"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." (Acts 2:1-2)
The central theme of the book of Acts is the forward thrust of God’s activity in history. Here, in a depth and detail more profound than any other book in the New Testament, Luke offers a historical interpretation of our life with God. It is here that we see God’s aim of forming an all-inclusive community of loving persons with God himself at its very center.
While the twelve disciples had been apprentices of Jesus for some years, learning from the master Teacher how to live in the kingdom of God, they simply were not prepared for Jesus’ death. It is predictable, then, that the confusion surrounding his crucifixion and the exhilaration surrounding his subsequent resurrection elicits a broad range of contrasting emotions. After days of being on such an emotional roller coaster and their seeing Jesus ascend into heaven, an angel instructs them to stay in Jerusalem until they are “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Finally, God had found a people that when he said “wait” would wait.
The Twelve gather in an upstairs room with other disciples to wait on God. As they gather, the Spirit of God descends like the mighty down draft of a thunderstorm (Acts 2). And suddenly and unexpectedly this rag-tag bunch of first disciples are galvanized into an unstoppable force that will change the world.
For centuries God had been present with individuals like Abraham and Sarah; with the twelve tribes as they left Egypt; with the People of God as they occupied Canaan; with the nation of Israel in its glory, exile, and restoration; but this was different, utterly different. The disciples hear the Holy Spirit’s presence in the roaring wind and see tongues with the appearance of fire resting on the heads of those gathered. Each person receives from the Spirit the knowledge and power that connects the enduring memories of God's action in history with Jesus of Nazareth. Now, for the first time, the life and teachings of Jesus make sense. This man, this teacher whom they had followed for these many, long, trying months was--is--the long-promised Messiah, the Anointed One of God!
The transformation of the disciples’ mood is as dramatic as it is sudden. God himself is inhabiting and living in them, giving them power to proclaim fearlessly the message of Jesus’ resurrection to everyone they meet. Astonished masses hear and understand the gospel of the kingdom in their own tongue. The confusion reigning on earth since the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11) is reversed as God's spirit brings order and understanding.
 
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E-newsletter Archive
May/June 2005
