Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
No matter where you live in the world, I’m sure you have very special holidays which involve great celebrations, time off work, and perhaps family gatherings. I left you yesterday in Jerusalem during one of those great, Jewish annual festivals called Shavuot or Pentecost. Thousands of Jews had come to Jerusalem from all over the Roman empire and for several days great celebrations had been taking place.
Among these pilgrims are the disciples of Jesus; Mary, the mother of Jesus, and many other friends from Galilee, and they’ve been spending the past several days together in Jerusalem, remembering. (Acts 1:12-14) Their focus has been their months with Jesus and His departure which had occurred about 10 days before. (Acts 1:9-11) With Jesus gone, they all wondered what their future would be?
Jesus had given them very specific departing instructions: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about…in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit… you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)
For 10 days the disciples had been waiting and thinking deeply about these last words Jesus spoke to them before He ascended into the clouds. A person’s last words can be very impactful, can’t they? What exactly would be their experience with the Holy Spirit and how would it affect the rest of their lives? They could not imagine!
Yesterday, we considered that the disciples would have been familiar with several Jewish ancient heroes who were empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. But what POWER was Jesus talking about? Could it be similar to the power Jesus had demonstrated many times in His miracles? Was it power to withstand persecution and torture as Jesus did? What did Jesus want His disciples to do with Holy Spirit power? So many questions. And so, they waited, discussed and prayed.
Jesus had challenged them to consider that they would become His witnesses. They could perhaps imagine doing so in Jerusalem and all Judea, since those were familiar places. But it would be frightening, because certainly those who had arrested, beaten and killed Jesus might want to do the same to those who had been known as Jesus’ close followers! But as frightening as those thoughts were, what about Samaria and the ends of the earth?
What could Jesus have meant when He challenged His disciples to consider taking Jesus’ message into Samaria and even to faraway places, they had never been, places far outside Israel? That seemed impossible.
Acts 2, of course, is Dr. Luke’s forensic explanation of what happened when the Holy Spirit of God came in power, just as Jesus had promised. Let’s consider several key points in that unique experience…
* First, it happened exactly on the day of Shavuot/Pentecost. That’s important friends, for God’s timing is always perfect.
Jesus’ atonement death happened exactly on the day of Passover! Both times Jerusalem was filled to overflowing with Jews seeking to honor God by their festival participation and their call for God to send Messiah. God was speaking but Jerusalem was not listening!
* Second, the coming of the Holy Spirit was a multi-sensory experience.
Acts 2:2 says, “a SOUND like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were gathered.” Wind from heaven was understood by the people of Israel to be a practical, miraculous reach of God from heaven to earth for a specific demonstration of God’s power. Many times in Israel’s history a ‘God sent wind’ was very significant. Do you remember?
It was a God sent east wind which brought in the devouring locusts as a plague upon Egypt (Ex. 10:12-15) and a God sent west wind which swept the locusts away! (Ex. 10:19) Also, it was a strong God sent wind which opened the Red Sea so the fleeing Hebrew slaves could escape Pharaoh’s pursuing army! (Exodus 14:21,22) And do you remember that ‘…a wind from the LORD” (Numbers 11:31,32) brought in a huge flock of quail to the desert, where more than one million Hebrews had cried out to God asking for meat to eat! Can you imagine how many quail that was?
Oh yes, the disciples and friends of Jesus understood that when a very powerful wind rose up, God was doing something extraordinary! I imagine that ferocious Jerusalem wind awakened in them a heightened sense of expectation that something cataclysmic was about to happen.
* Third, Acts 2:3 says, “They SAW what appeared to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” First a wind, now fire!
Once again for these Jews, who’d been waiting together for 10 days, the fire would have raised up very significant events in Israel’s past. Remember? When King Solomon was dedicating the temple, right there in Jerusalem, fire came from heaven to ignite the sacrifices on the large altar in front of the Temple! (2 Chron. 7:1-3) And when the prophet Elijah challenged King Ahab and Jezebel’s prophets of Baal to a showdown on Mt Carmel, God again sent fire from heaven to Elijah’s altar proving He alone is God, remember? (1 Kings 18:36-40)
Oh, the disciples knew these great stories of Israel’s past and immediately recognized these ‘Pentecost tongues of fire’ as God again sending fire from heaven to Jerusalem. But WHY?
Matthew the disciple was in that room when the wind and fire came, and I wonder if Matthew spoke up reminding everyone in the room what he wrote in his account of John the Baptist identifying Jesus. John had said: “I baptize you with water…but after me comes One who is more powerful than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.“ (Matt. 3:11)
So, what did it mean my friends?
Why the very strong wind from heaven and why the tongues of fire?
I hope I’ve shown you that God’s pattern with Israel was very strong wind when He was about to do something cataclysmic. Like a tornado or hurricane today, a fierce wind, that only God can generate, gets our attention, doesn’t it? It sure got theirs!
In Luke’s account there is no evidence of damage to the house they were in when the wind came, that’s a miracle! Also, no damage as fire came into the house and no burning of their hair or heads as the fire settled upon them.
The fire symbolized God’s supremacy, God’s cleansing power, God’s holiness, God’s anointing and God’s destruction of wickedness and evil. God clearly demonstrated His specific selection of those few, among the huge crowd in Jerusalem, who were being anointed, cleansed, purified by the fire of God!
Now we need to pause and absorb the uniqueness of this Pentecost moment. On Monday we’ll look at what happened next, but for today thank Jesus that His promise of sending His Holy Spirit happened with such a power demonstration that had so much historical significance for these Jews gathered for Pentecost! But ask Jesus what He wants YOU to learn through what they experienced?
The ‘lessons learned’ notes at the “Grand Narrative” link below will help you think deeply about this, and the worship song will draw you to Jesus. And I’ll be here waiting for you on Monday.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 2:1, 2.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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