Every Nation Under Heaven

Series: Why Church?

May 07, 2017 | David Crosby
Passage: Acts 2:1-12

Have you thought about the specialized languages that we have developed as humans around our chosen disciplines of work and study? These specialized languages have added thousands of words to the English language. Those words sometimes creep out of a single discipline and into the broader language—like the word “google.” We all know what it means to google something. 

Language is a big deal to us. It is vital and important. When we cannot speak the language of those around us we are in real trouble. We cannot let them know what we need or how we can help them. We feel helpless when we confront a language barrier. There is no simple way to overcome it.

You Can Know God’s Presence: He Is In the Room.

"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place " — Acts 2:1

They were all together in their locale. Jesus had told them to wait until the promise of the Father was sent. They were gathered in an Upper Room, the very room where Jesus had shared that first Lord’s Supper with them.

I suspect they continued to eat together, don’t you? Jesus loved to break bread with them, and I am certain they loved to share their meals together. It reminded them of how Jesus did it.

  • I am not sure that anyone wanted to go outside in the wake of the crucifixion of Jesus. They were hiding from the authorities, not wanting to be arrested. So they were sharing their meals together in the Upper Room. 

They were also together in prayer

  • They were praying together continually, Luke recorded. Maybe there was always a prayer group going on in one of the side rooms. Or maybe they had numerous times each day when they called everyone together for prayer.
  • Praying together built and sustained that common expectation of the Lord’s blessing, the certainty of the Holy Spirit being sent to them.
  • Prayer knit their hearts together in a unity that goes beyond anything in this world. They were a beleaguered group, maybe feeling some anxiety and concern about the future of themselves and their families. Luke records that they numbered about 120 persons.

They were together in expectation. They were all expecting the Father to fulfill his promise and the words of Jesus to come true. They were waiting for the Holy Spirit, and they did so for 10 days.

  • Peter took charge at one point. At his urging, they decided, perhaps too hastily, to replace Judas who had killed himself after his betrayal of Jesus. They felt like they had to back to being the twelve instead of the eleven. We never hear about Matthias again.
  • They might have been better advised to wait on this too, until the Holy Spirit came and the Lord himself called his 12th apostle, Saul of Tarsus, someone they would never have added to their number themselves.

You Can See God’s Activity: Wind, Fire, Spirit

"Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit." — Acts 2:2-4

Jesus is launching his church in the midst of a violent wind and tongues of fire that sat upon each of them.

Wind is a symbol of the Spirit’s presence and work.

  • Elijah heard “the sound of a gentle blowing” as he moaned about his persecution upon the mountain where he was hiding.
  • Jesus said that the wind is like the Spirit. "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

Fire is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit. 

  • A column of fire stood over the tabernacle each night in the wilderness, a symbol of God’s presence with his people. 
  • The menorah burned perpetually in the Holy Place.
  • John the Baptist said, "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." — Matthew 3:11
  • The church of Jesus Christ is to be the conduit of spiritual wind and fire in our own day. Here the church was birthed, and here it finds its true life and purpose: the filling of the Holy Spirit.

You Can Hear God’s Voice: He Speaks Your Language

"When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken." — Acts 2:6

Why tongues?

  • Because God speaks every language under heaven. This is his demonstration that he knows the thoughts and words of all humans.
    • God knows and understands the language of history and historical studies. He is well aware of the meaning of past events and how they inform the present. As you read history you will find the fingerprints of God in what may at first appear to be random circumstances and events.
    • God speaks technology. He knows every computer language that has been written. You can hear and understand God eve in this field of study.
    • God speaks law. He knows the laws that are on the books. He knows the meaning of words in the laws.
    • God speaks medicine. He understands human anatomy. He designed us for health and flourishing.
    • God speaks science. He knows the discipline that is your specialty. If you look for him you will see evidence of his presence in the laboratory where you are doing your work.
    • God speaks education. He understands how people learn and teach. He knows the full value of all information. If you pay attention you will sense his presence as you teach or learn. You will discover his activity in the classroom.
    • God speaks hard work. He labored to make the world. He made the world of work and blessed our labors with fruitful results. God also made rest. He understands that we are most productive when we are in cycles of work and rest. You can see the activity of God at the place where you work. He is in the press room, the board room, and break room. 
    • God speaks and understands human philosophy. He is well aware of all our cravings for meaning and our efforts to understand our own existence. He is tuned in to the meaning of our words. You will find him present as you read and write in an effort to comprehend life and its purpose.
    • God speaks economics, you will be happy to know. He fully understands how economic systems operate. He has such thorough knowledge of all systems and all variables that he can unerringly predict what will happen in any system at any time. This is the amazing understanding of God. 
    • God speaks feelings. He both understands and communicates through emotions and feelings. He speaks interpersonal relationships. These are far more complex than any computers we have designed. Yet God understands every verbal and nonverbal effort we make to communicate our heart to those whom we love.
    • God speaks the language of love. That is why we are having this discussion. He knows all about love. He invented it. He knows your love language. And he is faithfully seeking to connect with you. He is in the room where you are. The evidence of his presence is there for you to see. And if you look and listen, you will hear and know what God is saying to you.
  • This is the miracle of God speaking. He speaks every language and every dialect and every nuance, verbal and nonverbal, within each one. He speaks every discipline in which we are engaged, every mystery which intrigues us, and every problem that confronts us.
  • Language barriers divide us as humans.
    • Ever since Babel, languages have shot us down instead of building us up. The confusion of languages contributed to the disintegration of the unity of humans.
    • Even now, someone who cannot understand what we are saying may be thought to be stupid or slow of wit. We get frustrated with them because they cannot understand “plain English.”
    • We also tend to belittle those who speak in a strange tongue. It is strange to us, and so we believe that it is intrinsically strange. We suspect that people who use such gibberish are not “normal” people emotionally or mentally or even spiritually.
    • We are especially intolerant of those who come to our land and then seem to refuse to learn our language. This is true even though, by all reports, English is a difficult language to command. We would all say that about Mandarin or Russian or the tribal dialects spoken by remote people groups. We do not realize how hard it can be to learn English for some people. Nor do we remember how difficult it is for us to learn another language. 
    • I was listening to a preschool in Accra, Ghana, as he dialogued in various languages with his friends. His parents said that he could speak well in three languages, including English, and was learning a fourth.

Because your own language gets your attention in a crowd full of strangers speaking other tongues.

  • God was getting the attention of thousands of people on this day. He did so by translating the gospel into their “native tongue.” Sometimes we call this our “heart language.”
  • Even though these thousands could all probably get around in Greek and maybe Aramaic, they were astonished to hear their mother tongue that day.

This was the reversal of Babel. At the tower of Babel the variety of tongues divided the human race and a catastrophe of pride and greed was averted. At Pentecost, a miracle of languages united the human race and people from a host of nations and cultures heard the gospel of Christ in their own language.

  • This is a metaphor of the Church of Jesus Christ. Christ started the church, and he continues to build his church, not from a single race or tribe or tongue, but from all of them.
    • The miracle of languages continues to bless the church of Jesus Christ and the gospel which we proclaim. Through the learning of languages, we can share the gospel more effectively among people we do not know.

Series Information

Previous Page


Other sermons in the series

To the Ends of the Earth

April 30, 2017

The gospel of Jesus Christ is sent to the ends of the earth. It will save to the...

All Believers Together

May 14, 2017

Togetherness is not about you agreeing with everything I do. Nor is it about me always...

Even the Gentiles

May 21, 2017

Invest in Those Not Like You: “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with...

The Name We Claim

May 28, 2017

I don’t know how it came about that very first time. No one does. Luke does not...

Us and Them

June 04, 2017

The whole world talks about “us” and “them.” We are born into...