Saturday Acts 2:1-13

The Holy Spirit comes.

Click here for an online Bible. Acts 2:1-13

Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after Passover. It was also know as the day of first fruits. It began the Feast of Weeks also known as the Feast of Harvest. Pentecost was one of the three festivals that faithful Jews traveled to Jerusalem for. The first was Passover. Since Pentecost was only 50 days later, people who lived far away often stayed in the Jerusalem area for the whole time. So, Jerusalem was a busy place on Pentecost.

Luke says in Acts 2:1 that they were all together in one place. He doesn’t say who they were. Some believe it is the 120 mentioned in Acts 1:15. Others think it only applies to the twelve since they were mentioned last in Acts 1:26. You can make a great case either way. An argument for more than just the apostles is that there were 15 language groups mentioned in verses 8-11. In support of the idea of just the apostles is the question in verse 7 about the men being from Galilee. Also, in verse 15 Peter seems just to be talking about the apostles.

The other question is where they were. We usually picture the event in the upper room. But the scene suddenly shifts to the temple area in Acts 2:5. The word “house” is used in verse 2, but it is also used to describe the temple in Acts 7:47. Whatever happened seems to catch the attention quickly of the people at the temple area. So, they may have been gathered at the temple.

So what happened? There was a sound like a blowing wind. It was not a blowing wind but a sound. There was what seemed to be tongues of fire. It looked like fire. The fire split apart and came to each person and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they began to speak in other languages declaring the wonders of God.

In order to get the full picture we need to think about what Pentecost meant to the faithful Jews. The focus of Pentecost was commemorating the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. It was there that God spoke to His people and told them how to relate to Him. Remember the scene in Exodus 19. God told Moses that He would speak so that the people could hear and they would know that He was speaking to Moses. There was a loud trumpet. The mountain was covered with fire and smoke. There was thunder. The Jewish rabbinic legend (midrash) was that as God spoke the Law, it divided into the 70 languages of the world and went out. They believed that they actually saw the words of God in a fiery form come to each Israelite. It was under this understanding of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit came.

What was the purpose of the fire and smoke and sound at Mount Sinai? It was to give credibility to Moses. If Moses just showed up one day and told everybody what God had told him he would have been ignored. The events where to endorse Moses as the spokesman for God. The same holds true for the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. The incredible events following the same form of Mount Sinai were to endorse the apostles as representatives of God and to legitimize the gospel.

There is a lot of finger-pointing and emotion when it comes to the subject of tongues. There are four instances in Acts like this: 2:1-4, 8:17, 10:46, and 19:6. Each one of them is a new phase in the spread of the gospel. In chapter 2, the apostles begin the work of the church. In chapter 8, the gospel spreads to Samaria. In chapter 10, the gospel spreads to Gentiles. In chapter 19, followers of John the Baptist hear the whole gospel. The first three instances involved Peter and the last one involved Paul. All of these instances were to authenticate the spread of the gospel to a new group.

Tongues in Acts is the speaking of real languages previously unknown to the speaker. It is clear in chapter 2 that real information in real languages is being transmitted to real people. The purpose was not so much to explain the gospel. That could have been done in the local language. Everybody in Jerusalem probably spoke Aramaic and Greek. The gospel could have been given in that language. In fact, that is what Peter does beginning in verse 14. The tongues were to show that God was behind the message.

These were unique events. But the principle that the Holy Spirit enables us to do what we have been called to do is a timeless principle. We have been called to grow as disciples and to make disciples. The Holy Spirit will empower us to do it.