Tongues of Fire
Acts 2:1-13
Key Verse 2:3
They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
Today is the last day of the European Bible Conference taking place in Germany with the theme title, “The truth will set you free.” (John 8:31, 32) Msn. Isaac Kim is there together with Msn. Mary Yoon and Sh. Lynette Attwood. In prayer for God’s work through this conference, and for the CIS conference that will take place in Moscow next week, we are studying today one of the most important events in the history of the Church: the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Before ascending into heaven, the Risen Jesus promised his disciples that he would empower them through the Holy Spirit to carry out his world mission command, as we see in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” In today’s passage, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of this promise. May God bless us to accept His word as we study this passage.
Part I. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit (1-4)
Look at verse 1: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.” After Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples did not know when the Holy Spirit would come upon them, but they kept themselves prepared by constantly meeting together to pray. They did this all the way up to the day of Pentecost. What happened on that day? Look at verses 2-4. In these verses, we see how the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church. This event came with three powerful signs that reveal the work of the Holy Spirit. First, the Holy Spirit came with the sound of a violent wind. Second, the Holy Spirit appeared as tongues of fire. Third, the Holy Spirit enabled them to speak foreign languages. Let’s think about what each of these signs reveal about the Holy Spirit’s work.
Look at verse 2: “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” The Holy Spirit announced His coming with a sound like the blowing of a violent wind. One moment, the disciples were all praying quietly together, and the next there it sounded like there was a mighty hurricane inside the house. Yet, strangely, when they looked around, nothing was blowing inside the house—there was no furniture flying around the room; no swirling papers; no one’s hair was even messed up. It was not the sound of a physical hurricane, but of the powerful coming of the Holy Spirit. Usually the Holy Spirit comes and goes silently, but this time God allowed the disciples to hear the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit’s coming from heaven. Through this, God revealed to the disciples that the Holy Spirit is a powerful force. It has been said that the force of a hurricane is equivalent a hundred atomic bombs. Also, when tornados rip through a town, they easily uproot everything in their path—trees, cars, and buildings. Yet, the Holy Spirit is far more powerful than even a hurricane or tornado. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. It is through the Holy Spirit that God created the heavens and the earth as we see in Genesis 1:2. By sending the Holy Spirit with the sound of a violent wind, God revealed that the power he was giving to his disciples was nothing less than the power of God, and in this passage we see what happened when the disciples were filled with this power.
Look at verse 3: “They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.” The Holy Spirit is usually invisible, but God provided the disciples with a special visual presentation of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. The fact that the Holy Spirit appeared in the form of tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them reveals the basic way that the Holy Spirit works through us. First, let’s think about fire. Fire is hot, active, and consuming. When the Holy Spirit is working powerfully inside a child of God, that person becomes like a flame of fire, burning with passion for God’s kingdom and glory. That is why the Apostle Paul encouraged Timothy, “fan into flame the gift of God which is in you.”
Second, and most importantly, the “tongues of fire” reveal that the main way the Holy Spirit works is through what we say. As we see in this passage, when the Holy Spirit filled the believers, they began to both speak in foreign languages and to proclaim the wonders of God. Outwardly, they did not look different when the Holy Spirit came on them, but inwardly they had tongues of fire, which means the Holy Spirit was in control of what they were saying and how they said it. This fits perfectly with the mission they had from Jesus—they were to be Jesus’ witnesses in all the earth, which especially means that they were to tell all people the good news of Jesus Christ. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples were very quiet, not wanting to attract much attention to themselves. But when the Holy Spirit came upon them in the form of tongues of fire, suddenly their tongues were empowered and they began to powerfully proclaim the wonders of God. Next week we will study the following passage, where we see that Peter stood up and delivered a message that was so powerful and convicting that on that very day three thousand people became believers!
In the same way, when we speak by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. Then whenever we speak we are a source of encouragement and blessing to others around us. Even in our normal day-to-day conversations, when the Holy Spirit is leading what we say, people get a good impression of who Jesus is and how he works inside his children. We become the fragrance of Christ to the world. In addition, when God is in control of what we say and how we say it as we teach the word of God, then our words are not just human words, but they come with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.
In the next verse, we can see one of the practical results of “tongues of fire” resting upon each of the disciples. Look at verse 4: “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” The first thing that happened when they were filled with the Holy Spirit was that they began to speak in other tongues. This means that, suddenly, all of them became missionary-candidates who could go to any country in the world and speak the language perfectly without any accent! One disciple began speaking fluent French, another German, another Swahili, another Arabic, another Spanish, and still another Chinese. Through this, God revealed that the language problem is no problem for Him. How could a bunch of Galilean country boys with a heavy Hebrew accent ever hope to teach the Bible in fluent French? Humanly, there was no way. For them, world mission looked impossible. But, suddenly, when they had tongues of fire, there was no barrier to stop them from being Jesus’ witnesses in all the world.
In Downey UBF, we have many missionaries who are struggling hard to overcome the language barrier as they serve God in America. This work is really not easy. I think that many missionaries here today wish in their hearts that God would send tongues of fire upon them so that they could speak fluent English and not have to struggle with the language problem anymore. Yet this is not the point of today’s passage. The real point is that, for the Holy Spirit, there is no such thing as a language problem. Whenever the Holy Spirit wants to use you to say something, there is no limitation in communication. Even though your English is poor, God’s Spirit can still speak powerfully through you. This is my own personal experience. When I was a freshman, one missionary invited me to one-to-one Bible study, but the problem was that her English was really broken. Not only so, but because she lacked confidence, she developed a habit of saying “hu?” after almost everything she said because she wanted to make sure I understood her. So, during Bible study she would say “hu?” about 2,000 times. Sometimes it was hard to bear. Yet, strangely, I was deeply blessed through Bible studies and so thankful to God for sending me a Bible teacher, and through that Bible study the Holy Spirit worked powerfully in my heart.
Not only so, but this passage also shows that, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, we can conquer language problems. These days, Msn. Sarah Jeung is studying hard every day to pass the IELTS English exam. This exam is very difficult, and the studying is so much work that Msn. Sarah often gets headaches. But through all of this, I believe the Holy Spirit is working in her to make her into a powerful English Bible teacher, and already I can hear her English getting much better. I pray that the Holy Spirit may rest on her as a tongue of fire when she takes her English test on September 3 and as she teaches the Bible at Citrus college.
Part 2. Declaring the wonders of God (5-12)
In the first part of the passage, we saw how the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and empowered them with tongues of fire to speak many foreign languages. Now let’s see what happened as a result. Look at verses 5-6: “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard the sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.” Apparently, as soon as the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they went outside the house where they were staying and began to speak loudly in many different languages. This already shows a big change. The disciples used to be so afraid to reveal themselves to their neighbors. But now they came out into public and made a big scene, attracting a crowd. The crowd that came was totally bewildered, because even though they were from every known nation under heaven, and they spoke many different languages, each one of them heard the disciples speaking in his own tongue.
Look at verses 7-8: “Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are not these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?’” The first thing that the crown recognized was that the disciples were not foreigners—they were native to the Bible land. In addition, they came from Galilee, which was considered the countryside. It was shocking that a group of country boys from Galilee were speaking in foreign languages so fluently. Where was this bewildered crowd from? Look at verses 9-11a: “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Capadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs.” These people were representatives from the entire known world at that time. They came from many different cultures, from far-away lands, and spoke different languages. Yet they all had one thing in common—as either God-fearing Jews or converts to Judaism, they all worshiped the God of the Bible. Yet they did not know Jesus Christ. The first and immediate work of the Holy Spirit was to send the disciples out to testify to these people from all nations on earth. This clearly shows that the number one purpose of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is to be Jesus’ witnesses to all people on earth.
What is it that the disciples were saying in all those different language? Look at verse 11b: “we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” The first thing that the Holy Spirit moved the disciples to speak was the wonders of God. What are the wonders of God? The wonders of God are too numerous to count. When we look at this universe in which we live and see the stars and the earth and all that is in it, we must confess, as one hymn says, “O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the works thy hands have made. I see the stars; I hear the rolling thunder; their power throughout the universe displayed—then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, How great thou art.” But there is something even more wonderful than the wonders of God’s physical creation—it is the wonder of his love revealed through sending His Son to die for the sins of the world. Maybe this is what the disciples were proclaiming. Whatever it was, this shows us another thing about the empowerment of the Holy Spirit—when we are empowered through the Holy Spirit, out hearts and lips overflow with praise and glory to God.
Today’s passage suggests that the more our tongues are moved by the fire of the Holy Spirit, the more our words will be filled with the praises of God. The Holy Spirit inspires us to tell others of how good God is. One shepherd said to me that we often tend to focus on people too much, thinking and talking about what we should do, and yet we miss the point of the Bible—which is God. Because of this, studying and teaching the Bible sometimes even seems burdensome. Rather than inspiring us to love God, we end up focusing only on ourselves and our problems or other people and their problems. I think that what this shepherd said is very true. The key point of the word of God is not about people—but it is about God: who He is, what He does, and why He is worthy of all our praise and worship. When our hearts are open to the beauty of God through the Holy Spirit, then we cannot help but proclaim his wonderful works and give glory to His name.
Personally, as I prepared this message, I realized that I needed to repent because what I was saying was not coming from God. I focused on people, not God, because I wanted to receive honor and recognition from people as I serve the word of God. Yet this only resulted in a message that was empty of power. Through this passage, I realized that I need to repent of all false motives in serving God and in speaking His word and I need to pray so that my heart may get lined-up with the desire of the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that, more and more, whenever I speak, and especially when I serve the word of God, what I say may not come from myself, but from the Holy Spirit within me. I pray, especially, that I may be filled with the praises of God in my day-to-day life and proclaim His wonders to everyone around me as much as possible.
Look at verse 12: “Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Here we see the effect of the Holy Spirit speaking through the disciples. Many of the people were now very curious about what was going on. They had never seen anything like it. This set the stage for Peter to stand up together with the Eleven and proclaim a powerful message, which we will study next week. Yet, not every one believed. Look at verse 13: “Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’” This shows that, no matter how powerful God’s work is, there are still people who will close their hearts tightly against it.
In conclusion, in today’s passage we learn that the main work of the Holy Spirit inside of us is to empower us with tongues of fire to overcome every communication barrier and to powerfully proclaim the wonders of God to all nations on earth. As the fall semester begins, there is a great opportunity to powerfully advance the kingdom of God, and our main practical tool in carrying out this work is our tongues. May God help us to get in tune with the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit may flare up within us and control what we say and how we say it for the glory of God.
One word: Tongues of fire!
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