READ Acts 2:1–13
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”
MEDITATE
Forty days.
At the beginning of it all, newly filled by the Holy Spirit, Jesus spent forty days in the desert. At the end of it all, after his resurrection, Jesus presented himself alive to his disciples “in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but ‘must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon’” (Acts 1:3–5, THE MESSAGE).
Forty days. Then Jesus left, but he left them with a promise. So they waited about a week, until Pentecost, a Jewish feast celebrated fifty days after Passover, which was about the time Jesus had died.
Then the heavens opened, like Noah’s flood—only now, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, with signs and wonders to boot: a violent, rushing wind, fiery tongues, foreign languages, the spectacle of apparent drunkenness, Peter’s successful debut, and 3,000 converts at a pop.
Well, that bursts the bubble of our comparatively sedate forty days, doesn’t it? Have we come this far only to have failed, to have missed out on the essence of Pentecost?
Not at all. Not in the least.
Notice what the disciples did after Jesus told them not to leave Jerusalem.
First, they stayed put and waited for his promise—just as Jesus had told them to do. After he left them, “they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying” (Acts 1:12–13). It would have been easier—and more spiritual, you’d think—for them to bend the rules a bit in order to linger and sleep in the shadow of Jesus’s ascension. They didn’t. They went back to Jerusalem and waited, away from the fray of a miracle-fed faith.
You’ve done that, you know. You’ve waited these forty days. Quietly. Expectantly.
Second, they prayed—just as Jesus had taught them to do. Jesus’s disciples “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers” (Acts 1:14). Jesus’s earliest followers prayed. They prayed a lot.
You’ve done that, too, you know. You’ve prayed these forty days. Quietly. Expectantly.
Third, Jesus’s followers studied. How do we know? After they had waited and prayed, Pentecost broke loose. “Amazed and astonished,” spectators asked, “How is it that … in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power[?]” (Acts 2:7–11).
The words God’s deeds of power are shorthand for God’s amazing actions throughout Israel’s history. They encompass a wide sweep of divine initiatives: the agreements made with Abraham and Israel’s ancestors, the ten plagues in Egypt, the astonishing exodus from Egypt, God’s miraculous provision in the wilderness, with gifts such as sweet water and manna. For Jesus’s followers, God’s deeds of power included his life, death, resurrection, ascension, and his outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit first descends upon the followers of Jesus during Pentecost, the content is clear and crisp even if the dialects are puzzling. These inspired followers recite those deeds of power that comprise the storyline for Israel’s Scripture and now, for the first time, lead through the life and death of Jesus to the resurrection, all the way up to Pentecost itself. For all the emphasis in the story of Pentecost upon the rush of a violent wind, for all the focus on speaking in other tongues, for all the talk of drunken disciples, for all of this, what rises to the surface when the dust settles is a group of undistinguished followers of Jesus who can recite by heart God’s deeds of power.
You’ve done that, too, you know. You’ve studied these forty days. Quietly. Expectantly.
I can’t guarantee you’ll experience the bells and whistles of that first Pentecost, which attracted spectators to the spectacle in the upper room. I can assure you that for forty days now you’ve lived into the heart of Pentecost because you’ve waited, you’ve prayed, and you’ve studied.
That’s why I wrote this little book, in fact—to provide a bit of structure, perhaps a touch of insight, to lead you, day by day, to the heart and soul of the Holy Spirit. And that’s why I wait, pray, and study in the shadow of Pentecost, sitting with my Bible open, with dictionaries and encyclopedias crowding my elbows, memorizing God’s deeds of power, waiting for those occasions when God gives me the privilege of reciting them as if they matter, which they do.
I’ve done that, too, you know. I’ve prayed and studied these forty days. Quietly. Expectantly.
REFLECT
PRAY
Holy Spirit,
Fiery ecstasy
Language maker
Don’t let me come unsuspecting to Pentecost
or arrive ill-equipped at ecstasy
Sharpen my will to study
Hone my mind to think
Whet my appetite to learn
And when I part my lips
and breathe out words
God’s praiseworthy acts—let them come first
Amen
