Encounter Jesus – Post-Resurrection Luke Week 4
Jesus Sends the Holy Spirit
Acts 2: 1-21
AUDIO
Lesson Notes
Jesus has ascended to heaven, and as we head into Acts 2, the disciples have a clear mission, but one thing remains…
- Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”
- Earlier, Jesus promised to send the Spirit – John 16: 7-15
- So they wait…
The Holy Spirit Arrives (Acts 2: 1-13)
- Verse 1 – Day of Pentecost – 50 days after Passover
- Celebrates first fruits of the harvest – here we see the first fruits of God’s harvest
- The disciples are gathered – likely the 120 mentioned in Acts 1: 15, likely in the Upper Room
- Verses 2-4 – Physical manifestations of the Holy Spirit
- Very characteristic of Acts – a function of the era, so people would truly know who believed in Jesus – the Spirit was the proof
- Acts 8: 14-17 in Samaria. No details of what it looked like, but clearly discernable
- Acts 10: 44-48 amongst Gentiles as proof to Jewish believers.
- Acts 1: 5 – “You will be baptized by the Holy Spirit not many days from now”
- 3 Sensory Proofs of the coming of the Spirit:
- A sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind
- Divided tongues, as of fire, appearing and resting on each of them
- All of them filled with the Holy Spirit and Speaking in Tongues
- Previously in Old Testament times, Spirit would come upon special people for a period of time (maybe short, maybe long)
- Began speaking in tongues – actual foreign languages people could understand
- Very characteristic of Acts – a function of the era, so people would truly know who believed in Jesus – the Spirit was the proof
- Verses 5-7 – Many Jewish people from around the known (at the time) world
- In town for the festivals, or had moved from distant lands
- It’s a little taste of the Ends of the Earth, even though they are all Jews
- The crowds are surprised at bumpkin Galileans knowing their native languages
- Verses 8-10 – Lists the nations – some say this list is reminiscent of the table of nations in Genesis 10, and that this symbolically reverses the scattering of the Tower of Babel
- Verse 11 – They tell the mighty works of God in these foreign tongues
- Verse 12 – The point of this display of the Spirit – to get people’s attention
- People are amazed and perplexed – “What does that mean?”
- Verse 13 – Some accuse the disciples of being drunk!
Peter’s First Sermon Begins (Acts 2: 14-21)
- Verses 14-15 – Judea & Jerusalem (note the language of Acts 1:8) – these people aren’t drunk – it’s only 9 am!
- Verse 16 – This is the fulfillment of Joel 2 and Peter quotes from it
- Describing the Last Days, as the Day of the Lord (i.e. Final Judgment) approaches
- One sign of the Last Days is the pouring out of God’s Spirit far and wide – on men and women of all ages, slave and free
- Salvation to those who call on the name of the Lord – as Peter explains this text, the name of the Lord is the name of Jesus – Acts 2: 36
- This is the era we’re in – the final days, the Age of the Spirit, the church era
- This is the final period of redemptive history before the return of Jesus and of the time described at the end of Revelation
- Some reflections on life in the Spirit
- Titus 3: 4-7 – the renewal of the Spirit
- Ephesians 1: 13-14 – sealed by the Spirit
- Galatians 5: 16-18 – Spirit helps us resist the desires of the flesh
- Galatians 5: 22-25 – fruit of the Spirit; keep in step with the Spirit
Next week: Acts 2: 22-42 (The Birth of the Church)