Acts (Part 8) – Acts 2:5-13

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Acts (Part 8) – Acts 2:5-13

Acts 2:5 – And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

1. Pentecost is also known as the feast of weeks (Deut 16:9-12, 16), the feast of harvest (Exo 23:16), and the day of the firstfruits (Num 28:26).
2. Pentecost is a Greek word signifying “fifty” because it was to be kept 50 days after the wave offering at the feast of the Passover (Lev 23:15-16).
3. Pentecost (the feast of weeks, harvest, firstfruits) was one of the three feasts for which all the Israelite males had to appear in Jerusalem annually (Exo 23:14-17; Deut 16:16-17).
4. The Jews had been dispersed into all nations when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians over 500 years earlier (Jer 24:9; Jer 29:16-18; Jer 34:17; Est 3:8).
5. On the day of Pentecost, there were thus devout Jews from every nation under heaven who were dwelling in Jerusalem for the feast of weeks.

Acts 2:6 – Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.

1. This created quite a stir among the people.
2. People from different countries who spoke different languages heard the apostles speaking in their own language wherein they were born (Act 2:8).
3. They did not hear them speaking in some fictious angelic universal language.
4. Similar to how the heavens declare the glory of God to men of all languages (Psa 19:1-4), so did the apostles by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:7 – And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?

1. The people were astonished, bewildered, confounded, confused, and perplexed by what they witnessed.
   1. Amazed – 1. Driven stupid; stunned or stupefied, as by a blow; out of one’s wits. 2. Bewildered, confounded, confused, perplexed. Of things: Thrown into confusion.
   2. Marvel – 1. intr. To be filled with wonder or astonishment; to be struck with surprise.
   3. Astonishment – 1. Loss of physical sensation, insensibility; paralysis, numbness, deadness.
2. A marvelous thing indeed it was for a bunch of uneducated (Act 4:13) Galilaeans to be speaking in a multitude of foreign languages.

Acts 2:8 – And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

1. 1. They did not hear a universal, angelic language.
   2. They each heard the apostles speak in their own native language.
   3. The Holy Spirit caused the words of the apostles to be heard in different languages simultaneously.
   4. Both the speaking and the hearing were miraculous events.

Acts 2:9 – Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,

1. There were men from “every nation under heaven” (Act 2:5).
2. Here are the modern-day equivalents of these places, according to Wikipedia:
   1. Parthia – a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran.
   2. Media – present-day Iranian Azerbaijan, Iranian Kurdistan and western Tabaristan
   3. Elam – an ancient civilization centered in the far west and southwest of Iran, stretching from the lowlands of what is now Khuzestan and Ilam Province as well as a small part of modern-day southern Iraq.
   4. Mesopotamia – a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. It corresponds roughly to the territory of modern Iraq.
   5. Judaea – modern-day Israel
   6. Cappadocia – a historical region in Central Anatolia region, Turkey
   7. Pontus – a region within Anatolia on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in the modern-day eastern Black Sea region of Turkey, in West Asia
   8. Asia – modern-day eastern Turkey

Acts 2:10 – Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,

1. Here are the modern-day equivalents of these places, according to Wikipedia:
   1. Phrygia – a kingdom in the west-central part of Anatolia, in what is now Asian Turkey, centered on the Sangarios River.
   2. Pamphylia – a region in the south of Asia Minor in Western Asia, between Lycia and Cilicia, extending from the Mediterranean to Mount Taurus (all in modern-day Antalya province, Turkey).
   3. Egypt – modern-day Egypt
   4. Libya about Cyrene – an ancient Greek colony and Roman city near present-day Shahhat in northeastern Libya in North Africa.
   5. Rome – modern-day Rome in Italy

Acts 2:11 – Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

1. Here are the modern-day equivalents of these places, according to Wikipedia:
   1. Crete – the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, south of main-land Greece
   2. Arabia – modern-day Saudi Arabia
2. The apostles spoke the wonderful works of God in their languages.
3. The point of speaking in tongues was to glorify God and to edify and convince His people (1Co 14:6, 12-13, 22), not to put on a vain show.

Acts 2:12 – And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?

1. All of those that witnessed the apostles speaking in tongues were amazed (bewildered, confounded, confused, perplexed) and in doubt.
2. They didn’t know what to make of it.
3. Some of them who were bewildered asked each other what this means?
4. They were not necessarily unbelievers, but they simply didn’t understand what they just heard and saw and were asking questions looking for an explanation.
   1. Questions like this can arise out of a desire to understand something that seems to have no explanation.
      1. Such was the case with Mary when she was told that she was going to conceive, still being a virgin (Luk 1:34 c/w Luk 1:45).
      2. This seems to be the kind of reaction that the Jews in this verse had.
   2. Questions like this can also arise out of unbelief.
      1. Such was the case with Zachariah when he was told that his wife would conceive in her old age (Luk 1:18-20).
      2. This seems to be the kind of reaction that the others had which mocked (Act 2:13).

Acts 2:13 – Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

1. These men did not sincerely have questions about what they just witnessed.
2. They rather immediately resorted to mocking that which they did not understand (2Pe 2:12).
   1. Condemnation without investigation is the height of arrogance.
   2. Remember, God is not mocked, and those who do will reap what they sow (Gal 6:7).
3. They assumed that the apostles must have been drunken and uttering foolishness (Pro 23:29-30, 33).
4. This verse gives the lie to the teaching that “wine” in the Bible, when spoken of positively, refers to non-alcoholic grape juice.
   1. Advocates of this position use Isa 65:8 to try to prove this erroneous idea.
   2. This verse (Act 2:13) proves that wine or even “new wine” does not refer to non-alcoholic grape juice because they were accusing the men of being drunken from drinking “new wine” (c/w Act 2:15).
5. This is a typical response when men hear the gospel: some want to know more, and some mock (Act 17:32; 2Ch 30:9-11).