Pastor Jeremy M. Thomas
Fredericksburg Bible Church
107 East Austin
Fredericksburg, Texas 78624
830-997-8834      jthomas@fbgbible.org
A0807 – February 17, 2008 – Acts 2:1-13 – The Coming Of The Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-13 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 5Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. 7They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8“And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9“Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” 12And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.” (NASB95)

Acts 2:1-13 Now when the day of Pentecost arrived they were (3PIAI) all together in one place 2And suddenly there came a noise out of heaven like a violent driving wind, and it filled (3SAAI) the whole house where they were (3PIAI) sitting. 3And dividing tongues, something like fire appeared (3PAPI) to them and rested (3SAAI) on each one of them. 4And they were all filled (3PAPI) of the Holy Spirit and began (3PAMI) to speak other tongues as the Spirit caused (3SIAI) them to declare. 5Now there were (3SIAI) dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And at the sound of this the multitude gathered (3SAAI) and they were confounded (3SAPI) because each one was hearing (3PIAI) them speaking in his own dialect. 7And they were astonished (3PIAI) and marveled (3PIAI), saying, “Behold, are not all these speaking Galileans? 8And how do we hear (1PPAI) each of in his own native dialect? 9Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene and those visiting from Rome, 11both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear (1PPAI) them speaking in our own languages the mighty works of God.” 12And they were all astonished (3PIAI) and perplexed (3PIAI), saying one to another, “What does this mean?” 13And others were mocking saying (3PIAI) that “They are full of sweet new wine.” (Author’s Translation)

Acts 2:1-13 Καὶ ἐν τῷ συμπληροῦσθαι τὴν ἡμέραν τῆς πεντηκοστῆς ἦσαν πάντες ὁμοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό. 2καὶ ἐγένετο ἄφνω ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἦχος ὥσπερ φερομένης πνοῆς βιαίας καὶ ἐπλήρωσεν ὅλον τὸν οἶκον οὗ ἦσαν καθήμενοι 3καὶ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς διαμεριζόμεναι γλῶσσαι ὡσεὶ πυρὸς καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐφʼ ἕνα ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, 4καὶ ἐπλήσθησαν πάντες πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ ἤρξαντο λαλεῖν ἑτέραις γλώσσαις καθὼς τὸ πνεῦμα ἐδίδου ἀποφθέγγεσθαι αὐτοῖς. 5῏Ησαν δὲ εἰς Ἰερουσαλὴμ κατοικοῦντες Ἰουδαῖοι, ἄνδρες εὐλαβεῖς ἀπὸ παντὸς ἔθνους τῶν ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν. 6γενομένης δὲ τῆς φωνῆς ταύτης συνῆλθεν τὸ πλῆθος καὶ συνεχύθη, ὅτι ἤκουον εἷς ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ λαλούντων αὐτῶν. 7ἐξίσταντο δὲ καὶ ἐθαύμαζον λέγοντες· οὐχ ἰδοὺ ἅπαντες οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ λαλοῦντες Γαλιλαῖοι; 8καὶ πῶς ἡμεῖς ἀκούομεν ἕκαστος τῇ ἰδίᾳ διαλέκτῳ ἡμῶν ἐν ᾗ ἐγεννήθημεν; 9Πάρθοι καὶ Μῆδοι καὶ Ἐλαμῖται καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν, Ἰουδαίαν τε καὶ Καππαδοκίαν, Πόντον καὶ τὴν Ἀσίαν, 10Φρυγίαν τε καὶ Παμφυλίαν, Αἴγυπτον καὶ τὰ μέρη τῆς Λιβύης τῆς κατὰ Κυρήνην, καὶ οἱ ἐπιδημοῦντες Ῥωμαῖοι, 11Ἰουδαῖοί τε καὶ προσήλυτοι, Κρῆτες καὶ Ἄραβες, ἀκούομεν λαλούντων αὐτῶν ταῖς ἡμετέραις γλώσσαις τὰ μεγαλεῖα τοῦ θεοῦ. 12ἐξίσταντο δὲ πάντες καὶ διηπόρουν, ἄλλος πρὸς ἄλλον λέγοντες· τί θέλει τοῦτο εἶναι; 13ἕτεροι δὲ διαχλευάζοντες ἔλεγον ὅτι γλεύκους μεμεστωμένοι εἰσίν. (NA27)

Now, we had one question last week. Someone asked, “In Acts 1:13, is Judas the son of James or the brother of James?” He’s the son of James. The genitive there is a genitive of source, Judas sourced in James. You don’t say that about your brother you only say that about your father. Now, the reason he mentions the father’s of James and Judas is to distinguish this James from the other James and this Judas from Judas Iscariot, everybody else had unique names so there was no need.

Now, moving on, let’s turn to Acts 2. We’re moving in to a section that we really have to concentrate on because Acts is one of the most abused books in all Scripture. In Acts 1 we’ve seen that Christ was crucified and resurrected and he spent 40 days making resurrection appearances to over 500 people. Now, this is to give the historical basis for exercising faith, you don’t have to work up an emotion, you can relax and trust what God has done. There was a literal death, a literal resurrection, a literal resurrection on a literal Mount of Olives. Then we looked at the choosing of the 12th apostle, a replacement for Judas who turned aside from the office, hung himself and was thrown over the southern wall of the Jerusalem and his guts all gushed out and this was a thing to relish as a Jewish believer that the enemy of God receives the wrath of God and the priests took the blood money and used it to buy a field to bury the poor and this was on the northern slop of the valley of Ben Hinnom, the trash dump of Jerusalem where fires were continually burning and Jesus coined the term Gehenna, Hell, a picture of the lake of fire and that’s about where Judas was buried on the slope there in what was called the Field of the Potter but was renamed Hakaldema which means “Field of Blood”. Now what is Peter doing initiating this attempt to replace Judas? What’s he thinking? He’s not thinking about apostolic foundation for the Church. He’s still thinking about the kingdom and the question for him is a question “Whose going to rule on the twelfth throne in the kingdom?” Jesus stated in Matt 19:28 that those who followed Him in the regeneration would sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And obviously Judas was not regenerate so we need a twelfth to sit on that throne so now they’ve got Matthias. Now that’s Peter’s perspective but God’s got a different purpose for the present and that’s why I keep emphasizing this is the Acts of the Holy Spirit. These men can do whatever they want, they can choose the 12th apostle and all this but God’s sovereign, God’s doing something else, he’s forming the apostolic foundation for the Church through their choices. So, before we get to the Church we’ve got to get the apostolic foundation for the Church and Matthias is that final apostle. Yes, Paul was an apostle too, but not of the twelve and that’s why you see Paul having to defend his apostleship to everybody, everywhere because they knew he wasn’t of the twelve. So, human plans, human choices but Divine plans over-ride, divine plans set up and govern history.

Verse 1, When the day of Pentecost had come, the Greek signals a break between chapter 1 when they chose Matthias in the upper room and chapter 2 which is the day of Pentecost. Everybody assumes they stayed in the same upper room the whole time but there’s no indication of that, the indication here is that now we’re only looking at the twelve and they’re in a smaller house close to the Temple and before we get into all the flashing lights we want to go into this Pentecost thing. There’s quite a bit of OT background we have to develop so I want you to forget about the Church right now, I want you to forget everything you know from Paul about the Church because they didn’t have that. We want to get a true historical perspective. Pentecost is one of the great feasts in the spring cycle of Israel’s calendar. Israel had a spring cycle to her calendar and she had a fall cycle to her calendar so that nationally the Jew, by celebrating his national holidays would have to review God’s plan of history and in reviewing God’s plan of history all the major events would be covered. So in the spring first you had Passover; Passover reviewed the Exodus, it reviewed salvation from judgment by blood atonement, a very vital truth that would be preparing them for the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Lev 23:5). Next you had the Feast of Firstfruits and that was celebrated on the day after the Sabbath after Passover (Lev 23:11b). So the first holiday was Passover, the second holiday was Firstfruits and then fifty days later you had the holiday of Pentecost, the third day in the spring cycle (Lev 23:15-16). Those are three holidays that every Jew celebrated every year. Every time spring would come they’d celebrate Passover, Firstfruits and Pentecost; Passover, Firstfruits and Pentecost, year after year after year. 

Now, God was training them in their history but also setting them up for the future, these holidays had prophetic significance and when God wanted to finish them off he fulfilled them. The Feast of Passover was fulfilled in the death of Jesus Christ who died exactly on the day of Passover in 33AD. Paul tells us that in 1 Cor 5:6-8. So Jesus Christ died to the day, not by chance, but by God’s sovereign control of history, Christ paid the price for your sin and mine on the very day when substitutionary blood atonement was introduced into history at the Exodus. Next you have the Feast of Firstfruits and that was fulfilled in the resurrection of Jesus Christ who was resurrected on the exact day following the Sabbath after Passover. Paul tells us in 1 Cor 15:20 that Jesus Christ is the Firstfruits of the resurrection. So the first two events of the spring calendar had been fulfilled. Christ had died fulfilling Passover; Christ had risen from the dead fulfilling the day of Firstfruits. 

Now we come to the third feast, the Feast of Pentecost. Now although the New Testament says quite explicitly that Jesus Christ died and roes again in fulfillment of those first two days, the Bible does not explicitly say that Pentecost has been fulfilled. There’s no statement in the New Testament to that effect. And the question is “Why not?” We know God intended to fulfill Pentecost in Acts 2, “Why wasn’t it fulfilled?” And this is what makes acts 2 so complicated, God’s plan is clearly unfolding very rapidly, you’ve got fulfillment of Passover then fulfillment of Firstfruits and what you expect is fulfillment of Pentecost but it doesn’t happen. Something happens, that something happens in Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 10 and Acts 19. But it wasn’t the fulfillment of Pentecost. So, this is an extremely difficult chapter.

What did these feasts picture? We already know that Passover pictured the cross of Christ; it did so by a lamb, a sacrificial lamb. We know that Firstfruits and Pentecost relate to Israel’s spring harvest. And the day of the Firstfruits would be the day in which they’d walk out into the fields and take the ripened barley, which was the first thing in their economy that came to harvest, they’d take some sheafs of barley and then they’d take it to the high priest and he’d hold it up and wave it before God. This was just raw barley taken out of the field, they didn’t grind it or make it into a loaf of bread it was just raw barley taken to the priest and held up before God. Why did they do this? Because it was a token of what was coming; it was a guarantee that a greater harvest was going to come to fruition fifty days later. And so the Firstfruits then are connected with the next holiday, the third one, Pentecost, because in the day of Pentecost, the harvest has come and now the wheat as well as the barley are taken out of the ground. And so on the day of Pentecost they would take some of the harvest wheat, not the barley but the wheat this time, and grind it into grain and make it into a loaf of bread. Then they would take the loaf down to the priests and they would hold this up and present it before God. So, the Firstfruits are just a raw token of what’s coming and Pentecost was the actual finished product of the harvest.

Now why is this little observation valuable for doctrine? For the reason that we know what Firstfruits speaks of; it speaks of resurrection. Christ rose on that third day. He’s the firstfruits according to Paul in 1 Cor 15:20, 23. Therefore, since Firstfruits speaks of resurrection we can say that Pentecost basically is related not to the Holy Spirit but to God the Son and His resurrection. Pentecost is the completion of the process that began when Christ was resurrected from the dead, and thus the harvest of Pentecost is not the Holy Spirit giving testimony to Himself; it is a testimony of the Son and His great resurrection and Pentecost is a completion of that resurrection. See, this fits with the theme of Acts. What were the disciples told to do in verse 22? To be witnesses to the resurrection and this is they received power to be witnesses of that resurrection. So not the Holy Spirit but the Son is the focal point of Pentecost. 

Now on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came. Why? To bring the believing remnant of Israel into union, just like all the grains of wheat were ground and made into a loaf of bread that was useful, so now those who had responded positively, those who were resurrected in their hearts through regeneration were on Pentecost brought together in a body. Now we know that body to be the Church. The Church was born on the day of Pentecost. However, we’re going to pretend we don’t know anything about that yet. We’re not going to read Paul back into Luke here at this point. We’re going to let the Feast of Pentecost unroll and look at it as a Jew would have looked at it in that day. Then we have a true historic perspective, because all these feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost were not given to the Church; they were given to Israel. Now the Church benefits from them but always remember these are given to Israel, not the Church: Israel! And therefore, Pentecost is not a Christian feast; it is a Jewish feast and we benefit from it but it is a Jewish feast. 

Now there’s another thing that’s very interesting about Pentecost. At this time in history it was genuinely believed by the Jews it took the Israelites 50 days to march from Egypt to Mt Sinai where they received the Mosaic Law on the very first Pentecost in the midst of a great storm, a fierce thunderstorm with lighting and fire and smoke, that’s Shechinah Glory, a visible manifestation of God. Now, anyone see the parallel in Acts? It’s been 50 days since the Passover and a New Law is scheduled to replace the Old Law and what else do you see on Pentecost but the Shechinah Glory. Anyone have eyes to see Shechinah Glory in the first four verses? Of course not because people are too busy with everything else to do any kind of serious Bible study. V 3, tongues as of fire, that’s Shechinah Glory. So, that’s the divine program, if Israel would get with it her New Covenant would be fulfilled and they’d move into the Kingdom Age. 

The reason Pentecost is so difficult to treat is because of a difficulty in prophecy. Jesus Christ died on the day of Passover; Jesus Christ rose from the grave on the day of Firstfruits. Now on the day of Pentecost, fifty days later, the Holy Spirit comes. Now the Holy Spirit comes exactly on schedule, exactly according to prophecy. God has upheld His part of the plan but here’s the problem. The nation Israel remains nationally in rejection of her Messiah, so on the day of Pentecost you’ve got a complicated situation. God has undergone His process of literally fulfilling these feasts but Israel has not responded to Christ nationally and so it’s like God’s program for Israel comes to a halt, everything locks down. The Holy Spirit comes and there is a pause; Israel, what are you going to do? Are you going to get right with God today? Are you going to repent? Are you going to trust in Christ as your Messiah nationally or not? 

Why do I mention this? Because Peter’s sermons in Acts 2 and Acts 3 are not simple Church Age gospel presentations and when we get down to Acts 2:38 and “be baptized,” we are dealing not with a gospel presentation; we are dealing rather with a kingdom offer to the nation Israel. When Peter gets up, yes, the gospel is part of what he says but that’s not his main point. In the first place neither Peter nor the apostles really realize that the Church has started yet; they’re not going to realize that for years after Pentecost. Right now all they can think of is the nation Israel getting that kingdom back. So the plan of God has come through Passover; it has come through the Firstfruits, and it has come to the day of Pentecost and there’s a pause; there’s a pause because Israel hasn’t repented; she hasn’t responded positively to her Messiah. 

So when we start going through Acts now, in Acts 2 you’re going to see something like the New Covenant being fulfilled but it’s complicated by the fact that the nation to whom that covenant was made remains in rebellion even though the Holy Spirit has come. So, those two factors complicate the passage tremendously. The Spirit has come but the nation is in rebellion. So anybody that wants to pull a little piece of doctrine out of Acts 2 is going to have to work really hard to do it; this is an extremely, extremely complicated chapter. Let’s look at it verse by verse.

 Now, they were all together in one place and apparently from v 2 they were in a house. But this isn’t the upper room (1:13) and this isn’t the 120 (1:15). This is a house and it’s the twelve. Jesus told them to stick around; He didn’t tell the 120 to stick around. So it’s going to be the twelve that speak in tongues not 120, besides v 7 indicates they were all Galileans and its highly doubtful all 120 in the upper room were Galileans so we’re only looking at the twelve and this is a reminder that not all believers speak in tongues. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of other believers and none of them spoke in tongues on the day of Pentecost, only the twelve and when the Holy Spirit comes to rest on them it’s an authentication, it’s God’s authenticating sign that these twelve are My apostles, these twelve have authority, these twelve are the apostolic foundation and nobody else gets in that group. Not 2,000 years ago, not last week, not 100 years from now, the doors are locked, no one else can take that office. Verse 2, And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, now, I’ve lived in central Kansas, I’ve lived in Lubbock and I lived through a tornado in Paris back in 1982 and so I’ve had some experience with wind. It’s not something you want to be caught up in, it can cause a lot of damage and the sound, at least of a tornado, we lived in an aparment complex at the time and the tornado went right over that complex but it’s a deep, deep bellow sound, very impressive and it communicates power, a lot of power but you’ll notice here the house is filled with a noise, there’s no wind disturbance it just sounds like a violent wind. It was perfectly calm in the house. But the wind in Scripture is always associated with spirit. It could be a demonic spirit that carries bad doctrine or it could be the Holy Spirit that carries true doctrine but the wind and the spirit are intermixed in Scripture and this sound of a wind is an indication that the Spirit has come. So verse 2 is the audio, verse 3 is the video, it’s an audio-visual moment. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves and they rested on each one of them. Now, most people have in mind a fire like a campfire here and a campfire rests on these guys’ heads. That may be but it may not be. We don’t know exactly what this is. Lightning is sometimes called fire in the Bible and we know lightning is a bolt of electricity. It could have been something like what you had in Moses’ day when there was a bush that appeared to be burning but it wasn’t burning. Probably it was some kind of bright light, something like a ball of electricity. What happens is this bright light comes in the house, this ball of electricity as a single ball and then it begins to break up, to divide and apparently it broke into 12 parts and rested on each of the twelve so that now you’re hearing this violent wind and seeing these 12 bright lights, one on each of them. And we already said this is the Shechinah Glory, a visible manifestation of God and obviously it’s a manifestation of God the Spirit since He’s always associated with wind. That’s the doctrine we learn here, that the Spirit of God has arrived, we’ve got audio confirmation it’s the Spirit, we’ve got visual confirmation this is God. Let’s continue. 

Verse 4, And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. 5Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6And when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. 7They were amazed and astonished, saying, “Why, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? You have to understand that in a Jewish culture what we have here is the city boys making fun of the country boys. These were the metropolitans who were so educated and here you have these Galilean’s, a bunch of backwoods country bumpkins, that’s what they’re thinking, “Are not all these who are speaking country bumpkins?” 8“And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? 9“Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia,” Now, those four are all from the Far East, way out here. The Parthians and the Medes border India so that’s how far these Jews came to be in Jerusalem for Pentecost. 

The next six, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, are all from the near east, in what Asia Minor. Then you have Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, that’s all northern Africa in these regions and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, And finally, v 11, Cretans and Arabs, the Cretans came from the island of Crete and the Arabs from here in Arabia. And how is it that—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.” 12And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.” Now, let’s just make some observations. First, in vv 6 and 8 notice that they are speaking in known human languages. This is not some kind of gibberish, this is not some angel language, like some people like to say it’s just a garbledygook, now if it’s that then how in the world are we going to know if it’s a genuine miracle? Anyone can flap their tongue for awhile. Where’s the confirmation? So these are genuine human languages that existed in the world at that time not some kind of gibberish which is a fraudulent thing. This is a supernatural, lofty, wonderful, majestic miracle of God, of people who’ve never studied these languages all of a sudden speaking these languages. And in fact they were speaking 14 languages and so this means some or all of the twelve spoke more than one language that day and it’s just as well, it was the Spirit who was giving them utterance so when someone needed to hear what they were saying in his language the Spirit could automatically transition them from speaking, say Parthian to Median and so forth. But there’s something more to it than that because notice v 8, how they ask And how is it that we each hear them in your own language to which we were born? But the Greek word there for language is dialektos, it means “dialect”. You know this, just walk around America, most of us, except the illegal aliens who are chomping at the bit for benefits, but most of us speak English, but if you listen to a New Yorker next to a Georgian next to a Californian you’re going to notice different nuances in the speech. When you come to Texas you might hear me say “Ya’ll”. But you can always tell when an outsider comes in because they don’t sound the same and a real voice expert who studies these things can tell you pretty precisely where in the world a person is from just by listening to the inflection, the tones, the nuances and that’s what you had here, twelve country bumpkins raised in the region of Galilee who not only spoke foreign languages but the same dialects. So, this is a genuine, miracle of God. 

Now, we see in v 11 what they were speaking about, at least generally, they each heard in their own tongues “the mighty works of God.” Now, the question here is what exactly was uttered and we know that whatever it was it obviously was not the gospel. How do you know that? Think about it, if you were a Jew from Parthia and you travel all the way down to Jerusalem, yeah you may speak Koine Greek but what language are you best at? Obviously Parthian. So you’d think that the clearest way to give the gospel to a Parthian is to give it to them in Parthian. But starting in v 22 Peter gives them the gospel in Koine. He talks about the cross in v 22, the resurrection in vv 23-31, the ascension in vv 32-35. Now, why in the world, if he had already given him the gospel in Parthian would he turn around and give him the gospel in Koine? So, it wasn’t the gospel. Well if it wasn’t the gospel what was it? There’s a hint in v 11 the Greek word for mighty works is a word used in the LXX of recent historic works of God. In Deut 11:2 that generation had seen the Exodus plagues and the dividing of the Red Sea and other great miraculous works of God. Now think. What are the recent miraculous works of God for those Jews? Is it not all that Christ had done during his ministry? Is it not the healing of the leper and the blind man and the raising of Lazarus and on and on and on? Those were the mighty works of God. So, here’s what was happening, these guys were getting a review of the last three and a half years of what God had done through Christ in their own languages. And it’s pretty clear that what they were hearing were just snippets. You can tell that from v 12 because they were perplexed. It’s like they were saying, “Alright, what do you mean, slow down, help me put this together, what is all this your talking about? So, what you would have heard would have been things like, “Jesus healed the leper” “He predicted Peter’s denial” “water into wine” just short little bytes of information, little tidbits about the great works of God done by Jesus Christ. And others were hearing this in v 13 and they were like, “Hey, these guys can’t even put a sentence together, they must be drunk.” 

Now, can my suspicion that this was going on be substantiated? I think it can. Turn to Isa 28. This is a very important passage on the issue of tongues yet it’s never brought up by the Charismatics. I’ve never seen them deal with this verse probably because it’s not in their favor, but this is a key because it’s a prophecy of tongues. Isa 28:11-12, “Indeed, He” God, “will speak to this people” what people? Israel, “Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,” So what does this prophecy tell you? That tongues is primarily directed as Israel not the Gentiles. It’s not a sign to everyone who breathes it’s a sign to Israel. It’s a sign to her that something is happening. What’s happening? Verse 12, “He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.” Now, up to the word “but” that’s a prophecy of the millennial kingdom. What he’s saying is that the nation would be offered the kingdom, rest, repose, Peter calls it the times of refreshing in his sermon in chapter 3 and the message was, “Hello, Israel, repent and be baptized so the times of refreshing can come, so the kingdom can come.” That’s what Isaiah is talking about, that’s what Peter is talking about. Those sermons in Acts 2-3 are not your standard Church Age evangelistic service, they are directed to the nation of Israel. But look at their response at the end of v 12; “but they would not listen.” Israel didn’t want to hear it. Had they heard it before Pentecost? Of course. Who’d they hear it from? They heard it from John the Baptist, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. They heard it from Jesus, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”. Oh, they heard it they just didn’t want to hear it so “Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue” they will hear it. Their going to get it and this is how they’re going to get it, in Gentile tongues. They will have to hear the Hebrew truths about the Hebrew God in Gentile tongues. 

Now, to apply it to Acts 1 we have to look at the context. In v 1 he says, “Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley Of those who are overcome with wine!” And incidentally that word overcome means “hammered”. Now, does it sound to you like Ephraim, that’s the northern kingdom here in Isaiah, does it sound to you like they’re spiritually with it? Does it sound to you like they’re taking in Bible doctrine and growing? No, their drunkards, their spiritual apostates and they’re coming under judgment. Tongues isn’t some kind of sign of blessing it’s a sign of cursing. They’re coming under the judgment of God and this is what so many people miss about tongues. They want to think it’s some kind of a blessing. It’s not a great thing, it’s a warning of judgment, it’s a curse upon the nation. Now look in verse 7, here’s the national leadership, “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having visions, They totter when rendering judgment.” The national leadership is worse than your average Joe. Look at them in v 8, they’re vomiting all over the place and lying around in it. Think the spiritual leadership is on target? Can’t make good decisions when you’re drunk all the time. The nation, the leaders are spiritually dull, they’re like little babies so then we have Isaiah and the picture is Isaiah walking into the bar where all the national leaders are vomiting all over the place and they look at him and they start to mock him in v 10, what have you got to say Isaiah, “‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.’ ” This is the formula for baby talk. And they’re saying to Isaiah, “What are you doing here; you come to give us some baby talk? We don’t want to hear your baby talk we’re the national leaders.” And the speaker shifts in v 11, now God’s the speaker, “Alright, you don’t want to hear baby talk, fine, I’m going to speak to you through foreign languages and I’m going to give you more baby talk,” verse 13, “So the word of the Lord to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.”
The whole things a judgment, it’s not a blessing, when the nation has rejected, rejected, rejected and turned so spiritually dull that you have to talk to them like they’re little babies then God says, “That’s it, if you don’t want to hear the baby talk I’m going to give you the Assyrians and maybe then you’ll listen.” Maybe when they start raping your women and murdering your children you’ll decide to grow up. Verse 12 you’ve been given the opportunity but you didn’t want to listen. So, verse 13, “The word of God will be to them” like baby talk, they’ll just despise it, won’t want to have anything to do with it and they’ll stumble around and be broken and taken captive. 

And it’s obvious this is what’s happening in Acts 2. These Jews don’t have a clue what’s going on, they’re dumbfounded and the reason they’re so confused is because they’re like little babies spiritually and so they’re asking “What do they mean? What’s the significance of all this?” And others who can’t get their mind off the alcohol see themselves in these guys, “Hey, they’re drunk, that’s what we do when we’re drunk, we can’t complete a sentence.” So Peter has to come in and give the explanation and that’s what we want to get into next week. But take this home with you and think about it. This is the day of Pentecost, you’ve had the plan of God right on track up to this point, the fulfillment of Passover in Christ’s death, the fulfillment of Firstfruits in His resurrection and now we hit Pentecost and the question is “Is the nation of Israel ready? Are they with it spiritually? Have they repented and accepted Jesus as the Messiah?” And the obvious answer is “No,” so the tongues come in to warn them of judgment if they don’t repent. So tongues are not a blessing here they are a sign to Israel that she better get with it spiritually or it’s going to be all over baby and it was for most of the nation in 70AD when the Romans came in; murdered, raped, plundered and razed Jerusalem to the ground. 

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