“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:1-4

Look at this amazing scene! The church was gathered together in one accord worshipping and fellowshipping in the bond of peace, and then the Holy Ghost fills the room and them!

I have no way to fully comprehend what this looked like or sounded like, but I will do my best to describe it to you.

First of all the Holy Ghost announced His presence with the roaring sound like a tornado but without the wind! This didn’t start in the distance and move toward them. They knew this sound came from heaven because it instantly filled the room. And not just the room; the sound filled the whole house! The disciples were clearly baptized, or fully covered, by the Holy Ghost!

Next, the Holy Ghost appeared as cloven tongues of fire. I am not sure if this meant individual split tongues appeared on each of them or if a stream of fire came in the room and split apart forming tongues on each of them. I suspect it was a combination of the two. Again, there was no doubt that this came from heaven!

Hearkening back to the burning bush and the shaking mountains of Sinai, God comes in an even mightier way to bring confirmation of the truth of the gospel of the risen Savior Jesus Christ!

Everyone in the room was already a born again child of God. That is evident from the fact that they believed Jesus was the Son of God and were already gathered together to worship Him (John 5:24). They were already born of the Spirit of God. This event is not the moment of their new birth but the giving of the gifts of the Holy Ghost to confirm the message of the gospel through signs and wonders. (We will talk more about this later as a fulfillment of the Prophecy of Joel).

In the Bible, the word tongue means language. This means they were able to speak in foreign languages they had never studied, and perhaps may have never even heard before! As we will see in the following verses, these were intelligible languages that could be understood by those who spoke the languages natively. This was not gibberish and unintelligible.

And let us not miss this important fact, they were only able to do this as the Holy Spirit gave them the ability. They couldn’t just decide, I am going to speak Spanish. They were under the influence and power of the Holy Ghost when they did this.

This amazing event ushered in the way God would spread the gospel so quickly during the first century. The sign gifts would confirm that the message of the gospel was from God, and the ability to speak foreign languages would break down the communication problem caused at the Tower of Babel. 

Who could have imagined this ahead of time? Our earthly minds can barely grasp what this sounded and looked like much less understand how it happened. But it DID happen! The church had already been following Jesus, but now they have been “set on fire” to preach to the world!

This article is Blog #7 in the Series “A Walk Through Acts.”