The Marks of a Pentecostal Church Acts 2:4-14
This title may seem confusing but it is not meant in denominational terms but in a spiritual sense. In history all new church groupings need a title such as Lutheran, Wesleyan, Methodists or Brethren. However most of these titles should apply to all try Christian Groups. For example:
Catholic – all Bible-based churches should be catholic or universal as they all have the same foundation. It is significant that David Yonggi Cho, the Korean religious leader and Christian evangelist who founded (1958) the Yoido Full Gospel Church (YFGC) in Seoul, the megachurch that he presided over until 2008, insisted that they say the Creed at every service to show that though in the Pentecostal denomination they are very much part of orthodox Biblical Christianity.
Society of Friends – all churches should be communities of friends of Jesus
Brethren Assemblies – similarly this title should be applicable to all biblical churches
Baptists – even this title should be one that all churches who follow the teaching of Jesus follow. It is not the means of baptism that matters but that people make a public confession that Jesus has washed them of their sins and that they are dead to the old life and are now living a new life with and for Jesus.
Lutheran and Wesleyan – Luther reminded the church that people are saved by faith alone and not be church affiliation. Wesley woke up churches to this message and taught all types of people what this meant.
There are many marks of a Spirit-filled or pentecostal church that this passage in Acts 2 reminds us of.
1. The chief mark is preaching from the Bible
It is striking that immediately after the church receives the Spirit of God we have a sermon! Indeed 65% of the verse in this Pentecostal chapter are a sermon, an explanation of the Christian gospel. Whenever the Spirit of God comes, people speak.
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak . . .” Acts 2:4
“We hear them declaring the wonders of God . . .” Acts 2:11
“Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd.” Acts 2:14
“Men of Israel, listen to this . . .” Acts 2:22
“When the people heard this . . .” Acts 2:37
Teaching, sharing with words that describe what God has done is a vital feature of the Spirit-filled Christian and church. After 3,000 people had become Christians, what they most needed was to be taught the Word of God.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching . . .” Acts 2:42
Truth should matter to all people, whether they have become Christians or not.
Some modern churches have tried to divorce the work of the Spirit from the teaching of the Word of God. In Scripture they are combined. The ‘sword of the Spirit is the Word of God’ (Ephesians 6:17). In this chapter the Spirit came and men spoke. Jesus associated the work of the Spirit with teaching God’s truths.
“But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things.” John 14:26
“When the Counsellor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify.” John 15:26-27
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own . . .” John 16:13
“When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” John 16:8
The Holy Spirit teaches the mind about the truths of God and this will impact people’s conscience. The Spirit of conviction is the Spirit of truth. This is what happened to the 3000 who responded to Peter’s teaching of God’s message.
There are some who think that Christian truths are too complicated and difficult for ordinary people, so their message changes. A young Christian attended a local evangelistic mission but after three days he felt he couldn’t continue to support it as the message seemed to be, ‘If you want to be happy, step forwards.’ In contrast, the Christian message is serious, it is about life and death and both the words used and the passion with which the message is delivered must portray this. The ‘tongues of fire’ today must similarly be tongues passionately on fire as we pass on God’s truth.
Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the great preacher in the mid twentieth century in London, coined the phrase for what preaching should be, ‘Logic on fire.’ A good talk must have content with passion, not just good theology that has no fire!
2. Evangelistic concern for outsiders
The Holy Spirit has been given, not for private praise but for public proclamation.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses to . . .” Acts 1:8
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak . . .” Acts 2:4
It is obvious that these people spoke real local languages to their hearers. The Greek word, translated ‘tongues’ simply means ‘languages’ They were surely given this audio-visual aid to remind them of what Jesus had repeatedly said, their message was for all people of all races.
There had been several hints that this was always God’s intention. God said to Abraham,
“ . . . all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:3
Jonah was sent as a missionary to Nineveh. Jesus himself had gone up to the Syro-Phoenician and the Gentile Gadarene areas and shared the gospel there. However this must have been hard for those raised in first century Judaism. When Peter had a vision of eating unclean animals he was appalled, but this was a prelude to his being taught that he was to go and explain the gospel to a Gentile occupying soldier, the centurion Cornelius (Acts 10:45). When Paul was allowed to explain himself to the Jewish crowd in Jerusalem we read,
“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles. The crowd listened to Paul until he said this.” Acts 22:21-22
The Jews felt they had exclusive privileges and God needed, by his Spirit, to change this way of thinking. His people were to love not only those inside the church but those outside too.
The Australian evangelist, John Chapman, was asked by a new pastor to come and lead a mission in his American church, aptly called, ‘The Good Shepherd church.’ The minister was having a difficult time with some of the old guard in the church. At a reception John Chapman asked one of the old guard what they found difficult and was told,
“It’s all these new people coming to our church!”
Apparently John gave a curt Australian response!
How ironic it is if Christians are not geared up for and seeking to win the lost. Didn’t Jesus say to Zacchaeus,
“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10
If we belong to Jesus then this must be our ambition too. Is this our personal prayer and is this what the church is praying for at the prayer meetings?
The great preacher, James Denney, once said,
“I have not the faintest interest in a theology that doesn’t help you evangelise.”
Whenever Jesus preached the Word of God, people understood and many were ‘cut to the heart’. This is what we should be praying for today.
A young man working with young people on an estate was talking about the local vicar and said,
‘He debunks the word’
He then went on to say that he never visits the estate. This is not surprising because if someone rejects what the Bible teaches they will surely reject the idea of working hard to save people. The two go together.
The question we need to ask is whether the world or our country or our region or even our town can be reached by the clergy. God has a better answer:
3. Every believer is a missionary
I was taken by a friend to go and watch Spurs play at White Hart Lane. There were around 60,000 people there and I wondered, ‘How many of these people will be saved?’
Peter reminded his hearers of something the prophet Joel had said:
“In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.” Acts 2:17-18
In the Old Testament dreams and visions were the normal way for God to communicate with his special representatives or prophets. Today God still uses this way when reaching out to people in lands were there is no or limited gospel ministry. Many people in Muslim lands have said that a dream was how they first began to think about spiritual matters. Occasionally this happens here in the United Kingdom.
We had a telephone call from a Jewish man who had represented Great Britain at football in the Maccabean Games. He wanted some help and he came for a meal. He was a tough man but he told us this story. He was a salesman who came from a non practising Jewish background in the east End of London. Suddenly everything in his life began to go wrong. His wife left him so he bought a flat with a heavy mortgage. The value of the flat then dropped and he was caught in a negative equity trap. Furthermore, redundancy loomed. He didn’t know what to do so talked to a friend at work. That friend had recently become a Christian, so his suggestion was that he tried praying. This was a problem for David as he had never prayed before. The friend suggested he get a book on how to pray and do what it said! This David did, hewent to his room to follow the directions given in the book. He emptied his mind and was told to say whtever came into his mind, but he couldn’t think what to say. It was at this point that he saw Jesus standing there in front of him. Jesus didn’t say anything, so David blurted out,
‘You’ve got it wrong. I’m Jewish!’
When he asked his work mate what he made of all this, his friend was flummoxed but said he would ask someone in his church, which was down in Thame. It just so happened that the man he talked to at his church had been in my year at college. We had become close friends and he had become a Christian there. On hearing that David lived in Letchworth my friend suggested that he phone us up and David had the courage to do this. He came for a few meals and joined us at the Friday Group, a Bible Study we run in our home. Within a few weeks he had understood the gospel and he committed his life to Christ. He had no more visions, God now spoke to him through the Bible. David went on to become a full time Christian worker.
V.J. Menon was brought up as a Hindu in India but came to work in London. One Tuesday he saw a crowd of people going into an old church in the city and assumed this was to hear a musical concert. He sat down and was soon boxed in. It was only then that he realised he was in a church for a midday service. The sermon was simple and challenging. For the next week VJ had vivd dreams that were all about Jesus and the gospel. When he went to meet the preacher, Dick Lucas, he mentioned these dreams. Dick said he had never heard such a clear understanding of the gospel from someone so untaught. VJ joined a Bible Study group and had no more dreams. He is still an active worker for Christ.
God is not limited in the ways he communicates with people to start with, but he quickly leads us on to hear him speak through his Word. His usual way of speaking to people is through a Christian friend.
What is important is that now all of God’s people are the channels by which God’s message is spread. No longer will it just be a few professionals. Now it is both young and old, men and women, people of all social ranks who will be the bearers of God’s message – all Christians will be given this power or ability.
The evangelist John Chapman was led to Christ by a boy in his class at school.
Isn’t it sad that so many in our churches do not know what they have been chosen by God for!
BVP
February 2021
