So, any feedback will help me direct direct my efforts here. Alright, Acts chapter one, we're going to read a few verses and then we will and we'll pray and and dive in. We left off around verse twenty-one. Let's start again at verse twenty-one. The Bible says in Acts one twenty-one, wherefore of these men which have accompanied with us all the time that Beginning from the baptism of John of that same day that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection. And they appointed two, Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justice, and Matthias. And they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. and they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Pray please help us as we study it this morning to do so with an open mind, open heart, and allow your word to change our lives and our opinions. Lord, not the other way around. Lord, we love you. We thank you for you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, we've we've come to this point. We've gotten through Acts chapter one for the most part. We're going to finish up chapter one off today and get it a little ways in the next chapter two but we've gotten to the point where in in our first lesson, it was still kind of all about the lord and and he would ascend and then in the second lesson in turn to focus more towards the church and what they were going to do, what they needed to do and now, we get into this this choosing of the of the apostle to replace Judas. We talked a lot about that last week and we're going to we're going to expound on that a little bit more today and also go into the day of Pentecost today. Uh both our topics we we've talked about in church in messages and things and in in recent days, I say that but it's probably 6 months ago, I preached one time on one of the topics and so you might not remember a thing of it but he might and so if this is just a refresher for you, that's fine but we're going to look at these because that's where we are in our study at chapter one and what we read so far verse One, we have what I often refer to as the first miracle of the church age. Though not the healing or raising from the dead type of miracle, the outcome of this situation is nothing short of miraculous when you consider the facts. We know that there were 120 present, and that those 120 each needed to choose one person to replace Judas Iscariot in the ministry. We know that the 120 people chose two men. Not just one. Apparently it was a two-party system. They couldn't make up their mind on just one. They had two options, which is good to have. Good to have options, right? More than one person that fits the bill. Half the people wanted one, half the people wanted the other. Now, we see in our country every four years, everybody goes nuts because half the people want one person, half the people want the other, and then a small percentage want a third, and everybody thinks that their person is going to be Christ reincarnate, and it just turns into a big mess, a big fight match. And so, the fact is, though, when the vote was split, they decided to leave it in God's hands. There's no such thing as fate. and they prayed and they cast lots, this would be relatively equivalent to praying and rolling the dice. Just, all right, Lord, if it's a four or above, it's gonna be Matthias. If it's a one, two, or three, it's gonna be the other guy. But they prayed, they do the lots, and Matthias is chosen. And when he's chosen by lots, not one person who was for the other man left the group. I have in my notes here, unnamed, I don't know why I did that. It gives us the name Josiah, but I'll correct that later on. But not one of them left the group, including him. Because we know in verse one of chapter two it says they were all, and all means all, praise the Lord. You wouldn't think you'd have to say that a lot, but I've said the phrase all means all so many times when talking to Calvinists. Um, God told the world that he gave his only begotten son. You wouldn't have to explain the fact that the world means the world, not just, you know, the world of the elect. And all is not just all of the elect, it's all. all means all everywhere in your Bible and so uh so here in verse one of chapter two, they were all with one accord in one place. Nobody got mad and left. Nobody split off and said, we're gonna start our own thing because my guy, you didn't get picked. Um these guys definitely weren't Americans. It just seems like we can't we can't do that. We can't have our guy not get chosen and not throw a hissy fit about it. It just seems, that just seems to be the way it is in today's American churches. We argue over budgets, deacons, room temperature, carpet color, and every other little thing because there, you know, there's many that want to serve the Lord, but there's a lot more that they want to serve the Lord, but they refuse to take a second seat to the Lord. It's, you know, it's just, I wanna be a good Christian, but only if I'm comfortable and I wanna be, have unity, but only if it's because everybody agrees with me. You know, I wanna have unity in the church, so all of you need to agree with me. That's kind of the idea that you get from talking to some people at some churches, and I'm glad that Lord willing, as far as I know, we don't have an issue with unity here, but I'm sure we will at some point. It comes to every church, and the fact of the matter comes down to somebody wants unity, but they don't want it at the expense of their own desire. They want it at the expense of somebody else's desire. and they say, well, why don't you just be spiritual and and let me have my way? It's like, why don't you just be spiritual? Let them have their way. It's it's a mess but here we have this this situation where they choose one man instead of the other and nobody gets upset. Nobody leaves the group. They're all together one for one place and a good self checkup when it comes to how you would respond, were you in this group of 120, is to consider whether or not you have ever willingly allowed your opinion to matter less than someone else's opinion. Not speaking of doctrine or belief, but other things that come up where decisions must be made, Have you ever sat back and allowed a decision to go the other way without throwing a fit and making a bunch of complaint just because you realize the unity of the church is more important than you being right or you getting your way? Not everything is worth causing a fuss. Brother Ken says it well. Some things aren't a hill worth dying on. Not everything is the end of the world if it doesn't go your way. So, we've got to remind ourselves of that and see would I have reacted that way in Acts chapter 1. The Bible is incredibly clear on unity amongst believers. I have several references here in our notes. Romans chapter 15 and Psalm chapter 133. Let's look at those two. Romans 15, Psalm 133. We leave your place in Acts chapter 2 because we will be back. Psalm 133 and Romans 15 will be the first ones we look at. Unity with the brethren is one of those things where we all know it's necessary, but we say, well, you don't have to preach on that. We know that. But then my actions, so often people who say, I know that, I know it's necessary, needed to be preached on because Uh, we need to be reminded of these sentences. We need to be reminded from the Bible, it's not just opinion. Romans 15 in verse number 5, the Bible says, Now the doubt of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. That means, with one mind and one mouth, glorify God, even the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us. the glory of god. You notice that it's not just like minded but it's like minded in in Christ. It's like minded for the lord and to glorify god. It's not just we all get along because we all like the same football team or the same political party. It's we all get along and are like minded because our minds are all connected to the lord. Uh that's what unifies us and so Romans chapter fifteen and then if you look at And verse one, this is a good underlying memorization verse. Psalm 133.1, behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. This could be your own family at home, this could be the family of God at church. Brethren to dwell together in unity, it's a good and pleasant thing. whenever there's strife, whenever there's contentions, whenever there's backbiting and mischief going on within a church or within a house, it's not good and it's not pleasant. It's good and pleasant for brethren to go together in unity and sometimes that means allowing the other people to have their way if it's not a matter of doctrinal, you know, doctrinal things and such of that importance. Uh Philippians chapter two. This will be our last one. We've got some other references but for time's sake, we won't run them all. Philippians chapter two. If three-verse references don't remind us that it is a Bible doctrine, then we're in trouble as it is. Philippians chapter two, verse number one. Bible says here, if there be, therefore, any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who is being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with god but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a and was made in the likeness of men. In being found in passion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, thanks in heaven and thanks unto the earth, that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord, God the Father. Now, the universes are more so the first few verses we read there, but I read the entire context to show you that not only are we commanded to have unity and in order to do that, to sometimes esteem others better than ourselves, we are given the example of Christ. Christ is the ultimate example of humbling yourself in order to maintain and preserve unity. He humbled himself from the throne to the cross, from the heaven to the earth, from his being that he was in heaven to a body of flesh. He did that so that we could have the opportunity to have brothers and sisters in Christ. We have the opportunity to be in unity through Jesus Christ. So, he is he is our example there. I'm thankful that one Christian can change the world for Jesus Christ. I'm thankful that if I am the only believer in a city or nation that god can accomplish great things through me if I will live for him. That being said, let's look at Christ's method when he would send his disciples out to minister to others. Look at Mark chapter six and Luke chapter ten. Mark I'm so glad you can do it alone. You can. The Lord will be with you. You can serve God, even if you're the only Christian in town. I'm thankful that that is the case. But the Lord desires us to work together. Mark chapter 6 and verse number 7. The Bible says here, And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two. and gave them power over unclean spirits. Now when Christ is sending away his disciples to minister without him there in bodily form, he says, all right, you guys are going, but you're going in twos, you're going in pairs, you're not going by yourself. And then if you look at Luke chapter 10 and verse one, the Bible says, things. The lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whether he himself would come. So, again, he takes seventy more and he takes so many points. He says, you're going to work with him and you're going to work with him and you two are going to go here. You two are going to go there and it's always a pair. My my wife and I are always just dumbfounded by the fact that that it's not done this way anymore. You you look at missions and and you almost never see two men going together to the mission field. Don't get any weird ideas on me. Two men with their families, with their wives. This is two disciples, two apostles, two men being sent together away by Christ to do ministry. It's not a man and his wife. Now, I'm not saying the wife isn't important. That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying when the Lord sent somebody out to be a minister for him, he didn't send him alone. He sent them two by two. And so I think even in our own lives, you know, coming here, if we had come here with another family that we were good friends with in Michigan or whatever it may be, if we came here as a team, then you got twice the workers, you got twice the people serving the church, you got twice the people knocking on doors. I'm not saying that the church doesn't do that. I'm just saying, you see, it's simple math. And beyond the simple math of the fact that you have another person working with you in the ministry, there's the other aspect of it, which we find, Proverbs 27, 17 says, iron sharpeneth iron, so man sharpeneth the competence of his friend. Ecclesiastes 4, 9-12 say, two are better than one. because they have a good reward for their labor, for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falls, for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, they have heat, but how can one be more alone, and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. That passage often gets used for marriage, and it works, I understand that, but why not ministry? you know, two people working together for the lord. It's a stronger ministry than just one person standing alone and so, I'm always amazed that that it's just like nobody does that anymore and I told Michelle, the reason has to be that it's so rare for one family to decide we're going to go to the mission field and serve god uh to have two families that decide to do the same thing at the same time in their lives, that's a pretty rare thing. But if it would happen, I'm sure that that would be a very productive, very fruitful ministry, because that's the way the Lord sets it up. That's the way the Lord gives us an example of it. And so we ought to have unity in the church. We won't, mainly because it's commanded of us by God, but also the benefits of it. the benefits of it. If you're you're trying to walk through this Christian life by yourself, you're going to have a hard time but if you have a body of believers that you can lean on and that you can be encouraged by and that you can be rebuked by when you need it, then you can survive a lot longer and be a lot stronger in your faith than if you're doing it all by yourself. There are those that that have lived in persecuted lands that they were the only Christian in town and they they you know, they did very well. I'm not saying you can't do it. I'm just to serve the lord alongside someone than to do it all by yourself. So, you, unity, very important and vital amongst believers for that purpose and for those purposes. Acts chapter two and verse number one. Let's go ahead and turn back there. Now, before the act, the act of, before the events of Acts chapter two took place, The day of Pentecost marked the 50th day after the law was given on Mount Sinai to Moses. It was also a Jewish celebration of the first fruits of the harvest, which is interesting as we will see that that day would also mark the first fruits of salvation through Jesus Christ's name. So, just a little background to the day of Pentecost before, you know, we'd say Pentecost and we think of Acts chapter two but it existed before Acts chapter two. Kind of like you say, Easter, we think of bunnies and rabbits but Easter was celebrated by the Romans before Christ even died. So, some of these things, you know, there's a background to them. Acts chapter two and verse number two. And suddenly, there came a sound from heaven as a rushing rushing mighty wind and it filled all the Here is where we have some prophecies of Christ being fulfilled. John chapter 14 verses 18 and 26. Acts chapter one, verse five through eight, he shall receive power, he shall receive the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, God's gonna send a comforter, all these promises that Christ gives, it's all being fulfilled right here in Acts chapter two, verse number two. It's important to note there that everything Christ said would happen, happened. Even after he was off the scene in a physical body, everything he said would happen came to pass, just as he said it would. Verse three. And there appeared unto them glowing tongs like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them like as of fire. That means that the best descriptive word to use for them would be fire. Fire did not fall on them and lay on them. They've been, anyways, we don't need to talk about that, but like as of fire. Verse four, they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tones. That word other is very important. As the Spirit gave them other utterance, and there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying, one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we have a man in our own tongue, wherein we were born. Parthians, and Medes, and Alamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and the dwellers in Judea, and Cappadocia, and Pontus, and Asia, and Phrygia, and Pamphylia, and Egypt, and in the parts of Libya around Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews, and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Verse 13, others mocking said, these men are full of new wine. you know, anytime god does something great, there's always that one guy in the crowd that's just like, nah, not buying it. It's not, it's not true. Um but there's a lot to be Unloaded here with this passage. This is a passage that is Avoided like the plague by some Baptists because they don't know what to do with it. It's pretty simple It preaches itself and the false doctrines fall apart. If you just look at the Bible, that's all you need You don't need much commentaries. Don't read a bunch of books about it. Just read the Bible as it's written and you'll be fine So the immediate reaction to receiving the Spirit was that they spoke with other tongues now What does this mean? Well verses 5 through 8 tell us all these people from all these nations, from all these different languages, hear a group of men that are all Galileans speaking in their language. This would be as if I was preaching today and and there were some Russians in the audience and and I was preaching in in my tongue because I don't know Russian and they were hearing it in Russian or or I, you know, I I'm preaching and all of a sudden, I'm speaking Russian and and and now they're hearing it in Russian and and brother in the back and he starts preaching in Spanish and Mary Beth's like, when did you learn Spanish? And it's just that that that's what's going on here. There's they're not speaking in some unknown heavenly language. They're not speaking some gibberish. They're speaking other tongues, other languages than that which they were born into and then that which they knew. Um there are a lot of people in this world that are bilingual and trilingual. I met a man that good for you. I barely know English and then if I talk to somebody who knew English well, they'd probably say you don't know English but but it's a great skill to have. It's very useful in ministry but these men were all Galileans who did not speak all these different languages and and they start speaking the wonderful works of god and and that's what happens. Everybody starts to be able to hear and And you notice what they were preaching was the wonderful works of God. What could you think that would be? They're preaching the gospel. They're preaching the gospel. That's exactly what ought to happen when somebody gets filled with the Holy Spirit, somebody gets saved, the Holy Spirit dwells within them, and they ought to start telling people about the Lord. That's the sign of what happens. So the purpose of these tongues, the purpose of it happening, is first of all, understanding. The purpose was that everyone present could hear and understand the gospel without the need of a translator or anything like that. Also, confirmation, confirmation. Look at, let's see, Mark chapter 16 and Acts chapter 10. Mark 16, Acts 10. The obvious reason would be for everybody to be understood, but then also, The other reason for this miracle of tongues is for evidence to the Jews. that this was not just any other cult or religious thing that's popping up. This was something that was of God. In Mark chapter 16, we all probably know verse 15, going into all the world and preach the gospel of every creature. Verse 16, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up So, so this is a passage. We'll get back to this passage a little bit. It is very misused by by other denominations but but one of the things that is a sign that this is a true real thing from god is that people would speak in terms that they did not to them. Acts chapter ten and verse forty-four when Peter goes to Cornelius and and preaches the Gospels of the Gentiles for the first time, the Jews present, needed to be shown by God that the Gospel is supposed to go to the Gentiles and Gentiles can actually be saved. Because, you know, they're like us. They're stubborn. They were set in their ways and they were preaching to all the Jews and they just had that mindset still of they need to be proven. They need to be shown Gentiles can receive the Holy Spirit. So, in Acts chapter 10, verse 44, the Bible says, While Peter gets faith with these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word, and they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then answered Peter, committing them for a bit of water, that these should not be baptized, but should receive the Holy Ghost as well as we. So, evidence, proof to the, I guess you could say, unbelieving Jews, they didn't believe the Gentiles could be saved, proof that this was of God, that Gentiles could be saved. So, the tongues was for understanding, it was also for evidentiary purposes. Now, I wanna give you a couple of passages here. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, this is a, a note for the modern day tongue talker, babbler, whatever whatever you wanna call it. Uh first Corinthians fourteen verse twenty-six. Paul doesn't hold back. He just he just says it like it is. Holy Spirit through Paul verse twenty-six. How is it then brethren when you come together every one of you at the tongue? At the Let all things be done into edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. He says, you know, if you're gonna have a church service that has these people popping up with unknown tongues, You can only allow a couple of them for service. And if you do have that, you do allow it. They better have an interpreter because in other places in first Corinthians, he talks about there's no point. The church isn't edified if you're speaking in a language that nobody understands but you and God. And so so he says there's no point in doing it in church unless you have an interpreter. I've not been to very many, if any, church services where tongues were used. I've been to services, I've been to churches where they're used, and I haven't witnessed it yet with my own two eyes, but I have family that has, I have friends that have, and good old YouTube is precious for this purpose. You can watch these services, and I have yet to see one where anybody's explaining anything going on at all. It's just a mess. It's a chaotic scene. So, that's the first test. But then here's an even better test for those who claim that the modern-day tongues movement is a legitimate moving of the Holy Spirit of God, capital S. Look back at Mark chapter 16 again. Mark chapter 16. You notice that tongues was only one thing listed in that list. Mark chapter sixteen and verse number seventeen. These giant signs shall follow them that believe. This is what they use to prove all tongues that are legitimate. In my name shall they cast out devils. They shall speak with new tongues. Okay, that's the one that that we deal with a lot today. They shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. Now, there are two things in that list that are not dangerous to do. Speaking in tongues and laying hands on the sick. Everything else, you could die. You start messing with casting out devils. If you're not, that that's a tricky business. I I've not done it. I don't wanna do it but it'd be a cool story if I if I if I did it and survive but but casting out a devil getting bit by a poisonous snake. That sounds dangerous to me. Drinking poison sounds pretty stupid to me. It sounds dangerous to me. But laying my hands on someone and praying over them and them getting better, that's not any harm to me. And me going, that doesn't hurt me at all, except for maybe my dignity. And so it's funny to me that these people that talk about that their full gospel, they preach the whole gospel, meaning they believe in all these side gifts, They never do the other three. It's always just tongues and healing. And those are two things that, for the most part, can be faked, can be brought along and you can be kind of tricked by. And so there's a lot of people that believe that modern day tongue speaking, which for the most part is just people battling nonsense in church services, They think that's the Holy Spirit of God moving on them. There's no evidence from the Bible that that's the case. And so we're not gonna spend a whole lot more time on the tongues today, that's not the point of the message, it's just there, we have to talk about it when we go through the day of Pentecost, because that's where they pull a lot of their false doctrine from. But the Bible is so clear, like I said before, you don't need commentaries on their books, you don't need anything else, just read the passage as it's written, They're speaking known languages to people that they themselves did not know. They're speaking in new tongues, new to them, and speaking and preaching the wonderful works of God. You notice there they're preaching the wonderful works of God, they're not preaching some new revelation. There is no new revelation. Revelation 22, 18, and 19 give a very stern warning. Do not add to the scriptures. Do not take away from the scriptures. And if somebody says, I have a new word from God to present to everybody else, that's adding to God's Word. That's adding to God's Word. You say, well, I'm not going to add it to the Bible. You're saying it's God's Word and promoting it as God's Word. You're adding to God's Word. And then the Bible says, don't do that. And so, so there's no possible way to to believe the Bible and think that it's okay to babble it coherently and claim that it's an angelic language and that God gave you some new revelation that only applies to you and your church. Uh it's it's not scriptural. It's not scriptural. It's it's sensual. It's it's it's a thing that tickles the people's senses and gets people and a lot of people get drawn into that jump because of that. Look, it's not biblical. It's not scriptural. We'll talk more about that in depth someday. People get caught up in that sensationalist modern tongue stuff because of a Matthew 16.4 attitude. Matthew 16.4 says, A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall be no sign given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonas, and he left them imparting it. Instead of seeking God's word, people seek out for physical evidence of God's works, and that's what they believe tongues to be, that's what they believe healings to be. I don't need God to heal my body in order to believe that there is a God and that he has the power to heal my body. I don't need that proof. I don't need that evidence. I have it in the Word of God. I can just believe the Bible, and if it's God's will for me to be healed, he'll heal me regardless of whether somebody sprays me with oil or whacks me with their suit coat. It's it's it's nonsense. It's adding theatrics to what doesn't need theatrics. It's it's amazing enough that we can pray here for someone who is ill with cancer and god can answer that prayer on our Wednesday night prayer meetings and after 5 months of praying, that person can get a report from the doctor. No more cancer and we say, praise god. He answers prayer without all the theatrics without actions, all the glory goes to God because all we did was pray and that prayer was answered. And guess what? It's not God's will to heal everybody. It's not fun to say, I wish it wasn't the case, but it's true. It's not God's will that everybody live a perfectly healthy, wealthy, prosperous life here on this earth. God's will is more for our soul than for our pocketbook and for our our health. We're in physical fleshly bodies. They're going to break down. They're going to to end up, you know, all these faith healers. There was so popular back in the day. These guys are getting old. Yeah, these guys and and it just makes me, it it shouldn't. I'm immature, I guess but it makes me chuckle to see these guys trying to do stuff on TV and it's like, man, they're going to need a walker soon to get up hear yourself. It's just it's just funny to me that that we we get so caught up in this cuz we want to prolong our life here instead of focusing on our life over there and obeying the Bible and laying up treasures in heaven and not worrying so much about what's going on here. My body breaks out tomorrow. That's alright with me. I'll go to heaven, be with the lord but I hope it doesn't happen but I'm not gonna go and send $20 in into the radio person to send me a prayer rug and oils and anointing things. That's just, that's foolishness. It's not good. I know people that I respect and respected more before but that they tried all this stuff because they were desperate and and it's just not It's not scriptural. It's not. Alright. Made enough people mad online today. So, while filled with the Holy Ghost performing a great side gift and preaching good news, the disciples were mocked. Always happens. We always have one person in the crowd. Oh, this isn't anything miraculous. They're all just drunk. And you know, if you walk into a situation where there's these guys up there preaching and and one's preaching in Arabic and one's preaching in English and one's preaching in in the language of the Cyrenians and it might sound like a bunch of nonsense to you because only one of them is probably speaking your language and you might not be standing next to that guy so that you know, it's all fairness. It probably sounded a little bit crazy um but but it was a movement of the lord and it's that mockery that that causes Peter to And so, that's a good reminder to us when people mock our faith, that's just an opportunity for us to explain our faith to them. Yes? Is new wine alcoholic or non-alcoholic? What? New wine. New wine? Is it alcoholic or non-alcoholic? I would say not. That's what makes me laugh about that. Yeah. It's not even an alcoholic based on the wine. It's new wine. They're filled with this non-intoxicating drink and that's why they're acting this way. it's it's people's arguments when they're mocking god don't make sense and and we see that in our own personal lives if we witness and and try to do these things for the lord you know people say the the weirdest things I I think I've said before that there was a guy we were we were uh we're the Bretton White, one of the missionaries that was through here last year. Um he was street preaching and we're all hanging out tracks and stuff. We're one of those University of Michigan football games and this guy come up and he just starts yelling at the the letter J? What about the letter J? And no lie for 15 minutes straight. He's just yelling. What about the letter J? So, finally, I I had somebody else watch the kids, the the teenager. I was like, I gotta go talk to this guy. I I can't pass up on somebody that's crazy. And so, I went, I went over there cuz he's standing underneath the guy preaching. The guy's trying to preach and this guy's just yelling at him. What about the letter J? I walked over to him and I was like, what about the letter J? he was convinced that the entire Bible couldn't be trusted and wasn't true because something to the effect of the letter J in the English language wasn't invented until after the Bible was written. I said, you do realize that it's a translation, right? So, you know, I said, I said, if I say glory to god in Spanish and I say glory to god in English, He's like, well, no. I said, well, there you go. Your entire argument just got dismantled in 10 seconds. And he didn't really know what to say about it. He didn't really know what to do about it. He just stopped shouting, what about the letter J? And so I was thankful for that. And so was the preacher. But just people, when they're fighting against the gospel, they don't have to make sense in their own minds. They make sense in their own minds. They're just out of their minds. this guy, he's, you know, great movement of god. He said, oh, they're just all drunk. They're just all filled with new wine. They're just all all babbling on because of what they drink this morning. God uses preaching to save sinners. That's we'll see. We'll see Peter's message next next time we're together and we'll see all these things about what happens here but I want you to look at a few passages here. Uh starting with the end of Acts chapter two or later on in Acts Acts chapter 2, verse 36, the Bible says, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation, that they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto them about three thousand souls. Preaching is the method God uses to save sinners. 1 Corinthians chapter number 1, Romans chapter number 10. These will be our last two stops. 1 Corinthians 1, Romans chapter 10. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse number 21, the Bible says, that believe. For the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Under the Jews, a stumbling block. Under the Greeks, foolishness. But under them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Preaching is the method God has chosen. Romans chapter 10, verse number 14. Romans 10, 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Now, our struggle today is to remind ourselves this isn't relegated to simply a pastor, this is a preacher, somebody who testifies of the great and marvelous things of God, that could be you, that should be you. Every single Christian ought to be a preacher in their own right, in preaching and teaching the gospel to the lost world. Obviously, not everybody does it from a pulpit. If the only preaching that ever happened was from a pulpit, the church would dwindle and die, and that's what we're seeing in a lot of churches, because the preacher preaches to the people, but none of the people preach to the world, none of the people witness to the world, none of the people invite the world in, none of the people try to reach the world, and so it's just one man trying to feed this flock and nobody's going out to the world and so they just get old and die and and that's what I've visited very few churches when I when I was looking for church to pastor. I talked to a lot of them on the phone. There are a lot of churches out there that are down to about ten people and they're all in their 70s or older and they just woke up one day and realized we don't have a church anymore. everybody had a story and everybody had something different that had happened and and and I'm not casting blame on anyone. I'm just saying the way that churches die is when people think the preacher is the only one that preaches. That's not the case. It's not the case at all. Uh god uses preaching to save sinners. In in reality, the the method, the way it is supposed to work is you and I and every witnesses, and leads people to Christ out there, and then brings them here to be edified, lifted up, encouraged, rebuked, chastised, whatever needs to be done to be brought up in the word. This isn't designed as the place for salvation. This is the place for growth, and for learning, and for encouragement, and for rest, and for all those things, but we've turned it into just invite somebody to church and the preacher will preach to them. and and that that takes away from everybody else in church because now all the people that are already here and already know about salvation and and have heard about it a thousand times hear about it and a lot of churches on a weekly basis every Sunday morning because that's where the visitors come and they need to be taught about salvation because nobody's done that and so so instead of teaching and training Christians, a lot of churches, all they do every week is preach the gospel, preach the gospel. Nothing wrong with preaching the gospel, but nobody's getting fed anything more than milk. Nobody's going past salvation onto other doctrines. And so you get a lot of really weak Christians who don't know what the Bible says about anything other than how to get saved. It's good to know how to get saved, but if we if we take our job as Christians out there and and get people to come to the lord and then bring them in to get trained up, that's how it's supposed to work. Now, I'm going to keep preaching salvation in church. I'm going to keep doing that till the day I die but I'm just that's that's how it's supposed to work. We're supposed to be preaching out there and in here. Uh so, the results of the amazing occurrence 3000 were saved and added to the group. In that number, seventeen different people groups are represented. Our next lesson, we'll see exactly what Peter preached, but consider today what we have learned. God moves when his people are together and in unity. God is not bound by language barriers. Mockery should not stop the preachers. One sermon in the street can spread farther than we can imagine. Can you imagine all those people from all over the world, that one message and the people that got saved, how far that spread? one time, one message. You never know how far that's gonna go. Preaching with the power of the Holy Ghost works. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day. Thank you for your word. Thank you for this wonderful book of Acts that we can study and learn from and be encouraged by the actions of of the early believers, the early church. Lord, help us to pattern our lives after that. We thank you in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, memory verse is still Acts one eight for those who have not memorized it yet and the assignment is to explain in one page or or or why gift by the gift of tongues out of Pentecost was so important and how it helped the gospel message to spread.