Acts 2:1-8,12-21
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven
and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues
as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:
“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem,
let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose.
It’s only nine in the morning!
16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven
and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues
as the Spirit enabled them.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment,
because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:
“Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem,
let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose.
It’s only nine in the morning!
16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
Pentecost is pretty exciting – lots of people, lots of shouting, lots of excitement, the Holy Spirit whooshing around igniting fires in people’s hearts. Wow things were going crazy back then in Jerusalem.
In Judaism there are three main festivals that the Jews gathered in Jerusalem for: Passover, Shavuot or the festival of weeks held fifty days after the first fruits and Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. So everyone was in Jerusalem to bring their first offering of the spring wheat harvest and to celebrated the giving of the Torah or the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. This was an important event for the Jews because it remembers the time of the divine covenant between Israel and God. “You will be my people and I will be your God!” in Exodus
So we have holiday excitement and we have the disciples and the followers of the Way gathering to worship when all of a sudden everyone is hit with the Holy Spirit and people start to notice and the Spirit is moving among people. But unlike the Tower of Babel when people couldn’t understand each other – here everyone all of sudden could understand each other. Some people are ready to dismiss this as drunkenness but Peter and the disciples stand up and interpret the event for everyone as they quote Joel 2:28-32.
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved;
The disciples and followers of the Way thought they were living in the days when these prophecies were to come true. Remember the Jesus story starts with John the Baptist calling for people to repent, to change their hearts and be baptized signifying that they were getting ready for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus continued John’s message about the Kingdom of God and his disciples and followers believed that Jesus’ return was coming soon, The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost for them was just another sign that the end was near and that all true believers would be saved.
We know from the story in Acts that Peter’s call to the crowd results in many more followers of the Way who repent and are baptized in the name of Jesus the Christ.
The crowds who follow the disciples eager to learn about Jesus lead to many of the Temple officials starting to question what is happening around the disciples which leads to questioning the disciples themselves. The Sanhedrin don’t like it – so they arrest Peter and John. Although they are released from prison they are cautioned to no longer preach. But the disciples including Peter and John emboldened by the Spirit continue to preach and pray and gather.
The Holy Spirit continues to work giving the people the courage to live up to their faith. I am sure it wasn’t easy for the disciples to stand up to the Jewish authorities. In Acts 4:18-20:
18 Then the Sanhedrin called Peter and John in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But they replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
This is the same Peter who ran away when Jesus was arrested and the same Peter who denied Jesus three times who now stands his ground when challenged by the Jewish authorities. The Holy Spirit is at work turning lives around!
Now, the next stop along the way to today, is the story of Paul, on his way down the road to Damascus in Acts 9. Saul\Paul had a vision and was thrown to the ground, had a limited conversation with Jesus and went blind and then led into the city to stay with people he didn’t know and he is not fed anything for three days. OK, scary enough for you.
You see we sometimes take all the fear and trembling out of our Bible stories. Maybe we just read these stories so quickly we forget to say of wait a minute! what do you mean!- he has a traumatic vision, goes blind and is led to a place where he doesn’t know if they are ever going to give him some food or even a glass of water! And this is Paul’s introduction to Jesus’ message of faith and salvation! Here is the Holy Spirit at work turning Paul’s life around!
Yes there is a lot more to the disciples’ story and there is a lot more to Paul’s story but what about today – what about our story, what about your story, what about my story.
Where is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives?
Well, you know I can’t answer that for you, but I am willing to guess it is not in those parts of our lives where everything is working out just fine.
It’s in those parts of our lives that we are having trouble, the place where we have doubts and questions, or maybe those places where we think we have all the answers and have to work to keep the questions from erupting.
I guess what I want to say is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to me to be the kind of Spirit that lets you say “Hallelujah! I’ve done my part now just let me rest in this beautiful garden in the shade sipping tea” That may be nice for an afternoon but the Holy Spirit is just as likely to throw you to the ground, make you blind and set you off on another road.
My prayer is that this may be so.
In Judaism there are three main festivals that the Jews gathered in Jerusalem for: Passover, Shavuot or the festival of weeks held fifty days after the first fruits and Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths. So everyone was in Jerusalem to bring their first offering of the spring wheat harvest and to celebrated the giving of the Torah or the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai. This was an important event for the Jews because it remembers the time of the divine covenant between Israel and God. “You will be my people and I will be your God!” in Exodus
So we have holiday excitement and we have the disciples and the followers of the Way gathering to worship when all of a sudden everyone is hit with the Holy Spirit and people start to notice and the Spirit is moving among people. But unlike the Tower of Babel when people couldn’t understand each other – here everyone all of sudden could understand each other. Some people are ready to dismiss this as drunkenness but Peter and the disciples stand up and interpret the event for everyone as they quote Joel 2:28-32.
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your old men will dream dreams,
your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
32 And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved;
The disciples and followers of the Way thought they were living in the days when these prophecies were to come true. Remember the Jesus story starts with John the Baptist calling for people to repent, to change their hearts and be baptized signifying that they were getting ready for the coming of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus continued John’s message about the Kingdom of God and his disciples and followers believed that Jesus’ return was coming soon, The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost for them was just another sign that the end was near and that all true believers would be saved.
We know from the story in Acts that Peter’s call to the crowd results in many more followers of the Way who repent and are baptized in the name of Jesus the Christ.
The crowds who follow the disciples eager to learn about Jesus lead to many of the Temple officials starting to question what is happening around the disciples which leads to questioning the disciples themselves. The Sanhedrin don’t like it – so they arrest Peter and John. Although they are released from prison they are cautioned to no longer preach. But the disciples including Peter and John emboldened by the Spirit continue to preach and pray and gather.
The Holy Spirit continues to work giving the people the courage to live up to their faith. I am sure it wasn’t easy for the disciples to stand up to the Jewish authorities. In Acts 4:18-20:
18 Then the Sanhedrin called Peter and John in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19 But they replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
This is the same Peter who ran away when Jesus was arrested and the same Peter who denied Jesus three times who now stands his ground when challenged by the Jewish authorities. The Holy Spirit is at work turning lives around!
Now, the next stop along the way to today, is the story of Paul, on his way down the road to Damascus in Acts 9. Saul\Paul had a vision and was thrown to the ground, had a limited conversation with Jesus and went blind and then led into the city to stay with people he didn’t know and he is not fed anything for three days. OK, scary enough for you.
You see we sometimes take all the fear and trembling out of our Bible stories. Maybe we just read these stories so quickly we forget to say of wait a minute! what do you mean!- he has a traumatic vision, goes blind and is led to a place where he doesn’t know if they are ever going to give him some food or even a glass of water! And this is Paul’s introduction to Jesus’ message of faith and salvation! Here is the Holy Spirit at work turning Paul’s life around!
Yes there is a lot more to the disciples’ story and there is a lot more to Paul’s story but what about today – what about our story, what about your story, what about my story.
Where is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives?
Well, you know I can’t answer that for you, but I am willing to guess it is not in those parts of our lives where everything is working out just fine.
It’s in those parts of our lives that we are having trouble, the place where we have doubts and questions, or maybe those places where we think we have all the answers and have to work to keep the questions from erupting.
I guess what I want to say is that the Holy Spirit doesn’t seem to me to be the kind of Spirit that lets you say “Hallelujah! I’ve done my part now just let me rest in this beautiful garden in the shade sipping tea” That may be nice for an afternoon but the Holy Spirit is just as likely to throw you to the ground, make you blind and set you off on another road.
My prayer is that this may be so.
