Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We all love a gathering for celebration, don’t we? Every nation has specific holidays which celebrate its heritage. For the Jewish people, God designed three great annual festivals and God urged that at least some from every family would come to Jerusalem, from wherever they lived, for these week-long celebrations, if at all possible. It was like a huge ‘family reunion’ each time they came. Can you see it… huge migrations of people coming from all directions to Jerusalem for these festivals.
PASSOVER, of course celebrated God’s deliverance of His people from Egyptian bondage.
SHAVUOT or Festival of Harvest, later known as Pentecost, was to be celebrated 50 days after Passover, and was a great “Thanksgiving” celebration, recognizing God’s faithful provision for His people.
SUKKOT or Festival of Tabernacles (Shelters), was the celebration of God’s faithfulness to His people as they wandered in the desert for 40 years after Egypt and before they entered the Promised Land. For several days the people built and lived in temporary shelters of branches they cut from trees. It helped them remember the ‘on the move’ living their ancestors experienced in those 40 desert years.
Explanations of the three great Jewish Festivals are found in Deuteronomy 16. For centuries these annual pilgrimages were essential to unifying the Jewish people, as each generation moved further and further in all directions away from Jerusalem. May I ask… do you have times in your year when you celebrate GOD and His great work in your nation, your family and your life?
Yesterday I left you in a very unusual gathering of people in Jerusalem. They were close friends of Jesus. Several of them had been eye witness to something they were struggling to understand and explain to their friends who had not seen it. As the resurrected Jesus was talking with some of them on the hillside of the Mount of Olives, suddenly He began to elevate, higher and higher, up into the sky, right into the clouds! Suddenly two angels appeared explaining that Jesus had returned to heaven, from which He had come to earth years before. Stunned, these friends of Jesus stood there for some time scanning the sky. Then finally they walked back to Jerusalem and gathered to think about, talk about and even pray about what they had witnessed, what it meant, and what they should do next. We find that story in Acts 1:12-26.
Dr. Luke tells us Jesus ascended on the 40th day after His resurrection. (Acts 1:3) Within a day or two people, lots of people, began gathering in Jerusalem from all over the known world, for the festival of Shavuot which was celebrated 50 days after Passover. Do you see what God was doing? Have you considered that God is the greatest strategist, the greatest master planner of all time? The Bible is filled with stories which prove how God works in the details to accomplish great things for His glory. Jesus was crucified and rose again from the dead on Passover weekend. Not only were Jerusalem Jews able to understand Jesus became their sacrificial Passover lamb, so they, and we, can be saved from our sin condemnation, but Jerusalem was packed full of thousands of people from all over the Roman empire who had come for Passover. When they returned to their homes, they took the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection with them, to the far corners of the empire!
Now, nearly 50 days later, Jerusalem was again receiving thousands of travelers, many of whom had been there for Passover/Easter! We find the story in Acts 2. The friends of Jesus were in Jerusalem together, discussing what they had experienced with Jesus and praying to discern what He wanted them to do next. Dr. Luke writes: “When the day of Pentecost came…suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house…” (Acts 2:1,2) Don’t miss the multi-sensory experience here my friends. We’ve all been through thunderstorms with very high winds. Maybe some of you, like me, have experienced hurricanes or tornadoes, so we understand what they were hearing and feeling. When it says the violent wind “filled the house” I think it means just that. Shutters were blown off their hinges, and the wind rushed powerfully, unrestrained, INTO the room where they all were gathered. Can you see it? Things are flying off the walls and blowing off the table!
And then can you see what they saw? A fireball which separates and settles on all the people. Luke reports: “Then they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” (Acts 2:3) Fire falling from heaven is an extremely rare miracle and in the Bible it has two major purposes: either the fire consumes or it purifies as holy! In Genesis 19 fire fell from heaven to consume the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. In 2 Chronicles 7:1 fire fell from heaven to consume the sacrifices King Solomon and the priests had laid out before God as they dedicated the great temple. In 1 Kings 18 fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice the prophet Elijah had put on the altar, as he had called out to God inviting Him to show Himself responsive and powerful, while the prophets of Baal were unable to arouse any response from their false god. Here in Jerusalem that Pentecost day, the fire which fell from heaven did not consume or burn anyone, rather it represented the coming upon them of the Spirit of God in all His holiness and power. As Jesus had promised, His followers were being baptized by the Holy Spirit of God!
Luke reports: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:4) Can you imagine the confusion, the chaos which erupted in that place? As a former missionary, I have learned and can speak fairly fluently in the language of a very special people, whom I love dearly and who live primarily in the Caribbean, but also have scattered to many other parts of the world, as well. The language is known as Haitian Creole. When living there, I could think in Creole and speak it. Years later, I now think in English but quickly translate in my mind and speak Creole. That is what I believe was happening miraculously as Jesus’ friends thought in their native Aramaic language, but what came out of their mouths were words in many other languages which they had never studied or learned. WHY?
Luke tells us: “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 these followers of Jesus speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed they asked:, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our own native language?.. We hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’ Amazed and perplexed they asked, ‘What does this mean?” (Acts 2:5-12)
It was a miracle… no different from when Jesus healed lame limbs, or blind eyes or even raised dead people to life. Or when He calmed storms, or fed huge crowds with a few biscuits and fish, or when Jesus walked on the water and enabled Peter to do the same for a few steps. This was an outpouring of the power of God upon followers of Jesus through the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit miraculously enabled them to speak in languages they did not know, but were the languages of God fearing Jews who were there in Jerusalem for Pentecost. And what were these Galileans saying? They were proclaiming the truth about Jesus, for the glory of God!
Now it’s very important we grasp this my friends. God is strategic, God is holy, He is a God of order. These anointed followers of Jesus were not speaking gibberish nor were they hallucinating. Those who heard them understood them speaking in their native languages with perfect accents, making perfect sense! Can you see it? Clusters of people all around in the streets of Jerusalem. In the center of each cluster one follower of Jesus speaking the truth, telling the story of the Jesus he/she knew, in a language that he/she did not know, but those clustered around him/her understood him/her perfectly! It wasn’t just the disciples, it was more than 100 men and women who had been gathered together for the past 10 days since the ascension, of Jesus sharing their stories of their friend and Lord Jesus, and praying, seeking to discern what Jesus wanted them to do next. All of them were anointed by the Holy Spirit, men and women! That’s why these visitors to Jerusalem from north Africa, from the lands to the east and north and even all the way west from Rome, were “Amazed and perplexed…”
Are you my friends? When you read Acts 1 & 2 are you amazed and perplexed at the ascension of Jesus, the days His friends spent together in that Jerusalem house, and then the coming of the Holy Spirit in great power at Pentecost? Are you ‘amazed and perplexed’ when you consider what happened to those people as the fire of God, the Holy Spirit came upon them? Tomorrow we’ll look at what happened next as Peter stood to explain what they were all experiencing, for today, I’m asking you to ponder carefully what you understand this miracle of Pentecost was, and how it relates to you and me today!
I have found a powerful worship song by a worship leader I just discovered named Heavens Mutambira. Dr. Luke tells us many in Jerusalem, that Pentecost, were from Africa. They were worshipers of God and had come for Pentecost, but unexpectedly some of them encountered the Holy Spirit speaking through Galileans about Jesus the Christ! Here’s the worship link and oh, I hope you enjoy it:
Today’s Scripture is Acts 2:1-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“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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