Wind, Fire, and a Waiting Church: The Spirit-Filled Birth of the Church

Welcome to Journey Church, everyone. My name is Keith. If we've not met, I'm the lead pastor here at Journey. Truth be told, I'm not the real lead pastor. Jesus is. It's all about Jesus in this place. In fact, we know this is true. It's true of of every church that believes in the Bible, every church that believes in Jesus. He's the head of the body. He is the lead pastor of the church. In Matthew chapter 16, Jesus was asking his disciples, who do people say that I am? And you know, the whole world will say different things about Jesus. And it doesn't matter what someone else says. What matters is that you know the truth about Jesus. And they were sharing different people are saying different things. And then Jesus asked them, "Who do you say that I am?" And it was Peter that stepped up and said, "You are the Christ. You are the son of the living

God." And Jesus responded to Peter and said, 'Oh, blessed are you. You see, if you know the truth about who Jesus is, you are blessed. I believe today that you want to be blessed because blessed means to be happy, but it's this deep happiness, not based on what's happened to you or what you have. It's based on who God is. Blessed are you, Simon Barjonah. Be because you didn't get this from man. It was it was your heavenly father that's revealed this to you. This is a revelation from God. And then Jesus says something really important here. This is so that we would understand what the what the church is and who the church is. Jesus said this. It's on this rock on the revelation and the reality of who Jesus is, the Christ, the Messiah, the

chosen one of God. On this rock, Jesus says, "I will build my church. The gates of hell will not prevail against this." Jesus said, "I will build my church." This is so important that you understand this. The church is not man's idea. The church was never meant to be a religion. That word church in the original language, the Greek language is eklesia. The word eklesia means the assembly. Something happens when we assemble in Jesus name. When we assemble and say you are the Christ, everything changes. This is God's idea. The church is God's idea. is never meant to be a building. It's never meant to be a place. It's never meant to be a name. It's meant to be the assembly of those that want to seek after Jesus Christ.

And if you want to do that today, I'm telling you, God's going to blow you away because he's an almighty God. He has a great plan. The best is yet to come. God's not finished yet. He's not done with the church, and he wants you to be a part of it. When Paul was writing a letter to a church in a city called Ephesus, he writes to the Ephesians, and we have this letter in our Bible in the book of Ephesians chapter 1. He tells them, "I've been praying for you." He says in Ephesians 1:16, "I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers." Last week, I shared with you there is something you need to do if you want to be filled with the fullness of God, and that is powerful prayer. That is intercessory prayer. Praying for other people. Get your eyes off of yourself and start praying and something happens.

Paul was an intercessor and he prayed for the church. This is powerful prayer. It's not an ordinary prayer. It's not an easy prayer. He prays for them. And listen to this prayer. That the God, we have one God in three persons. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom. One God and three persons. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, and the spirit of wisdom. Don't you miss this because that's the majesty, the mystery, and the glory of our God. He's incomprehensible. Yet, we get access to God. He says, "I am praying for you that the God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, the spirit of wisdom

and of revelation and the knowledge of him." Then he asked this, that God would would give you the eyes of your hearts enlightened. Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened. Do you know that's what I've been praying for you today? That your eyes would be open to who God is. The eyes of your hearts would be enlightened. That you'd have the eyes of your hearts enlightened. That you may know what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints? Oh, this is a prayer, my friends. He's saying, I want you to know that the eyes of your hearts would be opened to the hope that you have because if you know the hope that you have, you will live for something greater than this world. You are not meant to live forever here.

You are meant to live for the hope of glory. You have a great inheritance. It's yours because you are a saint in Jesus name. You better understand this today that when you believe in Jesus, you're a saint. You go from being an a to a saint. You do not need to die to become a saint. You do not need someone to vote on you to become a saint. You do not need to do any miraculous uh uh event to to become a saint. You need to believe in Jesus Christ. And once you believe in Jesus Christ, you, my friend, are a saint. The word saint means you're set apart. It means you are special in God's eyes. You are set apart for his purpose. You are holy. He's got a great inheritance for you. You have hope in Jesus Christ. Paul prays this over the

church. I'm praying this over you. And on top of that, as if that's not enough. And there's more. He prays. And what is the immeasurable greatness? Would you say those two words? I measurable greatness of his power. Everyone say power. power towards us who believe that when you believe there's this immeasurable greatness of power towards us when we believe according to the working of his great might. Everyone say great might. Great might. Oh, if you just get get a grasp here of what happens when you have God. I believe this author Paul that's writing this is actually trying to describe an indescribable God.

How do you put into words the infinite power of the Almighty? You do the best you can to say it's immeasurable greatness. This is a power that can do what no one else can do. This is God's power at work through the eklesia, the church. And he goes on to say this, the greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great man. What does that work do? that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. This is the same power that rose Jesus from the grave. See, Jesus was not resuscitated. Jesus was crucified. He died. He was buried. But when he rose from the grave,

he got a new body. He was glorified. It was the power of the Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the grave. And Paul when he prays for the church says your eyes need to be opened that the Holy Spirit in you is the same Holy Spirit that rose Jesus from the grave. Amen. It's not a lesser Holy Spirit. It's not a different Holy Spirit because God never changes. He's eternal. He stands outside of time. I know it feels like we're stuck sometimes or it's taken a long time to see something, but in God's eyes, he can see the whole story. And he wants you to be a part of his story, history. And today, we celebrate something special. Today, we're going to look at the birth of the church. Not for information,

not for a history lesson. This is for the transformation that what God did then, he's still doing now. Is through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's a special day and I pray that this will be a special day for you. That this would not be an ordinary day, but rather you showed up here today. The fact that you woke up and the fact that you look so good and the fact that you're willing to hear God's word, I I hope that in your heart you're willing to become who God wants you to be. And if you have a willing heart and you want to believe, I'm telling you this, God will change you. He will transform you. And I I can't speak well enough of what God wants to do. I can try to use words like immeasurable greatness, but it would be better for you to experience this. So, I want to give a little backstory before we look at the birth of the church.

Jesus died. He was buried and he rose from the grave. And the Bible tells us then that he revealed himself to some 500 people in different places over a period of 40 days. The author of the book of Acts is a doctor named Luke and he records the acts of the apostles. These were those original followers, those who were sent out by Jesus. And the book of Acts is really just a biographical account of the church. Do you want to know how the church got started and what the early church did? Read the book of Acts. This is not man's idea. This is God's idea. And we read about this in the book of Acts that what God's doing today, he started. And we see that in the book of Acts. And Dr. Luke, the author of Acts, tells us in chapter 1, that while Jesus was still on earth, earth before he ascended into heaven, this is after the resurrection

that while he was staying with them, Acts 1 verse4, while staying with them, Jesus ordered them, his followers, not to depart from Jerusalem. So, I want you to go to Jerusalem. And then he said this, but to wait. Everyone say wait. Wait. Just wait. I want you to wait in Jerusalem. What are you waiting for? For the promise of the father which he said you heard from me. Let me just pause right there. I want you to go to Jerusalem and I want you to wait. Anybody ever had to wait for God's promises to be fulfilled? God does something in the waiting. He's stretching you. He's growing you. He's maturing inside of you. If you got everything you wanted when you asked for it, you would not be very mature.

Sometimes there's a blessing in the waiting. Nobody wants to wait because in the waiting you don't know when. You don't know how. You don't know how long. But something happens in the waiting. Just wait. God does not stop being God when you wait. Moses said, "Be still and know that I'm God." It's time to just stop sometimes and realize God is God and you are not. I I want you to go to Jerusalem, this holy city, the same place where he was crucified. I want you to go to Jerusalem. I want you to wait for what? The promise. This is the promise that Jesus talked about. He preached about this. He shared it with his closest followers. But but it often went over their heads. He said, "It's good that I leave you. I'm going to I'm going to leave you a helper, the Holy Spirit. It's good that I go. I'm going

to prepare a place for you, but you're not going to be alone. You're you're going to get a counselor. You're going to get an advocate. You're going to get get the Holy Spirit." So he says, "You're going to go to Jerusalem now and wait for that promise that I've been speaking of." He explains this in verse 5. For John, referring to his cousin known as the Baptist, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. Jesus did not say how many days, but not many days. I want you to wait. Now, Jesus just gave really clear instructions of what to do. Just wait for the promise that I said I was giving you, the Holy Spirit. Now, what would your response be to Jesus if he gave you those instructions?

In Acts 1 6, we get to see what his followers did. So, when they had come together, they asked Jesus, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Just to clarify for those that are new to the scriptures, reading the Bible, this is a political statement. Lord, are is today the day you're going to be voted into power? Is today the day you flip upside down the government and you take your rule and your reign as the king of all king? Is today the day? It It's about time that we don't have to pay these taxes anymore. Please, Lord, we waited long enough. Is that what we're waiting for? Are we just waiting for you to finally do what we've been asking for you to do all along?

They were expecting that the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen one, would would really radically change the kingdom of this earth. But Jesus came and preached a message, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That word repent is so important to your theology. Repent means to change your thinking. Quit thinking like the ways of this world. The ways of this world will make you think that things are going to change the way you understand them, but the way that God's going to do it may be a way that you don't even understand yet. Repent. God's ways are not your ways. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You don't have to wait to get to heaven to start to experience heaven, but this won't be a political kingdom. And they're expecting that Jesus is going to turn over the Roman Empire, which was the greatest governing body on

the planet at this time. Is this the time Jesus, you're going to prove to the world that you're greater than the Roman government? And Jesus responds to them, you idiots. No, just kidding. He could have said that. But he said the same thing that he would say to you and me. He said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority." Sometimes we demand of God something that we don't need to know. God, tell me this. God, tell me this. God doesn't owe you anything. God is God. You're not. And if you got that information that you actually wanted, you probably couldn't even handle that information.

It's not up for you to know everything. The instructions were clear. Wait. He didn't even make it complicated. Wait. The promise is coming. And for those that are new to the church and new to reading the Bible, God has never broken a promise. What he says he will do. Now, we can argue with the ways like, well, it's taking too long. I don't like the way you're doing. You can argue with it, but God's ways are always good. They're always right. And he will fulfill his promise. Amen. And you know what's so great about God? He he doesn't call them idiots, but he just says it's not for you to know when and how these things will happen. Then he goes on to say in verse eight, and this is this is a verse that will change your life if you take this serious, but you've got to believe that this verse is for you as well. Jesus said, but so I'm not going to tell you all the details of

what I'm going to do. But you may not be able to know everything, but he says, "But you will receive power." Everyone shout power. Power. So here's the deal. You may not know when these things are going to happen, but here's one thing you can know is that you will. This is a promise of God. This is affirmative. You can know this with confidence. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. So when God himself, the Holy Spirit comes, you're going to have a power to do what you couldn't do on your own. What are you going to do with that? Finally, now we could turn over the political parties. Nope. Jesus says this. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem. That's where they're to wait.

Right where you are. We're going to start with where you are. You don't need to start somewhere else. Start with where you are. Jerusalem, Judea, an outer region, and Samaria, the region you don't think that God's going to bless. He's going to do it. And to the end of the earth. So Jesus gives a promise. I'm going to do something through you so that I get the glory and the world will know who I am through the Holy Spirit. You're going to be my witnesses. This is what's going to happen. And in verse 9, when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. I imagine Jesus didn't want to explain anymore. So Jesus, what you're saying is, "Wait, Jesus, wait.

As they're looking up, some angels show up and say, "What are you looking for? Jesus gave you instructions. Go Jerusalem. Wait." And Luke tells us in Acts 1:12, "Then they returned to Jerusalem. They did what Jesus told them to do from the mount called Eette, which is near Jerusalem. It was about a Sabbath day journey away. And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying. There was Peter, John, James, and Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alfus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, not to be mistaken with the other Judas, Escariat, who's no longer with us. He he's gone. This is 11 of the 12 that Jesus picked.

11 of the 12 are there. They're in the upper room. And lest we think that they're all alone and it's all about the men. Verse 14 says, "All these with one accord." They were united. They were devoting themselves to prayer. United in prayer. This is powerful. Together with the women, including Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. You got this incredible group of men and women. And in those days, it says verse 15, Peter stood up among the brothers. and Luke notes in parenthesis. The company of persons was in all about 120. Jesus revealed himself to many more than 120. Yet there were were about 120 that decided, I really want to pray.

I really want to be a part of this promise. I really believe what Jesus said. And as they do that, they have one instruction. What are they to do? Shout it out. Wait. And Peter stands up and says, "I think we need to fully understand what did Jesus mean by wait." See, Peter had the same disease I have. It's open mouth syndrome. Uh, I'm just going to try to fix it before I read the instructions. I'm going to try to put it together first. And uh, who who needs to read those IKEA instructions? Let's just go for this. Jesus said, "Wait." But I think what he really meant, guys, is that he wants us to figure this out. This is a test. Peter often took matters into his own hands. And he does that. And I just want to paraphrase the story for you. You could read this. This is true. It's in the Bible. Acts chapter 1. Get to the

end of Acts chapter 1. This is what he does. He says, "Here's the deal. There's 11 of us left." Because y'all know what happened to Judas. And here's the deal. There was 12. So I think we need to find the 12th person. So before we get the promise, I think Jesus is testing us. He wants us to have 12, not 11. So how should we pick the 12th guy? I imagine a kid in the back shouting, "Pray." He's like, "No, no, be quiet, kid." All right, here's what we're going to do. I'm in charge. Jesus said, "On this rock," he said, "I got the right answer. Here's what we're going to do to pick that 12th person." All right, we're going to gamble. I'm not making this up. Read the Bible, y'all. He said, "We're going to cast lots and whoever the rock falls on, that person by God's providence by co coincidence with the stars aligned, that's who should be the 12th." This is a weird story. So if you read the Bible, you'd be like, "Really? This is how they do it? They're going to

throw a rock and whoever lands on that's who gets to be the 12?" Yeah, that's not the right way to do it. How do we know that's not the right way to do it? This is the last time we see someone casting lots for something spiritual in the Bible. Sometimes the Bible puts things in there not for us to replicate, but to learn from. Sometimes it's up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up up to us to learn and realize that some of us are casting lots with our life saying well God whatever you put in my life that's what I'm going to do and the Holy Spirit wants us to be led by God himself not led by chance not led by whatever choice comes into my mind and heart wherever the rock falls you see in our day this would be like flipping a coin you ever not know what to do so you flip a coin if it's heads I'll do this if

it's tails I'll do that wherever this I can't figure this out right now. I don't have time to pray. Let's just flip a coin. Should I marry this person or this person? All right, here we go. Only to find out a few weeks later, maybe I shouldn't have done that. You see, see, they they they chose Matias, whom we never hear about again. He doesn't seem to be a prayer warrior. He doesn't seem to be a healer or a preacher or we I can't judge him because we don't even know anything about him. He gets chosen as a 12th because they cast lots. They flipped a coin. Listen my friends, I tell you that because in Acts chapter 1, Jesus gave clear instructions. Wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit. He did not say you need to take matters into your own hands.

We need less flipping coin Christians and more spiritfilled Christians. Let me tell you what a flipping coin Christian is. It's the person that really wants God to work in their life, but they're not allowing God to work in their life. I hear it all the time. I just really want God to speak to me. So, I found my Bible and I got the dust off of it and I just closed my eyes and I opened it up and Lord, you tell me whatever you want to say. I'll do it. Cut off 104 skins of the Philistines. Okay, Lord. Listen, you be careful playing flipping the coin Christian knees here. Bible Russian roulette here. I listen, I tell

you, some of us treat God as if somehow you got to take matters into your own hands. You're waiting and God's not answering. You're wondering what's happening in your life, whether it's a relationship issue, a financial issue, a health issue. So, you take matters into your own hands. I'm just here to tell you that what we're about to learn next is so important that you know it's not up to you. It's up to God to work through you. Your job is to wait, to be united, to pray, and to witness what God's going to do next. Because what what we see next is that it's it's not by our might. It's not by our strength. It's but by the spirit of the Lord. Look at Acts chapter 2 verse one. Here's the birth of the church. You want to know where the church got started? It's found in Acts chapter 2. We start with verse one. It says, "When the day of Pentecost arrived," everyone say, "Pentecost." Pentecost. Some of you have heard of Pentecostals before. It comes from this

text here that what happened here, some people want to replicate and so they've turned it into denomination. But we're going to understand Pentecost today. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. So they were united. They were in one place. Now Pentecost has two meanings. One is the Christian meeting. This is the day the church got started on Pentecost. The second meaning is a Jewish celebration that was practiced long before this day. Pentecost is a day that was celebrated for many generations, many centuries, and many millennia before this even occurred. It was one of the three major Jewish festivals where people would travel a great distance to come to Jerusalem. Now, the word Pentecost is actually it doesn't sound that sacred or holy. The word actually just means 50 days. It means 50th. That's what Pentecost means. Penta 50 days. It's the

50 days. 50 days after what? 50th day of what? 50 days after Passover. Now, Passover was one of those major festivals that Jewish people would travel from all over the world to come to Jerusalem and celebrate Passover. If you're newer to church history, Passover is the time that we remember God's deliverance of his people, the Israelites, while they were in Egypt. God sent forth plagues upon Egypt because Pharaoh wouldn't let them go. And the 10th plague was the worst plague. It was the spirit of death. And God made a promise. If you believe in me, slaughter a lamb, take the blood of that lamb and put it on the doorpost of your home. And if you put the blood of the lamb on your doorpost, the the spirit of death will pass over your home. And for all those that believed and trusted in God's word, it happened.

And that was the final plague in which God was able to deliver his people. And for many generations thereafter, they would celebrate Passover. They would enjoy good food. They would enjoy good music. They would remember what God's done, his faithfulness. and they would travel all over the place. So remember, we're in this together. We can learn a lot from the Jewish festivals. Passover is so important. This is the time in which Jesus decided he would be crucified that he would give up his life at Passover. Now, Pentecost is 50 days after Passover. We're going to look at this more carefully. It's also known by other names just as Passover is known by other names. is known as the celebration of unleavened bread where where where the the Israelites when they were leaving Egypt they didn't have time to bake bread so that they left out the

leaven the yeast and they took this flatbread with them and and it was a reminder that leaven in the scriptures is a picture of sin and one day there would be one without sin that is Jesus Christ so Passover and the celebration of unleavened bread is the same thing also the day of first fruits that's the day Jesus rose from the grave. Also at Passover, the first fruits is the best. It's what comes first. Jesus is the first. He is the alpha. He is the best. And that's when he rose from the grave. Now, Pentecost also goes by the name Shabbat. Shabbat simply means weeks. It's it's the feast of weeks because Pentecost happens seven weeks after Passover. 7* 7 is 49. Here we get this idea of the feast of weeks.

the celebration of Shabbat 50 days after Passover. It is the celebration of God giving his people the Torah that when they were delivered from Egypt to this land that God had promised, he didn't leave them to figure out things on their own. God through Moses on Mount Si gave the Torah, which are the instructions of God. It's the word of God. It's the commandments of God. God gave his word so that his people would know who he is and they would know who they are. And now they're to celebrate this at Pentecost. It's a reminder that God is the good giver. It happened to be at a time where there there would be a celebration of the harvest and it was a celebration of the grain harvest. This is what they would give God as a celebration of his Torah. They would give him the first fruits of their grain. We learn about this in Leviticus 23. Let me just give you a little history lesson. It says, "You shall

count 50 days, there's Pentecost, to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved made of two tenants of epha. They shall be of fine flour and they shall be baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. Do you see the difference of Passover and Pentecost? Passover, you present bread without leaven, which represents a life without sin, which alone is Jesus Christ. He alone is the only person that has ever lived a life without sin. Now, here we are at Pentecost, 50 days later, and you're to wave this bread in the air like you just don't care. And this bread has leaven, has yeast in it, which

represents sin. That's to be your first fruits. This represents us. All of us are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. It happened to be Pentecost. 50 days after Passover, 50 days after Jesus rose from the grave, it was Pentecost that we're going to see something spectacular. Now, why would God decide to do all of this around these Jewish festivals? I'll tell you why. Because God gave those festivals. They were never meant just to be these celebrations, these religious rituals. They were all meant to point to Jesus. That's what's so special about this book. This is no ordinary book. It's filled with 66 books written on three different continents over a 1500 year

period of time. This is a complicated book. And the devil does not want you to read this book because this book is all about Jesus. It's not even about you. It's all about Jesus. Now, you read this and there's going to be complicated things like cutting off the hund for grins and you're be like, "This is a weird book." No, no. This book is all about God and how he works through real people just like you and just like me. As we get in this book, we get to know God even greater. The reason God gave all these festivals is he was pointing us forward to who Jesus is and what he would do. Passover all about Jesus. Pentecost all about Jesus. Now, there's a third festival that's really important to the Jewish people that they would also travel to Jerusalem. It it's around the time of their holiest festival which is Yam Kapur, the day of atonement, which by the way is also about Jesus.

But there's a festival that comes in September called Rash Hashana. It's the festival of trumpets. Now, as you read the Bible, Jesus promised that he would come a second time. He rose from the grave. He would come again. And what you see in the scriptures, Paul says this to the Thessalonians. He says, "When Jesus comes, there will be a supposed to yell trumpet." That was my interpretive dance. I tried. There would be a trumpet. A trumpet will sound. The church will be taken. Jesus somehow greets the saints in the air. It's spectacular. You go to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. It's the Revelation of Jesus. There's a lot of trumpets in

there. And when that first trumpet sounds, it's the beginning of many trumpets. There'll be seven trumpets of of of wrath that will be poured out on people who refuse to turn to Jesus. Refuse to repent and say, "I need a dependence on God." And and so here we wait. Come on, somebody. We're waiting for the fulfillment of this third festival completion. Now, let's come back to Pentecost because this is so important. Some of you have heard the word Pentecost and Pentecostals are so weird to you. You're like, I don't want to know anything about Pentecost. Uh, let me just tell you this is so important. Don't let anything on earth wreck what God created in heaven. This is so important because at Pentecost that verse two, suddenly, everyone say suddenly. And suddenly, and suddenly on

Pentecost, there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind. and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all, everyone shout all, all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues. That word tongues simply means languages as the spirit gave them utterance suddenly. Now what were they doing when suddenly happened? They were praying. They were in one accord. they were praying. Did they know what they were praying? No. No one knew. Lord, I just hope there's a sound of rushing wind and fire on everybody's heads. And now it'd be so cool to speak a different language. Lord, I've always wanted to know what it's like to speak Egyptian.

So, if you could do that, they didn't know what they were praying for. They were just praying. And when you pray and you invite God to do what God does best, to be God, when you're not, suddenly you release, you renounce what the enemy has tried to get you to do, which is to control your life, which by the way, God has a better plan for your life than you have. And it's when you release that in prayer, the Lord shows up. And I want to warn you for those that think, well, I can go to church and kind of fix my life and look prettier. No, it doesn't work like that. It will always be weird. There will always be a suddenly. And God will surprise you and you'll say, "I didn't see that coming. I just didn't see that coming." Let's look at what happened here. And suddenly, verse two, there was a sound. It was audible. There was a sound of a mighty rushing wind. It wasn't in a part of the room like, "Hey, someone close the window." No, it filled the entire

room. This audible sound of a mighty rushing wind. What does the wind represent? The wind represents the Holy Spirit. We see that in all the scriptures. Genesis chapter one. It was the the Holy Spirit that's hovering over the waters. It was the Holy Spirit that took Elijah up into heaven through the wind. Something about wind represents the Holy Spirit. We know this is true because we see this both in the Old Testament. We see this in the New Testament that wind represents God, the person, the Holy Spirit. In the Hebrew, the word for wind is ruach. You've got a hakalugi when you say it. Ruach. Ruach is is the wind, the breath of God. When God made man, the human look good, but something was missing. Ruach, breath, wind, life, the spirit of God.

Ruach. When you wonder, "What's my purpose? What's my plan?" It's that you would experience the ruach, the spirit of God, the living God, the breath of God in your life. When you do, you change. Ezekiel said he saw a valley of dry bones represents death. When God said, "Prophesy over them. Speak God's word over these bones." The bones look like they formed into humans, but something was missing. Life. And God said, "You prophesy breath. Prophesy wind. Prophesy." Some of you have been living but not living. You don't have life. It's ruach. It's the spirit of God. In the New Testament, we see a different word in Greek because they were written in different languages at different times. is the Greek word numa.

It's the wind, the breath of God. When Jesus rose from the grave, he's in a glorified state. He walked through the walls to his disciples who were hiding in fear because that's what fear does. It isolates you. Jesus shows up and he says, "Peace be with you." Jesus wants you to have peace today. And then John says something interesting in chapter 20. He says, "He breathed on them." Now, if you just read that once again, it' just be weird. But he numa, he gave them breath. He gave them the spirit. God wants you to experience the spirit. So the wind here is not just any ordinary wind. It's symbolic of the Holy Spirit. Jesus when he met with a man named Nicodemus in the middle of the night because this man had all kinds of questions. Nicodemus is asking Jesus these questions and Jesus answered them not in the way that he would expect. And Jesus said, "If anyone wants to enter his kingdom, he must be

born again." And Nicodemus as a grown man says, "That's gross. How can you enter out of your mother's womb? Again, I don't understand Jesus. And Jesus says, "You're missing the point. I'm not talking about be born of the flesh. I'm talking about being born of the spirit." There will come a moment in your life that you realize, "I need a dependence of God in my life." And Jesus says, "That's called born again." You have a new purpose. You have a new destiny. You have a new reason to live. And now you let the Holy Spirit live in you. And you want to go where the spirit wants you to go, not what you did before. So, you're born again. Amen. And then Jesus explains in John 3:8 to Nicodemus, the wind, note this, the wind blows where it wishes. So when you're born again, it's an adventurous, it's a journey, and you hear a sound, but you do not know where it comes from

or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit. You go after God, you get God. And the wind will take you to places you never thought you'd go. You will do things you never thought you would do. God will say, "Wait when you don't want to wait." He will show up when you least expected it. The wind represents the Holy Spirit. In this case, it was audible. You couldn't see the Holy Spirit. It was the sound of wind. Then there was something you can see. There was fire. Look at verse three. And divided tongues as of fire. This was like fire. This was not fire. This was like fire on every single one of their heads. Now, fire in the scriptures represents, come on, guess what? The Holy Spirit. We see this from

the beginning. In John chapter 3, Jesus talked about the wind. In Exodus chapter 3, Moses meets with God in a bush. When's the last time he met with God in a bush? No, don't answer that. Uh, let me tell you, the bush was on fire because the fire represents the Holy Spirit. The bush was burning but not being consumed because God chose us symbolically to let us know who he is. The book of Hebrews says, "Our God is an all-consuming fire." So we see throughout the scriptures, God represents himself as a fire. When the Israelites were on the journey from Egypt to the promised land, God led them by a cloud by day, wind, and a fire by night. It was the fire that led them. And now God shows up onto the scene. He sounds like wind. He looks like fire. We we see that fire. It's the promise that

John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:10, "I baptize you with with water for repentance. I'm trying to change your thinking to turn to God." But he who is coming mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to even carry. He Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus said that we would be baptized in Acts 15, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So now we see just symbolically we've got this wind, we've got this fire, and then verse four, as if that's not weird enough, here's what happens next. And they were all, everyone shout, all. All filled with the Holy Spirit. Not some, not the young, not the old, not the men. All in the upper room were filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a God for all people,

not just a few people, not a holy huddle. God wants to reveal himself to all people. And we see this with what he does next. It was through tongues. It was through different languages. See, what's so interesting with this text here is we really don't see much about the wind after this. We don't really see the tongues of fire on top of the heads anymore, unless you have a journey hat on. But but what we do see not only through the rest of Acts and through history is God is going to continue to speak through tongues. Now, why is our tongues important? Because tongues are the way we communicate. The Bible talks a lot about the tongue. And whenever you see that word tongues, it's talking about language because your tongue has power. In the book of Proverbs, which is the book of wisdom, we read death and life are in the power of the tongue. You'll either build people up with your mouth or you're going to tear people down.

Those who love it will eat its fruit. So someone says something nice to you, say it some more. Say it some more. Someone speaks ill of you. so much trauma in our lives is because at a young age someone said something to us they should have never said with their tongue. Now when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of your tongue, God changes everything. It starts with your heart but when he gets a hold of your heart, he gets a hold of your tongue. Now why does that matter? Because this is how we communicate. This is a representation of communication. It's not a representation of languages. It's a representation of communication. When God created all things, he used words. He spoke and it happened. Now, some of us are born and raised in America, so we just imagine that when God said, "Let there be light," it was English. "Let there be light." Probably wasn't English.

I don't know what language it was, but it was a language and it was words. And John wants us to know that the one that used those words is Jesus. In the beginning was the logos. It was the word. The word was there in the beginning. The word was with God. The word was God. Jesus is the word. He is the logos. And now they're able to communicate with words. The same God that created using words gives words that they're now speaking different languages. Now in the New Testament, we we do see the use of tongues a number of different times. And we see it through church history. And there's two different types of tongues. This is languages. That's what the word tongues mean. One is the utterance of a language that someone else can understand. This is what happens in this occasion.

The first place I started my ministry journey was in Santa Cruz, California. I worked at a little church and there was a little old lady. I don't know if she was widowed or divorced or never got married, but she was the most wonderfully sweet woman that loved Jesus. And she wanted to reach uh some Spanish-sp speakaking kids just 15 minutes south of Santa Cruz. And these kids uh did not speak English. They only spoke Spanish. And she wanted to reach these kids. Now, her problem is she did not know how to speak Spanish. So, she asked the Lord. She says, "Lord, I want to reach these kids. I want to do like a vacation Bible school type thing for these kids. So, please help me reach these kids." Now, this lady without learning the Spanish language was given the gift of Spanish without ever learning it. She could speak it as if she was born and raised in Mexico. She could understand it. She could not read it and she could not write it. God just gave her that gift of Spanish.

Uh we had a guest worship leader here not too long ago and I he comes from a Brazilian family which speaks Portuguese and his wife is Americanborn and does not speak any Portuguese and one night they went to a Portuguese-speaking church which is where he was raised and and and his wife was listening and she leans over to her husband and says man this guy speaks really good English and her husband says he's not speaking English he's speaking Portuguese. the Holy Spirit shows up and is able to do what only God can do and speak in a different language. Now, that's a gift that God gives. Now, there's a second use of the the word tongues that we read about in the scriptures. Paul speaks mostly about this in 1 Corinthians 12. There are other places as well that we can read about this in the book of Romans and and further study. But Paul talks about this this tongues or this language that is not human.

At one place, it's described as the the language of angels. How many of you speak angel? Well, that's a language nobody understands, but it's a language that you use to communicate with God. So, you don't even know what you're speaking, but God understands. So, so when you understand or hear people speak in tongues, you're like, "Yeah, I'm not sure I've heard that dialect before. Is that from the south or where is that from?" It's a it's a language that Paul says, "Listen, I'm praying in tonesues more than all y'all. And I want you to pray in tonesues, but I don't want you to pray in tonesues just to pray in tonesues because if all y'all were praying in tonesues and someone comes in and doesn't know Jesus, they're going to say, "This is weird." That's what that's what he says in 1 Corinthians 12. He says that just doesn't make sense. So if someone does in a public gathering like this, there there should at least be a translator.

And in this particular case, we can know that tongues is not something we'll be afraid of, but it's given by the gift of God. The spirit of God gives the utterance of tongues. So when you have the Holy Spirit, you can expect that you will do what you could never do on your own. Now, now why did God give them these this gift of languages? I got to read this quickly. So, so work with me here. I'm going to read this text fast. Verse 5 through13. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. Remember, it's Pentecost. And at the sound multitude came together, and they were bewildered. They were confused because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, "Are not all these who were speaking Galileans?" Now, Galilee was north of Jerusalem. It was what we would call today a bluecollared community. Not the most educated and academic folk.

Okay? If you're not getting that, they didn't learn different languages growing up. They weren't given the option, would you like to learn Mandarin, Chinese, French, German, or Japanese? Look at this. Look at this. Verse eight. And how is it that we hear each of us in our own native language? Who was there? Parththeians, me, Elilummites, and residents of Mesopotonia, Judea and Capidosia, that's a place, not a coffee. Pontius and Asia, Fia, and Panilia, Egypt, and parts of Libya belonging to Sirene. That's Africa. And visitors from Rome, Europe, both Jews, and procelites, cretins, and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own languages the tongues the mighty works of God. They could hear them praising God, the mighty works of God, and all were amazed and perplexed,

saying to one another, "What does this mean?" See, when you get the revelation of God for the first time, it's a bit confusing. Like, I understand this. How do I understand this? What does this mean? And someone said, "Here's the deal. They're drunk." Verse 13. But others mocking said they're filled with new wine. When people can't explain something, they want to use earthly explanations. So, if I see someone acting goofy, I'm just going to say they're drunk. Maybe they're on drugs. If we can't explain this, we've got to use ways that we understand to explain this. But we need to understand this that the Holy Spirit is not for some people. He's for all people. Amen. There truly is hope for everyone. We don't have an American God. We have a God that's for all people. He's for Africans and he speaks every language of every single tribe. Now if we would understand how many tribes are on the continent of Africa

that is he he speaks for the tribes of the Rwans and the Ugandans and the Kenyans. Come on. He speaks all languages of every person. You know our God speaks German, Russian, Japanese. He is for all people. And the point that we see in Acts chapter 2 is the gospel is not for some people. It's for all people. God speaks your language. Now what do I mean by God speaks your language? He knows where you've been and he knows where you are. He could speak the language of prison. He could speak the language of courtroom. He could speak the language of of a of a surgery bed in the hospital because our God is a judge. He's a defender. He's an advocate. He is a great physician. He is a healer. He is a helper. He is the Holy Spirit. Amen. So you say, "God doesn't know where I am." Yes, God speaks your language, my friend. He will meet you in your darkest hour. He will walk with you through the

valley of the shadow of death. God knows what you've been through. He loves you. He's not going to give up on you. He's speaking to you today. I am for you. The reason Jesus came and died on the cross and rose from the grave is so that you would have the freedom of the Holy Spirit. The person, the power of God, and God will speak to you and you will say, "Every word that you said was for for me." Let me tell you, that's not the preacher, that's the Holy Spirit. If God speaks to you in a sermon, don't ever give credit to the preacher. It's the Holy Spirit. God's gripping your heart. He's telling you, "Obey me. Love me because I love you. Wherever you go, wherever you've been, I haven't given up on you. There's no sin so great that he won't forgive you. He won't set you free." These people didn't learn these languages. The Holy Spirit gave it to them. Acts 2:7 says, "All the people

that heard were amazed and astonished." That's what happens when you have the Holy Spirit. People are amazed and astonished. Wait a second. You used to be drunk all the time and do drugs. Now you're just trying to tell me about Jesus. People are going to be amazed and astonished because you say, "Those strongholds have been broken. I've been born again. I've been set free. I'm a child of God. I'm not a drug addict. I'm not an alcoholic. I am filled with the Holy Spirit." You used to be harsh all the time. You used to snap at your kids. used to be angry at people when they offended you. Now all of a sudden people are amazed. They're perplexed. What's different about you? They're amazed. You used to be so angry because that's who I was. But now by the power

of the Holy Spirit, I'm filled with love, joy, peace, patience. I now have kindness, gentle. I'm now like Jesus who had compassion. So I'm moved to do what God would want me to do. Well, it used to be so so quiet all the time, but now you're standing up to the religious. You're standing up for the for the marginalized. You're advocate. What's I'm I'm amazed and I don't know what your story is, but I do know this. When God gets a hold of your heart, the world will be amazed and astonished. And you might be ordinary. You might be uneducated. You might not have the ability to do certain things. But I'm here to tell you, when the Holy Spirit gets a hold of your heart, it doesn't matter. If you're a doctor, God wants you to be a doctor for Jesus right where you are. Reflect the great physician.

If you're a lawyer, represent the true lawyer. That is the Holy Spirit, the paricletus, our defender, our advocate. See, doesn't matter where you are in life. God just wants to get a hold of your heart so the world will see so that you can fulfill the great commission. Go therefore, Jesus said, and make disciples of all the nations, at your schools, at your workplace, in your homes, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one God and three persons, and teaching them to observe all that I've commanded. It's in this place that we understand the Holy Spirit poured out on Pentecost was the birth of the church that we would continue that great work of God." Peter went on to explain, "We're not drunk. It's only 9:00 a.m." And he ended up preaching the first and most powerful sermon. Peter went from being a gambling addict to now just a preacher for Jesus.

And it is powerful. You can read the sermon in Acts chapter 2. And at the end of this message about Jesus dying on the cross, crucified because of our sin, defeating death. At the end of this, the people were listening and looking on to Peter and said, "How can we be saved?" And Peter just gave a simple response and he says, "Repent." Verse 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit that what I have you can have. Doesn't matter where you're from. You can be from Africa, Asia, Europe. You you you could be from America. It doesn't matter what your credentials are. The Holy Spirit crosses any religious line, denominational lines. There's one God in three persons.

You believe in Jesus and the father's going to give you the Holy Spirit. The shift happens at Pentecost. But today, the shift happens in our hearts. On that day, what's amazing is 3,000 people gave their lives to Jesus Christ. The church went from being a small church of 120 to a mega church of 3,120. And by the way, this is just the beginning. Later on, we see 5,000 people getting saved. Then we see people getting saved in so many different cities. Ephesus, Philippi, Colasse, all over the Jewish region of Galatia, all these different cities. And we start to see that God is not limited to a certain place. It's not about a certain building, but God wants to work through

real people like you. And the question today is the same question that was given so long ago in Acts chapter 2. What must you do to be saved? And it's the same answer. Repent. Repent just means change your thinking. Lest you think that repentance means being sorry. That's not what repentance is. A lot of people say sorry when they're caught doing something wrong. So if you've done something wrong and you say, "I repent. I'm sorry." That's not repentance. Repentance is changed thinking that leads to a changed life. means on the outside now I want to reflect on the outside what's happened in my heart. So if I've mistreated you, I repent. That means I'm now going to treat you different. It's not coming back to the same thing. So when you repent, you grieve over, I can't believe I was living for myself. Now I'm born again. I want to live for the Lord. And by the

way, when you repent, it doesn't mean you're perfect. The more you mature and follow Jesus, the quicker you learn to repent. God reveals your sin a lot quicker and you get to your knees a lot quicker. You don't want to wait another decade or two or three before he reminds you, I could redeem this situation. I could restore this marriage. I I could do the impossible. Nothing is impossible with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Would you just close your eyes where you are? I want to ask you right now if you've never given your life to Jesus. Doesn't matter what age you are. It doesn't matter what your religious journey was before this day. But if this is the day you want to surrender your life to Jesus and be saved, you've got to repent in your heart. You've got to believe in your heart Jesus did die for you. But he's not dead. He's living. He's alive by the power of the Holy Spirit and he rose

from the grave so that you no longer have to carry your sin. But you are forgiven in Jesus name. If you want a living relationship with Jesus, would you just raise your hand right where you are? I want to pray with you today. Just put your hand right up and say, "I repent. I give my life to Jesus. Praise God. So proud of you. Someone else here right now, your heart is beating saying, "I haven't truly done this before. I want to do this right now." Praise God. Praise God. It is never too late with Jesus Christ. Never. Right where you are. Anybody else? Just slip up your hand. I just want to see you today. I want to say yes, Lord. You got a child that's just come home. Praise be to God. Anybody else? Yes, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Right right where you are. Amen. Praise God.

See, what this means right now is you're just thinking about this in your heart, I I need you to understand this. It means that when your heart stops beating and you die, you actually don't die. You start living. You have the hope of glory, eternal life. And if you're uncertain of your future, you can be certain right now that you're given the gift of salvation and eternal life. If you want that right now, just slip up your hands saying, "I want that in Jesus name. I want that right now. I want to receive that in Jesus name. I want to receive the gift of grace, the gift of God's promise on Pentecost. I want to receive the Holy Spirit. If you prayed, if you if you raised your hand, I want to pray with you. And if you pray this prayer today, you're born again. God gives you the gift of the Holy Spirit. You need to tell somebody.

We'd be honored to pray with you. There's going to be a prayer team in just a moment on either side of the platform. We'll lay hands and pray for you to receive the Holy Spirit. You've just started the greatest adventure and journey with Jesus. Lord, I thank you for those that raise their hands today and said, "I I want you. I surrender my life to you." That's you in your heart. Would you just confess your sin to the Lord? He is faithful and just to forgive you. We repent of our sin today, Lord. That sometimes we think we know how to lead our lives or live our lives, but really we don't. We need to surrender to you, Almighty God, the maker of heaven and earth. We give you our lives right now. Lord, we receive salvation and we receive the power of the person, the Holy Spirit, and we say have your way in your church. Continue to do great things, God. That what you did that first day was just the beginning. We say do more. The greatest miracle of all, salvation. So, thank you

for that one that says, "Yes, Lord, today." For that one that hears me right now, we just say, "Thank you, Lord, for that person saying yes to you, Jesus. We thank you for what you've done and who you are. And in Jesus name, we all agree. Amen. Amen. If you're able to, would you stand to your feet? Let's remember the Holy Spirit, the one that came like a dove over Jesus when he was baptized. He is hovering over you today in gentleness and in power. Thank you, Jesus.