IN THE ROOM
Pentecost Sunday is an important day to us as Christians. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles in the upper room. It is vital to what we believe in even though you won’t see Pentecost decorations in your local store like you would around Easter or Christmas time. The outline of what happened can be found in Acts 2:1-4:
“On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”
This is the scripture that I have read and heard many times in my life as a Christian, and there are many interesting things in just these four verses that have piqued my curiosity and caused me to ask questions like, “What did the tongues of fire look like? What did it sound like in that room? What did the people who could hear and see what was going on think about all of this?” Well the scripture says in Acts 2:6:
“When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.”
So the people were literally just staring at them trying to figure out, “How in the world were they able to speak all of these languages that they are not native to?” The answer is that the Holy Spirit descended on them and enabled them to this. God sent his spirit to do something beyond our understanding, but even though it’s difficult sometimes for us and our modern world to see the purpose of this, it does not mean that it is pointless. Jesus even said this about the holy spirit or the advocate which was to come after him,
“But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; '” (John 16:7-9)
And in verse 13 Jesus tells us the purpose of this,
“But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. “ John 16:13
Jesus had to go so that the holy spirit could come, and guide us into the future and will of our Lord, but still this act of God made no sense to the people around them and all they could think is, “Well maybe they’re drunk…” but Peter ended those assumptions when he said this in Acts 2:14-17:
“Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles and shouted to the crowd, “Listen carefully, all of you, fellow Jews and residents of Jerusalem! Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk, as some of you are assuming. Nine o’clock in the morning is much too early for that. No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.”
The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, on Pentecost was a fulfillment of prophecy, therefore it is far beyond our understanding. They couldn’t have been drunk, it was too early for that. When God moves, and when his spirit moves, things happen that we can’t explain. To quote one of my favorite songs called The Father’s House by Cory Asbury,
Prison doors fling wide, The dead come to life
Love is on the move, When the Father's in the room
Miracles take place, The cynical find faith, And love is breaking through
When the Father's in the room
In the room where the spirit moves, these things will happen. No matter if it’s not normal to others, no matter if it doesn’t make any sense at all, no matter how much we don’t deserve it, and no matter if it’s too early to be drunk, nothing can stop the hand of God, and the move of his spirit. On this Pentecost Sunday, I am praying for a move like in the upper room, for miracles to take place, for the cynical to find faith, and that God would ultimately pour out his spirit upon us and his Church so that we can walk in his will, and accomplish the victory that has already been won over the enemy. I pray that God would pour out his spirit, anoint, and bless you and all of us in his Church just like the spirit did for the apostles in that room.
-Jared