“Jerusalem Class of ‘33"
Text: Acts 2:1-21
5-28-2023
Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. It seems that everywhere we turn during the month of May, there’s a Graduation Ceremony going on. But did you ever think of the Day of Pentecost as Graduation Day for the believers in Jerusalem some 2000 years ago? Oh, maybe there weren’t any caps and gowns or diplomas being handed out, but those followers of Jesus shared some things in common with a modern-day graduate. And I think that as we compare the similarities, you’ll see how the Holy Spirit was preparing His graduates to go out into the world and make a huge difference.
It would have been the year 33 A.D., so I’ve dubbed them the “Jerusalem Class of 33.” Acts 1:15 tells us that there were about 120 people in this Class. Some of these students had a perfect attendance record as they were taught by Jesus for the previous 3 years. Others weren’t there 100% of the time. Kind of sounds like a high school or college class, doesn’t it? Sadly, their teacher, Jesus, had been arrested and killed. Thankfully, very few of our graduates had to deal with that kind of tragedy. On the other hand, no graduates I know of have had a teacher who rose from the dead as Jesus did! When Christ left them 40 days later and ascended into heaven, He gave the Class some final instructions. He told them to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from the Holy Spirit. It was like a special graduation present. And that gift was given to them 10 days later on Pentecost, their graduation day.
Now maybe some of you are still have a hard time accepting Pentecost as a graduation day. That’s probably because of how we commonly look at graduation. Don’t we usually see it as the end of a learning process? In reality, though, it’s just the end of one phase of life as we move into another. We never really stop learning, or at least we shouldn’t. For many high school graduates, they move from one level of learning to another as they go off to college. When they finally graduate from college, the real learning begins as they get jobs and attempt to utilize all that head knowledge. And all the while they’re learning new things.
That’s what happened with the followers of Jesus. For 3 years they had gone through a very intense time of learning. They were taught some powerful things about God’s plan of salvation. Some of that information they couldn’t immediately grasp. And yet, God felt they were ready to move on to the next phase of their “education.” They were ready to go out and put that head knowledge into action for the Lord. But they couldn’t do it without the power of the Holy Spirit.
It’s intriguing to study how God uses a play on words to get our attention and help us to remember things. He did it regularly throughout the Old and New Testaments. And He did it on the 1st Christian Pentecost. What was the first “sign” of the Holy Spirit’s presence among the believers? Verse 2 of our text says they heard a “sound like a mighty rushing wind.” In Hebrew, which the Old Testament was written in, the word “ruach” can mean wind or breath or Spirit. The same thing is true in the Greek, which the New Testament was written in. The word “pneuma” can mean wind or breath or Spirit. So, do you see the play on words? There was a loud sound of wind—pneuma. And it was used to announce the arrival of the Holy Pneuma—the Holy Spirit.
Jesus had already made this connection for His disciples. In John 3, Jesus was explaining to a Pharisee named Nicodemus about being born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. And what did Jesus compare the movement of the Holy Spirit to? He says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Something similar happens in John 20. It was the evening of the first Easter Sunday. Jesus had risen from the dead and suddenly appeared in the locked room where the disciples were hiding. Verse 22 says, “And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” Christ used the movement of air with His breath as He gave them the Holy Spirit. So, on the Day of Pentecost it was only natural that the Holy Spirit’s presence would be highlighted with the sound of wind. What came next? Tongues of fire rested on each of the believers and they began speaking in foreign tongues. Here’s another word play. The Greek is just like the English when it comes to the word for tongues. They had a powerful visual aide to show what the Holy Spirit was doing in their mouths! Tongues of fire descended on them as they spoke in different tongues, that is, languages.
But why fire? It’s quite simple. God regularly used fire to show His holy presence among His people. Do you remember how God appeared to Moses in Exodus 3? God spoke to him from a flaming bush which never burned up. That’s very similar to the Pentecost episode. The flames rested on the believers. We don’t know if it hovered over their heads or in front of their mouths, as Luther suggested. Either way, the flame didn’t burn them. Later, in Exodus 13, God also appeared to the Israelites as a pillar of fire as they wandered in the desert. Fire signified the purifying presence of the holy God. And that’s precisely why these tongues of fire rested upon the believers. God was taking the weak, sinful minds of these disciples and purifying them with the power of the Holy Spirit. With that power in them, they’d be able to graduate into the next phase which was to take the Gospel message and spread it to the ends of the earth. The fire of the Holy Spirit would ignite them like a fuse which would set the world on fire with the good news of Jesus.
Both the visitors and the residents of Jerusalem were first attracted by the sound of the mighty wind. But now they heard a different noise. They heard the believers speaking all kinds of foreign languages; languages they had never studied before. If you go to the mall in Sioux City, you’ll learn what that sounds like. Several different languages are being spoken all around you and it can be very confusing. So it’s no wonder that some of the people in Jerusalem would mock the disciples and assume they were just a bunch of mumbling drunks. But Peter corrected them. He basically said, “Hey, it’s only 9:00 in the morning! How could these people be drunk?!?”
Sad to say, that argument wouldn’t work for us today, would it? People get drunk at all times of the day. 27 years ago, when I was on vicarage, we had an organist who came to church drunk one Sunday. Thankfully we caught it during the preservice music. She’d start playing the opening line of a favorite old hymn, like Amazing Grace. But rather quickly all the notes kind of melted together into a noisy mess. Then, she’d start all over. I almost panicked, but one of the Elders gently went up and asked her if a substitute could play for her. And in the end, it turned out okay.
But for the Jews 2000 years ago it would have been unheard of to get drunk early in the morning like this, especially during a holy feast like Pentecost. “No,” Peter said, “these believers aren’t filled with intoxicating spirits but they were filled with the Holy Spirit.” And then he pointed them to the Scriptures to show that this was prophesied over 800 years prior by the Prophet Joel. What they were witnessing was the fulfillment of one of God’s powerful promises.
What’s really amazing is how God used the opportunity of the Feast of Pentecost in order to accomplish an even greater spread of the Gospel. Think about it. There were tens of thousands of extra visitors in Jerusalem to celebrate. People from all over the Roman Empire. The list of places in our text gives us a hint of the variety of nationalities. Later in Acts 2 it tells us that 3,000 people heard the good news and were Baptized on that day. Many of them were visitors who would now take the Gospel message home with them. Even before the disciples could go outside of their own backyard, God was spreading the seed of the Good News. As those new believers went back home after Pentecost, it was probably like a high school graduation day. Many of them knew they’d never see each other again, this side of heaven. But that was okay, because they were entering a new and exciting phase in their lives. God was sending them out to put their new knowledge about Jesus as their Savior into practice.
Christian friends, God is still performing the miracle of Pentecost today. The Holy Spirit is still being poured out on God’s people. He was poured out on you at your Baptism. But that wasn’t the end of His work in your life. The Holy Spirit is still descending with His purifying fire to prepare us to serve Him. He purifies our minds and hearts and our tongues so that we can spread the Good News. Contrary to what our Pentecostal friends might think, the gift of speaking instantly in foreign languages was a sign limited to a short time period 2000 years ago. And yet, God is still able to use people like you and me to tell the Good News. And we don’t even have to learn a foreign language to do it. We’re surrounded by people who really don’t know about our Savior Jesus. The bits and pieces of what they’ve heard about Christ sound like drunken gibberish to them. But when the opportunity presents itself, we can gently explain God’s free gift of salvation in terms that they can understand. When they see the love of Christ displayed in your life, it can break down the barrier of what has prevented them from hearing the Gospel before. The only way we’re able to do that is through the power of the Holy Spirit which He freely pours out on all believers. So may God give us the courage to be His Pentecost messengers of the Good News to our world today. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!