Jesus had promised that if He went away, He would send the Comforter, or Counselor, in His Name, who would teach the disciples all things and remind them of everything that Jesus had taught them (see John 14:26). Hanging on to that promise, the disciples had taken care of the business of appointing a replacement for Judas. Still they waited. And then, on the important Jewish festival day called Pentecost, something happened. We break into reading the text.
When the Feast of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Without warning there was a sound like a strong wind, gale force--no one could tell where it came from. It filled the whole building. Then, like a wildfire, the Holy Spirit spread through their ranks, and they started speaking in a number of different languages as the Spirit prompted them.
There were many Jews staying in Jerusalem just then, devout pilgrims from all over the world. When they heard the sound, they came on the run. Then when they heard, one after another, their own mother tongues being spoken, they were thunderstruck. They couldn't for the life of them figure out what was going on, and kept saying, "Aren't these all Galileans? How come we're hearing them talk in our various mother tongues?
Parthians, Medes, and Elamites; Visitors from Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene; Immigrants from Rome, both Jews and proselytes; Even Cretans and Arabs!
"They're speaking our languages, describing God's mighty works!" Their heads were spinning; they couldn't make head or tail of any of it. They talked back and forth, confused: "What's going on here?"
Eugene H. Peterson, The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language, Ac 2:1-12 (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2003).
Thinking It Over
1. The disciples had acted in obedience to what they thought God had told them to do, and yet it must have seemed to them a long time and nothing had happened. Has that ever happened to you? How did the disciples respond? How did you respond? If you are in that place now, what should your response be today?
2. On the day of Pentecost, something happened. There is no way the disciples could have imagined that something like this would happen--a gale force wind, what appeared to be a wild fire spreading from person to person, and as if that was not amazing enough, each person began speaking in the mother tongues of bystanders without any benefit of learning that language. The bystanders voiced, "What's going on here?" The disciples must have wondered the same thing, because God had acted unexpectedly. Is God acting unexpectedly in your life? Is He taking you to places that you had not ever expected to find yourself? If He is, you have a choice as to how you respond: you can join Him, or you can resist Him. What are you doing today?
