Pentecost Sunday
Faithful Jews would gather from all over the known world to give offerings at the Temple. They would would repent of their sins of the previous year, and recommit to the covenant made with their ancestors at Mt. Sinai. Jerusalem would have been filled with people from all over, since the Temple was the only place you were allowed to make sacrifices.
As they retold the story of the covenant, they passed along a tradition, which we can read in writers like the historian Josephus and the philosopher Philo who spoke about strong winds and a kind of mysterious fire. Later Jewish sources even imagined God’s word going out in many languages. All of that helps us hear Acts 2 as the original Jewish hearers would have heard it.
We read in Acts that, “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.” John the Baptist had told them that Jesus would baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire, and now those words have come true.
In the context of this festival, we can see that this experience is mirroring the giving of the Law and the establishment of the Covenant at Mount Sinai. In Acts we see the establishment of a New Covenant, and it is being done in such a way that it reflects the covenant made with Moses and the Hebrews. There is a continuity with what we read in the Old Testament, as if to say this is the kind of thing God has been doing all along.
This New Covenant was foretold primarily by the prophets Jeremiah (ch 31) and Ezekiel (ch 36). The chastisement and discipline of Judah are described, but this is followed by a promise of redemption and re-gathering of the tribes of Israel, who had been lost and integrated into the nations. There is a promise of a regathering from all the nations. The blood of the first Passover and the blood of the covenant at Sinai was considered the blood of the birth of Israel (Ez 16:4-7). This New Covenant is the re-birth of Israel. God promises that He will work inside of the people’s hearts, placing His Spirit within them, placing his Law within them (Ez 36:27; Jer 31:33), and he also promises that He will forgive their sin.
The previous covenant managed sin so that human beings and God could be in relationship through the Tabernacle and the Temple. It required offering for sin and a yearly cleansing of the sanctuary with blood at Yom Kippur, but now the blood of Christ has cleansed the human heart which makes it ready to receive the Spirit of God.
In Numbers we read about God sharing the Spirit that had rested on Moses, and Moses not being jealous that others were filled with God’s Spirit, but instead declaring how he desired that “all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” The prophet Joel seems to be thinking about Moses’ words as he records God’s promise: “I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” The Spirit that empowered Jesus in his ministry is now filling his disciples, making them into the Body of Christ as they share his Spirit.
But the Spirit of God isn’t given to put on a show and amaze onlookers. The Spirit has a mission, and that is to draw all people into a loving relationship with God, and into a community of love. God’s Spirit is at work undoing the consequences of the Fall that have divided people from each other and from God.
We read about the disciples speaking in a way that everyone can understand them—language was no longer a barrier. The Tower of Babel story was being overturned, where everyone was divided by not being able to understand each other. The scattered have gathered, and God’s mighty works are being declared in a way people can hear.
Another interesting aspect of this new Pentecost is that the Spirit fills all the disciples. In the Old Testament the Spirit often seems to fill particular people for particular tasks. Here the Spirit is being poured out broadly, just as Joel promised. The Spirit speaks through ordinary people. God’s message did not come through the High Priest or the king. It was an experience shared by men and women, old and young, servants and free. As Paul says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
It’s maybe worth saying that this kind of experience of miraculously speaking in different languages is not something that has to happen to every Christian who has the Holy Spirit. This moment in Acts is the start of something new that God is doing. It is like the giving of the Covenant with Moses. God didn’t give every generation of Hebrews the experience of receiving the Covenant at Mt. Sinai. Similarly, the Age of the Church has now begun. That experience declared the beginning of a New Covenant, and doesn’t necessarily have to be an experience that is repeated for every generation.
The evidence of the Spirit’s work within us is not necessarily in miraculously speaking a language we have never studied. Paul tells us that the evidence of the Spirit’s work within us is expressed through the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are what you need to live in a healthy community. That kind of character is required to overcome the barriers that stand between us, and I think that says something about the mission of the Spirit.
This is work the Spirit is still interested in. In your life, the Spirit wants to destroy any barrier that stands between you and God. The Spirit wants to destroy the barrier that stands between you and your fellow Christian. And the Spirit also wants to remove the barrier that stands between us and those who do not know Christ. That same Spirit who was in Peter and the disciples on Pentecost is in you. The Spirit’s mission is the same—to draw people into a loving relationship with God and into the loving fellowship of God’s people. [transition?]
There are some who see this as the actual end of the exile- both the Assyrian exile (of the northern tribes), and the Babylonian exile.[1] The exile seemed to have ended when the Jews returned to the land and rebuilt the Temple, … but the Ark of the Covenant that was meant to be housed in the Holy of Holies was gone, and the cloud of God’s glory never returned like when King Solomon build the first Temple. So, some believed that the presence of God hadn’t returned to the Temple and they were still in a kind of exile. … Now, on this Pentecost, Israel has gathered from all over the known world. The scattered people have gathered together, and God has made Himself known and started something new.
We will see this experience of miraculously speaking in other languages once more with the Gentiles, which shows the disciples that this new era is not just for the Jewish people, but is meant to draw the nations (all people) into Christ (Acts 10:46). … Jesus is declared to be the Messiah, but not just for Israel. He is the Messiah for all the nations and those who have gathered will bring this news with them to whatever nations they live in.
At Pentecost a new covenant was given. It was a declaration that God’s mission would now expand beyond what he was doing with Israel to include the rest of the nations. God’s desire is for humanity to be united under the loving Lordship of Christ, worshipping one Father, and made one body through sharing in the one Spirit. At Pentecost the world became less divided. God’s will is for us to be one, healed, and at peace. That is the desire and work of the Spirit—to bring wholeness where there is division. AMEN
[1]
Michael Heiser.
Stephen de Young, https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/wholecounsel/2019/02/11/pentecost-birthday-of-the-church/
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