Acts 2:1-13 NLT
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
5 At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. 6 When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.
7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other.
13 But others in the crowd ridiculed them, saying, “They’re just drunk, that’s all!”
This passage in Acts 2 relays the account about the Holy Spirit coming down in power, filling the believers, and how it impacted the multitudes in Jerusalem that day. We’re going to talk about:
? The Importance of Pentecost
? The Spirit’s Presence and Power
? The People’s Perception
1. The Importance of Pentecost
Pentecost was a specific day, not just for Christians but it had a special significance for Israel. For Israel it was a time to remember how God delivered them out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land. How many years did the children of Israel wander in the desert? God wanted them to remember all the miracles and mighty works He did for them, how he provided for them every day for 40 years. It’s like how someone will tell you about their journey of faith and all the miracles God has done for him or her, the Israelites would tell each generation about their journey of faith as an entire nation. This meant never forgetting where God brought them from in the past, so that they’d be thankful in the present and have hope in God for the future.
In the Old Testament, Pentecost was a celebration of all the wheat they gathered on the 50th day after the Passover celebration. What happened on the first Passover in Egypt? 50 days after the children of Israel left Egypt, they had their first Pentecost called the Shavuot. According to Jewish tradition, the day of Pentecost was the very day God gave His people the Law of Moses on Mount Sinai. God told the people to prepare themselves for when He came down on the mountain to meet them (Exo 19). In the commentary of the Hebrew Bible, the Targum, it relates the story of how God spoke to the people, through thunder and flashes of lightning on the day He gave them the law on Mt. Sinai. God is so Holy that He told them that even if their animals came too close to the mountain they would die.
The tradition tells us that when God spoke, His words were sparks or thunderbolts or flames like torches of fire … that would fly through the air and hover over the heads of the Israelites, and then His word would return and inscribe itself into the tablets. The Mishna, or Jewish oral traditions, tells us:
On the stones of the altar on Mount Ebal (Deut. 27) were inscribed all the words of the Torah in seventy tongues—i.e., all the languages of mankind. (Mishnah, Sotah 7:5).
Can you imagine that the Word of God could be understood in 70 languages? At that time that was all the languages of the known world.
50 days after Jesus was resurrected something incredible happened, the disciples experienced the promised Holy Spirit (John 14:17) Who would be with them, collectively, and dwell in them individually. So let’s look at the passage in Acts 2 again. On Pentecost they experienced:
2. The Spirit’s Presence and Power
Acts 1:1-4 tell us:
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
People from all over the world were in Jerusalem for the biggest feast of the year. This was bigger than the Passover crowd. What happened? The believers in Jesus were gathered in this very large room. Suddenly there was a noise like a roaring, strong windstorm, like a hurricane filling the room. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, used rushing wind to describe this powerful supernatural coming of the Holy Spirit’s presence. When those in the room heard the noise and saw the tongues like fire coming from heaven and hovering over every believer - they were most likely thinking about what happened on Mt. Sinai when God came down to give them His law and there was thunderbolts and fire over the heads of the Israelites. On this Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was right in the room with them.
What was the difference between when God came to Mt. Sinai on Pentecost and when He came into the upper room where the disciples were on Pentecost? In the OT God gave the Law, in the NT after the law was fulfilled through Jesus Christ, He gave His people His Holy Spirit. In the OT they celebrated the harvesting of the wheat, in Acts 2 many people would be harvested into the Kingdom of God. In the OT, when Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, 3,000 people were killed because of their evil, out-of-control behavior (Exo 32:28). In the NT, we see in Acts 2 that on that Pentecost, 3000 were saved because they turned from their sinful ways and accepted the message of the gospel. Right after that they were baptized.
We see in v. 4 that the Holy Spirit of God came down to all the people who were gathered together for prayer. The Holy Spirit didn’t just fill the 12 apostles but all 120 disciples who were present in the upper room. Each one experienced the presence of God in a way that was more intimate, personal, and powerful than they had ever experienced before.
Together, they became instruments of the Holy Spirit and were given the power, not only to believe in God but to miraculously talk to others in their own heart languages. The noise was so loud and so out of the ordinary that the people who were in the Temple area of Jerusalem, or even from other parts of the city, were coming to see what strange thing might be happening. This life overflowed from the room and out into the streets. So, let’s look at:
3. The People's Perception
Remember, people from every nation under heaven were there for the Pentecost festival. When they heard the sound, they ran to see what it was and when they heard all the different languages they were confused and amazed. They were all amazed that these Galileans were speaking in so many different languages and they were trying to find a logical reason for how everyone was hearing about the wonders about God’s nature, power, and beautiful creation in their own languages! Many really wanted to know what all of this meant but others dismissed this miracle and tried to explain it away. Their best answer was, “these people are obviously drunk.”
In the OT, God’s words were like flames of fire and were then written on stone tablets, but in the NT the Holy Spirit came down like a flame and wrote God’s words on the hearts of the disciples (Jer 31:31-34). Just like the Spirit came down on Jesus at His baptism marking the beginning of His ministry so the Holy Spirit came down in power and filled the believers marking the beginning of the church. Just as the Spirit entered the Temple and consecrated it, on Pentecost the Spirit filled a new temple, God’s new covenant people and empowered them. As the Spirit enabled them, they spoke about Jesus. Robert Baer said:
Bethlehem was God with us, Calvary was God for us, and Pentecost is God in us.
Jesus loved us so much He came to die for us, to save us, and after His ascension, empower us as His people. Do we believe this, have we experienced this? How often we miss the mark when we attempt to do spiritual work without spiritual power.
What does the Holy Spirit’s power look like in our lives and why does God give His power to us? If we look at the 120 in the upper room, what did they experience? Everyone was empowered and emboldened to speak, they spoke freely to others about the works of God. What did other people see? An amazing overflow of the life of God.
How is that power expressed in our church today and go beyond these walls? The Holy Spirit’s power is revealed when we have God’s heart for people and situations and when His heart becomes an overflow. What does it mean to be Spirit-filled? It is a moment-by-moment dependence upon His life & His words. When we ask the Holy Spirit to fill us, He gives us the power to live the Christian life. How do we know we are Spirit-filled? It’s clear when God pours His love into our hearts and we can love ourselves and other people the way He does. The Spirit reveals Christ to us everyday. He gives us a hunger for Himself and the desire to do His will and seek His kingdom first. He emboldens us to share His word (Act 4:31). Spirit filling doesn’t give us superhuman strength but the Spirit quickens us within with His words and His presence.
I wonder how many languages are represented in our church? Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could go out and talk to others about God and all His mighty and wondrous works in all the different languages represented here? Pentecost is a call to come out of our comfort zones. We are comfortable speaking about the wonders of God to each other at church, but what about being empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak about the wonders of God boldly and confidently with wisdom to others who don’t know Jesus?
Our challenge will be to embolden by the Spirit to open our mouth and speak about the wonderful works of God.
