The Unity of Pentecost
“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.”
June 12, 2011
Acts 2:1-21, The Unity of Pentecost
Douglas Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
[print_link]
[powerpress]
“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.”
But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:
‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
This Sunday is Pentecost. For Jewish people it was one of the three major pilgrimage feasts – the other two being Passover and Tabernacles. The feast of Pentecost was celebrated seven weeks after the Passover feast and was also known as the offering of the first fruits. It was an early harvest festival. What sights and sounds there must have been as people from every district of Palestine and every nation in the area headed for Jerusalem for this annual religious holy day.
According to Luke, for 50 days, a group of 120 followers of Jesus waited in Jerusalem. Their teacher, for whom they had left all they had, was gone. Judas, one of their own, betrayed their master and then killed himself. The comforter they had been promised had not yet come. They picked Mathias as a replacement for Judas. And they waited. During those 50 days from Easter until Pentecost I’m sure there were some challenging conversations as they sought to remain hopeful and unified.
On the Day of Pentecost, the disciples are all together in one place, following the Lord’s instructions to remain in Jerusalem “until you have been clothed with power from on high.” While they wait they worship, recite scripture, pray, interpret their own experiences in light of God’s word and take care of God’s work in a fairly orderly manner. That changes on Pentecost when the power and presence of the Holy Spirit come to all who are gathered. The Spirit doesn’t appear with the sanctions of ecclesiastical respectability. When the Spirit comes it is with a sound like the rush of a violent wind. Violent winds are anything but orderly and proper. Unlike the destructive violent winds of the tornadoes that recently struck Massachusetts, Missouri, and Alabama, the wind of the Spirit is a creative rather than a destructive force. Rather than scattering debris like a tornado, the Holy Spirit brings divided tongues as of fire and a tongue of fire rested on each of them. What is the nature of the fire that rests on each believer at Pentecost? John the Baptist had said (Luke 3:16) that the one who was more powerful than him (Jesus) would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Pentecost is the fulfillment of John’s prophecy.
Think about the great symbolic meaning of fire in the Bible. A perpetual fire burned in the Temple, and fire was used both for roasting sacrifices and for burning incense. Fire is a common symbol of holiness and in some cases of protection (Zechariah 2:5). God is presented as ‘a consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12:28-29; Deuteronomy 4:24). Fire is God’s servant (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7), and God’s word is like fire (Jeremiah 23:29). Fire is a central element of God’s appearance at critical moments in Israel’s faith including: establishing a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 15:17), in the appearance of the burning bush to Moses (Exodus 3:2), the Lord leading Israel during the Exodus with a pillar of fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22), and the appearance in fire on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18). All are central moments in Israel’s faith story and all are marked by fire. This pattern continues in the New Testament as well. Christ’s appearance in the vision of John in Revelation is with ‘eyes of fire’ (Revelation 1:14; 2:18), and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost is accompanied by ‘tongues of fire’ (Acts 2:3). Luke is describing in Acts 2 how once again God is appearing and blessing the people and marking a special event in the journey and development of faith with fire.
Why would God choose tongues of fire? Perhaps because fire does so many things: Fire warms what is cold. To the church in Laodecia in Revelation 3:15-16, the Risen Christ is trying to fire up the church’s faith and passion by saying, “I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Fire illumines what is dark. One candle can dispel great darkness. God led the people during the Exodus with the pillar of fire by night. Jesus is the light of the world that the darkness cannot snuff out. The fire of God is now on the followers of Jesus to be God’s light.
Fire purifies what is impure. Think of Isaiah 6:6-8 and the prophet’s experience of seeing the Lord high and lifted up. “Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” Just like with the prophet Isaiah, God is using fire to purify people for service to others.
Fire burns, consumes, and destroys. In the Bible fire is frequently a symbol of destruction associated with the wrath of God.
A chief quality of fire is its power to set something else afire. On Pentecost that something else is the believers who are set on fire for Jesus.
Fire releases energy and power in what it touches. We have a gas grill. If I just turned on the gas & put fish or burgers on – I wouldn’t benefit at all. It is when the gas is lit with a match that energy is released and focused for a purpose.
The fire of the Spirit is a force for unity – all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not an impersonal force; it is the life giving presence of the risen Christ. The Holy Spirit is given as a gift by God to fill every believer so that our body becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. Worship is no longer about a fire burning on an altar in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is about a spiritual fire that burns within the life of everyone who is following and devoted to Jesus. The Holy Spirit teaches us and reminds us what Jesus taught. The Spirit gives us power to witness to what God has done in Christ and power for living the Christian life.
Reading or listening to Acts 2 it’s interesting to note the unity that runs throughout the day of Pentecost. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place (2:1). A tongue of fire rested on each of them (2:3).
All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages about God’s deeds of power (2:4).
There were devout Jews from every nation in Jerusalem (2:5).
All were amazed and perplexed (2:12).
God pours out the Spirit upon all flesh (2:17).
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved (2:21).
Luke says All of them began to speak in other languages about God’s deeds of power. At Pentecost the diversity of languages in which people heard the wonders of God declared was a unifying, not a dividing factor, because everyone could hear in their own language about the wonders God had done. No one was left alone wondering, “What were they saying? I didn’t understand.” The word “together” appears at least five times in the first two chapters in Acts (1:14, 2:1, 2:44, and twice in 2:46) underscoring that a genuine work of the Holy Spirit brings people together in acts of reconciliation, worship, love, hospitality and affirmation of Jesus as Lord. When we’re full of the Spirit, we will have a great passion for sharing with others what God has done in Christ in language, terms, and means they can readily understand.
When we were in Israel we heard multiple languages almost everywhere we went. We could be sitting or walking somewhere and a person would be speaking a language we couldn’t understand, then through their remarkable powers of observation they would somehow determine we were Americans and immediately begin speaking in English and we could understand. Every time that happens it is similar to Pentecost. In a moment someone switched from unintelligible speech to my own native language and as soon as they did communication begins to be established.
We don’t know exactly how Pentecost happened, what we do know is that the whole world still seems intent on breaking up along linguistic, ethnic, tribal, clan, class, religious, or political lines…nothing is easier. What is difficult is for people to come together into caring community regardless of their differences. Yet this is what God is seeking to do through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Coming together in caring community is so difficult because it is easy for us to focus on ourselves and what we want. Sometimes we don’t hear what someone is saying directly to us because we’re thinking about what we’re going to say next. I saw a commercial this week for a dessert product in which a husband successfully looked at his wife and listened for five seconds and bells went off, cheerleaders celebrated and he got an ice cream bar like one of Pavlov’s dogs. That’s a little extreme. The promise of Pentecost is fresh ears and a new tongue to listen and speak so that communication and community are built and strengthened. That happens as we allow the Holy Spirit to purify our hearts and motives and illuminate our minds and our understanding.
Acts 2 says there devout Jews from every nation in Jerusalem. All were amazed and perplexed at what they were experiencing. Peter had been too frightened on the night of Jesus’ arrest to tell a slave girl that he was with the Lord. However, on Pentecost, filled with the Spirit, he courageously stands up in front of a large crowd in Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified and proclaims to all that God is fulfilling the promise made to the prophet Joel. God is pouring out the Spirit on all people without distinction – sons and daughters, young and old, slave and free, male and female. God is breaking down the barriers that inhibit community and unity and revealing the oneness of all God’s people.
The Pentecost story ends with the invitation that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Not just a few chosen individuals. Everyone who calls on the Lord. Everyone has the opportunity to repent and be baptized so that our sins may be forgiven and we too will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit unifies the church and gives the church its fire and power. Pentecost is about equipping the church to carry out its mission. On the morning of Pentecost there had only been 120 women and men gathered in a room, 3,000 were added to their number that day. We are Spirit-filled, Spirit-led people. As one person (Leslie Newbigin) noted, “The resurrection of Jesus Christ means new life for Jesus and his disciples. This life is life in the power of the Spirit.”
A Prayer for Pentecost by Joyce Rupp, from Out of the Ordinary
Spirit! Power and Passion of my being, press upon my heart your profound love.
Move through the fragments of my days; enable me to sense your fiery Presence
consecrating my most insignificant moments.
Spirit! Source of Vision, Perceptive Guide, permeate the moments of my choices
when falsehood and truth both call to me.
Turn me toward the way of goodness, so that I will always lean toward your love. Spirit! Blessing for the heart grown weary, encircle me with your loving energy, empower me with your active gentleness. Deepen within me a faith in your dynamism which strengthens the weak and the tired.
Spirit! Breath of Life, Touch of Mystery, you are the ribbon of inner connection,
uniting me with the groaning of all creation.
Because of you, my life gathers into a oneness.
Keep me attentive to this interdependence.
Fill my being with constant compassion and a deep hope that knows no bounds.
Spirit! Dwelling Place, Sanctuary of Silence,
you are the home for which I deeply yearn.
You are the resting place for which I long.
I find both comfort and challenge in you.
Grant that I may keep my whole self open
to the transforming power of your indwelling,
that I may ever know the blessings of your tremendous companionship.
Blessing:
As the prophet Joel anticipated the age of the Spirit,
So may we have a great vision for the future.
As the Apostle Peter spoke with bold effectiveness,
So may we be able to articulate our faith.
As the early believers were baptized with the Spirit,
So may we be empowered by God’s presence within us.
As the Spirit gave gifts to the church of the first century,
So may that same Spirit give gifts to the church in the twenty-first century.
As the Spirit produced the fruits of joy and peace in the early church,
So may the fruit of the Spirit be evident in us today and always.