Acts 2:1-13

We finally come to the moment that chapter 1 has been moving us towards, the arrival of the promised Holy Spirit. And what an entrance it is! This passage we have before us is also one that has divided believers into different denominations, with different interpretations of the Holy Spirit’s work on this day, and what it means for the Church today. 

As always, we are going to walk carefully and deliberately through this passage together. We are going to hopefully clear up some of the tension that we find, and uncover the most important thing that Luke is trying to communicate, and that’s this:

Big Idea: The presence of God is marked by the Spirit of God to proclaim the gospel.

What tends to happen as we read this passage is our focus leans more towards the gifting of the Holy Spirit, and when we do this we miss the significance of the moment of His coming. See, I believe this passage is not so much about speaking in tongues as it is about the importance of the Spirit’s arrival. When we focus too much on the gift given, we can easily miss the Giver and the purpose behind it. 

Let’s start in verse 1, and dig into the importance of the timing, Pentecost. Pentecost was a Jewish festival that was also known as the Feast of Weeks. This is one of the Harvest Celebrations in which the Israelites would bring the first fruits of their harvest as an offering to the Lord. The word literally means 50, and would take place 50 days after the Passover celebration was complete. If we walk it back, we remember that Jesus was crucified during Passover week, and was resurrected on Sunday morning, which was the day of the Feast of Firstfruits. This was the day that began the countdown to Pentecost. Day 1, Sunday. Day 50, Sunday. This is why Sunday has become a sacred day in church history, because it was on this day that Jesus rose from the dead, and it was on this day that the Holy Spirit descended on humanity, birthing the “ekklesia,” the “called out assembly,” the Church. Just like the ministry of Jesus began after the Holy Spirit descended on Him at His baptism, so the ministry of the church was about to begin. 

All of a sudden, as they are all sitting there together, suddenly, not slowly and progressively, but out of nowhere, this sound of a mighty rushing wind. Let’s talk about this.

1. Significance of Wind (vs. 2)

Keep in mind that there was no visible sign of wind. They didn’t feel it physically, like, their hair wasn’t blowing wildly. No curtains flapping. No dirt flying around. But the sound…loud, terrifying. The Greek word here means violent or mighty, and it’s the same word used in the account in Exodus of the Red Sea being parted. 

Exodus 14:21 - “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.” A violent east wind. A wind strong enough to part the Red Sea, that intensity is what they were hearing. 

This is the same wind that we see portrayed in Genesis 1:2, when the Spirit of God was hovering over the water. And here’s where this gets really interesting. In Hebrew and Greek, the word for “spirit” can also be used for “wind” and “breath.” This word is what’s used in Genesis 1:2. What’s being portrayed there is the breath of God violently rushing around the blank canvas before creation. 

James Montgomery Boice, in his commentary on Acts, continues this thought: “In Genesis 2 we have the story of the creation of Adam from the dust of the ground. “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” This indicates that apart from the breath of God, man was just dead matter. In order for him to have life, God, who is the source of life, had to breathe some of his life–some of the divine breath, or spirit–into Adam.”

I tell you all of this so that we can all understand that the violent wind that we see in Acts 2 isn’t just the sound of the Holy Spirit, but can be equated to the very breath of God. Just as God breathed life into Adam, so God breathed life, through His Holy Spirit, into the church that day. 

Amazing, but it doesn’t end there. 

2. Significance of Fire (vs. 3)

Just like the wind, this wasn’t a fire that burned, that could be touched. It was more likely a collective vision that everyone present had, but we can’t be 100% on that. Now, fire might be a little more recognizable as we take our minds back to the Old Testament. Perhaps most of our minds would immediately go to the burning bush in Exodus 3, where that bush was on fire but was not being burned.  Or maybe we think of the flaming torch passing between the animal carcasses in God’s covenant with Abraham. Or maybe the pillar of fire that accompanied Israel on their journey through the wilderness. Each time the fire is mentioned, it represents the presence of God. 

So we have this intense sound of wind, representing the breath of God, breathing life into His church, and we have the fire, representing the presence of God. And then we have the specific image of a tongue, which is the word for the physical part of our body. So what is the significance here?

3. Significance of Tongues (vs. 4-11)

The obvious parallel is found right there in vs. 4 (Re-read vs. 4). They are filled, the picture here is being filled to the brim, with no empty space. And the purpose of the filling in this moment is so that they could proclaim the gospel in other languages. This is why the vision of tongues was used. 

It’s important for us to understand here that the gift of tongues given on the day of Pentecost, contextually, were real, human languages that those gathered had not learned. We see this evidenced in the rest of the passage. 

So let me be clear about what the text is saying. On the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the infant church, they spoke in real, intelligible languages. 

Let’s keep going. In verse 5 we read that there were “dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.” This does not mean every country on the earth. This was actually a common saying back then regarding the Jews who had been spread out over the known civilized world at the time. We see specifics of these countries in the verses that follow. 

It’s interesting to consider the sound that brought these multitudes together in verse 6. The most common belief was that they heard the sound of the rushing wind, and it wasn’t the sound of the apostles speaking in different languages. And what’s even more interesting is that as they came together and heard these men and women speaking in their languages, that word “language” actually means “dialect.” It was so specific to the region of whatever country they were living in. 

This is why they were amazed, and astonished. “Wait a minute, these people are Galileans!” In other words these are uneducated people, how can they possibly be speaking in these languages? 

So we have the church being brought to life. We have the presence of God confirmed. We have simple, uneducated men and women preaching. And what is the purpose of all of it? Here is it, verse 11: “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” The purpose of this miraculous gift from the Holy Spirit is to proclaim the mighty works of God, to proclaim the gospel. This is the mission of the Church! And this is what Peter does when he stands up and begins to preach. 

This passage is not primarily about speaking in tongues, it is about the power and the presence of God being shown through His Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Church, this is our birth story. 

Application

This mission that the early church had been commissioned to, is the same mission that we live on today. As the Church, we continue in the power of the Holy Spirit, proclaiming the mighty works of God. 

And listen, we’ll get the same response. Some people will be amazed. Some will be bewildered. Some will even call us crazy. But we continue marching on. 

And while this moment in church history when the Spirit descends is a one time event, we know that this same Spirit, the breath of the living God, lives in each of us. It is that Spirit that, in the moment of salvation, takes us from death to life. Just like God breathed life into Adam, so God breathes new life into us. 

And now, we proclaim the gospel so that others might receive life.