THE DAY OF PENTECOST

Acts Chapter 2: 5 – 13

Understanding Speaking in Tongues

That which had occurred in verses 1 to 4 was the historic outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now we get the result – the manifestation, the thing that happened in the community of Jerusalem upon this occasion.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. -- Acts 2: 5

It was called to my attention that this word said they were dwelling at Jerusalem. The word dwelling means permanently residents. They were permanently residents in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. This ‘under heaven’ means in the area represented. It doesn’t mean of every nation every place in the world. It’s a figure of speech as if you said “Well, everybody is here tonight.” That can’t be and it is an example of a figure of speech. But there were many present because it had listed and lists here in this chapter some of the names from some of the places that some of these people came from.

Now when this was noised abroad………….., [What was noised abroad? Well you have to go back to verses 1 – 4 from the previous teaching and that was: That here were 12 Apostles, they were all Galileans. They spoke Northern Aramaic and here when they were born again filled with the Holy Spirit, they began speaking in tongues. And what they spoke in tongues, they the speakers didn’t understand, but out there, there were people who understood it. And as they understood it they scratched their heads and they said ‘My goodness, that’s impossible. That’s impossible what they’re doing.’ But there they were doing it. And so this caused a great stir in the city of Jerusalem and in the Temple.

Now when this was noised abroad the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. – Acts 2: 6

Class, let me ask you something. Had the receiving of the Holy Spirit been in an upper room, behind closed doors, with about 120 receiving, how would it ever have gotten noised abroad?

To be able to be noised abroad, for it to be able to be noised abroad, it had to be someplace, somewhere that it could be noised abroad. Right? That’s just plain sense, isn’t it?

The only place this could possibly have occurred is in the Temple. Why? Because the next phrase says that the multitude came together. How could you have had a multitude in an upper room? Isn’t that something? We read this thing for centuries but we don’t believe what we read. So we got an upper room – 20 x 30, an upper room, let’s say. Make it 50 x 60 and I doubt if there’s a person in our audience here tonight or anybody listening by radio who has an upstairs, upper room, that’s 50 x 60. Well if they have, they’ve got a lot of money to spend and they spent a lot to build that house. I want to ask you something. Could they get a multitude in the upper room? No way, 50 x 60 - how many people do you put in? Well, it depends on how thick you layer them. How do stack them up? Well, let’s say you put 300 in. 300 is no multitude. We had that many in our auditorium last night. That’s no multitude. Multitude is a multitude – oodles and oodles - that’s a multitude. That’s right and they got together when this was noised abroad and a multitude came together.

Every one of these people heard them, the 12 apostles, speak in his own language. That’s what confounded them. Because they knew that these 12 apostles could not speak all these different languages and yet here they were, filled with the Holy Spirit and they were speaking in tongues, the 12 apostles, speaking in tongues. I’ll illustrate it to you.

Here was Peter. Peter was speaking in tongues. Here were a group of people from another country, from another area, who were permanently dwelling in the city of Jerusalem, but they understood that which Peter spoke. Peter didn’t understand it, it was tongues to Peter, but it was a known language to that other group.

Here was Thomas. Thomas was speaking in tongues and over here was another group of people. They understood everything Thomas said, but Tom did not understand what he said. Cause Tom was speaking in tongues, but what he spoke, if you go back to verse 4 of Acts 2, they spoke as the spirit gave them utterance. They did the speaking, but what they spoke was God’s responsibility and the miracle of Pentecost is that they spoke in tongues which could be understood by some of the people that were present from the various lands. And this flabbergasted them. This shook them. That’s right.

But this thing still occurs today. You can’t legislate it. You can’t walk in and say well, “Johnny Jumpup, speak in tongues in German”. Ha! It says you speak in tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. As God gives it. You don’t tell God to do so and so. Who in the bloomin’ blazes do people think they are? God runs the show. He is the prime mover – He is the one who gave it. Right? Well bless God. Then we carry out our orders from Him. He gave it, so you carry it out. But it still occurs. I have ministered the Holy Spirit to people into manifestation where they spoke in perfect high German. They did not know any high German at all. They couldn’t speak high German if their life depended on it. Yes, when they were filled with the Holy Spirit and started speaking in tongues, they spoke in perfect high German. It was tongues to the speaker but for those of us who understand high German, which I do, it was a known language to me. This has occurred in our teaching ministry where people have spoken in French and it was tongues to those people speaking, the one doing the speaking, but our people listening, some of them understood the French. You see, you can’t legislate for God. But this is how it occurs. On the day of Pentecost, the miracle of Pentecost was that they spoke in tongues, the people, the 12 apostles did the speaking. They spoke in tongues. But what they spoke, God had given and the thing that God gave that day was that they spoke in tongues which were able to be understood by certain segments of these people who had come from all these different lands and were dwelling in the city of Jerusalem. That’s why when the multitude came together they were confounded, they were flabbergasted. They were shook. Why? Because they heard every man speak in his own language.

And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold are not all these which speak Galileans? -- Acts 2: 7

Isn’t that something? Of the about 120 disciples, they weren’t all Galileans. There were Galileans in there, there were Judeans in there, there were Parthians in there. They came from the various states, so to speak, of Palestine. But the 12 apostles, the 11 plus Matthias, who was elected to take Judas Iscariot’s place - of the 12 apostles, all 12 of those were Galileans. And the record says, “Behold are not all these which speak Galileans?” You know who said that? The people in Jerusalem who heard these men speak in tongues. They said “Why it can’t be? It just can’t be. They were amazed, they marveled. They said it can’t be. They are Galileans. They can’t talk these languages.” And yet here were these Galileans filled with the spirit - the first original outpouring on the day of Pentecost, they were speaking forth and as they spoke in tongues, the people heard it and it was a known language to the hearer. It’s a tremendous thing. All these which speak are Galileans.

Then how hear we every man in our own language, wherein we were born? -- Acts 2: 8

Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia. – Acts 2: 9

Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, -- Acts 2: 10

Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. -- Acts 2: 11

Let me ask you. What did these people say about the speaking in tongues of the Galileans? Did they say the speaking in tongues was of the devil? If you ever hear anybody say it is of the devil, you just be sure that the man who is saying it is of the devil. Because speaking in tongues is to speak the wonderful works of God. And if we want to do God’s will, it seems to me, we ought to be willing and anxious to speak the wonderful works of God. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a declaration by the Judeans who were present that day who despise the Galileans. They didn’t like the Galileans at all. They wouldn’t even give them a place at the Passover in the city limits. They had to live on the Galilean hill on the Mount of Olives. They wouldn’t allow the Galileans in town until today. Ha! They can come to Temple, and so on and so forth, but boy when it came to living, they had total segregation. You lived out on Galilean hill.

But that day when they were speaking in tongues, these people who despised the Galileans said of that which they heard, that these men were speaking the wonderful works of God. So when a person speaks in tongues, the Bible says he’s speaking the wonderful works of God. And when men and women say this is not true, then men and women are liars cause the Word of God is true. And if you want to speak the wonderful works of God, we’re going to have to speak in tongues. They spoke in tongues and it was the wonderful works of God.

And they were all [what?] amazed, [those fellas sure got amazed often, didn’t they? flabbergasted, confounded, verse 6 they got confounded, in verse 7 they got amazed, and in verse 7 they marveled, then when they got down to verse 12, they were still amazed and not only were they amazed, but they were in question - the word ‘doubt’ is the word ‘question’. You see, doubt to us, represents a total negative. They weren’t totally negative, they were just questioning. There’s a difference doctor between a doubtful negative and a question. A person can question something and be sincere and really want an honest answer, but if you are doubtfully negative, then you already know the answer and you just doubt - and you don’t want any answer. These people were all amazed and they were in question and they said one to another “What meaneth this? What’s the meaning of this? What’s the purpose behind this? What’s it for? How come these Galileans are doing this? What’s the meaning of it?” and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? -- Acts 2: 12

Let us go over the complete verse in Acts 2: 12 as it is written in the King James version:

And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? -- Acts 2: 12

Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. – Acts 2: 13

That sound like people? Just as human as they are today. Some people were honestly questioned and other people say well, they’re off their rocker. They’re out in left field. They’re a bunch of screwballs. Ever heard that? Ever heard them say of you, that you’ve got the religious bug - fanatic on religion? Yup. Well, you see if people haven’t got it, they always got to criticize somebody else who has. Because they somehow or other feel that they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The only thing that ever happens is you knock the souls out and you get both of your feet dirty doing it that way.

So what did they say? Others mocking said these men are loaded, they got the wrong spirit, they’ve been to the wine shop, loaded with new wine. That was the argument. And boy, right then and there, things changed color. Because right then and there, Peter was scared to death, you know, with the 12 apostles and they got out of that Temple and hid themselves behind closed doors and locked it right up and insulated it and got their machine guns in case anybody brake in. Ha?

Nope. And yet, class, if you remember your Bible, 50 days before this on the day of the resurrection appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, where were these 12 apostles? Behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. And now, here they are right out in the open, and now Peter is going to do something that’s almost unbelievable. He is going to preach to people, he is going to teach them of whom he was afraid, people of whom he was afraid 50 days before. What changes a man from being full of fear into being a man of great courage?

It wasn’t the resurrection that did it because of the day of the resurrection appearance, they were behind closed doors. It wasn’t the teaching for 40 days before the Ascension that did it. It wasn’t the 10 days between the Ascension and the day of Pentecost but this which occurred that day when they were born again and filled with the spirit, that they heard themselves speaking in tongues. That’s what put boldness in them - that took all of the fear out of them. Boy, they knew they had it. Because they had the proof in the senses world that they had the real McCoy on the inside. They had the proof in the senses world that Christ was on the inside. You can’t see, smell, or touch Christ for he is Spirit. But you can hear speaking in tongues – you can see people when they speak in tongues. And having it in the senses world, it was in concretion, it was proof, that they had the real McCoy on the inside. Sure, bless your heart.

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