Transcription
SPROUL: This morning I’m going to ask you to exercise your imagination in a little departure from our normal approach to the text of Scripture. I would like you to imagine that you were a bystander, an eyewitness, to the events that transpired in Jerusalem when God opened the heavens and poured out the Spirit upon the hundred-and-twenty that were gathered there on that occasion, where God, through the Holy Spirit, enabled the apostles to speak in languages in which they were unskilled, so that people from all over the region, and even outside of Palestine, heard their proclamation in their native tongue.
When we hear stories like this, or read of them in the text of Scripture, it is our tendency as Christians to identify with the good guys, to see ourselves as being numbered among those who received this outpouring of the grace of God and welcomed it, rather than to number ourselves among those who, in the presence of the power of God, were skeptics and cynics. For the unbeliever who was there that day, did not hear the message of God in his or her own language, but instead heard a cacophony. They heard noise. They heard gibberish and made no sense of it whatsoever, so that their first assumption was that these Jewish men who were assembled in that place were completely drunk, intoxicated beyond all measure, and were babbling in their drunken incoherence. And it’s when that charge is made that Peter steps up and defends the truth of the gospel and of what, in fact, had been taking place. And so he begins by answering the charge that is made that this is simply a display of drunken incoherence, and so he says, responding to the charge, “They are full of new wine.”
Before I go on, let me just say parenthetically, for those of you who have been taught all of your lives that in the New Testament real wine is not to be found, only unfermented grape juice, this is just one text of many, many that indicates that the wine that was used by Jews in the Old Testament and in the New Testament was real wine and had the power to intoxicate. That’s why they were assuming that this was one of those occasions where wine had been overindulged, and not only that, but it’s new wine. It wasn’t even the most powerful wine of the day. But in any case – that’s just in passing.
But Peter stands up with the eleven, raised his voice, and said, “Men of Judea, all who dwell in Jerusalem, let it be known to you. Listen to my words, for these are not drunk as you suppose, since it’s only the third hour of the day.” Now he doesn’t go into an elaborate defense against the charge of drunkenness, but he just simply mentions in passing what a ridiculous charge it would be to see 120 pious, Jewish men assembled at nine o’clock in the morning, all of them being drunk as skunks. And in a sense, Peter is saying in his opening salvo, “You must be drunk to assume that so many people here are drunk out of their minds! That’s not what’s happening.” But he doesn’t spend much time on saying what it is not that is the cause of the phenomenon; but rather he takes them immediately to a biblical explanation of the phenomenon that they’ve just experienced.
Now let me pause and say a couple of things. Dr. Jim Boice, in dealing with this text, makes note that there are four things that happen throughout the sermon of Peter that I think I ought to mention also, in passing. First of all, that this first recorded apostolic sermon is biblical throughout – that Peter’s sermon fundamentally is expository. He’s not standing up and giving his latest views of public opinion or a psychology lesson or scratching the itches of the people and giving the people who have itchy ears something to lay their fascination upon; but he takes his hearers immediately to the Word of God, which is the only kind of authentic preaching there can ever be in the church.
Second of all, in the course of this sermon, the apostle Peter takes people inexorably to the person and to the work of Christ. Christ is at the center of the preaching of the apostles. So it’s biblical, it’s christocentric, and thirdly, Jim Boice says of Peter’s sermon, it was preached fearlessly. Now it’s easy to be bold when you’re preaching to the choir, especially this lovely choir because they’re not standing there with rocks in their hand, ready to throw them at me the first thing that I say that they disagree with. It’s easy to be bold when you’re in your own pulpit, among friends. But when there are people who are manifestly hostile, breathing out fire against you, as Stephen would soon find out, you were taking your life into your hands if you are bold in your declaration. That’s why Martin Luther said that in every generation there will be the threat of the gospel going into eclipse, because every time the gospel is proclaimed, clearly and boldly, opposition arises and conflict comes. And so we have learned, even if we are going to be expository in our preaching, even if we’re going to preach about Jesus, to do it in a fearful manner, lest we offend, lest we become incendiary, lest the stones are thrown in our direction. There’s never been a minister who’s ever mounted a pulpit anywhere in this world who wasn’t absolutely aware of how dangerous it is to be bold, and when we come before you in a spirit of fear, then I, as well as every preacher, have to come back to this text and look at the way the apostles, without respect for their lives or their worldly good, like Luther would say, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,” but to preach it with boldness.
And finally Jim said this sermon is preached reasonably. The apostle Peter did not simply play on the emotions of his hearers and try to gain an emotional response, but he reasoned with them, showing them the rational character of the truth of the proclaimed Word of God.
Quickly, when I was a young Christian – I had only been a Christian about six months – a nationally famous faith-healer was touring the United States, and he came into our area, and I went, as a young Christian, fascinated by this phenomenon. I wanted to see what it was like. And when I got to this place, there were tents – two tents, two huge tents. And I walked into the first tent – I’ll never forget it. It had the sawdust floor. It had a shooting gallery, amusements, and a popcorn and hotdog stand. That was my first clue that there was something different about this from church. Then I went into the main tent to hear the evangelist, but before he started his sermon, the warm-up act came on, and this guy came out with a tambourine and started beating the tambourine rhythmically, and you could just sense the release of emotion and people getting whipped up; and he would say, “Turn around and tell your neighbor that the devil is a liar.” And the lady in front of me turned around and said, “The devil is a liar.” And I’m standing there, thinking, “I’ve never been in a church like this, beating on this tambourine and all of this stuff.” So I’m just standing there, sort of stunned, watching it. And one of the ushers came up to me, and he said, “What’s a matter, son? Don’t you feel the Holy Spirit?” And I looked at him, and I said, “If this is the Holy Spirit, I’m going to sleep in tomorrow morning.” If ever a service was held in the flesh, that’s what I was in the middle of, but when Peter proclaims with boldness, and in the power of the Holy Ghost, he doesn’t leave his brain in the parking lot. He doesn’t ask people to circumvent their intelligence, because the gospel that moves the heart, gets to the heart through the mind; and that’s how apostolic preaching is manifest.
Now, having said that by way of background, let’s look to what he says. Peter says, “They’re not drunk, but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,” and he cites the text from the book of Joel, “It shall come to pass in the last day,” says God, “that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,” and so on.
Now if you were in our adult class when we, looking at our overview of the New Testament, came to the chapter on the day of Pentecost, you will recall that I tied that phenomenon back into an Old Testament experience, beginning with Moses, where Moses was counseled by his father-in-law, Jethro, who had another name. What was it? Who said it? Just trying to find out who knows their Bible. The Lutherans do – Reuel, that’s right. Anyway, his father-in-law counsels Moses and asks Moses, “Well what are you doing here in church?” Moses said, “Well, I gave the law, I intercede for the people, I sit at the gate, I hear all of their complaints, I judge all of their suits, I take care of all of their spiritual needs,” and Moses is sort of going along on how he’s Tracy McGrady of Israel, only he had a better record. Tracy McGrady – do I have to explain who Tracy McGrady is? In any case, while he’s kind of indulging himself with all of his accomplishments and achievements, Jethro says to him, “That which you are doing is not good,” and God speaks to Moses through his father-in-law. I’ve tried to explain to my son-in-law that sometimes God’s speaking to him through me, but he won’t buy it. But in this case, God speaks to Moses through his father-in-law, and he says, “Look, you go and choose from among the Israelites seventy men whom you know to be elders among the people. And then you gather them here in the sacred place,” and listen to what God said. “I’m going to take of the Spirit that is upon you, Moses, and I’m going to distribute it to seventy elders so that they can work with you in taking care of my people. That is, I’m going to take the Spirit that’s upon you, Moses, and distribute it to seventy for the purpose of enabling them for ministry.”
And so we read in the text that God did take of the Spirit that was upon Moses and gave it upon the seventy elders, and they began to prophesy. They began to speak in ecstatic utterances, and two of them wandered outside of the boundaries of the camp. One of them’s name was Eldad, and the other one’s name was Medad – two of my favorite people in the Bible. Now Joshua, the chief lieutenant of Moses, sees Eldad and Medad manifesting the power of the Holy Spirit that up until this moment had been reserved to Moses, and he’s incensed by it because he senses that what Eldad and Medad are doing is that they’re involving themselves in some kind of revolt against the leadership and authority of Moses. So he comes to report this transgression to Moses, and he says, “Moses!” I like the old King James much better. “Moses, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. My lord, Moses,” says Joshua, “forbid them! It’s just not right that anybody else should be assisting in the leadership of ministry and take away from your exalted status, Moses. Stop these guys!”
Now listen to what Moses said. “Enviest thou for my sake, Joshua? Would to God that all the Lord’s people would be prophets and that He would put His Spirit upon all of them.” To hear the prayer and the plea of Moses, “Joshua, I ask that God would take that same Spirit He’s anointed me with and not just give it to seventy, but to the whole congregation. That’s my dream: a laity that is empowered by God, a laity that is mobilized, a laity that is not satisfied with hiring professionals to do the work of ministry, but a laity that will come next to their neighbor when their neighbor is in need, a laity that will pray as a priest for their friends. Would to God that all of the Lord’s people would” – it was just a prayer, but by the time – quit looking at your watch, Dave. It’s running fine. I saw that; I see it every time. I can maybe – I can’t make you leave your brains in the parking lot, but I might be able to get you to leave your watches there.
So the prayer of Moses becomes a prophecy later on in Jewish history with Joel, in a time of terrible crisis, where the land had been ravaged by a plague of locusts. These locusts, just like happened in the nineteenth century out in the west, came through the land and ate up everything that was green and completely destroyed the crops of the people of Israel. It would be like if the stock market fell to a hundred. It was calamitous, and God speaks to the people through Joel, and He speaks judgment. He said, “This has happened to your nation because you’ve turned away from the Lord,” and God announces the doom of His judgment upon the people. But then He tempers that message with a message of hope, when He says, “There shall come to pass in the last days, in the future, in the messianic period, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons, your daughters shall prophesy; your young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams. And on my menservants and maidservants I will pour out my Spirit in those days. They shall prophesy. I’ll show wonders in the heavens above, signs in the earth beneath – blood, fire, vapor, and smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Peter said, “That’s what Joel promised would happen in the last days, and that prediction from antiquity of what would occur in the last days is what you’ve just witnessed. The Holy Ghost has been poured out, not on seventy, not on 140, not just on men, but on women, on the servants, on the rank and file, upon everybody in the flock of God. God has poured out His Spirit upon all of us. So there’s no such thing as a Christian who is not anointed by God the Holy Spirit for ministry. Paul will say later, “Are we not all baptized into the same Spirit?” We don’t all have the same gifts, but we have the same Spirit, and we are all called to be deeply involved in the ministry of the kingdom of God.
If you look at the church today, you can draw circles – concentric circles. In the middle of that circle, that’s your core of the church, whatever church it is. Those are the people that are there every Sunday morning. Those are the people that are involved in every aspect of the life of the church, and then there’s the next level of core. Those are people – they’re somewhat regular in their attendance of church. You might see them once a year at some other function besides Sunday morning. Then the third level is the ones that come on Christmas, on Easter, and maybe on Thanksgiving. You see, those outer two levels are denying Pentecost because the whole life of the church is to involve the whole people of the church because every one of you who is a Christian has received the same power that the seventy elders received in Israel and the people assembled here at Pentecost received on that day.
Now I’m only going to go down to verse twenty-one today and leave twenty-two and following for next Sunday, God-willing. I just want to comment in passing. This prophesy: “I will show wonders in the heaven above, signs in the earth beneath – blood, fire, smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.” Some people say, “Isn’t this what Jesus described would be the signs of His final coming, disturbances in the sky? The heavens will roll up like a scroll, the moon will turn to dripping blood, and so on. Isn’t this a little bit premature for Peter to be saying that the text of Joel is fulfilled in his own day?” Some commentators look at that and say, “Well, the last days really began with the advent of Christ into this world, and that these kinds of spectacular signs did occur, literally, on Good Friday, where apparently a solar eclipse turned all of Jerusalem into darkness in the middle of the afternoon. Others look to seventy A.D. where astronomical disturbances were reported, both by Josephus and Tacitus at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was the climactic judgment that fell upon Old Testament Israel and was seen as the end of the Jewish age; or still another interpretation is, if we look in the pages of the Old Testament, any time God’s hammer falls, of judgment, upon towns like it did on Tyre and Sidon, as it did on Sodom and Gomorrah, the prophetic words of the approaching doom will always use this kind of language. It’s a poetic form of expressing the radical judgment of God.
But what Peter is saying is, “We’re in the last days. We’re in the day of the Lord that every Jew in the Old Testament looked forward to, the day that they saw all hope of messianic fulfillment, where Amos warned them, ‘The day of the Lord is a day of darkness as well as a day of rejoicing.’ For the crisis moment in world history was the coming of Christ into the world. For those who were being redeemed, the day of the Lord was a day of light and brightness and joy; but for those who were perishing, it was a day of unspeakable darkness, as it was predicted by Joel.”
The end of the text said this: “But whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved, and so, rather than Peter’s being all-concerned about the meaning of the glossolalia, the tongue-speaking of the time, he was concerned about the significance in redemptive history of the out-pouring of the Holy Ghost to the whole community because at this moment he says to his people, “Anyone today, who calls upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved.” Now he didn’t stop there and sing three verses of a hymn. He went on to proclaim the life and ministry of Christ, as we will see the next week. But there were three thousand that day whose hearts were moved by the word of God, who put their trust in the Christ who was manifest that day.
Finally, and remember, as a preacher, I have the right to say, “finally,” or “in conclusion,” five times – I have a license for that. There are a lot of churches today that are very excited about the Holy Spirit, and that’s fine, but the danger of that is to misunderstand the mission of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit always – not just mostly – always points beyond Himself to Christ. If you’re in a spirit-filled church that is not focusing on the ministry of Christ, you’re not in a Spirit-filled church. It’s that simple. God the Holy Spirit is sent to empower the church to bear witness to Christ, to apply the work of Christ on the cross in terms of its redemptive significance to all who believe. The Father sends, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies the work of Christ. And that was true on the very day of Pentecost – that the day the Spirit was poured out without measure the focus was on Christ.