Acts 2:4

Acts 2:4

The Birthday of the Church

I. In histories of this kind we are always under a temptation to seize upon the most extraordinary feature of the story to take that as the essence of the whole. Thus the popular idea of Whit-Sunday is that it commemorates the gift of languages to the Apostles, by which, though uneducated men, they were qualified in a moment of time to preach the Gospel in every nation under heaven. But, indeed, this gift of tongues is but a small part of the matter. The true idea of Pentecost, that which makes it a festival for all time, is that it was the birthday of the Christian Church. What Sinai was to Israel, the making them into a people, that Pentecost was to Christ's disciples, the gathering them into a Church.

II. But a second point presses on us. If the fact of the Holy Ghost being shed upon the Apostles, on the very day when the giving of their law constituted the Jews to be God's people, leads us to fix this day as the beginning of the Christian Church, so does the conduct of the disciples, when the fiery tongues lighted on them, bring out a great principle of Christian life. The first use of speech under the prompting of the Holy Ghost was the praise of God. Was there, then, no preaching to the mingled multitude around? Doubtless, but the preaching was not by many mouths, but by one. There was no confusion in that first assembly of the saints. It was not a discordant sound of many voices speaking at once to the wondering throng. What the multitude heard, as they streamed together down the streets of Jerusalem to the chamber where the Apostles were, was one harmonious outburst of praise. And then, when the first terror began to subside, and the startled mind of the bystanders recovered its balance, then it was that St. Peter stood forth from amidst the Spirit-bound assembly and calmly and rationally argued with the people. First comes the deep sense of God's presence and goodness, the lifting up of the soul unto Him, then the going forth to preach unto others; first the realisation of truth to ourselves, then the making it known by our lives, by our words, to our brethren; first the soul's speech in praise to God, then its speech for God; first the thought of heaven, then the pleading to heaven to earth.

Bishop Woodford, Sermons on Subjects from the New Testament,p. 67.

References: Acts 2:4. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 171; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity,p. 269; H. Maclaren, Sermons in Union Chapel,p. 249.