Wind and Fire

“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” — Acts 2:4

Not long after Jesus went back to heaven, it was the day of a big festival called Pentecost. Jerusalem was crowded with Jewish people who had come from all over the world to celebrate.

Jesus’ followers were all together in one place.

Suddenly there was a sound from heaven like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like little flames of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in other languages, languages they had never learned, as the Spirit gave them the words.

The sound was so loud that a big crowd came running to see what was happening. And everyone in the crowd was amazed. People from all over the world could hear Jesus’ followers speaking in their very own language!

“Aren’t all these people from Galilee?” they said. “So how is it that each of us hears them speaking in our own language?”

There were people from Parthia and Media and Mesopotamia, from Egypt and Libya and Rome, from Crete and Arabia, and many more countries. “We hear them telling the wonderful things God has done,” they said, “in our own languages!”

“What does this mean?” they asked each other.

But some people laughed and made fun. “They’ve had too much wine!” they said.

Do you remember the tower of Babel, in the first book? People wanted to make a great name for themselves, so God mixed up their languages, and they couldn’t understand each other any more. Now, on the day of Pentecost, God did something wonderful. People from many languages heard the good news about Jesus, all at the same time, each in their own language.

The good news about Jesus is for every nation and every language in the world.

The Holy Spirit had come, just as Jesus had promised. And Jesus’ frightened, ordinary followers were about to become very brave.

Read it in your Bible: Acts 2:1–13

Dear God, thank you for sending the Holy Spirit. Thank you that the good news about Jesus is for every language and every nation. Please fill me with your Spirit too. Amen.