Pentecost
Summary
At Pentecost, the Spirit Jesus promised arrives with the sound of wind and the appearance of fire. Pastor Dominic Jackson explores what these signs would have meant to the first Jewish believers. Throughout Scripture, wind and fire marked God’s presence and the formation of a temple. Now they rest not on a mountain or a building but on ordinary people, making them the dwelling place of God. Dominic also considers how Pentecost reverses the scattering of Babel. Where human pride once divided people by language, the Spirit now brings them together, as people from many nations hear the gospel in their own tongue. The message of Pentecost is that the good news of Jesus is for every people and every culture, and that the same Spirit is given to us today.
Questions for reflection
What comes to mind when you hear the word “Pentecost”? How has your faith background shaped the way you think about the Holy Spirit?
Throughout Scripture, wind and fire signaled God’s presence and the formation of a temple. What does it mean to you that God’s presence now dwells in his people rather than in a building?
God communicates in many ways: through Scripture, worship, others, and silence. Where have you sensed God speaking to you recently? What helps keep your eyes, ears, and heart open?
The crowd at Pentecost was divided between the curious and the skeptical. Which describes you more right now, whether toward faith in general or toward the work of the Spirit?
Words can be a bridge or a barrier. Think about your recent conversations at home, at work, or online. Where have your words built others up, and where might they have torn down?
Pentecost shows the gospel crossing every barrier of language and culture. How does that shape the way you see people who are different from you, in the church and beyond?
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Dominic Jackson:
We continue in the book of Acts this morning. And though it took us a couple of weeks, we finally made it through Acts 1, which is exciting. At this pace, we’re going to be done with the book of Acts in the year 2035, and it’s going to be great. No, just kidding. We’re going to speed it up a little bit here. But it’s just packed with so much, and this has been so good for me. I hope it’s been good for you.Well, this morning we are officially in Acts 2: Pentecost. Now, as soon as I say that, immediately, for some of you, thoughts start popping into your mind, right? Depending on your faith background, when I say Pentecost, a few of you are like, “Let’s go,” right? “I have been waiting for this”—especially if you have a more charismatic or Pentecostal background, perhaps. Others might be here thinking, “Wait, I thought the sign gifts that we’re probably going to be talking about—those are done, right? Those ceased to exist once the canon closed.” Maybe you grew up in a tradition where that was your theology. Others of you are like, “Why are Christians so weird? Like, seriously.” And you’re really, really nervous about where we’re going to go with this Pentecost message. And then others of you might be here, and this might be brand-new to you. You’re like, “Wait—tongues of fire and speaking in tongues and wind from heaven?” The Bible either just got a whole lot more confusing or a whole lot more interesting to you. Maybe both, honestly. Well, wherever you are, wherever you fall, whatever your faith background—or maybe lack of faith background—welcome. This is going to be great, I promise.
You might be surprised to find that in the New Testament, there are three times—three times—where Paul gives the instruction, almost like a warning—like, wake up and listen to this—three times where he says, “Do not be ignorant about”—fill in the blank. This would be a fun trivia question. I didn’t actually know this until this week as I was doing research. But three times, Paul says, quote, “Do not be ignorant” regarding a doctrine or a teaching. And he really wants to drive it home.
And when I first discovered these three, I was a little surprised. He’s not talking about, like, the Trinity, or the divinity of Jesus, or sin—probably not the ones you would think of, for him to be trying to grab our attention. But three times he says, “Do not be ignorant concerning…” The first time is Romans 11, regarding the Jewish people of Israel—that God has not forgotten them while welcoming in the Gentiles, that he still has a plan for them. If you’re familiar with this passage, what that plan is depends on who you ask. So there’s one: he says, do not be ignorant about this.
The second time is 1 Thessalonians 4:13. And here he’s teaching regarding those who have already passed away. He’s talking about, like, the end times here. And he says God still has a plan for when Jesus returns to earth, right? Some will read this as proof of some sort of rapture—maybe you’re familiar with that terminology—while others read this not as Jesus pulling up believers, but actually the opposite: heaven invading earth when he comes back.
And then finally, the third time Paul says, “Do not be ignorant” about this subject, he’s talking about spiritual gifting—specifically speaking in tongues. Now, again, this is not what I initially imagined he would be warning us about—instructing us, essentially, to think logically, critically, theologically, right? Open your minds. Don’t be ignorant about this. But the more I started to think about it, the more I realized it actually kind of makes sense. I think these are three subjects, three areas that the church, 2,000 years later, is still very divided on, right? Three areas that we have a whole lot of opinions on. Maybe this is why Paul reminds us to open our minds and to lean on God, which is what I’m hoping to do here this morning, as we look at the Scriptures together and try to figure this out.
But first—because I need this every week, but especially this morning—let’s take a moment and go to God together. Would you guys pray with me? And before we pray, I would just invite you, if you have anything on your laps or anything you’re holding, to put that to the side. If you have anything in your mind or your heart—frustrations from getting out the door this morning, or traffic, or parking, or maybe things from this past week, or chores that are waiting for you at home—whatever it is, just put that to the side for a minute, and let’s pray.
God, it warmed my heart to hear your words spoken in a few different languages this morning. I thank you for the gift of being able to read this text in our own native language, whatever that is. Not to mention, there are people all over the world doing just that. We praise you that people are gathering across the globe right now, seeking you—or even, specifically, in our own community doing the same. I thank you for my friend Pastor Jose, who’s on the east side of town preaching right now in Spanish. My friend Pastor Cornelius, from Ethiopia, who’s gathering with his congregation in the Drake neighborhood, worshiping you in the Gamo language. And of course, there are many, many more doing just as we are doing, which is praising you. And so we join them—in every tongue, and one day every nation—to say, we love you, Lord. We praise you now. We dedicate this service to you. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Turn with me, if you have a copy of the Scriptures, to the book of Acts, chapter 2. If you don’t, the words will be on the screen. Acts chapter 2. And if you remember the past few weeks, Jesus has instructed his disciples to go back to Jerusalem and wait. Because what he’s going to have them do—what they are about to encounter, what he needs them to do—there is no way they’re going to be able to do it on their own. They need some help. They need the Helper, right? And so he sends them there.
And the plan he’s telling them—he’s told them this multiple times—is for them to be witnesses all across the world. He says, wait for the Holy Spirit, and then—then you are going to get to work. But of course, many of the disciples are like, “Okay, so when are we going to war, right? When are we going to declare war on this oppressive government, this regime? When are we going to elevate our people?” right? And he says, “I’ve got work for you. It’s not going to be with the sword. It’s not going to be with an army. It’s going to be with your testimony.” And he said this again in Matthew 28, right? Remember—go and make disciples of, what was it? Some nations? A few nations? Jewish nations? No—he says all nations, right?
And here at the end of Acts 1, if I’m one of the disciples, I’m probably thinking, “I’m just a fisherman. I’m just a blue-collar worker,” like a lot of them. “I’m just a craftsman. Jesus is telling me that I’m going to be a witness across the entire world somehow? Jesus, did you get us a subscription to Duolingo or Rosetta Stone? How in the world am I possibly going to communicate this gospel message to the ends of the earth?” right? How is this going to happen? I mean, we’re talking about different worlds, different cultures, different languages. How are they possibly going to share this?
Well, first, they start a little closer to home—in Jerusalem, where we left off last week, the place Jesus told them to wait. Which brings us to Acts chapter 2.
Verse 1: “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.”
Pause for a second. That word “tongue” is the Greek word glōssa. And that’s actually where we get the word “glossary” from. All it means—literally—is languages. The King James Version of the Bible, a few hundred years ago, translated that word as “tongue.” And the reason it did this was because it was a very common phrase to refer to your first language as your mother tongue. Maybe you’ve heard that expression before. And so, building off of that, that word was translated as “tongue,” and a lot of translations have just been doing that ever since. Some of you might have a Bible translation that has the word “language.” It’s the exact same word.
Also notice in our passage, there are four ways that the Spirit is communicating with the disciples at Pentecost—four different ways, all at the same time, right? The first is audibly. They hear a sound—a loud sound, I would imagine. It sounds like a mighty rushing wind. The second is visually, right? They see what appear to be tongues of fire. The third is physically. They feel something. They’re filled with the Holy Spirit inside them. And then lastly, God speaks to them verbally. They hear with their ears people speaking in other languages.
God is communicating to his people in many, many different ways. All over the Scriptures, we’ll see that, right? We’ll see God communicating sometimes in a sign, sometimes in a word, sometimes in a vision. And by the way, he still does this. He still communicates with us. The question is, are our eyes and our ears and our hearts open? Sometimes he speaks in lyrics, right? We just sang that song “Sanctuary,” right? As I was reading and singing those lyrics, God was speaking to my heart, right? Sometimes it’s Scripture. Sometimes it’s in sermons. Sometimes he speaks to us in silence. God is going to make sure he is heard.
Now, I want to note a couple of things about our passage here. First is that word Pentecost. For first-century Jewish believers, Pentecost was a feast day. It was one of three that all Jewish people were expected to make a pilgrimage back home for, right? This would bring hundreds of thousands of people back to the same area for one really big party. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the Spirit of God comes to bring a spiritual harvest—which we’ll see in a moment—when they are celebrating a harvest. That’s one thing. The second thing, which overlaps, is that during Pentecost they are celebrating God giving Moses the law. And so this is a way, every year, that they look back and remember God speaking this way. More on that soon.
I also want to note some of the obvious symbolism here. This is something that’s maybe easy for us to miss—especially if we don’t have a Jewish background, or if you haven’t spent a lot of time in the Old Testament. It’s kind of easy for us to just skip over. We read this passage and we’re like, “That’s weird. Let’s go to Acts 3,” right? It’s easy for us to miss this, but it would have been jumping right out at them.
The text does not tell us that the wind blew upon them. It does not say that a fire fell on them. Here’s what it actually does say: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house.” Or it says, “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” So they heard something like a wind and saw something like a fire. It doesn’t say that they saw wind or fire. It was something like it. There is a comparison here, a description. A picture is not only being seen; it’s being painted here in our text.
Which tracks with what Jesus told them earlier. Jesus compares the Holy Spirit to wind. He says they are going to experience the Spirit, and it’s going to be like a wind. And of course, you can feel wind, right? You can see the effects of wind, but you can’t actually see the wind itself. And this is kind of like a sneak peek that Jesus is giving them, preparing them for what’s going to happen at Pentecost. You hear its sound, you see where it’s coming from, but you cannot actually see it with your own eyes, right?
And in the Hebrew Scriptures, which they would all have been familiar with, mysterious windstorms with fire or lightning are actually happening over and over and over again in God’s story. And every time they do, they mean two things: God’s presence, and the formation of a temple.
The tongues that seemed like fire, resting on each one of them, were a reminder of God’s presence, right? Remember the story of Moses in the wilderness and the burning bush that communicates to him? After Moses delivers God’s people from slavery, they travel to Mount Sinai, where fire and wind start kicking up—if you know that story—and God meets them there, to signal not just God’s presence, but also an area that will be a symbolic temple. Or later on in the story, right, when the tabernacle is built at that same mountain, God shows up as what? As a fire, marking this tabernacle as his dwelling place. Or when Israel finally builds a permanent temple, the same fire shows up once again as God’s dwelling glory. It’s this tangible sign that God’s presence has settled in this space, in this temple—his presence is there too.
You see the connection here. Often when God’s presence rests on a place—a place that will soon be a temple—it comes in the form of wind and fire. But here in Acts 2, all of a sudden, something changes, right? The divine fire that had previously rested on God’s temple space—where does it rest at Pentecost? It rests on them. On people. Mere humans. On the disciples. And just like in the past, with the temples and the tent of meeting—just like all the other places where God dwelled previously—here is a new place where heaven and earth intersect. It’s not a mountain. It’s not a sacred building. God’s temple is found in living, breathing humans.
Or another way to say this: Bethlehem was God with us. Calvary was God for us. But Pentecost is God within us.
And the reason I mention this—if you’ve ever heard the cliché, “Don’t go to church; be the church,” right? The church isn’t a building; it’s a people. It’s a cliché, but it is true. After Pentecost, the temple wasn’t just a place people went to. It was the very people themselves, where the Holy Spirit could be found. Because before this, if you wanted to experience God, you needed to climb a mountain, cross a river, right? You needed to offer the right sacrifices. You needed to follow the right religious rituals and enter into the sacred space. And maybe, for a select few, you could experience God’s presence, right? But here, when the Holy Spirit arrives, we become temples. Not gods, of course—please don’t hear me saying that. Not divine. But filled with the Spirit of the living God, as vessels.
Okay, so here in verses 1 to 4, God is speaking. The Spirit arrives. They see. They witness. They hear. But how do they hear this message? Now, verse 5: “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?’”
Worth noting: we’ll get to the Gentiles a little bit later. We’ll get to the ends of the earth—God’s plan—a little bit later. But here he is at a Jewish festival, with Jewish people—hundreds of thousands who have traveled from all over the area to meet here. And I think many of us might read this story—I have—and assume that a Jewish guy in Mesopotamia, a Jewish guy in Egypt, and a Jewish guy in Asia were probably all very similar: same culture, same language, just in different locations. But this could not be further from the truth.
Take a look at verse 9: “Parthians, Medes”—where was I? Sorry—“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)”—each bringing their own culture and language—“Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
All of a sudden, these normal, everyday, uneducated Galilean Jewish disciples seem to be speaking multiple languages at the exact same time. Or, another theory is that the listeners are hearing what’s happening in their own language, right? Here we see the Spirit of God speaking a message for all to hear—tearing down the barriers that separate people. Language barriers, cultural barriers, geographical barriers. And all are welcome to hear, in their own language, God speaking to them—or these people worshiping God.
Let’s finish out the section—two more verses here. Verse 12: “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.’” Right? And later on, Peter’s going to be like, “It’s, like, nine o’clock in the morning. Are you serious?” right?
So here we have the crowd essentially divided in half. We have the curious, and we have the skeptical, right? Some, it says, are amazed and perplexed—asking questions. Others chalk it up to alcohol, right? And I think this could actually describe most people we will meet who are not followers of Jesus: curious or skeptical. As many of you know, I was a skeptic for half of my life, right? I was very skeptical and not open to Christianity or faith. And I think most people would fall into one of these categories, either curious or skeptical. I’ll also say the same for the church. When we have conversations, especially about a text like this, most of us—our natural disposition—would probably fall into curious or skeptical, right?
Here we see both of them. Even though God is communicating his message, through these normal, everyday men, in the crowd’s own tongues, many walk away saying, “There’s no way. There’s got to be a better explanation for what’s going on.” And what’s funny about it is they’re not like, “Did I have too much to drink?” It’s, “These guys had too much to drink.” Which is kind of funny. I don’t know. I don’t really get it. But oh well.
Here’s the thing. Here’s the point. Language can either be a barrier or it can be a bridge, right? Even when we speak the same language, by the way, right? How many arguments have you gotten into with someone—a parent, a friend, a roommate, a spouse; don’t look at them, right? How many times have you argued with someone because you thought you communicated clearly—and then you both walk away, and apparently there are two entirely different versions of what was said? And then you argue about word choice, and how that could have been communicated clearly. Or you argue about tone, right? It’s not even what you said; it’s how you said it, right? And the meaning behind the meaning: “I heard you say this, but I think what you were really saying is this,” right? And we’re speaking the same language.
Words are powerful. God created the world by speaking. And the enemy tried to destroy it with his own lips. Words have the power to build up worlds or ruin them. The same can be said with relationships.
Just as an aside, I’ve been thinking about this lately with my own language. And I just have to confess that I’ve caught myself raising my voice more lately. That’s never been me. I’ve never been a loud person. I’ve never really been a yeller. Then I had kids—kind of changed some things. But pretty quickly I learned: if I want to be heard, and heard the first time, right, I need to raise my voice. And so I’ve caught myself doing that. And sometimes it’s warranted—you see a kid running toward the street, you should probably raise a couple octaves there, right? But nine times out of ten, the truth is, I just want to be heard quickly and respectfully and on my own time.
But a friend was sharing something he read in a book. He’s reading a book for dads—it’s written specifically for dads who grew up without dads. And something the book said has haunted me. I’ll paraphrase, but he shared this with me. It says, when it comes to your speech, you can’t yell at your kids before bed and expect them to have good sleep. You can’t scream at your kids before school and then wonder why they have a hard day in class. You can’t shout at your kids about all their mistakes and then wonder why they see themselves as failures. Because you set the tone for your children by your own tone of voice. You become their inner voice. You become their inner critic. And after enough yelling and screaming and degrading, when they look in the mirror, they’ll hear those words. And eventually your voice will become their own.
Words have power to bring us together—to unite us or divide us—in our relationships, in every interaction we have with the people closest to us, or with strangers. Words can be a bridge or a barrier. And we see this in Acts 2, where people are brought together. How does God bring them together first? Through speech.
In a lot of ways, I think Pentecost is not only the antithesis of Babel—it’s, like, the reversal of it, right? If you’re familiar with the story of Babel—my paraphrase, CliffsNotes version—a bunch of people get together and essentially say, “We don’t need God anymore. We can become our own gods. We are going to build a tower and reach up to God,” right? And God, in his loving mercy, decides to confuse their languages so that they can no longer work together. That’s the paraphrased version. However, here at Pentecost, we see the reversal of that curse—to unite them in spirit, right?
Ian Simms says it this way: “At Babel, there was a spirit of pride, but at Pentecost, there’s a spirit of love. At Babel, they were divided through language. At Pentecost, they were united through language. At Babel, there was confusion. At Pentecost, there was peace. At Babel, we saw humanity full of themselves. At Pentecost, we saw humanity full of God. At Babel, there was the destruction of the tower, but at Pentecost, there was the foundation of the church. At Babel, they were scattered to tell of God’s anger, but at Pentecost, they were scattered to tell of God’s love.” Pentecost unites the nations, unites the languages, unites the people together.
Speaking of, let’s talk about art for a second. Didn’t see that one coming, did you? Nothing brings people together—or divides people—more than language and art, right? Years ago, I heard a sermon from a guy named Tim Mackie from BibleProject. You might be familiar. And he was sharing a little history about a specific church—a very famous church. Maybe you’ve heard of it. And I’m going to admit, at first when I heard him describing this, I actually felt a little uncomfortable with what he was saying. And I had to kind of sit with that for a little while.
Before we get to the church, though, here’s a painting. I think we have that. Yep, there it is. A very famous painting. Anyone know who painted this? I’ll give you a clue: it’s one of the Ninja Turtles. Any guesses? No? Did someone say Leonardo? Yeah, you’re wrong. Michelangelo? Nope. Okay, it’s Raphael. That’s fine. I’ll play it by myself. Raphael painted this in 1505.
What do you notice about Mary and baby Jesus here? Well, the first thing that I noticed is baby Jesus is a little chunky, right? That boy was a good eater, right? He’s a little rotund, a little round. Good for him. But I think for many of us, probably the first thing that jumps off the page—at least for me—is that Jesus and Mother Mary here in this painting look a bit—they look like me. They’re very white, right? Anyone else notice that? Jesus not only does not have a tan—neither does Mary—but it looks like they would struggle to get one. They are very, very pale, right?
And this painting is not unique. Many of the paintings from the last 500 years or so will depict Jesus as not only having white skin, but also often very European, Anglo-Saxon features, right? Pale skin, blond hair, even blue eyes. Which—to state the obvious, and this might blow some of your minds—Jesus was not white. Just want to get that out there. And I don’t know if this is going to be shocking, but he also was not American. So there’s that. And I’m not 100 percent sure, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t drive a Ford F-150, okay? So, just throwing that out there. Jesus was born on the other side of the world—a very, very different world from the one many of us find ourselves in. He would, of course, have had dark hair and darker skin. Honestly, in many ways, the complete opposite of the painting we just saw.
Which brings us to a church. This is the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth. It’s a beautiful church. You can visit it today. And what’s interesting is, if you walk around this church, you’ll see a lot of beautiful art, a lot of paintings. And one of my favorite things about it is that they take that same image, right—the famous one by Raphael of Mother Mary and baby Jesus—and it’s painted not just by artists from all nations, but depicting Mary and Jesus as people of those nations.
Here are a couple of my favorites. I see Romania there. Spain. China. You can flip through, Johnny—we’ve got a couple more. Ethiopia. Italy. Scotland. Italy. I didn’t include it, but the Irish one—my people—is really pale and really sad. Which is, like, the perfect description of me in many ways. I’m just kidding.
I have to confess, the first time I saw these paintings—as the pastor was referencing this and showing some of these images in the sermon—like I said, at first I was a little uncomfortable. We talk a lot around here about scholarship and the historical Jesus and context. We’re really big on context and history, right? And on approaching this text the way it should be read—as well as the people in this text. And at first I saw these images and thought, yeah, Jesus was not a white guy from America, okay? Those Renaissance paintings were way off. But he also wasn’t Chinese. He wasn’t Brazilian. He wasn’t Peruvian, right? So at first, that’s kind of what I was thinking.
But what I was missing when seeing these images is that this church doesn’t [present them] as a Bible checklist. That’s not the point. It’s not a historical-accuracy litmus test, right? That is not what they’re trying to do. What this church is communicating, in a lot of ways, is the message we find at Pentecost: that the gospel is for everyone. That Jesus came to earth as a man—as the Man, right? And that though he was not Scottish or Cambodian or Cuban, he came for me and my people, and you and your people, because you are human. And so when we look at Jesus, we see someone who came to live and die and live again for the entire world. That is the point. His ministry transcends culture.
But also, he is on the throne of each one of these cultures. King of my culture. Every checklist, every box that I check that makes me me—my identity—he is King of that. And one day, every tongue will confess that he is Lord—whether they do so in English or Spanish or Khmer. And so when I think of these paintings, I don’t see them as whitewashing or cultural appropriation. Maybe some of you might be uncomfortable, but what I see in them is people all over the world saying, “This God came for me. This God loves me. This God has a place for me, right alongside my Spanish and Kenyan and Russian brothers and sisters—all of us saying, praise the Lord.”
Now, we have just a couple minutes left here, so I’ll close with this—probably what you’re waiting for me to address, the elephant in the room. What about tongues, right? Are the Pentecostals right in their reading? Those Baptists—are they right? Am I less spiritual if I don’t speak in tongues? I don’t even know how. Am I adding to the Bible if I do speak in tongues, right? “Dominic, how can you go an entire sermon on Pentecost without talking about speaking in tongues?” right? Don’t worry, I won’t.
Let’s talk about speaking in the Spirit. When we come across passages about tongues, how should we read them? What’s going on—not just 2,000 years ago, but for us today? And the answer to all of your questions is really, really simple: come back in a few weeks. We are going to look at Acts 10, where we’re going to meet a guy named Cornelius, who comes to faith and appears to start speaking in some sort of angelic or foreign language. The text says he speaks in tongues. What in the world is going on? We’re going to find out then. And I promise we’re going to look at Paul. We’re going to look at pretty much every single verse that talks about it. We’re going to talk about spiritual gifting—throw a little prophecy in there. It’s going to be great. You have to come back then, though. Sorry.
Now, before you get too annoyed with me—the truth is, I could have spent a lot of time talking about this. I really wanted to. I really, really wanted to have a three-hour sermon today. None of you did, but me. But still, I really wanted to address this. What I didn’t want to skip over—and I think most sermons about Acts 2 often jump right over this—is the radical, inclusive witness that we see in Acts 2. The supernatural is amazing, and we’re going to talk about it. But so are the cultural implications of the gospel message: that you and I—most of us in this room, I would assume, are probably not Jewish; I am not—are all sitting here, joining in, welcomed in, where we hear and praise in our own tongue that Jesus is Lord.
And so in Acts 2, some wild things happened. Some of them we just read about. But most amazing of all was that the people were filled with the Holy Spirit—and that we are filled with the same Spirit, and that there is a place for you and I in God’s story, but most importantly, in God’s family. Let’s pray.
Lord, I imagine it would be easy to make assumptions here—to assume where people are in their faith journey. But the truth is, you are meeting us all in different places. And so, Holy Spirit, we invite you—though you need no invitation, but as a posture of trust—we invite you to fill this place, but also to fill us, each one of us.
I want to pray for anyone who is here who is confused by what I’m reading—who is thinking, “I’ve never felt this Spirit you’re talking about before. I’ve never felt something supernaturally leading me, convicting me, molding me to be more like Christ Jesus, speaking to me. I believe, and I’ve chosen to follow Jesus, but often it feels like I’m doing so alone.” If that is you, I would simply invite you to pray: Come, Holy Spirit. Let me be a vessel, a sanctuary, a temple, a resting place. I want you now. Come, Holy Spirit.
And for those of us who have experienced this before, who have been filled with the Spirit—I imagine I’m not alone in being one who often has my ears and my eyes and my heart closed to where you are leading me. And so, Holy Spirit, we turn back to you. Harden our hearts to all the distractions in the world—the voices, the lies—but soften our hearts to you. So come, Holy Spirit. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.