The Spirit Descends at Pentecost (2:1–13)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, January 28, 2024

Mount Everest:

Several years ago, I was watching Dateline on NBC. In this episode, they talked about people climbing to reach the summit of Mount Everest. It turns out that a few years ago, it was the deadliest season of climbing Mount Everest. As I watched this show, I was amazed in a few ways. One was the wind. They had a small window of time when they could climb from the last camp to the very top of Everest. Some didn’t finish in time, so they faced very bad weather as they came down. The weather was so bad that many people died. They said that the wind was hurricane-force, and the temperatures were something like 15 degrees below zero. I cannot imagine that situation. Hurricane winds, 15 degrees below zero, snow flying and to be 29,000 feet high.

I look forward to an opportunity to climb Mount Everest someday. But that is not why I am telling that story. I tell this story because of the idea of wind, hurricane-force wind.

Has anyone here ever been in a hurricane?

Has anyone in here ever been in a tornado?

I bet you have heard the stories of the wind. Most of you know that I like to run a little bit. When I was training for my first marathon, weekly, I would run country roads. If you are on country roads, there is very little to stop the wind, and I faced some very rough wind. There were a few times when I would be running east, and everything would be going well. I would think that I was going to run the whole 26 miles, but then I would turn north and then turn west, and, wow, the wind would hit me in the face as I turned. There was one time that I was warm and sweating as I ran east. But then I turned north, and the wind was so cold that when I tried to talk, my lips were numb. Wind can make cold air worse; wind can pick up fires and spread them; wind makes the snow hard to keep off the streets, and wind can be dangerous. But how often have we wanted a nice breeze on a hot day?

Today, we are talking about the Holy Spirit. Notice that prior to the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the church, they heard a mighty rushing wind. We are now in our fourth sermon on the book of Acts, beginning with chapter 1:1. In today’s sermon, we are going to look at Acts 2:1-13, and we will see the Holy Spirit’s descent unto the church. I want to show you that the Holy Spirit came upon the church fulfilling Acts 1:8 and I believe the Holy Spirit never left the church. We still have power through the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s witnesses.

The Spirit descends in verses 1-4.

Acts 2:1–4 (ESV)

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

1. Do you notice something? The verse begins simply stating, “When the day of Pentecost had come…” It is as if they all knew about the Day of Pentecost. But also note that they expected Pentecost to come. Pentecost was a Jewish holiday. One writes: 2:1. The day of Pentecost was an annual feast that followed the Feast of Firstfruits by a week of weeks (i.e., seven weeks, or 49 days) and therefore also was called the Feast of Weeks (cf. Lev. 23:15–22). The name “Pentecost,” of Greek derivation, means 50 because it was the 50th day after the Firstfruits feast (Lev. 23:16).^[1]
2. The disciples were all at one place. We really don’t know where they were. They might have been in the upper room where they were in the previous chapter.
3. We also do not know how many people were there. We know the 12 disciples were there. There may have been more, but we do not know. I believe there were more. I think there could have been 120 people or so present. In chapter 1, we know that about 120 men and women were present in the prayer meeting, so there is no reason to believe this is limited to the disciples. Now, God is about to act.
4. They hear a loud noise. This noise comes from Heaven, and it happened suddenly. This was something unexpected. The noise filled the whole house where they were sitting, so we know they were in a house. The idea that it came from Heaven may mean that it came from Heaven, literally. Or simply that it came from above. In the Bible, we have Heaven referring to the place where God resides, the atmosphere, and outer space. Notice that they hear the noise first.
5. Verse 3 mentions these tongues of fire. Remember the Old Testament? Remember Moses and the burning bush? At that time Moses saw a bush on fire but not being consumed (Exodus 3). I think that image is here. The fire comes down and is dispersed upon the disciples, but the fire does not consume them. Fire and wind were always signs of God’s activity in the Bible. It is possible that the fire and the tongues only happened to the disciples, but it is also possible that this happened to others as well.
6. They then speak in other tongues. There are two views on tongues. One is that tongues are a known language. The other is that tongues are more of a prayer language. Either way, it seems that in this case the tongues mean a known language. In a few moments (verse 6), the people are able to hear their own language spoken.
7. I was once listening to a tape of an actual miracle. In this particular tape the people were praying for a revival and they heard a mighty wind rush through the place and, you know what? God was about to do great things. You see that was an Eskimo area and they struggled with alcohol abuse. There were many problems. But God was about to change things through the Gospel.

We see the details of what happened in verses 5-13.

Acts 2:5–13 (ESV)

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ⁶ And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. ⁷ And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, ¹¹ both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” ¹² And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

1. In the next several verses, we see that there were people here from many different countries. You see, Pentecost was a major holy day. …Jerusalem would swell in population. People were required to come from far away. One first century writer name Josephus said that Jerusalem’s population could swell to 3,000,000. It was at this time that the Holy Spirit came upon the church.
2. It is likely that the disciples were in a house, but the Spirit coming upon the church made such a disturbance that people heard this, and when people heard this, the disciples came out where they could talk with the people. We know that by the end of this chapter, 3000 people were saved, so they had to be somewhere to accommodate such a large group.
3. Verse 7 says that the people were amazed and bewildered. They were wondering why all the people were not Galileans. Galileans had an accent. Dr. Constable from Dallas Theological Seminary references insights in this:
4. “Galileans had difficulty pronouncing gutturals and had the habit of swallowing syllables when speaking; so they were looked down upon by the people of Jerusalem as being provincial (cf. Mark 14:70). Therefore, since the disciples who were speaking were Galileans, it bewildered those who heard because the disciples could not by themselves have learned so many different languages.”
5. Through verse 11 we see many places listed that were represented. Note that many of these places will be visited in the book of Acts. These people heard the Gospel in their own language.
6. Verse 12 shows that many were amazed. Verse 13, but some were not. They rationalized it and we must never do that.

Close:

John Piper provides the following helpful illustration of the Holy Spirit before and after Pentecost:

Picture a huge dam for hydroelectric power under construction, like the Aswan High Dam on the Nile, 375 feet high and 11,000 feet across. Egypt’s President Nasser announced the plan for construction in 1953. The dam was completed in 1970 and in 1971 there was a grand dedication ceremony and the 12 turbines with their ten billion kilowatt-hour capacity were unleashed with enough power to light every city in Egypt. During the long period of construction the Nile River wasn’t completely stopped. Even as the reservoir was filling, part of the river was allowed to flow past. The country folk downstream depended on it. They drank it, they washed in it, it watered their crops and turned their mill-wheels. They sailed on it in the moonlight and wrote songs about it. It was their life. But on the day when the reservoir poured through the turbines a power was unleashed that spread far beyond the few folk down river and brought possibilities they had only dreamed of. Well, Pentecost is like the dedicatory opening of the Aswan High Dam. Before Pentecost the river of God’s Spirit blessed the people of Israel and was their very life. But after Pentecost the power of the Spirit spread out to light the whole world. None of the benefits enjoyed in the pre-Pentecostal days were taken away. But ten billion kilowatts were added to enable the church to take the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ to every tongue and tribe and nation.1

In Nik Ripkin’s book The Insanity of God, he tells the story of Aisha, a 24-year-old Christian widow and convert from Islam. She was so outgoing in her witness to Christ in the hostile environment of her Islamic town that the authorities arrested her and put her in the dark, unfinished cellar of the police station. At the point when she felt she could take no more and was about to scream, instead, to her surprise, out of her mouth came a heart-song of praise to Christ. As she sang, she could tell the movement upstairs ceased. They were listening.

That night the police chief came down and said he was taking her home on one condition: You must come to my house in three days. Then he said, I don’t understand. You are not afraid of anything. My wife and daughters and all the women in my family are afraid of everything. But you are not afraid of anything. … I want you to come to my house so you can tell everyone why you are not afraid. And I want you to sing that song.

Do you know Jesus?

God created us to be with him. (Genesis 1-2)

Our sin separated us from God. (Genesis 3)

Sins cannot be removed by good deeds (Gen 4-Mal 4)

Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. (Matthew – Luke)

Everyone who trusts in him alone has eternal life. (John – Jude)

Life that’s eternal means we will be with Jesus forever. (Revelation 22:5)

Pray

^[1] Toussaint, S. D. (1985). Acts. (J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck, Eds.)The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 357). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.