Friday Night Evangelism: Acts 2:1-13

Acts 2:1-13

Purpose of the Signs

Tonight I want us to study Pentecost and answer a few questions.

· What is being filled with the Holy Spirit

· What is speaking in tongues

· What is the purpose of tongues

· Are tongues a necessary evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit?

I think these questions are relevant to evangelism, because if the gifts are for today, which I think they are, and we are attempting to evangelize without them, then I think we are limiting our effectiveness and robbing God of opportunities to be glorified. According to scripture signs and wonders are intended to confirm the authority of the spoken word (Acts 14:3). Jesus himself illustrates this when he asked the Pharisees, “Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk?' But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins I say, rise, pick up your bed and go home.” (Mat 9:4-6)

What is being filled with the Holy Spirit?

We have talked about a number of the terms, but I want us to focus on what Luke says in Acts 2, namely, being filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe it is the empowerment of the Holy Spirit that enables the recipient to preach with boldness and/or to perform signs and wonders:

1. 2:4 – people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Effect: speaking in foreign languages, Peter preaches and the audience is “cut to the heart.”

2. 4:8, 13 – Peter was filled. Effect: he preached with boldness

3. 4:31 – Peter and John and friends finish praying and the Holy Spirit fills them. Effect: they “continue to speak the Word of God with boldness.”

4. 9:17 – Ananias prays for Saul that he may regain sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Effect: Paul regains his sight

5. 13:9 – Paul is filled with the Holy Spirit. Effect: rebukes the magician causing him to go blind

Notice the numerous connections of being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking with boldness – whether it is preaching with authority or rebuking the magician, the Spirit comes upon the person with power. The majority of the texts indicate that the filling of the Holy Spirit was for the furtherance of the gospel through bold preaching and signs and wonders. What I find that is interesting, is that we only have one reference of being filled with the Spirit resulting in speaking in tongues.

What is speaking in tongues?

I believe that according to Luke, tongues are the supernatural ability to speak foreign languages. I'll show you where I'm getting that by looking at the three accounts in Acts:

According to Acts 2 tongues must refer to foreign language, not a heavenly language: 1) The disciples were not speaking one “heavenly tongue” but different tongues, 2) men of different regions understood them in their native tongue, and 3) no indication of an “interpretation” was necessary.

Acts 10 records the Gentiles experiencing their own “Pentecost.” Luke uses similar language by recording that the disciples were “hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God” (v46). I believe Luke intended the reader to make a parallel with Acts 2, therefore indicating that tongues hear is also a reference to foreign languages.

The last account in Acts 19:6 is the most vague. The effect of the Holy Spirit coming upon them is speaking in tongues and prophesying. I think this one is intentionally non descriptive because Luke intends the reader to connect this experience with the previous two. He no longer needs to define these terms because the first account in Acts 2 acts as the reference point.

What is the purpose of tongues?

I believe that according to Luke, the purpose of tongues is the immediate empowerment of the Spirit to communicate the mighty works of God in another known language.

- 2:11 The Jews in Jerusalem heard the disciples telling in their own tongue “the mighty works of God.”

- 10:46 The disciples were hearing the Gentiles speaking in tongues and “extolling God.”

Those who heard the tongues were able to understand it and needed no interpretation.

Are tongues a necessary evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit?

I do not think that tongues are a necessary indication of being filled with the Spirit since there are numerous accounts of people being filled with the Spirit in which speaking in tongues did not occur (or at least that scripture does not record).