Filled with the Holy Spirit | Acts 2:1-21 | Pentecost A

This text tells us about the Day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling Jesus’ promise. The Holy Spirit filled all the believers gathered in the house and enabled them to speak in tongues. God gave them the ability to talk to people from all over the world who had traveled to Jerusalem for the festival.

Focus Verse

All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.
Acts 2:4 (NRSV)

Commentary

Accordingly, the followers of Jesus, all 120 of them, were gathered in one place, possibly the precincts of the Temple where they spent every day (Luke 24:53), probably praising God for his mighty works in Jesus and praying for the outpouring of the Spirit that Jesus had promised. The stage is set. It’s the calm before the storm.

Suddenly, the storm breaks as “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Accompanying the wind was fire, or “what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” God wanted this initial coming of the Spirit to be memorable for future generations, so he made it a major public event, rather than private mystical experience.

But the wind and fire were merely accompanying signs. The central event of Pentecost was the fact that “all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit,” all 120 of them (or just the 12?). From Peter’s subsequent sermon, I take it to mean all 120. All of those early Christians received the fullness of the Spirit, for one major purpose—so that they could prophesy and be witnesses for Jesus to the ends of the earth.

Stan Mast

Hymn

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity. 

Words by Edwin Hatch