Pentecost - Acts 2:1-13

© February 23, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts

Certain events change the course of history forever. When they happen, you know things will never be the same, though you may not be able to fully anticipate how that will be. We’ve had a few of those events in the last 100 years.

The 9/11 attacks had a profound impact on where our nation and world are today. The wars we have fought and the way war is waged have all been changed as a result of that event.

The dropping of the atomic bomb had a similar effect. The nuclear age was created and suddenly mankind had destructive power we had never had before.

The launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit earth, signaled a drastic change in how our world would function. So much of our world today, from GPS to weather forecasts to connectivity with the rest of the world, is dependent upon satellites.

There are many such events we can point to throughout history. In the life of the church, one of these events was the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon believers. It signaled a new age in which God would dwell within His people, and where the gospel would be carried throughout the world. It is this event that we look at this morning.

Pentecost

The Festival of Pentecost was a feast God had instituted among the Israelites in the Old Testament law. Here is how it was recorded in the book of Leviticus.

15 “From the day after the Sabbath—the day you bring the bundle of grain to be lifted up as a special offering—count off seven full weeks. 16 Keep counting until the day after the seventh Sabbath, fifty days later. Then present an offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves of bread to be lifted up before the Lord as a special offering. Make these loaves from four quarts of choice flour, and bake them with yeast. They will be an offering to the Lord from the first of your crops. (Leviticus 23:15-17, NLT)

The Israelites were to count off 7 weeks from the last Sabbath of Passover, and then on the day following those 7 weeks, they were to hold the Feast of Pentecost. It was so-called because it was 50 days after Passover (7x7+1=50). It was also known as the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks. All of these refer to the same thing. It was a time of celebrating the first fruits of the harvest, bringing offerings to God as recognition of His provision.

The Jews were to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast. Pentecost usually fell sometime in early June, so travel conditions to Jerusalem were ideal, meaning this was usually a well-attended feast and Jerusalem would have swelled in size with pilgrims coming to celebrate.

With that in mind, we turn our attention to Luke’s account of what happened on that day.

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. (Acts 2:1-3, NLT)

As expected, the early Christians were meeting together in one place. Jesus had told them to wait until the Holy Spirit came upon them before embarking on the mission He had given them. So, they devoted themselves to prayer and meeting together.

On this day, however, something different happened. The Holy Spirt descended upon them as Jesus had promised. Luke mentions two signs that accompanied the coming of the Holy Spirit. The first was “a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty wind.” The second was “flames or tongues of fire” that settled on each believer. Each of these were commonly used symbols to describe God’s Spirit throughout scripture.

Wind was a common image God used. It is worth noting that the words for wind, breath, and Spirit were sometimes used interchangeably. The Spirit of God is depicted as hovering over the surface of the waters in Genesis 1. When God brought Adam to life after forming him from the dust, He breathed the breath of life into him. In Ezekiel, God depicted the Spirit as a wind which blew over a land of dry bones to bring them back to life again.

Jesus pointed to the similarities between the movement of the Spirit of God and the movement of the wind. We cannot see the wind, but we can see its effect. So too, with the Spirit of God. We cannot understand how the wind moves or where it will go, but we see its power. The roaring wind was not merely a spectacle, it was to remind them of how the Spirit moved and worked.

Fire was another common image used to depict God’s presence. We see it first with Abraham, who had a vision of a smoking firepot and a blazing torch initiating God’s covenant with him. Moses was called by God from a burning bush. When the Israelites left Egypt, they were led by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day. And when God gave the law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, the top of the mountain appeared to be on fire.

John the Baptist had predicted this would happen as well!

11 “I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I’m not worthy even to be his slave and carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (Matthew 3:11, NLT)

So the presence of fire here indicated the presence of God. But the fact that the fire branched out and descended upon each person individually symbolized something significant as well. Up until this point, God had been present with the Jewish people corporately and He occasionally gave an individual a special presence of the Spirit. But now, the Spirit was coming upon each person gathered there. God was coming to dwell in each believer!

All of this was significant. The Feast of Pentecost was a time when you were to celebrate the first fruits of the harvest that was to come. I don’t think it was a coincidence that this was when the Spirit descended upon the believers. Through the Spirit’s work, God would bring a great harvest of believers to faith from all corners of the world. God knew exactly what He was doing in this moment, and every aspect of it was chosen with care!

Speaking in Tongues

After this mighty sound of a rushing wind and the tongues of fire descended upon the disciples gathered in that place, God began to work miraculously among them.

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!” (Acts 1:4-11, NLT)

As I mentioned earlier, Jerusalem was filled with visitors from all over, coming to celebrate the feast. But many who lived in Jerusalem had once lived in other nations. The sound of what happened with the disciples attracted the attention of many of the people nearby, so they came running to investigate.

Upon their arrival, they were astonished at what they heard. Each person heard the believers speaking their own language! It wasn’t just that people were hearing a language they understood, they were hearing the disciples speaking their own native languages, the languages of other countries!

If you’ve ever been in a place where most people do not speak English, you know how quickly you can pick out your own language being spoken from among the seeming nonsense everyone else is saying. You can instantly recognize your language, and you instinctively perk up and pay attention. That’s what happened here. People suddenly heard their own, native language being spoken by the disciples, so they listened intently.

Clearly, God was doing something miraculous. What were they saying in these other languages? They were speaking “about the wonderful things God has done!” They were preaching! They were sharing the message of the gospel with anyone who would listen and understand.

Questions

This passage has become a flashpoint for many controversies in the Church today. There are a variety of questions people have about this event and what it means for Christians now. I want to address some of those questions and look at what the scriptures tell us that can give us some insight into them.

First, is what happened here the experience every believer should have? Some have concluded that what happened on the day of Pentecost is what happens to every believer if you are baptized in the Holy Spirit. They point (correctly) to the fact that every person gathered there spoke in tongues and began proclaiming the truth about God. But just because that is what happened in this instance does not mean it is what happens in every instance.

It makes sense that God would have these believers begin to speak in other languages. There were people from all over who were gathered, and this event symbolized the fact that God was now accessible to people everywhere. So, using these believers to minister to people in their own language would communicate that message uniquely. But to assume that is how God works in every circumstance is taking the text beyond its intended meaning.

What we do see throughout scripture is that when the Spirit comes upon people (this is true in both the Old and New Testaments) they begin to speak boldly about who God is and what He has done. I think this is a mark of the Spirit, not so much speaking a different language. The Spirit will lead us to testify to God’s greatness and to share the gospel. That, not speaking in tongues, seems to be the consistent response to receiving the Spirit in scripture. Those who receive the Holy Spirit cannot help but tell others about what Christ has done.

Second, how do we know if the Holy Spirit is in us? There are all sorts of things people teach about the Holy Spirit and how to be “Spirit-filled.” I think the best way for us to approach this question is to look at what the scriptures tell us the Holy Spirit does in believers.

First, He makes us Christians. Paul says this,

The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. (Ephesians 1:14, NLT)

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. (Philippians 1:6, NLT)

Without the Holy Spirit’s leading, we would never turn to Christ in faith. He changes our hearts and draws us to the Lord. But the Holy Spirit also guarantees our inheritance and will complete the work He started in us. In other words, those who have the Holy Spirit will persist in their faith until the end of their lives. It is only because we have the Holy Spirit that we can be confident of our salvation. He ensures that we will persevere in faith until the end.

Second, He changes the way we live. Another famous passage from Paul talks about the “fruit” of the Spirit.

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! (Galatians 5:22-23, NLT)

The Holy Spirit begins to work in our lives to bring these characteristics in increasing measure. If the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we will begin to see a change in our attitude, the way we approach other people, and we will do battle with our sinful tendencies. The Holy Spirit begins to change us from the inside out.

Third, He enables us to serve Him. Several passages in scripture speak about spiritual gifts. The most extensive is 1 Corinthians 12, but the message of all these passages is essentially the same. The Holy Spirit enables every believer to serve Him and to advance His kingdom in unique ways. Sometimes God does that through miraculous abilities like speaking in tongues or miraculous healings. Others are less flashy, but no less important.

To some, God gives a supernatural ability to anticipate and meet peoples’ needs. To others He gives a special ability to comfort and care for others. To some He gives the ability to communicate spiritual truth clearly and effectively. To still others, He gives the ability to lead and organize and plan. These are not merely talents we have; God promises to supernaturally empower us to do these things us to benefit His kingdom. Every believer is given a supernatural ability to serve the body of Christ. Often, we don’t recognize our gifts because certain things will come easy to us and we assume that’s true for everyone. But it isn’t! Our task is to use our unique giftings to serve the church.

Finally, He unifies us. Again, listen to what Paul says,

Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13, NLT)

Every Christian has the Spirit of God living inside of them. The Holy Spirit creates a bond and a unity among believers that nothing in the world can match. The Spirit allows us to overcome all the things that might otherwise divide us and leads us to a place where we can be unified under one cause—the cause of pointing people to Jesus. When we allow arguments over the Spirit’s activity (or other worldly issues) to divide us, we are missing the point entirely.

The purpose of the Holy Spirit being given to believers is to help us to carry out the task God has given us of carrying the gospel to the ends of the earth. Rather than getting bogged down in how He does that in each person, we would be better served to focus on carrying out the task He’s given us in the power He’s given us.

A Final Lesson

There is one final aspect of this story that we need to note, however. It is how the people responded.

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!” (Acts 2:12-13, NLT)

All the people gathered saw a miraculous thing happen right in front of them. They questioned what it meant, and many eventually came to believe. But others responded with skepticism, explaining that the reason the disciples were speaking this way was because they were drunk! I’m not sure how them being drunk explained their sudden linguistic prowess…but that was the argument.

The lesson here is that not everyone will respond positively to the gospel message, no matter what you do. God enabled these men and women to speak in a miraculous way, yet some people still refused to believe. Many today refuse to trust in Jesus because they claim there just isn’t enough evidence. That isn’t true. They don’t want to believe the evidence that is there. They want to search for an alternative explanation, even if it doesn’t make any sense (like “they must be drunk!”)

But we shouldn’t allow other people’s refusal to believe to discourage us in our efforts to share the gospel. God works in ways we cannot understand. Sometimes He uses a simple and straightforward message to reach someone’s heart in a way we would have never expected. Sometimes the most eloquent and powerful presentation will have no effect whatsoever. When people reject the gospel message the issue is not with us—it is with them. Do not get discouraged. Instead, look for more fertile ground and work there.

This is an amazing account, but it has been twisted and misused to create all sorts of controversy. That misses the point. The point of this account is to remind us that the Holy Spirit works in the life of every believer. He enables us to serve Him with boldness and confidence. He works to change us from the inside out, and to give us assurance, hope, and joy as we live our lives. Rather than debating specific elements of the Spirit’s ministry, we should place our focus on what the scriptures have clearly revealed: God has given us a job to do, but He has also given us His Spirit to help us do it. So let’s do what He’s called us to do with boldness and confidence!

© February 23, 2025 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Acts