Acts 2:1-36 - Drunk and Babel-ing

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed By Apple Podcasts)

Welcome to Tabernacle Talk, a Bible Study Podcast hosted by Bryon Self, pastor of Tabernacle

Baptist Church.

We hope this time in God's Word will be an encouragement to you.

Let's dive right in.

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk.

Really excited to dive into our next portion of scripture this morning, and that portion of scripture is

Acts chapter two, and this is the day of Pentecost.

Now, Pentecost was already a Jewish holiday.

It was a time when many of the Jews would travel back to Jerusalem and be able to celebrate and

feast and all those kinds of things.

But after Jesus had died and was buried and risen again, now had ascended, there was going to be a

very special thing that would happen on this feast day.

Let's dive right in to Acts chapter two.

When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place.

Suddenly a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven and it filled the whole house

where they were staying and tongues like flames of fire that were divided appeared to them and

rested on each one of them.

Then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different languages as the Spirit

gave them ability for speech.

There were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

When this sound occurred, a crowd came together and was confused because each one of them,

each one heard them speaking in his own language.

And they were astounded and amazed saying, look, aren't all these who are speaking Galileans?

How is it that each of us can hear in our own native language?

Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those who live in Mesopotamia, in Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius and

Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both

Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs.

We hear them speaking the magnificent acts of God in our own languages.

They were all astounded and perplexed saying to one another, what could this be?

But some sneered and said, they're full of new wine, they're drunk.

But Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and proclaimed to them, men of Judah and all

you residents of Jerusalem, let me explain this to you and pay attention to my words.

For these people are not drunk as you suppose, since it's only nine in the morning.

On the contrary, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.

And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my spirit on all humanity.

Then your sons and your daughters will prophesy.

Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.

I will even pour out my spirit on my male and female slaves in those days, and they will prophesy.

I will display wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below.

Blood and fire and a cloud of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and remarkable day of

the Lord comes.

Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Men of Israel, Peter says, listen to these words.

This Jesus the Nazarene was a man pointed out to you by God with miracles, wonders and signs that

God did among you through him, just as you yourselves know.

Though he was delivered up according to God's determined plan and foreknowledge, you used

lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him.

God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

For David says of him, I saw the Lord ever before me, because he is at my right hand, I will not be

shaken.

Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced, moreover my flesh will rest in hope, because

you will not leave me in Hades or allow your Holy One to see decay.

You have revealed the paths of life to me.

You will fill me with gladness in your presence.

Brothers, I can confidently speak to you about the Patriarch David, the one who wrote what Peter

just talked about in Psalm 16.

He says, I can tell you this about David.

He is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.

Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn an oath to him to seat one of his descendants

on his throne.

Seeing this in advance, he spoke concerning the resurrection of the Messiah.

He was not left in Hades, and his flesh did not experience decay.

God has resurrected this Jesus.

We are all witnesses of this.

Therefore, since he has been exalted to the right hand of God and is perceived from the Father, the

promised Holy Spirit, he has poured out what you both see and hear.

For it was not David who ascended into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord declared to my

Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus whom you

crucified with Lord and Messiah.

So we're going to read tomorrow about the response to this sermon.

But this is the Sermon of Pentecost.

And this is one of those incredible times where God works in huge, miraculous ways.

And it starts off with where we were last week, the apostles and those with them were praying, they

were all together, all of that was happening.

And then God fulfilled the promise that Jesus made, which was going to Jerusalem and you will

receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

And so you have here in this passage, the Holy Spirit coming.

And it's incredible.

There is a violent rushing wind.

There appears to be flaming tongues of fire.

They begin speaking in different languages, the languages of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, et

cetera.

I want to look at a couple of things in this passage that maybe don't automatically jump off the page

to us, but that are so cool and important.

So first I want to notice that as they are together, as they begin speaking, as God has brought all of

these Jewish people together for Pentecost, it's kind of a reversal of the Tower of Babel.

If you'll remember back in Genesis, there is all the peoples of the earth, they are at that point

speaking one language and they try to build a temple, a city, that would be a testament to their own

greatness so that they don't have to fear any animals, they don't have to fear any kind of maybe rival

tribes.

It is this initial big safe tower and city.

And God seen the pride of their heart and they kind of go, okay, well, God's never gonna get us with

a flood or with destruction again and we're gonna be safe, we don't need God, this city will protect

us.

He goes, well, you can't even talk to yourselves anymore.

And he confounds, he confuses their languages so that what was one people became all the peoples

that you would read about even in the table of nations in Genesis 10.

That you have all of these people groups that are now spread out speaking different languages.

And here, God does kind of a reversal of it, that those who were a separated people and nations now

become one nation and one people who speak that common language, who have that common

trait involved, the Holy Spirit.

And what an incredible thing that is, that even all of the things that are sad in this world, that are

broken, that are hurting, are not forever.

Just as God did at Pentecost, undo what had been done at Babylon, at Babel.

Now, he is working, even now, he is working to undo everything that has been wronged and been

made wrong by our sin, by Satan, by this world.

So we see there kind of the reversal of Babel that everyone hears each other in their own language.

And then Peter gets up to preach.

And many times in the gospels, you could see Peter and it was just open mouth, insert foot.

It's him on the Mount of Transfiguration going, hey, this is awesome, Jesus, you're here, Moses is here,

Elijah is here.

We should build Tabernacles, we should build tents for every single one of us, for every single one of

you.

And it's gonna be a wonderful time.

And God literally has to speak from heaven, the Father, and go, this is my son, hear him.

Peter's the one that, Jesus talks about his death and resurrection and Peter's going, you don't really

need that.

And Jesus has to rebuke him because Peter's being, he's letting Satan kind of tell him, okay, listen,

no, that's not the way that we win.

We win through taking over Rome.

We win through taking over Jerusalem and kicking out all of the high priests.

We don't win through the sacrifice of Jesus.

And Jesus tells him, get behind me, Satan.

This is that Peter.

This is the Peter that at different times, you can read in Galatians two, where Peter was witnessing to

those who were not Jews, and that he, once they were saved, he was eating meals with them.

And then when some of his, some of the people that were Jewish that knew him came up to that

area, then he goes, oh, great, I can't be seen with these guys.

And he pulls away from them.

And Paul goes, what are you doing?

It's not about if you're Jewish or Gentile, it's about if you're in Jesus.

This is that Peter, but this is one of the high points of his ministry where he's preaching at Pentecost.

And when he does it, he is speaking the words of scripture.

He speaks from Joel 2 in verses 17 through 21, and then he speaks from Psalm 16.

And then I think there's one other passage as well, one of the Psalms where he says, the Lord

declared to my Lord, and that is.

There we go, Psalm 110, Psalm 110.

So he's here drawing from scripture to be able to communicate, hey, what is happening here?

And there you have people that think that the apostles or the early disciples, oh, they must be drunk.

And he goes, no, no, no, they're not drunk.

It's nine o'clock in the morning.

Who's drunk at nine o'clock in the morning?

No, no, no, this is the outpouring of the Spirit of God.

I think even back to Hannah and Eli, back at the beginning of the Book of First Samuel, where she is

just really feeling a lot of that pressure and that stress of she doesn't have any children and there's so

much conflict going on in her life and she's praying to the Lord in the tabernacle.

And Eli comes up and he's like, lady, aren't you ashamed to be drunk at this hour of the morning and

here in this holy place?

And she goes, sir, I am not drunk, I'm just praying.

Sometimes with our American sensibilities, we can be so subdued in how we pray and in how we

worship.

And I would encourage us, the testimony of the early church, the testimony of the people of God was

that it was all in.

It wasn't subdued, it wasn't, I'll give this caveat, first Corinthians 14, God is not the author of confusion

that we are to do everything decently and in order in our worship.

But is it even obvious or clear that we are worshiping?

Or is it, I'm not really sure what that person is doing.

They're just being quiet.

They're just meditating.

They're just thinking.

They're just tired.

You know, we ought to have some portion of us that is worked up and excited and passionate about

what God is doing.

Here he gives the gospel.

That is Jesus was God.

Jesus proved he was God by his miracles, by his teachings.

He was put to death because God intended it so that he would die for the sins of the world.

But God had promised that the Messiah would raise again.

And that's exactly what Jesus did.

And I love the line in there where he says, it was not possible for Jesus to be held by the pains of

death.

But he was far too powerful for that.

I think today, this passage of scripture communicates a couple of things to us.

What was dead, what was gone, what was scattered, what was hopeless has now been made

hopeful.

It has now been made reconciled.

Can I encourage you today?

Pray and ask God, God, if there's something in my life that is just broken, maybe I'm struggling with a

sin and I desperately need your power and your ability to conquer this sin.

God, maybe it's a relationship that was broken maybe because of something I did, maybe because of

something they did.

God, I'm asking today, will you help me to believe that just as you raised Jesus from the dead, just as

you put back together the different languages and peoples, God, I believe that you can work in my

life.

I believe that you can do incredible things.

Think for our church.

I was reading the other day just of some of the works of God in Tabernacle in the past, and we'll

celebrate 74 years.

This Sunday is the 74th anniversary of our church being Tabernacle Baptist Church.

And I think for our church that there is that hope that, God, I know you've worked in the past.

I know you've put together incredible things before.

God, I'm asking you to do it again.

As you do it, I'm gonna be passionate.

I'm gonna be all in because I know what the hope is.

The hope isn't our abilities, it's not our personalities, it's not our greatness, it's not our programs.

It's Jesus who died for our sins, who was buried, who is risen again, who ascended, who is God and

Lord, and we can rely on his strength.

Hope today would be an encouragement to you and next tomorrow, we are going to be diving into

what was the response to the sermon.

There's a lot of boldness going on.

He says, you guys killed Jesus, how did they take?