Wednesday Evening Services 7 PM - Acts 2 - Guest Speaker: Mason Warren

and then we're ready for Chapter 2. So at the beginning of Chapter 2, it's more of the same. It's starting at the beginning. They're still waiting. That's the context they're in. But waiting has a kind of negative connotation. They're really in spiritual preparation. They're waiting for something, and, well, Chapter 2 is, well, that. It's the outpouring of the Holy Spirit,

and that's where it starts. So in Acts 2, 1, it says, When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place waiting, and suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributing themselves and resting on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

So as we start here, there's this spectacular outpouring. It's an incredible thing. It's dramatic. It's an amazing event that happens. Honestly, there's the play-by-play. Ryan talks about seeing play-by-plays when you get to heaven, and this is one of them. This is one of the things that, I mean, five words doesn't really do it justice, I don't think. But the Spirit descends dramatically on these waiting people.

And I want to point out, to start out, I want to point out four things from this outpouring. The first word that I want to focus on is the suddenly. This outpouring was unexpected, which highlights that the believers needed to be prepared. They needed to be spiritually prepared at any moment. It wasn't like Jesus said, this is the time that it's going to happen.

This is the moment that you're waiting for, and they're all sitting. It wasn't like the New Year's Eve, the ball dropping, and they're waiting for it to hit the bottom, and there it was. No, it was unexpected, and it was mighty. So not only unexpected, but it was a mighty movement. It was ultimate and divine power manifesting in front of them, or on top of them, I guess.

But it was sudden, and it was mighty. Also, it was from heaven, which implies a divine origin. So many times our plans, when they're sitting and waiting, you make these plans, or at least I do. I don't know. I assume you're like me. You make a plan, and that's a plan that I've made. It's made by man, and it specifically says that suddenly there came from heaven a noise.

This thing, the Holy Spirit, came from heaven. It wasn't influenced by man. It wasn't a plan that they put together, and the apostles met in a room, and they were like, this is what we're going to do. We're going to get this strategy going. We're going to get this committee going. There was no planning. You talk about organic church planting. This was the most organic thing you can imagine.

It was from heaven. It wasn't influenced by any man. Lastly, I want to point out that it was a sound, the sound of a violent, rushing wind.

I think Joe even just mentioned it, the still, small voice. The sound implies that you need to be listening for it. It's part of the waiting, is listening. If you don't know me, I'm a teacher, have been for a few years now. I teach at the college, and there are many times that I'm talking to students, just like this, and I'm looking at them. I know they're there, but they're not actually listening.

I do the same thing. I feel for all my teachers that I had. If you were my teacher, I don't think there's any in here, so I don't need to apologize to you. If you're watching online, I'm sorry, but they were listening. It's a sound that if you're not sitting still, intently waiting, you can miss it, even though this one is a violent wind, but it's often described in scripture as a small voice.

It's something you have to listen for, and that's the thing about noise, is it's easy to close your eyes, look away, whatever. A noise you can accidentally miss, like a visual thing you kind of have to purposely miss, but a noise you can accidentally miss by doing other things. You can purposely tune things out, and so we have to be listening. Okay, now we see the response that they have.

It says, there were Jews living in Jerusalem. It's verse five. Devout men from every nation under heaven, and when this sound occurred, the crowd came together, and they were bewildered, because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language. They were amazed and astonished, saying, why are not all these men who, sorry, why are not all these who are speaking Galileans, and how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born?

Into the community, right? There's a miraculous thing that happens in the church, right? And that's what we see. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened on the church, these people that were gathered in this upper room. That's where the outpouring of the Holy Spirit happened, but it immediately influences the community around them. Immediately. The people who were around saw something incredible happening,

or heard, I guess, something incredible happening, and they gathered to this place, right? The believers that were in the room, we'll see in a second, but the believers that were in the room didn't try to hide it. They didn't try to keep it for themselves, like, oh, this is an amazing thing, and I'm just gonna, I'm gonna sequester it away. I don't want to use this amazing gift that I've gotten.

I don't want to hide the Spirit, which they could have done, right? That's often a thing that we're guilty of doing in the church, is something good is happening, and I don't want to let anyone else in on it. No, immediately, the community saw what was going on, and they were intrigued, and the church responded by stepping out into the community and sharing this amazing gift that they had just gotten. Okay, there's a bunch of names here, and you can hear me struggle through it, but I'm gonna skip some names, and let's go down to verse 12, right?

And they all continued in amazement, in great perplexity, saying to each other, what does this mean? When you look at the response of the community, right, the outpouring of the Spirit, the believers stepped out and did something. They were listening. They were waiting, and then there was an action. They were called to action. They stepped out, and they shared the Spirit.

Some people responded with positive things. They recognized how amazing what was going on was. They saw God's hand, and they gave credit where it was due. They said, this is the work of the Spirit, and it was immediately like they were pointed to God, right? And there's something in this. I think as I was reading through it, well, there's really two sets of people here in the community.

There's this one that are pointed towards God, and we have these believers, and I guess I would say the work of the Spirit should bring glory to God, right? When they did this amazing thing, it wasn't like they were setting up a temporary ministry for themselves. They weren't setting up a nonprofit. They weren't trying to build something for themselves. The natural response to the Spirit, the correct response,

was the community saw it and said, I want some of that. I want what they have. I want what's going on. It's an incredible thing. It's an amazing thing, a perplexing thing, and it drew them in. And the correct response back from the church was, look at what God does. Look at him, right? Not look at me. Not I started this. I am number one. We're going to read about Peter here in a second.

He has a chance probably to step up and take a bunch of credit for himself, and he doesn't do that. But any ministry that is Spirit-led, any calling you have that's Spirit-led, and I'll just tell you if you're in here and you're a believer, you're called to something. Whatever it is, I don't know. It's unique to you. The Spirit is calling you to something, and whatever that is, the glory should go back to God.

You're going to be uniquely gifted. You're going to be uniquely called to that thing. But ultimately, the glory should go to God. It should point to his amazing characteristics, not our amazing characteristics. I'll say mine, my amazing characteristics, of which there are many. Okay, let's look at the other group of people. Not everyone is amazed. Funnily enough, if you've ever shared the gospel or you've ever talked to anyone, really,

there are skeptics in every crowd. Much like my kids right now, my son can be amazed with magic tricks. Amazes him, but he's a skeptic, actually, which is crazy because he's five, and he doesn't want to believe. Like, he's like, that was cool, but I don't think so. And my daughter doesn't think they're as cool but wants to believe. It's like a weird, they're like weirdly opposite of each other.

Anyhow, any crowd there is, there's going to be someone that's skeptical, and we see that. In verse 13, it says, But others were mocking and saying, they're full of sweet wine. There will always be those who try to put down the work of the Spirit. It happened literally the first time that the Spirit moved in this mighty way. We see the church moved in an incredible way,

and people are talking in languages they've never heard before, doing, well, frankly, just incredible things. Amazing things, perplexing things, and there's skeptics there. Why should we think that we are going to be any different now? It's not. It's going to be the same. So whatever you're doing, whatever gift you're called to, whatever thing you are, whatever ministry you're drawn into,

when challenges come, and they will, whenever things get hard, and things will get hard, times will get tough, know that that's the way it is. No matter what group you're in, there will always be skeptics. And I'm going to tell you, sometimes the skeptics, you expect them to be outside the church, you expect them to be mockers that are standing outside, but sometimes, well, they're inside the church. Sometimes they're inside of your own head.

Probably shouldn't be a separate voice inside your own head, but there's sometimes you talking to yourself. You're not good enough for this. You're not ready for this. This person would do this better. That's a common one in my head.

It's your own flesh calling out and mocking what the Spirit is doing. John Corson, when he was talking through this, brought up a good story. It's not a story. What is the story? It's in 2 Samuel 6. It's when David was dancing, and his wife mocked him when he got home. He was dancing for God. And what he did was slightly undignified, and he got home, and she mocked him and belittled him

for praising the Lord in a way that she didn't see fit. And what seems very harsh happened afterwards. Michael, his wife, was cursed and was barren. Never got to have kids. And it seems really, really harsh when you look at it that way. It's like, holy cow. But we can take that forward into now, and I'm not saying that if you mock the work of the Spirit, you're not going to have kids.

What I'm getting at is if you mock the work of the Spirit, it will lead to barren times. Not that literal barren times, maybe, but probably not that. I mean spiritually barren times, times where you're not growing, where you can't hear the Spirit because you're too busy mocking the work of the Spirit. spirit. And I don't know if you've ever worked with somebody who's like working against what

you're doing. They're like actively undermining you. It's very, very difficult. And it really doesn't work. It's not something you can do. And so when we mock the work of the spirit that's happening in the church, because it's not the way we would do it, or it's not the way they did it at my last church, or if I were in leadership, I wouldn't do it that way. Whatever the excuse may be, really what you're doing is saying, I know better than

the spirit. And what a terrible place to be in. OK. So they get mocked here. Ultimately, the spirit gets mocked, really. And what we see from Peter is that. He doesn't step up and say, I'm going to defend myself here and go after you, personal attacks. That's not what he does. He doesn't put out an ad. We're headed into political season. Zoom aren't, well, maybe. I watch a lot of YouTube, and all I

get now are ads just bashing other people. I don't know what any political person actually believes. I just know that they don't like puppies, and they're terrible people. That's the only thing I see. So we have this. They're mocking. These people are mocking the disciples, the people that were gathered in the upper room. They're mocking them. And Peter doesn't

put out a hit ad. He steps up and presents the gospel. It's about 30 verses of him presenting

is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel. And it shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth my spirit on all mankind. And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even among bond slaves, both men and women, I will, in those days, pour forth my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I

will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire, vapor and smoke, and the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. All right, so here we get the beginning of Peter's sermon, all right, after this. So he steps up, and the first thing he does is he quotes the Bible. This is out of the prophet Joel. What

is it? Joel chapter 2, I believe. And I don't want to spend a bunch of time breaking down exactly what he's quoting out of Joel, although there's one thing that I think is interesting, well, a lot of it. But one thing I want to highlight is the young men shall see visions, and old men shall dream dreams. And even among my bond slaves, both men and women, I will pour forth my spirit, and

they shall all prophesy. What I want to focus on there is that this gift, this outpouring of the Spirit is for everyone. That's what he said right here. He broke down the wall and said, it's not just the men, just the men over the age of 30, just the men that have the right social standing, just the landowners. No, it's the young men, it's the old men, it's the slaves

and the free and the men and the women, it's everybody. This gift of the Spirit is for everyone. So when he opens up, he doesn't defend himself and say, I'm not drunk, you're drunk. That's not where he comes from. He quotes biblical scripture that speaks to what's going on right now. Some may call it biblical wisdom or discernment. He speaks wisdom into the situation that they're

in right at that moment. He talks about, well, no, this thing you know, you've heard the Prophet Joel. He's like, the Prophet Joel said this would happen. You're mocking it, but it's written right here. Well, he didn't have it written on his hand, but you get the idea. He said, it's written from the Prophet Joel that this is what's going to happen. He spoke wisdom into the current situation.

He used scripture in a manner to support the work of the Spirit. The work of the Spirit should be something, if it's truly the work of the Spirit, it should be something that can be supported scripturally. Whatever you're doing, again, I'll just say, whatever you're called to, there should be support for it in scripture. We'll get into some beliefs later, but everything should be supported by scripture. And then he finishes up with Acts 221, which says, and it shall be that

everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. He speaks wisdom into their life, into the situation they're seeing right in front of them. And then there's a call. Hey, all you got to do is call on the Lord and you'll be saved. And it doesn't say that they looked around and the crowd started asking questions, but I've been teaching long enough that I know probably what Peter saw.

And it's, I'll just tell you today, I taught about photosynthesis and cyclic and non-cyclic cycles, electron photosynthesis. It just like, it loses everybody real fast. And I can tell when I'm talking and I look out and I can tell they have a question. I'm like, I know what their question is because I've heard it last semester. And I heard it the semester before. Peter looked out at the

people and saw them. It was like, oh, he anticipated their question. It was like, who's Jesus? And why do I need to be saved? Like, really? That should be like the natural response to somebody who doesn't know Jesus. This guy's telling me I need to know Jesus and I need to be saved. What do I need to be saved from? Why does this Jesus guy matter? And he turns around immediately and answers those

questions, right? In verses 22 through 24, he gives the gospel. He says, men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man arrested by you and by God with miracles, oh sorry, attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God performed through him in your midst, just as you yourselves know. This man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge by God, you

nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for him to be held in its power. He anticipates their question. They don't even have to ask it. He answers, this is who Jesus is, right? That Jesus was a man, but also Jesus was God and that, yes, you gave him over to be killed, but God knew that was going to

happen and that he got, he was raised from the dead because, well, we learn in Romans that the wages of sin is death and Jesus was perfect. He was sinless and so death could not touch him, could not hold him down, and so he overcame death, right? He presents the gospel in like 20 words, right? Which, I don't know if you've ever tried to present the gospel in 30 seconds or less. It's very difficult. It shouldn't be, but it

is. And that's, that's what Peter does, right? He reminds the audience of Jesus's identity and their role, specifically their role in his death. These people had just as much a hand in his death as we do. Like, we like to maybe put it more on them. They're like, well, they literally put him to death and like, yeah, but your sin put him on the cross. So he reminded them of who Jesus was and what their role in his death was. And then in verse 24, he

proclaims Christ's victory over death. So he set the stage. He said, he's given them biblical wisdom. He's told them who Jesus is and what he's done. The next thing he does, we'll look in verses 37 through 40. We'll skip a few verses. He says, now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what

shall we do? Peter said to them, repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The next thing Peter gave them after he presented the gospel was a call to action, right? Peter told them to repent. I don't think it's, I don't know. Repent kind of seems like a harsh word. I feel

like in our culture, it's very harsh. It shouldn't be though. A call to repentance should be a hopeful thing. It's gotten a bad rap and we should put it back into it that there's hope. The hope of repentance is the things that are happening, the terrible way you're going, the way you're living, the problems that you have are caused by sin and you have an option to turn around and go the other way. That's what

repentance is really, is realizing I don't like where I'm headed and I would like to go the other way. That's repentance. That's a hopeful thing, right? It's not a bad thing to notice that you're going to crash into something and push on the brakes and turn. Like that's not a bad thing. We shouldn't visualize it that way. And I don't think it's a coincidence that John the Baptist, when we hear about him preaching, he said

repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And when Jesus started preaching, he said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, right? That call to repentance is there. It's a good thing. It's a call to action. So Peter offers them that. He says, hey, you should repent, right? The things you're doing, you need to make a 180 and go the other way, right? And then he says, be baptized. Baptism is a public profession, right? When you

repent, and your life is changed, you should publicly talk about it. It's not something you should hide. You shouldn't hide out. When we're new Christians, we should get out there and talk about it. Do something public, right? You should literally get baptized, but you should also show outwardly your change, right? What's happened to you. And then I didn't actually get to it. Hang on. Yes, I did. And the last thing is you received the

Holy Spirit, right? This thing that they're, you got to keep in context, they're witnessing the Holy Spirit come down and tongues of fire, and these people speak this amazing thing. Peter is filled with the Spirit and gives this awesome sermon that apparently is super awesome, because I'll tell you in a second, there's something crazy that happens. But he gives this sermon and a call to action and then says, after you do these things, it's yours, right? There's no,

like, 40 action steps. Doctors hate these five supplements that you can add to your drink, whatever the ads are. No, it's repent, be baptized, and it's yours, right? And it's for everyone, right? Just like he's mentioned. Okay, now's our chance to, what did Pastor Ryan say, put shoes on it, make it walk? What's the expression? So I wrote that Peter was ready to preach because he was spiritually grounded. To stay ready to be used by God, I put down five core

principles, core things, five takeaways from Peter's sermon or from this chapter. And the first is, well, pray. It doesn't explicitly say it yet. It's a little later in the chapter. I guess it's verse 42, and then it's all in chapter one. It says that the believers are gathered and they're praying, right? And I think sometimes we take prayer for granted. Like we, maybe it's just me. I'll just speak for me. I try to fix the problem myself first, and then prayer is like a second resort. And that's so totally

backwards. We should be praying. That's what the church is doing when the Spirit is poured out. That's what we're called to do is to pray, right? So the first thing I'd say, pray, right? That was what Peter was doing prior to preaching, is he was praying. Second thing would be dwell in the scripture. Study is oh so important. Again, let me tell you, I'm a teacher, and I pretty well know who studies and who doesn't. Real quick. And just like with metabolism or cell biology, the studying you have to do there, you have to study in order to know these things. You also have to do that in the scripture, right? You're not just going to get it. The first time you hear somebody say, I'm going to study, you're going to get it.

Or a sword. That's not how it works. You practice beforehand, right? They're training with other people beforehand. And then First Corinthians talks about building, like, as like a construction site. And we're building upon the foundation that is Jesus Christ. And construction is not a one person job. If you've ever tried to do construction work by yourself, it's very difficult by yourself.

It takes multiple people to do it. people and it takes people showing you how to do things. I've remodeled my house several times now and it's always somebody comes in and tells me like, hey, I see what you're doing and you're doing it wrong. It's easier if you do it this way. And it's always amazing to me. I'm like, well, that was way easier than how I was doing it. But it takes being with people. It takes

intentionality, right? You should sharpen your skills, right? And I would encourage you with the group of people around you, whether you're in a small group or you just have friends or whatever it is, you should think of your testimony. You should practice your testimony, right? I know it sounds kind of weird, but you can use Peter's example to run through and practice your testimony.

You should practice it with other people, right? Peter gave a practical application wisdom. He reminded others of their need for a savior. He reminded them who Jesus was and then gave them a call to action and said, you need to repent and come. That's what you need, right? And we can follow those steps. And it's really not that hard. I say that. It can be really hard,

but it shouldn't be that hard, right? Give biblical wisdom and then point them to Jesus. All right, four and five. We'll go quick. Four, you need to listen to the spirit, right? Be still. If you're constantly busy, if you're always doing things, it's very difficult to listen and we need to listen to the moving of the spirit. That also can go into listening, being sensitive to the spirit moving and not mocking others or mocking the spirit moving.

And you need to be still and listen for those things to know. Lastly, we need to obey, right? When you hear the spirit, when you hear the spirit move, it's time. It's time to obey. It's not time to, okay, now I'm going to get ready, right? The spirit is calling me to talk to this person. Now I'm going to go home and write my testimony out. Now I'm going to go memorize

now that it's time for me to obey. No, it's time to obey, right? Those things should be done beforehand. If you're in the hallway at 7.58 and the exam's at eight o'clock, it's too late. You should practice now, all right? Okay, let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this day and I thank you for this group. I thank you for the example you gave us with Peter and his sermon. For the

spirit you poured out on the church then and that you continue to pour it on the church now. Lord, I pray that as we go out into the community,

that you'd make us attentive to your voice and you'd make us sensitive to the leading of the spirit and you give us boldness to follow. You give us all individual gifts

and I pray that you give us the strength to use them and the wisdom to know how to point people to you, to know how to use your gifts, the gifts that you've given us to glorify you.

Lord, I pray for the storms that are coming through, that you'd keep people safe and you get them home safe and sound and everyone that's here and everyone that's online, keep them safe. Pray for a community that you draw them into you. Lord, that they would see what's going on here, what's going on in the church, and they would be interested and that you would place someone right there ready to go. I pray this in your heavenly name. Amen.