Before we get started with today’s devotion, I want to make you aware of a couple of details. First, today’s devotion and next week’s will be our last in the #LentenDaily 2025 Devotional series. This coming Sunday will be Pentecost, or the 50th day since Easter and Jesus’ resurrection. Today we’ll dig into what happened when God’s gift of the Holy Spirit showed up in Jerusalem and next week we’ll focus on the first Gospel sermon Peter preached, ushering in the era of the Church of Jesus Christ. Ready? Let’s get started!
What is your position regarding firepits? I have a love-hate relationship with firepits. On one hand, I love a good firepit at the end of a full day. Sitting around a warm fire with friends and family has the power to take me into deep thought or conversation. I stare into the flames and am mesmerized. On the other hand, I experience low to mid-level anxiety whenever fire is involved. I fear that the flames will somehow leap out of the pit and go on a rampage. When the wind is blowing, I fear that the smoke will affect my breathing. In my opinion, fire has very good, even soothing, purposes, but it can also wreak havoc if not respected properly. About ten years ago, over Thanksgiving break, our family was at our mountain home in western North Carolina. It was too cold for boating, tennis or golf and our teenaged sons were a bit bored. They came to us and asked if they could build a firepit in the yard. Dale and I looked at each other skeptically but said “Sure! Go for it!” I imagine that the oldest was the designer and the youngest was the laborer, but many hours later they called us outside to inspect their work. We were in shock! It was amazing! They had thought everything through and executed their plan beautifully, without any help from the adults! We had a fire pit that very evening and enjoyed their work for years. As a matter of fact, when neighbors would see our beautiful firepit, they would ask us for the name of the designer we hired for the job and were always as shocked to hear that our kids built it! And while nothing catastrophic ever happened around our mountain firepit, I never stopped respecting the fact that it could.
In today’s reading from the Book of Acts, we are immersed in the details of Pentecost morning, including a fierce wind that shook the upper room and heads looking like they are on fire! By itself, the events that occurred on the fiftieth day post Jesus’ resurrection seem rather bizarre. But when we overlay these symbols of wind and fire onto the grander historical narrative of Scripture, we see themes that shout out the power and presence of God!
Read Acts 2:1-13
The Twelve, along with over one hundred disciples of Jesus, were still in Jerusalem, gathered together and waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit. But they weren’t the only nonresidents visiting the holy city. Devout Jews from all over the known world were in town to observe Shavu’ot, translated in Hebrew, Feast of Weeks because it occurred exactly seven sabbaths after Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. These two festivals, along with Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement were and are the big three - the high holy festivals of the Jewish faith, prioritized by Yahweh Himself to help His people remember His presence with and provision for them. Shavu’ot celebrated the day He gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the people on Mount Sinai.
The day before, on the seventh Sabbath since Passover, thousands of pilgrims had gathered in the temple courts to hear the Ten Commandments read aloud and to worship through song and sacrifice. This morning, the first day of a new week, and the fiftieth day since Jesus was resurrected, I imagine everyone was moving slowly, as many would have celebrated well into the night before. They were packing up, getting ready for their return trip back to real life. The pentecost day, which comes from the Greek word pentekoste and means fiftieth, wasn’t important to any of the pilgrims, other than it was time to head home. So imagine their shock and surprise when “a sound like that of a violent rushing wind came from heaven.” (v 2) Where was that coming from? Is someone hurt? And then there was silence…what in the world is going on?
Meanwhile, in the upper room, this violent rushing wind from heaven shook everything and everyone! This was not a pleasant breeze blowing through the disciples’ hair! It was the mighty and powerful wind of the Holy Spirit entering that space, continuing a theme throughout Jewish history. Remember Jesus’ conversation with respected Pharisee, Nicodemus, who met him in the dark of night so as not to raise suspicion? When Jesus told Nicodemus that he would need to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God? As Nicodemus was stuck on trying to figure out how he could be born from his mother again, Jesus said, “The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
But that wasn’t the only symbolic theme of God’s presence that fell upon the disciples. Next, “they saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and rested on each one of them.” (v 3) Tongues like flames of fire that separated into smaller flames and rested on each of the one hundred-plus disciples in the room! Remember when John the Baptist was prophesying and baptizing folks in the Jordan River? Many of them wondered if John might be the Messiah and he answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Luke 3:16)
We could and should go much farther back in Israel’s history to trace the origins of God’s presence and power manifest through fire. In Exodus 3, Moses, the Hebrew baby boy who was miraculously saved from certain death by Pharoah’s daughter and raised in Egyptian royalty, was currently in exile in Midian, following an incident in which he murdered an Egyptian taskmaster who was brutally abusing a Hebrew slave. Moses was tending to his father-in-law’s flock, as he had been for many years at this point, when “the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed.” (Ex 3:2) In that famous scene, God speaks to Moses in his own language and tells him he’s standing on holy ground, implying this place was like a temple in which His presence dwells. Moses obeys the LORD’s command, rescues the Hebrews and leads them through the Red Sea and into the wilderness, where pillars of cloud and fire hover over and around the people and Mount Sinai; Mount Sinai, where God would issue 10 commandments to keep the people safe from evil. Like before, this fire signaled God’s presence, marking this mountain as God’s dwelling place and a symbolic temple. The people are confused, amazed, and even panicking in fear. And later, within the plans for the tabernacle and temple, God would continue to manifest His presence with the people through fire.
These stories, of Moses and the burning bush, Mount Sinai, the tabernacle, and the temple all include fire that shows up when God’s presence arrives and establishes his dwelling place. In Acts 2, it is as if Luke is hyperlinking to these previous holy-fire scenes to give background and context to the Pentecost story. If the divine fire previously rested on God’s temple spaces, (and it did) where must we conclude that it rests in this scene? On Jesus’ own, His people, the ones who believed that He was in fact Messiah and were waiting in that room for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.
This new tabernacle, dwelling place, temple where God would dwell was “each one of them” on whom a flame like fire rested. The new kingdom of God would be made up of people. People would meet with God not in a geographic place or constructed space. Quite frankly, it would not matter one whit what room or building they were in. God’s fire began on that Pentecost, to shine with power and harm no one, while igniting a holy revolution known as the Church.
Okay, Jesus’ followers have been filled with the Holy Spirit’s presence and power. Now it was time to follow Jesus’ last commands to go into all the known and unknown world and make more disciples of His. How would they accomplish this understandably huge undertaking? “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them. (v 4) On this birth day of the Church of Jesus Christ, God did not require that the disciples go into all of the world; He brought the world to Jerusalem! Jews from every part of the known world were present for this temple reconstruction! And because one of the evidences of the Holy Spirit’s power and presence in Jesus’ disciples was the ability to speak in different languages, each one of these pilgrims were given the opportunity to hear the gospel message in their own language. God really did think of everything!!
“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through his Spirit who lives in you.” Romans 8:11
Big Picture Questions for Today:
The story of Pentecost displays that God now dwells within the community of Jesus followers. In this sense, Pentecost marked the beginning of a new world. How have you experienced the power and presence of God in your own life since becoming a believer?
Your church may or may not acknowledge that this Sunday, June 8, 2025 marks the Pentecost, or 50th day since Easter. How might you plan and prepare to gratefully acknowledge God’s magnificent gift of the Holy Spirit, tabernacling within you?
Pray for eyes to see the purifying power of the Spirit within you. Choose to cooperate with Him in this process, rather than resist Him.
Lastly, please enjoy this beautiful new song from Bethel Music, The Church:
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