Acts 2 - The blessing of Pentecost

by David Cox

What are the clear facts of Acts 2?

1. Jesus commanded them to wait in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost which was the occasion in which God would make a change in things, that change being the "coming" of the Holy Spirit.
   • The Holy Spirit was present on earth in the Old Testament and in believers in the Old Testament, but apparently not the same as in the New Testament, as God was going to effect shortly.
   • The disciples' work for the Lord was hindered by their current pre-Pentecost condition, or God was going to giving them a great advantage or change in how they could labor after or in Pentecost.
2. They had instructions to wait, but not to seek for the Holy Spirit filling. It was something that they were to restrict their activities and public ministry until this time and event came. Their waiting was for a specific event, time in history, or in other words for a change to happen that God was advising them about.
   • This "waiting" for something before they minister is never repeated in the New Testament.
   • They did not seek or wait for the Holy Spirit, but for the change in how God distributed and used the Holy Spirit.
3. The context of Pentecost was that Jews from all over the world were in Jerusalem for the feast days, and they spoke other foreign languages and were not able to speak Greek or at least were not very knowledgeable in it.
   • The disciples spoke in known languages, these languages being clearly listed by Luke.
   • The disciples speaking in tongues was evangelistic, giving the good news of salvation to people who did not know it, but importance of tongues here was that it was the vehicle by which they evangelized (communicated the gospel to people speaking another language).
   • The act of babbling in sounds unintelligible to the audience was not how they evangelized.
   • Communication of the gospel from obedient ministers to unsaved foreigners was clearly the center of Acts 2.
4. The content of this communication was that Jesus had died as Savior of the world.
   • Peter's sermon may well be the thing that they preached to these unsaved Jews.
5. Observers understood the happenings as something that drunks would have been doing.
   • The exact comparison is not clearly given.
   • Drunks are people who have slurred speech, which make no sense at times - this is one possible link to this passage.
   • Drunks are usually people who have no restrictions or inhibitions in what they say. This comparison with a boldly speaking drunk, much better fits what happened in the rest of the New Testament than anything else. They received boldness to speak the truth of God. This is seen by Peter's sermon in which he firmly put the blame on the Jews present for the death of Christ.
   • In the ancient world, foreign language was often identified as being what drunks do, or children who have not yet learned to talk.

What do we learn from Acts 2?

In the clearest passage in the Bible on tongues, speaking in tongues is speaking in foreign languages.

What this means is that we have a very clear picture of biblical tongues in Acts 2, and it is only, and exclusively foreign languages. There is no doubt about this because the foreign languages spoken were clearly listed.

Now, it is possible that tongues may mean ecstatic speech (sounds that are not a human language of communication), but if tongues does mean this somewhere else, it must clearly and conclusively be demonstrated by a clear passage of Scripture that would leave no doubt about it. We do not have "either/ or", two choices, or possibly both interpretations available to us. The Scripture in Acts 2 states that tongues are foreign known languages, and for anybody to interpret them as anything else the burden of proof is on them to clearly exposit the passage that would override the clear teaching of this passage.

Tongues was used for evangelism, communicating with foreigners the truth of God.

The purpose of tongues was not self-exaltation, good feelings, or the awe of the power of God. These God given foreign language talents were given by God and used by God's ministers to preach the word of God to foreigners. Perhaps these Jews were believers, perhaps they were not, but they were unaware of Jesus being the promised Messiah. In 1 Corinthians 14 we find apparently believers using tongues (foreign languages) in their church service. We should understand that the entire point of tongues is the communication of God's Word and Truth, not the effect a miracle would have on witnesses.

Tongues were visually apparent from a tongue of fire sitting on the tongues speakers head

If we wish to press tongues from Acts into our current Christian life, let us do all of it. The clearest biblical example is that it was accompanied by a visual manifestation of a tongue of fire on their heads. If this passage sets the precedent, then we would expect that every occurrence of tongues should follow that precedent in all its details. If not, then it again is on the burden of the person who wishes to make tongues for today to show why the tongues of fire are not expected.