![]() The apostles ask, “Is this the time you are restoring the Kingdom to Israel?” and Jesus tells them that the timeline details are “not for you to know” (Acts 1:7). 32:15) and adding that this will happen soon (Acts 1:4-6). He wants them to wait for the time when they “will be baptized with the Holy Spirit,” echoing the prophet Isaiah (cf. Thrilled at this good news, these apostles are ready to roll! But Jesus echoes the prophet Isaiah and tells them to stay in Jerusalem. It's a world compelled by love instead of fear. Establishing the Kingdom of God means ending evil, which happens not through violent force or coercive threats but through loving-kindness and patient forgiveness. With Heaven and Earth completely united, evil has nowhere left to linger. For centuries, God had been promising to one day end harmful human empires by establishing his own empire with us-by fully integrating his way of life in Heaven with our way of life on Earth. That would surely light them up with hopeful excitement. Luke says that, after resurrecting, Jesus was appearing to the apostles and “speaking of things concerning the Kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). Remember that at this point in the story, Jesus has already resurrected after his brutal crucifixion, and he’s been reconnecting with his messengers (the apostles) to give instructions for their upcoming mission. The divine fire has previously rested on Yahweh’s temple spaces, so where does it rest in this scene?įor many liturgical and other church traditions, Pentecost Sunday happens 50 days after Easter, and it celebrates the beginning of the Church. In Acts 2, Luke is hyperlinking to these previous divine-fire scenes to give a background to the Pentecost story. The stories of Moses and the burning bush, Mount Sinai, the tabernacle, and the temple all include fire that shows up when God’s presence arrives and marks his dwelling space or temple. When Israel builds a permanent temple, the same fire shows up as God’s “dwelling glory.” This is a tangible sign that God’s presence has settled in his temple, in the midst of his people’s community life. The fire signals God’s presence and marks this space as his dwelling place. Later, when the tabernacle is built on that same mountain, God shows up in a huge column of fire, hovering above it. And he gives ten commandments for life that everyone agrees to follow. But God assures them that he is partnering with them for their good, not to harm them. ![]() The people are confused, amazed, and even panicking in fear (Exod. ![]() Like before, this fire signals God’s presence, marking this mountain as God’s dwelling place and a symbolic temple. Moses delivers his people from slavery, and they travel to Mount Sinai, where a bigger fire blazes on the mountain as a wind and fire (lightning) storm kicks up (Exod. And then God promises to empower Moses to help him set Israel free from oppression (Exod. In that famous scene, God speaks in Moses’ own language and tells him he’s standing on holy ground, implying this place is like a temple. Yahweh becomes present to Moses through the fire of a burning shrub called the seneh tree (which sounds a lot like “Sinai” and foreshadows what happens there later). In the Hebrew Bible, mysterious windstorms with fire or lightning are consistently associated with two things: God’s presence and the formation of a temple. This story also marks the beginning of a new world. When we see the first Pentecost (in Acts 2) in context, it’s not just about God giving people instantaneous multilingual skills or the fiery sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence. And this is not the first time that a divine, brilliant fire shows up out of nowhere and doesn’t burn anything up. He’s telling us what happened by drafting a story that intentionally maps onto repeated Old Testament patterns and themes. Luke, the author of Acts, is a historian, not a news reporter. But seeing what happened on the day of Pentecost within Scripture’s larger narrative makes the story more clear. And then the guys with fiery heads became spontaneously multilingual.īy itself, the Pentecost story in Acts 2 looks kind of bizarre. At this event, an indoor windstorm swirled through a packed house party, and everyone was baffled-some panicked. Pentecost is a long-standing Jewish harvest party, a Christian celebration as old as Jesus’ Church, and a Greek word that means “fiftieth.” And the Pentecost moment described in the New Testament is a 1st-century event in Jerusalem where people’s heads caught fire (sort of).
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