Our scripture reading today as we continue in the book of Acts is from the first 21 verses of Acts chapter 2, and that, if you're using the black Bibles that are provided for you, is on page 1081. If you would stand with me for the reading of God's Word. When the day of Pentecost had arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each one of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene. And visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others, mocking, said, They are filled with new wine. But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, Let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. The grass withers, the flowers fade, and yet the word of the Lord remains forever. You may be seated. So I had a couple of introductions prepared. You'll probably end up getting both of them. So first of all, a few weeks ago, as we looked at the ascension of Jesus Christ, we talked to one of the things I mentioned was how how kind of overlooked and under celebrated the ascension of Jesus is. Now, if that's true about the ascension of Jesus in In many of our circles of Protestant churches or evangelical churches, you might say that the same is true of Pentecost. The pouring out, the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out in a very unique way. And maybe we make an excuse for that by saying, well, there's so many that overemphasize it and emphasize it beyond what it was, and have even named their churches after it, and we've heard of things called Pentecostalism, or you've heard of Pentecostal churches, and so maybe we think, well, we're just protecting that, and that's sort of like, that kind of argument is akin to the argument I would make when talking to my wife, about those weird couples that have a date night every week. Like, they schedule a date night. Like, it's on their calendar. It is always this day. It is always this time. We have a date night every week. And Amy and I would sit at our table and laugh at them. We're like, who schedules a date night? and then we would go another month before we sat at the table together and laughed at those people with their scheduled date nights. Is it that we don't celebrate Pentecost because we think that there's those silly people out there that over-celebrate it and we just don't want to be like them? And this is where the second introduction comes in. Maybe we don't celebrate Pentecost because we just don't understand the Holy Spirit. Who or what is the Holy Spirit? You know, at some levels we think, well, is He like the third string of God? You know, there's the first string, And there's God the Father and a lot of power, a lot of lightning and thunderbolts. I probably should have said that backwards, so I could have said it's very, very frightening. And then you get the second string, and his hair is nicer, and he's just a nicer guy, and he's kind of fun to hang out with. But then eventually you get to the third string. And it's not the Father, and he's not the Son, he's just more of the Holy Spirit. Is the Holy Spirit the leftovers of God? Like God is kind of done? He's like, you know, you take it now. Or is it more like there's the father and he's like the, like all of our fathers, he's the angry, you never know when he's gonna, we're never gonna know what's gonna set him off, and now pretty soon 12,000 people are dead, and now, oh, and here, oh, but then here comes his son, and he's the happy God, and he's the, listen, we just need love. Like Jesus, if we weren't sure that he was born in first century Palestine, we would think he might have been born in San Diego in 1967. Because it's just, let's just, can't we just love each other? And then the spirit is more of now we are in charge. Now it's the spirit in me. And I, like I feel, I feel God speaking to me right now. And since it's God speaking to me, You don't want to blaspheme God and question what God is saying to me, do you? So you really can't question anything because now it's God speaking to me. Is that what the Holy Spirit is? It's just a way for all of us to make up things. And instead of saying, I want to do this, we can say things like, well, God told me to do this, or I really feel lead. My pastor in Raleigh used to carry buckshot in his pocket and would suggest to others that they carry buckshot in their pocket and say, listen, the next time you want to feel lead, just reach up to your pocket and rub the little buckshot and you can feel lead every day, but you don't blame that on God. Some of you are going to have to work that out together, maybe over lunch. Thankfully, it wasn't my joke in case you don't ever get it. What's going on at Pentecost and why is it significant? Luke casts it as the turning point like a significant moment in the working out of the gospel. Jesus says it's so important, it's better that the Holy Spirit be poured out than that Jesus still be physically present on earth in his bodily form. Like what is it about this moment that the Bible thinks is so important and that we just kind of think, well, yeah. It's almost just the natural next thing that would happen, and we don't give it much thought. Or we give it so much thought that we think that it's this moment that's very duplicatable. Like, and it happens over and over, and every time it keeps happening, and then you get another Pentecostal moment, and another Pentecostal moment, and you can have a Pentecostal moment, and you can have a Pentecostal moment. Is that what this is? Is this the setting off of the dominoes of the Pentecostal moments for every believer? I think it's not, and I think we'll see it in the setting and the gift and the response and Peter's explanation of it all, that this is a very unique moment, but even in its uniqueness, just like we, while we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus at Christmastime, Like, we don't think he's incarnated again at those celebrations. It doesn't repeat it. We simply celebrate and remember that this actually happened historically. And we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but we don't consider him dying again every Tenebrae service or Think of him as rising again every Easter service when we celebrate these things. We're celebrating something that historically once happened that has ongoing significance for God's people. Pentecost is like that. The outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost is a historical, once in a moment happening in history that has ongoing significance now for all of those who will call on the name of the Lord. But just because it has a significant once-in-a-lifetime historical impact doesn't mean it isn't worth celebrating and remembering and being moved to worship over. And so let's look at the setting here. It's about a week and a half after Jesus has ascended. So remember, Jesus ascended on a Thursday. This is now a Sunday. Why do we know this is a Sunday? Well, because Luke tells us it was the day of Pentecost. And so Pentecost is not something that started with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is actually a Jewish celebration that's in the Old Testament. Pentecost is just a Greek word that means 50. because all Pentecost means is 50 days after Passover, or literally 50 days after the Sabbath, or after the day after the, all right, so follow me. There's Passover, and Passover would culminate on the Sabbath day of that week. And so Passover would move throughout the week. Sometimes it was closer to Sabbath. Sometimes it was farther from Sabbath. But Passover would then culminate in the Sabbath day's worship. And then the day after Sabbath day's worship was the beginning of the Feast of Weeks. It was the beginning of this seven week which like we all know from our time in Daniel, like seven weeks seems kind of significant when here's a seven week celebration called the Feast of Weeks and it's kicked off by the sacrifice of first fruits or the gift of first fruits. So that on the day after the Sabbath day of Passover, would begin the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Weeks would last 7 weeks and a day so that on the 50th day, which again would be the first day of the week because if you count 7 weeks is 49, that would be the Sabbath. And then it would end on Pentecost with a second celebration, and it was basically a celebration of the grain harvest, because that was about how long it took to harvest the grain. So you would come on the day after Passover, and you would celebrate the first fruits, you would bring sacrifices of your first fruits of grain, you would bring burnt offerings, there would be lambs offered in sacrifice, and it would kick off a seven-week celebration! that lasted the whole harvest season for the grain and that would end on the 50th day when technically you should be done harvesting your grain. A seven-week celebration. A seven-week mandatory celebration. Now this is not a sermon about those Old Testament feasts and festivals. But have you ever thought about that for a while? That throughout the Old Testament law, God has a minimum of three mandatory feast days. Three times a year you must celebrate. You must enjoy yourselves. And you can do it more than that, but you can't do it less than that. And one of them is after a week, seven weeks of sort of enjoying the harvest. It is almost as if God knew that the moment he started telling us rules to live by, we would start defining our relationship with him by how well or how poorly we were living by those rules. Hey, this would be good for you. Okay, so do this and you'll love me? That's not, that's not what I said. Hey, this would be bad for you. Okay, so don't do that or else you'll stop loving us. Do you hear, you know what? Let's stop a minute. Three times a year, remember that your relationship with me, it's good, it's joyful. I delight in you. I love you. Let's have a party. You know, if you need an example, like the salt shaker dinners, or the progressive dinner. So like, you can get together with each other anytime. But here are some slightly less than mandatory, but sign up for them, they're a little more structured, and it's just to help you get together with each other. You know, it's like, oh, you're saying that we're bad people because we didn't sign up? No, that's not what I said. I mean, I think there's other reasons that you're bad people, but it has nothing to do with whether you sign. Listen, that's just from the Bible. You're sinners, let's face that. You should know I'm a bad person too. If you haven't figured that out yet, I don't know how to help you. So here's the setting, it's Pentecost. So why? Why Pentecost? Is there any significance or is it just a coincidence? I think there's some significance to why God would choose Pentecost. One, we're told in the passage that there were a lot of people in town. There were people from the dispersion of the Jewish people. There were people who have lived outside of Jerusalem for centuries. Some of these areas are the folks that had gone into exile and didn't come back during the time of Daniel and have been Jewish folks living outside of Jerusalem for over 600 years. Like, these aren't the ones who went into exile, clearly. But, so, like, their native tongues are, like, they have grown up in these other areas. Like these and and these folks came back to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover and then stayed for that seven week period to celebrate Pentecost. And so there's a large number of outside of Jerusalem followers of the Jewish of God. And so, this is a maximum impact decision. And before you think, well, that's kind of a crass idea of why God would choose Pentecost, but Galatians 4 tells us that at the right moment, in the fullness of time, God sent his son to be born of a virgin. Like, do you ever wonder what that meant? That at the fullness of time, that there is an intentionality behind why God chose the time that he chose for Jesus' birth? That he was born at the time of the Roman, the beginnings of the Roman Empire, as they're building these roads everywhere, and that now, because of these Roman roads, like the apostles, and other followers of Christ have a much easier way to spread the gospel? Like there's a, the centrality of the, of Israel, like having access to Africa, and to Asia, and to Europe, like there's an intentionality behind God's choice for when Jesus was born, and there's, why wouldn't there also be an intentionality behind when the Holy Spirit is poured out? Now, we're going to see other reasons, though, beyond that. It's not just that it was practically a good time because there'd be a lot of people. The people that were there were also, like, they're kind of prepped because these are the devout. Like, even though it's required that you celebrate, it wasn't required that you celebrate in Jerusalem, But these folks have made trips from all over. These are very devoted followers of God. And it's a time of celebration. It's come at the end of a time of celebration. They're full of joy and there's reason to believe that there's, like their hearts are even prepped almost for a thing that is about to occur. But third, it's interesting that The language in Greek that Luke uses to open this is that he says, when the time of the fulfillment of Pentecost came. And so he's not just saying when the days of Pentecost came, but it's an awkward English phrasing, but it's at the time that the fulfillment of Pentecost came. And this is the amazing thing about the gospel. Like the gospel flips everything you think about your relationship with God on its head. So here's the celebration that starts with the celebration of firstfruits. And what happens? You bring your firstfruits to God. And yes, you're acknowledging that it's God who provided it for you, but it's you bringing your firstfruits to God. And then the celebration goes on, and then the Pentecost is another bringing of what you've got, the end of your harvest, thanking God for all that he's provided, but you're bringing what you have to God in your first fruits. So I don't know if you picked up on this, but So this seven-week celebration is kicked off the day after the Sabbath of Passover, is the day that the firstfruits offering is brought. Do you know what else happened that day, that year? Jesus rose from the dead on the first day after the Sabbath of the Passover. So Passover, Jesus is betrayed and crucified. The Sabbath comes, he's in the ground, he's dead and buried. The first day of the week, he's raised from the dead. Fulfilling this entire picture of celebration. That God is not looking for the firstfruits sacrifice from you but he has given the firstfruits sacrifice for you. And that's for the first time in understanding this today, or this week, it's when I started to understand why Paul would use such weird, archaic language in 1 Corinthians 15 when he says, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. He's not only saying he's the first one raised from the dead and resurrected to eternal life, but he's also saying he's the firstfruits. On the celebration of firstfruits, Jesus Christ was raised from the dead as the firstfruits. And in Romans 8, Paul says, not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, We groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. Jesus is called the firstfruits from among the dead in 1 Corinthians, and the Holy Spirit is called the firstfruits dwelling in us, who assists us in all of our struggles. And so on the day that was for centuries a party to celebrate to God and say, here are the first fruits of our labor. God comes and says, here's the first fruit of my labor. Here is my son. Here is my spirit. Here is my power. Here is my glory. And so the setting of Pentecost. Now, what about the gift? So on the day of Pentecost, they were all together in one place, and suddenly from heaven there came a sound like rushing and violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were, and they saw dividing on them tongues like fire, and it came to rest on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak different tongues, just as the Spirit gave declarations to them. Have you ever heard the phrase, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing, Like, sometimes we get distracted by things that aren't the main thing, and we think they are the main thing, and then if you make not the main thing the main thing, you lose sight of the main thing. So, some of you are starting to have young children. Well, and by have young children, I mean babies. like many of you have young children, but when you're first having children, I'm gonna give you some advice that I know you're not gonna follow, because I wouldn't follow it even though I learned after four kids and five years. But also, even as I'm giving you this advice, please don't follow it. I'm really not giving you this advice, but consider for a moment the first two Christmases and birthdays of your child, just give them a box of paper. Just give them, in fact, on the first Christmas, give them the paper from one of your boxes. You unwrap your own gift and just give it to them. Give them that paper. Like, a couple things. They will not remember their first or second Christmas. Promise. I promise. Won't remember the first or second Christmas. Won't remember the first or second birthday. In my notes, I had put their first three, but then, you know, you're getting close. You're getting close to traumatizing and lots of counseling, but first two, you're totally safe. Because what you're gonna find in those first two birthdays and first two Christmases, and you're gonna pour a lot of effort into that gift, and then you're gonna think, oh, this is his first Christmas, and oh, I just can't wait for them to open it, and they will be so enamored with the crinkly paper. And they won't even know what the gift is that you gave them. And they have to grow a little, and they have to mature a little, and they have to understand a little that, like, they finally mature beyond the level of cat IQ. That the box and the paper is not the gift. It's the stuff inside the gift that is the gift. You all, I trust, are mature beyond first and second Christmas celebrators. There are three things that are going on here that are the box and the crinkly wrapping paper, and sometimes, as Christians, we might pick one and say, that's the gift, and not realize the whole point was that all three of these were to point to the gift. There's three things that happen here. There's the sound like rushing wind. It's funny how Luke is very careful to say it wasn't these things, but it was like these things. He's trying to describe it. So it was a sound like rushing wind that filled the whole house. There was this thing like tongues of flame that divided and descended on each one of them. And then the third wrapping is, and they all began to speak in other tongues or in other languages. But all of these are signs that point to the gift. Like, the gift wasn't the sound of rushing wind. Nobody really thinks that. Nobody thinks, hey, we need to re-experience that again. We need, like, loud noise. We need to put, like, white noise in here, just always coming through the speakers so it sounds like there's wind going on, but there's really no wind. Or we need to figure out how to get that fire back. We need to bring that flame back down on all of us. And that's part of the building committee's changing of the ceiling so we can have little propane shooters that on the day of Pentecost will sear the tops of your heads and you'll feel the presence of the Holy Spirit again. No, none of us would want to do that. And yet, when we look at that third sign, we're always like, oh yeah, that's the thing. That's the sign, that's how you know. That's how you know. I was like, these are three signs that something unique has happened. The Holy Spirit has come. They're not just random signs. They're all intentional, biblical signs, aren't they? First of all, the wind. The sound of the wind is the sound of God's saving, powerful, life-giving presence. You know, God blows, He breathes life into dust, and man is formed. You know, he speaks, you know, I was talking to the communicants class last week that, you know, talking is just fancy breathing. Have you ever thought about that? I mean, you're still just exhaling. You're just doing it over vocal cords and moving your tongue and your lips around, but it's still, it's just fancy breathing. It's fancy wind. When God says, let there be life, let there be light, he's simply breathing the words and life comes into existence. God blew a mighty wind across the Red Sea and parted the seas to deliver his people from the Egyptians. God blew with a mighty wind the sound of the trumpet at Mount Sinai. In Ezekiel 37, we read of the Spirit of God blowing mightily through the valley of dry bones and giving life, bringing life out of death. And here the wind, the sound of the wind of God fills the place of God's people and He breathes life. The fire was a presence of God's glory, His holiness. Again, the fire as the wind is blowing the Red Sea and parting the Red Sea, the fire, the fire of God's presence was protecting them from Pharaoh's army. As the wind was blowing the trumpet at Mount Sinai, the fire was descending on Mount Sinai, the glory of God on the mountain where he would give the law and the covenant. the fire that filled the temple, the Shekinah glory, that fire that filled the temple, to let you know this is where God dwells. That fire came down and didn't fill a house a couple doors down from the temple. but came and divided and rested on each one of them, and the Shekinah glory of God that filled the temple and announced, God's presence is here, divided and filled his people and said, God's presence is here in each one of my children. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says, don't you know that you, y'all, are God's temple? That God's spirit dwells in you? These are literally the words of Paul. You are God's temple and God's spirit dwells in you. The Shekinah glory that dwelt in and filled the temple is the same glory of God that dwells in and fills each one of you. Or more personally, he says in 1 Corinthians 6, don't you know that your own body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? And so what of the tongues, what of these languages? You know, it wasn't necessary, it wasn't necessary for the people there to hear in their native language. They all knew Greek and probably most of them knew Aramaic or Hebrew. Peter speaks in a single language when he preaches and they're all listening and we'll see more about that next week. So what is going on? Why then this sign? Why this last sign of what the Holy Spirit was doing? I don't know if you know this, but early on at Hope of Christ, we had to decide on what language we would worship in. Yeah. And we recognized that whatever language we chose would be sort of exclusive. And it would sort of announce, like, this is, like, we're gonna worship in this language, we're not making any judgment calls on people who worship in other languages, but this is the language we're choosing, and we're gonna, and how we worship in that language will be how we reach people. Like, we'll have to limit our reach to the languages we worship in. And so we chose English. And that sounds kind of silly, but when you choose a language for your church and how you're gonna worship and how you're gonna communicate, you're being pretty exclusive. You have to be, especially if you don't know any other languages. It's kind of important to pick the one you can talk. And so in one sense, what is being announced here by choosing that the glories and wonders of God would be declared in all of these languages, God is announcing My kingdom is going beyond what you think. The languages I choose for my glories to be announced and my gospel to be proclaimed say something about who that gospel is for and who I'm trying to reach. It's interesting, Luke lists out all these 15 different groups, and he sort of just kind of works a way across where the dispersion of the Jewish folks had come, and it goes from kind of east to west. I always forget you guys are looking at this differently. He goes from east to west. But one thing that doesn't show up real clearly in here is that the three regions he chooses are the regions that are settled by the offspring of the three sons of Noah of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And so there are folks mentioned in Genesis 10 as the offspring of these three, and some of those are mentioned here in Acts 2. And part of why that's significant is because at the end of Genesis 10 comes this passage, Genesis 11. You should write that down, that's hard to remember sometimes. So after Genesis 10 comes Genesis 11. But in Genesis 11 is this story about God's people, or just the people of earth gather together and they are really impressed with themselves and they say, hey, let's build a tower that reaches to heaven that makes a name for ourselves. Let's reach God without God's plan. Let's just get to God how we want to get to God. And we're told that God looks down this tower that's going to reach to heaven. God has to look down. It says he stooped down to look to see this tower of glory and and the result of their sin of trying to reach God without God. We're told that God then confused their languages and scattered them. And so, the multiple languages was sort of a punishment for what we do when we unite together against God. And now here, what we're told is that the Holy Spirit comes and gives the gospel message in all of these languages reversing, not really reversing, but correcting that effect of the fall. because it's not reversing, it's not like he gave them the ability to understand something else, but the language is in their own languages, and it's sort of like the gospel always, it always moves forward, it never moves backwards. It always takes what was great, but says, listen, we're gonna fix it, but still be great and greater. That's why you're all happy that we're not returning to naked. when Jesus comes, like we'll be robed, even though Genesis describes clearly they were naked and unashamed. When there's no sin, there's nakedness and there's no shame. But thankfully, when we get to heaven, we'll be robed in clothes of righteousness, and won't that be nice? And even the white linen will be nice, because we won't have to be naked in front of each other, because I don't know what the fall, what glory is gonna correct, but it might not correct everything. I mean, some things are just bad choices. I don't know if my tattoos will still be. I just don't know. I mean, we're going to be resurrected bodies. But anyway, we go forward to clothing. We don't go backwards. And the gift of Pentecost moves forward. And then how incredible that it's so glorious that in Revelation in heaven, three different times in Revelation, it is described that a people of every tribe, language, people, and nation will worship God. God will delight in the multitudes of languages that will come and worship at the feet of Jesus Christ, our victorious Savior. There will be no shame in having different languages. And will we all get to understand each other? I hope so. I hope it's more than just like the Star Trek in-ear translator. Like, I hope we just automatically can understand one another, but we still will worship God in our native tongues. And that is glorious, that he would give such a gift. You know, the response is interesting. Like Luke, I don't know if you noticed, he can't overemphasize the response. He uses five different words. They're amazed and perplexed and astonished and confused and amazed again. Like this is a big deal. This is a big deal of what's going on. Even the devout Jewish people, the worshipers of God, those devoted to God and who are looking for the Messiah, when this happens, they are amazed. What is going on here? But amazement isn't always amazement that drives toward worship. Sometimes amazement just drives toward cynicism. Drives you deeper into unbelief. Some are amazed in a positive way, others are like, ah, I think they're just drunk. Now they didn't actually think they were just drunk. Like they're just making fun, they're ridiculing, they're putting it down. Like clearly, drunkenness does not produce in you the ability to speak in another language. Like it hinders your ability to speak in your own language. It's not gonna add, it's gonna subtract. And so they're simply making fun. But that's where unbelief takes us, doesn't it? Like I would rather believe anything than what seems pretty obvious before my own eyes. And they look for just any excuse they can to ignore the message. And Peter explains it to him. I love his sort of self-deprecating humor. He kind of puts everyone at ease at the beginning. He says, guys, these people aren't drunk. And he doesn't say, because we're Christians now and we don't drink. He says, these people aren't drunk. It's 9 a.m. Even drunks can't be drunk by 9 a.m., so there's got to be something else going on. And I know some of you are saying, hmm. His point is, it's 9 in the morning, that can't be what happened. Let me tell you what is happening. And he goes straight to an Old Testament prophet, Joel, to explain what is happening. He says, And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams, even on the male servants and female servants. In those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapor and smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, the moon to blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He starts by quoting this passage in Joel chapter two, but also changing it slightly. He says it's in the last days. And so whatever else you think, whatever else your theology on the end of time is, Peter is telling you beyond a shadow of a doubt that whatever else you think about how the world is going to end, from the moment the Holy Spirit was poured out, you have been living in the last days. These are the last days. Peter says, in the last day, this is what will happen. God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. So we are, whatever else we are, we are in the last days. I've sort of intentionally flown through some of these words, but notice that one of the significant points of this whole passage is the allness. of what's going on here. So look back in verse one. They were all together. In verse two, the sound of wind filled the entire house. In verse three, tongues like fire rested on each one of them. Verse four, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Even in verse eight, the question, aren't these all Galileans? And then in the passage that Peter quotes, all flesh, the Holy Spirit will be poured out on all flesh. Now was the Holy Spirit not around before this? Of course he was around. In fact, Genesis 1-2, the Holy Spirit is there. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the earth. The Spirit of God has been present. The Spirit of God has been active. The Spirit of God has been doing things. He would fill prophets so that they would prophesy. He would fill kings so that they would rule righteously. Saul was filled with the Holy Spirit. And then after his disobedience, the Spirit was taken from him. But something is changing. Something will change. On the day, in the last days, God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh. There is no gender separation. sons and daughters. There is no age separation, young men and old men. There's no class or economic separation, even my servants. my male servants and my female servants, the Holy Spirit will be poured out onto all. And they will prophesy, they will speak the truth of who God is and what it is to know him. Joel goes on to describe, and Peter quotes it, that listen, it doesn't mean the end of trouble. There's going to be difficulty, there's going to be trial. I mean, the sun will be darkened, the moon will turn to blood. It's going to be hard in these last days. The Holy Spirit being poured out doesn't mean the end of trial and tribulation. But in the midst of the trial and the trouble and the turmoil and the tribulation, one final all. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, Peter goes on in his sermon to unpack that, and we are not going to do that. Because the first part of his sermon is to explain what just happened, and the second half of his sermon is to explain how it could have happened. Why did it happen now? And just to give you a little spoiler alert, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. In the Old Testament, it's the word Lord for Yahweh. And Peter takes that and applies it to Jesus Christ. And everyone who calls on the name of Jesus Christ will be saved. Everyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Lord, he is the one sent from God to die for and because of your sins, everyone who would repent and believe and turn, everyone who would do that will be saved. Whether you're a man or a woman, whether you're of noble birth, of low birth, whether whether you're rich or poor. Whether you're old or young. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Let's pray.