Pentecost – a reversal of the facts!

At Pen­te­cost, things were tur­ned upsi­de down with the recep­ti­on of the Holy Spi­rit. The Holy Spi­rit is the com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent, incom­pre­hen­si­ble one, and yet he appears to us humans in a per­cep­ti­ble and audi­ble way. The Holy Spi­rit – God in us. Through the power of the Holy Spi­rit, the events of Babel are rever­sed. Peo­p­le from dif­fe­rent count­ries under­stand each other again. With Pen­te­cost, the Chris­ti­an Church comes into being. It has its day of birth in this event and the Holy Spi­rit still wants to work in it today.

My wife and I are expec­ting our first child. Short­ly after my wife beca­me pregnant, she went to the gynae­co­lo­gist. She did some exami­na­ti­ons the­re and, among other things, she cal­cu­la­ted the date of birth. She told us 16 June 2022, which is less than 14 days from today. At that time I thought that this date was fixed. I have sin­ce lear­ned that this date is only a rough cal­cu­la­ti­on. Any­thing bet­ween three weeks befo­re the due date and two weeks after the due date is per­fect­ly fine and is not­hing to worry about. This gives us a due date bet­ween 26 May and 30 June 2022, which is a very long time. Alt­hough our child still has four weeks to come into the world, we are both very ten­se at the moment and hope that my wife will go into labour as soon as pos­si­ble and we can hold our son in our arms.

I think the disci­ples of Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago had a simi­lar expe­ri­ence as me and my wife. They were clo­se to Jesus for three years and expe­ri­en­ced a lot. But after the­se three years, Jesus Christ was exe­cu­ted like a fel­on. But he rose again from the dead after three days. After that, he lived ano­ther 40 days on this earth befo­re he went back to hea­ven. But befo­re Jesus left this earth, he made an announce­ment to his disci­ples: «And now I will send you the Holy Spi­rit, as my Father pro­mi­sed. But you remain here in the city until the Holy Spi­rit comes and fills you with power from hea­ven». (Luke 24:49 NLB). Jesus pro­mi­sed his disci­ples the Holy Spi­rit who would stay with them and help them to stand firm in their faith. He did say that this Holy Spi­rit would come, but not when. Howe­ver, the disci­ples knew that they should wait in Jeru­sa­lem until that time. I think that the disci­ples were like me and my wife. They know that some­thing is coming, but they don’t know when. They also don’t know what will hap­pen to them and how their lives might change.

The disci­ples spent a lot of time tog­e­ther after Jesus» ascen­si­on. They came tog­e­ther regu­lar­ly for pray­er. They were around 120 peo­p­le. And then what we call Pen­te­cost today hap­pen­ed. «On the day of Pen­te­cost, ever­yo­ne was gathe­red. Sud­den­ly a roar sound­ed from the sky like the roar of a migh­ty storm and fil­led the house whe­re they were gathe­red. Then some­thing appeared that loo­ked like fla­mes that split, like ton­gues of fire that sett­led on each one of them. And all tho­se pre­sent were fil­led with the Holy Spi­rit and began to speak in other lan­guages as the Holy Spi­rit inspi­red them. At that time, God-fea­ring Jews from many dif­fe­rent count­ries lived in Jeru­sa­lem. When they heard the roar, they ran. Each of them heard the peo­p­le spea­king in his or her own lan­guage. They cried out in ama­ze­ment: «How can this be? The­se peo­p­le are all from Gali­lee, and yet we hear them spea­king in the lan­guages of the lands whe­re we were born! The­re we stand – Par­t­hi­ans, Medes, Ela­mi­tes, peo­p­le from Meso­po­ta­mia, Judea, Cap­pa­do­cia, Pon­tus, the pro­vin­ce of Asia, Phry­gia, Pam­phy­lia, Egypt and the ter­ri­to­ries of Libya from the regi­on of Cyre­ne, visi­tors from Rome, Jews as well as con­verts to Juda­ism, Cre­tans and Arabs – and we all hear the­se peo­p­le spea­king in our own lan­guages about the deeds of God.» Asto­nis­hed and con­fu­sed, they stood the­re. «What might this mean?» they asked one ano­ther. But some also scof­fed: «They’­re just drunk, that’s all».» (Acts 2:1–13 NLB).

Babel is overcome

In the Bible, quite ear­ly on, an ambi­tious buil­ding pro­ject is writ­ten about (Gene­sis 11:1–9). This event is also cal­led the Tower of Babel. The peo­p­le who lived at that time got tog­e­ther. They all spo­ke the same lan­guage. They wan­ted to build a high tower on a plain. This tower would enable them to reach God in hea­ven. Their goal was to build a land­mark in the plain. This would pre­vent them from scat­te­ring all over the earth. They gave ever­y­thing for their buil­ding pro­ject. They bur­ned bricks and work­ed hard. But God in hea­ven saw what they were doing. He saw how the peo­p­le wan­ted to be like God. So he punis­hed them in a spe­cial way. From one moment to the next, God made all the peo­p­le speak dif­fe­rent lan­guages. Sin­ce they no lon­ger unders­tood each other, they had to give up their ambi­tious buil­ding pro­ject and they scat­te­red all over the earth. Always the peo­p­le tog­e­ther who spo­ke the same lan­guage. The peo­p­le wan­ted to stay tog­e­ther, but in the end just the oppo­si­te hap­pen­ed – they were scat­te­red all over the earth.

On the day of Pen­te­cost, which is descri­bed in the Acts of the Apost­les, peo­p­le from all over the world were pre­sent. The­se were all Jews and were con­side­red very God-fea­ring. They were in the city becau­se they wan­ted to take part in the fes­ti­val of Shavuot, which took place on that day. They came from dif­fe­rent count­ries. The­r­e­fo­re, they also spo­ke dif­fe­rent lan­guages and dialects. When the­se peo­p­le heard the noi­se cau­sed by the Holy Spi­rit, they came to the disci­ples. The­re they wit­nessed a spe­cial event. Alt­hough the disci­ples were simp­le peo­p­le, wit­hout much know­ledge of for­eign lan­guages, each of tho­se pre­sent heard the mes­sa­ge in their own mother ton­gue. The Holy Spi­rit rever­sed the event of Babel that day.

The peo­p­le ori­gi­nal­ly plan­ned to build a high tower to keep the peo­p­le tog­e­ther. But the plan fai­led. God sent the Holy Spi­rit and through this the dif­fe­rent nati­ons and eth­nic groups were united again. But the who­le thing was not done by human power, but by divi­ne power.

Origin of the church

Some­thing new came into being at Pen­te­cost. Jesus» disci­ples were still part of the Jewish com­mu­ni­ty up to that point. But the Holy Spi­rit marks a new begin­ning. He marks the birth of the Chris­ti­an Church. In this con­text, we also always speak of the coven­ant. God made a coven­ant with the peo­p­le of Isra­el. The coven­ant bet­ween God and the peo­p­le of Isra­el began at Mount Sinai. The­re God made a coven­ant with his peo­p­le. Every coven­ant also includes agree­ments to which both coven­ant part­ners must adhe­re. For exam­p­le, God gave the peo­p­le of Isra­el the Ten Com­mandments. Every year, the peo­p­le remem­be­red this kee­ping of the law, name­ly on Shavuot. The very day on which the Holy Spi­rit now came upon the disci­ples. Just as the law of the Old Coven­ant indi­ca­ted how one should live one’s life, so now the Holy Spi­rit, who dwells in every fol­lower of Jesus Christ hims­elf, does so.

Through Pen­te­cost, the breadth of the Chris­ti­an mes­sa­ge reso­na­tes. Until now, the cho­sen peo­p­le were limi­t­ed to the Jews and a few who had con­ver­ted to Juda­ism. But with the Holy Spi­rit, it beco­mes clear that the­re are no lon­ger lin­gu­i­stic and thus eth­nic boun­da­ries. The peo­p­le of Isra­el go back to their pro­ge­ni­tor Abra­ham. A pro­mi­se was made to him, which fli­ckers out here. It was made to him short­ly after the tra­ge­dy of Babel had occur­red and it read as fol­lows: «All the peo­p­les of the earth will be bles­sed through you». (Gene­sis 11:3b NLB).

The life of this first church is descri­bed as fol­lows: «They con­stant­ly par­ti­ci­pa­ted in the apost­les» tea­ching, fel­low­ship, meals and pray­ers. A deep rever­ence grip­ped ever­yo­ne and the apost­les per­for­med many signs and won­ders. All the belie­vers came tog­e­ther regu­lar­ly and shared ever­y­thing they had. They sold their pos­ses­si­ons and shared the pro­ceeds with all who were in need. Tog­e­ther they pray­ed to God dai­ly in the temp­le, met to cele­bra­te meals in the hou­ses and took meals tog­e­ther, which were joyful and gene­rous­ly shared. They never stop­ped prai­sing God and were respec­ted by the peo­p­le. And every day the Lord added new peo­p­le who were saved». (Acts 2:42–47 NLB). This descrip­ti­on can­not be trans­fer­red 1:1 to the con­gre­ga­tio­nal life of the see­tal chi­le. But it shows us what the Holy Spi­rit can do for tho­se who attend the ser­vice. It cle­ar­ly shows that whe­re fol­lo­wers of Jesus come tog­e­ther, things hap­pen. Life as a fol­lower of Jesus does not hap­pen alo­ne, but it needs the other per­son. Thus the church is also par­ti­cu­lar­ly visi­ble in two things, and the­se two things can­not be accom­plished alo­ne. The­se are bap­tism and the Lord’s Sup­per. Neither can be done alo­ne, but need at least one other per­son. In the Lord’s Sup­per it beco­mes par­ti­cu­lar­ly clear that a fol­lower of Jesus is inte­gra­ted into the com­mu­ni­ty. In com­mu­ni­on with God the Father and with his neighbour.

The Holy Spirit – God in me

But the Holy Spi­rit did not come only to res­to­re the con­di­ti­ons of Babel. Nor did he come only to bring the Church into being. Rather, He also came to dwell in each and every fol­lower of Jesus Christ.

In the Church, we often speak of God the Father and Jesus Christ. The­se two are usual­ly still somehow com­pre­hen­si­ble, but it is more dif­fi­cult with the Holy Spi­rit. On the one hand, he shows hims­elf to be quite dif­fe­rent, but on the other hand, he is the same. The Holy Spi­rit appears in two ways at Pen­te­cost. He appears in a storm, audi­ble to all ears, and second­ly as ton­gues of fire, visi­ble to all pre­sent. Storm and fla­mes are not new mani­fes­ta­ti­ons of God, but also cor­re­spond to God the Father as he met his peo­p­le in the Old Tes­ta­ment. «Our God is coming and he will not be silent. Fire con­su­mes what stands in his way, and a migh­ty storm rages around him». (Psalm 50:3 NLB). Thus the Holy Spi­rit is in the con­ti­nui­ty of the other mani­fes­ta­ti­ons of God. What is new, howe­ver, is the num­ber of peo­p­le who are per­so­nal­ly touch­ed by God. It can be assu­med that the­re were about 120 peo­p­le at the Pen­te­cost event (Acts 1:15).

The fact that the Holy Spi­rit can­not real­ly be gras­ped is also indi­ca­ted by the Greek word for him. In anci­ent Greek, the Holy Spi­rit is descri­bed as «pneu­ma», which means wind, breath, spi­rit. This descrip­ti­on as wind descri­bes it very well. The wind is invi­si­ble, incom­pre­hen­si­ble and yet very powerful. This can be seen very well in a sai­ling ship. The wind shows its­elf in the full sails, but other­wi­se it is dif­fi­cult to grasp. Only whe­re the Holy Spi­rit appears and shows hims­elf in people’s lives does he beco­me tan­gi­ble and show his power.

The Pen­te­cost mira­cle is unders­tood to be the event of Jesus» fol­lo­wers spea­king in dif­fe­rent lan­guages through the Holy Spi­rit. This event led peo­p­le to won­der how this could hap­pen. They were ama­zed that unedu­ca­ted peo­p­le were capa­ble of such a thing. Others tried to find an expl­ana­ti­on and found it in accu­sing the disci­ples of having drunk too much wine. This cle­ar­ly shows that whe­re the Holy Spi­rit is at work, not ever­yo­ne can place it. Through the Spi­rit of God, some­thing of the crea­ti­ve power of God Hims­elf comes from hea­ven to earth. God’s king­dom here on earth has begun through Jesus Christ and the earth is to be trans­for­med by the power of hea­ven. Yet the work of the Spi­rit is met with rejec­tion by others. Fried­rich Schil­ler said: «The world loves to bla­cken the radi­ant and pull the sub­li­me into the dust». (Fried­rich Schil­ler). Sin­ce God is not of this world, he often can­not be gras­ped and unders­tood by us in this world.

But we are also per­so­nal­ly addres­sed by this state­ment. How do I react when some­thing hap­pens that I can­not clas­si­fy with my mind? Do I quick­ly dis­miss it, or do I allow that I can­not explain ever­y­thing? Am I open to the work of the Holy Spi­rit? Jesus Christ pro­mi­sed us the Holy Spi­rit. Jesus hims­elf was cal­led Emma­nu­el – God with us. If Jesus was only with us, the Holy Spi­rit wants to dwell in us. This hap­pens when we con­scious­ly deci­de for Jesus Christ, then we recei­ve the Holy Spi­rit – God in us. But then the ques­ti­on ari­ses, may the Spi­rit of God also blow as He wills?

Possible questions for the small group 

Read the Bible text: Acts 2

1. Who is the Holy Spi­rit for you? How would you descri­be him?
2. What about Pen­te­cost rai­ses ques­ti­ons for you?
3. Do you under­stand the dif­fe­rence bet­ween the Old and the New Covenant?
4. What beha­viour from Acts 2:42–47 do you want to see more of for yours­elf per­so­nal­ly and the see­tal chile?
5. How do you expe­ri­ence the Holy Spi­rit in you?
6. In what area or in what way do you desi­re the work of the Holy Spi­rit more?