Acts 2:1-21

The Coming of the Holy Spirit

²When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ²And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵ Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷Amazed and astonished, they asked, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.’ ¹²All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’ ¹³But others sneered and said, ‘They are filled with new wine.’

Peter Addresses the Crowd

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
¹⁷“In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
   and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
   and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
   in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
     and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹And I will show portents in the heaven above
   and signs on the earth below,
     blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰The sun shall be turned to darkness
   and the moon to blood,
     before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Brother,

Next Sunday is the Day of Pentecost and this reading from Acts is required! It is divided into two parts: (i) The coming of the Holy Spirit (1-13) and Peter’s first sermon (14-21). I am going to reflect on the first part.

Barclay (as always) provides useful reminders of the cultural background and context. Pentecost was originally a Jewish festival. Literally it means 50^th  - because it fell on a ‘week of weeks’ after the Passover – so also sometimes referred to as ‘The Feast of Weeks’. The weather was mostly good at this time and a great many people travelled to Jerusalem for the occasion and so “… never was there a more international crowd in Jerusalem than at the time of Pentecost …”

Pentecost, for the Jews, had two main significances: (i) a reminder of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai and (ii) an offering of the first omer of the barley harvest to God – two barley loaves were offered to God in gratitude for the completed harvest. On this day, no ‘servile’ work was to be done and so it was a holiday for all and there was generally a great crown in the streets.

There would, therefore, be no better time for God to reveal his truth to the people of the day!

Barclay rightly points out that we will never really know what happened on this day as Luke was not an eyewitness. He challenges the notion that the disciples were enabled to speak in foreign languages claiming that there would not have been any need: most would have spoken Greek which was like English today, a universal language. He claims that it was probably a time when the disciples were given the spiritual language (known as glossolalia) because this has never really disappeared from Christian experience and was very much part of the early Christian life as recorded in 1 Corinthians 14 as well as Acts 10.46 and 19.6.

We have both had the experience of an ecstatic utterance when we were undergraduates. We believed then (as did the people of the New Testament) that the unintelligible utterances were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. But no longer! Why? Perhaps we think that we were deluded. I am not so sure. Rather, I cherish it as part of the important time when, in our spiritual youth, God gave us this gift to encourage us and help us on our way. I still cherish the time of deep and meaningful experience.

But we all know that Paul himself was sceptical of all this, preferring intelligible words, making the important point that, if a stranger came in, he would think he has stumbled across a gathering of the insane. And so Barclay makes an interesting point here, for this is not far off the experience of the first disciples. Barclay concludes rather that:

“… this motley mob was hearing the word of God in a way that struck straight home to their hearts and that they could understand. The power of the Spirit was such that it had given these simple disciples a message and an utterance that could reach every heart …”

I am not so sure.

In my first pastoral appointment, a retired minister and his wife were a wonderful support to me. After one Pentecost Sunday service, Mel told me the story of a time when she was nursing in Port Elizabeth. A very ill patient was admitted from a Russian trawler and was in a coma. She felt called to pray for him and, having the gift of tongues, began to pray in her ecstatic language. When the sailor recovered he asked for the nurse who had prayed for him in Russian and it turned out to have been Mel!

Once again it could have been a case of both / and rather than either / or. Something worth thinking about!

Blessings to you and yours,

As ever,

David