This Week’s Reading: Acts 2:1–24
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 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? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’
“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
—Acts 2: 1–24
Introduction and Ice Breaker
How have you been feeling this week?
How are your summer plans different this year? What are you planning? Is there anything you are looking forward to?
Themes to Consider
The Holy Spirit Fills People and Places - The very life and energy of God can fill our lives in the person of the Holy Spirit.
The Undoing of Babel - The first public miracle of Pentecost was to bridge cultural divides.
Come Holy Spirit - Our world is still very much in need of the love and mercy the Spirit brings, often through people.
The Connection Between the Holy Spirit and The Victory of Jesus - The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus all precede and make possible the miracle of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit has not just come for energizing spiritual experiences, but to continue the ministry of Jesus and the renewal of the world through the Gospel.
Discussion Questions
How do you relate to the idea or experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit? What does that mean in the reality of your life?
The first public miracle of Pentecost was that everyone present from all over the map heard the wonders of God in their own language. What, do you think, is the significance of this?
2 Corinthians 5 says we have been reconciled to God by Christ and given a ministry of reconciliation. How can we live out such a ministry?
What do you think of the life of the believers described at the end of Acts 2? How might our lives more closely reflect this Pentecost vision?
God has given our church a vision of being a people of Presence, Formation, and Love. Are there ways you have grown in any of those areas in the past season?
Guided Prayer
Silence
Remove distractions as much as you can and spend two minutes (time it if helpful) in silence, noticing your body, your emotions and thoughts. Perhaps use a simple phrase to pray silently so that you stay focused.
“Lord, here I am”
“All I am is yours”
“Come Holy Spirit”
“Your love endures”
“Holy are you God”, etc.
Prayer of Emptying
Faithful Lord, I bring my burdens, my concerns, anxieties, worries, achievements, expectations and leave them at your feet. Your yoke is easy and your burden is light. I give you my distractions, I give you all that fills my soul and mind with noise. I renounce all the seductions of satisfaction apart from you and the slavery to which I so quickly attach. Thank you for unburdening my soul.
Prayer of Filling
I receive your peace, your rest. I take upon myself the easy yoke that you have prepared for me. You call me to be a child and as such I take up my identity and calling as part of your family. You give us your Spirit as a seal, guaranteeing that which is to come… our rich inheritance as your sons and daughters. Fill me now with your Spirit that I may walk with you and live as a child of the most high God.
Prayer of Gratitude
You never leave us or forsake us, even in the most lonesome of times. You are our light and heat by night and our protection by day. There is no place in all creation where I can hide from you. You are near to the broken-hearted and you let us find you when we seek you. Thank you for your faithfulness even when we fail.
quotes
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
—2 Corinthians 5: 14–21
Passover was the time when the lambs were sacrificed, and the Israelites were saved from the avenging angel who slew the firstborn of the Egyptians. Off went the Israelites that very night, and passed through the Red Sea into the Sinai desert. Then, fifty days after Passover, they came to Mount Sinai, where Moses received the law. Pentecost, the fiftieth day, isn’t (in other words) just about the ‘first fruits’, the sheaf which says the harvest has begun. It’s about God giving to his redeemed people the way of life by which they must now carry out his purposes.
—NT Wright
God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. In making Himself known to us He stays by the familiar pattern of personality. He communicates with us through the avenues of our minds, our wills and our emotions. The continuous and unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.
—A.W. Tozer
