by Bryony Wood
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?’
Acts 2 1-8
‘We were all waiting in the temple – waiting for what we weren’t so sure. But Jesus had told us to stay in Jerusalem, to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit. So wait we did. All of us. Disciples and his closest family, we waited in that rented room in the temple precinct. Until early in the morning of the fiftieth day when we watched from our room the other Jews – thousands of them – all bringing their loaves of bread to the temple to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, also called the Feast of the Harvest. It was the time to celebrate God’s goodness and provision in the wheat harvest. A time also to remember when God gave Moses the Holy Law at Mount Sinai, a very special time to celebrate being Jewish.
But as we stayed and prayed, waiting...from somewhere came a wind. Not the spring wind from the hills, but a holy wind that swirled around the room with supernatural power. We held onto our cloaks for this wind was strong; I remember Peter shouting above the noise, to look outside. The wind was blowing outside now, around the whole temple, catching people off balance, causing them to hang onto each other and look up at the sky for explanation. But we knew the wind was not from the sky – it was the power of God, for in the middle of the wind we saw what looked like tongues of fire resting on each one of us.
Suddenly it all made sense – this was what Jesus had promised; the power Jesus had talked about was here. This was the power we had seen living in him, the power that raised him from the dead and took him up to heaven. Now it had come down from heaven filling each one of us. Jesus’ own power was upon us and living inside each of us.
With immeasurable joy we ran out into the temple courtyard – this was a power to be shared! In our exhilaration we laughed and spoke of this gift from God almighty. And as we spoke, people turned and listened. They stood open-mouthed and amazed, for although they were pilgrims from many lands they all appeared to understand us. We didn’t understand it ourselves, but what was coming out of our mouths were the languages of many countries; languages we had never learnt or even heard. Divine power to speak the languages of those who were listening, given by God for this purpose. Now there were no barriers to understanding the Gospel that day; all could understand it as one united people. With this power now living inside of us, we could go out and tell the whole world about the glorious good news of our Lord Jesus Christ!’
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