Pentecost - The Coming Of The Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-11

This Sunday the Church celebrates the day of Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit descended from God the Father upon the disciples in the Upper Room, filling them with His power.  Our reading today is the account of this event, for all practical purposes, the birthday of the Church.

About ten days earlier Jesus had taken the disciples to the Mount of Olives and had ascended into heaven.  Right before He left, one of His last words was that they were to return to Jerusalem and wait for God to send the Holy Spirit upon them with power (Acts 1:8).  It is this event that the Church celebrates today.  This day occurred on the Jewish festival of Pentecost (from which we get the name for Pentecost Sunday).  The Jewish festival was also called the Feast of Weeks, and was the 50th day of the Jewish harvest.  It was a celebration of God’s provisions to His people.  Jews came to Jerusalem from all around the known world to bring offerings of the first fruits in the Temple.  So on this day there were multiple thousands of pilgrim visitors in the city.

As Jesus had instructed, the disciples had been gathered together in prayer, waiting upon the Lord.  Then on this day, the festival of Pentecost, they heard the sound of a mighty wind, and the appearance of flames of fire upon each of them (vs. 2-3).  God used visible phenomena (the wind and tongues of fire) to illustrate to the disciples what was happening, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them.  This was a fulfillment of John the Baptist’s words about the Holy Spirit baptizing with fire (Luke 3:16).  It was also a fulfillment of the Prophet Joel’s words about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-29).  When God’s Spirit comes upon us, He purifies us, burning away anything that is not of Him, and setting our hearts and lives on fire for Him.  

In the Old Testament times the Holy Spirit only came upon a few, and then only temporarily.  Now the Holy Spirit comes upon everyone who is born-again, on every believer in Jesus Christ, and remains with them forever.  Once someone is saved, the Holy Spirit indwells them.  The “filling” of the Holy Spirit is a repeated reality in believers, when they yield themselves to Him by having a Spirit-controlled life.  God desires us to maintain that life, but often that is not the case.

On this Pentecost Sunday at this time, fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit gave the disciples the ability to speak in languages they had not learned before.  These were real languages and dialects spoken by the Jewish visitors to Jerusalem that day.  This was not babbling, nor made-up talk.  At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem several hundreds of years earlier, the Jewish people had been exiled and dispersed throughout the Middle East, some even going into North Africa.  At the time of King Cyrus, many Jews returned to Israel, but by no means all of them.  Many remained where they had lived, some even traveling throughout all of the Mediterranean region.  That day there were present people who spoke many dozens of different languages, all people whom God wished to reach with the Gospel message of salvation through His Son, Jesus.  To accomplish that, God gave the disciples the power to speak His message to them in their native language (vs. 4-6).

Salvation is not limited to only a select group or nationality.  It is offered to all, no matter where one is from.  The Parthians were from what is now north-east Iran.  The Medes were part of the Persian Empire.  The Elamites were from what is today south-west Iran.  Mesopotamia was between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  Judea encompassed the land that David and Solomon reigned over.  Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, and Pamphylia were all regions and dialects from what is present-day Turkey.  Egypt, Libya and Cyrene were all in North Africa.  God worked this miracle of tongues at that time to spread His message to the crowds in Jerusalem that day.  

Later in the chapter, in verse 41, we see that many thousands came to saving faith in Jesus.  They would be returning home to the people of their own native language, and spread the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.  Salvation is for everyone.  The door is open for you.