Sermon25-28 Acts2 Guide

Acts 2 theme verse Acts 2:4

The praise and honor and glory be to our heavenly Father who seeks true worshipers who worship Him with the Spirit and truth.

In this twenty third Sunday of 2025, on Pentecost Sunday, I pray that His grace of the application of all the benefits which Jesus earned for our salvation and also the glorious ministry of the proclamation of His kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit may be full in our life. Last two weeks, we looked at the justification by faith and sanctification, yet this week, we would like to look at pouring of the Holy Spirit at the Pentecost together.

1)    To summarize the contents of today's text, first, in chapter 1, Luke recorded that after His resurrection, Jesus had been teaching about the kingdom of God for 40 days and before ascending to heaven on the Mount of Olives, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promised Holy Spirit. So, 120 people including apostles and His believers at an attic, probably Mark’s, dedicated themselves to prayer together with one mind. And ten days later, on the day of Pentecost, suddenly a sound like a violent rushing wind came down from heaven, filling whole the house and they saw tongues as of fire divided and rested on each of them. And then they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages ​​as the Spirit gave them utterance. And at that time, on the day of Pentecost, the people who were in Jerusalem from all nations heard the disciples speaking the mighty works of God in their own language so that they were astonished and perplexed, and ridiculed them, saying that disciples were drunk. So Peter stood up and raised his voice and said that they were not drunk, but that this descent of the Holy Spirit was the prophesied event which the prophet Joel had spoken that Jesus of Nazareth came to this earth as the Messiah and performed great miracles and signs to prove that he was the Messiah, but the people of Israel did not believe in Him, yet they crucified and killed Him. But God raised Him up and brought Him to the heaven and seated Him at His right hand and then Jesus received the promised Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it out on believers on that day, so that they proclaimed the gospel that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

2)    Among today’s text, we would like to look at some in more details together. First, Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, meaning “the fifth, came fifty days after the Passover and was known in the Old Testament, as the Festival of Weeks in Ex 34:22a, or of the Firstfruits in Num 28:26, or the Feast of Harvest  in Ex 23:16a too. On this day, lots of Jews used to climb up to Jerusalem to celebrate the wheat harvest as we can see in Lev 23:15–21. Yet after 70 A.D., when the temple was destroyed, on that day they celebrated that God had given Moses the Laws to give to their ancestors since the gift of Torah (the Laws) was a divine revelation in which the nature and will of God were made known on the basis of his gracious act of deliverance and with the result of a covenant between himself and his people. But, the Christian Pentecost represents the new revelation through the Holy Spirit based on the new act of redemption and deliverance and issuing in the formation of a new, or renewed, people of God, based upon a new covenant. So the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as a parallel to the Spirit’s coming upon Jesus at his baptism, is not only in continuity with, since it is new revelation of God, yet through the Holy Spirit, but also in contrast to the Law, since it declares that we could not fulfill the Law, rather the Holy Spirit can.

3)    In this perspective, this Pentecost event of the coming of the Holy Spirit is an event that opened a new era in God’s redemptive history. To understand this, we need to go back to Genesis 6. I mean, in Genesis 6, after human beings created by God committed the first sin to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and were driven out of the Garden of Eden, the world became full of sins and even all the intentions people had in their hearts were always evil, so God judged and wiped out all human beings, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the air from the face of the earth through the flood except for Noah and his family. And also at that time, it was written that the Holy Spirit departed from the Human beings. Since then, even with increased common grace and the law God gave through Moses, telling the Israelites who had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt that they would now live before God according to God’s law. However, as Romans 8:3 says, the Israelites did not live according to the law due to their weakness of their flesh, so God promised in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 that He would not only renew their spirits and hearts with the new covenant, with forgiveness of sins, but also put the Holy Spirit within them so that God's people would now live according to God's will. That promise of God was fulfilled with the descension of the Holy Spirit upon His people so that in this new era, the Holy Spirit became to dwell in the hearts of believers to lead them in His Words.

4)    Yet, this descension of the Holy Spirit for the work of salvation is the trinitarian ministry, as God planned in His sovereignty, Jesus did the vicarious atonement ministry on the cross and the Holy Spirit applies that benefits which Jesus earned for His people. In this sense, the Holy Spirit who descended on the day of Pentecost now dwells forever within believers, sanctifying them, and also pours out His gifts on Jesus’ disciples, enabling them to fulfill the mission of bearing witness to the gospel.

5)    In that sense, each of the various phenomena which occurred on the Pentecostal day, have theological meanings. First, the “sound of a mighty wind” that occurred in the attic when the Holy Spirit descended describes the audible manifestation of the coming of the Holy Spirit, since as the Hebrew word ‘ruah’ and the Greek word ‘pneuma’, refers not the Holy Spirit, but also the wind, in the Bible, wind mainly symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit. And also since the fire in the Bible frequently symbolizes the presence of God, as we can see in Ex 19:18 that the fire expressed God’s presence on Mount Sinai, the phrase “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” describes the visible manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each believer. So we can know that these two phenomena reveals that a new age of the Holy Spirit or the age of the church has begun. In addition, on this day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon them, and those who were filled with the Holy Spirit began to speak in different languages. This phenomenon also contains the theological meaning, too. I mean, as we know that in the incident of Babel Tower of Gen 11, even after God saved Noah and his family from the flood and commanded them to fill the whole earth, yet after a few generations, they went against God’s cultural command to “be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and multiply,” instead they built a tower with bricks with the top of the tower reaching to the sky to make their and avoid being scattered across the earth. Therefore, God confused their language so that they could not understand each other and stopped building the tower and God scattered them all over the earth. So, on the Pentecost, the fact that they began to speak in different language and understand each other shows us that when the new era may come on the last day, the confusion of language will be healed and all races, nations, and languages ​​will be able to communicate each other.

6)    By the way, sisters and brotehrs, it is also said here that 120 people in the attic were filled with the Holy Spirit, yet, the filling of the Holy Spirit in the Acts has two types.I mean, if the filling of the Holy Spirit uses the Greek ‘pimplemi’ verb which means a sudden filling of the Spirit, it resulted in the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim boldly the Gospel or to heal people miraculously as in Acts 2:4, when disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, then they boldly proclaim God’s great work in different tongue, or as in Acts 4:1-22, when Peter was filled with Holy Spirit, he boldly proclaim the gospel in front of the Council. On the other hands, if it uses the Greek verb ’pleroo’ or adjective ‘pleres’ which means the gradual filling of the Holy Spirit or the state being filled with the Holy Spirit, it refers to the gradual growth of wisdom and faith by the Holy Spirit in the sanctification process, as we can see in the Acts 6:5 “they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit,” or in the Acts 11:24 saying “for Barnaba was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith.” Therefore, we can know that the filling of the Holy Spirit in today’s text refers to a sudden filling of the Holy Spirit by which they can boldly proclaim the gospel with the power of the Holy Spirit or performs miracles. Yet, we have to know one more thing that we cannot cause this sudden filling of the Holy Spirit. I mean, when Jesus commanded them to wait until the Holy Spirit might come, so His disciples had been dedicating themselves to the prayer, and in this situation,  the Holy Spirit descended and filled them. However, this does not mean that the Holy Spirit descended and filled them because they prayed. Rather this was because the Holy Spirit was sent by God in His sovereignty for His redemptive purpose. In other words, we must clearly know that the Holy Spirit is the one whom the church must depend on, and that the church cannot control His coming or filling, even though we have to always pray to be humble and meek so that the Holy Spirit can use us in the ministry of gospel witnessing entirely at any time and at anywhere for His will.

7)    And also, in this incident when the disciples who were filled with the Holy Spirit spoke in other languages, there is one more thing we have to clearly point out. I mean, in verse 4, it is written that “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages ​​as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Here, we need to understand the difference between being possessed by a demon and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Generally speaking, when a person is possessed by a demon, the demon overlays the person’s personality and ignores that person’s personality completely and does whatever demon wants, whereas when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirt expects the person to obey to Him in His person decision and will. I mean, as in today’s text, the people who were filled with the Holy Spirit is said to speak in different languages ​​as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance. In this way, whether it is a temporary and sudden filling of the Holy Spirit in which the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested or a gradual filling of the Holy Spirit that occurs in the process of the sanctification, in both cases, the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, treats each of us personally, waits until we make decision to obey to Him, and ultimately walk according to His leading.

8)    Therefore, in the new era, the Holy Spirit dwells within us, not only accomplishing our sanctification, but also pouring out His power so that we can do the proclamation of the gospel participating in the mission of God. However, since “the fullness of the Holy Spirit belongs to God’s sovereignty, but obedience to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is human responsibility”, as Professor Park Young-don said in his book “Grace for Those Who Failed to Be Filled With the Holy Spirit,” we are presupposed that we obey His guidance, so that we have to be prepared to obey and be used as His instrument, by praying always and being humble and meek. Therefore, I pray that this year, we all may be sanctified inwardly and proclaim the gospel outwardly through the obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit, being filled with the Holy Spirit in the grace of redemption of Jesus Christ sent under God’s plan and sovereignty.

Key Questions as Small Group Activity

Q1 Through today’s text, we became to know that in the new era of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit not only performs the sanctification work while indwelling in us, but also makes us proclaim the Gospel giving us His power. So, reviewing our own life whether we are living the appropriate life in this new era, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Q2 Yet, in this era, it is said that we have to obey to the leading of the Holy Spirit personally too. So after reviewing our life whether we discern the leading of the Holy Spirit to obey to His leading, I hope we could share our thought and experience with our team members together to learn from each other.

Love you. Thank you. God bless you.

Prayer Note

Dear ( God’s attribute which you found Today ) God!

Thanks for ( something you received through the sermon or  even during the week )

Praise, gratitude and glory be to You, Lord!

Today, I realized my sin (pains) that ( the sin God reminded through the sermon ),

please forgive (or heal) me and help me not to repeat ( the sins you recognized   ).

I learned that ( something you learned through the sermon                                    )

Please help me to live in that (  learned way of life                                                )

I pray in ( Jesus’ attribute you find ) Jesus’ name. Amen.