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Friday 20 October 2023

Acts 2:1-3 - The day of Pentecost

2:1

Pentecost occurred seven weeks after Passover. It had various names in the Old Testament, “the feast of the harvest” (Ex 23:16), “the feast of weeks” (Ex 34:22; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9,10) and “day of the first fruits (Ex 34:22; Num 28:26). The immediate significance is that it was one of the great festivals when many Jews and converts to Judaism would travel to Jerusalem for the festival. The disciples were all gathered in one place.


2:2

At this point the Holy Spirit came upon them. A noticeable point in Acts is that when people are filled or baptised in the Spirit there are physical signs of this. Here there is a sound like “the blowing of a violent wind”, it somehow filled the whole house. The Holy Spirit and His associated acts are not  a nice, quiet theological event!


2:3

There were tongues of fire appearing on each of the disciples, or at least that is what it looked like. John the Baptist had said that Jesus would baptise them with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Also in both Greek and Hebrew the same word can mean wind, spirit or breath. 


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