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Acts 2:5-13
 ith this paragraph begins the story of the Church witnessing. In obedience to her Lord’s command she began
in Jerusalem. The story of this witness in Jerusalem is that of the first things; and this lends charm and value to
the study. We have in sequence: the first impression produced in Jerusalem; the first message delivered in the
power of the Pentecostal effusion; the first opposition raised to the infant Church; the first attempt to realize
the communism of the Christian Church; the first fearful and fiery discipline by which the Church was made
pure; the first outbreak of persecution against the Church; :the first Church organization in the setting apart of
the deacons; and the first Christian martyr.
 s we study these, we shall discover the lines of Church life and Church service, according to the will of the
Spirit of God, Who came to interpret the things of Christ, and realize them, in the Church, and through the
Church in the world.
 ur present study is concerned with the first impressions produced by the witnessing Church. Let us follow
two lines of consideration. First, the impressive facts; and secondly, the impressions made. The supreme
matter in this study is not that of the facts, but that of the impressions. We have often been in danger, in
reading this story of the Pentecostal effusion, of laying an undue emphasis upon the manifestations, to the
forgetfulness of the impressions made.
I.  et us first notice the impressive facts. Of these the first-named is that of “a sound as of the rushing of a
mighty wind.” Concerning this, Luke says: “Now there were dweIling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from
every nation under heaven. And when this sound was heard, the multitude came together.”
 here is no question whatever that this is a far more helpful translation than that which reads: “when this was
noised abroad.” To read it thus would seem to suggest that the multitude was gathered together when they
heard about these people speaking with tongues; but that certainly is not the meaning of this statement. The
Greek word here translated solrnd is never used for a rumour or a report. It is always used of some sound that
arrests attention. The reference here undoubtedly is to the rushing mighty wind, which was heard throughout
the whole city of Jerusalem. It was a startling sound, as of a hurricane.
uke describes it as coming “from heaven.” It was a descending hurricane, settling upon and centring at one
place, the Temple where these men were assembled. Jerusalem heard it. It was this sound of a mighty rushing
wind, marvellous, mysterious, that brought the multitude together. That was the first impressive fact:
something outside the ordinary; something supernatural.
 ut a still more impressive fact of that day to Jerusalem was that of the crowd of disciples. Jerusalem saw and
heard a company of about one hundred and twenty men and women all “speaking” probably all singing, or
chanting-“the mighty works of God.” This was the common subject of the ancient psalmody of the Hebrew
people. This was the subject of Peter and this gathered company of men and women. But that did not arrest
attention. That would not have startled any Jewish multitude. It was not the singing, it was not the things of
which they sang, but it was that they, the gathered Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in
Mesopotamia, heard with absolute distinctness and accuracy all they were singing, in their own tongue. In
many tongues and dialects, with perfect distinctness, this chanting, this ecstatic utterance of the newly
baptised company of disciples, broke upon the astonished and listening ear of that assembled multitude.
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them
utterance.”
ll the references in Acts, Corinthians, and Ephesians, show that the exercise of tongues consisted of ecstatic
utterance. These people were not preaching, they were praising; they were not indulging in set discourse, they
were pouring out the rapture that filled their souls. In the filling of the Spirit there had come to them a new
vision of their Lord; and a new consciousness of His life throbbing through their lives. They realized that all the
hopes and aspirations of the past were being fulfilled. They knew that the river of God had come by the way of
the altar? and that they were in thefull flood tide of its healing and life-giving waters. They were praising God
for His mighty works.
 id they know they were speaking in other tongues? One cannot be at all sure that they did. Were they
familiar with the tongues in which they were speaking? Probably not. They praised with a new inspiration,
they poured out their songs, and lo, Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, sojourners from Rome, people from
Mesopotamia, men of all dialects, listened; and they heard the songs in their own language, with perfect
accuracy and distinctness. The Resurrection was the first note in their singing, as it came to be the first note in
apostolic preaching. One could almost wish that one could have listened to that first chanting of the Church, in
which the singers set forth the mighty works of God.
II. e may now consider the impressions made upon Jerusalem. “They were all amazed, and were perplexed,
saying one to another, What meaneth this? But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine.” In that
one statement we have a record of the first impression made by the Church in Jerusalem. It was a threefold
impression. First, amazement; secondly, perplexity; thirdly, criticism.
hat was this amazement? It was mental arrest; not yet illumination. They did not know the meaning of what
they heard and saw; but they wondered. Out of wonder worship is born. Where wonder ceases worship
ceases. Wonder is not worship, but it is the first movement toward worship. For the moment, Jerusalem was
compelled to turn from other interests to attend to this matter. It was only a beginning, but it was a beginning.
For a brief hour or two at least, men left the schools, and the disputations, and the quarrellings, forgot their
differences, and united in common amazement in the presence of something in their midst for which they
could not account. The amazement was mental arrest, a compulsion laid upon the men of a city to turn from
all other matters in wonder.
s they observed, and as they listened, they were not only amazed they were perplexed. If amazement is
mental arrest, perplexity is mental defeat; not yet illumination. The amazement meant that they did not know.
The perplexity meant that they knew they did not know. There is no moment more hopeful to an intellectual
soul than that in which it comes to the point of known ignorance. That is the opportunity for discovery.
 en amazed, arrested, compelled to drop other matters to look and listen; men finding that when they look
they cannot see everything, that when they hear they have missed some note, and are in the presence of a
mystery they cannot fathom; are driven to enquire. That is an advance upon amazement.
 erplexity was followed by criticism. Criticism is mental activity. These men, amazed, perplexed, were
compelled to come to some conclusion. They first stated the problem to be discussed: “What meaneth this ?”
Some of them arrived at a conclusion: “They are filled with new wine,” which meant that they were drunk.
They were much nearer the mark than appears at first sight. They had first been arrested, compelled to turn
from other things to consider. They then were perplexed, defeated; they could not understand. Then the mind
had become active. What is this ? Look and listen. Look at the glory in the eyes. Listen to the abandonment in
the voice. Mark the pulsating passion of these people. To some of them there could be but one explanation.
The were drunk!
hey were nearer the truth than they knew, but they were exactly as far from it as hell is from heaven. What
they said ,was a fair conclusion. Carefully observe Peter’s answer: “These are not drunken, as ye suppose”-that
is, in the way you think. Compare this with Paul’s injunction in Ephesians 5. 18. The one is a false and
destructive method of attempting to realize life in its fulness. The other is the true and effective method.
hat is the relation of this story to the era in the midst of which we are living?
 irst of all we must remember that these signs of the day of Pentecost were initial, and produced no final
result. The gift ‘of tongues exercised in the midst of the multitudes, to the astonishment of the disciples also,
brought nothing to a conclusion. It did not produce conviction, either of sin, or concerning Christ. It needed
prophecy to complete it. It created the opportunity for prophecy. Directly it had produced the impressions
referred to, of amazement, and perplexity, and criticism, Peter prophesied. Mark the relationship between
tongues and prophecy, and see the perfect harmony of this revelation with what Paul taught when he said: “I
had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words
in a tongue.“ Prophecy is the final method for bringing conviction and accomplishing the will of God.
ll this was initial; and it was incomplete. It was necessary as a sign, to arrest the attention of Jerusalem. With
the development of the spiritual fact, the necessity for signs passed away. In this connection it is well to
remember Christ’s attitude toward signs. Men have always sought them. Evil and adulterous generations are
for ever saying, Show us a sign; and the Christ is for evermore saying, “There shall be no sign given unto you.” ’
The sign is the occasional thing, the thing better done without. Christ said to His own disciples: “Believe Me.”
That was His great appeal, “Or else,” He continued-if you cannot do that, if that is too large a thing, and too
high a thing, and too noble a thing at first- “believe Me for the very works’ sake.“ The signs were evidences,
made necessary in order to arrest attention, but they never produced conviction. That comes through
prophesying in the power of the Spirit. At the beginning there must be the mighty sound out of heaven; this
arresting thunder of a great wind; these strange and wonderful and yet distinct ecstatic utterances in all
tongues; but these can accomplish nothing beyond arousing attention, They were Divine, directly and
positively; but they were transient, never repeated because never needed.
hat, then, are the abiding values of this story? The Spirit-filled Church always presents to the world
supernatural phenomena, producing amazement, perplexity, criticism. These phenomena vary according to
the needs of the time. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles they changed immediately. We shall find as we
go through the book, that wherever the messengers of Christ came the Spirit-filled witnesses something
happened, something that startled men, something that produced exactly the same results as were produced
at first by the Pentecostal tongues. Presently it was a lame man healed. Again it was the shaking of a prison
and the releasing of Apostles. Presently it was the privileges of the new fellowship men desired to join the
new fellowship who had not submitted to the one Lord. Again it was the death of of a man. Stephen was
bruised and battered, and made bloody with stones. Look at his face! There shone the light that never was on
land or sea. It was supernatural dying. There was one fine, scholarly, clean, sincere young Pharisee saw that
face, and never lost its effect. He was amazed, he was perplexed, he was critical; and then he was converted.
Presently it was the apostolic work in Samaria, and Simon Magus wanting to buy a partnership with Peter and
John. Again it was Paul’s conversion, and its effect upon Festus, upon Felix, upon Agrippa.
mazement, perplexity, criticism; these were the effects produced by the tongues. God has many methods of
producing these effects; but the real value of the method which startles is always that of the effect it
produces, and of the opportunity it creates for prophesying.
 f these impressions are not produced, it is because the Church is not Spirit-filled. Is the Church of God
amazing the city, perplexing the city, making the city criticize? The trouble too often is that the world is not at all amazed, not at all perplexed, not at all critical; because there is nothing to amaze, to perplex, to criticize.
The work of the Church is to be Spirit-filled, and amaze the city, and perplex the city, and make the city listen.
Are we doing it? Thank God yes, sometimes!
ith much truth it may be added that there is only one criticism that is worth anything; the criticism of the
world that is of value is that criticism in which it says that the Church is drunk! Has any one ever charged you
with being drunk with your Christianity? O God, how seldom men have thought us drunk! We lack the flashing
eye, and the pulsating song, and the tremendous enthusiasm of an overwhelming conviction. That is what the
city needs to produce the amazement, the perplexity, and the criticism which create the opportunity for
prophesying.
ur responsibility is not that of endeavouring to reproduce past phenomena. One need not be at all anxious to
hear men talking in other tongues, who have been too lazy to learn them. There is a whole philosophy in that
passing remark. The Church had not had time to learn the languages then, and so spiritual equipment was
provided to meet the need of the mixed multitudes. A minister in New York once said in my hearing that New
York presented a grave problem because all nations and languages are found there. But surely that is a
Pentecostal opportunity. We have not the gift of tongues, but we have time to learn the languages. God never
makes up by miraculous intervention what man lacks through laziness.
he Church’s responsibility is that her members be so Spirit-filled that the Spirit may be able to produce the
new phenomena required to startle this age. The Church has been far more anxious about emperors, and
states, and wealth, and theologies, and organizations, than about the Spirit. It is the Church Spirit-filled which
makes the city amazed, perplexed, critical. That is the Church’s opportunity for preaching. What is the use of
Peter preaching when the world is not amazed? The psychic moment for preaching comes when the city is
amazed, perplexed and critical, as the result of the living testimony of the Spirit-filled Church. Then upon the
astonished ear of the amazed people the Word will fall as thunder and as benediction, and results will be
produced. Our responsibility then is only that of seeing to it that we are filled with the Spirit.
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