
But then it says this, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.
And she spake out with a loud voice and said,
blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
So we see even John the Baptist's mom gets filled with the Holy Ghost.
And what does that enable her to do?
To speak these blessings upon Mary and upon the babe in her womb.
Okay, she's speaking for the power and ability that the Holy Ghost has given her.
Look at verse number 67, same chapter, Luke 1 67.
Now we're talking about John the Baptist's father.
It says that his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost
and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he had visited and redeemed his people.
So again, Zacharias, I mean the whole family, baby, mom, dad, they're all filled.
You know, this is a great Christian family.
You know, and the Lord God has enabled him to be filled with the Holy Ghost
at these specific times, these specific empowerments.
And now Zacharias is also prophesying or speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we see this action of being filled is obviously not salvation.
Okay, but then to say that being baptized is salvation.
Well, the Lord equips being baptized with the Holy Ghost
as being filled with the Holy Ghost, which is not salvation.
Okay, now obviously, more often than not, it's someone that's going to be saved,
that's going to be filled with the Holy Ghost to do something.
But we do see certain times, like with, what's the false prophet I mentioned,
Balaam, and also a babe, John the Baptist, will be in the mother's womb
to be able to leap with joy when he hears the news of Mary's pregnancy.
Which again is not common, like little babies in wombs aren't going to understand
that another woman's pregnant, okay.
But with the power of the Holy Ghost, he was able to do such an act.
All right, let's go back to Acts chapter two, please, Acts chapter two,
and verse number five, Acts chapter two, and verse number five, please,
Acts chapter two, verse number five.
So the 120, they gathered in one accord, the baptism of the Holy Ghost takes place,
the feud of the Holy Ghost, this miracle takes place,
mighty Russian wind, whatever it was, and these cloven tongues upon them,
and now they're able to speak in other tongues in other languages.
And then verse number five, it says, and they were dwelling at Jerusalem,
Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
Now that term devout man, men, doesn't necessarily mean,
it can, if you look at the Bible, it can mean someone that's saved,
someone that is saved can be devout, but also someone that is not saved can be devout.
They're just devout to whatever religion they're part of, whatever it is, right?
And sometimes like the, I think if I remember right, the centurion,
what's his name? Cornelius, I believe he's referred to as a devout man,
but the man is not even saved yet, okay?
But he's seeking the Lord, he's trying to get answers, he's praying,
and of course the Lord sends Peter to go and preach the gospel unto him.
But it says devout man out of every nation under heaven.
This is important because, you know, Christ's ministry in Jerusalem
was not very successful.
Like as he was going about for his three years in ministry,
he wasn't getting a lot of success in Jerusalem.
Like he was getting people saved, he was healing the sick and doing a lot of things,
but he came, there came a lot of opposition,
and quite often he had to go and go back to Galilee or go to Samaria,
and that's where it was much more fruitful for him in the ministry, okay?
So Jerusalem has always been a tough place to preach the gospel.
And even, you know, he finally in the last week, he does it,
he's just out there publicly in the temple every single day for that Passion Week of his,
and then obviously they take him, arrest him, and crucify him, okay?
So Jerusalem is largely a very hostile place to Christ and to his message.
But now we have all these other Jews, all these other devout men, okay?
People that are sensitive to the Lord, seeking the Lord, you know,
wanting to do what is right, they've traveled all the way from other nations
to be part of the Day of Pentecost, because they know that's the instruction
that's laid out for them in the Old Testament scriptures.
So we know that this is going to be successful.
You know, this is like strategy.
Like, you know, this is the strategic time to hit Jerusalem, okay?
It hasn't been the most fruitful place, but definitely the Day of Pentecost,
very fruitful for them, because you've got all these visiting Jews coming from other places,
devout men, okay, out of every nation under heaven.
So they're from different countries, right?
Verse number six.
Right, so they're coming to Jerusalem, they're expecting to hear Hebrew,
and they're expecting to hear Aramaic, because that's the language that the Galileans spoke.
I'm not sure if you knew that, but Christ, I mean, he could speak Hebrew,
but his primary language was Aramaic, okay?
Which is why, I'll just quickly read to your reference in Matthew 27, 46.
This is the crucifixion of Christ.
Because it says Eli, Eli, which means God, okay?
And so they, these Hebrews, these Jewish men could not understand Aramaic,
because when Christ spoke in his natural tongue, he spoke Aramaic because he's from Galilee.
He grew up learning that language, okay?
So many of his disciples obviously were from Galilee as well.
And so when they, when they, you know, see these men, they're sure that they're from Galilee,
they're meant to be speaking Aramaic, right?
Or even Hebrew, but we're hearing them speak in other languages,
like the languages they've come from, the nations they've come from.
So like, man, this is, what is going on here?
Like we're hearing this preaching in other languages.
And then verse number eight says,
So these are the languages that they're hearing.
So even Egyptian, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, the strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
sorry, continues, Crete and Arabians.
We do hear them speak in our tongues, the wonderful works of God.
And they're all amazed and we're in doubt saying one to another,
what mean of this?
So they're all hearing it from their, you know, in their languages.
Now, I think an early discussion we had with some of the men, not early,
when we started this church was, you know, this gift of being able to speak in tongues.
Is it that, like, if I started, if I had the gift of speaking, if the gift came upon us right now,
you know, would I be speaking, say, Swahili or something, you know,
like, would Swahili be coming out of my mouth?
Or would just English be coming out of my mouth?
But those from different nations be hearing it in their language.
So let's pretend, brother, you know, I'm speaking English, but brother,
Michael, you're hearing it in in Czech, right?
So I'm speaking in English and Sister Cindy hears it in New Zealand.
Whatever it is, right?
Whatever it is.
No, like, I can see how that can be sort of understood,
because that's what the men kind of say.
Like, we're hearing it in our language.
But don't forget what it said earlier in verse number, where is it?
I think it's verse number four.
Yeah.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues,
as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So they're speaking with other tongues.
They're speaking in Roman.
They're speaking in Arabian language, or Arabic.
You know, they're speaking in, you know, whatever.
Whatever languages that we saw laid out there.
And so, but you say, well, how do they hear all the languages at the same time?
And it's because there's 120 of them.
Remember, there's 120 of them.
And so maybe Peter is speaking in Arabic, and maybe John is speaking in Italian.
And, you know, maybe, you know, Matthias is speaking in Greek.
And so they're all here in the different language.
And I can, you know, you sort of get this picture that,
I guess, let's say I can only really understand Greek.
You know, that's my language for some reason.
And I'm hearing these different languages.
I'm probably going to go, I can hear a bit of Greek coming this way.
Where is that?
And then I'll probably find the person that's speaking the Greek.
And so you might have a gathering of just Greek people around one person in particular,
as they hear the language.
That's kind of the impression that I get about this.
If I can keep reading, it says here in verse number 13,
uh, others mock, mock insane.
These men are full of new wine.
But Peter, standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice and said unto them,
ye men of Judea and all that dwell at Jerusalem,
be this known unto you and hearken to my words.
For these are not drunken, as you suppose,
seeing it is but the third hour of the day.
The third hour of the day is 9 a.m.
So it's early morning, okay, 9 a.m., the third hour.
Of the day.
Now I'll address the tongue.
Let me address the tongue speaking first a little bit further.
Keep your finger there and come with me to 1 Corinthians 14.
Come with me to 1 Corinthians 14, please.
1 Corinthians 14.
Now I believe 1 Corinthians 14, or at least 1 Corinthians in general,
1 Corinthians 13, 14, 15 has a lot about tongue speaking.
And I believe this gives us further confirmation whether
the miracle of tongue speaking is the words coming out of the person's mouth
as a different language or whether it's just the receiver,
receiving it in their own personal language.
Now when you look at 1 Corinthians 14, verse number 27,
it says here, if any man speak in an unknown tongue,
let it be by two, or at the most by three,
and that by course, and let one interpret.
So to me, that should tell us what's happening.
So if someone's able to speak with tongues,
there needs to be an interpreter, which tells us that
the language coming out of the man's mouth is the miracle.
Like for example, if I, what's a language,
if I just started preaching, you know,
it's like okay, Pastor Kevin's coming up to preach,
and I just start speaking Samoan.
Right?
Like we probably don't recognise it ourselves,
like to say that's Samoan, like probably there's not
many anyone here that would recognise that, all right?
So in that scenario, now if I'm doing it out of the gift of the tongues,
you should all be able to hear it in your natural tongue.
Like I should be able to speak Samoan and you all hear it in English,
or Czech or whatever it is, right?
But because there's a need for interpreter,
this tells me that the miracle is not actually the ears receiving that language,
but rather what is coming out of the mouth.
And then the interpreter is there helping the people
of the congregation understand what is being said.
It continues there in verse number 28,
but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church
and let him speak to himself and not to God.
So if there is no interpreter and you have the gift of tongues, don't use it,
because no one's going to get anything out of it.
But if the miracle was the hearing, then you would get something out of it.
Does that make sense?
I hope that kind of makes sense.
If you also drop down to verse number 33,
and this is what I think is happening, okay?
Verse number 33.
So again, if I just started speaking Samoan,
you're going to be thinking, what is wrong with Pastor Kevin?
Like you probably won't even recognize, has he gone charismatic?
You know, has he become the Baptist coastal that we've all been fearing?
You know, is that what's happened to him sort of thing?
And you might even begin to mock, like this, you know, we come to church,
you hear God's word, why is he doing this?
Like I can kind of understand, you know, and then you might be like,
you know, brother Jordan might be, oh, I know what's going on.
I saw Pastor Kevin have a strong coffee before service,
and he just can't handle it.
For example, right?
And for some reason now just talking gibberish,
because he's under the effects of some caffeine,
whatever substance, whatever it is, right?
And so they might be mocking.
All right, so this is why in verse number, 1 Corinthians 14, verse number 33,
it says, for God is not the author of confusion,
but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
So if someone does have the ability to speak in tongues, God wants order.
One at a time speaks, and with an interpreter,
and if you got no interpreter, then don't speak, okay?
Because if you're doing it, and we're just talking some gibberish language
or language that nobody knows, it's a cause of confusion.
All right, so again, I think this cements that the miracle
was being able to speak in another language rather than what they heard,
because if they could just hear it, then there wouldn't be any cause for confusion,
because everyone can hear it in their own language, if that makes sense, okay?
Now, just another one here in 1 Corinthians 13,
come with me to previous chapter there, 1 Corinthians 13,
obviously the Bible speaks of these tongues,
or this miracle, this gift as being able to speak in real languages.
Now, when I've shown Pentecostals, the Charismatics,
what the Bible says here, they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, that's true.
That is a miracle that God can do, but what we do, we speak in the tongues of angels.
Whatever it is, right?
They're like, no, no, no, yeah, yeah, there's real tongues of tongues of men,
but we're speaking in tongues of angels.
So they'll refer to this passage in 1 Corinthians 13, and verse number one,
Paul says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,
and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal,
which is what the Pentecostals are, they're just noise.
Noise that means nothing, just a tinkling cymbal, it's a sounding brass.
But what is the tongue of angels?
Well, they're telling you it's the gibberish that they're saying,
but we're meant to build everything we teach and do from God's Word.
So do angels, like if this is about heavenly angels,
this could just be messages coming from other nations.
Like that's what angel means, a messenger.
Okay, this is just might be evangelists coming from other countries preaching God's Word.
And Paul has the ability to interpret or to speak it,
you know, he's got a significant dose of the power of the Holy Ghost upon him.
But let's say this is speaking of heavenly angels.
Well, I would then say, okay, well, let's learn what the tongues of angels are.
And where do I go?
Well, the Word of God, of course.
And then I'll look up passages when angels speak in the Bible.
And guess what language angels speak in the Bible?
The same language that men speak.
The tongues of angels, we can read about them.
You know, we have an angel speaks to Daniel,
and we have an angel that speaks to John in the book of Revelation.
We have many interactions with angels and men.
And guess what?
They spoke the tongues of men is what they spoke, understandable languages.
Could you imagine if all of a sudden God says an angel and the angels like,
like, Lord, why did you send this thing?
Where's the interpreter?
Can someone tell us what's going on here?
No, there'll be the angel be speaking like if it's a true angel of God,
he'll be speaking a language like English,
of course, that we can understand here at on the Sunshine Coast of Australia.
So it's just a stupid argument that the
Charismatics make to say the tongues of angels are what they speak.
No, no, the tongues that are in the Bible are always tongues that can be understood by man.
All right.
Now, let's backtrack a little bit because that's what I'm saying.
This is a big chat.
There's a lot to talk about.
Like, really, if you really want to spend time here.
Let's backtrack a little bit.
Verse number 13.
And others mocking said, these men are full of new wine.
I use the illustration, you know, but brother Jordan saying,
my pastor Kevin drank strong coffee before service.
You know, it's kind of, well, this is kind of what's happening here.
Okay, now, let me say something.
So those that want to teach that alcohol, God's fine with alcohol.
Okay, they'll turn to a passage like this.
Now, I've always taught, and I still stand by that,
that new wine is freshly squeezed grape juice.
It's new.
You get grapes, make juice out of it.
It's new.
It's not alcoholic yet.
It hasn't had time to go through a fermentation process.
So, I believe new wine here is just normal grape juice.
Okay, but then they'll say, well, hold on.
Verse number 15.
For these are not drunken, as you suppose.
So see, Peter is associating new wine,
or as something you can get drunk with, alcoholic wine.
And then, so the sermons that I preach about new wine,
but not being alcohol, they'll say,
well, this passage debunks all of that.
So every time new wine is spoken about in a positive sense in the Bible,
that's always been alcohol, alcoholic wine,
so God wants us to drink alcoholic wine.
Now, there's a few issues with that, okay?
Number one.
Verse number 15.
For these are not drunken.
I'll give you two answers to this.
But they'll say this proves new wine is alcoholic wine.
Okay, number one.
The word drunken is not always associated with being intoxicated.
Now, I know in our English vernacular today,
we associate that word drunk or drunken with intoxication, okay?
But if you look up any basic dictionary of English,
quite often they'll have,
obviously the first definitions will be modern day definitions,
but then they'll have archaic definitions if you know what I'm talking about.
Okay, it's like the word gay.
In other words, nothing wrong with the word gay
if you base it on an archaic meaning or definition.
But obviously the modern term for gay today is completely different
to what it was used in the time that the Bible was written, okay?
So if you just go on any dictionary and you look up the archaic
understanding of the word drunken,
it is simply, I'll just read it to you,
the past principle of drink.
Like today we would say drank.
And the Bible uses the word drank.
It's the past tense, the past principle of the word drink.
Now, someone will say, well, Pastor Kevin,
you need to build it on God's word, not on the dictionary
or even if it's an archaic meaning.
All right, if you want, come with me to Lamentations chapter five.
Come with me to Lamentations chapter five, please.
Lamentations chapter five and verse number four.
Lamentations five and verse number four.
The Bible reads, we have drunken, that must be alcohol.
That's the guy, the guy's intoxicated.
We have drunken our water for money.
Our water is sold unto us.
So what is that?
We have drunken our water.
Can you get intoxicated on water?
No.
So there's a biblical passage reference where it used the word drunken
to clearly not be intoxicated.
Intoxicated, but simply the past principle of drink.
All right, that's one answer.
That answer may not satisfy, that satisfies me,
but that answer may not satisfy everybody.
Okay, so how, what's another way that we can understand this passage?
Well, first of all, verse number 13, it says,
others mocking said, these men are full of new wine.
They're mocking.
Okay, now Peter says they've not even drunk.
It's nine o'clock because whether it's an alcoholic beverage or if it's new wine,
these are expensive products in the times of the Bible.
These were largely reserved for festivals, celebrations, you know,
you know, wedding receptions, you know, the big celebrations.
That's what the wine was reserved for.
So Peter goes, look, it's nine o'clock, we've definitely not drunk.
Whether new wine or whether alcoholic wine, that's not been drunken.
But let's say this is about being intoxicated.
Again, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me because people are understanding
the speech and the words of the preachers.
They're hearing them in their own language.
They're not hearing the Pentecostal charismatic garbage
that you would say these people are clearly drunk.
So it doesn't, for me, it doesn't fit to say that people think they're drunk.
No, because everyone's understanding them clearly in their own language.
It's not like, you know, I'm talking about when someone's drunk and they're slurring
their speech and they're not making sense.
That's not what they've been accused of.
But they're being mocked.
They're being mocked.
And for me, if you want to take it that way, that Peter is addressing intoxication.
Well, this still doesn't prove that new wine means alcoholic wine.
Because they're mocking.
It's kind of like the example I just gave you before,
where I might be speaking Samoan and you guys think I've just lost it.
And brother Jordan might be, oh yeah, sorry I'm drinking the strong caffeine, strong coffee.
And we know that strong coffee is not going to intoxicate you,
but it's doing it in a mocking manner.
Okay.
And so to me, yeah, new wine is not going to intoxicate you, but it's mocking.
They're kind of saying, look, they can't even handle, you know, new wine.
And look how drunken and how stupid they're behaving.
If that is speaking of intoxication.
But for me, I'm content with the past principle of drink.
But either way, this is not proving that new wine is alcoholic.
Like I wouldn't take what someone mocks and build a doctrine
to debunk other positions and what the Lord clearly speaks of as new wine.
Do you understand what I'm saying?
So anyway, that's my response to, can you see how chapter two has so many questions?
And when people want to put in their doctrines or get me to trip over my words,
it's often actually the two that people want to turn to for various reasons.
You know, to see how, let's get pastor Kevin stuck in a hard place.
And I would say, yeah, actually it is challenging if you break down all the different
questions and doctrines that these events create,
you know, in the life of churches and Christians.
But let's continue there in verse number, back to Acts chapter two and verse number 16.
So Peter's like, no, this is not the effects of some drink, okay?
Whether it's some sugar high or some alcoholic intoxication,
whatever view you want to take there.
He says in verse number 16,
but this is that which is spoken by the prophet Joel.
Peter, just like in chapter one, he says, look,
there's a fulfillment that's taking place that we've read about in the Old Testament Scriptures.
That we've read about in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Now, in chapter one, you could make the argument that Peter was misapplying the verse.
If you had that view, I don't believe that.
But if you have that view, whereas this one, we can't say he's misapplying it
because he's been filled with the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost has given him the ability to work and to minister and say the words that he's saying.
Okay.
And in verse number 17, these are the words,
and it shall come to pass, in the last days, sayeth God,
I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
So once again, we have another phrase here, I will pour out of my Spirit.
So being the Spirit being poured out upon someone,
being filled with the Spirit, being baptized with the Holy Spirit.
To me, it's all one and the same.
Okay.
Just different ways of expressing this empowerment that God has given people.
Now it says here, your sons and daughters shall prophesy.
So this is where the female preachers, female pastors of churches will say,
look, it's not just men that prophesy, it's women too.
But are they teaching at church?
No.
They're out in Jerusalem preaching the gospel.
Okay.
Men and women, and guess what?
Men and women at New Life Baptist Church also prophesy
and preach the gospel to this community here on the Sunshine Coast.
I am not against female prophets,
because a prophet is only someone that simply proclaims the Word of God.
Ladies, you know, the Bible is very clear, you can't be a pastor.
The pastor has to be the husband of one wife.
You can't be a pastor, but you can be a preacher.
You can be a prophet of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You too can be the field of the Holy Ghost,
and he'll equip you to be able to get out there and see souls saved.
I'm not against women preachers.
Just I'm against women pastors behind the pulpit,
which God clearly says is wrong and unbiblical.
Now, I can't tell you exactly what these visions and dreams are.
It could be the cloven tongues of fire that were upon them.
This miracle that was seen by these people.
You know, or the dreams, you know,
could these dreams simply be the work and the people that they're going to reach
as they've been filled the Holy Ghost with the gospel message.
It says in verse 18,
and on my servants and on my handmaidens,
I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy.
Once again, this is not in context of what we're reading.
If we keep going in the book of Acts 2,
they're preaching the gospel, they're preaching Christ is what they're doing.
They're not prophesying who's going to be the next President of the United States.
And they're not prophesying of some, some guy texted me the other day
that there's going to be this huge movement of the Holy Ghost
upon the Sunshine Coast and you're not ready for it, Pastor Kevin.
It's like, that's not the prophesying that I'm interested in,
whatever you're talking about.
You know, the prophesying is preaching Christ and Him crucified,
His payments, all right, for our sins, His resurrection.
You can read chapter two in your own time.
That is what they're preaching in other languages.
They're preaching the gospel.
And verse number 19,
and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath,
blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
Hold on, that's not taking place at this point in time.
These, these are wonders in heaven,
unless you talk about the mighty rushing wind or something,
but this blood and fire, this vapor of smoke,
and then like verse number 20,
the sun shall be turned into darkness.
I mean, that's not happening during the day of Pentecost.
The moon into blood, that's not happening
before the great and notable day of the Lord come.
That's not happening.
But this is what is happening.
If you keep reading chapter two, verse number 21,
and it shall come to pass that whose service shall call
on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
What is this power that was given to the disciples in the day of Pentecost?
The power to save souls,
for them to call upon the name of the Lord and receive his salvation.
So pastor, hold on, but it says here,
the signs and the sun being darkness, moon into blood.
What is that about?
We know, we know that he's speaking about the end times events.
One day the sun is going to be dark and one day the moon will turn to blood.
Okay.
And if you can come with me to Joel,
because Peter says that these were words spoken by the prophet Joel.
So let's have a quick look at it in Joel chapter two,
Joel chapter two and verse number 28, please.
Joel chapter two and verse number 28.
Now, before I read Joel two, we've read in Acts two, these words.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before the great and notable day of the Lord come.
Now, what language was the book of Acts written in?
Greek.
Okay.
And in the Greek, which we know then was accurately translated to English for us
here in the King James Bible, in the Greek, it's very clear
that the sun will be turned to darkness and moon blood
before the great and notable day of the Lord come.
So before the day of the Lord comes, the sun needs to go dark
and the moon needs to turn blood red or blood, whatever it is, right?
That needs to happen.
This celestial darkening, this great miracle in the heavens above
needs to take place before the day of the Lord.
That's what the Greek says.
Well, now we're going to Joel and guess what language the book of Joel was written in?
Hebrew.
Okay.
And in Hebrew, sorry, in Hebrew, in Joel chapter two verse 28, it says,
and it shall come to pass afterward that I'll pour out my spirit upon all flesh
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.
Your old men shall dream dreams.
Your young men shall see visions.
And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit
and I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood
before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
Oh, the Hebrew actually lines up with the Greek,
which then was accurately translated in English.
We can compare Joel and we can compare Acts and yes, this was translated correctly.
They're saying one and the same thing, regardless of what you believe.
This is one time I have no problem going back to the Greek and Hebrew.
Okay.
Cause it's teaching us a very valuable lesson
that the celestial dark and takes place before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.
The reason I'm emphasizing this is because 99% of every other independent
fundamental Baptist church and pastor will tell you the day of the Lord comes
before the sun and the moon are darkened.
I was like, you went to Bible college and you've done, you know,
Hebrew and you've done Greek apparently, even though they can't speak it.
You've definitely done English in primary school.
You've definitely done English and the Bible is so clear in all three languages
that the sun is dark and first and the moon turns to blood before the day of the Lord comes.
And that's important.
And I'm obviously not going to have time to teach on all of this right now,
but this affirms this simple instruction, this simple chronology,
what comes before and what comes after confirms that the rapture takes place
or the day of the Lord takes place after the sun and moon are darkened,
which we read about in Matthew 24, which is immediately after the tribulation.
In fact, can we turn there very quickly?
Matthew 24, 29 please.
Matthew 24, 29.
Matthew 24, 29 reads,
immediately after the tribulation of those days,
shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light
and the stars shall fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken
and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven and then shall all the tribes of the
earth mourn and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and
great glory and he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather
together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.
So when does the Lord Jesus Christ gather his elect in the clouds to be with him?
After the sun and moon are darkened.
After.
And so Christ comes, raptures his believers, then what takes place?
The day of the Lord.
God's wrath that falls upon the earth, which is why we believe in a post-tribulation,
immediately after the tribulation.
Okay, the sun and moon are darkened, right, which begins then the day of the Lord.
As the day of the Lord commences, it's the day of Christ to us.
We're raptured, we gather together with Christ in the clouds and then God begins to pour out
his wrath.
You can do your own research and study.
The day of the Lord is the day of God's wrath.
So when does the rapture take place?
After the tribulation and before God pours out his wrath.
We believe in a post-tribulation, pre-wrath, rapture position.
And I mean, I could go on and on about that topic.
You know, I've preached many sermons on that in the past.
But again, it's such an important passage in Acts chapter two that affirms that this
is the process that takes place.
Now, what does that have to do with the Day of Pentecost, you might ask?
That's a really good question.
Okay, if you're still there in Matthew 24, Matthew 24.
Now, the Day of Pentecost, once again, was to preach the gospel, right, to win souls.
Well, again, this makes me a bit of a, apparently a heretic in the eyes of the Baptist world.
Okay, apparently.
But here in Matthew 24, verse number 14, it says,
And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations
and then shall the end come.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand.
Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.
So we know that that midpoint, the abomination of desolation,
when the Antichrist sets up an idol to be worshipped,
that's when the Great Tribulation begins, unbelievers.
But I want you to notice what Christ says,
The gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations.
What are the disciples doing in Acts chapter two?
They're preaching, they're not going to other nations, but you got other people other nations
coming to them, and they're preaching in all these other languages.
God has given them a wonderful miracle to do.
Now, could God do that today for us?
I suppose this is what makes me a heretic, because I'm not a dispensationalist.
And they say, well, that dispensation has ended, and so has the ability to speak in tongues.
But one thing I see here, the coming Great Tribulation to come,
when the sun and moon are darkened, the moon turns to blood,
that this miracle, a double prophecy, a double application is taking place.
I personally believe in the Great Tribulation, we're going to receive a great outpouring,
a great baptism, a great feeling of the Holy Ghost.
And some of us may very well be able to just spontaneously speak some other language.
And as the persecution comes, and we flee from one city to another city,
you know, we flee from Samoa, and we go to, I don't know, give me another, huh?
Yeah, we flee to the Philippines, they speak English.
Papua New Guinea, they speak, we'll be able to speak Papua New Guinea all of a sudden,
because we fled from one area to another area.
And if you get persecution in Sydney, you know, and you run to Brisbane,
all of a sudden, you'll be speaking of all these Queensland,
you know, slangs and different ways of explaining things,
and that took me a while to understand.
No, like, I know I'm joking there, but like, I'm serious,
like, I really believe this is going to happen again.
Which is why all of the world hears the Gospel of the Kingdom all over again.
Well, I don't buy into this timid Christian during the Great Tribulation,
unless I mean, some guy's just a complete, good for nothing,
salt to be trotted on the foot kind of person.
But I believe most Christians are going to have this experience,
and get out there and face the persecution without fear,
with boldness to seek and to see people come into the Kingdom of the Lord,
preaching Christ, and seeing many people call upon the name of the Lord to be saved.
I believe this is going to play out again, during the times of the Great Tribulation,
which is why it's all put together here for us in the Book of Acts.
All right, Brevin, I had some other verses, but I'll leave it there.
The title for the sermon was The Day of Pentecost.
The Day of Pentecost, what an ability, what a miracle,
what a power that the Holy Ghost gave these disciples.
Remember, they were frightened when Christ was arrested.
They fled, right?
And then they came together, only 120 of them together.
The rest are like, I'm not going to hang out with these people anymore.
And even with 120, God gave this amazing miracle to be baptized
and be able to speak in other tongues and perform these great acts.
Anyway, next week, we'll continue with the rest of Acts chapter 2.
Let's pray.