Acts 2:1-13 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
When the Israelites arrived into the land of Canaan, they were instructed by God to celebrate this wonderful event of entering the Promised Land by offering God the first fruit of the barley harvest. This was a time of thankfulness to God for the great deliverance from slavery and for protecting them through their journey in the wilderness. Later on this festival became known as a celebration of the Passover: the deliverance from slavery in Egypt. After 50 days another celebration of the firstfruits of Canaan was demanded: the waving of the first cutting of wheat before the Lord. This second celebration was known as Pentecost. This second celebration of the first fruits of the harvest morphed into celebrating the day God gave the Torah (Law of Moses) on Mount Sinai to the Israelites. Therefore, the first celebration of the harvest of barley became a remembrance of the Passover, God’s mighty hand in their deliverance from slavery. The second festival fifty days later became a celebration for God giving them the Torah, the law of Moses. In the context of Christianity, Jesus became the fulfillment of the first Jewish holiday, the Passover. By his death, all who put Jesus’ blood on their lives by faith are delivered from Satan’s hold on them, setting them free to journey to the Promised Land. Jesus is the Passover Lamb of God, shedding his blood for freedom from sin for all people. The second celebration, Pentecost, in the Christian context is the infilling of the Spirit of all those who are free from the hands of the devil. This day is when the Spirit of God enlivens all people who are IN CHRIST who have accepted his sacrifice for them. Peter announces to the crowd that is gathered there that this infilling of the people is a fulfillment of Joel’s prophesy. 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. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. (Acts 2:17-18) People will no longer just be known as children of God because of their ascent to the Lamb of God’s work, but also will be alive to God because of the Holy Spirit present in their lives. They will demonstrate this reality by doing powerful things in the name of Christ. This work of the infilling came with a rushing sound as wind and a visible sign of flames on the heads of the Christians. Otherwise, the human senses of men were exposed to this miraculous event. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. The people’s physical senses were cognizant of something special and different happening to them. It was not just a spiritual awareness, but something that activated their fleshly senses too.
Under the Old Covenant, for people to approach God was a scary event. To have God interact with people as He does on Pentecost was really an unknown event for people in general. Special individuals in the Old Testament were allowed to come close to the Lord, as with Abraham, Moses, and with the prophets. God, through his mercy and grace, allowed these people to know him without judgment on their lives. These special dispensations show how earnest God was to salvage humankind from their rebellion toward him. He ministered to these special people so He could bring men and women into his household. But God is a consuming fire, and without his mercy and grace on lives, sinful humans cannot exist in his presence; people carry the stain of sin on their lives. We see Moses' encounter with God accompanied by fire. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.” When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. (Exodus 3:1-6) We see God warning Moses not to come any closer because his sinful self would be destroyed by God’s holiness. Later, we know Moses became a friend of God, but first he, as Abraham did, must believe that God is and that his word will be fulfilled no matter what the rational mind believes. The word of God must be respected as the essence of life itself. Sinful man will place his words before God’s creative Word. Rebellion in itself is placing man’s understanding of life ahead of God’s purpose for life. Fire represents holiness. We see in the giving of the law that Mount Sinai was covered with fire. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. (Exodus 19:18) The Lord told Moses to tell the people not to touch the mountain or they will have to die. If a person disobeyed that instruction, no one should touch that person or he would die. Any animal that wanders onto the mountain must die. God’s holiness will not tolerate anything that is not absolutely perfect as He is. Nothing outside of God’s holy domain can be in the presence of a perfect God: no blemish of any sort can exist in God’s perfection. Jesus was emphatic about the nature of God and his perfection, his eternal nature. As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone." (Mark 10:17-18) Jesus indicates clearly in this encounter that only God is eternal, only He exists forever. All else is marked with death or imperfection, every human, every animal. Only God is so good that He will exist forever. In this scene, even Jesus will experience death, but not God. In fact, God through his mighty Spirit raises Jesus from the grave to sit with him on the throne of God forever.
Then, if God is so mighty, so good, that He cannot exist with sinful man as man is, why do we see on Pentecost, the fire of tongues settling on the followers of Jesus? This holy fire that settles on each believer is God himself in his Spirit. Through the complete and satisfying work of Jesus Christ, God has come to dwell in the inner sanctum of each believer. No more would they be warned about touching the holy Mount of Sinai where the law would be given to Moses. No, touching is one thing, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit is altogether another thing. God is not up on the mountain, but now the hearts and minds of Christians are perfect because of the blood of the one and only perfect One, Jesus Christ. We are clothed with his righteousness. We walk in the midst of his holiness, not our own righteousness. We have been give a place of perfection in God’s eyes because Christ is totally acceptable to God the Father, for He has been with the Father from the beginning. “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (Hebrews 8:8-10) In Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, Jews from many countries were there to present their gifts to God, thanking him for their deliverance from Egypt, giving them lives of abundance. These Jews from many lands were witnesses of the Holy Spirit’s infilling of the believers of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. When they heard Peter’s explanation of what they had witnessed, they became believers in the message of Jesus being the Messiah. About 3,000 were added to the church that day. These Jewish people from many lands went back to their homelands with this message, that Jesus is alive and that He had come to rescue people from their sins. This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. This message would spread to many lands quickly after Pentecost, fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. No longer would Jesus be just the Messiah of the Jewish people, but He would be the Messiah of all people: God himself amongst people, everywhere. The infilling of the Holy Spirit has made all people who place their trust in Jesus Christ friends of God. Not just a few select people will know God as their friend, able to talk to God face to face. But now, all humans who know Jesus as their Savior can be God’s friend. Even better, they are Children of the Living God, priests in the body of Christ. As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5) Pentecost, once a day when the Jews praised God for the abundant harvest of grain in their lives is now a day where all Christians praise God for the abundance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We have experienced Pentecost; we are free from the old self of the flesh. We are now God’s servants with a desire to obey every dictate of the Spirit of God inside us. Let that life flesh out in love for all people, everywhere. Amen!
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