Acts 2:1-13

Acts 2:1-13

This next story takes place on the day of Pentecost, approximately 50 days after Jesus was killed and resurrected. Since Jesus told the apostles to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came, the apostles were obediently gathered together in the city. Suddenly, the entire house where they were in was filled with a sound of rushing wind and bits of fire rested on each one of them. The Holy Spirit had finally come to them! This enabled the apostles to preach to the Jews who had come from all over to participate in the Pentecost feast. Some believed the apostles were drunk when they heard and saw what was going on, but that provided an opportunity for Peter to preach to the whole assembly and convert the first Christians.

Just as it was significant that Jesus died during the Passover feast, it is also significant that people began to be Christians on this day of Pentecost. This particular feast (mentioned in Leviticus 23:15-22), was the feast in which the Israelites were instructed to take “new grain,” the “firstfruits,” and wave it before the Lord, signifying their gratitude for their first food. So it is very interesting that this story in Acts 2 of the beginning of the church takes place on this Jewish day of beginnings.

This text also gives us valuable instruction on what it meant for people in the new testament to “speak in other tongues.” In this passage, that phrase is not used to describe speaking nonsensical words in a heavenly language. Instead, verse 6 tells us that the apostles were speaking words that could be understood by all the different kinds of foreigners who had come to the feast. Everyone was hearing the gospel proclaimed in their own native “tongue,” or language.

Nathan Combs