‘4. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
5. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
7. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans?
8. Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
9. Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10. Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome
11. (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
12. Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13. Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”’
(Acts 2 v. 4 – 13)
NOTES
Notice how they are all filled with the Spirit – it was a communal experience – the Spirit ignited them all together.
They begin to speak in Spirit-enabled languages they’d not learnt – a powerful sign that they would be ‘enabled’ to witness to the ends of the earth. So many different people groups are mentioned.
This has always been, for me, a sign of the reversal of the Babel story, where God confused the nations by giving them different languages; now He is enabling an understanding beyond our human ability, to speak and to be understood in many different languages, by many different peoples at the same time.
(Their northern, Galilean, accent, is a further confusion, possibly looked down upon by those in the city, and from all over the known world – how could these northerners be communicating cross-nationally, so effectively)
A supernatural sign that God’s word, God’s love, God’s call is for ALL people, everywhere.
It’s quite early in the morning, and some are suggesting that these disciples are drunk.
But they are showing the effects of a wholly different Spirit.
PRAYER
Don’t worry what you have to say
Don’t worry because on that day
God’s Spirit will speak in Your heart
Will speak in Your heart.
Lord, send me to preach the good news to the poor
to tell prisoners that they are prisoners no more
to tell blind people that they can see
and to set the downtrodden free
and to go, tell everyone
the news that the Kingdom of God has come
and to go, tell everyone
the news that God’s Kingdom has come.
AMEN.