Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
The imagery of Pentecost will be familiar to many. The powerful pictures of wind and fire echo threads that run throughout the whole of the biblical story.
The God who created the world, whose Spirit hovered over the waters at creation, now fills his people and brings transformation. The sacred place where God dwelt with his people had once been the Tabernacle and later the Temple; at Pentecost, that dwelling place becomes the people themselves. God’s breath brings life, power, and presence, while the tongues of fire speak of his purifying work. Pentecost also evokes the giving of the Law, pointing us to a new covenant relationship with God.
We are saved by faith in Jesus, yet it is through the coming of the Holy Spirit that we are continually shaped to become more like Christ.
At Pentecost, the outpouring of the Spirit empowers God’s people to live out the calling given at creation: to bring order and beauty into the world, to foster human flourishing, to restore relationships, and to fill the earth with God’s presence and glory.