The Word Is Alive The Book of Acts

1. The Word Is AliveThe Book of Acts Chapter Two Presented by Tony Gillon

2. Chapter Two • Acts 1:1-2:13 – • Preparation for Witness (continues/concludes)

3. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • The Day of Pentecost.

4. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • The Day of Pentecost. • The Holy Spirit is given.

5. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • The Day of Pentecost. • The Holy Spirit is given. • Peter speaks to the crowd.

6. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • The Day of Pentecost. • The Holy Spirit is given. • Peter speaks to the crowd. • Peter quotes from the prophet Joel.

7. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • Peter tells them that salvation is still at hand for the guilty ones.

8. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • Peter tells them that salvation is still at hand for the guilty ones. • Many accept the message and come to faith.

9. Preparation for Witness • Summary of Chapter Two • Peter tells them that salvation is still at hand for the guilty ones. • Many accept the message and come to faith. • The early church.

10. Preparation for Witness • Luke 2:1-13 – • The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost

11. Preparation for Witness • Luke 2:1-13 – • The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost • The Spirit Descends at Pentecost. The promise of the Spirit (Acts 1:5; Joel 2:28–32 and Matthew 3:11) is fulfilled at the feast of Pentecost. The event is narrated in two parts: the coming of the Spirit on the believers (Acts 2:1–4), and the reaction of the Jewish crowd to the Spirit-filled Christians (vv.5–13).

12. Preparation for Witness • The Spirit was given on the first day of the week (Sunday) in the same way that Christ was risen from the dead on that day. Thus many Christians have accepted it as a holy day.

13. Preparation for Witness • 1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were alltogether in one place.

14. Preparation for Witness • Pentecost was the second of the annual harvest festivals, coming 50 days after Passover. Pentecost is held fifty days after Nisan 15, which was the day of Passover and marked the start of the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread. • Pentecost is the Jewish Festival of Weeks, which is defined in Numbers 28:26-31.

15. Preparation for Witness • All most likely included the entire 120 assembled in the upper room (Acts 1:15).

16. Preparation for Witness • All most likely included the entire 120 assembled in the upper room (Acts 1:15). • Together: • Not just in body but are now to become united with each other in spirit. The unity of the church is established through faith in Christ and is a key aspect of his teaching.

17. Preparation for Witness • 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

18. Preparation for Witness • Jesus had compared the Holy Spirit’s work to the wind: • The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit (John 3:8). • It was like the blowing of a violent wind.

19. Preparation for Witness • The house where they were sitting probably was the upper room (see Acts 1:13), which may have been located close to the temple grounds, close enough to where the crowd the noise attracted would have been.

20. Preparation for Witness • Wind, spirit and breath are the same word in Hebrew (ruah) and Greek (pneuma).

21. Preparation for Witness • Wind, spirit and breath are the same word in Hebrew (ruah) and Greek (pneuma). • God said to me, Mortal man, prophesy to the wind. Tell the wind that the Sovereign Lord commands it to come from every direction, to breathe into these dead bodies, and to bring them back to life. • (Ezekiel 37:9 – Good News Bible).

22. Preparation for Witness • Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1a - KJV).

23. Preparation for Witness • The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by’. Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. • (1 Kings 19:11-12).

24. Preparation for Witness • 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.

25. Preparation for Witness • 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. • The tongues of fire that separated were not literal flames. Fire often indicates the presence of God in the OT.

26. Preparation for Witness • Jesus had said: • I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! • (Luke 12:49).

27. Preparation for Witness • Jesus had said: • I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! • (Luke 12:49). • Came to rest on each of them: • The Spirit indwells each believer individually.

28. Preparation for Witness • 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

29. Preparation for Witness • 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tonguesas the Spirit enabled them. • Filled with the Holy Spirit: • This is the fulfilment of what John the Baptist had proclaimed in the Jordon valley.

30. Preparation for Witness • I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).

31. Preparation for Witness • I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). • But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. • (Acts 1:8).

32. Preparation for Witness • By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39).

33. Preparation for Witness • To speak in other tongues: • The word translated tongues, Greek glōssa, is plural and can also be translated as languages. • Elsewhere it indicates speaking in a heavenly, spiritual language, not known to man.

34. Preparation for Witness • The proclamation of the Gospel in their own languages was a sign to them of the authenticity of the Gospel message.

35. Preparation for Witness • The proclamation of the Gospel in their own languages was a sign to them of the authenticity of the Gospel message. • I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be edified (1 Corinthians 14:5).

36. Preparation for Witness • As the Spirit enabled them indicates that the Holy Spirit was directing the syllables they spoke. Speaking in tongues in this way also seems to be the phenomenon experienced by those at Cornelius’ house (Acts 10:45–46), and by the disciples of John in Ephesus (Acts 19:6).

37. Preparation for Witness • Jesus had equipped them for greater work (John 14:12) but there is no record of him having spoken anything other than Aramaic, Hebrew when reading scripture and possibly in Greek to Pilate.

38. Preparation for Witness • 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

39. Preparation for Witness • 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. • 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.

40. Preparation for Witness • 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galilæans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?

41. Preparation for Witness • Aren’t all these who are speaking Galilæans? • Galilæans would normally speak Aramaic but may have some knowledge of basic Greek, as this had been introduced into the region by Alexandra the Great and the Hellenised Empires that followed him.

42. Preparation for Witness • Galilæans had a distinctive accent: • After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, ‘Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away’. (Matthew 26:73).

43. Preparation for Witness • When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realised that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13).

44. Preparation for Witness • Each of us hears them in our native language: • The fearful heart will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear (Isaiah 32:4).

45. Preparation for Witness • 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judæa and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’

46. Preparation for Witness • The long list of nations covers most of the 1st Century Roman world, particularly areas where Jewish communities existed, see the following map.

47. Preparation for Witness • The long list of nations covers most of the 1st Century Roman world, particularly areas where Jewish communities existed, see the following map. • It is only natural that 1st Century Jerusalem would be filled with devout Jews ‘from every nation under heaven’ .

48. The Map of the Nations referenced in vv.9-11

49. Preparation for Witness • 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’

50. Preparation for Witness • 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ • 13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’