HealingStrong's Around the Word

Episode 76 - The Acts Series: Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13)

• HealingStrong • Episode 76

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We read Acts 2:1–13 and talk through Pentecost as a loud, disruptive, holy moment where the Holy Spirit comes with wind, fire, and supernatural speech. We explore what it means that people from many nations hear the mighty works of God in their own language, and how the Spirit still guides and intercedes when we do not know how to pray. 

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One Message Heard Many Ways

SPEAKER_01

Sitting in a service today, and and the speaker says something, and everybody in there can hear it a different way.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's a great example of it. Yes.

Welcome And Passage Setup

SPEAKER_01

So whatever that person needed to hear is what he was saying in that language. Probably. The Holy Spirit speaks to them. Right. And even between my husband and I, we could say, oh, I wasn't going to tell him what. And he's like, well, I'll remember that. But what about when he said this? And it'll be two different things. I'm like, that didn't, that just went over my head.

Pentecost Meaning And Timeline

SPEAKER_03

Hello, good listener. My name is Cheryl, and you are listening to Healing Strong's Around the Word. We are friends sitting around a table who love God's Word, and we love talking about it. Each episode, you'll hear us reading a Bible passage, and we will stop right then and there and start discussing what we're learning from that passage. Today's episode is Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 13. So go ahead and join us around the Word. This is when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost this passage. We're starting in chapter 2 of Acts, verses 1. Uh Maren, how about you do some reading for us? All right.

Wind And Fire At Pentecost

SPEAKER_04

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. So the Jews call it Shavot. Shavot is Pentecost. Pentecost means 50. Okay. And 49 days. The day after 49 days would be Pentecost. Yeah. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, so picture this. Back in the house now, what this is, we said 10 days after Jesus had, we're hitting 50 now, so 10 days after Jesus had left, ascended, so we're at the 50th day. They did what he said. He said to remain in Jerusalem, hang out there. They're all together, they're praying, right? And then boom, rushing wind. Yeah, rushing. Yeah, it's not a radio drama, but you know, literally, and I don't think this is like just like a little breeze, like you turn on the AC. I think it's a tornado. I think it's like blowing things around, craziness.

SPEAKER_04

It was like what happened on the mountain when they received the Torah scrolls. Did they have like a big wind? Yes. Mighty rushing wind.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my goodness. Uh loud booming voice from heaven. Oh wow. Where is that in? That is that in Exodus? Yeah, it would be in Exodus. Is that how Elisha went up as well? And a whirlwind? A whirlwind and the was it the the chariot, the chariot of fire? Or is that Elijah? Elisha and Elijah get so confusing. I think Elisha came second, yeah, because he wanted a double portion. Right. Right. So he wanted to be in. And he did. He got it. He got double the I think someone I'd heard it preach. He had gotten double the amount of time.

SPEAKER_04

He did because he got to see him go up.

SPEAKER_03

Even in death, one of his last ones took him over to the he doubled what um Elijah had done because he asked for it. He asked for it. Let that be a lesson to anyone. Right. You have because you have not because not. So just just ask. You know? Why not ask the one that has everything? You know? Why not petition the king? But anyway, big win, whirlwind. You're all sitting in your prayer meeting and think about like tornado like wind comes through the room. They probably uh who knows? They may have the doors open or shut. Who knows? Well, they it's not like they had glass. They know, right? I mean, they may I don't know Roman days. I mean, how they if they just pulled a curtain and that was it, they didn't have I know they had Roman glass, but I don't know that they had glass windows. No. So an average person. No, they didn't. So they're hanging up, uh hanging out a violent wind. Keep going.

Echoes Of Exodus And Elijah

SPEAKER_04

And then and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. That's a whole lot to unpack right there. So flames of fire. Flames of fire. And there was fire on that mountain, too. It was, I believe it was a real kind of reenactment of it. Like the disciples would have understood this was a big deal. Yeah. The they were given the word of God back there in Exodus, and now they're given the Holy Spirit. Right. This was big.

SPEAKER_03

I picture it like, did y'all ever see Raiders of the Lost Ark?

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03

You know, when they open the Ark and then this, like these things start coming over the people's heads suddenly before they get like completely melted. But I visually, every time I read that passage, just made me think of it, you know. It would be interesting to see what that really had looked like during that day. But can you imagine, Marion, if we're like praying, whirlwind of wind going on, flames of fire over our heads, and then you start speaking some other language, like Portuguese or name a language that you don't even know. Japanese or everything other than English. Anything other than because that's the only one I know. Yeah. Yeah, it could have been Latin language. Latin would not be a good one.

SPEAKER_04

You could be speaking code like but all but they were speaking languages from around the world, and all the people were gathered for Shavot who followed from around the world in their exile. They came to celebrate this.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, because we're gonna festival. We're gonna have a pat um a couple of verses about that in a in a minute.

SPEAKER_01

I just used my Google, Cheryl. Oh, your Google. There's 25 different references to a whirlwind in the scripture. Oh, okay. It was Elijah. It wasn't the whirlwind. But there's a whirlwind talked about in a bunch of books. Oh, I'm gonna. I'm gonna go study all of them. Does it have it in order? Uh wonder what the first was. Second Kings 2.1. And it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind. And then let's see, 2 Kings 2.11. And Elijah went up by whirlwind. Okay, that's the same event. Amos 1 14. But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. Daniel 1140. At the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him, and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind. Lots of whirlwind. And then Ezekiel, whirlwind, came out of the north. Okay. Habakkuk or Habakkuk, as some say. They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me. Hosea, Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Job, the voice of the Lord came to Job and the sound of a whirlwind.

SPEAKER_03

Who was the one where Naam, probably? Was it Elijah or Elisha that was wanting to hear from the Lord? And it was a whirlwind, and then voice, and then it was a still, small, small voice voice. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And even the fire thing, goodness, there's all kinds of fire in the Bible too. But wasn't it Abraham whenever the Lord put him to sleep? He was uh he had had some He cut the carcasses open. Yeah, but he had like a fire or something.

SPEAKER_01

A burning pot went through them, didn't we?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was a fire that went to weird. Yes. God was making a covenant with him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I guess when yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And when God makes a covenant, he does all the work. Right. He put you're right.

SPEAKER_03

He made Abraham sealed it upon himself. He made a promise. The other one does nothing. Right. Right. So that's the that's a cool thing too, is they are they are sitting, just being obedient. They did what they were told.

SPEAKER_04

They're gathered together in one community.

SPEAKER_03

And then they receive it. The Holy Spirit comes upon them. Yes. They just received. They didn't have to strive to make it happen. It just came on them, which was awesome.

Obedience Before The Outpouring

Many Nations Hear One Gospel

SPEAKER_04

Second verse 5. Yep. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, whoa. So if you're like from a random country, let's say you're from Eritrea, that's in Africa, uh, and you are happening to visit Jerusalem, and then you suddenly hear your language, which you wouldn't expect, you know, in Jerusalem. That's gotta be crazy, right?

SPEAKER_01

Well, and there were there had to be a lot more languages then, because people just lived in little villages, right, and there was no there was no internet, there was no uh communication between tribes and vast lands. So this little group of people spoke a language, this little group over here spoke a different one. There was probably lots and lots more languages than there are today, but yet each person understood their own from their own village.

SPEAKER_03

It's just we need to think about what they were actually hearing, like what was being said. Yeah, like what uh what was the Holy Spirit saying through them to God and on highest and lumbering, you know, like the angels are saying.

SPEAKER_01

You know, even sitting in a service today, you can be in in a service, you're supposed to be in one accord, and and the speaker says something, and everybody in there can hear it a different way.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, that's a great example of it. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

So whatever that person needed to hear is what he was saying in that language, probably. The Holy Spirit speaks to them, right? And even between my husband and I, we could say, Oh, I didn't tell him what and he was like, Well, I don't remember that, but what about when he said this? And it'll be two different things. I'm like, that didn't that just went over my head. Right. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04

And they were amazed and astonished, saying, Are not all those who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia. I'm probably saying all these wrongs. Yeah, Egypt and the parts of Libya beyond to Cyrene. Um, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes. Converts, yeah. My version says converts to Judaism. Right. Cretans and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own tongue the mighty works of God. There it is. Okay, so that's what they're talking about.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the mighty works of the My Times says the wonders. Yeah, the works are wonders.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. Were they giving the history of yeah, like the cool things God had done? Were they recalling the things going through the Red Sea? Or just you created the heavens of the earth, everything that you see, you know, bragging on them almost like in Job where God is is talking about all the wonderful things.

SPEAKER_04

Were you there when I laid the foundation of the earth? Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. If anyone can brag on themselves, it's not he he's allowed to do that.

SPEAKER_04

And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, What does this mean? But others mocking said, They are filled with new wine.

SPEAKER_03

This is this isn't the first time people have been um spirit-filled and they were told that they were drunk.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

Tongues As Gift And Prayer

SPEAKER_03

Because um, it was, I think it was Hannah in the Bible when she was desperate and praying for a baby in the book of Samuel. She's praying and she's accused by the priest, yeah, that she was drunk. You know. Um many times people don't they don't quite understand the gift of of speaking in tongues. It is a spiritual gift that's in the Bible that you know, there's different denominations have different opinions about it, but what we can see, this is where this came upon, like this is where this started at Pentecost. Right. You know, and it's just very interesting to see that for some people it may sound like gibberish, you know, but uh I I would say a word of caution to not be judging anybody, you know, if that if they are speaking tongues or speaking in a heavenly language, uh you may not understand what's going on, but uh I would not be judging that at all because that is a gift of the spirit, and to to not not be one of these people making fun of them. Right. Very very powerful things happen in the moment when people are speaking in tongues. And obviously, these people had an audience at this point.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and they understood what they were saying in their language, which would have them that blew their mind. Mm-hmm. That was cool.

SPEAKER_03

The heavenly language, it has a purpose too. Just it's praying God's will. That's your prayer language. Yeah, that's your prayer language. You're praying in him. Yeah, you're praying God's will for you. Like, you know, whenever you've been praying for someone says, pray for me about this, and you're like, I can pray to a certain extent in my own language. I don't really know all the details. Right. I don't know what's gone. I don't even know what's best for you. Right. I really have no clue. That's when at that point. That's why we're asked Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit pray for you.

SPEAKER_04

He prays in groans too, though. And he lives to intercede, he intercedes for us day and night.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so he's interceding, and that is our language that we can be praying God's will for a situation where we don't know how to pray anymore. So that's why I know I I've been researching uh speaking in tongues a lot more lately, just trying to understand it more because it was a new gift for me. Right. But um, and I don't understand everything, but uh I always I always question everybody would come back to this passage here, just be like, well, these people heard it in all these different languages that they knew. And so um there, what about the person that's in their house by themselves doing that? How do you explain that? And that's when it was explained to me about the the heavenly language and praying God's will.

SPEAKER_04

Well, I've never experienced that. I hope to one day, Lord, that would be nice, but um, I have experienced praying for someone and you know, really praying that the Holy Spirit would speak and save, and it feels like him telling me what to say to this person that I I would have never come up with on my own. And those are the things that come true. When it because I one time prayed for someone that worked with us at Healing Strong, and her she said, Would you pray for my husband? He's at a job interview right now. And I said, Great, sure, yeah, I'd love to. So I started praying and I was like, Lord, I pray your favor over him, and that they would even offer him more than oh yeah, they did a minute later. He called and said, I got the job. And guess what? They offered me more. I never would have come up with saying that it was the Holy Spirit.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, and I think oh, we are spirit-filled whenever we ask Jesus to be in our heart, you know, we we are spirit-filled at that moment. The Holy Spirit takes takes over for us.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say resignation's not there.

Holy Spirit Guidance Stories

SPEAKER_03

He resides there. Yeah, he sealed you at that point. And it's amazing how he works. It's not just in tongues, it might be like that thought, hey, I need to, wow, why do I keep on thinking about that person? Um, I'll tell you an interesting story, real quick. Just this isn't speaking in tongues or anything like that. It's just I had um a guy that he bound uh he bound a Bible for me. He was a Bible binder. His name was Mike. And I paid him because this Bible that's sitting right here, this new red leather, it was a black leather and it was falling apart. And so I paid him to bind my Bible. And um, after I paid him, uh I started talking to him about uh he had a grandson at that point that was wanting to go into the military and just wanting to find his path in life. Well, I happened to be in the reserve. I said, Hey, I can I can take you and your your grandson over to the base and just see what it looks like to be a reservist for a day. So I did. Hung out for him for an hour or so, just took him around, no big deal. That was that. And then for for a year or two, Mike was like, Do you have another book I can buy in for you? I'd really love to just say thank you. And I was like, No. So several years had passed, and uh Mike was on my mind for like two or three days in a row. And it was one of those, like, dude, I haven't talked. I'll I got I guess I'll just email him and see, you know, whatever happened to his grandkids. So I emailed him and uh I got an email back from his wife, and it says, uh, you know, hey Cheryl, um I'm sorry to let you know that Mike died a couple years ago, but it's weird the timing that you're writing me here because uh my grandson, he actually swore an oath into the military today. And um and I was just talking about you a week ago and how nice it was for you to take him around to a base. And I was like, whoa, you know, yes, I mean I couldn't make it obviously very sad that that Mike had passed, but she even said, you know, this is just encouragement to me now that you know that he is Holy Spirit sees. Yeah, and I think I don't think she's even here anymore. Um, I think she's passed away as well now. But it was just one of those if God puts a person on your heart and you just can't shake it, that's usually do it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you know, yeah. Even if it's something you don't really want to do, that you know that's from him.

Wrap Up And Ways To Support

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, the Holy Spirit works in very mysterious ways, as we all know. Yes. Uh so it's gonna be neat to see his ministry here in the book of Acts. That was a fun discussion today, and I'm glad that you got to join us and listen in to Healing Strong's Around the Word podcast. We are so grateful you pulled up a chair to the table and spent some time with us. If today's conversation encouraged you in any way, would you take a moment to leave us a five-star rating or subscribe or leave a review? It helps so much. Get people back to the table and into the conversation with us. And if you'd like to support this mission, you can become a monthly hope giver with a donation of any amount at healingstrong.org. Until next time, remember faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.