Introduction
When was the Church born? Eduardo, one of the leaders of Église Connexion in Paris, opens his message on Acts 2:1-21 with this question. The church has just celebrated its twelfth anniversary, but when did it really begin: at the first service, on the day the church plant was decided, or when the legal association was created?
We can ask the same question about the whole Christian Church. Did it begin when Jesus chose his apostles, at his death, at his resurrection? Or on the day of Pentecost? Eduardo would choose the latter, while accepting that others may choose differently. Because this episode "says quite a lot about what the Church is and how it is established."
The message follows three questions: why were the disciples there? What happened? And, like the crowd in verse 12: "What does this mean?"
Outline of the Message
1. Two Birthdays
- Eduardo's grandfather had two birthdays. His father had been slow to register the birth, and the clerk had written down the day of the declaration rather than the day of the birth.
- Some events likewise have several possible starting dates, like a civil wedding and a religious wedding. Each has a meaning and sheds light on what the event is.
- For the Christian Church, Eduardo holds on to Pentecost: the text shows how the Church is born and what it is.
2. Why Were They There?
- The episode takes place about fifty days after the death and resurrection of Jesus. For forty days, Jesus appeared to his disciples, and then he went up to heaven.
- Before his ascension, he asked them to stay in Jerusalem until they received power from on high: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me" (Acts 1:8, WEB). This power is tied to their role as witnesses.
- About 120 people, men and women, young and not so young, have been waiting for ten days in a large house, "a room like this one," in prayer.
- Outside, the city is packed. Pentecost, Shavuot in Hebrew, is one of the feasts when devout Jews go up to Jerusalem. Eduardo compares the atmosphere to the Olympic Games in Paris: people of every nationality, music, crowded streets.
- It is a harvest festival, the feast of the first wheat crops. On that day, the Church is about to bear its first fruit.
3. What Happened?
- First a sound, and not just any sound: that of a violent wind. In Hebrew (ruach) as in Greek (pneuma), the same word can mean "wind" or "spirit."
- Then tongues like fire. The word refers to the shape of the flames, but also to spoken languages. John Chrysostom points out that these tongues share one root, then separate to rest on each person present.
- "If it had stopped there, it would already have been impressive." But they are all filled with the Holy Spirit. Not just a few drops: Eduardo pictures a bottle emptied to the very last drop, "glug glug glug."
- The Holy Spirit is not an energy or a mysterious force. The Bible presents him as God himself: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God. The Spirit is "God here present and at work."
- In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon a few people, for a time and a mission: a prophet, a judge, a king. But the prophets announced the day when God would put his Spirit inside all of his people: "I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you... I will put my Spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:26-27, WEB).
4. Languages You Don't Learn
- Eduardo imagines a group of Elamite pilgrims stopping short: "Wait, I hear people speaking my mother tongue. Nobody told me there was a meeting of Elamites here!" Then the same thing happens to Arabs, Egyptians, Romans, Cretans.
- Those speaking are Galileans, uneducated provincials. And they speak a dozen languages that nobody was learning. Today, people learn English, Spanish or Mandarin, not a dialect from southern China or an indigenous language of Peru. Back then, people learned Latin, Greek or Aramaic, not the language of Phrygia or Cappadocia.
- They proclaim "the mighty works of God" (verse 11, WEB): the fulfillment of the prophecies, the establishment of the kingdom, salvation and forgiveness of sins through the sacrifice of Jesus, the risen Jesus established as Messiah and king.
- The crowd is astonished and does not know what to think. Some mock: "They are filled with new wine" (Acts 2:13, WEB). "There is always a way to find a cynical answer to a situation you don't understand." Others ask the real question: what does this mean?
5. What Does This Mean? Peter Answers with Joel
- Peter first dismisses the accusation: it is nine o'clock in the morning. "120 people drunk together at 9 in the morning, that's rather hard to believe."
- Then he answers: "But this is what has been spoken through the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:16, WEB). He could have spoken only of the promise Jesus made ten days earlier. He acknowledges that this promise goes back several centuries and goes beyond the 120 disciples.
- "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17, WEB), that is, on every human being. This miracle is not a show of force, God is not showing off that he is "very good at Duolingo." It means that the Spirit is not reserved for a small group of Galileans.
- These Jews came from enemy regions: some from the Roman Empire, others from the Parthian Empire. God pours out his Spirit on people who have nothing to do with one another.
- "Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams" (Acts 2:17, WEB): a literary way of saying that everyone is included. Nobody can say of another person: "That one will never be able to receive the Holy Spirit."
- In the Bible, the prophet is not a fortune-teller, "a kind of Nostradamus." He is a messenger filled with the Spirit to announce what God wants. The disciples who proclaim the mighty works of God are prophesying, and so is Peter. They have received the promised power: they are equipped to be witnesses, and they are.
- "In the last days": the phrase is not in Joel's text, Peter adds it. The last days are the time between the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Spirit on one side, and the renewal of all things and the judgment on the other. A time when "whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Acts 2:21, WEB).
- For Peter, this name is Jesus. It is Jesus who pours out the Spirit on his servants, both men and women (Acts 2:33-36, the text of the next message).
6. What Pentecost Means for Us
- This passage is the beginning of the story we are part of. The book of Acts has no real ending, "and that's as it should be." What began at Pentecost is not finished: the Church gathered today is the fulfillment of the prophecies.
- "The sacred language of Christianity is your mother tongue," because God sanctified it by having the mighty works of God prophesied in your language. Eduardo also sees here the fulfillment of other prophecies, such as those of Micah about God's people present among the nations.
- Augustine, at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries, said it: at Pentecost, the Spirit made Galileans speak every language; today, the Church, made up of people from every nation, speaks every language.
- No culture, no background, no gender, no age, no past experience, no physical or psychological condition excludes anyone from the possibility of receiving the Spirit. "You cannot say that about someone. You cannot say that about yourself."
- Faced with so many differences, we can be tempted to look for a church of people like us. That is human, sometimes even wise (you do need to understand the language in which you sing and preach). But it is sometimes "a short-sightedness that fails to see the richness of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit."
- That week, the Pope's visit to France was prompting many comments about a return of religion among young people. Eduardo invites us not to look for cynical answers, but to read what we see in the light of the work of the Spirit poured out by Jesus.
- Pentecost seems more impressive than our daily life. "But today we bear the same witness and we are still the fulfillment of the same promises." The next question, "what shall we do?", will be the subject of the next message.
Key Takeaways
- The Holy Spirit is not a mysterious force: he is God himself, present and at work, poured out abundantly on his disciples.
- Pentecost fulfills Joel's promise: the Spirit is given to every human being, regardless of language, culture, age or gender.
- The Spirit equips the Church to be a witness and to proclaim the mighty works of God, as Jesus promised in Acts 1:8.
- We are living in the last days, the time when whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus is saved.
- What began at Pentecost continues: today's Church, in all its diversity, is its fulfillment.
Personal Application
- Is there someone you deep down think will never become a Christian? And do you sometimes think that about yourself?
- Are you looking for a church of people like you, or can you see the richness of brothers and sisters very different from you?
- How do you see the Holy Spirit: an energy to tap into, or God himself equipping you to bear witness?
- Faced with what God is doing around you, is your reflex the cynical answer or the question "what does this mean?"
- Who can you tell about the mighty works of God this week, in your own language and with your own words?
Verses Cited
Frequently Asked Questions
What happened on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2?
About fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, some 120 disciples gathered in Jerusalem hear a sound like a violent wind. Tongues like fire rest on each of them, they are filled with the Holy Spirit and begin to proclaim the mighty works of God in the mother tongues of the pilgrims who have come from every nation for the feast.
Why does Peter quote the prophet Joel at Pentecost?
To the crowd asking "What does this mean?", Peter answers that this is what Joel had announced: God pours out his Spirit on every human being. The promise is not ten days old but several centuries old, and it is not limited to a small group of Galileans: men, women, young and old, of every language and culture, are included.
What does Pentecost mean for the Church today?
For Eduardo, what began at Pentecost is not finished: the Church gathered today is the fulfillment of the same promises. No culture, no age, no past excludes anyone from the possibility of receiving the Spirit, because whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. The sacred language of Christianity is your mother tongue.
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