Yesterday, we celebrated Pentecost. The word “Pentecost” means fifty. The Jews called it the Feast of Harvest or the Feast of Weeks and it was what we call a pilgrim festival. According to Jewish Law, all the adult Jewish men would come from wherever they were living to Jerusalem. Today, Christians celebrate Pentecost for a completely different reason, but the original reason has significance for today’s passage from Acts Chapter 2:

They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?” and “…we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” (Acts 2:3-8, 12)

One of the observations people associate with Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is speaking in tongues. The Bible has a lot to say about speaking in tongues, but today let’s consider just one. Let’s pick up Luke’s narrative again starting in verse 6: “When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?’” Wow. Pretty interesting, right? All of the disciples speaking in tongues spoke in known languages, but languages not known to them.  Remember, Pentecost was a Jewish pilgrim festival so Jews were there from all over the known world. In verses 9-11, Luke lists fifteen different people groups who were present. Then, following Pentecost, God began to disperse believers around the Mediterranean, into Egypt, and even Europe in less than ten years after Jesus’ resurrection! So what was God’s purpose in having the Galileans speak in tongues that day: to signal that He would be sending His message out to people all over the world. In Luke 24, Jesus told the disciples to wait “in Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.” That wasn’t just power to heal the sick or cast out demons. The disciples had already experienced that power. On Pentecost, the Apostles were given power to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ everywhere.

Today, the power for you and for me to share our faith in Jesus doesn’t come from our own natural persuasiveness; it comes from the Holy Spirit…and that is very Good News!