Psalm 104:24-34, 35b – All of God’s creation is subject to Him
John 20: 19-23 — The disciples receive a foretaste of Pentecost
Acts 2: 1-21 – The Spirit outpoured is what motivates us to mission
1 Corinthians 12: 3-13 – The Spirit’s diverse gifts all work together
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Psalm 104:24-34, 35b – All of God’s creation is subject to Him
• Everything that lives is sustained by God’s breath
24 How many are Your works, LORD! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.
“Your works, LORD” – praise for God’s caring involvement with His creation.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number — living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro, and Leviathan, which You formed to frolic there.
“Leviathan, which You formed” – a frightening sea monster which God, who created it, can overcome. Also the identity of a demonic principality. .
27-28 All creatures look to You to give them their food at the proper time. When You give it to them, they gather it up; when You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good things.
29 When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.
“Breath” – linked to “Spirit” in the next verse.
30 When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the ground.
“When You send Your Spirit” – in another Psalm David pleads with God not to take away His Spirit, and hence equipping for his royal task. Ezekiel and Jeremiah both prophesied about God giving His people a new heart to live His way.
• For further study, read Ezekiel 36:26-27, Jeremiah 24:7, 32:39, Ezekiel 11:19.
31-32 May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in His works — He who looks at the earth, and it trembles, who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to Him, as I rejoice in the LORD. But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more. Praise the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD.
“May my meditation be pleasing” – recognising that sin pollutes God’s creation.
Reflection
SUMMARY A picture of God’s diverse creation working together, sustained and directed by Him.
APPLICATION As God sends His breath or Spirit, it is a creative and renewing force — which points to the move of renewal that began at Pentecost.
QUESTION The Holy Spirit wants to renew – how much do we want things to stay as they are?
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John 20: 19-23 — The disciples receive a foretaste of Pentecost
• Jesus gives them an initial impartation to prepare them to receive more
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
“Jesus came and stood” – miraculously, with a real physical body, not a ghostly, appearance.
20 After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
“His hands and side” – Jesus identifies Himself, showing that He did not feign death, but conquered it.
21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you.”
22 And with that He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
“He breathed on them” – an initial impartation preparing them for the greater Pentecost outpouring.
23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
“Their sins are forgiven” – by God. All believers in Jesus now carry the message that God is ready to forgive those that repent and believe in Him.
Reflection
SUMMARY Each of the gospels pictures a final encounter with Jesus before His ascension. John has two, the fishing story with Peter’s restoration, and this account of an initial impartation of the Spirit given to the disciples.
APPLICATION This is puzzling, until we have had the experience of an impartation of the Holy Spirit – and discover how much more free we are to receive more.
QUESTION How much do our minds want to limit what God wants to give to us, and give again?
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Acts 2: 1-21 – The Spirit outpoured is what motivates us to mission
• The prophecy is fulfilled: all are empowered to speak out God’s purposes
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.
“Day of Pentecost” – the 50th day after the Passover Sabbath, therefore the first day of the week. Pentecost (also called Weeks, Harvest and First-fruits) was by tradition when Moses received the Law, or Old Covenant. Now the Spirit is outpoured to fulfil the promise of law and prophets, and inaugurate the New Covenant.
• For further study, see Leviticus 23:15-16; Deuteronomy 16:10; Exodus 23:16, Numbers 28:26.
2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.
“A violent wind… fire” – signs of the intense presence of God. John the Baptist proclaimed that the Messiah would baptise “with the Holy Spirit and fire”, Luke 3:16.
4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
“All of them” – probably the 120 including the women as in Joel’s prophecy vv.17-18. The New Covenant starts by releasing the restricted spiritual leadership of the OT and empowering all.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.
6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.
“Heard their own language” – tongues here is a sign to the very mixed festival crowd hearing their own dialects and languages. Later, the gift of tongues would be a heavenly praise and prayer language not generally understood by others.
7-8 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language?
9-11 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, 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 — we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
“What does this mean?” – hearing the wonders of God in a way personal to them was a sign.
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say.
“Peter… addressed the crowd” – now with the gravity of a leader, explaining, “This is that…” from familiar words in Joel, v.16.
15 “These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning!
16 “No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “ ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
“In the last days” – or “afterward” in Hebrew, making a contrast with the Old Covenant. The New Covenant has come, and the old priestly access to God has been opened to all.
18 ‘Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.
“They will prophesy” – not so much foretelling as ‘forth-telling’, inspired to declare God’s ‘now’ word.
9 ‘I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 ‘The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 ‘And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ “
“Everyone who calls… will be saved” – contrary to Judaism’s understanding, the Holy Spirit has been released to the whole world of men, women, son, daughters, Jews and Gentiles – any can turn to Jesus and receive the Spirit.
Reflection
SUMMARY Not all but a good proportion of today’s world church is comfortable with a Holy Spirit -bestowed praise and prayer language. Occasionally in multicultural gatherings today, people will hear God praised in words especially meaningful to them — and know that He loves them.
APPLICATION The Holy Spirit is poured out, to enable us to reach out! What a powerful sign of this new mission movement, with all the nations from the known world gathered and sharing a world-changing experience — that they will take back with them..
QUESTION How much ‘Pentecost’ do we experience — or make room for — in our gatherings?
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1 Corinthians 12: 3-13 – The Spirit’s diverse gifts all work together
• The creative diversity is like the different parts which comprise one body
3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
“Speaking by the Spirit of God” – what we say shows whether or not the heart is renewed by the Spirit of God. Jews who did not believe Jesus was the Messiah condemned Him as cursed by God because He died on a ‘tree’, Deut. 21:23. By dying a shameful death Jesus released all who believe in Him from shame and the law’s curse, into the original blessing of Abraham, Gal. 3:13-14.
4-6 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
“Different… gifts, but…. the same God at work” – a trinitarian explanation of how the diversity of gifting all represents a single purpose.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
“To each one… for the common good – all contribute gifts which build up the fellowship and bring God’s presence to the wider world.
8-10 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
“To one… to another” – not a prescriptive list. Many will experience most of these gifts at different times as the situation demands, but mainly one or two. Spiritual gifts enliven prayer meetings, home groups and personal ministry in ways seen in the Early Church.
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and He distributes them to each one, just as He determines.
“The work of… the same Spirit” – the repetition from v.7 “the manifestation of the Spirit” forms a literary bracket which conveys emphasis. Gifts were to be seen as God working in partnership, not as any individual’s enhanced spirituality.
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Many parts… form one body” – an important theme which Paul develops further. The Holy Spirit brings revelation, or spiritual insight, and works God’s purposes in earthly situations, but in a way which requires our humble inter-dependence. The body needs every part, and no part defines the body, but Christ does.
Reflection
SUMMARY This describes a particular dynamic — revelatory and transformative — that was normal and expected in the Early Church. The interdependence of diverse gifts is emphasised.
APPLICATION A church that is known to be truly spiritual and a place to encounter Jesus is attractive to outsiders. Jesus works through all His different people in particular ways described here.
QUESTION How do we develop ways of meeting and inviting Jesus which are more participative — and free?
PRAYER Lord God, from the beginning You planned for Your Son to be our way of salvation and Your Spirit the continuing close presence of Jesus enabling us to share in His continuing ministry and mission.
Many are asking spiritual questions. Many are confused or alienated.
Give us wisdom, discernment and the words to say that connect with Your plan for their lives.
May we be empowered to speak out faith, hope and true meaning in ways that point others to You. For Jesus’ glory. Amen.
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