Birthday parties are supposed to be fun, whether it is for someone else, or especially if it is your own birthday party. The birthday cake, ice cream, balloons! Often fun or silly games are played. It’s generally a very happy day for everyone, and especially for the birthday guest of honor. Today is the Day of Pentecost, the day when the promised Holy Spirit came and descended upon the disciples which were gathered together in a room, awaiting just this event. This event, the coming of the Holy Spirit, would mark the beginning of the Church, the Church’s birthday. Since we can’t all gather together in my Chicago backyard for a birthday party, let’s celebrate by reading about the birth of the Church in our Scripture passage today.
As the Scripture passage opens, we see that the disciples were all gathered together (vs. 1). Ten days prior, right before He ascended back up into heaven, Jesus had instructed the disciples to remain in Jerusalem and await the Holy Spirit, which He promised to send (Luke 24:49-52). The disciples obeyed the instructions that Jesus gave. They didn’t go and scatter all over the land, back to their former businesses. They didn’t lose faith and hope as the days progressed to now over a week. They didn’t give up and leave. No, they were all “with one accord” and in “one place”, in prayerful expectation of the Holy Spirit.
As the disciples were together in prayer, the Holy Spirit came upon them, accompanied by the sound of a mighty, rushing wind, and the appearance of flaming tongues of fire upon each (vs. 2-3). Before the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit only came upon certain people temporarily. This was to empower these chosen people for certain, specific reasons or tasks. After Pentecost the Holy Spirit comes to permanently indwell all born-again believers.
Every believer is baptized with the Holy Spirit when they are saved. That is when the Holy Spirit comes to indwell the new Christian, and is a one-time event. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is something different. That is something that the Bible tells Christians to be doing on a regular, daily basis. Since not all Christians follow this Biblical instruction, not all are so filled, or experience it. Paul told the Ephesians to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), as that is something a believer who wishes to live a closer and more effective Christian life chooses. Being filled with the Spirit is a continuous experience within the Christian, whereby the Holy Spirit keeps control over his life.
The Day of Pentecost was the Jewish festival of the harvest of the first fruits, the harvest of the spring crops of the year. I believe that the Holy Spirit came on the Day of Pentecost as a sign that He is the first fruits of the believer’s inheritance. We have a wonderful inheritance, and the Holy Spirit is the down payment.
Jewish people from around the world would come to Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost, so on this day there were many foreigners in the city. This was an opportune time to begin the spread of the Gospel message. When the Holy Spirit came down that first day, He enabled the disciples gathered there to speak in other tongues, in other languages (vs. 4). What these believers were speaking were the languages and dialects of the people who were in Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost. It was not meaningless babble or some unknown language. The Holy Spirit miraculously enabled them to proclaim God’s message to the people in their own language. If they got saved, they in turn, could return home and tell their family and friends, and the Gospel message would be spread throughout the world.
The second half of our passage today lists some of the many languages that these disciples were enabled to speak, and shows just where the Gospel could begin to be spread to (vs. 7-11). The Parthians, Medes and Elamites were people and languages far to the east of Jerusalem, what is today modern Iran and further east from there. Mesopotamia is today in modern Iraq and eastern Syria. Cappadocia, Pontus, Phrygia, and Pamphylia are all areas in modern Turkey. Libya and Cyrene are in the northern coastal areas of Africa, along the southern shore of the Mediterranean. Cretans are from the island of Crete, and Arabs are from south of Judea. Christianity is not limited to any one race or one group of people. Jesus Christ offers salvation to all people, without regard to nationality. On this birthday of the Church, God wanted to be sure that His message of salvation spread to everyone. So, Happy Birthday to the Church!
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