We cannot live the Christian life in our own strength, be holy and loving, lead someone to Christ; witness effectively in God’s power, bring healing or exercise the many spiritual gifts unless first we receive the gift of the Spirit. We cannot even pray properly. We are totally ineffectual without the Holy Spirit.
Today has been called the birthday of the church. We are celebrating the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon the new community of followers of Jesus for the first time.
In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit fell on individuals, prophets such as Elijah and Elisha, priests and Kings and those who received an anointing for specific tasks such as Bezalel and Oholiab who were enabled to produce beautiful crafts and ornaments for the temple. In the upper room the Holy Spirit fell on everyone present.
On the day of Pentecost the disciples, the mother of Jesus, his brother, men and women, slaves and free, 120 in all, were in an upper room in Jerusalem, where they had hidden for fear of the Jews.
It was 10 days since Jesus had ascended into heaven, 50 days since Jesus had died during or just after the Jewish Passover. The feast of Pentecost, the first of the Jewish harvest festivals was in full swing. Jerusalem was again full of pilgrims.
Like the pilgrims, the followers of Jesus were continually in the temple worshipping God as Jesus had told them to do, waiting for the promise of the father that Jesus had told them they would receive just before he ascended into heaven.
Their baptism in fire would empower them in a similar way to dynamite, energising them, propelling them into the streets to be witnesses from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Jesus had told them they would be his witnesses. The same word is used in New Testament Greek for witnesses and martyrs. Receiving the Holy Spirit was exciting and terrifying. The early Christians knew suffering and probable death awaited them.
“Suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.”
Rushing winds uproot and destroy, changing the landscape around us forever. The wind that swept over the waters at the beginning of creation was sweeping over them. The breath blown into the nostrils of the first human being was blowing into them. God was creating his new creation.
“Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.”
In the Old Testament fire burnt up sacrifices in the temple and consumed all that was not holy. This fire fell upon people willingly obedient to be living sacrifices for their Lord. They knew what this meant. They had watched Jesus die.
Amazingly the wind did not blow them off their seats and the fire did not consume them. Today people react in a variety of ways when the Holy Spirit falls on them. Some feel a warmth, some shake, some cry, some laugh, some fall! We do not know that any of this happened.
“All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” “All!” Here we see an undivided Church. The Holy Spirit wasn’t sent to divide but to unite our hearts in love. Here it breaks down divisions between male and female and the disciples and family of Jesus.
Ordinary friends of Jesus started speaking in languages they had never learnt; proper languages that others would understand. The Holy Spirit didn’t make them speak. This is not the way the Holy Spirit works.
When I became a Pentecostal, speaking in tongues was considered evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit as experienced by the early Church. This does not explain what was happening in this instance.
The Holy Spirit was loosening tongues used in worship and previously frightened believers took to the streets of Jerusalem. We do not know whether they understood what they were saying but they were understood. Instead of making a name for themselves they exalted Jesus.
“Devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each.”
Most of the Jews in the known Empire would understand more than one language, the Hebrew of temple worship, Latin the language of the Romans, Greek, and Aramaic. It is probably that those in the upper room understood these languages even if they hadn’t been formally educated. This does not explain the reaction of the Jewish pilgrims. “How is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?”
Like the church today, the pilgrims were divided by what they saw and heard. Reasoning didn’t help. The Holy Spirit cannot be understood because as God he is mysterious.
Some asked “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” Some dismissed the early Christian as fraudsters, drunkards. We do not know whether or not they were wobbly. This seems unlikely not just because it was 9 o’clock in the morning but because they were speaking powerfully about God, lucidly.
In response to their confusion Peter preached his first sermon. Instead of muddle and confusion, he shows how the Holy Spirit gives us understanding and order.
Peter explained that God planned to pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, in the last days by using a quotation from the book of Joel. “Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit.”
Peter didn’t fully understand or believe what he was saying. The Holy Spirit is for everyone, Jew and Gentile. Today Christians across the world celebrate Jesus in many different languages and styles.
Vision, dreams, speaking in languages and prophesying or speaking out the words of God with power are just some of the many gifts God has given us through the Holy Spirit to communicate his love to others. Spiritual gifts are not just for priests, the educated and rich, but for all the people of God.
To receive this wonderful gift we need to call upon the name of the Lord, to ask for forgiveness and believe in Jesus. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Jesus will then pours out his Holy Spirit upon us. We need the Holy Spirit. Let’s call upon the Lord to fill us with his holy fire.