We are now starting a new journey through the Brit Hadashah to study the person called Sha’ul of Tarsus and the letters he wrote to various Messianic Communities and his Pastoral Letters. Like our last series on the Red-Letter Words of Yeshua, this is bound to take some time.

I am writing this post on May 28, 2023, in anticipation of this new series which will probably not be posted until late July or early August. Going through my personal devotions, which I always start by reading Our Daily Bread, I was reminded that this Sunday was the day after Shavu’ot (Pentecost).

Even though we don’t meet up with Sha’ul until we get to Acts 6, none of his ministries or that of the other Emissaries and us as Believers would be possible without reviewing what occurred in Acts 2.

¹ The festival of Shavu’ot arrived, and the Believers all gathered together in one place.

The festival of Shavu’ot (“Weeks”) is one of the three regalim (“pilgrim festivals”) when every Jewish male goes up to Yerushalayim (see Mattityahu 20:17–19). The others are Pesach and Sukkot; (see Mattityahu 26:2; Yochanan 2:13, 7:2).

The name Shavu’ot comes from Exodus 34:22 and Deuteronomy 16:9–10, which, along with Leviticus 23:15–16, determine that the festival is to be seven weeks after the start of Pesach. The Bible also says, “You shall number fifty days” (Leviticus 23:16); hence in the Brit Hadashah, the Greek name for the holiday is “pentêkostês,” which means “fifty” and is usually transliterated into English as “Pentecost.”

² Suddenly, there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. ⁴ They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.

They were all filled with the Ruach HaKodesh. This is a fantastic promise for a Jewish person to read because the Tanakh speaks of only a few persons as having the Holy Spirit “with” or “upon” them (among them Moshe and the seventy elders (Numbers 11:17–29), Gid‛on (Judges 6:34), Yiftach (Jephthah) (Judges 11:29), Shimshon (Samson)(Judges 14:6), King Sha’ul (1 Samuel 11:6), King David (1 Samuel 16:13, Psalm 51:13(11)), and King Sha’ul’s messengers (1 Samuel 19:20)), and even fewer as having the Holy Spirit “in” them (Yosef (Genesis 41:38) and Betzal’el (Bezalel ~ one of the men anointed to construct the Tabernacle) (Exodus 31:3)). ^[1]

⁵ Now, there were staying in Yerushalayim religious Jews from every nation under heaven. ⁶ When they heard this sound, a crowd gathered; they were confused because each one heard the believers speaking in his own language. ⁷ Totally amazed, they asked, “How is this possible? Aren’t all these people who are speaking from the Galil? ⁸ How is it that we hear them speaking in our native languages? ⁹ We are Parthians, Medes, Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Y’hudah, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome; ¹¹ Jews by birth and proselytes; Jews from Crete and from Arabia!… How is it that we hear them speaking in our own languages about the great things God has done?” ¹² Amazed and confused, they all went on asking each other, “What can this mean?” ¹³ But others made fun of them and said, “They’ve just had too much wine!” ^[2]

Because devout Jews from every nation were present, all Isra’el was represented. These worshippers heard the word of God in their own languages and witnessed the power of the Spirit, a sign of the end time. In this way, the coming of the Spirit at Shavu’ot highlights the worldwide implications of the Gospel, reversing the confusion of languages that ensued at the tower of Babel incident ^[3]

In my devotion this morning, I learned about Jurgen Moltmann, a ninety-four-year-old German theologian. He was asked, “How do you activate the Holy?” His response was simple: “What can I do? Don’t do anything. Wait on the Spirit, and the Spirit will come?”  Acts reveals that God makes things happen. We are entirely dependent on what only the Spirit can do. This allows us to be both bold and restful. On this day – the day we celebrate Pentecost – may we wait on the Spirit and respond. [4]

This chart shows the timeline of key events in the Book of Acts.

Timeline courtesy of Visual Survey of the Bible

Click on the timeline to enlarge

In our next post, we will introduce Sha’ul.

^[1]   David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary.
^[2]   Acts 2:1–13.
^[3]  The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament.
^[4]  Our Daily Bread, Winn Collier.